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Stamping Saturdays #6

Posted on 15 February, 201414 February, 2014 by Cynthia

I’ve gotta be honest: I had a hell of a time coming up with today’s stamping manicure. Not only was I having some serious mani inspiration block, but my camera was giving me a lot of problems and wouldn’t focus. The only way I could get it to focus was to change my hand position which is why today you will see a different angle. Things just weren’t working out for me! When I started thinking about what I wanted to do, I remembered how much I love Butter London Wallis so that is where my mani started. Let’s take a look at this gorgeous polish.

Butter London Wallis is like a perfect combination of gold and green and just looks incredibly rich. A metallic olive gold you say? Yep, perfect description. Here I top coated it with Seche to give it a nice shine.

And here I applied a matte top coat over it. Doesn’t it look even more amazing?

I the picked a design from Bundle Monster plate BM-319 and stamped it with my black special polish. I initially wanted to mattify the whole design, but it just didn’t look as great because there wasn’t that much of a contrast. I much prefer this as a shiny manicure.

So what do you think of this mani? I’ve gotten a lot of questions about stamping and what I use and how, so I was thinking about maybe doing some sort of tutorial? There are a lot of tutorials out there so I don’t want it to just be boring and/or redundant. Would you guys be interested in this? Don’t forget to check out the other Stamping Saturdays manis from the other participants. Thanks so much for the visit today, and I hope you enjoy your weekend.

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Butter London Sprog

Posted on 8 August, 2013 by Cynthia

As I near the end of my first workweek with my new schedule, I can say that it has made a huge difference. Waking up at 6 is infinitely more manageable than waking up at 3:45 even if I still want to murder someone when my alarm rings. Things have been pretty hectic at work lately so I have been feeling kind of stressed, but I’m trying to put it all behind me as soon as I walk out of the office. I think we all deserve a break from work stress but if you’re like me, it’s hard to make a clean break and not let work stuff affect your outside life. I am reaching the point where I just need to stop thinking about work altogether and just enjoy my new schedule.

Today I have Butter London Sprog to share with you. While I was not initially wowed by the color since I feel I have quite a few similar colors, the formula really was out of this world.

When I see colors like Butter London Sprog, I always assume that the formula is going to be problematic because pastels-type colors can be difficult to work with–especially if they get chalky. Well, the formula on Sprog is fantastic: it is buttery, smooth, highly pigmented and incredibly self leveling. I only needed to apply two coats for full opacity and it dried super glossy. Ahhh…I love it!

Do you have any favorite Butter London shades? How do you like Sprog? For more information on Butter London, make sure you follow them on Facebook, Twitter and check out their website. Well, friends…I am getting ready for some major swatchathons…and by major I mean I have like 30-some polishes to swatch. While this may sound fun to some of you, I’m thinking my fingers may fall off. hahaha I am definitely excited about showing you guys tons of new stuff especially because I have some great Fall polishes! Ahhh…my life is polish! Anyway, thank you so much for all your continued support. I am reaching a lot of milestones in my blogging adventure, and it’s all because of people like you who continue to visit despite my craziness. I hope that you all enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy writing it. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Butter London Tart With A Heart

Posted on 4 August, 2013 by Cynthia

Hey there! I hope you have had a good weekend and that you are ready to start yet another workweek. On my end, I can admit I have been super lazy about my blog this past week. I am sorry for not getting around to answering comments until now, but I swear I have a good reason: I’m super lazy. Ok, that’s not really an excuse, but I have been pretty busy all week. I’ll start with the best news: I was able to get my work schedule changed so I no longer have to get up at the buttcrack of dawn in order to be at work at 5:00 am. Holy crap that feels amazing to share because now I will be starting at 7:00 am which means I won’t have to go to bed while the sun is still up! I can’t even tell you what a huge difference this is going to make in my personal life. Secondly, I had a friend visit this weekend and we seriously destroyed all my nail polish haunts. I’ve never gone polish shopping with someone who is just as polish crazy as I am so this was awesome because we egged each other on to new heights of frenzy induced polish purchases. Fun times!

Today I’m going to share with you a polish that had flown under my radar: Butter London Tart With A Heart. If you remember the early days of this blog, I was a major glitter hater until I came to my senses and realized that glitter is…life! haha! Anyway, I was super happy to finally get my hands on this gorgeous polish.

