24K Nail Polish | Black Pearl

Yey, it's Saturday again... time to share nail polish stories! Today I will share about one of the oldest nail polish in my stash - 24K nail polish in "Black Pearl."


in the shade
It was December 2010... I bought a purple dress for Christmas, and being such a monochromatic person, I wanted to buy purple accessories, but I couldn't buy one without painting my nails first so that I would know if the nail polish and the accessories would look good together. At the mall, I went to buy this bottle because it looked purple (something that would go well with my purple dress) and it was the cheapest among the choices (Caronia was 34 pesos, Bobbie was 36, this was 27). When I first used it, I wasn't so impressed because it wasn't as purple as I thought and hoped it would be, and just last year (when I started blogging about my nail polishes), I found it that this type of nail polish is called Duochrome - because it changes color depending on the light.


in sunlight
I personally love it under direct sunlight because the colors change when I move my hand - sometimes it's deep purple, at times it's deep blue, and there are instances that it's green.


in artificial light | with flash
I am thankful that I didn't throw the bottle away, because really (when I used it in 2010 and I didn't find it so impressive), now that I learn many things about nail polishes, I have learned to really appreciate this shade. Two years have passed and the formula was still good, I never really had big problems with application, although of course it is now a little thicker than it used to be. I still have half a bottle left, so I will just buy a bottle of solvent or nail polish thinner so it will still look new.


On my fingers are 2 thick coats of Black Pearl with a topcoat. I think 24K nail polishes carry more duochrome shades, I'd go see and buy if there are any... but nowadays the brand doesn't sport this type of bottle - they now use the slightly smaller one and the logo has changed as well. I forgot if the price is still the same... just shared this picture (on the left) from 2011 because I already gave the bottle of red nail polish to my cousin when I went to La Union last November.

Generally, I like this brand. The two nail polishes I bought were great and very easy to use. I still don't allow myself to buy any nail polishes because I do have a lot on my stash that I have yet to use, but as soon as I give myself the go signal, I will go ahead and buy more 24K nail polishes.

24K is manufactured by Unistar Manufacturing Company, which also manufactures La Belle, My Posh and Sassy Colors nail polishes.

February 2013 Weigh-In

I seriously don't know if my body opposes the idea of getting back into shape, because this morning, I woke up with a headache. This headache actually ate most my day, to the point that I took a nap late in the afternoon because I felt I will pass up anytime. Mornings are cold, yet noon time was way too hot and sunny. I am not sure if I will be having a flu anytime soon (I hope not), because aside from the headache, I started feeling my mouth warm up and that the foods I ate were quite bitter.


First day of the month...time to weigh in. Scale said 214lbs, which meant I gained weight again from the last time I shared my weight, but I am actually happy about that; I mean, just a few days ago I told that my weight shot up to 218 and that prior to this post I shared that my weight is between 215 and 216. I guess the fish and vegetable diet and lessening the intake of rice helped, all I gotta do is help my body adjust.

Exercise...

I wasn't able to go to Colinas Verdes today and I couldn't find my Hip Hop Abs DVD (arrrgh, I need to buy a new one). I was able to do the other legs exercises, and I was happy to find this on YouTube:


It's approximately 10 minutes long, and I love it! Well, that tip toe thing made my legs jiggle (it was a bit of a torture, haha) and that I am not as flexible as Cassey, but I loved the poses she shared. Right now, there's a tension on my upper legs which makes sitting down a little difficult, but like I said, I loved it. Her blog, Blogilates is so awesome, too, and just now I received the February Calendar on my inbox, but I think I will do this next month, I will go stick with my own program for this month and switch it up next month to shake things up a bit.

As for my food intake, I had a full breakfast - 1/2 cup of fried rice with Fish Sarciado, for lunch I had grilled cheese sandwich and a glass of milk tea, and for dinner I had rice, fried fish and two tablespoons of chicken flakes adobo. I allowed myself to eat chicken now, but just a little... I didn't want to trouble the tummy again. I wasn't able to tally the water intake, but aside from water and the milk tea, I also had a cup of coffee.

