2013 - Page 4 of 25 - Of Life and Lacquer

Year: 2013

Of Life and Lacquer > 2013

The Devil Wears Polish New Linear Holos

Posted on 25 October, 2013 by Cynthia

Does polish make you happy? Today I went on a complete polish binge and bought 18 new bottles of polish even though I have received 15 bottles for review in the last 2 days. No, I’m not trying to brag–I am just trying to explain the level of my depravity. It usually backfires because once the high of buying so much stuff goes away, I end up feeling really bad about myself for trying to fix all the shitty stuff in my life with stuff I don’t really need–namely polish. I guess it’s a good thing that it’s polish and not crack although they seem to have the same effect. You want to know what I do love? I love how polish brings so many of us together. I’ve met so many awesome ladies through this blog and hobby so I wouldn’t give that up for anything. I am also so happy when I see a brand start up from day one like I have seen with The Devil Wears Polish. Tami is such a character, and I always enjoy her rants and raves because she is just very genuine. She is always working on new things, and today I have some holo awesomeness to show you.

The Devil Wears Polish Paint It Black is probably the darkest and most saturated black holo in my stash. I can tell you that the holo is much more pronounced in sunlight so I’m sad that my lighting doesn’t show it at its best. The formula was a tad thick, but that did not present any application issues. It was so saturated that it’s almost a one-coater which is awesome!

I was seriously drooling when I first saw The Devil Wears Polish A Nice Chianti because this color is just so rich and amazing. It made me think of the first time I went to Italy and all the wine my best friend and I had at dinner. This color is just sumptuous and look at the beautiful holo! Again, the formula on this one is fabulous and very opaque. It dries a little dull so I do recommend a shiny top coat which fortunately does not affect the holo effect.

Tami also sent me a sample of one of the chrome polishes that she has been working on. I always have a really hard time photographing anything that is duo or multi-chrome. This particular polish flashes pink, orange and gold depending on the angle. The formula felt very sheer on this one and it was a little difficult to build up so I had to apply 3 thickish coats.

If you love beautiful holos and fun glitter creations, I definitely recommend checking out The Devil Wears Polish. Make sure that you follow Tami on Facebook and her shop on Storenvy for updates on restocks and new creations. I don’t normally post so late in the day, but I’ve been swatching all afternoon and couldn’t wait to share these with you. I have so much new stuff to share in the next week that I am bursting with excitement! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

CrowsToes Tiki Torch

Posted on 22 October, 201321 October, 2013 by Cynthia

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. You are actually seeing something somewhat bird related on my blog. Ok, let me tell you about this polish: my lovely friend Lesley sent it to me for my birthday and I know she really put some thought into her choices. She knows how much I hate anything even remotely hinting at our feathered friends, but I think it might have slipped her mind because she was blinded by the awesomeness of CrowsToes Tiki Torch. She also knows that I have unparalleled easy access to most salon brands so she really picked out some indie winners. I feel that I am still sorely lagging when it comes to reviewing indies so I am hoping that I am able to improve on that. My main thing about indies is that I refuse to deal with purchasing hassles. Every time I see the madness that ensues during certain restocks, I just want to say:

If I have to get all Hunger Games on someone in order to secure a bottle of polish, I’d rather pet a cactus. Until the madness dies down, I won’t be purchasing certain brands–especially not the ones that continue to perpetuate the rabid culture of polish scalping. Anyway, I’m going off on a tangent so let’s get back to the pretty at hand: CrowsToes Tiki Torch.

This is Tiki Torch over LCN Liz. OH MYLANTA! Seriously, how gorgeous is this? I realized very quickly that Tiki Torch is a very sheer jelly so I decided to apply it over a darker base in order to eliminate the need for 4-5 coats. Out in the sun, this beauty sparkles like unicorn farts on a sunny day. It’s so beautiful I was staring at my nails obsessively as I drove…which I do not recommend unless you want to get into a car accident.

This polish was part of the One Mad, Crazy Summer Collection and should still be available at various etailers. If you’re interested in getting this or other lovely CrowsToes creations, be sure to check out their blog for a list of online shops carrying this line. I’ve got to say that I am kind of super deluxe loving this baby, and I can’t wait to try the other one. Thanks again, Lesley for such an awesome present. Now, let’s indulge in some innocent enabling: what other CrowsToes polishes can you recommend? I’m going to start making a list and checking it twice…yeah, right…there will be no checking involved. That’s just how I roll. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

LCN Charade Collection – Fall 2013

Posted on 21 October, 201320 October, 2013 by Cynthia

I feel like I was born old. Even as a kid, I gravitated towards watching older films. I loved the old Hollywood films with their smoky and dramatic allure and don’t even get me started on the leading men: Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Clark Gable…ahhh, be still my beating heart! Along with the leading men of that time, the leading ladies epitomized the definition of beauty, mystery and allure. The collection I have for you today draws its inspiration from some of the loveliest actresses of their time: Rita Hayworth, Audrey Hepburn, Liz Taylor and Marilyn Monroe. Let’s take a look at the LCN Charade Collection for Fall 2013.

LCN Audrey which is a beautiful olive green with gold shimmer. I was a total sad panda when I realized that the gold shimmer isn’t very visible on the nail, but you can still catch a fleck here and there. The formula on this polish is great as it is creamy and pigmented so 2 coats were enough for full opacity.

What is your Tiffany’s?

LCN Rita is a lovely gold-leaning yellow. As you may know, I do love yellow polish so I am always excited to add another shade to my collection. I always start out with trepidation when trying a new yellow polish because as we all know, the formula on yellows is known to be problematic. I was pleasantly surprised by the formula on Rita. While it’s not perfect as it is a little streaky after the first coat, a second coat perfectly evens it out.

Wasn’t she just incredibly gorgeous?

Next up we have LCN Marilyn. This is another great LCN crème that is highly pigmented and super smooth with a crazy amount of shine. The formula is also great on this one and it could be a one coater with careful application.

And who could ever forget the most iconic Marilyn clip?

Liz Taylor was a timeless beauty, and I actually got to see and meet her! It’s a weird feeling to see such an icon in real life! LCN Liz is a gorgeous berry creme—you all know how I feel about crèmes. Application was a breeze as the formula is a buttery dream.

If you’ve never seen this movie, what are you waiting for? Liz was amazing in this!!!

I also got a chance to use the Ultra Fast Dry Coat and it worked like a charm to add even more shine to my mani and it was dry in about a minute. I always love these small but gorgeous collections that LCN puts out. All of these colors were great to work with, and I love the inspiration. Each polish in the LCN Charade Collection retails for $7.50 and they are available now at the LCN Boutique. Be sure to follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to stay up to date on all of their announcements. Let me know what you think of this collection–any favorites? Thanks for stopping by today!

Sation You’re My Lacquer Charm

Posted on 20 October, 2013 by Cynthia

Happy Sunday my peeps. I’m still not used working on Sundays so I’m so irritated about having to wake up at 5 am today, but I’m starting to think that I have found my perfect sleep amount: 7.5 hours. I think that if I sleep more or if I sleep less, I wake up felling shitastic. I’m going to try to sleep these hours for the next week and see if that makes a difference in how much I want to stab myself when I have to wake up in the morning. Since it’s kinda freaking hot today, I decided to show you a nice neon that I tried out. Let’s take a look at Sation You’re My Lacquer Charm.

Sation You’re My Lacquer Charm made my camera go completely bonkers and makes my skin look extra tan. While this polish looks very peachy here, it’s actually more pink than peach, and it has a really beautiful shimmer that is more apparent in sunlight. It’s pretty darn bright so I definitely consider it a neon. The formula is a little streaky so I needed three coats to really smooth it out and get full coverage. This polish is part of the LE Candylandia Collection, but it is still readily available.

So there you have it. What do you have on your nails today? Thanks for stopping by, and I will talk to you soon!

Dare To Wear Night At The Cinema

Posted on 19 October, 201319 October, 2013 by Cynthia

You know when you wake up with a son stuck in your head? This morning I woke up completely obsessing over Hotel Song by Regina Spektor. I went around singing it all morning while I swatched a bunch of polishes. Then I was trying to figure out what movie to watch on Netflix and I settled on Friends With Kids and something weird happened: Hotel Song was on the movie’s soundtrack! The movie was pretty good and now I’m still singing Hotel Song. That’s weird, right? Anyway, if you’re not familiar with this song, take a listen because Regina Spektor is freaking amazing.

The polish I have for you today is another beauty from Le Chat Dare To Wear which is quickly becoming a brand I’m super impressed with and that I will hunt down every chance I get. Let’s take a look at my swatches of Dare To Wear Night At The Cinema.

