#SGSwatchFest - Mother's Day Nails

POSTED ON: Sunday, May 12, 2013 @ 2:19 PM | 0 comments

Happy Mother's Day to all mums out there!!

Today being the second Sunday of May is the day we celebrate Mother's Day. To show our appreciation towards our mums for all that she has done for us and to show how much we love them.

So for today's #SGSwatchFest, hosted by @cherchezbeaute, we honour our mothers with pink/red nails.

The base colour I used is two thick coats of CG's Angel's Breath, a very sheer subtle pink with one coat of my glitter topper PBK803 from Etude House. I quite like this glitter topper since all the glitter bits spread out very evenly and I didnt have to fish them out of the bottle. It also came with a big brush for easy application. The pretty glitters consist of white bars, black and white squares, black silver and white dots and black and pink hexagonal glitters. A pity my phone's camera didn't do much justice to it's beauty.

On my little pinky is a rose, I suppose it would be nice to present our mothers with flowers on Mother's Day too? Used my stamping plate from mashnails.com and painted over the leaves with CG's For Audrey since I thought red leaves looked a little strange.
(Do click on the photo for a larger, less faded out version!)

You can find more Mother's Day nails by other participants of #SGSwatchFest on Instagram too!


While on the topic of Mother's Day, here's what I got my mum for this very special day from ZALORA. An Anatomicals set called Don't Rush, Take Your Thyme! pamper pack. It came with a Help The Paw Vitamin Rich hand cream, "I've Had The Thyme Of My Life" cypress and thyme body cleanser and Not Another Rough Day Please body lotion. For just $20 per set and free shipping, it was a great purchase and of course my mum being a fan of such bath sets, loved it very much.

ZALORA was really efficient with the processing and shipping so I am really satisfied with their service. I placed my order for this pamper pack (and a crown necklace for myself) last Friday (3rd May) at around 2pm and they sent a confirmation email almost immediately. And to my surprise, they sent me another email on the same day at around 6.30pm to tell me that my order has been shipped out from their warehouse! How much more efficient can anyone get!?

And as promised, they delivered my package within 3 working days. Mr Postman appeared at my doorstep on the following Wednesday. The pamper pack and necklace was also wrapped separately inside the bag very neatly as well. Hello ZALORA I am impressed and you have yet another very satisfied customer. (:

Now I'm browsing the ZALORA website, very tempted to buy more stuff from them, especially this Melissa Harmonic II flip flop even though it costs $70. Even more tempted with them sending me emails on sales (oh my goodness 70%!) and this Blog-A-Review contest. So yeap, being a very satisfied customer in bid to win myself some shopping vouchers, here's my review on their excellent service! Thank you ZALORA! (:


Love,
Lorraine

Rainbow Gradient

POSTED ON: Saturday, May 11, 2013 @ 5:12 PM | 0 comments

Saw a rainbow mani on Instagram that day and I thought "oh my goodness that is so pretty I have to do it too!"
So here it is! My rainbow gradient nails with a pink ribbon on little finger! I love the little pink ribbon it's just so cute! Bought them from a school bazaar for $2 for a pack of 5 little ribbons.
Sponged on the colours with a make-up sponge before evening them out with the Seche Vite topcoat (decided not to buy the Seche restore so I'm using a new bottle now...).

Here are the colours I used:
Light pink -  from Etude House
Orange - from The Face Shop
Yellow - from The Face Shop
Green - CG's For Audrey
Blue - Revlon's Dreamer
Purple - OPI's You're Such A Budapest
Topcoat - Seche Vite

I love this rainbow gradient so much I can't stop staring at my nails all day hehehe (:









Moving on to something more upsetting, it seems like a surgery is unavoidable for me. Praying for a speedy recovery anyways. Please pray for me too... ):

Meanwhile, I will still be stuck at home on crutches and won't be starting my internship till next Monday. Which means I have more time to do my nails but I can't decide what to do with them. So help me out and vote which mani I should do next!

