Category Archives: creme

The return of The Mad Scientist…and Jengish Chokusu

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(Yes, that is me.)

Wow, I am writing a blog post again after 115 days. (Yes, I counted.) I MISSED YOU GUYS! Some of you kept in touch through my FB page, Twitter, and/or my Instagram, and I thank you for still thinking of me. I have totally been around, just…not really within the blogging world. It wasn’t because I didn’t like you!

Some of you know that I moved to a bigger place and had to pack up all my stuff. Well, this was back in mid-December. It rained the day we moved. Fantastic, I know. Hey, at least my nail polish arrived safely, right? :D I got a new dining room table and a dresser out of the deal, plus my workspace in the office is so much bigger. AND I have closet storage so I don’t look like someone that belongs in an episode of Hoarders!

I’ve also been knitting like a crazy person. It’s getting warmer out, so I’m sticking to working from my stash, and working on my very first garment (the one called “Francis”). The booklet is gorgeous. I’ll have to post pictures of it soon.

Oh yeah, and the hockey season started up in January, too. Well, I mean we’re a little past halfway through it. The regular season ends at the end of next month. So weird. Also, this happened earlier this week, so PARTY TIEMS 4 EVERYONE.

So really, I’ve just been one heck of a lazy blogger. I have lots and lots of stuff to show you, though. I can’t wait!

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Elevation Polish calls this a “sea glass creme,” and I am inclined to agree. I used to live in L.A., and while I spent some time at the beach during the summer as a kid, I don’t think I ever found any worn sea glass. But this color is definitely it.

jengishchokusu

This is three coats of Jengish Chokusu, with Nerd Lacquer All of Time & Space as my accent nail. This is my somewhat lazy attempt at wearing green today. Is it green? Is it blue? I have always been drawn to colors like this, even as a child.

Did you know that kids at my elementary school used to pinch me because they thought I wasn’t wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day because the color was so ambiguous? Well to you kids who put me down, I give the double deuce to you and your severe lack of imagination.

jengishchokusu2

AoT&S is a little greener than JC. I originally didn’t want to apply it on top because Jengish was so beautiful on its own, but I royally messed up my ring finger (Seche Vite, Y U SO THICK), so on it went.

jengishchokusu3

To be honest, I am not a big fan of drinking holidays. New Year’s Eve, Halloween, and St. Patrick’s Day are holidays where I try to spend as much time at home as possible. I do not want to be around when there are normal people who decide to leave their common sense at home for one day and do stupid things!

Anyway, that’s all for now. Thanks for reading, and see you soon!

Deborah Lippmann Raise Your Glass

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Aren’t you all super lucky! You’re getting a super recent nail color out of me because this is what I’m wearing on my day of birth. Yes, that’s today.

Okay, well, technically I put this on Tuesday night because my co-workers and I had Thai food on Wednesday. By the way, if you’re ever in Phoenix, I highly recommend two places for Thai food: Thai Basil (on University/Farmer) and Thai House (Shea/70th St.). The first is owned by one of the nicest ladies ever, they make a mean pad ga pao, and it’s our go-to Thai place at work. The second is one that BF and I went to and their panang curry is phenomenal. Plus they were playing the new Regina Spektor album so it was quite amusing.

Well, I wasn’t feeling too hot Tuesday and my body started to ache. Wednesday was ok in the morning, but as the day dragged on my hands got numb cause I was super cold (my lab is abnormally cold), and my body aches got worse. Let’s just say that Advil was my best friend. I think I had a small fever, which wasn’t the best. I think I even ripped off my flannel pj bottoms because I was sweating, lol. Look, I am very finicky when it comes to feeling hot and cold! I can’t even imagine me when I have hot flashes. Nope. Not looking forward to it.

Today, I am just full-blown sick. I’m sure my mom (who is a Vitamin C fiend) is very happy about that…shudder. I can just hear her now! Anyway, the BF is taking care of me today. He took me to our favorite Vietnamese place in Phoenix for lunch, and I ate quite a bit! I even managed to get a lot of knitting done today!

Some of my wonderful friends also sent me a super wonderful birthday package, which was totes awesome. I feel really grateful to have women like that in my life. <3

Raise Your Glass was released for the 175th anniversary of Holt Renfrew, a department store in Canada. I have never been in one, because I have never been to Canada. But this nail polish reminds me of the yearly anniversary stuff that Nordstrom’s gets. (i.e. Dior Shadow) You know, all my Canadian friends, one day I will go to Canada. Maybe to see a hockey game. Just not in Winnipeg. I don’t think you’ll ever see me in Winnipeg. ;) RYG is also named after that one Pink song, which I always found to be fairly “inspirational,” a la Lady Gaga “Edge of Glory,” but a little more cheesy.

This is two coats. So, er…I don’t know how to describe this. My boss pointed out that it looked like a jelly…but it was more opaque like a creme. So maybe it’s a crelly? I…really don’t like that word. It’s such a dumb word. But look! Tiny pink glitter! It’s darling!

Application was interesting. It was smooth and easy to clean up, but it left this gritty surface on my nails. It didn’t feel too gritty, though. I dunno. Gelous and SV took care of it, though.

To be honest, I don’t really know how up there Holt Renfrew is in terms of quality. Is it like a Nordstrom’s? Macy’s? Dillard’s? All I know is that when I went to their website, they carried Domino Jeans, which I own all of two pairs from them. I did not get them from HR, though. I instead got them on Fab. The company took their damn sweet time sending it to me, though. Three weeks! Three!! Sigh. To be honest, it was kind of worth it. They fit similar to Lucky’s, and I’ve found out that mid-rise to most women = high-rise on me. Er, yeah. I dunno.

