NYX Matte Nail Polish in Sky Blue

Earlier this week, my husband and I went to the doctor to have our cough (and his asthma) checked. In the hospital, I noticed a girl sporting cute pastel blue polish on her fingers and toes. I envy people who can keep their fingernails and toenails painted with the same colors. Haha! I change my manicure too often that my pedicure couldn't keep up. :)

Anywho, she made me want to wear a pastel blue myself. And I knew just the polish to try on! This is NYX Matte nail polish in Sky Blue which came with my polish swap from Jeiflyn.

This was done in 3 thin coats. I really like the satin matte finish. It was just right, not too matte that it looked flat or dry. I was thinking to myself that I feel like I have Barbie's nails for some reason... I don't know why exactly. :) For me, it looks very clean and neat. I could almost call this mannequin nails, but then they're in baby blue and not nude or skin tone. Hehe!

It's very pretty and I think it's just perfect for the weather! We're starting to get more of those scorching hot summer days, like searing heat the moment you step out of the house. I bet we'll see more of these pastels as spring and Easter approaches. This looks like a great backdrop for an Easter egg nail art. Don't you think so? It has a similar smooth eggshell finish. I like!

The only thing you have to be careful with is making sure that they dry completely. Otherwise, you could get small creases, and these are quite delicate when still wet. It's formulated to be matte. So there's really no protection for the polish. But it's the 4th day that I'm wearing this and I'm still loving it! I'd dare say that the wear on this is pretty good!

Not sure if my nails worked with this outfit, but here's what I wore to my lunch date with Jor-el. I was craving for some Eggs Benedict and we ended up at Bizu! Yum! :)

Jellybean cape button down shirt, Zara floral print shorts, Tonic Bags and Shoes Lillian gold spiked sandals, Jellybean tribal necklace.

Eggs Benedict at Bizu, The Fort (Yumm!!)

What colors would you like to see for spring (or summer here in Manila)? :)
  

The Face Shop Face It Nails in BR802

Last weekend, I met up with friends for dinner at Greeka Kouzina. Afterwards, some of us went to Craft Coffee Workshop to hangout. I was a very good day with friends. It's been a while since we hanged out like that. And Craft was a good venue for talking and catching up.

My childhood friend, Jane, was there with us and she was wearing this pretty gold polish. It looked like gold foil and it just shined every time she moved her fingers and made some hand gestures. Haha! Oh my! Do I sound like a stalker?! :-p She told me that she feels happy just by looking at them and I knew I had to get myself a bottle!

And so, what do you expect? I got myself a bottle last Monday. Hehe! What do you think?

This is The Face Shop Face It Nails in BR802. Unfortunately, Korean brands don't come up with cute names for their polish. Just a bunch of codes, like BR, meaning brown, BL for blue, PK for pink, and so on. As a corollary, gold is like some shade of brown; hence, the BR802 name. :)

It's a beautiful gold foil! I did this in 3 coats, although I really could've stopped at 2. It's very pretty, how it reflects a lot of light. Even if it's metallic, I think it works great for summer because of the warm undertones of gold. The application was very smooth and I had no problems whatsoever in that department.

In the shade

Part of me feels though, like it made my hands look old? Or maybe it just didn't stand out against my skin tone? Or my hands just look too dry and wrinkly? :-O (God forbid.) It looked waaay more beautiful on Jane! If only I had a picture to show you. Shucks!

Here's a close up of the bottle.

I have them on my toes too and I think I like them more there than on my fingers. In the picture below, I'm wearing my favorite (and my only) spiked sandals, Lillian from Tonic Bags and Shoes, to showcase this polish for you.

Lillian from Tonic Bags and Shoes

How do you like it? Or them? The polish and/or shoes? Haha! :) Would you get these for yourself too? :)

I leave you with some pictures I took recently from Greeka and Craft! If you're from the Manila, I really suggest you try these places out! You won't regret it!

Greeka Kouzina is located at 285 P. Guevarra St. San Juan, Metro Manila.

Craft Coffee Workshop is located at 66 Broadway Ave., New Manila, Quezon City.

Thanks for reading!
  

OPI Liquid Sand What Wizardry Is This?

Disney's Oz The Great and Powerful movie was released in Manila last week. I haven't seen it yet but I heard mixed reviews about it. Have you seen it? The 2D interactive imagery on the official website blew me away. You can pan the image in different angles. Very creative! :)

Anyway, we're not here to talk about the movie. I wanted to share with you the only OPI Liquid Sand from the movie-inspired OPI collection. This is called What Wizardry is This? I was immediately drawn to the antique gold color! I got this for a couple of weeks now and already wore it some time back but only got to write about it today.

This just took 2 easy coats on top of a base coat. No top coat needed. You can see the gold peeking through like a hidden treasure. I'm not sure why this color was part of the Oz collection. Maybe because it looks magical or mystical? But wouldn't it be more fitting to have a glitter emerald Liquid Sand instead? Hehe! I feel like this would've fit more with the Pirates of the Carribean. :)

I first saw this color from Marta of Chitchat Nails. I like my edgy colors and I think that's what the OPI Liquid Sand stands for. (I'll be coming up with a separate review to compare it against the Zoya PixieDust, so stay tuned.) 