Which mani would you like to see on the blog next?
  
pollcode.com free polls 


Love,
Lorraine

Green Gradient

POSTED ON: Wednesday, May 8, 2013 @ 5:51 PM | 0 comments

Posted my nubies on Instagram this morning, wondering what I should do to them today since they've been bare for the past 4 days. @purrplecatclaws kindly suggested a glitter gradient, but I'm in no mood to clean off stubborn glitter polish these few days so here's another shot at normal gradients. Sorry dear I didn't exactly follow your suggestion but thank you anyway! (:

Green gradient nails for today!
I used CG's For Audrey, CG's Cherish, the darkest green from BeadStreet and the little green glittery topper from BeadStreet as well. Seche Vite topcoat (although it was pretty hard to use since it's really thick and gooey now). Considering whether to purchase the Seche's Restore Thinner from beautysofly.com since I still have another two bottles of Seche Vite topcoat and I predict that they will end up sticky and gooey after some time, just like my current one. Hmmm...it's $12, more expensive than my bottle of topcoat so I can't decide.

I really admire how other ladies manage to come up with  such perfect gradients while mine is just a little to messy for my liking. Yes I've watched tutorials on YouTube and such, using the makeup sponge to dab on the colours but they still don't turn out as nice as those by the other talented ladies. Oh well I guess practice makes perfect! (:

(You can click on the images to see them in a larger and clearer view, without the blurry effect from this blog which I still can't figure out how to get rid of!)

For now, I'm still stuck at home with my crutches but at least the swelling has gone down and I can somewhat put my feet gently on the ground. Thank goodness for the nice people at my company who allowed me postpone the start date of my internship. Grateful for this opportunity, thank you dear colleagues-to-be! And to my friends who have been asking about my condition, showing concern, wanting to visit me and even offering to help me get food and such, thank you guys for the love I really appreciate it! (:


Love,
Lorraine

Polish Days May Theme

POSTED ON: Saturday, May 4, 2013 @ 8:42 PM | 0 comments


The theme for this month's Polish Days as set by Hannah from PollyPolish.com is the Number 5 which stems from her "overwhelming memory of Sesame Street" of the number and letter of the day.
Actual day for this month's Polish Days is supposed to be 7th May but since I have all the time this weekend, I thought I would have a go at it today.

The theme 'Number 5' is indeed obscure and the first thought that came to my head was Brad Pitt's Chanel No. 5 advertisement. Of course I couldn't paint Brad Pitt on my nails. Since Hannah allowed a detour on the theme to celebrate Sesame Street, here are my Sesame Street nails featuring Ernie and Cookie Monster!
(I even included my thumb in the photos to show all 5 fingers, hoping to stick to the theme as much as possible heehee...)

On my right hand (yes I can paint with my non dominant hand ^^) is Ernie and his yellow squeaky rubber ducky in the bubble bath. Ernie looks a little strange but I love love love the rubber ducky! Base colour is Revlon's Dreamer, and it still dries with many ugly air bubbles. I can even see the air bubbles in the bottle! Anyone has any idea how to get rid of them?? ):

On the left hand is Cookie Monster with two cookies. My mum thinks they look more like mushrooms rather than cookies so that is a fail. I hope my Cookie Monster has some resemblance to the actual one...
Base colour is Fiery Orange from L.A. Girls. White and blue stripes are obviously freehand so sorry for the untidiness. Spent the whole day doing this mani and I really like it so it'll stay on for a few days (as long as it doesn't chip off on its own)! (:

Do check out other awesome nail enthusiasts and their take on the theme in the links below!!


Love,
Lorraine






Liquid Palisade

POSTED ON: Wednesday, May 1, 2013 @ 1:15 PM | 0 comments

In my last post, I mentioned using Liquid Palisade as some form of 'protection' for cuticles before starting on any manis that requires a lot of cleanup e.g. water marbling, gradient nails, watercolour nails.

So here's a short introduction of the product itself!
Liquid Palisade is a paint-on temporary barrier that protects against unwanted polish mishaps. It should be painted on areas where you don't want to have polish and can be easily peeled off after you're done with the mani! Sounds simple enough huh? Definitely good for areas around the nail and other types of nail art such as french manis, lines or window designs!
Do check out their website for more photos and videos: http://liquidpalisade.com/index.php

It costs $22 plus $1.60 tax (with free shipping to Singapore for a limited time only!). It's still a little pricey if you'd ask me and I will still stick to tedious cleanups or alternatives like taping for now. Maybe when I have more money to spare when I start working and have my own income will I splurge on such stuffs!

