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Year: 2015

Of Life and Lacquer > 2015

The Lacquer Ring – Gradient

Posted on 26 February, 201525 February, 2015 by Cynthia

I’m starting to think that my fellow Lacquer Ring-ettes hate me. A few of them were bemoaning the gradient prompt but whatever…it was my turn to pick! How spoiled and self-involved did that sound? I am actually super happy with my selection because my gradient turned out really great–in my opinion anyway. I’ve always had issues with doing a good gradient so I’m happy that wetting the sponge made a huge difference for me. Are you ready to see what The Lacquer Ring has in store for you today?

This is my amazeballs gradient. Isn’t it pretty? I used two of my favorite Illamasquas: Nomad and Noble for the gradient. In fact, I have used these same polishes before in a gradient but this time I did a vertical gradient just because I felt like it. I 100% believe that this gradient looks great because the polishes are just perfection. I am still not over the fact that Illamasqua is no longer sold at Sephora, but I am happy that I could buy a bunch on Hautelook for a deep discount.

To finish off my mani, I used Mentality Black Opaque and a chain-link design from MoYou London Pro Collection Plate 02 (press sample). Don’t you think the stamping just brought it all together in an awesome way?

After all my talk of how awesome this mani is, watch everyone hate it. Sometimes when I think I do a spectacular mani, no one cares but when I do a dumpy one it gets tons of attention and likes…what’s up with that? Anyway, I hope that you like my gradient mani today and don’t forget to check out the other manis below from my gals.Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

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Cirque Colors Metropolis Collection March 2015

Posted on 25 February, 201524 February, 2015 by Cynthia

Ahhhh….Wednesday! We are halfway through the week and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Do you live for weekends like me? Today I was listening to The Woody Show on Alt 98.7 (remember back in the day when it was the Jamie, Frosty and Frank show?!) and they were talking about how Tuesday is the most depressing day of the week, and I so agree with them. Monday is so close to the weekend that you still get some of that residual happiness from whatever you did Saturday/Sunday but then Tuesday punches you in face almost making fun of you now that you have a long week ahead. In any case, I just wish I could sleep in until 10 every day cause that would make me so happy. You know what else makes me happy? Gorgeous creme polishes. Yep, you know it’s true and today I have two beauties from the Cirque Colors Metropolis Collection for March. Let me show you what I’m talking about.

Cirque Colors Hudson

I don’t know why, but this shade made me think of beautiful pair of denim jeans. You already know the drill: beautiful.perfect.buttery.opaque. DONE.

Cirque Colors Lady Liberty

One thing about my camera is that it is a big turd when it comes to capturing certain colors like teal/turquoise so my pictures are not super color accurate for this polish. It is definitely more green in real life, so I’m sorry if you feel tricked. Someone actually wrote me a pissed off email saying I tricked them into buying a polish because the color looked so different in my swatches. Uhm, yeah…Anyway, you know what? This polish is gorgeous too and you won’t have any complaints even if it leans more green than in my pictures.

There is never much to say about the quality of Cirque Colors because they are always spot on. I absolutely adore these two additions to the Metropolis Collection so don’t forget to pick them up if you love them too! They will be available March 1st so mark your calendars. What do you think of these lovely shades? Thanks for the visit and talk to you soon.

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OPI Soft Shades Collection 2015

Posted on 24 February, 201524 February, 2015 by Cynthia

I love obnoxious colors. Sometimes I think that the louder and more obnoxious my nails are, the better I feel. Is that weird? Whenever I do my nails, even if it is a simple manicure, people always seem to think it’s ok to grab my hands and inspect my nails. What if I am gross and don’t wash my hands after going to the restroom? I DO wash my hands every time, I was just using that as an example–I swear! I just think it’s kind of random that people do that (I even had a guy do that once), but I think I’ve gotten used to it over the years.So when soft and delicate colors come around, you would think that I I’d run the opposite direction, right? WRONG! I love soft colors as well because someone you want classy nails and don’t want some craziness on your fingertips. OPI puts out some of the best delicate colors, in my opinion, so I was definitely looking forward to this year’s OPI Soft Shades Collection. Let me show you what I’m talking about.