Butter London Tart With A Heart is a glitter explosion in a clear base so it’s perfect for layering. This polish will look different depending on what you use as a base color. For this mani, I decided to use Morgan Taylor So-fari So Good which seemed like a strange choice because I have seen tons of people swatching Tart With A Heart on top of a black base. The glitter was super easy to apply, and I didn’t have any issues at all with getting even coverage with just one coat.

What do you think about this oldie but goodie? I am pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this glitter polish because I wasn’t that excited when I first saw it in the bottle. I can see myself sprucing up many manicures with this gorgeous glitter.

For more information on Butter London, make sure you follow them on Facebook, Twitter and check out their website. Thanks so much for stopping by today despite my random posting this week. I have tons of fun stuff coming up such as my swatches for the China Glaze Autumn Nights Collection and a new Jessica Summer Collection for which I have NO information yet, but the colors are freaking amazeballs. I picked up A LOT of stuff this weekend so I have a lot of swatching ahead of me. Also, don’t forget to check out my blog sale. I am extending the 10% off sale for a few more day so take advantage of it now. I will catch up with you later!

P.S. YOU BROKE THE SHOWER!!!

Butter London All Hail The Queen

Posted on 11 June, 2013 by Cynthia

Hello everyone! What a dreary day this has been! I’m starting to wonder what’s going on with Southern California lately because the weather is just so darn strange. I guess I shouldn’t be complaining because once it starts getting really hot, wildfire season breaks out and that is always a very heart breaking time of the year for us in So Cal. I was going to post a review today for some new polishes, but I decided to instead share with you my mani for tomorrow’s interview. I’ve talked before about how important I think it is to make a good impression which includes everything from your clothes to your nails. My all-time favorite neutral polish with a little bit of attitude is Butter London All Hail The Queen.

I don’t know about you, but this is such a gorgeous polish. If you aren’t into flashy colors, this is perfect–and even if you are, this is still a polish worth picking up. I just love how neutral it is yet it’s not boring at all. This is three thin coats of the polish but I think 2 thick coats would have been sufficient. It’s just a beautiful and glossy color–that’s all I have to say about that.

Growing up, there was a shopping center that was the place to go hang out. In the last 10 years, the place went to hell and was basically a ghost town. I am now happy to say that in recent months, this area has been revived. Look how pretty all these new restaurants and shops look!

I just love that this place isn’t creepy and decrepit anymore! My friend and I went to catch a movie so I took these pictures. Afterwards we headed to my sushi mecca:

Personally, I ate more than any sane human being should and my stomach is definitely protesting. I won’t take credit for this term, but any time that I eat too much, I always say I need to have a food baby or start talking about immediate evacuation. I don’t think people around me think it’s as funny…oh well!

If you wouldn’t mind, please send positive vibes my way for tomorrow. I always get super nervous about interviews beforehand, but my nerves melt away once I’m there. I hope that if this is the right job for me, that all goes well. Like I have said many times before, I just want a job that challenges me but that doesn’t make me want to jump off a bridge because I hate my life so much after being there for 8 hours.

Much love,

Butter London Marrow

Posted on 5 January, 2013 by Cynthia

You know when you realize that you are waaaayyyy too old to be staying up all night? That was me last night. I wasn’t really planning on doing anything, but my friend called me and we ended up going out to karaoke. After we sang a bunch of embarrassing songs (I sang Justin Bieber’s Boyfriend…don’t say it), we went to a Vietnamese restaurant; I should have had some pho since it was wicked cold. After that, we went to another place for coffee and before we knew it, it was 3 am and I was basically a zombie. I remember the days when I used to stay out all night, sleep for a couple of hours and then head to class without even blinking. Ahhh…to be in my early 20’s again! The sun has set on those days, hasn’t it? Don’t get me wrong–I had a lot of fun, but it’s not something I can do a regular basis. So…what did I decided to do with my nails today? I slapped on another untried: Butter London Marrow.

This is such a strange polish! I don’t know if I just really love it of I’m just trying to figure out what it is about it that is confusing me. I think I sound a little nuts right now, right? With all the purple polishes in my life, I think this one is rather unique in my stash. I normally don’t have anything to complain about when it comes to the Butter London formula, but this one was not what I was expecting. It is so pigmented that I figured it wouldn’t take more than 2 coats, but I had to apply a third thick coat because I had some bald spots even though I waited for each coat to dry.

It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve done a plain and simple manicure. Somehow I feel that my nails are boring when I’m not stamping or beddazling the crap out of them. Here I used a design from Konad plate M64 and stamped with Wet N Wild I Can’t Stand Up Straight. I then used Wet N Wild French White Cream and a dotting tool to apply the white dots.

