Light purple and copper stamping

A little while back I bought a couple of the Revlon parfumerie polishes, and I really dug them, so I bought several more with my Christmas money. So far of the ones I've tried, Wintermint is my favorite. I got these for the cute bottles more than the scents, but man, Wintermint smells good. The first one I tried was Autumn Spice and I was not a fan of that scent at all. I was happy when it washed off in the shower the next day.
Anyhoo, for this manicure I used Lavender Soap. I was a little bit worried about the scent of this one because I can't stand lavender, but it mostly smells like soap and fabric softener, so I was ok with it. Unfortunately the formula of this polish wasn't that great. It went on really streaky and even after three coats, some areas still weren't totally covered, but I figured the stamping would help to hide it.
Speaking of stamping, I got the Pueen Encore collection with an Amazon gift card gifted to me by my brother. I really like these plates. They came in a lovely little booklet with plastic pages in which to store them. This was my first attempt at doing a multicolor "sticker" or decal stamp. It didn't come out perfectly, and when I topcoated it it got covered in air bubbles. >:/ But I'm hoping to get better at that technique with practice.

Polishes used: Revlon Parfumerie in Lavender Soap, Essie - Penny Talk and China Glaze - Urban Night, and design stamped with Pueen plate SE03A

Purple and gold holo shimmer

I am quite pleased with this manicure. I used another of the three polishes my mom sent me for Christmas, OPI DS Classic. When I put it on my wish list, I thought it was just a gold foil. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it in person and discovered it's actually a semi sheer goldish nude shade with holo sparkle. I noticed it had the same finish as a purple polish I got recently from Etude House, play polish #300 and I knew they'd go well together. I did the design using these funny curved v shape tip stickers from bornprettystore.com and some caviar beads I found at Daiso.

Knockoff Moyou plate test

Recently I ordered a few of the KO Moyou plates on ebay. When I received them I discovered that you really do get what you pay for. I had to request a refund for one, the copy of Fairytale plate 12, because the cowardly lion's whiskers were just round splotches on his face. So these pictures here aren't meant to be displaying a manicure with which I was happy, it's just to show what results I got from using one of these plates.
The plate I decided to try first was Xiuya02, a copy of Moyou's Fairytale plate 03.

I wanted to use the lightning bolt design, but when I tried it out I was disappointed to find that the image wouldn't pick up. It also dried very fast on the stamper. If you look at this plate closely, the bolts aren't even completely etched in all the way over. I tried multiple times with different polishes, with no luck. Maybe not every plate is made like this, so YMMV. I had the same problem with the circles design to the left of the bolts. Another flaw on this plate are random little pits or specks all over the surface.

Here I've tested a few areas on the plate. I used the Moyou XL squishy stamper and Konad special black. The worst one is the bottom right, one of the dragon's wings. Here's what it's supposed to look like:

On my plate, the fine lines within this design look spotty and not fully etched.

Moving on, I decided that I would have the most luck with the swirly pattern in between the dragon's and horse's faces. It looked the most well etched in the plate, smooth and deeper than the others. However, the darkness of my base color combined with the shimmery metallic I used to stamp make it hard to see the design, so I'm sorry for that.

Polishes used for the final look are Orly Smoked out and Kleancolor Metallic Green. Overall with these plates, don't expect the quality you'd get from a genuine Moyou plate. If there's a plate you really want, save up your money and get the real thing. I don't make a lot of money and don't have a lot to spend on nail stuff, which is why I thought these plates would be a good deal, but they're not nearly as nice as I was hoping they would be.

Christmas nails

I have been slacking the past week or so and have just now gotten around to editing the pictures of my Christmas manicure and writing this post. I used one of the three polishes my mom sent me for Christmas, Zoya Yuna, and a stamping plate I ordered for myself that arrived on the same day. While Yuna is not a very traditional Christmasy looking color, the gray is kind of greenish in some lights, and I think with the abstract floral design, stamped differently on each nail, it kind of looks like wrapping paper.

Polishes used: Zoya Yuna, Kleancolor metallic yellow stamped with image plate QA88 (found on bornprettystore.com). Red flower is from a mix I bought on ebay.

