Spring Stripes

The weather here in Oklahoma has gone from blizzards to 70 degree, spring-like weather. All in one week. The weather is so unpredictable here. I really hope it stays this way for awhile but who knows what the weather will be like next week! This warmer weather has inspired me to wear spring green on my nails.

I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Green With Envy as the base and L.A.Colors Art Deco stripers in purple and green. I've never seen Green With Envy before so I think its new for spring. I've always like Xtreme Wear polish. (I don't like how they spell 'extreme' though..) This one applied nicely in two coats.

Chase said this reminded him of candy. =)

I probably should have waited longer before applying topcoat...the purple stripes smeared a little bit. For Valentine's Day Chase got me something I've needed for a long time....a place to store my nail polish! For some reason I've never been fond of the nail racks you hang on the wall. I wanted something that would give me lots of space (room to grow!) and would be easy to move. Basically its a 3 drawer shelf and it has wheels on the bottom. I'll post pictures of it later, I'm typing this at school right now and I didn't take pictures of it yet. Before this all my polish was in an old Sephora box that was falling apart. The rest that couldn't fit in the Sephora box was scattered about my room and computer desk. =P

Who's ready for spring?
What do you use to store your polish?
Peace and Love,
Serena

Zoya Crystal + Snowpocalypse!

WOW. I haven't blogged in awhile. Weather has been crazy blizzard like lately so I've been staying in a lot. Snow days are kind of fun every once in awhile but we've had so many I will have to come back to school even after I've officially graduated! I don't like that idea but we have gone way over our allowed snow days.

I got my Zoya 3 free order in about a 2 weeks ago (minus Zoya Kelly, which was backordered). Zoya Crystal seemed like the perfect icy blue to wear during this cold weather. It went on kind of sheer at first but built up nicely in only 2 coats. The colour is beautiful and has gold flakes in it. It looks really glittery but isn't gritty at all. My pictures don't really show how pretty it is, I had to take them quickly before my fingers froze off. I had never tried Zoya before and I'm impressed so far. The brushes are really nice and easy to use and I haven't had any chipping after a week.

I don't know about the rest of you but we have lots of snow! My boyfriend actually ventured out in the snow and it took him 2 hours to get to my house. (It normally takes 5-10 minutes.) One of those hours was spent shoveling his car out of the apartment parking lot. His car ended up getting stuck right in front of our house. My dad helped him get unstuck.

Have you tried Zoya polishes?
How is the weather where you live?
Peace and Love,
Serena

沢 - "Swamp" - China Glaze Zombie Zest

China Glaze Zombie Zest is one of those "ugly pretty" colours. Its also a colour I would have never worn on my nails a year ago. Thankfully, my horizons are a little more broad. Zombie Zest is pretty sheer; After applying the first coat I thought I would surely need four coats! I only used three though and it turned out fine. I think it looks best in the shade so I didn't take any direct sunlight pictures of it.

Zombie Zest is from China Glaze's Halloween 2010 collection. I didn't get it until the beginning of January though. Sally's had it on clearance for 2.99. Zombie Zest is the perfect name for this polish. In addition to zombies, it reminds me of moss and swamps. I can't say I've received compliments on this colour...more like odd stares!

I feel a lot better now..my throat still feels a tiny bit sore and I still have a cough. I went to the doctor after five days of being sick and learned I got the flu. (My first flu believe it or not!) Unfortunately in order to start flu medicine you need to go to the doctor within the first 3 days so they couldn't do much for me. They did prescribe a heavy duty cough medicine for me but its disgusting. I missed a lot of school last week so I have some catching up to do - not fun at all!

Do you like "ugly pretty" colours?
Peace and Love,
Serena

紫 & 銀色 - Essie Sexy Divide Konad

The Japanese in the title means "Purple and Silver". I was going to post this yesterday but I got sick. I'm still not feeling 100% better but I wanted to get this posted before it chipped. I'm surprised at how well I did the Konad considering I feel terrible. My right hand is a disaster though!

Sexy Divide is much prettier when there is actually some sunlight. My Walmart's Essie display was finally put up so I picked out three colours. (Sexy Divide, Beach Bum Blu, and Sew Pysched.) Chase, my boyfriend, bought these for me. =) I had never seen Beach Bum Blu before, it turns out its a Wal Mart exclusive shade. I know some people don't like the fact that Essie is now in Wal Mart but to me its a good thing. The only other Essie I have is Matte About You. The nearest place for me to purchase Essie is Ulta, which is about an hour away from me. The bottle is a little different so you can tell which ones are from Wal Mart. At my Wal Mart these were $7.25 each. I also heard somewhere that they changed some of the names, which I think is kind of silly. (Velvet Vouyeur, Velvet Voyage)

Have you seen Essie at your Wal Mart yet?
Peace and Love,
Serena

たまむし ~ Layering with Sinful Colors

Hello! How are you? Cold? Sorry I haven't posted in awhile... School started and then after that we had some snow and ice. The snow is kind of melting (even though its still freezing cold.) so I can finally stand to be outside to take pictures. The last time I was at Walgreens I picked up a Sinful Colors polish called 'Let Me Go'. I was always curious about since it looked like a pretty, iridescent shade. Its extremely sheer so I layered it over my go-to purple, China Glaze Grape Pop. Grape Pop is my favourite purple because it can look good in one coat if you apply it carefully. It also works nicely with Konad. (Speaking of Konad...I haven't done that in awhile!)

