Guess who's back, back again...

Hi all!

I feel like hugging this blog, it's been so long! So, quick update on my life now: as you may know, I graduated from my bachelor's degree in May but you (probably?) don't know that I am now working on my master's! As well trying to get everything in order to apply for a post-doctoral program in the fall of 2014. I'm busy, to say the least. I often feel like I'm drowning in coursework and just life in general. That sounds sadder than it is, lol. In fact, the only reason I'm blogging now is because I'm procrastinating doing some school work but today I just got an overwhelming desire to blog again so here I am! It helps that I really like this mani :D

Right, nails, that's why you're here. For this mani I started with a base of Illamasqua Jo'Mina and then saran-wrapped-sponged Illamasqua Nomad on top. Then I stamped with the silver Color Club holo and MASH 39. These even got the boyfriend seal of approval with a cheery "Ooohh look who's back!" when I showed him.

The pictures aren't perfect and I have to re-tweak the lighting because my setup changed since I wasn't using the lightbox but I'm just happy to have these up!

Sappy time: I am really happy you're all still following this blog and to show my gratitude, I'll be having a giveaway soon! Nothing huge, but I do have some things I've stashed away for an occasion such as this. As for the future of the blog, I do strive to continue blogging but I am definitely not pushing myself too hard. Sometimes I just have time to paint my nails in a single color and no nail art, and I'm actually still falling back in love with doing my nails since I was often naked during the break so I don't want it to become a chore again.

See you soon! :D

My Bundle Monster Fright Night Entry!

Hello ladies!

I finally worked up the courage to actually enter a contest! You probably know about the Bundle Monster Fright Night contest that's going on and many of you probably entered. Very very late the night before submissions were due, I decided to go for it and came up with something I liked (for the most part).

I started with a base of Pop Beauty Mandarin on all nails. Then, I grabbed Illamasqua Prosperity (the purple from the newer Rubber Brights) and did a saran wrap mani and stamped with BM 224 and 225. On my pointer and pinky I did a 'scratch' technique I had done by accident on some nails before and I kept thinking it could be a cool effect, but eventually forgot about until Neverland Nail posted her own scratch nails with layered colors (see her post here). On my thumb I freehanded a little Jack 'O Lantern face with Prosperity as well.

I quite liked the results! Maybe not up to par with what I would have wanted to submit to such a big contest, but I'm still proud of myself for having the balls to submit it :D

You can check out all the entries on Bundle Monster's page on Facebook and, if you so wished, you can vote for my entry HERE (I will love you forever if you do!). 

A Different Kind of Olympic Mani

Hey all!

We're back to do another Polish Days! This is a monthly event where bloggers agree to do a mani based on a certain theme and post them all at the same time. The event is organized by the lovely Hannah aka Polly Polish who does (what I can assume is) a buttload of work to make sure this event goes smoothly. This time around the theme is the Olympic Games!

As some of you may know, I'm from and live in Puerto Rico. We're a tiny island (100x35 miles) with a lot of people and even more living in the US. We're also proud, and yesterday one of our own made us even prouder by winning a bronze medal in the 400m race in the athletic program. It's our first olympic medal in this event and the first in these olympics as well. This is sort of my nod to him, for uniting an entire island for the brief moment it takes to watch the race. I'm not kidding, offices literally had signs saying "Closed to watch the race". We're also not a very productive people.

For this I used O.P.I Dutch Ya Just Love OPI and did the saran/cling wrap technique with Essie Penny Talk. For the two accent nails I did a caviar/fish egg/microbeads and on my thumb I just freehanded P.R. with Penny Talk again. I used purple because the "string" that holds the medals is purple. Plus, I've seen a lot of purple in the decorations and banners, etc.

The color of the beads and the polish wasn't 100% but I googled SOO many images of "bronze" and there were very different results in there, so I just rolled with it. I was originally going to skip this Polish Day because I could not come up with any ideas worth doing. I felt like every idea had already been done and a million times better than I could do, so I went with something a little more abstract and close to the heart. It's most assuredly definitely not my best work, but it was also 2am when I finished these so...yeah sleepy.

This is for you, Javier Culson. We're still super proud even though you wanted to bring us the gold.

Sorry if I babbled, have a good day and don't forget to check the links for all the other Polish Days manis!

Alexis - Glitter Tips
 Chiro - Nail of This Week
 Cuti-CLUE-les
 Hannah - Polly Polish
 Heidi - Pretty Painted Nails
 Inky - Inky Polisholicious
 Ishah - Ishah X Beauty
 Jen - The Nail Polish Project
 Jenny - Beauty By Jenny
 Jessica - Sparkles & Shine Nails
 Joanna - The Treasure Chest
 Kat - Hooked on Polish
 Kate - The Polish Cart
 Keisha - Refined & Polished
 Maria - So Marvellous
 Melissa - The Crimson Petal
 Mihaela - Lacquer Buzz
 Nail Tart
 Nicole - Nearly Nailed
 Pris - Pris Nails
 Sabine - My Polish Stash
 Samantha - Polished Art
 Sammy - The Nailasaurus
 Sophia - Unhas a Trois
 Stephanie - Sincerely Stephanie 

 Wendy - Wendy's Delights 

Illamasqua Radium Sponged Marble

IT'S FRIDAY!!

I'm feeling really happy right now. Wanna know why?! Don't care, telling you anyway. I booked a vacation with le boyfriend! We're going to NYC for a week now in July. He's all excited about me meeting his friends and taking me to eat everything I haven't tried or can't try here and taking me to his favorite spots around the city. I've been to NY just once when I was about 13-14 and this time I'm going with someone who knows his way around (he lived there for 7 years while he studied) so I feel... safer I guess? It's also my first time going away with a boyfriend so, yay.

Ok, since I went all wordy with my personal stuff I'll keep it simple with the nails! This is 2 buttery coats ofIllamasqua Radium which I wanted since forever (like most other Illamasquas) and did the saran wrap sponging with China Glaze Gothic Lolita.

I'm not gonna lie, Radium might not be the single most unique color but, to me, the slight shimmer it has, the fact that it doesn't stain and just the awesome Illamasqua formula made me want it. I'm sorry I just have the one picture of the marble, they all turned out awful since I was in the middle of cleaning when I remembered to take the pictures before I wrecked it. This was also before I trimmed my nails. Sigh, weren't the pretty?

Oh I also wanted to ask if anyone had a good book recommendation. I know le boy is going to sleep through the flight so I have to do something else for entertainment.

Ok soo that's it from me! Enjoy your weekend and... yeah, that's pretty much all I had to say... That second part of the sentence feels unnecessary now...