Marble Nails

118: Zoya Sparkle swatches

2010-09-19T01:33:00.006+10:00

Hi Girls

Here are the swatches from Zoya's Sparkle Collection. I am so in love with these colours. They're so nice! This collection is great and fun for Summer :D

This is 4 coats of Ivanka and Charla. I love the green!!!

This is 3 coats of Nhidi, Gilda, Alegra, and Mimi

I also wanted to share my Lush bath from last week. I used my Still Life Flower Ballistic and I loved it! The scent is really citrus-y and it made the water so silky. I finished the bath with Buffy Body Butter. I originally wanted to use my Strawberry Feels Massage Bar but I didn't even need it since the Body Butter was so moisturizing!

So relaxing..

See you guys soon :)

xx
Joyce

117: Lush & IMATS hauls

2010-09-18T21:23:00.016+10:00

Hello Friends :)

I hope you guys are having a great weekend! It's been super hot in Sydney lately which is a nice change from all the rain we had last week. I took a day off from work last Friday and went shopping with my cousin because she was moving to Shanghai for work and I wouldn't be able to see her in a long time. I signed up to the Lush forums and recieved a 10% off coupon just for joining! Of course we had to take the chance to abuse this so we headed to Lush early in the morning and went a little bit crazy. My cousin picked up a tub of Mask Of Magnaminty and a Light Yellow Colour Supplement. They threw in a sample of Vanishing Cream for her to use on her pimples. Here are the things I got..

I actually don't really like the smell of Sweetie Pie but when I saw the sparkles and the wiggle and wobble I just had to have it! I hear it's great to use in the summer because you can actually chill this in the fridge :)

This is 140g of the Figs and Leaves Soap. I love this soap. It smells amazing and it's very moisturizing unlike the other soaps that leave your skin feeling tight. It also has a great texture for exfoliating :)

This is Buffy. He's a Body Butter. I bought 2 Body Butters that day so I got a free tin (yay) :)

This is the other Body Butter. His name is King Of Skin. I haven't tried this one yet (I want to finish Buffy first) but hopefully they'll have the same effects and will be super moisturizing!

Ma Bar and Honey Bee both smell like Honey I Washed The Kids Soap!!!!! I'm saving this bathtime combo for a stressful day at work :)

I wanted to try Dream Cream (it's Lush's best selling cream) and got talked into getting the Dreamwash too. I quite like the scents of both Dream Cream and Dreamwash so I hope it'll be good for my dry skin.

Look at all these samples!!! I don't even think we were the first paying customers of the day but the friendly girls there gave us tonnes of samples to take home. The best 'sample' of all?.. 1 HALF of The Comforter Bubble Bar (it was huge)! I love me Bubble Bars :D

After Lush we had a quick lunch and went for some Duty Free shopping in Circular Quay. I ended up getting a MAC palette and my cousin got a MAC Digi Pops palette in Peach and a super orange Anna Sui lipstick. I love duty free!..

This is my little MAC Palette: Trip Cool Eye Shadows. The colours in this palette are (from left to right) - Filament, Neutral Pink, Carbon, Flirty Number, Little Minx and Flashtrack.

Today I woke up super early and met my friend Teresa in the City for breakfast. We finished our breakfast and headed over to Darling Harbour because the IMATS came to Sydney :) We booked our tickets a month ago and overall we did manage to pick up a few things here and there. To be honest though I don't think I would spend money to go again because it was a bit disappointing. When they first announced the exhibitors they had brands like Make Up Forever, MAC, OCC, Hakuhodo, Ben Nye and many more. When we got there we couldn't find MAC and OCC (I really wanted to buy lip tars) and the rest of the suppliers had very limited products (except for Hakuhodo & Crown Brush). You would have to order a lot of them in. We watched a presentation by Koren aka Enkore (from Youtube), grabbed our stuff and headed back. I think we only managed to spend around 2.5 hours there. Booooo :/ Here are the things I managed to grab..

My mini haul :)

I'm so glad we went early because the Make Up Forever Aqua Creams sold out really quickly (well the colours we like were all sold out when we left) Since they were one of the first stands we headed over to them first. We each got an Aqua Cream in 02 and a Aqua Eyes pencil in 3L. After walking back and forth we decided to go back for Aqua Creams 01 and 04. We both got one of each colour. We were lucky because we managed to grab the last 01.

I wanted to try Ben Nye after hearing good reviews on Youtube. I picked up the popular Total Cover-All Wheel in SK-200 and an extremely awesome Silver Shimmer Crayon! I love this crayon the quality is amazing.. I just wish they had more colours!

After watching Enkore's presentation I found the Hakuhodo stand and wanted to try out some of their brushes. The quality is amazing. Even though I bought the less expensive ones you can still feel that it's very well made. These were $47.00 for 2.

Also I ordered this a long time ago but forgot to post it.. The Australian Lush website had a special 'Have A Night In For 2' deal and basically all you had to do was call Lush Mail Order and ask for the sample kit. The consultant will ask you a few questions about your skin and help you put together your little sample skincare pack. I thought this was a great chance to try some of the Lush skincare items. The kit came with 7 items for $19.95! I caved and also got another Sakura scented flower bath bath ballistic. Here are the things in my kit..

I LOVE Angels on Bare skin, Ultra Bland, and Celestial. I think I'll use my 10% off skincare discount on a full size pot of Celestial next time.. it's just so moisturizing!

PS. The Sakura bath ballistic was very moisturizing but the scent made me a bit sick. It was just too floral. I couldn't stand it so I had to cut my bath time in half..

Thanks for making it to the end of the post. I'll have swatches of Zoya's Sparkle collection up tomorrow. Talk to you guys soon!

xx
Joyce

116: Mini haul swatches

2010-09-15T20:46:00.006+10:00

Hi Friends!

Here's just a quick post with a few swatches from my little haul earlier. I think this is the first time I've taken photos during the day! :D

These colours are from Zoya's Winter Matte Velvet collection. This is 3 coats of Veruschka and Savita!

This is 3 coats of OPI's Cuckoo For This Color. I love this colour! It looks so pretty in the sunlight.

This was my mani from a week ago. I used Zoya's Luna from their Ultra Glitter collection for this gradient. Doesn't it look like snow? :)

These are the 2 other colours from Zoya's Ultra Glitter collection. This is 3 coats of Nova (pinky purple) and Astra (pink). I love these colours!!!

This was swatched from the OPI Shrek-Tacular Minis. I hated the mini brush. I couldn't get the polish to apply streak free so this is 4 coats of What's With The Cattitude?, Fiercely Fiona, Rumple's Wiggin', and Who The Shrek Are You?. I'm not a huge fan of this collection but I did LOVE the movie :)

Hope you guys enjoyed this post! I have a Lush post coming soon.

PS. Do you enjoy reading Lush posts or would you rather only have me blog about nail polish? Please let me know what you think :)

xx
Joyce

115: Sydney International Spa & Beauty Expo 2010

2010-09-15T19:50:00.005+10:00

Hi Everyone :)

Sorry for not blogging in a while but work has been so busy lately. I hope you guys still enjoy reading my little posts from time to time. I just wanted to share my nail polish haul with you all. I didn't get a lot of things this year but I was still happy with what I got. I was really disappointed because I didn't get there early enough to book a Minx manicure. By the time I got to the stall it was only 10:30am and they were fully booked out! The big highlight this year was definitely CND's Shellac! There were so many people lining up for demos and I loved the product. Although it would be better if they released more colours this year. I guess that's a good marketing strategy though.. adding new colours every year :)

I forgot to bring my camera to the Expo but even if I did I wouldn't be able to take pictures there were just too many people! Hope you guys enjoy this mini haul :)

Mini stash..

I had to get a refill of my Zoya Remove +. I bought 2 extra ones for 1 friend and 1 blog pal (requested) :)

I found great colours at the Zoya booth this year. I loooved the Sparkle collection so I bought 2! One for my cousin (she's moving to China for her job) and another for my sisters in Hong Kong. The other collections I got were Zoya's Ultra Glitters (I've wanted them since last year!) and Zoya's Winter Matte Velvet (2009). One of my friends came over to our family dinner last Friday and she loved Harlow (from Winter Matte Velvet) so I ended up giving that one to her (it all happened so fast I didn't even have time to swatch it for you guys.. sorry!)

I didn't like OPI's deal this year so I didn't end up getting a lot. Their new colours weren't really interesting anyways so I ended up getting backups of Happy Anniversary! and Princesses Rule!. I got Russian Navy for my coworker and ended up picking out 2 for myself. I got Catch Me In Your Net and Cuckoo For This Colour. My cousin (Again!) locked her eyes on my glittery OPIs and took away my backups of Happy Anniversary!, Princesses Rule! and Catch Me In Your Net. I let her have the backups because I can just get those from Bankstown whenever I wanted but the only reason why I was willing to give up Catch Me In Your Net was only because I felt like it looked really similar to Zoya's Charla (from the Sparkle collection). I also found these 2 OPI mini sets at the Expo for $10AUD each (WOO HOO!)

I was super excited to see Orly this year only because they weren't at the Expo last year. This is Orly's Sweets collection. I got this for my little sister. Last time I saw her she was really into painting her nails it was adorable so I thought that this would be the perfect colours for her age! (Pictures taken without and with flash.. I feel like the with flash picture portrays a more acurate colour)

I'll be back soon with swatches!

PS. I'm going to the S.H.E. press conference in Sydney tomorrow! Yayyy :D

Joyce

114: Mini Lush haul and NOTD

2010-08-30T19:03:00.008+10:00

Hi Girls

I just wanted to share another little Lush haul (accumulated from 2 visits to Lush) and my NOTD. Hope you guys like it :)

I'm loving Lush so much these days! I take Lush baths every Friday and Saturday night :D Here are some things my boyfriend got me and also some things I bought while I went shopping with Julia last Thursday..

yay :)

Strawberry Feels Massage Bar. OMGBBQ this is so nice! Julia and I both got one each. It smells like strawberries and is quite moisturizing. But it's actually too big to fit into the massage bar tins :(

Soft Coeur Massage Bar. I think this one smells like a super sweet version of Honey I Washed The Kids! I love this one too it's super moisturizing and 'buttery'. YUMMY! (yes that's real chocolate!)

