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Year: 2014

Of Life and Lacquer > 2014

Seche & Live Love Polish Review

Posted on 10 December, 2014 by Cynthia

Don’t you just love the days when you don’t have to go to work? Actually, I take that back because I am not at work today because I am sick. It all started with some congestion and now I have a cough, runny nose and post nasal drip–lovely! I think I was running a fever last night because I woke up drenched in sweat–even more lovely. Since I’m spending the afternoon in bed, I figured I might as well do something productive like write up this post! Today I am going to be talking about Seche Vite. Ahhh, Seche Vite; you are my first and only love. One of the questions that I get most often is what kind of top coat I use to get such a glossy finish on my manicures. I can tell you that 99% of the time I use Seche Vite because there is nothing that works better for me. I’ve tried so many different top coats in my last 3 years of blogging, but I keep coming back to Seche Vite every single time. And what better way to showcase my favorite top coat than to pair it with a beautiful polish from the Seche nail polish line? The beauty I have for you today is Seche Rendezvous.

Seche Rendezvous is a gorgeous magenta cream that is quite opaque. I applied two coats of polish for my swatches above. One thing I have noticed about Seche polish in general is that it tends to set a little quicker than what I’m used to so it’s very easy to overwork it. If you’re not super quick with your application, you can definitely cause an uneven mess. The good thing is that if you do get some unevenness, you can slap on a coat of Seche Vite and it will fix your mani right up!

I know that not everyone is like me in that I live near some really awesome beauty supply stores where I can basically get EVERYTHING under the stars, so you’ll be glad to hear that the Seche line is easily accessible at Live Love Polish. I have a difficult time finding Seche polishes in retail store near me, so I’ve only had the chance to try out a few colors in the past. Just like the famous top coat, I find the Seche nail lacquer line to be good quality and very durable.

As far as the top coat goes, I know that there are a few complaints out there, and it wouldn’t be fair to ignore those points:

It shrinks your polish
It smells and is not 3-free
It gets mega goopy halfway through the bottle

What am I missing? I think those are the three complaints that I tend to hear most often. I am of the mindset that not every product is going to work perfectly for every single person out there. I have had very minor issues with shrinkage (insert Seinfeld joke here). I tend to flood my nail with Seche Vite which encapsulates the polish, and I can honestly tell you that I rarely have shrinkage. As for the smell, maybe I’m weird cause I like the smell–or maybe it’s cause it gets me kinda polish high…who knows?! I do know that many people will not use products that are not big 3-free, but I have nothing for you on that because it’s a personal decision. Lastly, and probably the biggest complaint, is the goop factor. The first time that you open a bottle of Seche Vite, it’s this perfect consistency that glides over your nails with the greatest of ease, it’s the daring young man on the flying trapeze…eehh…see how easy it is to distract me when I’m sick? So anyway, halfway through the bottle you will notice that your once flowing Seche Vite is he consistency of lava which doesn’t lend itself to flawless application. Well, at that point I bust out my partner in crime, Seche Restore, and add a few drops to thin it back to a manageable consistency. Voila! Problem solved. I know that we all have our favorite top coats, but it just happens that Seche Vite is mine. I haven’t found anything that dries faster, harder and stronger. (Is that you, Daft Punk?)

So what do you think of Seche Rendezvous? Is it your kind of color? What is your favorite top coat? I’d be very interested to hear all about your top coat tribulations because as we all know, your mani is only as good as your top coat. Don’t forget to check out Live Love Polish where you can purchase these products and many more. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Stamping Saturdays #46

Posted on 6 December, 20146 December, 2014 by Cynthia

Something horrible happened last night, something that didn’t allow me to sleep: American Horror Story Coven is on Netflix so of course I’m not going to sleep this entire weekend just binge watching every single delicious episode. I actually stayed up until like 4 am watching episodes which means that I didn’t wake up until like 11 am this morning. UGH! I hate sleeping in that late, but I was pretty tired. It seems that whenever I sleep in super late, I am extra lazy the rest of the day which means that I will be rushing to get all my stuff done on Sunday. Womp womp. Last night I got it in my head that I wanted to go buy Sinful Colors Prosecco for my Stamping Saturdays mani. Apparently I’m the only person on the planet who didn’t know that it’s really hard to find because I went to 5 different stores and no one had it. Once I got home, I decided to look through my “high end” melmer drawer and couldn’t decide between Dior Rosy Bow and YSL Vert d’Orient. Of course I ended up going with Rosy Bow which is probably my favorite baby pink of all time. Let’s take a look at it.

