Swatches Archives - Page 81 of 111

Category: Swatches

Of Life and Lacquer > Swatches

Cacee BFF Nail Lacquer Sky

Posted on 25 January, 2013 by Cynthia

It’s Friday which means that I have made it through my first week at my new job! Woot! I am still in training and it really is tons of information to process, but things are starting to fall into place so I’m not feeling so overwhelmed anymore. I still haven’t worn nail polish to work yet, but I’ll probably start wearing it next week. After work today, I headed over to my nail polish places to see if they had anything new…and they didn’t. I hate it when I go in hoping that they have some new collection early so I can get the scoop but end up with nothing. Well, you know what nothing means to me: 5 polishes, some Seche Restore and a new brush for clean-up. One of the polishes I picked up is what I decided to try out tonight: Cacee BFF Nail Lacquer Sky.

Sky seems like a run of the mill vibrant blue but beejus the formula is great! This beauty is so incredibly pigmented, and I was very sorry when I got it on my cuticles because it was a biatch to remove.

For this design, I used Sation Strumming My Nails to paint the tip of my nails white and for the white dotting. I’ve mentioned Strumming My Nails before and I can’t believe that I haven’t done a proper mani with it to show you just how amazing this polish is. It’s not a pure white–it has some grey tones which I looooooove. Even better, this polish is almost a one-coater! These nails are a direct copy of the mani that Siobhan has on her blog’s banner. Every time I would see that picture, I immediately wanted to copy it and I finally did!

I’m not that talk-y tonight. I should have posted this hours ago, but I got sucked into watching puppy videos on youtube for hours. I’m not kidding…HOURS. It was sooooooo worth it! Thanks for stopping by today. I have a new Spring collection to share with you this weekend so don’t forget to check in. Talk to you later!

Disclosure: Sation Strumming My Nails was provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR firm. All other products featured in this post were purchased by me. For more information, please see my disclosure policy tab here.

Silly Lily J-E-L-L-O & A Giveaway!

Posted on 24 January, 2013 by Cynthia

Is there always room for Jello? I always find it strange when I meet people who say they don’t like Jello. I have loved Jello since I was a little kid mostly because it seemed like such a fun thing to eat. It’s colorful, squishy and candy-like…how can a kid not like it? I had quite a few mail surprises today–some expected and some not. Aren’t those unexpected packages the best? I don’t know about you, but I rip through those babies as if they were Ho Ho’s and I was craving chocolate. I have something super fun to share with you today: Silly Lily J-E-L-L-O! But before I show you this lovely top coat, let me show you what I wore underneath.

This is Sation Teacher’s Pet from their Class Of Sation Collection. The last time I went Sation hunting, I found this one at one of my local beauty supply stores so I snatched it up immediately because I really don’t have a delicate baby pink like this one. Unfortunately, the application was a little challenging because it was thick and went on really streaky. It was still a little streaky after the second coat, so I added some thinner to the bottle and applied a third thin coat to my nails. This seemed to fix the polish right up, but don’t ask me why I didn’t add thinner after the first coat. I guess I can attribute it to a brain fart.

And this is two coats of Silly Lily J-E-L-L-O. This polish is chock full of square matte glitters in rainbow colors in a clear base. I got a little too excited with the confetti-like look so I think that I applied a wee bit too much. I think it would look better with a thinner application. The possibilities are endless as to what base color you can use! For a polish so full of glitter, I was surprised that it wasn’t thick as glue. It was fairly easy to apply the glitter which I always appreciate.

I have an extra bottle of this cute polish and guess what? One of you can win it! Just enter using the rafflecopter widget below. As always, this giveaway is open internationally, but please make sure that you know if there are any customs restrictions in your country.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

You should check out all of Lily’s other polish creations at her Etsy shop here. You can also follow her on facebook for updates and discount codes. In fact, she currently has a promo code for 10% off to celebrate 500 sales! Just enter WOOHOO10 at checkout to get the discount which is valid until 1/31/13.

I hope that you have enjoyed this super fun polish as much as I’ve enjoyed wearing it. Thanks so much for stopping by, and I will talk to you soon!

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were purchased by me. Silly Lily J-E-L-L-O was purchased by me at a reduced rate for review and giveaway purposes. For more information, please see my disclosure policy tab here.

Julep Alma

Posted on 23 January, 201323 January, 2013 by Cynthia

Sweet baby Jesus on rollerskates I’m tired. Book learnin iz hard. My brain is being crammed with so much information at work that I feel almost like a zombie once I get home. To be honest, I am enjoying learning so much new stuff so I shouldn’t complain–it’s just a lot of work! If you can believe it, I haven’t been wearing nail polish to work because I’m still getting a feel for things. Since I don’t want to cause any type of waves during my probation period, I am remaining very conservative…just wait until this passes because I’ll be causing some nail tsunamis for sure! Today I decided to use the other Julep polish that I got recently: Julep Alma.