Shimmy Shimmy Massage Bar. I haven't tried this one out yet but I liked the subtle vanilla smell and the sparkles! So much sparkles :D

Julia and I ended up buying 4 Massage Bars in total to I got 2 free tins. The QVB store was out of the Massage Bar tins so they ended up giving me the Body Butter tins instead. I was super happy since I like to use the Body Butter tins a lot more and they're easier to store.

I hopped in to Lush with my boyfriend 2 weeks ago when I recieved an email saying that the Limited Edition Springtime bath ballistics were in stores. They have 3 'flower' bath bombs to choose from and I wanted to get all 3 when I saw the email but after smelling them all I thought Still Life had the best scent. So I only got that one. It's very citrus-y and so pretty :)

This is what I'm using now for my hair. After moving to Australia I've developed a really dry forhead/scalp. I've tried so many different conditioners and creams but nothing has really cured it. I got a sample of Daddy-O Shampoo with my last Lush haul and I loved it! It smells like violets and is very lovely to use. My boyfriend like the smell of the shampoo and bought me the big bottle! (I kinda made him) :) While I was picking out my shampoo the girl at Lush in Chatswood was super helpful and gave me a free sample of the Conditioner she liked to use. She gave me a bit of American Cream and OMG I'm totally hooked. It's very moisturizing but doesn't weigh your hair down. I loved it so much I bought a big bottle of it last Thursday while I was shopping with Julia. It's actually my fault that we ended up getting so many things at Lush. All because of American Cream..

This was my NOTD (more like nail of the weekend)

I used 3 coats of OPI's Hey! Get In Lime! and 3 coats of China Glaze's Something Sweet

This is what it looks like when I added 1 coat of China Glaze's Fairy Dust (I love that polish!)

I hope you guys enjoyed my little post. Talk to you all soon!

PS. To my readers in Australia. I'm attending the Beauty Expo again this year on September 4th, 2010 and I was just wondering if there's anything you'd like me to buy for you? Just so you know this Expo is only open to people within the beauty industry and all the products sold there are sold for trade prices. Last year when I went I picked up a huuuge haul and I would've easily spent $700 for everything (since everything in Australia is so expensive) but in the end after 4 full bags of products I think I ended up spending around $350-$400? If any of you Aussie girls would like me to get you anything from the expo please either leave me a comment on this post or send me an email. I will comment or email back to you for confirmation. For a list of the exhibitors at this years expo please visit:

www.internationalbeautyexpo.com.au/en/visiting/exhibitor-list/

Joyce

113: Colourful leopard mani

2010-08-29T09:51:00.003+10:00

Hi Everyone :)

I just wanted to share a super quick post. I did this for a party I went to 2 weeks ago and I even got a few compliments that night *blushes* This is just a fun mani and you can definitely play around with the colours to create your favourite look. I used China Glaze's Lemon Fizz and Flying Dragon and outlined the spots with LA Color Art Deco Nail Art Lacquer in Black. I hope you guys like it!

I'll be back soon with a mini Lush haul :)

xx
Joyce

112: SURPRISE!

2010-08-27T21:04:00.005+10:00

Hi Girls!

*Thanks to those who shared their opinions in my last post. I really appreciate your comments*

I met up with my friend Julia (who I haven't seen in a million years) and we had the best time just shopping and catching up on Thursday (Thursday is Sydney's shopping day where all the shops are opened until 9:00pm) I met her at QVB when I finished work and she surprised me with CHANEL!!! That crazy girl. I was so excited and I guessed what was in the pretty package right away haha. Julia got me 2 Limited Edition colours. Chanel's Storm and Chanel's Steel. OMG these 2 colours are so pretty! I definitely preferred Storm over Steel at first but after testing them out.. I LOVE THEM BOTH. Can you guys tell that I'm super excited? Julia told me that these 2 colours were only supposed to be released as Limited Edition colours for the SOHO Chanel store in NYC. And they haven't even been released in NYC yet! But for some crazy reason they were selling it at the Chanel cosmetics counter in Sydney. I tried them out tonight and I love it. These were both 2 coaters with a very smooth application :)

The pictures below were taken with flash..

I luuurve you Julia!

See you guys soon :)

xx
Joyce

111: Please read

2010-08-25T19:46:00.003+10:00

Hi Everybody

I wanted to post a fun nail art entry today but the events of the Hostages in Philippines has completely ruined my spirits. Some of you might know that a couple of days ago an ex-police officer in Manila hijacked a Hong Kong tour bus and shot dead 8 Hong Kong tourists. I cried at work when I read the news on CNN. Not because they were Chinese or anything but just the pure stupidity of how Philippine officials handled the situation. If it were any other race/nationality/country I would still feel the same. It just feels like 8 innocent paying lives were sacrificed. All I keep thinking about were the brave people on that bus. Some who died trying to subdue the gunman and the children who now have become orphans. We gathered at work today and spent a few minutes in silence for the wives who've lost their husbands and children, for the grandparents who've lost their children and grandchildren and for the children who've lost their parents. Let us all hope that those who failed on the innocent lives will get what they deserve.

PS. I really didn't want to talk about this because it just makes me completely disgusted but there are photos going around the internet taken the day after the shooting of Filipino schoolgirls and even police posing and smiling in front of the bullet hailed bus.

What can I say or even feel about that? It's not worth it to waste my time on rat bastards who show no sympathy for the dead. It took you 10 hours to settle the hostage situation. 8 dead. You're really proud of that aren't you? Whatever. They're garbage.

110: Sweet nail art

2010-08-14T12:14:00.005+10:00

Hilo :)

I have a little mani to share with you all. I cheated this time and used decorative stickers I bought from my last vacation to Hong Kong. I used 3 coats of China Glaze's White-Kwik-Silver (this is such a pretty polish) and added the little stickers for a sweeter look.

This is just the colour without the stickers.

I used this 'Fruits & Sweet 3D Rubber Art' :)

Complete!

Hope you guys like it!

xx
Joyce

109: My first Lush haul

2010-08-13T21:19:00.007+10:00

Hello Friends :)

I just wanted to share a big mistake I made earlier this week. Yes it was a Lush haul. A totally UNnecessary Lush haul.

I'm quite a late bloomer when it comes to makeup and Lush but a week ago I finally visited the Lush store here in Chatswood and picked up a 500g bottle of Happy Hippy Shower Gel (I LOVE THE SMELL) and a 100g bar of Honey I Washed The Kids soap.

Usually when I pass by Lush I would get really annoyed with the mixture of smells so honestly I have no idea how I ended up buying their products!

Since it was my first time the very happy/helpful salesgirl gave me 2 free samples (so sweet). She gave me a 30g bar of Sexy Peel soap and a sample size cup of Flying Fox Shower Gel. I hated Flying Fox. I wanted to give it to my friend but then I thought that would be really mean because it smelled so bad. Little did I know it would become one of my favourites! I used half of the sample cup last night and I loved it. I couldn't stop smelling my skin. It's just smells so.. different (good different). I loved my Lush products so much that I gave my coworker my Sexy Peel soap sample. She said that she really liked it and that it smells like lemonade :)

So on Tuesday night I went to the Lush website to see what other products they had since I heard a lot of youtubers rave about the bath ballistics. Much to my surprise they had just started a new promotion.

*Buy $80 worth of Lush products and receive your choice of bath product (bath ballistic, bubble bar, or massage bar) for FREE!*

Immediately I thought to myself OMG HOW LUCKY am I to have seen this promotion while it was still valid!!! I'm such a sucker for this kind of stuff. Anything that's for free.. I just want it all! So there I was naively choosing my $80 worth of products and being all happy and giddy about the great deal that I totally forgot to add in the shipping charges. I ended up buying just over $80.. $80.20 to be exact and decided to choose the most expensive *FREE* item there was - The Comforter bubble bar at $10.50. It wasn't until after checkout that I had realized that shipping was going to cost me $9. If we work out the math I ended up only getting $1.50 worth of free products :(((((

Well boo-hoos aside I still really love my little Lush haul. I placed the order on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning and I received my package Thursday early in the morning at 7:40am to be exact (I chucked a sickie that day because I had a feeling that my packages would be arriving - how gay am i - i need help) It felt like Christmas time in August and I was so happy with all the things I got!

Here is my little Lush package all wrapped up :)

I love how they recycled the Newsletter used it as packing 'stuffing'!

Ta-dah!

These were my FREEBIES! (My free gift - The Comforter and they gave me a free sample of Daddy O Liquid Shampoo - this is soo good I used it together with Flying Fox and the scents.. OMG SO GOOD)

Look at how big the bubble bar is (it's huge!)

Rockstar Soap (I took it out of the Lush paper and wrapped it in saran wrap. I don't like to keep them in the Lush bags cause they soak up a lot of the oils.

Body Butter tins. I really loved these tins but the Body butters didn't interest me at all so I ended up just getting the tins for around $5 each. (If you buy 2 Body Butters Lush will give you a tin for free!)

Flosty Gritter and Sunny Side Bubble Bars :)

Here's what they look like! SO MUCH GLITTER :D

Bath Ballistics. I chose a Butterball and 2 Ickle Baby Bots. I got the Butterball because it was the most popular bath bomb and it smells like Honey I Washed The Kids. I got the 2 Ickle Baby Bots because honestly I just wanted something cheap to get my $80 and I think these were $3.50 each.

Look at his little robot face! :)

The last 2 products I got were fragrances. I chose the Candy Fluff Body Powder and Honey I Washed The Kids Solid Perfume. I love these scents so much I want to eat it!

