b'day nails

So,had the worst b'day period in my life. Tons of work and plenty of unhappiness to share :| I've been sleeping at around 3am every night for the last week or so................ sleepy sleepy.
Anyway, I went with a friend to http://felicitynails.blogspot.com/ a day before my b'day. That was the only 'off day' for me and I had to bring my netbook along to continue my assignments. =.=||
For a classic mani and prdicure, it costs S$35 and nail arts was an extra $20. I do like how cute my nails look :D

manicure: With Loves

pedicure: no name(?) lol~

Harried Post

:( too many things are going on now in this period of my life. A few weeks ago, my aunt passed away. Then My assignments started piling up and I've to prepare for micro-teaching. My b'day is just around the corner  yet I've still got too much work to do. Sigh..........

Here Today... Aragon Tomorrow Suede

1 coat

 The application is streaky, just like all suede polishes. When dried, some corners tended to crinkle or shrink a bit so I had to keep repainting until I reached about 5-6 coats for a few fingers. The color is quite unique though and I received plenty of compliments :)

Nordstrom Round 1ct Cubic Zirconia Earrings

These pair of earrings cost USD42 not including shipping. It looks pretty ok, but certainly not really that real :| I bought it cause some pple on the website were saying it looks authentic, like real diamonds. Well, those pple are obviously lying to themselves. Or comparing these to cheap diamonds. Real expensive diamonds look more sparkly cause of the cut.... well, that's not entirely true. It sparkles in the light but there are certain angles where you can tell it looks a bit fake..... but since I didn't pay thousands for real diamonds, I suppose these are ok........ falls below my expectations, and I certainly wouldn't have bought these since I can probably get something like it anywhere....... but it's an ok buy, I guess.

Marimo + gradation mani

I recently bought 3 Marimo balls :D I bought them from a fair at NTU from http://giveaplant.com/

Awwwww~ They look so cute!

 On the website, there's some hogwash story abt the plants being incarnations of a pair of lovers or something. :| I don't believe it but I do think the plants are really cute! :) supposedly the Japanese keep these plants as pets...............

Went to Ladyfinger @JP to do my nails again. Must use up that package quickly so i never need to go to them again =.=
Anyway, this is a gradation mani: opi last friday night, TINS 013 - The Relax Mint, TINS 005 - The Aquamarine.
Frankly, I think i could have done a better job. Especially since It started chipping slightly at the edges right after I went home and bathed =.=||  I think it's cause the manicurist was so stingy with the polish, so the layers were all so thin. Seriously. The more I go to this shop the more angry i get :|

Rescue Beauty Lounge Haul!

I've dozens of pics to show but just no time to update :| sigh...

Anyway, here are some pics of my recent haul from Rescue Beauty Lounge :) I order 8 polishes(prep, basecoat, Catherine, scrangie, iconoclast, Catherine h, insouciant, under the stars) and the spiced floral body cream.

The colors are all so pretty!!

Spiced floral body cream. It smells Absolutely Heavenly!!

Gelish Sweet Chocolate

So I went to do Gelish at Ladyfinger at bedok again and it seems the price has increased to $85 for classic mani, gelish color and removal. The manicurist said the previous promotion was over and so the price is now higer. Whatever. I think it's overpriced and the service wasn't very good. Seriously. If the service keeps going downhill, what's the point of buying a package?! The package isn't cheap and there's differential treatment AFTER you've signed on =.=

But Gelish products are nice so I don't mind going to OTHER manicure shops to get better services at better rates. Look, here's the color "Sweet chocolate". It looks like a common brown without light but under light it bursts into multi-colored glitter with predominant copperish-brown shimmer. Very pretty :)

Bling mani

So I randomly bought a small bottle of glitter from a small store and worked it into my mani for a bling effect :) It glittered like silver foil or fish scales in the sun! So very pretty :)

2 layers of OPI Paris Couture for sure as a french mani base (so bald spots will not show through the glitter)

Sprinkled glitter :)

Ladyfinger mani disaster

OPI I want to be a lone star

After the 1st 2 visits to Ladyfinger at bedok I felt it wasn't too bad and signed on for a package... I'm seriously regretting it now =.= Several things went wrong when I was there this afternoon:

When I reached at 2.50pm or so, I TOLD the girl that I needed to rush off before 5.30pm and she said it was fine, sure can finish by then.Pedicure was fine, I was ok with the service at that point. But I felt that she filed my soles much less than when I hadn't signed on for the package (talk about differential treatment). 

