2014 - Of Life and Lacquer

Year: 2014

Of Life and Lacquer > 2014

Buh-bye 2014 Giveaway

Posted on 30 December, 2014 by Cynthia

Hey guys! Today I was at a few dusties hoping to find some hidden gems, but I didn’t really find anything. I stopped by another place hoping to get the new Essie collection but they had no idea what I was talking about. Really? You have a nail place and you don’t know your collections? I get so irritated when I know more than them…but I guess I’m just crazy. I decided to pick up a cute little trio of Jessica polishes for an impromptu giveaway. This giveaway is only going to run for about a week and it’s just a little preparation for my 3 year blog anniversary giveaway next month. I’m super excited about it and can’t wait to share all the awesomeness!

So for now, enter my end of year mini giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway is open internationally, but please don’t enter if you live in a country where customs will confiscate these pretties and destroy them in a blitz of color.

Good luck!

Chevrons and Flowers

Posted on 29 December, 201428 December, 2014 by Cynthia

Happy Monday, ladies! Ghhhaaaaa! It’s the last week of the year, and I decided that I wanted to try something a little different today. While I admire all of the amazing ladies who do tons of freehand nail art, I am usually a big fat failure when it comes to anything more complicated than stamping. I got together with Amy and Siobhan to do a mani based off an image or pattern just to mix things up a little. Amy found an awesome pattern, and we decided to use it for today’s mani.

Am I the only one who wants that shower curtain like immediately?

I started off with OPI Angel With A Leadfoot (press sample) as my base. I’ve been using this white a lot lately for my manicures. Can you blame me? It’s so crisp and creamy.

Since I always end up messing up something simple such as chevrons even with vinyls, I decided to use a stamp for this kind offset chevron design. This image is from plate MoYou London Pro Collection 18 (press sample) and I used my Konad special polish in black. For the flower design, I used a water decal that was sent to me by the lovely Jacqui last year after I mentioned that I had never used them before. She has a great post explaining how to use water decals which I referred to today before I used them. Check out her post here. It was super easy to use the water decal, but I did have to do some trial an error. It’s really important to trim them down do that you don’t have any overhang. Because my nails are naturally very curved, the decal did not lay all the way flat at first so I had to fiddle with it to make sure it was as flat as possible before top coating the entire thing. I really loved this design! Even better, I loved doing this with my girls because sometimes I feel like all I do is swatch. While I love swatching, it can sometimes get tedious so doing something like this can get my creative juices flowing.

Make sure that you check out Amy’s and Siobhan’s designs by clicking their links below. What do you think of this design? It was rather easy to create, and it turned out really cute if I do say so myself. I hope you’re having a great beginning to your week. Thank you for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Stamping Saturdays #49

Posted on 27 December, 201427 December, 2014 by Cynthia

Hey, it’s Saturday again and here I am with another installment of Stamping Saturdays! I know I’ve been pretty absent on my blog and Facebook lately, but I’m sure you’re all busy with the holidays so you haven’t missed me much! Today I wanted to do something that had a serious holiday feel or at least a seasonal connection. Believe it or not, the weather has been quite chilly here in the land of eternal shorts and flip flops and it’s supposed to get colder. We are also expecting rain next week so I’m looking forward to that. Do you have big NYE plans? I haven’t decided what I want to do cause I hate crowds which means that a lot of the festivities are not up my alley. Anyway, let’s move on to the polish, yeah? Today I am showing you Morgan Taylor Under The Stars which is probably my favorite Morgan Taylor polish of all time.

Morgan Taylor Under The Stars is a deep midnight blue jelly polish with tons of holographic glitter. Two coats are enough for full opacity, but it does dry a little gritty so a generous coat of Seche Vite will give it a nice glassy and smooth look.

I took a blurry picture of this polish to show you the sparkle. This baby looks amazing out in the sun–you will not be able to stop staring at your nails.

I then stamped this pretty snowflake design from plate Born Pretty 01 (press sample) with my Konad special polish. I just love how this turned out! I have been really impressed with the Born Pretty plates that I have used so far. The prices and quality are pretty great so make sure to check out all of their designs here.

