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Stamping Saturdays #64

Posted on 8 August, 2015 by Cynthia

Have you ever had some really awesome ideas for nail art but the execution turns out to be more than problematic? I had that happen to me yesterday. Ultimately I blamed it on just being tired at the end of the week and decided to fall back on something simple and clean for my Stamping Saturdays mani. I decided to use one of the gorgeous holos that I recently purchased as my base color.

This is Ooh La Lacquer Wine Thirty. What can I say about this polish besides professing my love for the color, formula and holo? It’s beeeeutiful! I am actually expecting 4 more of these pretties in the mail today if only USPS would hurry up!!!

For my stamped design, I used MASH plate #40 for this swirly design. I feel that you can pretty much stamp anything over holo and it will look great. I wish I could have come up with something more creative, but it just wasn’t meant to be.

Do you have anything fun going on this weekend? I hope to get a lot of things done, but it’s hard when all you want to do is stay in bed all weekend binge watching stuff on Netflix. Ha! Anyway, I hope that you’re doing well, and I will talk to you soon!

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Stamping Saturdays #28

Posted on 19 July, 201419 July, 2014 by Cynthia

A few year ago, I was a Sephwhora. What is a Sephwhora, you ask? Well, it’s someone who basically lives a Sephora. I loved going every week and blowing at least $100 each trip–ahhh the joys of having disposable income. Oh how times have changed! However, I find myself much happier today even if my income isn’t where it once was. I also find that I am not as interested in buying tons of cosmetics anymore since I basically just wear concealer, blush and lip gloss…and let’s not forget the eyebrow products! I finally took the plunge and decided to try out the Anastasia Dipbrow pomade so I’m super excited to see if it’s as good as everyone says it is. While I was at Sephora, I also picked up a new polish: Formula X Pedal To The Metal.

Sephora Formula X Pedal To The Metal is such gorgeous red leaning purple that is shimmery and metallic in finish. The formula was nice, but I did find that it dried very quickly so it was easy to overwork the polish. It is fairly opaque so you only need two coats.

And then I used one of my MASH plates, Mash 46, for this busy design. I wasn’t too convinced that I liked this but it has grown on me.

So what do you think? I’m liking the mani overall even if the design does cover up most of the polish. I’m going to cut it a little short today because I need to hurry up and get ready because I’m going to the fair today with my bro, sil and little peanut. I bet he’s going to really enjoy it and hopefully I’ll have a funny picture of him to share. Thanks for stopping by, and I will talk to you soon!

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Morgan Taylor Nail Lacquer Super Ultra Violet

Posted on 17 July, 2013 by Cynthia

Happy Hump Day! Ok, that sounded totally lame but I’m kind of in a good mood today. Of course now I’m waiting for something to blow up in my face and ruin my recent streak of good luck. Why do we always have to wait and expect bad things to happen? Self-fulfilling prophecy anyone? It’s super warm here today, and I don’t have AC so painting my nails is always interesting because I always think that I can have the fan going while I paint them. And I mean I have the fan going full blast directly on me. If you have ever tried this, you know it’s practically impossible. But does that ever stop me from trying? Nope.

Today I have another Morgan Taylor creme beauty. Seriously: if you love creme polishes, you have to get your hands on some Morgan Taylor polishes. The amazing formula of these polishes really make them worth the hunt if you don’t necessarily have them in your area. Let’s take a look at this indigo-violet pretty…

Morgan Taylor Nail Lacquer Super Ultra Violet is one of those dark vampy colors that are so hot during the fall. I have to admit that while this color is not exactly unique (I’m sure I have a few dupes!), the formula really makes this a stand-out. It’s practically a one coater and it dries incredibly smooth and glossy.

MASH40_ Silver Mercedes2

Yay for stamping! I got this swirly design from Mash plate MASH 40 and of course I had to use the absolute best silver stamping polish that I own: Pure Ice Silver Mercedes. For a $1.99, you really can’t beat it.