As you guys can probably guess from my tone I was indeed very happy with my little Lush haul. There's still so much more I want to try but I'll do my best to control myself and only buy more when I finish these :)

Another package I got on Thursday morning was my Victoria's Secret order. I actually ordered UGG boots for my mom and I found that Victoria's Secret had the best international shipping rate. My package came with a Victoria's Secret catalogue with Australian model Miranda Kerr on the cover :) My mom has wanted her own UGG boots since the beginning of Australian Winter and I promised that I would get her a pair. Along with the boots I also got 5 pairs of PINK undies (5 for $35) and a PINK Spa Wrap. During the time of my order PINK was offering a FREEBIE too!

*Buy any PINK item and receive a free PINK Me Up Shine On Lip Gloss* These glosses are usually 1 for $7 or 3 for $15. I got the Pink Lemonade colour.

PS. I didn't even get to play with my KATE eyeshadow for a week and my boyfriend broke a piece of it (far left). He reached for his face cream and pushed my eyeshadow off the ledge :(((

That's it for now! Sorry for boring you guys with all my words.. :/

Joyce

108: Japanese makeup (mini) haul

2010-08-07T19:56:00.012+10:00

Hi Lovlies!!!!!

Gosh I missed you guys so much! I missed writing in this blog. I'm so sorry to have abandoned this blog for such a long time but I live in Australia and here in Australia we don't have the luxury of super fast UNLIMITED internet access. There's always a limit and we ALWAYS get capped. My internet has been so slow lately because our modem is #%$@!& so we're looking in to getting a brand new one soon. I wanted to post a nail entry today but I'm going to re-do the look I did today because I feel like I could've done better. Instead I wanted to show you guys my new babies. They arrived from Japan a few days ago. I'M SO EXCITED :)

Group Shot!

This is the Shiseido Maquillage Face Creator (3D) in number 66. When I purchased this blush I mistakenly bought only the refil and not the WHOLE item (case+blush+brush combo). I'll post a picture of the case+brush when I get it.

This is the KATE Gradical Eyes palette in GY-1. This palette even comes with a nice eye base (far right). I thought this was going to be a greyish (smokey) colour but it just looks like dark brown to me.

This is the KATE Gel Eye Liner in BR-1 (brown w/a little bit of glitter). I like this one better than the black. It looks a bit more natural and the glitter is not noticeable.

This is the KATE Diamond Cut Eyes palette in BR-3. This is my favourite palette! The brown and pinks are so nice :)

Just to clear things up: I'm a total newb when it comes to makeup but I've been really into reading makeup blogs ALONG with nail blogs so I just wanted to try these out. If you guys want swatches of the products I bought then just leave a comment to let me know.

See you guys tomorrow with a nail post!

xx
Joyce

107: French tip of the day

2010-06-27T21:38:00.004+10:00

Hi Friends!

I just wanted to post a quick picture of my NOTD. I love french tips and I love them even more when they're not just the classic white colour! I decided to play around and ended up with this simple look. Hope you guys like it :)

French tip colour: 2 coats of Orly's Dazzel.

See you next time!

xx
Joyce

106: Hello Kitty Mani..

2010-06-21T20:49:00.005+10:00

Hi Girls!

I think the title of this post says it all! I don't know if you guys will remember but a while ago I posted some pictures of Hello Kitty fimo I purchased. Now it's a least 1 month later and I'm finally here to show you guys how I've been playing around with all the bits and pieces. This was very fun and simple to create and I hope you guys enjoy it!

These are products I used to create this look:

2 coats of OPI's Alpine snow as the base colour.

2 coats of China Glaze's Lemon Fizz (the yellow colour).

2 coats of China Glaze's Something Sweet (the pink colour).

Hello Kitty and Hello Kitty Bow fimo.

I hope this post made you happy. I had so much fun with this! I'll try to be back with more nail art soon!

Joyce

105: You Don't Know Jacques

2010-06-06T18:44:00.003+10:00

Hi Friends!

I'm sorry I don't have much time to update but I just wanted to show you my NOTD. This is 3 coats or OPI's You Don't Know Jacques. I really like this colour because I think it looks like chocolate milk! I've had this for over a year and I think this the first time I wore it. It's very work friendly :)

I'll have something better and gel-y for you guys next week. Sorry for not updating I really didn't mean to ditch this blog. I've just been a bit busy lately. See you soon!

xx
Joyce

104: Long time no see!

2010-05-01T20:36:00.006+10:00

Hi Friends!

First of all I missed you guys all so much! Sorry but I've just been so busy with everything lately I haven't had the time to update this little blog. I hope you're all doing well :D I finally got some time to go to ProNail Supply today with my boyfriend and believe it or not I only walked out of there with 5 polishes! This is unusual for me because I usually leave with 20+ bottles. This is good though it just means that I won't be buying as much anymore since I already have most of their colours. Yay for saving money! I just wanted to post a quick update and share some new swatches and goodies with you :))

This is 3 coats of OPI's Birthday Babe.

This is 3 coats of Orly's Blue Suede and Purple Velvet.

This is 3 crazy coats of OPI's Mad As A Hatter. I love the crazy glitter :)

Bonus:

Last but not least.. this is the loot I ordered off Strapya recently. Love the Hello Kitty fimo!

Talk to you soon!

PS. My boyfriend is now an Australia Citizen :)

Joyce

103: New polish swatches

2010-03-26T23:03:00.004+11:00

Hi Lovelies!

I'm so sorry for not updating sooner but with work and my boyfriend coming back from China we're still trying to settle in. I took advantage of my fried Julia and sneaked in 7 new polishes when she made her Transdesign order. I know you've all seen these before but I was so excited I had to take a few pictures of these swatches :)

This picture was taken with flash. These are all 3 coats. From left to right: OPI's Pearl of Wisdom, China Glaze's Lemon Fizz, China Glaze's Peachy Keen, and China Glaze's Something Sweet. I love the pastel colours and I think that Pearl of Wisdom is great for work!

This is 3 coats of OPI's Jade is the New Black. I'm so in love with this colour. I've never seen this type of green before. It's so pretty :)

I thought that these 2 colours looked so similar! Can you guys see the difference? I'm wearing China Glaze's Dorothy Who? on my index and ring fingers and OPI's Absolutely Alice on my middle and pinky.

Ps. I'm also really really sorry about not making any more videos. Thank you so much to those of you who watched it and left comments. I don't have a camera at the moment but I'll try to make one when I can :)

xx
Joyce

102: Gel nail art samples

2010-03-06T19:39:00.004+11:00

Hello :)

I'm sorry for the lack of updates but I've been a bit busy lately with randomness. I played with colour gels today and wanted to share these 2 designs with you guys! I hope you all like them :D

This is a champagne glitter base gel design with real dried flowers and Swarovski rhinestones ^^

This is a double coloured french design with watermelon and strawberry fimo!

I'll try to update soon!

xx
Joyce

101: Gel nail art samples

2010-02-18T22:29:00.003+11:00

Hi Everybody :)

I just wanted to post a quick update and share my gel nail art samples with you guys. I made these designs with clear and coloured gels. VERY FUN!

So sorry I haven't been updating but I'm always tired after work. I'll try to get a new video up this week! Is there anything in particular you guys want to see? Let me know :D

xx
Joyce

100: My Valentines day nails

2010-02-15T00:49:00.003+11:00

Hi Girls!

I hope you've all had a very lovely Valentines day with your loved ones. I just wanted to share my Valentines day gel nails.

I sculpted my nails using clear gel and used a pink glitter gel. Then I added crystal rhinestones and heart shaped spangles to complete the look. Hope you guys like it :)

Joyce

99: Nautical nails - cutesy style

2010-02-06T08:59:00.005+11:00

Sorry but I don't have the time to write a full post. I hope you guys can understand from all the pictures. The polishes I used were L.A. Colors Art Deco Nail Art Lacquer's White, Baby blue, and Gold and the embellishments are just gold bullion beads and small purple and pink rhinestones! If you guys don't understand the steps or have any questions or comments please write to me and I'll get back to you asap! :)

xx
Joyce

98: Valentines day nails #4

2010-02-04T19:18:00.005+11:00

Hello Blogger Friends :)

Sorry I haven't updated in a while I've just been learning lots of new stuff at work. Anyways I wanted to post another Valentines day nail sample for you guys. This one is very shiny with big rhinestones and glitter polish and best of all it's very simple to create. I hope you guys like it!

Here are the products I used..

OPI's Alpine Snow and China Glaze's Ruby Pumps.

Large red, pink, and clear rhinestones and silver bullion beads.

First off I painted 3 coats of OPI's Alpine snow for my base colour. Let dry.

After the base colour dried I used China Glaze's Ruby Pumps and painted on a heart shape in the middle of the nail. I wasn't worried about painting it on perfectly because I planned on using the silver bullion beads to outline the heart to give it more shape.

To finish it off I added large pink, red, and clear rhinestones around the whole design :)

mmm sparkly!

Joyce

97: My first video :)

2010-02-01T07:10:00.002+11:00

Hi Guys!

I created my first video last night and uploaded it on to youtube. Creating the video was actually the easy part because uploading took me 2.5 hours! If you do watch it please watch it with the 480p resolution which is the better resolution.

Since this is my first video I was a bit nervous so there were a lot of brain farts and random fillers such as 'ums, basicallys, and soooooooo' , please excuse that and I hope to get more comfortable in front of a camera from now on. Also I didn't decide to record my face into the video because I find it funny sometimes when I'm watching other peoples videos and all of a sudden my computer would be buffering the image and their faces are just stuck in time and either they always have one eye blinking or their face would look weird overall.

Here is the link to my youtube account: www.youtube.com/user/marblenailstutorials :)

I will most likely be making a video and uploading every Saturday and I'll be sure to let you guys know on my blog. I started off with a general video for my first one which is 'How To Remove Your Nail Polish'.

