Swatch: Rainbow Honey Sweet Talk

Ahhh I've been meaning to do this one forever! But first, I know you've all heard Google Reader is going kaput and I just want to direct your attention to bloglovin' on the side there >>>
I'm still figuring it out, especially how to see individual users (for future giveaways, hint hint) but we'll get there! Because of the GR thing, they've made it really simple to import your whole blog list! Meet you there <3

Anyway, moving on. Sweet Talk is really SHEER. FML. I should have reread the reviews I had drooled over. It is quite transparent, but builds up. This is good because if you're a dolt like me you can power through with enough layers BUT if you're smart, and you realize you're gonna want pastels for Easter, you could put any colour you wanted under there and still have a jelly-sandwich type application with some colour =) So, I did like 5 coats or more, but that's because I'm a goof.

 As you can see, it's not quite opaque yet and I got tired of doing more layers. I also didn't want any more glitter than what you see, otherwise it'd look like China Glaze It's A Trap-eze style (which I still haven't swatched, it makes me nervous...). BUT I did remember I had this Golden Rose milky non-opaque polish. It really smoothed out the look of Sweet Talk!

 I'm gonna list this post as the swatch for the Golden Rose too since this shows you pretty nicely how opaque it is without me actually having to do a million layers =P

And since it's Easter, and we're thinking cute little speckled eggs, MATTE! By Julep ;)

I realized what these reminded me of... Back to Kelly's box we go xD

Watermarker wouldn't mark it xP Gonna send the boy troubleshooting soon...
(The shiny is because lotion)

PEEPS! I still haven't opened them because they're so cute >_< (I'm a hoarder...)

Anyway, what do you think? This was a great polish to buy since it doubles for Valentine's and Easter =D

I talked a lot... your turn! What do you think? What are some similar speckly polishes you know of?

PS: In case anyone was wondering how I'm dealing with my new hair...

=D Happy Easter!

Let It Snow #15: Longing for Summer

THE LAST IS NIGH. This is my last item for the Let It Snow Challenge =) Summer and nail polish makes me think of neons and my colour changers from Del Sol. Since it hasn't been a neon sort of mood, I came up with an idea to combine my Del Sols.

Starting with yesterday's Del Sol Secret Crush, I half-mooned with Del Sol Chicky.

 That was easy. Then I took my trusty dotting tool and made little squigglies underneath the moons.

 Sunshine =D This is me trying to get a decent photo...

 BUT THEN THE SUN!

 The colour really does change! I am much more impressed with Secret Crush now than I was. It's hard to account for the colour change but it really is much more than subtle! I like my design! It looks hot, which is exactly what summer is all about, right?

 Now here's the awesome part. This is my other hand. Only one half was facing the sunshine, so only half changed colour. I love it!

You can really see it in the thumb above =D

I love this! Do you guys have any other ideas for combining the Del Sol's?

Lookit everyone else! Makes me crave ice cream <3

Swatch: Del Sol Secret Crush

A colour changer! It's been sunny (though windy) here lately so that's what I based today's choice on <3

First up, swatches in the shade. It's a pretty orangey-pink with a little bit of a dark blue/purple shimmer in it. As with my other Del Sols, it's quite sheer, so this is 5-6 thin coats. They each dried very quickly though, so it didn't bother me.

 You can see here it started to change colour.

This last photo seems to be the extent of it, but you must also remember that it is only the beginning of spring and the hot sun might do better. It didn't turn the dark purple that the bottle seems to imply, more of a soft mauve colour.

I'm not impressed but this is not a bad colour, and I quite like how it looks. Have you got any Del Sols yet? What's your favourite?

BAKING: Angelfood confetti cupcakes with Strawberry Whip Icing

First, I'd like to say I found the first bug in the watermark program: it doesn't mark my non-nail pics! IT KNOWS SOMEHOW! *cough* Anyway, the boy will get to this ASAP as I will pester him.

Okay, to post. It was my friend's kids' birthday party(ies?) and being socialized little girls, their favourite colour is PINK. Last year we made fantastic angelfood cake cupcakes with strawberry buttercream icing but hey, this year we have Gramma's vanilla whip icing which means we get to experiment! We were a little leery since the chocolating of the recipe didn't turn out nicely, but this isn't a dry ingredient so we dove right in after a bit of thought!

