Etude House - Red, Silver and Gold Beauties + Ruby Pumps Dupe!

I've had these Etude House lacquers since the start of the year but just never got around to swatching them.  They've actually been sitting on my bureau because, quite simply, they are the most beautiful lacquer bottles I've ever seen.  There's almost a Marie Antoinette grandeur and elegance about them that I adore.

So I pulled my finger out  (uh yeah, the elegance portion of this post has now ended) and finally got around to swatching them.  Peep them after the jump.

Etude House - PK001

I've figured out that Etude House's naming conventions are based on the respective colour family.  So, in my previous Etude House review, the OR stands for Orange.  Here, the PK stands for Pink.  Neat, huh?

In this case, the PK also stands for Pain in my Keister, because this lacquer caused me no end of frustration.

My problem wasn't the colour, which is a lovely lollipop pink.  This is a great colour for those of you in the midst of spring.

My problem was the formula.  Think of slightly thickened milk and you have this lacquer.  It was near impossible to control.  The photo here is my fifth attempt at a swatch.  FIFTH.  The previous four times, I flooded my cuticles, resulting in a super messy finish that I did not want to terrify you guys with.

Pain in the Keister. Beautiful colour but I'm not convinced it's worth the effort.

Rather than leave you guys on a negative note, here's some photos of the Butter Cake I made yesterday.  I'm a terrible cook but a great baker (go figure).  These photos were taken at 5pm.  By 9pm, it was gone.  The boys just sat at the dining room table after dinner and ate and ate and ate until it was finished.

Etude House - OR202

**Once again, please excuse the weird hand positions.  I am getting better with the new camera, but I'm still learning!  Unfortunately, in this photo, it looks like my hand is trying to attack the screen.  I can assure my hand is a pacifist and means you no harm!**

Here we go with the Asian lacquer naming conventions. Instead of calling this Etude House lacquer, OR202, I'm going to call this Big Red, because it reminds me of Heinz Tomato Soup.

The formula on Big Red is, as my French mother would say, comme ci, comme ca.

It glides on easily enough, is opaque in two coats and dries super duper fast.  That's the good part.

The bad part is the finish.  This doesn't dry matte.  It doesn't dry shiny.  It dries dull.   That's the only way to describe it.  It looked like my hands had been dunked into a bowl of tomatoe soup and left to dry in the sun.  Blurgh.

The swatch on the left is with two coats of Seche, which was the only way I could vibrant this colour up.  With Seche, it looks great, but I don't think I shoud have to work that hard to make a lacquer look good.

Since it's Chinese New Year, I decided to bling this up with Inglot flakie, 203.

This is a beautiful flakie.  It has green, gold and purple through it and makes my nails look like they are literally on fire.  Definitely click to see the close up because there are so many colours running through this.

I love how this takes a fairly basic lacquer and transforms it into something gorgeous.

A few comments regarding the formula. The brush is a little diddy, but the flakes go on beautifully and evenly.  The finish is quite smooth but, as with flakes, you will get flakes hanging off the edge of the nail or - most annoyingly, nestled right against the cuticle.

What do you guys think?  A fitting way to welcome in the Year of the Tiger.

Hey There, Wait A Minute Mr Postman - Etude House

As I mentioned last week, my mum, whilst holidaying in Singapore, went to Etude House.  She's a great mum!

Ladies, I believe that these are the most beautiful bottles of lacquer I've ever seen.  And a rose gold handle?  Inspired.

Whatever criticisms I have of Asian lacquer naming conventions, and really, what is with the inventory style labelling, I can't fault their design aesthetic when it comes to bottles.

These are bottles that will take pride of place on my bureau.  Definitely click to see them up close.  You can actually see me in the reflection of the handle - I'm the pink blob in the middle!

And check out that red on the left.  Although it looks a little more raspberry-esque, I suspect it might be a close dupe of Ruby Pumps.

What do you guys think?  Is there any colour that immediately stands out for you?  Any particular one you would like me to try out first?

Hey There, Wait A Minute Mr Postman - Etude House

Etude House is a Korean brand that is notoriously hard to find if you live anywhere but South East Asia.

I managed to find a limited range at Asia Jam (which is a wasted afternoon in itself - I love that website and can spend hours trawling through it) for a pretty reasonable price.  With the promise of a free gift, I was utterly sold. 

I initially bought five lacquers, however, they ended up only having three in stock.  I have no idea what the names of these are - and I'm too lazy to walk the five metres to my untried box of lacquers to find out - but I suspect they are all typically unromantic names (as seems to be the case with most Asian lacquers).

Way too cute to shoot.  I have some more of these arriving shortly.  My parents stopped over in Singapore on their way back to Europe and went to the Etude House store in person.  I can't wait to get my hands on those.

As for the free gift.  I was hoping for makeup samples or even a free lacquer. 

I got this badge.  Which, whilst not what I was hoping for, is so so so so cute.  And I do heart Asia Jam so I suspect I will get some wear out of this.

On a sidenote, that's my thumb on Day 5 of Minx. Day 5.  I had minor lifting on Day 4 on my index fingers but I just blasted the nails with a hair dryer and pressed the Minx down.  Perfect!

Stay tuned because, later today, I have a manicure that looks like Aurora Borealis.  It's gorgeous.