Midnight Violet - Pretty Serious Dupe

What I've got here is a pretty shiny, pretty dark nail polish from Pretty Serious.

[Pretty Serious Dupe]

This is Pretty Serious' Dupe. As you can see from the second photo, it has a midnight blue crelly base and is chock-full of glitter. It's got blue, green, purple and magenta glitter, slightly bigger purple and blue glitter, and there's also purple microglitter throughout. The glitter combination makes the nail polish lean purple overall.

Dupe is fully opaque with two coats and to be honest, application isn't very smooth. It goes on pretty thick and gloopy, which makes it dry textured. I guess that's how you get so much glitter in one polish. So the nail polish is pretty thirsty and if you want a smooth finish like the one in my photos, you need to use some kind of top coat.

Here's my tip for getting a smooth finish for thirsty nail polishes without wasting too much of your good quality top coat. Let Dupe semi-dry, and then apply any clear nail polish of any brand on top of Dupe. It can be a base coat or any cheapy clear polish. Then, immediately apply a quick dry top coat. You'll get a smooth, non-bumpy finish. You don't need a special top coat for glitter polishes and you definitely don't need two coats of quick dry.

[Bottle to nail: Two coats of Pretty Serious Dupe]

Looks pretty fancy~

[Pretty Serious Dupe]

I do love the overall look of the nail polish and it's one of the fanciest dark nail polishes that I have.

Oyster Shell - Mother of Pearl Transfer foil

I haven't done a nail transfer foil manicure in ages, even though that was my resolution this year - to master nail transfer foils, and try out all the billions of transfer foils in my collection.

[Foil to nail: Mother of pearl transfer foil]

Well, I've been slowly organising my nail art stash so I got all my transfer foils nicely organised in a box last weekend and celebrated by picking one out to try! Isn't it a beaut!

[Mother of pearl transfer foil]

I used a silvery white base polish (Color Club Pretty in Platinum), before applying a thin layer of foil glue and letting it dry for 5-10 minutes. Using rectangles of the foil which I'd pre-cut earlier, I pressed one rectangle over each nail, smoothing down the edges until the clear plastic layer lifts off easily, leaving the design behind.

[Mother of pearl transfer foil]

These opaque foils are a little bit thicker so can be harder to get to lay flat, especially on curved and/or long nails. However, this finish is so worth it! It still retains its pearly look, and the abstract design helps to hide any patchy bits. I topped this off with Picture Polish Revolution, although I think any old topcoat will do as this is not a metallic/holographic nail foil and doesn't wrinkle with topcoat application.

Unfortunately, transfer foil manis don't last very well on me, particularly as I'm always wearing/changing gloves or washing my hands at work! Ah well, it's a very impressive finish while it lasts~!!

Dusky Lavendar - Miniso Japan Purple

I like to try nail polishes from new brands that I haven't used before, so I decided to give this one a shot.

[Dusky Lavendar]

The Miniso Japan stores are popping open everywhere in Sydney and they have a small nail polish collection too. I decided to give a dusky purple foil a shot. It doesn't seem to have a name, and on the label, all it says is "Product: Purple".
 

[Nails against bottle]

The bottle of nail polish looks kind of retro-ish. The nail polish is opaque in two coats and the colour is rather pretty, a shiny but dusty colour. But honestly? It stinks. It just smells really, really bad. I found it almost unbearable as I used it.

[Miniso Japan Purple]

The two photos shows the nail polish under different lighting.

It looks lovely enough but I don't think I'll be buying anymore nail polishes from Miniso with how badly it smells.

Bugs Life - Maybelline Show Time Pink, Hit the Bottle As Black As Night, Hehe 089

I was so nerdily pleased with this manicure!

[Contamination!]

Bugs bugs bugs! A most appropriate stamping plate gifted to me by Jme! My doctorate was in microbiology and although I don't work in the exact field anymore, it's still a favourite.

[Bottle to nail: Maybelline Color Show Show Time Pink (2 coats)]

My base from last week is Maybelline Color Show in Show Time Pink, a nice basic pink creme.

[Hehe plate 089]

Here's the plate - Hehe plate 089. Isn't it super adorable! I used the design on the left, but the ones on the right are also awesome. I can't wait to try them out as well.