OPI Put It In Neutral

Doesn’t this kind of remind you of a lighter OPI Dulce de Leche? I seriously love this polish, but it is super sheer. I have to admit that I am not a sheer fan, so I applied 4 coats to get this opaque look. It’s one of those polishes that is supposed to be a wash of color on your nails but I couldn’t resist layering it up. I really love how it looks on my skintone

OPI Petal Soft

This one may not seem like much in the bottle, but hot diggity it’s beautiful. I adore how it looks over Put It In Neutral and I bet it will look awesome over a lot of different colors. Doesn’t this look like Spring in a bottle? The only thing is that fishing for the big flowers is kind of a pain but worth it at the end of the day. Soooo purty!

OPI Act Your Beige!

This is pretty much Put It In Neutral in a beige color. This also required 4 coats to be opaque but it’s not really meant to be opaque…but you know me and my OCD about sheer polishes. Still, it’s a beautiful and creamy polish.

OPI Make Light of the Situation

This is like snow in a bottle. Do you even understand how much my pictures don’t capture the beauty of this polish? It sparkles so much in the light that it’s mesmerizing. I layered this over Act Your Beige!, but I bet it will look like hot lava over a dark color. Make note, Cynthia…don’t forget to try that soon.

OPI Chiffon My Mind

And then we have this amazing white. It’s so icy yet so delicate! It has this amazing shimmer that isn’t captured very well in my pictures, but it is there and boy does it make this polish come alive. I applied 3 coats for my swatches above.

OPI This Silver’s Mine

Dear OPI, can we please stop with the silver chromes? I hate them. No mas, por favor. That is all I have to say about this.

Overall, this collection is a winner in my book. The lone bad apple here is This Silver’s Mine, but I can put it aside and focus on how pretty the other ones are. Some of you may not like the sheer shades and I get it because I want opaque polishes too, but you cannot deny that the glitters are soooo pretty. This collections isn’t due to be out until May so don’t forget about them! I can already see myself using a few of these soon in some Stamping Saturdays looks. Which one is your favorite? I seriously can’t choose but if I had to, I’d probably go with Put It In Neutral and Petal Soft…it’s a tie, I tell ya. Or Chiffon My Mind…or Make Light Of The Situation. See? I told you I can’t pick–it’s an evil process anyway. Let me know what you think of this collection overall. Are you sick of silvers like I am? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

HEY! There is 1 week left for my massive giveaway. Have you entered? Click the image below to enter.

OPI Brights Collection 2015

Posted on 23 February, 201522 February, 2015 by Cynthia

So what did you think of the Oscars…or are you one of those people who refuses to watch? I like the pretty dresses and like it when the host kills it (good and bad) so I usually tune in. This year, I feel like I wasn’t super invested in the actual awards because I did not watch a single movie from the Best Picture pool. I did recently watch Ida which won Best Foreign Film and it was pretty fucking amazing and devastating so make sure that you watch it. I am a huge movie buff so I’m way behind on watching movies lately yet I managed to watch 50 Shades of Grey–oh the shame! The most moving part of the whole show was Graham Moore’s speech after winning for Best Adapted Screenplay–watch it if you don’t know what I’m talking about. Besides the awards show, I did manage to get some swatching time in so I have 5 posts lined up already. I didn’t get a chance to swatch the OPI Hawaii collection yet (sorry to those who have asked!!!), but I did get some awesome stuff done. Today I have the OPI Brights Collection for 2015 to share with you! The Winter/Spring colors are gone, yo! Let me show you these pretties.

OPI My Car Has Navy-gation

When I saw this polish in the bottle, I wanted it on my nails STAT. Look how saturated the color is!!! Unfortunately, I found the formula not very pleasant to work with. It seemed water and thin and the formula resembled that of a neon where it dries quickly and kind of to a satin finish. Oh, and it also stinks like some blue polishes tend to so be prepared. I applied 3 coats for my swatches and then topcoated it for a shiny finish. Despite the sorta crappy formula, I still love it.

OPI Pinks & Needles

As soon as I saw this pink glitter, I knew it was meant to go over My Car Has Navy-gation. This is a very traditional glitter topper so there is not much to say about it. Application is very easy and there is no need to fish for glitter. Now I want to wear it over black!

OPI The Berry Thought of You

Oh man…this is gorgeous. This delicious berry creme is what my polish dreams are made of. I don’t know about you, but I can never have enough creamy pink polishes in any hue. The formula on this is perfect so you’ll love it–trust me.

