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Stamping Saturdays #7

Posted on 22 February, 2014 by Cynthia

I almost didn’t get to post today for Stamping Saturdays because I was being super deluxe lazy last night and didn’t prepare my post ahead of time, and today I just got super busy. I worked really early today and then when I got home, my friend called me so we could get dinner so I met up with her. I was then planning to meet up with another friend to go watch a movie but we decided to just do it another day since we were both feeling tired. So here I am vegging out on a Saturday night and watching some Air Disasters show on Netflix. I’m currently watching an episode about Delta flight 191 that was brought down by a microburst. I used to work for Delta so it’s the first episode that grabbed my attention. Anyway, since I’m not home and relaxing, now I have time to get my post up…yay! Yesterday I went to my nail stores but didn’t find much except for the polish I’m going to show you today and some quick dry drops that I use any time I do stamping or nail art. Let me start off by showing you Morgan Taylor New York State Of Mind.

I decided to show you a blurry picture with bright lighting to really give you an idea about how sparkly this polish is. It’s a polish with a dark jelly base full of tiny rainbow glitter. It’s so sparkly!

In different lighting, you can see all the different colors, but I decided to show you how this sparkles out in the sun.

Ok, I know I sound like an idiot but polish always makes me lose my mind.
For my stamping design, I used the paisley image from Bundle Monster Plate BM 315 and my Konad White Special polish. I really love how this turned out because I love the contrast of the delicate paisley design and the sparkly dark base.

So what do you think about this mani? What about the base polish? I am really loving all the colors peeking through the super dark base! Well, I hope that you’re having a nice weekend so far, and don’t forget to check out my girl’s posts below for other awesome stamping manis. Thanks for stopping by, and I will talk to you soon.

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Stamping Saturdays #3

Posted on 25 January, 201425 January, 2014 by Cynthia

Hello there and welcome to Stamping Saturdays! I was planning to get this written and posted earlier in the day, but I just didn’t have time to do anything while I was at work this morning. After that, I went to a couple of nail places but didn’t really find anything….except a few bottles of Channelesque! Yayyy for backups!!!! For today’s stampicure, I started out with my base color of Channelesque which I reviewed here.

Yep, you know I love this color! Because I wanted to make Channelesque a little blingy, I added one thin coat of Max Factor Fantasy Fire on top of it.

I know that this looks uneven, but I didn’t really care because I was going to stamp over it anyway. Doesn’t it look pretty with that purple and sparkly tinge?

I am a huge fan of houndstooth print in everything (nails, clothes, shoes) so I decided to use Pure Ice Silver Mercedes to stamp on the houndstooth design from plate BM-322. I absolutely love how this turned out. I wish that that the beautiful base stood out more, but when I went outside with this design, it was like my nails were glowing.

What do you think of this design? I’m already starting to plan my design for next week because I have so many ideas! I hope you’re having a nice weekend so far and thanks so much for stopping by today. Also don’t forget to check out my other girls’ designs. Talk to you soon.

Amanda from Mae’s Beauty

Siobhan from For The Love Of Nail Art

Lupus Awareness Month

Posted on 14 May, 2013 by Cynthia

Hello everyone. I’m in a pretty great mood today since I have tomorrow off so I’ll probably be spending most of my day off swatching so many new pretties. I have about 30 new polish that are in line to be swatched so it’s a little overwhelming, but I think I’ll be able to get through everything rather quickly as long as I break it down into manageable batches. I have something special today for you: as you may or may not know, May is Lupus awareness month. Lupus? What’s that? Ok, I have to admit that I knew about Lupus since I was a teenager because I used to watch One Life To Live and Marty Saybrooke had lupus on the show so I remember looking it up to find out what it was. (For once, a trashy soap opera was actually educational!) Well, yesterday I was chit chatting with my group of lovely ladies from a Facebook group I am part of *waving at all the beauties from PWRC* and my friend Holly asked me if I could feature some purple nails in support of Lupus Awareness Month. Of course I said yes and I decided to do them right away before I get bogged down with my planned swatch-a-thons. If you don’t know what Lupus is, here is a brief description from the Mayo Clinic:

Lupus is a chronic inflammatory disease that occurs when your body’s immune system attacks your own tissues and organs. Inflammation caused by lupus can affect many different body systems — including your joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart and lungs.

Lupus can be difficult to diagnose because its signs and symptoms often mimic those of other ailments. The most distinctive sign of lupus — a facial rash that resembles the wings of a butterfly unfolding across both cheeks — occurs in many but not all cases of lupus.

