Tag: Pumpkin Delight

Of Life and Lacquer > Pumpkin Delight

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted on by Cynthia

This being the first Thanksgiving that my blog has seen, I was wondering if I should do anything “special.” What does special mean? I have no clue. So instead, I decided to just let all of you know how grateful I am for all the wonderful support I have received since I started my blog. Whether this blog continues to exist in the future or not, I will always love it because it gave me the opportunity to meet some amazing bloggers (and non-bloggers!) whom I am fortunate enough to call friends. Around this time last year, I was dealing with so much crap that I could barely get my head wrapped around it all. While I still have a lot of not so pleasant things going on, I feel light years away from the horrible pit of depression I was in for most of 2011. In fact, the reason why I even started this blog was to VENT out into the void since I refused to go to therapy regularly. Of course the venting also included my love for nail polish and here I am almost a year later still talking about nail polish…and food…and UPS men…and pervy postal clerks. Ahhh…I  have a wonderful life!

I really really hate turkey. I mean I really hate it because turkeys are ugly and they taste like feathers. Since I’ve always had an aversion to birds and poultry, I’ve always had to come up with something else when it comes to my main Thanksgiving protein so I decided to make some tri tip and it came out perfect! Since my parents weren’t able to join us for Thanksgiving this year, my brother and I are celebrating at my bro and sil’s house. We had a great time eating, eating and eating some more.

That’s my plate with some delicious tri tip. This year I decided not to eat so much that I felt like dying afterwards so I didn’t eat everything on my plate. Get ready for my brother’s plate:

He ate TWO servings like this. TWO!!! Ahh…to have the metabolism of a 22 year old guy. I told him that he eats like the apocalypse is coming.

And because this post wouldn’t be quite right without a mani picture, this is what I decided to wear on my nails today.

I didn’t want to do anything complicated so I am happy with the simplicity of this. Jessica Pumpkin Spice seemed very appropriate–even though I prefer apple pie to pumpkin pie.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your friends and family and thank you for always being here–reading, commenting, lurking…whatever! THANK YOU!

~C

Stamping Sunday: Can’t Wait For Fall

Posted on by Cynthia

I am a fall person. I can’t help it. I was born during the Autumnal Equinox, and I always found something poetic about it because I’ve always felt like I was an old soul with a darker disposition. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why I hate summer so much!

This Sunday, our theme is “Can’t Wait For Fall” and it couldn’t be more appropriate for me. Today I’m teasing you with Pumpkin Delight, a color from the Jessica Spicy Dream collection that is not available just yet. It should be available this month so keep an eye out for it if you love dark, spicy and rich fall colors. If you would like to see swatches of the whole collection, you can click here.

I started out with 2 coats of Pumpkin Delight:

    

Then I used stamp BM 309 for this design. I’ve got to admit that I hate birds. They freak me out so this was a big step for me to actually have birds on my nails even if they are supposed to be cute owls.

    

   

So what do you think of this look? I wasn’t feeling super inspired today. This was actually my second mani for Stamping Sunday; the first one was a complete fail that I didn’t even photograph before taking it off. Don’t you hate it when things don’t work out at all the way you pictured them in your mind?

I hope this weekend has been nice and relaxing for you. The heat has not eased up here in So Cal so I’m beyond grouchy at this point. All I have to say is that next week better be cooler or else…

Jessica Cosmetics Spicy Dream Collection Fall 2012

Posted on by Cynthia

It seems that last week I was saying how summer has been pretty mild here in Southern California, and now I am roasting in my own sweat. It is so hot here that I can barely function. Whenever it gets this hot, I tend to be in a foul mood so I’m sorry if you’ve been unlucky enough to be the recipient of that. I’ve been saying that I am so ready for fall ever since May and it’s not just because it gets cooler, but also because of the drool-worthy nail polish fall collections. I was lucky enough to get my hands on the Jessica Cosmetics Spicy Dream collection, and I couldn’t wait to swatch it for all of you.

