Sinful Colors – “Purple Diamond”

I am obsessed with purple. Seriously. I’m also the kind of person who washes down her morning vitamin with an energy drink. Daily. Also, look at the pretty bracelet my boyfriend bought me for my birthday! He even got it from my favorite jewelry store (Something Silver). 🙂 Anyhow. Sinful Colors makes some of the best cheap nail polish I’ve ever tried. It doesn’t last too long (this mani lasted two days) but the consistency is nice, they make tons of great colors, and the price is right. I paid $1.99 for this bottle a couple years ago and it still hasn’t gotten all goopy and gross like old nail polish tends to do. In person, this color looks more silvery and REALLY sparkly, and it’s light enough to not be too over the top for professional wear. I hadn’t worn this color in awhile, but I thought I’d paint my nails to match my pretty new bracelet this week. Oh yeah, and, as always, Essie “grow stronger” base coat and some cheap top coat were used.

My Latest (Chocolate) Love

See that deliciousness? My manager gifted me a box of Moonstruck Chocolate truffles for my birthday, and I am going to attempt to put into words how much I loved this gift.

Moonstruck is based in Portland, OR and I had previously thought it was just a small store downtown. There’s actually a Moonstruck pretty close to my boyfriend’s house, and apparently various other locations. I had heard about it some over the years, but had never checked it out. After trying these, though, I HAVE to go back. I’ll do my best to remember what each individual truffle is called. There was one of those little fold-out sheets that tells you what’s inside each truffle, but I was too busy in heaven to pay much attention to it.

Okay, honestly, I have no idea what the two on the right are, but they were delicious. The beautiful pyramid-looking one on the top left is the Italia espresso, which is made with dark chocolate, and has a coffee flavor that’s perfect for coffee lovers like me, but it’s not so overbearing that the dark chocolate gets drowned out. The bottom left was definitely my favorite: a Bailey’s Irish Cream truffle. Really, that’s all you need to know. It was the best truffle I’ve ever had.

And now for an ecard I saw on Pinterest:

Nicole by OPI – “Call Me Classy”

Why, yes, those are the double chocolate chip cookies mentioned in one of my last posts! Some of them, anyway. Yes, I tried one. They’re unbelievable. Anyway, this is a post about nails, not cookies. Nicole by OPI is a line sold at Target and I have several bottles from that line. It has great consistency — not so runny that it doesn’t even stay on the nail and not so goopy that the finished product looks like a kindergartener put Play Doh on your nails — because OPI makes some fabulous polish, and it dries at an average rate. I did two coats over my new favorite base coat (Essie’s “Grow Stronger”) and there is a protective top coat, but this color is just as shiny on its own. I love this color because while it looks like a really dark pink in dim lighting, in the sun it’s more of a playful fuchsia. It’s close enough to a traditional nail color to be worn as an everyday work-appropriate color, but it’s still fun enough to wear when you’re partying outside of work. Or, in my case, when you’re running errands, because I don’t really have time to go out much between two jobs — one food service, one retail. I’m usually too sick of people by the end of the day to go out anyway. xD

“The Fastest Way to a Man’s Heart…”

… is through his stomach.”

Yes, it sounds all 1950s ante Women’s Rights, but I grew up hearing this all the time. All the women in my family are astounding cooks, and all the women on my dad’s side are just innately gifted at baking. I seem to have been lucky enough to have inherited that gene, and spent enough time watching, and eventually helping, my mom and aunts in the kitchen to be really comfortable with baking. I’ve never in my nearly 21 years burnt a batch of cookies. Real food, on the other hand… didn’t come so easily for me, but I can make the bare minimum easy stuff to get by (pasta, rice, baked potatoes, etc.) and not completely screw it up. Anyway, my aunt (my dad’s younger sister) has always told me: “The fastest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” Boy, was she right!

When you start dating someone new, there’s that beginning phase where you’re just trying to impress each other. It’s natural; you each want to prove you’re a suitable mate. You might brag of academic and work accolades, put extra effort into your physical appearance, try extra hard not to say or do anything embarrassing… I like to bake my new man a batch of cookies. (Okay, I do that other stuff too.) I was listening to some lady on the radio the other day who was talking about how wrong it was for women to try to impress men by cooking and cleaning for them and trying to prove they are wife material. She went on some feminist rant, deploring the 1950s housewife ideals, saying she had been in so many failed relationships where she had started out trying to show the guy she was wife material, trying to fulfill some cookie cutter ideals for him, when really she should have been the “interviewer” looking for winning characteristics in him. Not trying to be rude, but maybe she just isn’t much of a cook. Yes, clearly I have had failed relationships, as I am not still with Boyfriend #1, but there are myriad other reasons why things might not work out, and there is not a damn thing wrong with cooking to impress your man.

Let me tell you, being an empowered, independent woman who don’t need no man is nice and all, but nothing beats having a man wrapped around your little finger, doing damn near anything you ask just for your cooking. Serious boyfriends have always told me that they first fall in love with my looks, then my personality, then they’re won over by my cookies.

Basically, listen to the generations of women before us, because they know what they’re talking about.

