GRADUATION~!!

I just recently graduated from University which means I can start updating my blogs.  I might not upload past things I've used because they passed so long ago I have no idea what I want to say about them anymore, but we'll see.  As for today, I got a ton of graduation goodies to share.

Let's start with the outfit: 

Dress: "LC Lauren Conrad Floral Ruffle Chiffon Dress" from Kohls

Shoes: "Madden Girl Getta Pump - Nude" from DSW

Thoughts - I really love this dress.  I saw it online before I saw it in stores.  While I had a different dress in mind that I saw from the site and had hoped I would see in stores, I couldnt find them.  I tried on this dress and I ended up falling in love with it.  It's really flattering and fits just right.  The color is just how it's seen on the site, pinks and nudes.  And I really like the sheer shoulder straps as well.  There's a waist tie as well, but I tied it to the front instead of the back just so the back can be kept simple since the front has all the ruffles.  It landed about 2 or 3 inches above my knees, so it's longer than a mini skirt, but shorter than knee length (I'm 5'4" btw).  The only problem I had with it is the zipper which a lot of people have had problems as stated from the reviews on the site.  It would get stuck where the waist tie is and I assume it's because that's where the thickest amount of fabric is.

The shoes are really comfy.  They're about 3" heels, so they aren't too high.  I did a fair amount of walking and standing in these heels with no problem.  I had to get a half size smaller because the sizes run larger, but I was glad I got to try these on in store instead of ordering online.  Even though they are a perfect fit, I still had a problem with my heel slipping out of the shoe, but that's for any pair of pumps I own.  Me and my deformed heels haha.  Heel grips dont help either, or it just means I need to try a different brand of heel grips.  But nevertheless, these heels are a great addition to my slowly growing collection of shoes that I will never wear often :D

Makeup:

(Some of these are pictures that I've posted before, but now I can finally give a review.)

Eyeshadow: "Too Faced - Naked Eye Soft & Sexy Eye Shadow Collection" from Ulta ($20 promo)

Mascara: "Fairydrops - Volume Burst Mascara Waterproof" from Sasa

Cheeks: "Tarte - Amazonian Clay 12 Hour Blush - Wonder" from Ulta

*Not shown*

Eyelid primer: "Eyeshadow Primer Potion - Eden" by Urban Decay

Face primer: "Fix & Perfect Foundation Primer - 001" by Rimmel London

Foundation: "Lasting Finish 25 Hour Foundation - 200 and 201" by Rimmel London

Concealer: "Match Perfect Skin Tone Adapting Concealer" by Rimmel London

Powder: "Stay Matte Pressed Powder - Transparent 001" by Rimmel London

Lips: "tokidoki Prisma Lip Gloss - Donutella (nude)" from Sephora 

Thoughts - As you can see I love Rimmel London.  For me, it's the best drugstore brand that my skin can take.  Doesn't break me out, does a great job in coverage and the colors... closesly match my skin tone.  I've been experimenting with the foundation.  I currently mix two colors to get my skin tone.  And I see they have expanded their powder selection so I might be going for a colored powdered again as well. 

I really love this Too Faced palette.  I stopped using my tokidoki palette and started using this one as a my "go-to" eye makeup.  It's just as the name says.  It's soft in color, very subtle, yet it still has this sensual, "sexy" feel to it.  This particular palette did not come with the applicator drawer, but I like it this way since it's smaller and easier to travel with if I need to.

I'm not sure if I reviewed the Fairydrops mascara yet, but i'm half and half with this one.  I like that it maintains the curls as people have reviewed before with the ORIGINAL Japanese Fairydrops mascara.  What I dont like is that you can totally see the fibers on your eyelashes.  They don't separate the lashes too much so they get kind of spidery.  I use a mascara comb to comb out what I can, but this mascara dries quick which makes it hard to fan out the lashes.

