Bombshell Delights: Polish June 16, 2009

Every girl has a list of things that she loves and, when she finds a good thing, she should have no qualms in sharing her secret.  Though some of the sharing isn’t quite the absolute truth, like when I share what color lipstick I’m wearing.  I may say that I’m wearing… say, Mary Kay Sunset, in all actuality I’m also wearing some lipliner and lipgloss over it to give it a slightly different shade.  So while the color is true, there is a different effect than just the color cannot simply provide on it’s own.  

However, some things are a lot simpler.

As of late I’ve acquired some favorites, so let me share one of these good things:

For about a year I would actually get my nails done every 3 weeks with the acrylic and the airbrushed designs.  I wouldn’t keep my nails too long but they were long enough for people to notice them.  But for the summer I just wasn’t feeling it to go keep going to the salon and having the fake nails.  So I was wandering about the local shopping center on the search for some pretty nail polish colors.  Previously I’d never really had a real love for a particular brand.  I sort of liked a few, mostly I went by shades of interest.  But I stopped into Sally’s Beauty Supply for the things I needed to remove the acrylic and I noticed there was a sale going on for China Glaze  nail polish.  So I thought to peruse the stand of colors.  

The array was colorful and caught my eye.  There was another display right next to this one but the colors for China Glaze appealed to me because there was a wider variety than just the pinks, browns, beiges and reds.  Not knowing anything about it, I picked out just two bottles of polish for the discounted price.  

 The Fast Forward TopCoat since I like my nails to be glossy when I’m done

Being a Bombshell, I needed a gorgeous red polish, so Ruby Pumps it was  

 

And since I really liked using those two, I went back and got 3 bottles more:

Tempest appealed to me, I had a yearning for something purple but not

I don’t know why but For Audrey really called to me

Though this one is called Frostbite, I would actually call it SuperHero Blue.  I swear, this would be the sort of electric blue that those spandex costumes are made of. 

The colors are vibrant, the consistency of the polish is even when applying and they have a wonderful shine to them.  I had some chipping with Ruby Pumps but mostly because I kept breaking my nails.  Wearing Frostbite this week and my mother can’t understand why I want blue nails.  But these vibrant shades are very hot colors to be wearing.  They work well on short, rounded nails.  It’s fun now for the summer (or like me where it’s perpetual summer) when we’re showing off so much skin.    

I got mine from my local Sally’s Beauty Supply, but the images here are from this site and you can order the colors from there directly.

A girl learning about Mary Kay May 21, 2008

(DeeDee, yes, I know… WAY old pic but I couldn’t find any of the recent ones)

My darling sister in law is a stay at home army wife and fully time mother to the cutest toddler in existence.  I adore her and miss her so very much.  She’s my best girl friend and she’s in Monterey, CA where my brother is stationed.  It is now about 6 years since I’ve known her, back when I was graduating from high school and I met her when scouting an apartment right next to hers.  She was already beginning to date my brother; in fact… it was her meeting me that made her realize that my bro was serious about her since he obviously cared about her enough to introduce her to someone from her family.  In fact, to meet me was a huge honor.  My bro is very proud of me.  I graduated with amazing grades and even then all my baking was one of the features he loved the most about me.  He’d definitely extol my virtues to any who would listen, and the greatness of my pumpkin pie to anyone who even so much as looked in his direction during Thanksgiving. 

Anyway, we were very fortunate to get along so well.  Like two peas in a pod, we feed off of one another and just go around like a whirlwind.  Then she became my sister when she married my brother 2 years ago.  It was so hard for me to lose her when she moved to the States.  It was so difficult because I lived with my brother for the first 4 years of college before he left for the army and Dy was definitely always there.  Then I lost them both.  My brother went to basic training and since Dy was pregnant, she went and stayed in her hometown of Guayama.  Our worlds shifted apart but we managed to still stay close.  Whenever she came back to visit, we always made time for one another.  We still talk a lot on the phone. 