I hope you’re enjoying your Saturday! If you haven’t been joining us for Stamping Saturdays, we’d love to have you. You can link up to our blog posts and you can also join us on instagram by using the hashtag #StampingSaturdays so we can find you. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

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KBShimmer Men Are From Mars-ala

Posted on 22 December, 201422 December, 2014 by Cynthia

Can you believe that there is about a week and a half left before we enter 2015? I’m kind of blown away by this because I feel like I’m in such a different place than I was a year ago–in a good way for the most part. But, I’ll leave that self-reflection for another post, maybe my last post of the year after I’ve had a few margaritas. Ooohhh….dangerous combination. One of the things I look forward to is the unveiling of the Pantone Color of the year. Having worked in the paint industry for a bit, I learned to love color and all the different trends that affect how products are marketed. As you may know, Marsala is the 2015 color of the year and I actually quite like it. I heard make people complaining about it and how it’s a grandma color and plain ugly. I love the earthiness of the color, and I think it suits my skin tone quite well. I knew that there would be plenty of polishes coming out with Marsala as the main inspiration and to day I have one of the first ones I have seen: KBShimmer Men Are From Mars-ala.

Look, you already know what I’m going to say because we’re talking about KBShimmer here. This polish is absolutely gorgeous. The formula is buttery and opaque at two coats. While it doesn’t look super holographic here, it does look amazing in the sun. Good job, KBShimmer…you never disappoint.

My friend Amy asked me how Men Are From Mars-ala compared to Deja Brew so I decided to do a little comparison for her.

Totally different! I should have included Rust No One, but that one is also not similar as it is much more red/orange.

So what do you think about this polish? What are your thoughts on the color of the year? If you’re interested in picking up this beauty, it will be available on www.KBShimmer.com for $8.75 on January 1st. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Stamping Saturdays #48

Posted on 20 December, 2014 by Cynthia

Happy Saturday everyone. It’s kind of a gloomy day here which feels weird for California. I thought that we were going to have more rain, but apparently we’re going to have a pretty sunny and mild holiday week. I still haven’t done any Christmas shopping, and I think I’m pretty much dead on that at this point. Yesterday I went to Target and it was mayhem–what was I expecting? I’m going to try to go tonight to get everything done but first I’m going to stop by and visit my Peanut Brat. Last night I had such a hard time deciding what to to for today’s Stamping Saturdays until I started digging in my untrieds. Let me show you how my mani came together.

First I started with 2 coats of OPI Get Cherried Away (press sample) from the OPI Coca Cola Collection. It’s such a beautiful berry color that is super opaque. I wanted to use this berry shade as my base for the next polish because it has a jelly finish that needs to be built up.

This is the first time that I use anything from Pipe Dream Polish, and I love it. A big thanks to Frosso for this gorgeous polish. I love being exposed to new brands and sometimes I just don’t even have time to check out what’s out there. Pipe Dream Polish Interference is a glitter polish in a dark jelly base. I love the glitter in this polish, but it does dry super lumpy/gritty which is why you need a good thick top coat to smooth it out. I only applied one coat of Interference over Get Cherried Away and one coat of Seche to give it a smooth and shiny finish.

For my stamp, I used my trusty Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and the paisley image from Bundle Monster plate BM-315. I love how cleanly this stamped.

So what do you think of this mani? I really like it, and I loved trying out a new polish brand. It’s always a love/hate moment because now I’m going to be drooling over yet another brand when I’m trying to to be good about my spending. Well, I hope you’re doing well today and don’t forget to join us every Saturday for Stamping Saturdays. You can use the hashtag #stampingsaturdays on instagram so that I can find you! Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

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The Lacquer Ring – Stars

Posted on 18 December, 201417 December, 2014 by Cynthia

Ello gov’nor! I’ve been wanting to answer the phone at work that way for a long time, but I don’t think that is going to fly. What do you think? I’m feeling kind of silly today and have no idea why. I think that it may be the funky weather, the holidays or PMS…ok, tmi so let’s move right along. It’s that time again when The Lacquer Ring is ready to wow you with our most awesome designs! See? I told you I was feeling silly. Today’s prompt, courtesy of Lesley, is all about stars. At first I wanted to use some stamping plates but then I remembered that I had some nail decals that I hadn’t used so BAM…it all came together.

The items I have used for today’s mani are KBShimmer Stonewashed (press sample), Max Factor Fantasy Fire (gift) and Salon Perfect Star Struck Nail Decal Kit (press sample).

