Yay for Konad

This sort of robin's egg blue/Tiffany blue never ceases to make me feel really really classy and I love how it looks paired with a white Konad. I think it looks better with white than black.

I used the filigree/tiny leaves pattern off of the M71 plate, which is pretty beginner-friendly. The pattern has lots of spaces betwen the little etchings so if you miss a spot it's easy to stamp over that bit and make it look as if that was a part of the pattern.

Name change/Better Intro Post/Revamp

It was sort of bugging me that it was all makeup-y when I've been posting about non makeup things so I'm attempting to revamp things.

I also wanted to give an updated introduction post.

My name is Mai, I'm 19 turning 20 in 2 months (gah I'll be old) and am going into my 3rd year of college, despite still being an undeclared major. Anyone have some tips as to how to choose a major because I'm really at my wit's end about this all.

I don't really do much, my hobbies include dancing (ballet, jazz, lyrical, and most recently, tap), reading fan fiction (Harry Potter is my weakness, I can't deny it) and hanging out with my boyfriend. I've most recently gotten into the habit of doing my nails, most specifically because of this nail polish, Sweet Addiction by Barielle, which ironically enough, I don't actually own.

I own more makeup and nail polish that I really need and I have trouble finding foundation that doesn't sink into my large pores. I'm the Vietnamese Culture Night(a variety show production that includes dancing, a fashion show and a play) director at my school's Vietnamese Student Association and I am wondering why I decided to do it.

I am Vietnamese and Chinese, but I only know how to speak Vietnamese and I've recently learned American Sign Language and fingerspelling. I've been told by my boyfriend's mom that I fingerspell elegantly, haha.

I don't really live an exciting life, it's summer, I'm not taking any summer classes and am looking for a job

The end! I'm just going to do away with the expanding posts business, it was weird when I just had a simple post to do, how do you guys feel about the template change?

Essie Lollipop with Covergirl Pink Twinkle NOTD

I haven't ever tried out a flakey nail polish before but I got one from my prize gift pack so I thought to try it over Essie Lollipop; this makes me want to try it over black because it looks crazy awesome


This is 2 coats of Lollipop with one coat of Pink Twinkle topped with Seche Vite all over Nubar Foundation

Pink Twinkle is a gold flakey glitter in a light pink-orange base with orange microglitter :)

Witch Hazel, the savior for my skin

One of my favorite youtube bloggers, SayAnythingBr00ke said a long time ago that she used witch hazel on her skin as a toner and that intrigued me, especially since I have mega acne prone skin.


My herooo

A bottle of witch hazel is extremely cheap, maybe 3-4 dollars for 16 oz at Target? I've been using it for months, twice a day, and have gone through approximately half of the bottle.

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture to show my pre witch-hazel skin, but it's been helping in terms of staving off acne and cleaning my face on the days that I'm lazy to wash it properly. I've noticed that my skin is a lot softer and it's good for my forehead because of the upcoming summer months.

There is a caveat though, while it's drying, it makes me face smell like a pencil. It isn't surprising considering it's distilled from leaves and bark, however it does dissipate after a little while.

Claire's Mood Polish Swatches and Review

I got the whole set of Mood Polishes from Laura of Sawan's prize pack so I shall review and swatch them all today.

No luck with finding Zorro yet, but I am still looking for him. It's been over a month and I feel bad having gotten used to him not being with me.


Here is the warm picture, which is how it is normally in room temp. As you can see, the tips are slightly changing colors already from the temperature difference. The pink is a bit brighter, like pink highlighter bright.

Here is the cold picture, it is fairly accurate.

If I had to pick a favorite, it'd definitely be Wild/Calm, which is the pink/purple combo. It had the best formula and wear (This was 2 coats I believe, and I went 4 days without chipping, and oddly enough, worked really well with my Nubar Foundation base coat when my normal polishes didn't work all that well with it). I loved the sparkle and glitteryness.

The really annoying one has to be Happy/Earthy which is the green/green combo. It had such a thin formula and took maybe 4 coats? I wasn't fond of Daring/Innocent which is the yellow/grey because the yellow just made my skin looks weird and sickly. I loved the grey side of it though and wish it stayed that color.

I'm okay about the other colors, I though I'd like the Peaceful/Confident combo which was the teal/blue color more but the change wasn't dramatic enough for me, ditto for the Fabulous/Funky combo which was bright pink/pink.

