Essie Cashmere Matte Review!

When I learned about Essie Cahmere Matte collection, I got obsessed! I ran over to local stores but they didn't have them yet (being in a smallish town sucks!) Finally, I found them when I was out of town the other day! 

I bought 4 colors, Coat Couture, Comfy In Cashmere, Just Stiched, and Spun In Luxe! I passed on All Eyes On Nude and Wrap Me Up because these two, I heard, were not easy to apply (needs 3 coats or more!) and didn't have the shimmer like the other 4 I purchased.

The color I just had to have was Coat Couture! This deep smoky purplish blue is beautiful with or without top coat. I don't own any color like this. To me, it is very unique! 

 I really love this color and the matte finish. 

I was surprised by how much I loved Comfy In Cashmere. I almost didn't get this one. In the picture, it may look like brown but it's not. It is more of smoky mauve color with blue shimmer. Again, it's unique color and I love it matte!

This lovely pale pink is Just Stiched. The satin-like shine is so beautiful! 

And here is Spun In Luxe. Matte black with blue shimmer. It's a bit hard to see the shimmer though... You can see it in bright light. Or wear it with shiny top coat!

I didn't want to cover this beauty with too much stamping, so I only applied one accent to it. For this look, I first painted my nails with Essie Coat Couture. I stamped a feather design from Bundle Monster plate BM-419 with Essie Jiggle Hi, Jiggle Low. This is two coats of Coat Couture over a base coat. No top coat. 

The only down side of the matte finish is the wear time. It lasted almost intact for a couple of days, though. Just a bit of tip wear that might not be noticeable unless you are really up close. Am I still happy with it? Yes! I don't mind the short wear time because it dried super fast (Correction! If you apply thick coats, just make sure you wait long enough! It's not dent-proof until completely dry!) and no need of top coat shortens the application time significantly. Also, you can apply top coat if you like and the polish still looks beautiful in a different way. The blue shimmer in the polish shows up more with shiny top coat! Or you can apply matte top coat over HK Girl top coat or Seche Vite for longer wear like I did here.

Have you tried Cashmere Matte? Which color is your favorite?

Love,

Little Dot

Bundle Monster Secret Garden Review!

I got Bundle Monster Secret Garden plates recently and I am very very happy with the product!!

These are buffet style, which means each plate has etching on entire surface as continuous design. There are quite a few companies make these type of plates but this is the first buffet style from Bundle Monster. And they did very well! The part I love the most is that they made the design smaller/finer so that they are very usable for small nails like mine! It is also great for large nails because the design spreads out quite large area. 

Here you can see the design size comparison with Pueen Buffet plate. 

And here is another example. See how much smaller/finer the designs are on Bundle Monster plates? They fit a lot better on my nails! 

I used BM-718 for this look! I first painted my nails with Essie Spun In Luxe (cashmere matte black). I stamped butterflies from Bundle Monster plate BM-718 with Mundo de Unas stamping polish 42. I applied HK Girl top coat and mattified the look with NYC matte top coat on top.  

I tested all the plates on paper and they transferred great without any issues. Even very fine lines transferred perfectly! 

The theme of this set is floral and garden as the name Secret Garden set suggests. Because I have quite a few floral plates already (and you get to the point of being picky when you have so many design plates...), I hesitated a bit before ordering, but I'm so glad I decided to get it. The set has good mixtures of designs from cute animals (a fawn, a headgehog, squirrels, bunnies, a duck, and kittens!) to a hula girl, and of course, tons of florals!

You can order this set from Bundle Monster site here and you can use prome code JOLLY2014 to get 15% off until March 31, 2015. 

Did you get this set? Which design is your favorite?

Love,

Little Dot

Waiting for Spring! - Messy Mansion Lead Light Lacquer Plates Review!

Winter here is too long! I can't wait for Spring!! 

I wanted to use Messy Mansion Lead Light Lacquer plates I bought recently and the colors and design I chose turn out to be a nice pastel Spring look!

For this look, I first painted my nails with OPI My Vampire Is Buff (creamy white) and Essie Warm & Toasty Turtleneck (lavender). I stamped floral design from Messy Mansion Lead Light Lacquer plate A03, using Essie Cashmere Bathrobe as stamping polish. I used OPI Sheer tints to add various colors to the design. 

Here is the plate I used. I also bought plate A01, which I haven't yet tested. Messy Mansion plates are always good qualities from my personal experience. Lines are etched very well and easy to transfer designs. The only complaint to this particular plate is the design on the left. I didn't realize this until I actually got the plate but if you look carefully, the design repeats. So about 1/3 of the design at the top is the exact same one from the bottom 1/3 of the plate. I rather have completely new design in that spot if you understand what I mean... 

