Last Hurrah for Summer – Caronia Sweet Bliss Collection

 Warning, this post is long and a bit pic heavy.

Hi everyone! Did you miss me? I know I haven’t been active for quite some time now. Aside from my internet connection issues, I still have some personal matters that I have to deal with. I might not be able to post regularly yet, but I wanted to show you something before summer ends here.

Unlike other countries, Philippines only have two seasons, summer and Rainy (similar to fall for other regions). Summer is from the month of March until early June, or until our weather men advises us that it is already the start of rainy season. I’m not quite sure if they have already announced that but it has been raining for the past few days and we are already experiencing typhoons (which is actually normal here). But I wanted to catch up on my posting and since summer is just starting on other countries, so I will be showing you guys a summer collection from a local nail polish.

Caronia Philippines is an established local brand of nail polishes and nail care products. They have been in the industry as far as I can recall. Last year (2011), they launched a summer nail polish collection which is called the Sweet Bliss. I fell in love with the colors when I first saw it and I promised myself that I will complete the set. Baby Pink is the first polish that I bought. I then had On the Go and Sun kissed. I brought these babies on my vacation in Holland. Unfortunately, I have to leave them behind on my way home. I was able to grab the last three polishes to complete the set last September when I got back in Manila, but I had to wait for the other polishes so that I could show them to you. Last week, my mom sent me my nail polishes, so I was able to swatch those polishes and show these to you.

Caronia Sweet Bliss Collection

Caronia Sweet Bliss Collection

From left to right are Sweet Surprise, Sun Kissed, On the Go, First Crush, Summer Fling and Baby Pink. This post will be an all Caronia Manicure. I also used Caronia Cuticle Remover, Caronia Cuticle Sanitizer, Caronia Nail Hardener and Base Coat, Caronia Fast Dry Top Coat and Caronia Kwik-Dry and Cuticle oil.

Caronia Manicure Set

Caronia Baby Pink

This is Baby Pink, a light pink regular crème polish. I could still recall the first time I used this polish; it went on smoothly on two coats. Unfortunately, this photo does not show that. I suppose this is because this bottle is an old and the polish is a bit thick.

Caronia Baby Pink

If you would notice, it looks bumpy on my nails. That is because it is. On my nails are three thin coats. It’s a bit sheer so I had to go on three. But I can no longer make it even. I think I’d need to purchase new bottle. Did you notice that it is shiny? One thing I like about this polish is that I wouldn’t need a top coat to make it shiny. But I think I’d need those to make it even. No top coat was used for this polish but it look like it does. Over-all this polish is okay.

Caronia Summer Fling

This is Summer Fling. Summer Fling is the red crème polish, but it’s more on the pink tone. It looks pink to me than red, especially if you place it beside other reds, but it looks red if you place it beside pinks.

Caronia Summer Fling

One good thing about this polish is that it is a one-coater, although making it two wouldn’t harm as well. On my nails is one medium coat. Application is a breeze and the consistency id okay; not too thick, not too thin as well.

Caronia Summer Fling

This bright red-pink polish is also shiny that it does not need top coat. Here’s a closer look on my thumb.

Caronia Summer Fling

Caronia Sun Kissed

Next one is Sun Kissed, this is one of my favorites in the collection. It’s a yellow-orange regular crème polish. I’m starting to think that I have a love-hate relationship with oranges. I’m not really fond of orange but this has become an exception. I love the color on my nails.

Caronia Sun Kissed

I did not have problems with the application. All you need is two thin coats and you’re good to go. Just like the first two polishes, this is also shiny by itself.

Caronia Sweet Surprise

I know you guys already know Sweet Surprise. I already made a review on this one a few months back. If not, you can see it here.

Sweet Surprise is a bright yellow frosted polish. This is the only polish in the collection that is not crème. The glitters are so tiny that it’s not so visible. It looks like a regular crème to me.

Caronia Sweet Surprise

On my nails is two thin coats. I didn’t have issues applying the polish. It also shines by itself without the use of a top coat.

