I Found ILNP In Singapore!

Yup! I found ILNP in Singapore! You can buy them at Robinson's in Plaza Singapura!

Swatches & Recommendation: ILNP's Ultra Chrome Flakies (5 colours)

Last year, I pre-ordered ILNP's Ultra Chrome Flakies and holy crap guys. They're GORGEOUS!

2 coats over a black base.

Customer Service Review

ILNP is one of those companies that have a lot of my respect. Earlier this year, several indie companies were hit by cases of credit card information theft. ILNP didn't sweep it under the rug and quickly kept their customers updated with how they were resolving the issue. You can read the email they sent out here. 

I pre-ordered so I can't really comment on the TAT, but the wait time isn't that bad for the pre-order!

Pre-Order Date: Nov 14

Ship Date: Dec 6

Full disclosure, I'm used to waiting 1+ months for my stuff to arrive in Indonesia, so I've learnt to be very, very patient. 

Anyway, let's get on to more swatches:

Supernova sponged on to create a textured effect.

2 coats of Luna over Zoya's Zuza, under Pretty & Polished's Matte is Back mattifying top coat 

Close up...it looks a bit weird matte

2 coats of Luna over Cult Nails' Feel Me Up

Close up...wow...

2 coats of Brilliance over Nails Inc's Royal Botanical Gardens

Another angle to show the shift 

December 2014 Nail Polish Round Up!

Here's my 2nd nail polish round up!

Cult Nails: Tulum, Power Thief

Gradient: Cult Nails' Tulum & Power Thief
Stamping polish: DIY stamping polish. Tutorial on making it here.

Nails Inc: Kensington Palace Gardens, Dolly's: Queen Agnes, & Cult Nails: Two Timer

This was actually a failed attempt at stamping. Luckily, strategic placement of the glitter from Queen Agnes hid the botched up parts. Two Timer is an effect top coat that's supposed to give an emerald shimmer to your nail polish.

Base: Nails Inc's Kensington Palace Gardens
Glitter Topper: Dolly's Queen Agnes
Effect Top Coat: Cult Nails' Two Timer
Stamping polish: DIY stamping polish. Tutorial on making it here.

Another angel to show the shift in Two Timer

Pretty & Polished: Mintable

I was having bad luck with getting really bad formula jellies from indies after getting really gloopy jelly polishes from Rainbow Honey & Doctor Lacquer, but Pretty & Polished and Cult Nails totally restored my faith in indie jellies. Check out how pretty this jelly polish is! It has a pretty strong blue shift! AND the formula goes on smoothly, without any gloopy-ness.

This was my first attempt at stamping under a jelly polish, and as you can see, I picked the wrong design and nail polish. The glitter just hides the design.

But no worries...I got better in the next one!

Cult Nails: Disciplined & Black Sheep Lacquer: Surf's Up

I am so in LOVE with Cult Nails' Disciplined. Disciplined is just so, so, so perfect for this winter mani. You can perfectly layer the stamps to create a layered snowflake effect. I'm so in love with it! And of course, the formula is amazing. I've raved about them before, and I'll rave about them again. They take much longer to chip than my usual nail polishes and the polishes are so smooth and non-gloopy. 

If you want $12 off purchases of $24+, here's my referral link: http://r.sloyalty.com/r/tED8MGb2tx3g

Full disclosure, I get a $5, so if you're not comfortable with that, no need to use it. 

 

Blue jelly: Cult Nails' Disciplined
White Glitter Polish: Black Sheep Lacquer's Surf's Up

Close up of the layering

Pretty & Polished: Cuttlefish

Cuttlefish is supposed to be a colour shifting polish, where the base goes from white to blue. My idea for this is to get the tips of my nail to go white, so it looks like the cat's playing in snow. Unfortunately, the colour-shift no longer works after over 6 months. I tried dipping in hot water and ice water, but no change. :(

Pretty & Polished's Cuttlefish

Rainbow Honey: Leonids, Diamond Dust

Ring Finger: Rainbow Honey's Leonids
Other Fingers: Rainbow Honey's Diamond Dust
Stamping & drawing polish: DIY stamping polish. Tutorial on making it here.

Appliq Nail Wrap

I was really excited at the idea of customizing my own nail wraps, unfotunately, Appliq's printers are not that great at capturing small details. They start getting fuzzy. Also remember not to put top coat over the wraps, they start cracking that way.

For reference, this was the photo I tried to print:

Nail Wrap from Aliexpress

Guys, I am DONE with buying nail wraps from Aliexpress. I've bought from 4 different sellers and got scammed by all 4. Do NOT trust that site for nail wraps. They all claim to be water transfer stickers, but they're actually like those wraps that need heat to melt on your nails. And the heat required is way too hot for my fingers. They also don't stick that well (some can't even stick at all), so you can see the "chips" even though this manicure is brand new. I tried to file a dispute because this is clearly a scam, but the site automatically rejected my claim with no explanation.

