Konad this week - CND Hotski to Tchotchke Essie Mesmerize

Ocean Life

My little hand model was given complete creative freedom. She has chosen the colors, the theme and executed the design herself, from start to finish. She even took the pictures herself! CND nail polish Hotski to Tchotchke is sheer, instead of applying 4 coats or so, she decided to use essie Mesmerise to create an opaque layer first. The result is a beautiful true turquoise color.




Products used; from left to right:

Chanel Protective Base Coat, Essie Mesmerise (1 coat), Konad plate M27, CND Hotski to Tchotchke (1 coat), Orly In a Snap top coat




Close-up Konad plate M27

Just for fun - Rimmel Pompous, S-he glitter

In between my weekly tests and reviews I will post color combinations, layering experiments and the occasional nail art. I will keep these short and sweet. So here we go, the first one: Rimmel Pompous shimmering purple with S-he multi glitter in a purple base. Despite the massive amount of glitter, the nails feel smooth. S-he is a drugstore brand.



Products used; from left to right:

Mavala Barrierre base coat, Rimmel Pompous (1 coat), S-he #438 purple multi glitter (2 coats), Northern Lights Hologram top coat

Top Coat test so far

Just a quick wrap up of how the top coats performed so far:

1 Seche Vite (4 days)

2 Orly in a snap (3 days)

3 Chanel top coat (3 days)

4 OPI Quick Dry (1 day)

Chanel Dragon with Seche Vite ✭✭✭✭

Chanel Test

In the last few weeks I have been testing different top coats with a handful of recent Chanel colors and the Chanel base coat to see which combination would last.


If I had to choose only one red nail polish, this would be it. The color is of Chinese lacquer, a perfectly balanced red not too cool not too warm in tone. As soon as I tried it in the shop I overcame with the sudden desire to possess this color. I have to confess I tried it because of the name, not so much how the color looked in the bottle. Painted one stripe down the middle of one nail and knew that I must have this before it is gone. It is the most perfect red I have ever seen. A classic. 

Fully loaded, one coat and it was completely opaque, just added on a second coat out of habit. Curiously the color did not change, it did not get darker or deeper with the second application. Chanel Dragon is a creme, there is no glitter there is no shimmer. It may not be the most beautiful red nail varnish compared with the glittering alternatives out there, but to me this is the perfect classic red. 

This week's test is with Seche Vite. I took the first picture on day 3 and as you can see there was not much tip wear due to the technique called wrapping, painting the color and the top coat over and under the nail. Chipping on day 4 on one nail, the others are beginning to show tip wear only. I feel, looking at my nails, how perfect they still are on day 4, that maybe if I did a better job with wrapping it would hold even longer than 4 days. Very impressed, this color in particular is holding up better than I expected!



Chipping on day 4




Products used; from left to right:

Chanel Protective Base Coat, Chanel Dragon (2 coats), Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

Konad this week

Rhapsody in Grey


My little hand model refused to wear this pink polish so Konad on me this week. My very first attempt at funky french plus konad. I read in Scrangie's blog that the nail guides work best if you stick them on the skin first to remove some glue before positioning them for french tips, otherwise they may pull the base color off. This is wonderful advice, thank you Scrangie! I forgot to pre-stick one guide, it did not take the polish off but left glue on the nail. RMK true pink is incredibly full of pigment almost a 1 coater, I say almost because I only went for a second coat to even out some nails, otherwise one coat! Does dry shiny not matte, still looks so bright that I categorize it as a neon. Illamasqua DWS is a pigeon (sorry about that) grey, this polish is also very pigmented like RMK and as a bonus works well with Konad, easy to use and dries faster than the konad special polish. This was the very first time that I enjoyed konading because there was no mess no color bleeding. I waited 1 hour for the RMK to dry before attempting the stickers for the french tip and stamping. Seche Vite, nice thick coat to add incredible shine and hide the little ridge of the french tips.





Products used; from left to right:

Konad plate M13, Oracal nail guides, Mavala Barriere Base Coat, RMK True Pink (2 coats), Illamsqua DWS, Seche Vite top coat

Instyle article: Polish and Sandal Combos

Check out Instyle's feature on which polish looks best on your toes with the season's most stylish sandals.

Color comparison OPI Designer Series Extravagance and Exclusive

I ordered these two colors from eBay, couldn't really see the colors that well on the screen because if I did, there is no way I would have bought two of the (same) color! These babies are expensive, according to OPI they contain diamond dust. They do sparkle with completely smooth glitter (or diamonds!). The major difference is that Exclusive is holographic and Extravagance is not. This is unfortunately the case with the current Designer Series polishes, none of them have the holographic flash that the Designer Series from previous years used to have. How do I know? you may ask, since my eBay shopping experience I have discovered that near my Mom's place there is a huge OPI shop stocking every and I mean, every color from current and recent collections, I have compared all the DS colors out in the sun to see if there was any holo effect.