Nails:

- Milani Nail Art (with precision brush) in Art of Silver

- Nailene French Manicure Kit (base color polish and white polish)

- E.L.F.  Clear glitter polish

- China Glaze Lush & Luxe (from the Hunger Games collection)

- Daiso mini nail beads 

- Seche Vite top coat

I know it's bad to keep old nail polishes, but I used them anyways since I still had them.  The white was pretty much thickening up, so currently I'm in search of a new white polish.

I had the intention of doing an asymmetric french tip, but I they didn't turn out the way I wanted it to, so I just did them on my thumb and ring fingers. I added the beads to the lining and for the other nails I did a standard french tip and lined it with the silver polish.  The whites of the nail had originally been painted with Lush & Luxe but I realized that it didn't look right to me, so I added the Elf glitter polish over it instead and on my other hand it was just the Elf glitter polish.

They turned out pretty well and they lasted for more than a week before the beads started to fall off (I love Seche Vite top coat >_<).

-----

Well that's it for the graduation post!  Hopefully I can do some more NOTW when I start doing my nails again, or reviews or OOTD.  But I'm not so trendy, so we'll see what comes out next. Check out my travel blog when I update it with my next trips!

NOTW: 2011-04-13

Nail of the Week
April 13, 2011
(I know the dates aren't showing up literally weekly, but I use the date when I either do them or when I upload the pictures from my camera)


It's the time for Cherry Blossoms to bloom and what's a great way to celebrate but to do some nail art of cherry blossoms~ (and YES my NOTW have actually caught up!)

What I used:

- N.Y.C In a New York Minute Quick Dry Nail Polish - 212 Mulberry Street
- N.Y.C In a New York Minute Quick Dry Nail Polish - 234 Wall Street
- Milani Nail Art (with precision brush) in Black Sketch and White Canvas
- Toothpicks

(Left: Wall Street (pink), Right: Mulberry Street (nude/tan))

I just bought these from Target last week (literally last week lol) just to be able to do these nails.  I wanted some inexpensive nail polish since I'm not a big fan of pink and went straight for NYC.  I was looking through the 99cent polishes but couldn't find a nice pink color.  I noticed that NYC had a new collection of quick drying polishes for about $1.99 and decided to give it a go.  I'm not particularly fond in using NYC since they do only last about a day or two and then begin to chip, but I was pleasantly surprised at how nice these were.

Let's start with Mulberry Street.  The color is this shiny, nude, almost tan color which I was drawn to when I was looking through the collection.  The color comes out way nicer than the bottle appears.  One coat wasn't enough to cover the entire nail completely but a 2nd coat did the job, but I applied a 3rd coat for maximum color.  The only problem was that because I used 3 coats, it took longer than a minute to dry, but they do dry quick.  I absolutely love this color and am certainly going to use this often as a base color for some of the art, but also as just a put on and go polish when I don't feel like doing anything special.

Wall Street is a nice pink shade, but I would never use it as a full nail color, probably not even for the tips either.  Like I said, I'm not a big fan of pink, but I wouldn't mind wearing it as long as it was the right shade of pink for my liking.  I'm not particular of this shade, but wouldnt mind using it for flowers or accents.  I used this pink as the petals for cherry blossoms and it took more than one dot to apply to get the color to show.  If I were to apply these to my natural nail, they probably would be barely visible so it's a good thing I had a base color for it to show.  Definitely not going to use this color aside from small details.

 

So how I did my nails was apply the Mulberry Street color as the base, allowed it to dry and drew random lines for branches across all my nails.  Using the toothpick I dotted the Wall Street pink color into a box shape with 4 dots.  I wanted to make them with 5 dots and wing them out to make actual cherry blossoms, but the dots came out bigger than expected so I just kept them as is.  Once adding the flowers, I added some random white dots all over the nail.

I was very happy to show these off at the SF Cherry Blossom festival and yes I'm still rocking these nails today.  I've had these on for about 5 days now and the polish is still holding up.  I'm very surprised and am considering buying some more NYC In a New York Minute polishes when I get a chance to.  On their website they have this very pretty turquoise color that I want a get a chance to see in person, and also a red and white.