OPI I STOP For Red

Oh look, a red from OPI because we all don’t have enough of those. This red is an orange leaning jelly that is opaque at two coats. It’s not exciting to me so that’s all I have to say about it.

OPI I Can’t Hear Myself Pink!

To be honest, I am not a huge fan of this shimmery/metallic finish, but the color is nice…you know how much I love pink polish. The formula was super easy to work with and was opaque at 2 coats.

OPI I Sea You Wear OPI

One thing that you can’t really see in my picture is that the polish has a slight pink sheen in the bottle that almost but disappears on the nail. Sadness. However, the vibrant blue polish is pretty awesome even if I’m not a huge fan of the finish.

So what do you think of this collection? Are these Brights bright enough for you? Is it too early for this considering it’s still bitterly cold in some areas? This collection will not be out until May so you’ll have plenty of time to think if you want any of these. Well, I hope you had a nice weekend and that your Monday isn’t too horrible. I look forward to hearing what you think of this collection, so let me know in the comments below. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

HEY! There is 1 week left for my massive giveaway. Have you entered? Click the image below to enter.

Stamping Saturdays #57

Posted on 21 February, 2015 by Cynthia

Stamping Saturdays is here again but for me it’s almost Stamping Sundays since I’m posting this so late. Yes, I know it’s Sunday already in some parts, but it’s still 11 pm here in California so suck it. I’ve been doing a bunch of crap today that I shouldn’t have taken on because I had kind of an exhausting day so now I’m just annoyed. Tomorrow I won’t get much done either because duh, it’s the Oscars. Before I start getting sleepy, let me move on to my actual mani.

The gorgeous polish that I used for my base is NYC Queen’s Jewels (press sample). This is a full coverage squishy glitter that only requires 2 coats for full opacity. This is like a Christmas tree in a bottle!

I then used an image from BP-04 (press sample) to stamp with my white Konad polish. The image is a large peacock (OMG A BIRD!), and I used the part that had the feather/lace design. I do think that the white covers up way too much of the polish, but it’s ok…I still like it.

So what do you think about this polish and the stamped design? Will you be watching the Oscars? Anyway, I hope you’re doing well and that you’re enjoying your weekend. Thanks for stopping by, and I will talk to you soon.

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Dermelect Above It

Posted on 18 February, 201517 February, 2015 by Cynthia

Have you heard of Dermelect? I’ve seen their polishes around on the internet but I never paid much attention because they are $12-$14 for a .4oz bottle which is kinda pricey, and I’m a big cheapskate for the most part. However, a couple of weeks ago I was loading up on essentials at Ulta, and I happened to see a bunch of these polishes in their clearance section for under $0.50!!! Whuuuuut???? At first, I grabbed everything in site because how could I not, but once the euphoria wore off a bit I put things back and only purchased three because I had to leave some for the rest of you, right? See how considerate I am? Besides, I didn’t know what to expect from the brand and maybe I would hate the polish or the brush. When you hate the polish, it doesn’t matter how cheap it is–it’s still a waste. Let me show you the first color I picked up.

Dermelect Above It is a beautiful sky blue. The formula seemed a little watery, but magically it was perfectly opaque with two coats. I also really liked the brush even though it’s thinner that what I usually like. Overall, I think the quality of the polish is very good. Would I pay full price for it? Nope.

And just for shits and giggles, I decided to mattify the polish with my Nicole by OPI Matte Top Coat (press sample) and dangnabit it looks amazing.

So what do you think of this polish? Have you tried anything from this brand? I’m pleasantly surprised and hope that I can purchase more on clearance in the future. Moving on to more serious things: today is Ash Wednesday which signifies the beginning of Lent. I have decided to go on a polish no-buy during this time which I know will be very difficult for me considering the sheer amount of Spring collections that are coming out now, but I think it will be good for me. There are a lot of things that I could give up, but nothing will be as hard as giving up purchasing new polishes. Wish me luck!

Have you entered my giveaway? Click the image below to enter!

