Suzi loves cowboys

Hi ladies~ It's really starting to get chilly here in Australia since we'll be entering out winter months soon. So what better way to wave that in than with a mug of hot chocolate! Or nail polish wise, a bottle of OPI Suzi loves cowboys.

I started off with two coats of Suzi loves cowboys and they were two effortless coats. I really do love the prowide brush that OPI has, it makes application for me so much easier. The formula was nice too, although more watery than I would have expected from a crème polish. Nothing bad that affected application though. For my accent nail, I applied two coats of Ulta3 Lily white. I alternated the colours for some nail art, using my Glossyblossom nail art striper for the white stripes and dotting with SLC on my accent nail.

It's simple and effortless, but more interesting than a plain manicure :) What do you think of it?

Thanks for dropping by!
~Sharon

A product was provided for consideration. For more information, please view my disclosure policy.

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More of the blues

Hello everyone~ I've been especially mood swingy the past couple of days, most probably due to the stress I've been undergoing. Which totally suits the mani I have to post today - a blue manicure! I alternated two coats of Orly Sweet peacock and Stone cold onto my nails. It's nothing much, but I quite liked it while it lasted.

Once these three weeks of horror are over, plus more assignments, plus exams, I'll be good. Honest. July really can't come fast enough!

Thanks for dropping by.
~Sharon

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Nail & cuticle care routine

Hi ladies~ :) I have been getting questions about how I take care of my nail and cuticle so I thought this post would be helpful and answer some questions. I just want to start off by saying that my nails are in no way perfect (in fact, they're currently quite stained and I'm still trying to grow them out!); the only reason they happen to look nice in my photos is because of the following routine.

1. Removal of old nail polish

I don't use anything special, just a local cheap and acetone-free polish remover. I usually pour it in my pumper bottle (which isn't shown) so it's easier to get the remover onto the cotton ball piece. I unroll my cotton ball so that I can make good use of the ball and tear as many pieces as I can from it. I then take the cotton pieces, soak them with remover and place it onto my nail plate, waiting 15-20 seconds before swiping it off my nail. Of course, the removal process will depend on the type of nail polish you are removing - glitter will generally take the most amount of time to remove.

2. Pushing back your cuticle

And after all that? I take a shower to make sure any residue is washed off! :) I also push back my cuticles gently while in the shower as the warm water softens them and makes it easier to push back.

3. Moisturising the cuticle

After my shower, I lather my cuticles with cuticle cream. Whilst my remover doesn't contain acetone, my nail plate still gets dry. I rub the cream into my cuticles, and any leftover onto my nail plate. I like to use my Burts Bees cuticle cream throughout the day as it leaves less oily residue. I take my Lemony Flutter out right before bed and apply it onto my cuticles and nail plate again.

4. Filing your nail

When I need to give my nails a trim, I use a glass file by Manicure. Make sure when you file you don't saw back and forth on your nail or you'll damage it! File in one direction until you reach your desired length. I prefer a more squoval shape so once I like my length, I round off my edges to ensure they don't get caught on things.

5. Go to town! It's time to polish your nails :D

(original post with the mani here)

I hope this was somewhat helpful to you all ^^ If you have any questions, let me know either through commenting or emailing me, I'm always happy to answer your questions :)

Thanks for reading.
~Sharon

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Faint of Heart's hidden element

Hi everyone~ Since starting my prac placements, I've been wearing boring, neutral shades. Or...that's what I thought. When I grabbed Orly Faint of heart out to wear a couple of days ago, I thought it was just a plain, neutral crème totally suitable for work. Well, I was right about the work appropriate part. Not so much the boring bit though.

As I was applying this in the sun (which I rarely do, and might explain why I missed this the first time), I saw tiny black flecks floating in the nail polish on my nail. Thinking I had gotten my nail dirty, I put it riiiiiiiiiiight up to my eye to check it out. Behold! The wonder of this polish - hidden black flecks :D It is reminiscent of Misa Grey Matters (which I have been super lemming), but the flecks are less noticeable unless you stare at your nails in the sun.