Please give my little youtube account lots of love by commenting, rating and subscribing if you can. I'll be sure not to neglect it and have at least 1 update a week for you guys! Also please let me know what you would like to see and I will try my best to make a video for you :D

xx
Joyce

96: Taking a break from Valentines day nails

2010-01-31T17:47:00.004+11:00

Hi Girls :)

I just wanted to take a little break from all the pink and hearts to post this nail tutorial for a classy Japanese-ish style look. Hope you guys like it!

Here are the products I used..

OPI's You're A Doll and Happy Anniversary!

Acrylic rose and Nail glue and Konad: Image plate m57 and Special Nail Polish in White.

First I started off with 3 coats of OPI's You're A Doll as the base colour. After that dried I painted on a diagonal strip using OPI's Happy Anniversary.

After everything dried I stamped on a Konad lace pattern in White Special Polish and glued on an Acrylic flower.

I think this look is very very pretty. I think I'll wear this for my first day at work! Without the flower of course :)

xx
Joyce

95: Valentines day nails #3

2010-01-30T15:57:00.005+11:00

Hi Blogger Friends :)

I just wanted to post another one of my Valenetines day nails for you all to see. Again for this one I went with the cutesy style. Hope you guys like it!

Here are the products I used..

L.A. Colors Art Deco Nail Art Lacquer in Baby Pink and Black and China Glaze's White-Kwik-Silvr.

IBD's Monomer and Bright White Polymer.

Multicoloured pearls and Silver bullion beads.

First you want to creating the overall look of this design. I knew that I wanted a reverse french and verticle lines. I ended up using L.A. Colors Art Deco Nail Art Lacquer in Baby Pink and Black for the verticle lines and decided that I would use Baby Pink again for the remaining reverse french semi-oval.

It looked very weird having the pink join to gether in the previous picture so I added 2mm irredescent pearls to the reverse smile line.

Afterwards I decided to sculpt a large heart from IBD's Acrylics to give it more of a cutesy look.

To finish it off I added a coat of China Glaze's White-Kwik-Silvr to the 3d heart and used silver bullion beads to give it an outline.

Easy and cute no? :)

PS. Near the end of 2009 as some of you know I went for a 1 month vacation back to Toronto and China. During this 1 to 1.5 months on the road I had to take 8 flights in total. By the end of my trip I vowed to never take an airplane for as long as I live. Unfortunately that didn't go well because I'm actually going to celebrate my birthday this year in Gold Coast with my boyfriend. Anyways.. I love Failblog and I found this funny video of a janitor cleaning the moving sidewalk. Honestly when I was waiting for one of my transfers in HKIA I actually saw something similar to this and it was hilarious! Take a look see :)

xx
Joyce

94: Valentines day nails #2

2010-01-29T23:06:00.004+11:00

Hello :)

This is a Valentines day nail sample for all the girls who love cute and pink things!

Here are the products I used..

OPI's Princesses Rules! and China Glaze's It's Poppin.

IBD's Acrylic Monomer and Bright White Polymer.

Irredescent heart shaped spangles.

Japanese brand heart shaped clear rhinestones.

First I used 2 coats of OPI's Princesses Rules! for the base colour. After that dried I painted on a fuschia coloured tip with China Glaze's It's Poppin.

Now you could've left the bright fuschia colour the way it is in the previous picture but I thought it was a little too 'loud' so I went over the coloured tip with an extra coat of OPI's Princesses Rules!. After that dried I added a few irredescent hear shaped spangles to the coloured tip area of the nail. You can add it anyway you like. In this particular one I chose to randomly scatter it around on the tip.

After everything dried I then sculpted a bow with IBD acrylics and added a heart shaped clear rhinestone to the center.

This look is very easy to do and it took me less than 7 minutes to complete! You should try it out for Valentines day :)

There are more designs coming up so stay tuned!

Joyce

93: QUESTION

2010-01-28T19:30:00.002+11:00

Hello Friends :)

I just had 2 quick things I wanted to run by you guys.

First things first. I've noticed that I have new followers from time to time and I would love to add your blog to 'My Bible' of blogs so if you would like me to add you on my list please leave me a message to let me know. I'll be updating 'My Bible' on Sunday.

Also I was just wondering what you guys think of videos. I was thinking that I can make a few quick and easy tutorials and upload the videos on to this blog or youtube. Anything from how to give yourself a manicure to gel nail designs. I wouldn't mind taking requests either! Would you guys be interested in watching nail tutorial videos?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated :D

xx
Joyce

92: Valentines day nails #1

2010-01-28T14:03:00.006+11:00

Hi Girls

I don't know why but I'm really into writing step by step posts lately. Let me know if it annoys you lol. My friend Teresa's been reading my blog lately so I just wanted to say a quick HI DUMBDUMB :) She's funny random sometimes but I still love her!

So Valentines day is coming up soon and I just thought it would be fun to show you guys some Valentines themed nail designs. I had to cut my nails super short so that's why I haven't been swatching as much but I will soon I promise. I still have so many colours to share with you. I hope you guys like this one. I think it's quite cute and it's very simple.. which I love.

Here are the products I used to create this look.

First I painted on a white base colour with 3 coats of OPI's Alpine Snow.

While I waited for the white base colour to dry I took my 1/4" and 1/8" heart shaped Fiskars Hand Punches and punched out a design on to a piece of double sided tape. When you're working with the double sided tape you want to remove most (not all) of the stickyness. I just tapped my finger against the tape over and over again. This is important because if it's very sticky, when it comes time to remove the tape you'll remove the white base as well.

Now that you have your non-sticky double sided tape go ahead and press it onto the white nail you have previously prepared. You can place it anywhere and any way you like. After the tape is secured to the nail go ahead and paint in the colours of your hearts. Remember to remove your heart stencil right away after you have applied colour to the design. Don't wait for it to dry. I've found that if you leave it on for too long then when it comes time for removal parts of the heart will come off too. This pink is just 1 generous coat of China Glaze's Preppy Pink.

Keep on adding 1/4" and 1/8" hearts until you're happy with the look. Along with China Glaze's Preppy Pink I also used China Glaze's Electric Lilac.

Here's what the finished product looks like. I filled in the rest of the nail with mini hearts in alternating Preppy Pink and Electric Lilac colours. I think this look is a good alternative to the usual red/pink nails we see all the time :)

For some extra sparkle I added a thin coat of OPI's Happy Anniversary! to complete the look.

I'll be posting oher Valentine nails so check back later!

Meeka naping on a fresh summer afternoon. Mmm napping.. :)

Joyce

91: Coloured french tip nails

2010-01-27T15:27:00.004+11:00

Hello :)

This is just a quick post on a colour french tip design with random rhinestones. I love french manicure designs but sometimes it's boring to be so 'proper' all the time so one of my favourite things to do is to wear the style with different coloured tips. It's fun and you can use any colour you're in the mood for. I used OPI's Greenwich Village for my green tip, L.A. Colours Art Deco Nail Art Lacquer in silver, and added a few acrylic rhinestones to complete the look. This is my way of creating the fun french tip style but if you don't like rhinestones or glitter then you can just do the colour smile line by itself.

These are the products I used for this look.

Create your smile line with the colour of your choice. I used 3 coats of OPI's Greenwich Village. Now you can use the french manicure guide stickers but I think it's easier to paint it on without the sticker.

This idea is optional. I added a thin silver glitter stripe with my L.A. Art Deco Nail Art Lacquer. I like shiny things and if you made a mistake with your smile line in the first step then this is a great way to hide the booboo.

This is also optional. Take the rhinestones of your choice and add it on to your coloured tip. You can arrange them in any way you prefer to get the look you want. Don't be afraid to move them around if you're not happy with the design.

And we're done! Very easy no? I was feeling fidgety so I ended up rhinestone-ing the whole tip. Even I think this was a bit too much lol. Should've left it as is in the prevous picture for something more subtle.

This is an alternative look to the design. I added OPI's Alpine Snow to the rest of the 'nail' for a different and cuter look.

My valentines nail design will be the next post :)

Joyce

90: Leopard print nails

2010-01-26T16:31:00.005+11:00

Hello :)

It's Australia day today so I stayed home and my aunt came over for a manicure. I also had time this morning to make a leopard print design. This is very simple to do and you don't have to be neat at all. I think the leopard prints look more realistic when it's a bit sloppy :)

This was my inspiration..

A pretty scarf I got from my boyfriend's aunt.

I used Zoya's Harley as the base and Jo for the leopard spots. I also used L.A. Colors Art Deco's Nail Art Lacquer in black for the outline.

First I painted on 3 coats of Zoya's Harley for an even base.

Then I randomly placed 'blobs' of Zoya's Jo all over the nail. I like to start in the middle and work my way to the sides.

After the spots dried I took L.A. Colors Art Deco Nail Art Lacquer and roughly outlined the spots to give it that leopard-y effect. Let it all dry for a few minutes and you're done!

Matchy matchy :)

Joyce

89: OPI swatches

2010-01-26T01:19:00.008+11:00

Hi again!

Sorry for all the random updates but I wanted to paint my nails tonight and I found my OPI haul from the Sydney International Spa and Beauty Expo. I decided to swatch a few colours tonight and I'll finish with the rest in the next few days. Also I just wanted to ask a quick question. I usually swatch and take pictures at night and I almost always use flash. Do you mind that the swatches are done at night? Would you prefer me to swatch in the morning and take pictures in the sunlight? Let me know what you guys think :) Anways here are the swatches. These pictures were taken with flash and I used 3 coats for all the colours.

This is OPI's No Room For The Blues from the OPI Brights 2009 collection. I was standing in line choosing my colours when this one just popped out of nowhere. It was so bright I just had to take it home. I really like this polish it's a beautiful sky blue colour.

This is OPI's Here Today... Aragon Tomorrow and Suzi Skis In The Pyrenees. These two seemed to be the most talked about colours from OPI's Spain collection. In the 2nd picture you can see what the colours look like with just 1 coat and by the end it's really hard to tell which is which. I have Here Today... Aragon Tomorrow on my index and ring finger and Suzi Skis In The Pyrenees on my middle and pinky. To see the colour difference just click to enlarge the picture.

