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Year: 2012

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Preview: Jessica Cosmetics Glamarama Holiday Collection 2012

Posted on 6 November, 2012 by Cynthia

You all know how much I love Jessica Cosmetics nail polishes. I mean, really love. When I got these promo pictures, I literally jumped right on here to share them with you. I had seen some images floating around and I was really interested in seeing more pictures. Check them out:

It looks that this 6 piece collection has 4 reds in it. 4!!!!! I am a fan of red polish, but I wonder if these will all be different enough for me. Still, I can’t wait to see these in person. It seems that the majority of brands have put out their holiday collections already so let’s get the ball rolling on these.

What are some of your favorite holiday polish colors?

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 17: Striped Nails

Posted on 6 November, 2012 by Cynthia

Ahhh…election day is here! I’m not one to lecture people so I won’t get all soapbox-y on everyone. For me, voting is a privilege, a right and a responsibility. There are so many people in other areas of the world who are not allowed to vote so I’m not about to piss on election day. I don’t care about your politics–just make your voice count. To think that less than 100 years ago, women were not allowed to vote makes me wonder why so many women don’t vote.

Anyway, enough politics talk. Today is day 17 of our 31 day challenge so we are a little over half-way through. I think that the fact that we have spaced it out has made it seem like it is just draaaaaaaaaaaaaging, but at the same time I like the fact that I have a few days in between to do other things. The challenge calls for striped nails today and as usual, I had no idea what to do. I took out my Nubar Jeans trio and told myself I had to use these three for whatever look I settled on. In case you’re not familiar with Nubar, this is the trio I am talking about:

Faded Jeans – Boyfriend Jeans – Dark Wash Jeans

This trio is supposed to be a dupe for the Les Jeans de Chanel Collection, but I don’t know how similar they are since I don’t own any Chanel. I’ve seen a few swatches and they do seem to be pretty similar, but I can’t assert that they are 100% dupes. I started out with a full manicure of Faded Jeans.

This polish is pretty, but I found the application kind of weird. It was opaque at two coats but when I looked closely, it had some streaky bald patches so I had to apply a third coat. Luckily, the other two polishes did not have this problem.

I then left a little area at the bottom and polished the rest of my nail with Boyfriend Jeans and let that dry a bit. I then left another small strip of the Boyfriend Jeans color and polished the rest of my nail with Dark Wash Jeans. Don’t worry if the lines look a little crooked because the stripping tape will make it all look neat. (Can you tell I’m not good at tutorials? hahaha)

So there is the finished look. What do you think? I had a hard time photographing these colors because my skin would turn so red in the pics. I tried to color correct as much as I could without affecting the polish colors, but since I am a big edit fail, it didn’t turn out so well. My hands are in a terrible state right now because I decided that I didn’t need no stinkin’ gloves to clean with bleach. Yeah…moron.

Don’t forget to check out the other striped manis for today’s challenge. Talk to you soon.

Sephora + Pantone Universe Jewel Lacquer In Reflecting Pond

Posted on 5 November, 20125 November, 2012 by Cynthia

Ok, so my pictures turned out like crap today. Well, crappier than usual, that is. I was rushing and I didn’t review my pictures of the base polish before stamping over it so I got stuck with ugly pics. Then I did the same after I stamped and didn’t check out my pictures. So there you have it: lack of planning = craptastic pictures. Boo. I don’t know what possessed me to pull out this polish today since it is 90 degrees outside, and I’ve been letting the temperature guide my polish choices. I got this polish along with Parachute purple a couple of months ago but hadn’t gotten a chance to try it. Sephora + Pantone Universe Jewel Lacquer In Reflecting Pond is a very pretty jewel toned green. This reminds me of Pixi Evening Emerald, Essie Dive Bar, etc… Just like Essie Dive Bar, Reflecting Pond has a very promising pink/purple flash in the bottle that completely disappears on the nail. So disappointing!

I am only posting one picture because all the other ones were beyond bad. This one is pretty bad too but it’s the best of the ugly bunch.

Same goes for this picture. I used Bundle Monster plate 322 and Essie Good As Gold for this houndstooth design. Normally I loooove anything houndstooth but I am just not feeling this manicure today. Ugh…maybe it’s just my crappy mood today.

Last night I went to dinner with one of my best friends and we seriously piled out. We went to a seafood restaurant where you basically order shrimp, crab, clams and various other delectable crustaceans by the pound. You choose a seasoning (lemon pepper, Cajun, etc) and a level of spiciness and they then bring out a plastic bag full of your seafood selections boiled in your seasoning of choice. Your only utensils are your fingers, paper towels and your plastic bib. hahaha Behold the shrimp massacre!

