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!