Nubar Forest

My long awaited Nubar Forest arrived today~ whooohooo...
I have a thing for green. Especially green creme.
There's something about creme that just gets me. When I apply and it's smooth and opaque, it transforms my mood to euphoria~

Nubar Forest + sv top coat

So I have here Nubar Forest on my nails, a deep green with a little blue undertone. I expected a dark green with tiny yellow undertone but this is not it. The colour is a little muted, it doesn't jump at you and say, HEY I'M GREEN LOOK AT ME. Rather, it has that grey muted dark blue tone green, but it's green, you wouldn't call it a grey, it just doesn't catch you in the eye if you know what I mean.

Nubar Forest

Nubar forest is a deep green creme, the color seems to calm me whenever I feel agitated, which is quite a lot lately with the pressure and dateline piling up.

Application wise was terrible.
Ok, probably I over-anticipated it as I've read that application for Nubar was suppose to be perfect and all that blah... well... it was  too watery for me.
When I finished applying two coats, it pooled all over my cuticles in the worst way. The clean up didn't take that long, but I don't know it's the brush or what in Nubar, but my cuticles seems to be drenched in the polish after application. I think it's the brush... which always took a weird giant side swipe at the cuticles when it's nearing them, which is really irritating.

Nubar Forest

Drying time was really really slow because it's so watery. It's longer than the china glaze and OPI that I'm used to, which explains the smudges being so bad that I had to redo 4 of my nails. :(

Luckily seche vite top coat came to the rescue!

After the seche vite top coat, my nail polish shines! Me looooves seche vite! You can literally see my reflection here. It's like a mirror image. Love the shine seche vite brings!

All in all, LOVE the color, say no to the formula and the brush, but still a good purchase.

Being my first Nubar color, it sort of disillusioned me from the brand... :(
I really expected a lot from Nubar... but for now, it acts as a cold water poured over my hot Nubar fever. Didn't live up to the hype. :( Sad. I wanted to love Nubar. I really did. Maybe next time.

Stamping with CHG Something Sweet over IN2IT Jackpot

I don't know how to do water marble nails, but I really love those designs. I don't even think I want to try because I'm just plain clumsy and bad with things like that.

So I did the next best thing, stamping with a pattern which looks like a water marble design. hahahaha~ I'm smart.

Konad M78 with China Glaze Something Sweet over IN2IT Jackpot

I know I know, it's not great, but I think it's awesome for me because I just plain sucks at things like these. Besides, it looks really like water marbling to me, especially with my smudges and smears, purfect. hahaha...



So this was the plate that I used, M78, the pattern is circled in pink.

Konad Plate M78

So that's how you get some fake water marbling nails by not water marbling. Hope you enjoyed it. Till next time.

OPI Bubble Bath Matte

This was the nails I've had on me on the day I went for my interview. Much as I love China Glaze Refresh Mint, I couldn't possibly go to an interview with minty green nails, so I had to remove them... which was sad. :(
Then I chopped them down to reasonable length, which was far too short! Ergh!

Since it was an interview for a technical job, very physical, non girly and all that, I figured I better portray that image. Still, I wanted to put on nail polish. Hahaha...

So I chose a safe color, OPI Bubble Bath and then mattified it with Essie Matte About You top coat. It looks natural, and it feels natural. It draws no attention, yet looks clean and proper. Very suitable for formal office meetings.

OPI Bubble Bath 2 coats

After Essie Matte About You:

OPI Bubble Bath 2 coats, Essie Matte About You 1 coat

No one would have guessed I put on nail polish, yet I did, which was fun.... ok.. so I have a weird definition of fun. Hope you like it!

IN2IT IN19 Jackpot

Had an interview a couple of days ago, so i had to chop off my claws and now i'm left with little stubbles of nails... :(

When I was in town, went to the local cosmetics shop and was trying to find a pink/purple nail varnish that I'm lacking at the moment. Little did I know that I found the best nail varnish that I've ever used in my life...

Introducing nail polish from IN2IT:

Taaadaaaaa.....
 IN19 Jackpot



It's a purple that leans a littttle pink in real life, very shiny very nice. Why do I like it soooo much?

IN2IT  Jackpot

First of all, it's a one coater. Yes, you heard me right. It is opaque in 1 coat. Screw OPI, Misa, Zoya, Essie all those high end nail polish. Girls, if you had never tried In2it before, you don't know what you had missed. Probably it's only the formula in this color Jackpot, I don't know... but 1 thing for sure, I hit the jackpot with Jackpot. Ok... it's a little lame... but it's an awesome polish!