Watermarble Tips

Posted on 16 February, 201516 February, 2015 by Cynthia

I will be the first one to admit that I have a really hard time with different nail art techniques. I really started out as a swatcher, so that is what I am most comfortable with. However, I don’t want my blog and passion for nails to stagnate so I do try to do things that are outside of my comfort zone. Stamping was one of the first things that I tried so it became something that I have continued to enjoy because I find it easy and fun. Enter watermarble. I have been dealing with trying to watermarble for probably a year if not longer. I went through phases where I tried, gave up for a while, tried again and gave up again. It was just so frustrating because it seemed that no matter what I did, nothing worked. Finally, I am here to tell you that you can master this technique because if I can, anyone can! While there is no one technique that will guarantee success, I will be sharing with you what worked for me.

Water

You would never think that choosing the right water would make such a huge difference. There are people who will say that tap water works just fine or that you have to use distilled water. I’ve tried both and tap water never worked for me. I guess it could be that tap water differs from region to region, but distilled water is the only thing that has worked for me. The temperature of the water was also important because only room temperature water seemed to work well.

Polishes

Once you have the water issue figured out, you have to figure out what polishes work well for marbling. This is all about trial and error because not all polishes work well and some don’t work well together. Personally, the best polishes for marbling that I have used are OPI cremes. They spread well, are very pigmented and don’t dry too quickly. I’ve tried some cheaper polishes and they seem to dry out quickly. Certain holos and shimmers work very nicely as well, but to be honest, you just have to play around with polishes to see which ones will work best.

Creating your design

So you got the water right and your polishes spread nicely into rings. YAY! This is where my next womp womp moment occurred. I could not, for the life of me, get a nice even design. The easiest and most common design is the flower design where you drag your needle from the outside in and join the petals at the center. Well, I could not get this right. I figured out that my issue was that I was trying to drag from the outermost ring which was already beginning to set so I was breaking up the rings and just ruining everything. This might seem like common sense, but I was constantly messing up on this. I also wasn’t cleaning my needle/toothpick in between each drag so the excess polish on the tool wasn’t letting me create clean lines. Why must this be so hard???

The Big Dipper

You’re almost there, right? WRONG. Now you have to figure out how to dip your fingers into the design and not mess it up. I also managed to mess this up time and again. It’s easy enough to line up the design, but if you dip your fingers like a dumbass, you can get a big old mess. I also always got a billion air bubbles on my design which would then pop and ruin the design. The only solution for this, in my experience, is to dip your fingers at an angle and pull out your fingers very slowly.

After all this, why would anyone want to even bother with watermarbling? Well because when you get it right, it looks awesome. Let me show you what I did for my last watermarble.

First you will want to paint your nails a solid color. White works well most of the time so I’ve used one of my favorite whites: Sation Strumming My Nails (press sample) which is a dupe for OPI MBSW. I think the formula on this one is slightly better than the OPI.

Then you are going to want to tape up your finger to protect your skin from all the mess. I also applied a little glue around my cuticle area that would still be exposed to make clean up easier–especially because the polishes I chose have a lot of shimmery particles.

For this watermarble I used the three shimmers from the Zoya Delight Collection (press sample): Daisy, Leslie and Rayne which work beautifully. In fact, the cremes from this collection also work perfectly.

Imagine if you didn’t tape up your finger…you would have all this polish on your skin.

With the glue and tape, this is what my clean up job ended up being. Not bad, right?

And this is the finished mani after all the clean up was done. This looks like Easter exploded on my nails, but I think it looks pretty.

So do you think this technique is worth all the fuss? Do you have any other tips that might help others who are watermarble challenged? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Have you entered my giveaway? Click the image below to enter!

Stamping Saturdays #56

Posted on 14 February, 2015 by Cynthia

Heeeeeeeeey! Can you tell how excited I am? The reason why I’m so happy is because I have a 4 day weekend and I’m going to be the laziest person in the history of the world. In fact, I’m still in my pj’s right now and I don’t care what anyone thinks. Last night my friend and I decided to go watch 50 Shades of Grey. I know, I know. The theater was packed which didn’t really surprise me, but I was surprised at how bad the movie was. The books were so poorly written that they made me want to barf, but they were somewhat entertaining so I thought maybe the movie wouldn’t be too horrible but it was. I think Jamie Dornan is hot lava, but I don’t think he was what I was expecting for the Christian Grey character. On the other hand, Dakota Johnson was good in he role. Overall, the movie was choppy and just strange. When I got home, I saw that I had gotten some free passes in the mail (thanks, OPI!!), so I’m going to give them away so they don’t have to be mad like me about paying full price to see this film. Anyway, let’s move on from putrid films to awesome nail polish! For today’s Stamping Saturdays I have another holo beauty to show you.

