Faux gel nails for you?

Nope, I am not jumping on the gel nails band wagon yet. But I do get compliments that my nails look like gel nails sometimes.

I figured, if you would want your nails to be mistaken like mine, try this:

1. Grow them long and thick. I was blessed with thick nails so I havent had to succumb to nail treatments :P

2. Shape them as you like. For me, the choice is obvious! Squoval! ;)

3. Do a good base coat to protect them.

4. Cover your nails in a healthy sheen of French manicure base colour. A jellyish beige or pink will be nice. This is especially good for nails like mine which are actually yellowing from excessive use of polish!

5. Apply silver glittery polish like Mei Mei Signature's Suesha series on the white tip of your nails. (Or yellow tips, for me).

6. Use a multi glitter striper, like the one I have from Precision or a dark blue nail enamel pen from Daiso and doddle some stripes on the tips.

7. When they dry well, coat the whole nail with Seche Vite for a thick glossy shine or even Out the Door Northern Lights Silver or Gold Holographic Top Coat.

8. Do clean-ups if you like! And enjoy your faux gel nails.

Disclaimer: These are not meant to last as long as 21 days like Gelish does. But I am sure these add glamour to any outfit and make you feel feminine ;)

some crackle and some flak(ie)

Took out my MeiMei Signature's crackle and played again, this time its the ash brown one!

The dark patches are what it is supposed to look like with top coat on as the shimmers can then be seen. I used my Quick dry oil from Star Like nails after they cracked. The oil seeped into the edges and gave that 'wet look'. Hmmm. 

I tried the horizontal way of painting the crackle on as well as the normal nail bed to tip method. See the difference? Pretty cool. 

I used a non Seche Vite top coat on the right side of the nail, and it gave the shimmer look better than using SV on the left. 

Matte look of the crackle before my top coat experiments :) Also experimented with thickness of coat of lacquer.

I used Orly's La Playa as a base for all the nails. For this, I used Glisten up! by Essence for the flakies anda green shimmer look to the navy blue. Then I added Make Up Store's flakie called Linnea (another brand that names their lacquers on female names) to increase the flaki-ness. Glisten Up! adds greenish flakies but MUS's flakie was more red-orange-yellow...

It looked like there was rusted iron on my nails hehe. I quite liked it but am looking forward to my Nubar 2010 from a mega swap! :D I hope it arrives in time for my birthday heheheheeh <3

Im at the last lap of my thesis paper... I will survive! 

Ill be back!

Mei Mei Signature's Crackle Polishes - Review

You must have heard and gone ga-ga over this season's crackle polishes. OPI and China Glaze have jumped on the wagon and enticed all polish lovers out there with their crackles. Loving how those bottles look as well :)

I have 3 bottles of crackle to show all of you here today, one of them the Black crackle and 2 others are shimmery burgundy and ash brown.

Mei Mei Signature's is the name of the brand and the owner is Mei Mei :)

This is the burgundy over Zoya's Harley.

I have to top it with a top coat, I used Seche Vite, on order for the shimmer to be seen :)

Application is fuss-free. The polish is pretty watery compared to the normal kinds, so layer it on your DRIED manicure quick and watch the crackle in action. Pretty fun, actually.

I showed my daddy and he was pretty amused :P

This one is to show the black crackle. It dries matte and I added topcoat for a glossy shine. 

It was done in a rush. 

If you see the blue layer, it's from another kind of crackle that I owned...

I did a fatal mistake by applying quick dry topcoat on the crackle, forcing the gaps to minimize further, looking like... hairline cracks :/ UGLY!

This is the ash brown crackle. There is also a very pretty shimmer that I might not have captured well. 

Half the nail is without topcoat hence the suede/matte feel. 

This could be clearer :) Tried on a glitter base. You can see that the edges of the crackle are messier. 

Here's all three on my swatch nail wheel. 

I also tried a manicure with the burgundy one. It is hard to capture glitters in photos so imagine them looking glossy and shiny :)

The crackles retail at SGD15 a piece on http://meimeisignatures.com/

There are more colours to choose from! 

They are all big-3 free! Hooray for that ;)

She has also shown how the crackle effect can be more varied if you apply it a zig-zag motion!

look what arrived in the mail!

4 packages reached me :D in one day! wheeeee~~

let's see...

Jessica from Born Pretty Store sent me these items to play with :D The gold chrome nails look sooooo good, now Im just waiting for a good day to wear 'em ;) I used the pearls already, in a gorgeous simple mani :D and the last item is a orange manicure soaking bowl :) ahhhh, full home spa treatment awaits ;)

Ordered these off a FB store with a special price of 4SGD a piece! Revlon Chrome polishes and Loreal Touch On Colour for eyes and cheeks :) 

Gonna try them out soon ;) 

I also won the BIG Giveaway from Kimberly at her 2010 year end Mini Massager give-away! :D The items arrived and I was SOOOO HAPPY:)

Its my second win from her in a span of a few months and she has remembered how i loved the Reese's and candies so she got me some more :D Im such a child. 

The Massager came into good use for me and my family. Although the initial jolt was pretty scary for me, the massage worked well to soothe pains and helped relax :) 

Thanks so much Kimberly!! <3

I also received some facial masks samples from Mei Mei Signatures, also a FB shop :) But this is with 3 crackle nail polishes I bought from her too! Really awesome crackle, I'll review it in a later post :D

I have gotten a burgundy shimmery shade, a dark brown shimmery shade and a black shatter dupe :) Dries matte, add a topcoat for gloss :) 

Cant wait to show you!

I have more haul posts to show... and my CNY manicure! HAHA :D