Dare To Wear Night At The Cinema is dark plum/raisin colored polish with copious amounts of pink/purple glitter that really pops against the darker base. The contrast gives this polish the look of almost glowing from within. I absolutely love this!!!! The formula was ok…it felt thin at first, but it was very easy to build up. I ended up applying 3 thin coats for my swatches because I wanted even glitter coverage.

I am seriously excited about getting my hands on more polishes from this brand because they are like little hidden gems. I know this brand can be a little difficult to find in retail locations as I have only seen them in random beauty supply stores, but they seem to be pretty easy to purchase online. Even better, they are way economical so you don’t have to feel guilty about buying ALL THE THINGS. If I remember correctly, I got this one on sale and it was under $3. What a steal, right? I hope you like this polish as much as I do, and I apologize if you now must get it. I know enabling is a specialty of mine so I’d like to say I’m sorry to your wallet in advance–well, not really because your nails will thank me. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I hope that you’re enjoying your weekend.

Sation Let’s Mingle & Jingle

Posted on 18 October, 201318 October, 2013 by Cynthia

Ok, I’m super excited that it is Friday because that means that I have tomorrow off and I can be semi-lazy once I get my laundry, cleaning and errands done. Uhm, ok, that doesn’t sound like a lazy day, but that’s what happens when you only have one weekend day off. I sort of had a total womp, womp day today because I was super excited about getting out of work today and going to pick up a bottle of Tom Ford Black Sugar and the Essie Encrusted Treasures Collection. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get either so here I am totally disappointed. Polish disappointment is the worst. Fortunately, I had some awesome nail mail waiting for me at home so at least my Friday was salvaged. Polish to the rescue! The polish I have to share with you today is Sation Let’s Mingle & Jingle. Let’s take a look at it.

This is Sation Let’s Mingle & Jingle and yes, it is gorgeous. This polish was part of Sation’s 2012 Holiday Collection called Holiday Golightly and sadly it is discontinued, but I think there is still stock available at various etailers. The sapphire blue base is deceptively thin at the first coat, but it does build up nicely so you should get good coverage with two coats.

While I was writing up this post, I was catching up on last night’s episode of Scandal. HOLY CRAP. OMG I love this show. I have such a soft spot for Huck and I am totally in love with Noel…I mean, Jake! Scott Foley will always be Noel to me. Remember how amazing he was in Felicity? Speaking of old shows, do you guys remember a show called Relativity? It was with Kimberly Williams and she played an American student who went to Rome and met another American student there who then followed her back home? I loved that show and then it got cancelled. Le pooh. Anyway, I’m totally talking about random crap so I’ll stop now. Let me know what you think about this polish: do you like it or not? Do you think it’s too early to start talking about holiday polishes? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

OPI Top This! Set – Holiday 2013

Posted on 17 October, 2013 by Cynthia

Are you excited that Friday is almost here? I am! I can’t wait for my Saturday even if I don’t have Sunday off. I really want to stay up tonight to watch Grey’s and Scandal (omg I love Scandal!!), but I think I’ll go to bed early so I don’t have to be a complete sleepy lunatic tomorrow morning. Today I want to share with you a really cute set of top coats from OPI. The OPI Top This! Set comes with two top coats and one awesome glitter topper. Let’s take a look at what I did with the three products.

Isn’t the packaging pretty? What lacquerista wouldn’t want to get this as a gift?

Since I was totally in love with OPI Taylor Blue, I decided to use it here as well. The top coat is just your traditional top coat–nothing much to report here. It’s not a fast-dry top coat, but it gives your mani a beautiful shine.

The matte top coat makes OPI Taylor Blue look amazeballs. Seriously–how cool does this look mattified?

And I’ve saved the best for last. OPI Snowflakes In The Air is such a delicate looking holographic top coat. It has various different sized silver holo glitters and I can see this making any mani look gorgeous.

I’m loving that these holiday sets are coming out so early because it gives us plenty of time to stock up. I’m definitely looking forward to playing with Snowflakes In The Air. What do you think? Is this something that you think would make a cute holiday gift? Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Top This! is available now at Professional Salons, including Beauty Brands, Beauty First, Chatters, Dillard’s, jcp Salons, Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, ULTA and ulta.com. Top This! retails for $27.00 ($32.85 CAN).

For more information, please call 800-341-9999 or visit www.opi.com. Follow OPI on Twitter @OPI_PRODUCTS and become a Facebook fan!

