Month: June 2012

Of Life and Lacquer > 2012 > June

Sephora by OPI My Personal Serpent

Posted on by Cynthia

I was debating what to wear on my nails today, and bright cheery colors just weren’t appealing. I’ve been in a crappy mood today so I wanted something dark and smoky. I looked at my untried stash and pulled out SOPI My Personal Serpent which I recently got on sale at Sephora. This color is part of their Fall 2011 collection called The Garden Of Good And Evil which included seven other polishes. Before I get into swatches and the stamping I did, I wanted to do a quick polish comparison. My Personal Serpent reminded me of Essie Bobbing For Baubles and Zoya Cynthia so I did a side-by-side comparison

Pretty similar, right?  I purchased Bobbing For Baubles first and really liked it. Out of the three, Essie has the best formula. They actually all are pretty great when it comes to the formula and you reach opacity with 2 thin coats.  I purchased Cynthia because…well…it’s my namesake so how could resist? I just imagined that my namesake polish is a crazy glitter in an alternate universe. NOOOOOOOOOOOO! So why did I purchase My Personal Serpent even though I have 2 other nearly identical colors? Because it was on sale, and who can resist any nail polish sales? I am such a psycho nail polish hoarder….

You already know I like blues so this dark smoky blue fit the bill today. This color is just so dark and saturated that it makes me dream of fall/winter colors. Ahhhh!

I am anxiously waiting the arrival of my Bundle Monster plates so I took out my konad and used my favorite mummy bandage plate design.

Do you have multiple dupe polishes from different brands? Do you feel dumb once you realize you purchased a dupe? I need a polish intervention.

NARS Blushes

Posted on by Cynthia

If you think that my only obsession is nail polish, you’ve got another thing coming. When I first started getting interested in high end make up a couple of years ago, I was hesitant to pay luxury prices for brands like Chanel, Clé de Peau, Guerlain, Dior…etc.  I found my happy medium at Sephora with NARS, MUFE, Benefit, Too Faced and Urban Decay.  NARS quickly became my favorite brand for two products: lip gloss and blush. I have about 16 of their blushes so it was hard to really cut it down to my absolute favorites so I could share them with you. There are two images of each blush: the first one in direct sunlight and the second in the shade.

Taos – Warm desert rose

Desire – Delicate bright pink

Deep Throat – Flirty, sheer peach

Exhibit A – Matte vivid red

Taj Mahal – Blazing burnt orange with golden shimmer

Dolce Vita – Matte dusty rose

Albatross – Luminous glow for highlighting

Taos, Desire and Deep Throat

Exhibit A, Taj Mahal, Dolce Vita and Albatross

If you’re familiar with NARS, you may notice that I left out their most iconic product: Orgasm. Orgasm was the first blush I purchased and I do like it, but I wouldn’t call it one of my favorites.  These blushes are incredibly pigmented and finely milled so you have to use a light hand unless you’re purposely trying to look like a clown. I still use these blushes regularly, but I prefer some of my Benefit blushes–especially Bella Bamba.

NARS products can be purchased at many places like Sephora and narscosmetics.com,  so you shouldn’t have any problems finding them if you want to try them out. They retail for $28.

Do you own any NARS blushes? Do you have a favorite? What are some of your favorite make-up brands?

China Glaze Classic Chromes

Posted on by Cynthia

Wearing this nail polish is making me rethink If I really want the Essie Mirror Metallics collection. I think I have the same love/hate relationship with chromes as I do with glitter. Firstly, I’d like to ask if you like seeing these super old polishes. I realize that because of their age, most people won’t be able to find them so it’s not like I’m helping if you really like an old polish that I showcase on my blog. I’ve decided to include these on my blog because, as a nail polish collector and fanatic, I think it’s always fun to see really old stuff. Anyway, your input would be greatly appreciated!

This polish is from China Glaze’s Classic Chromes collection and, because it wasn’t labeled and there aren’t any swatches online, I don’t now what it’s called. There were about a dozen polishes in this collection from what I have been able to find online.  I had to apply this polish twice because the first time it was a complete disaster. I did not use a base coat and every single imperfection on my nails was magnified x1000. Then I put a top coat and the polish started to wrinkle…wrinkle bad. Then it started to look runny and I took it off in disgust. The second time around, I used Seche Base, which is a ridge filling base coat, and did not apply a top coat. I am satisfied with how this turned out but I am not a fan of brushstrokes.

 

 

So what do you think of this polish? Do you like chrome polishes in general? Are you going to be getting the Essie Mirror Metallics Collection?

