Muted Sparkle

Muted Sparkle

Since the beginning of this year, I have rarely touched my vibrant coloured eyeshadows while doing my eye makeup. It's quite a shame really and the looks that I do are nothing to blog about as I'm almost bare-faced with just a touch of concealer, mascara, blush, and tinted chapstick on most days.

This look is from a while ago and it's all about the neutrals, but I did put a little more effort into this look by adding some shimmery eyeshadow on my lids and toning it down with some matte shades.

Eyeshadows Used:

• Cloves (Too Faced Smokey Eye palette) - all over the lid

• Up in Smoke (Too Faced Smokey Eye palette): outer third of the lid + blended slightly above the crease + outer half of the lower lashline 

• MAC eyeshadow in Mylar: tearduct + inner corner of the lid + inner half of the lower lashline + slightly brushed under the brow

These nails were around Valentine's Day, so I had chosen pink & added the heart on the accent nail.

Nailpolishes Used:

• Mary Kay in Bold Fuchsia

• Pure Ice in Don't You Wish (2-3 coats to get an even coating of the shimmer particles)

• Hard Candy in Matte-ly in Love

• Sally Hansen (Hard as Nails - Xtreme Wear) in White On - for the heart

I love how the nails turned out with a matte top coat over the shimmer particles. The muted sparkle nails are def something that I can see myself sporting on a regular basis.

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Review: Dressing Up Your Nails Using Konad's m36 Plate

Review: Dressing Up Your Nails Using Konad's m36 Plate

Spending time doing nail art is something that I usually stay away from since I find it time consuming & messy because I'm not really good at it so I waste more time fixing mistakes. The Konad stamping nail art kit, however, makes the whole nail art process a bit easier for me.

Base nail polish: Pure Ice in Electric!

The Basic Nail Art Stamping Kit by Konad that I received from Nail Polish Canada includes the stamper, scraper, mini Konad nail polish, & the m36 plate.

Price: $17 CAD

Buy it here

I looked at the directions first because I've never tried nail art stamping & the process looked pretty simple, so I tried it. It took me 2 tries to get the hang of it, but after that it was fairly easy.

Base nail polish: Sally Hansen's Insta-Dry in 170 Expresso

Base nail polish: Maybelline's Color Show Metallics in 100 Navy Narcissist

Base nail polish: Mary Kay in Radiant Red

This design is purposely close the edge because I wanted it to look like the butterflies were flying away.

For some of the designs, the edges didn't transfer properly because I didn't pick it up on the stamper very well. However, the more I practised, the better I got at it.

There were also times when I got delayed by maybe 3 seconds but by then the stamper didn't pick the nail polish. I think this was the most challenging part about the whole process but speed is something that you'd pick up with time as soon as you're comfortable with the process.

Another thing that will require more practice (or just being careful & quick) is if you would like to transfer the design to the edge of your nail, you might have to play around with the placement till you get it right.

Here are all the designs on the Konad m36 plate up close.

Overall, doing nail art with the help of the Konad stamping nail art kit was fun & easy; it just took a bit of practice & speed. I loved the second nail art design that I did in this post (the rose design across the top of each nail) - it was beautiful & looked like I spent a long time doing it!

Nail Polish Canada also sells various Konad stamping plates for under $10. I was browsing through some of them & I absolutely LOVE Konad's image plate #S6 because of the bold designs.

Have you tried any stamping nail art kits? How was your experience?

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Matte Mint & Sparkling Gold

Matte Mint & Sparkling Gold

Forever 21: Love & Beauty nail polish in Mint

Hard Candy: Just Nails nail polish in Matte-ly in Love

ALDO: peep-toe heels in the style Kinseth-85

Love this colour combo! ♥

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Review: China Glaze Magnetix Nailpolishes

Review: China Glaze Magnetix Nailpolishes

If you've read my nail related posts on this blog before, you might know that I openly admit at being horrible at nail art. My nails are usually bare & I hardly have the patience to let one coat of nailpolish dry completely. That's why it seems like the China Glaze Magnetix collection is made for people like me! I mean the concept is simple: apply nailpolish, hold magnet over the damp nail, & seal with a top coat. That doesn't sound too hard, right?