I know that I talk about KBShimmer. I can’t help it–just look at this polish!!!! Stonewashed is such a perfect opaque creme. This is two smooth coats, and it really doesn’t get any better than this.

If I could topcoat everything with Max Factor Fantasy Fire I probably would. I just had an image of my car being topcoated with Fantasy Fire…is that weird? I applied a super thin coat of Fantasy Fire over Stonewashed just to give it that lit from within look.

And finally here are the stars. I have to work a little more on my decal placement but overall I give this mani a meh. I thought it was going to reach polish boner territory due to the awesome base, but I think it just became too much and now it’s just a semi.

So what do you think about this mani? Did the decals ruin it for you? Regardless, I strongly recommend that you check out KBShimmer Stonewashed cause it’s just divine. Anywho, don’t forget to check out the other stellar designs from my girls. My girls as in the other members of the Lacquer Ring, not my boobs. Just thought that I should clear that up just in case. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

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The Beauty Buffs – Gold vs. Silver

Posted on 17 December, 201416 December, 2014 by Cynthia

I’ve got to admit that today’s The Beauty Buffs prompt was really hard for me because I hate anything metallic looking. I almost never wear jewelry, but when I do, I make sure that it’s either silver or white gold. I hate yellow gold with a passion and this extends to nails as well so I had to seriously ponder what I wanted to do today. Well, I decided to go with something a little boring, but I did use two great polishes that I never thought I would like until I got my hands on them. Let me show you what I did.

OPI This Gown Needs a Crown (press sample) and OPI Love.Angel.Music.Baby (press sample) are two of my favorite polishes of the year. I think that the beautiful satin finish is what totally made these polishes stand out. I alternated the two polishes on my nails for that added contrast.

I did some dots just to create further contrast, and I did end up liking the end result. A few people actually commented on my nails when I was out and about. Either they were confused as to why I only had one hand done or they really liked them…let’s just pretend they loved them, ok?

Don’t forget to check out the posts of my fellow Beauty Buffs below. What are some colors that you don’t like for your nails? Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

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Dollish Polish Go Luigi!

Posted on 16 December, 201416 December, 2014 by Cynthia

It’s supposed to rain here again, and I am super happy about it. I don’t know why I’ve always loved rain so much, but it’s just super cozy weather. I definitely don’t like driving in the rain because here in SoCal, we basically forget all normal rules of the road and drive around as if we were in bumper cars. Since we’ve had such a bad drought, I really do hope that we get enough rain to help us through the dry patch. Last night I worked on two manicures for later in the week, and I was quite proud of myself for actually doing things in advance. Now if I could just write up my posts in advance, that would be great! A girl can dream, right? A couple of weeks ago I pulled out all of my indies from my melmers to admire them. Do any of you do that or is it just me? I love how huge the indie market is no, but I easily become overwhelmed by all the different brands and collections. I think that one of my top favorite collections is the Dollish Polish Super Mario Bros. Collections because I was/am a total Nintendo nerd and Super Mario Bros. was my first video game. I still remember the pure moment of euphoria the day we picked up our NES at Toys R Us. Isn’t it funny how you can remember feelings that you had when you were a child? I don’t recall specifics about that day, but still get butterflies thinking about what it was like to go to the store and pick it up. I also recall the cashier saying it was like $100-something and I was thinking that was sooo much money. Anyway, the reason I started talking about Nintendo is because today I have Dollish Polish Go Luigi! to show you.

I started out with two coats of Sinful Colors Peppered Amazon. I don’t know about you, but I think this is one of the prettiest Sinful Colors to come out in a really long time. The green color is gorgeous and that shimmer really elevates it. Despite the heavily pigmented formula, it did not stain my nails.

Dollish Polish Go Luigi! is a great glitter topper full of blue, green and turquoise hexes in varying sizes as well as silver stars. I absolutely love this!

What do you think of this glitter topper? What do you think about Peppered Amazon? I really like this combination, but I think that next time I will use a dark black polish as my base because the glitter will really pop. Well, I hope you’re having a nice day, and I will talk to you soon!