I know that most people balk at the price, but Dior Rosy Bow is worth every penny in my book. I just love this polish so much and I am a super huge fan of the Dior brush as well. This is two smooth coats of the polish with a coat of Seche to amp up the sine.

I then used an image from Born Pretty plate BP-02 for this lace design. I also used my Mentality stamping polish in Black Opaque and I really loved how it performed. One thing that I really love about this stamping polish is that it is opaque but doesn’t stain like crazy unlike my black Konad polish. I also like that it doesn’t smear and smudge like the Konad one either. No matter what I do, my black Konad polish smears when I top coat it.

What do you think about this mani? I personally like the way it turned out BUT it almost pained me to stamp over my base color because I love it so much. The beautiful simplicity of this creamy baby pink just blows me away. So how is your weekend so far? I am thoroughly enjoying being lazy so I hope you’re enjoying your weekend as well no matter what you’re doing. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

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The Lacquer Ring – Fuchsia

Posted on 4 December, 20143 December, 2014 by Cynthia

You guys, I am so happy that I got a chance to post today. As you may have heard, Southern California is in the midst of rainmaggeddon and all hell has broken loose. The state is going down in flames–er, water? Yes, I’m kidding. We’ve had sporadic showers in the last two days, but people act like it’s the new biblical deluge. Everyone forgets how to drive, which causes tons of accidents, people fight each other Hunger Games style for parking spots close to the entrance of the store and it’s just general mayhem all around. I sit back in my car wondering what would happen if we had real horrible weather like some places back east–I guess we would all die instantly. For reals. So today The Lacquer Ring is bringing you the color fuchsia per Lesley’s choice. I pretty much love the color so I am very happy with Lesley’s choice. When it came to deciding which polish to use, I went with the obvious: Sation Fan The Flames Fuchsia.

Sation Fan the Flames Fuchsia is a super vibrant neon that dries to a satin finish. I adore this polish because he formula is perfection. Even though it dries kinda of satiny, it’s not difficult to apply, and it’s super opaque. I’ve been wondering what happened to Sation/Miss Professional Nail because I haven’t seen a collection from them in over a year and their FB page basically has no activity. I loved their collections so I’m sad that they fell off the face of the earth.

To finish everything off, I did a sort of sloppy glitter gradient with Shimmer Polish Alice (press sample) which is probably my favorite Shimmer beauty. I top coated the whole thing which gave my whole mani some shine–I kind of miss the satin look of the polish so maybe next time I’ll use a matte top coat.

What do you think of this mani? Is it to blinged out for you? I personally love it even though I wish I had done a better job with my glitter gradient. Don’t forget to check out the other fuchsia manis below. Our next prompt is all about stars so I need to start figuring out what I will do. Anyway, I hope you liked today’s post, and I will talk to you soon!

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The Beauty Buffs – Holiday Inspired

Posted on 3 December, 20142 December, 2014 by Cynthia

How many of you have put up your holiday decorations at home? To be honest, I don’t think I’m even going to get a Christmas tree this year because I am just not in the mood to go through the process of unpacking everything. Am I a killjoy? Meh. Instead, I will wear extra festive nails which is why I was happy with our prompt for today. The Beauty Buffs are bringing you holiday inspired posts today so let me show you what I decided to do.

For my mani base, I needed a clean white color so I went with OPI Angel With A Leadfoot (press sample.) This crisp and clean white comes from the OPI Mustang Collection from earlier this year. It’s a nice white but the formula is pretty typical: super streaky on the first coat but buildable. I applied 3 coats for my mani to get full opacity.

I am super new to use decals, but I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to try them. I decided to use the lights strand decals for my mani. I love that they are red because they look awesome against the white background. You can use these vinyls as decals or as stencils–let your creative juices flow. These particular nail vinyls are from KBShimmer (press sample) and can be purchased here for $5. What a steal for all the awesome designs you get!

