Lights Out! - Born Pretty BP-BAW02 Dark Chocolate, LA Girl Flamboyant, Missha The Style Lucid #2, ZA #05

Okay.. so it's no secret that I love glitter. SO MUCH! What I don't love is the removal of glitter polish. SO MUCH!

[Super luxe]

Now, I know peel-off glitter base has been around for a while, but the ones I've tried have a really thick formula and take forever to dry so I've never really used them much. I decided to give it a go again recently and chose this item for review from Born Pretty. This is BP-BAW02 Dark Chocolate from the Born Pretty White Black Series Peel Off Nail Polish.

[Bottle to nail: Born Pretty Peel Off Nail Polish BP-BAW02 Dark Chocolate (1 coat)]

Don't be fooled by the name! Based on the product page, I was aware that I was purchasing a black polish, and not any sort of chocolate-related colour.

[1 coat: Born Pretty BP-BAW02 Dark Chocolate]

Onto the polish itself.. I LOVE IT. It is super super pigmented, this is just one-coat, no topcoat. Thin-to-medium formula and quick dry time. Even if it doesn't work as a nail polish, I would love it just as a black one-coater base for sheer or glitter polishes!

[Left to right: LA Girl Flamboyant, Missha The Style Lucid #2, ZA #05]

So to give it a go, I then did a french glitter gradient and an gradient accent nail with the polishes above. Interesting note, that ZA polish is one of the first nail polishes I coveted and purchased when I was a teenager. It thickened up over time, but late last year, I saved it with some polish thinner and I'm pleased as punch with myself!

[Base: Born Pretty BP-BAW02 Dark Chocolate (1 coat)
Glitter: LA Girl Flamboyant, Missha The Style Lucid #2, ZA #05]

So after doing the glitter gradients, I topped off with two generous coats of topcoat to smooth it all out. I then wore this mani for about a week to try it out, as one of my gripes about peel off basecoat previously is that sometimes it just peels itself off after a shower.

[One Piece!]

Glad to say I had no issues here and it only came off when I started picking at it intentionally. As you can see above, it came off nicely in one piece on the accent nails! I managed to peel it off the other nails, but not in a nice whole piece which I'm pretty sure is I didn't coat the entire nail in glitter so it was only a single thin layer of the black polish so it was harder to get off in one piece.

Overall, I'm really happy with this product and can see myself making use of it heaps in future! You can check it out here - it also comes in white! As usual, code above will give you 10% off full priced products at Born Pretty. =)

Bikini Bottom - Missha GR002, Hit the Bottle Spun Gold, Born Pretty BP-L013

I have kinda been obsessed with the idea of going to the beach lately. I thought it was finally warming up here in Sydney, but the weather is just so unpredictable!

[Sea, sand, surf!]

So here is an itsy bitsy polka dotty mani to help with the sun and sea cravings!

[Bottle to nail: Missha GR002 (2 coats)]

My base from last week, Missha GR002 a sea green creme rescued from the bin with a bit of polish thinner. The lighting has changed slightly, but I swear the colour has become greener on my nails with time!

[Base: Missha GR002 (2 coats); Stamping: Hit the Bottle Spun Gold;
Plate: Born Pretty BP-L013]

Using the simple polka dot design from Born Pretty plate BP-L013, I stamped this design using Hit the Bottle Spun Gold. I think I use this color combination quite a bit, but I just love the look of it!

[Base: Missha GR002 (2 coats); Stamping: Hit the Bottle Spun Gold;
Plate: Born Pretty BP-L013]

I think it'd be even more eye-catching with larger polka dots, but this was the only polka dot stamping design I had, can you believe that! I also didn't want to use a dotting tool as I wanted it nice and regular. I'm still pretty happy with how this turned out!

Save the Seas - Missha GR002

I think I mentioned that I'd done a big spring clean of my polish collection recently. It was easy to put away those I wasn't interested in... a bit harder when it came to polishes that I liked, but had gone gluggy... So instead, I went and found some polish thinner and decided to see if I could save them!

