piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013: Celebrating the Year of the Blogger!

Sent for Contest

After an agonising month of keeping my mouth sealed, I am happy to say that the day has finally come! Yup! It is time for piCture pOlish's Blog Fest 2013! For those who are new to the scene, piCture pOlish hails from down under and every year, a group of bloggers embark on a massive mission to swatch and showcase new colours from piCture pOlish for polishaholics to drool over. Well, at least that was what happened in the past...

This year, the girls from piCture pOlish decided to catch us all by surprise by having a huge competition instead to celebrate the Year of the Blogger! Yup! They have dedicated this event for all the bloggers and to celebrate what we do ♥ I must say, I was rather surprised and touched when I first heard about the theme for the blog fest this year. I might have mentionned it before but I think there are still many people out there who have the impression that nail blogging is a piece of cake. It looks deceptively simple but bloggers often put in a lot of effort to maintain their nails, painting them as perfectly as possible, photographing them accurately, editing the pictures and finally blogging about them - all these on top of living a regular everyday life (yes, we really do engage in other activities apart from painting our nails). For me, it has become slightly more challenging this year when I took on a full-time job after my graduation. I am often bone-tired after work and there were several occasions when I felt like throwing in the towel so that I can rest a little more during the weekends... but your comments kept me going, so here I am! ♥

So, before I digress further and get all soppy, let's talk about the competition, shall we? On 29 July, 7pm, local time, participating bloggers will showcase their own nail art creation to take part in the competition. All nail art creations will go into the running to be chosen to.... create a collaboration shade with piCture pOlish!! *excited dance* There are only three winners though - 1 voted by all of you, 1 voted by the participants and 1 chosen by the girls from piCture pOlish.

For this competition, I was given these three shades to work with:

Stunning, aren't they? I will post swatches of each of them but first... let's take a look at what I came up with. After wrecking my brains out, I've decided to unleash my inner Pollock to create this mani:

If you have been following me for a while, you would probably know that I can't really draw to save my life. And you should also know that it doesn't stop me from doing nail art ;) After all, there are plenty of nail art techniques that are really simple and idiot-proof! This is one of them. All you need is some pretty colours, a fan brush and follow these steps:

1. Start the manicure with a coat of base coat to protect your nails.
2. Paint your nails with a coat of white as the base colour and let dry.
3. Drop a drop of polish on a piece of paper.
4. Dab the fan brush lightly against the drop of polish so that the tips of the brush pick up some polish. You would want only a small amount of polish to get a streaky brushed look. 
5. Run the fan brush down (or up) your nails to get streaks on your nails.
6. Repeat steps 2-4 with other colours.
7. Once satisfied, seal the design with top coat and you are done! (Clean up required, of course)

Because the design is really simple, you are free to use any colours that you like. Personally, I think analogous colours with a splash of complementary colour work very well to create a striking combination. If you like some texture, you may use varying shades of the same colour or make use of slightly sheerer colours to create the illusion of depth. The trio from piCture pOlish were perfect for this and that was one of the main reasons why I went with this design. 

Now for swatches of each of the colours:

Flirt. 2 coats.
A bright magenta that certainly deserves that warning label on the bottle. And yes, it is more flirtatious than sweet so bring it on ;)
Before I forget, this hawt babe is a one-coater that applies itself. Super fantastic formula.

Violet Femme. 3 coats.
A deep bright purple that is slightly sheer but builds up to opacity nicely. Dries to a matte-satin finish - I think it really does have neon pigments! - so a top coat is definitely needed. I really love this shade of purple.

Kryptonite. 3 coats.
Now this is my kind of kryptonite. A deep dark green with chunks of holo particles and shimmers. Wonderfully shimmery and mysterious in the shade but all glowy and sparkly then it catches the light. You absolutely need to click through on the picture and look at the details in the original reso. I did not manage to catch the holo action but trust me, the chunky particles swimming in the dark green base is enough to make you weak all over too - well, maybe except the nails, they will be superhuman.



piCture pOlish is available on their webstore (everyday deals and international shipping available!) or through their network members. You can also follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram for more updates.




**Products were provided for contest participation. All views expressed are our own honest opinions. Please see our disclosure policy for more information.**

China Glaze: Sunsational Jellies

Sent for Review

Finally, the second half of the China Glaze Sunsational Collection - the jellies!

As you may have already heard, some of the jellies are quite sheer so I chose to layer all the colours over white in my swatches below.

