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Sation Dance With The Drummer

Posted on 12 January, 201312 January, 2013 by Cynthia

Happy Saturday everyone! It’s super chilly today so I slept in a bit this morning even though I have a lot of things to do and errands to run. While I worked on today’s mani, I was watching Resident Evil: Retribution which I got from Redbox last night. Ok, I have to admit that I am a huge HUGE fan of horror, sci-fi and zombie/monster movies so I always watch the Resident Evil movies when they come out. I don’t think the story quality of the movies is as good as the first two, but I watch them anyway. Speaking of zombies, do you watch The Walking Dead? Ever since I cut my cable, I have had to watch The Walking Dead online and I haven’t watched it for a couple of months so I can’t wait to find out what has been going on. I love me some bloody zombie stories! Moving on from the undead, today I decided to wear another blue: Sation Dance With The Drummer.

I decided to share two sets of pictures of Sation Dance With The Drummer because I was having some serious issues with photographing this polish. It seems that green and blue polishes are my mortal camera enemies because the color never comes out true to life and to top it all off, I get major lobster hands! Despite my lobster hands issue, I really really love this polish. It is super pigmented and smooth so it only needs two coats for full coverage. When I first saw this polish, I thought that it looked exactly like Sation Rock-A-Guy-Blue which I reviewed here. However, once I took both bottles out, they are definitely NOT dupes, but they are kissing cousins. Rock-A-Guy-Blue is darker and more vibrant while Dance With The Drummer is more dusty. Do you need both, probably not. Would you want both? Uhm, yes please!

The other day, Siobhan posted her swatches of Essence Blue Addicted and I instantly remembered that I hadn’t used my bottle in a while. (You can see her post here.) The first time I used it, I had just cut my nails down to nubs so I don’t think the mani looked as nice. Now that I have some length to my nails, I decided to give it another shot.

Essence Blue Addicted is a pretty dead-on dupe for Deborah Lippmann’s Across The Universe, but I don’t know how readily available Blue Addicted is. I had never seen it at my Ulta so I got mine as a gift from one of my sweet enablers: Sabrina from Polish In Paris. In fact, I think this polish might be discontinued since it is in the old style bottle, but I know Siobhan got hers on super sale recently so they still may be floating around. If you like beautiful glitter and love the combo of blue and green, this is the perfect polish for you! I layered two thin coats over Dance With The Drummer because the base of Blue Addicted is a sheer blue jelly that doesn’t really look good on its own.

Well my dears, what do you think about these polishes? I still have another movie to watch that I got from Redbox last night: Ruby Sparks. I really hope it’s good because I thought the whole premise is so cute when I saw the previews for it. Today is also my crazy cleaning day so I have tons of stuff to clean–mainly the bathroom. I know everyone thinks I’m weird for it, but I do like cleaning the bathroom…especially the tub! I stocked up on Mr. Clean Magic Erasers today so my tub has no idea what’s coming. Muawhahaha! I think my place would be super clean if I lived alone, but since the mooch (aka as my youngest brother) lives with me, he gets everything so dirty. Why do boys have to be so dirty? I don’t get it. I am afraid to step into the bathroom after he has been in there. Don’t even get me started on the scents that emanate from his bedroom…

Well, I hope your day is more interesting than mine which is full of cleaning, laundry and movies. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Disclosure: Sation Dance With The Drummer was provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR firm. Essence Blue Addicted was a gift. For more information, please see my disclosure tab.

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 13: Tape Manicure

Posted on 16 October, 2012 by Cynthia

I literally just finished my tape manicure…just a little late. I have been late with everything lately which is super annoying. I’ve been lacking a lot of inspiration when it comes to my manicures or anything in general, actually. I hope it’s just temporary! So anyway, here is my tape manicure for today’s challenge:

I don’t think that I have used You Belong To Me since the first time I swatched it, and my only question is: WHAT WAS I WAITING FOR??? I really love this color especially because it has this really beautiful hidden shimmer. These pictures make the color look more blue when in real life it has more of a green tone to it. The formula was ok–a little thick but nothing a few drops of thinner can’t fix.

I hope that the following qualifies as a tape manicure? I mean, I did use stripping tape…

I used a sponge to apply Choose Me! over You Belong To Me and the stripping tape I applied in a crisscross pattern.