[Base: Maybelline Show Time Pink; Stamping: Hit the Bottle As Black As Night, Hehe 089]

Using a black creme stamping polish (Hit the Bottle As Black As Night), I stamped over the pink with different parts of the design, then topped off with a nice glossy layer of topcoat.

[Base: Maybelline Show Time Pink; Stamping: Hit the Bottle As Black As Night, Hehe 089]

I think my favourite part is the bacilli chains - so good! I should totally look for more science-themed stamping designs!

Terrible Thursday - Revlon Emerald City, Revlon OceanChrome, Revlon Typhoon, Revlon Blue Lagoon

It's time for Terrible Thursday. I used to post my less than successful manis, which are usually created as a result of bad colour choices or just messing up a technique. So here we go.

[Sea Tiles]

It doesn't look tooooo horrible in this picture, but at the same time, it's not great. The colour choices weren't great because three of the shades don't have enough contrast between them (yeah, there are four colours at work here, could you tell??), and the pattern is a little big for my nails and uneven. The mani on the middle finger is so blah. I'll get into other difficulties and potential tips later.

[Left to right: Revlon Emerald City, Revlon OceanChrome, Revlon Typhoon, Revlon Blue Lagoon]

So my colour choices! From left to right:

• Revlon Emerald City - A lovely green polish that dries matte
• Revlon OceanChrome - A teal-ish green chrome polish
• Revlon Typhoon - A mid-blue almost-chrome polish
• Revlon Blue Lagoon - A very light blue polish with a light shimmer

It's a Revlon bonanza! 

I have no idea what I was thinking when I chose to use a matte nail polish for nail polish marbling on my silicone nail art mat. Matte polishes dry fast, so this was a spectacularly bad idea. Then, the chrome polish was just a mess for this type of mani. It didn't create sharp lines, just sort of oozed into the other nail polishes around it.

[Nail patches on Born Pretty's silicone nail art mat]

I did so many nail patches because I wanted to apply them to my toenails as well, like I demonstrated last post. But the results weren't that great this time round, to be honest.

This mani is also when I learned that it would be better if I used a base coat first on the silicone nail art mat, and then marble on top of the clear base coat for each patch. If you don't, you'll find that the nail patches have become very thin after they've dried and might tear when you lift them from the silicone nail art mat. Especially as you've dragged a toothpick through the nail polish when you were doing your marbling, which sometimes leaves lines on your nail patches that are easy to tear. A base coat will help hold it all together.

[Revlon Emerald City, Revlon OceanChrome, Revlon Typhoon, Revlon Blue Lagoon]

That last picture doesn't look too bad, but the second last... boy, the pattern is not even visible on the middle finger. Oh well, lesson learned

Anyway, the chrome nail polish doesn't actually look half bad, but I just need to pick a better combination when I'm doing this in the future.

On Wednesdays - Maybelline Show Time Pink

Whenever I lack inspiration, I always seem to go back to polishes like this - deep bright pink cremes!

[Bottle to nail: Maybelline Color Show Show Time Pink (2 coats)]

This one is Maybelline Show Time Pink from the Color Show range. I have so many similar polishes, it's a bit silly! Just can't go past it...

[2 coats: Maybelline Color Show Show Time Pink]

These photos are a teensy bit warmer than it actually looks. It's a pretty basic shade, formula was excellent - I used two coats and topped off with topcoat.

[2 coats: Maybelline Color Show Show Time Pink]

...and there we go! Quick and easy... and terribly unimaginative! It worked though, I'm slowly getting back into it..

Glass Leaves - MdU Black, Born Pretty BP-L003, Missha HBR01, The Face Shop GL111, Orly Here Comes Trouble, Maybelline Beaming Blue, LA Girl Groupie

Let's do a combination of things on a silicone nail art mat!

[Glass Leaves]

So first, I painted twenty patches of clear nail polish on the silicone nail art mat. I think having a clear base polish helps with lifting the patches of nail polish off the mat later.

[20 nail patches on silicone nail art mat]

Then I did a hack job creating a gradient mani on twenty patches. I used:

• Missha's HBR01 - Copper polish with holo microglitter
• The Face Shop's GL111 - A pale gold foil 
• Orly's Here Comes Trouble - A gorgeous bright green glitter
• Maybelline's Beaming Blue - Blue glitter with a gold shimmer
• LA Girl Groupie - Purple jelly with microglitter

And I played around with the direction of the gradient so they're not consistent.