Isle See You Later. 4/5 coats over white.
A blue jelly. The sheerest of the whole collection. It is so sheer that I wouldn't advise you to try getting it to reach opacity on its own. Because it is so sheer, the blue does not come across as deep as it looks in the bottle. Nonetheless, it is a gorgeous bright baby blue on the nails when layered over white.

Keepin' it Teal. 4 coats over white.
A green-leaning teal jelly that is also on the sheer side but slightly better than Isle See You Later.

Shell-O. 4 coats over white.
A coral orange jelly that screams fluorescent. With my thing for corals at the moment, it is no surprise that I really like this one.

Heat Index. 3 coats over white.
Bright hot pink jelly. Very aptly named. Hmmm... I think the next time I will add another coat or two to get closer to the bottle colour. I am surprised that I quite like this one.

You Drive Me Coconuts. 3 coats over white.
A relatively more muted pink with blue undertones as compared to Heat Index. It is still very bright though. The formula is one of the better ones in this half of the collection - I suspect it can actually reach opacity on its own.

Are You Jelly? 3 coats over white.
Another bright purple! It is also more opaque but the formula is a little patchy.

Now that you've seen all the swatches of the China Glaze Sunsational collection, which ones are your favourite?
(psst! If you've missed out on my previous post, you can check out the first half of the Sunsational collection here.)

On the whole, formula aside, I must say I really enjoyed the colours that China Glaze has put out for this summer. I am especially in love with the cremes. Because of them, I am officially a neon convert now. No kidding, even as I type, I am wearing some of them as a gradient on my toes - no worries, I won't be posting pictures of that. ;)




**Products were provided for our honest review. Please see our disclosure policy for more information.**

China Glaze: Sunsational Cremes

Sent for Review

Hola!! After enduring a terrible work week, I thought I would chase away all my sorrows and brighten up my weekend with some neons (pun completely intended)!

Despite all the hype over neon colours in the polish community, I have always avoided neons because I found them too stark and too eye catching for my taste... that is, until I saw the promotional pictures of China Glaze's neon releases for summer 2013. The pastels called to me and my eyes were immediately drawn to the blues and greens. I knew I had to have them. And I was right! Take a look:

Disclaimer 1: I've tried my best-est of best-est to get colour accurate pictures but my camera just refused to handle so much awesomeness. They are brighter in person.

Disclaimer 2: I did not go for any tanning session. The neons are so bright that my camera (and even my eyes) decided that I must have become tanner some what. Silly them.

Too Yacht to Handle.
Yup, this is a almost-neon sister of the famous For Audrey. It looks identical to For Audrey but when you put them side by side, you will notice the difference immediately. Too Yacht to Handle is a bajillion times brighter and For Audrey looks really dusty in comparison. Too Yacht to Handle also comes across as being slightly greener. Both are gorgeous in their own right.

Hightlight of My Summer.
A yellow-leaning pastel mint green. I really like it more than I'd expected. It is really bright. I'd thought Illamasqua Nomad is bright but it pales next to Highlight of My Summer. Nomad also has a tinge more blue than Highlight of My Summer. Yup, I do love these two colours.

Sun of A Peach.
An eye-searing neon peach. Ughhh I love this so much - unexpected favourite. Awesome colour with an awesome name to match. Just plain awesome. I wore it when I dropped by my workplace during my call break (needed to settle some personal matters) and my friend was completely blown by how fluorescent my nails were. Yup it is that bright.

Neon & On & On.
A neon pink with just a touch of coral. I thought I wouldn't like it but the coral is making me mince my words. Also an unexpected favourite.

Bottoms Up.
A neon bubblegum pink with a touch of blue. I am sure this would grace Barbie's nails during summer.

That's Shore Bright.
A bright red-leaning purple. The least neon of the collection - is it a neon? Nonetheless, it is still a fun summery colour to sport.

Now, you may have already heard of this already. The formula of these colours are not the nicest to work with. They apply streakily and do not level on their own. I suspect the white in the pastels is not playing nice - as usual. I found that it helped a little to use piCture pOlish's Revolution (meant to be a glitter base but it did not work as well as I had hoped it would be) - the colours applied less patchily that way. Seche Vite did wonders to level out the streakiness as well.

Nonetheless, I am really head-over-heels in love with the sunsational cremes. I liked that they are not the usual highlighter colours. They look less stark that way, don't you agree?

Ever since I have received them in my mail, I've pulled them out countless times to wear them one way or another. Just before I came back to work, I did this completely work-inappropriate mani just because I can ;)

I started with a white base and randomly sponged on the colours from the Sunsational cremes before topping them with a coat of black shatter. Oh yes, shatters do look good once in a while ;)

So what do you think of the Sunsational cremes?
My personal favourites are Sun of a Peach, Too Yacht to Handle, Highlight of My Summer and Neon & On & On... ok. That's not really helping :P
Which colour is your favourite?

