June 2016 - Of Life and Lacquer

Month: June 2016

Of Life and Lacquer > 2016 > June

Essie Starry Starry Night 2.0

Posted on 30 June, 201626 June, 2016 by Cynthia

I bet you can still remember the excitement you felt when Essie announced the return of one of their most unique and beloved shades: Starry Starry Night. I bet that you can also remember the bitter disappointment when you realized that the new version was nothing like the one we all coveted. Well, let me tell you that it took me a long time to buy Essie Starry Starry Night precisely because of all the bad reviews. Despite this, I decided to get it just because I know I’ll never get my hands on the original. Let me show you my swatches before I tell you what I think about it.

No one is saying that this isn’t a pretty polish. No one is saying that at all. What we are saying is that this is not worthy of the Starry Starry Night name. This polish seems flat compared to the glorious depth of the original Starry Starry Night. I don’t know what the formula is like on the original one, but this one is a difficult and goopy mess. I found that the polish dries super fast so it tends to get goopy incredibly fast which, as you can imagine, doesn’t help to achieve an even application. Due to the sheer jelly base, you will need at least 3 coats to make this look even. I do like how it looks, but I’d much rather wear my KBShimmer Carpe Denim if I’m in the mood for a blue jelly glitter. I hope your week is going well–I’m looking forward to the long weekend for sure. Thanks for checking in today, and I will talk to you soon.

Essie Lounge Lover Collection Spring 2016

Posted on 29 June, 201626 June, 2016 by Cynthia

I really wish I had gotten these swatches up sooner, but do any of us really care about polish colors and how season appropriate they are? I certainly don’t. I wear neons during Winter and vampy colors in the middle of Summer because I wear what I like when I feel like it. The Essie Lounge Lover Collection is this years Spring offering and I can say some of these scream delicate Spring colors while others definitely do not. Let’s take a look at the 6 shades that make up Essie’s Spring collection, shall we?

Essie Shades On

Essie Lounge Lover

Essie Pool Side Service

Essie Off Tropic

Essie Sunshine State of Mind

Essie High Class Affair

Is it just me or does Essie Off Tropic stick out like a sore thumb? Still, I don’t see too many greens like this so I’m kind of in love with it. It’s like the most luscious dark green that makes me think of a freshly mowed lawn. I think that Pool Side Service is my favorite shade from this collection along with Shades On because who can say no to a beautiful purple? I did not have any issues with the formula on these except for maybe High Class Affair which needed three coats to even out. For the rest, I applied two coats of polish and one coat of top coat. You may notice some bubbling: that is not the polish but the top coat that thickened up on me. The colors are definitely nice in this collection, but I wasn’t super wowed by them. Solid effort, Essie…but I’m not feeling any excitement. Did you pick up any of these shades? Let me know what you think. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Essie Going Guru Collection Resort 2016

Posted on 28 June, 201626 June, 2016 by Cynthia

How hot is it in your neck of the woods? A week ago, we had the most disgusting heat wave here in California that gave us a taste of what is to come this Summer. Personally, I hate Summer with an unreasonable passion which is kind of weird considering I’m a native Californian. I’m just glad that I live close enough to the beach to have the relief of cooler temperatures than those who live more inland. Every year, Essie puts out a Resort Collection that gives us shades that would be a welcome addition to any luscious summer getaway. The Essie Going Guru Collections offers us 4 beautiful shades that are sure to get a lot of use. Let me show you some swatches before I get into the details.

Essie Delhi Dance

Essie Taj-Ma-Haul

Essie Going Guru

Essie Nama-Stay the Night

I don’t know if I am just used to the finicky Essie formula, but I did not have many issues with these polishes. I applied two regular coats of each polish and top coated them all with NYC Grand Central Station. I find that with the Essie formula, I have to float the polish on the nail because if I apply too much pressure, I will 100% create bald spots. While you may say that these colors are not anything new (is anything ever knew anymore in the nail world?), they are really beautiful staple colors. They are bright enough to be fun for summer yet muted enough to not be super in your face. Nama-Stay the Night is probably my favorite color here with Going Guru a close second. What do you think of this year’s Resort Collection? Well, I hope your Tuesday is going well! Talk to you soon.

Zoya Sunsets Collection Summer 2016

Posted on 27 June, 201626 June, 2016 by Cynthia

Hey there. Happy Monday. It certainly is a happy Monday for me because I’m finally feeling better. I was feeling all kinds of messed up for the last week and a half ever since I started taking a new medication to help with my blood sugar. I’m sorry, but Actos is the devil. If you thought getting used to Metformin was hard, Actos is like it’s psychotic sibling. I couldn’t sleep, I had severe weakness and muscle pain and all-day nausea. I dealt with that for about a week and a half before I decided to stop taking it. Anywho, I’m starting to feel much better now so I’m thankful for that. Now that I feel a little more normal, I can get back to showing you all the pretties I had swatched. I know I’m super behind on stuff so I’m going to try to catch up in the coming weeks. I currently only have the OPI Infinite Shine Summer Collection left to swatch so I’m happy about that. Today I have the Zoya Sunsets Collection which is made up of 6 beautiful cremes. This is the second part of the Summer Collection; the first part is all about PixieDusts and you can check out my review here. Let’s get on with the swatches!

