NOTW: ST. PATRICK'S NAIL #5

this is supposed to be the last nail color of my St. Patrick's Day nail series but I got really busy on Thursday & totally forgot to post it...

so for my St. Patty's nail #5

GREEN OCEAN

on

LIQUID LEATHER

PRODUCT BREAKDOWN:

Nail Magic Nail Hardener (base coat)

China Glaze Liquid Leather (base color)

Sinful Colors Green Ocean 

Nailene Acrylic Strong (top coat)

3 coats of Liquid Leather

2 coats of Green Ocean

I think two coats was a little bit too much, in my opinion... I shoulda settled for one but I got curious as to how it would look like... I guess it's ok but it's a little bit overkill on the flakies no?

some more crappy pictures... why can't I take a clearer more focused pictures like them other nail bloggers??? I'm so jealous! someone need to show me how dammit!! LOL

now that I got the greens out of the way I can finally move on to the funner Spring colors!! yay!!

hmmm... which color to do next???

NOTD: ST. PATRICK'S NAIL #1

to kinda join in on the fun of celebrating St. Patrick's this month, I'm gonna be doing nails dedicated to the color of this event - Green!! so the first one would be a very pretty nail polish that sadly, was almost forgotten....

China Glaze:

RE-FRESH MINT

PRODUCTS USED:
Sally Hansen Double Duty Base & Top Coat
China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint
Nailene Acrylic Strong Top Coat

pictures in different lightings & camera settings....

it's the perfect spring color!!!

just for fun, I tried applying Sinful Colors' Green Ocean over top....

I don't like it!! it looks like boogers stuck on your nails after picking your nose.... hahaha... sorry for being too gross but that's just how it looks like... I think Green Ocean is better off with a dark colored nail polish as a base color.... 

just a random question.... how come whenever beauty/nail polish bloggers put a special design on one finger, they always put it on the ring finger??? I was just curious to know what the story is behind that.... does anybody know why???

anyhoo, while I was painting my nails, I noticed that there's another polish that I've used before that kinda looks like this shade.... then I realized Re-Fresh Mint reminds me of For Audrey... so I thought I'd compare the two polishes....

so looking at the bottles, Re-Fresh Mint looks only a tad lighter than For Audrey....

but then on my nails... after comparing them side by side, For Audrey is obviously a lot darker & more vibrant than Re-Fresh Mint....

but I love them both.... they could be sisters!! LOL (click HERE to check out my For Audrey blog entry)

I found a drugstore dupe for this lovely nail polish - Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Extreme Wear in Mint Sorbet

I don't own this nail polish but last week when I thought about doing the St. Patrick n/p posts, I swatched all my green nail polishes on my fingers, then I went to Walgreens one day, saw Mint Sorbet & swatched it right next to Re-Fresh Mint & they were totally identical to each other... it was amazing! so just in case you are looking for the cheaper version of Re-Fresh Mint, or if you don't have access to China Glaze in your area, go for SH's Mint Sorbet... 

on the other note, I started using my HP Mini again....

here is a picture with all kinds of things on it to show how tiny it is... ain't it sooo cute???

I don't think I ever mentioned this on my blog before but the manfriend gave this to me for our 7th year anniversary (June 23rd, 2009)... I stopped using it back then because it was freezing way too much.. I was either gonna sell it on eBay or return it to Best Buy for a different laptop... but it was moved to the garage one day after cleaning out our room... so it was forgotten since then.. until I bought an eMachine one that was on sale for Black Friday in 2009... since then I've been using it for blogging & stuff... but I finally remembered the poor little HP & decided to try it out again... so that's what I used to write this blog post.... & it's doin pretty good so far! I might not need to get rid of it after all... 

I usually blog either in our room or the kitchen.... the calla lilies on our dining table looked so pretty so I thought I'd take a snapshot of my blog area today...

hope you all are having a great weekend!!

