Fall/Winter 2012/2013 French Manicure

Remember my last post on the Fall/Winter 2012/2013 nail trends? Well one of the things that was huge on the runway was this French manicure, with a nude base and dark tip:

I decided to try it out for myself to see how good it was in tea life, and I have to say, that this is pretty wearable.


Here, I used Rimmel Beige Style (totally the most underrated nude ever - why this isn't a cult favourite like OPI Tickle My Francey is beyond me), and I used Nails Inc Victoria, the perfect "oxblood" (that's what those runway folks are calling it, not me!) type colour for the season. It's also pretty opaque (one coat gives you full coverage) and so is perfect for these types of nail tips.


I actually freehanded the tips myself, and my key takeaway from this was that I should never attempt to freehand those tips, upon pain of death. I know I keep saying that I shouldn't freehand those tips, and then I keep on doing it, but it's because these things always look so much simpler than they really are! So I'm always thinking "I could do this!" until I actually do it, and then I'm like, "Oh crap."


I like the look, as these are very chic, but I feel like these aren't as practical as they look - once the tips start chipping, it becomes obvious that something is wrong with your manicure. But it does look great though, so maybe it might be worth the trouble for some.

Fall/Winter 2012 Nails: Classic Nude, Brown and Pearls

In my last post, I commented that this season's Fall/Winter 2012 nail trends were kinda boring, especially where colours were concerned, since this season's shades were mostly all dark vampies and fleshtone neutrals. So, I set out to jazz it up with a little bling, while still retaining some element of its classic, timeless feel. And here is the result - classic bling, in the form of pearls!

For inspiration, I actualaly looked at this modified french manicure, with a nude base and a vampy tip. It was making the rounds on the runway as part of the Fall/Winter 2012 trends this year. When I saw the look, I thought to myself, "That's a classic colour scheme, but I wonder if I could do something to it - it looks like it could use a teeny bit of bling."

(Source: Vogue)
So, I did just that! I retained the colour scheme - don't wanna mess with a good thing too much - but added the pearls, and changed the shape of the painted tip.


For the base, I used Rimmel Beige Style, which is seriously one of the most underrated polishes out there. It's cheap, available, and a classic shade that would probably look good on most people. Beige Style is a fleshtone nude creme (I think it's a creme anyway - it has the slightest of shimmer in the bottle that doesn't show up on the nail). For the nail tip, I used Megan Miller Ganache, which is a rich chocolate brown creme. I basically free-handed the curved tip using Ganache. It doesn't have to be THAT neat because the smile line will be covered by the pearls.


Can I digress a little at this point? I love Megan Miller polishes - the two I have are fantastic in terms of colour payoff, texture, and brush shape/size, but man, I really hate the bottles. The cork cap really annoys me to no end, because fluff and dirt and dust get onto the cap really badly. I have to like, do some dust removal every now and then. I think my cork cap is eventually going to get all moldy and gross (I live in a very hot and very humid climate near the equator), and I'm not looking forward to it. But anyway, moving on.


For the pearls, I used three different sizes of pearls and aligned them along the smile line from large to small. For handling of the pearls, I used the ever-helpful wet toothpick tip - basically you dip the tip of a toothpick in water, and the wet toothpick will pick up the pearls due to the surface tension of the water. When the pearl touches the wet nail polish, the pearl will stick to the polish. Much easier than using tweezers!


Anyway, this is my slightly-more-blinged-up-but-still-classic take on this Fall/Winter's French manicure. I'm really liking it, as it's easy to do, and looks great, even if you aren't into crazy nail art. In fact, my non-nail-polishaholic sister commented that she actually liked this look! I think it would be great to try this with other colour schemes too.

Chinese New Year Nail Art: Red, Gold, and Pearls (Just a Bit!)

Chinese New Year is coming round again, and you know what? This year, the first day of Chinese New Year actually coincides with my birthday? How cool is that? Anyway. Not that you wanted to hear about my birthday (I'm getting older, ugh!), but I'm sure you'll want to hear about my Chinese New Year mani.

So without further ado, here's my Chinese New Year's mani! Which, I guess, is also going to double as a birthday mani this year. I was inspired by this post which I stumbled upon, but I thought I'd make it my own by adding some bling, in the form of pearls!

