Reopening of Little Rain Designs!

Hi there!

It has been forever since I last wrote a post and my apologies for that. As mentioned by Xin Yu in our last post, both of us were super busy with school. Just to update everyone, I have officially graduated with my Diploma   and am waiting for the start of University, in August. As for Xin Yu, she has completed her first year of university and is on break now! 😀

Today, I would like to share with everyone our exciting news… 

We have decided to reopen our store Little Rain Designs!!! 

We expanded to include apparels, accessories, bags and more. Our original nail polish jewellery is also for sale!

Feel free to take a look and see if anything catches your eye. We are currently in the midst of bringing in more stock, so stay tuned for that!

Thank you for your support & till next time,

Bethanie

On hiatus

Hey lovelies, you all finally hear from me!

It’s after much discussion with Bethanie that we decided to post an official note that we are going on an extended hiatus- which you may have guessed due to the lack of updates! ><

University and polytechnic life has been taking a toll on us so we really are unable to find the time to get up a blog post, much less paint our nails…and school really takes first priority, so I hope all of you will understand! D:

However, we will definitely pop back in during our school breaks to blog! Hopefully around May the posts will start coming in, so please stay tuned! ❤

–

(If you guys are interested in my personal life and what I’ve been doing in school + other non nail related things, you can follow me via my Instagram @__xinyu. Do drop me a message beforehand if you are doing so though!)

Till the next nail painting post,

Christmas Jumper Nails with Zoya Elisa

*Purchased By Me

Hey everyone! I finally have the first Christmas manicure up on the blog today (: This was done using Zoya Elisa (obtained through the nail mail swap we had previously) and a white Uniball Signo gel pen. I was inspired by a couple of Christmas jumper nails after a search on google, and this manicure is sort of a mash together of all of them, as well as my own idea! So, without further ado, here are the nails~

I used a base of Zoya Elisa, a gorgeous red polish which a gorgeous shine. It has an almost chrome-like metallic finish and is perfect for Christmas! This polish is from Zoya’s Diva Collection for Fall 2012.

I then drew in the jumper patterns on each individual nail with my gel pen.

I rarely wear red nail polish on its own as they are a bit too bloody looking on me for my taste, but I loved this manicure so much that I decided to stop swatching and wear it as a full manicure! 😀

I thus added in a reindeer(with polka dots, which act as falling snow) on my thumb nail. I top coated everything when it was dry, but the red polish bled through, turning all the white parts, pink! ): I definitely preferred the stark white but I still rolled with it.

The reindeer was done freehand, as was all the other designs, and I simply followed a reindeer silhouette on google. Many of my friends were fascinated with my nails and they even thought the designs were nail decals!

I’m really happy with how the reindeer turned out. (: I had to draw it twice in order to achieve something I was satisfied with, but it was worth it. Also, the beauty of using gel pens is that it can be washed off with water before it dries so you don’t need to wipe off the entire base polish. ^^

Stay tuned for more Christmas manicures, and Happy Tuesday! ~

Ulta3 Over The Rainbow- Swatch & Review

*Purchased By Me

Hey everyone! Another week has flown by and it’s already Saturday :O Hope all of you have had a great week so far!

Today I have another polish which my mum brought back from her trip to Melbourne, Ulta3’s Over The Rainbow. I was on my hunt on the web looking for Australian drugstore brands and came across a swatch of this on More Nail Polish, which you can view here, and fell in love. :3 Without further ado, let’s jump into the swatches!

Over The Rainbow is basically multicoloured glitter suspended in a clear base. I wanted to be different and not showcase the glitter over black, so I went with a pearl base- I think this was Sinful Colors Tokyo Pearl.

I did have a little bit of problem getting out a lot of glitter, but this could be due to me not suspending/giving the bottle a good shake before application. Other than that, I had no other problems.

I applied 2 thin coats.

I do love the look of it over the pearl base, and I think this polish is very versatile, but of course perhaps a darker base will really make it pop. This combination somehow reminds me of a circus…though I should have gone with a few more coats of glitter to really get a ‘confetti’, sparkly effect!

I think I need to try this in a jelly sandwich next time. My mum also purchased 2 bottles of Over The Rainbow for me, as the store she went to was having a buy 2 get 1 free promotion (or something similar) going on. I therefore have abundance of this glitter polish to spare, hehe! ^^

Black x Neon

*Purchased By Me

Hey everyone, happy hump day! Today I have short post featuring a manicure done using Born Pretty Store studs.

