Happy Earth Day!

Personally I think every day should be Earth Day but that's just me...anyway yet again I am doing like a million things at once so I put on an old green color, Misa's Toxic Seduction. Love this color! And it was the perfect green to match my green dress.

I can't think of anything new to add, except hey! Check out my past forays into greeeeeeeeen polish.

And if we're going to be talking about checking things out, there's an amazing new blog out called Polish Our Planet, and I only wish I were creative enough to start it and format it the way it is! Polish Earthgirl (who I have just now nicknamed as PE) weaves in great eco-tips with amazing polish pictures.

Oh, and I just applied for an internship this summer for the NRDC. Here's to hoping I get it!

Finally, if you understandably want to stay in this weekend, check out this Best Movies on "Earth" list that We Are Movie Geeks put together. I would add "Wall-E" to that list for families with little kids that aren't interested by former American VP Al Gore, but definitely give Planet Earth a view. It's just absolutely stunning.

Anyway, in celebration of all things green, here are 76 little things to help fight global warming, brought to you by BeatGlobalWarming.Info

*these really all make a difference!*

1. Plan car trips efficiently and combine errands.
2. Turn off lights when you leave the room, and appoint a person to be the “light monitor” at home, school and work. Use natural light instead of electric light whenever possible.
3. Decline a bag when buying only an item or two.
4. Plant trees -- as many as you can. Donate trees at http://www.americanforests.org/planttrees/ And to celebrate an occasion, give trees at http://www.arborday.org/join/TICTIM/index.cfm?trackingid=306
5. Print on both sides of the paper and reuse printed paper for scraps and notes.
6. Use cloth napkins and towels instead of paper.
7. Use electronic checking instead of paper checks.
8. If you have a choice, take the car that gets better gas mileage.
9. Use the Internet to shop, to reduce global warming both by using less gasoline and by making a contribution with your purchases. Go to: http://www.ourenergy-shopping.com/ and a percentage of all your online purchases from more than 700 participating retailers (including Walmart.com and The Gap), will be contributed for green energy credits automatically every time you shop.
10. Read newspapers and magazines online.
11. Insulate your hot water heater and hot water pipes, and turn down the heat on your hot water heater.
12. Set your furnace 3-4 degrees lower and your air conditioner 3-4 degrees higher.
13. Run full loads for your washer, dryer and dishwasher.
14. Replace light bulbs with energy efficient CFL bulbs (compact florescent), and ask businesses that you frequent to change to energy efficient bulbs.
15. Buy paper products made from recycled paper.
16. Charge your cell phone in the car. Unplug chargers when not in use.
17. Activate the energy saving feature on all computers and printers.
18. Share a ride (car pool).
19. Work from home; allow employees to work from home once or twice a month.
20. Return empty printer cartridges to the manufacturer or store -- Staples, Office Depot, etc.
21. Don’t buy disposable products.
22. Fix or mend instead of replacing. Reuse as many things as possible -- recycle everything you can! Insist that recycling is offered at your place of work and home if you rent.
23. Get removed from unwanted mailing lists at www.junkbusters.com
24. Buy carbon offsets at http://www.nativeenergy.com/services.html
25. Use a coffee pot instead of individually wrapped packets for groups.
26. Use glass instead of plastic, paper or Styrofoam cups.
27. Send an E-Card instead of a paper one.
28. Buy bulk instead of individually wrapped products.
29. Buy previously owned books, DVDs, videos etc., and rent a movie instead of buying it.
30. Give away useful products instead of throwing them out.
31. Make your next car at least 35% more fuel efficient than your current one.
32. Take brief showers.
33. Use light dimmers if you have them.
34. Use reusable plastic containers instead of zipper-top plastic bags.
35. Use a lunch box instead of a paper bag.
36. Use a thermos or cup instead of buying throw-away juices or small plastic bottles.
37. Walk a few flights of stairs instead of taking an elevator.
38. Shut doors and air vents in unoccupied rooms.
39. Drive 5-10 miles per hour slower. (N's note: Ok this is SUPER hard for me living in Southern California but I get amazing mileage out of my car even when I'm going at 65, CA's speed limit...and especially when I'm on cruise control, see below)
    