Sorry, I couldn’t help it. This song was huge when I was in 6th/7th grade and I remember everyone wearing their jeans and sweatshirts backwards. I tried to join in on this fad until my mom made me change and told me to stop acting like a fool. Ahhh…I love my mom. hahaha.

So back to the final mani: I still hate my sponging but I do like the colors. Again, the pictures make everything look more blue than green. Choose Me! is such a pretty polish which is a dupe of OPI Catch Me In Your Net/Zoya Charla/Orly Halley’s Comet/WNW Teal Of Fortune/Sinful Colors Kissy so it is definitely more green than these pictures makes it out to be. The beautiful shimmery flecks make this polish a favorite of mine…along with the other dupes as well.

So, let me know what you think of my tape manicure. Don’t forget to check out the other challenge submissions below as well. Thanks for stopping by–catch up with you later!

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.

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 4: Green

Posted on 19 September, 201219 September, 2012 by Cynthia

I really need to start planning out these challenge looks better because I always find myself scrambling the day of. Even when I think I have an idea I want to execute, it just blows up in my face. Every. Single. Time. Last night I had mentioned to Nicole from Polish Me, Please that I wanted to use my new bottle of Illamasqua Nurture which is one of the new Rubber Finish polishes. However, once I put it on, it was way too bright for my liking. I guess I just wanted a darker color to work with so instead I rummaged through my stash and decided to go with a color I hadn’t used yet: essence Walk On The Wild Side.

Walk On The Wild Side is simply gorgeous: it’s a dark olive/forest green with green-gold flakies throughout. I applied two coats and it was absolutely perfect. I have to admit that I thought the polish was pretty when I was indoors, but as soon as I went outside to photograph it in direct sunlight, I was in love. In fact, it’s so pretty that I didn’t really want to do anything else to it. I always find a way to ruin a pretty polish. I think I have come to the conclusion that simplicity is my thing. While I admire beautiful nail art, I just don’t think I can do it. So one of the main reasons why I was so excited in participating in this challenge is because it forces me to push my comfort zone.

Yesterday when I was at my nail places, I bought a few containers of hex glitters so I decided to use them today.

I can see now that the line if kind of crooked but whatever! At least I tried! I didn’t mean for my nails to look Christmas-y but I guess that’s’ kind of normal when you use green and gold.

Don’t forget to check out everyone’s submissions below! The lovely ladies also participating in this challenge are:

Jessica from Once Upon A Polish

Nicole from Polish Me, Please!

Ave from Polish Pixelle

Alaina from The Little Canvas

Thanks for stopping by and until next time when the challenge will revolve around the color blue.

essence Gorgeous Bling Bling

Posted on 30 August, 20124 September, 2012 by Cynthia

When I noticed that Ulta has finally cleared out all of their old essence stock, I was super excited to see all the new polishes that were on display so I got a bunch of them. These polishes used to be $.99 before they did an overhaul of the line and they are are now $1.99. Don’t fret about the price hike because the bottles are bigger and have almost double the amount of polish.

Today I am wearing Gorgeous Bling Bling.

I kind of like this new bottle shape.

This is two coats of Gorgeous Bling Bling. It has that pumpkin look to it and has flake gold glitter which makes it look a little more interesting. I am so ready for fall so I liked this color very much. The only think that I have a problem with is the name. It’s so dumb that I am almost embarrassed to tell people what color I am wearing when they ask me.

Now, I don’t really know why I did this, but I used NYC Matte Me Crazy on the top half of my my nails and added the rhinestones. I think I need to stop using rhinestones because I am always reminded of the Beddazler when I use them, and that’s about the tackiest thing ever.

I could not figure out what to make for dinner today. I was watching TV and a commercial for Kraft/Hellman’s Mayo came on and they showed some kind of mayo/parmesan chicken. I like mayo. I like parmesan. I like chicken (sometimes!). So I decided to try the recipe which is beyond simple.

All you need is some chicken breast (I butterflied one chicken breast to make two pieces), mayonnaise, parmesan cheese and bread crumbs. I seasoned my chicken with a little black pepper because I love black pepper. I did not add any salt to the chicken because the mayo and cheese have enough salt. Make a paste of the mayo and parmesan.