If you are not familiar with lead lighting technique, there is an excellent video tutorial by Messy Mansion. In a few short words, you stamp a design and color in with sheer polish. You don't need special plates for this technique. The tip is to use either light color base or stamp solid design with light color so that the sheer polish will show on light color surface. You can check some examples from my previous posts here and here. 

I tend to use OPI Sheer Tints as sheer polish to color in. They work perfectly. But if you don't have these tinted top coats, you should be able to use any sheer polish you may already have. 

Do you like the Lead Light Technique? Have you tried it yet?

Love,

Little Dot

Animal Prints - Leopard!

Feel like animal prints? Here is my first try of leopard print nails!

I don't usually wear animal prints as I mentioned before here. But I just had to do this design because I got this cute iphone case from my beloved daughter last Christmas!

Yes. As you see, the color inspiration comes from the iphone case... 

For this look, I first painted my nails with Essie Vested Interest (green). I used leopard print design from Bundle Monster plate BM-221 to stamp with Konad Black Pearl stamping polish. I added silver gold dots with Essie Jiggle Hi, Jiggle Low. 

Here is the picture taken with my beloved daughter's leopard friend!

A few days later, I got a big chip on one of my nails and decided to redo the stamped nails with a bit different take. 

This time, I repainted stamped nails with Essie Jiggle Hi, Jiggle Low and stamped the same leopard design from Bundle Monster plate BM-221 with Konad Black Pearl stamping polish. I left them without additional dots.

Which look do you like more? Do you wear animal prints on your nails?

Love,

Little Dot

Hearts!

Happy Valentine's Day!! I like using OPI Miss You-niverse and I'm Feeling Sashy together. They are both from Miss You-niverse collection and they just compliment each other so well.

For this look, I first painted my nails with OPI Miss You-niverse (dark purple) and I'm Feeling Sashy (dusty mauve). I stamped hearts and writing designs from MoYou London Princess collection 08. I used Konad white stamping polish and OPI Miss You-niverse for stamping. 

I am not a huge pink nail person and I much prefer to use mauve color like I'm Feeling Sashy as an alternative. 

Cute colors like these deserve cute stamping!? I might have gone a bit crazy with stamping... (Stamping on all nails!! I hardly do this...)

Bonus photo "my nails and iphone case"!

Do you own Miss You-niverse collection? Do you like these color combination?

Love,

Little Dot

Roses are... Grey...

February is the Valentine's month, so I am trying to use appropriate designs for this month.

I actually stamped the roses red first but I didn't quite love the look... So I changed it to grey. 

For this look, I first painted my nails with Essie Cashmire Bathrobe (dark shimmery grey) and OPI My Vampire Is Buff (creamy white). I stamped the rose design from MoYou London Pro Collection 08 with Essie Cashmire Bathrobe as stamping polish. 

I wanted to match my scarf! 

After all, my roses are grey... But I love the look!

Do you wear Valentine-themed designs? 

Love,

Little Dot

First Anniversary!

Wow! It's been a year since I started this blog!! I am surprised but also quite proud that I kept going for a year. I started this blog so that I can preserve my nail designs somewhat. I wanted to have some record of each designs I do so that I can go back and find out what color I used and what designs I chose if I wanted to recreate the look. I didn't set too ambitious schedule to post everyday but rather kept at once a week post with a few extra posts here and there. Maybe that was the secret to keep going.

Looking back this past year, here are some of my favorite looks!

My highlight of this past year definitely was the entry to the contest hosted by Chitchat Nails. Though I didn't win, I was short-listed by my favorite nail blogger, Marta! Read the original post here.

I find myself choosing a lot of black and white designs. I just love the simplicity and the crisp look. This design is one of my favorites!

The purchase of OPI Mini Sheer Tints was the one of the best decisions! Check the original post here.

I loved this nautical design and enjoyed wearing the look for a while...

Here is another design I used OPI Sheer Tints. I did the design on my beloved daughter's nails. I did a few twin posts with her and I think I finally got her into nail stamping! I really enjoyed getting her involved on my posts. But do not forget my beloved son! He inspired me for this nail design here!

This was a fun design! My nails don't look great (earlier days...) and my picture quality is sad (iphone 4!), but I enjoyed the design a lot. 

I think I came the long way! My picture quality improved mid-year with the new iphone 5S camera and I even started Instagram!

Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you keep coming back!

Love,

Little Dot