W E L C O M E

" We are roomies with a love and passion for hairstyles, make up and nails! Here's a short write up about ourselves:

SIYING

I was very interested in nail art in 2008 and have been passionately painting my nails ever since. I see nail art and make up as an outlet to relieve stress because there is no fixed structure and the styles are all up to me, so the possibilities are endlessly fun.

CARMEN

My love for nail art led me to pursue a full nail course by Odyssey Nail Systems(ONS), USA. My interest in makeup and nails has led me to collaborate with my roommie to have this site to share our passion with others and to motivate us to continue to improve and polish our skills:)"

Happy Father's Day }

Wednesday 24 June 2015 | 17:32 | 0Comment

Hey lovelies,

Blushandfiles wishes all fathers a belated but nonetheless happy father's day! The previous weekend has been a really busy one for me as I was flooded with school commitments and also planning for a family outing to celebrate Father's Day.

The schedule for last Sunday was as follow:

(a)1.00 pm: The Deep Exhibition @ ArtScience Museum Singapore

(b) 4.30 pm: Make Your Own Glowing Anglerfish Workshop

(d) 9.00 pm: Cake Cutting

_________________________________________________________________________________

(a)

Googly-eyed Glass Squid

Bioluminescent #1

Bioluminescent #2

Neocyttus rhomboidalis
or more affectionately known as Spiky Oreo~

Anglerfish~

(b)

Make Your Own Anglerfish Kit

While we were colouring, my dad was amusing himself.. There are no limits to how lame a Dad can be.. (tsk tsk)

Our demonic Anglerfish #1

Our demonic Anglerfish #2

Lining up our demonic Anglerfish #1, #2, #3

(c)

It was a little difficult to find this place. We took the Circle Line to Tai Seng (Exit B) and had to cross 1-2 streets to get to this place. It's a little secluded but the dining experience is really quite unique and worth the mini adventure figuring out the location.

The Boiler~

What we ordered; 3 x Buttered rice $2.00, Sweet potato fries $6.90, [Mild] Boiler's Bombdiggity Bag $145
Enough to fill 5 people if you are not a very big eater.

The buttered rice kind of tastes like chicken rice, goes pretty well with the mildly spicy sauce that our seafood comes in. A hearty meal in general. The staff will give you a small plastic pouch to put your hand phones in, so you can still text/take pic on your precious phone while enjoying your meal.

ps: This pic was taken with my phone in the plastic pouch.

(d)

I made this No Bake Strawberry White Chocolate Mousse Cake a day in advance as it needs at least 4 hours to chill in the fridge. For the full recipe, check out this website.

Step 1: Crush the digestive biscuits
Step 2: Melt the butter and mix it in with the biscuits crumbs and flatten to form the base
Step 3: Slice up the fresh strawberries into quarters, add in the sugar and cook it over low heat

Step 4: I was supposed to puree the cooked down strawberries, but I was too lazy (haha), so I just strained the mixture. Maybe that's why my cake was not as red as I hoped it to be (oops!)

Step 5: Soak the gelatin in cold water for 5-10 minutes

Step 6: Melt the gelatin over low heat and stir it into the strawberry mixture
Step 7: Repeat the gelatin steps with the melted white chocolate cream mixture
Step 8: Whip the nestle cream and add in the chocolate mixture, pour it over the biscuit crust and place it in the fridge for around 20 minutes
Step 9: Repeat the whip cream steps with the strawberry mixture and pour it over the semi-hardened white chocolate layer and garnish with more fresh Strawberries

The final product~

Summary of the day 21.06.2015

♥,

Si Ying (Sharlene)

Hiatus}

Saturday 1 November 2014 | 15:21 | 0Comment

Dear lovelies,

We are on hiatus now. We will be back with more product reviews and tutorials for all of you. Stay beautiful~

♥,

Si Ying (Sharlene) & Carmen

Happy Halloween~}

Friday 31 October 2014 | 20:19 | 0Comment

Hey lovelies,

Happy Halloween! Have a great blast today and look forward to our next post : Halloween Nails :)

credits: http://desktopbackgroundshq.com/halloween-backgrounds/cute-halloween-images

Nail tutorial & polish reviews}

Thursday 7 August 2014 | 17:34 | 0Comment

hey lovelies,

today I'm going to share with you a simple nail art design that uses regular polish AND gel polish. Never really thought that they can be used together? Well, think no more because they can be!