Whoops. No photo of my straightened out fingers. Oh well. It’s early. Also, you may have noticed that I am wearing fingerless gloves…it was a little cold yesterday morning. :P

Thanks for reading!

The Hungry Asian Mint Condition

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I don’t know how many episodes of the new Downton Abbey series there are, but this series has been depressing so far. I guess when you’re a drama series you have to inject that drama into every nook and cranny, including the freaking rug. Sigh.

Here is one I haven’t posted yet. I snapped this up when it was initially released on THA’s Etsy shop. Mint green was never one of my favorite colors of all time…I wonder if this makes me a hipster because all the vintage mint green things caught my eye? I dunno.

This is three coats of The Hungry Asian Mint Condition. This is a(n obviously) mint green creme base with small red, blue, and purple glitter. I think there’s even black glitter in there, but I don’t know if that’s the light catching the glitter in a different way.

I was…well, a little disappointed with this. I followed some advice on her Etsy shop listing to swipe the top layer of excess base color to bring out the color of the glitter. That worked fine. It’s the amount of glitter I could get with each coat. It just wasn’t enough for me. I wasn’t expecting a glitterbomb or anything, but her photos made me think I wouldn’t have to fish for glitter and I would get a tiny bit more glitter out. Maybe it’s all sunk to the bottom and I haven’t noticed? I’m not sure.

Still, I do love the color and I will most definitely wear it again, if only to try and apply it a little differently to get some more glitter…or to try some new application method to get it to how I like it.

Thanks for reading!

Illamasqua Stance

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First off, some business: I am here to announce the winner of my necklace giveaway. Congrats to…

Tilly!

As for her dream polish jewelry, she replied: “My dream polish jewelry would probably be a pendant made from NerdLacquer Cyance Friction.”

Hopefully Carbon Allotrope is a good replacement for Cyance Friction and that you enjoy the necklace! GG!

Okay, now for polish time. Here is one I thoroughly enjoyed wearing.

What is with all this fuzz?! I blame my cat. It is totally my cotton squares, but my cat is being a total butthead right now and scratching the back of my office chair because she wants all my attention all of the time. ARGH CAT!

This is two coats of Illamasqua Stance. You may have remembered this as the base color for my Cheshire glitter gradient. The actual color is very close to the bottle in this photo; for some reason, my camera decided to warm up my fingers a little and make them a little more pink than necessary!

I don’t know what it is about Illamasqua cremes, but all the ones I own (okay okay, aside from Load) apply like Nutella (well, the way I apply actual Nutella, anyway). I guess butter would be a better metaphor. I may or may not be craving Nutella a lot lately.

Illamasqua cremes are way illin.

(WOW, that was pretty horrible. I tried, really. I did try.)

Thanks for reading (and playing)!

Rescue Beauty Lounge Bangin’

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Okay, is anyone else watching the Olympics? (Of course you are.) I watched the floor exercise last night and ERMAGERD it was so awesome. I really liked that older Romanian woman; she was so awesome. Of course I’m rooting for the American girls. They did a really good job. I was kind of hoping for a payback smuggy smug smugserton look towards that one Russian girl, but it didn’t happen. DUDE did you see Mustafina’s super smug look when Gabby Douglas messed up on the uneven bars the night before? ERMAGERD SHE WAS THE QUEEN OF SMUGSVILLE. Okay, I’m done now.

Now I have a confession to make: this is my first Rescue Beauty Lounge polish ever. Don’t ask why, though! I think it was a pretty good choice! And I’m crossing my fingers because I may be getting another one in a swap soon!

Bangin’ is a very shiny and very pretty red creme with orange undertones. I was incredibly surprised that it looked this good on me. Holy danger Will Smith Robinson, though! These photos are probably a little more orange than in person. In person (and on me), they are red with just enough orange to not give me lobster hands.

I can definitely understand why people love the application of RBL polishes. It’s one of the smoothest cremes I’ve applied, and I probably could have gotten away with one coat. I would say that this one wore average on me, though. Not average like a bad thing, but there was still tipwear on the same area on my ring and middle fingers after the same amount of time.

Bangin’ is VERY similar to China Glaze First Mate HEY SAILOR (I get those two mixed up ALL THE TIME OMFG), except a little lighter (but just as bright and pigmented). If you are looking for a dupe, that would definitely be it. I’m keeping this one and swapping away my own bottle of First Mate HEY SAILOR, because my friend Kristy sent this very pretty RBL to me.

I like wearing this polish because it does make me feel a little…oh, I don’t know…bangin’. Especially since I have been trying to get fit and not fall off the wagon. I’d say that this is the longest I’ve gone in the past 5 years in terms of working out and sticking with it. I’ve learned a lot about myself and my greatness, and the fact that the BF is my partner (or am I his?) in all this has motivated me to stick with it. This is the last week of P90X, and even though I should be “resting,” I just can’t. I want to be movin’ and groovin’; working out has now become a part of my daily routine. It’s about as routine as eating. (Except I don’t work out five times a day…oh god the horror.) I still don’t really know what I’m doing when this is all over; all I know is that I would like to do a little more lifting but even more cardio.

Thanks for reading!

EDIT: I’m a dummy and got First Mate and Hey Sailor mixed up. I fixed it in the post; thank you to Rach for pointing this out! <3