Pink and white polka dot manicure

Hi ladies! How was everyone’s weekend? Mine was pretty busy and I didn't even get much study done =S I had a whole load of housework to do and then I worked Sunday which was enjoyable. I know lots of people hate working weekends but I love it - it's just so much calmer with less people around. Plus I like to have weekdays off with the house to myself! I'm so not in the mood to study at the moment but I'm trying to will myself to get back into study mode. It's not working so far though lol.

So the manicure I have for you today was requested by my workmate who wanted to see pink polka dots. I love pink and polka dots too so she couldn't have suggested a better combination!


I started off with Ulta 3 Lily White for all fingers except my accent fingers. Ulta 3 is an awesome Aussie brand and I have to steer clear of the huge displays of them when I go shopping. I'm likely to buy a whole heap every time I see them so even the pharmacy (drugstore) isn’t safe for me to go near! I'm still trying to stick to my nail polish/shopping ban which seems to be working.
Lily White is a white creme polish that dries quite quickly to a glossy finish. As white polishes go, the application was decent - streaky on the 1st 2 coats and opaque and glossy by the 3rd. Below is 3 coats without topcoat and minimal cleanup.


I used BYS Pink Panic which I won from Krissy's giveaway on my accent fingers. BYS is another great Aussie brand whose quality is up there with well known international brands.
Pink Panic is a bright pink polish and it's gorgeous! Application was great and it was opaque in 2 thin coats. I wasn't a huge fan of the brush in this one but BYS brushes can be a bit hit and miss. It dried to a semi-matte finish for and below is 2 coats to get rid of VNL without topcoat.


I then konaded dots from Konad plate m79 using Konad Special Polish in psyche pink and white. After I put top coat on (Nailene Acrylic Strong if you're wondering), the white dots over Pink Panic turned light pink which was I thought was nice =p I also added a pink clay bow on my thumbs as the full plate designs are never big enough for my thumbs and I can't be bothered to double stamp!


What do you think? The boy didn't like it much but my workmate did! Thanks for looking =D

Adriano Zumbo Patisserie and a prize

It was my sisters 18th birthday yesterday and she is really hard to buy presents for! She loves cameras both vintage and new however she already has quite stash of them and she's not really into jewellery or anything. For her 18th I wanted to give her something more special and I had wanted to give her a Coach wallet (on sale too!) as my mum says in Chinese culture giving a wallet as a birthday gift brings the person prosperity or something. However, my sis totally nixed the idea along with a whole heap of other suggestions. So I decided as part of my birthday gift to her would be some desserts from the one and only Adriano Zumbo.


For the international ladies, Adriano Zumbo is a patissier who makes wonderful and creative desserts. I have wanted to visit his patisserie in Balmain for the LONGEST time - ever since I read this post from one of my favourite food bloggers Helen from Grab Your Fork way back in 2008. There are so many lame reasons why I hadn't been yet (no car, no time, the boy wouldn't take me etc etc.) but enough was enough! My workmate kindly swapped shifts with me and I armed myself with the boy's car and my trusty GPS and trekked out to Balmain to surprise my sister with a birthday cake and other goodies she (hopefully) won't forget =)

And it was abso-bloody-lutely worth the trip!!! I was like a kid on Christmas morning going there haha. I lucked out and got parking right outside the store as soon as I got there too. Woot! There were so many delicious looking desserts and macarons and they also have bread at the patisserie too. And the new Chocolat Cafe is now open too ;) Here are some piccies to make you drool!







I wanted to buy EVERYTHING in the store of course but I had foreseen this - so I had purposely left my credit card at home and only brought enough cash for what I had planned to get =p I bought:

PAVNUTCHESTRASP cake: Chestnut & olive oil cake with a raspberry pavlova & chestnut pieces (Gluten Free).


This was the last one they had left and it was only just after 11am. I was standing in line and crossing my fingers and toes hoping that no one would buy it! It tasted absolutely beautiful. The pavlova was light and fluffy with just enough raspberry; the macarons were the perfect texture and the chestnut cake was moist and dense but not too rich. Heaven!



4 Times the Vitamin C: Blackcurrant jelly, blackcurrant marshmallow, vanilla violet mousse, pistachio feuilletine, pistachio dacquoise & blackcurrant glacage.
I just had to get this dessert as it looked so interesting on his website! It was the last one left too =p This dessert is for my sis to eat all by her greedy self and she hasn't tried it yet for me to steal a bite lol.