I’ve been a little MIA on the blog and FB mostly because I’ve been busy with working a lot of overtime. Since I now have that new car payment, I decided to work as many extra hours as I can–otherwise, there will be no pretty polishes in my future. I’ve been really good lately (especially with my blog sale), and I hope I can keep working on that until maybe early August when I will have a visitor who is just as polish obsessed as me. I’m sure we’re going to DESTROY my usual polish haunts. For those of you who have ordered and paid for your polishes, I promise to get them out by Friday. I’m so sorry for the delay! I still have a few emails pending and I promise to get back to you by tomorrow. With all the OT at work, I’ve had to deal with some really horrid customers; Lord beer me strength.

So what do you think of Super Ultra Violet? Is this a color that you would wear? What about the stamping? Yay or nay? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Morgan Taylor Lacquer Nautically Inclined

Posted on 27 June, 20135 July, 2013 by Cynthia

To be honest, I have no idea why I even fussed with my nails today. I don’t know how I made it through work today because I had the worst cough that barely allowed me to do my job. I am now completely exhausted from all the coughing and my body is sore and in pain. Great! Just what I needed: to get sick just as the temperatures are going to be nearing the triple digits in parts of So Cal. Last night I took 3 cups of Nyquil and that KNOCKED ME OUT. I was able to sleep ok last night because of this, but this morning I felt like I got run over by a school bus multiple times. Since I’m apparently missing too many days at work, I dragged my phlegmy, hoarse and feverish self to work…those were 8 hours of pure misery. I don’t think I’m going to put myself through that again so I’m probably going to call in sick tomorrow. What really bites about all this is that I don’t get any sick days so each day I don’t go to work I get my pay docked…that’s going to hurt at the end of the month. I guess that means no crazy polish binges for the next couple of months while I play catch up. This could be a good thing for me! So today as I watched bad daytime tv, I got the itch to do my nails. I don’t know why since I was feeling so craptacular, but I decided to pull out one of my new polishes: Morgan Taylor Lacquer Nautically Inclined.

I know I’ve shown you a few Morgan Taylor polishes before so it will be no surprise to you that I really liked Nautically Inclined! I’ve purchased so many of these blues lately, but this one has a very subtle shimmer throughout so I love how it has that slight difference from the typical creme. I found the formula a little thick so I recommend applying thin coats and letting each one dry before you apply the next. I think I could have gotten away with two regular coats, but I felt 3 thin coats worked for me the best.

I don’t even know how long it has been since I’ve done some stamping. This was one of the first creative nail techniques that I ever used on my blog so I will always have a special place in my heart for stamping. I don’t know about you, but stamping can be really hard so I always wonder why some people are so anti-stamping saying that it’s nail art cheating. This awesome design comes from MASH Plate MASH 44. I used Konad Special black polish for the stamping because I just can’t find a black that is as good as this one.

Well, I hope that you liked this mani. I’m kind of in love with it and don’t want to take it offffffffffffffffffff! I may leave it on for a few days, but I will be trying out some 4th of July Incoco Polish Strips next week. Since my giveaway for the OPI Couture de Minnie Minnies is ending in a few hours, I’ll try to choose a winner tonight–if I haven’t passed out by 9 pm. But don’t fret if you don’t win….I bough two Jindie Nails Jindie-Pendence glitter toppers so I’ll be giving one bottle away next week so make sure you check in! Talk to you soon.

EDIT 7/5/2013: As you may know, I won a bottle of Nautically Inclined from a giveaway on Morgan Taylor’s Facebook page. Since I already have this color, I decided to hold a quick giveaway for the people who are on my FB page. I asked that you come and leave a comment in order to be entered. The people who had already left a comment before I launched this mini-giveaway got two entries because they are my regulars and I love them! (I love you too, don’t worry!) So the winner is…..

YANIRA

I have sent Yanira an email and she has 24 hours to respond or else I will be picking a new winner. Thanks for participating everyone!

