Saran wrap and KKCenterHk studs review

Hello everyone! I am finally back. It took some time but, lots of rest and cuticle cream later, my nails seem to be back in shape. I'm not really sure what happened to them but for a while they were VERY brittle, kept breaking and overall looked too terrible for swatches or nail art. It sucked!

To start it off, today I have a simple nail art and a review. KKCenterHk was nice enough to send me two products for review and today I will be showing you the first one: some very cute studs!

I didn't want to use these studs for a plain manicure. Instead I chose to do a subtle one with pastels. I used Essie Lilacism as my base and a layer of Essie Bikini So Teeny to create the pattern with saran wrap. I thought it looked very cute. If you want to know how to do this, just do a quick Google search. It's a very simple technique and there are lots of tutorials to be found.

So, how about the studs? They are pretty tiny, dark coloured studs that I found were very easy in use. I had no problem whatsoever picking them up and placing them on my nails. They are rounded on top but their backs are flat and stay on the nail quite nicely. After applying them to the nail, use a coat of topcoat on top of them and they stay on like cement. They would be perfect for a dark, edgy nail art or manicure!

The studs measure 2mm in diameter and come in packs of 50, and the best thing is that these are reusable. Just take them off, clean them with nail polish remover and use them whenever you like. You can find them here, but I'd suggest also looking at their other studs because they have them in all shapes, colours and sizes! These retail for $4.23 and KKCenterHk offers free worldwide shipping.

And just for my readers, I have a special coupon code.
When ordering at KKCenterHk, use the code POLISH-SMOOTHIE at checkout to receive a 10% discount on your order!

Lavender Stamping and a new layout!

Hey guys! I am back from my little break. I caught a nasty cold so it took a bit longer than I wanted to. I'm still not completely better but I did feel like fiddling around with nail art stuff, AND my blog layout. What do you think? I mainly wanted to change it so I could actually respond to the comments I get. I was starting to feel bad for not being able to interact with you guys properly. I hope you like the new layout. :)

So, I decided to try my hand  at stamping once again, since it had been a while. :D

Okay, my colour and plate choice was a bit random this time, haha. And as you can see, my stamping skills could really use some improvement. But keep in mind this is only about my fifth time doing a full manicure with stamping and that I have a lot to learn!

The base colour is NYC Lavender Cupcake, one of my favourite cremes. Since I don't have any Konad polishes (they have been on my wish list for a while now...) I rummaged through my stash trying to find a decent polish to stamp with. I ended up with Essence Unexpected Galaxy which is actually one of their colour changing nail polishes. I knew it was an opaque polish, though I wasn't sure what it was going to look like after I applied my top coat, haha Fortunately, it wasn't too bad!

I ended up stamping an image from one of my Born Pretty Store plates. This one is from stamping plate m65 and I thought it looked pretty groovy.

So what do you think? How bad of an attempt is this? Also, feel free to share any tips and tricks you might have for me!

Lavender Skies

So this week I have been doing my nails a bit more often! I recently got a Helmer (which I am going to write a little post about soon) and have sorted out my collection which has definitely helped.

Anyway, when I did this manicure I was in the mood for something simple, but I didn't want to wear simply one colour, because that was TOO boring. ;) I always see people do all kinds of accent nails and I think they are super cute and a great solution if you don't want something too plain. So that's what I did!

For this manicure I used a really cute pastel nail polish by NYC. It's called Lavender Cupcake and it's a simple creme. The colour is really pretty and I like how it looks on my nails. It needed two coats and the quality is good. No remarks there.

The silver on my accent finger is Platinum Card, also by NYC. I kinda wish I had a nice silver glitter to add to this, but it looked good on it's own too! And, a while back I ordered some star shaped rhinestones from eBay. I thought they would go well with this manicure so I added some on all the other fingers.

I really liked this manicure! I hope you like it as well. :)

Pastel and Silver Dotticure

Polka dots are awesome. I'm sure a lot will agree with me. It's also one of my favourite simple nail art methods, because it's extremely easy to do, and it always comes out so cute!

I especially love them combined with pastel colours and that's exactly why I did this dotticure.

Even my camera bag has polka dots!

The pink is Catrice - Sweets For My Sweets, two coats. A very cute pink with a subtle shimmer, it looks brighter in the pictures than it is in real life. The green is Catrice - Sold Out Forever, two coats. It's the original colour that was discontinued earlier this year, and it also has a subtle shimmer. For the dots I used Essence Rock N Roll which is a simple glittery silver.

I really liked the outcome of this manicure, and the idea of the silver dots. It really adds something and makes the overall manicure just a tad more interesting.

Lavender French Tips

Today I was feeling inspired. I saw a lot of pretty french manicures on several websites, and I decided to try my own. I have these french tip nail guide stickers, but they were absolutely terrible, and I am horrible at freehanding anything except for dots. As a result, my first ever attempt at taping was born!

It's definitely not perfect, but also not bad for a first try. It was surprisingly easy, and I'm very happy with how it turned out! I'm probably going to try out different colour combinations.

As for the colours, I used Essence Pink Diamond for the stripes and NYC Lavender Cupcake for the tips. Topped it off with the Essence Gel-Look Topcoat. I think I would have liked silver stripes better, but I like this combination as well!

Essence - Did Someone Say Nude?

Essence is probably my second favourite brand. It's very affordable and they have a wide range of polishes, although they are really a case of hit or miss.

The polish I'm wearing today is Essence - Did Someone Say Nude? from the Season of Extremes limited edition collection. It's a very cute pastel mint creme... not a nude at all! What's the name all about? Despite that, I like the colour a lot.

I'm personally a big fan of cute pastel colours like these. However, I wasn't very happy with the application of this one. The first coat was extremely streaky and looked terrible, so I was pretty worried about what the outcome was going to look like.

Fortunately it wasn't too bad! The polish evened out fairly well at the second coat, and that is all I needed for my short little nubs. I'm sure you will need three coats to get a nice opaque result on longer nails.

Overall a decent polish with a lovely colour. While the application isn't what I'd like it to be, for such a cheap price, I'm willing to look past that.