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Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted on 23 November, 2012 by Cynthia

This being the first Thanksgiving that my blog has seen, I was wondering if I should do anything “special.” What does special mean? I have no clue. So instead, I decided to just let all of you know how grateful I am for all the wonderful support I have received since I started my blog. Whether this blog continues to exist in the future or not, I will always love it because it gave me the opportunity to meet some amazing bloggers (and non-bloggers!) whom I am fortunate enough to call friends. Around this time last year, I was dealing with so much crap that I could barely get my head wrapped around it all. While I still have a lot of not so pleasant things going on, I feel light years away from the horrible pit of depression I was in for most of 2011. In fact, the reason why I even started this blog was to VENT out into the void since I refused to go to therapy regularly. Of course the venting also included my love for nail polish and here I am almost a year later still talking about nail polish…and food…and UPS men…and pervy postal clerks. Ahhh…I have a wonderful life!

I really really hate turkey. I mean I really hate it because turkeys are ugly and they taste like feathers. Since I’ve always had an aversion to birds and poultry, I’ve always had to come up with something else when it comes to my main Thanksgiving protein so I decided to make some tri tip and it came out perfect! Since my parents weren’t able to join us for Thanksgiving this year, my brother and I are celebrating at my bro and sil’s house. We had a great time eating, eating and eating some more.

That’s my plate with some delicious tri tip. This year I decided not to eat so much that I felt like dying afterwards so I didn’t eat everything on my plate. Get ready for my brother’s plate:

He ate TWO servings like this. TWO!!! Ahh…to have the metabolism of a 22 year old guy. I told him that he eats like the apocalypse is coming.

And because this post wouldn’t be quite right without a mani picture, this is what I decided to wear on my nails today.

I didn’t want to do anything complicated so I am happy with the simplicity of this. Jessica Pumpkin Spice seemed very appropriate–even though I prefer apple pie to pumpkin pie.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your friends and family and thank you for always being here–reading, commenting, lurking…whatever! THANK YOU!

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 23: Nails Inspired By Nature

Posted on 21 November, 2012 by Cynthia

I had absolutely no idea what to do for today’s challenge. I mean, nails inspired by nature? I am a city girl through and through and the closest I get to “nature” is the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland. Nicole and I were talking about this challenge yesterday and she mentioned that she thought of not painting her nails at all and showing us her “natural” nails and calling that her interpretation of nature. hahaha! I got so annoyed with today’s challenge that I waited until the last possible second to do them. Unfortunately, my nails ended up looking craptastic for various reasons. First of all, let me show you the polish I used as my base color:

Jessica Brown Sugar is from their Spicy Dream Fall Collection. It’s a red-based brown with a very distinct shimmer. I don’t really wear these types of browns because I don’t think they look to good on my skin tone, but I do like this polish because it’s just so different!

Then I decided to do some stamping and that is when it all went downhill.

First of all, I should have used a different polish to do the stamping because Essie The Cove Copper does not show up too well. I think this is a pretty old discontinued polish because the label looks different and it definitely smells different as well. I placed some red microbeads where the leaves appeared to have little bead shapes, but it just ended up looking weird. I was so annoyed with this overall mani that I took it off right away.

Now, in order to make up for such an atrocious manicure, I am sharing with you something that I made for our Thanksgiving feast tomorrow….

These are not just your ordinary deviled eggs; they are BACON CHEDDAR deviled eggs. These are so delicious that I defy anyone to have one and not have a foodgasm. They are basically traditional deviled eggs with some crumbled bacon and shredded sharp cheddar blended into the egg yolk/mayo mix. Whenever I make these, they literally disappear instantly. Yes, they are that good. I can’t wait until tomorrow so I can eat some of these babies up.The recipe is pretty standard but I know someone who hasn’t made deviled eggs would want to know. To tell you the truth, I eyeball all of the amounts so this is an approximation.

12 hard-boiled eggs
1/2 cup mayonnaise
4 bacon strips- cooked and crumbled
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

After you cook the eggs and peel them, cut them lengthwise and remove the yolks. Place all the yolks in a bowl and mash them up. Add the mayo and mustard until the mixture is creamy and well blended. Then mix in the cheese, crumbled bacon and black pepper. After this, I usually use a pastry bag to pipe the mixture back into the egg whites. If you don’t have a pastry bag, you an always just use a plastic bag and cut off a corner to make a small hole. Lastly, sprinkle the deviled eggs with paprika and bask in the glory of rave reviews that your dish will get.