Julep Trina

Posted on 22 January, 201323 January, 2013 by Cynthia

Well, hello there friends! I am a little disappointed in myself that I didn’t post anything after my first day of work, but I had forgotten how exhausting sitting in a training class for 8 hours can be! I actually did do my nails last night with the intention of posting them, but I felt like my nail mojo just disappeared. I seriously took about 50 pictures and not a single one turned out–they all looked shit-tastic. So I just gave up. Today I got home super flustered because I had so much stuff to do–who knew that having a job again would leave me with absolutely no time at all? Ah, well…I shouldn’t complain because getting a paycheck again means I can continue to enjoy the luxuries I have become accustomed to such as a roof over my head, food in the fridge and electricity. After finishing up my laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning and preparing my lunch for tomorrow, I sat down and thought I’d give it another try. Want to know what polish I settled on? Julep Trina!

Julep Trina is an amazingly rich and saturated metallic aubergine polish. It was a little on the thick side, but it was easy to work with. I only needed two coats for these swatches. Did you hear that the Julep boxes are getting holos? I hope it’s true because you doesn’t love holos??? 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. Yep, for a penny. Awesomeness.

I then used an image from Mash plate MASH 43 which is kind of a strange flower and vine design. I am also wowed by the polish I used for stamping: Pure Ice Silver Mercedes. I finally found a decent Pure Ice display at a new Walmart and there was ONE of these babies left. This is such an amazing polish for stamping and you seriously can’t beat the under $2 price tag!

A lot of you have asked me about my new job and what I’ll be doing. I just wanted to say that I’ve made a very conscious decision not to discuss any details about my job. I’ve heard of way too many horror stories of people getting in trouble professionally about stuff they post online. While I do tend to share–and overshare–a lot about my personal life, that will not include details about my job. This will hopefully allow me to share funny people stories about my job–with names changed to protect the clueless, of course! I should have gone to bed about an hour ago but I stayed up to watch the series finale of Private Practice, and it was even more lame than I had anticipated. This show really jumped the shark about a year ago so I’m glad it’s over.

Well, I’m heading to bed now. It’s Wednesday tomorrow so I’m almost half-way through my first week of work. Woot! Hope you have a wonderful day, and I will talk to you soon.

Disclosure: Julep Trina 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.

Sation I Paint In Peace

Posted on 19 January, 2013 by Cynthia

Remember how I was complaining about how cold it has been lately? Well, today it’s going to be in the upper 70’s/low 80’s and here I am wanting to complain again. haha! Is it so hard to just have nice mild and temperate weather that is season appropriate? I guess so! This weekend is supposed to be super nice so maybe I’ll take advantage of my last two days of unemployed freedom and go to the beach or something outdoorsy like that. How’s the weather in your neck of the woods? Since it’s getting warm, I decided to wear a polish that was a little brighter than what I wore previously which was essentially a black/purple polish. I settled on yet another lovely from the Sation Nailstock Colletion: Sation I Paint In Peace.

Sation I Paint In Peace is a beautiful dark and mossy green with a strong and noticeable silver shimmer. The first coat of this polish was super sheer so I was cringing inside thinking that I would have to apply 5 gazillion coats but it was perfect after the second coat. I should know better than to second guess my beloved Sations.

I then used Layla Flash Black and a design from Mash plate MASH 47 for this subtle houndstooth design. Even though it looks super subtle in these pictures, you can really see the design in real life. I am so in love with using holos to stamp.

I hope you’re having a nice weekend. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Disclosure: Sation I Paint In Peace was provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR firm. Layla Flash Black was purchased by me. For more information, please see my disclosure policy tab here.

On ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur…

Posted on 4 January, 2013 by Cynthia

The very first book in French that I ever read is Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince. I was 14 years old and my French teacher was trying to slowly introduce us into reading something a little more complicated than our grammar books. If you’ve never read this deceptively simple little book, I strongly recommend that you go out and get yourself a copy. Although it is a “children’s book,” it speaks to us adults on a different level. Even the most jaded and hardened amongst us will see that the story and ideas behind The Little Prince will remind us that too often we let ourselves get wrapped up in things that don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. Sometimes the most simple of things are truly the most important. Before I show you my mani, here are the polishes and items I used to create my manicure:

The polishes I used are all from Sation: Dance With The Drummer, Down and Dirty Flirty, Strumming My Nails and Lemon Pearl. I am going to have to do a review of all of these polishes individually because they are gorgeous. I think I have found my new favorite white…it was seriously perfection.

