Every Cloud has its Silver Lining
As the weekend dawned to an end, I couldn’t help but feel my spirits momentarily dampen. Yet another week would begin, yet another week would fly by. It seems that ever since I’ve immersed myself in working life, I’ve lost hold of time – and whilst I can recall & pin down specific happy or memorable events to each of my schooling years, I certainly can’t say the same for the past year that I’ve worked. *sigh*
But every cloud has its silver lining & I’ll be looking at this as building up my work experience, so that I can put it in my resume & BAM! awesome job. hahaha. Honestly, I’m the practical sort who doesn’t believe that i MUST find that dream job out there for me. To me, the perfect life is being able to have and nurture a wonderful family, so I’m looking forward to fulfilling that in a couple of years’ time! (:
til then, here’s some pretty nails to keep me uplifted for the rest of the week!
Using China Glaze no. 652 in Recycle (2 coats) with a top coat of The Faceshop WH003 (1 coat), it matches my mood and our recent weather perfectly. I wish it’ll stop being so gloomy and dark all the time, I do miss the sun!
Here’s what I’ll be thinking of when I pick out what to wear this week:
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DIY mani: Turqoise Gradient
There are so many gradient DIY tutorials on the web, but given my extensive polish collection, I’ve always found that layering different polishes is often the best (and easiest) method.
Sorry for the grainy pics – I’m too reliant on the iphone haha. In any case, arranged in the order I used them, here are the polishes I used for this gradient manicure
- Sally Hansen’s Continuous Treatment Base & Top Coat
- The FaceShop Nail Colour in WH003
- Elianto nail colour in 27 Turqoise
- China Glaze’s Four Leaf Clover
- Missha in BL201
To achieve this manicure, you don’t have to use the exact polishes I used. All you have to do is
- pay attention to how dark the colours are
- make sure that polishes 3 & 4 are semi-opaque in 1 coat and;
- polish 5 is translucent
After using polishes no. 1 & 2 all over the nails, I used polish no. 3 to paint the bottom half my nail, then painted polish no. 4 over the bottom half of the portion with polish 3.
At this point, it’s not gonna look pretty – but you need to ensure that these two polishes are semi opaque, so that they won’t disappear over the last coat. One trick to doing this is to make the edges messy instead of super straight, so that the gradient will be more gradual and seem more “natural”.
then, use polish 5 all over the nail – this is why it’s important that it’s a translucent polish, so that the colours can be seen!
tada! super pretty gradient nails (: I used two coats of polish 5.
Last but not least, layer over with polish 1 again.
Have a great weekend ahead, everyone!
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Foil Wonder
It’s been a gloomy week with overcast skies and the monday blues.. so I thought I’d chase them away with really bright, shiny nails :)
Isn’t it such a gorgeously beautiful colour? Unlike some polishes that appear lighter in the bottle and darker on the nails, the Faceshop’s FACEit polish in GL111 comes off perfectly on the nails as it does in the bottle. I couldn’t stop staring at my nails… then I decided that *omg* if I wear this shade to work it’ll blind people when I wave or gesture. HAHA!
So I decided to do some dark tips, somewhat inspired by Madonna’s gladiator get-up during the Superbowl. It was really easy to execute, using this technique – and voila! In less than half an hour, my tips were done
This was just such a great mood uplifter. I couldn’t stop glancing at my nails every now and then :)
Satisfaction + Pride + Perfection = Happiness.
Here’s a quick rundown of the polish:
- Colour: Gold Foil
- Opacity: Achieved in two coats. Attempted layering this over another polish, it pretty much obscured the other colour almost entirely in one coat, but on a bare nail, two coats are definitely required for complete coverage.
- Dries: medium fast. vulnerable to scratches in the first 3 minutes
- Imperfections: very easily covered up! some of the gold foil polish got chipped in the middle of the nail and I just painted over that patch, TOTAL INVISIBLE COVERUP. Awesome for clumsy fools like me! :)
Overall, I’m pretty pleased with the polish, can’t wait to experiment with other polishes, though the formulae is slightly too runny to use as nail art, but we’ll work around that when inspiration comes along..!
