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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.

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 Imagine-Sation

Posted on 25 December, 201226 December, 2012 by Cynthia

Hello ladies and gents and welcome to my Christmas day post. I feel like such a lame-o for a couple of reasons: I had these two great guests posts lined up from Amanda from Mae’s Beauty Reports and Siobhan from For The Love of Nail Art & Make-up and I guess I am a big fail at scheduling post to publish automatically. I have no idea how I messed that up since wordpress makes it super easy. Well, now I’m going to publish them tomorrow–all late. 🙁 Sorry Amanda and Siobhan! I was so busy after the giveaway closed and the blog sale inquiries and then Christmas stuff came around on top of my job search stuff so I didn’t even think to follow-up on the posts I thought were going to automatically publish. So there you have it. I’m a big failure.

I had done this manicure a couple of weeks ago, and I don’t remember why it was still sitting in my drafts. Let’s look at the mani and then I’ll tell you more about how I spent my Christmas eve. Behold–Sation Imagine-Sation!

Are you tired of seeing my Sation swatches? Well, if you are: too bad because I love these polishes! I’ve had a few people ask me about where to get these polishes besides online so here is some not so new news: In case you haven’t heard, Sation is being sold at TJ Maxx and Marshalls in the US and Winners in Canada! I have heard from plenty of readers that they have spotted Sation at their local stores so make sure that you check them out. Back to the swatches: Imagine-Sation is another polish from the Nailstock collection from earlier in the year. All of the colors in this collection are freaking gorgeous so make sure to get your hands on the colors you like because this is a limited edition collection. The reason why I was excited to use this color is that I think it’s a close dupe for OPI Mrs. O’Leary’s BBQ. Nicole over at Polish Me, Please! started to rename polishes and she called it Mrs. O’Leary’s Scab which I thought was kinda gross but it still made me laugh. While Imagine-Sation is a little darker, I think it’s a close enough dupe that I don’t need both. It feels good to say that! The formula was a tad thick but I added a couple of drops of thinner and all was well in polishland. Best of all, it didn’t stain my nails AT ALL even though I forgot to use a base coat!

I then applied one coat of Sation Calorie Countess which is a mixture of what appears to be gold, bronze and pink glitter. This was a strange combination in the bottle but I really like how it looks on top of Imagine-Sation. I can’t wait to try it on other base colors. The formula on this was fine–just what I expect of glitter polishes. Just for shits and giggles, here is a macro shot of Calorie Countess. Great, huh?

So for Christmas eve, the mooch and I headed over to my brother and sister-in-law’s house and we had a really great time. My sil’s sister, Mimi, was visiting from Austria so it was really nice to visit with her. She is such a funny and sweet woman so it’s always a pleasure to spend time with her. She is also a bit of a make up and nail polish junkie so you know we spent quite a bit of time talking about that and she ended up writing a list of products I recommended. Don’t you just love being an enabler? We played games, ate, drank, ate some more and just had a great time. To say that I’ve been lazy today is an understatement: I am still wearing my pj’s and I’m about to take a shower and get into some fresh pj’s again. I’m going to be fairly busy tomorrow so I’m glad I got to savour this lazy day.

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I hope you had a wonderful day. Just think: New Year’s is just around the corner! Thanks for stopping by and talk to you soon.

P.S. Have you checked out my blog sale? I have so much new stuff on there!!

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR firm. For more information, please see my disclosure 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 Seriously Slate

Posted on 2 November, 2012 by Cynthia

I did something today that strikes fear in the hearts of the most hardened individuals: I went to the DMV…without an appointment. Like an idiot, I lost my registration card so I headed over there to get a duplicate. Yes, I could have mailed it in, but I just wanted to get all straightened out as quickly as possible. When I got there, there wasn’t a huge line–maybe 10 people in line to get a number. It took over an hour just to get through the first line to get a number which entitles you to wait again while your number is called. Look, I know the DMV is a nightmare. I think everyone knows the nightmare is exponentially more painful if you go there without an appointment so I was ready for the long annoying wait. However, there seemed to be a lot of people there who apparently had never been to the DMV judging by their behavior. A few people were screaming at the DMV employee who was processing documents and giving our numbers. One guy was yelling at people to hurry up and go to the desk even if you weren’t being called yet. I ignored that guy and then he started telling people behind me to tell me to go up to the counter. WTF? I swear that if I hadn’t been in a mellow mood, I might have punched this guy in the vas deference. So after 2.5 hours, I finally got to talk to a DMV employee for 2 minutes and she printed out my new registration card. I guess all I want to say about this experience is: make a freaking appointment. If you don’t, then don’t act like a douche when you have to wait.