I was presented with the opportunity to try out & review 2 of these nailpolishes + the magnet by NailPolishCanada.com, which is a great site for Canadians who want to avoid paying ridiculous shipping & custom charges. Of course, I wanted to see whether these worked as easy as the concept sounded, so I agreed. When I was picking out the nailpolish shades online, I was not impressed with colours in this collection. I really wish they had brighter or bolder colours, but the two shades that I ended up picking out are Drawn to You & Instant Chemistry.

The night that I opened the package, I tried Drawn to You on one nail right away with the diagonal lines design on the magnet. The magnet was easy to use & I was impressed with the outcome.

 Using the magnet itself wasn't a problem for me since I had read the instructions & watched a tutorial on YouTube. I made sure I worked on one nail at a time & held the magnet over the nailpolish right after applying the nailpolish on my nail. At first I was only holding the magnet over my nail for the recommended 5-10 seconds, but I found that holding the star & chevron design over my nail for 15-20 seconds was a better option. The only problem that I had with the magnet was that at times I held my nail too close to the magnet & some of the nailpolish got on the magnet, so it might take you a while to figure out the perfect distance between the magnet & your nail.

China Glaze Magnetix nailpolish in Drawn to You

As with all China Glaze nailpolishes, the consistency & application is nice. I found that Drawn to You wasn't as opaque as Instant Chemistry, which might be a little disappointing to some because the magnet works best when you have just one coat of nailpolish on. If you apply a thick coat of Drawn to You, however, it looks fine in my opinion.

China Glaze Magnetix nailpolish in Instant Chemistry

As for the designs, I knew I wouldn't like the star design as much even before I tried it & I was right. Since the design shows up different on each nail, the star design doesn't look as nice when you apply that design on all your nails & I had problems getting it to show up nicely with the Instant Chemistry nailpolish. Another design that was hard to work with, especially with the Instant Chemistry nailpolish, was the chevron design that I had thought I would like the best!

The diagonal lines ended up being my favourite design because the outcome is always sharp & you only have to hold the magnet over your nail for 10 seconds for the design to show up properly. When I tried the diagonal lines design on all 10 fingernails, I couldn't believe how good my nails looked in such a short amount of time. It actually looked like I went to get my nails done! That's definitely a winner right there.

Which nail design do you like best?

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Review: Dotting Tool

Review: Dotting Tool

Since I'm pretty much hopeless at doing my nails, I thought I'd try out the dotting tool from BornPrettyStore.com. I haven't come up with any breathtaking designs yet (haha), but let me show you what I did so far.

I used the dotting tool to make a snowflake design on my nail in a previous post in which I did some nail art using rhinestones. I've tried to do coloured tips with them too & even though it works to do nail tips, it takes too long to get a proper & even line & the tips aren't as smooth.

The cute dotting tools that I was sent for review came in a pack of 5. They are double ended with different sized heads/tip. The tools are easy to work with & the size of the dot will not only depend on which sized head you choose, but also on how much pressure you apply while using the tool. After using it once, I was cleaning the head off with a cotton ball that had some nailpolish remover on it & the whole silver part came off. It happened once again on another head, so I think they need to use stronger glue.

Even though these tools can be handy, they're only worth the $4.74 if you like coming up with creative nail designs or are planning on doing nail designs with a lot of dots. If you'd like to try these dotting tools, click here more information & you can use the code SAIMESEK31 to receive 10% off your order.

Do you do nail designs with a lot of dots? Is this a tool that you would find useful?

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Review: OPI DS (Designer Series) Exclusive

Review: OPI DS (Designer Series) Exclusive

If I review a nailpolish you should know that I really like it because I don't review nailpolishes since I don't wear them enough. So let's get right to it...