Beauty Trick: Turning Regular Polishes Into Stamping Polishes

So these two are from the same nail polish!

As you can see, the one at the bottom is pretty faded and the lines aren't that defined compared to the one on top.

The nail polish I used is OPI's Merryberry Mauve, and it's not really meant for stamping. With a bit of indie eyeshadow though, it's perfect.

The plate is EDM05, which I got from Femme Fatale

First, I took out a bit of Daisy Bird Cosmetics' Hello Hyacinth:

Add the nail polish:

I usually just eyeball it...about 1:2 eyeshadow to nail polish ratio's usually pretty good, but it depends on how sheer your nail polish starts out as.

Now just mix both of them. The right consistency should be a really thick nail polish - slight resistance but not gloopy. Once it's gloopy, it's too thick and won't stamp, so just add in more polish.

I put in too much eyeshadow so there were a lot left that I didn't mix in.

Once you get the right consistency, taa-daaah! You have a stamping polish!

Sometimes, you can even do this to change to colour of your stamping nail polish. Here's more I did (left is the original nail polish, right is the altered colour):

The plate is by Pueen

Nail Polish Round Up!

So here are the nail looks I've done in the last month. I think I should make this a regular thing....

Cult Nails: Feedback, Power Thief & Wax That

Shimmery Brown: Power Thief
Gold Glitter Topper: Feedback
Waxy Effect Top Coat: Wax That

The ring finger didn't go as I intended and ended up looking more like roadkill. At least the thumb looked nice!

To get this look: First, I cut the feather into the length I want -make sure it has that stick (? no idea what it's called) bit in the middle to hold it together. Then I put a thick layer of top coat over my nail polish once it dried, and squashed the feather into it while it's still wet. Using a pair of cuticle scissors, I trimmed the edges of the feather that's sticking out of my nail bed. Apply the wax-effect top coat over it for the thumb, leave it at roadkill state for the ring finger.

Serum No 5: Mint To Be

This colour's very sheer and took me 5-6 coats to achieve this opacity. Mini rant, I was really surprised my nail polished look so different from the site swatches. Another redditor helped me take a look and figured out the mystery for me. The site swatch was over an opaque white polish. So if you're getting this colour, use an opaque white nail polish underneath.

The lace part is a water-transfer decal.

Dolly's: Laternelaufen & Sally Hansen: Black Out

Glow-in-the-dark polish: Dolly's Lanternelaufen
Stamping polish: Sally Hansen's Black Out

I love glow-in-the-dark polishes! This was charged under an UV light to get the glow this bright. It used to get this bright even when charged only with the light in my office & room, but after about 3 months, the glow effect got weaker. I have this same problem with glow-in-the-dark polishes from 2 other brands though, so I'm assuming it's a glow-in-the-dark polish thing.

Mystery Manicure from Princess Nail (sic) in Pacific Place

I didn't get the name of it but the artwork's so pretty! It chips fast though.

Indigo Bananas: Patterns Everywhere & Sally Hansen: Black Diamond

Glitter polish: Indigo Banana's Patterns Everywhere
Black stripes: Sally Hansen's Black Diamond

Patterns Everywhere is this gorgeous glitter topper with glitter that shifts from green to purple! i tried capturing the shift in these next few photos, but I can't capture how gorgeous it is IRL:

To get this look, I just cut regular tape into thin strips, placed them where I don't want any black polish, painted over them, then removed the tape. 

Subscription Box: Pretty & Polished October 2014 Beauty Box

I finally got my Pretty & Polished October box last Saturday, on the 18th of October. As always, the packaging's cute:

My favourite from this batch is Of Fire and Ice. It's a sheer black glitter polish and obviously, I had to do this glitter gradient look because it's so perfect for it!

Of Fire and Ice

Here's swatches for the other colours:

From left to right: Rake A Little Piece of My Heart, Bonfire Bliss, Autumn Enchantress

Autumn Enchantress and Bonfire Bliss are both glitter toppers and Rake A Little Piece of My Heart is a glitter pale peach crelly.

Subscription Box: Pretty & Polished September 2014 Beauty Box

So here's the September box! I've given up getting my stuff in the first half of the month :(

The bubble bath bar smells awesome but I haven't had the time to use it yet

For some reason, this month's polishes seem thinner than usual. I actually had to use 3-4 coats to achieve this opacity. Sinner's Circle needed 5 coats.

My crappy attempt at nail art with Carrigan over Hullabaloo

Sinner's Circle on ring finger, Pretty Little Thing on the rest

Review & Recommendation: Dolly's Polishes

I answered Ajevie's call for swatchers for her new Dolly's Polishes and she sent me 4 minis!

