Haul + Random Mani

Feeling lazy when it comes to blogging, but I intend to blog regularly from now on.

First up some polishes I bought from American Apparel.

I had a Teambuy coupon that I needed to use up before it expired so I went shopping with my friend a couple of Fridays ago and got two of the new metallic polishes and three creme polishes.  Skipped the glitter polishes even though I thought of buying them, but I already have similar glitters so I passed on them.

The two new metallic polishes are quite different from the others that were first released.  These ones are thinner and need about 3/4 coats for full opacity.  Not great for stamping like the others.  But these ones seem like duo chromes so I guess that makes up for the inability to use 'em for stamping.

My camera captures Violet Panache really really blue, it's actually purple most of the time.  At some angles and lighting it flashes blue.  But my Canon cameras only pick up the blue and I can't be bother to colour correct in a photo editor.  Smoke Dazzle has some pink in it which you can sort of see from the bottle picture.

Next, here's a mani I did with Violet Panache.

I think I did 4 coats of polish and then used a bunch of rhinestones, hexagons, bullion beads, and the circular mirrors.  Three different cameras used for the right hand side and all show the same blue colouring.  The blurry picture on the bottom left hand corner shows what the polish colour usually looks like.  I took it with a Sony camera that's really meant for videos and doesn't have a macro setting for photos.  Really quite nice and I like this better in real life than in pictures.

Sponsored: ASK Base&Top Coat + Revival Nail Polish Remover

Sorry for the lack of posts for recently.  I've been testing the ASK base coat trying to find a good top coat to go with it, but have been unsuccessful.  Every time I did my nails by morning parts of my nails would be chipped or after showering the entire nail would peel off.

Here's what the base and top coats look like again.

I've been using the base coat for almost a month now and I haven't found any top coat to go with it to prevent chipping or peeling.  I've tried Seche Vite, China Glaze Fast Forward, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri, Etude House Jelly Pop, Duri Brush&Go, Duri Miracote and of course the ASK top coat.  The ask top coat seems to work best with the base coat.  Still chips, but you can almost get a full day or wear out of them if you don't mind small chips here and there through out the day.  After using the base coat it kind of reminds water based polishes like Sula Paint and Peel polishes because chunks of polish would just come off after showering or doing dishes.  I didn't like the Sula polishes when I tried them and I don't like the ASK base coat either.  It didn't really do much to help keep polish on my nails.

As for the ASK top coat, it's slightly better than the base coat.  Dries fairly quickly which I like, shiny with two coats, but doesn't prevent chipping as well as other top coats.  Still chips the next day though not in huge pieces, just little bits here and there.  I probably wouldn't use this as a final top coat.  Maybe as a layer between polish and stamped polish.

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As for the ASK Revival Nail Polish Remover, here's a picture of the product once again.

I really like this polish remover.  I loved even more after reading a comment from jaded_imp to add more acetone so that it doesn't feel as greasy. 

When I first used the polish remover it removed polish very quickly and I didn't have use much product to get rid of polish on all 10 fingers.  It was very conditioning and didn't make my nails look dry with a whitish cast to them, but I found it to be slightly greasy for me.  I felt like I couldn't touch anything without leaving a greasy stain/mark on it.  However after following jaded_imp's suggestion I added more acetone and it works great without the greasy feeling.  And even though I added more acetone to the mix the remover was still very conditioning.  My nails and cuticles never looked dry after using the polishing remover.

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Quick conclusions about the three products - I would pass on the base coat, maybe give a try for the top coat and definitely give the polish remover a try.

Valentine's Day Nails

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  And happy belated Gal-entine's Day (Feb. 13), completely forgot about it until I watched the Parks and Rec Valentine's episode again.

I did three coats of Borghese Rapido in Capriccio Blue then proceeded to use acrylic paint for the polka dots and hearts.  Then I stamped using the Charming Nails Q1 plate and Kleancolor Black.  Filled in the bird with the same red and and white acrylic paint and then tried to restamp over top.  Thankfully the best restamp happened on my left ring finger.  The others were full of fail.  But I still left them instead of redoing them.