Did you get a load of my fingers after our meal? Whoa. Let me tell you, I am still feeling the aftermath of this feast. I feel like garlic is seeping through my pores. Ugh…I don’t know if I’ll be back soon despite how yummy the meal was.

So how was your weekend? Did you do anything fun? I can’t wait for election day! I take voting very seriously so I’ll be up super early to cast my ballot!

Winners Announced – Sephora Breakup Giveaway

Posted on 4 November, 2012 by Cynthia

Thank you to everyone who entered my latest giveaway. It was really great to hear your thoughts on bad customer service and how you react to it.

The winners are as follows:

Jessica G. – Prize Pack #1

Maribeth R. – Prize Pack #2

Alley G. – Prize Pack #3

Congratulations ladies! I’ll be contacting you shortly for your mailing info so I can get out your prizes ASAP.

I also wanted to mention that there are still quite a few people entering without being subscribed to my blog. Sometimes there might be glitches and such so I do contact people when they don’t show up on my subscriber list but come up as a winner. Usually the problem is that they did not confirm their subscription. The same goes for twitter: they say they tweeted but do not provide the link as proof and can’t provide it when I ask about it either. I guess that’s just the way things go when you hold a giveaway. I just wanted to remind everyone that I do in fact check. 🙂

I think I mentioned that I will be having another giveaway this month related to Swagbucks. I wasn’t able to do a Swagbucks Saturdays post this week but I will be doing one tomorrow with more details about the giveaway. The prize will be a $25 gift card to Amazon.com so make sure that you check back if you’re interested in entering.

Thanks again for supporting my little blog by commenting, interacting with me on facebook/twitter and just plain reading my random ramblings. Your support means a lot to me.

Nails Inc. Baker Street

Posted on 4 November, 20123 November, 2012 by Cynthia

How do you feel about blue nail polish? As a nail polish enthusiast, I think that most nail polish colors seem normal, but I’ve noticed that other people think it’s an off color for nails. I think that nail art has become so mainstream, that nothing is really that shocking anymore. Nails Inc. Baker Street is a polish that I had salivated over for a while but somehow hadn’t gotten around to purchasing. If you read my blog, you probably know that Nails Inc. cremes are just about my favorite polishes in the nail world. Before I got my hands on this polish, I received a lovely dupe by Kiko which I reviewed here. Kiko #336 really is a perfect exact dupe, but I could not resist getting both of them. Is it a sickness? You be the judge.

Nails Inc. Baker Street is a such a lovely and saturated cobalt blue. This polish definitely needs two coats because the first coat was a little thin. I actually found that the Kiko applied slightly better. I still love both of them!

I haven’t used my beloved Sticks ‘n Stones in a while so I dusted it off for this manicure.

This was my first purchase from Ninja Polish and I couldn’t have been happier. Since I would never get the Dramarella version of this polish, I’m so happy that this came out. You can purchase it here if you’re interested. Also, in case you are wondering how Sticks ‘n Stones compares to Lynderella Connect The Dots and even Dollish Polish Putting On The Ritzzz, check out this post over at My Lucid Bubble.

So there you have it, my polish peeps. How do you feel about bold colors such as Baker Street?

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 16: Polka Dot Nails

Posted on 3 November, 2012 by Cynthia

After the short break, we are back to the 31 Day Challenge! Are you excited too? No? Well, alright…

I finally got to use one of my new Illamasqua babies! Yayyyyy! Charisma is one of the two polishes from their Generation Q Fall 2012 collection, and as usual I would like to report that I love this polish for so many reasons. Look at it.

Illamasqua calls this a “deep raspberry pink” but this is actually darker than I imagined when I first saw some swatches. Nonetheless, this is a perfect call color. It’s dark but vibrant and glowy. As usual, the formula was perfect and opaque at two coats.

Since the challenge calls for polka dots, I was just going to use my dotting tool to apply dots on my nails but I decided to use some loose gold hex glitter.

I am feeling a lot more comfortable with using loose glitter now so I’m proud of myself for actually getting this mani done. While this may not be difficult for some people, I usually fail big time at anything that isn’t a simple manicure with some stamping. Doesn’t this just look like Christmas exploded on my nails?

So, what do you think of my polka dot manicure? Let me know what you think of this polish. Are you a fan of Illamasqua? Don’t forget to check out the other challenge polka dot manis below. Talk to you later.

