Cute explosion - Japanese style nails

Cute explosion - Japanese style nails

Dark pink - Nubar Pink Crème

Light pink - Nivea Turbo Rosa

Black - Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme

GOSH Milky Way, OPI Passion & funky French w/ nail art stickers

 GOSH Milky Way & OPI Passion, 2 + 1 coats & funky French w/ nail art stickers

I didn't take a picture of Milky Way - a neutral light beige with a strong pink flash - on its own, but it was quite streaky after two coats so I put a single coat of OPI Passion - a nude jellyish creme - over it. What I got was a pretty subdued pink colour that looked lovely against my pale yellowish skin. :) I could still see where the free edge starts on all my nails and thus decided to do yet another untraditional French mani. I drew the smile lines with a black striper brush and filled them in with Wet 'n' Wild Black Crème, slapped on some floral stickers and added a little extra bling with a silver glitter striper.

 GOSH Milky Way & OPI Passion, 2 + 1 coats & funky French w/ nail art stickers

I felt that the daisy stickers I used on my left hand were a tad too big, so on my right hand I switched to smaller rose decals. In retrospective, I think that I should have painted a tiny white leaf or two next to each rose.

Essence Cherry Juice & vampy half-moon mani

Essence - Cherry Juice, 2 coats

A red polish on me, a sight most uncommon! Cherry Juice is part of Essence's Jelly Baby line which consists fully of - can you guess it? - yes, jellies. This one went on effortlessly and was almost opaque after two coats. I wore two different basecoats underneath Cherry Juice, but after removal I noticed that a little bit of orange staining had still occurred.

Essence - Cherry Juice & YSSY - Dark plum #35, 2 + 1 coats

I had planned to do a half-moon mani before I even put on Cherry Juice. I used hole reinforcers to get a nice crisp line. The YSSY may look like an ordinary black polish, but under strong sunlight you can see that it is a very dark plum with matching shimmer. The red glitter gradation was done with La Femme Jupiter, and I also added some red rhinestones where the two contrasting polishes meet.

China Glaze IDK & 2NITE holo stars on night sky nail art

China Glaze - IDK & 2NITE, 1 coat each over H&M - You Rock My World

After my fruit salad nails I wanted to do another flashy mani. I started with a coat of H&M You Rock My World which is a silver holo polish, and then painted vertical stripes of IDK and 2NITE over it in a random order.

China Glaze - IDK & 2NITE holo stars on night sky nail art

I placed a star shaped sticker on each nail and painted over with black polish. After the black had dried I went over it with Wet 'n' Wild Kaleidoscope and let both coats dry again. Then I removed the stickers and topped the whole thing with SH Insta-Dri top coat. There was some minimal bleeding of black over the holo stars, and you can see where I didn't press down the stickers hard enough against my nail as all the lines aren't nice and crisp. In retrospect I wish I had used a smaller sticker on my index as I did on my pinky.. they also had a stronger sticky side to them so the small stars' lines are neater.

 "GRR, BRUNO SMASH! I VILL KRUSH YOU!!" :p

Black holo comparison!

Color Club - Revvvolution, Eveline - 470, Golden Rose - 119 & China Glaze - Let's Do It In 3D, 2 + 3 + 3 + 3 coats

W00t, black holo polishes! ^o^ These were all swatched over Nfu-Oh Aqua Base which eliminates any cuticle dragging. The China Glaze packs the most punch in the holo department, then Eveline followed closely by Golden Rose, and finally dragging far behind comes poor Color Club. I do not know if my Revvvolution is a dud version as it has some holo to it but it's quite subtle. China Glaze Kaleidoscopes still pop up on eBay quite often and Revvvolution ought to be pretty easy to find if you don't care if you're getting the original or a dud version. As for the more unknown brands, Eveline originates from Poland and Golden Rose hails from Turkey (?).

Etude House WH004

Etude House - WH004, 2 coats

Another mildly disappointing lacquer, Etude House WH004. I was so excited to finally pull this out of my untrieds and slap it on, hoping to soon see a duochrome heaven on my nails. Yes it's black but I wasn't expecting it to be so... black. :-L It looks pretty cute here but I had to look hard to see the teal-to-blue-to-pink effect, even in bright daylight. I was visiting my parents when I wore this and hadn't brought any layering polishes with me for my 1½ week visit, but I bet that a polish like, say, Pure Ice Busted layered over would do wonders to this.

Ruby Kisses Cream White & black and white half-moon manicure

Ruby Kisses - Cream White, 3 coats

Cream White is an off-white jellyish creme, quite a classy colour IMO. Judging by the INCI my bottle must be at least half a decade old - non 3BF polishes are great, I get no bubbling with them, ever! But I also got a small dent on one nail while I slept which meant that it never fully dried. :/

Ruby Kisses - Cream White & Wet 'n' Wild - Black Crème, 3 + 1 coats

 I did a half-moon manicure with Wet 'n' Wild Black Crème, using hole reinforcers cut in half as guides. I only added rhinestones to one nail as an accent, but if I were to wear this mani for longer than two days (or to a festive event) I'd add them to all my nails. I have to say that this is a really sophisticated look which I'll be sure to duplicate someday. But now I really want a pair of black & white peep-toe pumps with crystal accents...!

Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme & Nabi Multi Glitter

Wet 'n' Wild - Black Creme & Nabi - Multi Glitter, 1 + 2 coats

Black crackle polish over silver

Unknown brand - Black crackle polish over silver

This lacquer is one of my many eBay finds (the seller's ID is lilychenli). Unlike the new Isadora Graffiti polishes that are super thick, difficult to apply and dry in 30 seconds max., this one was thinner than regular polish, much more forgiving in application and took much longer for the cracks to develop, perhaps around 4-5 minutes. I had to wait until the next day before I could apply a top coat or the crackle polish underneath would bleed and ruin the effect.