Update on Etsy Store: Single Cuff Earrings

So I never got around to updating about my Etsy store status.
Here are two ear cuffs that I posted a while ago:

Swarovski Crystal Pearl Ear Cuff

This version is very girly, because this is in pink. =P

Double Star Swarvoski Crystal Cuff

I love how the light shines through the crystals here! The stars are made of stainless steel and very cute.

Something even better about these: they come with color choices: 

Gorgeous Swarovski crystals! Again, my camera cannot capture their beauty.

Please visit my store here! 

Also, a new nail polish review coming soon, as well as comparison of two Korean peeling gels!

Nail Polish Review: Nicka K Top Coat, Nanacoco Ocean Blue

Nanacoco Ocean Blue nail polish with Nicka K Express Fast Dry Top Coat.

Taken under indoor lighting. The Ocean Blue nail polish looks very green. 

Ocean Blue was bought at my local beauty supply store for about $2. It is a beautiful metallic nail polish. Although it should be blue, it is much more like green under normal lighting. The second picture is directly under the sunlight, which shows its true blue color. The pictures simply cannot capture its glittering beauty!

Under regular indoor lighting, with the Nicka K Topcoat on. Not a fleck of blue anywhere!

Under sunlight. If you look at the tips, you can see where I repainted, which is a different blue than the rest of it, which has Nicka K Topcoat on it. 

A big issue with this polish is that it chips in a day! It eats through topcoat, so I had 5 layers of the Nicka K Top Coat to make my nails smooth. Even with all that, my nail polish came off in sheets! Perhaps I need a better topcoat.

As for the Nicka K Express Fast Dry Top Coat, it does indeed dry the polish wonderfully in a few minutes and has a gorgeous gloss.
 However, it cannot be used on fresh nail polish, because it will smear! You must wait a bit for the base layers to adhere to the nails. Furthermore, it changed the color of my Nanacoco nail polish into a bronzy green, rather than a blue. So I would take caution in using this on metallics and polishes that reflect light.

Summary:
I would not repurchase Nanacoco Ocean Blue unless I have a good enough topcoat to prevent it from chipping.
I would repurchase the Nicka K Express Fast Dry Top Coat, since it was only about $1 and would be okay to use with regular color nail polish.

This review represents my honest opinion and was not endorsed by either company. All products were bought with my own money and all photos taken by me.

NK Blue Sapphire and Sinful Colors Secret Admirer

I felt like wearing something dark on my nails, but not completely black, so I layered NK Blue Sapphire over Sinful Colors Secret Admirer. It came out extremely sparkly, because both have microglitters. In extreme light, it is a gorgeously bright blue, but under regular light, it is black with a blue hue. Amazingly, this mani took only 2 coats of nail polish, one from each polish.

Nail Polish Review: Nicka K Heart Blue

Another nail polish from the cheapest brand I use: Nicka K in Heart Blue.
In the bottle it looks like a dusty blue, but on the nails its sheen made it have a purple undertone as well.

The formula is quite streaky, as you can see in the photos. It is also really sheer, so even after 3 coats there are patches of translucency.

See how streaky the thumb is?

That translucent patch at the tip!

 I didn't really like the color, so I decided to add Sinful Colors Nail Junkie over it. It then turned into this pretty color! Close up it looks blue, but in certain lighting you can see the teal of Nail Junkie. I personally like this color much better, especially with that light dusting of glitter.

Sorry about the messy nails! I didn't do clean up before taking this picture.

Overall, the Nicka K Heart Blue is not worth the buy, because it would take many coats for full opacity. Even then, the polish would likely be spotty because of its streaky formula. Furthermore, although the basic color matches the bottle, the purple hue makes the color a bit unpleasant to look at. However, it seems to work well for layering under a translucent jelly like Sinful Colors Nail Junkie.

This review represents my honest opinion and was not endorsed by either company. All products were bought with my own money and all photos taken by me.

Nail Polish Review: Nicka K Sapphire Blue

Another nail polish from one of my favored cheap polish brands. It was only a buck at my local beauty supply store, and seemed gorgeous in the bottle. I was hopping that it would be something like the famous Essie Starry Starry Night nail polish.

3 coats later:

Thumbnail is scratched because it didn't dry even after 3 hours. 