So what do you think of Butter London Marrow? Do you like the final stamped/dotted design? Well, I hope you’re enjoying your weekend, and we will talk soon!

Butter London Wallis

Posted on 3 January, 20133 January, 2013 by Cynthia

I was super excited this morning because I landed an interview for tomorrow morning and then I got called back to see if I could come in on Monday instead. WAH WAH WAH!!!

I swear that I heard that noise in my head when I got that call. Sometimes I think that my life truly has a soundtrack and, sadly, most of the sounds can be found on Looney Toons Cartoons. Anyway, I am glad they called to reschedule and not cancel so now I just have to wait until Monday. I was already planning out my outfit–black suit, cream colored blouse and some “sensible” black pumps. Oh my God I am a grown up!!!!!!!! I was also trying to decided what to do with my nails. I was vacillating between a french manicure or Butter London All Hail The Queen but since the interview got rescheduled, I decided to do something a little more interesting today. I was already looking through my Butter Londons so I decided to use Wallis.

I knew I wanted to do some dots and also mattify everything so I took at out polishes and tools that I would need: Butter London Wallis, China Glaze Liquid Leather, Essie Matte About You and a dotting tool.

When I first bought Butter London Wallis, I honestly thought that it was kind of ugly: one of those polishes I wouldn’t buy from looking at it in the bottle unless it was on super sale. I love this brand so I decided to give it a chance because that’s what polish hoarders do. This polish is pretty darn pigmented and easy to apply so all I needed was two coats.

I can’t remember where I first saw Wallis mattified, but I fell in love with it. Look at it!!! It has this amazing depth to it and the color changes and looks almost velvety. I have a few mattifying top coats that I rotate but they all pretty much work the same. If you’re looking for an inexpensive matte top coat, I recommend NYC Matte Me Crazy which can be purchased for $2–can’t beat that price!

Can you tell that I love dots? I am really diggin’ this dotticure. I thought about mattifying the whole thing but I ended up liking the contrast of the shiny black dots. There is seriously no easier way to spruce up a manicure than to bust out a dotting tool.

While I was editing this post, I was also talking to Nicole on twitter and I told her that I was going to make an egg and chorizo burrito. We then proceeded to have a conversation about what kind of chorizo to use and how to prepare it. Nicole likes to say that she’s Mexican on the inside…I guess I can let her keep that honorary title since she did try to use the word “carniceria” nonchalantly during our conversation. You may thank Nicole for the following…

Crumble some chorizo and cook it in a skillet. This is my special omelette skillet! You should drain some of the fat that the chorizo releases because it’s A LOT. I use 1 egg yolk and 3 egg whites and scramble them.

I then pour the beaten eggs into the hot skillet with the chorizo and scramble them together. You can add salt and pepper at this time if you like. Take your favorite flour tortilla and warm it up. Once the tortilla is warm, place the egg and chorizo filling on the flour tortilla. Some people might want to add some cheese but I prefer it without. Make sure that you don’t overcook the eggs because they will continue to cook when you roll the whole thing up.

And voilà…here is your egg and chorizo burrito. I love this for breakfast, but I really felt like eating this tonight for dinner. The egg and chorizo mixture will make 2 burritos in case you were wondering.

Well, I hope you liked my Wallis dotticure and my burrito! Thanks for catching up with me today and talk to you soon.

Disclosure: All items featured in this post were purchased by me except for the Winstonia Store dotting tool which was provided to me by the manufacturer. For more information, please visit my disclosure policy tab.

Butter London Aston

Posted on 8 December, 2012 by Cynthia

Since I am gearing up for some marathon interview sessions, I dug through my melmers for nail polish colors that are office/interview appropriate. I do have a lot of neutral colors, but my brain has been high on color after all the recent challenge manicures I have done so I just couldn’t settle on a color. Then I saw my bottle of Butter London Aston which was still on my list to try so I decided to give this baby a whirl.

Butter London Aston has a thinner formula than I was expecting, but it was a little strange because the first coat gave me a pretty neutral tint, but I still had VNL. After I applied a second thick coat, I had full coverage. This polish dries a little dull looking and looks gritty because of the shimmer even though it is fairly smooth. Even after I applied a coat of Seche Vite, I don’t think it looks as shiny as it should.In all honesty, I am not that impressed with this color so what do I do to liven up a mani? I stamp it up!

