Feeling Flowery and Beautiful Today!

Horray, I'm back home! Spring break has finally started, and I have barely done an ounce of (home)work! I sleep a good eight hours last night and a long two hour nap! Can't say I've ever enjoyed a nap so much; I couldn't get up from it, BUT that doesn't matter!! yayy!

By the way, I was really grateful for all the encouragement you gals gave me in the last post! I was definitely really stressed out, but you gals are all super awesome! Thanks!

I did my nails on Friday night (since all my exams and woes were oven)! This is the last nail polish I received from the Julep Maven It-Girl's series. So far, this is my favorite! It's such a gorgeous deep purple, and it contrasts nicely with my skin tone.

The colors are pretty dark, but in real-person, the purple is a bit more prominent. The name of this polish is Elle.

 Hope you like the photos. I really like all these (fake) flowers. I'm such a big florals person; they look amazing in photos <3 The rings were something my mom's friend brought back from China for me and my sister. The big flower is a hair piece for my mom's Chinese dance team--hehe I just borrowed it quickly for the picture~

And since I'm posting flowers, I will post another picture of flowers. I received them a while back when I had my Traditional Chinese Dance performance. They were absolute beautiful! I just forgot to post them that one time >__<

sighhhh~~ I'm in love! with flowers that is :)

What are you planning for spring break? Or, if you don't have spring break, what/where do you like to do/go for vacations?

TCD: part of your world performance & White nails

Hello everyone! Recently I just had my TCD (or Traditional Chinese Dance) performance. It was so much fun bonding with all the members! I feel so blessed by the new friends that I've developed during this period of time--being able to learn new forms of dance and getting to know others who love dance, as well.

We had an extreme week of practice: 3 hours of run-throughs on Monday and Wednesday, and a 5 hours of staging and practice on Friday, and the performance on Friday from 8-10:30pm. Nevertheless, it was such an amazing time. The after-show dinner was a lot of fun too--Korean food! I got Bibimbap, my favorite <3 hehe

Our performance was based off the Little Mermaid (hence the name, "Part of Your World"). I'm not posting to many pictures however, since I don't want to show others' faces without permission.

We're practicing! It's run-throughs! Horray! Isn't that flower pretty? It's my sister btw~~ also, if you'd like to check out her food blog, here you go! <3

Also, I've changed my nail color! It's white, now! This polish is the Julep one that I posted about a while back! It's called Bunny and is supposed to have a little gold shimmer, but I actually don't see any...hmmmm

I really like the color, but it's a lot harder to apply smoothly! Sometimes, there's bubbles that appear, and it scrapes, too. This Bunny polish doesn't dry as quickly as the other...

Sorry, the lighting is sort of bad, so I tried to change the brightening, but the end result was this...eeks? The color is actually a lot more white than the picture shows.

Don't you just love white nails? I think it's such a unique trend. It's a bold pop of color! I love how much it contracts with my skin tone and with my outfits~ It's super sweet and chic!

What's your favorite nail trend right now? Or have your ever seen Chinese dance before? <3

Review: Julep it girl nail polish

I decided to try the Maven membership for Julep~ I've heard a lot of great things about this brand. The colors seem so beautiful and unique, too! Here are some of my favorites:

   

Isn't this packaging so adorable? I love how the nail polish colors are their swimsuit colors! So cute~~ Anyways, I really like the gold polish--wouldn't it be so cute overlaying a solid color, like that Lani (aka, "Mediterranean teal blue crème") polish? hehe I also have a thing for glittery polish >__< The lilac/amethyst color is just so beautiful too... kyaaaaaa

For my first box, I got the "It girl" series. I really, really like the colors! They pop out and contrast nicely with my skin~

Libby: Rich teal crème

Elle: Plum frost

Bunny: Crisp white linen with fine gold shimmer

Here's some pictures that I took:

Packaging: Not only did they package the polishes really well, but also the box in which they sent the polishes. I really love the purpleness! hehe. The packaging inside is super chic and glamorous too. I love the use of the white cases, and the design of the nail polishes!

Polish itself: Like I said, I really like the colors! The colors go nicely with my skin tone (usually I can't pull off bold colors!). Have you guys noticed that white nails are becoming pretty popular nowadays? So I'm super excited for that one. One thing I really liked was that the polish dried pretty quickly. My nails also don't feel heavy after applying two coats (like some other polishes >__<).

Some problems that I had with the polish were that it was easy to scratch off by accident and that you need to use a glob of polish when applying a layer at a time. If you like me--very reluctant to use a lot, so as to save the product--then it was frustrating. Since the polish dries really quickly, if you use a thin layer, the polish doesn't apply really smoothly.

The goods:

+ 1 layer is pretty opaque (but 2 is better)

+ dries really quickly

The bads:

- easy to scratch off -- need top coat

- must apply a glob

I'll post up swatches for the other two polishes later!!

Question of the post: What's your favorite nail polish brand and/or color?

hehe, shameless selfie...

Happy (late) Chinese New Year~

Hi guys! Hope y'all doing well! If you didn't know, Chinese New Year was on the 31st! Chinese New Year is a huge thing in China; instead of winter break in December like the States, China has their breaks during the Chinese New Year...for an entire month! How cool~

Chinese New Year is super festive and revolves around spending time with family, eating good food, getting new clothes, and receiving red envelopes. Sadly, nothing like that happened to me. I couldn't go back home to celebrate with my family. If I had all the money in the world, I'd take the plane to go back, but unfortunately, all I can do is video chat with them and wish them a great new year from my school apartment.

Luckily, however, my church friends and I celebrated the New Year together last night. We had steamed fish, dumplings, niu rou mian (beef noodles), and lots of other foods. I forgot to take pictures though.

Last night I also made nian gao, a traditional dish for the new year. Nian (年) means year, and gao (糕) means cake. 年糕 sounds like "年年高生," so giving/preparing 年糕 is wishing a prosperous new year filled with promotions and happiness.

Here's a picture of the 年糕, enjoy~

Also, I've just received the giveaway prize I won in December: nail stickers~ I'm very excited to try them, as they are super cute! I'll make another post about them soon (right now I don't have white nail polish, and the end results will be clearer with a white background). 

For this post, I wanna know: Have you ever celebrated Chinese New Year? If so, how? Did you try any interesting Chinese foods?