Year: 2012

Of Life and Lacquer > 2012

Illamasqua Phallic

Posted on by Cynthia

Wouldn’t you like to meet the person who picks the names for Illamasqua nail polishes? I would! This is my latest Illamasqua purchase, and I just got around to trying it today. I’ve got to tell you that I bought a new camera because my old one is about a million years old and it was getting harder and harder to get decent pictures. Some days it cooperated and other days I could take a million pictures and none of them would turn out to my satisfaction. I have to admit that I am a camera dunce so I have not been able to figure out how to take decent pictures with my new camera. The following pictures are the best I could get and I am not that happy with them. I fiddled with my camera and my light box for HOURS while L. and I watched The Bachelorette (puke). There is something about that show that is getting on my last nerve so I’m going to stay away from it from now on. Anyway, back to the nail polish!

I decided to try this one out because there had been talk of lovely blue polishes early today on my blog so naturally I pulled this untried beauty out. As usual, Illamasqua did not disappoint. The formula was heavenly and I only needed two coats. I could not believe how easily it applied and I had almost no clean up. What an awesome polish and even more awesome formula.

I also did L.’s nails using Zoya Mia since she has an interview tomorrow. I’m wishing her luck!

I’m going to jump in the shower and then read and respond to all my pending comments. Oy vey it’s a lot. I love you all for stopping by and commenting on all my rants and ramblings.

Full Of Awesomeness

Posted on by Cynthia

This is a super quick post because I forgot to mention something I saw on youtube earlier today. OMFG this is so full of awesomeness on so many levels…especially because Chrono Trigger is my favorite game ever. EVER. It even beats Super Metroid and Super Mario Bros. 3

Anyway, revel in my absolute nerdiness.

 

 

Hope you have a good week…yeah, Mondays suck.

Father’s Day & My First Gradient Attempt

Posted on by Cynthia

Today being Father’s Day, we took it upon ourselves to use that as an excuse to get together, watch movies and eat as if it were our last meal. My brother and sister-in-law came over and we just hung out all day with my parents. My other brother had to work so he missed out on the fun. Why does celebrating always have to involve being gluttons for my family? I don’t know why, but we ended up watching Rocky movies on Netflix…omg…how cheesy yet entertaining. Who doesn’t like an underdog movie anyway?

Since I was wearing a purple top today, I decided to finally try a gradient nail look. I had seen the Nailasaurus’ tutorial linked on Nicole’s page so I went to check it out again before starting. Well, I am a gradient loser and I have never been able to do it properly so I was excited at the prospect of finally being able to do a decent gradient. It didn’t quite turn out the way I hoped. I used a foundation sponge and it seemed to soak up tons of the polish and not leave any on my nails. I even tried wetting the sponge in hopes that it wouldn’t absorb so much nail polish but that didn’t work either. I wondered if it would work better if I used a different kind of sponge so I tried it with a foamy sponge and that seemed to work slightly better. I am still not really happy with the way this looks because Sammy from The Nailasaurus makes it looks gorgeous and effortless and mine just looks…botched? Anyway, here are some pics. I used OPI Do You Lilac It? for the lighter color and China Glaze Grape Pop for the darker tip color.

And this is what I HOPED it would look like:

(Photo Source)

So what do you think? Maybe I just need a little more practice before it looks the way I want it to. Thank you Sammy for the awesome tutorial and thanks to Nicole for blogging about it!

Oh, I have a question for all of you nail polish addicts out there: Are you at all worried about the health risks of the chemicals in nail polish and acetone? I try not to use pure acetone too much, but non-acetone removers just don’t work. Are you concerned at all? I know for most people it’s not a big deal, but for those of us who blog and change our polish like we change shoes, I feel this is an important question. I sometimes wonder if the concerns are completely overblown and you’d have to basically drink acetone in order to get sick from it. Anyway, I’d like to hear what you think so share away!

Essie Bikini So Teeny Collection for Summer 2012

Posted on by Cynthia

This collection sneaked up on me because I hadn’t been keeping up with nail polish news. I started seeing swatches creep up all of a sudden so I was happy that I finally got a chance to pick these colors up. They scream summer to me even if I have some similar colors already. I thought there were only 5 colors in this collection so I am missing Cascade Cool. I might end up passing on it because I am on pink overload right now.

Honestly, none of these colors are really that unique but the formula is awesome. I didn’t have any issues with any of these polishes, and I liked the color collection as a whole.

Bikini So Teeny

Fear Or Desire

Mojito Madness

Off The Shoulder

All Tied Up

So what do you think? Have you purchased any of these colors or do you plan to?

