The Anatomy of a Steel Grey

Next mani please! I wanna erase the previous one from your memories LOL!

This one is a bit better...I actually really like how this turned out. Although, it looks way better in person because I just CANNOT capture the duochrome-ness of it.

Base colour is Rimmel London Steel Grey and then I taped off half my nail and painted on Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy. Can I just say how much I love Steel Grey? *sigh* I resisted buying it for so long but its siren call has lured me. It applies like a dream and I actually really like the big brush! Barely any clean-up for me. Gray's Anatomy is streaky and frosty but forgivable because the duochrome is AWESOME! Both pictures are taken in natural light.

I also took pictures of the bottle in hopes that I can capture the duochrome.

You can see a bit of the grey to purple to green.

More green.

That's all for now, beauty bloggers and readers!

'Til the next Konadi/manicure!

The Electronica and White Cap disaster

Excuse me for this disaster I am about to show you. My parents have been riding me about changing my nails so often, saying it kills brain cells, I'm gonna suffer for it later on in life etc. Soooo when I do get the chance...it's hurried and sloppy. =( How do you explain Big 3 Free to my parents who don't understand?  And I don't know what to do about my dry hands and the skin around my nails. My job requires me to wash my hands A LOT and it takes a toll on them.

Anyhoo, here are some pictures of the disaster that I sported for about 5 days. Gah. Oh and these pictures were taken RIGHT before I took it off so, even more disastrous!

With flash. I was so disappointed with how this mani turned out. The other pictures of people layering White Cap over ANYTHING always looks gorgeous. Mine is a calamity of epic proportions.

Taken without flash. Another picture of the abomination.

I used Color Club Electronica for the base colour, stamped with my former #1 stamp champ, Sally Hansen Rave Review Critique, used image plate m57. I layered China Glaze White Cap over my index, middle and pinky fingers.

*sigh* I guess I can't win all the time.

On another note, I'm currently growing out my hair and I'm trying to basically keep it healthy with trimming, hair treatments etc. I just dyed it back to super dark again, I got sick of the black roots and gradual turning into mahogany brown with caramel highlights. I'm thinking of maybe doing updates of how my hair is doing and what I think of the hair treatments. What do you guys think?

Catching up!

I gotta catch up to posting my Konad/manicures!!! I've got 3 for you right now, one is my official Valentine's Day mani, one freehand fail and one is the "I'm-tired-of-wearing-red-and-pink" mani.

DRY HANDS/CUTICLES ALERT!!! You have been warned!

First is my official V-day mani. Base colour is China Glaze Ahoy and I stamped using Rimmel London Pure Silver (#1 stamp champ!!!).

Taken with flash.This was 2 coats of Ahoy. I love love love this colour!! The shimmer is so pretty and application was great!! Even though pink is one of my fave colours, I only have like 4 bottles of pink nail polish. 

Whole hand taken with flash. This is pretty colour accurate. I used the images from plates m72 and m04.

After 5 manis of red/pink, I needed a break!! So I decided to do a little bit of freehand nail art using the Color Club Dark Romance Matte Collection and failed miserably. I only took a pic using my Blackberry cam so please excuse the blurriness. And lookie! I haz nubbinz!

Thumb to pinky: Dark Romance/Smoke and Mirrors, Dark Romance, Dark Romance/Alabaster, Smoke and Mirrors, Dark Romance/Alabaster.

So after wearing it overnight, I quickly took it off and replaced it with this.

Ok so, no excuse for the blurriness of this picture since I was using my digi cam. =( This is one coat of Color Club Dark Romance, one coat of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure and Color Club Matte Topcoat. 

Next I've got a hankering to do China Glaze Jolly Holly and layer it with White Cap! And maybe do it matte again? ^_~

'Til the next Konadicure!

Valentine's Day mini-haul

Belated Happy Valentine's Day to you all!!

So my bf and I celebrated on Sunday because he had to work yesterday. He took me shopping at Sephora, went out to dinner at our fave lil hole-in-the-wall that serves Thai and Vietnamese food and watched Gnomeo and Juliet! So at Sephora, he told me to pick out what I wanted (all within his budget of course) and I came out with these beauties!