[Bottle to nail: Missha GR002 (2 coats)]

This is one of the success stories - Missha GR002 - the label suggests it is a green polish, and it is, but more of a sea green. I bought this aaaaggggeessss ago, but it was already a fairly thick formula (but lovely pigmentation) so polish tended to collect along the rim and inside of the cap.

What happens is then the bottle doesn't seal as tight when you close it, so more of the solvent evaporates and you end up with a thickened polish.

[2 coats: Missha GR002]

I found that thinner works really well with creme polishes so this worked wonderfully. Just stuck a few drops (maybe more...) in and shook/rolled the bottle about to mix it up. Check the viscosity, and repeat if required.

[2 coats: Missha GR002]

I'm really happy that I got to save this shade - this is two coats. It dried slightly matte which I can't remember anymore if that was what the original formula did. But a nice layer of topcoat fixed that right up.

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!

Gold Sands - Missha Crystal Nail Polish GGL01

Quick post again! This one is kind of an abandoned mani... I planned to stamp over it but couldn't find the right shade that I had in mind so gave up after a few tries... but here is the base polish!

[Bottle to nail: Missha Crystal Nail Polish GGL01 (2 coats)]

I was looking for an extremely yellow gold and was almost thinking I didn't have one in my stash when I pulled this out! This is Missha GGL01 from the Crystal nail polish line. 

[2 coats: Missha Crystal Nail Polish GGL01]

GGL01 is a very yellow gold! It's a yellow/gold base, absolutely packed with gold shimmer as well as gold and silver glitter bits. Very twinkly and very gritty! Good opacity in two coats and nice even coverage. Dry time was also decent.

[2 coats: Missha Crystal Nail Polish GGL01]

These photos are before topcoat (see: abandoned mani) so it's not as sparkly as it could be but rest assured, it's pretty dang shiny what with all those glitter pieces! Ah well, maybe one day I'll revisit this...

Lighting Up - Missha HKH01, China Glaze Twinkle Lights

A continuation of last week's post!

[2 coats: Missha Crystal Nail Polish HKH01]

I introduced Missha Crystal Nail Polish HKH01, an antique gold chunky metallic with scattered holo glitter. AS you can see, I didn't manage to capture the holo very well... So as usual, my go-to response is to slap on more glitter!

[Base: Missha HKH01 (2 coats); Glitter: China Glaze Twinkle Lights]

Here's one extra coat of China Glaze Twinkle Lights from the Let It Snow 2011 collection. This is a mix of gold, green and red glitter. It's definitely heavier on the gold (or maybe it's that slight bit larger?) and the overall effect is really quite twinkly, as the name says!

[Base: Missha HKH01 (2 coats); Glitter: China Glaze Twinkle Lights]

Here's a closer look at Twinkle Lights over HKH01. I think it ended up being quite a Christmas-y manicure!

Earthy Gold - Missha Crystal Nail Polish HKH01

Here are some dusty old photos I dug out of my mani folder... 

[Bottle to nail: Missha Crystal Nail Polish HKH01 (2 coats)]

This one is Missha Crystal Nail Polish in HKH01. It's an antique gold heavy foil polish with large particle holo glitter scattered throughout. I know my photos haven't managed to capture the holo very well though!

[2 coats: Missha Crystal Nail Polish HKH01]

You can see a tiny hint of holo in these pics. The formula is fairly thick but not too hard to work with. I used two coats for these, I think! It does dry gritty so pop on the topcoat when you're done for a slick shiny finish.

Sea Change - Missha Crystal Nail Polish HGR01

I've swatched today's polish before, but only as a skittle comparing it with other duochromes. However, check out that post if you'd like to see a gif showing the duochrome-y goodness! Otherwise, keep reading to have a look at a full mani!

[Bottle to nail: Missha Crystal Nail Polish HGR01 (2 coats)]

This is Missha Crystal Nail Polish in HGR01, a beautiful blue-to-green duochrome with a foil/metallic finish. You do have to be a bit careful not to end up with streak lines with this polish, but it's not overly difficult to work with.

