So long, and thanks for all the fish...

Hi friends!

So you may have noticed that I've been pretty inactive for a while here. Here's a little summary of what I've been up to:

1. Work
2. Gym

24/7, full schedule lol. I just got a little promotion at work which requires a lot more responsibilities and I also am pretty deep with my whole fitness routine. I work 8 hours a day 5 days a week, and gym for at least an hour a day 6 days a week. Plus driving. That leaves me tending to my social life on weekends only. Let's not even talk about how behind I am on keeping up with my favorite blogs...I had almost 900 blog posts today, just managed to skim through some of my favorites so far which leaves me at 350 lol. Maybe I'm just bad at managing my time, or maybe my priorities have changed, but I just don't seem to have the bandwidth to keep this updated.

I will still do nail art (and have been!), but I won't have time to sift through tons of photos and write a story to go along with them. I think I'll be just content with posting them on my Instagram, and if you wish to do so, can continue to follow me there, @sandipalien.

So for now, farewell...and to semi quote everyone's favorite governator- I'll be back (maybe) :)

Review: Born Pretty Store Feathers

Ok I'm getting pretty frustrated because I can't seem to catch up on reading all the blogs I follow! It's like, I manage to read 60 of them one day before I tire and then don't ready for another 2 days and find I have 100+ new posts. Yikes!! Anyone else have this problem?! No idea how people get time to write multiple posts in a day. :/ I also should stop going down my blog reel in alphabetical order because blogs started with S through Z fail to get any love from me >.< Anyways moving on...

The Born Pretty Store sent me something to review...feathers!

Born Pretty Store nail art feathers

I was really nervous about using these, which is probably why I'm so late with this review (sorry!), but I think what I did came out pretty cute so I hope that makes up for it! The feathers come in packaging like you see above and the way you use them is by placing them over wet clear polish, snipping off the excess, and then sealing it in with a really thick topcoat (or two). To cut off the excess, I found a cuticle trimmer most useful because you can get a really good angle to cut. I also used 1 coat of Gelous and 1 coat of Seche Vite top coat to get a completely smooth surface, worked like a charm!

It did take a few tries to get this to work right for me. First of all, I wasn't sure what base color to use. First I tried black, bad idea since it didn't contrast with the feathers (dumb ol' me!). Second, I tried with a nude and stuck the feather while the colored base was wet but then the nude polish leaked all over on top of the feather and looked really sloppy. Third time I was frustrated and just grabbed white polish because it was closest to me and I just wanted to be done. On top of that I used a clear polish to stick the feather on. I'm very happy with the result.

Mint: China Glaze For Audrey
Brown: China Glaze Chocolate Moose
White: Sally Hansel White On
White Glitter: Windestine Asbestos
Feather: Born Pretty Store

Sunlight

Who?

How handsome are you mister owl?!!! <3 I used the cutepolish tutorial to paint him. Check it out, it's super easy! And the white glitter is Windestine Asbestos.

Where to buy

• Nail art feathers can be found at the Born Pretty Store for less than 2 bucks per pack, and free shipping worldwide! And you can use my code PDL91 for 10% off your purchase.
• Windestine polish I bought from their etsy store. Took me the longest time because they kept selling out!

What do you think about using feathers for nail art? At first I thought it was kind of ridiculous (I mean, sticking feathers on your nails what!)...but it looks pretty cool, especially for the artistically challenged like myself. Bye!

*Products sent for my honest review

For Audrey Weaving

Hi strangers! I'm still alive, just haven't had time to write up some posts :( Let alone how behind I am in keeping up with everyone else's blogs (I have over 300 unread posts!)...so if I've been MIA that's why, nothing personal! Here's a quick little bit of nail art!

China Glaze For Audrey
Kiss Striper in White
Color Club Art Club Striper in You're Golden

I did this late one night sitting in my bed, so I'm surprised with how neat it came out. Actually this is how I've been doing my nails lately...sitting in my bed. I don't know why but I haven't had time to set up and actually do something awesome with my nails >.< I was going to do all of them like the thumb but I actually realized I preferred how it looks if I did it the other way, so let's just pretend that the thumb is an accent nail! That's all for now, hopefully I can get the next post in soon!

Nailventure to Lake Elsinore- Warrior Dash!

A few weekends ago, I went on a mud run that was held in Lake Elsinore called the Warrior Dash. This one is a little bit longer than a 5k since it is actually a 3.7 mile run...however it didn't feel like that much longer anyways. :) When we finish we received a medal and an awesome viking hat!! That was the inspiration behind this nail art.

