NOTD: Coral Glitter Ombré

Hello all!

It's August! It's also the week of finals for the last summer semester of my University. Despite the fact that I have two finals in less than 48 hours, I somehow managed to convince myself to take a "study break. It was a toss up between playing a game of League or painting my nails. I went with the latter. Will I regret this decision later in the wee hours? Possibly.

Love & Beauty's Silver, Essie's Set in Stone, Revlon's Gold Get'em, Love & Beauty's Peach.

Anyways, I've been seeing this popular trend of glitter ombré where the glitter is applied to the bottom of the nail and gradually fades towards the top. I thought I'd give it a try and I'm pretty pleased with the outcome!

I applied Revlon's Gold Get'em ontop of the glitter and it created a sort of frosty effect. It reminds me of mermaid scales! Let me know what you guys think!

Thanks for reading! <3

NOTD - Your nails, but better.

Hello lovely readers, I have another Nails of the day post to share with you all. I've recently rediscovered my love for Nude polishes. I'm actually quite surprised I've neglected them for so long given that Nude polishes are always appropriate for every season and occasion.

Revlon - Popular // Essence Nude Glam - Peach & Cream

Essence's Nude Glam in Peach & Cream is a true Peach Nude with warm undertones. This is the perfect shade of Nude for those who have warm skin tones. In fact, I would argue that it would probably flatter any skin tone! I picked up Peach & Cream under the assumption that it was a creme finish. However upon further inspection, I realized it was actually a pearl finish. I'm not usually a fan of pearl or shimmer, but I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. The pearl finish is extremely subtle and adds the perfect touch to achieving that "your natural nails, but better" colour.  

I didn't have any problems with the formula and the application was a breeze. I used about 3 coats under a base coat to achieve the opaqueness in the pictures. 

On the ring fingers I have on two coats of Revlon's Popular. I've featured Revlon's Popular before in a previous NOTD entry. Unfortunately, it was apart of the batch of pictures I couldn't save from my old account. Popular is a sheer lilac pink polish with multi-sized chunks of silver glitter.

I can't wait to purchase more from Essence's Nude Glam line! I'm extremely impressed with the quality of the formula for the cheap price tag. Have any of you tried their other Nude colours? Let me know which colours I should purchase next!

Thanks for reading, until next time!

Long absence and Overdue Review on Floral Back Pack

I have no real excuse for my long extended absence, but I want to make use of this quick update to acknowledge my silent readers who continued to come back for updates. My last update was back in 2012 but blog stats still report daily hits. Thank you for staying with me.

Secondly, I recently had to transfer my blog to a different account because of some issues with my original account handle. I almost had a mini heart attack when I realized there may be a chance that I would have to close this blog. I suppose it would sound ridiculous, especially since I haven't got much on this blog and I don't even update consistently.. but just the thought that I could potentially lose it all was enough to scare me. Unfortunately I wasn't able to salvage some pictures from my original blog as I wasn't aware they were account specific and would not transfer over. All in all with my whining aside, I'm just extremely glad I managed to hang on to this blog.

I don't know what the future holds for this blog, but as for now I have the internet.. Let the mayhem commence.

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I apologize for this extremely long overdue review on the floral backpack I promised to do back in 2012, but to show my utmost sincerity I requested help from a "volunteer model".

First Impression 

When I first received the back pack, I was very happy to see that it looked exactly like the stock photo.  As I'm sure many of you who frequent eBay are aware, it is a common issue to receive items that look nothing like the stock photo. I've been a victim of said issue one too many times now but I'm glad this back pack was true to description and photo. That's definitely one of largest gambles of purchasing cheap oversea items from eBay. 

Material
The material of the back pack is extremely thin and non-water proof. I can't say I was expecting anything more because of the cheap price tag. I just made sure to carry a large umbrella to keep my bag from soaking wet on rainy days. Although the inside of the bag was lined, I still encountered soaked textbooks and notes on extremely wet days. Yay for Raincouver!

Straps
The straps were extremely flimsy and tore easily. As you can tell from the pictures, once a rip happens, it's entirely impossible and futile to fix. Sewing up the tear will only result in more stretching of the cheap material. I had a sneaking suspicion I would encounter rips due to the nature of the straps, so I made sure to avoid carrying too much in the bag. Unfortunately once that first rip happens, things just start to get progressively worse from there.

Durability 
Again, due to the cheap price tag.. I didn't have high expectations on the quality. However the bag only lasted about one semester, that's about 3 months and some. I would strongly advise against carrying anything heavy or allowing all weight to be placed on one single strap.