IN2IT IN19 Jackpot 1 coat + seche vite

Not only is it a one coater, it applies smooth like buttaaahhh... Literally. The polish just know where to go on your nails. It doesn't give you any trouble at all. It is a self behaving polish, yes it is. It's not runny that tends to go to your cuticles, nor is it thick and gloopy. Jackpot is just nice and opaque, such an obedient little fellow.

And... it's a self leveling nail polish... omg... I watched as the polish levels itself on my nails I was so touched I nearly cried.

What's more, it's so readily available here! It's one of the best things that I like about In2It. I can find it literally anywhere in my country. Screw all those international shipping fees and what nots. I'm soooo glad that I took a chance and bought it.

Another bonus, it is cheap. It's not effing expensive like some ahem Chanel ahem ahem, but really affordable. I spent about USD 2.80 after converting, and mind you, it doesn't have any shipping fees and all that. I was lucky I got it in a promotion, so it came with In2it keratin base coat for free, which usually costs around USD3.50.

Amazing bargain, I tell you. Great color, awesome application, fantastic formula, cheap price. What more can you ask for? Thumbs up for IN2IT.

1 word: AWESOME

P.s. I've only tried 1 nail polish from In2IT, i.e. IN19 Jackpot, so I'm not sure how are the application for other colors in the brand. Might buy more IN2IT again to try if I hit town, but I've been itching to try out Revlon nail lacquer too...

Giveaway by Tigirlyly Konadicures

Checkout this giveaway hosted by shimmerspark.com

Contest ends July 1st and it's open to everyone internationally! Good luck!

China Glaze Refresh Mint French Manicure

I've been pretty rough with my fingers these few days, so arghhhh.... I got some tip wear and small chips on my forefinger especially, and on my left hand too! But I like this color too much to take it off, so I made some changes to extend the life of my mani.

China Glaze Refresh Mint, Tips OPI Alpine Snow

Haha... yeaps~ french tips. I saw it somewhere on the web, can't remember where exactly though, but it was so so sweet with the milky green and pure white tips, that I copied it too. It's so nice! I don't have to change my manicure for the chips on my tips anymore~

I used the little french tips stickers to do this. 

But I tried to konad with M19, the french manicure plate on my right hand. It didn't turn out too well. Ah well, maybe next time. 

Using the french tips will make the tips feel much thicker, whereas if you stamp it, it's actually pretty smooth and natural, so I would really love to master stamping french tips with konad plates.

I used seche vite to smoothen my nails, but I used the Konad Top Coat on the forefinger in the photo, and look what it did! It bubbles like craaaaazy! Argh.... my smooth manicure bubbles and now it looks like the surface of the moon. NOT cool. I'm gonna avoid using the Konad Top Coat even though I've still about 90% left. Such a waste!

China Glaze Refresh Mint

One of the colors that I absolutely adore - China Glaze Refresh Mint

China Glaze Refresh Mint

It's a milky mint green, like a breath of fresh air on my nails. It's absolutely new to see such delightful light mint milky green on my nails. Reminds me of mint ice-cream.

China Glaze Refresh Mint

Application wise, this is a PITA. It's gloopy and really difficult to manage. And it dries quite fast, so it's pretty hard if you want to repair that little streak of bald spot on the same coat. You'll have to wait till it dries completely to repair that bald streak. It became a little patchy, thick and uneven if I tried to repair it on the same coat. Geezz...

China Glaze Refresh Mint

Lucky for me I had some Seche Vite thinner in hand, so after 3 drops, it evens out to the consistency I want.

It is a two coater for its original formula, very opaque, but after thinning it out with the thinner, it's still a two coater, though you might require three coats if you aren't careful. No biggie for me.

China Glaze Refresh Mint

All in all, a lovely pastel milky mint green polish. It makes me look a little more tan than I really am, but it's a really great polish, love the colour, it's like a high end doll dress colour. Lovely! Hope you will like it too!

PS: Just realised there's a little unknown particle on my little finger, must be some unidentified glitter in my seche vite, but it's not on my fingernails now.. weird... enjoy~

Random Ramblings About Discontinued Nail Polish

Don't you just hate hate hate it when you suddenly came across an awesome spectacular ooooh-I-must-have-it nail polish picture on someone's blog, just to find out they've been discontinued?

