Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Nina Ultra Pro Mini Haul + Swatches

Hey guys! Sorry, I have been a bad blogger. I was gone all weekend, visiting some family. Then before that, my computer wasn't available to me. So I guess its not really my fault, but I'm still sorry! Anyways, I have had these polishes for a while, but they never really got into a post. So here they are! This is my first time with Nina Ultra Pro, I thought they were good, not great, but I had no big issues.

I got these at Sally Beauty Supply a while back when they were having a buy 2 get 1 sale. Overall they had a big variety and I loved the colors. But they all seemed kind of sheer. It wasn't a big issue, but I had to use a few more coats then wanted. Without any more wait, here they are!

Orange Flame:

Orange Flame is a bright neon orange. I personally really like this color because orange is one of my favorite colors. The application was sheer and I had to put it over a white base. I noticed that it didn't get really neon until the second coat. I had to take these pictures in awful lighting, because no matter what I couldn't catch the neon. So here is two coats over a white base.

Electric Slide:

Electric Slide is a glittery lime green jelly. I thought this was going to be a lot more bright than it is, but I still do like it. I had to put it over a white base, because it was so sheer. Here is three coats over a white base.

Boys 'n' Berries:

Boys 'n' Berries has a clear base with different shapes of purple and plum glitter. This is actually my favorite of the three. I loved the glitter and it was packed with it. Here is one coat over a purple base.

Monday, May 19, 2014

Nailing The Book: If I Stay Nail Art

So I now have a job! I am working as a dishwasher at a camp. It's not very glamorous but it's my first job so I'm happy just to have to a job. I start I. Tuesday! I still have to find out if I can wear nail polish on the job. Haha, it's sad that, that is my main concern!

So today I have nail art based on If I Stay by Gayle Forman. I haven't reviewed it yet but it took my breath away. It was beautiful and tragic and I highly recommend that you read it if you haven't. It's about a fatal car crash and the second I opened the book I saw this.

I was automatically like, NAIL ART. I didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it to, but I still really love this design.

I used Revlon Midnight, Sally Hansen Blue Me Away, and NYC Skyline Blue for the background. Then I painted the cracks with NYC Black Lace Cream. Then I painted If I Stay with NYC French White Tip. I finished with Essie Good to Go.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Requiem Book Review

“And you can't love, not fully, unless you are loved in return.”

*Spoilers if you haven’t read the first two books, Delirium and Pandemonium* You can find the reviews here and here.

I am so confused. I read this a few weeks ago and I still can’t get over that ending. It was just awful. I was seriously expecting to turn the page and find another chapter or two, but no that was it. But really, besides the ending, this book was a step up from Pandemonium. First it didn’t have the “now” and “then” part, which was great. You finally get to see Alex, which made the book a hundred times better. But the ending was kind of a “wtf moment”.

Requiem was split into two povs: Lena and Hana. Hana is cured and about to be married to the governer. But she soon releases that the cure didn’t work on her. Well it kind of did, but it wears off throughout the book. She displays this by bringing food to Lena’s family, which is homeless after Lena escaped. It was really nice to see her point of view in the story.

So this book picks up right after Pandemonium. Alex is different, hard, cold, and wrong after seeing Lena with Julian. So basically they both picked people to make the other one jealous. Lena has Julian and Alex has Coral. It is so freaking annoying. There is a shit load of tension between the three, I mean really. There are punches thrown. It is all madness. The whole time I was just like “KISS ALREADY” to Lena and Alex.

The rebellion is in full swing and they are fully fitting back again the government. I loved seeing this intense version of Lena. She is no longer the sweetheart from Delirium or the grieving person from Pandemonium. She is bad ass.

"But maybe happiness isn't in the choosing. Maybe it's in the fiction, in the pretending: that wherever we have ended up is where we intended to be all along."

So out in the Wilds, the government is now hunting them down. They didn’t even say they were real in the first two books, and in the third they are hunting them down. The Wilds are a mess. They are constantly moving around to try to find a save place. But there is no safe place, and they soon learn that.

So while I had some problems with this book, I can’t deny that Lauren Oliver’s writing is incredibly perfect and beautiful in every way. It is just so amazing. I do think that this was a great book, while it wasn’t perfect, it was a good read.

