Haul of the Month: June 2013

Avon Vintage Blue
Avon Honeydew Dazzle

Colors by llarowe Angels Sing
Colors by llarowe Black Gold, Texas Tea

Cult Nails Bitten

Not many this time! Yay! I'm finally able to curb the spending and hauling.

See you guys on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Just a Little Reminder + An Achievement Unlocked!

Hi guys!

I was touring in France for 2 weeks. I got back late last night and have been trying to change my sleeping habits. I had lots of fun, food, and wine! :D Anyway, Google Reader is going to say goodbye to us tomorrow. Make sure you guys stay in the loop by liking my facebook page and/or following me on bloglovin'! I hope to continue seeing you guys!

facebook.

bloglovin'.

Also... While I was away, I reached 10,000+ pageviews! Thank you guys so much! It really means a lot to me that this blog is getting some love. <3

See you guys on the other side of the day!

Michelle

The Meme Week Nail Art Challenge: Day 7 - Ain't Nobody Got Time For That

Today is the last day of the Meme Week challenge, Ain't Nobody Got Time For That! This meme was inspired by Sweet Brown (aka Kimberly Wilkins). She was asked to describe the fire at her apartment complex and she retorted, "Ain't nobody got time for that!" The meme is used when mentioning any time-consuming task, such as reading the terms and conditions for anything.

For this mani, I decided to do something I kept putting off so I could swatch and do other nail art. I've seen variations of this mani on instagram and have wanted to do one ever since! The time is finally here! I chose to use cool pale colors in order to avoid copying the variations. I love how the finished mani looks like a pastel galaxy. It was completely unintentional!

I used Sally Hansen White Out as my base to ensure the colors I sponged on would be opaque. Using small pieces of a makeup sponge, I randomly sponged on China Glaze Re-fresh Mint (mint), Sinful Colors Sugar Rush (blue), Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac (purple), and Love & Beauty Pink (pink). The glitter topper is Candy Lacquer Balloons in the Air. I topped it all off with Poshe Super Fast-Drying Topcoat.

What do you guys think? Let me know!

See you guys on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Be sure to check out the other fabulous ladies who are participating in this challenge!

The Meme Week Nail Art Challenge: Day 6 - Condescending Wonka

Today is Day 6 of the Meme Week challenge, "Condescending Wonka"! This meme is used to mock or make sarcastic statements. I'm pretty indecisive about this one. Sometimes I like it and other times it's not my cup of tea.

For this mani, I drew inspiration from my favorite Willy Wonka candies as a child. :D The index has colors similar to the Laffy Taffy candies, the middle shows the Nerds candies' packaging, the ring is the Nerds Candy Rope (my favorite Willy Wonka candy!), and the pinky is the cross section of a gobstopper. Of course, I couldn't forget about the chocolate river and what Wonka is known for! My thumb features drips of chocolate on purple, the color of Wonka's signature suit.

Thumb: Essie Little Brown Dress (brown) and Sinful Colors Amethyst (purple). The drips were drawn with the second largest dotting tool.
Index: Love & Beauty Pink, Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby (red), Color Club Almost Famous (yellow), Sinful Colors Innocent (green), Sinful Colors Sugar Rush (blue), and Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac (lavender) over a base of Sally Hansen White On (white). The swirls were drawn with a small nail art brush.
Middle: I first painted on Amethyst (the purple side) and then Love & Beauty Fuchsia (the fushia side) using their brushes. I used a small dotting tool to make irregular blobs, using Wet 'n Wild On a Trip (medium purple) and Barry M Dragonfruit (medium pink).
Ring: I first painted on Ruby Ruby for the base. Using a small dotting tool, I used White On (white), Innocent (green), On a Trip (purple), Almost Famous (yellow), Sinful Colors Citrine (orange), and Sinful Colors Timbleberry (pink coral). 
Pinky: I used Almost Famous (yellow) as the base. Using a medium dotting tool, I used Ruby Ruby (red) to make the center of the gobstopper. With a small nail art brush, I used Innocent (green) to make the outer coating.

What do you guys think? What's your favorite Wonka candy? Let me know!

See you guys on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Be sure to check out the other fabulous ladies who are participating in this challenge!

The Meme Week Nail Art Challenge: Day 5 - Like a Sir

Today is Day 5 of the challenge, "Like a Sir"! The meme/saying is used whenever one feels as though one has just done something fancy. Another version of the catchphrase is "Like a Madam". However, the former is used in almost all cases, regardless of gender.

Today's mani features roses and a tea cup brimming with Earl Grey tea with milk and sugar. That is the only way I'll take Earl Grey and, more often than not, the only tea I drink. Talk about fancy, huh? Also, what better way to convey sophistication and chivalry than by commissioning one of England's national emblems, the Tudor Rose? Unfortunately, I didn't have a red creme with which to create the roses. I only had red crellies. (Can you believe that?!) Anyway, I really like how the tea cup turned out! I love the addition of the antique gold design.

For this mani, I used Barry M Lychee as the base. (Barry M is a polish line that hails from England.) I used Revlon Really Rosy and Sally Hansen White On for the roses and Color Club Artsy Crafty for the leaves. For the tea cup, I used White On for the body and Orly Solid Gold for the decorations. To resemble the appearance of how I prefer my Earl Grey, I mixed China Glaze Desert Sun and Lychee in a 1:1 ratio. I used 3 drops each to make enough to paint with, and a nail art brush to apply it. I topped everything off with Poshe Super Fast-Drying Topcoat.

My maternal grandma gave me this! :3

What do you guys think? Let me know!

See you guys on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Be sure to check out the other fabulous ladies who are participating in this challenge!

