CoffeeBlush

I purchased a whole bunch of the 'new' Essie Gel Couture polishes a while back so today I'll be doing a mini review first and swatches in another post soon.

The Essie Gel Couture nail polishes claims to last for up to 2 weeks of wear with gel-like shine. Nail polish chipping has always been an issue for me since I wash dishes and cook almost every day so I really wanted to see if this polish can hold up for me.

Disclaimer: the two before and after photos are of 2 different colors. I ended up succumbing to my habit of peeling off my nail polish after 1.5 weeks so I had to repaint them and wait another 2 full weeks... -___- but the 2nd pic is pretty much exactly what it looked like at 1.5 weeks before I peeled it. lol... More on this below.

This is what it looks like after a fresh 2 coats of the color "Touch Up". I put on the top coat and it took about 1 hour before it was fully dried. This color went on very smoothly and opaque.

Essie Gel Couture Polish - "Touch Up"

And this is what it looks like after 2 weeks of wear for the color "Pinned Up". I have to say that I am very impress with how well it held up! The empty space is just how much my nail grew over 2 weeks. There's very minimal chipping despite being very hands-on everyday. The tips of my nails did wear off a bit since I type a lot at work. The back part of the nail (where the polish ends) looks pretty much when I just painted it, with some chipping. Sometimes when I shower, a strand of hair gets caught under a loose part of my nail and pulls it off, but this didn't happen as often with the gel couture polish.

Essie Gel Couture Polish - "Pinned Up"

You can also see that there are scratch indentations on the polish. I don't notice it too much unless I'm examining it up-close since it is still quite shiny. Of course, not as shiny as when I first applied it.

WARNING: nail polish peeling picture below.

Now, for all my fellow polish peeling friends out there... this may satisfy you a bit. At the beginning of this post, I mentioned that I ended up peeling off the nail polish the first time around. I know, this is terrible for your nails and especially this one because the gel couture polishes actually cling onto your nails harder than regular polish. I DO NOT ADVISE DOING THIS... but sometimes old habits just kick in.

So here is a gross picture of how 'well' it peels. LOL. It did take off some of the top layer of my nail and leaves a much whiter cast where the polish was, compared to the regular Essie polishes. This was after 1.5 weeks of wearing it as well. Normally for regular polishes, it would've started cracking all over, preventing it from peeling like this.

So what do you think about this? Is this worth the extra money for you? I definitely would pay the extra price for these because I'm too lazy to remove and repaint my nails after a week. This has lasted me 2 weeks and I think I would be able to get away with longer if my nails didn't grow out so fast...

It does help a lot that it barely chipped so it's not as noticeable from far away that I haven't redone my nails in a while. haha,

That's all I have for today! Swatches for all the colors that I purchased will be coming soon in a future post. :)

Thanks for reading,

Angela

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Prior to my recent purchase of the Inkwell Press planner that I will be talking about today, I never really felt a particular need to plan. I've always had planners throughout my life since I was about 12 yrs old, though not something that I really thought about so in depth about. I mainly enjoyed buying extremely kawaii decorated planners and stickers and the decorating process.

After moving out of my parents' house, I began finding myself writing down reminders on post-it notes and frequenting my Google Drive to keep track of my finances. So when I went to late last year, I came across cute Asian stationary store. Naturally, I was drawn to it and found myself trying to hoarding up the entire store. (Thanks to my boyfriend for bringing my senses back.) When I came to the area of endless cute planners, a feeling of realization washed over me. I should get a planner to keep track of my daily to-dos and events rather than having loose post-its all over the apartment. And that's exactly what I did.

Fast forward a few months later, I found myself talking about stationary with one of my business users at work. She sent me a video on someone doing a 'Plan with Me' and I was hooked. I began binge watching all these Plan with Me videos for inspiration and ideas on how to organize and decorate my planner and most of them always used the Erin Condren & Kikki.K planners. They peaked my interest on what other planners targeted towards adults were out there. Several people did video comparisons on a bunch of planners and that's how I found out about the Inkwell Press, which retails at $54. It's definitely a huge splurge on a planner.

There aren't that many videos out there for this planner compared to the others, but this was the layout and features that screamed out to me the most. This planner starts from July 2016 so I have a full month before I dive into using this. Let's take a look at what this planner offers!

