Chinese New Year Nails

Happy New Year Everyone! This is the year of the Horse and I was SO excited about it that I decided to pay tribute with my nails =)

I put a gold horse on my right pinky and a red horse on my left pinky. Red is good luck for me this year, along with purple and green. I am supposed to stay away from blue this year as it is bad luck... I have to figure out what to do without my blue jeans this year. That's going to be tough. Does that mean I have to dress up everyday this year? I hope not... Anyways back to the nails. The red on top of the gold came out nice but it was hard to see the gold on top of the red. I won't be repurchasing the Konad gold special nail polish. Also as a special note, I haven't been able to put a top coat (the brushing kind) over the nails with the pictures without it smearing. I've even tried it on the second day and it will still smear. What has worked are the top coats that are drops you squeeze onto your nails. I feel like they are not the same as the ones you brush on. But it might be just in my head. Here are the nail polishes I used.

From left to right.
1. butter london's nail foundation is the best looking basecoat I've ever used. Sometimes I'll just wear it because it just makes your nails look so nice in a natural way. It hides surface imperfections like vertical ridges.

2. is the gold Konad special nail polish. I don't like it. It's watery and I will not repurchase. I was hoping so much that the gold would stand out against the red but it didn't =( Lucky for me I only bought a sample size bottle.

3. OPI's An Affair in Red Square. I would describe this polish as a candy apple red bordering metallic- it's a really nice red red, not orangey red- I'm not a fan of those.

4. essie's Shift Power is a watery gold when it's in the bottle but not bad when you put in on your nail. 2 coats will make it pretty solid, 3 is the best. Would I repurchase? Probably not until I've tried other brands.

5. Konad's wine red special nail polish. I likey =) I've used this also for my minion nails post and will
probably use it in other posts. Will definitely repurchase when I run out.

6. OPI's The Impossible, from the Mariah Carey line is pretty cool. I didn't like it alone though. Even two coats, it was more pink than red. I expected it to be more like the bottle which is a nice red. However I made it work with putting An Affair in Red Square underneath. I am happy with the red that came out. I put this liquid sand polish on my left ring finger.

7. Holika Holika's gold glitter nail polish coming all the way from Korea! I had purchased this when I went to Korea many moons ago (but still feels like yesterday). This was way before all the (hard core- not) glitter polishes came out in the states, before crackle was born. I really like this polish. The glitter comes out nice and thick. I would describe the polish texture not as rough as liquid sand but it's definitely not flat as I hope you can tell from the pix. I put this one my ring finger on my right hand.

These are the nail plates I used, all by Konad plus the scraper and stamper

From left to right, top to bottom.
m66 (on my left thumb), s5 (on my pinkies), s9 (on my left pointer, left middle finger, and right middle finger), m23 (on my right thumb and right pointer).

P.S. If you notice there is actually a chinese character on my right pointer. It means bright, so hopefully this year will be a bright one for me =)

Hope you enjoyed my post. If you have any questions feel free to leave it in the comments. Let me know if you did anything special/ creative for this special holiday.

     

nails

This is how I did my nails last week.

I LOVE this pink glitter nail polish by Missha!! It's SUPER pretty. These are the other polishes that I used.

From left to right,

Orly's Bonder- a rubberized basecoat. I used this on my left hand and Butter London's nail foundation on my right. My right hand didn't chip as fast OR as badly. Even so, It didn't start chipping until the second day. My right hand didn't start chipping until the 4th day.

Butter London's Nail Foundation- Flawless basecoat is right! This is the BEST looking basecoat I have ever used. When I first put this on, I hesitated to keep painting my nails. Yes it looks that good. It makes your nail look like your nail, but with a matte/ satin like finish. When comparing it next to a nail that hasn't been painted, you can tell the difference right away. 

Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Nail Color in Disco Ball- I've been looking for a clear glitter polish for a while now and I thought this one was perfect. How glitter polish has changed... before the glitter would stay in the bottle or come out in pieces wear you can pick it off your nail. But this one had glitter that was fine enough to go on smoothly. It was also subtle enough that it didn't overpower the pink Missha which is exactly what I wanted. 

Borghese Presto Fast Dry Top Coat- I really like this fast dry top coat. I once bought a really cheap fast dry top coat at Walmart and it was HORRIBLE. It took FOREVER to dry, slower than a regular nail polish! This one however, I brush it on last and wait for a minute (to be on the safe side) and my nails are dry and shiny smooth! 

Sally Hansen's Diamond Strength Diamond Shine Base & Top Coat- This one was great and really gave me that diamond bling shine. I've had this polish forever and used it all the time so now it's gotten goopy and I can't find my polish thinner =(  I was able to use it this one last time before I put it aside until I find my thinner. I actually used this before the Borghese top coat but lined it up wrong in the picture- my bad!

Solar Oil- a nail conditioner. I've also had this forever but have been lazy about using it. I think it's an okay conditioner but I know a lot of people who love it. I have some other nail conditioner waiting in the wings that I'm excited to use so I'm just trying to finish this off. 

For this week, I tried to do this really cute bee nail that I saw on youtube but it was an ultimate fail =(

However I'm too lazy to take it off so I will just let it chip away. haha

This is my right thumb and I learned I have a lot more control of my left hand than I think. The bee on my right thumb turned out so much better than the bee on my left thumb. The flower is a sticker that I bought at Sasa in Shanghai. The rest of my fingers are horrid, I didn't let the dashes dry long enough I guess and they smeared when I put on the top coat. I will attempt this again in the future.

These are the polishes I used from left to right.

Orly's Bonder- a rubberized basecoat. I'm going to keep using this until I finish it, but I do think it's a decent basecoat.

The Face Shop BL603- I like this blue a lot. I used 2 coats and it came out darker when compared to the bottle. 

Zoya in Creamy- for the bee.

OPI in Black Onyx- for the dashes and bee stripes.

OPI in Gargantuan Green Grape- for the petals of the flower, you can barely see it. 

Skinfood in Milky Creamy Nail- as my top coat. I like this a lot. It's more watery than most top coats so it goes on really easy and the packaging it totally ADORABLE. 

Borghese Presto Fast Dry Top Coat- I don't know why I use 2 top coats. I'm not sure it that's even right to do but I think it looks better with two.

For the white wings on the bee I used

Essie in Blanc- but wth right? I know I've had this for a long time but this has never happened to any of my other nail polishes. This is the second time it cracked. I crazy glued the pieces back the first time but this time was extremely hard to open just like the first time but after banging it against my table a few times I was able to loosen it. But as I turned to open the bottle, it cracked and started falling apart so I think it's time to let it go to nail polish heaven. It's a pet peeve of mine to toss unused product but I reasoned that it's not like I can save it since nail polish isn't something you can just transfer to another container. And at this rate, it's just a matter of time before it dries out. I want a more opaque white anyway. Time to shop =)

Show me your nails =)