Nail art : Happy Easter!
A bit late in posting this, sorry.
This was my nail art last week. I made it in celebration of Easter 
I based it off this tutorial I found on youtube. But I didn’t have purple so I used pink instead. The baby chick reminds me of a chocobo. Kweeeeeh!
Nail art : Pink and black gradient
I love gradient nails. They’re easy to do but they add so much oomph to your nails Especially with the right color combination.
Nail polishes used:
- BYS Black and Gold
- Chic Burgundy Frost
- Chic Pink Opal
- Caronia Yellow Glitter
Nail art : Candy Cane nails
My nail art over the holidays
The shades I used were Caronia’s White Satin and Revlon’s Ruby Ribbon. I cut up some scotch tape to use as guides for the stripes since I don’t trust myself to be able to draw straight lines, even with a striper. I messed up on a couple of parts to I used some silver glitter polish (Caronia Butterly Away – but I removed the butterly glitters) to try to make it prettier. It worked, sort of. I think.
Etude House Bubble Hair Color (Wine Red)
I was organizing my files yesterday when I found these photos. I realized I never blogged about my first Etude House bubble hair dye experience. These were taken sometime around the end of June. The last time I dyed my hair before this was around late January or early February, so my roots were pretty horrendous:
(Pardon the dent in my hair – I had it up in a ponytail before I dyed it)
The hair dye I used:
The kit contained a pump with some sort of liquid inside (I think it was the developer, but I could be wrong), a sachet with the color, gloves, a plastic cape and the conditioner.
It also came with instructions, but it was in Korean so it didn’t help me much:
First things first : put the cape and gloves on to avoid staining yourself
Don’t I look dashing?
Then empty the sachet with the color into the bottle with the developer(?):
Week 41/52 : Not everyone will love you back. that’s why its most important to love yourself
This was shot around the 2nd week of October, after I got my hair cut. But don’t be fooled by this picture. I mostly just asked the stylist to trim the ends and give me additional layers. I told him I wanted to keep the length since I’m trying to grow my hair out. My hair is still pretty fried from all the chemicals I dumped on it so I need regular trims. I also decided to get a cellophane treatment to add some shine to my hair because it’s been looking a bit too dull and lifeless for my taste.
I really love how it turned out. My hair’s still super frizzy, but I don’t think anything but a rebond treatment can fix that, and I promised myself I will never get my hair rebonded again. But I love how it’s got a lot more layers now, so it’s not as boring as before. For this shot I simply pinned the longer layers back to make it look like I have a bob
Etude House nail polish haul
Last month I dropped by Etude House to pick out a nail polish for Tring (to thank her for helping me proctor my Physics 3 exam) when I saw these new glittery ones they had at the shop! I couldn’t resist picking a few up for myself. I also found the perfect shade of baby/pastel yellow which I had to get as well. The brown nail polish on the far left was something I threw in my basket at the last minute because I don’t have that shade yet and I was only P20 away from reaching P1000 and getting a freebie
I haven’t tried the brown and yellow nail polish yet, but I have played around with the glittery ones:
I really love the purple glitters! (Well I love any sort of glitter, but this one’s extra pretty!)
The colorful glitter on the far right is nice but I can only use it with a bluish base. Brinks said it made my nails look like Easter eggs XD
I haven’t tried the colorful glitter in the middle on myself yet, but I used it on Tring once:
So pretty~ She used African Plum as a base. I would have liked to add a few more layers of glitter but we didn’t have much time and it would have taken forever to dry.
Pasalubong Diaries : Korea III
My parents go on trips a lot and I usually post their pasalubongs here on my blog, so I decided to make a separate little section called “Pasalubong Diaries” where I can stash these kinds of entries. Some people may see it as simply showing off, but I like doing it to show my gratitude to my parents Believe it or not, they actually read my blog, and seeing posts like this makes them happy.