The Meme Week Nail Art Challenge: Day 4 - Cats

Today is Day 4 of the Meme Week challenge! It's all about cats! But let's be real here. The internet is pretty much a shrine that pays homage to cats. All the dog lovers are having fun outside, running alongside their best friends in the fields.

There are many cat memes out there, such as Nyan Cat and Grumpy Cat (my personal favorites). Along with Cheezburger Cat memes, these are the most popular and well-known. Grumpy Cat has even gone *le gasp* mainstream! She has been featured on the news and the general public has some idea of her existence. A lesser-known, but equally adored cat is Pusheen. (Go check out Pusheen's awesomeness!) I decided to feature Pusheen today in a very simple mani. I used NYC NEW YORK COLOR Sidewalkers for Pusheen's fur. For her features, I used Sally Hansen White On and Black Out and China Glaze Concrete Catwalk. For the chocolate chip cookie, I used China Glaze Desert Sun and Essie Little Brown Dress. I sealed everything with Poshe Super Fast-Drying Topcoat.

Here is the story behind my mani:

Pusheen is oh-so-cool, wearing sunglasses like a BOSS. Feeling tired from being such a BOSS, she enters the kitchen. Suddenly, she spies something out of the corner of her little eyes. *le gasp* A COOKIE. She stares at it. She knows her next meal is coming soon, but it feels like such an eternity to her. Also, Pusheen doesn't care. She's a BOSS. She then happily eats it, with cookie crumbs falling everywhere. Happily ever after.

So what do you guys think about this mani? Let me know!

See you guys on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Be sure to check out the other fabulous ladies who are participating in this challenge!

The Meme Week Nail Art Challenge: Day 3 - U Jelly?

Today is Day 3 of the Meme Week challenge! Today we were given the choice: to do the jelly sandwich or a mani everyone will envy. I decided to do a jelly sandwich because I love them so much and was itching to do a combination I long had in mind.

Instead of using a jelly polish as the "slices of bread", I used a sheer polish for a more delicate look. I used 2 coats of Revlon Whimsical, a lovely and delicate polish, for my base. I then used NYX Girl Dreamy Glitter. It was a bit difficult to use because I had to fish out the star glitters. I topped that with another 2 coats of Whimsical. I finished with 1 coat of Poshe fast-dry topcoat. The finished jelly sandwich made me feel like a princess prancing through a meadow of blooming wild flowers! :3

Though not white-balanced, I really like these pictures! They give off a very dainty, vintage feel.

What do you guys think? Let me know!

See you guys on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Be sure to check out the other fabulous ladies who are participating in this challenge!

The Meme Week Nail Art Challenge: Day 2 - Rage Faces

Welcome to the second day of the Meme Week challenge! Today's features rage faces, which are used in rage comics. There are many different types of rage faces, ranging from sadness to anger. The rage comics in which they are featured are usually about daily life occurrences. Often times they bring people closer together because of the protagonist's familiar situations. (And because it's sometimes just so fun to laugh at others' misfortunes.)

My interpretation of today's challenge features my absolute favorite rage faces! They are, from thumb to pinky: the troll face, the creepy me gusta face, the "fuuu" (extremely angry) face, the forever alone (you know who you are!), and "fuuu" from the "fuuu" rage face. My pinky was much too small for any rage face, and I also thought the "fuuu" would perfectly describe my frustration.

To do this mani, I resized pictures of the rage faces to fit my nails, printed them, and cut them out. I placed and adhered them onto my nail using clear polish and tried to smooth out the paper decals with a tweezer. I sealed the decals with 2 coats of topcoat. Unfortunately, the decals still wouldn't lay flatly on my curved nails, though Forever Alone was the most behaved. The smaller the decal, the better. However, I tried my best and persevered! Close enough! *insert corresponding rage face here* I originally wanted to paint the rage faces and then make my own polish decals (using the ziplock-bag-and-polish method), but those both failed. :( *insert "Okay" rage face here* I felt very mocked while doing this fail mani. It didn't help that the troll face kept catching my attention either.

I used OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls as my base and Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby for my pinky accent.

Please note the background meme.

What do you guys think? Let me know!

See you guys on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Be sure to check out the other fabulous ladies who are participating in this challenge!

The Meme Week Nail Art Challenge: Day 1 - All the Things!

For the first time ever, I am participating in a nail art challenge! I could not pass this one up because it combines my love for nail art and memes! I seriously cannot live without my memes. I've also been meaning to post more nail art. Anyway, this challenge lasts for one week. The names of the days are all meme-related, and I will explain each meme day in its corresponding post.

Today is the first day of the challenge, "All the Things". This meme typically has a guy holding a broom (he was taken from a comic about how he'll never become an adult and had to clean his room) and making overly enthusiastic statements, consisting of the common formula, "X all the Y!" Some examples of this meme in use are "Study all the things!" (usually said the day before the exam... Whoops.) and "Sleep all the day!" (usually said on the weekends after the grilling week - yes, I am a college student. You probably know where I'm coming from...)

I decided to "Use all (well, a lot of) the polishes!"and ended up using 47 polishes for this mani. (This number doesn't include my base, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.) I didn't want anything too complicated so I painted on hearts and polka dots. I used my polishes in the order they appear in my melmer, and only got to use three-fourths of the first drawer. :( I finished with a fast-dry topcoat. The polishes that grace the background are the ones I called on for their service. Some refused to be photographed, and I felt like I had to oblige.

What do you guys think? Let me know!

I am so excited to be back in mind and body! (My soul I've sacrificed to Science long ago...) See you guys on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Be sure to check out the other fabulous ladies who are participating in this challenge!