The Infamous SpaRitual Holiday Set

Posted on by Cynthia

If any bottles of nail polish will have a more interesting story than these two, I will take a shot of acetone. Well, no, not really…cause, well…it probably tastes like evil. After getting two empty sets, I thought I might never get these darn polishes and I wasn’t really expecting for beauty.com to refund my money and send me the set for free. I know some people might think it’s silly to get upset over nail polish, but when you pay for something, you just expect to get it, right?  So let me say that these are my first creme SpaRitual polishes; I bought one at Sephora that is super shimmery/metallic looking. My litmus test for any nail polish brand is how well they do cremes because in my opinion, there is nothing better than creamy, glossy and vibrant nails.

Hot Blooded really does remind me of blood. I’ve been called hot blooded on more than one occasion but all I could think of when I saw the name of this polish is the Foreigner song.

I thought I was going to like this polish more but it’s a little too sheer. It’s more of a jelly in that sense and it also has a very slight shimmer which you can’t really see.

This dark and vampy color is called I Feel The Earth Move. It’s a very pigmented red/brown with some burgundy to boot. I don’t think I have any dark reds with this much brown in my collection so I like it. It’s a very fall appropriate color for sure.

Overall I’m happy with these polishes. I really like the SpaRitual formula because it’s very workable and a breeze to apply. Dry time is also excellent even if you don’t apply a fast dry top coat. The only thing I didn’t like is that both of these darkly pigmented colors stain like a mofo so make sure you wear a good base coat to help protect your nails. This set was worth the wait.

Are you a SpaRitual fan?

I Love Thee UPS Man

Posted on by Cynthia

I should ask my new UPS man’s name because he’s super nice, and I am always happy to see him because it means he has something for me. I was expecting my last nail polish order and the third beauty.com attempt to send me the SpaRitual set I purchased a month ago. You may recall that I got a shipment from them twice and the set was empty both times. Will the third time be the charm?

 

OMG THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just Kidding. 🙂

Thank you beauty.com for finally making sure I didn’t get an empty box again. They ended up refunding my money AND sending me the set for free which is pretty nice. When I initially purchased it, it was on sale AND it was during the F&F sale so it was about $12. I now looked it up and the set is selling for $30. Really?? SpaRitual retails for $10 a bottle (and can sometimes be found cheaper) so they’re telling me the box is worth $10? Lame.

So here is my new nail polish stash. I got everything on sale so I don’t feel THAT bad. Either way, I think I’m set for a while. I am going to go through all of my untrieds before I purchase more.

Sephora By OPI: Eve-y On The Eyes, Tempted By Teal, Stop Stocking Me! and My Personal Serpent

nails inc.: Maddox Street, Heathrow (Matte), Hampstead Gardens, Tate, Old Park Lane, Gatwick (Matte), Westminster and FNO

SpaRitual: I Feel The Earth Move and Hot Blooded

So this is all the nail polish news I have today. I also have swatches of the latest Essie collection so I’ll try to post that later today. Last night I went to see Snow White and The Huntsman with my friend L. We were both feeling pretty rotten so we thought that maybe getting our minds off stuff would help. It did in a way, but then we got back to my place and we started talking about everything. It’s hard to see someone you care about go through so much crap. I know she knows exactly how I feel right now, and that breaks my heart.

This morning I went to see Prometheus because I had a gift card that I needed to use before it expired. I really loved it. Michael Fassbender and Idris Elba in one movie?  So hot. Want to touch the hiney.

I’m really happy to see Noomi Rapace more in American movies. If you’re not familiar with her, she portrayed Lisbeth Salander in the original The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trilogy in Sweden. She is awesome, and you should definitely check out that trilogy.

Anyway, I’ll post the Essie swatches later and will start working on my untrieds. I updated my spreadsheet, and I now have 498 bottles of nail polish. I know. Don’t say it.

 

China Glaze On Safari First Glimpse

Posted on by Cynthia

When the first promo images of this collection came out, I knew I would love it even if I am constantly disappointed by the disparity between promo images and the real-life polish. I already knew that I was going to pass on the 2 glitters in this collection so that left me with 10 polishes to choose from. I decided to get the first 5 that really caught my attention. I still want a couple more colors which I will most likely eventually purchase later on if become interested enough down the line.

Elephant Walk is a color that I liked a lot more once I got it on my nails. I could see that it was gray with some blue tones and some slight shimmer, but it just looked so much more interesting once I was wearing it. I don’t think I have anything quite like this so I’m loving it (in a un-mcdonald’s kind of way).

Jungle Queen is simply goygeous! It would have been perfect if the shimmer actually showed up on my nails. The only reason you can see a hint of the shimmer is because I had to use flash since it was so overcast today. I am pretty sure that I have seen a few people compare this to Chanel Paradoxal but since I don’t have it, I can’t really say. Dangit…this could have been my perfect color if it had more of that beautiful shimmer. I guess we can’t have it all.

I have been wearing tons of teals lately so Exotic Encounters is right up my alley. Despite having so many teals, I don’t think this one is a dupe for any colors that I currently own; it’s somewhat darker and smokier than most of the teals I usually wear. The formula was super opaque and easy to work with so no complaints from me!