Check out the photos, and especially the macro to see what I'm talking about!

See what I mean about the black flecks being hidden? Unless you put your nail up to your eye or stare at it hard in the sun, it really isn't all that noticeable. You definitely can't see it in the bottle either. I think this hidden element makes me love the polish even more ♥ What do you think? :)

Thanks for reading!
~Sharon

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Swatches and review: China Glaze Crackle Glitter (part 2)

Hello hello~ After posting Part 1 of the Crackle Glitter collection yesterday, here is Part 2. I've already covered the basics about the formula in my previous post so I'll just get right into here!

Jade-D is a lovely lime-green crackle glitter, which leans to more to the yellow side. I layered this over two coats of Rimmel Grey matter.

Luminous lavender is a light lavender crackle glitter. I decided to try this over China Glaze Light as air and loved the subtle result! ♥

And as promised, here are all the crackle glitters layered over black. From index to pinky: Gleam me up, Luminous lavender, Jade-D, Glam-more.

They definitely do pop more over black! I'm especially loving the look of Jade-D, the yellow really comes out here. I'll have to wear these over darker shades next time :)

As you can see, the crackle effect came out much better this time because I had enough glitter on the polish brush. So yes, whilst I'm supposedly over crackle polishes, I'll be wearing these crackle glitters often!

What do you think, are you back into the crackle craze? :)

Thanks for reading.
~Sharon

Products provided for consideration. For more information, please view my disclosure policy.

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Swatches and review: China Glaze Crackle Glitter (part 1)

Hi everyone~Today I have two of the polishes from the China Glaze Crackle Glitter collection. Whilst many bloggers are starting to get over the crackle phase (me included!) I was quite curious with this collection. I mean, there's glitter! And wow, it's supposed to crack too? That's enough to have me hooked and curious :P

The formula on the whole was quite nice to work with. It wasn't thick as you would assume most glitter formulas to be like. I found I needed to make sure I don't wipe too much glitter off my brush before applying onto my nail though, or the glitter wouldn't look like it hadn't cracked, just more like a glitter layered over a base colour (see photos below). The crackle glitters do dry matte like all crackle polishes, so my photos show them with top coat over it.

In hindsight, I should have probably layered these over a black base (see it layered over black in Part 2), but I wanted to play with different coloured bases and hey, they're much more interesting than black :P I tried my best to find a good base colour but I think one (or two) may not have been such good choices, especially at showing off the beautiful glitter. I'll probably go back and swatch this again over a black base to see it come to life :)

Gleam me up is an aqua-blue crackle glitter. I applied this over two coats of OPI Pompeii purple. As you can see on my index and middle finger, the glitter simply looks like it was layered on since I didn't have enough polish on the brush. A great difference to the outcome on my pinky and ring finger!

Glam-more is a fuchsia crackle glitter. I totally failed with this one, the crackle look only turned up on my pinky! Definitely need to work on having more polish on the brush. This is layered over two coats of Ulta3 spring shower.

Whilst I would proclaim loud and clear to the world that I'm sick of crackle polishes, this collection definitely surprised me! I quite like the subtle crackle effect the glitter gives. The China Glaze Crackle Glitter collection will be available in the US May 2012, retailing at $9.

What do you think of the first half of the collection. Is this a yay for a different form of crackle or a huge 'get over it!!' to nail polish companies?

Thanks for reading!
~Sharon

Products provided for consideration. For more information, please view my disclosure policy.

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Interlocking suedes

Hi ladies~ I saw this the interlock nail art over at Nail Polish Wars agessssssssssss ago and finally decided to try it out. Because I'm lazy, I went with suede polishes - love their fast drying time ♥

I started off with two coats of OPI Russian navy suede and Lincoln park after dark suede, alternating the base colour for each nail. I then went back and free handed the tip half of the nail with the second shade. For the interlock look, I dotted the opposite shade along the diagonal line. For a better description and tutorial, check out my link to Nail Polish Wars! :P

I'm not sure I love how this turned out, might have to try this again with different polishes :) What do you think of the design though?

Thanks for reading.
~Sharon

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