Both DS Exclusive and Extravagance have the same base color which is a burgundy purple, very pretty. I am drawn to these colors like moth to a flame. Exclusive has smaller particles lending it the extraordinary holographic or rainbow flash and Extravagance has bigger particles resulting in a more uniform silver sparkle. Application is easy, they both have the new pro-wide brush, this needs a little practice, after a little hit and miss I could paint the entire nail in one go. No need to go back on the sides just one swipe and you are good to go! The comparison below; index and ring finger DS Exclusive, middle and little finger DS Extravagance.





Products used; from left to right:

OPI Designer Series Extravagance (2 coats), Opi Designer Series Exclusive (2coats)

Chanel Miami Peach

Chanel Test Miami Peach with Orly In a Snap Top Coat ✭✭✭

In the last few weeks I have been testing different top coats with the Chanel Base Coat and a few recent Chanel colors to see which combination would make a difference in the lasting power of a Chanel manicure. So far I got as far as the 3rd day, however there are a few more top coats left to test, see below picture. Please take a look at my previous posts to see how the top coats fared so far.




Top coats in this test




Chanel Miami Peach with Orly in a Snap Part II

This color is a little tricky, in my iphone photo from a few weeks ago it appeared completely orange, it is orange only in artificial light other times it reminds me of pink grapefruit. Not quite coral because there is less pink than orange in it but it is still firmly in the coral family of colors. Compared with Ming which was a pale true coral this one is not too bad with my skin tone, slightly shimmering gold microglitter gives it a little more interest than Orange Fizz which is without shimmer. The polish is a tad on the sheer side I applied 3 coats. With this experiment I waited 2 minutes after the base coat and 5 minutes between the coats then finally applied Orly in a Snap 1 minute after the final coat of color. Tried to do really thin coats there was no bubbling and the polish dried very fast but it did not last, chipped on day 3.



Chipping on day 3



Products used; from left to right:

Chanel Protective Base Coat, Chanel Miami Peach (3 coats), Orly in a Snap fast drying top coat

Chanel Test

Chanel Mica Rose with Orly in a Snap ✭✭

Orly in a Snap Test Part 1

I read such good reviews on Make up Alley about Orly in a Snap that I decided it needs further evaluation before passing judgment. In part 2 I repeat the test but applying it 60 seconds after the final coat of color. Again there were no instructions available whether it should be applied 60 seconds or 5 minutes after the final coat of color, based on last week's experience with Chanel Ming (applied top coat too soon which caused bubbling) I waited 15 minutes each between the coats which meant the manicure session stretched over an hour. The result was not good the nail polish peeled off on the second day. There is no before picture because it was peeling before I had a chance to take the first picture. Chanel Mica Rose is a Barbie pink, there are, of course, lots of barbie pinks this one is the lightest cool pink seen on Barbie packaging or possibly a rose pink. Anyway it is a cool shimmering pink slightly sheer, needed 3 coats to achieve bottle color.



Products used; from left to right:

Chanel Protective base coat, Chanel Mica Rose (3 coats), Orly in a Snap fast drying top coat

konad this week

Illamasqua Elope

Vivid green a little surprised to find that it is a neon green it dried matte, this color is best described as a bright primary green not grass green, if it wasn't so pricey this would be the perfect color to mix. Very pigmented only needed one coat very nice to apply, perfect brush perfect consistency and dries fast. Tried a different "look" little experiment with layering after applying the konad purple (which really is burgundy) I wanted to see a more purple design so here comes OPI It's now or never a very sheer purple, let's call it haze, because it is so sheer. The result was kind of a duo-chrome effect sometimes blue sometimes purple. I like the Opi layered konad my daughter prefers the original combination.





Layered with OPI It's now or never



Products used; from left to right:

Konad plate M24, Chanel protective base coat, Illamasqua Elope (1 coat) Konad special polish purple, Konad top Coat, Opi It's Now or Never (1 coat)

RMK Grape

Japanese awesomeness, sparkly raspberry/fuchsia. Why is this called Grape? I have yet to see a grape colored like this. This polish is so much darker in the bottle than on the nail and quite sheer, kept adding the coats after 4 coats I could still see the nail line but finally after 5 it was opaque. The tiny silver glitter is very smooth this makes the polish look exceptionally shiny rather than glittery. Overall love this color anything that shines and sparkles count me in! Added Seche Vite to make it even shinier than it already was, a nice thick coat makes the polish look 3D. This one I am not testing  because, oh the horror!, there is no base coat, after Ming chipped while still in the UK just applied this to see how it looks like, than arrived back home and kept adding more coats, despite not having a base coat and application stretching over a few days it is holding up pretty well. Picked this one up in Selfridges, available online from Ichibankao.com, this site has a lot of Japan only makeup and nail polish as well as skin care brands, Majolica Majorca, Coffret D'or, Anna Sui,  Jill Stuart (check out the nailphile) worldwide shipping (be warned: prices are steep!).