Left: Tarina Tarantino Dollskin Eye Primer

Middle: Tarina Tarantino Fleur De Lash mascara in Black Opal

Right: Tokidoki Gelato Lip Balm Stain

Of course as soon as I purchased them, I tried them on! The eye primer is very good. It made my oily lids look matte and clean. Unfortunately, didn't have any eyeshadow on me so I can't test it for creasing, fading etc. 

The mascara was fantastic! Those who know me, know that I'm such a stickler for mascara. I was actually worried that I wouldn't like this because my first choice was Fairydrops Scandal Queen mascara. Unfortunately, they were sold out. =( So I quickly looked around and this caught my eye. This mascara is DEFINITELY buildable with minimal clumping for me. I still went through my eyelashes with a comb of course just to help fan them out. But I love love love it! No matter how many coats I put on, my lashes never had that crunchy feeling, they still remained soft.

The lip balm stain is also a big win for me. The shade I chose is Donutella, which is a sheer coral strawberry. The packaging is adorable first of all. I've always liked Tokidoki ever since I first saw it. The balm itself is fantastic! It glides very smoothly on my lips and the colour is very apparent!

Chel also picked this up for me at the Winners that she went to. Color Club Dark Romance The Matte Collection minis!!! 

L-R: Matte Top Coat, Alabaster, Smoke and Mirrors, Dark Romance

I have resisted matte polishes for so long because I never thought that they would look good on me. I wanted my nails shiny and eye-catching! But as soon as I put these babies on...I died a little. It opens up a different world of possibilities for nails! And of course, Chel said the proverbial "I told you so." I'm currently sporting Dark Romance with Hidden Treasure and matte top coat.

After our night out, we stopped by Walmart and did a little bit of grocery shopping. I stayed away from the cosmetics department until an idea popped into my head. I realized that I had no space for my polishes with the kits that I currently own, especially with 21 more bottles of polish coming my way! See previous kit post. So I picked up a Caboodles "doctor's bag".

L: Konad supplies, top coats, stripers, polish remover, cotton squares

M: China Glaze, OPI, Color Club

R: Sally Hansen, Wet n Wild, Joe, Minis, Sula and all others

China Glaze, OPI and Color Club

Sally Hansen, Wet n Wild, Joe, Sula, Minis, CQ, Rimmel, Maybelline

Next post will be my Valentine's Day mani and current one.

'Til the next Konadicure!

Giveaways!!

Scandalously Polished is having her Valentine's Giveaway with lots of awesome prizes!

(Picture taken from her blog)

Giveaway ends on St. Patrick's Day. You must be a follower to be able to enter. You can tweet about the giveaway (+1 entry) and/or blog about the giveaway (+2 entries).

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Rachel Marie  has her 300 followers giveaway which ends on March 10th!



(Picture taken from her blog)

 You can blog and/or tweet about this giveway for one entry each!

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Che is having a Follower Appreciation mini giveaway. A winner will be chosen on Feb 23.



(Picture taken from her blog)

You can have up to 4 entries if you are a comment with your e-mail address, if you are a follower, if you blog about the giveaway and if you suggest something you would like to see more on her blog.

More V-day Konadicures and failures

Hello beauty bloggers!! Hope you're all doing well. 

I've got 3 Konadicures to show you, 2 I like and 1 I am ashamed of. 

1st is a base colour of China Glaze Short and Sassy and stamped with Sally Hansen in Red Chrome. 

Taken in indoor light. It just won't photograph properly and my skin has such  weird colour. You can see tipwear because I've had this on for 4 days when I took these pictures.

Taken with flash. Short and Sassy is such a beautiful colour! I used the images from plates m64 and m71 and alternated the images on my fingers. Jay really liked this one. =) He remembered the bandanicure design from m64.

Please don't hold this next mani against me. I don't know what came over me that I thought it would work out. This was done at midnight so I'll just use that as an excuse.

