Christmas Nails 3

Merry Christmas everyone! This is the look I submitted to the contest that was recently held by Marta at ChitChat Nails. Though I didn't win, I still enjoyed participating in the holiday cheer! And to my surprise, my design was picked as one of the short listed here! I love Marta's blog, ChitChat Nails and have been following for a while, so I am very happy!!

You might feel a little déjà vu... I wore similar look in my previous post here. When I was wearing this previous look, I thought it looked very much like Christmas season. The red plaid reminded me of shiny Christmas wrapping paper! So, when I learned about this contest, I thought I might submit something like this. 

For this look, I first painted my nails with Essie Dress To Kilt (red) and OPI Love. Angel. Music. Baby (gold). I stamped two plaid designs from MoYou London Hipster collection 06, using Essie Style Cartel (dark Blue) and Nails Inc. Chelsea Bridge Road (gold) as stamping polish. I also stamped a little gift box design from Bundle Monster plate BM-316 on my thumbs. 

I really like this Christmas plaid look. No wonder I took the opportunity to wear the look again!

I wish you all the Merry Merry Christmas!

Love,

Little Dot

Christmas Nails 2

As I promised in my previous post, here is the second Christmas nails!

For this look, I first painted my nails with OPI My Dogsled Is A Hybrid (sea green) and Essie Jiggle Hi, Jiggle Low (light gold). I stamped snow flake designs from Bundle Monster plates BM-319 and BM-H01, using Nails Inc. Chelsea Bridge Road (gold) and Sally Hansen Silver Sweep (silver) as stamping polish. 

Again, this is not the one I entered for the contest held by Marta at ChitChat Nails. I thought there will be so many snow flake design entries... Just not quite special enough. I also wished the sea green polish would look a little more blue toned... 

The gold and silver snow flakes are pretty but it is somewhat difficult to capture in the pictures... Maybe too shiny?? I had a little issue with the forcus as well...

Do you celebrate Christmas? What do you wish for Christmas?

Love,

Little Dot

Christmas Nails 1

'Tis the season and I will be posting a few Christmas nails for the next few posts!

I entered a contest hosted by Marta at ChitChat Nails recently. You are allowed only one entry per person. I tried a few different looks and decided on one. Therefore, I have a few designs to show you in the coming weeks, so stay tuned! 

For this look, I first painted my nails with OPI I Carol About You (purple). I then stamped a full nail design from MoYou London Pro Collection 04, using Essie Jiggle Hi, Jiggle Low (light gold glitter) as stamping polish. I was aiming for somewhat baroque feel. It reminds me of a very rich textured dress that might be worn at Christmas party... I also wanted to stamp a Christmas ornament design from Pueen 28... However, no matter how many times I tried, the thin ribbon at the top of ornament didn't transfer. I ended up making a decal of it with a hand drawn bow at the top and applied it to my thumb. If you like to learn how to make a decal, check my previous post here. 

This look is not the one I entered for the contest. But I still enjoyed wearing this look for a few days. 

I purchased a few nail polish sets recently and I should review them sometime soon. OPI I Carol About You is from Gwen Stefani Mini Holiday Stars and this set comes with very rich color palette suitable for holidays! Essie Jiggle Hi, Jiggle Low is from Essie Winter 2014 collection and this is an amazing glitter, bordering between gold and silver. Added plus is it is not hard to remove for a glitter polish!

What are your Christmas nails look like? 

Love,

Little Dot

Trip Around The World - Britain - Keep Calm and Carry On!

I bought MoYou London Rebel collection 05 and waited for a long time for it to arrive here. Somehow, it took 3 weeks! (I usually get them really fast like 5 days or something...)

This plate has tons of "Keep Calm and ..." images and I really wanted it! While waiting my goodies (yes... plurals... I ordered a couple of other plates as well ;) ) to arrive, I bought Essie Fall 2014 mini set, which includes red polish called Dress To Kilt.  What a perfect name of polish to use for my British inspired look!

For this look, I first painted my nails with Essie Dress To Kilt. I stamped "Keep Calm And Carry On" image from MoYou London Rebel collection 05 with Konad white stamping polish. I also used MoYou London Hipster collection 06 to double stamp a couple of plaid designs. I stamped a skinny lined plaid design with Essie Style Cartel ( dark blue polish also from Essie Fall 2014 collection) and stamped over a thicker plaid design with Nails Inc. Chelsea Bridge Road (gold). 