I also used three stamping plates and Konad stamping polishes in yellow, red and green. I used the black stripping polish for the details in drawing The Little Prince as well as the Winstonia nail art brush. The plates I used are: Konad M84 for the stars, Mash 36 for the rose and Mash 33 for the shooting stars.

I started out by painting my nails with the base colors. As I said before, these colors are amazing–super buttery and smooth. Second, I stamped my three nails with the star designs and the rose before I moved on to my middle finger. I seriously redid that nail about 4 times–I just could not get The Little Prince to look right which kind of shocked me considering how simple the drawing is.

I took these pictures out in direct sunlight so the colors warmed up a bit, but I liked how they turned out nonetheless. I think that out of all the manicures I have done over the past year, this is the one I am most proud of not only because of the cuteness factor but because I adore The Little Prince.

Let me know what you think about this mani…and it better be positive or else we’re going to have some problems. 😛 Just kidding…sort of. I’ve been in a very bad mood lately, and I think I just realized that it’s due to all the bottled up anger coming from the situation with the mooch. Have you read The Little Prince? Anyway…thanks for checking in with me today, and I will talk to you soon!

P.S. In case anyone was wondering, the title of this post comes from one of my favorite lines in this book: “Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.”

“Here is my secret. It is very simple: One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye.”

Disclosure: All Sation polishes and the Winstonia Store brush were provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR. All other products featured in this post were purchased by me. For more information, please refer to my disclosure policy tab.

Sation RV There Yet?

Posted on 18 December, 201218 December, 2012 by Cynthia

Dum dee dum…oh, hello. How are you today? I’m having a kind of craptacular day today not because of anything specific–it’s just one of those days. I woke up today feeling kind of down on myself so what did I do? Stayed in my pj’s all morning and continued my job search. I always get excited right before I open my email in the morning hoping that some amazing job opportunity might pop up. The most promising email I got today went something like this:

Hi,

We are contacting you regarding your resume post on Monsater.com.

We would like to invite you either on Tuesday Dec 18th at 7:00 pm or Thursday Dec 20th 1pm.

Please find more information in the attachment.

Looking forward to hear from you.

Thank you

Best Regards

Oh yes, I’m jumping right on that one! I am so going to download that .ex file and email you my social security number too. Actually, I’m lying: I did get a pretty decent call today so who knows where it will go. I’m sure that I’ll feel better tomorrow–as long as I don’t bake a cake to console myself tonight. haha

Don’t pretty nail polishes just make you feel a little more peppy? Well, today I have have a bright and lively color for you: Sation RV There Yet?

Sation RV There Yet? is another beauty from the Nailstock Collection. I think that this color leans a lot more green in real life than it does in my pictures, but it’s gorgeous either way. I was super excited about this color because who doesn’t love a good teal? I love the final result, but I found the formula a little hard to work with because it was so darn sheer. This is a crelly polish–a jelly and creme hybrid–which is quickly becoming my FAVORITE type of polish. I love how squishy this looks.

I used an image from MASH plate MASH 39 for this design. I had heard that the Layla holos were pretty good for stamping, and I’m happy to report that they do work. I used Layla Ocean Rush for this fish scale looking design. It’s fairly delicate so the holo isn’t as in your face, but I like how it turned out nonetheless. I am going to try a bigger and more intricate design next time.