Disclaimer: I have not purchased nor tried this product. Neither am I paid to review this product but it seems amazing and useful enough for me to share it with all you dearies out there! (:



And apparently Cassy's last training with Flare would possibly be my last training with them too. All that I'm praying for now is that I don't need to undergo surgery and for my leg to recover on its own asap. Please pray for me too.. ):



Love,
Lorraine

Watercolour Nails

POSTED ON: Tuesday, April 30, 2013 @ 3:05 PM | 0 comments


Being stuck at home on crutches all day long isn't fun at all. In fact it's boring me to tears and I only have my dear laptop and bottles of nail polish for company.

So here's a another new technique I tried using saran wrap again and here's the result: Watercolour Nails!
Got the idea from MissJenFABULOUS's YouTube tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlyWfeVx2Z0

She painted her nails a white base but I was too lazy so I only used my usual OPI Nail Envy as my basecoat. I used 3 colors for this mani: lilac from Nature Republic PP402, a matte baby blue from Etude House and a very light baby pink from The Face Shop.

Although this mani wasn't as pretty as I had expected it to be, it was definitely fun to do! Blotting on the colors and using the saran wrap to spread out the colours onto the whole nail, yes it was very enjoyable and therapeutic indeed! A topcoat does wonders here in blending all the colours together once I'm done to give it a smooth finish. The end result is this pastel coloured watercolour nails, also somewhat marbled or whatever you wish to call it. Oh but cleaning up was a chore with the colours spread all around the nail so I would recommend taping up the sides of the nail (just like when doing water marbling), using some cuticle oil or this really interesting product called Liquid Palisade (which I will blog about soon!).

Daddy drove me out to Sushi Tei for lunch today. We shared a yummy seafood and vegetable hotpot and of course dessert to end of our lunch. The picture here is our dessert, they look a little like mochi but both of them are in fact ice cream. The pink one is strawberry ice cream covered in a milk chocolate shell and the green one is green tea ice cream covered in green tea powder. Yes that cheered me up a little for the day after seeing videos from my friends at yesterday's training which reminded me that I most probably might not be cheering again. ):


Love,
Lorraine


#SGSwatchFestFringe - Iron Man

POSTED ON: Monday, April 29, 2013 @ 5:24 PM | 0 comments

Exams are over and I thought I could look forward to an exciting summer through fulfilling my internship requirements and training for performances with Flare. But how unfortunate can I get to injure myself again from Saturday's training. Now I have a very painful + swollen ankle/joint and possibly need a surgery to screw my two separated bones together again. Sighhh ):
Now I am most worried about starting my internship on time or even starting it at all. I really need an internship and it was really difficult to finally get this one. Praying that I will be well enough to start work next week and that I won't need any surgery. Please pray for me too.


Alright, back to something less upsetting. #SGSwatchFestFringe! It was yesterday so I'm one day late, oops. This is my first time participating in #SGSwatchFestFringe, kind of like a mini impromptu version of #SGSwatchFest event that is held on Instagram. This weekend's theme for the mini event is Iron Man. Yes yes, it is to celebrate all the hype over the movie that was just released in Singapore last Thursday, 25th April.

I am not a fan of superhero movies but here's a mani to join in the fun anyway. (:
Base colour Rainbow colour 23 from a random shop that sells hair accessories and cheap nail stuff at AMK Hub. The gold colour is OPI's GoldenEye. Used the saran wrap technique to create the marble effect. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out as I had expected since the gold wasn't as obvious as I would have liked it to be. Should have know since Goldeneye was a glitter suspended in clear base to begin with. Didn't bother with clean up or topcoat, cleaned it off the moment I was done with taking a picture of it.

The one below shows the pretty red polish as my base color. Should have worked with that properly and did a little nail art instead of the saran wrap technique. Oh well.

Do check out the other ladies with their Iron Man inspired mani on Instagram with the hashtag #SGSwatchFestFringe! (:


Happy summer holidays!




Love,
Lorraine








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