Under bright light, it is more of a light blue. Shimmer could not be captured by the camera here.

Clearly it looked nothing like the bottle, because the blue wasn't a dark navy blue, even after 3 coats. However, the polish is still a gorgeous blue, and is very shimmery like the picture of the thumbnail, because of the dense blue microshimmers throughout. The main drawback is the extremely long dry time. Even after 3 hours, I could still scratch it or dent it by accident. Maybe I should have used a quick dry top coat. 

Overall, an amazing blue shimmer polish that is a great pop of color in this winter/spring weather. But use it only if you are patient enough to let it dry for 6 hours!

UPDATE: This chipped within 3 days! Definitely use a good anti-chip top coat for this one. 

This review represents my honest opinion and was not endorsed by the company. All products were bought with my own money and all photos taken by me. 

Sinful Colors Glass Pink and Nail Junkie Review

I've been really in to glittery nail polishes lately, and I found this nice glittery teal (Sinful Colors Nail Junkie) and a pale shimmery pink (Sinful Colors Glass Pink) at a Rite Aid for only $1.99 each.

Sinful Colors Nail Junkie

Under direct light, it looks blue, but in regular light it is a teal color, much like  Wet and Wild's Bijou Blue. 

 Although the end result was nice and sparkly, the formula was very difficult to work with, because it was gooey and sheer. I had to use several brush strokes to spread out a single clump of polish. This led to some unevenness on my thumbnail.

See how it clings to the side of the bottle? Gooey!

Two coats provided opacity, but under the light, it did not look like the color in the bottle. Furthermore, it began chipping a day after application, probably because it is gritty and I did not put on a top coat.

Edit: Apparently the gooeyness was because it was a bad bottle! The other bottles were more fluid.
Also the nail polish peeled off! It was like peeling off dried liquid glue. Not recommended! Perhaps a top coat would help?

Sinful Colors Glass Pink

This is a very clean color, very translucent. The formula was fluid and easy to put on, but 3 coats still caused VNL, which I don't mind at all. It has tiny micro glitter, making the nail polish extremely shimmery in the light.
Unfortunately, its shimmer is difficult to capture on camera.

Very translucent! 

Attempt to capture the shimmer in the polish. Notice especially the index and middle fingernails. 

With 3 coats and no base or top coat, this polish lasted about 4 days before chipping! So it has great staying power, unlike Nail Junkie.

Overall, I would recommend Nail Junkie only for single occasion wear, because it peels off so easily, and Glass Pink for daily wear if you want to just have a touch of shimmer on your nails.

This review represents my honest opinion and was not endorsed by the company. All products were bought with my own money and all photos taken by me.

Palty Jewelry Ash Hair Dye Review

Sorry I've been away for so long! I went on vacation and bought lots of beauty products, which I will review as I use them!

I have virgin brown-black Asian hair and decided to dye it a few days ago with this Japanese hair dye. It was in a cute pink box and had clear pictorial instructions, but of course, being able to understand a bit of the Japanese helped.

Virgin black hair! 

I squirted the tube of paste into the bottle of fluid and shook it. Then I applied using their given applicator. It was a very simple process. I waited 35 minutes, washed it out, and applied their leave-in hair conditioner, which left my hair very smooth.

After: why  is it brown?!

This would have been rated 10/10 for not damaging my hair and being easy to use if it weren't for the BROWN hair it gave me! It was supposed to have purple undertones, but all I saw was brown, and it wasn't even done evenly.

As you can see here, there is a patch of black at my roots.

After only a few days, the color has already gotten darker, but that may be because I'm not using shampoo for color treated hair.

Overall rating:
Ease of use: 10/10
Damage to hair: a tad drier
Availability: Most pharmacy stores in Flushing and Chinatown
Cost: Inexpensive considering it's from Japan.
Color compared to model's: 0/10 Nowhere near the colors on the box

Maybe it was just my hair, but when my friend used Macaron Beige, her hair turned out brown instead of blonde as on the box. So I'm not sure I would use Palty again.

This review presents my honest opinion and was not endorsed by the company. All products were bought with my own money and all photos were taken by me.

Sidenote: My Etsy store has been on hiatus, but I promise to bring new products soon! Please visit http://www.etsy.com/shop/Everlastinghail  Thank you!