Tag Archives: photo

Models Own Slate Green nail polish review

models own slate green

I can’t remember what I heard about first: the existence of British nail polish brand Models Own… or the fact that they regularly have amazing 50% off sales on their website!

They recently had another such sale and of course, I immediately began to get itchy buying fingers. But for once, I managed to exercise some cosmetics control and instead decided to shop from my substantial stash instead – resulting in a quick mani using Models Own Slate Green.

The results? I really need to start shopping my stash more often! How on earth did I let this colour go undiscovered in the murky depths of my drawers for so long?

Continue reading

Zoya Aurora nail polish review

zoya aurora

Hail to the Princess Aurora! All of her subjects adore her! Hail to the King, hail to the Queen, hail to the Princess Aurora!

Given that Sleeping Beauty was always my favourite Disney princess, it was always likely I’d feel the urge to buy Zoya’s Aurora nail polish – and yes, I totally buy cosmetics based on the product names. Thankfully, the colour turned out to be pretty stellar.

Continue reading

MAC Shimmerfish nail polish review, Alluring Aquatics Collection

mac shimmerfish nail polish

Couldn’t get enough of the a-ma-zing packaging for MAC’s Alluring Aquatics Collection? Yeah, me neither… so I thought I’d bring you another shamelessly covet-worthy post on the collection’s other nail lacquer, MAC Shimmerfish, for you to drool over! [Polish geek side-note: the third lacquer from MAC’s Alluring Aquatics Collection, Neptune, was not released in Hong Kong.]

mac shimmerfish

Shimmerfish is a super shimmery (surprise!) silver with teeny-tiny flecks of light copper also swimming in the mix. It has the same kind of mottled glittery foil finish (a la Chanel Graphite, OPI Warm & Fozzie and Butter London Wallis) that is absolutely my favourite kind of complex molten metallic; in fact, it reminds me of OPI’s Designer De-Better, which was from the same Muppets Collection as Warm & Fozzie – check out my friend Eugenia’s swatches of that here for comparison.

Just like the sun sparking on ocean waves, Shimmerfish totally dazzles when the light hits it – resulting in brightly glistening flashes of silver at your fingertips. But those coppery flecks keep things equally awesome in the shadows too, delivering a coolly complex shade that you just can’t quite put your finger on – is it a silvery bronze… a bronzy silver… a rusty rose-gold… a champagne-taupe… or some equally intriguing new shade that doesn’t even have a name invented for it yet?

Continue reading

MAC Submerged nail polish review, Alluring Aquatic Collection

mac submerged alluring aquatic

As soon as I saw the amazing packaging for MAC’s Alluring Aquatic Collection – turquoise (squee), metallic (double squee), gorgeous pretend water droplets sprayed onto the casing (stop, seriously, can’t breathe) – I already knew I needed all of it in my life. In fact, I barely even bothered to look at the colours of the make-up itself before snapping each piece up, as every single synapse in me was squealing “BUY, BUY, BUY”.

Thankfully, the colours are all actually very nice, and my top nail polish pick – MAC Submerged – very much leads the flotilla of fabulous!

mac submerged

Submerged is absolutely the kind of stunning colour you would hope to find in a collection inspired by all things seductively sea-like. A deep metallic ocean-blue that flashes brilliant teal and dark indigo-violet in different lighting and angles, it’s what us nail polish folks call a duochrome (or more accurately here, a multichrome) – lacquer geek speak for a polish that shifts colour in a similar way to an oil slick. For Submerged, I’d say the colour shift is a bit brighter and more obvious in the bottle, but it’s still very pretty on the nail too.

Continue reading

HARE Polish Bisbee 2.0 nail polish review

hare polish bisbee 2.0

So, I have a confession. Last weekend, I painted my own nails for the first time in over a year. For a blog practically founded on a passion for all things polish, this was not ideal. However, if ever there was a polish that was going to get me out of my lacquer blues, it was going to be HARE Polish Bisbee 2.0!