[2 coats: Missha Crystal Nail Polish HGR01]

The duochrome is fairly obvious, from an ocean blue to a golden green, and the polish is opaque in two coats.

[2 coats: Missha Crystal Nail Polish HGR01]

I do like foil finish duochromes despite them frequently having streaking problems. I also love blue and green polish, so this one's a winner overall!

Patriotic Skies - Mode Hook Me Up, Missha Dazzling

Today is a day for nail polishes you can buy for cheapies in Sydney!

[Top: One coat of Missha The Style Lucid Nail Polish Dazzling No 1
Base: Two coats of Mode Hook Me Up]

The base polish is Mode's Hook Me Up. It's a beautiful sky blue and it's been one of my favourites from very early on. Hook Me Up is a creme polish that never bubbles no matter what. On top of Hook Me Up is Missha The Style Lucid Nail Polish Dazzling No 1. I have no idea if that's the real name, but it's the only thing I can find on its label. This polish has a clear base coat, and hex and bar glitter in varying sizes, in light blue, medium blue and red.

[Four coats of Missha The Style Lucid Nail Polish Dazzling No 1[

Here's the glitter on its own with a clear base coat. I rather like it on its own because you can really see the assorted glitter like this. I'll do a full mani of this one day. :D

[Top coat: Missha The Style Lucid Nail Polish Dazzling No
Base: Orly Au Champagne]

Here it is over white, coming across as rather American. Or rather, very patriotic for any country that has white, blue and red on their flags. :)

So you can find Mode polishes in random pharmacies. They usually go for AUD2 to 3. You can find Missha at QVB and their polishes go from AUD3 to 7, depending on the range. I bought this bottle for around AUD2.50 if I recall right because it was on sale.

Walking Dead - Halloween Challenge #5: Zombies

The topic of the day is 'zombies', and in no universe are zombies easy on the eyes (sorry, zombies, but it's true). So I decided to pretty much try for a weird-looking, maybe even gross-looking, manicure.

Here's what I started with:

[Two coats of Nail Pattern Boldness Madam Rose over Orly In The Navy]

Nail Pattern Boldness' Madam Rose is a red and silvery-white matte glitter. With three thin coats, it could probably be opaque on its own. Nail Pattern Boldness really packs their glitter in their bottles! Orly In The Navy is a very dark, almost black, navy blue.

[Top: Sponged Missha SV03
Base: Nail Pattern Boldness Madam Rose over Orly In The Navy]

Then, I sponged on Missha SV03 - a gray creme - randomly over the lot. Alright, I'll admit, in my enthusiasm for this creepy subject, I was going for a zombie's gray patchy skin over rotting flesh. (At first, I was going to do tendons and bone as well, then I decided to leave it a little abstract.)

[Top: Sponged Ulta3 Pacific Fever over Missha SV03
Base: Nail Pattern Boldness Madam Rose over Orly In The Navy]

I added a little green to the gray for more of a rotting look. How does this look? I don't think I quite made it to icky zombie skin and flesh heights, but it did look a little gross in person. It definitely achieved a certain level of ugliness though!

Then I thought it would be interesting to try to make it something that I could actually wear out without getting bombarded by questions about my taste...

[Top: Nyx Enchanted Forest
Middle: Sponged Ulta3 Pacific Fever over Missha SV03
Base: Nail Pattern Boldness Madam Rose over Orly In The Navy]

Glitter hides all flaws, right? Hmmm...not quite in this case, but close enough. This is the sparkly edition of zombies! Perhaps when Twilight vampires turn into zombies...? The glitter is Nyx's Enchanted Forest and it has all sorts of green holo hex suspended in a green jelly base. It's gorgeous, and I love how it looks like it's floating in that second picture above.

Here's the mandatory blurry picture for maximum shininess:

[Top: Nyx Enchanted Forest
Middle: Sponged Ulta3 Pacific Fever over Missha SV03
Base: Nail Pattern Boldness Madam Rose over Orly In The Navy]

So how did I go? 'Zombie' was a rather tough challenge for me, and perhaps I took it a little too literally. /o\

Peri-dupe Test! - China Glaze Rare & Radiant, Topshop Nails Hidden Treasure, Missha HGR01, Models Own Golden Green

Here's a rather long and descriptive dupe test! I have four duochromes to compare today, two of which are dupes and the other two I just chucked in there for fun~ We have...

