The Long Wait

Seems like it's also a long awaited update. Sorry I've been pretty tied up at work these days. What with CNY just around the corner, multiple nails to paint all while juggling work.

So I've more or less caught up with the latest manicure designs (although I do have about three more backdated ones) but let me share with you another one of my hauls. This one took a very long time to arrive and it contained most of the things I've been waiting for so it was really unbearable to have to wait so long for them.

I guess that's what happens when you use a third party to ship everything over. Thing is, the shipping alone for one of the products were more expensive than the actual product itself so that's why I decided to use a third party to consolidate everything and send it since I was getting a few items from four different merchants.

Well, I ordered and paid for my goods online to the merchant and proceed to inform the third party company I was enlisting. I'm still pondering if I should drop names as I wasn't too happy with the service. Well, we'll see.

I bought four items from Amazon on the 10 Oct and since they were having super saver for two of the items so I decided to group them. No idea why Amazon didn't consolidate it into one shipping as specified and this particular item held up my entire shipping.

At the same time, I purchased seven items from eBay on the 14 Oct. On 18 Oct, Amazon's tracking shows that item delivery was completed but I still did not receive news from the vendor. I sent them an email on the 27 Oct to inquire on the packages marked as delivered by the merchant but I didn't receive any news after that.

I sent them a second reminder on 01 Nov and I still didn't receive any reply by the 6th so I called them as I was in Singapore for work at the time. They F-I-N-A-L-L-Y revert back to me on 10th telling me they are unable to locate one other package that's why they did not update the system status. By that time, I was livid with anger as it took them almost two weeks to get back to me after numerous emails from my side and I was also pretty tied up at work and my one month free storage was up.

I told them this and informed them that it wasn't my fault so I will not bear any additional cost for storage as they did not properly keep track of my item and I will only ship the complete set once they find that ONE missing item since merchant already stated it was delivered on 18th Oct.

They finally managed to locate my missing item on the 17th Nov (one month after merchant has delivered and signed receipt by their warehouse personal!) and they finally bill me the invoice for the shipping on the 18th (ask them to track parcel take so long, ask me for payment so fast...).

Apart from that, I received my items on the 29th Nov. Took my babies almost one and a half month to reach me. Having said that, I guess they are quite alright but they still have loads more to learn when it comes to shipping and tracking on customer's behalf. After all, we DO send them the items list... why is it so hard for them to check?

Rantings aside, here are my lovelies that I waited ages for...

As I gleefully look at the package...

Oops... Now you know who effed up my shipment...

 Four packages of lovelies...

 First package contained two polishes from Nubar

Both is Nubar 2010 a close dupe of Sally Hansen's Hidden Treasures but at a much lower cost that's why I bought one additional spare

 Second package contains seven polishes all from claire's mood polish collection...

Took me damn long to find these ok... and had to wait to bid for them also... =.=
L-R: fabulous/funky, awesome/silly, excited/bored, calm/wild, flirty/shy, peaceful/confident & happy/earthy. I think I'm missing a few more other colours...

My third package was totally unrelated to nail polish but since it was shipped together I might as well share these lovelies with you too...

Tokio Hotel Fever by Beatrice Nouveau photo book to curb my craving for these deletable German band. Was selling in Malaysia for a whooping RM75 but Kinokuniya was the only book shop that carried it and they were OOS (Out of Stock) so I decided to get it together. This was THE item that went missing...

My fourth package contained Tokio Hotel Humanoid City Live CD and DVD!!! Stupid Rock Records in Malaysia sold them seperately at around RM50 each! I got these for emmm... I think it was around USD13+ excluding shipping but this was supersaver item so shipping was very cheap or even free... too long ago so I can't remember anymore... =.=

So that wraps up this haul. Will have more post coming up. I have so much catching up to do... *sighs*

New Year 2011 Marble

Ok. Time for my latest manicure. After this it'll mostly be posts of me trying to catch up on my earlier manicures. I'll even throw in a few newer manicures for good measure.

I decided to use the colors I got from my latest spree and I was undecided about the colour. I wanted to use both the colours from the Cheers to You Holiday Set but as both colours were too similar I worried they might not show up well on the marble.

In the end, I decided (with the help of Hunts) to go with Little Drummer Boy (blue) and Cheers to You (silver).

For the base, I used one coat of Cheers to You as I wanted the silver to pop out since the blue is the more domination colour of the two.

This was one coat of Cheers to You. It covered well with one coat. You can see a bit of VNL (visible nail line) but I'm sure the second coat would've taken care of it.