Caronia Sweet Surprise

Caronia First Crush

Our second to the last baby is First Crush. You might’ve seen it on my Purple Plaid post. Looking back, I saw that I promised to make a review and swatch of this polish. I know it took me quite sometime to do that.

Caronia First Crush

First Crush is my favorite among the six polishes. It is a lavender crème polish. This is a good one coater. But I would suggest using two if you intend to put on top coat. On my nails is one medium coat without top coat. Application went on smoothly and the consistency is just right.

Caronia On the Go

And last but definitely not the least is my second favorite, On the Go. I already swatched this on my Tumblr account but haven’t written anything about it yet.

Caronia On the Go

On the Go is a teal crème polish. It’s pigmented that you only need one medium coat to achieve bottle color. I’m happy with the formula since it did not became thick even after a long time, unlike my Baby Pink. No problem with the application and shine okay without top coat.

After finishing all those swatches, I decided I’d use them altogether. I didn’t want to do the nail swirl, so I decided I’d do a gradient instead. I started on with different colors on my nails.

Sweet Bliss Skittles

Sweet Bliss Skittles

I find those bright summer colors very lovely on my hands that I actually considered not using any design anymore. But at the same time, I find it boring so I still went and do some sponging on the tips. Here’s the final result.

Sweet Bliss Gradient

On my thumb is First Crush and On the Go, on my index is Sweet Surprise and First Crush, on my middle finger is Sun Kissed and Sweet Surprise, on my ring finger is Summer Fling and Sun Kissed and on the pinky is Summer Fling and Baby Pink. (First colors are based color sponged with the second color)

Sweet Bliss Gradient

Here’s how my non-dominant hand looked like. On thumb is Sun Kissed and Baby Pink, on my index is First Crush and Sun Kissed, on my middle finger is Summer Fling and First Crush, on my ring finger is Sweet Surprise and Summer Fling and on the pinky is On the Go and Sweet Surprise. (Again, first color is the base, sponged with the second color)

Here’s a closer look

I’m not that happy with how this turned out. It’s so bumpy. All those “fibers” from the sponge were left on my nails. This is kind of unusual since my other <hp>sponge designs didn’t end up like this. I should’ve left the bright skittles. But it’s too late for that. Here are other shots of the gradient.

Sweet Bliss Gradient

Sweet Bliss Gradient

So that’s it for this post. I really hope to be back on track, but I guess it would take a couple more weeks for me to be able to post regularly. But I’ll try my best to post every now and then in between.

Please tell me what you think by leaving a comment.

Day 31 – Recreate your Favorite Challenge

Day 31 – Recreate your Favorite Challenge

Hello! Today will be the day the challenge bids farewell to all of us. And for Day 31’s rules is to Recreate your Favorite Challenge.

But before I do that, I just want to share with you the gift I received from my sister last New Year.

This pack includes Sassy 2 way Nail Art Pen in Black, Bobbie Purple Passion and Chic Missy Daisy. I looove all of those and can’t wait to try all of them.

So going back to the challenge, I decided to recreate Day 17 which is glitters. This day isn’t my favorite. But I decided I’d do this for two reasons. One is because I wanted to make up for not posting a better glitter polish and two, so that I’ll have a reason to use my new polish.

I thought I’d use Bobbie Purple Passion. Purple Passion is a very pale purple polish with tons of micro holographic glitters. Here’s how they look like inside the bottle.

Aren’t they lovely? I fell in love the moment I saw it. I tried putting it as it is. But the polish is so sheer that even 3 coats can’t make it opaque. I decided to put a base color instead.

See what I mean? I used Essence Got a Secret as the base color. And even at this angle, you can see the shining shimmering splendid holo glitters. Got a Secret is a gray polish but it started looking like lavender after using Purple Passion. The formula is super okay and application is a breeze. I had 2 coats of Got a Secret and two coats of Purple Passion. One more good thing about this is that it dries quickly and not as thick. I remember my other Bobbie polish will feel thick on my nails.

Here’s a better look at the glitter goodness.

And a closer look.