Purchase Again?
Despite the poor quality, I definitely think the cute factor and cheap price tag outweigh the cons. I think I just may purchase another one for the upcoming fall semester. I received some many compliments and I was so sad when I finally reached the point where I could no longer trust the straps to support the back pack. If I do end up purchasing another one, I'm pretty decided on sticking with black just because it goes well with every outfit.

Did any of you guys end up purchasing one? If so, let me know what your thoughts were on the bag!

NOTD - Simple Glitter Tips

Bonjour!

Today's Nails of the Day features 2 new Essie polishes I recently received:

Lapiz of Luxury // Set in Stones (Luxeffects)

Lapiz of Luxury is the perfect Periwinkle blue! However the application was a wee bit challenging to work with. I'm not sure if my base coat had anything to do with it, but this applied like a jelly polish.. far from what I had expected it to be. Anyways, with that said I applied 2 even coats (allowed dry time in between) to achieve the opaqueness pictured above.

Set in Stone is apart of Essie's Luxeffects Multi Dimenison Top Coats and it is absolutely gorgeous! I applied  it directly to the top half of the nail. Initially I had plans to recreate an ombre glitter tip with the finer glitter gradually fading to the bottom half of the nail. Unfortuately, I forgot to place another polish in-between the two as a gradient to really meld the two polishes together. Phooey.

I suppose there is still a slight distinguishable ombre happening, so I guess I didn't fail too bad. Har har har, let me know what you guys think! :P

NOTD - Cath Kidston Inspired Floral Nails!

Hi everyone! I'm sorry for the lack of posts and updates. I've been extremely busy with school work because for some odd reason I thought it would be rational to have my presentations during the 2nd week of school and to just get them out of the way. Speaking of thinking rationally, my presentation was actually about "Rational Choice Theory". Har har, but I'll spare you the details. (But I encourage to read on it, it's actually extremely interesting and applicable to every day life. :D )

Anyways, aside from my ramblings I want to share one of my all time favourite nail art. I drew inspiration from Cath Kidston because I absolutely adore her bags! I'm not entirely sure if I can find authentic Cath Kidston bags here in Vancouver, but if anyone knows where I might be able to find some please link me!

I'm not going to lie, drawing the flowers were extremely difficult for me. My artistic ability is really limited and I struggled a lot. I had to redo them a couple of times because they looked like big blobs of nothing. For the flowers and leaves, I used a toothpick but you can most definitely use anything with a fine tip. 

I had a nail art party with the bestie! She did her floral prints on a Mint Green background instead! Super cute, I definitely want to try this out soon. I apologize for the weird lighting in this picture, our shadows blocked a lot of the light and I had to amp the brightness. :(

Oh I do have something else to share before I sign off. It's my birthday today! :D My crafty friend M hand made a birthday card for me!

How freaking adorable is this?! She knows I'm into nail art and she even got my ombred hair! Much love to everyone who celebrated my birthday today! <3 You all know who you are! 

Ps. I finally received my Floral Back Pack! Definitely expect the promised review on it soon! 

Floral Back Pack!

Click here for Updated Review

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I recently purchased a new back pack for school and I can't wait until it arrives! I posted it on Soompi's "WHAT DID YOU BUY TODAY" thread and I received many private messages asking where I had bought it. 

I purchased this bag for ridiculously cheap at $15.44 CAD including shipping. Unfortunately the seller on ebay is currently out of stock, but I encourage you to do a quick ebay search under "Floral Backpack" and I guarantee you'll be able to find it. :) 

It comes in different colours like white, pink, brown and blue but I chose black because I wanted something a little more subtle. I even jokingly told my friend, "I really don't want to be known as the girl with the blue floral backpack on campus" LOL 

I was also requested to do a review on the quality of the bag. I'll definitely update with a new blog post on my first impressions of the bag! 

Thank you for reading <3

NOTD - Corals and Pastels

Hello all! I'm back to share another Nail of the Day! Originally I had wanted to update a NOTD prior to this one.. unfortunately to my dismay, my polish was ruined after a day at work. I was a receptionist for the day at a busy nail bar that required a lot of hands on work. I suppose not even a good top coat could prevent it from happening. :(

The gorgeous coral colour is Tart Deco by Essie. I'm usually not a huge fan of the Essie Formula alone, but when paired with a good base coat underneath.. the application is like a dream!

On the ring fingers, I have two polishes by Revlon called Lilac Pastelle and Popular. They are of the exact same colour, but one minus the mulit-sized chunks of silver glitter. I chose to apply Lilac Pastelle underneath Popular because I wanted the polish to go on opaque as Popular is a very sheer polish.

Revlon - Popular // Revlon - Lilac Pastelle // Essie - Tart Deco

Until next time! <3