To Buy Or Not To Buy

Posted on by Cynthia

“To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep
No more; and by a sleep, to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand Natural shocks
That Flesh is heir to? ‘Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to Dream; Ay, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause..”

As I typed the title of this blog post, I thought of Hamlet’s famous soliloquy. Yes, the title is an obvious allusion to Hamlet, but I was again struck by the beauty of it all. When I was 18, I was convinced that I would become a famous Shakespearean scholar à la Harold Bloom. Whatever happened to that? Sometimes life throws us some curve balls…many, many curve balls.

Today was a cleaning day for me. I finally got my 3 melmers somewhat organized even though my closet is still a disaster area. There are so many things that I would like to do for this blog, but I’ve been so lazy about it lately that I just finally sat down and started working on simple things. First of all, I have created a facebook page for this blog so please visit my page if you enjoy reading my posts. I don’t know how all this stuff works yet (I can’t seem to figure out how to publicize my blog and connect it to Facebook), but I guess I will learn as I go. I’d also like to change the format around, but that can wait.

I am ashamed to say that I went on some sort of polish binge this last week. Counting all my purchases, I acquired about 30 new nail polishes. My biggest splurge came when Zoya announced their Earth Day Promo. Damn Zoya and all their fabulous promos. I ended up purchasing way more than I should have because at 50% off, I’d be stupid not to…right? RIGHT?! Well, I need a nail intervention. I went to buy a new interview outfit, and I realized how crappy it will be if I end up in a stuffy office where I won’t be able to sport all my different nail polishes. That would be so stifling and sad.

Because I’ve been talking about going to the gym and working out for eons, I promised myself that I would not buy anymore polish until I lose 10 lbs. Whaaaaaaaaaaaat? Yes, you read correctly. I will NOT buy polish until I lose 10 lbs. I am jogging in place while I type this. Yes, it is very difficult. Last year I had a fantastic trainer that totally kicked my ass but unfortunately he is no longer in my budget while I look for work. You know, I’ve grown accustomed to having a roof over my head so I guess rent is more pressing than a personal trainer. There were days when I wanted to punch him in the face (which I nearly did a couple of times when we had our boxing days), but it was great to have someone to guide you and push you past what you think are your limits. Plus, he always commented on my nail polish which made me think he was gay for the first few months, but I love talking nail polish so it’s not like I cared. Now I have to motivate myself to get back on track which is not going to be easy. However, I think that the motivation of wanting to get new nail polish is really going to push me until I get used to going to the gym regularly again. It will be good for me. In the words of Elle Woods: ” Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands, they just don’t.”  Well, I doubt I would shoot my husband if I had one…I mean, unless he messed with my polish because that’s just off-limits.

My no-buy policy started today. I know there are a few collections coming out next month that I REALLY want so I better get my ass in gear. Literally.

Essie Angora Cardi

Posted on by Cynthia

I knew that Angora Cardi was a color that some might call matronly and for a momicure mauve when I first picked it up. But that didn’t make a difference to me: I love mauves dangit. I think I just like how it looks on my darker skin tone. Now that I’ve worn it, I really love it. The color is pretty and the formula is fantastic. I decided not to do any stamping today because my konad stuff needs a little break. However, I did do an accent nail using Wet N Wild It’s All In The Cut. The collection that it comes from is probably my favorite glitter ever…and that’s saying a lot because I don’t usually use the words favorite and glitter in the same sentence. Were you able to pick up any of the limited edition Ice Baby ColorIcon Collection from Winter 2011? That whole collection was just beautiful but I hate how thirsty the glitter is; it sucks up topcoat like there’s no tomorrow.

So here is what my nails ended up looking like. Once again I was forced to take picture inside with artificial light because there was zero sun today. 🙁

 

Today wasn’t a really interesting polish day. This manicure feels safe to me but sometimes safe is good. I purchased 4 Sinful Colors polishes because they were on sale for $1.00 at Walgreens. Now I’m waiting for my 14 other Zoyas to show up….

Weekend Stuff

Posted on by Cynthia

I finally got around to watching the two Redbox movies I checked out on Thursday. Yeah, I now…I’m dumb. I got The Skin I Live In and In The Land Of Blood In Honey. It is very rare that I don’t go see an Almodovar movie as soon as it comes out in theater, but I totally forgot about The Skin I Live In. If you aren’t much into indie and foreign cinema, you may not have seen many of Almodovar’s movies. He is one of the BEST directors in Spain and his movies are always twisted and absolutely magnificent.

Quick synopsis:

Robert is a surgeon who has created a new type of skin that he hopes will help burn victims. It’s burn resistant and repels insects. It is revealed that Robert keeps a beautiful young woman locked up in his house to whom he has given this new skin. We later learn that his wife was cheating on him and she was horribly burned in a fiery car crash. He nursed her back to health, but she committed suicide by throwing herself out a window when she saw her reflection in the glass. She landed right in front of her young daughter who was consequently hospitalized over the trauma.

Robert’s daughter, Norma, was allowed to leave the hospital to go to a wedding with her father. At the wedding, she is assaulted by a young man who is high on drugs. She is a very innocent sheltered girl who doesn’t really understand what his happening. When she starts to resist and scream, the young man, Vicente slaps her and knocks her out and he flees. Robert then finds Norma unconscious on the floor and tries to wake her up. When she wakes up and sees her father, she associates her rapist with him so she goes nuts again and has to be institutionalized again. Ultimately, she jumps out the window to her death just like her mother.

Robert then stalks and kidnaps Vicente keeping him chained up in some sort of basement. He then proceeds to give him a vaginoplasty–basically sexual reassignment surgery. He continues to transform him into a woman by using the new skin he invented and starts calling her Vera. The more work he does on Vera, the more she starts to look like his deceased wife. At the end, he takes Vera as his lover and she begins to reciprocate his affections. Vera lulls him into a false sense of security and then kills him and his housekeeper. Vera flees and goes back to his mother and reveals that he is Vicente.

If you think that’s weird, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re interested in watching any other of his movies, I would recommend:

1) All About My Mother

2) Talk To Her

3) Bad Education

4) Live Flesh

There are a lot of others but this is a good place to start.

Moving on from freaky movies, I went to America’s Family Pet Expo at the Orange County Fairgrounds today. It was AWESOME! I saw so many cool animals of all kinds. I was in puppy heaven! I got to pet a million dogs and I spent some time at the Wheaten Terrier booth which is the kind of dog I’m dying to get. Here’s a picture of Oliver.

Look at that face!!!! He was the sweetest dog and he let me pet him for ages. His owner seemed a little cranky so I didn’t ask him as much as I wanted. I came back later and there were a few other ladies there who were amazingly sweet and gave me tons of info and advice. I want my wheaten already!!!!!!!

I also saw the freaking cutest beagles ever. I love how the youngest puppy was going apeshit.

There were a lot of agility competitions as well, and I loved seeing the crazy jumping water dogs. It was awesome to see how far some of them could jump.

So now I’m even more obsessed with getting a dog!

I hope you all had a nice weekend as well. 🙂

Polka Polka Polka

Posted on by Cynthia

I love John Candy and when I started taking pictures of this mani, I instantly thought about this scene in Home Alone. I remember that my dad took my brother and I to watch Home Alone when I was 11 years old, and I thought it was one of the greatest movies ever made. It has become a Thanksgiving and Christmas tradition to watch this along with It’s A Wonderful Life. I think it’s so amazing how things will stick in your mind from your childhood, and they will always bring warm memories. Sorry for the crappy video quality but it’s the only one I could find on youtube that wasn’t super long.

As soon as I wrote in my previous post that I was going to take advantage of the lovely sunglight, it immediately became overcast. Normally I would have had at least 2 hours of useable sunlight, but it didn’t quite work out. I was forced to take pictures inside with artificial light. Poo.

I ended up using one of the new polishes I purchased today: Essie Mint Candy Apple. How gorgeous is this color? Besides falling in love with the color, I couldn’t be happier with the formula. It flowed like butta. I used China Glaze White Out as well. It’s a color that I don’t use often, but I like the formula and opacity.

 

I really like how this manicure turned out. It’s so fresh and spring inspired.

What do you have going on this weekend? Anything fun?

New Loot

Posted on by Cynthia

It’s sunny today. It’s sunny and there is a great breeze outside so it’s absolutely perfect. Once it starts to get warm, the area where I live starts to get really congested with traffic from people going to the beach. There is a freeway a block away from me that pours into the main street heading down to the beach so it takes eons for me to get around that. Dang it people, stop swarming to the beach!

I thought it over and I decided that I will get the new Essie Poppy-razzi collection so I went to another one of my favorite nail stores to see if they had it out yet, but they said it would be coming in later. Welllllll…what’s a girl to do when there are thousands of bottles of nail polish all around?  I ended up picking up a few summery colors and a couple of very dark and vampy colors–something that my dark nail polish twin over at Nails Of Many Colors would like.

Lately I have been really into Essie. I don’t know why all of a sudden I’ve been buying tons of Essie. I think it’s because they are becoming much more adventurous with their collections. Can you remember when Essie was all about really blah pastels? I like pastels, but I need variety too!

 

Jessica is another brand that I’m enjoying more of lately as well. These are such dark colors that will look awesome this fall. I don’t really adhere to seasonal colors so I’ll wear whatever I want, whenever I want.

 

And lastly, I got some cuticle oil to keep on my nightstand. I have really been neglecting my cuticles lately, and they have been looking super gross.

 

I’m trying to decide what to do with my nails right now. I just accidentally smashed my middle finger with a sliding glass window so I’m dreading the idea of possibly losing my nail and having to wait for it to grow out and all that. It was so painful that I thought I saw little stars like in cartoons when someone gets hit by an anvil.  Well, since there is a lot of sunlight right now, I’d better get my mani done so I can take some decent pictures of it.

Layla Mercury Twilight

Posted on by Cynthia

I had such a huge plate of pad thai for dinner that I’m afraid to go to sleep. I didn’t really eat lunch which I know is bad so I was pretty freaking ravenous come dinner time. I went to this hidden Thai place that my friend introduced me to eons ago and ordered my usual shrimp pad thai and thai iced tea. My brother had the same and he said he really liked it. I think he is the most adventurous one in the family when it comes to trying new foods. I try to be good but sometimes it’s just so hard to eat something that looks strange to me. I was ok with eating escargot when I was in France so I guess I’m not as bad as I think I am.

In other news, I today I picked up two melmers at Michaels. I seriously need a better storage solution for my nail polishes. Since I am close to the 400 mark, I think two melmers will suit me just fine. If I outgrow both of them in less than 6 months, I’m going to have to go to some sort of nail polish addiction therapy. Right now, they are 50% off so I paid around $18 for each 3 drawer melmer. Score! Once I get them all set up and decorated, I will post some pictures.

I also chopped all my hair off today. I love how light my head feels. Is that weird? My hair is so short that I don’t really have to fuss with it at all because it just does its own thing. My hairdresser was talking to me about getting some kind of mohawk, but I don’t think that it would be the best look for job interviews. When my hair grows out a little, I can totally do the flock of seagulls hairdo. Does anyone remember the look? I know it’s pretty atrocious, but it’s so like me to do something crazy with my hair.

Soooo…after all my babbling, here I am with my second bottle of Layla. Once again, I love it. Love.It.

Sorry I’m all over the place tonight. I’m finding it really hard to focus, but I still wanted to share this beauty with you. Thanks to all of you who continue to visit my blog and read my posts even when I’m not making much sense! I really appreciate all of you who leave comments to let me know someone is actually reading! 🙂

Layla Ultra Violet

Posted on by Cynthia

It’s official. I am in love.

 

Can you blame me? This is just amazing. This is my first linear holo polish, and I’m blown away. I did not use a topcoat because I was told that it could dull the holo effect. I didn’t know if I should use a basecoat so I ended up using Seche Base which is a ridge filling base coat. I don’t even know what else to say about this because I’m too busy staring at my nails.

A Dong

Posted on by Cynthia

Suddenly it’s getting hella hot here in So Cal. I really despise summer so I’m not happy about it.  I was working myself up this morning so I just went for a long drive to get my mind off stuff. I was going to get a haircut but I forgot that my hairdresser doesn’t work on Tuesdays. My pixie-like cut has really grown out! It’s still in that stupid in between length where I can’t do anything with it so I was just going to get it all chopped off again.

On my drive, I ended up in Little Saigon again. I really love that area because it makes me feel like I’m not even in California anymore. I found 3 new beauty supply stores but they weren’t all that. One of the stores was pretty big and I just wanted to look around. The owner was following me around and giving me the evil eye like I was going to steal. I can understand that store owners experience a lot of shoplifting, but can’t they be a little more discreet about it? I was pretty annoyed and left without purchasing anything. I really don’t want to give my money to a store where the owners follow me around as if I was a thief.

I haven’t been inside this place yet but I drove by it today and it looks pretty cool.

 

I also saw this place:

I really tried to be mature, but it made me giggle.

I’m going to try one of my Layla holos and will post some pics later.

Cult Nails First Impression

Posted on by Cynthia

I received my first ever Cult Nails order this past Saturday so I was itching to try my new lovelies. I have so many brand new nail polishes that I can’t justify buying more. I went to my nail places today and I resisted the urge to pick up some polishes but I did purchase a bottle of Posché. I’ve always been faithful to Seche Vite, but I wanted to try something new to see how it compares to my trusty top coat.

This morning I was looking at Scrangie’s swatches of the OPI Spider Man collection and I find them so meh. Yawn, yawn, triple yawn. I am really not interested in getting any of the colors anymore.  I was talking to my nail polish guy today about the new Essies and he had the Poppy-Razzi collection in the back so he showed me the colors. I don’t think I’ll be getting any of these either. They are colors I already have and they’re not that interesting once the excitement of something new wore off. He also told me they were ugly and that they are too similar to other colors I already have. What does it mean when the owner of the store talks you out of spending money at his store? He also had the New Love & Acceptance collection, but they’re just a pastel yawnfest.

Back to Cult Nails: First off I would like to say I was super impressed how quickly I got my order despite ordering during a huge sale. I swatched the three polishes I purchased and have no complaints. The formula was creamy, smooth and applied like a dream. Sorry about my greasy looking fingers! My hands have been crazy dry so I’m always moisturizing lately.

 

Manipulative

 

My Kind of Cool Aid

 

Vicious

 

I will be buying more Cult Nails polishes in the future for sure. I know that they will be having another $5 sale in the coming weeks so I will be sure to check them out.  What do you think about Cult Nails? Are you a fan?

Burrito Saturday

Posted on by Cynthia

My nail polish burritos arrived today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was my first Cult Nails purchase and I am super impressed with how quickly everything arrived considering that I ordered during their $5 sale. I can only imagine how crazy things were for them so I am beyond impressed at this point with their service. I can’t wait to wear them. I also love their attention to detail with the cute burrito wrapping and how they label each individual polish. Wow!

I also got my Layla holos which I was NOT expecting this quickly. I purchased them from Whole Goods Market on Amazon.com.

Don’t you just love it when you get things when you weren’t expecting them?

 

I am trying to figure out how to do my nails right now. I’m meeting up with my two oldest girlfriends whom I’ve known since elementary/jr. high. I love that we’ve stayed friends for so long. Even when we lose touch, we pick up right were we left off. We’re going out to dinner to celebrate a birthday and then we are doing karaoke. Wooot! I love karaoke.

I am happy that a simple thing like nail polish can put me in a good mood. Hooray for burrito Saturday, and I hope you all have a nice weekend too.