I was trying for a different design but it kinda failed in the sense the end result wasn't exactly the same but it still looked nice in it's own way. I had to retry a few times to make sure the blue wasn't dominating the whole design.

As you can see the marble on my left hand for the thumb and middle finger, blue was the most dominating colour. You can barely see the silver streaks but it's still there.

For my right hand, silver dominated my thumb and pinky. Overall I personally didn't quite like this marble but I received a lot of compliments for it. One man's meat is another's poison I guess. Or probably the fact that I know it was not the end result I was going for and the fact I was rushing (I did this exactly on the eve of New Year's) so I had to make do with it.

I have since removed this manicure. I'm still not sure what I want to do as my next manicure. Should I do a marble or a Konad?

Christmas Came a Wee Bit Later for Me

I didn't get much presents for Christmas this year. Mostly the ones I got were from the gift exchange we organised with Secondary schoolmates and my ex-colleagues. I got one other surprise present from a friend who is currently working in Australia. She had her boyfriend pass it to me since she's not around. It was very sweet as I wasn't expecting any presents as I have already informed friends not to get me any as I can't afford to get them one as I was at that point, jobless so every penny I have had to be saved.

I did a spree a few months back from this girl in Lowyat forum but since she has decided to stop spreeing, I see no point in adding a link to her forum lest you all get disappointed. I might start my own polish spree but that will be in the future when work settles down a bit and I get used to the momentum.

I figured since it was her last spree I went all out. Shelled out around RM400++ as it was going to be her last spree (kiasism is strong within me). I thought I'd have to wait til 2011 to get my hands on my final haul from her and was pleasantly surprised when she informed me a day after Christmas that the goods had arrived. I quickly made my final payment (400 at one go is a lot and this sweetheart let me pay in installments as it was my 3rd spree with her) and informed her so she could sent out the goods.

At that point, I figured I'd definitely only receive my stocks after New Year's and had to start planning my new year manicure. Since I was not working then, everyday I'd wait for the postman to come and hopefully carry a huge parcel with him. I didn't have to wait long. I got my parcel on the 30th, a day before the prime minister declared 31st a holiday and I was so relived... See, I wanted to use at least two of the colours for my New Year's Eve marble.

WARNING: Loadsa pictures up ahead!!!

Hugeeeee box containing my spoils...

All bundled up so it doesn't break... Oh... Why so many wrappers??? I want to see the goodies inside... >.<

Another round of protection... (will I ever get to the stuff inside???)

and another... to keep the boxes from shifting around too much

We're on to the last lap now...

First box contained one of the China Glaze Cheers to you 2010 Christmas holiday set. It comes with a free holiday shot glass. Colours from L-R is Midnight Kiss (a gold foil) and Cheers to You (a silver foil). The spree-er? told me there might be a chance that the shot glass might get broken in transit but since the price is the same either way so I decided to take the risk. So worth it.

Second box. Also from China Glaze 'Tis the Season to be Naughty and Nice (2010 Christmas) is Frosty (white shimmer). The other two is Seche Prep (nail cleanser & antiseptic) and Seche Soft (cuticle softner).

Third box held my very first essie (both from Essie's 2010 Winter collection) & Orly polish to date. I'm so excited, can't wait to try em out. L-R: Hot Coco, Cashmere Cardigan (Orly's Spring 2009 Prepster collection) & Going Incognito (all cremes).

Fourth box. More China Glaze Polishes. L-R: Rated Holographic (a holo from their Kaleidoscope collection), Little Drummer Boy (a blue shimmer also from their 2010 Christmas collection) and Ruby Pumps (a red glitter from their Love You Snow Much, 2009 Christmas collection & also Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection).

The fifth box mostly contained all my Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat. The topcoat to use if you're in a rush and need your manicure to dry like pronto! In between was Color Club's Revvvolution (a black holo from their femme Fatale collection. Somehow the colour in the bottle looked nothing like holo. I'll have to swatch it to be sure) and High Society (a brownish-grey creme from their Rebel Debutante collection).

The sixth and final box also contained China Glaze Polishes. L-R: He's Going in Circles (green holo also from Kaleidoscope collection) and TMI (red holo from their OMG collection).

So that wraps up my belated Christmas present to myself cum haul. I have more hauls to post up (this is my latest so I'll be working my way back from now) and more nailart to come so stay tuned!

Christmas 2010 Marble

Happy New Year lovelies! A tad late I know but I have been pretty tied up the last couple of weeks as I just joined a new company and currently getting used to the environment and the job role. I meant to post this earlier but never got around to it.

