Nights through the Window

I have this odd thing where I love the night air; especially in the Autumn and Winter. There's a slight smokey quality to it that just soothes me. It's a calming sensation for me, just like hearing the water lap at the piers down in San Francisco. I've always loved that smell as far as I can remember and so even on cold nights I'll leave my window open slightly just to get a whiff of that night air. Of course I could go outside, but that's where a bit of laziness kicks in. Anyhow, this love for the night air isn't going to go anywhere for a long while, but when bugs start trying to find a way into my room, it's time to shut the window.

Carmel

Spring Break happened to be about a month ago and I realized I never put up pictures of my family's day trip to Carmel. It's a small town not too far from Monterey, which I really recommend going to if you love the cold ocean beach side setting and you love small downtown shopping areas. It's probably one of my favorite downtown shopping areas to visit because there's plenty of hidden places with gorgeous layouts and beautiful scenery. They're all about advertising local businesses too.

Belated Spring post - Essie Shine of the Times

My motivation to update this blog went dramatically down with all the work I have to do in my research class. I finally get a breather after a month and realized how many times I painted my nails and took pictures, but never bothered to put the pictures up! (whoops...) So I decided to pick my favorite one and post it up since I'm not wearing any today. Got to let those nails breathe once in awhile right?

Base coat - Sally Hansen Hard as Nails
One coat of Arezia (purple) with Essie Shine of the Time layered over it
Top coat - Seche Vite 

I really love the Arezia polish, which was a gift from my sister from her trip to Hong Kong last summer. It's such a delicate shade of purple that's perfect for Spring. And plus...it's a one coater! So of course it's my instant go to polish for Spring :)

Once I added the Essie Shine of the Times though...WOW!! I think I fell in love with this combination at first sight. Too bad my camera fails at capturing it's beauty.
I was also really surprised that by the end of the fifth day, I barely had any chips considering how many times I washed dishes that week. (I have a bad habit of never using gloves.) It made me feel guilty for taking it off the next day *laughs*

I tried my best to capture the flakie color combination. Isn't it pretty?

Sea Dust

I went to the Roseville Galleria a few weeks back with a friend and explored out of curiosity. It's a really nice  Westfield mall and sooo much easier to navigate compared to the San Francisco one for a first time experience! That being said, we discovered there were more shops on the outside and I went in to check out a Urban Outfitters that I saw. I love their accessories and bags, but they're always outside of my price range!! But on the nice side they were having a deal on their nail polishes. 2 for $8. And there were two particular shades that caught my eye so I snatched them up without giving it a second thought. The one I'm showing is Sea Dust. It's a pretty sea green glitter polish that I haven't seen before and my friend agreed it was unique. I read some reviews on it after I got back and discovered it was sheer, so I went ahead and layered it over a different polish with the same color tones.

It's soo pretty! But I think this polish is more suited for summer. This was two layers of Urban Outfitters (Sea Dust) over one layer of FingerPaints(Tiffany Imposter) 

An upclose shot of what the polish looks like in the bottle. I really love these square bottles, they feel quite sturdy compared to the China Glaze bottles.

Belated Valentine's

I had so many exams the past week that I never got around to posting my Valentine's Day nails. Studying for three exams back to back really kill's one motivation to do anything days after though...

I decided to simple and do a light pink with some heart glitter for an accent. It was surprisingly time consuming and frustrating, but I don't really want to talk about that.

The polishes I used for my nails. The Color Club pink nail polish was really sheer. What you see on my nails is four coats and I could still see my nail line. Drying time was nice though. After that I actually applied the Seche Vite top coat before doing the accent.
The other nail polish I used is called Island Girl (Big Wave). Island Girl polishes can only be found in Hawaii or the ABC store in Las Vegas which is where I got this polish from last summer.

It's pretty isn't it? Too bad, it's a pain to apply. You have to fish around for those heart pieces one by one literally. *sigh* However the polish itself gave my nails a very interesting appearance. I don't know how to even describe it, but I like it so much that I applied it to all my nails.

Post Chinese New Years

Oh my goodness, I'm really behind on posting my holiday nails. But better late than never, I hope. For my Chinese New Years nails, it turns out that I'm not big on red nail polish. I like red, but not the vibrant red associated with Chinese New Year celebrations. I'm more of a dark red or autumn-ish red. Though funny enough, I'm wearing a bright red shirt right now *laughs*  And in my entire collection of nail polish, I only own one red. Spoiled (Pick Your Poison). In the bottle it looks dark, but once you apply it to your nails...WOW. 

This was one coat of Spoiled (Pick Your Poison) layered with Essie (Shine of the Times). And sorry for the lighting. It was overcast when I took these pictures. So no sunlight :(

I really don't know about this shade on my hand...it's a tad too red for my taste.

