31 Jan

The Nailinator joins ColorMeSoCrazy’s Make Me Pretty Giveaway

Hi gals!
Just a quick post for you today to let you know about this huge “ColorMeSoCrazy” giveaway. I’m contributing a prize too. You get an easy entry if you like my Facebook page so go to the end of this post for the rafflecopters to try your luck! There are lots of great goodies up for grabs. There are prizes are for US and for International residents too, so everyone has a chance. Yay! You have until February 28th to enter. I wish you the best of luck! Prize list and rafflecopter widgets are after the jump.
Spread some joy and have a great day!
Rach
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Ok ladies!! Here we goooooo. As you all know, I hit 1000 blog followers lately and I am celebrating!! I have 38 wonderful ladies working with me to give you some of the HOTTEST prizes out there!! Ok, so without further ado, your sponsors AND PRIZES!! See the Terms in each Rafflecopter for all the rules!!

 

Be sure to fill out the appropriate rafflecopter. The first one is for US only. The second is for EVERYONE!! So, if you are in the US you may fill out both!!
Printcess Makeup
Leesha’s Lacquer
Philly Loves Lacquer
Bitten By Books
Weird Stuff in My Desk
A Charming Time
Patroozie’s Polishes
Lacquer: The Best Medicine!
Linda’s Polish Emporium
Miss Mani Monster
Plump and Polished
Don’t forget to check the terms and conditions in each rafflecopter and good luck!!!
US ONLY
 
US, INTERNATIONAL AND ALL
 
27 Jan

San San Tea Rose Reinvention

I’m showing you my submission for the Lacquer Legion theme for today which is “Reinvention”. This mani applies in two aspects because:
1. I used a polish over some decals to make it work for me.
2. I  am wearing a look I have NEVER worn and NEVER EVER thought I would. Would you just look at that visible nail line (VNL)? And would you believe that I LOVE it?!?!

This is two very easy coats of San San Tea Rose. I think this may be the only exception to my severe case of VNLphobia. But I will definitely be more open minded from now on and give a polish a chance to win my heart like Tea Rose did. The accent nail is a full nail water decal I purchased from My Online Shop on Facebook. I added a coat of Tea Rose to make it match the other nails.
The combination of my nail shape, the floral pattern and the dusty pink just screams vintage romance. Don’t you think?

I also added a pearl accent to the accent nail. These are from Blooming Nail Cebu.

San San polishes are available at HBC branches and retail for 37 Philippine Pesos per 12 ml bottle.

How do you feel about VNL? Are you getting in the mood for some romantic nail art for Valentine’s Day? I’m looking forward to some extra girly looks in the coming days.

Have a fabulous day!
Rach

26 Jan

Review of Caronia Trance and Moonlight

Hello!
I’ve got not just one but TWO polishes up for review today! Both are by a local polish brand Caronia.

First up is Trance which is what I would describe as a purple foil. It is VERY shiny and oh so pretty! Those of you who have been around a while know by now that I have a special place in my heart for purple polish.

Caronia Trance swatch

I used 2 coats here. The formula was a bit thick but easy to handle. Clean up was very easy and I wore it all day without top coat and had no wear on my tips. Two thumbs up from me.

Caronia Trace swatch 2

I actually put off buying this one because I thought it was too similar to Amethyst by Chic which can be seen here. They are actually quite different. While Amethyst has glitter bits and dries to a semi-matte sort of textured finish, Trance is a foil with a shiny and smooth finish.

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Next up we have Moonlight which I would describe as blue and purple shimmery duochrome glitter in a black jelly base. I’ve used two coats over Trance here because I already had it on and I wanted to make sure I had no VNL. After applying it, I think I could have gotten away without the base.

Caronia Moonlight swatch

Isn’t it pretty? I picked it up a couple of weeks ago. I had not seen this shade before and I was surprised by it. I haven’t had much experience with duochromes and multichromes. I think this would be a duochrome but I also noted gold tones in certain lighting. I could not photograph it though. If you have any tips on photographing these types of polishes, I would love to hear them.

After applying topcoat (which bubbled a bit because it had been raining for almost 2 weeks straight) I added a little Swarovski crystal accent. I purchased these from Blooming Nail Cebu.

Caronia Moonlight with Swarovski accent

Which is your pick of the two? Both of these Caronia polishes are available in department stores, grocery stores and pharmacies in the Philippines. These shades come in 8ml bottles for approximately 34.75 Philippine Pesos.

What do you think of my review post? I’m still getting the hang of describing polishes for you. I would love to hear your feed back or any suggestions of what other info to include. Please leave a comment. I hope you have a great weekend!

Hugs,
Rach

14 Jan

Almond Blossoms Nail Art

Hi Girls!
Sorry for the break in our regular programming. I got hit by a nasty cold and suffered through a 6-day-long sinus headache. It was pretty horrible. I’m feeling better now though and only have a mild headache, so I thought I’d get on here and share these with you today.

Have you ever decided to do a design, get all excited and worked up to do it, only to start regretting it as you begin to nail it down? (See what I did there?) That’s what happened to me when I embarked upon this challenge.

If you have been around a while, you know my favorite piece of art is Van Gogh’s Starry Night. I like it so much that I dedicated quite a bit of time to paint it on my nails. My next favorite is his Almond Blossom painting. The very talented Jacqui of Craftynail did a look inspired by this painting last year and it turned out lovely.