Note:  You like how I take these pictures before I clean up the sides? Haha

NOTW: 2011-03-26

Nail of the Week
March 26, 2011
(I know the dates aren't showing up literally weekly, but I use the date when I either do them or when I upload the pictures from my camera)

*Note: I skipped nail art on March 18 to let my nails breathe a bit

These nails were inspired for my favorite baseball team, the Oakland Athletics.  The new season was starting so I decided to add to my A's gear by incorporating my nails as well.

What I used:

- Milani Nail Art (with precision brush) in Art of Gold
- Milani Nail Art (with precision brush) in Yellow Design
- Milani Nail Art (with precision brush) in Green Sketch

- Nailene French Manicure (base color polish and acrylic strong top coat)

 

I was happy to get a chance to use the Yellow and Green polishes that I had got from Target in February.  Once it hit the week of opening day games, I decided to paint my nails.  Because the green is pale in comparison to the teams actual green color, I decided against doing what I originally planned which I'll leave as a surprise until I get the actual color I want.  I was a little hesitant to use the yellow at first, but the yellow color is actually really close to the new yellow (or gold) color jerseys the A's are wearing this season.

Okay, let's get down to it.  I painted my thumb first just to test out the colors and I loved the way it looked, until I stared at it too long and realized what it reminded me of:

 It reminded me of a volleyball

Yeah I know, what?! But really, it reminded me of a volleyball, but decided to keep going and painted the rest of my nails.  When I was done I wasn't as happy with it as I should have been and removed it a day later.  They didn't even get to be showcased during the Giants vs. A's exhibition.  I couldn't stand looking at them and not because it reminded me of a volleyball, I just didn't like the way it looked and it's mainly because of the green color.

The Milani yellow and green stripers were a great addition to my collection, I just wish that the green was darker.  The green will have great use for the spring and summer when I start designing flower art, we'll see how I'll be able to incorporate these colors in the future.

NOTW: 2011-03-11

Nail of the Week
March 11, 2011
(I know the dates aren't showing up literally weekly, but I use the date when I either do them or when I upload the pictures from my camera)


Wanted to use the same colors as last week's style.  Since I wasn't completely satisfied the week before, I thought I'd do something I knew I'd be happy with which are stripes.

What I used:

- China Glaze 867 Re-fresh Mint

- China Glaze 550 Aqua Baby

- Milani Nail Art (with precision brush) in Art of Silver

- Nailene French Manicure

- Toothpicks

 

It used the same materials as the last NOTW, but this time I painted the pointer and ring nails white.  I decided to do stripes this time.  so I painted diagonal lines starting with the green and then used the blue since it could overlap the green color without having it look as if i painted over the color (does that make sense?).  I used the silver striper to define the lines better, then took a toothpick and dotted diagonally on the white parts of the nail.

 

 

This nail design, along with the black and white nails from December 18, are probably my favorite.  I wanted to keep these nails longer than a week, but the white started to chip, so I decided to just remove them.  It was actually a great idea to do that too since the blue color is actually dark enough to actually stain your nails.  My nails had a hint of blue after removal.  It wasn't stained for too long, but it was enough to stain them which I'm not particularly familiar with since I usually use light colors (which is strange considering the black I use doesn't stain)

*Note to self:  I really need to start making names for my nail sets

NOTW: 2011-03-03

Nail of the Week
March 3, 2011
(I know the dates aren't showing up literally weekly, but I use the date when I either do them or when I upload the pictures from my camera)

*Note: I skipped nail art on February 24.

I did these nails before my sister's birthday dinner.  No real inspiration, just thought I'd have fun with it since I really wanted to use these colors.

What I used:

- China Glaze 867 Re-fresh Mint

- China Glaze 550 Aqua Baby

- Milani Nail Art (with precision brush) in Art of Silver

- Nailene French Manicure

- Toothpicks

After doing the basics of a base coat and base color, i painted my middle nail completely white.  It took about 3 or 4 coats to get it completely white and because There were many layers, it became a pain for it to dry (not to self: invest in a white polish NOT meant for the tips) and since it was thick, when the surface dried, the middle was still soft.