Oh, Alma! You’re one of those pretty/ugly polishes that I always think is going to look better on me than it actually does. Actually, this color reminds me a lot of the creme version of China Glaze Trendsetter! I had a little weird issue with this polish and I’m wondering if it’s just my bottle or if other people had the same happen to them. When I was applying this polish, I noticed little chunks–like super tiny little balls. After the first coat, I thought that maybe I hadn’t primed my nails well and I had some residue from another product, but the second coat also had the little chunks. Remember Chunk?

Anyway, once I applied the top coat, I think the chunks pretty much disappeared, but it was definitely strange! I applied two coats here and got good coverage.

I just realized that I have used this stamp combination quite often. I just absolutely love it! Both of the images can be found on Bundle Monster plate BM 310. I used the inverted full coverage stamp as my accent nail, and I love how it looks almost leather-like since I didn’t apply top coat after stamping. If you’re a stamper, I’m curious if you know of a black polish that works for stamping. I haven’t found any others that are as pigmented as my Konad Black.

You know I’m going to say it so here it is: If you’re interested in becoming a Julep Maven for just a penny, you can use my referral link here and enter the code JULEPVIP. You can’t really beat one cent, can you? I am looking to explore more subscription type boxes so feel free to leave me a comment if you know of others that are good. I have been very satisfied with the Julep boxes because I think the subscription service is a great deal. Definitely give them a try if you’re curious!

I am BEYOND excited that I only have two more days before the weekend. WEEKENDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD! You know what kinda sucks, though? It might be raining here. It literally was in the 80’s earlier in the week and now it’s getting cold and rainy…get it together, bipolar California! Do you have anything fun planned this weekend?

Let me know what you think about this polish and stamping. I love reading all your comments! Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Disclosure: Julep Alma was provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR firm. All other products featured in this post were purchased by me. For more information, please see my disclosure policy tab here.

Julep Trina

Posted on 22 January, 201323 January, 2013 by Cynthia

Well, hello there friends! I am a little disappointed in myself that I didn’t post anything after my first day of work, but I had forgotten how exhausting sitting in a training class for 8 hours can be! I actually did do my nails last night with the intention of posting them, but I felt like my nail mojo just disappeared. I seriously took about 50 pictures and not a single one turned out–they all looked shit-tastic. So I just gave up. Today I got home super flustered because I had so much stuff to do–who knew that having a job again would leave me with absolutely no time at all? Ah, well…I shouldn’t complain because getting a paycheck again means I can continue to enjoy the luxuries I have become accustomed to such as a roof over my head, food in the fridge and electricity. After finishing up my laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning and preparing my lunch for tomorrow, I sat down and thought I’d give it another try. Want to know what polish I settled on? Julep Trina!

Julep Trina is an amazingly rich and saturated metallic aubergine polish. It was a little on the thick side, but it was easy to work with. I only needed two coats for these swatches. Did you hear that the Julep boxes are getting holos? I hope it’s true because you doesn’t love holos??? If you’re interested in becoming a Julep Maven for just a penny, you can use my referral link here and enter the code JULEPVIP. Yep, for a penny. Awesomeness.

I then used an image from Mash plate MASH 43 which is kind of a strange flower and vine design. I am also wowed by the polish I used for stamping: Pure Ice Silver Mercedes. I finally found a decent Pure Ice display at a new Walmart and there was ONE of these babies left. This is such an amazing polish for stamping and you seriously can’t beat the under $2 price tag!

A lot of you have asked me about my new job and what I’ll be doing. I just wanted to say that I’ve made a very conscious decision not to discuss any details about my job. I’ve heard of way too many horror stories of people getting in trouble professionally about stuff they post online. While I do tend to share–and overshare–a lot about my personal life, that will not include details about my job. This will hopefully allow me to share funny people stories about my job–with names changed to protect the clueless, of course! I should have gone to bed about an hour ago but I stayed up to watch the series finale of Private Practice, and it was even more lame than I had anticipated. This show really jumped the shark about a year ago so I’m glad it’s over.

Well, I’m heading to bed now. It’s Wednesday tomorrow so I’m almost half-way through my first week of work. Woot! Hope you have a wonderful day, and I will talk to you soon.

Disclosure: Julep Trina was provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR firm. All other products featured in this post were purchased by me. For more information, please see my disclosure policy tab here.

