I love the polish color they gave me at the Beauty and Butter Megamall when I visited for an organic foot spa. They painted my nails with SpaRitual's I Feel The Earth Move. It's a deep maroon lacquer that complemented my skintone.

After 6 days of wearing the polish, I was thrilled it survived my most stressful pedal activities; most polishes chip off my nails after day 3. But please be reminded I've only used a handful of polishes. For those who've hung around polishes a lot, strong polishes aren't that thrilling anymore, I think :) 

Took a picture of my nails before removing the SpaRitual polish.

On close-up (haha, sorry for the ginormous photo, paa kung paa!):

Not too shabby! But since it has been a force of habit to take off polishes after 4-6 days, I had to tearfully say goodbye. RIP SpaRitual polish 3.2.12.

In conclusion, the SpaRitual pedicure I got from Beauty and Butter Megamall stood the test of stress and time. Now, I want my own bottle... of my first ever strong poilsh!

Full Disclosure: The organic spa experience was an invitation from Beauty and Butter and did not cost me anything, well except for tipping the exceptional pedicurist. Despite the free spa, you can expect that all opinions expressed in this post are unbiased and reflects my true experience with the salon's product and service.

Last weekend, I experienced my first organic foot spa at the Beauty and Butter Megamall. This Vegan foot, nail and leg pampering uses soothing and relaxing products from eco-friendly brand, SpaRitual.

The Beauty and Butter Organic Foot Spa Experience

The buttercups, the girls who work at the salon, politely showed me where to sit and handed me an iPad. While waiting for my buttercup, I was intrigued by the place's pop-art walls. I also thought it was space-savingly cool that the foot sinks were built in the platform and were concealed underneath colorful pillow-ish squares. 

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The Nature Republic Color Waltz nail polishes come in cute Paul and Joe-ish bottles. I got mine in BE103, a splash of beige-grey color, which for me, creates an almost perfect nude nails look.

1 coat of Nature Republic Color Waltz nail polish in BE103

What I love:

• inexpensive at 65php (~$1.50); cheapest among the other local Korean beauty boutiques 
• dries up fast
• easy to remove
• opaque at first glide
• i never had problems with it after waking up in the morning; usually, with other brands, the polish is a bit ruined in the morning and i sort of retouch by using a top coat
• the brush is perfect for my nail shape and size (unlike that horrible polish brush!)

I'm no pro with nail color but this polish is absolutely newbie-friendly! I never worried about bubbles like I did when I used a red nail polish and I didn't have to layer on so much to achieve an attractive opacity.

Uh-ohs:

• did not work with my The Face Shop base coat... the Nature Republic Color Waltz nail polish got a bit gooey when I used it over the TFS base
• layering the polish just makes it ugly; I just use 1 coat
• ingredients are not listed so it's hard to say if it's The-Big-3-free

I'm wondrin how this'll look like 'neath the Nature Republic Crackle :) Hmmmm...

Check out the photos of the polish under indoor lighting (all @ 1 coat):

And outdoors:

I adore BE103 and will definitely get more Nature Republic Color Waltz nail polishes. It's a breeze to use and newbies-to-polish like me can seem to look like a pro with it. I will be too dishonest if I refuse to admit that one of the biggest factors for repurchasing the line is its adorable bottles. These polishes are just too darn cute side-by-side each other, it's hard to own just one!

During my visit to Nature Republic SM Fairview, I swatched their Lean Crack Nail in black. This was the first time I tried applying shatters on my nail, nahiya naman big time ang kuko ko!

Nature Republic's version of nail shatter in black (also used Bobbie Top Coat)

They have five available colors at the counter: baby pink, white, red, silver and black. I should've swatched on the white crackle against the red polish. This tandem would've been prettier, I think, versus the red+black stint.

Nature Republic Lean Crack Nail, 300php/ ~$6

I was hoping the ingredients would've been listed to make sure that it's big-three-free. You don't want Toluene, Formaldehyde and DBP lurking on your polishes!

I used the shatter very sparingly and it gave me some large cracks. Also, without the Bobbie top coat, the entire number lacked luster. Oh, and please forgive the poor way I applied the polish and shatter, lol!

sans the top coat, under natural light

I've seen how the pink shatter looked like. Methinks this is how you properly apply nail stuff, lol, I feel so amateur looking at how well she painted her nails!

photo taken from Sharibelle's post on Nature Republic's Facebook page

So there's the swatch of Nature Republic's Lean Crack Nail! It's cheaper than the other popular shatters at 300 pesos (~$6)! 

Finally, a second NOTD entry after the controversial snake+nail polish post. Okay, no snakes for now so that I don't scare anybody :) Today, I'm wearing 2 coats of Milani Nail Lacquer in 52 Sassy Brassy sponged with Caronia African Plum near the tips.

What I did:
1. Bobbie Base Coat
2. Milani Nail Lacquer in Sassy Brassy, 52 (bought at ebay.ph for ~P40)
3. sponged Caronia African Plum on the upper third of the nail
4. swiped Caronia African Plum up to the nail tips to blend the sponged-look
5. Bobbie Top Coat
6. Caronia Qwik Dry

Taking a closer look at it, here are photos of the nails, indoors and outdoors (+ camera flash):

Milani Nail Lacquer in Sassy Brassy + Caronia African Plum indoors

Milani Nail Lacquer in Sassy Brassy + Caronia African Plum outdoors

I wonder who wants another NOTD with snakes.... enjoy the weekend, everyone!

Applying Caronia Simply Red nail polish.

I apologize for the crude way of applying the polish, but this is by far the best I can do.  I'll practice more to perfect the art of painting nails.

Red nails+ Katinka, my ball python (normal morph)

holding Katinka, my ball python

Meet Katinka, our ball python.  She's a sweet girl who loves to rub her cheek on my hand and snuggle in my chest when we're watching TV.  

Here are our failed shots because she was so stressed during her "photoshoot"  ^-^

Katinka, the ball python, loves to play hide 'n seek

How do you get the bubbles out? *sigh*