Photo taken in natural light. Base colour was OPI The Show Must Go On. Super blingtastic polish that required 2-3 coats for opacity. Tips were stamped with Rimmel London Pure Silver.

I sent a pic of this to Jay and I said "I'm not sure about this one. I don't like it." He replied with "Yeah you're right. You should've kept the other one." =( FAIL.

So after having this for less than a day, I was determined to create a better one. And out came "Black Lace and Ruby Pumps".

First a swatch of China Glaze Ruby Pumps in natural light. Can I just say all the hype about this polish is TOTALLY DESERVED. I am so in love with this colour and the glitter is just amazing!!

I added 2 different stamps to imitate the faux lace design that Beautopia had done. First I used Wet and Wild Black Creme to stamp the fishnet image from m57 then added the floral pattern on m71.

Close up shot so the beautiful glitters can come out and play.

From afar this looks like a vampy red with glitters. But up close you can so see the lace design and the glitters peeking through!

I'll try to keep this on until Thursday and I'll change my manicure on Friday for V-day weekend!!  So excited for Thursday night, Jay and I are gonna be watching our very first live hockey game!! And I'll be rocking this mani while cheering for the Leafs.

'Til the next Konadicure!

Returning the favour

So in my last post I posted my haul from my friend from the Philippines. Since taking those pictures she has added 3 more bottles, Margarita, Vodka Ice (which she'll buy tomorrow) and another bottle of Weng-weng! I'm super excited! I will definitely post up pics when I get my 20 bottles. Super duper excited for my haul!

Since it was her birthday 3 days ago, I've decided to also return the favour and buy her China Glaze polishes from here! I will get her Jitterbug, Swing Baby, Mistletoe Kisses, Ruby Pumps, Bogie and White Cap. I'm also gonna get Ahoy for my fave actress there, Kim Chiu, who I miss very much! Haven't seen her since January last yr!! And I probably won't see her again until next year when I go home. She loves pinks so she'll definitely love Ahoy! Won't be able to send them out though until April cuz that's when someone is going back to the Philippines from here. 

Yesterday at Walmart I decided to pick up Hard as Hoof nail strengthening cream and Onyx 100% Pure Acetone so it will be easier for me to clean up around my nails. The HaH cream smells sooo good...cherry almond scent! I can't wait to see how it works, although my nails are pretty hard as it is so I don't know if I'll see a difference. I was THISCLOSE to buying Revlon Not So Blueberry scented nail polish but Chel talked me out of it by reminding me that I will be getting 20 bottles of nail polish in less than 2 weeks! Thanks Puppy!! =)

Upcoming haul!

Ok so I initially said that I was so disappointed at me not being able to go the States for my shopping spree.

Buuut...my friend from the Philippines had told me she was gonna get me some Bobbie nail polishes which are only available there. She sent me teaser pictures today on Facebook!

17 beautiful colours!!!! And if you can see the price tag it says P36.00 which is roughly $0.84 per bottle!!!

To get a better idea of what some of these polishes look like, here's a link to Camille's swatch of one of the polishes called Weng-weng. (Weird name I know but utterly gorgeous!)

I will be getting these polishes around the 3rd week of February and I'm so excited!! Ate Donya...you are the absolute best!!

Compliments and disappointment

While wearing my last mani combo, I've gotten some compliments on it! My boyfriend's sister likes the combo so much she asked me to do the exact same combo for her next week. 2 patients at work have noticed them. 1 of them wouldn't look me in the face while I was talking to her and I wondered why until she apologized and said she can't stop staring at my nails. Another couple also noticed it, the husband asked me if I get my nails done. I said no, I do them myself. I really love Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure, it really makes polishes look awesome!

Disappointment comes in the form of an empty bank account. =( My boyfriend and I had planned to go Stateside for Valentine's Day and do some shopping. I had to cancel that because I simply can't afford it right now. So no hauls for me for Valentine's Day. =(

On a brighter note, a friend of mine asked me to do her mani for an bridal shower and she offered to pay! Maybe she'll be the start of a nice little side business! ;)

Hope you're all doing well. We were swamped with snow yesterday and we've got some very nice sunshine today!