Can we please just ignore my nails and focus on the food? That would make me happy. Do you have any special Thanksgiving plans for tomorrow?

LCN Urban Expressions Collection Fall 2012

Posted on 21 November, 2012 by Cynthia

For all of you rabid neutrals fans, you are going to love this. Even if you don’t normally gravitate towards neutral colors, I think that this cohesive set of four buttery neutrals is going to impress you. The LCN Urban Expressions Collection was released for Fall 2012 and brings us 4 polishes that showcase the chic sophistication of some of the most exciting fashion capitals of the world. Are you ready to see the polishes and which city inspired each shade?

Paris Chic is described as a nougat beige, and I think it is a very apt description. Out of the 4 polishes in the set, I found that Paris Chic had a difficult formula. It might have just been a fluke since the other three were great, but this one was very thick and applied very streaky. Once I added a few drops of thinner, it was MUCH better. I normally don’t like to thin bran new polish, but sometimes you have to make an exception.

London Glam is a slightly pink leaning gray which is a color that I always seem to be attracted to in all its infinite variations. I think that it is one of those shades that is work appropriate yet it is not boring whatsoever. The formula on this one was great–buttery and opaque at two coats.

New York Beat is definitely my favorite shade from this collection. It’s such a gorgeous smokey gray-green that I defy anyone to tell me it’s not current and fresh. It reminds me a bit of Essie School Of Hard Rocks but it is less green and more gray. Still, it’s a great shade with a great formula as well.

And lastly, here we have Tokyo Expressions. Could this collection really be complete without a creamy slightly blue-leaning gray? I can see myself wearing this color through fall and through winter because it has that steel

As a creme polish lover, I absolutely love this small collection. I like all the colors and the formula was great (well, except for Paris Chic). The LCN Urban Expressions Collection is available now on the LCN Website. One thing I would like to mention is that these polishes run pretty small at 8ml. each and sell for $7.50 each or $29.90 for the quad. Have you tried any LCN products before? Which is your favorite color of the 4? I’d love to hear what you think.

Thanks for catching up with me today and talk to you later.

**These products were provided for review purposes. All opinions are my own.**

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 22: Galaxy Nails

Posted on 19 November, 2012 by Cynthia

Here we go again: another challenge I was not looking forward to. Last night I tried to recreate some amazing nebula nails that I had seen on Diane’s blog, Turbomagik, but they ended up looking like a hot mess so I had to regroup today and try something else. Well, they didn’t come out the way I imagined them but any time sponging is involved, I tend to find a way to mess it up. I started with Wet N’ Wild Blue Moon as my full nail color:

I love Blue Moon, but it is a little thin as you can tell from a few bald spots. I think that with three coats it would be fine but I stopped at 2 because I was going to sponge over it anyway.

I’m not wild about them, but they’re definitely not the worst thing I’ve ever done. Just take a look at some of my older posts and this will be a Renoir to you. haha! I used a little planet stamp from Cheeky plate CH 45 but otherwise, I just used polish, a dotting tool and a sponge.

I am not that much of a fan of galaxy nails s0 I probably won’t be in a hurry to try this again any time soon. Before I forget, I have a funny story for you. Well, it’s funny to me anyway. Ever since I started my blog sale, I have been going to the post office a lot. I was there today to drop off a few orders, and I was waiting in line. One of the post office employees is really nice but there are 3 others that are total grumps. He was helping a guy who had to fill out a customs form so I thought he wasn’t going to take me until the guy was done. Then he looks at me and says: “I’m waiting for you.” I walk over to the counter and this was the conversation that ensued:

Me: “Oh, sorry. I didn’t know that you were ready to take someone new.”

Him: “I looked right at you and you just looked away…trying to play hard to get.”

Me: “Yeah, I just wanted someone different because you’re the meanest one here.”

Him: “Oh yeah? Sometimes people like it mean.”

Me: “Oh?”

Him: “Yeah. Some people like it mean. Some people like it rough.”

Me: “Ok…”

If you follow me on twitter, you know that I am in no way a prude, but his comments kind of shocked me especially because the other male customer who was filling out the form was still there and he was snickering and said: “Oh yeah!” hahaha Well, that’s my inappropriate story for the day.

What do you think of my galaxy nails? I’d love to hear what you think. Also, don’t forget to check out Nicole’s galaxy nails over at Polish Me, Please!