The vinyls were super easy to use and I just cut them and applied them where I wanted the design to be. Because I wanted a little more bling, I decided to place some glitter on the bulbs.

I used Shimmer Alice (press sample) for the sparkle in the bulbs and I think it was a perfect choice. I really like how this turned out!

So are you into the holiday season yet or are you grouchy like me and don’t want to make the effort? Well, I hope you liked my holiday mani, and don’t forget to check out the other festive posts from my fellow Beauty Buffs. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talking to you soon.

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China Glaze Twinkle Collection Holiday 2014

Posted on 1 December, 2014 by Cynthia

It’s raining here on an off and I love it. We definitely need the rain because of the severe drought here in California, but sadly the showers don’t last very long. This seems to be ideal cozy weather, but I just want to get outside and jump in puddles. Remember how much fun that was when you were a kid? This morning I was rushing because I woke up late, and I had a doctor’s appointment at 9 am. My appointment went well, but as I had mentioned, I still have a long way to go but I am hopeful since I am moving in the right direction. So for today’s post, I have the China Glaze Twinkle Collection for Holiday 2014. Let me show you the 12 shades that make up the collection, and I’ll let you know what I think at the end.

China Glaze Tip Your Hat

China Glaze Out Like A Light

China Glaze No Peeking!

China Glaze Define Good…

China Glaze December to Remember

China Glaze I’d Melt For You

China Glaze De-light

China Glaze Dancing And Prancing

China Glaze Chillin’ With My Snow-mies

China Glaze Meet Me Under The Stars

China Glaze Feeling Twinkly

China Glaze Pine-ing for Glitter

This collection is the epitome of holiday in my eyes. All of these colors are perfect for the holiday season, but they aren’t terribly unique. I really like the glitters in this collection because they are just so sparkly. Shades like December to Remember are very interesting especially because it changes so much depending on the lighting and angle. These are all very pretty, but you probably already have something similar in your stash. I don’t really have anything negative to say about this collection overall, but it also didn’t wow me. What about you? What do you think about this collection? I’d love to hear what you think, so let me know in the comment below. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Pure Ice Bling On The Holidays Collection

Posted on 30 November, 20141 December, 2014 by Cynthia

Normally, this is the time when I would start lamenting that tomorrow is Monday and that I have to go to work, but not today because I have Monday off. Woot! Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, I feel like I can now bring out the holiday decorations without thinking that it’s way too early. Can you believe that tomorrow we will be entering the final month of 2014?! This is both exciting and depressing at the same time because I realize that one more year has gone by and I am still stuck in a rut–but hey, at least I’m alive. Anywho, today I’m showing the new Pure Ice Bling On The Holidays Collection which is made up of 6 glitter toppers. I picked some random colors to pair them with to show that they aren’t just for the holidays, so let me show you what they look like.

Pure Ice Bling On The Holidays

Pure Ice Feeling Ornamental

Pure Ice Gold Peppermints

Pure Ice Pure Icicles

Pure Ice Santa Marry Me

Pure Ice Winter Blues

I have to admit that I was a little underwhelmed when I saw this collection because they pretty much all looked the same to me, but I ended up really liking them. The thing about these polishes is that they can look incredibly different depending on what base color you use. Personally I really liked the outcome when I used a dark base–which is probably why Winter Blues is my favorite of them all. These polish are going to pretty much change your base color because the clear base is full of fine shimmer that gives your nails an icy look to them. And you know what the best part is? These retails for just under $2. Yep, you know I love me some expensive polish, but I am not a polish snob in the least. I love Pure Ice for their affordable and quality polish. If you want to get your hands on these, I recommend that you check your local Walmart. My Walmart is usually pretty well stocked when it comes to Pure Ice, but they do go fast. So what do you think about these shades? Will you be picking any of these up? Let me know what you think below. Thanks for the visit today, and I will talk to you soon.

Stamping Saturdays #45

Posted on 29 November, 2014 by Cynthia

Aaahhh this weekend is turning out pretty darn deliciously lazy. I haven’t really been sleeping in because I don’t want to completely throw off my schedule, but I have been lazying around pretty much all day. In fact, yesterday I didn’t change out of my pajama until I took a shower and put on a new pair before bedtime. hahaha! I haven’t done much today but I do have to go babysit the Peanut Brat tonight, so that will force me to at least shower, get dressed and comb my hair. I did manage to get my Stamping Saturdays mani done early last night, but I got lazy when it came to putting the post together–story of my life. So I ended up using an oldie: Cult Nails My Kind of Cool Aid.