American Classic Dramatic Blue

Posted on by Cynthia

Today I have another installment of Polishes From The Mesozoic Era. This is another one of those polishes that I picked up a few weeks ago at my favorite dusty. As you may be able to tell in the pictures below, some of the lettering on the bottle has rubbed off, and I didn’t really recognize the brand. I was drawn in by the steel blue color and the pink shimmer. The label at the bottom told me that this color is called Dramatic Blue by American Classic. It also mentioned that it came from the Vogue Collection. Eh? I’ve never heard of American Classic so when I got home I looked it up. It appears that American Classic is the company that makes Gelous. I could not find any information about actual nail polish colors because it seems that they only have a range of base/top coats and treatments. How old is this polish?!?! I’m super curious and will continue to search until I find my answer.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I find this polish very unique! I have no idea how old it is, but I wasn’t surprised that the consistency seemed a little thick. I didn’t shake it enough and maybe a couple of drops of thinner would help it. I am going to look through the rest of the colors the next time I go to my dusty. Can you think of any other similar colors? Do you know anything about this line of nail polishes? If you have any information, please leave me a note.

 

And lastly, after my Aroma Café post from last night, I had been craving Starbucks. How can coffee make me so happy?

 

Stay classy and when all else fails, paint your nails. (This could be my new tagline! lol)

Nails Inc. Tate

Posted on by Cynthia

Tate is the color that I imagine Roxanne wearing: a beautiful, glossy harlot red that she would wear before going back to her “home on whore island.” Sorry ladies, I just couldn’t help myself. I am a creme finish lover (wow, that sounds inappropriate), so of course I adore Tate. It’s bold, glossy, creamy and absolutely gorgeous. I love to wear red nail polish because it’s so LOUD and immediately commands attention. I am very animated when I speak, moving my arms and hands all over the place, so I love to have strong colors on my nails for dramatic effect. Ready for some swatches after I have babbled on and on about prostitutes, whores, and creme finishes? Ok!

No, I wasn’t lying. This is gorgeous and it’s a one coater!!!! I used two coats because that’s what I’m used to, but you can definitely get away with one coat.

GASP! Glitter!!!! I know, I know. I keep saying that I hate glitter, but I’m starting to think that maybe I’m just lying to myself. I can almost guarantee that I will *never* pay over $5 for any glitter but I am open to anything under that price point. I just hate how hard glitter is to remove most of the time and the thing that bothers me most is that rough feeling that it usually leaves on my nails. I really do like sponging–even though I still can’t get the gradient sponging right–so I mixed two glitters to sponge on my tips: OPI Servin’ Up Sparkle and Wet N Wild Rockin’ Rubies.

How do you like Tate? Do you love wearing red on your nails or is it just too loud for your taste? How do you feel about the glitter mix on my tips? Let me know! I love to hear your opinions.

China Glaze Aroma Café

Posted on by Cynthia

I found a bunch of really old China Glaze polishes at a little hole in the wall beauty supply store that I go to often. I don’t like to spend too much time in there at a time because it’s so dusty that I feel like I need a shower afterwards. Eeeek! I like to peruse the section that I like to call “From the Mesozoic Era” because they have all kinds of crazy bottles that look like they are full of primordial ooze. They are all separated and most of them have long lost the original bottle lettering. This probably sounds like garbage to most people, but to me it is a chance to possibly find a treasure. Since I am a huge China Glaze fan, I was intrigued by these little bottles. Upon further research, it looks like this collection came out in the fall of 2002 and I was so excited to get something so old. This collection precedes my nail polish obsession like so many other awesome collections. It always makes me sad to know I missed out on the OMG collection.

These polishes came in a set of 6 colors and were supposed to have a coffee scent to them. I wasn’t expecting the scent to be there 10 years later–and it wasn’t! They did, however, smell “like a turd covered in burnt hair.” The smell was pretty disgusting and I don’t know if that’s just what happens sometimes when nail polish is super old…or maybe the coffee scent fermented to the smell of death. I also noticed that the formula was kind of spotty and then it went postal when I put a top coat on it as you will see below.

With Milk, Please! was streaky on me and when I applied a top coat, it became a beast. Look at those ripples!! What the heck is that? It’s like ridges. The color is a perfect café au lait.

 

Xpress-Ahh! is a super saturated dark coffee bean color. This one smells bad too, but I like the color better. It also reacted poorly to the top coat but it’s less evident because the color is so dark.

Will I wear these colors again? No. Do I regret purchasing them? NO WAY! I love having these old polishes. I guess you can say the collector in me has taken over. You can still find these on ebay and other independent nail places that never get rid of inventory.

Now I want some Starbucks…Caramel Macchiatos dance around in my head (nonfat and triple shot, of course!) Are you a coffee drinker? What is your coffee drink of choice?

Color Club Almost Famous

Posted on by Cynthia

How do you feel about yellow nail polish? I think I have maybe 3 yellow nail polishes in total and I rarely use them. My mom always used to dress me in yellow when I was a kid because she said it was her favorite color on me. She used to dress me up so girlie: matching dress, shoes, purse, accessories.  It was brutal and I pretty much rebelled at the age of 7 and started wearing whatever I wanted. Wearing this yellow color also reminded me of a childhood story.