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Nail Mania II: Faceshop & OPI
Continuing from where I left off previously on my sleepover nail fest with Rachel, here’s what I painted on my right hand – alternating shimmery pinks from OPI and The Faceshop :)
This pink PP407 by Faceshop was soo pretty! Pink with silver medium sized shimmer. Compared to the OPI of course, it definitely paled in terms of quality. Post-painting, the surface of this polish felt rather rough and coarse, I definitely had to use a top coat on this one. Comparatively, the OPI was smooth to the touch.
As part of the Serena Williams Grand Slam OPI Collection, Rally Pretty Pink (don’t you just love those witty OPI names?) is more of a gold, with a pink undertone. It wasn’t exactly my favourite when I put it on as I tend to lean towards silvers and greys far more, but it definitely grew on me because I loved the depth and how unique the colour was. Still not my favourite though, I do prefer the Faceshop colour over this one.
The OPI Grand Slam France Collection – credits to addictedtoallthingspretty
& here’s my outfit inspiration!
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Getting Dirty
Sometimes when I go through my polish collection, I’m reminded of certain things – and this polish certainly reminded me of Christina Aguilera in her Dirrty days. Gritty, dark with a flash of shimmer, my boyfriend described it as a “dirty gold”, but on closer inspection, it’s a dark grey-green with gold shimmer.
It’s not a colour I’d ordinarily wear, but I’m really loving it. It was a breeze to put on and I’m hoping that given its relatively pricer tag, it should last longer than the other Faceshop polishes I purchased.
Faceshop’s Faceit polish in GR502
Colour: Dark murky green with gold shimmer
Opacity: in 2 coats
Dries: medium speed
Imperfections: sets well and “levels out”, however scratches easily whilst medium-dry
At $7.90, it doesn’t cost a bomb but I still wish that The Faceshop could come up with cooler names for its polish. The range is named Faceit and I’m unsure whether this means the dawn of a new era for Faceshop polishes, to be classified under a singular name. Regardless, the formulae was wonderful and the colour payoff was great. I’m a happy, happy girl.
Granted, it’s a pretty hard colour to match so I decided to go with the vibe of the polish instead, which in this case meant a touch of bling and textured pieces matched with simple basics. I do tend to favour detailed tops, but if you’re so inclined to, go for detailed bottom pieces instead. I’m really in love with the green necklace at the right hand corner. It’s large enough to be classified as a statement piece, but not too loud and the simple yet aesthetically pleasing design makes it a gorgeous piece that is possibly work appropriate, depending on one’s office of course.
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Navy Blue
recently, I’ve really fallen in love with Navy Blue. Unlike the usual monochromes, it’s a great colour to wear to the office, plus it’s flattering on the asian skin tone too!
With dark colours like Navy, I tend to think that details aren’t too important. Instead, it’s more about the silhouette, the texture, the flow of it – how it moves when you walk or how it contours to your body shape, which is probably why I love online shops like ASOS.com because they allow you to see the clothes “in motion” with their catwalk feature.
Already, about 1/5th of my working wardrobe consists of Navy Blue (then again I only have about 2 week’s worth of working clothes… after that I rotate/mix&match), and apart from the usual beige, whites, greys and blacks, I find it quite a refreshing change, though some might beg to differ. Needless to say, to match my Navy Blue obsession, I found just the perfect nail polish to go along with it: The Faceshop’s deep blue multi-shimmer from its $4.90 range, BL601
It’s a really pretty navy blue that is a deep blue but not black enough to ever be mistaken for black – which I love! It’s my pet peeve when polishes look like a deep ____ colour but turn out practically black in real life. Those are major disappointments. I’m guessing though, that the reason why this deep navy turned out so pretty is because of the lighter blue shimmer in it. They’re extremely fine microshimmer and what I love most is the presence of pink shimmers along with the blue, though I’d estimate that the blue shimmers outnumber the pinks about 100 to 1, allowing the polish to keep its dominantly blue colour.
With the shimmers, the polish literally transforms under sunlight to become a pretty medium blue – but in more muted office/indoor lighting, it appears as a very dark navy blue.
Here’s my run-down of Faceshop BL601
Colour: Deep Blue with blue microshimmer with hints of pink
Opacity: in 2-3 coats
Dries: medium speed – layer slowly and thinly, or bubbles will form
Imperfections: scratches easily seen within the first hour if NO TOPCOAT is applied. with topcoat, it’s perfectly fine.