Monday, May 12, 2014

Bookshelf Tour Spring 2014 Part 1

I have two favorite things in my room. They are my bookshelf and my nail polish shelf. Weirdly enough, I haven't done a tour for either of them. Today I am going to show you my bookshelf (well half of it) and all of its amazingness. I am having a lot of fun with this, so I hope you do too!

Row 1

So I don't want to pick favorites or anything but.... I like this one more then the rest. Probably because I have a lot of my favorite books on the top row! I put these on the first row because I wanted to show off their beauty, and they are at great staring height from my bed. (Yeah... okay.)

The Bloodlines Series: I finally managed to get all of them! They look so beautiful together. They are the spinoff series of Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. These are my favorite books of all time.

Spirit Bound: Sadly I only have the 5th book of the Vampire Academy series, but I plan to change that. I just loved the whole series. Richelle Mead is brilliant. BRILLIANT.

The Fault In Our Stars: Depressing, beautiful, and brilliant, The Fault In Our Stars has managed to become of my favorite books, period.

Paper Towns: Paper Towns impressed me with the humor and love that went into it. The book was just so funny. Seriously, I had to refrain myself from rolling on the floor, laughing.

The Infernal Devices Trilogy: Clockwork Angel, Clockwork Prince, and Clockwork Princess make up one of my favorite series, The Infernal Devices! The Infernal Devices is a series set in the amazing shadow hunter world, that I love. And these books are damn beautiful.

The Mortal Instruments: The Mortal Instruments my third favorite series of all time. I just love the whole shadow hunter world and the romance between Jace and Clary. Also, MAGNUS. Who can forget Magnus?

Alright, on top of my Mortal Instruments collection, I have a smelly stuffed frog. It smells like watermelon. I got it from my friends and it is one of two stuffed animals that I own. Yes, be jealous.

Row 2

Oh, row two and your complete randomness. This is basically completely random. I did put all of the Divergent books together and Sarah Dessen's books together. But the rest is just random convenience.

Divergent Series: Oh how I love you. The Divergent series is my favorite dystopian series that I have read so far. They look so perfect together.

Sarah Dessen Books: So I am missing a few of Dessen's books but I have most of them. I love her girly writing and yes, all of the cheesy love stories. It kind of bugs me that they changed all of the covers, so I have one book that doesn't look like the rest. Ahhh.

Every Soul A Star: I have no idea what so ever, what this book is about. But it was pretty and on sale. (Story of my spending habits)

Hold Still: I actually read this one like last week, and it was great. It is a story about loss and friendship and it was pretty emotional. I should have a review up soon!

If I Stay: I just finished If I Stay and it was amazing. I feel like its better if you go into this one with not knowing anything about it, so I'm keeping my mouth shut.

Thirteen Reasons Why: I blame the hype. I thought it was okay but not as great as everyone thought. I reviewed this one sometime this year.

Speak: Speak is a very emotional book about a girl's story with rape. I honestly loved the story but it was hard to read some times.

Chains: I have no clue what this is about but it was .50 cents at a garage sale and it is by Laurie Halse Anderson, so I'm in.

It's Kind of A Funny Story: I really really want to read this, and I hope I can get to it soon!

Impulse: Impulse has something to do with suicide but I have never read it. I am looking forward to it!

Crazy: No clue what this about. Again.

Cut: The title is pretty self explanatory. It is about a girl who cuts. I haven't read it yet, but I want to! I just have too big of a tbr pile.

This is my awesome bird that I got from my aunt when I was in the hospital last year. It has great meaning to me.

I also have a tbr (to be read) jar. Some times I pick a piece of paper out of it and read what it says. It is a way of getting through all of my books that I own!

I'll have the second half later this week or next week! Have a great day :)

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Nailing The Book: Delirium Nail Art

Hey guys! We are under a tornado watch right now, but it looks perfectly fine outside. It was thunder storming earlier though, so I'm getting some blogging down before it starts up again!

I read Delirium close to a month ago and was blown away by Lauren Oliver's ability to tell such a beautiful story. You can find my raving review here. So I was also blown away by the cover, both front in back. I mean look at it!