Stay tuned for swatches of the other half of the collection ♥



**Products were provided for our honest review. Please see our disclosure policy for more information.**

Rainbow Honey: The Summer of 199X

 Sent for Review

So back in those days when WoW was just introduced to the world, gamers were apparently getting their kick from SNES Earthbound. I had never tried it myself because I was still too young and probably rolling stupidly in the sand at a playground near my house.

Nonetheless, I was totally psyched up when Rainbow Honey announced its newest collection, Summer of 199X featuring 10 new colors inspired by Earthbound. Even though I could not identify the references to the game, there is no denying the beauty of these polishes. Rainbow Honey generously sent three polishes for me to share - just take a look:

Mint Flavor. 3 thin coats.

Part aqua, part baby blue, part shimmer, this was hands down the best window flavor. Because...you taste windows, right?

A soft aqua blue with subtle green shimmer. I especially love that flash of shimmer. Formula was a bit tricky (as with most pastels) but totally worth it. So delicate and pretty. Easily my favourite of the trio. ♥

Apple Kid. 2 coats.

This bright and rosy fuchsia creme won't build you any useful contraptions but it is filled with more shimmer than you can shake a Pencil Eraser at.

A brilliant hot pink with tiny pink flecks that shimmer and shine when they catch the light. Very flattering on the nails - definitely a head-turner.

I Miss You. 1 coat dabbed over Essence Hello Marshmallow.

I Miss You is a pastel rainbow of glitters and shimmer, these butterflies are sure to cure the homesick traveler.

A delicate pastel glitter mix filled with primarily baby blue and pink glitters and a generous sprinkle of tiny iridescent glitters and blue shimmer. The formula is a tad thicker than the other two colours but the glitters apply easily over the nail. I did have to prod at the larger glitters a little to place them where I want them to be.

And just because I can, I added a matte top coat over them for a daintier effect ♥

Yup, Rainbow Honey most definitely hit the ball out of the park with this collection! Apart from these trio, they also have other mind-blowing glitters and pretty shimmers - something for everyone!

So what do you think of these colours?
Which colours from the Summer of 199X caught your eye?

Rainbow Honey is available on their website. They do not ship internationally but international girls can also get their hands on RH pretties through their stockists. ^_^
You may also wish to follow Rainbow Honey on Facebook for more updates.




**Products were provided for our honest review. Please see our disclosure policy for more information.**

Femme Fatale Cosmetics: Gilded Rose, Scorchling, Incendius and Chocoholic

Sent for Review

By now, you should know that I am utterly obsessed with Femme Fatale Cosmetics. For the uninitiated, FFC is an Australian indie brand that is known for its unique and gorgeous glitter mixes. From right at the start, Sophie, the creative genius behind FFC, never failed to impress me with her eye for colour and her sense of depth - two important factors that make a polish look complete. In fact, her polishes were a part of the reason why I got started on Wow (yup, she takes some of her inspirations from the game too!).

Still not convinced? Just take a look:

Gilded Rose. 1 coat sandwiched between OPI Barre My Soul.
Gilded Rose is a glitter bomb filled with gold, pink and even sprinkles of purple glitters of different shapes (including stars!) and sizes. As it has a clear base, it is very versatile and can be used as a topper over different colours - in the first picture, I layered it over OPI My Very First Knockwurst on a swatch stick; Bec of Nail Gun XS also has a gorgeous swatch of it over a metallic pink. For this swatch, I chose to do a squishy jelly sandwich with OPI Barre My Soul for a more delicate look. <3

Scorchling. 1 coat dabbed over Illamasqua Vice.
A sheer berry-red jelly filled with red, burgundy and black glitters and pops of red and blue shimmer. One of my favourites and a prime example of why I love FFC polishes - the colour and glitter mix are just so perfectly balanced for a bold fierce look.

Incendius. 1 coat dabbed over Michelle R3.
Another clear-based glitter topper. This is filled with red, orange, gold and black glitters of various shapes and sizes. I had layered it over a dark shimmery red for a fiery look but the glitters really pop if you layer it over a black - in the swatch stick above, I layered it over a near black, Wet n Wild Under Your Spell.

Chocoholic. 2 coats over Essence Wanna Say Hello.
This is a sheer dark plum base filled with tiny brown glitters and larger brown hexes accented with sprinkles of royal purple and some pink and blue dots. So deliciously dark and rich, I had to stop myself from taking a bite. Love it so hard!