When I was a little kid, before starting school, we used to live in a really crappy part of town. In fact, it was outright dangerous so my mom would keep my brother and I locked up in the house. That is like the worst torture for a kid so we felt like little caged animals. Whenever we would go out anywhere, my brother and I would run around like crazy completely relishing being out of the house. In fact, whenever we went shopping we would just disappear and we almost would have to go up to a store employee to page my mom because after a while we were lost. So my mom bought us a set of matching neon yellow/orange sweat pants suits. I swear it was radioactive bright like crazy velveeta cheese, and I hated wearing it. I don’t know if it was her way of making us easy to spot or what, but I still kid her about that.

I am not so sure that I like yellow polish on myself, so you let me know.

As far as yellow polish goes, Almost Famous was not terrible to work with. I did find that it got streaky and I created bald spots if I wasn’t careful. I usually try to stick with two coats, but I felt that I third coat would help to make the color more even. This is a very bright and sunny yellow for sure, and I can’t imagine wearing this any time except summer.

 

I don’t know why I did this design because I hate it. It reminds me of a NASCAR checkered flag. This is just barfalicious and I took it off immediately after taking these pictures.

How do you feel about yellow nail polish? Is there a color that you really don’t like to wear on your nails? Thanks for visiting!

Zoya Wednesday

Posted on by Cynthia

I have way too many untried polishes. It makes me feel bad that I now have over 500 bottles of nail polish and I continue to add to my collection without having worn all the ones I already have. Wednesday is a color that I picked up during the Zoya Earth Day Promo along with another dozen or so polishes. Yeah, I know…terrible. You can’t really go wrong with Zoya most of the time.

Really beautiful and creamy, right? I’m sure there are a lot of dupes out there…Essie Turquoise & Caicos is the one that comes to mind first, but I haven’t done a side by side comparison yet. This is 3 thin coats.

 

Since I’m getting back into stamping with a fury, I used Konad M73 and the special black polish. I love the pigment in the black polish, but it is a huge pain to clean up. I still have staining on my skin.

 

Do you have Zoya Wednesday? Can you think of any other dupes? Let me know what you think!

More Sation Love

Posted on by Cynthia

Today I have for you the last two polishes I purchased a couple of weeks ago from Miss Professional Nail’s Sation line. I am giving this brand a lot of love lately because I’ve been really pleased with the color selection. By the way, Miss Professional Nail is giving away 3 piece sets of their nail polishes to a few lucky winners so don’t forget to visit them on facebook for a chance to enter.

Stirring Silver does not look silver at all. Well, maybe it’s supposed to be a blue toned silver. You can see the beautiful blue shimmer in some of the bottle pictures, but sadly it does not show up on my nails at all. I’ve said many times that these polishes seem a little too thick to me, but I find that they tend to self-level pretty well so I don’t really have issues with application.

Class Flirt was impossible to photograph. It looks radioactive in my pictures because it really is that bright and saturated. This one is described as a “radiant roseberry” and I think that’s pretty accurate. This did not strike me as a neon at first, but I do think it qualifies as one.  It doesn’t dry completely shiny and glossy but it’s not exactly a satin polish either. I’ve shown it here with a coat of Seche Vite.

What do you think of these colors? Are these colors you would normally wear?

10 Books I Can’t Live Without

Posted on by Cynthia

I was talking to one of my friends today about how literature can impact your life. I remember that when I was a freshman in college, I was convinced that I wanted to be a Shakespearean scholar in the vein of my literary criticism idol, Harold Bloom. I don’t know when that was put on the back burner, and I lost interest in so many things. It was a rough period, and I think that I’m just finally starting to find my way back to rediscovering the intense passion I used to feel for things. I don’t have many (any?) friends who share my love of the written word so I decided to just make a list here and put it out there. Yes, I started this blog because I wanted to indulge my obsession with nail polish, but I quickly realized what a wonderful vehicle this is to get things off my chest and just talk about anything and everything. There is no judgment here…no fear at all. I love that.

The following is a list of the 10 books that I feel have changed me to the core at the time when I read them. Not only are they works of extraordinary beauty, but they have and will stand the test of time.

10. Vladimir Nabokov – Lolita

9. JD Salinger – The Catcher In The Rye

8. Ralph Ellison – Invisible Man

7. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – The Little Prince

6. Leo Tolstoy – The Death Of Ivan Illych

5. F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby

4. Henry James – The Beast In The Jungle

3. Gabriel Garcia Márquez – Love In The Time Of Cholera

2. William Shakespeare – Hamlet

1. Gabriel Garcia Márquez – One Hundred Years Of Solitude

If you are a lit geek like me, do you have your own list?