Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Hope everyone had a nice weekend. I had a very wonderful weekend. Yesterday we went to Liechtenstein for the day and later that night we carved our Halloween pumpkins. Today we were just lazing around eating Halloween candy. We also watched Shaun of the Dead and will be watching Hocus Pocus a little bit later.

I'm going to show you what I've been wearing on my nails over the weekend. I applied China Glaze Zombie Zest Friday night. It needed three coats to reach bottle color. This was the easiest of the three to apply from the Awakening collection. I also believe it has the best wear. Both the glitters from the set had awful chipping problems. I really love the glass flecked finish of Zombie Zest and the green-yellow shade makes a perfect zombie color.

The rest of the collection. You can click the links for more information and pictures.

Ick-A-Bod-Y

Mummy May I

I also wanted to share my carving festivities.

I bought my big pumpkin while in Liechtenstein. The little ones I bought in Switzerland.

Gutting and sorting out seeds.

Finished product. One on the left is the scared baby pumpkin I did that one. I also did the kitty cat in the middle.

Hope everyone who participates in Halloween had an enjoyable time.

Barry M Swap!

About a month ago, Hailey from lilmissgiggles mentioned she wanted to do a swap with someone. I mentioned that I would love to do one. So we began collecting things for each other. I sent her a bunch of essence, catrice, and MNY and she sent me Barry M. We sent packages out on the same day. The one she sent me arrived in a week. The one I sent her is probably floating across the English Channel in a plastic boat at the moment. Swiss post is extremely slow... Like really slow, especially when you send via B Post (economy). I hope you get it soon Hailey!

Hailey gave me pretty much free reign on what to buy her. I on the other hand was difficult. I can research products for hours before I will buy them. I just don't like buying shades that don't match what I like. Hailey was very kind and found stuff off my list. Thank you!

L-R
Raspberry - This picture does this color no justice.
Gold - I really wanted this because it's a true gold.
Cobalt Blue
Dusky Mauve - Suppose to be a Channel Paradoxal dupe. The camera captured the color badly.

L-R
Silver Cascade
Lavender Hexograms
Hologram Hexograms

Black Crackle Polish

 I also received two Dazzle Dusts that I promptly put on.

Mushroom & Oyster Grey

I need to get an eyelid primer and I should of also took this photo in better light because it's hard to see the shadows on my eyes in these pictures.

This photo is so dorky. I'm also self conscious about my upper lip so be nice. But I wanted to show my hair color that I dyed last week.

Face: Bare Minerals Fairly Light
Shadow: Barry M - Oyster Grey & Mushroom
Mascara: Clinique High Lengths (black)

OPI - Parlez-Vous OPI? with special guest OPI - Significant Other Color

Today I'm going to show you another layering I did with two OPI polishes. This time I used the second color to perk up a two day old NOTD. I usually like to change my polish every other day. If by the second day of my manicure I'm bored with it, I usually put a coat of something sheer over it. It's a great way to extend a manicure one more day.

My nail of the day for the last two days has been Parlez-Vous OPI? from the Fall 2008 France Collection. I used two coats and the result was a beautiful dusty lilac creme. It's the perfect fall color but after two days it needed a little boost.

That's where Significant Other Color comes in handy. It's from a 2006 Bright's Collection. It's too sheer for me to wear it alone, but I've found it quite handy for layering.  For layering over Parlez-Vous OPI? I used two coats. Bam! You got a whole different manicure and all it took was 5 minutes. I think it looks pretty similar to Zoya Adina which is currently on its way to me via a blog sale. So I'll have to compare the two sometime.

With flash so you can see the yellow-green shimmer.

Layering OPI Merry Midnight with OPI Quarter Of A Cent Cherry

I've had decent luck layering certain OPI polishes. I layered two OPI colors for my wedding manicure and it turned about beautifully. Today I want to show you what Merry Midnight looks like layered over a red. I've done this layer experiment before for a Christmas manicure last year. Loved it so much I decided to try it again last weekend. The results were gorgeous, especially in the sun. To get this look I used two coats of OPI Quarter Of A Cent Cherry (basic cherry red) and then I put two coats of OPI Merry Midnight over it.

 

MNY - 306A

Today I want to share another from MNY. The brand is growing on me and I'm a little excited to see what colors they bring out for the holidays. The color I'm going to show you can currently be found in the Jungle Chick display. I chose 306A which is a very dark green with lighter yellow-green glitter flakes mixed in it. I'm sorry that the photos don't really capture the glitter that great. I didn't look at the photos till after I took off my manicure. Oops. I used three coats and the wear was just so-so. I've been having problems in general with my polish chipping and I think I need to try some different base/top coats.