OPI Taylor Blue & Taylor’s Gift Foundation

Posted on 16 October, 201316 October, 2013 by Cynthia

Hello everyone. I hope you’re all doing well on this sunny Wednesday. Today I have a special polish to share with you: OPI Taylor Blue.

OPI Taylor Blue was created for The Taylor’s Gift Foundation, and all proceeds from this polish go towards financially assisting those touched by organ donation. I suggest that you head on over to the Taylor’s Gift website so you can learn more about what they do, and also learn more about Taylor’s story. This is directly from their mission statement:

Taylor’s Gift Foundation was founded in 2010 with a mission to Regift Life, Renew Health and Restore Families.

Increasing official organ donor registries is just the beginning of our purpose. Current areas of focus include:

providing Taylor’s Gift Legacy Gifts to financially assist those touched by organ donation
working to change the conversation of organ donation to be a positive one about life
sponsoring a rider on the Donate Life Float at the annual Rose Bowl Parade
awarding Taylor’s Gift Scholarships to graduating seniors who demonstrate an above and beyond “Outlive Yourself” spirit
providing emotional support from licensed therapists for those touched by organ donation
providing affordable lodging for pre-transplant and post-transplant patients and their families

This is a gorgeous color, isn’t it? The formula is nice and creamy and two coats were enough for full opacity.

OPI Taylor Blue will be available November 21, 2013. If you’re interested in purchasing a bottle of Taylor Blue, make sure that you check out their website for more details. Click here for more information. Did you know that only 40% of adults over the age of 18 are currently enrolled in state donor registries? This was rather surprising to me as I am a big supporter and believer in being an organ donor. I’m an organ donor–are you?

Deal Alert! Groupon China Glaze Monsters Ball Collection

Posted on 16 October, 2013 by Cynthia

Happy Wednesday everyone! I was alerted by Amy that Groupon has a pretty sweet deal right now on the China Glaze Monsters Ball Collection!

That’s $23 for the entire collection and Free Shipping! You can check out my swatches of this collection here.

If you want to take advantage of the deal, head on over to Groupon. If you haven’t signed up, you can use my link here if you’re so inclined. Happy shopping! 🙂

Venique Breast Cancer Awareness Set 2013

Posted on 15 October, 201314 October, 2013 by Cynthia

I hope you’re all having a nice Tuesday. As for me, I’m a little bummed about some work stuff, but there isn’t much I can do about it so I’ll just have to deal. Fortunately, I feel a little better today especially since my headache went away. I filed my nails down pretty short over the weekend since they weren’t all the same size after the break. Now I am sharing a bunch of older swatches I did when my nails were a little longer. I actually love my nails in this picture because they are the perfect length: not too long and not too short. I have a heck of a time with my pointer finger nail because that is the one that always breaks no matter what I do. Now that I am growing them again, I am going to use my bottle of Rejuvacote religiously and see if that makes a difference. I’ll be sure to let you guys know once I’ve had a chance to use it for a few weeks.

As you all know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and we are pretty much overloaded with PINK everything. While I like that that people are are raising awareness, this has also become extremely commercial. Wherever there is a buck to be made, you know that people are going to find a way to exploit it. I’m not going to get preachy about this and there are a lot of great articles out there about this subject. When I picked up a few BCA sets recently, I was lured by the pink polishes (cause I like pink). I have a very personal story that I will be sharing in a post later this month. It’s difficult to write, and I’m working on it with someone else so I hope to get it out soon. Let’s take a look at the three polishes from the Venique Breast Cancer Awareness Set for 2013.

Venique Galoshing In The Rain is a very delicate pink hue. It’s very creamy and glossy, but the formula can be a little difficult. As with most very light and creamy shades, this polish tends to be streaky so I recommend 3 coats to even it out completely.

My favorite polish in this set is Venique Secured With Straps because as you all probably know, I love hot pink everything. I’m kind of a weirdo about hot pink because for the longest time I hated anything pink and now all of a sudden I love it. I didn’t really notice the bald spots on this mani so I apologize for the sloppiness. I definitely recommend allowing enough dry time in between coats to minimize this issue.

I’ve gotta say that I’m not really a fan of shard type glitters. I hate saying shard because I always think of this scene:

I know. Totally gross. Anyway, this is Venique Pink Stiletto over Galoshing In The Rain. I kind of like how this looks but still, I’m not a HUGE fan of this look.

So let me know: are you a pink fan? Thanks so much for stopping by today!