I had such a hard time finding Orly Mirrorball, so when I finally found a bottle, I freaked out. It’s a really gorgeous and delicate linear holo with small holographic glitter. The formula felt a little thin, so be prepared to apply 3 coats

I used a delicate stamp from Konad plate M73 and Mentality Black Opaque stamping polish. I really like how this turned out.

What do you think about this mani? I hope your weekend is going well and that you enjoy your long weekend if you get Monday off. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

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The Lacquer Ring – Purple

Posted on 12 February, 201511 February, 2015 by Cynthia

I’m kind of grouchy right now. Not just kind of….but rather super pissed. I had typed up this post and was getting ready to schedule it. When I hit schedule, I got an error message from wordpress that said something like “Are you sure you want to do this?” Then when I tried to go back to my post, it was gone…all of it. I wanted to throw my computer across the room because somehow that would make it all better, right? Anyway, let me get over my bitter party of one right now and get back to the main point of this post–it’s all about ME! Yep, me. I got to pick the color for today’s The Lacquer Ring post so of course I had to go with purple because….well, is there any other choice? Let me show you the purple beauty I decided to use today.

This gorgeous polish is Illamasqua Prosperity and has a unique rubber finish. It’s not quite satin not matte…it really is rubber-like! I absolutely adore Illamasqua, but ever since Sephora stopped carrying the brand, there really is nowhere to get it locally and I refuse to pay for shipping. I’m cheap like that. When Amy told me that Illamasqua was back on Hautelook, I freaked the efff out and headed over there to see what they had. Six polishes later and 10 minutes of cursing Amy for tempting me this way, I got my hands on a few polishes that I had been kicking myself for missing. Ok, I didn’t really curse Amy but dangit she is such an enabler! The only thing I hate about Hautelook is that the shipping takes freaking eons so I should expect to get my polishes by…2017?

Since I’m all about the bling, bout the bling, no treble…oh wait, no. I had to make everything sparkly so I applied a coat of Delush Polish Nue Girl (press sample) just cause I love it and cause I love sparkles. You guys…I am dying about the upcoming spring collection that Delush has for us. Like seriously dying over how gorgeous it is. Ok, I’ll stop gushing.

Well, I hope that you like this gorgeous purple as much as me. Do you have any purple polish recommendations for me? I’m always excited to find new purples so let me know below! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

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Zoya Delight Collection Spring 2015

Posted on 10 February, 20159 February, 2015 by Cynthia

I meant to have this post up on Monday, but it just didn’t happen. My parents are visiting so everything went to hell. On Friday I had the worst stomach bug ever, and I’m still wondering if it was stress or something else. Fortunately it was gone by Sunday because I would have missed out on my mom’s cooking the first day–oh man my mom is the best cook in the world. So besides my parents being in town and my getting some extra time with the Peanut Brat, everything has been going ok. My nails are still in recovery mode. The damage is growing out rather quickly, but I’m nearing the point where the most severe damage is near the tips of my nails now so I’m expecting a lot of breaks and issues in the next couple of weeks. My nail bed is horribly uneven still so I’m experiencing issues with applying polish evenly since it always looks off because my nails are jacked up. Oh well…I’ll just have to deal with it and take my punishment for being dumbass. This weekend I managed to squeeze in some time to swatch the Zoya Delight Collection and boy was it a…delight? Read on to find out what I thought!

Zoya Eden

Zoya Lillian

Zoya Tiana

Zoya Leslie

Zoya Rayne

Zoya Daisy

Saying that I really enjoyed the Zoya Delight Collection isn’t enough–I really loved it. The combination of 3 creamy and delicious cremes with 3 metallic shimmers is genius because it gives us almost two collections without being overwhelming. I loved the delicate colors and really enjoyed the welcome pop of shimmer in one half of the collection. I didn’t have problems with the formula despite the light color which is really exciting to me. I’ve also been caught up in my own watermarble world that I used the three cremes for an accent watermarble nail:

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I think that it turned out really nice. What do you think?

Overall, this collection gets a big thumps up from me. What do you think if these polishes? Will you be picking up any of these colors? If I had to pick a favorite, it would have to be Leslie for sure! The Zoya Delight Collection can be purchased on zoya.com where they retail for $9 a bottle. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!