(Under artificial lighting) And there you go! The festive gold and red colors of Chinese New Years! Sorry it looks a bit green in this lighting, but I promise you it did not have that appearance in the sunlight! 

belated January blues

So I ended up taking a picture of my present nail color because I went home and used my sister's camera which has much better resolution than mine >.<  I've had my camera for about 5-6 years, while my sister has had hers for a little less than a year...so you'll definitely see a difference in camera quality. And I think I mentioned this in my previous blog post, but January unintentionally became blue themed. *laughs* I guess I better make February red themed.

[Early January, post wisdom teeth surgery]

This was two coats of Orly(Porcelain) with one layer of Sinful Colors(Cinderella) over it. My pictures do it no justice sadly, because it was a beauty to the naked eye! I'm not a fan of the formula of SC(Cinderella) since it takes forever to dry, but I always end up overlooking it since this blue is just so pretty. I know a lot of people have done reviews on SC(Cinderella) so I just tried my best to show off the pretty gold shimmer it has. It really reminds me of the formal dress I wore sophomore year of high school.

[Mid-late January nails]

OHMYGAWD THIS COLOR!!! *coughs* ...sorry, but after receiving this lovely color for Christmas from my cousin, I knew I had to wear it sometime soon. I believe that is 2 layers of Essie Mesmerise on my nails, but I don't actually recall. Anyhow, it's a beautiful blue and I was lucky that the sunlight was streaming in at the time I decided to take pictures. (Forgive me, I haven't been taking great care of my cuticles...)

 These pictures actually reflect what it would look like in person. In the bottle, I wasn't too sure, but on my nails, I totally fell in love with it. Another cousin thought it was similar to a Tardis blue, but I really doubt it. At least not from the newer Doctor Who seasons. (I really could not stop staring at my nails whenever I was in the sunlight)

And last, but not least is my current nail color. Two layers of Revlon(Royal) with one layer of  Essie(Shine of the Times) for accent nail! I was a bit surprised how many people said they loved the color considering I've worn this before, but then again I never get tired of this shade of blue either. This one lasted about 4.5 days without any real wear. (There was a little bit of shrinkage due to the Seche Vite top coat I used...but I still love its drying speed)

Got the blues.

I'm still following a blue trend with my nails right now, but I haven't had time to upload the pictures. As of current I just applied my favorite blue polish - Revlon Royal. Can't stop staring at my nails at the moment. I probably won't take pictures of it though since I decided to try square nails and it didn't come out exactly perfect. *ugh*
Hopefully I'll get the pictures up tomorrow night...

Christmas and post Christmas updates

It seems with all the holiday events, I forgot to update this blog with some nail designs and other pictures. Not to mention I got my wisdom teeth pulled recently, so I'm still a bit out of it *ow...*
However I have three nail designs to show to make up for absence. Two designs for Christmas and one for the New Year!

This nail design I did for a Christmas party, but I ended up not going to it because I caught a cold. 

I used FingerPaints - Go Van Gogh for the base and applied a layer of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength - Diamond over that. It was quick and simple. And very Christmas-y in my opinion :)

It's hard to see the glimmer, but I tried my best to catch it with the lighting in my room and once in the daylight (bottom pic) In the right lighting it has an almost frosty look to it.

(Merry Christmas)

This nail design, I had my sister help me because I fail at stripes and there was no way I could do the Christmas tree design on my own. The index and ring finger have a base coat of FingerPaints - Go Van Gogh (2 layers). The thumb, middle and pinky finger have a base coat of Orly - Au Champagne (2 coats). 

For the snowy image on the index and ring finger, my sister used Migi Nail art pens to dot the "snow". The candy cane image on the middle and pinky finger, my sister helped me apply the tape on those fingers and apply Spoiled - Pick Your Poison for the red stripes. (We had to redo this after discovering that red should never be a base coat if you plan to put a lighter color polish on top of that).

As for the cute Christmas tree design my sister did :) she used Migi nail art pens. The Christmas lights on the tree consist of yellow, orange and red.

(Happy New Year!!)

Sorry, I only have one lousy picture for this since I was in a lazy mood at the time. But I really wanted something more flashy, but totally "me" for the New Years celebration, so I chose Orly - Royal Navy. I got my hands on that polish just recently and went crazy because I love blue and it is just a beauty to have!! Application wasn't as easy as some bloggers have commented. I used three coats for coverage and ended up with a satin finish similar to Orly - Au Champagne (still in love with it however). And just for a little bit more spaz, I added Color Club - Snow-flake (2 layers) on top of that. I can't tell you how much that combination had me mesmerized! Unfortunately I had to take it off before I went in for my wisdom teeth surgery. But now that that's over with, I can play around with another color. Just got to decide on which one I want to use next...