This was lots of fun. We modified the recipe a bit to avoid adding lots of fluid via pureed strawberries. So from before the original recipe was:

Here's what you'll need:
5TBSP Flour
1CUP Milk
1CUP Butter
1CUP White Sugar
1TSP Vanilla

We modified this by using only half the milk (0.5CUP Milk) and adding 0.75CUP pureed strawberries. Our first step came out MUCH more dense and gluey which was to expected.

(Full instructions for this recipe here - nothing was changed, only ingredient measures as noted above)

Cupcakes were made with Betty Crocker Angelfood confetti cake.

Angelfood cake cupcakes!

 I forgot how marshmallow-y they are pre-baking! Teehee~ They poofled up nicely =)

I didn't get a photo of our lumpy glue paste but it was extremely relieving when we added the strawberries and the icing whipped up just like there were none! These next two pics is where I try to show you the pretty pink it became but alas, kitchen lighting was not my friend.

That's okay though, because you can see it in the next photo!

This icing is PERFECT for piping! Lookit my pretty lines =D If I'd had the patience I would have flowered the whole thing xD As it were, Branden covered up the middle with chopped strawberries, which is where the rest of our $3.98 package went. I think they worked out quite nicely!

These tasted absolutely amazing! You guys need to try this icing recipe and it's extremely pliable! Tell me what you put in it! Better yet, tell me what I should put in it! I'm already thinking of redoing my mango-coconut devilfood cupcakes with this icing instead of buttercream. What do you think?

Swatch: Elianto Salmon Pink

Herro! Today I have a quickie! I needed something to match my outfit and my eyes fell on Elianto Salmon Pink which, despite its name, is actually a pretty coppery colour. To me, it appears richer than Essie's Penny Talk, but only by the photos I've seen.

I did 3 coats, though it was pretty well covered by 2.

I like it! It's softer than CG Harvest Moon which is probably better for fancy functions =) What do you think?

Let It Snow #13: Winter Ombre/Gradient

It's the home stretch guys!

Starting with yesterday's combo of Orly Gogo and Cosmic Kiss, I used Joe Cement to stroke on a gradient. Because it's sheer too, trying to sponge it would be useless.

 And then I matted it with Julep =3

I like it a lot! Check everyone else!

Swatch: Orly Gogo and Cosmic Kiss

Hi guys! I'm pairing these because they're both pretty sheer and I don't know how else to deal with them. I picked them up for 50c a piece so it wasn't a big deal for them not to be perfect =P Next time I'm putting a base down. In any case, I started with Gogo and just kept doing coats until I was happy. I think it was 4 or 5.

 It was very pearly, but not opaque with little tiny glittery bits. The VNL kills me. Anyway, so I then got Cosmic and put that over, and it has larger glitter than Gogo.

Sorry for the messy cuticles, I'm doing artsy things over it.

Do you guys have any suggestions for working with polish like this? 

Balding for Dollars at SFU 2013

The post you've all been waiting for!

Gonna start you off with a before picture...

And now I'm just gonna post some highlights followed by the video =)

My best friend got first snip <3

That is ALL THE HAIR.

 It was really creepy and gross =P

Branden did the shave =D

(Almost) Everyone who made it!

The final grand total is $1760 for me, and just over $24,000 for SFU in its entirety, including the money raised at the event through food sales and other things.

I also had the most people show up to watch and we slowly pushed the performers off their space xD

So one thing about this video is the background music is really annoying. The girl singing, though she had a beautiful voice, started singing the saddest freaking song after I said my reason for doing this is "the lols". Ruined moment. Anyway, enjoy <3!

Let It Snow #14 Winter Blues

I'm breaking my promise and this is out of order. I'm sorry again ==; I'm gonna use all the excitement of my bald head to shield me from blame because I honestly really felt like having blue and I fully intended to do some gradient and it just didn't happen...

Instead, I put down Nyx Thunder.

 And then Saran Wrap! I used Essence Walk On Air and You Belong To Me, and Sally Hansen Blue Me Away =) I did a couple dabs of each to get some layers and depth.

 Over it I added Essie Pure Pearlfection, one of my favourite toppers (go figure).

Check everyone else out!