Nothing to disclose

OPI 50 Shades of Grey Collection

Posted on 15 December, 201414 December, 2014 by Cynthia

Hello and I hope you’re doing well on this Monday morning. Nothing to report here except for the usual case of the Mondays, so I’m just going to move right along. How are things going with your holiday shopping? I haven’t started buying presents yet so I’m sure that I’m going to wait until the last second and then it will be pure madness. I am a procrastinator so I’ve resigned myself to the inevitable. Today I have something that I think might be a little polarizing: the OPI 50 Shades of Grey Collection. I’ve already come across quite a few people bemoaning the fact that OPI decided to make a collection about “that book/that movie.” To be honest, I have read the books and they are mildly smutty, poorly written and uber predictable. Basically I equate them to the literary equivalent of bad reality TV. I can give you a quick synopsis of the books if you haven’t read them: Beautiful, virginal and brainy girl who doesn’t realize how gorgeous she is despite every man around her being in love with her meets a mega rich bad boy who is scarred and broken by his past. He falls in love with her, she falls in love with him. They have problems because she wants to change him and he doesn’t want to change. They have a lot of sex. He changes for her and they live happily ever after in their mansion. The end. It’s basically a smutty fairy tale which apparently tons of women loved. I wasn’t offended by the sex in the book–I was more offended by the horrible writing. Anyway, I don’t care that the collection was inspired by the books and I can almost guarantee that I will watch the movie cause it’s Jamie Dornan and all. That’s all they needed to say. Now that I blabbed away, let me show you the actual polishes and you can be the judge of whether you’ll want these or not.

OPI Cement the Deal

OPI Embrace the Gray

OPI Shine For Me

OPI My Silk Tie

OPI Dark Side of the Mood

OPI Romantically Involved

So what do you think about these? To be honest with you, I ended up liking this small collection a lot more than I had anticipated. I am a fan of grey polish overall so I quite enjoyed the two lighter greys. The red, Romantically Involved, was a nice welcome pop of color in an otherwise very one tone collection of colors. Formula-wise, all of the polishes were great except for Dark Side of the Mood which required 3 coats for full opacity. Can we all agree that we just don’t nee anymore silver polishes like My Silk Tie? I am so tired of seeing this type of polish in every collection in the last few months especially because it’s not a color I really like. I don’t think it’s as prone to brush strokes as some of the other silver foil/chromes, but it’s best to work fast and not overwork the polish. So what do you think about this collection? Let me know in the comments below. Thank you for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

All items featured in this post were purchased by me.

Stamping Saturdays #47

Posted on 13 December, 201413 December, 2014 by Cynthia

It’s pretty freaking cold here–for California that is. We had a pretty rainy day yesterday which we really need because of the drought, but it’s mayhem when it rains. We actually had a tornado briefly touch down in LA which is pretty crazy for us. It’s supposed to rain later in the week so I hope we don’t have any serious disasters. I’ve been waiting to show you the amazeball polish that I got recently so excuse me if I start to sound slightly spastic. Last weekend, I decided to break my two month no-buy for one of the flaky polishes that was put out by KBShimmer. Oooohhh it’s a beauty for sure! Let me show you what I did with it for today’s Stamping Saturdays.

I started with two coat of OPI Miss You-niverse (press sample.) This color photographed darker than it is in real life, but you can still appreciate how rich this polish is.

Here is the star of the show: KBShimmer Rainbow Shield. This is one thick coat of the polish over OPI Miss You-niverse.

And here it is mattified. Holy shitballs. There are no words. Seriously, just look at the beauty of the flakes.

Since it is Stamping Saturdays, of course I had to stamp this up! I used Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and an image from Born Pretty plate BP-13 for this design. There is something about the flakes peeking from behind this pattern and I’m really digging!

If your interested in purchasing KBShimmer Rainbow Shield, you can find it exclusively at KBShimmer’s Etsy shop. It’s a super duper limited edition polish along with 5 other flakies that were released recently. They are priced at $9.75 each or $58 for the set of 6. I’m thinking about picking up Flame Queen and Lighting Ridge as well, but I’m trying so hard to be good about my polish spending. WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME, KBSHIMMER?!?!?! Anyway, let me know what you think about this mani. If you love stamping as much as I do, join me every Saturday for Stamping Saturdays. You can use the hashtag #stampingsaturdays on Instagram to link up with us–we’d love to see your creations. Thank you for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

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