2013 Oscars Live Blog + Mini NOTD

3:54pm Hey peeps. Live blogging the Oscars again this year so let's get to it.

3:56pm Already I’m noticing from all the fashion here on the red carpet, that THE color of the night so far is beige.  Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Lawrence, and Amanda Seyfried. 

3:58pm Yay, Joseph Gordon Levitt and Sally Fields. I love how they are interviewing together with her hand is wrapped around his arm. Very Cute.

3:59pm What?! JGL, Daniel Radcliffe, and Seth MacFarlane doing a skit together? Love this scoop I’m getting watching E!News.

4:01pm Oh no. I’m not liking Melissa McCarthy’s hair or dress. First fashion dud of the night for me :(.  Looks like something out of Dallas.  Best dressed so far? Amanda Seyfried for sure.

Credit: Popsugar

4:05pm Another color I’m seeing a lot on the red carpet is blue. Jennifer Hudson, Reese Witherspoon, Quvenzhané Wallis, and Amy Adams.
4:40pm What a surprise, Jennifer Aniston with her hair down.  She looks so happy with her bf but I expected more fashion wise. Then again, she isn't nominated for anything so I won't hamper on her too much.

4:46pm Adele looks great in her classic black outfits, but has a bit of sparkle. Also, I NEED her makeup person.

5:27pm Ok, so quick thoughts before the show.  Judging from all the red carpet interviews, it sounds like there is going to be a lot of musical numbers with most of the Les Mis stars singing. As for the actual awards, I am actually hoping Life of Pi gets some awards.

5:30pm Ah, I see the theme is actually Music in Film. Makes sense.
5:33pm Some of the jokes are falling flat but hey it's only been 3 minutes. Also I kinda saw this coming since he's not known for stand-up.
5:40pm Aww Channing and Charlize dancing was ....unexpected but nice.
5:42pm Haha the sock puppet Flight reenactment was actually funny. And I detect Jay Paroh from SNL as Denzel Washington.
5:43pm Yup, JGL and Daniel do a song with Seth.  Too bad they weren't given much to do. Boo.
5:49pm Waltz wins another oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
5:56pm Is it just me and my love of beards or does Paul Rudd look sexy tonight? Just me.
5:58pm Man I felt sorry for Melissa and Paul.  They were barely getting any laughs with that bit.
5:59pm BRAVE?! Brave?! Seriously Brave? Ok whatever.  I feel like the voters just penciled it in just because they saw it was from Pixar. *Sigh* Sorry Paranorman.
6:02pm So looks like they are grouping up 3 Best Films nominees at a time instead of showcasing each of time at a time.
6:06pm Haha, this RobertDJ roasting is hilarious.
6:07pm Life of Pi wins Best Cinematography!!!! Alright, I thought Skyfall would have it but this is a nice surprise. :)
6:09pm This Avengers bantering is great. Sam Jackson knows what he is talking about.
6:10pm Another Life of Pi win for Best Special Effects! I like this, let's keep this Pi-ball rolling.  Also, I just love listening to the theme music every time they win.
6:12pm Aww he didn't get to finish! The Oscars putting the Jaws theme to signify impeding doom was actually a nice touch though.
6:17pm Channing waxes? Makes total sense with his exotic dancing past lol.
6:19pm Les Mis wins for Best Makeup/Hair and Anna wins for Best Costume.
6:23pm Halle Barry looks extremely fashion forward in presenting Years of Bond.
6:25pm Wow, Shirley has still got it after all these years singing the Goldfinger song.
6:32pm I know Jamie was probably trying to be serious with the whole importance of Shorts but I couldn't help laughing. He sounds like he's delivering a line on SNL.
6:36pm Yay! Inocente wins. I remember seeing this Short on MTV and crying like a baby.  Who says MTV isn't good for anything anymore. Good for her.
6:45pm Searching for Sugarman wins Best Doc. I remember hearing his story on 60 min.
6:46pm Best joke of the night so far, "The cast of Prometheus tells us what the hell was up with that".
6:51pm Amour wins Best Foreign Language Film. I think we all saw that coming from a mile away.
7:02pm Yes......yes....YES! One More Day, this is my shit! I'm totally singing long! Even though they shortened the song down considerably. The recent stage version is still my personal favorite version of the song.
7:13pm Les Mis wins for Best Sound Mixing. The Ted bit is actually pretty funny. Doesn't overstay its welcome.
7:15pm A tie for the award. Too bad I don't remember the name of the award, just the very audible gasp from the audience when there was a tie announced.
7:21pm Anne Hathaway wins Best Supporting Actress.  And I actually liked her speech too.
7:33pm Argo wins something! Film Editing.
7:35pm The Skyfall song by Adele is literally the best part of Skyfall, hands down.
7:48pm Oh I always get goosebumps whenever I hear the Harry Potter theme. And Kristen Stewart looks like she needs to fart, big time.
7:49pm Lincoln wins for Production Design.
8:09pm Best Musical Score goes to....Life of Pi!  Yes! Score another one for the Pi.
8:13pm Best Song goes to ... Adele for Skyfall. Trust Adele to have a great short speech.
8:23pm Best Adapted Screenplay goes to Argo. I honestly thought it would between Argo or Life of Pi.
8:27pm Best Original Screenplay goes to Tarantino! Pleasant surprise seeing how people were thinking ZD30.
8:32pm "Cocaine trees" That is all.
8:35pm Ang Lee, bitches! Life of Pi wins Best Director.
8:40pm I have to say that Seth's jokes are getting better and better as the night rolls along.
8:42pm Best Actress is Jennifer Lawrence! Oh and she fell >.< Haha but she handles it like a champ. Finally SLP wins something.
8:48pm Oh and Phenoix is not having it. He's eating, looking down, and slightly shaking his head in shame.
8:50pm Best Actor is Daniel Day Lewis. I for one would have loved to see him play Margaret Thatcher.
8:52pm All hail Michelle Obama's bangs. O.O I am not worthy.
8:56pm Argo wins Best Picture? Don't get me wrong, I thought Argo was good but not THAT good. Oh who cares! Good for you Ben Affleck!
9:03pm And the show ends with a loser song to plug in a couple more jokes. Too bad the music was too loud. I couldn't hear what they were saying half the time.