I think this polish would work well if it will be used like a top coat. I will try to use this on top of different colors one of these days. The polish is so awesome that I cannot stop staring at my nails even the day after (I decided not to remove it yet). These photos do not even give justice on how splendid this polish is. And for just PHP35 (approximately US$0.81), this polish is totally worth it.

What do you guys think?

Day 21 – Inspired by a Color

Hey there! We’re now starting the third and last part of the challenge: Inspirations. And for Day 21 we have Inspired by a color.

Most of the nail enthusiasts who did this challenge chose to recreate a color based on the name (most of them inspired by a nail polish color). I chose to do it differently.

I found tinkgurlnails’ crayola design very inspiring and appealing. So I decided to “copy” her design.

Since we’re dealing with colors, I think I still followed the theme. I gathered a couple of commonly used Crayola and painted on my four nails. Then I used a darker shade of the same colors to use as tips. I used a nail art brush to do that. Then with the help of my nail art polish, I striped in a thick black line and added the curves using the same color as the “crayon’s wrapper”

On my thumb I drew in green lines and the brand Crayola as what children would’ve seen in their boxes.

I’m impressed on how I was able to do this on my nails. It’s kinda cute and child friendly. Too bad I don’t know a lot of kids to show this off.

How do you guys liked it?

Colors used:

Essence Found My Love

Allue Pumpin’ Purple

Orly Blue Collar

SanSan Warm Blue

BNC Green Nail Art Brush

Bobbie Lush

Bobbie Vamp

Caronia Sweet Surprise

Day 20 – Water Marble

Hi guys! We’re already done with the second leg of this polish challenge which is the patterns. Today is also the day I dreaded the most. This is the day I need to do Water Marble nails.

Okay, this isn’t the first time I’ve ever tried this. As a matter of fact, after several attempts on this one, I only had onesemi-successful water marble.  No matter how easy it may seem on video tutorial, such as the one by Simple Little Pleasures or how beautiful it may seem on gorjessnails or victoriac7, I cannot seem to do that on my nails. After a couple of drops and some dragging onto the water, the polish looks awesome. But for some insane reasons, it does not look like that when I dip my nails in, it doesn’t look like that – not even close.

This is my nth attempt to water marbling.

I would have to thank my 8 year old nephew (yes, the one who chose my nail polish). If it hadn’t been because of him, I might have given up doing this. He’s so amazed on how the polish spread onto the water that he kept on cheering me to do it all over again.

I chose a couple of color combinations to work with. I thought of doing some rainbow colors. I tried on my unbranded neon polishes. It didn’t work out good enough. I wanted to give up. So I scratched the idea off and just went over my stash again. I didn’t think of any design anymore. I just want to get it over with. I picked on some colors and started dropping polishes again. Some of it went straight to the bottom. I wanted to scream.

I started to use Orly Blue Collar and SanSam Violet Glam. It did pretty well at first. But I’m still not satisfied with how it looked. I tried SanSam Violet Glam and Rimmel Chocolate Factory. It did looked better.

Even though I said it looked better, I’m not entirely happy. But I just want to get it over with. I did not use the tape method before doing the marble, so as expected, the clean in is another story. Yes, if I would highly suggest that if you wanted to try this technique, put tape around your nails. Believe me, it would lessen your headache.

I’m not sure if you would notice, but the finished product had small bubbles and is nowhere near perfect. But please bear with me. This is the most decent design I can come up with. And please excuse the dirty fingers, as I’ve said, I’ve been a very stubborn to not use the tape.

No, I don’t think I’ll do this again in the near future.

Colors used:

Rimmel Chocolate Factory

SanSan Violet Glam

Essence Found my Love (Base Color)

Day 18 – Half Moon

Hi everyone! Today is Day 18 of the Challenge. For this day, we are required to do Half Moon.

Half moons are something I like looking at other people’s nails, but not mine. And this challenge made me do it. Looking on a brighter side, I get to try it on my nails.

I’m not really sure if this would pass as half moon since I’m only using one color. I wanted to use Essence Do a Floating Pirouette but had a hard time choosing what color to pair it with. I ended up using only that color.