Warrior Dash nail art
Red: China Glaze Revolution
Black: Nails Inc Black Taxi
White: Sally Hansen White On
Multiglitter (index & ring): Spoiled Shuffle The Deck
White glitter (middle): Windestine Asbestos
Black glitter (pinky): Windestine Carbon Copy

Fluffy viking helmet!

Warrior Dash nail art post run

Viking hat is less fluffy

I wanted something rugged and to utilize the Warrior Dash colors (red, white, and black). Since it's a mud run, I once again filed my nails down to very short...I highly recommend it. I started with a white base and sponged on the red and black and a little more white just to balance out the colors and then added the different types of glitter I had lying around that matched. My favorite is probably my middle finger. I like how it looks with Windestine Asbestos over it, the white glitter gives it a white noise static look. I really dislike my Spoiled Shuffle The Deck polish which is starting to bleed glitter and was just very goopy with not much glitter payoff. I freehanded the viking helmet on my thumb and added black flocking powder to make it fluffy. I wish the flocking powder didn't have glitter in it, but it was all I had so whatever!

The last 2 pictures are post-run nails, with me holding my medal! It was hard to get a picture holding the metal without it looking phallic...so that's the best picture you get. >.< You can see a little bit of wear and tear but I still wore this a few days after the run. The viking hat just gets less fluffy over time. Keep reading if you want to see pictures during the run!

Susie's Celebration Cake

Hello there! Here is a very sweet, but easy, nail art that I did a while back. It's inspired by this Instagram picture that I took here!

If you clicked the link you would see the prettiest cake ever! No it's not a million tiers high, covered in nasty fondant, doesn't have any characters painstakingly hand crafted from molding chocolate...nor does it blow up, glow in the dark, twirl and play music, or solve differential equations (whatever crazy stuff cakes do nowadays). It's a simple vanilla cake with sprinkles in the batter and vanilla frosting. My friends and I went to Susie's Cakes in Newport Beach, and I ordered their Celebration cake simply because I liked the way it looked. I was pretty excited that for once, there was a mint dessert that wasn't mint flavored. Love the color, HATE the flavor. So pretty I that I had to do nails inspired by it!

Mint: Essie Mint Candy Apple

Beige: OPI My Vampire is Buff

Pink: Rimmel Posh Pink

Orange: OPI A Roll In The Hague

Green: OPI Jade Is The New Black

Blue: Orly Frisky

Purple: OPI A Grape Fit!

This is what I came up with. I'm not too please with how it came out because I don't think the colors are picked are quite the right shade. The orange I used is far too saturated and just ends up looking too red. I'm not sure what else...but something just doesn't seem right to me. I might try again but will incorporate this design into a full skittle manicure! I have some ideas brewing...have a nice day!

L'Oréal Lacey Lilac

Ugh it's MONDAY again! Especially after I had so much fun in San Diego last weekend, I really don't want today to happen. Oh well...here's a quickie!

Shade

Sunlight

L'Oréal Lacey Lilac is from the Spring Versailles Romance Collection. It's a pretty lilac creme, not much else I have to say about this. Used 2 coats for full opacity and the formula was nice. Wearing this, I realized that I don't own very many purples...not sure why because I don't have anything against that color. I'm totally feeling this particular shade right now. Toodles!

Nailventure to Pomona Graffiti Run 5k

Been a while since I've done a nailventure post...so here is one. Last weekend I ran another 5k, this one called the Graffiti Run, in Pomona. Which is like 15 minutes from my house, pretty close! The concept is exactly the same as the Color Me Rad 5k I did last year- you run 3.1 miles and there are check points at which volunteers throw colored powder on you! Then at the end everyone gets their own color packet to throw at other people. I did my nails for the occasion of course!

Pink: Rimmel Posh Pink

Orange: OPI A Roll In The Hague

Yellow: China Glaze Happy Go Lucky

Green: China Glaze Electric Pineapple

Blue: Milani Dude Blue

Purple: OPI A Grape Fit

White: Sally Hansen White On

OPI Black Shatter

That is quite a list of polishes...those are all the polishes I used! I kind of wanted a graffiti look so I painted all my nails white, used a makeup sponge to sponge on all the different colors, then painted over it with a black crackle polish. It's been a very long time since I've broken out the crackle polish...I feel so retro! Then I used Gelous and SV topcoat to flawlessly smooth this out. Keep reading for the run pictures!