This planner is thick. My small planners I'm used to are about 1/4 of the size and less than half of the thickness of this one. This will definitely be a planner that sits on my desk rather than in my bag. It also has a nice weight to it.

Attached is a ruler/bookmark to that will be handy for drawing lines as well as marking where the current week is.

The monthly tabs match the color schemes that coordinate with each month.

Here is the monthly overview. I love the box on the right side with the lines. It will help me keep track of any videos I want to film for that month.

This is the monthly mission board. I love this feature! I think it'll help me keep track of my yearly goals. On the right side is the notes page. This will serve as the area where I draft out my video ideas after deciding which ones I want to do that month.

I purchased the Flex version, which is the horizontal box layout. They also have the vertical, but all my old planners were in the horizontal layout so I prefer this. The vertical one would be good for people who are into Bullet Journaling though! Each day has 3 individual boxes on the side for you to keep track of any events, water consumption, appointments, meal planning, etc.

The Gift List feature was something I've had in the past and I never really used it because I don't really buy gifts for people anymore. When it comes to gift giving, I honestly just go to the mall and if I see something that I could give to someone, I will just grab it.

The vacation log feature was something that I found very interesting. It only has 2 pages, but it works perfectly for me since I only go on 2 vacations tops every year anyway. If you go on more, you could always purchase a traveling planner separately.

Here we have a movie and book list on the right. I don't think I'll be using this much though. Most of my movie and Netflix selections are totally random. It's all based on whatever I feel like that night. On the right, we have the finance tracker. This I am excited about! Up til now, I've been using Google Sheets and a tiny notebook to keep track of my finances. This will allow me to put everything in one place.

The last couple of pages in the planner are for note-taking. There's a tiny box at a top for date and subject. The rest of the sheet is in graph paper.

Lastly, we have the calendar for the next 2 years as well as a double-sided folder where you can put loose sheets of paper.

Finally, attached the back cover of the planner is another folder. This one is more enclosed so its easier to store any stickers, small pieces of paper, page flags, etc. I saw a few people DIY an enclosure with a string and tab to wrap around, which is an awesome idea, just in case some stuff decides to sneak out when I'm not looking. :P

That's all I have for today! I hope you enjoy this overview of the Inkwell Press Academic Planner. I'm not in school anymore, but I didn't feel like waiting until December to buy a new planner. I plan on posting some weekly spreads to keep me focused on filling out my planner otherwise it's always 'Out of Sight, Out of Mind'!

Do you guys have a favorite planner? What ideas do you guys have for organizing your planner?

disclaimer: I purchased this with my own money and all opinions are my own.

Thanks for reading,

Angela

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And I'm back! like 4 months later!... 2016 has thrown a lot at me so far so let's do some catching up. So first thing is... I've moved! I recently bought a house with my boyfriend. It feels so surreal to actually say that. It's been exactly 2 months since we've become homeowners. :) The feeling is great, but there's a lot of stuff to work on, which is why I've disappeared for so long.

Second thing is, I got my very first promotion at work! It's nothing big, but I definitely see it as a huge milestone in my life. It came at a very good time too because I've been working at my current company for about 2.5 years and was starting to feel very non-important in my workplace. Every day was the same routine and it didn't feel like I was contributing enough to my company. I actually voiced this at a group meeting because I felt that it was important that my boss knows how I feel about my job. After I found out I received a promotion, I was given new opportunities to grow within my company and it made me feel more appreciated and motivated to succeed in what I do. I think it's very important for a company to have employees that feel appreciated and given new challenges in the workplace to further develop their skills. I truly believe that it's a key factor in having happy and loyal employees. I definitely feel blessed to have such an understanding and supportive boss.

Well, enough of my blabberings. Let's get back to what this post really is about: BLACKHEADS. :)

I was browsing Amazon a couple of weeks ago for some new masks to try out so I ended up purchasing the My Scheming Black Mask. I saw so many good reviews on this so I felt like I had to try it myself. DOES IT REALLY WORK THAT WELL? So I tried it out and.... you can watch the video to see how it went!

What do you guys think? I was overall pretty satisfied with the outcome. I wish there was more though! My boyfriend always says I have a blackhead removing obsession though. hehe....

Thank you so much for reading!

Angela

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