Rilakkuma Nail Art Tutorial

Here is the long-awaited tutorial for my Rilakkuma nails! I was browsing my older entries yesterday and realized I never got around to posting this! :)

Here are the simple steps that you can follow to recreate the design:

1. Paint your nails with a base colour of your choice. I used OPI Gargantuan Green Grape for my accent nail and Nicole by OPI My Lifesaver layered with Make U Smile (both from the Justin Bieber collection) for the rest of my fingers

2. With a light brown nail polish, paint a semi-circle at the tip of your nail. Next, paint two smaller semi-circles as the ears using the same colour. 

3. With a yellow nail polish, paint the contrast colour on the outer sides of the ears. Note that the shape of these are more elongated than the ears so try painting half-ovals instead.

4. With a white nail polish, paint a small semi-circle at the tip of your nail.

5. Lastly, using a dotting tool and dark brown or black nail polish, paint on the eyes and nose. 

For this design, I used from right to left: OPI Gargantuan Green Grape, OPI San Tan-tonio, OPI The "It" Color, OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys, OPI Alpine Snow, Nicole By OPI My Lifesaver, and Nicole By OPI Make U Smile.

Note: OPI San Tan-tonio, OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys, Nicole by OPI My Lifesaver and Nicole by OPI Make U Smile were sent to me for review.

Chanel Paradoxal

Chanel Paradoxal 509. Dark purple taupe with secret pink and blue shimmer. Paradoxal is from the Les Contrastes de Chanel fall 2010 collection and it has since been added to their permanent line.

This beauty is a dream to apply, the formula is very smooth and easy to work with. I was able to get flawless coverage in two thin coats. I love how Paradoxal is so mysterious, not only is the purple taupe base an unique colour on its own but the secret shimmer adds depth and dimension to the polish.

What's special about Paradoxal is the fact that it takes on a different colour depending on the angle or lighting that you're in. Sometimes you'll see a dark purple, other times you'll see a grungey taupe. I especially like it in the sun because the lovely shimmah glistens beautifully under the bright light. :)

P.S. I've always wanted to get piercings but I can't because of medical complications but thank goodness for clip-ons! Surprise surprise! You can barely tell it's not a real earring no? ;)

Featured on Sofeminine.co.uk

Hi ladies! Hope you're all having a wonderful Monday morning! I received a lovely email from Sofeminine.co.uk last week telling me that I was featured on their site as one of the best blogs for nail art designs. Even though I haven't been working on much nail art lately, there are a million designs that I want to try out! I'll start painting away and posting how-to tutorials as soon as I get a chance to so please stay tuned! :)

In the meantime, you can check out my past nail art designs and tutorials here and here. 

Thank you so much to the ladies at Sofeminine.co.uk for recommending I Love Nail Polish! :) 

Soulstice Skittles

Hello ladies, today I have some lovely polishes from Soulstice Spa to share with you. Soulstice Spa makes 100% vegan and cruelty-free nail polishes. They are also 3-free meaning they do not contain the toxic chemicals toluene, formaldehyde and dibutyl phthalate in their formulas. 

Monterey. A beautiful cornflower blue. The application was excellent and you can achieve bottle colour in two thin coats. Monterey has an almost jelly-like consistency and dries to a very glossy finish. I really like this shade because it's not like your typical blue nail polish, it has a dusty quality to it which makes it stand out from the rest. 

Kona. Baby blue creme. The formula on this is a little on the thicker side; however, it is quite pigmented and you only need one coat for full coverage. 

Provence. A lovely lavender creme. I can never get enough of this shade as you can see from my lilac comparison post a while back. :) I also love the name of this polish! I visited Provence a few years ago and had an amazing time there. The entire region is very pretty and the food is simply to die for. Whenever I come across the word Provence, I would be instantly reminded of the beautiful and fragrant lavender fields, so I find the name of this polish very suiting for the lovely shade. The formula on this is very similar to Monterey with a jelly-like finish and it's opaque in two coats as well. 

This is the first time that I've tried nail polishes from Soulstice Spa. Overall, I'm quite impressed with the quality and easy application on the three colours that I swatched. I mean, what's not to love about 100% vegan and cruelty-free nail polish right! :)

I would like to thank Nail Polish Canada for sending these to me for review. They carry many popular brands and have the latest collections from this season so please check their site out when you have time. :)

My favourite drink at Starbucks is the iced caramel macchiato. What's yours? 

Jelly Sandwich Manicure

Jelly Sandwich

I decided to attempt a jelly sandwich manicure over the weekend! A jelly sandwich manicure, also known as a candy manicure, is a layering technique which you apply a base colour, a glitter and then lastly a jelly polish on top. I used OPI Gettin' Miss Piggy With It! HL C14. from their new holiday Muppets collection and also OPI Big Hair...Big Nails NL T21 from their Texas. I omitted the base layer because I wanted a more transparent effect. This is a great mani to wear for the upcoming winter holidays if you want to be festive. I bet we're going to start seeing Christmas decorations put up in stores now that Halloween is over, so why not start coming up with Christmas manis as well? ;)

What are your favourite polish combinations to use for jelly sandwich manicures?

Note: OPI Gettin' Miss Piggy With It! and OPI Big Hair...Big Nails were sent to me for review. 

Incorporating lifestyle photography into beauty blogging

Hello everyone! So you may have noticed that the photos on this blog have recently changed in composition and appearance (particularly the swatches of Chanel Khaki Vert and Essie Power Clutch). The reason is because I have decided to revamp my work and incorporate lifestyle photography into beauty blogging. For those of you who do not know what lifestyle photography is, it's a style of photography which aims to re-create real-life situations in a controlled environment. The results are candid and realistic photographs which are characterized by bright, airy lighting as opposed to studio shots. 

My idea behind this was because a lot of the times, you tend to notice someone else's (or your own) manicure through your everyday activities. Whether they're holding onto a cup of their much needed morning coffee or texting madly on their smart phones, you may catch a glimpse of what they're wearing on their nails and think to yourself, "Oh my gosh, that's such a pretty colour!" And then an instant lemming is created and you find yourself hunting that polish down as soon as you get a chance to. I would like to try and capture that special moment as I find this approach more unique, natural-looking and not as deliberate. I hope you ladies will like it too! :)