Last but not least..

I didn't buy this one at the Expo. Instead this has been with me from the very beginning. OPI's Midnight in Moscow is my go to as the 'dress up for date night' polish. I use it more than Chanel's Rouge Noir. I'm about half way done with this bottle so I think I need to stock up soon (clearly just another reason to buy more nail polish!)

Does anyone want to guess what these are? I got them in Hong Kong at my favourite store!

These are Muji's Christmas themed paper clips! How cute <3

RANDOM:

This is going to sound really really weird but I've forgotten how to sneeze properly. I used to have a great way to make the sound really soft but ever since the mid 2009 I just go all out and proceed with the AH-CHOO. I don't know what happened but if anybody can teach me how to sneeze discreetly again I'd really appreciate it :)

Joyce

88: Purple creme comparison

2010-01-25T22:04:00.006+11:00

Hi Girls

First things first. I'm totally obsessed with an online game called QQ Farm. Similar to MSN Messenger Chinese people have an instant messaging program called Tencent QQ. Since my boyfriend is still in China and it's hard for him to go on MSN I decided to download the English version of QQ. For the first couple of weeks the only reason why I would log on is to talk to him but my cousin who just got back from China asked me to play QQ Farm with her.

This is my farm. I'm at level 5 so therefore I only 7 squares of land and not a lot of money.

This is my cousin Kristy's farm. Look at all those squares!

Kristy even has a barn!!! All the animals look so cute :D

Now the only problem with this game is that it's all in Chinese and my Google translator wasn't able to pick up the translations. I don't know how to read or write Chinese but my cousin gave me a quick tutorial and stayed with me for a few hours while I settled in. Let me tell you this game is crazy addictive! It's sad to say this but the highlight of my day is to play this game and sometimes even when my boyfriend messages me I don't reply to him right away because I'm too busy with farming. I think Facebook's Farmville is the english version of QQ Farm but trust me it's NOT the same. It's no where as fun or exciting as this farming game. So the objective is to take care of your farm and steal crops such as vegetables, fruits and even cactuses from your fellow QQ friends' farms. Now the only problem is that I only have 5 QQ friends so I don't get to advance to high levels easily. People with more friends like my cousin has already reached level 20 within 2 months of playing. Sadly I'm still at level 5. Anyways the idea is that you have to plant seeds and there are specific crops you can plant for the level you are at. Also each seed has a set time to grow. The least amount of time for crops to mature is 8 hours and because of the time difference I find myself stay up until 5am to steal other users crops. After you steal their crops you can sell it at the market and use the money you make to buy more seeds to plant in your own farm. Come to think of it there's really nothing GREAT about this game it's just the adrenaline of stealing your friends' corn or lettuce. I'm trying to stay away from the game by doing more polish swatches but it's hard to quit cold turkey :p Let me know if you play too so I can add you and steal your crops!

Okay so anyways I was swatching Zoya's Malia last night I thought that this colour looked extremely familiar and today while I was cleaning my closet I found OPI's Do You Lilac It?. No wonder I thought that I had seen this colour before. Do You Lilac It? was one of my favourite colours so I decided to do a swatch and see if they were the same.

In the bottle they look very familiar but once I swatched it onto my fingers it seems like Zoya's Malia is a bit darker than OPI's Do You Lilac It?.

Anyways I finished cleaning the rest of my room today. It took me forever to organize my closet. My cousin and I are Spring cleaning this week so that's why I'm so organized.

Luckily my closet has sliding glass doors so when I need to I can hide my clutter. Closets are the best aren't they? :D

A little dose of Meeka..

My dog had watermelon as a treat tonight and fell asleep in her new tent (from IKEA!) I think she was tired from all the tricks she had to perform for her treat :)

xx
Joyce

87: Zoya swatches

2010-01-24T21:58:00.008+11:00

Hellooo :)

Back in August I went to the Sydney International Spa and Beauty Expo. While I was there I picked up Zoya's Twist collection for $42AUD which is supposedly half price! This collection came out a looong time ago I think back in Spring 2009 and I'm pretty sure everybody's familiar with it. Sorry for not swatching sooner but I finally had time to play around with these polishes tonight so I thought it would be fun to go down memory lane.. (These pictures were all taken with flash)

Cassi, Barbie, Moxie, Malia, Jo, and Harley.

This is 3 coats of Harley. Harley is so pretty you really don't expect it to be this colour. I thought it would be darker.

This is 3 coats of Barbie. Barbie speaks for itself. This is definitely a Barbie pink but not really my cup of tea.

This is 3 coats of Zoya's Cassi. Cassi is a bit sheer but it's very pretty and girly. I think Cassi is a bit better for my skin tone than Barbie.

This is 2 coats of Jo. Jo looks more subdued and definitely not as shimmery in person. It looks to me as more of a grey-blue colour combo.

This is 2 coats of Malia. MMM purple creme-y goodness :D

This is 2 coats of Zoya's Moxie. Moxie looks more red-purple like a raspberry in real life.

I'll try to be back soon with some more gel nail samples :)

PS. I cleaned my room today and it took me 5 hours (seriously) but I'm pretty sure it'll be trashed again within the end of this week :/

xx
Joyce

86: My mom's gel nails

2010-01-19T21:55:00.007+11:00

Hi Girls

I just wanted to update and show you guys my storage solution. A lot of polish bloggers are using IKEA's HELMER. I think that's a really great idea but I got something called the ALEX instead. All the furniture in my room is white so the ALEX fits in perfectly. It's more than enough for my little nail polish collection so I used the rest to store other misc. items.

I also did my mom's nails tonight. She wanted to try gel nails so after 2.5 hours this was the outcome!

This is a beige-silver glitter gel gradation with a real dried flowers! Very pretty :)

PS. I was in the living room today watching season 5 of Friends when I noticed a mini rainbow on one of my couch cushions!

xx
Joyce

85: Gel nail art sample

2010-01-16T18:10:00.007+11:00

Hi!

This is just a quick update. I wanted to show you guys what I've been doing with my afternoon. I played with my new colour and glitter gels. What do you guys think of the design?

These were all really fun to do but I definitely need to practice sculpting a bit more. My flowers and bows have gotten lazy.

More nail art samples to come :)

Joyce

84: Colour gels

2010-01-14T16:29:00.005+11:00

Hello Girlies :)

I recently placed an order for 2 dozen coloured gels and acrylic flowers online and the wonderful delivery man brought my package to me this morning! I haven't tested out the quality of the gels yet but I'm quite happy with the colours. I ordered 2 sets. The first set is the solid opaque colour gels and the second are the fairy dust glitter colour gels. What do you guys think? I really like the glittery colours.

This picture was taken with flash. This is the Solid Opaque Colours Gel set. My only wish was to have more darker colours like a royal blue or a black but this is still good :)

This picture was taken with flash. This is the Fiary Dust Glitter Gel set. I love glitters!

This is one of my many nail art storage boxes. I got this plastic box at a dollar store for around $2AUD I think. Along with the gels I had also placed an order for all the nail art you see in here. I got dried flowers and acrylic flowers with little rhinestone in the center. They're very cute! (the spangles on the top left corner were from my friend Teresa)

And here is a picture that was supposed to be my NOTD before the gel nails. Sorry I just got so excited I forgot to update haha.

These pictures were taken with flash. I used OPI's Baby It's Coal Outside and China Glaze's Tinsel for this look.

Joyce

83: My gel nails

2010-01-12T19:29:00.005+11:00

Hello Friends :)

I wanted to show you guys something very special to me. I slaved for 4 hours today and I'm quite happy with the outcome. I had a job interview this morning but after I got home I had noticed that my nails were starting to chip away because it was so damaged so I decided to make gel nails. I didn't add any extensions. This is just a glitter gel overlay on my natural nails. They're a bit short but I think they're quite cute :)

FYI: The white blobs are supposed to be 3D hearts. It didn't really come out too well :/ Better luck next time..

I'll be back with a nail art sample post soon!

Joyce

82: More swatches

2010-01-08T15:58:00.004+11:00

Hellooo

I just wanted to post a quick update. I managed to swatch the rest of the colours from the Transdesign order.

This is Essie's Sweet Time Of The Year collection. From left to right: Mint Candy Apple, Rock Candy, and Lollipop. I used 2 coats for Mint Candy Apple and Lollipop and 4 coats for Rock Candy. The formula is great. Essie's Mint Candy Apple was so pretty I just had to swatch 2 fingers :)

This is a misc. swatch. On my index and ring finger are China Glaze's Raspberry Fields and on my middle and pinky is OPI's Lincoln Park After Dark. These swatches are all 3 coats.

This is 2 coats of China Glaze's Electric Lilac with Konad's m57 lace stamp.

My NOTD is Orly's Green With Envy. I really love this colour!

Joyce

81: Swatches

2010-01-07T23:59:00.006+11:00

Hi Everyone :)

I wasn't going to do this until a few days later so I wouldn't seem like such a big loser to my friend Julia. She placed an order from Transdesign and I managed to get 14 polishes in total from her. She made the order about a month ago right before I left for my vacation. I finally saw her today after so long (WE SERIOUSLY NEED TO CHILL MORE) and she handed me my stash along with a very cute pair of Peter Alexander slippers (YAY). Anyways I didn't want to swatch these colours so soon because then it would be obvious that my life had been consumed by nail polishes. But who are we kidding here? I contemplated for a good 20 minutes before I caved in and swatched the China Glaze Glitters and Loves You Snow Much collection :D I know it's been out for a while now but I've waited so long for these and I'm very excited to show you my own swatches!

These are all 3 coats from the China Glaze Glitters. I think there are 50 glitters in total but these 4 were my must haves!

This picture was taken with flash. From left to right: Sour Apple, Preppy Pink, Electric Lilac, and Blue Hawaiian.