So once I got home, I was trying to figure out what to do with my nails. Since our 31 Day Challenge resumes tomorrow (polka dots!), I didn’t want to do anything too complicated since I’m going to have to remove it tomorrow and do the challenge manicare. So, I pulled out one of my untrieds: Sation Seriously Slate.

This colors is seriously gorgeous. It’s like the dark and twisty older sister of China Glaze Immortal. Don’t you just love that shimmer?? The only thing that I don’t like about this polish is that it is super sheer so I needed to apply 3 coats. The first coat is crazy sheer and patchy, but I am glad to say that it does build up nicely.

I have had this bottle of Miss & Makeup for a while now but hadn’t used it so I decided to layer it over Seriously Slate.

Look at this pretty macro shot of Miss & Makeup! This sweet and pretty glitter comes from the “I Love Miss-self” specialty glitter collection that was released recently.

So what do you think of Seriously Slate? Do you like Miss & Makeup? Are there any other base colors that you think would go well with this glitter? I was thinking of using a hot pink underneath. Don’t forget to check in tomorrow since we will be resuming the 31 Day Challange–fun times! Talk to you later.

P.S. Did you enter my giveaway? It ends in a couple of days. Don’t miss out.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Miss Professional Nail Sation Holiday Golightly Collection 2012

Posted on 31 October, 201231 October, 2012 by Cynthia

Hello ladies and gents. You might have seen this information already, but I wanted to share with you the Holiday Golightly collection from Miss!

Happy “Holiday Golightly” from Miss!

Holidays are a time for all things fabulous: parties, presents, and polish! Miss Professional Nail
(Miss) is ringing in the season with “Holiday Golightly,” a shimmering new collection of nail
lacquers. These six sparklers are a great idea for fun stocking stuffers and to accessorize your
New Year’s Eve look!

Miss’ Creative Director Staci Dao wanted to celebrate the joy of gift-giving (and receiving!) by
reminding us to pamper ourselves and our loved ones this season. Silver screen icon Audrey
Hepburn captured our hearts playing free-spirited fashionista Holly Golightly, whose love of
shiny gems helped inspire Miss in creating this wish list of winter stunners.
From the timeless, Tiffany-inspired blue to unique reds and greens, these luxe shades will light
up your holiday season: “Under the Miss-letoe,” a pearlescent pine green; “Feliz Navi-doll,” an
icy crystalline grayish-white; “I Love Yule,” a velvety poinsettia red; “Let’s Mingle & Jingle,” a
silver-spangled sapphire blue; “Holiday Golightly,” a glistening Robin’s egg blue, and “Stop
Scrooging Around,” a gold-sparkled ruby wine. ‘Tis the season to channel our inner Holly
Golightly and embrace the Miss mantra that “It’s the little pleasures that count…”

If you don’t the find the Holiday Collection under your tree, it will also be available online and
in beauty supplies in late October.

All Miss products are free of DBP, toluene and formaldehyde.

Miss is an MBE (Minority Business Enterprise) certified company.

As you already know from my frequent posts and general declarations of love towards the Sation line, I can’t wait to get my hands on these. I am a huge Audrey Hepburn fan, and Breakfast At Tiffany’s has been one of my favorite movies for as long as I can remember. Ahhh…the stalking for these polishes begins!

Sation Gimme Jimi

Posted on 21 October, 201225 October, 2012 by Cynthia

A few days ago, I had a dream about my cousin. In my dream, she was her usual loud, boisterous and animated self. We all knew that she was gone, but she was still there talking to everyone and she was castigating us for being sad. I do believe in my dreams and maybe it was her way of saying that she was ok. I wish I had spent more time with her. I wish I had known her better. You always think that there will be more time to make it to the family get-togethers. You always think that there will be more time…until there isn’t.

A month ago today, we lost her. We lost a daughter, mother, grandmother, wife, cousin and friend. My cousin had a lot of stories regarding dragonflies and how they showed up at random times that ended up being not so random. I decided to do my own dragonflies today.

I used Sation Gimme Jimi from their limited edition Nailstock Collection as my base color.

The dragonfly design comes from plate MASH 41, and I used Konad special polish in black for stamping.

These are my dragonflies for her. Her passing has left a big hole in our family, but I am grateful for having known her. She will live on in the fabric of our family’s love that will weave us all together always.

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 12 : Chevron Nails

Posted on 13 October, 2012 by Cynthia

I was feeling completely uninspired about doing today’s challenge. I love chevrons on my nails, but I don’t think that chevrons would look good on my rounded super short nails so I decided to to inverted chevrons.

Sation Rock-a-guy Blue is a great blue that I recently purchased. It’s my favorite color from the Little Horse On The Prairie Collection.