Birthday Polish: Cult Nails I Got Distracted

Posted on 18 November, 2012 by Cynthia

One of the first indie brands that really caught my attention when I became a nail polish ~~hoarder~~ enthusiast, was Cult Nails. It was like a nail blogger fairy tale with Maria starting out as a blogger and then working her behind off to create an amazing brand. That was the initial appeal for me until I saw all of her amazing polishes. I mean, seriously…they are amazing. So when I got my lovely birthday gift from Frosso and I realized it was Cult Nails I Got Distracted, well I was beyond excited. A little funny story about this package: a week before I received it, I had seen this on twitter and facebook:

When I saw it, I thought to myself: “Wow that is so cool and so pretty!!!” Imagine my surprise when I opened up the package and realized it had been my package that I had seen. hahaha! I love it. Frosso is one of the very first bloggers I met when I started my blog and I just adore her blog. In fact, she is having a really fantastic giveaway right now to celebrate her One Year Blogiversary so make sure that you go check it out.

Now, let me show you the beauty that is I Got Distracted:

This is two coats without a top coat. It dries super gritty and kind of matte, but I find the texture really interesting! I know that Frosso gets a kick out of me oohing and ahhing over glitter nail polish because I was such an insane glitter hater a few months ago. But really…I had to come to my senses because who wouldn’t go nuts for this? It’s absolutely gorgeous.

I decided to also show you how it looks with some top coat:

Ohmygoshthisisgorgeous. What else can I say? I also received a bottle of Wicked Fast top coat in my lovely package. I tend to alternate between using Seche Vite and Poshe so I was a little cautious about trying a new top coat. Well, let me tell you that it’s fantastic, but it did not work well with this polish on its own. I Got Distracted is one of those thirsty glitters that sucks up top coat like there’s no tomorrow. I had to apply two thick coats of Gelous to completely smooth out this glitter and then I applied Wicked Fast to make it all extra glossy. Here is a bonus super blurry picture so you can see the holo gorgeousness.

So there you have it: my gorgeous birthday polish from the lovely Frosso. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Have you tried Cult Nails yet?

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 21: Tribal Print Nails

Posted on 17 November, 2012 by Cynthia

Much like Nicole, I was not really looking forward to doing tribal print nails mostly because I never really liked the way they look. I guess I’ve just always found the patterns too busy for my liking, but I have definitely seen some really amazing manis from talented ladies. I was super duper tempted to just do a skittle mani and use a stamp for the print, but I decided to finally do some kind of free-hand design attempt. Oh boy do I need practice! I started out with 2 coats of essence Nude It!

Nude It! is one of my favorite–if not my favorite–nude color. I like wearing nude colors on their own because my short sausage fingers look longer.

These are all the polishes and tools that I used for the design that follows: essence Let’s Get Lost and Break Through for the color accents, my nail art polishes in black and white and a dotting tool.

Are you ready for my interpretation of tribal print?

To tell you the truth, I am surprised that these came out somewhat decent. While I don’t see myself doing this type of design again any time soon, I am glad that I am finally trying some free-hand stuff. Practice makes perfect, right?

What do you think about tribal print nail designs? What do you think about my first free-hand attempt? (Be nice!) Don’t forget to check out Nicole’s tribal print nails over at Polish Me, Please! Thanks for stopping by and don’t forget to check back for our next challenge: Galaxy Nails!

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 20: Delicate Print Nails

Posted on 15 November, 2012 by Cynthia

Delicate. Nothing is “delicate” about me so I had to really think about what I wanted to do with my nails today. I looked through polish stash, and I zeroed in on China Glaze Who’s Wearing What. As far as I can tell from various internet sources, Who’s Wearing What comes form the 2004 Creme Couture Collection. I can honestly say that this is my absolute favorite greyed dusty purple EVER. I am not kidding. It’s the absolute most perfect dusty purple/grey for my skin tone. In fact, I love it so much that I’m going to have to get a back up or two since I sold recently sold my extra bottle in my blog sale. (Shameless plug: go check out my blog sale–I am adding tons of new stuff every day.)

Didn’t I tell you this was a gorgeous color? For those of you who like to go dusty hunting, this is one to put on your list if you don’t own it yet. Since it’s close to 10 years old, it is not big 3-free in case that is a major concern for you. The formula is nice and definitely needs two coats. It is super important to apply thin coats because it does tend to get a little streaky as you can tell from my pics. Still…I adore it.