Colour:
The OPI DS (Designer Series) Exclusive nailpolish is a berry/fuchsia/plum tone with rainbow holographic particles. The colour depends on which light you see it under, but the berry/fuchsia/plum tone isn't too dark or too light so I'd feel comfortable wearing it in any season. I usually don't like wearing nailpolish that has shimmer or glitter particles on all my nails but the rainbow coloured particles are so fine & look so beautiful under the sun that I would gladly wear this on my nails any day. Any other nailpolish that has rainbow coloured particles would look a bit childish or like something that would be suitable for someone in their early teens, but this nailpolish is a beauty!
My camera along with the lighting didn't capture the rainbow particles as nicely on my nails, but you can see them in the picture of the nailpolish bottle itself.

Wear:
In this picture I've only applied one thick coat since the nailpolish is opaque. The brush is great and it goes on smoothly, which I love because I hardly wear nailpolish & tend to get rather impatient while applying it. The only downside to this nailpolish is that it chips easily & it started chipping by the end of the 2nd day for me.

Aftermath:
The micro glitter particles come off easily unlike other glitter nailpolishes & it doesn't stain the nails even though it's a fairly deep shade & I didn't have a base coat on. To add to all that, this might hurt your pocket a little since OPI nailpolishes are a bit expensive, but if you wear nailpolishes a lot, then this is definitely one that you'll love!
P.S. I won this in a giveaway, so I don't know the exact price.


What's your favourite nailpolish?

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Rhinestone Nail Art

Rhinestone Nail Art

I rarely do my nails, but I was excited to try out these nail art rhinestones. I didn't know what designs to try, so here's what I came up with.

My favourite design is the mint green  nail polish with 2 strips of the purple rhinestones down the center. I chose to do this on my ring finger & I love how the purple stood out on the mint.

The red rhinestones all over one of my nails is an idea that I pictured would look better just on one an accent nail with the rest of my nails painted red, but I definitely didn't like it.

The other design that I wasn't a big fan of was the huge snowflake that I jazzed up with rhinestones.

The last design I tried was inspired by a string of colourful holiday lights.

I was given the opportunity to try these 12 colours 2mm rhinestones ($3.88) out from BornPrettyStore.com. I've used them for makeup looks before as well. The one makeup look that I've posted on this blog is the Spunky Bright Magenta Look & I used the hot pink rhinestone in the inner corner for it. I really like the size of these rhinestones because they are great if you have short nails & for the inner corner/tear duct area of the eye as well. The colours are great too, but I wish they had dark green rhinestones instead of the pale green ones (besides the dark blue). 

I'm most likely going to use these for makeup more than I will for nails. You could also use them to decorate all sorts of things or for scrapbooking. I think I'm going to try that soon. For now I'm loving using these rhinestones.

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Shattered

Shattered

Left to Right: Forever21 Love & Beauty - Purple; OPI - Silver Shatter.




I never really liked the shattered/crackled nails trend but I thought I'd give it a try. I found that OPI's Silver Shatter shatters/crackles the most when you apply a thin layer of it.

My mum said my nails remind her of Halloween, haha! How do you like the shattered/crackled nails trend?

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Review: Crystal Bowknot Shape Diamond 3D Nail Art

Review: Crystal Bowknot Shape Diamond 3D Nail Art

I had the opportunity to try some nail art from BornPrettyStore.com so here's my review. I had never tried 3D nail art before so I thought I'd give it a try & chose the Crystal Bowknot Shape Diamond 3D Nail Art DIY Decoration.



On their website, the price for 10 pieces is listed as $4.95, however, since I'm a reviewer I was sent 5 pieces but I didn't end up using those either. I'd usually make a pros & cons list, but the only pro that I have is that the bows are sparkly.