I then used Sation Blue Sky’s The Limit for the inverted chevron tips. I am so annoyed that I didn’t see a couple of fibers on my nails and now I can’t do anything about it. Grrrrrr!

I don’t know why I decided to stamp over this, but I did…

I used the paisley print from Bundle Monster plate BM 315 and Wet N Wild’s I Can’t Stand Up Straight. This is so subtle that I can barely tell the stamping is there in indirect light. I’m totally not feeling this stamp on these base colors–can’t win them all.

I need to go cook dinner so forgive me if I’m not particularly talkative throughout this post. Today is a crappy day–just feeling a little down in the dumps so hopefully I’ll feel better once I eat something. Food: always the answer! 🙂

Don’t forget to check out the other manicures my lovely challenge participants created. Thanks for catching up with me today.

Sation Violet Sapphire

Posted on 13 October, 201213 October, 2012 by Cynthia

I don’t remember when I first purchased Sation Violet Sapphire…I actually don’t remember purchasing it at all! Does this happen to any other nail polish enthusiast out there? I must have hundreds of polishes that I have never used–even for swatching. Yes, I am hanging my head in shame, but I know that some of you out there understand!

Violet Sapphire is such a girlie color. When I first looked at the color in the bottle, I was afraid that it would be super brush stroke-y, but it really isn’t. It’s has a pearlized shimmer that makes it look delicate, but I’m not going to call it the dreaded F-word…FROST!

For this final mani, I used Konad Special white polish and a design from image plate MASH 39. I like this fish scale design, but I don’t really like the colors I used. I think that the white looks too harsh against the base color. I am imagining something much more delicate like maybe a pastel with this pattern stamped in silver.

So a couple of my girlfriends and I are trying to motivate each other to work out (hopefully we can start going to the gym together) and eat better. So what did I do today? I didn’t eat anything all day and then I went out and got this:

I don’t know how big and widespread the Chipotle chain is, but that is where I got this massive burrito. It is full of cilantro rice, pinto beans, grilled steak, cheese, sour cream and salsa. If you’re wondering if I ate the whole thing….well, a girl with a gullet the size of the grand canyon would never eat and tell. haha!

Are you excited about the weekend? Do you have any plans? I don’t have much going on except maybe doing some more polish organizing since I acquired over 100 bottles in the last month or so. I know…it’s a sickness. All I have to say in my defense is that I got a bunch of them for free and some as gifts. Speaking of gifts, once my nails grow out a bit, I’m going to start featuring the lovely polishes I received for my birthday.

Thanks for stopping by to visit my little pyscho corner of polish addiction…and massive burritos. Talk to you soon!

Sation Little Horse On The Prairie Collection

Posted on 6 October, 20126 October, 2012 by Cynthia

I thought that today was going to be a big bust for me because I went looking for the Color Club Halo Hues, but none of my nail places had them yet and they had no idea what I was talking about. There is one place that has a pretty extensive collection of Color Club but they were not open when I stopped by. This place basically has no set business hours which can be pretty frustrating, but I keep going back because they have so much amazing stuff. Anyway, when I saw they were closed I went down the street to another place, and I just ran across a fully stocked display of Miss Professional Nail polishes…including Sation Little Horse On The Prairie Collection and some of their new specialty glitters.

Little Horse On The Prairie came out about a month and a half ago but I hadn’t looked for them yet so I’m glad I found them today. The collection includes 6 colors:

Since I have been trying to be a little more discriminating with my polish purchases (yeah, right!), I only purchased half of this collection which is what I have to show you below:

Blue Sky’s The Limit really is a dreamy sky blue. I don’t really think this is a very Fall-inspired color but I am not complaining because I can never have enough gorgeous blues. The formula on this was good. I usually find that the Sation formula tends to be a little thick but this was not. It was easy to control and dry time was very fast.

Weed Out The Wimps is a soft and dusty green. I don’t think I have any similar greens so I am super happy to add this to my collection.

Rock-a-Guy Blue is my favorite color even though I think I have plenty of dupes. I am thinking this is pretty similar to Sephora by OPI Blue Grotto…perhaps just a tiny bit darker. The formula on this was perfection: fairly opaque, buttery and shiny.

Overall, I love these polishes and might be picking up the other three just because these were so great. When I have posted about Sation polishes before, people have always asked me about where to purchase them locally. I usually directed people to the Miss website or transdesign, but now I hear that they will be carried at select TJ Maxx and Marshalls! I haven’t seen them there yet but I’m sure they will start popping up soon. Oh, and I’m sorry about the super shiny/greasy fingers! I was in serious need of cuticle oil, and I went a little overboard with my Solar Oil. Woops!

So what do you think of the Little Horse On The Prairie Collection? Have you purchased any of these polishes or will you? Thanks for the visit!