The Best (and cheapest!) Way to Clean Your Makeup Brushes

I'm not going to babble too much and get straight into the post. It's pretty common knowledge that makeup brushes need to be washed - especially face makeup brushes. You don't want bacteria building up and if you're doing makeup on other people, you don't want their face oils and germs on the brush when you use it next right? Same goes with eye brushes although the concern is more that when you use different colors, you'll have residual from the old shade you used and well, that's no good if you've got black shadow mixing with your highlight. So yes it's clear that makeup brushes need to be washed. But using what?!

Store bought cleansing solutions are expensive aren't they? So most people have come to realize that well... olive oil is great at removing makeup from the face and doesn't clog pores. And dish washer soap is supposed to kill 99.999% of bacteria. SO.. if you take the two and mix them together, you should get the perfect makeup cleansing mixture right? CORRECT! I think that's also pretty common knowledge (I think all the Youtube makeup gurus I watch use this solution). It's cheap (well olive oil can be pricey but it's def worth it) and effective. I've used it since I started getting into makeup and have never had any issues. However..the only one problem is really getting out ALL the makeup from some of my denser brushes (ie. the Sigma F80 kabuki brush). Sometimes the foundation really gets stuck in and even after multiple scrubs on my hand, I find there is still residual foundation spots left on the brush. I know other people have had this problem because Sigma designed a tool to help with this: a brush cleaning glove! It has ridges and bumps that are supposed to help you "deep clean" all your brushes quickly and efficiently.

I think it's a cool idea especially if you have a ton of brushes.. However, for someone like me who only needs to wash a few (5-7) brushes every so often, $39 is a pretty steep price. So I discovered my own tool to help me deep clean and it's something I think most people will have! A ginger grater! Now I know what you're thinking (okay well I don't) but does it seem weird? Well a ginger grater also has little small raised bumps to help you grate a ginger into tiny shreds of pieces. It's not too sharp like a knife or a cheese grater, and it's on a flat surface (like the one shown below).

It's definitely improved the cleanliness of my brushes and speed of the whole process so I thought I'd share it with all of you. All you have to do is move your brush up and down or in circular motions and you'll see all the pigment and gunk from your makeup foaming up off your brush. I do this as many times until the soap bubbles are clear or when I rinse the brush under water and wring it out, the liquid drainage is clear.

To dry my brushes, I use a dry and clean dish towel or hair towel and lay it vertically. I roll up one edge so that it creates a raised roll that I can prop my brushes against so that they lay at a downward slant to promote the drainage of water as they dry. This is important to prevent the bristles in your brushes from falling out. In the below photo they're propped upward because I had just dipped them in my oil+detergent mixture. They're currently propped the opposite way since I just finished cleaning them. I like to use a hair towel because they're long enough to roll up and still have extra towel room to cover my brushes when they're drying to prevent dust or random stuff falling on them and dirtying them (if that makes sense)

I hope this post was somewhat useful for you and please give it a go! It might seem weird at first but it's quite effective! If you have any questions, feel free to leave them down below!

The Quest for Guilt-Free Sweets: [Vegan] Persimmon Bread (no eggs, oil, or butter!)

What can I say, I'm a forever sweet girl... meaning I love sweets, not that I'm a crazy nice loving person (though well, if you were to say I was, I wouldn't stop you). But of course, my body, metabolism, genetics, and society all do not meaning I cannot, as much as I would like to, eat ice cream, cakes, and cookies all day every day. So I'm am on an endless quest to find healthier options for my usual sweet treats. Although today's creation is more inspired by my need to use up anything in the house before it goes bad - and in this case, it was the persimmons my mom's coworkers and friends had given her. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of persimmons. I'm not sure why but they're not my go-to fruit and I definitely wouldn't be eating them plain (I also hate papaya and I think persimmons and papaya are pretty similar but who knows).