So I did these nails for Saturday as I went to Zouk for the first time, which is a rather popular club in Singapore, especially among the teenagers.

I used a base of The Face Shop BK901, a gorgeous black polish with duochrome shimmer — although I’ve recently spotted some flashes of fuschia/red aside from the usual purple to blue, so I’m not really sure what to call it anymore! The studs are from the Born Pretty Store and I purchased the full wheel of neon nail art studs. It comes with a variety of colours and you can check it out here.

I chose the less bright colours for the studs this time round, as I wanted it to sort of match my dress which I wore that night, which was white with black geometric triangles and patterns. This is also why I did my ring finger and thumb nail in a triangular and v-shape respectively with the studs. (:

I’ve heard that the studs glow under UV light, but I unfortunately couldn’t put them to the test! ): I have a feeling the brighter colours would glow better under the light though!

Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow

*Purchased By Me

Happy Thursday! Today I have another of my untrieds- well, it has been used, but for nail polish jewelry and not my nails heh- for you guys (:

This is The Face Shop Face It Colored Paper Nails in cmx322 Lovely Pop.

cmx322 Lovely Pop is basically loads of glitter suspended in a clear base, with red heart and square glitter, blue hex glitter, smaller yellow hex glitter, yellow hearts and white bar, star and hex glitter. I didn’t manage to get out any white stars for my swatch, but it can be seen in the bottle shot, hiding near the bottom!

For application, I simply suspended the bottle for a couple of minutes in order to get out the heart shapes. You have to be careful as the clear base can be slightly thick, but careful application does the trick. The white glitter did come out in abundance though, so I did some manual dabbing/shifting around on the nail, as well as wiping my brush against the side of the polish bottle.

This was 2 coats over a base of The Face Shop BK901, a gorgeous black polish with duochrome shimmer. Of course the shimmer was lost under all the glitter, but I picked it mainly for the black base and my standard black polish is almost finished. 😀

I really love this glitter polish, and I picked it up cause the primary colours reminded me of paintings done by Piet Mondrian, one of my favourite artists! A few of his works can be seen here.

I don’t think I would apply this glitter to all my nails though as it looks like there’s too much going on. Probably just for an accent nail(or two) (: Speaking of which, I have an idea for a new manicure which incorporates this polish! Stay tuned (; ~

In the fuzzy fuzz-sea~

*Purchased By Me

Hey dears, sorry for not being able to update yesterday- I was out with my mum and we did some shopping after the movies :3 I also applied for a part time job so here’s me crossing my fingers and praying that I do get it! I don’t really have much time for this year to work, but I do hope they’ll take me on for a short period, and hopefully during my 3 months semester break they will hire me again (: Wish me luck! ^^

Anyways, on to the nails! I did some swatching of my untrieds, and today I have a quick review of Sally Hansen Fuzzy Coat in Fuzz-Sea for you guys. This polish was actually obtained through the nail swap Bethanie and I had with Andra of Nailmattic (:

Fuzz-Sea is basically bar glitter in bright aqua-teal and pistachio green/yellow colours. It really does look like the sea, just of course, fuzzified. (View the link to see the photo (: )

On my index finger is 2 coats of Fuzz-Sea (if I remember correctly ><) and my ring finger is also 2 coats. I did have to dab it so the glitter would spread evenly to fill in the blank spaces, but no other issues (:

I swatched it over Sephora Green Tea Time.

I wouldn’t wear this on its own as I much prefer it layered, but that’s personal preference. You can also check out So Nailicious’ creative ways to wear the fuzzy coats– it gives it so much more oomph! I will definitely try them out in my free time (:

Polish News: ILNP Holiday Collection pre-order

Hey dears! It’s the start of another weekend!! Hope your week has been going well so far (:

Anyways, just thought I’ll share this with all of you! The ILNP Holiday Collection is here and if I had money….I would be splurging my money on these babies without a second thought. *drools*. I shan’t keep you all from viewing these gorgeous creations, so on to the email I received this morning! 😀

Finally! It’s time! The ILNP Holiday Collection is here and it’s nothing short of spectacular! This small but beautiful 3 polish collection is absolutely perfect for holiday fanatics like myself! In the collection you’ll find two gorgeous and mega festive holographic polishes along with a jaw-dropping NEW Ultra Chrome! Be sure to pre-order the polishes you want EARLY so that I can get them shipped to you ASAP! I want to make sure all of you are able to enjoy them during the holidays! I won’t keep you too long: Click here to visit the ILNP shop

A Fresh Evergreen A Fresh Evergreen is a crisp, forest green colored polish packed with holographic sparkle. It took a few tricks to keep the green this deep and saturated with this amount of holo… but I pulled it off and I love it! It’s absolutely perfect for the season!

