The Thin Blue Line

Good morning.

While today has been all about the royal wedding, today in Eugene is a sad day.

Last week Eugene police officer, Cris Kilcullen, was killed in the line of duty. Today is the memorial.

My brother is a law enforcement officer. Though we do not get along, I think of how devastated my mother and his children would be if he were taken from them. No matter the politics, (Mine are quite liberal and often critical of law enforcement.) I choose to remember fallen police officers and thank them for doing a very dangerous job.


So...in memory of Officer Kilcullen and the many men and women who have died in the line of duty, I thank you.

Pigeons, Iguanas and Mayan Ruins, oh my!

Good morning guys!

Today I have another number from Mexico to show you as well as some pics from my visit to the walled city of Tulum.

This is another Walmart find, a Spanish brand called Lady Ole. I adore the brand name, it makes me smile.
There were lots of great colors to choose from and I dare say, Lady Ole was the best of the brands I saw regarding color range. I again had a difficult time choosing especially since I had JUST picked up a few polishes at La Isla. This brand was also different because the colors actually had names and that is why this little one made into my bag and home. The name???

Red Pigeon

No kidding, y'all. I love this name. It is too funny.

Three coats, no base or top

Red Pigeon is a red creme with subtle pink shimmer and flash. This applies just beautifully and dries crazy quick. It's not my normal choice because I am so picky about reds. It's a teensy bit sheer but nothing to worry about. This is something I would probably wear more often as a pedi color.

We visited the walled city of  Tulum on the same day we visited Xel-Ha and it was simply breathtaking.

Tulum sits on a cliff overlooking the ocean and it was amazing. You enter through a wall into dry jungle and see the temples and it isn't until you walk up to the overlook that you truly realize that you are in fact at the seaside. Stunning!

 The overlook. The small building to the left acts as a hurricane siren.

Entrance to the cenote

Iguana hanging out.

 The entrance into the city. Please enjoy the back view

of me and my sister's heads.

 Augustin, our tour guide.

He speaks English, French and Portugese as well as Spanish.

I envy his mad skills.

Amazing.

Tulum was so beautiful. Visiting such a place leaves me in awe. I can't wait to go back because we will probably visit Coba or Ek' Balam. I love exploring these ruins!

That will do it for today. It's my Friday and I have lots to do it before the weekend. My birthday is on Sunday and I'm planning on having family and friends over for a super yummy meal. There will be more of my Mexican haul to come!

Have a great day!

Xel-ha, a paradise experience! (Pic Heavy.)

Good morning!

Today I'm showing my Caribe 2.0 manicure. I had to wait for Matt to find just the right place to compare my mani with the water before he would take a picture. (What can I say? He likes to get involved in these things.)

We went to Xel-ha, which is an eco water park near Playa Del Carmen and the Mayan ruins of Tulum.
It is amazing. The park offers snorkeling, swimming with dolphins, sea turtles you name it. The place has so much to do and we barely scratched the surface. They even have some kick ass buffets, which we hit over and over. (MMM...they had fresh goat cheese...)
Part of what makes Xel-ha so interesting is that the water is a mix of salt and fresh water. It can make things blurry when snorkeling because that's when the two meet. Really cool.

Remember, all pictures can be clicked to enlarge.

Delphines!!!

We did not swim with the dolphins because Matt is not comfortable with it. However, they do offer another dolphin experience that we have to try next time that seems a little less exploitative. But the dolphins were beautiful and amazing to watch.

We did do some snorkeling and we covered so much of the park. My sister and me were chasing rainbow fish and parrot fish to get good pictures of them. We thought we did pretty good until we came to the floating bridge.

This was a crazy experience just to cross!

When we crossed the bridge, we saw all of these people holding on the bridge in the water. That's when we realized that all kinds of fish were hanging out under the bridge. What a fantastic photo op that we missed! Next time, yo.

Anyway, we crossed the bridge and came to a gorgeous spot that gave a great view of the water and this is where Matt decided we could take a picture of my nails.

Click to enlarge

Base is WNW Nocturnal

Hard Candy Frenzy and WNW French White Creme

sponged over top with

one thin coat of Pure Ice Heartbreaker topping things off.

Please don't mind the state of my hands. I had been soaking in salt water for a few hours...

We had the very best time at Xel-ha and cannot wait to go back. I have to do Seatrek!

So I leave you with a couple more pics so you can see how gorgeous Xel-ha is. Plus, you have got to see my handsome hubs and just how skinny he is now. He has lost almost 80 pounds since starting his diet last August. Awesome work, Matt!

 Look how hot and sexy that man is.

Grr...

Me and my sister. She is just so gorgeous!

 Fishies!

They had a little feed box on the bridge, so this was a popular spot.

There's a bar here that we got some fantastic margaritas and

they have a sweet little hammock spot to chill and nap.

Thanks for indulging me. I adored Xel-ha and I want to go back. I didn't see it all and I must!