I searched high and low on the Internet for persimmon recipes and finally decided to go with the one with the highest ratings - aka this one here from AllRecipes (my go to for almost everything I try out). One thing I especially like about AllRecipes (besides the fact that there are always such good reviews, feedback, and tips) is that you can adjust the serving size! The original recipe that I used was set to make 3 loves of bread! Since I've never made persimmon bread and I was planning on making a lot of modifications, I decided to play it safe and 1/4 the recipe to make one small loaf to test out first. (Trust me, I have a LOT more persimmon puree to use up.)

Here's what the ingredients of my modified persimmon recipe ended up as:

• 1/2 cup persimmon pulp
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 5/8 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 substitute egg (meaning 1 tablespoon flax seed + 3 tablespoons of water let to sit for 5 minutes or until it becomes a thick gooey paste)
• 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup chopped/broken walnuts

*Note: I write ranges of measurements for the spices because I eyeballed them. All of my spices have a sprinkle top lid so I never really measure them, I just estimate. I actually put a lot more cinnamon than I was planning on adding but the end result turned out fine so I don't think it's a big deal (I know I'm a terrible baker who doesn't follow the golden rule of BE PRECISE). I think you can adjust the amount of spices you want depending on whether or not you like them. I LOVE pumpkin anything and the spices that go with it so I assumed I'd like them just the same with the persimmons. 

If you ask why I didn't use an egg, it's not because I'm allergic to them, it's more like eggs are quite expensive at the moment where I live and I'd rather save my eggs for recipes that do require it (ie. to make an egg omelette). Flax seed is really good for you and I've used it in multiple recipes and had success replacing eggs with this flax seed+water combo. I was lucky that this recipe didn't call for butter and only oil as I was able to replace the oil with applesauce. I think applesauce can be used to substitute for butter but I'm not sure and haven't tried it yet so who knows. I have, however, used applesauce in a chocolate bread recipe before and it worked perfectly also so I had faith in subbing out the oil. If you aren't feeling so daring, I saw in the reviews a lot of people used olive oil to up the health factor. For those of you wanting to go even more healthier (which yes this isn't 100% guilt free but it is closer than the original recipe), I'd try using whole wheat flour or using some flax seed (without water) in place of some of the all-purpose flour (I wouldn't recommend using flax seed for ALL the flour though). You can also use honey instead of sugar or some sort of no calorie sugar (Monkfruit anyone?).

I followed all the same steps as the original recipe with minor modifications which you'll see below.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 6x3 inch loaf pan/glass Tupperware with parchment paper (I actually used a special half parchment paper half foil but normal parchment paper is fine I think).
2. In a small bowl, stir together persimmon pulp and baking soda. Let stand while completing step 3 to thicken the pulp. It will become a thick jello like blob.
3. In a medium bowl, combine sugar, applesauce, flax seed egg, spices, and salt. Blend until smooth (I actually used a spoon to mix everything because I was too lazy to grab a whisk/use my electric beater/the spoon was working fine). 
4. Mix in persimmon pulp and flour in alternating manner. I did 1/4 cup flour, half of persimmon pulp, 1/4 cup flour, other half of persimmon pulp, 1/4 cup flour. 
5. Add walnuts. 
6. Pour batter into pan (up to 2/3 full)
7. Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. (I used a conventional oven so I actually made the temperature like 345 F and took my bread out at 50 minutes.) Cool in pan for 10 minutes (I waited like 5) before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

 This bread is similar to a banana or pumpkin bread in that it's super moist. I'm not sure if I would call it dense..I guess it is but not in the heavy rich way. I think I could have baked my bread a little longer in the oven to dry it out a bit more and make it less moist (I'm not 100% sure if that would have helped but that's what the Internet suggests so I might give that a try next time I make this..which will be soon seeing how much persimmon puree I still have!) A lot of reviewers mentioned difficulty removing the bread from its pan due to the extreme moistness which is why I lined my glass loaf-shaped Tupperware with parchment paper. I didn't have to worry about cleaning the pan and literally just pulled the bread out of the pan! I let it cool on the wire rack for a good 10-15 minutes before prying the parchment paper away from the sides of the bread.

Other changes I might do for my next attempt include decreasing the sugar further (although I found the bread to be perfect in sweetness but hey, you can always have less sugar!) or using honey instead of sugar, increasing the amount of flour I used to make the cake slightly less moist, adding raisins or more walnuts, and upping the spices. I mean honestly I'm really satisfied and happy with how the bread turned out but I want to play around with the ingredients more and see what a difference it makes. Normally I don't make a recipe more than once or twice because I don't have enough ingredients or time, but really this was so easy and simple and I have so much persimmon puree, I might as well!

Anyways, that's my take on persimmon bread. I know lots of people have their own take on it so if you know a recipe you think is better and/or healthier, leave it in the comments below. Or if you even have another persimmon recipe cause.. we have SO many persimmons and puree that I don't know how many times I can make this bread before my parents get sick of it.

Disney Princess Series Nail Art: The Little Mermaid (Ariel)

I've been wanting to do the Little Mermaid for a while now but could never decide on the right design (or find one that I could feasibly do). There are a ton of wonderful mermaid inspirational nail pictures on Pinterest (which you should follow my Pinterest nail board for photo inspirations!) but some of them are too difficult to use (like how am I supposed to draw fish scales without a nail stamper?! I know you can use like.. fish net fabric and stipple nail polish over it but I didn't have that/couldn't be bothered haha). I did go onto Ebay and found some seashell jewels for super cheap and once they came, I was able to create my Little Mermaid design! It's definitely not a requirement but I think to have some sort of sea jewel like a starfish, seashell, nautical anything really... well it just helps add to the look.

Summer always seemed like the right time to do mermaid nails but I never got around to it so now in the fall it does seem my nails do look a bit little misplaced or out of season. Nevertheless, they are definitely super bright and will catch anyone's eye ;) I highly recommend you have a good strong top coat or nail adhesive so that your jewels don't fall of though. I used my standard Seche Vite topcoat without any problems.

The nail polishes I used are as follows (from left to right):
-Forever 21 Nail Polish in Red
-Barry M Nail Paint Gelly in Greenberry
-Covergirl Boundless Color in Gold Rush (discontinued)
-butter LONDON 3 Free Nail Lacquer - Marbs

I blotted on the gold nail polishes by wiping off any excess nail polish and also painting some of the gold polish on a makeup sponge and dabbing it onto my nail. If I were to redo this look I would get a thicker larger and chunkier gold glitter nail polish though as the gold glitter I have was way too fine for the look I was going for.

Well that's my nail art rant/post of the day (week? month?). I hope you guys enjoy and try to recreate it! If you do, please tag me on instagram or twitter (@creamydinner) or leave a comment below!

Get the [Nail] Look: A Pastel Galaxy

Everyone loves the good old classic galaxy nail, but adding pastel? Well that's a match made in heaven! (Okay maybe not really but you get my enthusiasm). I saw some pastel galaxy nails on Pinterest and just had to recreate them and share them with you! Honestly they're the same technique as a normal galaxy nail, you just need to pick out all your favorite pastel or light colored polishes - they can be shimmer, glitter, or cream. You can also choose only a few colors to create a different effect (maybe a more cool-toned sky or a warmer one or if you want to be fun, choose them all like me! Although I think I ended up with a more cool toned galaxy nail).

Please excuse the messiness/dryness of my cuticles. My hands were super dry the week I did this and a little on the shorter side but as you can tell, the nails still turned out beautifully!

 I used the following nail polishes (listed below) but honestly any light or pastel colors you have will work. I also used one of those cheap makeup sponges that you can get from Ulta or Sephora to stipple on the colors. I first cut the sponge into roughly 0.5 cm by 0.5 cm squares and used a cheap tweezer I got from Hong Kong to hold the sponge pieces to hold the pieces while I stippled color onto my nails. You want to make sure you have a good white base nail polish by the way to avoid any sort of dimpling or weirdness which you can tell sort of happened with mine.. -shrug- Oh well haha.

From left to right:
-L.A. Colors Art Deco Nail Art Lacquer, White
-Pop-Arazzi Nail Polish, Icing On The Cake (cheap nail polish from CVS but any white will do; I'm not sure I would recommend this.. it's not terrible but you need at least two coats and it can be thick..)
-Covergirl Coral Silk
-Orly Spark
-Revlon Minted
-Sally Hansen Breeze Blue
-H&M Beauty Bandit (not sure if this is sold anymore since they appear to have changed their packaging)

I should also mention that when I was finished, I used one of those shimmery top coat add on nail polishes (not really sure how to describe it but its super iridescent)  from Skin Food (a Korean brand). I can't seem to find a photo or name of it online so I'm not sure if it's still available but it's not necessary to get the galaxy effect. You can coat your nails with a fine white glitter nail polish if you have one to save yourself the trouble of having to spot on white 'stars'. I finished my nails with my usual Seche Vite top coat which gave them the perfect gel finish. I used dotting tools from Ebay to draw my stars but a toothpick of bobby pin will work fine.

California's Great America Halloween Haunt 2015 Review

 

Hi everyone! So it's October and everyone's getting in on the Halloween excitement and of course I had to join in. Since this is my first year not in school, I figured it was time I try going to a haunted attraction/some sort of Halloween festivity. I've never really done anything for Halloween because I've always been too busy studying (or too lazy I guess) but no excuse now! I went with my parents because (1) I have no friends #foreveralone and (2) even if I did have friends, they're all still in school right now. SO with that being said, I ended up convincing my parents to come with me to Great America's Halloween Haunt! Since this is my first ever Halloween excursion, I wasn't sure what to expect so here's little things I would mention for any other newbies to the whole Halloween thing or just people trying to decide which of the many Halloween attractions to go to!
 
First off, let's start with everything before I actually got into the amusement park.
1. Logistics
The Halloween Haunt starts at 7 PM (and 7:30 PM on a few rare days) and is only on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for all of October. This weekend (October 9th - 11th) was the cheapest because the park closed at 12 AM, all other weekends it will close at 1 AM. Parking inside the amusement park parking lot costs $15 and if you're looking to save money, I would recommend parking across the street where all the office buildings are. Make sure you don't park in those office building parking lots as those are restricted but on the streets/curbs because those are free and available all day for anyone. You'll avoid having to wait in line to get to the park, save $15, and might even get to the park quicker. The walk from across the street is probably a 5-10 minute walk depending on how excited you are ;)  Make sure you don't forget anything in your car because once you get into the park, there are no re-entries!

Also a quick note, Great America is located right next to Levi Stadium (I believe they share a parking lot) so I would not advise going to Great America the same day there is any sort of event (ie. football games since it is football season right now). I suspect there would be a LOT of  traffic and congestion.

2. TICKETS
I don't know why anyone would show up withOUT a ticket but there were like 8 long lines of people just waiting to buy tickets. Plus even before those lines, you have to wait in an even longer line to get checked through security (which I'm not really sure why they have it cause they don't do much tbh). They do check your bags so I'm not sure if you're allowed to bring any food in (water is allowed since my mom had a water bottle in her bag and the man didn't say anything). The security line does move relatively quickly, we waited (I think) less than 10 minutes so that wasn't terrible. I would think the ticket line might take another 10-15 minutes though so to save yourself time, I would highly recommend buying your tickets online, like we did. Plus it's cheaper as I found a coupon code (travel2hh) from Retailmenot (click here if you actually want to double check or something) which made the tickets $29.00 per person on ANY day. Now that's a good deal if you want to go on Saturday because Saturday is more expensive than Friday or Sunday. Since we went on Saturday, 10/10/15, it was supposed to be $31.99 so my parents and I saved $9 in total which was nice. Plus we didn't have to wait in line. If you already have your ticket it's actually really fast to get in. I should say that we arrived at the amusement park around 7:10 and probably got in 15 minutes later. Just as a heads up (so you're not stuck waiting in a line you don't need to be in), the first line BEFORE the park entrance will be security, the second line will be to buy tickets (so if you already have yours, just skip these lines, there will be archways that are empty that you can walk through), and the last line is the one to get INTO the amusement park. I'd advise getting there a little before 7 (to give yourself time to park) if you want to really get ALL the time you're paying for!Also, you WILL have to wait in lines, it is inevitable. So getting there early helps you avoid SOME of the lines. I think it would be smart to walk to the farthest part of the park and work your way down to avoid the most lines as possible but who knows if that would actually work (we weren't smart enough to do that haha). If there's something you REALLY want to go to, go there first because the lines steadily grew as the night went on (naturally).

P.S. There's something called a Fright Lane which is the same thing as a Fast Lane Pass but you can't use it on all attractions, it only works on 9 attractions which are the Halloween special ones and not any of the roller coasters/normal rides. I don't think it says online which attractions the Fright Lane pass lets you get into but the map that you can get from the front ticket area does have a list of the attractions you can get to. So I'll be nice and let you know which attractions you can use the Fright Lane on and you can decide for yourself if it's worth it (note you can buy it separately from your ticket or as a bundle with the ticket, you can't just buy the Fright Lane Ticket and get in, you gotta have entrance ticket + fright lane ticket). The 9 attractions are: Wax Museum Chamber of Horrors, Mirror Mirror, inSanitarium, Madame Marie's Massacre Manor Dia De Los Muertos, CornStalkers, Roadkill Road House, Zombie High, and Toy Factory.

3. Miscellaneous Tips
a. It's night. You're going to be there for a long time. Be smart and bring a jacket or sweater. Wear something under it so you can take it off if it gets hot but layer up because it does get chilly.
b. Eat before you get to the park. Park food is notoriously overpriced so save yourself money and get something way healthier or better tasting by eating elsewhere.
c. Point b being stated, if you plan on playing any of the extra games that they have, bring spare cash. They have ATM machines but I think they'll charge you a fee so just bring extra cash in case you do get hungry or want to play one of those horribly rigged games that you'll never win :P (okay exaggeration, I did see some people lugging around those GIANT stuffed animals and if you have a little kid with you, they might just beg you to play some games).
d. If you are someone who is easily scared, or have a child who you are slightly worried for, there are things known as "No Boo Passes" which can be worn as a necklace and the workers will know not to scare you/whoever is wearing the pass. They do warn you that the worker may not actually see the sign and might accidentally scare you but it is a nice precaution if you would like. I'm not sure where you can get them so I would ask when you have your ticket scanned to get into the park.
e. Like I mentioned earlier, make sure you pick up a map of the park before you go in. The person who scans your tickets will have a pile of them at the counter so just take one (or two or however many you want). This map will help you get around. I'd also suggest a small flashlight so see the map better if you don't want to drain your phone battery by using it as a flashlight.

Phew so that was a lot of information that wasn't even about the actual attractions inside the park but I just want everyone to be aware of those points so as to best enjoy your time! Now onto the actual attractions!

Before I start, you can view a list of the attractions which include mazes, scare zones, rides, and live shows online on their website. Honestly the descriptions weren't very helpful to me so I'll give you the basic rundown.
1. Mazes are..well easily mazes. There are 8 mazes with one new one (but hey they were all new to me) and they're all less than 5 minutes long (like to get out). All of them you literally just walk through so you can't get "lost in the maze". There are workers who will follow you around or pop out of a corner but they will not touch you and you aren't supposed to touch them either. We went to Insantarium and Mirror Mirror.
2. Rides are all of the normal roller coasters or other rides that you can go on during normal park hours. These weren't on my high priority list to visit since I knew I could go on them another time. We ended up going on two of them - Psychomouse (a roller coaster that doesn't go upside down so it was good for my parents, it's also my favorite) and Berserker (a roller coaster that just goes in circles about 6 times with some up and down parts, not too exciting and a pretty mellow one, good for children and my  parents haha).
3. Scare Zones: I was expecting these to be like super awesome but they're just areas of the park (only 3 of these mind you) filled with workers who are painted up all scary looking who will run out at you or follow you. They won't touch you (none of the scare workers will!) but they will like scream at you so if you have sensitive ears, beware. If you walk through the whole park you'll most likely get to all of these. Was a little disappointed with these but they were nonetheless still nice to have.
4. The Live Shows are pretty cool. There are four of them but we only went to two but my parents really enjoyed these. Funnily enough they weren't scared at all when we went through the Scare Zones or Mazes and I was screaming my head off aha. But definitely I would HIGHLY recommend you watch the shows. They only play at certain times and they don't even put those times up on the website which sucks AND the map doesn't even have the show times! Some lady I talked to at the theme park did have a paper that had all the listed show times (I believe there are 3 show times per show throughout the night so you can make them all if you want - my friend was able to see them all) but I have no idea where the lady got that list of the times. The descriptions of the shows really doesn't give too much information but the two I saw were ice skating performances (Blades of Horror) and choreographed dancing/break dancing (Academy Villains). I liked both of them (although I'd say Blades of Horror was my favorite of the two) but one thing I need to say is that the music is REALLY loud. And this is coming from a 20 year old okay... maybe I just have really sensitive ears or something cause no one else seemed to be plugging their ears like me to dim the volume but really that's one complaint I had - WAY TOO LOUD MUSIC! Plus during Academy Villains, there were times where the spot lights will shine out into the audience and it's like AH BLINDING. LOL. I know this seems ridiculous but they were just things that I made my experience less pleasurable. I believe the other two shows are circus acts (like trapeze and stuff) and another dancing one but I guess you'll have to go check them out for yourself.

Okay so I hope this review isn't getting too long or boring for any of you.. there are just a few more things I want to cover!

Mirror Mirror is a new haunted attraction where you're stuck in a mirror maze. They say there is limited space but I think you just need to get a ticket and wait in line. Our wait was about half an hour (maybe even more..) and we were literally in the maze for like 2 minutes..not even.. It was cool though so I would recommend it you've got time to kill. Download Heads Up or Charades on your phone and play it with your friends, it'll make the time pass.

Two things I want to complain about:
1. We were in inSanitrium and a worker (dressed up all scary and everything) walked up to us and tried to scare us. My mom decided to turn on her flashlight and sort of shine him (it wasn't a super bright light) like "haha" and he like immediately got SUPER annoyed and was like "I have sensitive eyes you need to turn that off" and my mom being Asian and not fully comprehending what he was saying (loud music + not the best English = hard to understand what he said) paused and then he was like "turn that off right now!" and okay I understand having a light in your face isn't pleasant but I felt like he was extremely rude the way he spoke to my mom and I certainly didn't appreciate it. He could have approached the situation from a different angle to get the same effect (yes my mom did turn it off) so yea that was just like ... mhmm workers need some mannerism lessons. Maybe that's just me being biased and loving my mom, but really I didn't feel like he appropriately approached the situation.

2. This is me just being a little picky/overly sensitive but I was in line for Firefall and right when I was about to go through the gate to go on, the worker told me I wasn't allowed to have my backpack. Now this same worker I had spoken to right before walking up the path to wait in line as I had asked her how long the wait would be. We talked for a good minute and I had my backpack with me at the time and she said NOTHING about it. So when she told me that (after I had waited in line, which okay wasn't terribly long, maybe 6 minutes), I was like -_- wut... Maybe it's my fault for not going to the park enough to know that Firefall doesn't let you bring bags on but you actually have to leave your bags on this bench that's not inside the ride area which means someone could easily take your bag. So already that's like a 'your bad' on Great America's part. They really need to install cubbies into the ride area for riders to put down their items. ANYWAYS, luckily my mom wasn't going on the ride so I ran back down to give her my bag and came back up and well what do you know, all the seats for the ride were taken. So I was like .... great gotta wait in line maybe another 10 minutes... So yeah that upset me just a bit and the worker did apologize but still, just a heads up that you should check if you have any bags that you can bring them on with you to the ride or if there is a place to set them down. 


PHEW! So that's my review of California's Great America Halloween Haunt! Overall it was a fun experience. It wasn't SUPER scary but I did get a good scream and it was fun to spend time with my parents so I would recommend people check it out. If you REALLY want to get to literally everything, I don't think you will and you might consider getting a Season Pass -shrug- Hope you enjoy if you do go and feel free to leave a comment or question down below and I'll try my best to answer it. Happy October! :)

Disney Princess Series Nail Art: Aladdin (Princess Jasmine)

I'm not sure why but I've never particularly favored Princess Jasmine or the Disney movie Aladdin. Not that I didn't like the movie or anything, but maybe it was just I didn't like the genie so much. I'm really not sure. But the reason I bring this up is that the nail look I did inspired by Princess Jasmine is actually my favorite out of my entire Disney Princess series so far. I didn't come up with this look myself, I got it from Pinterest so don't give me credit but I seriously just LOVE the look! The tips with the gold accent and single rhinestone are just.. ooh too much amazingness. I got so many compliments when I wore this so I hope some of you try to recreate this nail look too :)

 

You can see that I didn't do the lines perfectly on my thumb but it still looks nice nonetheless. The steps I took are outlined and roughly sketched below (I'm trying be more helpful for recreating any of my nail looks haha).

I used the striper brush from LA colors gold nail polish but because that gold is too sheer, I would dip the brush into my more opaque gold polish (I used Butter London's The Full Monty but you can use any brand really) before using it. I used a dotting tool to create the circles and also used it to drag the dots inward to connect them with the other lines (see nail image 5 below). I lastly added a green/turquoise gem in the middle and applied my Seche Vite top coat to make it look like shiny gel nails <3

The nail polishes I used were:
-Barry M Hi Shine Nail Paint in Green Berry
-Butter London's The Full Monty Nail Lacquer
-LA Colors in Gold Glitter

Well I hope this inspired some of you to recreate this look! It looks complicated but it's really not! It does take a bit of time and steadiness but practice makes perfect right? :) Also I think it looks nice that my finger nails were somewhat rectangle rounded shaped instead of the usual oval/circular edge that your nails naturally grow at. Which Disney Princess should I do next? Frozen, Little Mermaid, or Tangled? Or any other princess! Comment down below please! ^__^

Disney Princess Series Nail Art: Sleeping Beauty (Aurora)

In the next installation of my Disney Princess themed nail trend, I decided to do Sleeping Beauty, also known as Aurora. It's weird, the last time I watched it (which was a while ago but I still remember quite clearly), I remember thinking it was a little creepy the way Aurora gets possessed. I mean like it just looked super scary, but as a little kid, I don't remember being scared at all when she was walking to the spindle and pricked herself.. so who knows haha. Maybe I'm just a bigger scaredy cat now ^__^;

Unfortunately the photos I took of these nails aren't the best quality (I blame my phone's poor camera quality) but hopefully you get the gist of the nail look and feel inspired to do a better recreation. I got inspiration from a photo I saw on Pinterest but later added something that makes this look more my own and really adds to the overall look.

I  added strips of gold nail striping tape between the two colors but that was after I had taken photos and I realized it was missing something. The bit of gold definitely tied the entire look together so much better so if you do plan on recreating the look, I highly suggest you use the gold tape (it's super easy to use!) or, if you don't have that, use a gold polish and line the borders. You can see in the below photo the gold a little bit (sorry it's not clear, it's from another photo a friend took where the focus wasn't the nails). Doesn't the extra gold really tie this whole "princess" look together?!

I used the following nail polishes to make this look but remember you can use whatever you have! This looks is great because it only uses two colors. The hardest part is just getting that sort of triangle tip and even if you're not great at doing it, having the gold striping tape really helps to cover up any mistakes and make it LOOK like you had perfect straight lines (:

-Sally Hansen Xtreme Hard as Nails in Fuchsia Power
-Essie in Ballet Slippers
-Seche Vite top coat (the usual)
-Gold striping tape on ebay (as listed above)

Anyways I hope you guys are all enjoying the summer weather (it's so hot where I am!) and these nails are the perfect summer color so if you do recreate this look, please link me or send it over! :)

Disney Princess Series Nail Art: Beauty and the Beast

If I didn't put the princess/movie in the title would you be able to guess which Disney princess this nail look was inspired by? I went around asking a couple of my friends and almost no one would know right away like my Cinderella nails unless i told them it was Disney princess inspired and then they would get it then haha. Anyways I think I liked these ones a bit less out of all of the "princess-themed" nails I've done because my flower didn't turn out that nice and I ended up using a lot of stickers so this nail look isn't as recreatable as I would like. Also the yellow that I used has a weird quality to it that just makes it look kind of blotchy no matter how I apply it? I'm not sure but leave me a comment of what you think! By the way sorry my nails were really dry the week I did this so you can totally tell in the pictures :(

I used the following nail polishes if you want to try and at least recreate the same color scheme. If you don't have stickers like I did, you can definitely still just use a gold glitter and apply it at the tips or in a half moon at the bottom or draw more red flowers (and better than mine). I really hate how blotchy my red rose was sigh but I think my right hand flower also had ugly leaves so that didn't help.

-Zoya in Piaf
-Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Extreme Wear in 180 Monarch-y
-Essie Mojito Madness
-Forever 21 Ruby Red

Anyways I hope you at least found some inspiration in this nail look. If not, the following picture offers the main color palette of Beauty and the Beast and you should try creating your own nail look based on Belle! If you do, please link me or send me your look :)

Disney Princess Series Nail Art: Cinderella

So it's been a while since my last post but I wanted to share with you all my latest nail art creations. I'm currently doing a Disney Princess theme of nail designs and today's nail art design is inspired by Cinderella! It's a really simple look but I got so many compliments on it and I absolutely love it! If you don't already, I highly recommend you use Seche Vite as your top coat. It's what gives all my nails this beautiful glossy finish that looks like gel nails. You have no idea how many people have asked me if I got my nails done at a salon since I started using Seche Vite.

I cheated and used some stickers I got from China/Hong Kong which added the extra bling to my nails but honestly it's not necessary! Even simply having the baby blue and accent silver glitter nail is enough to make this look Cinderella-themed. You can buy nail stickers for real cheap off of Ebay like these but if you don't want to wait the 3-6 weeks it takes to ship from China, then I'd suggest just using silver glitter and decorating more nails if you wish. You can take larger glitter chunks and create a curve line like on my pinky (in the above photo) or do a glitter gradient starting from the top or bottom of one or two nails. It's really up to you!

I used the following nail polishes to create these Cinderella nails:
-Revlon in Blue Lagoon
-Essie in Set in Stone
-Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Showtime
-Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

I only used the Sally Hansen silver nail poilsh as a base to apply Set in Stone over so I wouldn't have to use as many coasts of the Essie glitter polish to get a more "opaque" finish. You can use any silver really though. The Revlon nail polish only took two coats and its a relatively thin formula so they dry super quickly. After that I let my nails dry for at least an hour (I actually waited a whole day if I recall correctly, just because I didn't have time to finish the day before) before applying on the extra stickers. I then sealed it all in with my Seche Vite top coat. 

I hope you all enjoyed this and please send me your recreations! This look is so simple and perfect for anything like a ball (or more modernly known as prom/dances/etc) :)