I painted the tips asymmetrically (like always), but alternated colors.  the index and ring are painted solid of either Re-Fresh Mint or Aqua Baby.  The pinky and thumb are swiped one way with each of the colors.  Using a toothpick, I dotted the color in a straight line on the middle nail.  I used the silver striper to line the "smile line" of the tips.

I really liked these nails, but I also didn't paint them neatly so they didn't look as nice as I had hoped.  I really love the combination of the 2 colors, which is probably why I was so drawn to these 2 colors in the first place when I purchased them. 

NOTW: 2011-02-12

Nail of the Week
February 12, 2011
(I know the dates aren't showing up literally weekly, but I use the date when I either do them or when I upload the pictures from my camera)

What I used:

- Milani Nail Art (with precision brush) in Black Sketch

- Nailene French Manicure (base color polish and acrylic strong top coat)

- N.Y.C 105A Starry Silver Glitter


Took the mani from January 11, 2011, and instead just the tips I did diagonal tips (I should really think of a name to call these kind of tips).

 

I really need to buy a black polish with a regular nail brush haha, but for now this will do.  I really like these nails, but not sure if I'll be doing black nails anytime soon since it's spring, but hey.. nothings wrong with having dark nails even during spring and summer, so we'll see :)

Random Buy

So I'm out shopping at Target like usual and I always stop by the cosmetics section, whether I'm picking something up or checking out new products and come across some clearance items from Milani Cosmetics.
Some of their polishes were actually on sale and I couldn't help but buy some.  They ran out of all the holographic colors (which is what I initially wanted to try), but noticed that 3 of the Nail Art polishes were on clearance as well.

 

(Left: Yellow Design, Right: Green Sketch)

There were 5 colors left, Black, White, Yellow, Green and Orange.  Since I already have the black and white, I decided to pick up the green and yellow colors.  I was going to buy green and yellow polishes for the upcoming baseball season from China Glaze, but I think that's going to have to wait since I got these two for now.

Looking at the colors from the outside, the yellow looks really bold which will be nice (since the A's have a yellow jersey this season) but the green color looks a bit paler than I'd like, hopefully it'll come out darker.
I can't wait to try these, but it seems its going to have to wait until maybe March.

NOTW: 2011-01-29

Nail of the Week
January 29, 2011
(I know the dates aren't showing up literally weekly, but I use the date when I either do them or when I upload the pictures from my camera)


I wanted to try out one of the new polishes I bought and decided to use the re-fresh mint color first.  It really stood out to me from the beginning, so I couldn't wait to try it!

What I used:

- China Glaze 867 Re-fresh Mint

- Milani Nail Art (with precision brush) in Black Sketch

- Nailene French Manicure (base color polish and acrylic strong top coat)

- Nailene Nail Guides

- Nailene Bedazzle Nail Art

Like always, base coat then base color.  I used 2 coats of the base color this time and after allowing it to dry i used the Nailene nail guides to design an asymmetrical tip nail.  I Painted the tips accordingly with two coats of the China Glaze polish  and allowed to dry.

 

Peeling off the guides became a problem.  The base coat started peeling off 4 of my nails as I removed the guides, but luckily I was able to touch it up without starting all over.  After the touch-up, i added a black outline and added some nail decals to the middle nail and the thumb.  Also added 2 coats of the Nailene top coat. 

Originally, I intended to keep the nail as is with just the green and that's it which is why I used the guides for a clean tip, but I thought the color was a little faint to just keep it as is and added the black line.

  

(picture right after it was done, not touched up yet)

 

 (Left: without cleaning up the side of nails, Right: After cleaning up*)

*sorry about the light, i used the backlight function instead of flash.

