St. Patrick's Day Nails: Mint Candy Apple

I love St. Patrick's Day for multiple reasons. I love dressing up in green and eating corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes. Not only do I love it for those reasons, but my ancestors were also from Ireland. My Great Grandma's grandparents (Kelly's) were directly from Ireland. I usually only wear green, but I decided that I would paint my nails my favorite shade of green: Essie Mint Candy Apple.

This is actually only 1 of 2 green colors I have, but the other is slightly darker (OPI Mermaid's Tears, I believe). I discovered this color last summer and it's definitely been a favorite since then. Thinking about moving to Hawaii, and seriously having to narrow down the polishes I take with me, has me trying to decide on about 10 polishes to take. I think this will probably be one of them. I'll most likely stick to "summer" colors, mostly because the "winter" and "fall" colors I have won't really work in a state that is literally summer year round.

I'll definitely keep posting my Nail of the Day posts up until I move because I'm hoping I can get through all of my favorites to show you. I will also make sure, before I move, to share with you--what I suppose will be--my top 10(ish) nail colors. I figure I'll only pack the ones I truly consider to be favorites, which unfortunately won't include fall or winter shades. But I'll be honest, my goal of 10 may be slightly unrealistic considering I think I'm well over 60 currently. However, cutting out winter and fall shades will help me tremendously.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone, whether you're Irish, of Irish ancestry, or just Irish for the day! :)

xx Anna

OPI Suzi's Hungary Again

My first thought about this nail polish was that it reminded me of OPI Come to Poppy, except a lighter version. 

It's probably not my all-time favorite color, but it's still pretty.

I typically look up pictures of the polish before buying it, and I definitely don't think the pictures that I saw made it look like this. I feel like it looks brighter than I expected. It definitely looks brighter in person!

It's also already started chipping. I did everything as I usually do: base coat, 2 coats of color, and top coat. I literally just painted my nails on Tuesday and my right thumb nail has already chipped in 2 places! To be honest, I will probably change this color over the weekend. This is probably the only polish I've been disappointed with in as long as I can remember. I'd recommend OPI Come to Poppy over this anyday! 

xx Anna

Coffee-mate Natural Bliss creamer

When I was in Seattle, I decided to try the Natural Bliss creamer. I've seen commercial after commercial about it, but have never tried it. The reason I actually got it was because it was the cheapest creamer, plus I was interested to try it. As you may assume, the Natural Bliss creamers are made with real, natural ingredients: milk, cream, sugar, and real flavor. It also comes in caramel and chocolate, but I noticed that the caramel was $2.99 while the vanilla was $2.79. Not sure what that was about, but I got the vanilla regardless!

I paired it with the Vanilla Caramel Cream k-cups.

The creamer was pretty good, but not as rich and creamy as other creamers. I guess whatever artificial gunk makes creamer rich! The pairing, however, made me think of the instant coffee. Whenever I smelled it while it was brewing, I instantly was reminded of the Cafe Escapes. Yuck. When I took a sip, it wasn't as bad as I feared. I'm thinking it was the coffee, not the creamer. Or maybe the combination of the two. I'm definitely interested to try the creamer in the other flavors, but maybe with a different flavored coffee. These two just don't go that well together because of the "instant" coffee vibe.

xx Anna

Moving Update

So I have some rather big news for those of you who have been following my posts about my husband getting orders in April. Originally, we were told it would either be California or North Carolina. We were SO hoping for North Carolina because it's only a 13 hour drive to our hometown of Greenwood, IN. However, we didn't get either of those. Drum roll please........