These were all 3 coats from China Glaze's Loves You Snow Much collection.

This picture was taken with flash. From left to right: Tinsel, Emerald Sparkle, 5 Golden Rings, and Ruby Pumps.

I'm so happy to finally have Emerald Sparkle! I love it so much and I'm glad that I placed an order for 2! I have a few more swatches to share with you guys including Essie's Sweet Time Of The Year collection which includes Essie's Lollipop, Rock Candy, and Mint Candy Apple :)

Goodnight..

xx
Joyce

80: Konad and glitters

2010-01-06T00:02:00.004+11:00

Hi :)

I just wanted to share a quick post with you guys today. I ordered some image plates from Kathleen at OC Nail Art and they came super quickly! I love OC Nail Art because Kathleen is really nice and they have a wide variety of Konad products. I got 5 in total which are M56, M57, M70, M71, and S9. I actually already had M56 but I didn't realize until I recieved it today. I guess I'll just give that to my friend. She was the one who introduced Konad to me :)

Also I tried mixing my own glitter acrylics today and I think they came out pretty nicely. What do you guys think?

I bought these glitters a while ago because I thought they were glitter acrylic powder but anyways I just mixed in 5 scoops of clear powder and 1 scoop of glitter. Shake like crazy and wahlaa. Glitter acrylic powders :D

I'm hoping to get some rest tonight because I'm starting Bikram Yoga tomorrow. Have you guys tried it? Did you like the experience?

Joyce

79: Swatch comparison

2010-01-02T22:32:00.004+11:00

Hi Guys

I just noticed that I had 2 polishes that are very similar colours except that one has a matte finish. Just as an experiment I ended up swatching both colours to see if I could tell the difference. I think there is a difference between both polishes. What do you guys think?

The 2 fingers on the left are painted with 3 coats of China Glaze's For Audrey and the other 2 on the right are painted with 3 coats of KO's Liberty.

I'm off to watch How I Met Your Mother now :)

xx
Joyce

78: Rainy day swatches and nail art products

2010-01-02T13:54:00.009+11:00

Hi Girls :)

It was raining today here in Sydney so I stayed home and played with my nails. Also I wanted to show you guys what I got overseas. My swatches are so random. I don't really catagorize swatches by colour or brand so even I get confused sometimes. Here are the 2 that I had done for today.

This is 3 coats of Orly's Green With Envy taken with flash. I actually really love this colour. It looks so nice and fresh. It's a very nice shade of green.

This picture is taken with flash. I used 4 coats of OPI's And This Little Piggy... This polish is a sheer so it also looks great over other oqaue colour.

Here are a few of the nail art products I got.

I found these medium and large sized set diamontes at the dollar store here in Sydney. I think they would look really cool in some of the new nail art samples I'm making.

My stepmom and I went to SaSa to buy nail polish for my sister. While I was there I found Swarovski rhinestones, clear spangles and a few nail stickers. I really like the lace ones. So pretty :)

When I'm in Hong Kong there is always that one store for anything and everything. My go to store is Muji. I bought these stackable containers for $18HKD each. There great for storing the little spangles and rhinestones I bought from SaSa!

I found this at the Beauty Warehouse store in China. They're little molds to make 3D nail art. I usually like to sculpt everything but this is very handy to use. I also bought a snowflake one but I think it got lost when I was cleaning up my room :(

Also, my friend Teresa went to Japan for 2 weeks and she picked up some really cute things for me!

These are so pretty! I've always wanted to find colourful mini spangles like these ones :)

This is a pack of different sized AB style acrylic rhinestones.

A sheet of 3D nail art stickers with ice creams and candies.

And my favourite of all. She picked up an electric nail file!

I'm super lucky to have someone like her because on top of everything else she got me a pack of Fujifilm Instax Hello Kitty films!!!

I'll be sure to have more swatches up for you guys soon :)

PS. I just wanted to share something else that's not nail related but HK related..

Hello Kitty lipblam. Aww :D

xx

Joyce

77: NOTD

2010-01-01T23:26:00.004+11:00

Hi Everybody :)

Happy New Year!

I did my friend Teresa's nails for our bbq today and I'll try to have pictures for you guys asap! I just wanted to show you guys my NOTD and say a quick hi :D

This is taken with flash. I used 3 coats of China Glaze's Flying Dragon. This polish is a neon so that's why it has a matte finish. I love the little blue sparkles! As you can probably tell my fingernails are a bit bumpy but that's only because I was working with acrylics before I did this swatch.

Until next time..

Joyce

76: NOTD

2009-12-31T00:55:00.004+11:00

Hellooo :)

I just wanted to share a quick NOTD.

This is taken with flash. This is 2 coats of KO's Calamine (which is a matte polish) and 1 coat of a Japanese Glitter for some shiney-ness and sparkle.

Hope you guys have a great new years eve! I don't know if I'm going to have a new years mani but if I do I'll be sure to update :)

PS. I can't wait to see your new years manicures!

Joyce

75: Comments

2009-12-29T13:47:00.005+11:00

Hi Lovlies!

This is just to let you guys know that today I will be spending the whole day going over the comments that you've left on my posts. I know that I definitely missed replying to a few of them so replying to you guys will be my first priority :)

I did notice that some of them are really random so I won't be applying those. For example: "Check out my site for more nail art!" haha yeah I got a few of those from the same person.

Anyways I hope you've all had a great Christmas spending it with your closest loved ones <3

74: Random

2009-12-27T23:21:00.004+11:00

Even Hello Kitty needs a manicure from time to time :)

This was at the opening of the Hello Kitty store in Ginza Japan. I wonder what colour Ms Kitty chose :p

73: Gel Nails

2009-12-26T14:44:00.004+11:00

Hi Girls and Boys!

HAPPY BOXING DAY :D

I did my cousin Vicky's nails last night and the whole process took around 2.5 hours. By the end our backs were about to break in half! Here's what her nails look like now..

This is a basic gel overlay on her natural nails. I used the blurple gel glitter and added rhinestones but they fell off while she was sleeping last night. I really like using gel but sometimes it's a bit hard to control.

In one of my other posts I was complaining about the smell of acrylics and I got some great advice from Ms Jessie Burkhardt from NSI. She posted this link http://bit.ly/C6gHr which brings you to the NSI website and lists all the ways you can control the acrylic odours. There's good information there so if you're using acrylics you should check it out!

I'll try to update with some more swatches and pictures of the nails stickers that I got from Hong Kong. See you guys next time :)

xx
Joyce

72: NOTD

2009-12-22T22:55:00.006+11:00

Hi Girls!

Sorry but this is just a quick NOTD update. :)

Taken with flash. This is just 3 coats of China Glaze's Lubu Heels with rhinestones placed randomly.

Have a happy holidays everyone!

xx
Joyce

71: Gel nails sample

2009-12-17T03:20:00.008+11:00

Hi Everybody!

I'm so sorry but I think something is weird with my Blogger. I've been trying to reply to comments but when I click submit somehow just it logs me out of the site :( I'll keep trying though. Sorry girls I'm not ignoring you on purpose!

Anyways when I was in China my cousin and I went to a Beauty Wholesale building. Basically it had everything you needed from nail supplies to facial tables to hair dye. We went around to all the nail stores and bargained our butts off!

I'm going to be working more with gel nails now because the acrylic smell is really getting to me. I even bought myself a 9w UV light for $35RMB which equals to about $6AUD muahahah. I also bought Swarovski rhinestones (not the cheap acrylic ones) and glitter flaky coloured gels. The only reason I wanted to get Swarovski crystals is because it's reusable (most of them are anyways) and they look so much nicer. A lot of the times when I use the acrylic rhinestones the backing melts off when they come in contact with top coats or even the polishes themselves. This will be a good investment :)

I've been playing around with my new equipment tonight and I managed to come up with 2 different sets using the glitter coloured gels. What do you guys think?

This is taken with flash. This gel has a baby blue hint to it and contains blue-purple-pink hexagon glitters with silver microglitter. Maybe a second layer would've brought out more colour. I'll try it next time!

This is taken without flash.

This is taken with flash. I used a Copper glitter gel and a Silver glitter gel for this sample. The silver just blends into the copper and makes it look more on the golden side. This was fun to make because I got to try creating a smile line with gel.

This is taken without flash.

PS. I removed my gel nails and I'm back to natural short nails.. for now. Here's my NOTD. This is 3 coats of China Glaze's Blue Sparrow. This colour dries matte but I think it looks better with a top coat. More shiney :)

This is taken without the top coat.

This is taken with a coat of Seche Vite.

The next post will be just about a few of the nail art deco stickers I got from Hong Kong and a few more swatches of polishes I bought in Canada. See you guys then :D

xx
Joyce

70: UPDATE!

2009-12-12T02:31:00.011+11:00

Hello Lovelies :)

I know I promised to update in China but to my surprise the Chinese goverenment had blocked all websites relating to BLOGS! I couldn't read your great blogs for 3 weeks but now I'm in Hong Kong for a couple of days and I'm taking this chance to catch up on my nail blogs. I haven't bought any special nail polishes in China because there are too many fakes out there. Buyers Beware! I did manage to pick up a UV light and a Gel Nails kit but I'm going shopping with my baby sister tomorrow here in HK so hopefully we'll find something good :)

In the meantime I just wanted to share this with you guys. Getting your nails done in China is uber cheap! My cousin and I got Gel Nail extentions for $180RMB which is about $30AUD. WOW! And it looked pretty decent too. What do you guys think?

My cousin's nails look more natural than mine.

My nail tech gave me Swarovski crystals for free. Yay :)

PS. Please excuse my super dry and rough hands. China is cold and I haven't been moisturizing enough :(

xx
Joyce

69: Colour swatches

2009-11-12T00:24:00.006+11:00

Hellooo

It's been a week since I arrived in Toronto and I'm loving every minute of it! I missed my friends so much :) Another thing I'm super excited about is to see all the up to date collections from OPI and China Glaze.. woohoo! I haven't had much time to swatch all the polishes but here are some pictures of the ones I have been wearing.