The texture is different from what we've seen from the Mariah Carey collection. You can check my post on Mariah Carey's OPI Liquid Sand The Impossible here. This is more straightforward, with no chunky glitter, and closer to the PixieDust formula, with matte gold sparkle instead of silver. I like the depth that the texture creates.

The color is a very rich dark brown taupe with antique gold shimmer. I've never seen anything like it before, so I was very happy with this! Depending on the lighting/shade, the intensity of the gold varies. The picture below was taken in artificial light. But in broad daylight, it glistens! :)

If you're not averse to the sandy texture, you should get this. In my opinion, it's the best polish from the Oz collection. Very unique and there's nothing like it! :)

It's a shame that I forgot to try it with a top coat on! But you can head over to this site for more swatches.

Enjoy the rest of the week!
  

Revlon Whimsical over China Glaze Kinetic Candy

So.. this is a disappointing one. Hehe! I don't have a lot of entries that don't sound excited, hyped-up, and adrenaline-rushed! Haha! But I guess when you've tried on so many nail polish and experimented on so many designs, there comes a time when you are sadly, just not happy with the results.

This is 2 coats of Revlon Whimsical layered over 2 coats of China Glaze Kinetic Candy. I think it's a great combination. The colors work very well. It starts off as a pale baby blue with China Glaze Kinetic Candy (sorry, I didn't get to take a shot of this plain) and it turns into a mint green because of the tint on Revlon Whimsical.

Revlon Whimsical has pink and blue hex glitter, regular silver glitter, and faint blue micro glitter, all sparsely mixed into the mint jelly base. It looks very pretty from afar. But not so up close. See the bubbles? Eewww gross. Hehe.

Maybe I'm not being fair. My top coat is largely to blame. I mixed it with some solvent because it started getting goopy and I shaked the bottle so hard. I let it rest for a few minutes and when I didn't see the bubbles anymore, I started using it. Perhaps there were still some tiny ones that weren't visible to the naked eye.

But my beef with Whimsical is that I feel like the glitters are a bit too sparse. You don't get a lot with 1 coat, and to achieve this effect, you need to make 2 thick coats and swirl the brush around to pick up more glitter. Maybe it's meant to be more subtle. But I was just a little disappointed because I read somewhere that Revlon Whimsical has more glitters than Deborah Lippmann's Glitter in the Air.

Aaaanyway, for a quick mood changer, I suggest you head over to Polished Pinay instead, and check out her version of this! :)

My only consolation from this mani is that it was in theme with my outfit last Friday. Haha! But a little too matchy matchy, perhaps? Haha! The spring/summer weather here in Manila just called out for some mint green! :)

Topshop mint green drape front chiffon longsleeve top, Mango tie dye skinny jeans, Tutum Victoria mint flats

Earlier today, I wore it with a coral dress for contrast. This looks like a good color palette. :)

Mango coral dress, Tory Burch Sally 2 mid wedge peep toe sandals in knot

Have you ever tried Revlon Whimsical? How do you like it?

Thanks for reading and a good day to you all! :)
 

My First Ever Polish Swap

Imagine my excitement when I got up to a package from LBC yesterday! It arrived!! My bag of goodies from the beautiful and talented Jeiflyn of Polished Pinay! This is my first time to ever do a swap and it's so cool to find someone to do it with here in the Philippines!

Jeiflyn came up with this brilliant idea and shared it with me. She's never participated in a polish swap either! I'm just so touched that she even thought of me. :) I can't stress enough how the world of blogging and Instagram is such a wonderful world! They get you connected to people whom you've never met before but share the same interests, passions, and obsessions as yours! And you get to make new friends! :) <3

Here's what I received (from left to right, photo below):
OMG (Oh My Golly) Crystal Sand in Emerald
Color Club in Midnight blue (with striper brush)
Revlon Minted
Revlon Tropical Temptation
Nyx Matte Sky Blue
Nyx Matte Baby Pink
Etude House in WH702
+ the Prettify pouch (see photo above)

I can't wait to swatch these for you!

Isn't she thoughtful? She gave me the white polish and the blue striper for my nail art. Such an enabler! :)

And since I've been blogging so much about the OPI Liquid Sand and Zoya PixieDust lately, she thought she'd indulge me with the OMG Crystal Sand! :) What other names could they come up with to mean the same thing? Haha! OMG is actually a local brand here in the Philippines and they came out with this product even before OPI came out with its Liquid Sand. I guess we were just ahead of our time... or we really could've just started this trend, you know. ;)

Then some more matte polish from Nyx! Cute colors! :) And the Revlon mint green and coral polishes.. oooh... I really wanted to buy these for myself! :D

Thank you so much Jeiflyn!! <3

Have you participated in any swaps lately? Aren't they exciting? It kind of felt like Christmas! I didn't realize how much fun it would be! Enjoy your weekend ladies! :)