First of all, check out how they were packaged..the little touches makes such a difference:

The little details are awesome!

The colours I got are:

• The Ghost Ship (glow-in-the-dark): A light blue Glow-in-the-Dark (can be 'charged' under natural or artificial light) cream packed with tiny black and white specks and a scattering of skulls with crossbones.

• Laternelaufen (Glow-in-the-Dark): A yellow Glow-in-the-Dark (can be 'charged' under natural or artificial light) cream speckled with multicolored hexes.

• Queen Agnes: A clear topper packed with shiny copper hexes and 'patina accents' of aqua circles.

• Sugar Skull: A white polish packedwith glitter and has a subtle textured finish

I have to say, I love these polishes. They last me as long as my good mainstream polishes. Queen Agnes is my favourite nail polish out of the 4. Glitter polishes are often bumpy without a top coat, but this is ok on its own. It's like Cult Nails' glitter polishes, where they dry into a smooth finish.

They also dry in about 2 minutes (I timed it..longest was 2 min 19 seconds), so it's great for busy people.

I'm also now a fan of glow-in-the-dark polishes thanks to Dolly's. I've only tried 2 other glow-in-the-dark nail polishes (one indie, one mainstream) and they don't work as well as these. I've actually given up on glow-in-the-dark nail polishes and decided that they only get charged under UV lamps, but these converted me. They get charged even using artificial light! I got so excited! Also, the glow-in-the-dark polish has this awesome, sandy matte texture that I love, so I didn't use a top coat for these swatches.

I did find the formula of Sugar Skull slightly hard to work with, but I think it's more of a white nail polish thing.

So here are the swatches:

Laternelaufen on ring finger and The Ghost Ship on the rest

The Ghost Ship actually comes with skull glitters, but I couldn't get them out. Angi mentioned she'll be including rollerballs, so this may be fixed.

Skull glitter!

Queen Agnes on ring finger & Sugar Skulls on the rest. Queen Agnes is on its own, but I layered Cult Nails' Wax That top coat over Sugar Skulls for that waxy effect.

Review & Recomendation: Femme Fatale Nail Polishes

So Femme Fatale has always been a company I'm in love with customer service-wise. They ship so fast, and Sophie's so sweet. Here's what I posted before on reddit:

I've ordered from Femme Fatale 3x now and omg, they're amazing. The first 2 times I ordered, everything shipped in less than 2 days and I got my stuff in less than a week (I'm close to Australia! Woot!). My mind's blown. That's already great but here's the rave worthy part.
I went to Australia and was staying about 1 1/2h away from Brisbane where Femme Fatale's located. I was going to go to Brisbane on Friday, a day before I fly out of the country. I figured I might as well order something and pick it up in person to save on shipping.Sophie was so incredibly nice and helpful when it came to coordinating the pick up. I even had an extra order to toss in last minute (less than 2 days before the pick up date) and she managed to get that in.
I didn't know how long it would take to drive from Hope Island to Brisbane, and I was with my family and friends who are all flaky and take forever to get ready, so I couldn't even give her a solid arrival time. I could only tell her I would be there around 12pm-1pm. She was ok with that and actually had someone wait for me for a full hour to hand me over my order!Oh and it gets even more amazing. I finally read the FAQs in the website and realized that their pick up times are only on Saturday. Crap. So she actually had to make special arrangements for me.I feel so bad and I'm so grateful for all that.
Sophie, you and the Femme Fatale team are amazing. I love you guys!

So yes, they're awesome CS-wise..but do you know they make AWESOME nail polishes too? They're on par with Cult Nails, and that'a huge compliment for me to give. My nail polishes usually chip within 2-3 days, but with Femme Fatale, they take 4-5 days to chip! It's a huge difference!

AND their thermals are so sensitive and change easily. I'm so happy!

I bought all the nail polishes below, except for Nightsong Grotto, which was a mini bottle free sample (I er..spent a lot..).

So here are swatches of their awesome colours:

Ring Finger: Nightsong Grotto
Rest: Gossamer Dust, a thermal polish that changes from yellow (warm) to orange (cool). It's this orange coming out of my cold, air-conditioned room in the morning! The middle finger turned yellow simply after I held it in my palms for about 10 seconds! I love how sensitive it is! MAGIC.

Left: Cold water
Right: Normal temperature (+ a bit of cheating by sticking my fingers under my armpits to warm them up faster)

Cloudburst

Midsummer Petals with Cult Nail's Tullum

Ring Finger: Midsummer Petals over Twilight Sorcery
Rest: Deepsea Charm

Ring Finger: Midsummer Petals over Deepsea Charm
Rest: Twilight Sorcery