I found these KO polishes while I was shopping at Aritzia!

This is 3 coats of Calamine. This colour was a bit hard to work with because it was quite thick.

This is 3 coats of Liberty. This colour was more manageable because it wasn't as thick as Calamine.

This is 3 coats of OPI's Merry Midnight. I love the flakies! I got this one from Trade Secrets.

This is OPI's Merry Midnight with 1 coat of Essie's Matte About You. Soo cool :)

This is 2 coats of Orly's Dazzle. I love the foil look. It's so shiny!

I'll be sure to swatch the rest of the polishes when I arrive in China next week. Talk to you girls soon :D

Joyce

68: Greetings from Toronto!

2009-11-04T16:05:00.004+11:00

Hi Girls!

I just wanted to say a quick HI from Toronto :D I spent my first day shopping (duh :)) and I found Trade Secrets. They had a special on OPI nail polishes which was buy 1 and get the 2nd one for half the price. One of my girlfriends told me that there's a Sally Beauty Supply shop here in Toronto now so I think I'll go check that out too before I make any puchases :DDD

I hope you're all doing well. If any of you girls know where I can get China Glaze and OPI polishes for a good price here in Toronto or even Buffalo (US) please let me know!

xx
Joyce

67: Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T01:32:00.006+11:00

Happy Halloween Everybody!

I just have a few things to share quickly with you guys. I have been working on a few nail art samples for Halloween and unfortunately my nails broke this week so I didn't get a chance to do a lot of swatching but I will post my NOTD for all to see :)

China Glaze's Watermelon Rind

I hope you guys all have a safe and fun filled Halloween!

xx
Joyce

66: NOTD and new nail art samples

2009-10-26T01:22:00.005+11:00

Hi Girls!

I have a whole 5 days off from work so I'll be sure to update you guys with lots of nail related posts before I head off on my trip (yay) :)

I re-organized my nail space and had some time while Kadi played WOW so I decided to make a few nail art samples. The purple and gold one came out kinda weird (I was hoping the purple would be darker) but I'm feeling good about how the rest of them turned out. If you have a good memory you'll know that the first picture here is just the completed look of the design I started a few posts back. A while ago I was playing around with my L.A. Colors Art Deco nail polishes when I decided to do a white 'lace' design. This time I just took the original and added a flower and some embelishments. Hope you guys like it!

I thought the last one was so cute I had to take 2 pictures :D

And here is my NOTD. This is China Glaze's Strawberry Fields.

xx
Joyce

65: Your blog makes me smile :)

2009-10-22T07:33:00.013+11:00

Hi Girls!

I woke up this morning to a lovely tag from Glittermillie (Sarah). She always has these great tags to play with :D So without further ado I'm going to try this and tag a few people too.

The rules from Millie's blog are that I have to post a song that makes me a smile and then award the blogs that make me smile and tell you why.

I think I'm a bit weird. I like very sarcastic and awkward things and one of my favourtie tv shows is 30 Rock. For their 3rd season finale Jack learns that his could-be-dad needs a kidney but he himself is not a match so instead he uses his power as CEO to call in various recording artists to come up with a benefit called Kidney Now! Near the end of the show all the singers get together and sing a tribute song to Milton Greene (Jack's dad). This song is so funny and it ALWAYS makes me smile. I hope you guys enjoy it too!

Sometimes life brings pain and strife
And all seems wrong
That is when you find a friend
And write a song

Give the gift of giving
Give it far and give it wide
Take the leap - reach down deep inside

And just give a kidney
To a father or a dad
Just give a kidney
We hear it doesn’t really hurt that bad

And we know you’ll want to give it
To a super human being
So get it done
We just need one
For Milton Greene

This country has six hundred million kidneys
And we really only need half
That leaves about three hundred million kidneys
Do the math

Milton Greene Milton Greene
Milton Greene Milton Greene
Milton Greene

He needs a kidney

Milton Greene
Don’t ask why - he could die
If you don’t call today

Listen, when someone starts talking in the middle of a song you know it’s serious. So give Milton a kidney. We all believe in this cause so much we’re doing it for free. Except for Sheryl. That’s right. I’m the only one getting paid. And only three of us are drunk. Milton Greene needs a kidney. Just like I need this beard. You don’t want to see what’s under here. And while you don’t have two beards you do have two kidneys. Think of it this way: if I had two dollars, I’d give you one, wouldn’t I? I’m one of the drunk ones!

They say that two is better than one
But sometimes one is better than two
If you had two heads you’d wish you had one
How is this different?
If you had two dogs attacking you
You’d want just one
There I proved my point!

Milton Greene Milton Greene
Milton Greene Milton Greene
Milton Greene

He needs a kidney

Milton Greene
Don’t ask why - he could die
If you don’t call today

He needs a kidney
No he doesn’t need a hand
He just needs a kidney

A hand would be an even harder thing to give

When you give a kidney
And we really think you should
We pass the cup
They stitch it up
You do some good

We pass the cup
They stitch it up
You do some good

We pass the cup
They stitch it up
You do some good

Sorry for being so weird lol. Now I would like to re-tag Millie from http://glittermillie.blogspot.com/if she's interested in doing it again because I want her to know that her blog makes me smile! I love reading about her polishes and kitties :)

I would like to tag Wan from http://ilovenailpolish.blogspot.com/ because she has the coolest polishes and makes great and easy to follow tutorials. And of course she's a CANADIAN sista xx

I also want to tag KAE KAE from http://thehungryasian.blogspot.com/ because I love the names she creates for her frankens! and also she's a fellow HK maniac!

And last but not least I would like to tag LUCY! Happy Birthday Lucy.. Hope you have a great one :D

xx
Joyce

64: NOTD

2009-10-20T22:36:00.004+11:00

Hi Girls!

I'm so happy I finally got a new power adapter for my laptop woohoo! I had the day off work today so I decided to play around with my OPI Greenwich Villiage mani from last night by adding some random stripes with my L.A Colours nail art polishes. This was so easy to do you guys should give it a try!

I'll be going on a vacation in about 2 weeks time so until then I will try to post as many blog posts as I can. I'll try to update overseas too but it might be a bit hard. What are you guys doing for Halloween? Are you dressing up? :)

Joyce

63: Costume dilemma

2009-10-14T11:04:00.004+11:00

Hi Girls!

Sorry for not posting anything nail polish related today but I just wanted to get some advice on good halloween costumes! The last time I dressed up for halloween was probably more than 10 years ago so I haven't had too much experience. This year before I head back to Toronto and China my friends and I in Sydney are planning a farewell/halloween party and EVERYONE has to be dressed up in a costume. Now I was thinking about going as a giant OPI Nail Polish. Do you guys think that's a good idea? If you have any creative suggestions can you please let me know. Thanks guys.. :)

xx
Joyce

62: New nail colour swatches

2009-10-01T11:48:00.012+10:00

Hi Girls!

I went to my nail supply shop a week ago with one of the girls from my workplace who also happens to be a nail polish fanatic. She was like a kid in a candy store when we arrived. I picked up a few more colours and most of the polishes I bought this time are very colourful, playful, and summer-y. My good camera ran out of batteries so I couldn't take any pictures of new swatches but hopefully I'll have my room cleaned and I'll find my battery charger soon!

OPI's Hey! Get In Lime!

OPI's Fair Dinkum Pinkum

OPI's Blushingham Palace

OPI's Brand New Skates

OPI's Rent (a VERY sheer glitter-green-tinted polish)

OPI's Dazzle Me (a sheer light blue-green glitter)

Essie's St. Martin Mint in a weird bottle (there's no Essie logo)

Essie's St. Barths Blue

Essie's St. Martin Mint are on the ring and index fingers. Essie's St. Barths Blue are on the middle and pinky fingers.

Orly's Spark

China Glaze's OMG

This is the China Glaze OMG Text In Colour 2BKEWL set

China Glaze's DV8, BFF, IDK, LOL.

China Glaze's 2NITE

Multicoloured :)

OPI's Blue My Mind with a coat of a Japanese brand glitter polish.

China Glaze's Grape Juice

China Glaze's Grape Juice with Mattified index and ring fingers.

OPI's DS Diamond

My new colour swatch stand.

This was something I made by accident. I wanted to create something abstract but the colours started to mix. Opi's Black Onyx with the colours from Essie's Neon Collection

My Konad challange. Eww look at how stained my nails are :(

In my last post I was very excited about a new purchase from eBay and I just wanted to show you guys what it is!

My Fujifilm Instax Mini 25: Hello Kitty Edition :D

This is the type of film/picture the camera produces. It's very good quality!

Unfortunately the instructions came in Japanese! The whole time I was thinking !KAE I NEED YOU! I struggled with it for a while and then I just follwed the pictures and tried to use my common sense and it worked!

Until next time :)

xx
Joyce

61: Update

2009-09-30T17:59:00.002+10:00

Hi Girls!

I've missed you all so much!!! I've been so busy at work lately because here in Australia it's the end of the Financial Year and there are MASSIVE sales everywhere. I've been working a lot lately and I haven't had the time to update (SO SORRY) but I have been swatching for the past few days and I picked up some polishes at my nail supply store so I'm feeling very eager to share those with you :) Being the dumbo that I am I left my camera at my boyfriends house but I asked him to bring it to me tomorrow. So I will have a full post and new nail art for you girls tomorrow I promise.

PS. My Fujifilm Hello Kitty Instax Mini 25 arrived today and I'm so happy with it. The pictures look so nice and they look a lot better than my Polaroid ones. I'll take pictures of it for the HK fanatics too (AHEM KAE)

xx
Joyce

60: More swatches and nail art

2009-09-14T23:52:00.006+10:00

Hello Lovely Blog Readers!