When I first saw these colors, I was immediately reminded of being in France. Let me elaborate: Back in 1999, D. and I were studying in Paris together (Paris X – Woo hoo!) and one of his friends was supposed to take us to his family’s house in Normandy for the weekend. Well, that weekend was an utter catastrophe because there was a terrible storm that leveled forests, ruined roads…it was a nightmare. But, we ended up taking off anyway and spent the weekend touring  different areas…Pont-l’Évêque (which has an amazing cheese), Honfleur, Deauville…ahhh…it was a nice weekend. This was also the weekend when D. created his infamous Sopa Castellana (Castillian Soup). I have no idea what he put in it, but I just remember eggs and chorizo…it was delish. So the reason why I am talking about all this is because we drank a lot of Calvados which is an apple brandy. Calvados is such a pretty color, and I was instantly transported back there when I saw these rich fall colors from the Spicy Dream collection. These colors also remind me of the spice souks that I loved so much when I was in Tunisia and Morocco. Can you tell I miss traveling?

Let’s move on to some swatches:

    

CHAMPAGNE BUBBLES:  This was my least favorite polish of the collection. I just don’t like the way it looks on me. China Glaze also has a polish called Champagne Bubbles but it is very yellow while this is much lighter and has a more delicate feel to it. Whenever I swatch, I always use Seche Vite as my topcoat and something weird happened when I applied it: it dragged and the polish got a wrinkled look to it so I had to remove it and reapply.

    

PUMPKIN DELIGHT:  This is my absolutely favorite polish of this collection. I love how rich it looks. It’s just breathtaking.

    

GINGERSNAP:  This is one is a pretty color as well. It’s obviously not as intense as Pumpkin delight, but it’s still pretty. Oh, and I am a gingersnap freak…I love them so much!

    

CINNAMON KISS:  This polish looks like something I’ve seen many times before, but I see how it fits into this collection. I always love these type of polishes that have a glowing quality to them

    

CRIMSON TATTOO:  Don’t laugh but this color made me think of Kat Von D. I wouldn’t say that I am a huge fan, but I love what she does with make up.I love how bloody this color looks and it’s probably the color I would wear the most year-round.

    

BROWN SUGAR:  I think this is the most unique polish in this whole collection. In my opinion, it’s one of those ugly pretty colors that you can’t really nail down. It has the strangest shimmer in the bottle: it looks a bit blue to me but it’s almost like some marbling. You can barely see it on the nail, but you can definitely tell that it’s not a flat creme.

Overall, I do like this collection despite the fact that I don’t think some of these colors compliment my skin tone very well. I can’t really fault them for that because I’m sure others can really rock these colors. I can already see some of these colors as an awesome base for Thanksgiving nail art. The main thing that I didn’t like was that the first three colors were very difficult to remove. There was shimmer/glitter all over my fingers, my nails and embedded in my cuticles so I had to use pure acetone for removal. No one ever said beauty would be painless. The second part of the collection, which is intensely pigmented, surprised me because none of the polishes stained at all. I figured that Crimson Tattoo would be the biggest staining nightmare because of the pigmentation, but it removed effortlessly. I only had to use two coats for all of these polishes and some of them could do with one coat if you apply it carefully.

Are you ready for Fall? I think that we can start getting into the Fall mood with the lovely polish collections that will start to crop up even if the weather refuses to cooperate. Let me know what you think of this collection. Will you be picking up any of these colors? Do you have a favorite? Are you a Jessica fan? I am!!!!! They released my favorite collection of 2012 so far: Gelato Mio! Check out my swatches here if you haven’t gotten your hands on any of those beauties. The Spicy Dream collection will be out this month at www.jessicacosmetics.com and at salons and spas internationally.

Thanks for stopping by and remember: enabling = caring.

****These items were sent for review. This in no way influences my review and opinion of the product.****