Anyway, a few weeks ago my mom attended a conference in Korea. Normally Ezra and I aren’t picky about our pasalubong – we’re more than happy to accept anything from my parents’ trips, but Korea is a different matter. We love Korean cosmetics so we usually provide our parents a short list of certain items we want Here are some of the things Ezra and I asked our mom to pick up for us while she was there:
Etude House goodies!
Wonder Pore Freshner and Brush – I’ve been hearing great things about the Wonder Pore line so I decided to give it a try. My skin’s been breaking out horribly due to many sleepless nights, so hopefully this will fix it
Nail art : yellow and black crackle nails
Didn’t have time last week for fancy nail art designs so I got my old bottle of crackle nail polish out again.
I was actually supposed to do yellow and black stripes but Amie convinced me to use the crackle polish so we’d have matching nails – except she used a silver base.
Nail art : Iron Man inspired
My nails about 3 weeks ago. Couldn’t find the time to post this until today.
I haven’t read the comic books or anything, but based on the movies, Iron Man is my favorite Avenger. I suspect Robert Downey Jr. has something to do with it. But seriously, can you blame me?
Anyway, I can’t wait for Iron Man 3 to be released. In the meantime, I decided to make this Iron Man inspired nail art. I know it would have been more impressive to draw Iron Man’s face on my nails, but my hands are not steady enough for that. Lines I can handle. Facial features, not so much.
Week 27/52 : It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for something you are not.
I dyed my hair a few weeks ago. It’s been over a year since I last had red hair. I stuck with medium to dark browns for most of 2011 because I felt like they made my hair look healthier. Also, Ckloy has decided to start coloring his hair last year because little gray strands have started to pop up. His hair’s too short to finish an entire box of dye by himself so we usually end up just sharing one when I touch up my roots. He didn’t want anything too dramatic or attention grabbing so we’ve mostly been using shades of brown. But lately I realized that I miss having lighter hair, so I decided to go red again.
I love how it turned out, but unfortunately red hair never lasts on anyone. This shot was taken about two weeks ago (I couldn’t find time to edit it until a few days ago) and by now my hair has faded into a medium brown again 
It was really bright during the first week (to the point that Ezra called it “Ga In red” – as in Son Ga In from the Brown Eyed Girls because she used to have bright red hair). I’ve had red hair before so I know it fades, but never this quickly in the past. I think it’s the dye I used (Etude House). I tried it just for fun, but I’ll probably be going back to Revlon after this. (I’ll post a review on the Etude House dye soon. EDIT: posted HERE)
Quote in the title by Andre Gide.
Outtakes:
I actually like this shot better but I chose the other one for my main upload because I felt it showed off my hair a little more
(Vector brushes by redheadstock.deviantart.com)
DIY glitter keys
Glittery keys to match my glittery nails 
The other day I was browsing nail art tutorials on youtube and I came across this video:
It looked simple enough so I decided to try it.
I used my new office keys which I got just last month:
Nail art : Pink and black crackle nails
One of the easiest nail arts to do. Just paint your nails with a base color, swipe on some crackle polish and finish off with a top coat. I love it
Nail art tutorial : Pink gradient nails
My nails last week. They’re so sparkly And so easy to do.
I used a sponge (not pictured) and these four polishes to make this nail art
My nail polish collection and nail art materials
Long overdue entry. Tring requested this months ago but I kept forgetting about it. (Sorry Tring XD).
Anyway, in this post I will show you guys the stuff I use to make my nail art.
First, let’s talk about my nail polish collection. Contrary to what most people believe, I don’t actually own a lot. I usually just stick to wearing black, silver, purple, red or pink and decorate them using stickers and other stuff. Also, I normally throw out old bottles the minute they start drying up because I hate streaky nails. So even though I’m always buying new ones, my entire collection can fit in these three small baskets I got at the Dollar Tree last January.
Here’s a closeup of the bottles grouped according to brand:
Etude House Petit Darling Nails (P48 each). I use these a lot because I love pastel shades.
