Cupcakes, Glitter, and Rhinestones, oh my!

At the beginning of the school year, I told myself that I wouldn't let myself get behind on anything: school work, social life, extracurriculars, and this blog. Sixty days later, and I'm 0 for 4 -- especially when it comes to posting on here. 

BUT today is my BIRTHDAY, so as a present to myself, I'm going to try and get caught up. (Or, at the very least, I'm going to post my birthday mani.) It's my last year of school, and it's only fitting that, after 4 consecutive years of birthday midterms, I should have one last birthday midterm to deal with before I get the heck outta here. 

The concept for my birthday mani flip flopped through a number of different concepts, many involving Halloween nail appliques, gold leaf, and glow in the dark nail polish. I tried to combine all the ideas in my head, but when I finally got down to painting in all the base colours, it looked so tacky I could have died...sort of like a skittles mani on acid. So I made an executive decision: to bring on the bling.

Lightbox (more colour accurate)

Flash

Lightbox

I used Nubar Violet Sparkle (3 coats) on the pinky, middle, and index fingers. Violet Sparkle is mixture of densely packed, finely milled glitter in a purple base. The purple leans more to the red side than to the blue, as seen in the lightbox pictures, which are more colour accurate. I do have to warn you, however, that this one is topcoat hungry. I used 2 coats of clear polish + 1 coat of Revlon Quick Dry, and it still feels gritty.

The cupcake was a last minute addition to this ensemble. I love cupcakes, I love to make them, so why wouldn't they be featured in my birthday mani? I painted a french tip on my ring finger with Essie's She's Picture Perfect and used a striping brush to paint on the stripes in Joe Fresh Iris. The icing was painted on using a large dotting tool, and the sprinkles with a small dotting tool.

And just in case there wasn't enough bling already:

I have never actually used rhinestones before, and when I bought these at Walmart I thought that they were simply rhinestone "stickers", so I waited for my 2 coats of Iris to dry before I even opened the package. Lesson learned.

Blurry shot to show off the SPARKLE

I ended up using a wooden cuticle stick dipped in clear polish to help me place the rhinestones, which worked well enough. The sheer number of rhinestones I used was just cray. The second "2" is a little wonky just because I didn't have enough space for it. :S

By the time I finished the "22" on my left thumb, I was in no mood to do it all over again on my right, so instead I stuck with a simpler (but by no means easier) heart design:

Right Thumb

Despite the fact that I didn't end up putting in my most extravagant ideas into my birthday manicure, I'm pretty pleased by how it turned out. It took forever to do, but I would say it was worth it if only just to have awesome nails on this gloomy, rainy day.

Back to work, I guess. :(  Happy Birthday to Me!

Sweets for the Sweet

I've just spent the last three days doing absolutely nothing, and while it's been fun, I really think it's time that I tried to get something done...

But not after a quick post here! This is not a nails post, since this must be the THIRD time I've worn All Hail the Queen in a month, considering they keep moving the date of my interview, and there is no new manis to be had. I was going to do a flashback post, but let's save those for when I really don't have time to be doing anything other than studying, shall we?

I made cupcakes this weekend, and I thought I would share some of the pictures with you!

Those cute ones above are all red velvet on the inside. The red food dye is the deal-breaker.

The vanilla ones had a little surprise on the inside. They were pregnant with oreos! SCANDAL!

And they were just as delicious as they looked! Other than nails, baking is one of my greatest passions. Honestly, if I could bake every day (and eat it without gaining an ounce!), I totally would.

Berrylicious

Hello Summer!!

Even though I've been in "summer" mode for almost two months now, the official start of summer two days ago has put me in more of a summery mood than usual. Recently, I've subconsciously leaned towards cosmetics and creations relating to strawberries:

Delish!

For starters, last weekend, for my uncle's 50th birthday party, I made lemon cupcakes with strawberry jam filling. It's been awhile since I made cupcakes, and I thought maybe adding a summery touch would be a welcome change from the usual chocolate or vanilla that I usually come up with.

Second, I bought a bunch of strawberry-scented cosmetics -- Covergirl fruit slicks were on sale at Wal-Mart for $3.96, a deal I simply could not pass up! It kind of smells like cotton candy, which got me wondering whether or not cotton candy was meant to be strawberry flavoured...

And, last but not least, I finished off my berry-licious last couple of days with a "strawberry" manicure:

Camera Flash

This is China Glaze - Strawberry Fields: this colour is just TO DIE FOR. Bright pink with a golden shimmer, I think this one is definitely going to be in the usual rotation for the year. I was actually debating for an entire day what colour to paint my nails in my summer mission to have different nails for at least every week for this summer. The decision actually came after a quick trip downtown to check out Trade Secrets and see if they still had the bin full of clearance OPI Shrek Collection that I'd passed up last month and was sorely regretting -- Funky Dunkey for $5.99! Sadly, the basket was filled only with rust coloured numbers that looked, well...rusty.
Anyway, on my way home, looking out the window on the subway, I was reminded of that scene in the movie Across the Universe where Jude is staring out the window on the subway singing Across the Universe. And, eventually, I got to singing Strawberry Fields...you get the picture.

Of course, I messed it up at work after not waiting long enough for the polish to dry, and I ended up trying to mask it using a glitter coat, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - In the Spotlight:

No flash, cloudy skies -- but so flashy!

I really liked it, but it had too much of a New Year's Eve sort of vibe to it, so I scrapped it entirely. I'm actually really excited right now because I just re-did my whole manicure with my new Revlon Quick Dry base coat, 2 coats of Strawberry Fields, and a quick coat of my newly purchased Seche Vite. I'm actually pretty impressed with it, as it's only been about 15 minutes and I'm already typing away on my computer, no problem!  It was a steal, too -- $7 at Winners.

Phew! That was a lot to get out in one post. I'm off to enjoy the rest of my day off. Stay tuned for my hockey nails post in honour of tomorrow's NHL entry draft!

P.S. since the theme of this post was "Berrylicious", I thought I would add a manicure from 2 weeks ago:

The scent was not-so-blueberry after all...

 Revlon Scented - Not So Blueberry: beautiful colour! Application was a bit of a problem, but in the end with a topcoat,it all turned out fine. The scent wasn't too bad, either, not exactly as blueberry-like as I had imagined. The scent bothered the pharmacist I usually worked with, though, so it had to go. Smells kind of like Mylan-Metformin, if you're interested. :P