Orly - Viridian Vinyl

Orly Viridian Vinyl is from the Summer 2010 Plastix collection. This color is supposed to have a finish that is similar to plastic. I think it's just a matte satin finish. Doesn't totally look plastic in my opinion. I sort of like the finish but like matte polish the wear is awful. I used two coats for this.

This shows the finish best.

It looks beautiful with a glossy top coat. I put a coat of Orly Sec N Dry to show off the shine.

essence - Steel Me

I've been on the look out for the essence metallic displays. Yesterday I managed to find one that wasn't empty. I bought two polishes Steel Me and Iron Goddess. They have magnetic bits in them that form a patten when a magnet is placed over your nail. I didn't buy the essence magnet I've heard it doesn't work really well and since I already have the magnet from the alessandro polish I figured why spend another $3.50 on something I don't need.

L-R: Steel Me and Iron Goddess

It's a pretty easy process. Place one slightly thick coat on your nail and immediately put the magnet over it for about 10 seconds. Lift the magnet check out the pattern. I'll show the process with pictures when I wear one of the other polishes.

Pretty neat effect right? Right now they are available in European countries that carry essence products. This is a limited collection so buy them before they are gone. If you live in the US it seems that this collection will eventually make it to Ulta.

Something Different Sunday - The Great Birthday Cake Disaster

I've had it in my head that I wanted to make a birthday cake from scratch for a birthday which was on Saturday. So Friday I began the process of making a two layer cake for them and many disasters followed.

The recipe I used can be found here at expat chow. She made a very complicated recipe really easy to follow. My first mistake with this is not using a round cake pan. I didn't buy one because they are expensive to buy in Switzerland and we are moving back to the US eventually and I hate buying stuff that will end up being left behind.

At this point everything is going good. I have the chocolate, olive oil, and butter mixture cooling in the pot on the left. In the mixing bowl I have just creamed the eggs with sugars. I'm feeling really confident that my cake will turn out perfect!

Mixing the rest of the ingredients in.

Ready for the oven.

While the cake is in the oven I begin reading the instructions for the cream filling and frosting. That is where I realized that I didn't have enough cream and dark chocolate. It's 7pm and the cake needs to be in the oven for another 10 minutes. We live on the outskirts of the city. The closest grocery store is a 10 minute tram ride and the store closes at 8pm. If I don't make it to that grocery store, then I have to make the 27 minute tram ride to downtown Zurich to the grocery store that is open till 10pm. Thankfully, I made it in time to the closest store. Bought my stuff and came home to get to work on the cream filling and frosting.

Cream filling is in the mixing bowl. Needs to be set in the fridge for an hour before I whip it. Cutting board has chocolate that I'm cutting for the frosting.

I've finished both the frosting and filling now. While they are setting in the fridge for a no hour I began work on taking the cake out of the pan. This is the first failure I had. I was having such a difficult time getting it out of the pan. Then bam, it just falls out into a crumble messed on my cutting board.

I recollected myself and decided since I still have enough ingredients I'll just quickly make another cake. Then, while I was getting butter out of the fridge to grease the pan another accident happen.

The kind of accident that makes you swear uncontrollably. May I add that liquid chocolate is really a pain in the ass to clean up... I tracked chocolate everywhere trying to clean this up. Once I have that cleaned up I looked at the second cake I made. It didn't rise and it tasted awful. Which left me to have to use the original cake I made.

At least the frosting and filling turned out.

I  managed to salvage what was left to make two layered pieces. Not very pretty, but made it's edible at least.

I still had a lot of leftover crumbles of cake. So I became very resourceful and made dirt cake out of it. Anyone remember grade school when the cool kids came to school with dirt cake for their birthday complete with gummy worms? So with the leftovers I made 6 dirt cake cups.

The first cake I made was full of disasters. What matters most is that it still really tasted awesome! I'm going to make this again when I have round cake pans. More specifically the spring form kind, so I don't have another crumbled mess.

All 24 candles. :P

OPI - Ali's Big Break

Hello everyone! Hope you all had a nice weekend. I've been a little late on posting this, but I finally had time now. Yesterday, I had a very large kitchen disaster while trying to make a birthday cake. So stay tuned tomorrow as I will post up my Something Different Sunday and show all of the disaster.

On to the polish... I wore Ali's Big Break for the day. It's a lovely bright red jellyish creme with little gold flaked glitter. Extremely gorgeous. I'm biased, I think because I'm one of the few who loves all red nail polish. The gold glitter is really hard to capture in pictures. I was having such a difficult time, but I ended up with a few decent photos.

Lots of New Nail Polish

First up is an asos.com order from the beginning of October when they had a huge sale on nail polish. Unfortunately A SOSdoesn't ship nail polish to Switzerland. But lovely Sara from the Daily Polish offered to forward the package to me!

Essie Pink Parka, Mint Candy Apple, Bermuda Shorts, Mink Muffs -- OPI Flower-to-Flower

Kate

This was quite the sale when you consider that Essie and OPI are much more expensive in the UK versus the US. All the Essie's were about $3.20 a piece! The OPI was about $4.80. The asos paint was $1.60

Next up, our a few polishes that I bought from Squared Nails blog sale. I took the opportunity to knock off some items on my wish list. 

Orly - Purple Pleather, Viridian Vinyl, Iron Butterfly

Zoya Adina & NXY Jungle

She also added two extras for me.

H&M Fashionista & Check Me Out

She was also kind enough to forward a TransDesign order for me. I've been seeing the China Glaze and OPI holiday collections and there were colors I couldn't miss out on.

OPI - The Show Must Go On, Tease-y Does It!, Ali's Big Break

China Glaze - Jolly Holly, Sugar Plums, Mrs. Claus, Party Hearty, Mistletoe Kisses

Creative -Wildfire (The same shade as the Shellac, I had)

Then today while I was out and about I finally found the alessandro magnetic polishes in stock. I ended up purchasing Queen Berry. It's a really awesome product and with a little practice really easy to use. Unfortunately it's incredibly expensive and the most I've ever spent on one bottle of polish. Must never do that again.

A sneak peek.

Barry M - Cobalt Blue with Black Crackle Top

Hello everyone! I wanted to show off two Barry M polishes I got in the swap I did. First, I want to show you Cobalt Blue. It's a really lovely creme that applied nicely in two coats. It's a darker cousin of OPI Ogre-the-Top Blue. I'll have to compare the two but from my past swatches Ogre-the-Top Blue seems lighter.

   

Next up I want to show you the effect polish that Barry M released. It's a black polish that crackles when you place it on top of nail polish. When you applied the crackle top coat you have to do it really fast because the effect really is instant. The black will dry matte after the effect has finished so if you like it glossy you need to put a top coat over it.

My mom also sent me two care packages! I love getting mail and mail from your mother is best if you ask me!

  

Magazines, hair ties, Tylenol, red licorice, reeses peanut butter cups, Clinique face wash, Clinique face moisture (big bottle and trial size), Clinique High Impact mascara, Orly Sec N Dry, Zoya Color Spoonss, Revlon Lipstick (one on twitter), my favorite toothpaste, a Fiesta plate Christmas ornament, two OPI polishes that I bought in a blog sale in June, a mini wedding album, my favorite hair conditioner and shampoo, felt tip pens, and the ski sock that got caught in my bed when I was packing.

The second package contained an American Eagle hooded sweatshirt for me. It is a cotton fleece blend and is incredibly soft! She also surprised me Cuddle John pajamas. I'm wearing them right now and they are incredibly comfortable. She also sent more magazines.