The Search for Mystery Pink Begins

   My niece celebrated her first birthday last Sunday. And since she is our superstar, the apple of our eyes, the family pet, the theme of her party was Princess. Do I even have to tell what the theme color was? Okay, fine, here's a clue: it starts with P and rhymes with ink.

   I was thinking of getting a princess-y mani but I was so busy the days before the party. The closest I could get to following the theme was this:

   I can't tell you the brand and name of the polish because I don't know them. I got my mani from a salon and I did try to find out what the brand was, but it's nothing I recognized. I just remembered that it was Epsa-something (or was it Epspa?) and the shade was 112. I figure it's Asian, as Etude House and The Face Shop assign number codes to their polishes as well and they're both Asian, Korean to be specific.

   I can't tell you either about the formula and the application because, as I have mentioned, a nail technician applied it, not I.

   The color was perfect; it went with my outfit. Plus I was starting to think that pinks don't look good on me, until I found this. It was like finding true love. What's disappointing was it started to chip just a couple of days after application. :(

 

Her Royal Highness was not amused.

"Off with its head!"

    Neither was I. I want that exact same shade of fushcia fucshia fush oh wtf hot pink! I shall find you, True Love Pink!

 

Late Post - First Day of School (Work)

   There's a reason I haven't posted in a loooong time: I started work two weeks ago and as I mentioned in my previous post, I now work full time in Ateneo.Today is Saturday but I woke up at 7:30 am, panicked for a whole minute that I was already running late (my first class starts at 8:30), then realized I didn't have work today. Sheesh.

   Anyway, here's what I wore on the first day of school.

two coats

   NYX Purple Ink. Formula is great, application is easy, and it lasted the whole week. At first I thought it would be similar to OPI Grape Set Match but I think this is darker. I haven't tried the latter yet so I'm not sure.

   My cuticles look horrible, I know! I misplaced my beloved Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream and I don't want to buy a new one yet in case I find it. But, yeah, my cuticles are suffering so maybe I should buy already. :|

Blah

   As the title suggests, I'm not feeling very glittery today. I don't know if it's just the quarter life crisis, the knowledge that I'm going back to work in a few days (and starting next semester, which is next week, I work full time, meaning 6 classes in Ateneo alone. That's a lot.), the crazy Manila weather, or the fact that I'm down with cramps.

   I actually wanted to cheer myself up by wearing some glitter or flakes polish, but the last time I wore glitter (last week's Pink Wednesday mani, which I failed to blog about) I regretted it the moment I had to use two cotton balls soaked in polish remover just for one nail.

   So I decided to wear this instead.

With flash. I regret not cleaning it up before taking a photo. Forgive me.

   I don't know how to describe the color. It's a cream periwinkle? bluish-purple (blurple)?

No flash. Still looks bluish, right?

   Application is okay (two coats) and the color is pretty despite it being unidentifiable, but right after I finished painting my nails I noticed some bubbles forming. And no, I wasn't painting my nails in front of the fan.



   It's one of the Kelly polishes I bought in Bangkok. In the pictures it looks more blue than purple but when I bought it it looked purple to me. Or maybe I really should have my eyes checked.

  It's raining now. I'll end this and go mope in a corner.

Eeeeekkkk!

   I've been wearing this mani for a week!

   I wanted to do another Halloween mani but my niece wouldn't let me. She's now starting to walk/run and it's just impossible for me to sit still for at least ten minutes. That also explains the lack of posts. I'm writing this as her mom gives her a bath.

   Left with no choice, I decided to wear a polish from Cutex's Halloween collection (It was actually released months ago, but it's perfect for Halloween so I'm calling it that.)

   This is Under a Spell. It's a lovely blue matte.

It's matte, I promise.

 And like I said, I've worn this for a week and there's still no chipping. Plus it dries fast, making it the perfect polish for Babysitter Marvi.