Ok, so overall i liked the show.  Seth had a rough start with his jokes but he got better and better as the night kept going.  I think my favorite joke had to be the Von Trapp gag with Seth's reaction.  It was so hilariously stupid.

"Sir, they're gone!"

I was pleasantly surprised with some of the winners.  For days, all I was hearing was Lincoln, Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, DJango Unchained, and Silver Linings Playbook. And in the end these films barely got any awards.  Argo got like 2 to maybe 3 awards at best.  But each of the real big awards were evenly distributed between these films. Life of Pi definitely has something to celebrate by winning most of the awards and Ang Lee totally deserved his win.  The man spent four years creating this film. That's devotion. I'm happy with the results and I hope next year will be even better!

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Mini NOTD:  China Glaze - Fast Track 

flash

One of my absolute favorite nail colors OF ALL TIME. I am not kidding.  Consider this a sneak peak of the full length NOTD I have planned for this baby. Definitely appropriate for live-blogging the Oscars.

My First Time (Ep3) - Nail Stamp Art

Today I thought I’d post about my *cough* shitty *cough* first experience with a relatively new and seemingly fun trend in the nail world called nail stamping art.  I first heard about it a year or two ago when a lot of beauty Youtubers were using Konad’s nail stamping kit with beautiful results.  It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I finally bought this ‘Salon Express’ version at a Marshalls here in San Diego for 6 dollars so I thought “what the hell, lets give this a go”.

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Here is a photo of the packaging for those of you unfamiliar with what it looks like.  Seems easy enough with the simple steps shown visually on the back.

And here is a picture of main the contents of the Salon Express stamping kit, excluding the two nail polishes shown that are actually from my own nail polish collection.  