[Born Pretty's stamping plate BP-L003]

Then I used the pattern I highlighted above from Born Pretty's stamping plate BP-L003 and stamped over those nail patches using MdU's Black stamping polish.

[Stamping: MdU Black, Born Pretty BP-L003
Gradient base: Missha's HBR01, The Face Shop's GL111, Orly's Here Comes Trouble
Maybelline's Beaming Blue, LA Girl Groupie]

Voila! How does it look? I had to double stamp for the bigger patches, which you will see the use for later.

The above are how the nail patches look once peeled off the silicone nail art mat. Not bad, not bad...

When applied on nails, here's what I get:

[Stamping: MdU Black, Born Pretty BP-L003
Gradient base: Missha's HBR01, The Face Shop's GL111, Orly's Here Comes Trouble
Maybelline's Beaming Blue, LA Girl Groupie]

The gradient hack job isn't so bad under the stamping, hey?

I took the photos below using my phone and under brighter artificial lighting, so that you can see how shiny the mani looks.

[Stamping: MdU Black, Born Pretty BP-L003
Gradient base: Missha's HBR01, The Face Shop's GL111, Orly's Here Comes Trouble
Maybelline's Beaming Blue, LA Girl Groupie]

 Overall, I'm very pleased with the result!

And you probably noticed the 20 nail patches, instead of the usual 10. I decided I wanted something more funky on my toe nails as well! I have a bit of a hang up over how my toes look so I dithered quite a bit over whether I should post this photo or not, but decided what the hell. Go easy on my tiny toe nails and stubby toes please.

[Stamping: MdU Black, Born Pretty BP-L003
Gradient base: Missha's HBR01, The Face Shop's GL111, Orly's Here Comes Trouble
Maybelline's Beaming Blue, LA Girl Groupie]

So that's another fun use I found for the silicone nail art mat. Usually, the most exciting thing I might do with my toenails is paint them with funky colours. But with a silicone nail art mat, I can actually do more exciting things like create gradient nail polish and stamped manis for my toenails now. I have done a few toenails mani like this since.

Naturally, it was funner to do during summer, when my feet and toes can often be free from shoes and socks. Not so with this weather on us right now!

Melting Moments - Maybelline Lavender Love, Hit the Bottle Purple Reign, Born Pretty BP-L029

So I followed up my mediocre mani last week with some stamping to try to get my stamping mojo back. Did it work?

[Drip drop Dali]

Weeeellll, you may notice above that I ran into some other troubles! I'll explain as we go along...

[Bottle to nail: Maybelline Color Show Lavender Love (2 coats)]

My base was Maybelline Color Show Lavender Love, a lavender creme polish.

[Bottle to nail: Hit the Bottle Purple Reign (stamping); Plate: Born Pretty BP-L029;
Base: Maybelline Color Show Lavender Love (2 coats)]

I stamped over that with Hit the Bottle Purple Reign, a super gorgeous rich purple shimmer stamping polish. The pattern was from Born Pretty plate BP-L029 - another floral-themed stamping plate (boy, do I have a lot of those!).

[Base: Maybelline Color Show Lavender Love (2 coats);
Stamping: Hit the Bottle Purple Reign, Born Pretty BP-L029]

Anyway, everything was going great...! Until... I'd evidently been very generous with floating a thick layer of topcoat over my stamping, and then not been so careful and had my hands pointed downwards and the polish, base and all went slip sliding down towards the end of my nails! Lesson learned, not so much topcoat, and keep em level as it dries! Phew~

What A Stud - L'oreal Fancy Me

You can't go wrong with red, gold and studs, right?

[Metallica Red]

The base polish is L'oreal's Fancy Me. As you can see in the photo below, it dries matte.

[Two coats of L'oreal Fancy Me]

Fancy Me is a glitter polish, with predominantly red glitter and some gold glitter mixed in. The gold among the red is more obvious in real life as compared to in the photos. Probably all the red glitter just dazzles the camera into submission. You can see a little more of the gold in the photos below.

I dabbed some clear polish on my nails where I wanted the studs to go and stuck on the gold studs one by one. Then I painted quick dry topcoat nail polish over everything to make sure the studs stay on. Without the topcoat, I'm pretty sure the studs wouldn't last a day with me. With the topcoat, they lasted about a week, which is pretty good for me!

[Gold studs on L'oreal Fancy Me]

I find square studs a really easy but cool addition to manis, just to punk rock things up!