40. Roll to red lights vs. using the gas and braking (it will save your brakes as well), and at any opportunity, use cruise control when driving.
41. Save a piece of the rainforest at http://www.arborday.org/shopping/donations/orderrfr.cfm
42. Install a water filter instead of buying bottled water.
43. Wash clothing in warm instead of hot, and cold instead of warm water.
44. Buy organically grown food and drink coffee made with organically grown beans.
45. Shop at farmers markets and buy food grown locally.
46. Buy reconditioned computers, printers, etc.
47. Walk instead of drive for short distances.
48. Keep your car tires properly inflated.
49. Share this list with everyone you know, by E-mail of course.
50. Buy music online and download it instead of buying the actual disc.
51. Make sure your place of worship is green. Help them start or do more.
52. Keep the lint pipe of your dryer clean.
53. If you need an appliance, buy an “Energy Star” appliance since they are the most efficient.
54. Take digital photos and only print the desired pictures.
55. Send electronic bills instead of paper bills by mail.
56. If your power company offers a green energy option, take it! Ask them to offer it if they don’t!
57. Cut and paste an electronic file instead of printing a paper file.
58. See or read “An Inconvenient Truth;” learn all you can about the climate crisis.
59. Print only the parts of documents you need, not the entire document.
60. Turn off heating and air conditioning units when you’re not home; better yet, use a programmable thermostat to do this for you.
61. Bring your own reusable or recycled bags to the supermarket.
62. Remove a few light bulbs from lights fixtures or banks of lights.
63. Volunteer to head an effort to “go green” at your work, school, place of worship or any organization you belong to.
64. Pray for others to follow your lead. (“When you pray, move your feet” -- African proverb)
65. Send a Native Energy greeting card ($12) as a donation toward clean energy. http://www.nativeenergy.com/cards.html
66. Make sure the gas filter and air filter on your car are clean and keep your car tuned up.
67. Remove any heavy items from your car.
68. Avoid rush hour driving whenever possible; better yet, take public transportation.
69. Have your paycheck deposited directly to your account.
70. Use propane or natural gas for barbeques and camping instead of wood or charcoal.
71. Install an attic fan to ventilate your attic, and then insulate your attic.
72. Install ceiling fans to help with both heating and cooling.
73. Install weather stripping around drafty windows and doors.
74. Turn off decorative lighting at night and ask stores you frequent to do the same.
75. Don’t use wooden chopsticks! Either bring your own (plastic or ceramic) or use a fork.
76. Wrap gifts in newspaper, magazine or other used paper product instead of gift wrap.

Happy Earth Day!!

New Link: Nail Juice

So I think I've mentioned how slow I've been lately in terms of everything polish...I have like a gazillion pictures and reviews backed up on my camera and computer, I'm behind on like every single amaaaaaazing nail blog out there in the universe but I'm slowly catching up. Spring break is going to be heavenly for me...6 days of bliss with my new Kindle, blogging, polishing, and generally not having a care in the world before I have to get back to school =/.

I have two finals left but guys, seriously check out Nail Juice. It's a love-at-first site (hah! pun! get it?) Not only is it tech-savvy and available in other languages!! But also, Steph has an amazing and handy finishes description bar on the right hand side, something that I've always wanted to get around to but have obviously been too lazy to actually do. So thank you Steph, because now everyone can just use that as a reference! It's wonderful.

Ok, study break is over. Two more finals to go!

100th Post!

I was catching up on some beauty blog reads (still no access to ALU, Scrangie, Polish Addict, etc.), and found two quizzes on BellaSugar about nail polish history. Put your knowledge to the test!

Nail Polish History Quiz Pt. 1
(I got 6/10 on this one)

Nail Polish History Quiz Pt. 2
(I got 4/6 on this one)

Both quizzes were interesting, I knew some and guessed on a lot but it was quite informative! Well, it's been, oh my, about half a year and 100 posts....I'm looking forward to what the next 100 will bring =)

Zoya Extravaganza!

Feeling the hot summer days already? Well the people at Zoya have decided to make the summer even hotter for us nail polish lovers. Now with every order on Zoya.com, you can enter a promo code for a set of three free polishes! These code were designed specifically for 6 bloggers and 1 dedicated to the style team in their hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. The promo ends Friday, July 18th. Here are the codes & colors you get:

Polish Addict: Miley, Rea, and Stephanie. Promo Code.

The Beauty of Life: Indigo, Nikki, Tobi. Promo Code.

Blogdorf Goodman: Indigo, Audrina, Annie. Promo Code.

Cleveland Plain Dealer Style Team: Lo, Audrina, Elodie. Promo Code.

Scrangie: Trixie, Ki, Yasmeen. Promo Code

Temptalia: Tart, Suzanne, Sunny. Promo Code.

