Polishing and Sponging - Zoya Crystal + China Glaze Emerald Sparkle

As I promised last week, this entry will be about gradient manis again (I do love them so), but using the sponging method instead.

We didn't come up with the gradient-sponging method, but it was Ev who actually described it to me. It's really easy to do though and one explanation was pretty much all I needed!

Before we start, I do apologize for these photos! They are older pictures, all taken with the iPhone.

Zoya Crystal and China Glaze Emerald Sparkle

The base colour here is Zoya Crystal, which is a gorgeous almost-dull blue with gold glitter. Then I used China Glaze Emerald Sparkle to gradient over Crystal. Emerald Sparkle is a dark green jelly with green glitter. With the sponge method, you don't actually need a jelly polish for the top layers.

I dabbed some Emerald Sparkle on a sponge and pressed the sponge lightly around the middle of my nails, adding the green polish from the middle up to the nail tips. Then I just kept building up the green colour by adding more of Emerald Sparkle closer and closer to the nail tips.

Then as always, a layer of dry fast top coat over everything! I was a bit too enthusiastic this time and you can see the top coat past the edges of my nails, urgh. As my nails were pretty long then, the gradient looks like a change of colour on the tips of my nails, which is pretty nice as well.

For the spongey material, I have used a variety of things before, including a cheap make-up sponge (which was actually a little too fine for this), the soft side of a dish-washing sponge, and when I was really desperate, a cloth. The cloth works pretty well, surprisingly.

Zoya Crystal and China Glaze Emerald Sparkle

This photo is out of focus to show the pretty sparkles in both polishes.

You can also add one coat of a sheer polish over the mani to make the gradient even more subtle.

In this case, I added a coat of XOX 24, which is a sheer, zingy white-blue glass fleck. XOX polishes really do smell toxic, I have to say, and despite the pretty, I'm reconsidering the wiseness of using them.

XOX 24 over Zoya Crystal and China Glaze Emerald Sparkle

 It's still obviously a gradient, but it looks more gradual now.

Let's hope I have something other than gradients next week! :)

Froooty Funtimes - Milani 3D Holographic Hi-tech + China Glaze Strawberry Fields

I thought I'd do a bit of a happy springtime (in Australia, at least) post. This is an old mani from a while ago so pardon the photo quality (and ohgosh, tip wear).

I used a base of Milani 3D Holographic polish in Hi-Tech - a springy green scattered holo. I find all of the Milani 3D Holographic polishes to have a quite "silvery" finish (if that makes sense) so even though the nail is completely coated, it doesn't seem like a solid colour. The holo effect is quite strong even in normal/dim light.

The tips are China Glaze Strawberry Fields. It's a bright pink jelly/shimmer with gold glass fleck but it dulled down a bit when put over the green. It's usually quite eye-catching!

[Base: Milani 3D Holographic Hi-Tech; Tips: China Glaze Strawberry Fields]
[Accent nail: Various rhinestones + Fimo fruit slices]

Then I just stuck a craptonne of naildeco on the ring finger. In this particular one, I have used 2mm and 1.5mm round rhinestones, stars/teardrop/moon, flatback pearls and fimo fruit slices.

These things benefit from a little planning! I usually lay everything I want flat-side down first, with a bottle of clear polish (to stick them on, preferably slow-drying) and wooden skewer (to pick and place deco with).

All you need to do is put a layer of your clear polish on where you want the deco to go. Daub some polish on the end of your skewer so it's tacky enough to pick up the rhinestones. Go crazy decorating!

Then seal with a brushload of topcoat - seriously, the more the better! Make a nice shiny layer over all the crap you've put on your nail to make sure it stays put.

[Base: Milani 3D Holographic Hi-Tech; Tips: China Glaze Strawberry Fields]
[Accent nail: Various rhinestones + Fimo fruit slices]

I love using deco accents but I have a terrible habit at picking them off quite quickly! The feeling of something sticking out of my nail... I just have to worry at it... oh well. =)

Enjoy the reverse watermelon!

Modestly Flashy - Nyx Advanced Salon Formula Forever Young

Saturday is Extra-Swatchurday! ;)

This is the second set of swatches from the three NYX Advanced Salon Formula polishes I purchased recently. We've already posted a few bottle pics and swatches as well as the potential Zoya dupes Be Jeweled and Enchanted Forest but here are swatches and my review of Forever Young.

[In the bottle: NYX Advanced Salon Formula Forever Young]

Forever Young is a dusty salmon pink jelly with irregularly-shaped and -sized gold flakies. The density of the flakies is pretty decent and fairly evenly dispersed throughout the bottle.

[One coat: NYX Advanced Salon Formula Forever Young]

 One coat shows the jelly finish. It levels out quite well with the flakies lying flat and actually looks pretty good at one coat! I usually don't like sheer-ish polishes as much but I quite liked this.