Overall, I’m pretty pleased with my purchase for the fabulous colour. Unlike the $2.90 range that wears off in … 1 day (ARGH!) the $4.90 range seems slightly more durable. It lasted me for 4 days with no chipping, 1 layer of topcoat :) I’ll try with 2 layers of topcoat next time, though my bottle of topcoat is running out fast :(
It’s the middle of the week and Friday is a public holiday, so have a great week ahead everyone!! :D
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Silver White
I’ve been searching really hard for the “perfect” white polish lately, and i’ve tried matte white, jelly white … then I chanced upon a silver white in The Faceshop and fell in love. Though I’m by no means a stranger to polish from The Faceshop, I generally don’t buy it because
- There’s no “database” or swatches of polishes from Asian brands online
- My previous buys from The Faceshop = sticky/clumpy or wear off too easily despite the beautiful colour
- OPI & China Glaze have really successful marketing plans that capture my heart and mind
- My bf hates their storefront (feminine looking dudes advertising for female products)
Haha. That said, at $2.90 for the cheapest bottles of polish (they have 3 ranges, $2.90, $4.90 and $7.90), its really very affordable and some colours are really gorgeous. Honestly, because of the wear & tear I’ve experienced with previous polishes from The Faceshop, I was hesitant about blogging about it, but after 4 days with the polish on my nails, I’m surprised that there’s hardly any chipping! Moreover, the formula was a joy to use – which makes me think that it might be a strong competitor to brands such as OPI and China Glaze in my collection soon :)
Colour is true to picture on the left
Certainly, with a pretty electric pink camera, problems with the reflection of its colour onto the subject of my photographs tend to be an irritating problem. That said, it’s a very shimmery, pretty white, with lots of “bling” power. Even in a low light setting (right), you can see how the shimmer still catches the light and closely resembles a pearl white.
Out of all the whites in my collection, I’d have to say that this is my favourite! I’ll definitely be wearing it really often :)
Here’s the run-down:
The Faceshop WH003
Colour: shimmery pearl white – sheer in 1 coat, translucent in 2 coats (preferred mode of wearing, as shown in pic), opaque in 4 coats.
Opacity: As above.
Dries: at a medium speed.
Imperfections: none – the shimmer makes it impossible to see imperfections, even bubbling isn’t a visible problem (though you can feel it)
That said, do note that I used 2 layers of KISS topcoat (you should be able to use any other brand except sucky Silky Girl), which might be the reason why it’s lasting so long and so beautifully on my fingers. I really like how it flatters my skin tone, and is shimmery without being to “loud” for the office. In natural light it looks very close to one’s skin colour, especially if worn translucent, which is really quite pretty, like a nude with a kick.
White is naturally a very easy colour to match – and the shimmer of this polish gives it an extra edge that would be perfect to match with very stern, structured black clothing. However, due to its pearlish translucency, I didn’t feel out of place whilst pairing it with nude, more loose fitted clothing. It lacks a loudness that other glitter polishes seem to have, making it more wearable and easier to wear to the office.
More Faceshop polish reviews coming up soon! :)
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Faceshop Polish
I’m not entirely a fan of Faceshop nail polish, and have only 2 of them in my stash when they were on offer 1-2 years back. Though the colour looks great, it’s a very weak polish and shows up any scratches etc very easily, which I dislike. Even the casual flick of my hair against my nails will show up as multiple streaks.
FACESHOP Nail Colour BL604
Colour: Dark Navy Blue
Opacity: Opaque in 2 coats
Dries: quite slowly
Imperfections: occur easily, scratches show easily, but covered up in 1 coat of polish.
I’ll probably be konading over with Sally Handsen’s Celeb City
I like how my house looks in the late morning :)
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Bodyshop Haul
Seeing that I had Bodyshop vouchers as mentioned here, imagine my utter and complete inability to resist walking into the Bodyshop store today! As a shopaholic/shopahaulic, it’s my personal motto to shop smart, so I had already done my prior research on the instore offers & promotions available, to get the most bang outta my buck. Lucky for me, the shop manager said that using the vouchers together was not going to be a problem so I whipped out all four of them & promptly used up three vouchers. whoo!
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Our Quirky Loves