So, what do you think of these FFC polishes?

FFC is available on their website at http://femmefatalecosmetics.com.au/.
At the moment, FFC does not ship polishes outside of Australia but, thankfully, us international girls can satisfy our lemmings at one of their stockists. You may also wish to try your luck at their clearance section - these polishes are available for shipping internationally subject to a limit of 6 bottles.

You can follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more updates!




**Products were provided for our honest review. Please see our disclosure policy for more information.**

essence: Nail Care Products!

Sent for Review

Happy weekend!! :D
This week has been wonderfully pleasant because I am officially on call break (break from work before I get called to the bar)! *happy dance* There is still about three weeks before my call date but I have to head back to the office in a week's time because... I couldn't say no to my boss. :(
Nonetheless, I had a really enjoyable (read: slack) week so far. I had planned to post earlier this week but, yea, I got distracted playing WoW. It is really too addictive! I haven't done anything except play all day.  o"o

*clears throat awkwardly*

Anyway, I have some essence nail care products to share with you today! When essence Singapore sent their new spring/summer shades over for review, they generously included samples of their nail care line as well.

essence Professional 4-in-1 Nail File. (S$2.90)
By now, you should know my preference for glass nail files so I was really hesitant to try this particular nail file from essence. The nail file has four different grits to: trim, clean, smooth and polish. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it did the job really efficiently. It was quick to take down length and smooth the edges. I liked that I have control over the filing by switching between the different grits. The only downside is that it will wear down eventually. But still, for S$2.90, it is still a fairly good option for those who do not like glass files.

essence studio nails 24/7 nail base and pro white hardener. (S$3.90 each)
The 24/7 nail base is a ridge filling base coat that dries almost matte. It reminds me a lot of my go-to base coat, NailTek Foundation II. I have yet to do a meaningful comparison between the two base coats but I will definitely post an update when I am satisfied with the testing.

The pro white hardener is supposed to strengthen the nails and promote nail growth. It also contains an anti-yellow formula to naturally lighten the nails and provide a high-shine finish. It is not obvious from the picture above but the base is lightly tinted blue to balance out the yellow hues on the nails. I would snap a comparison picture for illustration but my nails are currently differently stained because of the different colours I've been testing on them. It generally does make the nails look less yellow but I do find the blue hue a little too obvious when it catches the light. It is a saviour though if you intend to head out for the day but have no time to hide the stains under layers of polish - it dries relatively quickly so you can be out in no time at all.

essence nail polish corrector pencil. (S$4.90)
Ah! One of my favourite products. It is basically a clean-up tool to remove any mess that you may leave at the cuticles or the sides of the nails. I usually use a small brush dipped in nail polish remover for the clean-up but I must say that this pencil is definitely fuss-free and more convenient, especially if you are on the move. I find myself reaching for it for minor clean-ups even when I am at home.

The tip is angled much like the orange sticks so those who use orange sticks tipped with some cotton wool will find this familiar. It did take me some getting used to because it is stiffer and less malleable than my usual brush. That said, some of you may find it easier to control that way.

What really surprises me is that the remover within is acetone-free - it removes mess so efficiently that I didn't think it was acetone-free; almost as quickly as my pure acetone remover! It also contains jojoba oil (yay for moisturizer!) and cherry fragrance (eh... it reminds me a little of the medicinal syrups >.< ). The tip does get dirty after a few rounds of clean-up but the pencil comes with 3 replacement tips so clean-ups will be a breeze again.

essence studio nails caring nail oil. (S$3.50)
More moisturizer! This is a nail and cuticle oil that claims to promote nail growth if you rub it into the nail beds. I have yet to test the truth of that but I like that it is moisturising and has a fruity apricot scent. The applicator tip is soft and fuzzy and shaped like the corrector pencil. It holds quite a bit of oil so you might want to brush it near the bottle top to remove the excess oil before brushing it on your cuticles. A little goes a long way!

There are many more nail care products by essence that are available at the following Watsons stores:
Ngee Ann City, City Square Mall, Causeway Point, Lucky Plaza, Plaza Singapura, Bugis Junction, Sun Plaza, JEM, JCube, Parkway Parade, IMM, Lot 1, Anchor Point, Rivervale Mall, Park Lane, Bedok Central, Beautyworld Centre and SMU.
You can also follow essence Singapore on Facebook for more updates!

Happy shopping! ;)



**Products were provided for our honest review. Please see our disclosure policy for more information.**