All Lacquered Up: Tart, Fergie, Lianne. Promo Code.




...I'm not going to lie that took me a while to compile all those together. You can only use one code per order, no stacking codes! Seeing all these colors is really making me itch for some more Zoya polishes...I can't say that there is one promo that I would choose over the rest but I'm really lemming Elodie, Gaia, Rea, Lianne, Tart, and Annie.

Here's another hot Zoya though...Akyra is a metallicy forest green/dark teal. It's gorgeous and definitely one of my favorite greens. And we all know how there is a dearth of good green polishes in the world.
The lighting is a bit weird but this is definitely the most representative of the color. Being curious of the origin of the name, I googled 'akyra' and 'akira' and found some interesting things. I don't know if Zoya intented to name it after the 1988 movie Akira but it sounds like a very powerful movie that I now want to watch.

Today is a lazy Saturday so I did some swatches of two AWESOME polishes I got yesterday and am planning on uploading some more pics. So look forward to lots of posts and pictures coming up!

A Touch of Class

I can be sooooo forgetful that it's a bit embarrassing sometimes. I've been meaning to write this post for a while, but for some reason, it just hasn't happened until now.

I surf around a lot on the internet when I have nothing to do and love finding new sites to visit regularly. A real gem that I've stumbled on is A Touch of Blusher, which is run by PJ in the UK. The best thing about this blog that it features a lot of cosmetics that I might never have heard of before, whether they be European brands or Japanese brands. And some Asian nail polishes? To die for! I also love that she's created Beauty City guides, it's definitely handy for when I want to visit Tokyo, Taipei, or London (so far those are the cities she's evaluated, London is coming). I'm actually considering visiting Taipei sometime before December because of the direct flights from China to Taiwan now. I don't think I'd have to get a visa because of my US passport so hopefully that will happen!

Anyway, continuing on, A Touch of Blusher is a general cosmetics site but occasionally you can find a great pictures of upcoming collections that include some hot nail colors. For European readers and those that frequent Japan too, this is definitely a handy blog to keep reading.

A Bit of Essie

Though the New York Times has had a few blunders, they did a small, very cute blurb on Essie Weingarten (founder and head chalupa of Essie) which you can read here. I wish it had been a little longer but the article gets bonus points for using my favorite word, "cornucopia."

Since I know many people who have issues with Essie polishes and in particular, an incident with Essie's customer service last year when they reintroduced Starry Starry Night back for a limited time, I also couldn't help but chuckle when the article quoted her as saying “Every week I get complaints."

I've been tagged! + some more Passion Fruit

I'm excited that I got tagged by Tink over at Casual Lavish! For a relatively new blogger, it's always nice to have other blogs that link to yours.

The Rules:
*Post rules at the beginning of the post.
* Answer all the questions.
* Tag 6 people, and go to their blog and leave a comment to inform them that they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
* Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

What were you doing ten years ago?
Ok honestly, I have a terrible memory. As one of my friends often says, it's mind-boggling how I either remember or forget sometimes....oftentimes instantaneously! Seriously, it's terrible. Ummmmm ten years ago, I would have been 9. So I was finishing 4th grade! Wow. Actually, 4th grade I remember. I loved it because I was in a 4th/5th grade class and I was doing 5th grade math. My parents were happy because I was, in true stereotypical Asian form, excelling in math (later they would realize that while I am wonderful at basic arithmetic, I am not a science/math person). I think I was given the opportunity to skip 5th grade, but I don't remember if that was the case at all. Anyway, I had a fun childhood. I think this was the age I started reading the His Dark Materials series and a family friend introduced me to Harry Potter. I was soooo one of those who were ahead of the Harry Potter fandom, I swear!

What are five things on your to-do list today?
Seeing as the day is almost over, I've already done some of these...
- go to a review session for a final tomorrow
- get gas & buy containers for moving
- study for my final tomorrow
- start packing
- get a good night's sleep!

Places you've lived?
I'm California born and bred...I have roots in NorCal but currently attend school in SoCal.

What are 5 things you would do if you were a billionaire?
- put some of it in the bank/use some of it to invest. I'm a billionaire now but I'd like to keep it that way too!
- buy my parents & sister a house in Monterey, CA. House? Oh I mean, a mansion. It would be big enough so that my parents would never see (and therefore never nag) my sister. Or just buy them separate houses, I don't know.
- give a good portion away to charities and my churches
- travel the world
- start a charity

People you want to know more about?
All my friends, whether they be high school friends from back home, college friends I have here now, or friends that I've made online =). Also, ideally some nice, cute boys too.