Etude House Petit Darling HD Beam Nails (P98 each). I love the purple and silver one. The rest I normally just use when I do nail art.
Wet and Wild (I think I got these for 99 cents each at Walgreens). The pink glittery polish on the far left is one of my absolute faves! It’s so saturated with glitter than you can use it by itself (just layer on a few coats) and end up with sparkly pink nails
I didn’t realize I owned a lot of these Caronia polishes until I took pictures for this entry. I always thought I only had about 2 or 3 of them. They’re only about P35 (the smaller ones) so sometimes I grab a bottle when we go grocery shopping. Anyway I like using the sparkly beige shades for my toes because they make my feet look feminine yet natural. (Although these days my toenails are usually red with gold glitter.)
(EZRA) 22/52 : Passion
Red and black <3
I love her red hair extensions. She bought them last weekend when we attended Toycon 2012.
She’s always wanted red streaks in her hair. She actually went to a salon years ago to get it professionally done but it didn’t turn out too nicely. The red showed up at the top of her head, but it faded to a dull brown as it went down. And the red didn’t remain vibrant for long. After a few weeks it turned into some sort of brassy, orangey color. It took her years to grow out the colored hair because she didn’t want to dye it black. (She had a severe allergic reaction to a henna tattoo back in college and the doctor told her that she should stay away from any sort of black dye from then on.) She got most of the dyed hair chopped off this summer, but you can still see a hint of the orange in this shot.
Anyway, she’s really happy to have found these extensions. They’re the perfect length for her and the SA told us that they were made of high temperature synthetics, which means that she can can flat iron or curl them and they would be fine. If only she knew about them years ago, she could have avoided the whole hair dye fiasco. And they were really cheap too! (I should have gotten a few for myself as well.)
Review : Sassy nail art pens
I know I promised to review these nail art pens months ago, but I keep forgetting about them. I apologize.
Anyway, I found these during one of my visits to Watsons and I couldn’t help but get every color. (I think they have more available, but these were the only ones Watsons had at the time.) I couldn’t help myself, they were only P36!
Although they are packaged differently, these pen function just like my old Etude House nail art pens. You squeeze them and a drop of nail polish comes out at the tip. You can control the size of the dot depending on how hard you squeeze.
One thing I love about these pens is that they come with this pin-like stopper thing that prevents the nail polish from drying up inside the tips:
The red cap is attached to a tiny needle that goes inside the pen’s tip. My Etude House pens don’t have these and their tips keep getting blocked, which is annoying. I always end up having to soak them in nail polish remover just so I can get the nail polish out.
Kupo connection
I’ve been feeling a bit restless these past few days (probably because I haven’t been out of the house since last Sunday) so as soon as I woke up yesterday, I texted Brinks and asked her if she wanted to go get a facial with me. She was actually planning on going shopping that day with her brothers, but they decided to bail so hooray for me. She agreed to come with me as long as in return I go with her to get her hair cut. I picked her up around 3pm and we headed over to SM Calamba. It’s pretty far but I needed to drop by Watsons and go grocery shopping anyway so we figured it was the best choice.
Yesterday’s outfit. It felt good to get a chance to dress up and be girly after lounging about in oversized t-shirts and shorts the entire week.
We got stuck in traffic (as usual) so we took pictures to pass the time. Brinks kept laughing at me because after spending the whole week at home, I got a bit claustrophobic inside the car and had to open the window to be able to breathe properly.
My flat iron died today. May it rest in peace…
I’m not really sure what happened. It was working fine when I used it last night, but when I turned it on to style my hair this morning, it refused to cooperate. I plugged it in and gave it time to warm up as I applied my makeup, but when I grabbed it to straighten my bangs, the plates were not hot at all. In fact, they were barely warm. I’m not even sure if the little heat on them was due to the iron trying to warm itself up, or because it absorbed some of hot air from this heat wave we’ve been having lately. Anyway, it definitely wasn’t enough to straighten anyone’s hair. (Not that I didn’t try. But I might as well have taken two books and used that to style my bangs for all it did, tch.) Anyway, I did a quick search online and the most reasonable explanation I found was that the heating filament inside has finally burned out.