One of my biggest concerns was that the site did not have a size specified for the bows, so I was hoping that the bows were small so I could use them on one of my nails since putting bows on all my nails just isn't my thing. Sadly, when I received the bows I realized that they were a bit too big. Having that big of a bow on just one nail is a bit too much for me.
Then when I flipped them over, I was more disappointed when I looked at their back. The picture on the site shows the back of the bows, but I didn't think it would be that bad. I'm sure someone who is in to nail art could figure out a way on how to get the bows stuck to their nails without damaging their nails, but for the average person I think it's going to be a bit hard to do so with such a protruding back.

These 3D bows would be great for scrapbooking or other DIY decor projects, but using them for nail art doesn't seem practical to me. BornPrettyStore.com has a lot of nail art products such as rhinestones & nail dangles/charms & other things including false eyelashes.



I will be reviewing their falsies soon . Till then, check out BornPrettyStore.com & if you'd like to purchase something, you can use the coupon code SAIMESEK31 for 10% off your purchase before October 31st, 2011.

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Pink Leopard Print Nail

Pink Leopard Print Nail

Last week's nails.

These pictures were taken after I had sported these nails for 5 days, so excuse the chipped nail paint, but you get the idea.

I got asked why I chose to do the design on just one finger. My answer was that I feel like leopard prints with a hot pink background on all my nails would look overpowering.

I also got asked why I had the design on my ring finger. Well, if I chose to do it on my thumb, index finger, or little finger, I thought it would look weird & a design on just my middle finger would look a bit vulgar in my opinion.

I used a base coat, 2 coats of pink nail paint (it was actually a hot pink, but the colour is so off in the pics!), silver nail paint, black liquid eyeliner, & finished it off with a top coat.

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Nailpaint & Eyeliner

Nailpaint & Eyeliner

The other day, I was browsing around & came across a nail design post on Sabrina's blog. I loved the trick so much that I tried it right then & there!

The tip/trick was that you can use liquid eyeliner as a nail art tool & once the liner dries up, lock the eyeliner nail art in place by applying a top coat over it. I'm horrible when it comes to doing my nails, but that trick sounded so easy that I just had to try it!
I already had 2 coats of my yellow nail colour on so I grabbed my black liquid eyeliner quickly. I didn't want my nails to be too bold (since yellow & black are already such contrasted colours) so I opted for tiny black dots & was pleased with the result.

What I loved about this trick was that I had a lot of control with a felt tip eyeliner, so it was easy to do nail art on my left hand as well (which I usually suck at). & if I made a mistake, I could easily wipe off that bit with a Q-tip.
Tip: When you apply the top coat, do it quickly & gently.

Next time I'm definitely trying something more than just tiny dots!

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Revlon Runway Collection Nails Review

Revlon Runway Collection Nails Review

To promote the Revlon Runway Collection nails the Assistant Brand Manager from Revlon, Janet Lai, sent out the nails to various bloggers to try and review. Lucky for me, I was one of them as well. Even though a lot of bloggers have reviewed the nails already, I think some people might be interested in this particular review because it was my first time trying out glue-on nails! Let me start off my review with a picture of the result.

[Click images to enlarge]

The review is a bit long because I wanted it to be detailed & filled with pictures, so I've added a little summary of my review (list of pros & cons) as an introduction or for those who don't have the time to read it all.

PROS:

• Looks like you just got a manicure done - simple & from the comfort of your own home
  
• Many designs to choose from - simple, to glittery, to bold
• Medium length is just perfect!
  
• Many different sizes provided, so you're bound to find sizes that match your nails pretty closely
• Great price
  

CONS:

• Annoying air bubbles - people might not be able to tell from far, but I know they're there & that's good enough to bug me!
• Glue dries a bit too fast to apply an even layer of glue on your nail & the fake nail & then figure out how to put it on, causing a bigger mess
  
• Glue got on my fingers & wasn't easy to take off
• The maroon colour of the Mystic nails wore off the edges - I suspect that this might happen to the Studio nails as well
  
• Gems weren't all centered in the Mystic nails
• Like all glue-on nails, they're hard to take off (you have to soak them in acetone or an acetone based polish remover) & they damage your real nails
  

Here I've attached the PR flyer that Janet Lai e-mailed me before sending me the nails. I was excited to try the nails just after seeing the flyer!
From looking at the flyer, the collection sounds pretty good, doesn't it? The price seems reasonable for the product that they're offering as well. Keep reading to see more pictures of the nails & read my review on them.