I wanted to use red polish for the traditional "Keep Calm" look. In the picture, the red looks brighter but it is actually darker and richer in real life. I am amazed how well the double stamping plaid designs worked. Any image involves straight lines are tricky to stamp. It is hard to align and to stamp straight... I used a squishy stamper and pressed my nails straight down instead of rolling because rolling could be a hit or miss with lines! I also chose the two plaid designs carefully so that not all lines go in the same area. 

I really like this look a lot! I would probably try to recreate this look with different colors and different slogans. 

I can see myself using "Keep Calm and Meow" and "Keep Calm and Paint Your Nails"! My beloved daughter might like "Keep Calm and Squirrel!" because she likes squirrels. 

Did you get this plate? What do you think of the double stamped plaid designs?

Love,

Little Dot

Snowflakes

I was going through my stock of polish bottles to decide on what winter appropriate colors to use this week... I picked up Essie Parka Perfect, which is one of my favorite dusty blue to use in colder season. To compliment that, I paired it with Essie Mind Your Mittens!

For this look, I first painted my nails with Essie Parka Perfect (light dusty blue) and Essie Mind Your Mittens (dark navy blue). I stamped a design from Lily Anna plate 08, using Color Club Harp On It as stamping polish. 

Color Club Harp On It is such a great holographic color on dark base. I can never capture the true beauty of it in pictures... But definitely a must-have polish!

On my right hand, I changed things up a bit and left one dark nail unstamped. 

I love these two winterly blue combination! Do you have favorite blue to wear this season?

Love,

Little Dot

Monochromatic

Now we are in the cold winter weather, my choice of nail polish colors are changing. Good bye to the bright colourful summery shades and welcome to darker deeper muted winterly tones. Just like many of my clothing pieces, I'm getting into a mood for monochromatic shades. Yes, my winter clothing consists of black and a whole lot of grey... I should buy some colourful items to add a little pop of color though...

I loved this shimmery dark grey color of Essie Cashmere Bathrobe last winter. And I still loooove it this season. It is not as dark as the picture shows. It is definitely grey (not black!) and therefore, it gives a little softer look to the overall manicure. It is hard to capture in pictures but it has shimmery silver specs in it and it is very lovely in real life. 

For this look, I first painted my nails with Essie Cashmere Bathrobe (dark grey) and Essie Urban Jungle (creamy white). I stamped the flower and the writing designs from MoYou London Pro collection 04, using Konad Black Pearl stamping polish. 

I really love this look. It looks like someone drew the flowers and scribbled something on my nails! 

                        Day 5 and still loving it!

Do you want to know how much I love this look? It's day 5 of this manicure now and even though I have slight chips (and filed down some length), I don't want to take it off!!!

By the way, I have been using Essie Urban Jungle for a while and I love it as an alternative to OPI My Vampire Is Buff. It gives pretty good coverage with 2 coats for me and it is slightly more pinkish than My Vampire Is Buff. Very lovely on itsown but perfect as background for nail art. 

What is your favourite color to wear in colder season? 

Love,

Little Dot

Movemer!

Movember is here! This is a twin post with my beloved daughter!

Here is my look. We have decided to use the same main color polish and the moustache pattern. 

For this look, I first painted my nails with Essie Shearling Darling (oxblood) and OPI Love. Angel. Music. Baby. (gold). I stamped the moustache design from Bundle Monster plate BM-402, using OPI L. A. M. B. as stamping polish. 

My nails are not very wide so I have decided to stamp the moustache side ways. 

Here is my beloved daughter's look!

Hello! I am the "beloved daughter", Cat. My mom has been trying to get me hooked on nail art for a while. I think her plan is working... Just a bit. 

After Halloween, I suggested we do Movember manicures. And thus, the twinning (with slight variation) begins!

For this look I painted by base colour as Essie's Shearling Darling, stamped with Konad's white stamping polish and used Hk girl topcoat. 

I have been loving shearling darling for this season and keep coming back to it in my nail rotation. Do you have any go-to  Fall/winter colours? Or inspiration?

Happy Movember! Spread the awareness!!

Love,

Little Dot

Revlon Parfumerie Review - Pink Paisley!

Finally, I got to try Revlon Parfumerie scented nail polish! I bought a couple of bottles a few months ago but didn't get a chance to come around to it. Too many polish, not enough fingers... I used chocolate Truffle one for this look. 