• Double-ended stamper (for larger designs and smaller designs)
• Scraper
• Plate holder
• Metal plate(s)
• Mini instruction booklet

The kit comes with 5 metal stamping plates with a range of about 6 to 7 designs on each plate. The stamp I’m using is the one with the zebra print (SE 22) but I was sad to  see that of all the designs, there was no leopard print design. *Sigh* That was a bummer but that was a design I could do free-hand anyway.

As for nail polish, I used Essie’s “Carry On” as a base color for all my nails and used a light lavender color, Sally Hasen’s “Lacey Lilac” for the zebra design.  

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So here it goes >.<

Metal plate with zebra design ready to go on the plate holder

Placed a nice layer of "Lacey Lilac" on design

Scraped excess nail polish 

*I should have scraped this design vertically not horizontally*

I couldn’t photograph this part since I had to work quickly but I firmly laid, but quickly lifted the larger side of the stamper on the design.

Ta-dah! ..... Yea, needs a bit more work.

I think with this nail stamper kit, it just takes patience and practice to get your nail designs to look flawless.  Also, apparently it just depends on the nail polish you use because I know that for the Konad kit, specific nail polish is to be used to work well with the metal plating.

Overall, I don’t quite love it yet aka you wont see it in my Winter favorites post.  I really just need to get my hands on some nail art polish at Sally’s Beauty Supply and I'll try again!

NOTD - OPI's Warm and Fozzie

Today's color is from the Muppets Collection that came out in 2011 along with the movie (which was a hilariously cute movie btw) and is called Warm and Fozzie. Of course, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that this color is inspired by Kermit the Frog! ...... Oh. It's Fozzie Bear? Wacka wacka!

Warm and Fozzie is a warm bronze color with bright, golden-yellow shimmer that gives it an overall metallic look.  At times, the color goes from its golden bronze shade to a slight hint of a pinky bronze shade.

PROS:

• The formulation in excellent.  The color and shimmer evenly spread out on the first swipe and is very easy to work with.
• Each layer of this color, I find, dries quickly.
• Warm and Fozzie reaches opacity in just 2 coats.
• Indoors, within the shade, Warm and Fozzie's darker bronze color really shows more than the shimmer.  Outside, in the sun, the lighter yellowy shimmer completely takes over, looking lighter and brighter.  In the sun is when Warm and Fozzie truly glows.
• This color looks great just sheer or opaque.  One sheer layer gives your nails a bit of a light shimmery bronze color without looking dark like the opaque swatches below.  The sheer look was so beautiful I almost just left my nails the way they were after one layer.  You might even be able to pull this neutral polish off at work....might.
• Due to how warm the color is I would definitely see this color be very flattering on warmer skin tones.

CONS:

• Since Warm and Fozzie is a shimmery color, it would be one of the harder nail polishes to remove with just normal nail polish remover.
• I do not know if this color would necessarily be flattering on really cool, pale skin since Warm and Fozzie is a contrasting warm color with a shimmery finish to boot.

In Flash

In natural bright lighting. 

Even though this collection is not available anymore, you can still easily find this on Amazon.  Just type in "Warm and Fozzie by OPI" and there you go! Thanks for stopping by!

What I got for Christmas 2012

(Click any images to enlarge)

 As I’ve gotten older, the plentiful amount of gifts under the Christmas tree has come down to about two or three, which makes sense since I don’t need all those toys anymore but only few functional gifts.  This year I got two great gifts, a Clarisonic Mia and a kitten calendar! Yes, you read that right. A kitten calendar.  It’s actually come to be sort of a Christmas tradition here in my family.  Its the go-to gift that we all use and since I’ve been extra cat crazy this year, my parents thought the theme for this calendar would be appropriate.  And I screamed in girly delight.

The Clarisonic Mia 2 was something I’ve been thinking about getting for a while now but was surprised by my mom who got it for me before I could.  And I’ve heard about this non-stop on YouTube and on other blogs.  It’s like the Urban Decay Naked Palettes, they never go down in popularity and, along with the Clarisonic, are becoming a beauty classic with numerous copycats still popping up years later.


 Lets dig into the contents shall we?