I didn’t use any paper reinforcement for this design, hence the crookedness. I used a nail art brush to draw the “moon’s” outline and filled it up using the polish’s brush. I used two coats.

Over all, I liked how I was able to do this design for the first time. But I’m not sure if I’m gonna do this in the near future.

What do you guys think of half moons?

Day 14 – Flowers

Hi everyone! Today is already the 14^th day of the challenge. I will be showing you some Floral nails.

Day 14 - Flowers

I am thinking of doing another Chalkboard nails inspired flowers (she really did a great job for her 31 day challenge). Unfortunately, I can’t find a flower that’s easy for me to do yet not so common. So I decided to just do a very simple flower.

Day 14 - Flowers

I used Caronia First Crush as my base color and free handed the flowers using a brush. I’m so happy to be able to draw a flower using a nail art brush. This is the second time that I was able to do that. The first is on my Funky French Flower, but that was only on my thumb. I already did a couple of flower designs way back but I normally use a dotting tool to create flowers since I’m not really good in controlling brushes.

Day 14 - Flowers

Even though I don’t think I made a good decision for my color combination, I still find the flowers classy and cute.

I hope you enjoyed and thanks for dropping by.

Colors used:

Caronia First Crush

Rimmel Chocolate Factory

Bobbie Touch of Tan

Day 12 – Stripes

Hello guys! Today is the 12^th day of this challenge. And for today, the challenge will be Stripes.

I wanted to do some tape mani for the stripes, but I wanted this day to be simpler and better. I opted for a free handed stripes since I’m not really comfortable in using tape on my nails.

I used Jean Michelle Passionate Plum as base color. It’s a violet polish that’s more in the red tone. The red in it really showed more when I added the pink stripes. Unfortunately, after putting on the stripes, the base color is not that visible anymore. I used pink and yellow striping polish to create the thin and thick lines. I like how those little bottles of nail art brush are available here at a very reasonable and cheap price. Although they don’t really come in a wide variety of colors. But at least they do have the basics.

I’m satisfied on how this turned out. I know there are a lot of room for improvement for my free hand designs, but I like how this turned out.

How do you guys like it?

Day 10 – Gradient

Hi everyone!

Today will be the last day for colors in the challenge. And I will be sharing some gradient nails.

I am currently on a vacation here at my Tita’s (translation: Aunt’s) house. I brought with me my “nail box” so I can continue the challenge. But I got worried last night because I left my sponge at home. I was about to use a piece of cloth for today’s mani. Fortunately, when I opened my box today, I found a lost eyeshadow sponge.

I used Essence Found my Love as base color and sponged in the other colors diagonally. I love the outcome.

I’m starting to get the hang of sponging / gradient nails.

How do you guys like it?

Colors used:

Essence Found my Love

Allue Pumpin’ Purple

SanSan Violet Glam

Le Couleurs de Salome

Day 9 - Rainbow

At the end of the rainbow there is a pot of gold, I will be there and the gold will be mine.

Hi guys! Before anything else, I would like to apologize for the blurry pictures. I didn't realize it till now that I am posting it.

Today's challenge is the Rainbow Nails.

I decided to use my fan brush for the first time since I got it last year. As you would notice I really need more (and I really mean more) practice on this one. But I liked how each of the colors blend in the middle. I’m not really sure if it’s with my polish, the brush or my application skills

I use white as base color before applying the other colors. It went pretty smooth at first but as the polish thickens, the application becomes pain in the neck.

I am just planning to put in the colors on the nails as it is, but my sister suggested that I add something gold (because of the quote I mentioned on the beginning of this post). I tried to draw a “pot of gold” but didn’t turn out the way I liked. My nephew even said it looks like a garbage bag. Haha!

So I decided to paint on the rainbow colors on my thumb and add on gold glitters instead. And I’m happy on how it turned out.

Do you really think there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?

Colors used:

Bobbie Vamp

Bobbie Salmon

Caronia Sweet Surprise

Bobbie Lush

SanSan Warm Blue

SanSan Violet Glam

LA Colors Art Deco Violet

Sassy Nail Art Brush Red

LA Colors Art Deco Yellow

Neon Blue

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