NOTD: LUBU HEELS

this is part of the "all things sparkly" series that I'm having... 

finally!! I waited how many months to wear this nail polish... I think I bought this back in spring or maybe summer time.... it is super pretty!! too bad the camera is not capturing the gorgeousness of this polish....it has a 3D effect to it, if you look really closely it almost seems like the glitters are buried in different layers of sheer black nail polish.... if you know what I mean... haha

PRODUCTS USED:

NYX Nail Hardener as base coat

China Glaze Lubu Heels (3 coats)

Seche Vite top coat

 [click on images to enlarge]

8TY8 BEAUTY SUPPLY HAUL & ORDER OVERVIEW

in my search for a website where I can purchase some O.P.I. nail polishes, specifically the You Don't Know Jacques color, I happened to stumble upon the 8ty8 Beauty Supply website again, a website that I've had a wishlist of all kinds of different nail polishes from.... & because I could not find a decent website, that offers decent price on O.P.I.s, I just decided to satisfy my 8ty8 Beauty drool list that I've been keeping for a while now....

I must say I was very happy with the whole experience with this company... aside from the very cheap prices of the nail polishes, the delivery time was very fast...

• I placed the order Saturday, September 18th... I received a confirmation email that same day... 
• given that the order was placed on a weekend, they probably did not start processing the order until Monday, the 20th... (they also informed me that one of the items I ordered was unavailable - China Glaze Midnight Ride, it was a total bummer coz it was one of the few that I really really wanted to get... so I just decided to replace it with the Re-Fresh Mint....)...
• I received an invoice that same day...
• got a shipping notification the next day, September 21st..then received this package from the mail on Friday, September 24th...

so the total turnaround time was 5 business days..... that was super fast in my opinion

shipping fee for 9 bottles is $11.00, next break is $13.00 for 10 - 24 bottles....

most of the China Glaze nail polishes are priced at $2.68 per bottle....

$24.12 for all 9 bottles that I ordered + $11.00 S&H = $35.12 altogether....

they didn't charge me any sales tax...

so that means I paid $3.90 for each bottle... which beats Sally Beauty Supply's price of $4.49 + tax for Beauty Club Card holders.... I say that's a helluva good deal!

the items were very carefully packaged....

secured in a plastic bubble wrap...

then placed in CG signature boxes that they even filled with papers to hold the bottles in place...

here are the colors I got....

from L - R

INGRID, WAGON TRAIL, GRAPE POP

 SUGAR HIGH, VIII, V

PEACHY KEEN, LIQUID LEATHER, RE-FRESH MINT

here is an image of the nail polish that I was supposed to get instead of the Re-Fresh Mint... isn't it gorjjjj?!?! I was so disappointed to learn that it wasn't available... so I shall add this on to my drool list... =)

MIDNIGHT RIDE

& here are the other ones that I am adding to my drool list... they are also out of these at 8ty8 Beauty... =(

SIDE SADDLE

BRANDING IRON

oh yeah & just a teaser, this is how WAGON TRAIL looks like....

**gasp** uh-maazing right?!?

images are stolen from Scrangie's blog, another nail polish blog I loooove... doesn't she have mad n/p application skills??? damn! I wish I can apply my n/p's that nice & neat....

all four of these are included in the Rodeo Diva Collection from Fall of oh-eight! I'm so glad they are still accessible until now... (if you haven't seen this collection, click HERE to see complete swatches at Scrangie's blog)... all colors from this collection are to die for!! doncha think??

thanks for sharing these awesome swatches Scrange! (notice how I called her Scrange?? like Ange is to Angie?? just like how people shorten a close friend's name... LOL... yeah, me & Scrange are tight like that!! hahaha)

as for my own swatches, I would do it as I go with my NOTWs or NOTDs... whenever I feel like wearing whatever color...

and to conclude this purchase, I say I had a very good experience with 8ty8 Beauty Supply company.... the transaction was very smooth... I'm glad I purchased from them & I can confidently say that I will be repurchasing in the future....

have you ordered from this company before??? was your experience pleasant like mine??

what color are you most excited to see me swatch???