Sation I Paint In Peace

Posted on 19 January, 2013 by Cynthia

Remember how I was complaining about how cold it has been lately? Well, today it’s going to be in the upper 70’s/low 80’s and here I am wanting to complain again. haha! Is it so hard to just have nice mild and temperate weather that is season appropriate? I guess so! This weekend is supposed to be super nice so maybe I’ll take advantage of my last two days of unemployed freedom and go to the beach or something outdoorsy like that. How’s the weather in your neck of the woods? Since it’s getting warm, I decided to wear a polish that was a little brighter than what I wore previously which was essentially a black/purple polish. I settled on yet another lovely from the Sation Nailstock Colletion: Sation I Paint In Peace.

Sation I Paint In Peace is a beautiful dark and mossy green with a strong and noticeable silver shimmer. The first coat of this polish was super sheer so I was cringing inside thinking that I would have to apply 5 gazillion coats but it was perfect after the second coat. I should know better than to second guess my beloved Sations.

I then used Layla Flash Black and a design from Mash plate MASH 47 for this subtle houndstooth design. Even though it looks super subtle in these pictures, you can really see the design in real life. I am so in love with using holos to stamp.

I hope you’re having a nice weekend. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Disclosure: Sation I Paint In Peace was provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR firm. Layla Flash Black was purchased by me. For more information, please see my disclosure policy tab here.

Seche Empress

Posted on 17 January, 2013 by Cynthia

Ever since I first reviewed my first Seche polish (Seche Irresistible review here), I’ve been wanting to try more of their polishes. When I saw that my nail place had gotten some new colors, I decided to pick up another one which is how I ended up with Seche Empress. This is such a Fall vampy color, but I am so going to rock it now. Today was so gorgeous and warm outside so it feels like the weather is finally more California-appropriate. I really enjoyed it! How unlike me! I can be such a grump…probably just like grumpy cat.

Seche Empress is a very dark purple creme that looks basically black in most lighting. It is incredibly pigmented but doesn’t stain which is awesome. I did notice that the first coat was incredibly patchy and I had a few bald spots. I then applied a second thick coat ant that seemed to fix it. Since I have have tried two of these Seche polishes now, I think it’s safe to say that they are of good quality. However, I find that because they tend to dry a little quicker than other polishes, you have to work fast or else it gets goopy. They don’t dry like Seche Vite fast, but I did notice that these polishes dry faster.

Do you remember those ‘This is your brain on drugs.” commercials from the 80’s?

These are your nails.

These are your nails on drugs.

Yes, I like to call Max Factor Fantasy Fire, crack. It is liquid crack for your nails. I really wish that my pictures could show how awesome this looks in real life. I wasn’t able to capture the purple/blue/green color shift in my pictures so poo to that, but I think most of you have probably already seen how amazing this polish can look in the sun.

Lastly, I wanted to mention that I will be closing my blog sale this Sunday. Thank you so much to everyone who helped me re-home so many of my pretties. It was hectic at times, but the money was a huge help while I was stressing about being jobless. Thankfully that is no longer a concern, but I still want to do one last purge. From now until Sunday, I will be offering a 20% discount on all orders (excluding shipping). While I have shipped internationally in the past, I will only be shipping to US addresses for this last round. You can check out the items I have for sale here.

Let me know what you think about my nails on crack. I’m kind of loving them right now! Thanks for stopping by, and I will talk to you soon.

Zoya Lovely Collection For Spring 2013 – My Three Picks

Posted on 17 January, 201317 January, 2013 by Cynthia

Can we all agree that we are all pretty ready for the milder Spring temperatures? I know that I am always saying I hate Summer, but it’s been colder than a witch’s tit here in So Cal which is just not right. I mean, we’re supposed to be able to wear flip flops and shorts year round so what am I doing with scarves and gloves??? Anyway, I can at least dream of warmer days when I wear colors from some of the new Spring collections. I am sure that you’ve seen just about a million and a half swatches of the Zoya Lovely Collection for Spring 2013 so I’m not going to get all crazy in my review. When I saw that my nail supply place had gotten the polishes in, I debated about whether I really *needed* the whole collection. In the end, I picked the three polishes that most appealed to me. I hadn’t really seen too many swatches of the collection yet so I ended up being a little surprised. Let’s get to the swatches, shall we?

Zoya Piaf was the color that I was most excited about. Why? Because I am obsessed with yellow polishes lately, and I wanted to love this one really badly because I am a huge Edith Piaf fan as well. So…uhm, yeah…I don’t like it as much as I wanted to. It’s nice and all, but for some reason–which is totally my fault–I thought this was a straight up creme. Next time I need to pay more attention. I am not that excited about polishes that have this metallic shimmer. They are pretty and all, but I would have preferred a lovely creme finish. The polish was rather streaky after the first coat, but it built up nicely. I ended up applying 3 thin coats for the swatches above.