My sis says it looks evil LOL.
I also purchased 6 macarons (1 of each available flavour) in (From t - b, l - r): Beetroot and Raspberry; Oatmeal and Ylang Ylang; Kalamata olive & bergamot candy; blackened vanilla bean (?); Coffee & Caramel and Mont Blanc. My sister loves macarons and had wanted to try these out the most and they definitely didn't disappoint!


Krissy from Random Life of a Random Girl held a random giveaway at the start of August and I won! My prize arrived during the week and I have more nail polishes and makeup to play with yay! Not that I should be playing with all these things right now =( Thanks for holding such a cute giveaway Krissy!


Thanks for looking!

I'm on Twitter!

I'm finally on Twitter! Follow me if you like - cosmeticcupcake. And let me know yours so I can follow you too!

Essence Eclipse Thirsty

Hi ladies!
Things are really starting to get busy for me leaving me no time to blog. But there are SO many things I want to post about and do with my blog!! >.< And although I may not be commenting much lately I am keeping up with all your wonderful blogs! I just wish there was more time in a day! Here's my quick NOTD featuring Essence Eclipse polish in Thirsty.

Thirsty is a gorgeous dark red jelly that really looks like blood and if I was a vampire I would definitely be thirsty! It applied very smoothly and drying time was great. 2 coats was needed for opacity and it dried to a high gloss finish. It was a pain trying to capture the colour of the polish as it changes in different lighting and my camera kept picking it up as bright red even though it was night when I swatched it. Go figure! My hands look a strange colour because I had to use the neutral colour setting on my camera to get the color of the polish closest to what it looks like in real life.


I then konaded some lips using Bundle Monster plate BM 02 using Konad Special polish in white.


Thanks for looking!

H & M Hello Kitty Cool Summer NOTD

I decided to try out H & M Hello Kitty polish in Cool Summer which I got in my swap from Monika as a quick NOTD .

Cool Summer is a purple glitter polish with blue, purple and silver glitter in it. Don't you just love the bottle shape?? I know I do! And it's Hello Kitty too so another big tick! I love how Hello Kitty is giving the peace sign on the pic on the bottle LOL.


The polish is quite sheer so I did 3 coats (pictured above) for opacity. The brush isn't the easiest to use as it's a little.. floppy I guess and can leave bald spots if you don't work fast. It dried quite quickly and to a semi-matte finish. The finish is a little gritty because of the glitter so it's probably good to use a thick topcoat like Seche Vite to get it smooth, but my bottle needs replacing so I used 2 coats of Nailene Acrylic Strong Topcoat instead.

It's a very cute purple glitter polish and I don't have others like it so I'm very happy to add it to my collection! I didn't get time to stamp otherwise I would have stamped Hello Kitty of course =p

Thanks for looking =)

Swap with Monika from Penguin Puranki

Hi ladies! How is everyone enjoying their weekend? I hope it's been a fun weekend for you all! I've been busy trying to organise loads of things these last few days and I have a very hectic few weeks/months coming up!! My house renovations are nearly finished and my family and I will be moving back home in around a month. This wouldn't be such a huge problem but I hate moving with a passion! Plus, uni is on me once again and this subject looks HARD and coupled with full time work means I won't be able to post as much for the next 2 months or so =( But don't worry, I'll try and squeeze in a post here and there until all the madness is over ;)

I am a little late unfortunately in posting my last swap which I completed with the very sweet Monika from Penguin Puranki . The package took a little while getting to me but it was SO worth the wait! The package really cheered me up when I most needed when it arrived mid last week, thank you for making my week Monika =)


Monika sent me some FANTASTIC Swiss goodies to play with!! Here are some piccies of the fantastic polishes she sent my way!


From L - R:
MNY polishes in 749, 657 and 109A. Monika tells me that MNY polishes are only available in Germany, Austria and Switzerland so how lucky am I that she grabbed some for me! =D The blue looks sooooo awesome!


From L - R:
Essence Nail Art Twins in Carrie and Clyde, Essence Multi Dimension 3 in 1 polish in The One and Only and Essence Colour & Go polish in Check Me Out. More Essence polishes to add to my collection yay!


