China Glaze Ruby Pump

Hey, how have your December been? It's certainly hard to believe that only half a month to go before the end of 2012. December has not been entirely good for me. My room in my rented apartment was flooded since Thursday morning and all my stuff including my bed on the floor were all soaked with water that could come from the toilet of the above unit. Contacted the landlord and he will get someone over to fix. But at the mean time, I have to camp at my friend's room. That made me super bad mood and frustrated on Thursday and I seriously needed something to cheer me up.

Painting my nails is definitely a way to calm myself down. As I searched my stash, I found this classic China Glaze Ruby Pump which I had purchased about a year ago and had not put on yet. It's a loud, happy, fiery, sexy and hot red jelly based packed with red shimmer. Red is my favorite color and my mood has instantly changed since the first stroke of this color. 

This color really does scream CHRISTMAS to me. Think I might consider wearing this for the coming Christmas since I would have no way to get Zoya Blaze with reasonable price before Christmas. 

China Glaze Ruby Pump

It looks like my finger tips are on fire and I really love how it flatters my skin tone. 

China Glaze Ruby Pump

The shimmer is absolutely stunning under the sunlight, I really love how it radiate when the light strike on it.

China Glaze Ruby Pump

It's still beautiful even in the shade.

China Glaze Ruby Pump

This is an Macro shot that is not so successful, in my opinion, but I love how the crazy shimmers shining through.

What do you think of this color? I absolutely love this color and will definitely wear it more often in the future. I wonder why I have been keeping this color in the stash box without even trying it. 

Til next time... Esther

piCture pOlish Monroe (original & new)

I have recently developed a fondness towards piCture pOlish  an Australian brand that produces great variety of colors. This brand is considered pretty pricey compared to most of the other brands I own, price for one bottle range from USD12.50 to USD14.50. I think Picture Polish is the sister company to Ozotic, another Australian brand that produces great shades that I have not own any yet.

Monroe and Mask-a-rade are my first two from this brands. I had seen Scrangie's swatches on these two shades when they were first released and was so tempted to get them but the price really put me off. When piCture pOlish announced that they were going to discontinued Monroe, Mask-a-rade and some other Ozotic shades, I was in a dilemma whether to get them or not. 

I am glad that I have made the right choice of getting the original Monroe and Mask-a-rade before they are totally gone. I am really hooked to this brand after these two shades. However, I did not manage to get any Ozotic due to my budget. 

Notice I have mentioned "original" Monroe? piCture pOlish actually released a new/revamp version of Monroe not too long ago. I am going to show you both the original and the new versions.

Monroe has a vampy wine red base with some holographic shimmer. The original version is more subtle and the new one have more obvious shimmer. If I were to describe them as person, original Monroe is an introvert with shier personality while the new Monroe is an extrovert who is more outgoing and fun loving.

Original Monroe on the ring finger; New Monroe on the other 3

My ring finger is wearing 2 coats of the original Monroe with top coat and the other 3 are wearing 2 coats of the new one with top coat. The shimmer is more noticeable in the new version compared to the original one.

Marco shot: Top - New Monroe, Bottom - Original Monroe

The finish of the original one is more jelly-ish than the new version, possibly due to the amount of holographic particles. I also notice that the multi-colored shimmer particles are more noticeable in the original version and the new one looks silverish. 

I realize I need to do a better clean up job.. :p

Left: New Monroe, Right: Original Monroe

This photo may not show the differences between the 2 in bottles. In real life, the new one looks lighter and pinker while the original one is darker and more vampy-like.

Left: New Monroe, Right: Original Monroe

From the bottle shot above, you can tell that the original one has more noticeable multi-colored holo shimmer while the new one looks silverish.

I like both versions individually but I would prefer the original one if I were to choose between the two. I think the main reason is the more noticeable holographic shimmer in the original one. Before I end the post, here is a photo of the original Monroe with flash. Absolutely look the holographic shimmer.

Original Monroe with flash

Where to buy:

piCture pOlish shades can be purchased in Picture Polish website and they network partners. I have purchased from there 3 great shops that offer superb range and service. US based Llarowe by Leah Ann, Canada based Harlow and Co. by Katie, and Singapore based Star Trinkets by Susan. They all ship internationally.

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

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