I used this swirly pattern from Mash plate Mash 49. I obviously would not wear stamped up nails to an interview but Aston just looked so plain. I actually had high hopes for this polish and it obviously did not live up to my expectations.

What do you think of this polish? What type of polish would you wear to an interview? Thanks for stopping by and I will tall to you later.

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 15: Jelly Sandwich

Posted on 22 October, 20125 November, 2012 by Cynthia

Once again I had intentions of doing my nails early today but instead I went to see Paranormal Activity 4. I tend to watch every horror/paranormal movie that is released so I was kind of looking forward to watching it, but it turned out to be horribly boring. It actually pissed me off because I kept waiting for something–anything–interesting to happen but nothing ever did. What a waste of an hour and a half! Anyway, today’s challenge calls for a jelly sandwich manicure. I’ve never really done a jelly sandwich manicure because I don’t have too many jellies so I had to improvise. I actually ended up making everything way more complicated than it needed to be so let me show you what I did.

I started with Butter London Slapper.

I got a bunch of Butter Londons recently and this is one that I still hadn’t tried. I love this colors! It is gorgeous, buttery and glossy.

I then added a coat of OPI The Living Daylights from the new Skyfall holiday collection.

And lastly I slapped on two coats of Revlon Whimsical.

I think that this ended up looking a little like the Nails Inc. Sprinkles polishes. I kinda like how muted the base color looks, but overall, I did not like all the polish layers–my nails felt super thick. So what do you think about my first jelly sandwich manicure attempt? Can you recommend some really awesome jelly polishes? I really want to get a few more jellies so I can experiment with them.Our next challenge will be on November 3rd as we are taking a little break for Halloween. I am going to take a break from doing my nails until then. Don’t forget to check back with me since I will be doing non-nail related posts until 11/3.

Take a minute to check out the other jelly sandwich manicures below from Nicole, Jessica, Ave and Alaina. Thanks for stopping by.

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 11 : Half Moon Nails

Posted on 10 October, 2012 by Cynthia

A few days ago I broke two nails while I was cleaning and washing dishes. I got so irritated that I cut my nails off. I went chop crazy and cut my nails super short again…yes, painfully short. I know I said I wouldn’t do that again, but I couldn’t help myself. I had initially decided to use fake nails for this manicure and just polish them myself. However, they just looked so odd to me that I ended up prying them off and doing my own tiny little nails. I started out with 2 coats of essence Black is Black.

This really is my favorite black because it’s dark, shiny and super opaque. It reminds me of my favorite patent leather mary janes.

I then used Butter London Wallis for the half moons. I seriously never thought I would like this color as much as I do. I picked it up during the Coterie sale where I got 3 Butter London polishes plus a top coat for only $11!!! Talk about a great deal.

And lastly I applied some gold glitter stars before the final touch: a matte top coat. I had seen someone mattify Wallis and I was instantly in love so I had to try it myself.

I am satisfied with these nails despite how tiny my nails are. I can’t wait for them to grow a little so I can square them again. What do you think of this manicure? Don’t forget to check out the other manicures created by my fellow challenge participants. Thanks for stopping by and talk to you soon.

P.S. Sorry I’m a little rushed but I’m hangry (hungry + angry) and my brother is rushing me since we are going to my favorite mexi-food place. Ahhhh…tacos, carne asada, 7 mares, ceviche…I’m drooling.

Coterie Butter London Deal

Posted on 12 September, 201213 September, 2012 by Cynthia

I’ve seen this information floating around for an awesome Coterie Butter London deal so I finally decided to check it out. I just purchased 3 Butter London nail polishes + a matte top coat for $11!! How? Well, let me tell you how.

Go to: https://coterie.com/preview and use the access code OBSESSED-VIP. You will have to create an account and just click on the Butter London deal and add it to your cart. There are 6 available colors but only 5 are left. The colors you can choose from are:

Pillar Box Red, Wallis, Bluey, West End Wonderland, All Hail The Queen and Knackered. At this time, All Hail The Queen is sold out.

When you go to check out, use the coupon code VIPMEMBER and you will get an instant $25 discount. Standard shipping is free so you end up paying $11 for 3 Butter London polishes and a matte top coat!!! Wow!

Just thought I’d pass on this deal in case you’re interested. Don’t hate me for making you spend money…I’m just trying to pass on the good deals. 😉 Let me know if you take advantage of this awesome Coterie Butter London Deal. I picked up Pillar Box Red, Wallis and Knackered.