OK, here's the sad part. I don't have enough blogs to tag because I'm sure some of the ones I can think of have already been tagged (like 15Min. Beauty). So, I'm just going to tag Scrangie (Queen of Swatches is usually how I refer to her), the O.G. polish blogger Michelle from ALU and the ever-so-sweet Vanessa Garcia of Nessasary Makeup for now.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Alright, so I've already changed my polish but before I did, I slapped a holographic topcoat over Orly Passion Fruit. It was seriously beautiful. I used Bratt_the_Catt's recipe for a homemade holo topcoat for this one. For all you non-MUA readers who don't want to sign up to read the post, here's the gist of the recipe:

Any clear polish (I used Seche Base, but any topcoat is ideal)
OPI DS Shimmer
ballz!

Paint your nails with a creme color (either red or pink would be good). Start adding DS Shimmer to the clear polish. I'm impatient so I just dumped a bit in, shook it hard and then started adding drop by drop. It's a bit of a process because you don't want to add TOO much DS Shimmer because then it will alter the color of the original polish. That's why swatching the franken topcoat over the creme color on your nails is a good idea.

Here is is:



Excuse the tipwear, that's a 5-day nail color there! As for the holo, it's much more noticeable in real life, the sunlight sort of washed it out. I adore it, which is why I'm currently wearing Ruby Kisses Neon Green with the frankenholo topcoat over it! Pics coming soon, I promise. I have one more final left!

Wow!

When I'm procrastinating, I do a lot of stuff for this blog. The most tedious part of running a blog is compressing and marking the pictures. The hardest part is keeping things interesting with a diverse range of subjects.

So whilst tracking the number of visits to my blog, I stumbled across the fact that I get a fair number of hits from outside of the US! It shouldn't be surprising, given the fact that the internet is so worldwide and has made communication so easy but I'm really floored and honored that people from other countries are actually interested in what I have to say. Though I also get my fair share of spamming on my comments (apparently I've won the UK Lotto like 8 times!)

Since I love diversity and love learning about other cultures, I have a simple request for some international readers. If you don't mind, please e-mail me about some nail trends you've noticed in your country! I'd love to know how nail polish and nail color are perceived in other cultures....I know nail polish has only in like the past 5 years really boomed in China, even though it's been around for a while. So if you guys don't mind, let me know by e-mailing me at ballzandthinner@gmail.com . Thanks!

Also, I've forgotten until now to link up MUAer paprheart's beauty blog, P'ssion. It's in Swedish, but she has great nail pics and you can tell generally what she thinks of beauty products through her reviews. You can also run it through Google translate (there's a button on the page) for a translation as well. The translation isn't perfect, obviously, but it's pretty good!

It's Going To Be a Looooonnnnnnng Night

School has been a bit hectic lately so I'm not going to be able to post as frequently as I do. I usually feel bad if I can't crank out a post once a day because I feel like I'm letting my (few, but increasing!) readers down, but ultimately school is my biggest priority. I do have some pictures that I've transferred to my computer today so once I've got those marked, I'll be posting those sometime this weekend.

I would however like to point you towards a fabulous makeup blog that I love and have added to my links section, Nessasary Makeup. Vanessa, whom I've corresponded with a bit, is so nice and so pretty and I love that she's not afraid to play with bold colors! Her swatches and her eye colors inspire me to reach for more colors, and to play with ideas for frankens.

Well, I've now got to write an essay and study for a midterm. I'm a lucky girl, aren't I?

New Link: Scrangie's Beauty Blog

As you guys may have noticed, I added a new link to the "Links" section. Scrangie is a fellow MUAer with a passion for all things beauty-related. Recently, she's started posting pictures to accompany her posts and they are very well-informed and accurate. Not to mention she usually gets all of the newest, hottest products on the market so she always knows what's going on. I'm already in love with some of OPI's Retro Fun in the Sun colors because of her pictures!

For the Polish Addicted

If you adore nail polish as much as I do, I'm sure you all will be thrilled in learning that another polish addict has joined the blogosphere! The lovely and oh-so-sweet EmpressStephanie from MUA has started up a new blog called The Polish Addict. She already has a fabulous post up of comparison swatches of various grey polishes, which has pretty much replaced blue as the new "it" color of right now. I'm really excited to see future posts!