I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. After all I’ve been using this flat iron almost everyday for the past 6 years. (It was one of my first purchases after I got a job.) I suppose it’s about time I get a new one.
I texted my sister to tell her about the untimely demise of my poor flat iron and she replied “Haha, say hello to poofy bangs!” How terribly sensitive of her. Hmph. Sorry to disappoint you Ezra, but there’s no way I’m letting that happen. Thank goodness I have this little guy:
My mini Conair flat iron. I bought it back in 2009 when we went to California because I thought it would be a useful thing to have when I travel. It’s tiny, comes with a heat protectant pouch, and it’s dual-voltage too! (Whenever we visit the states, Ezra and I always end up having to borrow Kurt’s flat iron because ours operate on 220V and American outlets run on 110V…)
(EZRA) 18/52 : Being happy in your own skin that’s what it’s all about
*Kira kira*
Raffy and I decided to go to the derma clinic and get facials the other week, and we managed to convince Ezra to come with us. She’s never gotten it done before so she decided she should at least try it once. She said it was painful, but the results were worth it. She loved how shiny and healthy her skin looked afterwards
(Title came from a quote by Koo Stark)
Nail art : Easter Eggs
Today’s nail art Happy Easter everyone!
Isn’t it cute? The colors make me so happy~ It took forever to do though. And this was actually my second attempt because I made the mistake of lying down on my hand while my nail polish was still wet the first time, so I had to redo everything from scratch T__T Even this second attempt isn’t that perfect because the electricity went out while I was doing my right hand and in my search for a flashlight, my middle finger hit the corner of the table so the nail polish design on that nail smudged a bit, grrrr. But I’m too lazy to redo it again so now I’m stuck with one ugly nail. But at least my left hand is pretty
Nail Art tutorial : Tuxedo Nails
Nail art last week Saw this design on tumblr a few weeks ago and and decided to give it a try.
First I painted my nails using white nail polish:
Then added little bows using black nail polish and a nail striper:
A bit messy, but it’s the best I can do with my shaky hands. You can paint the bows by making a small “x” then filling them in.
Nail Art : Black and silver
It’s been a while since I last used nail art stickers. I thought I ran out, but I found some the other week and decided to play around with them again. For the dots and stripes, I used my new nail art pens from Sassy, which I absolutely love (I’ll make a separate post about them later).
Hope you like it!
I let my sister cut my hair!
Ezra has been itching to give me full bangs for years now, but I never let her because I didn’t think it would look good on me. Yes, we are often mistaken for twins so you would think that what suits her would suit me as well, but if you look closely, the bone structures of our face are actually very different. She has a longer and slimmer face while mine is more square and angular. So while full bangs look good on her, I think it would look horrible on me. I normally refuse when she offers to cut my hair, but at the same time I’ve always been curious to see if I could pull it off. Last week she managed to convince me that this was the perfect time for me to try out bangs because I hardly leave the house these days. So if it ends up looking horrendous, not that many people would see it anyway and I could just let it grow back out. Her argument made sense, and so I finally agreed.
We had to wait till the weekend before I let her cut my hair because I needed to get Ckloy’s permission first. He’s never really been a fan of full bangs so I had to convince him that I wouldn’t look that different with it. He was definitely against it at first, but with a bit of whining and lots of lambing, he agreed. In fact, he even helped me document the process by taking these pictures.
(Ezra is no professional, but she has been cutting her own bangs for almost 5 years now, so I knew I was in capable hands.)
Ezra measuring how much hair needed to be cut
Snip snip snip
Valentine’s day nail art tutorial : Hearts and Dots
This was my nail art for Valentine’s Day. All it took was two nail polish shades (red and light pink) and a bobby pin.
First I painted my nails with the light pink shade:
Then I drew some hearts using the tip of a bobby pin:
