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!

Not For the Color Shy....

Is there a certain polish that brings you good memories? The one I can think of most prominently is Orly Passion Fruit. It's the color I was wearing to support one of my favorite tennis players, Novak Djokovic, during the finals of the 2008 Australian Open (I didn't have any of the Australian OPIs, so I just went for the word 'passion,' hehe). Ok so yeah, Nole's a little arrogant and sort of bends the rules sometimes when it comes to his excessive ball bouncing and whatnot. But that boy definitely has potential. And at least comes off as very charming in interviews. Hey, at least he gets put in his place too by Nadal and Federer. No matter how much he tries, I don't think he's going to advance much further than where he's been at for almost a year. Not yet, at least. Federer's poor performance at the French Open might foreshadow the end of his reign. But all three of them are amazing players!

Sorry, tennis tangent. Anyway, Passion Fruit. It's what I was wearing when Djokovic won his first (and hopefully not last!) Grand Slam title. Kind of a big deal, yes, but let's hope that he doesn't take the route of Andy Roddick (never really been a Roddick fan, sorry) and stays consistent. Well I figured this week I could use some luck, because clearly my polish helped Djokovic win....it's like he knew my passion for him. Ok, toning down the crazy, I promise...though that was also half-sarcasm there too. Half. I still love him. Seriously though, Passion Fruit is NOT for the color-shy. It's noticeable and is one of those statement polishes. It's a very bright, hot pink. Surprisingly I was able to capture the color pretty well.....


Also, as a favor for hill78 on MUA, I swatched Essie Mini Shorts yesterday when my nails were bare (I was getting ready to paint Passion Fruit but one swatch doesn't hurt!)....as with all neons it does dry matte. I tried to take the pictures as soon as I could but they still dulled a bit. The color is definitely brighter in real life. I've never been much of an orange girl but this could be a cool color to rock during the summer.


Also, I would like to thank the many of you who responded to my post Wow!, I've received a lot of great info about nail trends and colors in other countries! When I have a few more I'll be sure to post their thoughts. Thank you all!

Good Morning Sunshine!

Here are pics of Orly Live Wire & Icing Smooth Like Butta for MUAer psychoswim....I think Michy will love these as well.

Orly Live Wire is everything I thought it would be and more. It's a nice soft yellow, not too neon but not too pastel either. It has gorgeous shimmer and maybe on the sheerer side but still very opaque. This is three coats, and with flash...the color is a bit brighter IRL. It's really gorgeous and worth the instant gratification:

Icing Smooth Like Butta definitely did not apply as smoothly as butter, unless you're talking about cold butter over cold, raw tilapia. And since I experienced that earlier, it's neither fun nor easy to do. SLB applied pretty streaky and uneven so I slapped some Out the Door over it which evened it out. I don't use basecoats or topcoats when I'm swatching, so this color turned out more mustard-yellow than neon yellow like in the bottle. Since I messed up my index finger anyway, I decided to try layering SLB over one coat of Pure Ice- Super Star, which is an opaque (albeit kind of streaky) white. The result? From the pic below you can see that layering it over an opaque basecoat (like a ridgefiller) or a soft white (even though I used like a white-out white) really brings out the glorious neon of it.
See you can hardly tell it was streaky, can you? OTD is good stuff, though any good topcoat will do.

Of course, I had to get in the best of both worlds:
Definitely makes Smooth Like Butta less mustard-y, don't you think? The index finger is 1 coat of Pure Ice Super Star, 2 coats Smooth Like Butta, 1 Coat Live Wire.

Live Wire is one of the newer Orly's so it may take a while for it to show up at Sally's. If you can't wait (like I couldn't), you can get them at CVS (though mine didn't have them) or Ulta for $5.99 and $7 respectively. Smooth Like Butta is available only at Icing stores for $3.50.

Definitely time for me to sleep now! Though trying on these yellow polishes made me feel happy for sure. I really hope that more opaque yellows will be available (though I passed on Essie's neon set and MAC's latest one because they both looked too frosty), Michy's really passed on the yellow fever to me! Though recently I've developed orange and coral fever as well. Which is strange because I don't really know what coral is. Colorblindness is the bane of my existence! Well that and my credit card, as evidenced by today (yesterday's?) shameful haul.

Sexy! Yes Yes Yes

Ok well the title pun on the Girls Aloud song, "Sexy! No No No..." has been worked to death, but it's pretty accurate in describing this polish color.

Everyone has their little quirks in what makes them feel sexy. For some, it's some scandalously hot lingerie. For others, it's that perfect little black dress. For me? Pairing heels with my dressy jeans. Oh, and wearing Orly Glam.

Glam is a color that immediately invokes sexiness when on. And it made me feel a bit, well, glamorous as well. It's a rich red with a slightly jelly finish and a nice dose of silver glitter. The glitter doesn't make it look childish but rather enhances the color. Check out my picture of it:
Glam is now my go-to red for when I need a little self-esteem booster. I think red traditionally have been subliminally programmed into us as being sexy. Think about the old Hollywood screen stars and the femme fatales that wore those gorgeous, stand-out-in-a-crowd red dresses, or having perfect seductive red lipstick. So why are nails any different? Every person can have a different color that makes them feel sexy, but for me, Glam is definitely it.

Glam is pretty easy to find anywhere Orlys are sold. I got mine at Sally's Beauty ($3.99 with a Sally's Card, $4.99 without), but I've also seen it at Ulta and CVS.

PS: Blogger didn't make a mistake, I'm really posting this at 3:44AM....I'm taking a break from the horror that is microeconomics (no offense to anyone who loves econ!)