Warm & Toasty Turtleneck

Happy-almost-Halloween, y'all! I was painting my nails this morning, and I was inspired to do a blog post about it along with just a basic life update. But, first I'll talk about the polish. As the blogpost title suggests, it's called "Warm & Toasty Turtleneck" by Essie. This shade was actually released as part of their limited edition fall 2013 (I believe) collection and I remember a few beauty gurus talking about it in their videos. I remember reeeeally lusting over it and wanting to get it, but I never did mainly because of the price tag I think. In retrospect, that seems dumb since I've spent useless dollars over other makeup items before. As fat has it, I was shopping at Marshall's this past spring and saw this nailpolish in their beauty section! For those who may not know, Marshall's actually sells retired high-end nailpolish colors for half the price! They have brands like Essie, OPI, Butter London, China Glaze, etc. So naturally when I saw it on sale for $3.99 I knew I had to buy it. Heck, I would've bought it even if it was the full $8.00!

I bought it this past spring and I kept it in my box waiting to use it for fall. Well, I finally popped the bottle open and put it on my nails this morning. It's SUCH a beautiful fall color -- a muted purple. I wanna say it's almost a taupey sort of purple, if that makes sense. My only complaint is that since I have darker tan skin, it doesn't look as stunning as it would on lighter complexions. But still, I won't let that stop me from rocking this shade for the rest of the autumn and winter season! As far as application goes, it applies opaque after 2 coats. Applies very evenly as well. I topped it with my Seche Vite Top Coat for a glossy finish. What I love most about it is that it's a break from the typical fall shades like crimson red or oxblood. So if you're like me and need a break from the reds, pick up a shade like this! Or don't be cheap like me and pick up a shade from a fall nailpolish collection.

Okay so that's that for my nailpolish this Halloween. Thinking back, I guess it would've been exciting to do a Halloween nail design, but oh wells. This shade truly makes me feel warm and toasty, so no regrets! Next, I wanted to update you guys really quick. I recently got done with my Step 2 CS exam! Wooooo, so pumped that's over with! My only fear is that I'm going to be one of the 6% who fail. That's such a scary thought. I prepared 4-5 days before the exam and made sure I had a routine down so I could breeze through everything. Overall, I think it went okay. I definitely didn't do a perfect job and left a lot of stuff out like a bunch of physical exam maneuvers, asking about certain histories, and maybe counselling a few patients. But what scares me is that apparently there was a manual online with new instructions for the exam, especially with the way the test is graded. I really really really hope that I still did everything and received a high score. I'm super worried about the mistakes I made, stuff I forgot, and I'm praying that the patients found me empathetic and nice enough. Looking back at the practice CS exam our school makes us take, I did average-slightly below average. And that was with zero preparation and I remember being really nervous and flustered for the mock exam. So I'm hoping that I did enough things right to pass the actual exam this time around. It would really be crushing to fail the exam. I was reading online and it wouldn't be the end of the world if I had to retake the exam, but it would honestly cost in terms of being stressed out for ranking, graduation, etc...not to mention the extra $1500 I would have to shell out! I know if I had to retake it I would rock it and definitely pass, but still. Let's hope I don't have to cross that bridge. Fingers crossed that statistics is on my side!