I placed the chicken in a foil covered baking dish and spread the mayo/parmesan mixture on top of the chicken. I then sprinkled some bread crumbs on top and placed the chicken in the oven. You can bake the chicken for 15-20 minutes at 425 degrees depending on the thickness of the chicken. I finished the chicken off in the broiler to make the top extra brown and crispy.

I made some rice pilaf and some green beans to accompany the chicken. Let me tell you that it came out great. It was super moist and the top was creamy and crispy. It was so incredibly easy that I’m sure I’ll be making it again whenever I need a quick dinner. I also picked up my favorite soda at Target today. Do you like tamarind?

So how has you week been so far? Tomorrow is Friday and then the month is over. Beejus time flies. Next month I will be 33, and I’m not looking forward to it. It’s not about turning older because that doesn’t really bother me; I just don’t really like to celebrate my birthday. Anyway, I hope you have a good Friday in anticipation of a great weekend.

essence Gleam In Blue

Posted on 9 August, 2012 by Cynthia

I think you have seen my recent Ulta polish hauls and how they tend to include tons of these cute little bottles of essence polishes.Today I have a new color that I hadn’t seen at Ulta in the past–probably because it was always out of stock. Behold, Gleam In Blue!

When I first put this color on, I was torn: is it a full on frost, metallic or a combination of the two? Well, I’m sure that you’ve heard me complain about frosts AND metallics. (I’m looking at you, Nicole!) In fact, that combination reminds me of the most horrific creation known to mankind if you are a poultry hater: the turducken! For those of you who may not be familiar with a turducken, it is a de-boned chicken stuffed into a de-boned duck, stuffed into a de-boned turkey. I am dry heaving over here. Anyway, I was surprisingly happy with this polish. It has a thicker consistency than I am used to from essence polishes, but it was still fairly easy to control. If you’re careful with your application, you could actually get away with one coat! If I had to pick one thing that I didn’t like, it would be that it’s somewhat prone to visible brushstrokes if you overwork the polish; otherwise, the brushstrokes aren’t too visible and a nice topcoat will definitely help.

And just because I feel that every mani gets better with a little stamping action, I used plate BM 312 and Konad special polish in white for this design. Pretty, right? I chose this stamp because it had a sort of whimsical, airy and cloud-like feeling to it that I felt complimented the color of this polish. Anyone else get a sort of bridal feeling from this look?

Gleam In Blue was one of the 10 new colors that were introduced in the Colour & Go line for Spring/Summer 2012. essence products can be purchased at ULTA, HEB, Fred Meyer and Shoppers Drug Mart if you’re in Canada. These polishes still retail for $.99. However, it appears that this line is being re-designed with a new bottle shape and with a price increase to $1.99. I will follow up on this once I start to see the new stock at my local Ulta.

So what do you think of this polish? Too frosty/metallic-y? Do you think the stamping compliments the polish, or was it better on its own? Let me know what you think and thanks for stopping by.

Remember: Enabling = Caring

****This item was sent for review. This in no way influences my review and opinion of the product.****

Essence You Belong To Me

Posted on 29 July, 2012 by Cynthia

I don’t know about you, but when you buy as much polish as your average nail polish fanatic, you are constantly on the lookout for sales. Just look at the great success of Nouveau Cheap! I love that blog because it fills me in on all the affordable cosmetics and drugstore sales. I know a lot of people stocked up on Sinful Colors despite the PR nightmare that ensued when they were caught using bloggers’ photos without their permission. Taking it one step further, they manipulated the images onto their models and incorrectly described the process of achieving the look. I find it rather tasteless on their part, and hope that they do right by the affected bloggers.

On my cheap polish quest, I found myself at Ulta a couple of times this week…and by a couple I mean I visited 3 Ultas in my area trying to find good deals. I had noticed that Essence polishes were being put on clearance and that the images of their bottles were different on the website so I figured they were trying to get rid of old stock. Well, tickle me cheap…I was all over that. I ended up purchasing all the colors I could get my hands on and they ended up being around $.79 each. Score! Today I found a few Zoyas on clearance including one of the flaky topcoats, Chloe. Woot! Major score. One of the polishes I purchased today is You Belong To Me which I decided to wear as soon as I got home.