I love green and purple together...this sort of reminds me of Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie. I'm not exactly sure how close it is since I don't own Scrangie (that sounded weird...) but it would be a good cheap alternative. (1.99 at Walgreens)

Speaking of Scrangie...she mentioned her inspiration for the colour was the iridescent wings of a beetle. The Japanese part of the title of this post roughly means "iridescent wings of an insect". I've been trying to learn Japanese for the past few months so I'm using as much of it as possible whenever/wherever I can.

If you have RBL Scrangie let me know how close this layering combination is to the real thing!

Peace and Love,
Serena

First Manicure of the New Year - OPI The Show Must Go On

Happy (late) New Year! How has it been so far? Mine has been pretty good. I got a set a Burlesque minis for Christmas and the one that appealed to me the most was 'The Show Must Go On'. Its a pretty red-ish pink that shifts orange in certain ligthing. It looks gorgeous and unfortunately I wasn't able to capture how cool it really is. That's partially because I waited too long and partially because colours like this can be tricky to photograph.

I took the picture with China Glaze Peppermint Cuticle Oil since its hard to take pictures with the mini bottles. I recommend checking your Sally's clearance section; I found tons of discounted polishes at mine, especially ones from holiday collections. I also picked up this cuticle oil since they had a whole container full of them for .99 cents each. I actually really like it and the peppermint smell is nice.

On an entirely different subject...I have some cute pictures to show you! When I asked my boyfriend Chase what he wanted for Christmas the only thing he said he wanted was a kitten. So I got him one. He is so cute but don't let that fool you...he's a troublemaker as well! It was nearly impossible to take pictures of him. Most of them came out blurry. He even tried to attack the camera.

His name is Riku and he was about 8 weeks old when we got him. He's so small he gets in to everything but he is so adorable you can't be mad at him.
Once again, Happy New Years! Have you made any New Year's resolutions?
Peace and Love,
Serena

Grunge Nails ☆

How was everyone's holiday? I had a good one. On Christmas Eve I spent time with family and Christmas day I just spent time with my boyfriend, sister and parents. I got 3 OPI mini sets for Christmas: Go Goth, Swiss, and Burlesque. For this manicure I used Obscurity (a matte black) and Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous. (a sparkly gunmetal grey).

I tried to make a gradient effect with the gunmetal grey colour but it didn't turn out exactly like I pictured. I still like it though, its very grunge looking. We didn't have any makeup sponges so I used a semi-fluffy craft brush and patted the grey on top of the matte black. 

It only took 2 coats of the matte black to be opaque. I was pretty impressed with it, normally I have trouble with matte polishes. I also didn't have as much trouble with the mini bottles as I normally do. They haven't changed or anything, I guess my application must have improved. I think Lucern-tainly Look Marvelous would look spectacular on its own with top coat. Lightly applied here it doesn't look too glittery but in the bottle it flashes blue and pink sparkles. 

My mom got me a really neat nail file for Christmas and so far I love it. It works so much better than emery boards and I even like it better than the glass and crystal files. After I use it for awhile I might review it if you're interested. Its a little pricey ($28) so I'll let you know if I think its worth purchasing.

What did you get for Christmas? How was your holiday?
Peace and Love,
Serena

Happy Holidays! (Red and Silver Nail Art)

I can't believe its Christmas Eve tomorrow...time flies! I'm not much of a holiday nail person, but I wanted to use some festive colours.I used 3 coats China Glaze Thunderbird as the base and then painted silver X's on my nails with L.A. Colors Art Deco silver striper.

I wish the sun would have come out today! I took these pictures this morning before going out for sushi with my aunt. She is the only one who will go with me so I'm glad she is back in town. =) I'm thinking about changing the layout of my blog after the new year...any ideas on colours I should use?

I'm really hoping to get some neat nail art stuff for Christmas this year. What's on your wishlist?

Peace, Love, and Happy Holidays!
Serena

Christmas Confetti

Yay! Finally I have a new blog post. =) I've been waiting to use China Glaze Party Hearty since the last week of October, when I first purchased it. I wanted to wait until closer to Christmas to wear it. I'm not really a seasonal person. Last Christmas I was wearing neon green. This colour has been layered over emerald green, silver, gold, white, black, and red by other bloggers so I wanted to think of something different. I chose to layer it over Joe Fresh Mint, a pretty mint green. It took three coats to become opaque. I painted one coat of Party Hearty, then touched up a few areas that didn't have as much glitter. It wasn't as gritty as I thought it would be but it definitely needs topcoat. 