For those not on-board the indie nail polish train yet – come join us on a trip to wondrous faraway lands of glittery, multi-coloured uniqueness! These mysterious places may occasionally be hard to find, but that just makes reaching them all the more sweet… and such is the case with Bisbee, which I had lusted after for about four years before finally getting a taste of its turquoise-and-golden goodness.

hare bisbee 2.0

Continue reading

MAC Stay Pretty Pro Longwear Blush & Sunny Seoul Cremesheen Lipstick review – think pink!

mac sunny seoul lipstick stay pretty blush

Remember when I went all coral cray-cray with my review of MAC’s Coral Bliss Lipstick and Stay By Me Blush (basically a distillation of the fact I’m actually coral cray-cray for life!)?

Well, I decided it was time to give some love to the other shades on the blush spectrum and step out of my coral comfort zone, in the form of a pretty-in-pink look using MAC’s Sunny Seoul Cremesheen Lipstick and their Stay Pretty Pro Longwear Blush! Ta-da!

mac stay pretty blush sunny seoul lipstick fotd

Continue reading

Etude House Mint Choco Chip nail polish review

etude house ice cream nail polishes

It seems my love of desserts is starting to spill over into my love of nail polish… nearly every polish I wear these days reminds me of something deliciously edible! So after the blue strawberry slushie of pa AA162, the choc mint milkshake of Deborah Lippmann’s Rockin’ Robin and the cupcake-inspired Nail’s Inc Sprinkles Collection, it’s time for a set of polishes inspired by ice-creams – Etude House’s Sweet Recipe Collection.

Etude House is a Korean cosmetics brand famous for cutesy girlie designs and playful fun packaging – and their adorable ice-cream cone nail polish bottles have got to be some of their best work yet! The first one I have to show you is probably my favourite of the bunch, Mint Choco Chip… and yes, how did you guess, it involves yet another variant on all things turquoise!

etude house mint choco chip

Continue reading

Butter London Two Fingered Salute nail polish review

butter london two fingered salute swatch

The English language has much to thank Tyra Banks for – popularisation of the word ‘fierce’, creation of the phrase ‘booty tooch’, invention of the infamous portmanteau (and excuse for me to use the word portmanteau at least once in my life!) ‘smize’. However, nail polish fans should also be particularly grateful for her coinage of the phrase ‘ugly-pretty’ – simply because it’s the perfect description for so many polishes that have hit the scene over the last few years!

Gone are the times where the only acceptable nail polish colours were pinks, nudes and reds; nowadays, weird shades of greige, decaying purples, mouldy greens, wincing neons and eye-boggling glitter combos rule the roost! Which brings me neatly onto my new favourite nail polish and definite contender for an ugly-pretty award (unless Tyra’s already patented those), Butter London’s Two Fingered Salute.

Continue reading

MAC Stay By Me Pro Longwear Blush & Coral Bliss Cremesheen Lipstick review – going coral cray-cray!

There are a couple of colours that I think you all know I’m obsessed with. Turquoise. Purple. Glitter (oh wait… glitter isn’t a colour?!). However, there is one minor obsession that I had managed to keep under the carpet – until now! Step forward, coral!

Coral is my unsung hero. I wear it nearly every day in the form of Benefit’s pale peachy and sadly discontinued Georgia blusher, a little box of powder that takes me from rough to radiant in a matter of seconds. I have worn it occasionally on my nails (see here… and here). And over summer, I wore the hell out of it on my lips (reviews for which will filter through eventually, but basically MAC’s Watch Me Simmer = WIN). So I think it’s finally time to give coral some love on my blog with this all coral look, courtesy of MAC’s Stay By Me Pro Longwear Blush and Coral Bliss Cremesheen Lipstick.

Continue reading

Nicole By OPI Nicole’s Nickel nail polish review

In the States, Nicole by OPI is apparently easier to get hold of than OPI itself. Not the case in Hong Kong! Its sole point of distribution here is Sasa – and even then, it’s a case of a limited number of colours in a limited number of Sasas… and as for new collections, forget it!

However, from these slim pickings, I spotted what looked like a pretty awesome glitter amongst the multitude of boring pinks and reds – Nicole by OPI Nicole’s Nickel, a Target exclusive in the States (whatever that means!). Call it the needle in the haystack, the wheat amongst the chaff or whatever other convoluted idiom you choose to come up with, Nicole’s Nickel is a winner.

Continue reading