We're being sent to HAWAII. It's pretty unbelievable and it really hasn't set in yet. I think because I've been so looking forward to NC, that it doesn't even seem real that in 2 months we'll be in Hawaii. It's pretty bittersweet. On one hand, we probably won't be able to come home very often in the next 2 years because of the expense of travel. Not only that, but the cost of living is so high that it will be impossible to save any money. Thankfully we've already been saving as much as possible to cushion us a little bit. And on the other hand, how many opportunities come around like this? Honestly, I would probably never get to go to Hawaii any other time in my life. My husband and I are too cheap for travel and I doubt we'll travel much, except maybe when we have kids in the future. It'll be like a 2 year vacation, except I'll obviously have to find work somehow. Again, the downside will be not seeing my friends or family (that more than likely won't or couldn't afford to visit us) for 2 years. I'm hoping that if we both can't visit home, then at least maybe I could at some point.

I'm trying to be optimistic about it rather than bummed. It seems selfish and ungrateful for me to be upset when many people would only dream of being able to live somewhere like this. So I'm guessing that I'll have even more to blog about now, as far as travel goes, because I'm guessing NC wouldn't have been quite as exciting.

Anyway, I'll let you know more as I find out. I've only known for about 12 hours, so all I know at this point is that we'll be in Hawaii. I'm curious to find out about where we'll actually be and how in the world we'll get our stuff moved there. Clearly most of my nail polish collection will have to stay behind....lol

xx Anna

OPI You're Such A Budapest & Polka.com

I couldn't leave on Spring Break without leaving you all without another Nail of the Day, could I? The Spring 2013 Collection from OPI (aka Euro Centrale) is absolutely amazing. I purchased three of the polishes from the collection, and am tempted by two others that I will more than likely buy as well. One of the great things about this collection is the polish Polka.com because it goes with several of the other polishes in the collection. If I'm going to buy a glitter top coat, you better believe I want more than one color to wear it with.

I've decided to pair it first with OPI You're Such A Budapest from the same collection. I personally think these two look awesome together, and make me feel super girly and happy. Yes, I despise taking glitter off, BUT, I certainly enjoy wearing it. This will not be the last time you hear me talking about this collection, and I'm sure there will be many posts to come with other various colors.

You're Such A Budapest is such a pretty purple color! Slightly lavender, slightly periwinkle as well.

Now the fun part: OPI Polka.com

As you can see, there is pink, purple, and turquoise glitter (which is why it goes with so many different polishes!). LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!

Until next time,

xx Anna

Spring Break 2013

Hello, everyone! I'm on Spring Break, which is crazy to think about because that means only 8 more weeks of school after this break! And I suppose it's my last Spring Break for a while. This weekend, I'm going on a little girl trip with my mom and grandma to one of the casinos a couple hours away. It should be fun! I'll come back Sunday afternoon and then head to Seattle on Monday afternoon and stay until Sunday. I feel like quite the busy bee! I've had such a stressful couple of weeks with midterm tests, papers, and other random assignments, that it will be nice to get away and relax....now if only I were going to a sunny beach. I will probably be MIA for the next week, but I'll be back in action after Spring Break.

xx Anna

Lush: Almond and Coconut Shower Smoothie

I have been hearing about Lush products for over a year now and finally broke down and bought my first Lush goodie. This winter has been super harsh on my skin and it seems that no amount of lotion helps keep my skin happy. I heard about how moisturizing the Almond and Coconut Smoothie was and decided I would give it a try. It's certainly not cheap, at just under $22, but I decided that it would be worth the money. I was happy to find out that it was! I've only used this twice, but my skin feels so much better. Not that you wouldn't want to put lotion on after using this, but it's still a great product. I felt like getting a head start on moisturizing made my skin really absorb the lotion I put on afterwards. I tweeted this picture and tagged Lush and they even tweeted me back! Nerdy, but still pretty cool.
I also bought 3 bath bombs that they were selling for Valentine's Day and I'll report on those after I try them. I've used something like it before and LOVED it so I'm sure these Lush bath bombs will be no different. The bath bombs were definitely more affordable. All the ones I bought were under $8. Maybe that seems like a lot for a bath, but I think they'll be worth it on those super stressful days where you just need a good soak in the bath. Being a new "Lushie" means I'm open to suggestions on what I should try! What are your favorite Lush products?

xx Anna