Zoya Julie is actually my favorite of the three polishes I picked up. I love the beautiful and delicate lilac color of this polish even if it does have that metallic shimmer that I’m not too fond of. This one was also a little streaky, but I didn’t have any problems building up the color to opacity with 3 thin coats.

And lastly, this is Zoya Neely. Why did I get this color? I have seen a million dupes of this, and I always want them. My pictures make this polish seem more blue than it is. In real life, it is more minty green than this. As the only creme of the 3 I picked up, I was a little disappointed in how streaky it was. I’m sure you can see in my pictures some unevenness in the polish which is one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to cremes. Oh well. It’s still a pretty color.

If you are new to Zoya, you can take advantage of using my referral link to create an account and get a coupon code for a free bottle of polish. All you have to do is pay for shipping!!! How cool is that? And if you buy two more bottles at the same time, you will also get free shipping. So what are you waiting for? Click here to get your free Zoya! 😉

Overall, I think these three polishes are nice but not really special. I always appreciate beautiful pastels so I don’t regret picking them up but I’m sure that we all have similar colors that may have a better formula. I have a bunch of stuff to get done today so I’ll end it here. I had planned to post this yesterday but I ended up being out pretty much all day. I went shopping for some work clothes so that was pretty much an all day thing, and I also went to watch two movies with a friend. I have a few more things to purchase so hopefully I can be done with that already–I do NOT like shopping unless it’s polish related of course. Anyway, I hope you’re doing well. Let me know what you think about my three picks from the Zoya Lovely Collection. Thanks for stopping by and I will talk to you soon!

Cacee BFF Nail Lacquer Kim

Posted on 15 January, 201315 January, 2013 by Cynthia

I don’t know about you, but I get pretty excited when I get to try new brands of nail polish. There is a moment right before I open up a bottle of nail polish where I whisper a little wish into the universe hoping that the formula is great: not too thick, not too thin, not streaky, not smelly (I’m looking at you, Kleancolor!)…who am I? The Goldilocks of nail polish? Anyway, a couple of my nail places have some huge fully-stocked displays of Cacee BFF nail polishes, and I have kind of resisted purchasing them even though they have some pretty colors. Well, I finally caved so today I have a beautiful pastel to share with you: Cacee BFF Nail Lacquer Kim.

Before I get into the details of this polish, I was looking up this polish line on the Cacee website and they call it BFE and the bottles do look like they say BFE but mine is clearly BFF. BFF = Best Friends Forever. Ehhh…I am kind of confused. Does not compute. Moving on from the naming confusion, I want to say that the formula on this polish is pretty darn fantastic. Colors like this always scare me because I imagine streaky nightmares. However, this polish is extremely smooth and self-leveling. After the first coat, I could barely see any VNL so I decided to apply a second thin coat which made it look perfect. This line of polishes claims to be a one coat lacquer and maybe some of the darker, more saturated colors are, but this one looks best with two coats. This polish is a smooth and milky lavender tinged creme that is PERFECT for that demure and soft look–very girlie yet work appropriate. It also dries to an incredibly high gloss shine.

And now I just wanted to spice this up a little with a polish that literally looks like black pepper. This cute dot top coat is Nubar Black Polka Dot. I really love this little gem of a top coat. It was refreshing to not see bar glitter in this kind of polish and best of all, it was super smooth and not thick at all. It was a little hard to get the bigger black glitter so I just had to make sure I blended the polish well before using it.

So what do you think about the look of this polish combination? Have you ever tried Cacee polish or even seen them in your area? Holy Toledo, I can’t believe I’ll be starting work next Monday! I am thoroughly enjoying my last week of freedom so today I had lunch with a friend, and we went to see Silver Linings Playbook. That movie is pretty darn fantastic. I have noticed that after my experience with being in mental institutions, I can get a little touchy about watching movies that depict mental illness or scenes of being in a psychiatric facility. Both my friend and I have been hospitalized in these types of facilities, but we both really enjoyed the movie despite certain scenes really hitting close to home. If you haven’t gotten a chance to see this movie, I highly recommend it.

Anyway, I hope your week is going well, and I will talk to you later!