This shows the base color best.

Here is the best view of the glitter flakes

Thanks for checking this out. Does anyone else like the color range of MNY

OPI - Yodel Me On My Cell

For my little weekend excursion I wore OPI Yodel Me On My Cell from the Fall 2010 Swiss Collection. I thought it as appropriate to wear this blue beauty while I spent some time sightseeing Switzerland. When I saw it in the bottle I thought it would look a little darker, but once I applied it, I noticed it to be a very bright and electric blue with a beautiful blue fleck shimmer. I used four coats since it still looked a bit patchy at three to me.

I took my nail pictures while standing up top of the Tschentenalp at 2,025m / 6,644ft. The background is of the fresh snow that had fallen.

And the winner is.....

Thank you everyone for entering my giveaway! I really enjoyed putting together this small giveaway. I hope I can do another one in the future.

The winner was Monika. She chooses I Scream Peach and I'll send it to her shortly. All the way to Indonesia. :) I hope you enjoy it Monika!

A Little Late - Something Different Sunday

It's a little late, but I wanted to do a Something Different Sunday because I wanted to share my wonderful weekend trip.

Saturday morning I left for my drive to Montreux, Switzerland. It's on the east side of Lake Geneva and is in the French speaking area of Switzerland. Twenty minutes into our drive, I realized that I forgot my swimsuit and had to turn around. I'm glad I did because the hotel had the most amazing spa! I spent over an hour in there switching between the sauna, hot tub, personal Jacuzzi and cooling bath.

When I arrived in Montreux, it was extremely rainy and foggy so you couldn't really see much of the alps. The hotel we stayed at was impressively beautiful!

Once I arrived, I went straight too sight seeing. Itook the bus along the lake to Chillon Castle. It's been expanded and used since the mid 12th century. It's also the first castle I've ever been too. It was really nice to tour as they had the whole castle numbered and also described in a pamphlet.

Montreux also is home to a recording studio called Mountain Studio were quite a few notable bands have recorded at... Queen, AC/DC, Rolling Stones, Iggy Pop. A little interesting song fact for you all. The song Smoke on the Water was based on events that happened at Montreux Casino on December 4, 1971. Frank Zappa with The Mothers of Invention was holding a concert at the casino when someone in the crowd fired a flare gun destroying the casino complex. The band Deep Purple watched the smoke on the lake from their hotel that night. Interesting background for a song right?

Statue of Freddie Mercury

Sunday morning I left for my drive to Adelboden. A place that I've lived for a total of four months before my move. Instead of taking the normal route up to Bern and down to Adelboden. I decided to do a little sight seeing. I went the east to north route. Allowing me to drive from Montreux-Sion-Brig-Kandersteg-Adelboden.

Lots of vineyards on this side of Switzerland.

Situated on a giant hill in Sion. Left is Tourbillon castle and right is a Valère castle (church).

From Sion I made my way to Brig. Where I drove the curvy road up the mountain to the car train. This is the third time I've been on this train car. I took this way when I went to Italy last summer. Not a ferry like the TomTom pointed out. Side note, when we were at the Chillon my cell phone told me I was in France when I was obviously still in Switzerland. haha

Once I arrived in Kandersteg.  I still had to drive another 30 minutes around the mountains and up again to make it to Adelboden. Where I enjoyed the snowy landscape, took the gondola up the Tschentenalp (2,025m/6,644ft), and drove by my little shack I used to lived in. I dearly miss Adelboden and wish I could of stayed longer. It will always hold a little place in my heart.

Gondola to Tschentenalp

Rösti for brunch. A Swiss dish made of roughly grated potatoes.

Oh boy, it's very winter like up here.

Adelboden Village Main Street

The cow in the upper left moos sometimes when you walk by it. :)

It was really cloudy so you can't see the mountain tops. But this was the kind of view I had out my bedroom window.

I just went by, my old apartment, but here is the little road I use to take down to the valley.

My little time I had in Adelboden went by fast and it was time to drive back home to Zürich. Instead of the usual way of Adelboden-Bern-Zurich. I took the long and more scenic route of Adelboden-Spiez-Interlaken-Lucerne-Zurich. It was insanely beautiful.

Obwalden

little white gorilla!

Thanks for joining my massive photo post of Switzerland. I wanted to share my current home country.