Next time, I will show you the amazing ruins of Tulum. They are magical.

No one can dip like Ramon

Good morning!

Today I am bringing you another polish from my Mexico haul. I stayed at the Royal Mayan which offers two bedroom villas rather than the standard hotel room. It's designed for rather long visits since each villa has a kitchenette. As such, there is a small market on the property. We hit that market pretty much everyday since we were making mojitos  and chomping totopos  and fresh guacamole in our villa at night. Of course the market offered gifts, postcards and personal care items.
So, me and my sister went in on our last day to pick out candy and whatnot for my nephews when she found me nail polish! (This is now my favorite hotel ever. And I was already impressed that they sold cotton rounds AND pure acetone.) They had a small selection with some surprisingly good color choices. I could've easily cleaned them out but I had to show some restraint. So, I walked out with this little cutie:

Two coats, no base or top

This is Mattiz #10. It is a vibrant, tomato red jelly. My pics look a bit more orange because it does have those tones but this resembles the color of tomato aspic. I am in love. This applies so smoothly and dries in no time.

I've noticed that almost all of my polishes from Mexico dry really fast. I've also noticed that many are rarely named much less numbered. Just sayin'.

This is great in only two coats with some VNL. Three coats is much more opaque and would soothe those who hate seeing VNL. 

This makes me so happy when I look at it. I am definitely loving the red jellies!

Hope you've enjoyed this. I shall have some more pics to come, my Caribe 2.0 mani was pretty sweet!

Have a wonderful day!

Happy Anniversary

Mom and Dad!!

Thanks for getting married on a day that stoners everywhere can appreciate.

Also, how appropriate that you married in 1969?

Finally, in all seriousness...

Thanks for being awesome parents.

I love you guys lots!

Got the Glory

Good day!

I'm excited to announce the winner of the Apothica $25 gift card giveaway! I was grateful to everyone who entered and I wish I was giving you all a prize.

So...what I did was make a list of everyone's name including multiples for those who got extra entries in a spreadsheet. Then I tabulated all of those entries and went to random.org  and had it randomize the number of entries. Those random numbers went into the column next to the names. Finally, I sorted the number column in ascending order which randomized my names column. The result?

Justine is the lucky winner!!!

Congratulations to Justine, I hope you'll find lots of good things! Keep an eye out for your email with your gift card code and be sure to have saved SkinCareRX.com so your prize doesn't get eaten by your spam folder.

Thank you again for entering and giant thanks to Apothica for being awesome and sponsoring a great contest!

Take not thy thunder from us (Bonus Kitteh Pic!)

Hi Guys!

I just wanted to show you today's mani because I wowed myself with some layering. I will offer the following caveats though.

1. I know my nails look rough. I took the pic after work. My job is not nice to my hands.
2. It's not as smoothly applied as possible. I found today that I need MUCH better lighting in my polish room. Also, more coffee. Just sayin'.
3. I did not have time to take pics before work. I did not manage my time well.

Here ya go:

Two coats Sinful Dream On

over ridge filler

Topped with two coats

Hard Candy Beetle.

Holy shitballs that is amazing. I gotta do this again but better. Not loving the curved break on my index finger though. Like I said, the job is rough on the hands. 

Now for funsies and for those that aren't friends on Facebook, here is a cute picture of Gus.

He loves him some boxes.

That do it for today. I'm going to cuddle with my loves on the couch. Got another early day tomorrow!

Mayela y Nicole

Good morning!

I have some news on the giveaway front. In the process of validating entries right now and once that is all done, I will be using Random.org to choose a lucky winner of the Apothica $25 gift card. Thank you so much to all who entered, it really means a lot to me! I apologize for the delay and I thank you for being patient with me.

Today I am bringing you the first in a series of my recent Mexican nail polish haul. Please ignore the state of my nails. The sea water dried them out a bit and I got the peelies. Ridge filler is totally my best friend right now.
First up is one that I bought last year. It got lost somewhere in my polish room and I did not find it until just right before we left this year. Very interesting occurrence.

Mayela - Three coats no base or top

Mayela is a rich wine with lots of shimmer. Some blue shows up in the bottle but not as much on the nail.

This is a tricky one application wise. It tends to drag as you get close to the free edge of the nail and goes on pretty streaky. Dry time is iffy. I've found a thicker coat gives better coverage but it takes much longer to dry but is still easily dinged even when you think it's dry. 

It's very lovely and I will probably use it more as a layering since it's kind of a PITA all on its own.

Next up is Nicole. I should state that Renova is the maker of both of these but the Inova is probably a special fashion line or something. Let's move on shall we?

Three coats, no base or top

Nicole is a light purple metallic with subtle blue flash. A weak duochrome. This applies crazy sheer. Four coats would probably get best results since it likes to leave bald patches. It would probably be pretty sweet layered over a nice purple creme. China Glaze Spontaneous comes to mind and now I will have to try it!