Tomorrow's Saturday... my sister and I plan to go to Divisoria and other shopping places to look for rattan utensils holder as well as shop for red lacy curtains for Valentine's Day. It will be an all day thing, so I am not sure if I can exercise, but I guess I have to wake up early to make some time for it - will do the Les Mills DVD (the free ones from Fitnesse cereals) before we leave. Sister's shift at work ends at 11pm this week and it's already 1am when she gets home, so for sure she will get up late tomorrow morning, allowing me to exercise a bit. Well, all the plans of shopping will make me walk and walk, so I guess the day will not be wasted at all.

Jay & Theresa's Wedding (Reception)

Right after the wedding ceremony, all of us went our way to Promiseful Farm in Bacnotan for the reception. It was a hot and sunny day, but the place was set up real good to accommodate all the guests. Us relatives wanted to share one table, but staff didn't want to move any chairs as everything (they said) were already set up, so Aunt Julie, cousin Karen and her husband Dylan stayed at a different table.

Uncle Caesar (dad's younger brother) was the master of ceremony, and because it was already noon time and everybody seemed to be hungry already, the introductions were short, and right after the principal sponsors and close friends gave their messages to the newlyweds, we were all served lunch.


Lunch was catered by Muchas Gracias, which also has a restaurant in San Fernando, La Union (sister and I loved their bibingka, by the way). They served quite a lot for this reception, and we had:


Pica-Pica - small cupcake cups filled with variety of finger foods: sweet beans, corn chips, bread sticks, banana chips, mixed nuts, and peanuts. Something to munch on while watching the first part of the ceremony. The beans and banana chips also became a desserts of sorts for us as well.

Lumpiang Sariwa (Filling) - it's quite noticeable that big celebrations call for lots of meat dishes, and having this on the table provided the much needed fiber to balance the feast. The vegetables were crispy, the sauce had a light sweetness to it, but after the first serving of the dish and the wait staff refilled the plate, there weren't enough sauce to the dish anymore, but since we all needed vegetables, we still ate it with gusto.


Lechon - This wasn't part of the catering; Tere said one of her uncles gave this as part of his wedding gift. The meat was tender and juicy, the skin was sinfully crispy... but we weren't able to eat much of it because there was no sauce.

Dinakdakan - A classic Ilocano dish made from grilled pork (usually the fatty part - pig's cheeks and ears) and liver seasoned with vinegar, salt, pepper and onions. The real Dinakdakan also has pig's brain mashed into the meat slices (some restaurants uses mayonnaise, though), but I am not sure whether they added pig's brain into this or they went for the vinegar and other condiments. It tasted great, by the way... among the dishes served at us, this was the one we ate a lot of, though, some relatives complained that it had quite a lot of liver... but that's because my sister Jenny took only pork slices and left the liver slices on the plate. Haha.


Chicken Cordon Bleu. It was a little dry for my liking, so I only ate 1/4 of the slice I took.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs. Another great dish that day, it had a great balance of flavor!


Breaded Fish Fillet. Given the time frame between cooking and serving, it's understandable that this wasn't that crispy anymore. The fillet was slightly bland in terms of seasoning, which the aioli sauce made up for.

Lumpiang Shanghai. Another big hit for us at the table - the filling wasn't too much, but it was so flavorful and delicious that we kept on munching and munching. A big plus that the sticks were still a little crunchy.

Pork in Creamy Mushroom Sauce. It was okay, but it didn't make a big impact on us.

What I loved about the reception was that each table had serving plates of all the dishes, no need for the guests to line up at the buffet table, and should any of the plates get empty, anyone at the table can just call on the wait staff to ask for a refill. All of us had so much to eat, but because the reception was set to 200 people and there were only more than a hundred of us there, there were a lot of leftover, which the family took home after the event. All in all, the reception cost about 60K... not bad at all.

After the feast came the usual ceremonies during wedding reception. There were a few boo-boos as far as the music was concerned... it was just weird to hear the song "Someone Like You" by Adele, and that Tere hoped for her nephew Marco and niece Louianne to sing their first dance as a couple, but it didn't push through and they danced to a different song. I guess every wedding has its own boo-boos...making it unique from the rest.

It was near 2pm when we ceremony ended, but us at the table still went to the bride's place after for some chit-chats. Gotta savor the day because I will be traveling back to Manila the next day.