Creamy, dark, shiny creme? Yes, please! Purr-fect Plum is a staple color that I am sure most people already have a dupe for. It’s one of those colors that always attracts me in a way that I forget that I already have similar shades. Oh, the price of being a nail polish hoarder. I did feel that the formula on this was runny city so I had to be super careful and apply thin coats because I did completely flood my cuticles on the first coat. I love you acetone!

SOPI Blue Grotto, I mean Essie Mesmerize, I mean OPI Dating A Royal…err…you know what I mean. This is Man Hunt and yes it is a very pretty blue, but it’s really really overdone. The formula on this one was Raging Waters watery as well so I’m not that impressed.

Have you been able to spot any polishes from this collection yet? Is there a color you’re drying to try? Let me know what you think of these colors. Thanks for stopping by.

OPI Vintage Minnie Mouse

Posted on by Cynthia

I grew up in Orange County, CA and have only been to Disneyland 3 times in 32 years. No joke. When I was a kid, my parents couldn’t really afford to take us to Disneyland (damn you greedy Disney) so I didn’t grow up being in love with that place. Yes, I would watch “The Wonderful World Of Disney” on TV and loved all the classic Disney animated movies, but I was never Disney obsessed. When I saw this new OPI collection at my nail place, I decided to get three of the four polishes; I passed on the glitter which should be no surprised to you if you have followed my blog for a while now.

My friend V asked me to swatch one of the polishes for her so I figured I might as well swatch the other two. To tell you the truth, I’m not super excited with these colors. They looked cute when I saw the bottles and the fact that they are Minnie Mouse inspired was the biggest draw, but now they are are just kind of blah.

If You Moust You Moust is a saccharine sweet color. I don’t find it that interesting but I don’t think I have any dupes for it so it’s a welcome addition to my collection even if it reminds me of Pepto-Bismol.  I remember that one time I faked a stomach ache because I wanted my mom to give me some Pepto. Is that weird? I had a really hard time applying this polish because the brush was wonky. It was thin in the middle so when the brush fanned out, I would get very few bristles in the middle. I think that because of this, I had some weird bald spots. I hope it was just my retarded brush and not the formula.

 

The Color Of Minnie was the least interesting of the colors in my opinion. It has a certain shimmer that makes it look somewhat frosty, and I don’t really like frosts much. I can also see some VNL and I don’t like that at all. At all.

 

I’m All Ears is the color that I was most interested in trying when I saw the promo pics. I actually really do like this color even though I can still see VNL after 3 coats. I wonder how this would look layered over another color…probably pretty cool.

 

Today I got another email from Alfie’s new mom…I’ll call her BB. She wrote that Alfie is doing really well and that he’s a very happy go-lucky dog. They have another Wheaten, Rose, who is now 14 years old. Rose seems to be super grumpy and doesn’t want anything to do with Alfie so of course he follows her around ALL DAY. I can totally picture him trying to get in her face the way he does with everyone and Rose just wanting him to go away. He has been on a few short car rides without throwing up which is great, but he still won’t get in the car on his own. I always had to pick him up and put him in the car if I wanted to take him with me. I hope he gets over it soon so he can learn to love car rides. I know that eventually it won’t hurt as much to talk about Alfie so for now I am taking comfort in hearing how well he is doing.

I Need To Lay Off The Polish

Posted on by Cynthia

I think the pictures will speak for themselves…………..

Bikini So Teeny, Off The Shoulder, Fear Or Desire, Mojito Madness, All Tied Up and Damsel In A Dress

 

I’m All Ears, The Color of Minnie and If You Moust You Moust

 

Exotic Encounters, Elephant Walk, Jungle Queen, Purr-fect Plum and Man Hunt

 

Under The Boardwalk, Splish Splash and Love’s A Beach

 

Dramatic Blue

 

Phallic

 

To say I have issues is an understatement.The polishes I’m most excited about are from the new On Safari Collection from China Glaze. I really wasn’t expecting to see them at my nail polish places yet so I grabbed a bunch of them. There were others that I wanted, but I passed on them for now.

Since I went to my nail polish mecca today and I convinced two of my girlfriends to join me, we ended up buying way too much. Yeah, it was mostly me but they bought some stuff too! Afterwards we went to Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. Everything was yummy except that at the end of our meal, my friend found a bug in her food. Ugggghhhhh…barf. I always have a great time when I hang out with V & N; they are my oldest childhood friends and we always manage to comfort each other when life is handing us a shit sandwich.  Oh, and I also got stopped by a cop for talking on my cell. The ironic part is that I almost NEVER talk on my cell whether I’m in the car or not…so I guess I was getting an extra layer of poop in my sammy today. 🙁 Yeah, happy Saturday to me.