Coral Dream

Let's say hello to Coral Dream. 

I've mentioned previously that I'm an absolute nail polish addict hoarder. I own a fajillion bottles and I could always own more. This polish came from my ELF haul last month for only $2!

This colour is a very pink-peach colour, with a slight orange undertone. It's apparently one of their newer colours as well - very summery! I applied about three coats on but you really could do with just two. Surprisingly for $2, the formula is comparable to those of OPI, Essie and Zoya. I actually think this might be better than Essie's polishes. I find that their formula is quite streaky and their brushes are TINY. ELF's polish is indeed the opposite - it glides on with a thicker brush. Many people do complain about how it juts out when you close the bottle fully, as in it seems to not fit on properly. That is unfortunately true but fear not, because it still keeps polish quite sealed, so it won't dry out (if that's your concern).

Enjoy your weekend!

♥B

Spring-ing

Wow it's been a while since we both updated! As you can imagine, we're busy enjoying the spring weather outdoors. I went out with the family today and it seriously felt like summer already. Anyway, Saturdays mean prepping food for the week - things like baking, or pre-cooking and freezing food. Today it means CHICKEN STOCK/BROTH! If I'm lazy, I tend to resort to chicken cubes which are in fact high in sodium and probably a bunch of other things that aren't necessary to one's body. Instead, I make my own! It's a nutritious alternative to store-bought stock or broth because you control what goes into the stock.

Ingredients: fresh parsley, celery, carrots, onion, tomato, garlic and raw (bone-in) chicken

That's all. You literally put all that in one pot and cover it with cold water. Let it boil and simmer for at least 4 hours so that all the ingredients can really flavour the water.

No, seriously... Just throw it all in one pot. It's so easy you could probably do this blindfolded.

So hopefully, it'll inspire you guys to make your own chicken stock as it really is healthier. If you're a vegetarian, you can just omit the chicken and you get vegetable stock!

* * *

What else to do while you wait for chicken stock to boil for a few hours?

Finger paint!

 Essie - Chinchilly (3 coats)

Happy Saturday everyone!

♥B

Happy St. Patty's!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! A great excuse to get trashed for most people, but since hubs is working and we've got no one to watch the little ones, it's a stay-at-home day for me. I'm sure most people did their nails green so I jumped on the bandwagon.

Nails: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Green with Envy

I hate how hard it is to capture the real colour of nails in photographs. From the left, I shot that at night. Second picture from the left, that was during the daytime. Both look like two completely different shades. But the best way to describe the true colour of this would be "celery". Yup, I was chopping celery earlier today and realized that it was an identical match. This was about 3 coats with top and base coat.

As for dinner...

Chinese Ginger Beef on Rice

Hope everyone's getting completely wasted tonight!

♥B

Minty Fresh Manicure

Happy St. Patty's Day!

I'm surprised with the quality of this polish from forever 21. It applies smoothly and opaque with few coats (I used 2). Definitely a great dupe for those "tiffany" colours but for only half the price. The only downside would be the brush which is pretty much terrible.. it's frayed and rough and makes it tricky to apply but still manageable (I think this was a common fault that Belle also came across)! Just remember to apply carefully or use another brush. Enjoy and have a drunk St. Patty's weekend! :)

Nail Polish: Forever 21 - Mint 

♥M

Chocolate Dipped Tips

Had some much needed rest and relaxation last night following a few hectic days... Well, what to do when you have hours on hand? Paint your nails! If I have any beauty obsession, nail polish is one of them. I was sorting one of my boxes of polishes last night. Take a peek below! :)

So yeah.. A little extreme but I can't help it! I used to change my colours almost everyday but lost the habit for a few months. Now, I'm starting to get back into it! Possibly because it's spring season and all the newer collections/sets come out during this time. It's hard to avoid good sales ;) So I did a quick mani and got my nails all prepped for a couple coats of liquid looooove.

I decided to use the polish I just bought this week: OPI - Suzy Loves Cowboys. It's a dark chocolate brown creme colour. It was sort of weird putting it on because the first coat is SO SHEER. However on the second coat, it somehow made it almost opaque and I just used 3 coats to make it even. The colour is gorgeous and honestly I keep thinking my hands are messy from eating chocolate. Yuuumm.

So that went well UNTIL the top coat. My HG top coat is either Seche Vite Dry Fast or China Glaze Fast Forward but I decided to give FingerPaints TopCoat a try. Sally's was having a 2 for 1 sale for FingerPaints and I got the base and top coat. The base coat worked fine in terms of setting a good base and has been protecting my nails from yellowing. However, the top coat on the other hand completely screwed up my manicure. Look!

If you look closely at the pictures, it came out all bubbly and streaky! Prior to applying the top coat, the nail polish glided on and left a nice smooth surface. After putting on FingerPaint's top coat, I kid you not, it actually ruined my polish. I literally sat there and did nothing to avoid getting marks on my wet nails but that didn't help. Not only did it take more than 30 minutes to dry, it created this weird surface on my nails. Just take a closer look at my thumb:

Tell me that doesn't gross you out one bit? I'm so disgusted! I honestly contemplated just removing it right away but thought I would document it so all you others won't have to experience this polished heartache. I don't really like giving such bad reviews for products but really, a top coat shouldn't look so disastrous on your nails. Have you guys tried this before? I would love to hear suggestions on different top coats out there.

♥B

Pretty in Pink

TGIF.
I decided to start my day off by pampering myself with a fresh mani! Unfortunately, my right big toe nail remains as only half a nail and growing due to a basketball injury so the pedi will just have to wait. Anyways, I got a bit crafty and mixed up a simple colour that I've been wanting for a while but just been way too lazy to get up off my bum and look for. I mixed it in an almost empty OPI bottle of polish that was a nude shade to begin with. I'd describe the final outcome as a 'dusty pink/rose/nude' (Haha I couldn't make up my mind..).. and at least that's what I was going for and it turned out beautifully. I tried to capture a picture with my iPhone camera but the picture does no justice to how the actual colour looks in person!

Thanks to these guys, I was able to create my colour!

From L > R: Sally Hansen's Insta-Dry in 'Pink Blink'

Sally Hansen's Diamond Strength in 'Pink Gleam Rose'

Revlon in 'Silver' (which is pretty much a flat light grey)

End Result: Ta DA!

Just when I thought I was done...
Try applying a pattern or sparkles to add some asymmetrical edgey-ness and fun! I used a bobby pin to dot the white polish for the index finger and Gosh's 'Magic Star #562' as a top coat for the ring finger which gave it a subtle sparkle! There's so much you can do - be creative!!

A sneak peak of a part of my continuously growing nail polish collection.. I really need to think of a new way to organize them but they ARE colour coordinated! ;) Any suggestions?

Ps. Hope you enjoyed our first nail polish entry! Many more to come. 

♥M