[Two coats: NYX Advanced Salon Formula Forever Young]

At two coats the colour deepens and you get added dimension from the placement of the flakies at different levels in the polish layers. There was no problem getting the flakies to disperse over the whole surface of the nail either which is a major plus.

[Two coats, indirect sunlight: NYX Advanced Salon Formula Forever Young]

 You could still see a bit of nail line at two coats (as in the previous photo) but it depends on the lighting. Here, the colour looks deeper and the nail line less visible in indirect lighting.

[Three coats, closeup: NYX Advanced Salon Formula Forever Young]

Three coats of polish, the colour deepens slightly but not too much. This pic was taken in the near dark so pardon the crappy lighting. Click to check out the flakies in the closeup!

My thoughts? It's a very pretty polish - I love it when I take a chance on a polish I normally wouldn't get and it works out! I also like that you can decide how much colour you want on, from sheer to opaque. In conclusion, a very versatile shade - the dusty salmon is more unique than your everyday pink, still very worksafe, yet with some added flashiness to it!

Gradient Glimmers - Blues and Reds with Revlon, Zoya, LA Splash, China Glaze

Gradient manis are one of my favourites. I think it's cause they're fun and rather easy to do.

There are two ways to do it, but I'm using the way originally described on All Lacquered Up. However, I use three different nail polishes instead of two. If you have longer nails, I think three different shades of the same colour creates a nicer gradual change.

I have had a few people ask me how I do these, so here goes my dodgy tutorial for gradient polishes! In these two cases, I'm going for same colour gradients (light blue to dark blue, pink to red). I wish I had better photos, but these are all indoor night photos, taken with my iPhone.

First, you need to pick three colours to work with. The base can be any lighter shade you like. The other two polishes should be jelly polishes. Here are what I chose for my blue gradient polish:


[Left to right: LA Splash Ocean Sprinkles, Revlon Blueberry Burst, China Glaze Dorothy Who?]

LA Splash Ocean Sprinkles, which is a light blue polish with gold glitter in it, is my base polish here. It's a jelly polish as well, and I only used one coat because there were going to be several more layers of polish over that! Revlon Blueberry Burst is my medium shade, and it's a blue-teal jelly with blue microglitter. It's rather seethrough, which means you require several coats, but it does make for a very nice, gradual change in colour. For the third shade, I used China Glaze Dorothy Who?, which is a jelly, but was actually a touch too dark compared to Blueberry Burst. But needs must since all my other blue jellies were even darker!


[Blue gradient mani: Pictorial]

 After I had my base polish on, I painted with Blueberry Burst from point A up to the tip of the nail. I add progressive layers, always starting a little further away from the cuticle. As shown above, the subsequent coats of Blueberry Burst start from point B, C and D. There's really no hard and fast rule to this, just gradually add coats in a way that looks good!

Since Dorothy Who? was quite a bit darker, I had to use one very, very thin coat starting from point E. This part is optional, but I also dabbed a little of it at the very tips.

The final most important step is a coat of quick dry topcoat over the manicure to even out the different layers of polish.



[Blue gradient mani: LA Splash Ocean Sprinkles, Revlon Blueberry Burst, China Glaze Dorothy Who?]



So that's my own amateur-ish attempt at a blue gradient mani. Here's a pink-red one.



[Left to right: Zoya Tiffany, Revlon Cherry Fizz, China Glaze Ruby Pumps]

I chose Zoya Tiffany as my base here. I really do love this polish, don't I? I use it for so many occasions. Tiffany is peach-pink with gold microglitter. Very pretty, yet work appropriate. My medium shade is Revlon Cherry Fizz, which is a red-orange jelly with sparse dark pink microglitter. The third shade is China Glaze Ruby Pumps. It's definitely too dark, but it was the closest match.



[Red gradient mani: Zoya Tiffany, Revlon Cherry Fizz, China Glaze Ruby Pumps]

Similar to the blue gradient, I only did one very thin coat of Ruby Pumps, and dabbed a little onto the very tips.

I find Revlon's Glimmer Gloss collection to be very useful for gradient manicures. They're a little light, but with enough coats, they work rather well. The gradient manicures always attract the attention of strangers and friends alike, so others like them just as much as I do!

Next week, I'll cover the sponge method for gradient manis.

Party Sparkle - OPI You Don't Know Jacques (suede) + China Glaze Hi-Tek

At work, we had our end of year formal event recently. I wore a blurple dress and pearls and had earlier consulted with Jme on what polish to go with (as this is extremely SRS BSNS, of course). We brainstormed a crazy concoction of deep purple (Glossyblossom Bright Galaxy), with a pastel holo glitter topcoat (Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Disco Ball), then a champagne Konad over the whole lot.

Well.

I then proceeded to fall sick in the two days leading up to the event and was rather NOT up for experimenting too much so I ended up doing my mani in the afternoon just before the dinner event. Lacking brain power, I went with a colour scheme I'd used before. Check it!