OPI Liquid Sand Get Your Number & Can’t Let Go

Posted on 14 January, 201314 January, 2013 by Cynthia

I was very weak today, my friends…very weak indeed. Since I’ve been so good about not spending money on non-necessities (namely NOT spending any money), I reverted back to my old polish hauling days. Granted, I didn’t buy 20+ polishes, but I did buy around 8 bottles which is pretty bad. You will be proud of me when I tell you that despite seeing a fully stocked display of the OPI Mariah Carey line, I only picked up two polishes. TWO! That is some serious self-restraint, and I am kind of proud of myself. Now, if only I hadn’t grabbed 6 other bottles from some nearby displays…but that’s another story.

The two OPI Liquid Sand polishes that I picked up are Get Your Number and Can’t Let Go. These were the two shades that immediately grabbed my attention so I settled on them instead of grabbing all four. I have to be honest–I wasn’t super excited when the pics of these textured polishes first started circulating. As much as I like glitter, I think that I prefer the smooth finish and look that only a creme polish can give me. Additionally, I don’t like the idea of rough nails that can get scratchy or can get caught on tights or delicate winter cashmere. Just thinking about that gives me the heebie jeebies. Let me show you some swatches before I go more into my thoughts on these Liquid Sand polishes.

OPI Get Your Number is a blue glitter lover’s wet dream. I’m serious. This polish is so incredibly bright and gorgeous that I could barely stand to take it off. The holographic particles really give it an extra kick–I just wish I could capture how lovely this polish twinkles!

OPI Can’t Let Go is a purple shade that looks a little murky as far as I’m concerned. While I am a huge purple lover, I wish this polish was a little brighter. I feel like the base color covers up the holo a bit which is a huge shame. Before this dried all the way, I kept thinking that this polish looked like leather–weird.

So what do I think about OPI Liquid Sand polishes? Uhm, I freaking love them! I thought about applying top coat to them, but I think that would detract from the unique beauty of these polishes. Both of these shades looked fine at two coats, but I decided to add a third thin coat for the swatches above. If you are thinking: “Three coats? Ain’t nobody got time for that!” hold up.

The Liquid Sand formula dries at lightning speed so you don’t have to worry about waiting for layers to dry. Do you want to know what’s the absolute best part? You won’t get carpal tunnel trying to remove these. When I saw the formula, I was getting ready to whip out my industrial sander to remove them, but they actually came off without much effort when I used pure acetone.

And now for you, my lovely readers, I picked up a set of Liquid Sand minis for a flash giveaway so go ahead and enter below using the rafflecopter widget. The only requirement is for you to be an email blog subscriber and all the other entries are completely optional. As usual, this giveaway is open internationally. Please know the customs regulations of your country before entering.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And while you are at it, go ahead and enter my other giveaway that is ending in a few days if you haven’t done so already. You can win a lovely 4 piece collection of Sation polishes along with a mini bottle of Seche Vite. You can enter here. So there you have it. I am eating my words about not being that excited about the Liquid Sand polishes. I don’t know if I’ll be picking up the other two since the colors didn’t appeal to me as much–uuhhh…who am I kidding? I’m sure they will be mine in the near future. Have you tried any other polishes from the Mariah Carey by OPI line yet? Thanks for visiting today, and I will talk to you soon.

Julep Madison

Posted on 13 January, 201313 January, 2013 by Cynthia

Since it has been unusually cold here in So Cal, I decided to pull out a very un-winter-like polish to brighten my day and get me in the mood for spring. I much prefer winter to summer, but it has been crazy cold by California standards lately so I’m kind of wishing for milder temperatures. What better way to get into a summer mindset than to wear a nice bright neon polish? Well, today I am wearing Julep Madison. I am a big fan of the Julep subscription service especially because of all the goodies that are included in the monthly boxes. You should try it out. If you use my referral link here and enter code JULEPVIP at checkout, you can get your own box for 1 penny! That is a great deal and a very easy and painless way to try out the Julep service.

Julep Madison is a pinky coral that dries to a satiny finish. After the first coat, I was a little worried that the formula was too thin and that I would need multiple coats, but it was actually fine once I applied the second coat. You can still see some VNL but that tends to happen with jelly-neon polishes. I really love the way it looks shiny so I ended up applying a coat of Seche Vite–it just looks so squishy!

I then used an image from Konad plate M63 for this ribbon-like twirly design. This makes me think of the ribbons that rhythm gymnasts use and of orange creamsicles which are my favorite summer treats. Ghhaaaa…now I want one so bad right now.

Let me know what you think of Julep Madison and if you like my stamping design. If you’re interested in becoming a Julep Maven for just a penny, don’t forget to use my referral link here and enter the code JULEPVIP. You really can’t beat this offer–nail polish for one cent? Yes, please! I hope you enjoy the rest of your Sunday, and I will talk to you soon.