• Clarisonic Mia 2 - What sets this version apart from the original Mia are the two settings it has instead of just one.
• Clarisonic Cover
• Clarisonic Charger
• Instruction booklet
• fresh Soy Face Cleanser - I’ve heard plenty about this brand but this would be the first fresh product I have ever used. 
• Ole Henriksen Truth Serum Collagen Booster - I’ve never heard of this brand so I’ll just take this as a new skin adventure.  Judging by all the fantastic reviews online, I’m excited to try this baby out.

What I Learned this Christmas:  I learned that I really miss the old traditions of Christmas and want to make things different next year.  Other than watching a bunch of Christmas movies, I barely did anything Christmas-worthy.  Here's hoping Christmas 2013 will be a bit more festive.

Happy Holidays.

Happy Holidays Blogger & Blog-viewing peeps!  I’ll see you soon with a new post.  I'm pretty excited to blog with the new blogger post settings which makes posts much easier to create.  Here's to the new year!  See you in 2013.

What I’ve Learned This Year:

• I now feel like a I am sort of a Disneyland expert with the amount of times I've gone this past year.  
• Congress sucks.  
• Nursing is becoming more of a definite reality.  
• I learned how to guide children and why I like being around them so much.
• I learned the origin of the word, OK (Thank you, Silver Linings Playbook).
• I know the highs and lows of having a kitten after taking care of 3 abandoned ones for a couple of weeks.
• But I learned that even with all the hard work involved, I'm a fully realized cat lover and want to give one a permanent home with me in the near future.
• With the many people who have tragically died this past year, whether in my family or on the news, I truly feel I've gotten the concept of how short life can be and to just enjoy it to the fullest.  Don't sweat the small bullshit and just keep doing you.

NOTD - China Glaze's "Argo" (Hunger Games Capitol Colours Collection)

Today's color is from the Hunger Games Capitol Colour Collection that is called Argo. I've heard that this color is inspired by District 11, which specializes in agriculture.

Argo is a dark, forest-y, olive green with micro shimmer that gives off a metallic finish.
PROS: You only need to apply one layer of this gorgeous green polish to get the same desired results as the photos below.
CONS: The only con I could see with Argo is that the brush strokes can be visible at times, however, but I didn't find it distracting enough to not recommend this nail polish.

This is one of my personal favorites from the collection for sure!
Thanks for stopping by!

Hunger Games Nail Polish Haul + Mini Movie Review

THE NAIL POLISH
I'm in the midst of my Spring Break and I'm back in a big way. With a huge Hunger Games nail polish haul. Above is a photo of the 8 out of 12 Hunger Games nail polishes by China Glaze. I genuinely love this collection. The collection is mostly filled with neutrals and glitters, which I am in love with as you can see, hahaha. I am considering buying one or two more since these China Glaze polishes are on sale at Sallys, making them cheaper than similar colors from Essie or OPI.

L to R: Luxe & Lush, Smoke & Ashes, Stone Cold, Argo

L to R: Well Dressed, Fast Track, Electrify, Riveting

MOVIE REVIEW
I’ve read the first book and am about to start the second, Catching Fire.

Regarding the film, I liked that the romance/sort-of love triangle is played down even more so than in the book. The film could have easily given in to “Twilight tween audience” and given us a played up cheesy romance between Katniss and Peeta but it didn’t, even if it is fake for television. At its heart what this film/book series is is NOT about romance but a commentary on our society. Its a cautionary tale on how “entertainment” like reality television and extreme government control can go too far and make life miserable.

I really liked this movie for being able to have the PG13 rating yet tried to please all audiences and not just the tween demographic that’s usually associated with many subpar, cheesy movies. Those who came into this film not expecting much, like my boyfriend, were pleasantly surprised. And I’m very glad.

As for the “shakey” cam, this honestly did not bother me nor did I even notice until the actual Hunger Games portion of the film. This is probably because we sat in the very last row where the entire screen is easily visible. The only time it got me was during the climactic fight scene unfortunately.

Overall, even with some story changes and the deletion of some scenes from the book, I thought the film did a great job.

Thanks for stopping by!