The Neverending Pile Challenge: China Glaze in the Lime Light (Neon)

The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

Hey folks! It's time once again for the Neverending Pile Challenge! Actually, despite its name, the first round of the challenge does end in two weeks, and I think I'll bow out at that point. Doing so many challenges per week really clogs up my blogging schedule and I haven't done much nail art lately. But wow, have I tried a whole lot of untried polishes!

Today's theme is neon, perfect for summer! I'm not a huge neon nut because I have such pale skin that neon doesn't always look great on me. I definitely prefer cooler neons rather than pinks and yellows. So today I'm wearing China Glaze In the Lime Light (Neon), a neon green with aqua shimmer. I don't know what the story is behind the parenthetical in the name--I'm guessing there is/was also a non-neon version of this polish?


Anyway! As you can probably tell, my camera panicked a little bit with this polish! It's actually a bit darker than it appears here.

China Glaze In the Lime Light (Neon). Three coats with Out the Door topcoat.

I love this shade of green, but sadly the formula was no bueno. It was very sheer and streaky--even at three coats you can still see my nail line a bit. I also had some problems with bald spots. I suppose it could have been worse though. Like most neons, this polish dries matte, but I like it glossy better because it brings out the shimmer.


Total untrieds tried: 68 + chevron decals + 3 stamping plates


 

Review: June Ipsy Glam Bag

Good morning! Today is my and Mr. ALIQUID's first anniversary!! I can't believe a year has gone by so fast. Trudy and I have the best husband/dad on the planet!!


Anyway! Today I'm finally getting around to reviewing this month's Ipsy Glam Bag. If you're not familiar with Ipsy, it's a beauty product subscription service that costs $10 per month. You get 4-5 sample and full-size products each month that are customized (more or less) to your preferences, as well as exclusive deals from all the featured brands. Here's my referral link if you'd like to sign up!

This was an OK month for me (no nail polish though). Only one total dud, I think! For $10 that's pretty good. I'll start with my favorite product!

1. NYX Butter Gloss in Apple Strudel

This is a really nice lip gloss! It feels slightly sticky but generally very smooth and luxurious. The color intensity was just right for me--not totally invisible but not horrible candy pink either. I've already used this gloss multiple times.

2. Laneige BB Cushion

This BB cream came with a lot of literature, so I'll let this sexy lady explain it to you (click for bigger). Basically it's a BB cream with SPF 50, which is obviously a very good thing. It comes in the form of a soaked sponge with a puff to use as an applicator. I guess this gives you more control over the amount you want to use. I got samples of all three shades, so I was a bit grumpy about only being able to use a third of the sample pack.

Obviously, "light" is my shade (are we surprised?? no). I wonder whether "dark" would really work with very dark skin tones, but I can't test that.

Anyway, I found the coverage of this product to be pretty typical for a BB cream, i.e. not as heavy as a foundation. It was neither matte nor shiny on me. Not too greasy. It seems to have good wear time too, which is a plus for a sunscreen product. On the negative side, I did find that it tended to accent any dry spots on my face. It's also pretty pricey: $34 for half an ounce. So probably not something I'll be buying.

3. Be a Bombshell Lash Out Mascara

This seems to be a pretty basic, no-frills mascara to me. It works OK, I didn't have a big problem with clumping, but it doesn't do anything extraordinary either. I found it to be flaky by the end of the day, and not particularly waterproof either. I'd say it's equivalent to my $5 tube of N.Y.C. mascara, but it costs three times more.

Here are the before-and-after shots:

I think my eyelashes are kind of sparse and would probably benefit more from a finer/denser mascara brush.

4. Nicka K Shimmer Eyeliner in Blue

Ahhh, eyeliner...the one eye product I just can't get right. I think this would look really cute for a bolder look, if only I could draw in a straight line. Maybe I'll try it tonight for our anniversary dinner.

5. Marc Anthony Dream Waves Beach Spray

Come on, Ipsy, I thought we'd discussed this...don't send me hair products! They don't work 99% of the time. My hair is ultra fine and pretty stubbornly straight. But I tried this stuff anyway, because I guess you never know.

So you're supposed to spray this on damp hair, scrunch it, and then either let your hair air-dry or dry it with a diffuser (which I don't have). The problem is that when my hair air-dries, it poofs out into a mane of frizz. So that's Issue #1. Issue #2 is that as soon as I brushed my hair, all the waves basically collapsed. So instead of having wavy Beach Goddess hair, I had Slept On It Funny hair. Issue #3 was the grimy residue this product left behind. Soooo yep, it's a dud. If anyone wants the rest of my bottle, I'll send it to you!



Did you get an Ipsy bag this month? Did you like it?

The Neverending Pile Challenge: Revlon Naughty

The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

Happy weekend! This weekend is special for us because tomorrow is our first anniversary. We're going out to eat a giant steak dinner, so I'll make sure to post pics on Instagram and make you all jealous!

Today's Neverending Pile theme is dirtiest-named polish. Sadly I don't have a whole lot of polish with dirty names; the worst I've got is Revlon Naughty. I think the name fits the polish pretty nicely!

Revlon Naughty. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.

Naughty has a smoky brownish-grey base with a sexy purple glow. Definitely quite sultry! The formula was OK--too runny for my taste, streaky on the first coat but evened out on the second. I did get some minor bubbling too. In indoor lighting the shimmer gets hidden a bit.