I got my idea for the nail art from the back writing. You can't really see it in this picture, but I will have a close up later. The whole idea of the book is the main character, Lena, getting "infected" with love. So I thought this nail art was very spot on!

For this design I used The New Black polish as my base for all of my nails. Then I free handed the "infected" with Wet n Wild I Need A Refreshment. Then I drew the disease symbol in NYC Black Lace Creme. Then I finished with Sally Girl Butta on my thumb (Which I actually changed after these pictures).

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Pandemonium Book Review

“The flip side of freedom is this: When you're completely free, you're also completely on your own.”

*Intense spoilers if you haven't read Delirium*

Pandemonium was incredibly confusing but still kind of great. It was honestly disappointing and a big step down from Delirium. Delirium left me breathless and pandemonium was just kind of sad. I realized that with Alex, this series kind of isn't special to me. I also found it kind of wrong that they would just kill him off. I mean I get why they did it, it was supposed to be romantic and all of that, but no.

This book was split between "now" and "then". "Then" is when Lena finds a group in the wilds and trys to get over the death of Alex. "Now" is a little bit in the future when she is under cover for the resistance against the government. I found the whole concept really confusing. Like I would get into the story and then all of the sudden I was in the future or the past.

But I need to stop complaining because I did like the book as a whole. I liked the new characters like Raven and Tack. I also liked how Lena changed so much, and for the good. She was much more strong and brave. It was a nice change from the weaker person we met in Delirium.

In "then", Lena is about to die from all of the running and her injuries. Then Raven and her group finds her and she stays with them. She learns that the Wilds are a very hard place to live and that hunger is normal.

In "now", Raven sends her to New York and she is under cover for the resistance. She is a student at an academy and is involved in the DFA (Deliriua Free America). She is supposed to watch a young leader named Julian and ends up falling for him.

So overall, I liked it but the book did have some problems with it.

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Ulta Nail Pail Review & Swatches

I feel like I haven't blogged in forever. It's been 6 days and I'm sorry for that! I have been pretty busy lately. But I'm back now and I have a review for you! I went to Ulta last Monday and got their Nail Pail. I hadn't tried their nail polishes before and wanted to try them out! I am not surprised that I love them!

The Nail Pail was 15 dollars and includes 8 mini (but not too mini) nail polishes and a small nail file! The polishes include 6 of their best sellers and 2 limited edition polishes! This set has everything from creme, to jelly, to glitter, to holographic!

Ulta Showgirl:

Showgirl is a pinkish coral jelly. I love this shade! You can put it over white or it gets opaque in 3 coats. I honestly have nothing like it. I used 2 coats without top coat for the pictures below.

Ulta Starry Night:

Starry Night is a glitter topper with holographic gold and pink big and small glitters. Even though this isn't the most unique glitter, I just love the gold and rose combo. I'm also a big holographic lover, so this glitter is a win for me. I used one coat over Showgirl in the pictures below.

Ulta (Limited Edition- no name):

The first limited edition polish is a beautiful lilac creme. I personally really liked this color and thought it lilac/lavender colors. The formula was great as well. I used two coats without topcoat for the pictures below.

Ulta Celebutante:

Celebutante is a dark plum creme. I enjoyed this color as well but I didn't think it was that original. I can probably find a few like it in my collection. The formula was great as usual. I used two coats without top coat in the pictures below.

Ulta Mint Condition:

Mint Condition is a dark mint jelly. I have nothing like this, and I love it. It is a jelly polish, so if you want to get full coverage, you will need three coats. I used 3 coats without topcoat in the pictures below.

Ulta (limited edition, no name):

The second and final limited edition polish is a yellowish nude creme. I would this would to be average. I don't love it, I don't hate it. The formula was great though! I used two coats without top coat for the pictures below.

Ulta Boogie Nights:

Boogie Nights has a clear base with brown and rainbow small glitters. I think that this glitter is so unique and fun! I used two coats over the limited edition polish.

Ulta XOXO:

XOXO is a pink holographic jelly. This polish is weird and amazing. It shouldn't work but it does. The formula was great for a jelly as well. I used three coats without top coat in the pictures below.

A Polished Bookworm