Very Ornamental Very Ornamental is a lusciously vibrant crimson red polish loaded with holographic sparkle and a precise touch of effect pigments. The end result is a festive and sultry red that will dance on your fingertips!

Nostalgia This is the brand new Ultra Chrome that everyone’s been waiting for! Nostalgia is an AMAZINGLY INTENSE color shifting polish. Expect to see greens, golds, and reds (and everything in between) at every turn! The mirror finish of this polish is astounding and it practically glows on your hands it’s so vibrant. WARNING: This polish is SEVERELY distracting. This is no joke. You will find yourself constantly staring at your nails (drive safe people) and you WILL be interrupted a few times a day, mid-conversation, with questions about how your nails are “doing that.” Don’t say I didn’t warn you 🙂 The swatches below are of the SAME polish (different models) taken at different angles under different lighting.

I hope you love the new collection… until next time! You’ve all been amazingly supportive and encouraging over the last year and a half. You all have no idea how much every little comment, “like”, and even criticism has helped me push forward with ILNP. So from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU! I’m going to make absolutely sure 2014 is full of fantastic polishes and wonderful surprises 🙂 A huge thank you to ChrissyAi and XOXO Alexis Leigh for their last minute help with swatches! Please be sure to check out their blogs for more! If you need anything or have any questions, feel free to contact me by replying to this email or sending an email to support@ilnp.com! Enjoy!! -Barbra 🙂

Just look at those gorgeous pretties. I figure you all will need to break out your wallets and run over to ILNP’s shop before it all sells out! Sometimes I wish I stayed in the States just to save on shipping costs ):

Lucky 13 Lacquer- Stupid Starfish

Hey dears! It’s almost Friday!

Today I have a polish from Lucky 13 Lacquer, which is a US-based indie polish brand run by Kyoti, and I discovered her gorgeous polishes thanks to the swatches from Mishka of Accio Lacquer.

and today’s polish I have is none other than…

[source]

Stupid Starfish for your viewing pleasure.

Before we continue, I will like to apologize for that awful bubbling in my top coat. Sigh. ): Doesn’t do this gorgeous polish any justice at all.

Stupid Starfish has a clear base with a mix of pink stars and squares, purple hexes and squares, and greyish-green hexagons. This is two coats dabbed over Polished by KPT Plumeria and Molybdenum. Both of my undies were two coats, and they are thermals.

Obviously I went trigger happy at the transformation process. I was honestly quite surprised and how much I liked the look of Stupid Starfish over Molybdenum. Sort of has a much more, grunge feel?

 cold state.

Stupid Starfish did have a slightly goopy base for my bottle, but that was easily fixed by sparing application and wiping off the brush at the edge of the bottle. I also suspended my bottle for a few minutes in order to get out the stars. No other issues with this polish. (:

I purchased a mini sized bottle as I started to grow smart and purchase glitter polishes in smaller quantities. I never seem to be able to finish a full-sized glitter polish, especially it is meant for layering!

I’m also sad to say that I’ve never watched Spongebob Squarepants, which is the show this polish is inspired by(namely Patrick the Starfish.)

Nonetheless, this polish makes me go:

:3

I do think it’s a unique mix of colours, and star and square shaped glitter? Yes please.

Update: Also, I can’t seem to find this polish anymore on the website, so I’m not sure if it has been discontinued ):

On the prowl…

*Purchased By Me

Hey lovelies, Happy Tuesday! (:

Quick post today- this manicure was done quite sometime back but somehow I never posted it, so here’s its time to shine on the blog today. It’s a simple manicure really, done using Docile polishes, namely D217 & D218 as well as a black Uniball Signo gel pen.

I did the leopard print as an accent french tip(sort of french tip, considering I didn’t really leave it as a naked nail) using my gel pen over Docile 218, a gorgeous shimmery silver. The other nails were done using Docile 217, an almost gunmetal silver-grey polish.

All nails were around 2-3 coats if I recall correctly, and absolutely shimmered under the light. These photos were taken late at night as that was when I was doing my swatching…