While it’s not very noticeable in the bottle nor in my pictures, You Belong To Me has the faintest shimmer which makes it look so beautiful. The formula was ok…not really problematic but I needed a third coat to smooth it out.

I really like how delicate my nails look with this stamp design. I used BM 314 and my favorite WNW Silver for stamping called I Can’t Stand Up Straight. Does anyone have any recommendations for a cheap silver that stamps really well? Upon closer inspection, I think this design looks arachnid-like and it’s kind of freaking me out.

I was feeling really lazy tonight so I didn’t feel like cooking dinner. Instead, I made my special tuna sandwich: tuna, mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, swiss cheese and slices of hard-boiled egg. Egg?!? Yes, egg. You have no idea how delicious it tastes. The creaminess and richness of the egg adds a whole new level of yumminess to this sandwich.

I don’t even know how many times I’ve talked about The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo on this blog, but I’m going to do it again because I have a major girl crush on Noomi Rapace. She is such a crazy badass in these movies. If you have Netflix, the full Swedish trilogy is online and it has like 2 extra hours of content that was edited out when they were released in the US. And yes, I’ve been watching the movies all over again. lol

I hope you’ve had a good and relaxing Saturday! Thanks for the visit and let me know what you think of my “spider nails.” hehehe

P.S. Do you have a preference for the picture size on my blog? I’ve made the images smaller for this post instead of using the full-sized images. What do you think?

Dear Nails, Please Grow Faster

Posted on 25 July, 2012 by Cynthia

My hair has grown enough that it is now refusing to cooperate. I had some real craziness going on today with my hair; so much so that L. was laughing at the state of my hair. It was like an out of control, curly, frizzy and lopsided pompadour. I just wish my nails grew as fast as my cray hair. :/ I really miss having longer nails to work with when I do stamping so I haven’t been playing with any of my plates for almost 2 weeks!!! The following is a mani that I did a while back but hadn’t gotten around to posting. I started with a couple of coats of Essence Black is Black.

Doesn’t this seriously look like patent leather? I think this is my favorite black nail polish.

I used plate BM 320 for this design along with Konad special polish in yellow. I really wish that the yellow polish had been more opaque. Maybe it looks like that because it was stamped over black?

I’m not feeling particularly talky tonight so I’ll leave it at that. What do you think of this mani?

Nail Mail!

Posted on 23 July, 2012 by Cynthia

I feel like I haven’t done my nails in eons. Really, eons. Ever since I went chop crazy and cut my nails down to the nub, I haven’t really bothered doing my nails except for a half-assed attempt on Saturday which I promptly removed. As a little reminder, this is how painfully short my nails are right now:

Well, today I received something in the mail. Oh yes, dear readers, my liquid gold arrived!

The lovely Sabrina from Polish In Paris, recently went on vacay to London and she was sweet enough to get me a bottle of Max Factor Fantasy Fire. I know I will never get my hands on Clarins 230 so this is the closest I will get. Since my nails are still so short, I didn’t want to use any of my Fantasy Fire, but I couldn’t resist at least trying out the other polish she sent me: Essence Blue Addicted. For those of you who recognize this polish right away, yes it is a dupe for Deborah Lippmann Across The Universe. The base of this polish is pretty sheer so I knew that I would have to find a color to use as a base for this glitter gem.

So what color did I pick? Wet N Wild Blue Moon!

Pretty, right? Oh boy…look how short my nails still are. Yes, they still hurt and no, I won’t be doing this again.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I love this. Shut up. I know it’s glitter. One thing I have to mention about the formula of this polish is that it is beyond goopy. I tried it on a nail wheel before I did this mani and it was really bad. It was patchy and goopy at the same time so I knew I would have to bust out the Seche Restore. A couple of drops fixed this right up and it was a lot more pleasant to work with. Either way, it’s worth the effort because I love the end result.

I also wanted to share the cutest card and drawing that she included in my package:

Sabrina’s little sister does the cutest drawings for her and you can see some of her other work here and here. How freaking adorable, right?

I hope my nails grow quickly so I can finally try my Fantasy Fire. What base color do you recommend to use under FF?

Merci Sabrina pour les beaux vernis et remercie ta sœur de ma part pour le dessin. Elle est vraiment douée! Je suppose que c’est ta soeur qui a fait le dessin! 😉