Review: Beauty kingdom (BK) 18" Nail Polishes

Hello! ^_^

When me, my sister and my mom went to Divisoria at 168 Mall, we came across a store that sells a lot of nail polish and nail art stuffs. We went inside to check them out coz the items are really nice and perfect for summer. We ended up getting these because they have a unique characteristic. Each color secretes a certain scent when it dries. For example, if you get a brown color you'll smell chocolate. I think it was so cool so I got a variety of colors from that line.

The brand is called BK 18" and it is made from China like almost all nail polishes available on the market so I didn't mind. This costs Php50 each for retail but since we bought 6 pcs they gave us a discount and we got it for Php30 only. This variant only comes in matte finish and in an 8ml glass bottle.

Here's a swatch of the nail polishes. Shade 04 is their top coat.

PROS:

- Pigmented colors. You can get away with 1-2 coats depending on the color to get the shade in the bottle.

- Scented. I like the candy scents and it lasts for a couple of days too.

- Stays long on nails for at least a week before fading and chipping.

- Comes in a small container so I can bring it anywhere if I need to during traveling.

- Can be bought by bulk to get discounted price.

- It did not made my nails yellowish which is a plus.

- Dries fast enough.


CONS:

- It is quite expensive for the size IMO. Php50 for an 8ml nail polish that is not a popular brand is a little too much for me. (Or is this popular? Does anyone know?)

- This is made from China so it might be a con for some. I don't mind it but others might.

- The brushes are not of good quality. Some of them are flayed so it's hard to apply it evenly.

- It is a matte finish. I'm not fond of mattes :/

- The scents may be too over powering for some who have sensitive noses.

- Cannot be applied too thickly or you can just easily scrape them to be removed hehe.


OVER-ALL RATING: 3.5/5 - I like this better than locally available nail polishes in that price range but I still prefer my Korean and Japanese nail polishes over these. They are good quality and unique so I am giving it above average rating.


WILL I REPURCHASE? Not sure. I'm not the type who buys nail polish all the time.

You can definitely check this out if you're able to drop by 168 ^_^

Till my next post. Bye! ^_^

Spend vs Save: Nail Polishes

Hello everyone! How's your week so far? I'm so happy I could post again..my internet connection is weird..I'm having intermittent sync for quite a while now but when I complained in Bayantel about it they can't find any problem (or the tech support who answered my call is just lazy to do something..he sounded really bored)..so I'll probably call again tomorrow so that they can send someone to fix it.

Anyway, I will be blogging about my contribution to the spend vs save topic that has been going around to majority of the blog sites, forums and even youtube..I hope this could be of help to someone :)

I'm not in anyway an expert about nail polishes..these points I'm sharing are based on my personal experiences on these two brands of nail polishes.

SPEND: The Face Shop Php 95
SAVE: Caress Php 22.75

I swatched both on my nails. Here's a picture with only one coat of nail polish.

As you can see, even with just a single coat, you can already achieve a good color pay-off for both brands. This is done without any base.

Now let's try to look at a picture with 2 coats of the polish.

The color became darker and they appear to be the same as with the color on the bottle. Let's take a closer look for comparison.

As you can notice, the The Face Shop nail polish is the one closest to the color in the bottle with just 2 coats while you need to apply a third coat for the Caress nail polish to match the color in the bottle.

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SIMILARITIES:

- can last on my nails without any base or top coat for around a week

- the shine and quality of the polish (without any base and top coat) lasts for at least 3 days

- doesn't chip that easily

- are available locally

- doesn't dry or thickens easily

- have wide range of colors to choose from

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DIFFERENCES:

- TFS nail polishes are harder to remove. The color are really hard to take off with any kind of nail polish remover (even with the use of TFS nail polish remover).

- TFS comes in a bigger bottle. Have more content.

- Caress makes my nails a little yellow if I don't remove the polish for at least a week. This does not happen with TFS nail polish

- the price is a big factor

- TFS have more unique colors to choose from, IMO

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CONCLUSION

Over all, I think for someone who is on a tight budget, purchasing Caress over The Face Shop nail polishes is the more practical choice. You can get almost the same quality with regards to color pay-off and staying power for more than half the price. And you can get around 4 Caress nail polishes of different colors with the price of 1 TFS. That is a huge difference! And when you have the budget to splurge, then you can purchase a TFS polish too ^_^

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WARNING: As with all the brand of nail polishes, be careful in buying without swatching them because not all shades have good color payoff. Some shades, especially the light ones (according to some) needs more coats to achieve the shade in the bottle because the polish is very fluidy.

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What about you? What is your Splurge vs Save items? I want to hear about them too!

Thanks for dropping by! Till next time. Bye! ^_^

A Derma Visit + Pedicure

Today, I went back to my dermatologist for a checkup. Dra. Manuel wants to see the condition of my skin after the 1st chemical peel she did on me last December 30, 2008. Since I still have areas that are still peeling, my forehead and jaw, she gave me a new skin care regimen to follow.

AM:
wash with blue soap
apply acne lotion on areas with pimples
apply sunblock spf 80

PM
wash with blue soap
apply acne lotion on areas with pimples
apply Tretinoin cream <-- this is a new addition to speed up the peeling on my face

I'm still on an every other day antibiotics, Tetralysal. She told me to come back after a week to see any improvements and if I can decrease my antibiotic to every two days (I'm already on the tapering period). She also want to check my right cheek's condition (my right cheek is the only area on my face that still has pimples now, and they are recurrent on the same spots), and if tretinoin can't help in treating that area, she will give me a special topical antibiotic to use on those antibiotic resistant bacteria that's causing my pimples. Here's a picture of my skin care stuff now..from top: the blue soap, acne lotion, lightening cream (for spot treatment of dark spots), tretinoin cream, sunblock spf 80, V&M lip detox, mama lotion (sample given to me for testing), skin hour revitaleyes and clearagen lip therapy :)

I arrived early in the clinic so while waiting for Dra. Manuel to arrive, I asked Ate Sel (her assistant) to give me a pedicure. I rarely get pedicure coz I easily get hurt but I got the urge to get one today and Ate Sel did a great job! I didn't bleed and still my toes got clean. She suggested a red colored nail polish to make my feet look fairer. I was skeptical at first coz I haven't tried any red toned polish ever, they are scary for me hehe..but I felt adventurous today so I agree. After she cleaned my toes, she applied Orly bonder then a red Orly nail polish (I forgot to ask the shade name..sorry). This shade of red is so pretty..I'll definitely buy this shade when I go to the mall (after I get the name) hehe :)

And here's my smallest and oldest dog..her name is Petite..She's almost 13 y/o already :)

And here's my snack of the day while doing this blog entry..Yummy!

Waterthins Cheese Twist in Feta and Olive

*I transferred the cheese twists on a plastic container and placed a label on the cover so that it will stay crunchy*