Do you remember how people went bananas when Cult Nails My Kind of Cool Aid came out? I think this is a gorgeous polish that looks so classy and flattering. The formula on this baby is great and it only needed two coats for full opacity.

Since I wanted to keep the overall felling very delicate, I used Born Pretty plate BP-21 for this design along with Essie Nothing Else Metals for my stamping polish. I think this came out just the way I wanted it to. I am super pleased with all of the Born Pretty plates that I have used!

So what are you up to today? It’s pretty warm here like in the low 80’s but it’s really windy and sunny so I think it’s a lovely day. Well, I hope you’re enjoying your weekend, and I will talk to you soon!

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Happy Thanksgiving

Posted on 28 November, 2014 by Cynthia

Hey, how are you doing today? Since it was Thanksgiving here in the US yesterday, I hope all of my US readers had a very wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving. I know that there are many times when we complain (I complain a lot!) about work, finances, family, etc, but ultimately we are very fortunate. Sometimes I feel like I get bogged down by many things, and I just feel like I’m down in the pits. There are days when I sit here, wondering why the hell things have to be so hard and why my life resembles a Rube Goldberg machine of dysfunction. Lately I have been struggling a lot with my health issues so that tend to bring me down a lot. I had a blood test earlier in the week and I brought my a1c down two points in one month, so I know I am headed in the right direction, but I still have a long way to go before I know I am “good.” I think my biggest hurdle will be just getting back into exercising. I know that starting to exercise will help me immensley but since I’m usually feeling so physically and mentally exhausted, I have found it so incredibly hard to just get started. I am really hoping that this mini vacation I am taking right now (I’m off for 6 days!) will recharge me. Today I’m just being totally lazy and am waching tons of stuff on Netflix. I am currently obsessed with the 30 for 30 series on Netflix which is an ESPN series focusing on major athletes, teams and events. I totally recommend this series! I also felt like doing my nails so I went back to a polish that broke my heart: Tom Ford Bitter Bitch.

Isn’t the bottle sexy? I have this thing about Tom Ford: I love him and I hate him. When I first got my hands on Bitter Bitch, I was excited because 1) It was Tom Ford 2) It was Tom Ford 3) Bitter Bitch. Enough said. Well, the polish ended up being a huge disappointment.

Tom Ford Bitter Bitch was a polish I had been obsessing over so when I finally got my hands on it, I was expecting it to be amazing. When you pay $30 for a bottle of polish (now $32), you want a good formula. Well, that did not happen here. The formula is super streaky. I had to apply 4 coats for it to be fully opaque and to cover up sheer bald spots. Despite my initial disappointment, I don’t regret purchasing it because it was one of those pure lust purchases and the color is just like melted dark chocolate on my nails.

Since brown and gold is one of my favorite nail combinations, I applied one coat of Delush Polish Gilded Diva (press sample) over Bitter Bich and absolutely loved the results. I think Gilded Diva is such a beautiful gold polish and it’s such a unique combination of gold circle and hexes as well as blue and green glitter. I just love how all the colors pop against the dark base!

So what do you have planned for this long weekend? I’m not doing much except just hanging out. Tomorrow night I’m going to babysit my little Peanut so I’m looking forward to that. Well, I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving and that you aren’t getting into too much shopping mayhem. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Delush Polish The Nue Collection

Posted on 24 November, 2014 by Cynthia

Let me tell you that I had a very interesting Sunday because the power went out at around 8ish in the morning and ended up not coming back on until like 7:30. It’s crazy how much we depend on electricity, right? Apparently the power company was upgrading some equipment and a notice had gone out last week, but I never got it. The power was supposed to be down from 8-4 but that wasn’t good enough so they tacked n another 3.5 hours just for shits and giggles. Ugh!!! Anyway, the one thing I learned was that I need to be better prepared with things like flashlights and candle in case there is ever a real emergency and the power is out for an extended period of time. I am glad that I got a lot of swatching done on Saturday because Sunday was pretty much lost. I went out to run some errand but considering it starts getting dark by 4:30, it was useless being home. So besides power outages, I do have some polish to share with you. I am excited to be sharing these with you because this is the first time I try Delush Polish. Big shocker, right? I feel like there are so many amazing brands out there that I just haven’t had a chance to try so I can cross Delush off that list now. Delush Polish The Nue Collection is a collaboration between Delush and Nue Magazine which is a fashion-focused publication. When I first saw the colors, I have to admit I wasn’t that excited but once I started swatching them, it was like they came alive. Let me show you my swatches before I tell you what I think of them.