Birthday Nails

Doing a manicure based on my astrological sign wasn't something that ever really occurred to me until I discovered Moyou London and their line of zodiac themed plates. After eagerly awaiting the release of the Sagittarius plate (my sign) I was disappointed because I didn't really like it. So I took it upon myself to do some research on my sign, specifically the symbolism linked to my birth date, and created my own December 21st themed nail art. I don't usually do manicures with different designs on each nail, but after watching the first season of Nail'd It, I felt inspired to do so.

The white arrow on my right index finger is the symbol of the archer, and the symbol on my right ring finger is for Jupiter, my birthday's ruling planet. The colors purple, pink, and red ane supposedly significant to Sagittarians. The teal blue color represents the December birthstone, blue topaz. The rest I did in assorted dots and sparkly designs. Sorry for the weird hand poses! When we move to our new apartment in a couple of months I plan to build a suitable lightbox and get a tripod, but for now I'm having to struggle to take pictures with my phone in the daylight. Overall I enjoyed this manicure and I'd like to do more themed ones like this in the future.

Polishes used (it's a huge list): By Kleancolor - Disco Ball, Vegas Night, Starry Purple, Pinky Moon, Metallic Fuschia; Essie - Play Date, BK Candy color polishes in #8 and #11, Konad special polishes in black and white, and Shine Plus Nail from Organic Farm. If there's a shade name, I don't know what it is because it's in Korean. :)

Stamping plates used are SH14 (arrow) and Moyou Sailor collection 03 (swirly pattern).

Winter Glitter

Here is my festive wintery glitter nail look. This was my first successful attempt at doing a stamping sticker (the snowflake). I used this method, rather than stamping it directly, because my stamper is white. I have asked my husband for a MM rectangular purple stamper for Christmas, though, so hopefully I'll have that one to play with soon. :)
The white glitter polish I used is Etude House Play polish #102. As soon as I saw it in the store, I wanted it. I have a plain white glitter in my collection already, but I'd never seen one like this, with iridescent shimmers in it. It really looks very snowy and it was only ￦3,500 (about $3).

I also recently received the Kleancolor glitter set from amazon. Some of the polishes are awesome, some are just average, but with the price averaging out to around $1.40 per bottle, it's definitely worth getting. The only problem with this one, called Starry Blue, is of course there's not a lot of glitter payoff in it, but  think that's always to be expected with cheaper (American) glitter polishes.

Polishes used: Kleancolor polishes in Metallic Aqua, Metallic White, and Starry Blue, Etude Play polish in #102 and Konad special polish in white with image plate SH17. Also, here is the link for the Kleancolor glitter polish set, if anyone is interested.

Korean polish for everybody!

I just got this lovely glitter polish the other day at Homeplus, which is a big department store here in Korea. It was hard to get a good, focused picture of it, so sorry these kind of suck. It's a mixture of medium sized white hexes, tiny white squares, pastel hexes, larger pink squares that are kind of metallic, and teeny tiny holographic glitter dust. I thought it looked pretty in the bottle, but it's even better when it's on. I've layered two coats over Essie Cocktails & Coconuts.
Then I read something about a group of people who live in Japan and take photos of things in stores, put them online, and mail them to folks in other countries who'd like to buy them. I thought to myself, "I should do that with nail polish!" South Korea is full of little cosmetic stores, and they all carry nail polish. On top of lovely glitters like this one, I've seen textures, glitter crellys, and all sorts of bright and pastel creams.
So I'm proposing the idea of going out and finding nice polishes and mailing them to ladies (or men) in other countries who would like to try some Korean polishes. Most of them are very inexpensive.  If you're interested, please send me an email letting me know what types or colors of polish you'd like, how much you want to spend or how many bottles you want, and whether you'd like to see pictures of what I find first or if you want a mystery bag based on your preferences. Or if you know of brands you like, such as Tony Moly or Modi, I can get the particular ones you want. I'm only asking the buyer to cover the cost of the polish and shipping, plus a small shopping/transport/handling fee of $2 per order. Unfortunately I'll only be here for another 5 weeks or so, so if you want some, act fast! :)