What's YOUR dirtiest-named polish?

Total untrieds tried: 67 + chevron decals + 3 stamping plates


 

The Neverending Pile Challenge: A England Princess Sabra

The product in this post was given to me as a gift. All opinions are my own.

Happy Hump Day! I've been crazy busy making nail polish lately, so expect to see lots of new stuff in the near future!

I did take some time to swatch an untried polish today. This Neverending Pile Challenge theme is gold. I don't wear much gold polish because it tends not to look good with my skintone. But I looooove today's polish because it's not a yellowy gold, and in fact has olive green undertones (plus scattered holo shimmer!). This is A England Princess Sabra!

A England Princess Sabra. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.

No one makes scattered holos like A England! I think this one is so classy and elegant. The formula was perfectly easy to apply, with great consistency and no streaking.

What's your favorite A England polish?


Total untrieds tried: 66 + chevron decals + 3 stamping plates


 

The Neverending Pile Challenge: Brown

Happy Monday! Today's Neverending Pile Challenge theme is brown. I know not everyone is a fan of brown nail polish, but I love it. I think because browns have a nice earthy, natural quality that other neutrals don't.

Anyway, today I did a simple striping tape mani (pattern shamelessly stolen from Chalkboard Nails) using Julep Annemarie and Revlon French Roast. French Roast has beautiful multicolored flecks in it--I really should swatch it separately sometime!

P.S. This is my 250th post!!

Total untrieds tried: 65 + chevron decals + 3 stamping plates


 

I made food: vanilla ice cream

Good morning everyone! Mr. ALIQUID and I are big ice cream fans, so you can imagine how excited we were a few weeks ago when I finally made my first homemade ice cream! We got an ice cream maker attachment for our KitchenAid mixer as a wedding present but only just now decided to take the plunge. And it was definitely worth it!

So ice cream isn't something you can make on the spur of the moment, because it does require special equipment. But I'm going to show you how easy it is, so if you've been thinking about getting an ice cream maker, maybe this post will convince you! The actual process isn't technical at all and takes maybe an hour of active cooking (plus lots of waiting...but the anticipation makes the final result taste better!).

The recipe I used comes from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home, which is full of amazing and unusual flavors (like chamomile chardonnay ice cream or cucumber, honeydew and cayenne frozen yogurt!). But for my first try I decided to go with a classic vanilla. I won't tell you the exact recipe because I encourage everyone to go out and get this amazing cookbook, but I'll show you how the process works!

Jeni's ice cream recipes use seven basic ingredients: light corn syrup, sea salt, heavy cream (duh!), whole milk, cornstarch, cream cheese (in place of the more usual eggs) and sugar. In addition, I used a vanilla bean, although vanilla extract would of course be fine too.

The ingredients start out going into three separate bowls...

...the cornstarch is mixed with a little bit of the milk...

...the cream cheese is whisked with the salt...

...and everything else goes into a big pot. This mixture gets boiled for a few minutes, then the cornstarch is mixed in (this will thicken the batter), then everything is boiled for a minute more.

Finally you whisk the hot batter into the cream cheese, and you're done with the cooking!

The batter goes into a Ziploc bag in an ice bath, or you can put it in the fridge. Either way, it's very important that the batter is nice and chilly before you put it in the ice cream maker, otherwise it won't freeze!

Now it's time to turn the batter into ice cream! As you can see, the KitchenAid ice cream maker consists of a double-walled bowl with liquid in between the walls, as well as a churning attachment. The bowl must be completely frozen before use; we kept it in our freezer on the coldest setting for 24 hours. 

So you put the batter in the bowl and turn the mixer to its slowest setting. The frozen bowl starts freezing the ice cream, while the mixing process adds air, so you get nice fluffy ice cream instead of a solid block of ice.

After 20 minutes or so, the ice cream will have the consistency of soft serve, and that means it's done. You scoop it out into a container, lay some parchment paper on top, and stick it in the freezer for a few hours, where it will turn into beautiful ice cream!

Whaddya think? Not bad for my first try! The vanilla flavor is way more intense than your average storebought ice cream, and it's sooo rich and creamy...you can feel your arteries clogging as you eat it. I'm not sure we can ever go back to grocery store ice cream now! This week I made cookies 'n' cream flavor--it's just vanilla ice cream with crushed Oreos added near the end of the mixing process.


Have you been inspired to make your own ice cream? For those of you who already have an ice cream maker, what's your favorite recipe?

FingerFood's Theme Buffet: Gradient cartoon nails

Happy Summer Solstice! The sun woke us up around 5 AM today (the downside of living on the eastern side of the time zone), so yeah, it's definitely summer! Make sure to enjoy the sun before the days get short again (don't forget your sunscreen)!

For this week's FingerFood challenge, we did cartoon/comic manis. I knew I had to try out the famous cartoon look--it's one of those classics that every nail artist should do at least once! I made it a little more exciting by starting with a neon gradient using China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy and Orly Tropical Pop. As usual, my camera couldn't really capture the neons accurately, but they are definitely eye-searing in real life!

For the black outline I used a Sally Hansen nail art pen, which was much easier than using a brush, although the paint tends to crack when it dries, so I had to go over some spots several times. I added the "glare" with Maybelline Porcelain Party. Then I mattified everything using Revlon matte topcoat. I'm really happy with how this turned out!