I wanted to challenge myself and see if I could do another forgery, and I kept coming back to Almond Blossoms because I just love everything about it. So I decided to go ahead and give it a shot too and let my OCD kick in and try to match the colors and technique as best I could to the original. See for yourself and tell me how you think I did.

Almond Blossoms nail art with decorative bottle

Here is the original just for reference. There’s nail art and then there is nail ART! Please do take a moment to notice the detail work. 😉

Almond Blossoms by Vincent Van Gogh
Source Wiki

I had planned to feature this awesome design for my blogiversary, but I was so run down and tired that I only had time to get the background part done and had to add the details a couple of days later. I used 15 polishes total for this look, plus some black and dark brown acrylic paint for a few spots on the branches. That’s almost ALL polish! Acrylic is much easier to work with if you do detailed work as it doesn’t dry too quickly, but it also does not smooth out and blend with top coat like polish does. So polish is always my preferred medium.

Almond Blossoms four fingers

If you look closely, you will see that each of the nails on my left hand are copied from sections of the actual painting. (Bonus points if you can spot them!) I worked more loosely with the designs on the right hand as I didn’t want to be up all night trying to match it so closely.

Almond Blossoms on cinderella hand

Well, I hope you love these as much as I do. I will leave you with a few more pictures as I just couldn’t bear to leave them out. What is your favorite work of art? Have you done any designs based on works of art? Please leave a link below because I would love to see. Have a fantastic day and don’t forget to make someone smile.
Hugs,
Rach

Almond Blossoms thumb and side view
Almond Blossoms with Chic bottle
Almond Blossoms four fingers another angle
07 Jan

Guest Post by Simply Rins

Howdy!

I’m so excited to have the very talented Rina of Simply Rins stop by for a guest post today. Rina is the very first Filipina nail artist I discovered when I began getting into my hobby obsession and I’ve been stalking her ever since. She has great tutorials and tips and tricks for nail art and always has something creative to share. The tip that still comes to mind for me is to cut out caffeine before you plan to paint to minimize shakiness. It really makes a big difference. Please go check out her blog if you haven’t already. I even recreated her dripping rainbow manicure when I first started my blog. I’ll let her say hello now. 🙂

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First of all, I’d like to say “Hello” to all the readers of The Nailinator! It seems timely that I mark the new year with something that I haven’t done before — to guest post! This is definitely the first for Simply Rins. I deeply appreciate the invitation and I hope that this nail art design I came up with will not disappoint.

Now where to begin? How about starting with the fact that we have entered 2014! The past year was full of challenges for me as a blogger. But every turn of the year calls for a celebration. Don’t you think so? No matter what happened the previous year, a new year represents another chance to be better. And so folks, I think my first nail design for 2014 should be a celebration. Only one idea came to mind before I sat down to do this — confetti.

I simply called this nail art, Welcoming 2014:

Welcoming 2014 Nail Art Design by Simply Rins

The idea is to paint colorful confetti on all my nails on a dark background so that the colors would pop. I was imagining confetti being showered on the streets during the new year countdown. I love the effect of contrasts at night.

Welcoming 2014 Nail Art Design on Seche Nouveau

For base, I used 2 coats of Seche Nouveau. I found Seche lacquers being sold in one of the bazaars I went to last October 2013 and I bought a few bottles. I have been meaning to try these ever since the news came out that Seche was launching 45 polish shades into the market. I am a huge fan of Seche Vite fast drying top coat and I am curious how the brand will fair with polishes. With the 3 colors that I have, I must admit it didn’t disappoint!

Nouveau appears charcoal gray on the nails and I love eeeet! I personally feel it is a great alternative to black. Consistency is good that makes application really manageable. Can be a one coater with a generous coat. But I still prefer 2 thin layers for complete coverage. I can’t wait to try the other shades.

Welcoming 2014 Nail Art Design

This is a freehand nail art using acrylic paints and a dotting tool. I find it easier to draw swirls using a dotting tool instead of a nail art brush because I can control the strokes better. A brush can result to a more defined edges or lines. But for this design, I don’t think you really need much precision.

Welcoming 2014 Nail Art

I decided to use pastel colors for the confetti. I particularly used 5 different shades for each nail on both hand. I used the same colors for adding a few dots to fill in awkward spaces. Initially, I thought that neons would look better but I didn’t have any. Are there neon acrylic paints? I think that would be a great addition to my nail art tools. I can also imagine how this would look if they are glowing in the dark!

Welcoming 2014 Nail Art Design by Rina Alcantara

Well, there you have it! A nail art design to celebrate 2014! The concept is simple and it is not so hard to do as well. I had fun painting my nails with this design and quite happy with how it turned out. What do you think?

Thank you again to the wonderful author of this blog for this opportunity to share with you, her dear readers, one of my nail art creations. It is a pleasure to start the year with a chance to reach out to fellow nail art enthusiasts. Happy New Year to everyone! 🙂

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Aren’t they adorable? The design is so festive and the colors are great. What a great idea to use a dotting tool for the swirls. Don’t forget to check out Rina’s blog to see more great nail art.
Rins, thank you so much for dropping by! I’m honored that you agreed to do a design and have your first guest post be on my blog! I love what you came up with. It was definitely worth the wait! 😉 Happy New Year to you too! I hope 2014 turns out to be your best yet!
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