[Base: OPI You Don't Know Jacques (suede). Stamping: China Glaze Hi-Tek]

[Base: OPI You Don't Know Jacques (suede). Stamping: China Glaze Hi-Tek]

The base was 2 coats of OPI You Don't Know Jacques (brown suede), then topcoat followed by stamping with China Glaze Hi-Tek (pale bronze chrome). I again top-coated everything, then decided to add a bit more bling....

[Base: OPI You Don't Know Jacques (suede). Stamping: China Glaze Hi-Tek. Blue 1.5mm Rhinestones.]

[Base: OPI You Don't Know Jacques (suede). Stamping: China Glaze Hi-Tek. Blue 1.5mm Rhinestones.]

Overall I was quite pleased with it, if a little unsure after adding the blue rhinestones. I did want to go with the theme colours of my outfit (blue/purple, brown, champagne and pearls) without being too matchy-matchy so I guess it worked out!

The Dupe Test - Zoya Charla vs NYX Advanced Salon Formula Be Jeweled

Exactly as it says on the cover: This post will be to find out if NYX Advanced Salon Formula Be Jeweled is a dupe for Zoya Charla.

As always, you can click on the photos for larger views of them. I did not use a topcoat for these swatches.


[In the bottle: NYX Be Jeweled and Zoya Charla]

They are both blue-green jelly-ish bases with a lot of gold and blue-green microglitters. They have a duochrome look, changing from blue to green-gold depending on the angle. In their bottles, they look very similar (and so very pretty!). However, you can also see that NYX's Be Jeweled looks a touch lighter and greener. It doesn't show up as well in photos, but Zoya Charla looks shinier in the bottle.



[One coat: NYX on index and ring finger, Zoya on middle and pinky]

I'm applying thinner coats than I usually do for the sake of comparison. From this first coat, it's obvious that Charla has a darker base. Charla also applies smoother while Be Jeweled's microglitters are just a little chunkier.


[Two coats: NYX on index and ring finger, Zoya on middle and pinky]

At two coats, Charla is very close to completely opaque and it has denser microglitters, while Be Jeweled is still a little jelly-ish. I wondered at this point if the colour difference was due to opacity, so I went for a third coat of Be Jeweled.


[Three coats of NYX: NYX on index and ring finger, Zoya on middle and pinky]

Now we have reached nearly complete opacity! Be Jeweled has three coats here, while Charla is still on two coats. While Be Jeweled's formula is thicker, Charla's darker colour and denser microglitters mean that Charla requires less coats for the same opacity. Both polishes are similarly shiny in terms of glitter, and in colour, they are very close as well.

I think you can clearly see the difference through the photos, and if I told someone I had different polishes on, I think they'll be able to pick out which is which. But it's actually a lot less obvious at a glance.


[Different angle: NYX on index and ring finger, Zoya on middle and pinky]



[Under direct indoor light: NYX on index and ring finger, Zoya on middle and pinky]

Both polishes are remarkably shiny under indoor halogen light or under direct sunlight. Very distracting, and very, very pretty! The colour is not very accurate here though.  





[Low indirect sunlight: NYX on index and ring finger, Zoya on middle and pinky]

You can see that when the nails aren't directly side by side, it's actually quite hard to distinguish between the two different polishes.



[Colour corrected: NYX on index and ring finger, Zoya on middle and pinky]

I have colour corrected this picture because I feel that my camera captures the polishes as bluer than they really are, and misses out on the blue-green tone.
And so, what's the verdict?

Drumroooooolllll...

I have to conclude that Be Jeweled is not an exact dupe, but it is very close. Be Jeweled's base is just a little greener and lighter, and there are more gold microglitters while Charla has a different distribution of gold and blue microglitter. 

While Be Jeweled is not in any way gritty, it can be further smoothened out with a topcoat. I do like Charla's application over Be Jeweled, but in general, I tend to be fond of Zoya's formula.

If all you're after is the blue-green duochrome with gold glass flecks look, then NYX's Be Jeweled will serve the purpose just as well as Zoya's Charla.

In terms of price, you can get NYX Be Jeweled online for about USD4 with ~USD2 shipping, but if you wait for discounts, it gets even cheaper. Zoya Charla can be bought from Ebay for about ~USD6.50, with up to USD6 shipping, depending on where you live.

I would pick Zoya Charla over NYX Be Jeweled if I had both at hand, because Zoya Charla has an edge in terms of smoother application and denser microglitter. But Zoya Charla is harder to get your hands on because the major online distributors don't stock the brand, and I have seen official sellers in Australia sell it for up to $16. 

Cherry Culture often has discounts on their online store and they stock NYX as well as other pretty polishes, if you're interested.

Alright, one last picture before I go. This is for those who wonder about the differences in colour between NYX Be Jeweled and NYX Enchanted Forest

[NYX Enchanted Forest on index and middle finger, NYX Be Jeweled on ring pinky]

When they're side by side, you can definitely see that Be Jeweled is a teal-ish polish with a gold gleam while Enchanted Forest is a greener polish with a green-gold shine.