Or worst, you've probably found your best nude, or favorite red, or that special blue, and when you're about halfway empty, or empty, you need to get a second bottle, and whammm! It is discontinued?

Or probably you saw this lovely color on the web on someone else's nails, and when it's one of those lucky times that the polish you want is still available, they somehow changed the formula to something different? (ahem bubble bath.. cough... my private jet... sniffles... emerald sparkle)

Don't you just haaate it when the nail lacquer that everybahhhdeee lust for is discontinued, and those evil-bayers that has extra just jack up the damn price to sky-high (have these people no conscience??) to squeeze us?

I wonder who it is in a company that decide what product to discontinue and what not to.

Is it an executive decision? Or is it an unanimous decision?

If it's an executive decision, I'm sure a lot of nail polish fanatics with long nails are going to claw that certain person who made that decision.

If it's a unanimous decision, we'll run petition to get the whole board fired.

It's terrible, ain't it? Imagine a handful of people sitting around a table with their tight suits and formal wears, and they say, "Ok guys, we're going to discontinue the China Glaze OMG collection next month. We  need something fresh on the market...bla bla..."

Or a Jane or John Doe just suddenly say, " Let's discontinue the Clarins 230."

And wham... suddenly these polishes everyone is lemming for is off the shelves, people started buying half a dozen backups, evil people buy them all off the shelves so they can sell at sky high prices on e-bay. GRRRRR....

Imagine McDonald's discontinuing the Big Mac, McChicken and Double Cheeseburger, or Subway discontinuing Subway Melts, or Haagen Daaz discontinuing Belgian Chocolate, or Michael Jordan not playing basketball, or Tiger Woods not playing golf...

Do you get what I mean? You just don't discontinue something you're selling so well! You do not discontinue the star product. I mean... duh! What they're doing is evil, it's mean, it's wicked. It's wrong!

I'm just a little grumpy today... seeing the beautiful sun shining everyday, taunting me with no lovely holographic prismatic nail polish to show off.

Howls... when are they going to bring back the best of the best nail polish??!

Giveaway by Ice Queen Nail Parlor

To celebrate her first year blogoversary, Ice Queen is holding a giveaway consisting of the Color Club collection from the picture above. Oh.. and other prizes too which she wouldn't tell us yet, but she has a little hint though. So why don't you check out her blog and her giveaway. Do participate and good luck to you loves!

Product Review: Yoko Spa Milk Salt

This is one of the product that I love love love the most and I highly recommend to everyone. The product I'm talking about is Yoko Spa Milk Salt, a product from Thailand.

YOKO Spa Milk Salt

This is a product I bought online, cost me about USD 2 for this packet of 300g spa milk salt. It has 2 packages, 1 in a tin that weights 200g, around USD 3, and this in a sort of a refill pack which cost much lesser but contains more product. Of course, I'll take the latter.

YOKO Spa Milk Salt

This product is manufacturerd in Thailand, so far, I've yet to see it selling in retail stores. But 1 thing for sure, it's an awesome scrub. 

The smell of sweet milk candy hits you once you open the package, and inside, fine granular grains of salt.

I used a generous amount on my body, about 2 fistful of salt. I wet my body, then lather on the salt all over. Some of the salt will melt once in contact with water, so I don't lather it on immediately. I waited until my body is semi-dry (if you get what I mean), then I scrub it on.

Directions for YOKO Spa Milk Salt

I used it for more than 3 minutes though. It is going to STING if you have some cuts in your body, because it is salt after all, and yes, it tastes salty, not milky salty, but plain salty.

After that, I wash them away, revealing smoooooooth oh so baby smooooth skin. It makes my skin feels as though it's gone through a luxury bath. I love love love touching my hands and legs after using the salt, it makes my skin ultra smooth, honestly!

However, 1 down side is the packaging is pretty lousy. The zip locker shown below, doesn't work at all. So you have to store your salt in another air tight container.

Dud zip locker 

Since it's a salty, it will get clumpy once in contact with moisture, so make sure you do not splash it during your shower. Keep the lid on!

I used silica gel found in shoe boxes to keep the moisture away, so my container of spa milk salt is still dry and grainy, not clumpy at all.