From L - R:
H & M Hello Kitty polish in Cool Summer, Claire's 3 in 1 Mixable polish and Nivea Calcium Power polish in Currant. I nearly died when I saw the H & M Hello Kitty!!! The Claire's 3 in 1 Mixable looks so interesting and am wondering how to use it properly.. does anyone have one and can share how to use it?? I also never knew Nivea made nail polishes but apparently they do in Europe! Monika did a great review of the colour Candyfloss here.


Top - bottom:
Essence Eclipse lipglosses in Lunch at Cullen's, Ready to be Bitten and Undead?. Monika very kindly hunted these down for me, thank you so much for fulfilling my lemming for them!!



Monika also very kindly included some extras for me! These included I am papaya and guava hand creme, Essence French Glam stickers and sweet cherry nail file. The hand creme is made in Switzerland and it smells absolutely DIVINE. It's papaya and guava scent (guava is my favourite fuit) and I could literally eat the tube, it just smells sooooooo darn good. The cherry nail file smells pretty yummy too =p



She also included a tin of Lindt chocolate, YAY!! I love Lindt and the tin is just too cute =) Plus it's extra special because it came all the way from Switzerland! Haha I'm a bit lame like that =p

Thank you so much for this fantastic swap Monika! Please check out her blog Penguin Puranki and show her some support! She does great reviews on Japanese products and also does some lovely gel nail designs.

Thanks for looking!

8 questions tag x 2!

Hi ladies!
Just wanted to let you know that I've added formspring to my blog as I'm getting more questions and what better way to answer them all in one place. So if you have any questions for me or just want to know me a little better, please feel free to ask away! I love to help out (and give my opinion even when not prompted LOL) so no question is too silly or difficult! =)

I got tagged to by 2 very lovely ladies and I'm finally getting around to doing them now. Better late than never right! Hope you enjoy reading these little tidbits about me!

The 1st set of 8 questions is from the sweet Ronnie:

1) How old were you when you start dating your first boyfriend?
I was 18 when I met my boyfriend and we started dating after a few months. Nearly 6 years on we are still doing just fine and I hope he will be my first and last boyfriend <3 He is affectionately known on here as "the boy" or "my bf" lol and I know he would absolutely hate it if I posted a pic of him on here - so here's a photo of his as a cute kid instead =p

2) What's your favourite quote?
I love baby shoes >.<
Life is short. Wear cute shoes!

3) What's your fashion pet peeves?
This is obviously NOT ME!!
Leggings worn as pants *shudder* Not cool!

4) Give one of the products you regret buying and WHY?
Too many to list! And I can't think of anything off the top of my head lol but nothing recently.

5) What's the worst epic chat-line have you ever heard?
I haven't had any used on me but there are just so many bad ones! The one that comes to mind right now is: "If I said you had a great body, would you hold it against me?" HAHA.

6) What's your favourite eyeshadow color?

Humid by MAC - which is a gorgeous green - is my all time favourite eyeshadow colour but I usually wear neutrals.

7) Name 3 make up brands that you heard of but that they don't launch in your country.

Makeup Forever, NYX and Skinfood. On a side note I just read Wan's post about dangerous toxins in Skinfood polish and I am SOOOOOO disappointed!! I have 2 beautiful Skinfood polishes from my swap with Nikki that I won't be able to try >.< BOO!!

8) Have you made any great friends in this blog? Mind sharing WHY they are the great friends of yours?
Yes! Because they are sweet, generous and talented ladies who share my love of nail polish and beauty.

Next set of questions comes from the lovely Winnie:

1) What inspires you the most?
My friends and family.

2) Who is your favorite celebrity/model/singer/actress/actor?
Hmmm so many! If I had to narrow it down, fave female singer is Kelly Clarkson. Yes I like pop and I'm proud of it!

3) What is your most used medium? (Blogger, Youtube, Twitter, Facbook, Tumblr...)
Blogger!

4) What is a makeup product that you cannot live without?

Concealer. My skin can be OK most days but my t-zone goes crazy sometimes and I get redness so concealer is a lifesaver.

5) Would you rather be pretty and super chubby, or super skinny but ugly? why?
I don't care as long as I'm happy and healthy!

6) What is your favourite thing to do on weekends?
Relaxing by hanging out with the boy, shopping and eating LOTS.

7) What is your favourite city?

Same as Winnie, Hong Kong. I haven't actually travelled alot but HK will always be my favourite as my family is from there =)

8) If you could only eat one type of food (es. Italian, Japanese) for the rest of your life, what would that be?

