31DC2013 Day 25 : Inspired by Fashion < the LBD that started it all >

Oh, this was a tough one. For Day 25 of the 31 Day Challenge - Inspired by Fashion, I really had a hard time trying to figure out what could be associated with fashion that would translate well on nails.

In a pinch, I could have gone with the recreation of the logos of one of the big fashion houses, or that famous plaid Burberry textile. But I've seen those looks around quite a bit so I wanted to try something different.

So I was thinking, what was an iconic piece of fashion? Well, you don't get more iconic than Audrey Hepburn's look from the movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's", the look that launched a million LBDs (that's Little Black Dress if you're unaware).

In publicity posters for the movie, Hepburn is seen in a black sleeveless shift dress, with a mega multi-string of pearls and a loooong cigarette holder in her hand.

Here's my effort:

I would have redone my mani if I could have thought of something better to illustrate the theme. I realise that the woman on my nails looks nothing like Hepburn but I hope you at least recognise the famous pose.

The polish on my other fingers is Darling Diva Polish - Bulmarae Cave. This is a black jelly with magenta, blue and silver small hex glitter, and silver shimmer. As with all her polishes, the formula is a dream. No dragging and no glooping. However, the glitters in this polish are rather sparse and the shimmer did not show up well at all. So the overall look is rather dark and not very exciting. It is however, a nice accompaniment for my LBD with a little sparkle theme.

31DC2013 Day 17 : Glitter < peeking through the lines >

The word glitter has been forever marred by that unfortunate Mariah Carey movie. Cause that's the first thing that popped in my head when this theme for the 31 Day Challenge came up.

Anyhoo, I decided to do a base of OPI - Rainbow Connection, followed by some simple use of striping tape and a-england - Camelot on top, creating a simple patterned design with the glitter peeking through the lines.

This worked out better in my head. I think I chose the wrong glitter for this technique cause it did not really create the impact I hoped it would. Also, my bottle of Camelot looks really grubby in this picture lol!

31DC2013 Day 13 : Animal Print < and the dish ran away with the spoon >

'Hey Diddle Diddle' is a familiar nursery rhyme to many and it's certainly one of my childhood nursery rhymes. It's the inspiration behind my 'Animal Print' mani for Day 13 of the 31 Day Challenge.

I really should have chosen a stronger colour for the moon but I hope you still get the gist of my original intention. 

I used OPI- My Vampire is Buff as the base for my nail art. It's a really nice textured beige that's a really good contrast against the black and white cow print.

The cow print is really simple to achieve. It's basically just random splotches of black polish over a white base. 


Polishes used
Base for the nail art: OPI - My Vampire is Buff.
Base for the cow print: China Glaze - White on White
Cow print spots: a-england - Camelot

31DC2013 Day 12 : Stripes < black or white >

It's Day 12 of the 31 Day Challenge!

I didn't want to do straight up plain lines so I chose to do nail art today based off of zebras' stripes.

The one zebra character in film that sticks to memory is undoubtedly Marty from the movie Madagascar. He is the hapless but loveable bungling lead character.

As always I used China Glaze - White on White as my base.

Today's mani could also be included in tomorrow's 'Animal Prints' theme but I've got something else planned for that! ;)

31DC2013 Day 7 : Black & White < a nightmare beckons >

So, I'm a little late to the party. A lot late actually!
I was travelling the first few days of the month and that threw me off, so this is my first official post for the 31 Days Challenge.

Qn:  What's Black and White and haunts your night?
Ans: Jack Skellington!

Jack Skellington is of course the main character from the Tim Burton movie 'The Nightmare Before Christmas', and his love interest in the movie is Sally, a rag doll.

This is the original inspiration for my Black & White nail art.

This picture shows Jack and Sally in silhouette and I believe the creator is Corpse-Boy from the Deviant Art site. So hauntingly romantic!