Silica Gel to keep the moisture away

Alternatively, you can use other things to absorb the moisture such as grains of rice, crackers etc. Keeping the lid open in an air-conditioned room should absorb the moisture away as well since the air is rather dry in an air-conditioned room.

All in all, a great buy, and I will definitely repurchase it! If you want baby smooth skin, give this a try too!

Nubar 2010 over OPI Mrs O'Leary's BBQ Matte

I wanted to do a matte nail polish today, but I don't want it just plain matte; I wanted something a little different in it. So this is what I did:

Base coat+ OPI Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ + Nubar 2010 + Essie Matte About You

I started with Nubar Nu Nails as the base coat, then add 2 layers of OPI Mrs O'Leary's BBQ. Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ is an awesome color, very opaque, color true to bottle in just two coats. And it's amazingly shiny! Even without a top coat. A must buy imho. The color is a deep vampy dark plummish purple, which might look close to black in very very low lights, but changes its color in certain lights. It's a teeny bit reddish in sunlight, but indoors, it's a always a beautiful dark dark plum purple. Application is awesome! Easy to control formula and I just love OPI pro wide brush!

OPI Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ

Then I top it with 1 coat of Nubar 2010. It reflects very pretty orange, green and yellow flakies, depending on the direction of angle that you look at it. I realised that it's mostly orange if your eyes are perpendicular to your nails, which is directly 90 degrees looking at it.

Nubar 2010

But if you are looking at it at 180 degrees, which means you are looking at it horizontally, it reflects more green. See the picture below has more greenish yellow than orange compared to the first picture which show a more perpendicular angle. The picture below is close to 180 degrees.

Base coat+ OPI Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ + Nubar 2010 + Essie Matte About You

Then finally I top it off with 1 coat of Essie's Matte About You.

Essie Matte About You

It gives my nails a matte smooth looking finish, and it dries lightning quick too.

My nails reminds me of the royalty or very rich people's bedsheet or curtains with the satiny rich deep red color and flakies that reflects colorful rainbows. Love it! Hope you like it too.

The Manicured Monkey Giveaway

Check out her giveaway here!!

which consists of:

China Glaze: Wagon Trail, Ruby Pumps
Sephora by OPI: Who let the Dorks Out
Seche Vite Quick Dry top coat
NYC: Chinatown, Uptown, West Village
Zoya: Tiffany
Rimmel: Marine Blue, Violet Metal
Sally's Girls: 3 minis (a duochrome, iridescent glitter and holo glitter)
Sinful Colors: Innocent
Color Club: Fashion Addict
Sally Hansen: HD Three D
Nail Polish ring made by me
Essie Hand and Body Lotion: Pomegranate and Mango
Pumice Stone


Awesome aye aye??


Giveaway ends on July 5th, 2011 at 11:59 pm, pacific time and is open internationally.

Skittle Pastel Manicure

I have quite a lot of untrieds in my stash, so after going back and forth among the bottles for nearly half an hour, I finally decided on a skittle manicure so I can wear every color. Yay!!

I wanted something fun and colorful, some cheerful nails, so this is what I came out with:

On my right hand:

Skittle pastel manicure: (L to R) OPI Alpine Snow, Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau, China Glaze Refresh Mint, China Glaze Something Sweet, OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender

This is my first skittle manicure, and I jazzed it up with some stamping on it.

I wanted something creative, so I stamped each finger with a different design. It looks sort of like a kindergarten wallpaper, doesn't it?

Thumb: OPI Alpine Snow stamped with China Glaze Someting Sweet; m79

Fore: Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau stamped with Konad White Special Polish, M79

Middle: China Glaze Refresh Mint stamped with OPI Alpine Snow; m79

Ring: China Glaze Someting sweet stamped with OPI Alpine Snow; m64

Little: OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender stamped with Konad White Polish; m35

I did it with my right hand too, but in different order. I didn't want a matchy matchy manicure which looks boring.

Skittle Pastel Manicure

I alternate between Alpine Snow OPI and the Konad Special white polish, I don't prefer one over the another for stamping, it all gets the same look anyway.

I know I know... my stamping is off and the alignment is bad and all that, but you get the look I was sporting, right? Right??

I get a lot of compliments on this manicure, so I'm happy! :D

Hope you like them!

Color Club Wild At Heart

Today I will show you an awesome deep purple holo nail polish from Color Club.

Color Club Wild at Heart

This is an awesome 1 coater, very very opaque, and drying time is comparable to those of OPI, very short!