Missha Crystal Nail Polish in HGR01, China Glaze Rare & Radiant from the Bohemian Luster Chrome collection, Topshop Nails in Hidden Treasure and Models Own Golden Green from the Beetlejuice collection.

[L-R: Missha HGR01, China Glaze Rare & Radiant, Topshop Hidden Treasure, Models Own Golden Green]

I was pretty sure CG R&R and Topshop Hidden Treasure were almost identical so I put them to the test. Since they were both gold to green duochromes (ahem Chanel Peridot ahem), I included Models Own Golden Green to show the difference in shade and finish. Then I felt like testing out the blue to green duochrome Missha polish because I remembered it being a bit streaky... but let's have a look!

At one coat, you can see that Topshop Hidden Treasure has the edge in terms of pigment. But neither CG nor Topshop would be sufficient at one coat. Both are fairly thin formulas, with a shimmer consistency but metallic foil finish. Models Own is much more pigmented, but it's more of a shimmer, not foily at all. No real issues with brushstrokes with any of them... YAY!

[1 & 2 coats: CG Rare & Radiant, Topshop Hidden Treasure, Models Own Golden Green]

At two coats, all of them are pretty good. If you hold your nails up to the light, you can see it's translucent at the free edge, but due to the foil finish, it's practically opaque at any other angle. Topshop Hidden Treasure and CG Rare & Radiant are pretty much dead-on dupes. Hidden Treasure is a touch more opaque and (maybe because of this) slightly deeper in tone, pretty much unnoticeable.

[Thumb & index: MO Golden Green; Middle & pinky: CG Rare & Radiant; Ring: Topshop Hidden Treasure]

Models Own Golden Green although also a gold to green duochrome is waaaayyy different, both in terms of finish and shade. It is very pretty though! Not sure why but this Models Own polish smells very strong to me, but like... turps or something! =S

[Index: MO Golden Green; Middle & pinky: CG Rare & Radiant; Ring: Topshop Hidden Treasure]

I also tried to be a little fancy and made a gif to show the awesome colour shift. I like how at either of the extreme angles you get a touch of teal or orange. The gif kinda lowers the photo quality though, so if you want a look at either of the three pics, click here: ONE TWO THREE!

I then removed and repainted my index and pinky with Missha HGR01.

[Index & pinky: Missha HGR01; Middle: CG Rare & Radiant; Ring: Topshop Hidden Treasure]

It is a gorgeous gorgeous shade indeed, opaque in two coats. BUT! It is more prone to streakiness and the brush, oh gawwdd, the brush. It's a short wide brush which is a bit more difficult to work with. To get an idea of the width... I painted my pinky in one stroke. Which is why my pinky is so gorgeously streak-free LOL. Does not work quite as good on a wider nail though...

[Thumb: MO Golden Green; Index & pinky: Missha HGR01;
Middle: CG Rare & Radiant; Ring: Topshop Hidden Treasure]

This photo is a bit crappy, but I wanted to show all 4 polishes together in one image.... and another gif! The compression makes it look like the polish has flaked but yeah, nooo~ it hasn't!

[Index & pinky: Missha HGR01; Middle: CG Rare & Radiant; Ring: Topshop Hidden Treasure]

Conclusions from this test:
SHADE: Topshop Hidden Treasure and China Glaze Rare & Radiant are dupes.
PIGMENT: Topshop just edges China Glaze out in pigment.
PRICE: CG is roughly about USD4 (14ml) while Topshop cost me USD10 (8ml)...ouch!
AVAILABILITY: CG is limited edition, I believe....

FINAL VERDICT: Go for China Glaze Rare & Radiant while you can but don't worry about missing out because there are plenty of other offerings from various brands... this must be the most common duochrome shade around by now!

Oh dear... I think I've finally run out of words.... I hope this was informative and I didn't bore anyone too badly!