OPI Pink Friday Swatch & Review

Have you ever have a nail polish which you look so much but it just doesn't work well with your skin tone? Well, today I am going to show you a typical case which I love the color so much but have ended up not liking it on my nails. It is the OPI Pink Friday fron Nicki Minaj Collection. 

It was a love at first sight when I saw the first swatch online in last December. I told myself I would get this during my US trip in last Jan. But when I saw the color wheel display in Ulta, I decided to get Fly from the same collection, which I like, instead as I afraid I couldn't carry Pink Friday well with my skin tone. I didn't know it was a serious crush, I kept checking on this color after I had returned to Malaysia, so I decided to contact the local seller to bring 1 for me.

I was so excited when I received it and about to try it on my nails... But I ended up so disappointed as the color really doesn't work well on my warm skin tone. The pastel pink makes my already warm skin tone look dark which gives a big contrast between the hand and nails. When my bf saw this color on my hand, he said that I looked like I was having some serious illness. I ended up removing this color after a few hours, the quickest in my history.

Even it doesn't look good on me. The color really does look superb, it's the lovely bubblegum pink which every girl would fall in love with. It also reminds me of the childhood fairy tales princess. *grin* But I am really sad that I couldn't carry it well.

I am not sure if I get a bad bottle or it is the formula issue. It was really streaky and really hard to work with. I need to use 3 thick coat to get the color even. I also notice that the brush is a little different than the normal one. I really hope that I get a bad bottle so the rest of you who have this color doesn't have the problem like me. By the way, I did add a few drops of polish thinner and it did help. If any of you facing similar prob like me, you may also want to try adding polish thinner.

I really love this color so much that I must put it on somewhere, so I have painted it on my toes. Still doesn't work so well with my skin tone but at least it looks better on my hands.


Til next time... Esther

China Glaze Grape Pop Swatch & Review

For those who had been reading my blog would know that I accidentally 'burnt' my fingers while preparing dinner about 3 weeks ago. I'm not going to tell you the whole story again, you can find how could all that happen here if you are curious. *wink* Because of the incident, the skin around my finger tips are peeling off as you can see in the first photo. My bf says that my fingers now look like the experienced guitarist's. *laugh*

Hmm.. Are you looking at the lovely color on my finger nails instead of noticing the dry skin around my finger? That's what I am going to show you next...... *Drum Roll*  The China Glaze Grape Pop from Up & Away collections! It had been a while since I had last painted my nails with China Glaze color as I was overwhelmed by the new collections by other brands. I don't really like the recent China Glaze Spring collections and therefore I have been focusing on OPI and Zoya lately. But I do look forward to the Hunger Games and Prismatic collections though *grin* Okay, enough of all the old story.. I know you are anxious to see the color. 

China Glaze Grape Pop

Grape Pop is a blue based purple creme which is very similar to OPI Funky Dunkey (did I get spell it correctly?). I am not sure how similar both are as I don't own the OPI FD, but there are some comparisons photos on web where you could look for. I wanted to get FD but ended up getting this as I wasn't able to find FD. I got this color from my last trip to US on last Jan but had totally forgotten about it for the last 2 months. 

China Glaze Grape Pop - Natural light

Grape Pop is definitely gorgeous and I like how it makes my skin look fairer. The above two photos give a better idea on how the actual color looks like. I wasn't putting much hope before I put on this color but I did end up liking it so much.

China Glaze Grape Pop - Camera Flash

The formula is great but on the thick side which is the usual standard of China Glaze polish. You wouldn't have any major application issue and the color leveled itself out so easily. I definitely will use this color again in the future. What do you think?


Til next time... Esther

Zoya Dree Swatch on St. Patrick Day

It's St. Patrick's Day today! We don't celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Malaysia and therefore I have no idea what this day is all about. As curious as a cat, I decided to look up in the Wikipedia to understand better. Quoted from Wikipedia, St. Patrick's Day commemorates Saint Patrick (c. AD 387–461), the most commonly recognised of the patron saints of Ireland, and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland.

Green color and shamrock, a 3 leaved clover, always associate with St. Patrick Day and therefore I decided to put on a green color polish today. I don't have many green polishes in my Stash and today I have chosen 1 of my favorite green - Zoya Dree from the Smoke and Mirrors collection 2011!

Zoya Dree is the first Zoya polish that I own. Prior becoming a Zoya craze, I have been consistently reading good reviews on Zoya polish. During my trip to US on last Jan, I decided to pick up a bottle of Zoya at Ulta. Due to the tight budget, I only managed to pick 1 up (though I have a long list in my wish list :D). I fell in love instantly when the first stroke landed on my nail bed. Though today this is not my first time wearing this color, I am still in love with this color.