Some people are born with a tendency toward developing lupus, which may be triggered by infections, certain drugs or even sunlight. While there’s no cure for lupus, treatments can help control symptoms.

No two cases of lupus are exactly alike. Signs and symptoms may come on suddenly or develop slowly, may be mild or severe, and may be temporary or permanent. Most people with lupus have mild disease characterized by episodes — called flares — when signs and symptoms get worse for a while, then improve or even disappear completely for a time.

The signs and symptoms of lupus that you experience will depend on which body systems are affected by the disease. The most common signs and symptoms include: Fatigue and fever, Joint pain, stiffness and swelling, Butterfly-shaped rash on the face that covers the cheeks and bridge of the nose, Skin lesions that appear or worsen with sun exposure, Fingers and toes that turn white or blue when exposed to cold or during stressful periods (Raynaud’s phenomenon), shortness of breath, Chest pain, Dry eyes, Headaches, confusion, memory loss

For all those warriors out there who struggle with Lupus, I hope that treatment options continue to improve and that maybe one day we can find a cure.

OPI Purple With A Purpose is really high up there on my list of most favorite purple polishes and that really is saying a lot considering that I regularly go on purple overload. While the formula on this seems a little thin upon the first coat application, a second coat really levels it out and gives complete coverage. Don’t tell me that you don’t like this polish because I will hurt you. Hurt you bad. I have swatched this polish on my blog before but I am kind of embarrassed because it was in my early days of blogging and the swatch is kind of atrocious. If you decide to search it out, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Don’t ask me about the China Glaze Classic Chromes polish because I know absolutely nothing about it. hahaha! I picked it up in some random beauty supply but it wasn’t labeled or anything. I’d love to find out more about it, but I never heard back from China Glaze when I emailed them about it. Hmmmpphhffff! I used a design from Bundle Monster Plate BM-321 for the ribbon design. I really like how these turned out.

I encourage you to visit the Lupus Foundation Of America and that you sign the petition to urge congress fund more Lupus research. I truly hope that you take a moment to do this and that you learn a little bit more about this chronic disease that affects so many people around the world. Thank you so much for stopping by today!

Julep Alma

Posted on 23 January, 201323 January, 2013 by Cynthia

Sweet baby Jesus on rollerskates I’m tired. Book learnin iz hard. My brain is being crammed with so much information at work that I feel almost like a zombie once I get home. To be honest, I am enjoying learning so much new stuff so I shouldn’t complain–it’s just a lot of work! If you can believe it, I haven’t been wearing nail polish to work because I’m still getting a feel for things. Since I don’t want to cause any type of waves during my probation period, I am remaining very conservative…just wait until this passes because I’ll be causing some nail tsunamis for sure! Today I decided to use the other Julep polish that I got recently: Julep Alma.

Oh, Alma! You’re one of those pretty/ugly polishes that I always think is going to look better on me than it actually does. Actually, this color reminds me a lot of the creme version of China Glaze Trendsetter! I had a little weird issue with this polish and I’m wondering if it’s just my bottle or if other people had the same happen to them. When I was applying this polish, I noticed little chunks–like super tiny little balls. After the first coat, I thought that maybe I hadn’t primed my nails well and I had some residue from another product, but the second coat also had the little chunks. Remember Chunk?

Anyway, once I applied the top coat, I think the chunks pretty much disappeared, but it was definitely strange! I applied two coats here and got good coverage.

I just realized that I have used this stamp combination quite often. I just absolutely love it! Both of the images can be found on Bundle Monster plate BM 310. I used the inverted full coverage stamp as my accent nail, and I love how it looks almost leather-like since I didn’t apply top coat after stamping. If you’re a stamper, I’m curious if you know of a black polish that works for stamping. I haven’t found any others that are as pigmented as my Konad Black.

You know I’m going to say it so here it is: If you’re interested in becoming a Julep Maven for just a penny, you can use my referral link here and enter the code JULEPVIP. You can’t really beat one cent, can you? I am looking to explore more subscription type boxes so feel free to leave me a comment if you know of others that are good. I have been very satisfied with the Julep boxes because I think the subscription service is a great deal. Definitely give them a try if you’re curious!

I am BEYOND excited that I only have two more days before the weekend. WEEKENDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD! You know what kinda sucks, though? It might be raining here. It literally was in the 80’s earlier in the week and now it’s getting cold and rainy…get it together, bipolar California! Do you have anything fun planned this weekend?

Let me know what you think about this polish and stamping. I love reading all your comments! Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Disclosure: Julep Alma was provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR firm. All other products featured in this post were purchased by me. For more information, please see my disclosure policy tab here.

