Wet Raindrop Mani on China Glaze Duochromes

Hello lovelies! So I've been seeing this raindrop effect thing around a lot lately, and I really wanted to try it! I don't really have any multichromes, so I'm using two China Glaze duochromes for this! Didn't turn out as impressive as I'd hoped, but I'm definitely going to try these with a black base some time~

So first, I applied two coats of China Glaze Unpredictable on my index and pinkie finger. It's a beautiful green with a blue duochrome. I used China Glaze Rare & Radiant, an old gold/green duochrome for my middle and ring finger. These are pretty thin, and I think I could've benefited from 3 coats. Shown below is two.

Beautiful shift on these, right?!? This somehow reminds me of dinosaurs and lizards hahaha. But anyway, I then went on to add a matte topcoat. I used Essie Matte About You.

Diggin the matte finish!!

Spectacular. Now for the last part, I just dropped on a few blobs of glossy top coat on each nail, and here's how it turned out!

The change in finish is very pretty, but not that noticeable unless you look up close. But nonetheless, I really enjoyed creating this, and it will definitely be something I want to try in the future as well!

What do you guys think about this "wet" look? Thank you for reading!

-Christine

My Top 5 Polishes of 2012, Lots of Pics :3

Hi everyone!! I hope you all had a wonderful, amazing, fantastic, and polish-filled holiday season! Because I sure did hahaha, I ended up with a LOT more polish than I expected :P Anyway, I haven't talked to you guys in so long, missed you guys! :3

Anyway:
Happy New Year! :-***

Honestly, you guys mean sooo much to me, like a friend who will always listen to my rambling and accept my "freak" habit of collecting nail polishes. Hahaha, so the real topic today is to show you my favorites from 2012! I was originally going to pick out 12, but I realized too many of them were unswatched and I honestly don't have that much time to swatch them so I narrowed down to 5! Hope you enjoy (:

#1 Polish of 2012: Lavender Fizz by Milani

This polish is the SPARKLIEST polish I own, REALLY! Like every time I do something, my nails always catch my eye first hahaha, love purple, love glitter, purple+glitter= #1!

#2 Polish of 2012: Flirty Tankini by China Glaze

Beaaaauuutiful neon coral shade from the China Glaze neon summer collection, it's really flattering on my skin tone. Most pinks are extreeeemely ugly on me... I guess my skintone just doesn't work well with pinks! But the orange coral touch in this polish really matches my warmer skintone YAY (: The shimmer in it is sooo gorgeous and makes it very wearable, unlike flat neons! I wore this on my toes TWICE. Seriously, it has to be one kick-ass polish if I wear it TWICE.

#3 Polish of 2012: Sugar Coat by Wet n Wild Megalast

I have to apologize... I don't have a color accurate picture for this polish and its beauty. I have a post about it here, and even made a nail art design here.

 This is just a really light soft lavender based baby pink. Perfect palette cleanser for me! Gives me an effortless yet very polished look, really love this!

#4 Polish of 2012: Cinderella by Sinful Colors

This is the base color that I used for like... 50% of my nail art? Hahaha and my bottle's half gone, so that's how much I love it! I have a full review of it (from my earlier days, so pics aren't watermarked, oops!) here, and I even did a VERY EMBARASSING gradient of it here... pains me to even mention it hahaha :P

#5 Polish of 2012: Rare and Radiant by China Glaze (and all the other Chanel Peridot dupes)

This was actually really hard, as you all know, I picked up two colors from the Bohemian collection, and I really love both of them! Hard to choose because they're both amazing colors, but golds tend to be a bit more flattering on me, so I chose this one. Application, finish, duochrome, this polish is GORGEOUS!

Okay, that concludes my favorites of the year! I hope you all had an amazing New Year's Eve, and best wishes to all of us in the coming year! I love you alllll :-***

OPI DS Polishes, Swatches and Review; Giveaway Prize from Jenni (:

Hi everyone! Sorry for the lack of posts, I was away for Thanksgiving (: How were your Thanksgivings? I actually didn't have a turkey this year hahaha, bizarre!
Anyway, I recently received my giveaway prizes from Jenni (: Thanks Jenni, I'm such a luck gal :D
So, I have two OPI polishes from the DS series to show you! And I'm going to apologize beforehand if some pics aren't the best quality, somehow, my camera doesn't like to pick up the blue-purple duochrome, so I had to use my phone ):



Look at the cute packaging it came in and how nicely its wrapped! :D

2 coats of OPI DS Magic

This is a little bit streaky on the first coat, but it evens out perfectly by the second.

 

I love the rich blue and the flecks of shimmer that changes from blue to purple!