And here is my idea of delicate print:

I decided to use Essie Nothing Else Metals again and used a design from Bundle Monster plate BM 310. What an awesome polish for stamping! In fact, all of the Essie Mirror Metallics rock for stamping.

And in the “I eat like a pig” food chronicles, here is my dinner:

Tacos al pastor…I love you. That’s all I have to say about that.

What do you think about my delicate print nails? Did I achieve a delicate look? Don’t forget to check out Nicole’s delicate print nails over at Polish Me, Please!

Jessica Glamarama Collection Holiday 2012

Posted on 14 November, 201214 November, 2012 by Cynthia

Oh my dear glitter God, where do I begin? Last week I showed you a sneak peek of the Jessica Glamarama Collection which is their holiday collection for 2012 and we were all left wondering if it would be red overload. Let me tell you…this collection is freaking amazing. Yes, there are 4 “reds” in this 6 piece collection but they are all different enough that I did not think it was too much once I actually saw them in person. Let me also say that I really appreciate smaller collections such as this because when they are 8-12 polish collections, I inevitably feel like that are a lot of filler polishes without any real inspiration behind them. Before I blab your ear off, I’m going to move on to the swatches which is why you’re here, right? Right?!

Velvet Fantasy is one of those one coat wonders that is just a classic and a staple. It is so incredibly pigmented that you don’t need more than one coat and the formula is just perfect: smooth, highly pigmented and glossy. I have to say that I generally love red nail polish, but it’s really hard to find one that has such a perfect formula like this one.

Magic Spell is what I imagine my brain sees when I eat a bunch of Red Hots all at once. Jessica calls this a “deep crimson” which doesn’t really fit this polish in my opinion. I think that my lighting makes this polish look a little more orange than it is, but crimson wouldn’t be the first description that comes to mind. This polish was also really easy to work with and was fully opaque at two coats.

Heart’s Desire is gorgeous! If it reminds you of Cinnamon Kiss from the Spicy Dream Collection, you are right: the colors are in the same family because of the shimmer and glowing quality, but the actual color is different. Cinnamon Kiss is a lot darker, but they are definitely cousins. The formula on this one was a little tricky. It felt thicker than the other two polishes, and it felt like it was almost gooey. It’s nothing that a drop or two of thinner won’t fix so I don’t think it’s a big deal, but I thought it would be worth mentioning.

Hot Hot Hot definitely surprised me. I did not think that I was going to like it as much as I do. In fact, I love it!!!! It’s a very fine red glitter with a smattering of silver holo glitter throughout. If you want to wear this on its own, it will take 3 coats for decent coverage. It dries matte and gritty so a thick top coat such as Gelous is a must. This is also an amazing topper so I can’t wait to layer it on top of other polishes. (You’ll see some layering at then end.)

The two following shades are something that Jessica is introducing as “Disco Glitters” and they definitely look best layer over solid nail colors. I decided to swatch them on my bare nails below.

Platinum Wishes is not really…platinum? I see a mix of steely blue-green glitter and some red-orange glitter to boot. The formula feels thick and a little goopy. I applied 3 coats for the my swatches and it was way too thick to apply that many layers. Again, this is good as a glitter topper and I do not recommend you wearing it on its own.

Glitterati is described as a champagne gold which I can definitely see, but there is also a very unique multi-chrome quality to it when you see the polish in the bottle. I see flashes of green, red and gold in the bottle but it’s not very apparent once I applied it on my nails. The formula was exactly the same as that of Platinum Wishes: thick and meant to be layered.

Now, I did a quick layering of the glitters on top of Velvet Fantasy:

From pinky to pointer: Glitterati, Platinum Wishes and Hot Hot Hot (on middle and pointer fingers)

The Glamarama collection is available now and retails for $7.50 each at www.jessicacosmetics.com and salons and spas internationally. All Jessica polishes, including the Glamarama collection, are formulated with vitamin A for maximum conditioning and UVA/UVB protection from the sun’s damaging rays. Plus, they’re quick-drying and eco-friendly, free of toluene, formaldehyde and DBP.

So, what are your thoughts on this collection? Let me know; I’d love to hear from you!