For this mani, I used a Rimmel Fruities Lasting Finish Polish in Cranberry Zest. This was actually a launch from a couple of years back that featured scented polish (hence the "Fruities" name). Cranberry Zest smells kinda artificially sweet, but it's pleasant. While scented polish may be abit gimmicky, I like the little bit of fun they add to a mani. The design was done with China Glaze Hi-Tek, from the Khrome collection sometime back.



To make the designs, I used my Born Pretty Store nail brush set, using the longest brush to draw three lines on my nail. I don't know whether these types of lines are easier to draw or whether my skillz have improved, but the first time I did an NOTD with nail art brushes, the lines sucked a lot more. Yay for improvement!



Lastly, I added on some pearls from my Born Pretty Store pearl wheel for that extra bling. I used the smallest sized pearls for this one. I've recently been into pearls lately, as you can tell - my previous Winter-inspired nail art had pearls in it, and so did another deep red nail with pearls NOTD. But well, you know, I love my bling!



So there you have it, my Chinese New Years and how I did them. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it didn't actually take as long to do as I thought it would. If you have a steady hand, the gold lines won't take too long to do, although the placement of the pearls would take a little bit more time. Now I'm all ready for Chinese New Year!

Metallic Gold EOTD: Evil Shades Morning Star

Ooh, I'm finally stepping out of my comfort zone and wearing metallic shades on my eyes! OMG! What's next? Blue eyeshadow? LOL. Well, this came about because just awhile back I was raving about Evil Shades The Stars eyeshadow collection, particularly the shade Morning Star. I was going on and on about how it looked so cool once it was foiled, and I was just so excited that I had to do an EOTD (eye of the day) to show you guys.

So, ta-da! Here it is. I know it doesn't look like much, but I swear it looks better in real life. Photos seriously don't do this colour justice.



I'll be honest with you guys: being the glitter-phobe that I am, I seldom, if ever, wear glittery eyeshadows, so this was one of the few times I had to experiment with such a glitter-laden eyeshadow. Hence the fallout, so please pardon my newbie attempt! That said, I really love the shiny, sheen-y, shimmery effect this gave. Everytime the light hits my eyes from a different angle, I get all excited! It really does look much more vibrant and alive in real life...the photos just kind of flatten out the colour.



I paired Morning Star with Urban Decay's Twice Baked eyeshadow, a warm brown, because I'm boring like that, and it seemed like a sensible choice. I love Twice Baked, It's got some hint of shimmer, but not too much. I feel like it seems more of a matter to me than a true shimmer. It's awesome for pairing with zingy colours and for giving the eye a little bit more of a contour.

And another photo with my eye in this really weird angle. It was one of my failed attempts at capturing the complexity and blingy-ness of this colour.



Here's the breakdown for anyone interested:
Evil Shades Ice Star (applied dry for a highlight)
Evil Shades Morning Star (applied damp on lid)
Urban Decay Twice Baked in crease
Urban Decay Bourbon 24/7 Pencil Liner
Rimmel Lash Accelerator Mascara

I hope I did a good job at capturing the colour, and at not getting fallout all over my undereye and lashes!

(Evil Shades product was sent to me for review. Review is my honest and complete opinion. I am not affiliated with the company.)

Rimmel Lash Accelerator Mascara: Really Worth the Hype?

Rimmel has brought out a shiny new mascara with the most tantalizing of promises - not only does this is this supposed to make your lashes look longer and lusher, it's supposed to contain ingredients that promote lash growth, thus making your lashes grow and actually be longer after 30 days of use! Just check out their press release, which has these grandiose claims: "Instantly, lashes appear up to 80% longer. What's more, with continued use, they look fuller, stronger and lusher – up to 117% longer after just one month. Don't want to wait? Well, take a look at this figure: Consumer test results show that 88% of women saw longer, lusher and more numerous lashes after 1 week of usage."