 

This is a little bit closer to the true color, it's definitely not as dark as the previous pictures. Love it :3

 This polish's formula was quite a breeze to work with, its definitely thin but not runny, so it doesn't pool and also has smooth application. The base is such a rich royal blue, it makes me feel so sophisticated when I wear it hahaha. Because of its blue-purple duochrome though, I wanted to pull out some of the similar blue-purple shifting colors to compare:

Index: Color Club Sky High Middle: Sally Hansen HD DVD layerd over black creme Ring: OPI DS Magic Pinky: Sally Hansen HD DVD

 So as you can see, no dupes! I like the look of Sally Hansen HD DVD on top of black, but I really like the royal blue base of OPI DS Magic :P

Okay, next! OPI DS Opulence, a beautiful muted dusty rose holo! :D

One easy coat, very opaque!

Two coats + flash to see holo :3

This is more of what the color looks like most of the time; it's not as pink as it looks above in the flash pics. Hence, I call this my "crazy nude" hahahha.

 To be honest, I thought that I would like DS Magic more than DS Opulence because you know me, I like my brights and funky's! But maaan, the intricate and subtle holo of Opulence is realllyyyyy gorgeous and I do have to say I like it better! The application on Opulence was also more smooth and opaque.

All in all, I'm in loooove with these two shades, and I've worn Opulence for a week already haha. Thank you so much to Jenni! And thanks to you guys for reading and following! I'm at 60 friends already! So excited, you guys are the best (:

Color Club Take Wing: Sky High

Hi my sweethearts! Long time no see! School started, and it has kept me very busy... sigh...
But anyway, here I have a swatch of Sky High for you, from Color Club's Take Wing collection. It's a beautiful teal based blue that has gorgeous purple shimmer with almost a glassfleck finish. I also got two others from this collection and I'll swatch it next time :3
This polish was a PAIN to photograph! The purple and teal shimmers just don't wanna show up ): stupid camera... I blame you dslr!!!

I believe this is one thick coat. If you do a thin coat, it can be quite sheer, but one generous coat is fine.

One Coat

Can you see the purple? I tried really hard, but my camera just doesnt like purple I guess... But it is quite visible in real life.

Here's a better look at the teal base, it's really shiny under direct light! Glassflecks are always gorgeous under the sun to :3

Here's a better look at the purple duochrome-ish shimmer! It does show up quite nicely on the nail, along with some subtle teal/green shimmer too.

 Great color, but doesn't suit my skin tone. A bit too... blue. Hahaha, too bright, I could see this working for darker skintones or a cooler skintone! Still, doesn't change the fact that I love this color :3 Formula was great, dries faily quickly, and goes on super smoothly! If you want thin even coats, I would suggest 3, but 2 really is good enough.
Hehehe, that's it for today! Until next time :3

China Glaze Bohemian Lustre Chrome: Rare and Radiant, Unpredictable

Hi my lovelies! I have two swatches for you guys today of the new China Glaze chromes! Rare and Radiant, the famous Chanel Peridot dupe, and Unpredictable. Sorry about my cuticles... They dont look that bad in real life, these macro shots just make everything 100x worse hahaha. This post is very picture-heavy... so if it's a little slow when loading..... then... yea. All the swatches are without topcoat, to show you the finish.

1 coat of Rare and Radiant

2 coats

Rare and Radiant is definitely NOT a sheer polish! As you can see, one coat is already very opaque. It is an antique dusty gold color that shifts to a dark green, and at extreme angles, a dark blue.The formula is AMAZING, dries faily quickly and the consistency is soooo dreamy! I dont have the Chanel to compare, but I'm just going to say, get this if all the other nail bloggers haven't convinced you already! The duochrome isn't as strong as in the bottle, but it's still really pretty! It SPARKLES LIKE CRAZY under direct sunlight!

Bottle shot of Rare and Radiant

Next up is Unpredictable, a medium teal color that shifts to a blurple, blue purple hahah:

1 coat of Unpredictable

2 coats

A better look at the gorgeous duochrome!

I definitely feel that Unpredictable is slightly more sheer than Rare and Radiant, it cannot stand as a one-coater. That might be the reason I like Rare and Radiant more... or maybe because it's a dupe for Peridot, hahah. The formula on this is perfect as well. With these chromes, the brushstrokes are almost nonexistant after these dry, LOVE!

 

Look at that duochrome! At extreme angles, Rare and Radiant kind of looks like Unpredictable huh!

 

So I got bored... and stamped a design from BM20 with Sinful Colors Black on Black. One coat of topcoat.

So what do you guys think? Did you all buy these already? :P