**These products were provided for review purposes. All opinions are my own.**

Precision Toxic Love Collection

Posted on 13 November, 201216 November, 2013 by Cynthia

I am crazy lucky because I have some really amazing independent beauty supply stores that are veritable treasure troves full of different brands and hard to find polishes. Every time I go to one of them, I feel like I discover something new which is what happened a few months ago when I came across a display of Precision nail polishes. I reviewed one of their summer collections here and was thoroughly impressed with the quality. Today I have to share with you one of their Fall collections called Toxic Love.

Précision I’m Addicted To You…

Précision I’d Love To Hate You

Précision Till Death Do Us Part

Précision Intoxicated

Précision Toxic Wast-ing My Time

Précision Poison Ivy

Overall, this is a very typical fall collection but I have to say that I just about died when I used Poison Ivy and Intoxicated. They are by far my two favorite colors from this collection. The formula was pretty good even though a few colors were a little thinner than I like, but they still built up nicely. The only downside about this brand is that it might be a little difficult to get it locally if you don’t like to buy online. I have a few places near me that sell them so I’m lucky. You can purchase their polishes online here. They also have a tool where you can see if there are any places near you that carry Précision products.

So what do you think of these colors? Any of them stand out to you? Thanks for visiting and I’ll talk to you later.

**These products were provided for review purposes. All opinions are my own.**

Birthday Polish: Dollish Polish It’s A Me, Mario!

Posted on 12 November, 2012 by Cynthia

One of the pivotal moments of my childhood was in the late 80’s when my parents finally caved and bought my brother and I a Nintendo. The NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) became like a babysitter for my mother because it would keep my brother and I entertained for hours. Any time she wanted to punish me, she didn’t take away the TV or my toys: she took away the Nintendo. Although I was only 8 years old, I became quite good at Super Mario Bros. and my life’s goal became to pass all 8 worlds. I don’t even remember how long it took me to pass the whole game, but I do remember the day it happened as if it was just yesterday. I had gotten to world 8 stage 4 and I had no more lives left and I was little Mario which meant that one touch would kill me. I made it all the way to Bowser/Koopa and in some random inspiration, I just ran under Bowser when he jumped up and pulled the bridge out from under his feet. At that point, both my brother and I stared at each other neither daring to utter a single word. Once we saw Princess Toadstool, we both screamed. I threw the control in the air and we jumped up and we hugged each other while still jumping up and down. Does this make me sound silly? Maybe. But I don’t think I can remember any other massive accomplishment at that age that rivaled the sweet triumph of beating Super Mario Bros. This video is of level 8-4 and obviously this person is pretty good at the game. I just wanted to show you what it looked like:

Even the music made me what to cry. So why am I telling you about my nerdiest of nerdy childhood moments? (Ok, there is another moment that is nerdier than this: I created a “Plant Club” and made all the neighborhood kids join. It involved digging holes and looking for pre-hisotric plants and fossils. Yeah, stop laughing. Now. Bite me, ok?) The reason why I am sharing this is because you might start to imagine what a video game and polish boner I got when I heard about Dollish Polish’s Super Mario Bros. Collection. So when I got It’s A Me, Mario! from the lovely Amanda (go check out her blog–she’s awesome!!) for my birthday, I was seriously in Nintendo heaven. I’ve been admiring it on its velvet cushion for the last month or so and finally decided to use it. I started with 2 coats of Essie Butler Please:

When I applied the first coat ofButler Please, I was kind of surprised at how watery it seemed. It was really thin and kind of streaky. However, after a second thick coat, it was fine.

And here is the star of the show:

This is 1 coat of Dollish Polish It’s A Me, Mario! The blue and red glitter was not very hard to apply, but getting some stars was a serious bitch. I had to fish for those stars for what seemed like ages. In the end, I don’t care that I had to fish for stars because they were worth it. I love this polish.

Ready for some food porn?

I didn’t have anything to eat for lunch so by around 5:00, I was starving. I wanted a sandwich–with a twist–so I decided to go to El Gallo Giro which is a chain of Mexican food restaurants that are based in Socal. I was craving horchata as well so I thought it would be perfect. This was my lunch/dinner:

This thing was massive–massively delicious. It is a carne asada torta which is basically a grilled steak sandwich. They grill thin steak and layer it in a toasted bun with mayo, cheese, lettuce, tomato, jalapenos and guacamole. Holy moley this was good…and I’m full until next week.

What do you think of my Super Mario Bros. mani? Do you have any nerdy childhood moments that you would like to share? No? Just me? Alrighty then.