Products used; from left to right:

RMK Grape (5 coats), Seche Vite dry Fast Top Coat

Konad plastic scraper

I get a lot of hits on the konad plastic scraper for which I was looking for not very long ago. I finally found it, the benefit from using this is that it does not scrape the plate and there are no holes in it where the polish can settle and later will become impossible to dislodge. After many,  many hours of googling any and every blog out there, sorry I cannot remember which blog it was where I finally found it, I think someone in Singapore. The secret is going to konadnailart.com not konadusa.com (or any other e-tailer for that matter) only the konadnailart.com website has it which is based in Singapore. I ordered 3 scrapers (just in case) and it arrived within the week, paid with paypal quick and easy. I posted the link if it does not work, I just checked it doesn't, it is under konad accessories read it carefully there is a plastic blade and a stainless steel blade there is no picture only the quantity to be selected (directly underneath the double stamp and scraper set!).

p.s the blogger spell check is a disgrace, how can it miss payed instead of paid???? is googling correct? 

Chanel Test

Chanel Ming with Chanel Quick Shine ✭✭✭

Not for the pale skinned a true Grandma color I did not like it at all, it looked nice in the bottle with slight silver shimmer but on my nails the coral base was really showing much to my distress. Comparable to RBL smitten, while smitten is a blue or lilac based color this one is a definite peach. Ming was on the thin side although not quite sheer, probably should have used 3 thin coats but I was in a hurry so I made the typical mistake of  2 thick coats, you can see on the chipping picture how thick the coats were. Problems started with the top coat, there was no instruction with the Chanel quick shine only that it is a fast drying top coat, I decided that maybe it should be applied when the nail polish is still wet like Seche Vite, big mistake the bubbles popped up immidiately,  the polish hasn't dried before the top coat. Fast drying top coat that can be applied only when the polish is dry kind of defeats the "fast" aspect of it in my opinion. Anyway I will test this combo again (although not this color) next time waiting a good 15 minutes between coats to see how long a full Chanel really holds up! Chipped on day 3.

Chipped on day 3




Products used; from left to right:

Chanel Protective Base Coat, Chanel Ming (2 coats), Chanel Quick Shine (fast drying) top coat

Illamasqua

Short trip to London first stop; Selfridges & Co, the famous landmark shopping destination was celebrating 100 years in business, as part of the celebrations the store had some fabulous displays. I was most curious about Illamasqua, the brand is new currently only available in Selfridges. Recently Illamasqua's name was popping up all over the net, I read about the nail polish range in: All Lacquared Up, Scrangie's blog and the Nailphile. Really enjoyed trying out a different colors and finally took a few pictures of the spectacular stand in the Beauty Hall with Adam aka Nicole who was kind enough to pose for a few photos, he was sporting the most amazing makeup I have ever seen face to face. I think we spent over two hours looking at different brands but the definite highlight of the shopping trip was Illamsqua and that is partly due to Nicole. He reminds me of the Viva Glam campaign featuring Ru Paul back in 1995, it was a controversial campaign at the time but certainly one of the most memorable. Would be delighted to see Nicole in upcoming Illamasqua ads, not just at the special centenary celebration!

Chanel Test

Cosmic Violine with OPI RapiDry ✭

Oh bummer, this one chipped or rather peeled off the next day. This is a chocolate brown color with sparkly red shimmer. Shrinkage, this photo was taken 12 hours after application.



Chipped (peeled) on day 2, lasted only 24 hours



Products used; from left to right:

Chanel Protective Base Coat, Chanel Cosmic Violine (2 coats), OPI RapiDry top coat

Chanel comparison

Went to pick up the Chanel top coat since my Chanel test wouldn't be complete without it (see previous post)  and decided on a quick comparison for the 4 colors mentioned previously. 

Cosmic Violine and Imperial

Apologies for the crapy iphone photos, the rest of the image was in focus only not the part that I wanted. Anyway can still see how close these two are. To me, it seems that they just added red shimmer and Voile! we have a new color!




Orange Fizz and Miami Peach

Again the image is totally blurred sorry! This time white shimmer was added to the Orange Fizz mix, on the photo Miami Peach looks a lighter shade of orange, but only in this photo next to each other in the shop the shimmer is the only difference.

Konad this week

Purple Pirate Wind

The Japanese Kanji character on the nail means wind add pirate add purple and it still makes no sense whatsoever, but I like the way it sounds. Hot Topic Iridescent Purple, this polish is firmly in the group of the most fabulous colors ever, the vivid purple color is amazing in itself but together with the shimmering effect it is really outstanding. Considering that the bottle is $2.99 this polish is really unbelievable. The bottle design needs to be improved though, I applied polish on my daughter's nails and that was hard enough, I do not think I could do it on my own nails. The brush is very thick and the stem is way too long every slight movement is amplified, imagine holding a pencil at the top end and trying to do some tracing. The polish is thick unlike the Nfu-Oh polishes, only 2 coats to complete coverage. Drying time, on the slow side, we waited a good 15 minutes between coats and still smudged it after the fast drying top coat.



Products used; from left to right:

Konad plate M24, Chanel Protective base coat, Hot topic Iridescent Purple (2 coats), Konad special polish in white, Opi RapiDry quick drying top coat