I really liked the color when it was on my nails.  It actually looks like the color straight out of the bottle, which doesn't happen all the time.  I also like how this particular color doesn't have a shimmer to it, so it gives a nice smoothness to it.  What also wasn't intentional was that the color of the polish actually matched my hoodie when I was doing my nails.  it didn't hit me until I started taking pictures and caught my sleeve on camera.

These lasted for the week and I could tell could have lasted longer. 

Upon removing the polish, I had no problems until it came to removing the decals, which I have stated before that they are hard to remove.  I used the foil and cotton ball method to removing it, they dissolved enough to "peel" off the decal, but that also meant I still had to clean up the polish underneath as well.

NOTW: 2011-01-21

Nail of the Week
January 21, 2011

Since it's the first week of school, I wanted something fun to try with my nails.  I ended up doing an asymmetrical french tip nail using the China Glaze polish I bought a couple weeks ago.

What I used:

- China Glaze 689 Emotion

- Milani Nail Art (with precision brush) in Black Sketch

- Nailene French Manicure (base color polish and acrylic strong top coat)

 

I did a base coat and the base color polish the night before doing the tips (which was probably a bad idea).  The next day when adding the color, I took the China Glaze polish and did a high slope swipe on one side of the nail and did a short slope swipe on the other side of the nail.  When dried, I added a black lining to the tips.  For the high slop, i made the lining pass the intersection and on the other side, i made the line touch the other.  And of course add a top coat when dried.

 The nails turned out fine until i put on the top coat.  I guess I didnt wait long enough for the black polish to dry because it actually bled and smeared when I put it on (which happens).  Something that I would have changed was to make the high sloping side thicker, which I'll try again with a different polish (I already have an idea in my mind).

I was debating about returning the "Emotion" color because I didnt like the way it looked on my nails when I applied it to the whole nail.  But as I've stated before, I'm not a big fan of painting the whole nail.  When I tested out putting it on the tips, I really liked the color after all and I love how it's shimmery.

I was a bit disappointed with the polish itself, but it was particularly my own fault.  I only applied one coat, which, when painted, looked good enough.  There was no streaking, it was not opaque, it actually looked fine.  However, the polish started to rub off after a day or two, so I had to do touch ups.

The mistake I made was applying the base polish coat the night before.  Being without the top coat and dealing with everyday business, ended up making it peel within a couple days after I DID apply the polish.  I'm not sure if that makes sense, but lets just say, it started peeling really badly.

NOTW: 2011-01-10

Nail of the Week

January 11, 2011

I didn't design these for any particular reason, I just needed a new color, and thought I'd go with black tips this time.  I wasn't particularly feeling just a black tip so I added some glitter polish over the black and outlined the smile line with more glitter.

What I used:

- Milani Nail Art (with precision brush) in Black Sketch and Art of Silver

- Nailene French Manicure (base color polish and acrylic strong top coat)

- N.Y.C 105A Starry Silver Glitter

Of course, start off with a base coat, and then apply the base color polish.  Using the Milani nail art in black sketch, i painted the tips of the nails free hand.  When completely dry, I applied the NYC glitter polish in vertical strokes trying to get the larger pieces of glitter of the tips. I then applied an outline using the Art of Silver polish to each nail.  When everything was dry, a top coat was applied.

(Sorry for the crappy quality of pictures)

These were very simple, but I really liked them and would love to do them again like this.

NOTW: 2010-12-18

Nail of the Week:

December 18, 2010

I was looking at fuckyeahnailart tumblr and was inspired to make these nails.  I was a little hesitant at first to do the nails like this, since it was the first time I've done them this way, but I loved the way they turned out and these were my favorite NOTW by far.

I designed these nails for my niece's first birthday party.  Originally there was supposed to be Mickey and Minnie mouse heads painted on the middle finger nail, but there was some major complications, so i decided to make them stripey.