I asked for rose nail art on my thumbs. The manicurist did my right hand and I thought it was ok so I gave the go ahead for the other hand. BUT I got distracted for a moment while watching the TV show they had on and viola! she managed to screw up. Who in the world draws the nail art in the SAME direction on both hands??! Common sense lar! :( PLUS, it looked different =.= left hand design lines were FAT and ugly. plus position of roses was wrong! it needed to be closer to the nail line :( 

I grumbled a bit, but i was rushing for time and I let it go. Smudged my left thumb while taking out my wallet to PAY them. They told me to go back within 3 days to do touch up. Went back after my classes and asked them to do touch up. ONLY for them to say cannot. can only put top-coat for me. WTF! They ownself told me to come back later for touch up then say cannot when I went back. Maybe the damage is serious and they have difficulty 'repairing' lar, but attitude was seriously bad. How can they tell customer no way, i put topcoat for u and that's it. The vibes I was getting from them was that they didn't want to re-do cause too troublesome and they wouldn't get paid. I was furious and insisted they do SOMETHING to repair a bit. In the end, it turns out they COULD and SHOULD redo but once they started on the job they told me just need to add a bit more design no need to re-do. I say anything lor as long as not ugly. LOOK at the pics below!

See before and after. F***ing ugly. The black lines are not crisp. Looks like a kid drew it!!! I was really really pissed but I just packed up and left. can't be bothered liaoz. Too angry to quarrel or scold them. AND, I paid $8 per thumb for the nail art. This kind of lousy nail art I might as well NOT have asked them to do. ARGH!! 

ALSO, 1 crystal dropped within 2 hrs =.= maybe crystals aren't supposed to last, but at least should be a day or 2 later bah? lousy glue or lousy crystals? :(

smudge (BEFORE touch-up)

close-up of smudge

AFTER touch-up

close-up of AFTER

compare with nice right hand design. I asked 3 pple and they all said it looks DIFFERENT.

My pedicure. The ONLY tiny redemption in this lousy disaster

 

 

OPI Teenage Dream

This was the color I chose for my CNY manicure :) I was running out of time and decided to skip the original mani I had planned (red with gold konad) :| Anyway, OPI Teenage Dream is a BEAUTY. I didn't expect to like it so much! I'm going to get a backup bottle just in case :D It's a  jelly pink with tons of silver glitter and splashes of chunky holographic glitter. Total BLING under the sun!~ It remains a bit translucent even after 4 coats and I don't think it was ever meant to be fully opaque. Still, It's a beautiful color on its own and for layering! :)

1 coat

3-4 coats

With Topcoat

OPI The Show Must Go On

This was the color I chose for my toes on Chinese New Year 2011  :) Festive reddish-pink with slight gold duo-chrome, this fits the CNY theme of red and gold very well! I went to a manicure shop to get this pedicure done so that I could get a good massage for my feet. The manicure girl at Ladyfinger really filed my feet and the heels of my feet felt much softer/smoother at the end of the session :) I think overall Ladyfinger@bedok is a little pricey and overcrowded, though I still signed up for their package :| ah well, as long as I'm happy with the service.....

Gelish Test Run - 21 days

For the last 3 weeks I've been testing out a new nail product: Gelish. I passed by Ladyfinger at bedok central and saw the advertisement hanging on the door. It proclaimed that Gelish would last for up to 21days of shine without chips. This treatment cost me S$64.50(GST included) and 1.5hrs. Though not very cheap, I decided that this money could be considered well-spent if it meant 21 days of non-chip polish. The manicurist told me that the polish was less harmful than acrylic or Gel nails as there wouldn't be any filing involved. Gelish polish would create a protective hard layer that would protect my nails. I think the polish name is Midnight Special, though I can't quite remember.........

1st day 28/12/10 :

 3rd day 30/12/10:

 12 days later 08/01/11:

 23 days later 19/01/11:

SEE! Success! :) Perfect nails for the last 3 weeks! No chipped polish or tears in my nails! Wheeeeeeeeeeee! :) Absolutely lovely!