Sation Seriously Slate

Posted on 2 November, 2012 by Cynthia

I did something today that strikes fear in the hearts of the most hardened individuals: I went to the DMV…without an appointment. Like an idiot, I lost my registration card so I headed over there to get a duplicate. Yes, I could have mailed it in, but I just wanted to get all straightened out as quickly as possible. When I got there, there wasn’t a huge line–maybe 10 people in line to get a number. It took over an hour just to get through the first line to get a number which entitles you to wait again while your number is called. Look, I know the DMV is a nightmare. I think everyone knows the nightmare is exponentially more painful if you go there without an appointment so I was ready for the long annoying wait. However, there seemed to be a lot of people there who apparently had never been to the DMV judging by their behavior. A few people were screaming at the DMV employee who was processing documents and giving our numbers. One guy was yelling at people to hurry up and go to the desk even if you weren’t being called yet. I ignored that guy and then he started telling people behind me to tell me to go up to the counter. WTF? I swear that if I hadn’t been in a mellow mood, I might have punched this guy in the vas deference. So after 2.5 hours, I finally got to talk to a DMV employee for 2 minutes and she printed out my new registration card. I guess all I want to say about this experience is: make a freaking appointment. If you don’t, then don’t act like a douche when you have to wait.

So once I got home, I was trying to figure out what to do with my nails. Since our 31 Day Challenge resumes tomorrow (polka dots!), I didn’t want to do anything too complicated since I’m going to have to remove it tomorrow and do the challenge manicare. So, I pulled out one of my untrieds: Sation Seriously Slate.

This colors is seriously gorgeous. It’s like the dark and twisty older sister of China Glaze Immortal. Don’t you just love that shimmer?? The only thing that I don’t like about this polish is that it is super sheer so I needed to apply 3 coats. The first coat is crazy sheer and patchy, but I am glad to say that it does build up nicely.

I have had this bottle of Miss & Makeup for a while now but hadn’t used it so I decided to layer it over Seriously Slate.

Look at this pretty macro shot of Miss & Makeup! This sweet and pretty glitter comes from the “I Love Miss-self” specialty glitter collection that was released recently.

So what do you think of Seriously Slate? Do you like Miss & Makeup? Are there any other base colors that you think would go well with this glitter? I was thinking of using a hot pink underneath. Don’t forget to check in tomorrow since we will be resuming the 31 Day Challange–fun times! Talk to you later.

P.S. Did you enter my giveaway? It ends in a couple of days. Don’t miss out.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

China Glaze Little Drummer Boy

Posted on 1 November, 20121 November, 2012 by Cynthia

November is here which means that the only holiday I like is around the corner: Christmas! I am not a person who usually enjoys holidays, but I love decorating a Christmas tree. There is something so lovely about the process of unwrapping and unpacking Christmas ornaments that just makes me happy. I was looking through my polishes today since I had a bunch of them out after my blog sale post, and I reached for China Glaze Little Drummer Boy. This polish comes from the 2010 Holiday collection which predates my nail polish obsession. The reason why I even got this polish is because I can never think of the song The Little Drummer Boy without thinking of Angela on the office singing this song during office karaoke or when she asked Andy if she could walk down the aisle to this song when they were planning their wedding. hahaha…I am cracking myself up over here. I tried to find a clip of these exchanges on youtube but could not come up with anything. 🙁 However, I did find one clip that I had forgotten about:

That’s classic Dwight right there.

Back to the polish: Little drummer boy is a darkened blue with some gorgeous shimmer. This polish is super opaque so I could have gotten away with one coat but I used two.

Since I haven’t been doing much stamping lately, I decided to stamp an argyle design from Konad plate M60.

I am not that happy with this stamping job. I have noticed that all of the white konad polish that I have purchased the last year or so have been really watery. The first couple of white konad polishes I bought where so thick and opaque and always stamped perfectly. These new ones, not so much.

And just as a treat (I’m looking at you, Lesley!), here is a compilation video of awesome Dwight moments:

I think that I have just found the perfect opening sentence for my next job interview: “How would I describe myself? Three words: hard-working, alpha-male, jackhammer, merciless, insatiable.” How could they NOT hire me, right?

My Very First Blog Sale

Posted on 31 October, 20125 November, 2012 by Cynthia

EDIT 11/5/12: For updates about what is available, please check the Tab called Blog Sale Items here.