What I used:

- Milani Nail Art (with precision brush) in Black Sketch and White Canvas

- Nailene French Manicure (base color polish and acrylic strong top coat)

- Clear sticker rhinestones (from Nailene)

As always, a base coat was applied as well as a base color polish.  The same was used from the week before.  I originally used the Nailene French Manicure white tip polish to do the whites on the nail, but the polish was not only coming out streaky, but also faint (needed about 3 coats for a nice stand-out white).  I ended up using the Milani White Canvas polish to paint all the whites in the nail which not only turned out better than I expected, but easier to paint in.

Once the white dried, I painted black streaks as an outline, added a clear rhinestone at the tips of the nail where the diagonal line ended and in the case of the middle nails, i put them in the rhinestone in the middle.  I also added some simple decorations to the thumb, middle finger and pinky.

NOTW: 2010-12-11

Nail of the Week
December 11, 2010

I designed these nails for a Christmas luncheon I had with my cousins.  I wanted to try something different since I usually just do a regular white french tip. 

What I Used: 

- Milani Nail Art (with precision brush) in Black Sketch, White Canvas and Art of Silver

- Nailene French Manicure (base color polish and acrylic strong top coat)

 

Firstly, I applied a base coat on my nails.  In fact, I actually used the Nailene acrylic strong top coat as the bottom coat.  After letting it dry, I applied the base color polish first.
When that dried, I applied a quick swipe of Milani's Black Sketch over one side of the tips of my nails.  When that dried, I applied a quick swipe of Mlani's White Canvas over the other side of the tips of my nail, overlapping over the black.

I took the Art of Silver polish and drew a thin line, outlining the smile line on my nails as well as a small line separating the black and the white. Once everything was dry, I applied the top coat and this was what the outcome was.

 

I wore these for a week, but they could have lasted longer.  Removing the silver polish was tough (as is any type of glitter polish) so you have to be patient when trying to remove it or you'll damage your nail.  

These were great for a twist of the classic French manicure.

Wedding Nails (mini-review)

Finally, I'm putting up the pictures of the nails i did for my sister's wedding.  I mentioned that this were to be a tutorial, but in the midst of decorating and painting, I just forget to take pictures step by step, so you'll see what I've done here and there, but its not really a tutorial, it's more of a "what i've done over time" picspam.  

I need to mention that I am (or was) fairly new to using the nail art brushes, which is why the designs came out sloppily, but removing the polish to start over also cannot be done as it'll ruin the nails itself.

Here I used:

- Milani Nail Art (with precision brush) in Black Sketch, White Canvas and Art of Gold

- Nailene Nail Studio in Burgundy/Maroon

 

Milani Nail Art polishes (with Art of Silver included)

 

Nails placed (in order) on a nail stand

  

Paint the thumb and ring finger nails white

        

The inspiration for the nail design are the flowers on the right which is the wedding print

I really liked my first attempt at nail designing this way, however, it could have been done better.  But with a little practice, it'll get better.

I might as well make this a mini-review since I wont be coming back to this anytime soon.
I was really happy that the Nailene Nail Studio nails came in that color.  It was just a coincidence that they matched the color scheme to my sister's wedding.  The only problem I had with it was that the color was a bit faded, it didn't have that shine that nail polish typically had.  I'm not a big fan of painting my whole nail (I stand by french manicures!), which is why I ended up painting them up with the design of the wedding.

This was the first time I got a chance to use the Milani Nail Art polishes and I LOVE them.  The brushes are very thin and long so you can make nice 'swishy' strokes, but because the brushes were long, it was difficult for me to draw the flowers on.

When it was time to put them on, it was the worst experience I've had with artificial nails. I put these on the night before the wedding.  They were perfectly fine when I went to bed, but when I woke up I was already missing one.  Luckily for me, it was still in my bed.  So I applied the glue on once more, next thing you know, a different nail pops off.  Also, another and so on and so on throughout the day.  It was horrible.  I only ended up wearing these for that day, and that was it.

It might be the fact that the nails fit rather oddly to my nail bed as opposed to the Nailene So Real nail set.  Overall, the Nailene Nail Studio nails I don't think I'll ever try again, but I'll be getting the Milani nail art polishes again and hopefully in the other colors as well