When I opened the package that Janet Lai sent me, I found not only 1 or 2 packages of the Revlon Runway Collection nails, but I found 6 different designs! Of course, I was stoked! There's a close-up of the nails later on, so you can have a better look. But for now, here are the nails that I received.
Each package includes the following items: buffer, nail glue, manicure stick, & 24 nails (although, Starlet has 28 nails).
Glue - dries a bit too fast to give you the opportunity to apply an even layer on both your nail & the fake nail & then apply the nail.
Manicure stick - was very useful in trying to separate my skin from getting glued on to the fake nail, since I put too much glue at times that oozed out all over & made a mess by getting on all my other fingers & nails.
Buffer - a bit rough so I ended up using my own since I didn't want my nails to go through any more damage that they would be going through already.
More nails - a variety of sizes available, which is amazing because you can find a match that fits closely to your real nail without having to worry about filing the nail down to match sizes.

Here's a close-up of the 6 designs that I received

The designs range from simple that you can wear everyday, to bold that you can sport on a night out. Mystic was the first set that I tried because it matched my outfit on Eid (religious celebration, which was a few days away). I didn't think I'd like the dark colour so much for everyday wear, but surprisingly, once I had them on, they actually looked awesome & matched most of my outfits! However, they didn't look that great just after 4 days of me having them on...
I don't have a picture of them on, but I have the nails that I wore so I just took a picture of those. In the picture you can see that the edges of the nails are worn off, which was quite disappointing. Another disappoint was that all the nails with the gems didn't have the gems centered, but I got lucky & found nails with centered gems in the sizes that I needed. I wore the nails with the gems on my index & ring finger & both of them fell off within just 2 days!! Of course I wasn't going to sport these worn off nails on Eid, so I decided to try out my favourite design of the bunch: Sequins (91087).

I thought since it's my second time applying the nails, I would get better at it & there would be less air bubbles, but no such luck! (For reference, look closely at the picture above). Others couldn't really tell that I had air bubbles from far, but I knew better & saw my nails up close all the time, so the air bubbles looked disgusting & really annoyed me!

What I loved about the nails is the medium length. It is perfect! They're not too long to interfere with your daily activities, such as texting, typing, &/or writing, especially if you're not used to having long nails or having fake nails on. They really don't take long to get used to at all. They're not too long to look tacky either & you don't have to waste time trying to file them down to the right size.


& here's a little snippet of information, that's not directly related to the review:
Most people don't know that Muslim women can't pray with nail polish on. Actually, that's a lie... you can't perform ablution with nail polish on & you're supposed to perform ablution before your prayers. That's a whole different story, so I wont talk too much about that besides saying that the only time I can wear nail polish is when I'm menstruating. This is also means that I can only get a manicure during that week & the timing never works out, so I've never gotten a manicure done either!
I didn't mention all that just 'cause. I said it because the Revlon Runway Collection nails made my hands look like I just got a manicure & I could do it at home without having to worry about going to get a manicure done when I get my period. Now that was an automatic bonus for me!

Now, the question that's left is would I buy the nails again?

Personally, I don't think I would just because I don't like the damage that is caused to my real nails by the glue. Also, to take the nails off, you have to soak the nails in acetone or an acetone based polish remover. Acetone dries out your skin & I wouldn't want to use too much of it.

However, I still look forward to trying out the rest of the nails. I'm thinking I'll be bold & try Studio first. Or maybe Stella for a very simple look? Just hope I can keep the air bubbles to a minimum this time around.


Have you tried these nails before? Which one is your favourite design? How did you like the nails?

Hope this review helps anyone who wants to try these out.

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