Golden Flowers - The Elixir of Life

This design incorporates the ombre effect on the thumb and ring finger, hand drawn nail art for all the flowers and leaves and Russian nail art sticker on the ring finger. I've been wanting to use the Russian nail art sticker for a long long time, but never really got a chance. But I finally did it today :)

Left to Right- O.P.I nail lacquer in "So many clowns, so little time", Jelly nails gel polish in "true onyx", Nobility gel polish in the colour Gold

These are the colours I used in my design, I also used jelly nails' top coat but I did not capture it in the photo above.

First coat of polish using O.P.I

Second coat for the base

Third and last coat for the beige base

Transferred it to the finger mould so that it is easier to work with. It's my second time working with this O.P.I polish, and I'm quite satisfied with it. I bought the polish for the sheer colour, so I had no issues with applying numerous coats for a more opaque design. It goes on smoothly and dries pretty fast. However, if you are looking for a more opaque colour, you can always try other brands like Essie or The Face Shop for a more opaque colour or simply pick another shades from O.P.I.

TIPS: When choosing nail polishes, do open up the bottle (if the shop allows) to see the consistency of the polish and the colour instead of just relying on the colour chart or the colour on the bottles. Generally for regular polishes, the thicker the consistency, the more opaque the colour but it also takes longer to dry. If you are looking for a sheer polish, the brush of the nail polish should be peeking through the colour like this:

Sheer

Opqaue

Using a small regular art brush, create an irregular scallop shape in black.

This can be done using a regular art brush like what I've done here if you do not have those nail art brushes. Nail art brushes are definitely more precise and are much thinner and easier to work with, but a small regular art brush will do.

Cure the design for 1-2 mins

This is my most recent nail related purchases. Finally got a UV lamp to cure gel polishes! I'm glad that it works pretty well! :) I got mine from an online store because they are much cheaper, but the curing effect is equally good. However, I'm not sure if there are any detrimental side effects if we use the cheaper ones.

Second coat of black

Cure it again

This black gel polish has a good consistency and it goes on well, starts off a little sheer, but by the second coat, it is a beautiful deep black.

TIPS: For pot polishes, remember to stir them well before using as the colour tends to sink to the bottom, leaving the clear gel or oil at the top.

Golden flowers design #1

Basically, all the black scallop designs are done using the same method, they are different only in the placing of the black scallop and the flowers and leaves. After you are satisfied with the nail art, seal in the design with a gel top coat of your choice. If there is a sticky residue after curing the nails, wipe it off with a bit of gel cleanser on lint-free wipes.

TIPS: Lint-free wipes are quite important when working with gel polishes, because gel polishes tend to be sticky and the wool from regular cotton wipes tend to get stuck on the nail. So investing in some lint-free wipes would be a good choice and they are not that pricey anyway.

Ombre design, #2

Next step would be the ombre effect. First, I applied 3 coats of O.P.I polish as a base and after it has dried, I went over the nails with the golden gel polish and a sponge. Any sponge would do and I layered the colour.

TIPS: To get a nice ombre effect, you have to layer the colours slowly, don't rush it, if not the colour gradient will be subtle. Instead you will get harsh lines and it will be obvious where the 2 colours meet. Using a sponge makes it easier too :)

Third application

Rusian nail art sticker

This is the Russian nail art sticker that I bought together with Carmen. We were really excited about it and bought A LOT of them, because they were all so pretty and we just couldn't resist it, but in the end, we didn't use them as often or as much as we would like to. hahaha. They are really thin and not as effortless to work with as compared to other regular stickers or decals because they tear easily.

TIPS: Use a good pair of tweezers when working with stickers, especially thin stickers, as it really makes removing the stickers easier. It also reduces the need for you to touch the stickers, so there will be no oil transfer from your fingers to the stickers which can reduce the stickiness of the stickers. So use a pair of tweezers to maximise the stickiness of the stickers, allowing the stickers to adhere to the nails better and for a longer time.

Added a black ring around the sticker and sealed it in top coat.

The design on the thumb is done using the same ombre effect that I used on the ring finger. The rose is hand drawn using the black gel polish first, then the gold polish to bring out the design.

The gold polish has a wonderful shine to it, but the pictures are not doing it justice :( The gold polish comes in the regular bottle and is more watery than the pot polishes, so it is more sheer than the pot polish and needs about 3 coats to get the colour it has now.