Sally Hansen: Complete Salon Manicure – “Gilty Pleasure”

I love gold. I love gold nails. I did use a top coat and base coat for this (both by Sally Hansen; I don’t remember which, since I don’t use them anymore).

First of all, I love the brush in this bottle. It’s more flat instead of round-shaped, so application is faster and more even. The concept of the “Complete Salon Manicure” is that it’s a base coat, color, and top coat, all-in-one. I always use a separate base coat, just because my nails are so naturally flimsy and weak that I want that extra protection. I have used this without a top coat in the past, and it has lasted a surprisingly long time without chipping on its own, which is great if you don’t have the time or patience for a top coat.

The Cookie Recipe That Got Me Out of Trouble

My aunt always told me: “The fastest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” and time and time again this has proven true. I’m not an especially amazing cook, but I know a good dessert recipe when I see one, and I’m getting pretty good at tweaking them and making them my own. Anyway, I was all bummed yesterday because I said something stupid that caused a fight between me and my boyfriend. I know double chocolate chip cookies are his favorite, and cookies are my forté, so I sought out a double chocolate chip cookie recipe to smooth things over. Once again, Giada de Laurentiis comes through for me with an amazing recipe.

It was simple, easy to follow, and I had most of the ingredients already. I often cut at least five minutes off the bake time for cookies, but in the little toaster oven contraption I used, the exact bake time in this recipe was perfect. I let them cool on the parchment paper/tray for fifteen minutes before moving them to a plate — any sooner and they fell apart. I dropped them off with my boyfriend, and today he told me that he had shared them with his aunt and one of his coworkers, and that both of them said they would pay me to make them more.

What I said/did was pretty messed up, so I don’t expect chocolate cookies to earn me complete forgiveness, but he seems to be way less mad than yesterday, and I’ll take what I can get. I saved a cookie each for my brother and myself, and my brother told me I make really good cookies. Compliments from moody teenage boys are some of the most precious of all. I admit, they weren’t the best cookies I’ve ever made, but they are definitely perfect comfort food for days when PMS/life gets you down. Here’s the recipe! (Again, not my recipe, but that of Food Network’s Giada de Laurentiis.)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/double-chocolate-chip-cookies-recipe/index.html

Victoria’s Secret: Beauty Rush Nail Lacquer – “Scandalous”

I’ve had the most bizarre, lightheaded feeling mixed with the beginnings of a migraine all day, and then a loss of appetite, which is so abnormal for me. I eat A LOT, typically. Probably stress and the constant weather changes, since Oregon has ridiculously bipolar weather patterns and went from mid 90s to mid 70s back to mid 90s in just a couple weeks, at least, in my area. Anyway, I thought I’d start putting up my nail swatches.

This is “Scandalous” from Victoria’s Secret’s Beauty Rush Pop Lacquers. I couldn’t resist buying it when we got them in (yes, I guess I’ll reveal that I work at Victoria’s Secret) because nail polish is my weakness, and I desperately needed a new red.

I am, of course, wearing Essie’s “grow stronger” strengthening base coat, and I also used a Sally Hansen top coat, of which I’m not overly fond, but I make do. My next nail polish investment will be an OPI or Essie top coat. Or maybe Seche Vite, since I’ve heard good things about that one from a licensed manicurist coworker of mine.

Anyway, the nail polish itself is surprisingly nice — it only took one coat of polish to get that look! And it took nearly a week to chip. Any how, I should be getting to bed now. Orientation at my second job is tomorrow and I have to learn how to work at a restaurant. Gooood night!

My Favorite Cookie Recipe

This recipe combines three of my favorite things into one cookie: chocolate, peanut butter, and blackberry jam. I’ve made these several times and they’re always divine. All warm and fresh out of the oven… Mmm… Giada de Laurentiis knows comfort food! I did cut the bake time down to about eleven minutes, with two to five minutes of cooling on the parchment paper/tray. Anyway, let’s see if I can figure out how to include a link, so you can make these cookies and experience their pure delightfulness for yourself.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/peanut-butter-cookies-with-blackberry-jam-recipe/index.html

Nailed It! Praise for Essie’s “Grow Stronger” Strengthening Base Coat

Here’s a quick blip of a rave about my current favorite nail product.

I have always had really weak nails that are paper thin, bend easily, and break when bent. Four years ago I made the mistake of getting acrylics, which peeled off layers of my already thin nails when they eventually broke off. Then around this time last year I started getting shellac manicures, which were great until I chipped the edge of my nail removing a window decal at work one day and the entire bit of shellac, and several layers of my nail, went with it. Since those manicure adventures, I have been taking prenatal vitamins and trying various strengthening polishes and base coats in hopes of having beautiful, strong, feminine nails that actually grow past my fingertips without bending as if they were made of rice paper. I have finally found the winning base coat.

Essie’s “grow stronger” strengthening base coat has actually made my nails feel like nails should, and has strengthened them to the point where they have grown past my fingertips without breaking! It has also made my nail color last longer. If your nails are as sucky and damaged as mine, and you hate it, you might wanna consider making this investment. Best $8 I’ve spent on my nails!