So when Dy called me up on Monday and asked me for a favor, I was in even before she explained what it was she needed of me.  Seems Dy has decided to get into Mary Kay.  I was very happy for her to be doing something that she enjoyed (I could tell just from the sound of her voice).  And what Dy wanted was to get some pearl earrings.  In order to get them, she needed to get 6 people to call in, listen to a story and then get called up to see if they wanted to be in Mary Kay.  While she didn’t want the rest of the family to know what she was doing until she was sure she could handle things, she was quick to recruit me.  And I’m sure she knew that I’d somehow get myself involved as well.

Since I was with #6, I recruited her into the phone calls and since I have a loyal ‘hubby’, he got recruited as well.  So with just one phone call, Dy got half of her people.  I’m happy to report she broke the record and got those earrings in a day!  I’m so happy for her!  Along the way, the person who got Dy involved, her name is Ashley and she’s super nice, really hit it off with me when we spoke. 

Suddenly, Dy and I were brainstorming and trying to hatch a plan.  I needed to get my booty to Cali even if it took my begging family members to get there.  Together we’d hit Monterey by storm, I’d get the month long Mary Kay training in person with Ashley.  Then I would return to the island and take over the Mary Kay project on island.  The National director in PR is well known but she doesn’t speak English and she’s local to my campus town.  Everything of course seems to be falling into place.  I’m still waiting on flight plans, but I hope to get them ironed out by next week with my uncle. 

Cross your fingers for me!

Because I REALLY want to go to Monterey!

A girl wondering about natural beauty May 17, 2008

I often say that I don’t believe in natural beauty. 

Before you argue with me, here’s my reasoning…

I believe that while there is beauty in nature, as women, we are hardly ever just natural.  Even in our most basic states, we’ve shaved and plucked and shaped ourselves.  There seems to be loads of expectations on women to be as hairless and possible.  It’s everything from our legs, underarms, bikini areas, eyebrows and faces.  We have developed so many products just to deal with these things.  In fact, I believe facial hair is one of the things women combat the hardest and is our biggest secrets.  We never share how we pluck, wax and shave our would-be beards and moustaches.  It’s annoying but we find them psychologically unsightly.  Even women who will wear no makeup and wear men’s clothing will go around worrying about the hair on their face.

Then we have the hair on our heads which we dye and we shape into more flattering styles.  We comb it and we either curl or straighten it at will.  There are even more products to work our tresses into the right texture and usually no one is happy with the kind that they were born with.  If it’s curly, they want to go straight.  If it’s straight, they want to be curly.  And if you have it wavy like me, you wish that your hair was either one way or another. 

So when all is said and done, we’ve been altered.  We’re no longer natural.  To be “natural” takes plenty of work!  It takes maintenance and rituals.  We moisturize and we exfoliate, we primp and we prep.  But when all is said and done, we can achieve beauty.  Which is what I think makes it all worth it.  I know that at my age I can be all fresh faced without my makeup.  But I am the first to admit that to look as good as I do take even some masochistic beauty tendencies. 

Funnily enough, while some of these things are part of societal expectations, I do it all for me.  And I’m just fine with that. 

As I often tell my cow…

[Insert random pic of cow by my lap]

We can’t all be as naturally beautiful as her.

She with the most shoes wins…? February 12, 2008

It was brought to my attention that with my blog, I am not just a crafty foodie… but a fashionista as well.  And because of this, my thought process was not complete when I did my series on thread/fabric and cookies/baking.  There is still to be thought on how we acquire lovely things like shoes, purses, blouses and skirts.  For some, they buy what they can… not even bothering to try it on.  Functional, comfortable and practical is how many describe their own wardrobes.  But what happens when you go beyond that and you gave in to your inner diva?  Would your wardrobe be different?  Would it be the same?  Do you not care how you look?  Or do you spend countless dollars and hours trying to be the better you?  I know I would rather not buy myself lunch two or three days and buy myself a lovely pair of shoes instead.  I’ve been known to do that.  Often when I’m in a personal slump I go around buying simple things that will make me feel special.  Sure, I don’t need polka dotted socks… not need in the sense that it’s an item that my existence depends on… but I do need them.  They help me keep my sanity and brighten my outlook, not only of myself but of the world around me. 