I have a very special request today. One of my very best friends in the whole wide world is having a biopsy today, and I know she has been really nervous and scared. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers (if you pray) so that everything turns out ok. I know that her doctor is probably just being super cautious, and I know that she will be ok. It’s just a scary thing to go through. I’ve known Veronica since we were about 10 years old, but we didn’t become friends until we were 13. We actually hated each other’s guts before we became friends, but we don’t exactly know why. We were stuck working on a school project together with two other girls who were morons and didn’t want to do any work. Since we wanted to get a good grade, Veronica and I just took the whole project on. I guess we have Mrs. Wright, our 8th grade English teacher, to thank for cementing our friendship through group work. Am I the only who hated doing group work in school? (One of my favorite teachers in High School used to tell us that group work is just “pooled ignorance. lol) Anyway, ever since then we have always had a strong friendship despite the fact that we went to different high schools. We’ve taken two very memorable trips together: one to Hawaii and one to Europe (Paris, Florence & Rome). For me, traveling with someone is the ultimate litmus test: if I can travel with you and we don’t try to kill each other, we will be friends for life. I’m hoping that she will join Nancy and I for our trip next winter so Europe better get ready for us because we will be causing some serious damage.

Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope you’re having a good day.

P.S. Are any of you on Reddit? I’m getting “bullied” on there. (lol…sorry, I couldn’t help it, Nicole!) I guess it’s getting a little crazy in there because I had some random weirdo be totally rude to me. Don’t worry–it didn’t hurt my feelings. I thought it was amusing.

Disclosure: Sation RV There Yet? was provided by the manufacturer or their PR firm. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy tab. Layla Ocean Rush was purchased by me.

Sation BYOBottle

Posted on 17 December, 201217 December, 2012 by Cynthia

I had mentioned in my previous post about wanting to slow down my blogging schedule a bit for a few reasons. One of the main reasons is the fact that I am really busy looking for a job right now, and I don’t think that crazy or colorful nails are very interview appropriate. At my last job, one of the things I hated the most was interviewing people. I have so many stories about strange applicants! One of the more thought-provoking moments was when I called up an applicant, and she sounded like the perfect candidate: she had a perfect resume, was well spoken and energetic. When I brought her in for an interview, she was dressed immaculately but was wearing the world’s largest fake eyelashes. Ok, you don’t understand…her eyelashes were all I could focus on when I looked at her face. They weren’t just thick, they were LOOOOOONG. The interview went ok, but I just could not understand what made her think that wearing those eyelashes was a good idea–it just made me think she was lacking some common sense. I was kind of willing to look past the Snuffy Snuffleupagus eyelashes until she started calling me multiple times per day to “follow up” despite me telling her I would be calling people back in a week for a second interview. I could go on and tell you about the woman who kept wanting to reschedule her interview because she got her period and didn’t sleep well, but I’ll stop there. While going through my melmers for some pretty and subdue colors, I zeroed in on Sation BYOBottle.

Sation BYOBottle is a beautiful raisin-y plum color from their grooooooovy Nailstock Collection. This polish was so incredibly smooth to apply–it was almost a one-coater! Are there any 80’s kids here? You will totally get flashbacks, but I kept singing “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” because this polish reminded me of the California Raisins:

For this design, I used Essie Nothing Else Metals and an image from plate MASH 44. I’ve been using my MASH plates a lot more often–they really are great quality plates and I hope that they put out some more sets in the future.

Today I was supposed to go to an interview but my gut kept telling me that there was something fishy with the whole thing. The person who contacted me was responding to the resume I had posted, but she wasn’t really giving me all the information about the actual position she was hiring for besides a vague description. She then told me she wanted me to meet her at a different location than where the job was supposed to be. Her directions sounded something like: “go down Main Street, hang a left on the napping bum, walk 500 ft down the dark alley and knock on the rusty door with an X marked in blood.” Uhm, yes I need a job but I do not need to be on the news as a murder victim. I did do my due diligence on the company and the person who contacted me so don’t worry–I’m not gullible. Ultimately, I just felt that there was something off about the whole situation so I passed. I have a few other prospects so I’m just going to keep on moving forward. Hopefully I won’t have too many of these job hunt stories to relate!

There is only one more week left for Christmas! Have you done all your shopping yet? Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you around soon!

Disclosure: Sation BYOBottle was provided by the manufacturer or their PR firm. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy tab. Essie Nothing Else Metals was purchased by me.

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.