A's Fanfest NOTW

I'm not sure if you noticed by now, but I'm a huge Oakland A's Fan!  I've been coming to games regularly since 2001 (earliest memory from 1999) and been to A's Fanfest almost every year since 2004.  I decided to dress my nails up this year to fit with the theme.  While I ended up doing an entirely different set than I had anticipated, they still turned out great!

 In the end, I decided on going with an asymmetrical french manicure, with an accent nail of a baseball.  I was thinking of doing the A's logo again, but I ran short of time since I did them the night before.  They turned out great and were even noticed by one of the A's players!

Bonus Pics from the event:

 

1970's memorabilia set-up in the Bow Tie Lounge

 

Big Head Mascots taking pics with the fans: (L-R: Rollie Fingers, Dennis Eckersley, Ricky Henderson)

Was walking by and saw Sonny Gray and Chris Gimenez signing autographs

 

After leaving my autograph session with Ariel Prieto and Yoenis Cespedes.  

I was so nervous I didnt bother taking pictures in there haha!

[Ariel was the one that noticed my nails and told Cespedes to look at them!!]

 

The goods I walked away with that day.  I was missing my autographed baseball card from Tommy Milone since my brother was carrying it for me and I got home before he did.

Such a fun day!  Very tiring and overly crowded this year, but nonetheless, definitely a great start to the baseball season and cant wait for Opening Day!

Past NOTW + bonus pics

Just a few of the past NOTW I've had.  I think I've mentioned before that with my previous job, I wasn't allowed to have much of a dramatic nail set.  So the ones from 2013 were only worn for a few days.

 Easter egg nails for Easter 2013

 Oakland A's 2013 Opening Day.

These I only wore for 1 day before removing them.  It's such a shame too. I spent forever making that A's logo.  I might give it another go again this year!

 Christmas 2013. It's a little hard to see the tree because of the colors I used.

 Tinkerbell Half Marathon 2014 - Minnie inspired nails to go with the occasion!

My sister ran the half marathon at Disneyland and thought I'd dress up the nails to match Disney~

I just bought these Nail art brushes from Daiso. They were the last ones on the rack so I decided to grab them.  I didnt even know they sold these there.  The lady at the register even took a look at it before handing it to me haha.

That's it for now.  Not much of an update, but thought I'd post up something while I still had some free time. Real updates to come within the next few weeks, especially since I'll be receiving my monthly boxes and need to be heading to ULTA very soon!

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: 2011-05-18

Nail of the Week
May 18, 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)

Was a little bored, and tried to use a different technique this time.

What I used:

- OPI - Navy Blue (not sure about color#/name)
- Wet n Wild - 469 Hallucinate (clear with silver glitter)
- OPI - Rapid dry top coat
- Sponge, cut from a foundation sponge

 I'm going to write this quick since I'm getting sleepy.
I used the sponge and dabbed it on my nail tips to get a bit of a gradient look.  They also go above the smile line.  To make the blue a little darker, I applied a bit more polish at the tips using the brush which really did help in the gradient effect.  When the color dried, I applied the glitter polish over it, just one coat and then applied a top coat after it dried.

These nails lasted for about 2 weeks before the chipping of the polish got really bad. 
As much as I like the Rapid dry top coat that OPI has, I find that it works more like a clear layer of polish rather than protecting it.  Polish tends to peel off when I use that top coat. and when I mean peel, i mean PEEL. like, I can peel off the entire nail color without it chipping or ripping.

I really liked these nails, and I'm glad they lasted as long as they did.  I just wish that the top coat wasn't as bad as it is.



*Currently, my nails have been naked since this last look.  My nails are very brittle right now, not sure why since I havent had a problem before.  They've been peeling, usually it'd only be one of my nails, but a few of them have been peeling.  So not only are my nails naked, they are also short.  I don't usually like doing one color polishes (which I've said before), but since I got those new eLF polishes, I might as well try it out.

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: 2011-04-03

Nail of the Week
April 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)


Wanted some spring inspired nails and since I bought these new nail art pearls/beads specially for a spring nail, I decided to just go with it with this design.  I didn't really have a game plan, but they turned out better than I expected.

What I used:

- China Glaze 867 Re-fresh Mint

- Nailene French Manicure

- "Nail Accessory" Pearls from Daiso Japan

Used Re-fresh mint on the thumb and ring finger and painted the rest o them white.  Instead of doing a french tip inspired manicure, I did a moon mani inspired nail set instead.

After the nails had dried, I took a clear polish and painted it only over the moon parts of the nail and started adding pearls in the moon shape.  The thumb and ring nails are in a traditional moon while the others are actually tilted a couple degrees.  I used 4 different colors: yellow on the green nails (of course), blue, green and pink.

I was satisfied with the way they turned out, but I didn't like them enough to keep them more than a week.

When I saw these in Daiso, I just had to get them (along with another nail art kit which I'll show some other time).  Having the ability to buy inexpensive nail art just made me jump to get them without hesitation.  I spent a good chunk of time in that section of the store trying to decide what I should get.  They were only a  $1.50 and the quality is pretty awesome.  A couple of them fell off after being snagged in my hair (my hair ate them) when I was showering but that was the only problem I had with them which wasn't the pearls fault, it was mainly the top coat I used to secure them.

Daiso has really great inexpensive stuff.  It's a great "dollar" store to buy pretty much anything you want and I certainly tend to buy something everytime I leave the store and the beauty stuff is a great steal (I just recently bought false eyelashes which I'll review when I get to try them).

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 :)

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.