Ok polish enthusiast, I don’t know how this is going to go down so bear with me: I have completely outgrown my current polish storage, and I want to make some room for future polish babies. I absolutely refuse to buy another melmer–I do not need 4 melmers!!!!!

These are just the first few polishes that I want to put up for sale. If I see that people are interested, I will put up more down the line. Most of these polishes are brand new and if they are not, I have only swatched them once. (I have made notations as to which are new or swatched)

China Glaze

Pure Joy – Glitter All the Way – Cranberry Splash

($3.25 each – swatched once)

Wet N Wild Fantasy Makers Halloween 2012

Glow in the Dark (x2) – Once Upon A Time – Rest In Pieces – Nail In The Coffin (x2)

($2.50 each brand new)

Wet N Wild Saved By The Nail/Bell Collection 2012

Nerd Alert Screech (x2) – Fashionista Lisa

($2.50 each – Brand New)

Sally Hansen Smooth And Perfect Color Care

Sorbet – Whisper – Air – Sea

($2.00 each – Brand New)

Sinful Colors

Slate – Winterberry

($2.25 each – Brand New)

Nails Inc.

Carnaby Street

($6.00 – Brand New)

China Glaze

Passion In The Pacific – Channelesque

(Passion In The Pacific – $3.00 – Channelesque : $5.00 – Both Brand New)

Kleancolor

Starry Purple – Blue Eyed Girl – Take A Hint – Red-Hot – Peaceful Heart – Chunky Holo Purple

($1.25 each – Brand new except Chunky Holo Purple – Swatched once)

China Glaze Eye Candy Collection Winter 2011

Love Marilyn – Material Girl – Lorelei’s Tiara – Blonde Bombshell – Marry A Millionaire – Some Like It Haute

($3.00 each – Swatched Once)

Shipping will be $3.00 for first item and $.50 for each additional items. You are responsible for Paypal fees which I will add to your invoice.

Delivery Confirmation is available for an extra $0.80.

Shipping will take 4-5 business days and I will notify you as soon as your package is dropped off for shipping.

I am very meticulous with my packaging and always use bubble wrap. I’ve mailed TONS of packages and have never had any problems. I will not be responsible if any items are damaged or lost once they have left my hands. There will be no returns or exchanges.

If you are interested in purchasing any of these items, you can email me at oflifeandlacquer (at) att (dot) net and I will send you an invoice. If I invoice you, I must receive your payment within 48 hours. Paypal is the only form of payment that I will accept.

Don’t hesitate to shoot me an email if you have any questions.

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Miss Professional Nail Sation Holiday Golightly Collection 2012

Posted on 31 October, 201231 October, 2012 by Cynthia

Hello ladies and gents. You might have seen this information already, but I wanted to share with you the Holiday Golightly collection from Miss!

Happy “Holiday Golightly” from Miss!

Holidays are a time for all things fabulous: parties, presents, and polish! Miss Professional Nail
(Miss) is ringing in the season with “Holiday Golightly,” a shimmering new collection of nail
lacquers. These six sparklers are a great idea for fun stocking stuffers and to accessorize your
New Year’s Eve look!

Miss’ Creative Director Staci Dao wanted to celebrate the joy of gift-giving (and receiving!) by
reminding us to pamper ourselves and our loved ones this season. Silver screen icon Audrey
Hepburn captured our hearts playing free-spirited fashionista Holly Golightly, whose love of
shiny gems helped inspire Miss in creating this wish list of winter stunners.
From the timeless, Tiffany-inspired blue to unique reds and greens, these luxe shades will light
up your holiday season: “Under the Miss-letoe,” a pearlescent pine green; “Feliz Navi-doll,” an
icy crystalline grayish-white; “I Love Yule,” a velvety poinsettia red; “Let’s Mingle & Jingle,” a
silver-spangled sapphire blue; “Holiday Golightly,” a glistening Robin’s egg blue, and “Stop
Scrooging Around,” a gold-sparkled ruby wine. ‘Tis the season to channel our inner Holly
Golightly and embrace the Miss mantra that “It’s the little pleasures that count…”

If you don’t the find the Holiday Collection under your tree, it will also be available online and
in beauty supplies in late October.

All Miss products are free of DBP, toluene and formaldehyde.

Miss is an MBE (Minority Business Enterprise) certified company.

As you already know from my frequent posts and general declarations of love towards the Sation line, I can’t wait to get my hands on these. I am a huge Audrey Hepburn fan, and Breakfast At Tiffany’s has been one of my favorite movies for as long as I can remember. Ahhh…the stalking for these polishes begins!