Great formula, goes on smooth like buttahhh! Me likey likey!

CC wild at heart under shade

This is how it looks under the shade, daytime. It's a pretty lovely true deep purple, not vampish pruple, but original purple, with some small tiny silver shimmer which will burst into holographic rainbows when light hits.

CC wild at heart under the shade

I understand that some have gotten a dud batch of Color Club Wild at heart, where there is no holographic effect in it. That's sad. Really. But I was really lucky to have gotten the good one!

Maybe they didn't wait for the sun to come out, I'm not sure, but under the shade, mine look just like from a dud batch, deep purple with silver shimmers and no holo.

But when the sun comes out...

CC wild at heart sunlight

BWAHAHAHAHA.... look at the lovely holo!

Granted, it's not as holo as those China Glaze OMG and Kaleidoscope collection, or the Nfu Ohs, or the original holo OPI DS collection, or GOSH, but this is a really pretty not-in-you-face holo.

It is a linear holo, not strong, as can be seen, but still very pretty. It's such a shame a lot of holo are discontinued now. I would have gotten them in a jiffy if I could and swatched them. After all, the weather here is extremely good and the sun is always shining, such a pity... such a pity...

Color Club Wild At Heart Indoors

This is a shot taken indoors under the fluorescent lamp. Regardless, the holo effect is still visible. Pretty!

I did it without a top coat, thus the tip wear in the first few pictures taken today. :( Not very long lasting, unfortunately...

The weather became like below... after I took some photos, which was why I didn't take the photo of the bottle's lovely holographic effect. But anyway, I was lucky I was in time to take a few photos.

Gloomy weather~

Now I'm thinking of mattifying Wild at heart... hmmm....

How I Remove My Nail Stains

Remember the comparison post between gold comparison post that I did here? After that I did a gold manicure on 2030 here?

Much as I like the gold manicure, I don't think I'll ever use 2030 as a base coat ever again. Why? It stained my nails like crazy!

I underestimated 2030. It has great staining power. When I did my gold comparison, I did it without using any base coat, because I thought I'd remove it in a while anyway.

When I did the gold manicure, there are some fingers which I skipped the base coat the second time round when I made some smudges because I never thought a gold would stain. Boy, was I wrong!

It made some terrible yellow staining on some fingers, and overall, there was visible staining on other fingers too.

I was thinking to let it grow out of the staining, but I recalled seeing some methods of removing stains so I thought I might as well give it a shot.

Immediately after removing all the nail polish on my fingers, I noticed the stains. First of all, I washed my hands clean of acetone.

Then, I remembered reading that fresh stains are easier to remove than old stains, so I was motivated to try to remove them asap.

I went to the toilet and washed my fingers thoroughly with hand soap. Then I use toothpaste and rub  them on my fingernails. I leave them for about a minute then rinse clean.

Next, I squeeze some toothpaste onto my toothbrush and used it to brush my fingernails. I brushed them vertically first, then horizontally (not sure it mattered or not), spending about 30 seconds on each fingers. Then  I made the 'claw hand' and brush all my fingers together.

After rinsing clean, I repeat the previous step with more toothpaste.

After that, I clean my hands again with hand soap.

Whallllaaaa.... it was definitely rid of the stains! Unbelievable! I would say it was 90-95% rid of the fresh stains, I was never so glad to see pink on my fingernails again!

After buffing them, I would definitely say my fingernails are 98% back to its normal state.

Removing stains with toothpaste was one of the many methods that I have seen on the internet, but I think this method made the most sense, which was my reason for choosing it.

If it helps, I used Colgate Advanced Whitening and Stain Removal toothpaste which look like this (I didn't purposely choose this brand,  it was what I was using at the moment):

Hope it helps!

Nubar 2010 on Ruby Pumps

Nubar 2010

Nubar 2010 is the special polish to celebrate Nubar's 10 years of producing nail polish. It is very similar to the discontinued Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure, Maybelline Colorama (Ruby Rays, Sonic Sunset, Pink Pinata, Shimmer Girl), Gosh Rainbow and NFU OH 38.

Since Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure and Maybelline is discontinued, Gosh can only be found in Europe areas, Nfu Oh is practically unable to be bought here, the only option I have was Nubar. It's the prettiest rainbow flakies I've ever seen.

