while i was gone...

Holy moly, where did the past few weeks go?! I've been working about 50-60 hours a week plus school and babysitting/tutoring... along with trying to maintain a social life. I've been doing an ok job of all of this, but the blog just inevitably got put on the back burner for a while. Working 12 hour days and trying to find time to paint my nails is one of the hardest things I've ever tried to do. I miss it, but sometimes other things take precedence.

While I was gone (brace yourself for lots of pictures!)...

I turned 21.
WAHOO! I am now a fully legal adult. Scary. At least I can be on my parents' insurance for another 5 years. PHEW. Here are some pictures (in chronological order) from my special day:

My amazing boyfriend hand-delivered flowers to my work.

A happy, lucky girl :D

Pre-dinner at The Cheesecake Factory with my best friends and family

Nom nom nom nom cheesecake!

Heh heh. First shot of the night- bacardi 151!

The boyf & I: he came to Diva's Drag Wars with my friends and I. He must really like me. ;D

I had a great birthday with my friends & fam but it was shortlived and I was back to work the next day. Moving on to other big developments in conjunction with my big day... 

Sharing a (legal) beer with my mom:

 

This was excellent. We saw Scotty McCreery just a town over from where we live and even though the beer at the venue was 7 bucks a pop, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to buy my first legal beer. 

I met the boyf's parents... and I started wearing makeup again!

This is a big one! I ended up spending Thanksgiving with him and his family: my first Thanksgiving EVER away from my mom and dad! I was so nervous to meet his parents, but it all went really well. We all got along well and I think I made a good first impression. Out of sheer nerves, I broke out all of my benefit makeup and decided to give it a shot. I haven't work makeup in a long time but I think I'm getting back into it! Perhaps some FOTD posts in the future...? 

 

Even though the past two weeks have been insane, it's been a fun ride. I'm reallyreallyreally stressed but I'm surviving. I haven't gotten to paint my nails much, but I've done a few manicures. I'll show you those over the next week. For today, my birthday manicure!

 

I used two coats of Urban Outfitters Hangover and a glitter gradient on top using Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday. I thought that these shades were appropriate. ;-) 

WHAT DO YOU THINK?! I'm glad to be back- it feels good to type up a post! :)) 

Urban Outfitters Sea Dust: a possible Deborah Lippmann dupe?

don't forget to enter to win Floam, Fantasy Fire & Flecked !! 

Hi ladies! Tonight I have an exciting polish to show you! It's from the Urban Outfitters collection. Now, I don't know about you, but I loooove Urban Outfitters! The clothing is a tad expensive at times, though... I usually just stick to purchasing polish and reading the funny books while I'm in there.

 The polish I'm about to show you caught my eye immediately during my most recent trip to UO. This polish, called Sea Dust, looks awfully familiar...

 

I'd have to say this polish is probably very similar to a more expensive counterpart, Deborah Lippmann's Mermaid's Dream. Mermaid's Dream is a polish I've been eying since it came out, but I will take this less expensive version.

* Of course, as I don't physically have Mermaid's Dream, it's hard to tell if this is an exact dupe or not. It looks very similar, though! What do you think? 

Urban Outfitters Hangover

Hi everyone! Here's my first Urban Outfitters polish! They had some really pretty colors- I also picked up Ashtray, a gunmetal grey with a hint of shimmer. I wanted to try Hangover first since it's a bit more summery. I own nothing like this polish, which makes me even more excited about it.




That ONE tiny thumb nail.. keeps breaking more and more. It can't break any further so hopefully it starts to grow now. 



I apologize for the crappy pic quality, but I just had a hard time cleaning up this mani. It took 3 coats to be completely opaque- it looked a little sloppy with 2 so I added another coat. I like the color, though. It grew on me after I left the house, because initially I was pretty nervous about this one.