Dry time is supberb and bald patches aside, it applies pretty well. 

Overall, I'm enjoying both of these very much. I purchased both at Wal-mart in downtown Cancun. Both were roughly about 45 pesos which works out to about $3.84 US. Pretty affordable.

I think I might be going a snotch crazy with my collecting. Now I want to go back to Canada and pick up some of their brands. Then I can showcase my polishes of North America. ;) Oy.

Hope you enjoyed these. I'm already planning my trip to Mexico for next year and this time I might hit the Wal-mart in Playa Del Carmen just to see if they have anything more. I do have my priorities straight, y'all.

That does it for today. I'm having my folks over for dinner tonight and they get to sit through the vacation pics. Ha ha! BTW, pics will be coming. Matt is weeding through them and sorting them out. I can't wait to show you Xel-Ha!

Greetings from Paradise!

Good morning guys!

Today is my last day in Mexico and it sure has been AMAZING. Of course, I managed to pick up several bottles of nail polish that I will be showcasing after I get home. BUT, before that I wanted to bring you a little reminder of last year's haul.
Let's begin!

Both of these Idyl polishes I picked up at La Isla Shopping Village at a store called Kloom. Which is basically like Claire's with the added bonus of Luchadore merchandise for sale. That store cracks me up every time.  Both of these are fab. Colors nice, quick drying but smell terrible. A total steal at 20 pesos since I picked them up during a BOGO.

Maybelline Colorama in Raspberry

I got this at Walmart. For reals. I was psyched to see Colorama because they are nowhere to be found in the States unless you happen to spy them in a pack at Big Lots or Dollar Tree. This is a glorious red jelly that dries insanely quick. I adore it!

I had another to show you. BUT, Matt deleted my pics. It was one that I picked up at Walmart last year that somehow got lost in my polish room. I found it right before we left and swatched it but no pics! So I'll do it AGAIN once I get home and include it with my new goodies. 

That does it for me. I'm out to lay by the pool, play in the surf and generally be lazy.

Have a wonderful day!

Doing it for the fame

Good morning!

Today I'm bringing you my last regular mani before vacation. I will be attempting to re-create the Caribe mani that I did back in October.
Remember?

I'm pretty sure I can do this again.

Anyway.

Yesterday I decided to play with purple and shimmer so I got this:

Base is Golden Rose Ceramic #139

One thin layer of Sally Hansen HD Spectrum

Sponged with Hard Candy Beetle

I cannot quite capture how cool this looks. It has an almost pebbled texture. The base color has silver shimmer shot through while Spectrum has mass amounts of glitter. Then, Beetle has amazing glitter. All three interact and play off each other beautifully. The glitter from Beetle shows up as a red copper which complements the blue and purple nicely. 

What is most spectacular for me is this:

Hot duochrome action!

Dirty, dirty tip wear!

Total game changer that is. This is pretty good considering I had next to no inspiration when I went to do my nails. What unexpected color combos have you tried that ended up wowing you?

That does it for today. I have to vacuum out my suitcase because it still has sand in it from last year as well as having been used as a lounge for Gus. Then I'm packing it up! There will be another post tomorrow and then I'll probably be popping up here and there on Twitter.

Hope everyone has an excellent day!

Effing magnets, how do they work???

Good morning!

We have three more days to go until I'm off to having a seriously amazing vacation! (I'm just a wee bit excited.)

However, the nail polish don't stop. I have lots of things still left to show you before I go. (I will have plenty to show when I get back too. There is a Wal-mart in Cancun after all.)

What I have for you today is another L.A. Colors that I picked up at Dollar Tree.

Magnetic Force

Three coats, no base or top

Both photos taken with my old Panasonic.

I got distracted and didn't post this.

I'll be the first to admit that this isn't particularly new or exciting. But it is a pretty berry creme with a slightly plummy cast. Always a great color to wear for Spring and Summer. I remind you again that these colors always remind me of tropical drinks. I must really be thirsty. ;)

L.A. Colors is a brand I really like. The colors are sweet and I've had very few problems with formula. This is no different. It's really well pigmented and you could totes get by with two coats. Dry time is reasonable, enough for me to be able to do a quick and dirty if I have to. 

I do love the price. I love, love getting these for a buck at Dollar Tree. The only drawback is a so-so selection. But I can also get them at Hiron's (a local drug/gift store that I insist you visit if you ever come to Eugene.) for $1.99 and have a better selection.

And there is always the beloved Cherry Culture to help feed the addiction. 

I just realized that I have lost my train of thought and don't know where I'm going with this. My impending vacation MUST be eating my brain.

See you soon!

The Competition is OVER!

Good morning guys!

The Apothica giveaway is over! I'm going to be validating entries and then I will be randomly choosing a winner.
I'm grateful to everyone who entered. Keep an eye here for the announcement to come soon.
Best of luck to all who entered!