And here's my interpretation:

In keeping with the Black & White theme, I chose to accompany my nail art with a polish that has a gray base (black mixed with white, geddit? ;P) with black and white shards.  I used "Concrete Jungle" by The Polish Well


This is so amazing! It has a good jelly formula, with silver shimmer and definitely noticeable, but not in your face B&W shards. Love this polish to bits! There is one negative though. The bottle that the polish came in, has a really really really short brush, which makes life REALLY difficult. I kept mis-aiming the mouth of the bottle and getting polish all over the table. 

The Polish Well brush

Comparison with an OPI brush

See what I mean by the extremely short brush? If The Polish Well is able to get some new bottles in, this would be perfect!


I'm definitely going to try to make up for the challenges I missed. Subscribe to my blog posts so you don't miss any of them!

Phantom of the Opera - review and nails

Recently, one of our local newspapers Today, organised a contest to win tickets to the Phantom of the Opera musical. It was a really simple contest, you just had to answer a question along the veins of "What is your favourite song from the musical and why?".

So I entered, and I was one of the winners!
I had to schlep all the way to MediaCorp to collect my tickets but hey, getting to see the musical again for free is a great trade-off!

The Tickets

As you can see, these are the cheapest, possible seats in the house, lol. They are ordinarily priced at $55 apiece but hey, at least I wasn't sitting in the absolute back row. ;)


 Pre-show Dinner 

Ah, Marina Bay Sands really has no cheap options for food. We settled on Din Tai Fung, a tried and tested option. I was really anxious about getting seated at the theatre comfortably before the show started so I practically ran to the restaurant. Alas! As we were nearing the restaurant, I could already see people milling around the entrance. This meant a wait, but how long? 30 minutes PLUS an additional 30 minutes wait after getting your table if you want their famous Xiao Long Baos .  :(

Ah, I wasn't up for walking around any more to look for food options and we felt it was probably going to be a similar situation elsewhere. So, settled on this.

Thankfully, the staff at DTF are really efficient and we were seated and served very quickly, within the promised time frame.

Here're our noms!

Beef noodles

• Oily like mad and rather tasteless. Beef was pretty tender though.

Chicken wantons

• Nice! Made me feel better about missing out on the Xiao Long Bao!

 MBS Theatre 


Our view of the stage, far far away

Well, since I didn't pay for the tickets, can't complain!
I came prepared with binoculars though! ✌



   My mani 

Of course, I had to have some appropriate nails for the occasion.

I used my go-to black a-england's Camelot as the base and painted my interpretation of icons from the musical.   

What do you think? :D



 The performance 

The musical is staged at the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) Grand Theatre, performed by an international cast.

What I am grateful for:
- no phones went off during the performance. Hooray!
- The seating of the theatre was in a staggered manner to minimise the chances of your view getting blocked

Not so great:
The Grand Circle where I was seated, opens to a non air-conditioned area of the MBS property. So before the performance started and all through the first act, it was really HOT!

Claire Lyon, who plays Christine had a great voice, as did all the other performers. However, the most important role of the Phantom, played by Brad Little, was kind of disappointing. Sure, he had great acting ability, but in musicals, acting is nowhere as important as the ability to sing. And alas, he does not quite possess the lung capacity I had hoped. Couldn't really reach the high notes. So that was definitely a let down.

All in all, I'd give the performance a 7. It was definitely enjoyable but I wouldn't shell out the dough for top tier seats.

Now the songs from the musical are stuck in my head. :P

Polish Together - July birthstone: Ruby

The theme for July's Polish Together: Birthstone Series event is Ruby and that's all about sexy, classic, red nails!


a-england's polishes are super-pigmented, apply like a dream and most of them are opaque in one coat! There's also none of that nasty smell you typically associate with nail polish. So for this month's theme, what better polish to pull out than a-england's Perceval? 

Love the square bottle design, makes storage so much easier!



Here's Perceval in my mani:

Of course, I had to throw in a little something extra, an accent nail art design of famous sexy red lips! Done over a background of the perfect one-coat, black polish - a-england's Camelot.



An up close shot of my accent nail and side by side comparison to the original logo I used for inspiration.

I'm really happy with how the art turned out. Rock on!


>> Click here to find out when our next birthstone series event is happening. 
Or check out the link at the top of the page for a list of dates & details.