First of all, I want to talk about this polish. I was a bit worried about the scent being too strong because I read some people talking about it. By the way, you don't smell any scent until the polish dries. So if you open the bottle to check the scent or when you first apply it to your nails, you just smell regular nail polish. Chocolate Truffle smells like chocolate (obviously...) If you are very sensitive to smell and don't like to smell sweet all day, this polish is not for you. But I didn't mind it at all. I didn't find it to be too strong. If I bring my hand to my nose, I get to smell the scent but otherwise not that noticeable. And it applied like melted chocolate (yum!), nice and smooth. One coat was probably enough but I did two coats just to even things out. In the picture, it looks almost black but it is definitely dark chocolate brown. (Caution! You might get constant cravings for chocolate while wearing this polish!) 

For this look, I first painted my nails with Revlon Parfumerie Chocolate Truffle. I stamped paisley design from Bundle Monster plate BM-315 with Mundo de Unas 55 stamping polish. I used a dotting tool to add gold dots around the design with OPI Love. Angel. Music. Baby. Finish off with a coat of HK Girl Fast Drying Top Coat. 

The other scent I got is Wintermint. Hopefully I will have a chance to use it soon. 

Have you tried Revlon Parfumerie polish? What is your opinion on them?

Love,

Little Dot

Jolie Clean Up Brush and Stamping Tool Reviews!

I have been using Jolie clean up brushes for the last few weeks! 

Before Jolie Brush, I was using Elf concealer brush for cuticle clean up and even though they worked decent, it started to bother me because they didn't  last long. Sometimes, after just a single use, the pure acetone melted the Elf brush!

See the half melted and deformed Elf brushes on left compared to Jolie brushes on right. 

I researched for alternatives and found out about Jolie brushes! These brushes withstand the pure acetone! 

Initially, I bought 2 blue brushes, which are quite a bit larger than the size I was used to.

See the size compared to my pointer nail?

And then, I found out there were smaller brushes available! So I got a few of those smaller pink spiral brushes and also xl stamper and the stamper head refills!

These brushes I purchased have dotting tools on the other ends. You can also get ones with cuticle pusher on the other ends as well if you prefer. There are various color and size brushes available!

Size comparison between pink spiral brush and blue brush. 

To be honest, I was a little skeptical about the larger blue brush because I have pretty small nails. But it was fairly easy to use this big brush thanks to the tapered tip. From the side, you can see how skinny it is at the tip and it makes a huge difference. 

Side view. Very thin at the tip!

I have been using both blue and pink brushes alternatively depends on how much clean up is needed. If you have lot to clean, blue one does the job quickly with only a few swipes. If you only need a fine detailed cleaning around cuticle area, pink one would give you very precise control. Both are great tools!

And! And!! The stamper heads!!! These replacement heads work so well!! The white head that came with the xl stamper was pretty good after priming it. (Priming means you go over lightly and carefully with fine files so that the stamper picks up the images better.) But the head refills worked great without any priming! It picked up images so well and the squishness is just perfect. (They are a little softer and squishier than the original white head.) I am using the pink one for a few weeks now and it replaced my MoYou London stamper, which was a little finicky!

I bought pink and plum color replacement stamper heads

You can purchase Jolie Polish products from here (US) and here (international). If you live outside of US, I suggest checking out the US site first to see what is available. The US site shows a lot more products than the international (Etsy) site. And if you don't see the items you want in the Etsy site, you can contact the owner, Bory, by email or through Contact Shop Owner on Etsy. She can actually make you a package specially for you so that you can place a customized order.  

Her products sell out very quickly but she restocks often, so keep checking!

Have you tried Jolie clean up brushes yet?

Love,

Little Dot

Because it's Halloween!!

Must do a Halloween mani!

I had this idea of the skeleton coming  out of the grave... 

For this look, I first painted my nails with Essie Styenomics (greenish black) and Essie Roarrrrange (orange). I used a skeleton image from Bundle Monster plate BM-413 with Konad white stamping polish. I also used a jack-o-lantern image from Bundle Monster plate BM-224 with Mundo de Unas 53 (orange) and Konad white as stamping polish. 

Does it look like the skeleton is creaping out of the grave? Mmm... Maybe not. But I still like it...

Happy Hallowewn everyone!! Trick or Treat!!!

Love,

Little Dot