Even though most of the time I'm sick of it because I have it all the time, I couldn't live without Chinese food.

Thanks for tagging me ladies! Oh and I just realised this is my 100th post, WOOT!

Barry M Strawberry Icecream glitter manicure

Today I have for you my first Barry M Nail Paint given to me by the sweet and generous Christina from Cel's blog in our recent swap =) I've wanted to try these for soooo long but never got a chance to purchase any.

I feel like girlie colours at the moment so I decided to try Barry M Strawberry Icecream. Strawberry Icecream is a gorgeous candy pink pastel. It is such a gorgeous girlie pink and I absolutely love it!! You all know I love my pink shades lol. Like every other pastel pink I know it was a little streaky to apply but it wasn't overly difficult compared to others I own. I used 3 coats (pictured below) for an opaque finish and it dried to a glossy finish.


I then stamped the swirly design from Konad plate m36 using Konad Princess Polish in white and topped it with a coat of Barry M Nail Paint in Pink Iridescent Glitter which I also received from Christina. Pink Iridescent Glitter is cute multicoloured glitter suspended in a pink base. It's quite subtle with only 1 coat which is what I was after and it actually toned down the pink of Strawberry Icecream.


For the Aussie ladies, Barry M Nail Paints can actually be purchased from Crush Cosmetics or Glover Pharmacy in Galeries Victoria Sydney (more expensive at the pharmacy but you get to see the colours for yourself). I'm so so lucky to have received them in my swap with Christina, it's always so much more special trying things for the first time when someone has given them to you!

Do you own any Barry M Nail Paints? What other colours would you recommend? I want MORE!

Thanks for looking! =D

Claire's Mood polishes!

I decided to swatch my other absolutely awesome Claire's Mood polishes that Chris sent me in our swap while my nails were long. I used to like my nails long but now I can't stand them too long for an extended time (probably because of work). I decided to use Seche Base to see if it would help with the streaking issues I had with Awesome/Silly. Unfortunately for me, it didn't help and I should have read Chris' tip to use some thinner BEFORE swatching them lol ;) For next time! I also didn't use topcoat for these swatches. I know you guys will have seen loads of these swatches but I just have to share so bare with me =) Please excuse my very dry hands and cuticles!

First up is Excited/Bored which is a bright orange/coral and light orange/coral creme combination. This would be fantastic in summer, can't wait for it to be warmer here so I can rock this colour! I found it quite thick and streaky to work with but 3 coats did the trick. I love the fact that all the Mood polishes dry super quickly so 3 coats isn't too much pain!

Excited (when cold):

Colour change:

Bored (when warm):

Then we have Calm/Wild which is a gorgeous shimmery purple and pink combination. This is my favourite of the 5 that Chris sent me! Both colours are so pretty and the silver shimmer is gorgeous! Plus I found it the easiest to work with and I only needed to use 2 coats. I wore this as a full mani after swatching the others!

Calm (when cold):

Colour change:

Wild (when warm):

Happy/Earthy is a bright green and almost neon yellow combination. The green is really funky but it's very in your face green and the yellow is so bright!! I had some real difficulties with the formula on this one, very thick and streaky. Below is 3 (quite wonky) coats. Unfortunately I don't really like this colour combination on me.

Happy (when cold):

Colour change:

Earthy (when warm):

Lastly I have for you Fabulous/Funky which is a bright pink and neon pink combination. The colour change for Fabulous/Funky isn't as noticeable as the other colours unfortunately but still very pretty. I found the formula streaky but not as difficult as Happy/Earthy and below is 3 coats to get rid of VNL and streaks.

Fabulous (when cold):

Funky (when warm):

Thanks for looking! =)

200 followers giveaway winner!!

Thank you so much to all who entered my giveaway and to everyone for their continued support of my blog! You guys ROCK and I wish I could send each and every one of you a little something. Unfortunately my bank balance won't allow me! I really appreciate the time you guys take to read my ramblings and comment so thoughtfully too =)

There were 308 valid entries which I put into an Excel spreadsheet. On a side note next time I am so going to use Google Docs to make my life easier haha. I then used the random fruit name picker to choose this time because last time I had no idea where to find it!

The lucky winner is:

Li Lian!

Congratulations Li Lian! I've just sent you an email requesting your details. Please respond within 72hours! If I don't receive a response in that time period I will draw another winner.

Thanks ladies!!