There you have it, this nail art is complete. This design goes well with black or gold dresses, so give it a try :) You can switch up the design to have it all with roses or just the ombre colour to keep it simple, but do share with us your designs because we would like to see your take on this :)

♥,

Si Ying

Product Review- CATRICE}

Monday 10 March 2014 | 00:04 | 0Comment

Hey lovelies,

we have a product review for you all today~ Also, you all can read the Nanyang Chronicle article that we were featured in over here :)

I have been quite obsessed with Catrice ever since they came into Singapore, because there is this youtube make up artist that uses quite a bit of Catrice products and I think they look really good and have been hoping for them to come to Singapore. They have been here for a few months already(i think). You can find Catrice at the drugstore, Guardian. Ever since I found out Catrice is being sold in Guardian, every time I go to Guardian, i will definitely pick up at least one Catrice product. *impulsive buyer alert*. I really like their products as i think they are quite pigmented and the best part is their pricing! They are so affordable!

Left to right: nail polish, eyeliner pen, powder

Catrice's shine control powder in 030 Warm Beige

$6.90

It is a long-lasting and ultra fine shine control powder that contains no oil and is suitable for every skin type. It gives off a satin-matte finish that leaves you with an even complexion. It has the word "MATT" indented all over the powder which makes it look really interesting. It feels quite light on your skin despite having quite a decent coverage, especially for such a price! I will give it a 6.5/10.

Catrice's calligraph ultra slim eyeliner pen
$5.90

The tip of the pen is quite sharp.

I did a series of test on the eyeliner: Catrice vs Ottie (a korean brand that I've been using since 2011)

I drew 3 lines, starting from the top (the thinnest line), and the line after is done by Catrice. The last line which is the thickest is done by Ottie, a liquid eyeliner (those that you dip into the bottle)

I wanted to see the thickness that the pen offers and I'm quite satisfied with how thin the lines turned out. I didn't do a thickness test with Ottie though. But the Catrice pen seems a bit rougher on the skin and the colour is not as dark as I wanted it to be, as compared to Ottie, which is really dark. However, the pen does give more control over the lines. so they are generally straighter.

Smudge test

I did a smudge test on the thicker Catrice line and Ottie, I rubbed each line 5 times in the same direction and Catrice didn't hold out too well, the line was smudged and the colour intensity dropped quite a bit. Ottie on the other hand is obviously a winner. The line did not smudge at all and it still remains really black :)

water-proof test

I conducted a water-proof test as well. It's actually a water + rubbing test, because if I just dip my hand in water, there will be not much effect on the lines. so I added a drop of water to the thinnest line and Ottie line, and I rubbed them 5 times in the same direction. And the Catrice's line is almost completely gone but Ottie still remain quite strong with only one edge disappearing. So, Ottie is definitely a winner in both rounds and so I will rate the Catrice calligraph ultra slim eyeliner pen a 5.5/10 as it does fulfill quite a bit of what it claims to do: "Black eyeliner pen with ultra fine applicator for a precise slim eye line. Extra longlasting". It's black. It's ultra fine. Its precise. Extra longlasting? hmm.. not so much.

Catrice nail polish C03 Bed of flowers
Collection: Eve In Bloom, Limited Edition
$5.90

This is my favourite buy of that day, I simply couldn't wait to try it out because I have a few Catrice nail polishes and they haven't failed me at all. So i was excited to see how this one works out and it's a limited edition! So I will be showing you all an almost step-by-step guide to getting these interesting nails:

Keeping animal prints classy.
"Classy Zebra"
By: Si Ying

I 've been wanting to do animal prints for quite some time, but I don't want the design to be too overwhelming so I decided to just do the prints on one nail and leave the others blank. However, I felt it was too plain, so I included some rhinestones into the design and it became a classier take on the popular animal prints.

First, remove any remaining nail polish from your nails, file and shape them accordingly. I went for square round.

Next, I applied a base coat and then the nail polish from Catrice.

This is just the first coat and it already looks great!

Apply a second coat after the first coat has dried completely.

Next, i use a brush and white polish to draw squiggly lines across the nail of my ring finger.

Repeat until you have covered the entire nail. Your zebra print is done!

I added a dot of top coat at the top of the nails of my index and middle finger. You can use nail glue though.

And placed a pink rhinestone on the nail. Tweezers make it easier.

And we're done! Wait for your prints to dry completely and add the top coat of your choice to seal in the designs on your nails. Note: when applying top coat on the index and middle finger, avoid painting over the embellishment because it will cause the rhinestones/crystals to lose their natural shine.

I will rate the nail polish an 9/10, because the colour looks really good and the first coat already gave so much coverage. The nail polish brush is also quite wide, so it makes applying the nail polish so much faster.

Out of the 3 products that i bought, I'm most satisfied with the nail polish. I will definitely be going back to buy more of the nail polishes (I need more space in my nail polish cupboard..) In the meantime, do check out Catrice in Guardian when you are free, because their products are definitely worth buying :) See you all soon!

♥,

Si Ying

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