I'm so happy to be updating right now. I've again borrowed my cousin's laptop for the night so I can finally post an update! I had the day off today so I've been swatching and trying to come up with some new nail art for you guys. Hope you like it :)

CND's Paris In Pink

CND's Blueberries & Cream

Essie's Blueberry Crumb

OPI's Mod-ern Girl

OPI's Vodka & Caviar

OPI's Vodka & Caviar with Essie's Matte About You top coat

OPI Blue My Mind

OPI's Golden Rules! This was the polish that started it all. My first OPI :)

China Glaze's Devotion

OPI'S Ate Berries In The Canaries

OPI's DS Exclusive

OPI's DS Glamour

Here are some of the new designs I've been playing with. Hand painted nail art..

Rainbow

Lace (I'm going to finish this off by sculpting a 3D rose)

Abstract

Crown

Sorry I didn't have more nail art for you guys. I'm going to create more next time. In the meantime I hope you girls have fun with these!

Joyce

59: Update

2009-09-10T14:57:00.002+10:00

Hi Everyone!

I'm sorry for being such a huge liar. I promised that I would update often and also reply to messages but I've just been hectic lately with work and everything so I'm sorry that I've let you guys down. This is actually my 59th blog post so I promise Promise PROMISE that I will have a lot of colour swatches and nail art samples in my next blog post!

Also I'm going on a vacation in the beginning of November. I'm going back to Toronto and China for approximately 1 and a half months in total. I'm so excited because I haven't been 'home' in 3 years! I keep on promising my friends in Toronto that I would be back but in the end I always flop on my plans. I'm also planning a HUGE nail polish/art/acrylics haul when I get there so hopefully I will have goodies to show you :D

I miss you girls all so much and I'm off to reply to messages now so I will talk to you guys again later!

PS. I'VE SPLURGED ON A HELLO KITTY FUJIFILM INSTAX MINI 25!!!!!

xx
Joyce

58: Colour swatches

2009-09-06T10:29:00.003+10:00

Hi Girls :)

I have a few swatches for you guys today but it's nothing special or something you haven't seen before. I was just playing with polishes so I decided to take pictures of them too :)

I live in Australia and we don't usually get new collections until maybe half a year or even a year later than a few of you girls in Canada or the States so when I find something that I've seen on other blogs I feel super happy. When I went to the Beauty Expo I managed to find some China Glaze nail polishes (I couldn't find these colours from my nail supply store). So I got China Glaze's For Audrey and a few of the colours from their Romantique collection..

China Glaze's For Audrey

China Glaze's Cherish, Admire, Adore and Harmony

Please excuse my horrible cuticles I haven't had time for a proper manicure. Also I can never keep my nails looking nice when I'm working and I've been working a lot lately.. so much that I even broke a new nails :(

These were my NOTW. I didn't have a lot of time to change polishes so I had to make them Nails Of The Week..

China Glaze's Adore

This beautiful orange-red is a colour from Sparitual. I picked this colour for a manicure at Miss Divine which is Emma's Nail Spa but I forgot to take down the name. I'll find out for you guys next time I pay her a visit. I really like the Sparitual range and they use Vegan ingredients too which is eco-friendly :)

I'm off to swatch more colours now!

xx
Joyce

57: Nail art samples

2009-09-06T10:09:00.005+10:00

Hi Everyone!

I've stolen my cousin's adapter while she's away in class so I can show you guys some of the new nail art designs I've been playing with! Some of them are updated versions of a few oldies but some of them are brand new. I hope you guys like them and try it out for yourself :)

I've decided to cave and order myself a new power adaptor so that should be here in a few weeks. Until then I'll try my best to come up with for swatches and nail art for you guys!

PS. Missed you girls..

PPS. I will reply to all your comments as soon as I can!

Joyce

56: Update

2009-09-03T09:39:00.002+10:00

Hi Girls!

I miss you all so much and I have so many new swatches and nail art samples to show you but my laptop's power adapter had decided to die a few days ago so I am now without a working computer :(

I promise to post a proper update soon but it feels like so many things aren't working out the way I want them to so posting will just have to wait a bit until I get back on track.

Love you girls! Talk to you soon :)

xx
Joyce

55: NOTD

2009-08-26T18:55:00.004+10:00

Hi Everyone!

I had a little free time last night so I did my nails :) My boyfriend bought me some nail art magazines and this was inspired from Nail Up! I thought this idea was very cute! It was very easy to do and the rhinestones down the middle were a great way to cover up the imperfections..

For the 3 colours I chose OPI's Black Onyx, OPI's Alpine Snow and China Glaze's Admire. Hope you guys like it!

xx
Joyce

54: NOTD

2009-08-25T21:24:00.004+10:00

Hi Girls

I just wanted to show you guys the last neon colour I had. This Funky Limelight from the Essie Neon collection and it's really bright! I really like to play around with neon colours and this is something I would wear to cheer myself up from a yucky day :)

xx
Joyce

53: Acrylic nails and an update

2009-08-25T00:38:00.010+10:00

Hi Ladies!

Gosh I've missed you guys so much! Hope everyone had a good weekend :) I've been catching up with my friends and my boyfriend and I have been going out on shopping dates lately yayyy! I looove shopping! Anyways I wanted to show you guys my 2nd attempt at acrylic nails. I think I did a decent job but I only managed to do a set on my left hand because I can ONLY hold the sculpting brush with my right hand. Also I wanted to show you some pictures from my 6th month anniversary (if you aren't interested then please don't scroll down to the bottom). Kadi surprised me and took me to the Hilton in Sydney. We had a great room on the 43rd floor which was the highest and they even gave us a cute balloon printed with Happy Anniversary. The view from our room was amazing and we had a great time! And lastly I wanted to add a little something spcecial for my fellow HK FANS :D

Here are my acrylics..

Here are some pictures from our 6th month celebration :)..

OMGOMGOMG..

xx
Joyce

52: NOTD

2009-08-19T23:19:00.003+10:00

Hi Girls!

I know I promised swatches but I was called in to work today and I'm feeling super tired. Anyways I just wanted to let you all know that Essie's Punchy Pink from their Neon collection was a huge hit today! I had a lot of people telling me that they loved this colour :)

For my NOTD I decided to play around with it a bit. I did 2 fingers with Essie's Punchy Pink and the rest with Essie's Perky Purple which is also from their Neon collection. Then I got bored and decided to draw random things on top of them. I'm not feeling so creative today so I hope you'll forgive me..

Again sorry for the beaten up cuticles. I went overboard while filing my acrylics. Note to self: please remember to give yourself a proper manicure. Thank you :p

xx
Joyce

51: NOTD

2009-08-19T00:55:00.003+10:00

Hellooo

I just wanted to say a quick HI and also to show you my NOTD. I used Essie's Punchy Pink from their Neons collection. This swatch was 4 coats because I had so much trouble with the streaks. Sorry about the application job and the dry cuticles. I really like this colour because it just stands out and also it dried to a matte finish. The other 2 Essie Neon colours are like that too!

Hope you guys enjoyed this super quick post. I'll be back with my 6 month surprise updates and some more swatches tomorrow night!

xx
Joyce

50: Happy 6 months

2009-08-17T03:23:00.004+10:00

Hi Girls!

I found out that my boyfriend actually read my blog yesterday! We've been dating for 6 months now and we're going to celebrate tonight with all you can eat sushi and bbq muaahhah :D

Also I tried to do my own acrylic nails for the first time today! I was surprised because it turned out NOT UGLY. It's not the best and certainly not something I would pay for but as a total newb with no experience before I think I did alright. I made the mistake of using a clear powder because for some reason I assumed that pink meant barbie pink but instead it was full on clear. The process was fairly simple and all I did was follow the instructions of the booklet. I'll try to post a full entry on how to do your own acrylic nails at home some other time. Sorry about the dirty nails..

I practiced on my index, middle and ring fingers. I couldn't be bothered to do all 10. Look at how clear the tip is!

My fingers are VERY small and not all the nail tips fit my hands so it was hard to size. Instead I chose to sculpt the nails and used a form.

The finished fingers! Please excuse the ugly looking ring finger. I filed off a lot by accident and it turned out very lumpy :(

My Colour of the Hour was China Glaze's Grape Juice from the Summer Days collection. This swatch was 3 coats.

Anyways I'll be back with a few more nail art samples. I've been hit with a creative bug lately so I hope I can make something out of it :)

PS. This is my new setup for my little nail area. What do you guys think? It's still a bit messy but I'm trying to organize everything by product..

Talk to you later!

Joyce

49: Picture Tag

2009-08-12T01:46:00.013+10:00

Hi Girls!

Everyone has been doing this so I'm glad that Kae (The Hungry Asian) and Sarah (Glittermillie's Nails and Sparkle) tagged me in their blogs. I feel so loved :) So here goes..

The Rules:

1. Open your 1st photo folder
2. Scroll down to the 10th photo
3. Post that photo and story on your blog.
4. Tag 5 or more people.

I really wanted to show you girls a cool picture. Maybe something from my travels to Korea or Malaysia but instead THIS was it lol.

This was taken back in 2006! I actually really cherish this picture because this was taken during our cottage road trip. My friends and I spent a weekend away at a rented cottage a few weeks before I left for Australia. It was one of the best trips I've ever been on. We were all very good friends in High School and after this trip it just feels like we've gotten so much closer. We still keep in touch and email each other often. My friends (Jennifer and Marlon) and I were a bit messed up because we were fighting for futon space and the girl to the left of the picture (who is cut off) was busy in her own world playing with the purple clay from Cranium. If you look closely to the right behind my friend Jennifer (the girl in the baby blue hoodie) there's an orange coloured bump. That bump is actually our friend David's bum haha. Good Times!

I would like to tag everyone who would like to have a little fun and take a stroll through memory lane. I'm off to look at my other pictures now. Thanks again for tagging me Kae and Sarah <3

PS. I'm a huge Family Guy fan. I have all the DVDs and can't get enough of it. I was browsing around YouTube and found this great clip of Stewie and Brian at the 2007 Emmys. Check it out!

xx
Joyce