Zoya Dree - Flash

 Dree is a yellow toned olive green which work excellently on a warm skin tone like mine. This color reminded me of the army uniform which I used to see at the streets on weekends when I studied in Singapore.

Zoya Dree - artificial light

The formula is excellent like all other Zoya polishes. It was so easy to work with even the most careless person wouldn't make mistake when applying Zoya. This is one of the main reasons why I love Zoya so much, their formula never fail me. 

By the way, I went out bared nail this morning before I put Dree on. If you are interested how my bare nails look like, head on down to my another blog here.

Til next time... Esther

Candy Mani

I am never a creative person and therefore I usually just paint my nail with a single color. Plus I am super lazy, nail art is something that I would avoid doing it myself. The candy mani that I am going to show you is super easy which you do not need any additional nail art tool. I learn it from the tutorial OPI posted on their FB. 

All you need for this mani are a bottle of the sorbet color from the OPI Texas collection and a bottle of glitter polish. I am using Too Hot Pink To Hold'em from Texas collection and Teenage Dream from Katy Perry collection. 

Teenage Dream (L) & Too Hot Pink To Hold'em  (R)

To achieve the candy look below, I have swatched the Teenage Dream in between of the 2 layers of Too Hot Pink To Hold'em. The tutorial given by OPI is to use a cream color with similar tone as base color. I suppose you could use any color at the base but use the sorbet color on top. As I am not a creative person, I couldn't recommend any other color to be used as the base color. :)

Candy mani with OPI Too Hot Pink To Hold'em & Teenage Dream

This mani really does look great in person and it is super easy to do! Just like normal nail painting without having all the hassle. I definitely would try again with another glitter color, I wonder how it look if we replace the glitter with the recent flakies.. worth trying isn't it?

Til next time... Esther

Essie School of Hard Rock Swatch & Review

I know that I have been neglecting my blog for almost 1 week. I was super busy at work this week as I was going through some sort of qualification test at work. I am finally done and could steal some times to relax and update! 

Today I am going to show you Essie School of Hard Rock which is part of the Winter 2011 Cocktail Bling Collection that was released Q4 2011. It was love at first sight with this baby but it was overtaken by other color in my priority list, therefore I only purchased this in Feb 2012. Another reason that held me back from bringing it home earlier was I kept worrying that my warm skin tone would not able to carry this cool tone baby well.

But I have decided to give it a chance and today I am going to show you how this color looks on my warm skin tone.

 Essie School of Hard Rock is a greyish green with a hint of teal that made it leaning to the cool side. Well, you could tell that I was too paranoid about this color being too cool for me. It does look pretty on me isn't it.

I have no complain about the formula of this color, it went on smoothly like applying butter. The only thing I do not like about Essie polish is the tiny brush. I have a pretty big nail bed and I have applied a few more strokes to have my whole nail covered. 

The above swatches are with 2 coats with Essie First Base and Essie Good to Go. Now that I have used Essie Good to Go several times, I really recommend to those who are looking for a good fast drying topcoat. The only miss with Good to Go comparing to Seche Vite is Seche Vite has shinier finish.  

Hope this could help you to decide on this color if you have a warm skin tone like me.

Til next time... Esther

Ouch! OPI Mrs O'Leary's BBQ Swatch & Review

Does Mrs' O'Leary's BBQ really giving me pain? Nope, not really.. I really love this color and love how it looks on me. It reminds me of the delicious BBQ ribs. *drool*... But I had my finger burnt wearing this color and that's how pain is associated with this color. :) Full coverage on how I had my fingers burnt can be read at my another personal blog here.

The above was right after I had my finger burnt, the color is still pretty but my finger tips were all red. I took this photo while I was in excruciating pain, I wondered how I managed to press the camera button while in such great pain. :D I know you are admiring the color instead of the red spot :D:D, let get into swatch review.

OPI Mrs O'Leary's BBQ

This color is deep brownish red and that resembles the color of the BBQ sauce. I keep thinking about the BBQ ribs when looking at my fingers. I know I have mentioned it above but I couldn't help thinking of food by looking at this color, no wonder I am constantly feeling hungry after putting this color on.

OPI Mrs O'Leary's BBQ

The formula is superb leaning on the thin side, zero application issue. The first layer was a bit streaky but leveled itself well after 2nd coat. I have used 3 coats for full opacity.

OPI Mrs O'Leary's BBQ

With natural light, you could see redness of the color but in shade, it would just look dark brown. The base coat I used was Essie first base and Essie Good to Go which had become my recent favorite base and top coat. Maybe I should review on all the top and base coat that I have used since I am so particular on this.

Hope you like this color as much as I do. This is 1 of the many colors that I do not regret buying. You may want to get 1 for yourself too. :)

Til next time... Esther