If you could only have one, I say pick Wild/Calm, and since they're usually BOGO50%, I'd suggest Peaceful/Confident next.

China Glaze OMG NOTD

The epicness of this polish is best seen in sunlight because it will make people ooh and ahh over your fingers.

There's a better picture included...

This did take 3 coats to get it opaque but each coat dried ridiculously fast so it wasn't that big of a deal. This is 3 coats over Nubar Foundation and one coat of Seche Vite. I did a comparison (no pictures) of it without a top coat and I found that it made no difference in the holographicness.

I think this is tied with my most favorite finish, with rainbow sparkle sharing 1st. I love creme finishes, it being 2nd and sparkly polishes being my next favorite.

French manicure NOTD

Californians, don't forget to vote today in the primary!

One of my favorite places to frequent for cheap cosmetics has been the dollar stores/Big Lots due to the fact that one can find ridiculously awesome and discontinued cosmetics there.


An off topic picture to segue into the rest of my post, but I think we don't hear this enough. This was a stop sign in the entrance to my neighborhood, I don't normally endorse graffiti but it was nice to see this.

This is LA Colors Art Deco nail art lacquer in Red Glitter, White, and Green Glitter. The Red Glitter was a red base with red glitter, the White was simply white and the Green Glitter had green glitter in a clear base as opposed to a colored base. The nail art polish is 1/2 the size of normal polish but I got all 3 for 3 bucks so I can't complain.



Here's a picture of the brush compared to an Essie brush. I did a poor job of cleaning off the nail art brush but you get the idea.



Here's a french manicure I did with the white polish. I looooove the striper brush, I used to think it was a bit fiddly and hard to deal with because of the length but I've gotten used to it. I used one coat of Nubar Foundation base coat, one coat of the white polish and a coat of Savvy French Rose Petal over the white to downgrade the starkness of the white.

La Femme Sparkle Dust in Casino Silver

Sigh, no luck with finding Zorro yet, but I have posters up and have been answering every Craigslist ad that I can. I do apologize for being a bit away from posting.

As it is, I'm finding myself more into doing eyeshadow looks but forgetting to photograph them, I still need a bit of practice with regards to working with my eye shape.

I've spent some time exploring drugstores and beauty stores to destress and have really liked my La Femme Sparkle Dust. They are loose eyeshadows which interestingly enough, have been recycled by Napolean Perdis and sold by his company for ridiculous rates (along with his company copying La Femme's packaging)

One of my favorite makeup bloggers has an in depth review about it and you can look it up here :)

I currently have one but have swatched many of them in my local beauty supply store. It is #34 Casino Silver which is a slightly greyed silver with minute rainbow sparkle. It's quite a gorgeous pigmented color and it turns into a tinfoil-esque silver when applied wet.

They're cheap at $3.99 for 4.5 grams. MAC recently downsized their pigments to that size but still sell them for 19.50. You can get them online at adiscountbeauty.com and other sites.



Left is dry and right is applied wet.


It is really pigmented and I haven't noticed any sort of fading so I definitely recommend it!

My summer isn't as cracked up as it should be

I'm glad that it's summer but this isn't turning out as well as it should have been.

Zorro has been gone for nearly a month now and I hate that I'm so used to him not being home.

I'm ridiculously pissed about my grades because my math grade was posted as a "WU" meaning an unauthorized withdrawal equating that to an F and meaning I stopped showing up. I worked so damn hard in that class to get an A and I managed a B according to my test grades so that silly computer error is messing with me.

I also didn't manage to get into my summer school class based on a computer error that kicked my boyfriend out of the class (as he was holding my spot while I waited for my appointment time)

I've been trying to find a job and have been unsuccessful thus far.

One positive note is this, I was elected (by default really, I was the only one to put my name through) as the Vietnamese Culture Night Director in my Vietnamese Student Association.
The Vietnamese Culture Night is a production that my VSA puts up every year and while I've only been in VSA for a year, I was super inspired to volunteer to put up a production that my boyfriend (who doesn't speak a lick of Vietnamese yet) could understand.

As it is, we have "bonding time" during the summer and I'm not quite used to hanging out with the other VSA-ers on this sort of level.

For those of you on summer break, how is it?