My mom bought that cute violin ornament you see in the last picture. Both me and my sister play the violin. I love this combination, I wasn't sure if it would look good but I've received several compliments on it. I have a feeling it will be my only Christmas manicure. I'm just not in to doing seasonal stuff. I do whatever I get inspired to do. 

I need recommendations for a really moisturizing cuticle oil/hand cream. I already have dry skin and it is getting really bad in this cold weather. Solar Oil hasn't been working for me ever since it got cold.Thankfully it hasn't snowed yet!

I was tagged today by (Squoval)iscious! with an award/questions tag. I was surprised to find I wasn't following her yet! She has some really beautiful designs on her blog and I am thankful she tagged me.

1. Why did you create the blog?
I had been reading nail blogs for a year and finally decided I wanted to create one too. I liked the idea of sharing my manicures and I was just getting in to nail art too. The community is my favourite part; I love receiving feedback from the comments.

2. What kind of blogs do you follow?
Mostly nail and beauty blogs. I am following a few random blogs, like a Beatles photo blog and a couple blogs about Japan.

3. Do you have a favorite make-up brand?
I'm not much in to makeup but I do like Fyrinnae. I love smaller companies because they always seem to have excellent customer service and unique products. Their products are often cheaper as well.

4. And a favorite clothing brand?
Not brand conscious at all! I can't really think of too many brands, I just wear what I like.

5. What make-up products are essential for you?
Lip Balm, mascara, lip gloss, sunscreen. I only wear eye makeup occasionally when I feel like it!

6. What's your favorite colour?
Purple or teal.

7. What's your favorite perfume?
I don't have a specific one. I like fresh scents like lemon, mint, cucumber. On the other hand, I enjoy fruity scents too. I really like most scents except sugary, vanilla, and cookie type scents.

8. What's the film you liked the most?
Ehh...I don't know. xD

9. What countries would you like to go?
I've already been to Germany and Austria but I would LOVE to go again. I also want to visit South Korea, Australia, the UK, and Japan. 

I tag/award Starving Nail Addict! I love her designs. =) 

I realized I haven't updated my blog link list in awhile so I am going to do that now. There are a lot of blogs I need to add to it. Also, I checked to make sure I am following everyone who is following me. If you follow me or comment on here I will most likley check out your blog and follow. 

It's nice to post again...thanks for reading!

Peace and Love,

Serena.

Update: Time flies when you're writing essays!

Essay + Finals= no posts. I can't believe how long its been since I posted anything! I have been seriously swamped with school work, essays, etc. that I haven't had an extra time to blog. I haven't even been commenting on blogs as I usually do. December 17th is my last days of school for this semester so I will get back in to the swing of things then! I wanted to do this quick update just to apologize and let all of you know what was going on. If you're interested in more random details about my life and what has been going on the last few weeks, keep reading. If not, I will have a relevant post up Sunday or Monday! The picture has absolutely nothing to do with this post. I added it in for two reasons: 1. It accurately depicts what has been going on inside my mind (pure chaos) and 2. I can't write a post without adding pictures.

Procrastinating my online class was not a good idea. Most of the insane work I have been doing lately has been my online Government class. It's a semester long course and is required for graduation in the state of Oklahoma. I had to take it online because my schedule couldn't fit another class. My schedule is like this: 1st hour: Orchestra, 2nd hour: Math of Finance, 3rd hour: Chemistry, 4th hour: British Literature. Next I have lunch then I go to a technical/vocational school in my area. I take a class called "Graphic Communications" which includes graphic arts/design, photography, printing, page layout, screen printing, typography, and bindery. We learn Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and a little bit of Dreamweaver, Flash, and Fireworks. So long story short, due to Orchestra and my Graphic Arts class I didn't have time to take Government at school. At this point I really want to avoid online classes. The particular program they use for online classes is irritating. I have a teacher overlooking my course who grades projects and essays. She also has to unlock tests for me. I'm not sure why she has to do that...my counselor mentioned something about students skipping the essays and assignments and just doing the tests. My response to that is: wouldn't you fail the class if you skipped all the work and just did the tests? I have never in my life taken a class that had so many reports and essays. In total I have written 7 essays for this class in one semester. 1,000 word essays on Feudalism, Open Door policy, the U.S. Senate, political parties, etc. Another thing that irritated me about this online class is that when I submitted my essay it entered it in as a zero until it was graded by the teacher. The first time I turned in an essay I freaked out because my grade dropped from an A to D. I wish it would have just marked it as N/A or something like that until it was graded.

Besides my Government class I had a six to eight page research report for English, worth 1000 points. I got it done, it wasn't too bad and I am confident I did well on it. I won't know for awhile though, seeing as she has probably one hundred of them to grade. I procrastinated more than I should have on it but in the end it got done. I can't believe the first semester of my senior year is almost over. Time flies when you're writing essays having fun!

Congratulations if you read this far, sorry for rambling/complaining about my life. I'm more than ready for Christmas break, hopefully I will have time to post more often then.

Since I actually I have some free time right now I'm going to relax, comment on some blogs and do something fun!
Peace and Love,
Serena