For this post I'll try to catch up on my Dec 2010 Xmas & New Yea'rs manis and hauls so I don't swarm you with too much pictures.

I still had a voucher for a foot spa so I decided to drop in my local manicurist (yes, sometimes I like to be pampered as opposed to doing the pampering) to use it before the expiry date. My feet is literally beyond repair after a month of me walking around Singapore (when I was sent there for work by my previous employer) which resulted in super dry feet so it needed some TLC which I'm too lazy to do on my own.

I wanted to try one of the OPI colour she had but I forgot what was the collection/colour name (guess it didn't make that much of an impression on me) as my pedi colour. Since Christmas was around the corner, I told her to add some snowflakes nailart (which in the end I realised if I used my Fauxnad stamper would've looked much better). She also added a Christmas tree sticker but unfortunately that came off before I could take a picture.

My Pedicure for Christmas 2010. I know, the fauxnad stamps would've looked so much more classier but oh well...

My own manicurist is a gem. She'd always refuse to do any nailart for me as she knows I can do it myself so she always tells me not to waste money... =.=

For my mani I decided on a basic manicure with OPI's Alpine Snow as the colour. I was using this as a base for my water marble later. I know you're probably wondering why did I have to do a basic mani if I was going to marble over it later anyway right? Thing is, my own bottle of Alpine Snow is stuck. I can't open it. My gem of a manicurist told me a trick to get it open.

So yeah, for a few days I was walking around with this (when it comes to my own nails, I'm a procastinator).

After a few days of having it look like this, I really had to start my marbling as white usually don't wear well and you can see some chips (picture was taken after that few days also). I wanted to do a Christmas marble with the colours red, white and green. For the white, I decided to use my OPI's Alpine Snow (which I finally go opened with the tips from my manicurist minus pulling a muscle), red was OPI's Thanks So Muchness from their Alice in Wonderland collection and the green I opted for China Glaze's Emerald Sparkle from their Holiday Glitz collection.

Unfortunately, the red refused to cooperate with the white or the white refused to cooperate with the red (I have no idea which one came first) and I was unable to get a decent design. After numerous attempts and repainting the white (thank goodness I had a similar colour), I decided to just get a different white/red as in I went out to get a new polish.

Now it is extremely hard to find a polish brand that marbles in Malaysia. I decided to play safe and not scrimp when it came to prices since I was adamant to use the three colours instead of changing it. Ran to The Curve to look for them nail kiosk that sells those Korean nail polish but they were out. Watson's didn't carry Sally Hansen. Went to 1 Utama to look for my red in Guardian. Managed to find this.

Inside I was praying so hard that this would work. Next I ran over to SaSa to get a white in case my Alpine Snow also refused to cooperate with this Sally Hansen. They didn't have any Jordana nail polish so I opted for this.

I had absolutely no clue if this polish will marble in water at point of purchase.

I had to get a new top coat as my OPI Top Coat has a tendency to streak, a no-no when it comes to marbling. My Seche Vite was running out and the consistency at that level made it a nightmare to work with. The only other brand I know that boast not streaking was Konad, so I had to go grab one (since Seche is not readily available and my spree hasn't arrived).

Whilst getting the Konad topcoat, the kiasu in me had to come up with another back up plan in the event the nail polish I just bought failed to marble as well. So I decided to pick up a Christmas-y nail plate since I was going to get the topcoat anyway.

I ended up walking away with not one but two nail plates... =.=

I wasn't able to find the actual Christmas nail plate (forgot what plate number it was) but I did manage to find the M56 I was looking for the last time which were out of stock so I decided I'd better grab it quick.

At the same time, I also grab this...

...because it had snowflake images (although I already have a Bundle Monster fauxnad with a snowflake image as well but I did say I was kiasi...)

After all the drama just to marble in Christmas colours, I'm happy to report that Christmas marbling 2010 nail manicure was finally a success.

 

This design is supposed to mimic the poinsettia which is widely used during the Christmas season. The thing with water marbling is, you never get the same design twice so if you are the type that needs all ten nails to be exactly the same then steer clear of water marbling.

Else, it'll be a really fun experience because the design you get is the one you chose to dunk your fingers into so it's really up to you.

P.S. It was the Thanks So Muchness that refused to cooperate with the other two. When I used Sally Hansen's Hot Red it was a dream to marble with... so the culprit was the red. The white I bought from SaSa could marble but won't really build so I stuck with my Alpine Snow in the end to do the marbling. That's the other thing about marbling, not all polishes are willing to work together so it's a lot of trial and error to see which polish marbles well.

I'll be posting my New Year's marble soon so stay tuned.