NOTD: FROSTBITE

China Glaze

FROSTBITE

PRODUCTS USED:

Sally Hansen Double Duty base & top coat (used only as base)

China Glaze Frostbite

Nailene Acrylic Strong topcoat

dunno why it's comin out like this with the flash on... but it does not look like this in real life... LOL

this is how it really looks like... I must say I like it better this way... I don't like it way too shiny as pictured above...

here are more pictures to show real color...

edited (auto-fix only)... I guess it just changes the lighting... but if you really look closely at the color of the nail polish, it stayed the same... only a bit more vibrant in the edited picture....

I am not too inlove with this color... I say, I like O.P.I.'s YOGA-TA GET THIS BLUE better (see post HERE)... for some reason I tend to go back to darker colors most of the time... not really a fan of chrome-y/shiny colors when it comes to nail polishes... if it's gonna be shiny, it has to be in a dark shade... but that's just weird ol' me...

how about you?? do you dig this color?? 

A LITTLE UPDATE & SOME HAULIN

sorry for being.....

I feel like this was the most hectic month everrrr.... summer's officially ended, school's officially started (August 16th) & I am now officially the busiest Mom I've ever known... LOL.... as many of you know, I have 2 boys & they are now both goin to school.... my oldest, Devean, started 1st grade & my baby, Deion, started preschool..... & boy oh boy! lemme tell you I have never been this busy in my whole life... my day starts at 6:45 AM now... drop one off, drop the other off, pick one up, pick the other one up is what mostly consist my day.... they have different schedules too.... imagine if I'm workin?!? sheeeesshhhh!! that would be crazeee!!!

it was hard getting up really early in the morning at first coz I got so used to sleepin in until around lunch time... I picked up this habit since I stopped workin in '08 & kept it until right before school year started... I know, I know! it wasn't such a good habit, I'm not proud of it either.... I'm spoiled, I'm lazy, I'm too comfortable having people around that cooks & does other things that I don't have to worry about... but you know what, I'm glad I now have a reason to get up & do things, kick some sense of responsibility into me.... I gotta admit, I like it... I like getting up early in the morning, I get things done, I have time to do my workout.... & I feel like I get to bond with my kids more.... I love it....

{ some pictures of the little school boys & us droppin them off to their first day of school }

I was glad I get to capture this one... awwwww....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

my baby did not want Mommy to leave.... =( leavin him there cryin was the hardest thing to do...

but he was sure happy to see us when we picked him up later that day...

but yeah, that was the reason why I have abandoned my blog temporarily.... no more stayin up late during school nights & of course, weekend is play time.. so I really have no time to blog lately.... sorry to all my fellow beauty addicts that were looking forward to my posts.... I am still trying to adapt to my new schedule & I'm pretty sure I will find the time for bloggin eventually....

anyhoooo... back to the more interesting stuff...

so lately, while I was away from the whole blogging scene... I've been pickin up some stuff here & there... not too much though... for some reason, I don't see anything that really gets my attention.... I know I have stuff on my drool list but I just don't have a strong urge to pick any of them up....

here are the things I got for the last couple of weeks....

WARNING!!!!

PICTURE HEAVY

from Sally's
China Glaze nail polishes

Curlformers Hair Curling Spirals

from CVS

Milani lipstick in Rose Hip

reminds me so much of MAC's Petals & Peacocks lippie

from Ross

Color Club nail polish sets

Rebel Debutante

Yacht Club

{click to view full images}

I have been looking for this brand for a while now, I was so happy when I found it at Ross, I got them for $7.99 each vs $20 regular price each...

from Rite-Aid

L'Oreal H.I.P. Shadow Duos

Wet n Wild Lipstick

the one with no label is the Bare It All

I've opened only the Bare It All so far.... this has become my go-to everyday lip color... it's the best neutral lip colored lippie... I apologize if it looks gross... haha... I've been using it so much lately

Wet n Wild Color Icon Creme Shadow Pencil

Wet n Wild Color Icon Eyeliner Pencil

I also got several pieces of clothing & some accessories that I will blog about in a different post... I don't wanna go way overboard... so watch out for that...

another update.... I had my hair trimmed again... I'm actually tryin to grow it out, coz I'm getting kinda tired of this hair style, I've had it for more than almost 2 years now..... but the back gets so thick & shapeless.... so i had to visit my stylist for a little trim in the back & on the fringe...

cam whore much???