Manicure Monday ~ OPI Bond Skyfall Collection Mani

It's been two years since the OPI Bond Skyfall Collection came out and it's still one of my favorites. I got a few of the miniature sizes for Christmas 2012, instant love ensued. I used up the entire sample size of OPI's Tomorrow Never Dies so I decided to buy the full size. This color is gorgeous and easily a base for any gorgeous manicure.

My favorite pairing in this collection is Tomorrow Never Dies and Golden Eye. Tomorrow Never Dies is a wonderful blue with a sheen more than a sparkle. Unlike a lot of blue colors that OPI makes, it doesn't really have any flecks of other colors, just dark and light blue that makes for a gorgeous navy color. Golden Eye is the best accent gold I've ever had. It truly looks like flecks of gold as you would see if you panned gold or something of the sort; small, but uneven in size is what gives it a very natural (less chunky glitter) look. When you paint it on your nail, one swipe leaves an evenly dispersed amount of gold and can easily be intensified with an extra coat.

This is how I put them together today in a simple golden ombre from the top of the nail over the top of the blue.

Thank's for reading guys, let me know if you like this "Manicure Monday" thing. I really enjoy doing it because I do my nails all the time anyways, certainly at least once a week. Have a great day!

~À Bientôt

Over 1000!

I've gotten over 1,000 page views. I know that's not big and I honestly don't have a lot of followers, but my blog has been viewed over 1,000 times! That's super exciting to me! Thank you all for reading my silly little musings and please, continue to view it, comment even! :) This has most certainly made my day.

Baking a Cake in a Silicone Mold ~Recipe Wednesday on a Thursday

I did some inspirational baking yesterday and it came in the form of a chocolate cake! Now, I got this recipe from tasteofhome.com and it's a chocolate Dr. Pepper cake. I'm immensely excited because I've had a few cakes with soda in them, but I've never made one myself so I didn't know how it would end up. I made a few adjustments based on what I happened to have lying around today. In my experience, improvisation is one of the best ways to find new, delicious foods.

This is the list of ingredients from the website:

1 package German chocolate cake mix, regular size   1 package (3.4 ounces) instant chocolate pudding mix   4 eggs   1 can (12 ounces) Dr Pepper   1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Read more: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/dr-pepper-cake#ixzz3Cl87IiMD

This is the list of ingredients with my replacements:

• 1 package of Devils Food cake mix, regular size
• 1 package (3.4 ounces) instant vanilla pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• 1 can (12 ounces) Dr Pepper
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

They also suggested to put it into 3, 9 inch round baking pans, but I don't happen to have any round baking pans. All I have are a few silicon cake molds that are ABSOLUTELY adorable from Ikea. They are the Sockerkaka line of cake molds and you can find them right here! I have all three styles of molds that they have, but for this cake I decided to use the heart shaped one. 

I followed the mixing directions exactly :

• In a large bowl, combine cake and pudding mixes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in Dr Pepper and vanilla. 

I then transferred it into the greased heart shaped silicon mold, all of it. I wasn't sure how this would turn out for me since the recipe recommended more cake pans, but the molds are actually quite tall, double the height of a normal cake pan so I had HOPED it wouldn't cook over the height of the pan as the batter only came to its midpoint. 

As the oven was heating to its recommended 350°, the lovely maintenance people from my apartment came to replace my dishwasher. It took a while and I didn't put the cake in the whole time they were here.

The cake ended up being so large I had to turn the oven down to 200° and cooked it for around an hour. Looking back I would have distributed it into different pans because having all the batter in the one cake mold was just too much.

FINAL RESULT:

 I decided it needed a little bit of frosting, so I made a glaze with store-bought dark chocolate frosting, put it in the microwave for 10 seconds, spooned some into a bowl and added just a smidgen of Dr. Pepper. I poured the mixture all over the cake and bam! It was delicious!

MANICURE MONDAY----Hard Candy Glitter Polish ~ King of Pop ~

I decided to do something new! Manicure Monday!!! I know, a ton of people do them, but its kind of a fun way to structure consistent content and a great way to have something to look forward to. Now, I'm new at this and although I'm actually quite good at Photoshop or any photo-editor I don't actually have access to one right now so I can't produce cute little images or easy-to-pin pictures. I also have to tell you it took practically forever to get these pictures on to my computer because I really have far too many pictures on my phone and my computer tries to import literally all of them.

On to the manicure!

I like to start off my nail routine with Hard as Hoof Nail Strengthening Cream which I got at Walmart. I put a tad on each nail, massage it in and let it soak in for at least an hour. I clean off any residue left before putting on the base coat.

I used to not use anything to strengthen my nails, as I naturally have very durable nails, but since I used to constantly use 100% Acetone to remove my polish multiple times a week they started to become a bit more brittle and split a lot. 

I then use Essie's All in One Base. Mine spilled a bit in transportation so the bottle's a tad messed up.

 I alternated fingers using Sinful Colors' Easy Going and Pure Ice's Scream.

 To top it off I used Hard Candy's King of Pop glitter polish. I'm not the best at keeping neat while I paint so when my nail's are completely dry I wash my hands and most of the polish comes off the skin and you can just pull it or scrub it off. Sometimes If I'm not doing anything or going anywhere I'll wait til much later in the day and scrub it off in the shower. 

*To note, I did not put a top coat on because in my personal experience it becomes practically impossible to remove without soaking. Currently I just have an inexpensive drugstore non-acetone polish remover, so it would really take a while.*

~Update: It took over an hour to remove even without a topcoat~

 This is the finished look I posed on Instagram about a week ago with the edges all cleaned up. If you want to follow me on Instagram @Psychopomp (as you can see).

I also post all my nail art to Twitter @TheRedBuffalo and Tumblr @redpsychopomp

Yeah... I know.. I should probably get them all the same.

Background Change

I love Fall. I mean, I really LOVE Fall. This year the first day of the Autumnal Equinox is on September 23rd which I feel is too late, it should be Fall right now. To hold me off on my love of Fall, the brisk air, the changing leaves, the smell of pumpkin pie (although I dislike the taste of pumpkin pie, I can't get over the smell... lucky for me, Archimedes LOVES pumpkin, so I can make ALL the pumpkin pastries I feel like) I've decided to change my background on the blog to some lovely fall leaves. I've also been gathering a plethora of Fall Foods on my Pinterest, if any of you would like to view it, click here. I've been constantly adding things to it on a daily basis, so go ahead and follow it to keep updated! I've been adding things that make me feel a bit like I'm home, what my family normally has in Autumn, and new things I've never had before that sound amazing.

I really enjoy making blog posts and have been thinking about how to evolve this, make this more enjoyable for all of us, keeping it fresh and interesting. I'm thinking of maybe starting something specific I do weekly, I'll update you as I decide what it may be.

Until next time!

~À Bientôt

Back to my New Home

So I'm on a plane back home (to Archimedes and my apartment) and I can't help but think about how much I am amazed by planes. I mean,  I understand how they work with lift and what not, I actually studied aerospace science for a year. I still find them immensely interesting, but really... I dislike flying in them. In this past year I've been on 8 flights and two were international 7+ hour flights.  I don't think its wrong to say I'm very tired of flying while at the same time getting very good at it. Its easier to pack appropriately for my carry-on, remember snacks, and go through security with confidence. 

Earlier today, I had that feeling that it wasnt going to be too busy today at the airport and despite my reassuring my father I ended up there 2 hours early. Security took 5 minutes so I had 2 hours to just chat with Arch on skype. I had felt miserable earlier in the day and had only slept about 5 hours the night before.

All in all Im happy to be home.