Nubar 2010

Nubar 2010 has little flakes suspended in the clear base polish, with the flakies reflecting mostly red, orange, yellow, blue and green when it hits the light. The flakies changes color with different angles, totally amazing! The colors it reflects when it's in the bottle reminds me of the inside of an oyster shell.

Flakies reflecting rainbows Nubar 2010

When layered over the polish, Nubar 2010 is smooth and the flakies seems to adapt so well right into the polish. It's a must have if you love flakies. 

Remember the konadicure I did the last few post with ruby pumps and China Glaze Passion?

This was an impulse swatch to layer Nubar 2010 over it. 

Just 1 thumb shot to show you Nubar 2010. I promise I will post up more shots soon on different colors, but so far, these are the only shots that I have.

China Glaze Ruby Pumps, Konad with M3 China Glaze passion; 1 coat Nubar 2010

Nubar 2010 layered over ruby pumps

Hope you like them!

China Glaze 2030 and Konading

I did a full gold mani yesterday. Never thought I was a gold girl, but 2030 is a very suitable gold to be worn. It looks like a high-classed gold mannequin hand against my skin tone, very very nice!

China Glaze 2030

But then I kinda got tired of it, an thought of stamping some pattern on it.

I got out my konad plates and used m64 to create this look.

China Glaze 2030, konad with m64 color club where's the soiree

I used Where's the Soiree from Color club for the black stamping. 

Where's the Soiree is a very good nail polish for stamping as it doesn't dry very fast, and is very opaque when stamped.

Then I top it with a coat of Konad Top Coat.

I still really bad at painting my nails and stamping, give me some time, I'll improve!

Till next time girls. Tata!

Comparison Between China Glaze 2030 vs China Glaze Passion

It's the gold comparison I've wanted to do for awhile.

China Glaze 2030 is from the Khrome collection in Fall/Winter 2009; whereas China Glaze Passion is from the Romantique collection in Spring 2009.

Initially, I wanted to get 2030 for stamping but it was out of stock in many e-tailers. Googling told me that Passion is also a gold from China Glaze which can be used for konading as well, so I had to settle for that. A few weeks later, 2030 was available again, but I was reluctant to get similar colors. I searched on the internet for a comparison of both colors but it wasn't really helpful, so I hope this post can help some girls out there to make up their minds.

China Glaze Passion (left) vs China Glaze 2030 (right)

As seen in the pictures, Passion is a more yellow toned gold than 2030.
2030 seems to have a little bronze tone added to it.

Bottle comparison. Passion left; 2030 right.

On the nails, these are two very different nail polish, different texture, different finish, and slightly different color.
Passion is the more yellow gold, the antique gold, the tone is warmer; whereas 2030 is a cooler gold, the modern gold, more like sci-fi gold.
If Passion is a grandmother, then 2030 is the grandchild.
For me, 2030 is a young gold; whereas Passion seems to be a more seasoned gold.

Passion looks more yellow than 2030

Passion has more yellow pigment than 2030 as can seen from the picture above.

Apart from that, the finish of the polish sets them apart as well.
2030 dries very quickly to a very smooth thin finish. When you touch 2030, it feels smooth and metallic.
Passion takes a longer time to dry, and it has the tacky feel of nail polish. It is thicker and feels as though you make a visible dent with your nails.

2030 vs passion

2030 has a thinner formula, easy and quick to apply. It doesn't drag and is opaque in 1 coat.
Passion has a thicker formula, a little draggy and some brush stroke problem, but it is also a 1 coater.

L to R: Passion, 2030, Passion

The picture above shows very obvious brush strokes markings from Passion, whereas 2030 has a smoother and more mirror like finish. Some brush strokes shown on 2030 is entirely user error.


If you want to do a full gold manicure, I recommend 2030. 2030 dries quicker, and it does not have that much brush strokes problem. The finish is wonderfully mirror-like and smooth, and it feels very thin as though there aren't any polish on your fingers.

However, if you want to do stamping, it's much better to use China Glaze Passion. Passion dries slower, so it gives you more time to transfer you design onto your nails.

Aside from that, both colors are very very similar when used for stamping, so I would definitely suggest Passion for stamping.
2030 dries a little too quick for my liking, making it particularly difficult to pick up small designs.

China Glaze 2030 vs China Glaze Passion

All in all, I've had fun doing this gold comparison and I do hope it will help others who are indecisive between the both.
In short, think of 2030 as a pink skintone, and Passion as a yellow skintone.

Till then girls, bye!