   I also have the green one in this collection, Spooktacular, and it's also one of my favoritest polishes ever. When Marielle takes her afternoon nap later I'll probably change into this polish.

   I love mattes! 

I love you, too.

Trick or Treat!

   Happy Halloween! My niece went trick-or-treating for the first time yesterday. It's only the 22nd, I know, but the homeowners association of my grandma's village scheduled it yesterday.  Maybe because Filipinos go back to their hometowns and thus are away on Halloween? Or maybe so that the children can go trick-or-treating in other villages on Halloween itself?

greedy brats

   Whatever. This just means I can celebrate Halloween twice. And by celebrate I mean wear two different Halloween manis!

Spot the awesome Halloween mani!

   For my first Halloween mani, I used the black Calar polish I bought in Bangkok last week as the base for all of my nails except for the ring fingernail. And I must say I am impressed. When I go back to Bangkok I'll definitely buy more Calar polishes.

So how do you pronounce "Calar"?

    And for my ring fingernail I used Elianto Orange Red. I think it's misnamed though. I don't see any red. Do you?

   And then I topped it with my new discovery: 24k nail polish.

I'm in love

   I've never tried this brand before, but when I saw these two polishes, I grabbed them right away. They reminded me of Nfu-Oh polishes, which, unfortunately, I have none of. So I bought them, hoping they wouldn't disappoint.

   I used the orange one (they were nameless). It did not disappoint.

no flash

   It was light years away from disappointing.

with flash

   The flakes flash green and orange at the same time, my camera just can't capture it. Believe me, I tried.


   Each 24K bottle costs only 38php, making it even more awesome for a teacher  cheapskate like me.

   Oh and my niece won the Scariest Costume award. :) She wasn't scary at all, but other kids were dressed up in non-scary costumes like princess, fairy, pumpkin, etc.

   So, any ideas for my next Halloween mani?

Bangkok Haul

   I'm back from the Land of Smiles, Bacolod! Just kidding. I'm back from Bangkok! That explains my silence these past few days. (My hotel had no free wifi!)

   I wanted to wear a polish that screams "adventure" during the trip, but I had been so busy checking test papers and other teacher-related activities that I wasn't able to devote time to my nails. So I ended up wearing my Pink Wednesday mani instead, which was this:

San San Tea Rose

   San San Tea Rose is a light pink shimmer. Not very me; it looks too demure. But I like it nevertheless.

   I used three coats.

   And in Bangkok, on the very first day of the trip, before all the temple-hopping and the picture-taking, I got these:

6 for 100 Baht. (My companion got the sixth one)

   And these:

3 for 100 Baht. Look at the handles!

    Thai nail polish. Somebody care to translate?

   Sawadee ka!

Bonfire Mani

   For the Annual Ateneo Bonfire I wanted to paint my nails blue and white, our school colors, but I didn't have any white polish.So I just did this:

Two coats of OPI Servin' Up Sparkle over one coat of The Face Shop BL 604.

one coat of BL 604. Yeah, I know, right.

    TFS BL 604 is one of my favoritest nail polishes ever. I've had it for two years and there are no signs of discoloration or separation or whatever. So it saddened me that I couldn't close the bottle anymore. Well, at first try. The next day I was able to close it, no problem.

This was the most it would go.

   My Bonfire mani was not very Bonfire-y but it did remind me of the fireworks that go off after the bonfire is lit.

Find the deformed hidden Mickey!

   So I'm renaming it My Bonfireworks Mani. Shut up, this is MY blog.

   It also reminds me of the view when you look down from the hill, where the Ateneo is.

Down from the hill, down to the world go I....

  I am in love with this mani.

 

.

    This shot captures the awesomeness of Servin' Up Sparkle:

I'm sorry for my greasy fingers. Blame the rain. And the chicken. Long story.

   Do you see that sparkly sparkle? You can't miss it. (Unless you're blind)

(Bonfire photos courtesy of Grake Ablana)