Delush Polish Eat Sleep Chic

Delush Polish Gilded Diva

Delush Polish Trendsetter

Delush Polish Nue Girl

Delush Polish Glam Squad

Delush Polish In Nude We Trust

Here I was just playing around with three of the shades for this dotticure. I love dots so I just went for it!

This being my first experience with Delush, I have to tell you that I loved the quality of the polishes. The formula on all of them was perfection. The only one that gave me a slight problem was Eat Sleep Chic because I got some slight bubbling, but that was totally my fault because I overworked it a bit. All of these polish have a satiny finish and I decided not to top coat them because I loved the finish.

The collection will be launching together with Delush’s Holidaze Winter Collection on Wednesday 26th November at Noon est time along with the Black Friday sales! Full sizes will be available individually for $8.95 each or save with ordering the entire collection at the discounted price of $48. Minis will be available in small quantities.

Are you ready for some Delush promotions?

– Free Shipping for all orders over $50 on DelushPolish.com No code required, applies to U.S. Domestic orders only. Runs from 11/26 -12/31

– Two Free Full Size Polishes with a $60+ Purchase! Just leave a note with your color choices in your order. Order must reach $60 total after all promotional codes have been applied, does not include shipping. All other scratch your heart out promotions are suspended during this time. Runs from 11/26 -12/1

– Free Snowflake Glitter! The first 50 orders will receive a small bag of snowflake glitters to be able to use with their winter nail art!

Don’t miss out on this collection and all the promos! What do you think about this collection? Let me know in the comments what you think! Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

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Stamping Saturdays #44

Posted on 22 November, 2014 by Cynthia

I’m a little disappointed that I technically missed posting last week’s Stamping Saturdays mani on my blog. I was totally planning on doing it, but my friend came over and I made him wait like an hour while I did my mani. Then he was starving so I just forgot about writing up my post and we went out to eat. As I write this, it is around 2:30 am and I’m watching a JFK documentary on Neflix. Why? I have no idea. I love documentaries and apparently I can’t sleep tonight. Earlier in the evening I was out with two of my best girlfriends and I was almost falling asleep because I was so tired and now all of a sudden I can’t even sleep. It’s like when you were a kid and you’d be falling asleep in the living room and your parents would force you to go to bed. Then as soon as you got into bed, your eyes were wide open. My mom always makes fun of me because she says that my thing when I was a kid was that I would tell her: “Mom, I need to rest my eyes a little bit. I’ll be right back so we can watch TV.” And that little rest would last until the next day. I clearly remember thinking in my head that I would rest while the commercials were on and be back for the show or movie. I was probably 4 when I used to do this and my mom still jokes about it. Ahhh…kids! I don’t now why I went off on this tangent–maybe I really am tired and I’m delirious now. Hey, that could make for a super fun post…maybe. So, for today’s Stamping Saturdays I started out with a gorgeous base. Let me show you!

Kiko 389 Mint Milk is beeeeeuuuutiful. I recently heard that there are a few Kiko stores back east so that was exciting because hopefully we will get some here in California. LA, please. OC would be better. Just saying. Maybe it’s a good thing that I don’t have easy access to this brand because I can already predict some major craziness.

For my stamping design, I used one of my new Born Pretty plates BP-13. It’s a cute design and I think it goes great in black over this gorgeous minty blue. I am super impressed with the quality of these plates! I haven’t reviewed the full set I got yet, but that will be coming up soon.

So what do you think of this mani? I am really pleased with it! If you decided to join us for Stamping Saturdays, don’t forget to link up your blog post below or tag your posts with #stampingsaturdays so I can find you! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

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