That's a tall claim, and you know I love a challenge. And indeed, with my puny Asian eye and wimpy lashes (you know, short, sparse, and they GROW POINTING DOWN. WTF), I do personally believe that when it comes to mascara, I am a tough, tough customer. I have a few favourites, but none that I can call my true love, and so I'm always fiending for the next new thing. So while the jury is still out over whether I'm going to see longer, lusher, or more lashes after usage, I can tell you if, as a mascara (instead of as a treatment), it sucks or not.

The packaging of the Lash Accelerator is in a nice slim black tube, with holographic print declaring the mascara name. The cap is green. The outside is really sleek and pretty. The brush is your normal brush tapered at either end. Nothing special, really. But of course, the special thing about this mascara is not the brush, but the lash-growing formula, right?



First off, here's a picture of my eye, with no mascara at all. Try not to laugh, OK? I already said I had puny wimpy lashes! As you can see, my lashes are generally not my best feature. They're short, thin, and because I have what I like to call a "hooded lashline" (you know, when the lashline is covered by a fold of skin, much like the way some crease lines are hooded because they're covered by a fold of skin - it seems to mostly affect Asian eyes as far as I know), my lashes grow pointing downward. Thank goodness for lash curlers.



Because of my eye's, ahem, unique features, I end up being a very demanding mascara consumer. I want length. Lots of it. I also want volume, and lots of it too. Oh and did I say it also had to hold a curl? I don't particularly care if a mascara is waterproof or not, because my eyes aren't smudgy by nature, so I generally don't have problems with mascara smudging. Washable mascara's just fine by me, and it's easier to remove too. It just seems that washable mascaras don't hold a curl as well as waterproof ones, which is a perpetual source of sadness for me.

So, this demanding consumer, with excited, bated breath, held up the glorious wand which promised her lash growth and lengthening. And she applied the mascara, carefully, attempting to reach every last lash (hey, if it really does help my lashes grow, I'm going to coat every darn lash there is!). And this was the result:



Umm, okay. I guess the hype for this one had blown my expectations out of proportion, because as a mascara, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, It lengthened decently, and it volumized well enough, and it did hold a curl after a fashion, but honestly, I can think of other mascaras that worked better for me. It made me sad, it really did, because I was so excited to use it.

And you know what else? This is on the smudgy side for a mascara. I guess this has to do with Rimmel mascara formulas, which tend to be on the "wet" side (I have previously noted this when using Rimmel's Extra Super Lash Mascara). You can see in the close up photo of my eye that there are specks of mascara on my eyelid - those are NOT because I can't apply mascara properly, but they're there because when I opened my eyes after applying the mascara, it smudged onto my eyelid. And I don't even have oily eyelids. So when applying this one (as with other Rimmel mascaras), you might want to leave some time for it to fully dry before batting your lashes excessively.

Okay, the demanding consumer thought, unwilling to give up. So maybe one coat wasn't very impressive. But what if I pile on two coats? So she put on a second coat, and combed through her lashes with a lash comb (because you know, if you apply more than one coat of mascara it does tend to get a little clumpy and you have to brush out the clumps). And this is what she saw in the mirror:



I don't know. Are you impressed? I mean, it looks better, but it's two coats. Two coats, and a lash comb. If I'm really honest, I'd say I'm underwhelmed, especially after all the hype, what with Zooey Deschanel taunting me with her overgrown lashes in the promo pics and all (I hate you, Zooey, I really do). And you can see that when I opened my eyes after applying the second coat of mascara, it smudged onto my eyelid again - leaving behind more smudge marks. Sigh.

I'm heartbroken, I really am. I wanted to love this, but I think it's just eh-okay for me. Of course, mascara is highly subjective, so this might just work for someone else. And to be fair, every other blogger seems to be giving it a positive review except me. So maybe it's just me - like I said, my Asian lashes are very special and demanding. Only 2 or 3 mascaras out of the many I've tried have made me happy, and even then not "OMG SO AWESOME" happy, just "this seems to be the best I can do for now" happy. Seriously. Why is it that everyone likes this mascara except me?! *Groans and kicks dirt* Right now, I'm still using it to see how it works as a lash treatment, and I'll update on how it functions in that respect, but for now, the demanding customer's neverending search for a mascara continues.

(This product was provided for review. Yes, it was provided for review and I said it was just okay. So obviously I'm not affilated or paid by the company, and this review represents my honest and complete opinion.)