I say that I have a fetish for pretty things.  My purchases are not limited to shoes or socks.  It could be some fake jewelry, a blouse, a pair of pants or a hair pin.  Heck.. it could be a sumptuous lip gloss or nail polish.  Do you feel better when your pretty on the outside?  Is it shallow?  Or can be combine the two so that what you wear on the outside warms your inside so that you positively glow more outward? 

What do you look for?  Do you buy for the occasion or do you create the occasion to wear something based on what you’ve bought?   

Randomness of today February 1, 2008

Look what I found…

 She knows exactly what she’s doing.

From all the remarks, I think I’m going to call my hair a dayglo koolaid red.  And since several people hunted me down and asked to see my hair dry,  here I am:

YupYup, still loving it.  And yes, I am well aware of it’s brightness.

We, who are about to dye, salute you! February 1, 2008

So, for the longest time I have felt inclined to bleach out the front chunk of my hair and add in a vibrantly wild color.  Since they didn’t have the bubblegum pink that I wanted, I had to settle for the blood red that will be shone. 

 The things I do to myself.  This is waiting on the bleach.

 It’s like a rainbow of colors…

 Does it look like I slaughtered something on my head?  It felt that way.

Oh my gosh!!  I LOVE it!!  Don’t I look hot?

Alright… so it’s not quite the bloodred that they promised.  It’s not pink either.  I don’t know what it is.  Any suggestions as to what we should name this follicular brightness?

Girls’ Day Out January 19, 2008

My mother and I are close when we aren’t arguing and completely making one another miserable.  However, we get along pretty great for the most part.  I would never say that my mother is my friend or my best friend or anything like that.  She’s my mother and that makes the biggest fundamental difference.  However, she is one of the people closest to me in my life.  I often say that she would be the one person I would ever trust to plan my wedding for me.  And anyone who knows me would understand how big a thing that is for me. 

But, anyway, I’m getting away from myself.  So, my mother got from her sister and parents for xmas and 3 kings’ day a full package of beauty things.  They gave her gift certificates for her to get a full body massage, a pedicure, as well as a cut and dry from a local salon/spa.  She was very excited to go but she didn’t want to go alone.  So she decided to gift me with the same treatment!  Her way of seeing it was that we’d share the experience together, good or bad. 

 While my mother was getting her massage and pedicure, I waited around reading Debbie Macromber’s 6 Rainer Drive (which was just awful, if you ask me, but I finished that much later in the night) and then I got my hair cut.  I didn’t want to lose more than 2 inches of hair because I’m growing it out but I was in desperate need to get my layers redone; especially the ones that are around my face. 

                                                                          

Afterwards I continued reading and sitting around like a model.  You know… I had that pouty, bored expression while I read but my hair was so sleek and shy that how could I be anything but an advertisement for the skills the hairdresser had in that salon.  I really didn’t wait that long before my mother came out happy as can be over the spa treatment.  By then it was my turn and I got the full work over.  It was just amazing!  That woman had such wonderfully supple hands and she worked with just the right amount of pressure.  My mother and I both agreed that the best parts were when you lay all oiled under the heat lamps and when she used warm rocks to rub all over your skin.  It was just the best.  I was so relaxed I almost fell asleep!  Later, when I was all mellow and loose and dressed again (for a second before I entered that little room I was sort of afraid of taking off my clothes in front of a stranger.  But she was so nice that when she asked me to disrobe, I did it without shame!) I got my pedicure.  Here we did the fun beauty salon thing of gabbing all about my life.  It was fun, my hairdresser hadn’t been very talkative.

In the end, we found it to be a great success.  We want to go back and try all the other treatments in the salon and we’re both kinda sorry that we didn’t splurge on facials that day because we felt like our faces were the only parts missing from getting pampered.  We were shining like new pennies and quite pleased with herself.  I thanked my mother profusely, it really was great of her to want to take me along.  Then again, I am the only girl and I do believe she was just buttering me up to hit me up for some beauty favors the next day.  But oh well!