Wet N Wild Hannah Pinktana

Posted on 2 January, 20132 January, 2013 by Cynthia

I don’t know why, but I’m feeling super girlie and dainty today. There is NOTHING dainty and super girlie about me, but all of a sudden I wanted to wear pink on my nails. I have a crapton of pink polishes, so I had to take out a bunch of them and pick the one that appealed to me the most. Since I’ve been on a kick to use all of my untrieds lately, I picked Wet N Wild Hannah Pinktana. Before I get into the polish, I have to admit that I was technically a Hannah Montana fan. I sometimes watched the show and kind of enjoyed it. Don’t judge me! When someone asked me what the most embarrassing song on my ipod is, I immediately responded: Party In The USA by Miley Cyrus. Hey–it’s a gym song, ok!?

Wet N Wild Hannah Pinktana is a super sheer and delicate mauve-pink polish with fine scattered holographic glitter. I adore how delicate this polish is, but I do have to mention that it is beyond sheer. I applied 5–yes 5–coats here but they were all thin so they dried pretty quickly. Since I am a huge fan of holo polishes, both linear and scattered, I am wondering what took me so long to use this polish. If you’re not into applying more than 2 coats of polish, I can see this working as a layering polish as well. And the best part of this polish is that it’s only $1.99!!!!

What is more girlie than bows and rhinestones…seriously? Maybe I’m just feeling super sappy and emotional (and not in a good way) these last few days so I am pouring all those feelings into my nail polish and stamping choices. The bow design is from Bundle Monster plate BM 317 but I think this would be pretty easy to free-hand if you don’t have this stamping plate. To make it all extra cute, I added some rhinestones to finish off this mani.

What do you think of this mani? Is it something that you would wear? Have you tried out any polishes from Wet N Wild’s FastDry line? There are a few others that I picked up that are TV show themed so I’ll be trying those out sometime soon. Thanks so much for checking in with me today, and I will talk to you soon!

Disclosure: All products featured in this post were purchased by me.

Barielle Elle’s Spell

Posted on 21 December, 201231 December, 2012 by Cynthia

Beejus, can you believe that Christmas is in a few days and then it’s just a hop, skip and a jump to 2013? I am actually really excited about the new year just because I want to close the chapter on the crapfest that 2012 has been. Don’t get me wrong–things have definitely improved these last few months of 2012, but I am just looking forward to a fresh start.

For my first real holiday mani, I decided to stick with a combination of red and white.

I started out with two coats of Nails Inc. Gatwick. Great Odin’s Raven! this polish is awesome. I usually have a love/hate relationship with matte polishes, but this one just blew me away. The formula is super thin so it doesn’t get goopy at all, and it’s really easy to control.

And here is the belle of the ball: Barielle Elle’s Spell. This gorgeous polish is from Barielle’s 2010 holiday collection and I definitely think it was the stand-out from that collection. It has a slightly red-tinted base that is pretty sheer and it’s chock-full of golden-red flakes. I have not tried to wear this polish on it’s own and I don’t think I will–I prefer an opaque base as opposed to a sheer jelly.

Lastly, I applied a snowflake design from Bundle Monster plate BM 319. Snowflakes are definitely my favorite holiday design right now. Just because I couldn’t help myself, I ended up mattifying the whole manicure.

Which version do you prefer: shiny or matte?

Well, my dears, there you have my holiday mani. This year I have decided not to buy any Christmas gifts. I feel kind of like a Scrooge, but I’d rather save the money right now. My parents aren’t coming for a visit this year so I will probably be spending Christmas with my brother and sil–along with my youngest brother whom is also known as “The Mooch” to my long-time readers. Are you prepared for Christmas? What are your plans?

This weekend I am going to have 2 guests posts for you from two of my lovely blogger friends: Amanda and Siobhan. I can’t wait for you to see their awesome designs. There is one more day left to enter my 1 year blogiversary giveaway so don’t miss out!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for stopping by today and have a great weekend.

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 28: Pattern Inspired Nails

Posted on 1 December, 2012 by Cynthia

I can see the finish line…I can see it! After today’s challenge, there are only 3 more challenges left, and then we are done! I am pretty sure this is my first AND last challenge…not that I didn’t enjoy it for the most part but it was just to much and way too long. While I wondered that the heck to do for the pattern inspiration, I saw this really cute paisley pattern dress in my closet so I decided to just use my paisley stamp and not worry too much about it.

Want to know how I created this mani? Read below….

I freaking love Jungle Queen. It’s one of my favorite–if not my favorite–polish from the On Safari collection. This is two smooth coats.

And this is Jungle Queen with one coat of Max Factor Fantasy Fire which I am now calling Jungle Queen On Crack.

I used Essie Nothing Else Metals to stamp the paisley design from Bundle Monster plate BM 315.

I’m not feeling too talky today…I am not feeling well at all. I had some pizza and it somehow started a lot of bad stuff in my stomach. lol Let’s leave it at that. hahaha Let me know what you think of this mani and don’t forget to check out Nicole’s IKAT nails over at Polish Me, Please!

Seche Irresistible

Posted on 28 November, 2012 by Cynthia

As most of you may already know, Seche came out with its first line of nail polishes a few months ago, and I was super curious about it but hadn’t come across the line at any of my usual places…until yesterday. I came upon a big display full of Seche polishes so of course I had to pick one up. My first instinct was to grab one of each, but as a reformed polish hoarder, I backed away from the display and only chose one polish to try out: Seche Irresistible. I felt proud of myself! I also think that it’s a good idea since this will be my first experience with this line of polishes but not my first experience with the brand since I am a pretty loyal Seche Vite customer.

Let’s look at my final mani:

This is my finished manicure. Do you want to recreate it? Read below to see what I used.

Seche Irresistible is a vibrant and shiny red-berry colored polish. It is a one-coater if you are careful, but I applied 2 thin coats for these swatches. I had heard that some people experienced shrinkage with these polishes when they used Seche Vite, but I am happy to report that I did not. This polish dries incredibly shiny and glossy which I love! I usually don’t have a lot to say about polish brushes, but I tend to prefer wider brushes (my favorite being OPI’s Pro-wide brush) so I wanted to mention that the Seche brush is pretty thin.

Despite the thin brush, I didn’t feel that it made that much of a difference in application for me. The brush does not fan out as nicely so I did have to be more careful with it because it would be very easy to flood my cuticles with polish–which I HATE.

I used an image from Bundle Monster plate BM 319 for this design along with Konad’s special white polish. The red and white is definitely getting me in the mood for December and Christmas!

What do you think about Seche Irresistible? Have you spotted these polishes already? Since I have you here, I might as well pimp out my blog sale again. I added A LOT of new polishes today so check it out. Please help me give these babies a new home–I just know they won’t get any use here anymore.

Thanks for stopping by and see you tomorrow where I will find a million way to mess up tomorrow’s movie inspired challenge.

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!

Sephora + Pantone Universe Jewel Lacquer In Reflecting Pond

Posted on 5 November, 20125 November, 2012 by Cynthia

Ok, so my pictures turned out like crap today. Well, crappier than usual, that is. I was rushing and I didn’t review my pictures of the base polish before stamping over it so I got stuck with ugly pics. Then I did the same after I stamped and didn’t check out my pictures. So there you have it: lack of planning = craptastic pictures. Boo. I don’t know what possessed me to pull out this polish today since it is 90 degrees outside, and I’ve been letting the temperature guide my polish choices. I got this polish along with Parachute purple a couple of months ago but hadn’t gotten a chance to try it. Sephora + Pantone Universe Jewel Lacquer In Reflecting Pond is a very pretty jewel toned green. This reminds me of Pixi Evening Emerald, Essie Dive Bar, etc… Just like Essie Dive Bar, Reflecting Pond has a very promising pink/purple flash in the bottle that completely disappears on the nail. So disappointing!

I am only posting one picture because all the other ones were beyond bad. This one is pretty bad too but it’s the best of the ugly bunch.

Same goes for this picture. I used Bundle Monster plate 322 and Essie Good As Gold for this houndstooth design. Normally I loooove anything houndstooth but I am just not feeling this manicure today. Ugh…maybe it’s just my crappy mood today.

Last night I went to dinner with one of my best friends and we seriously piled out. We went to a seafood restaurant where you basically order shrimp, crab, clams and various other delectable crustaceans by the pound. You choose a seasoning (lemon pepper, Cajun, etc) and a level of spiciness and they then bring out a plastic bag full of your seafood selections boiled in your seasoning of choice. Your only utensils are your fingers, paper towels and your plastic bib. hahaha Behold the shrimp massacre!

Did you get a load of my fingers after our meal? Whoa. Let me tell you, I am still feeling the aftermath of this feast. I feel like garlic is seeping through my pores. Ugh…I don’t know if I’ll be back soon despite how yummy the meal was.

So how was your weekend? Did you do anything fun? I can’t wait for election day! I take voting very seriously so I’ll be up super early to cast my ballot!