Zoya Brynn

Zoya Cam

Zoya Dixie

Zoya Dory

Zoya Liv

Zoya Ness

This collection is marketed as “one coat cremes,” but I did not find that one coat was enough unless you applied a super thick coat. I have always preferred to apply thin coats even if that means I will have to do 2+ coats. For these polishes, I did two coats of each polish and top coated them with NYC Grand Central Station. By the way, I was really into this polish as a top coat, but it has gotten incredibly stringy and thick after only 3 weeks of use. I’m going to try to thin it out to see if it will continue to work for swatching purposes. Overall, I really love these cremes. I’m not cool with the one coat claims, but there aren’t that many true one coaters out there anyway. Zoya has always put out really great cremes that marble beautifully, so I’m glad to have these in my arsenal. What is your favorite polish finish? Did you get any of these? Let me know below. If you’re interested in purchasing these, check them out on the Zoya site where they retail for $10 each. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Zoya Seashells Collection Summer 2016

Posted on 21 June, 201620 June, 2016 by Cynthia

Lately I have been trying to rework my lighting situation when it comes to swatching. I am not happy at all with the way my pictures have been turning out lately, so I’ve purchased a few new bulbs (that are on the way to me), that I hope will help me get crisper images. I think that I’ve reached a point where I just need to bite the bullet and invest in a decent camera. I have been using a cheap point and shoot for years so maybe upgrading my equipment will give me some motivation. For today’s post, I have the Zoya Seashells Collection which is the Pixie Dust half of their Summer 2016 Collection. I’ve always liked the PixieDust formula so I was glad to see these. Even though there was a period of time where I was on PixieDust overload, I am happy to see this finish return. Let me show you my swatches below.

Zoya Bay

Zoya Cece

Zoya Levi

Zoya Linds

Zoya Tilly

Zoya Zooey

The PixieDust formula remains incredibly easy to work with. For all of my swatches, I applied two coats of the polish. I find that the second coat works well when it is lightly dabbed on which can help you avoid any bald spots if you haven’t waited enough time in between coats. I’m sure you are all intimately familiar with the PixieDust formula so I will leave it at that. Hopefully I will have the creme half of the Summer collection up tomorrow so stay tuned. Anywho, thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

OPI Alice Through The Looking Glass Collection

Posted on 13 June, 201612 June, 2016 by Cynthia

Guys, I’m in a serious nail funk. I have had zero motivation to do nail stuff for my blog. You’re probably getting tired of hearing this, but I just don’t know how to break out of this and get back to consistent blogging. Part of me is wanting to just quit, but the other part of me wants to soldier on. Nothing happened…I have just felt extremely lazy and uninspired as of late. Don’t get me wrong: I am still all over nail polish. In fact, I had to buy another melmer since I painfully ran out of room months ago. Even after doing a mini purge where I got rid of a few hundred bottles, I still needed another melmer. Do I sound crazy? Maybe I am. Anywho, even though I haven’t been doing that much nail stuff, I still found some time to swatch a few collections. I don’t know about you, but OPI is still my gateway polish brand so I am fiercely in love with a lot of the collections they put out. Today I have the OPI Alice Through The Looking Glass Collection to share with you so let’s take a look at the swatches first:

OPI Oh My Majesty!

OPI Mad For Madness Sake

OPI Having a Big Head Day

OPI What’s The Hatter With You?

OPI The I’s Have It

OPI Fearlessly Alice

OPI A Mirror Escape

OPI What Time Isn’t It

So what did I think? Look, any time that OPI puts out a bunch of cremes, I’m going to be very happy. Very happy indeed. While we all love a good glitter, holo, flaky, shimmer, etc…there is nothing more classy than a luscious creme polish. All of the cremes are spot on: great formula and opaque with two easy coats. You may say: “But Cynthia, those colors are nothing new!” Well, maybe you are right but goshdarnit who can say no to amazing cremes? If you don’t have something similar they are are definitely worth picking up. My three favorites are: Mad For Madness Sake, Fearlessly Alice and The I’s Have It. Now, let me move on to the last two: Mirror Escape and What Time Isn’t It. Mirror Escape is just a weird polish. I did not want to even try wearing it by itself so I applied an uneven coat of it over Fearlessly Alice. To tell you the truth, I kind of like the way it looks–but not enough to probably wear it again. It has a rough texture and it’s just a weird glitter combination. Props for “creativity” but NOPE. And lastly we have The I’s Have It. I have been wondering if there is one person who comes out with these interesting polishes. Like is the same person responsible for this and Pineapples Have Peelings Too? Because I’d like to get in that person’s brain. This is the one special edition polish from the collection and I’d like to point out that it’s the least special in my opinion. It’s just weird and I was not a fan when bar glitter was all the rage a few years ago and I like it even less today. I definitely was not impressed with these last two polishes. If you enjoy flawless cremes, you really can’t go wrong with these. I can also see fans of the movie snatching these up which is the whole point of collaboration collections such as this. What do you think of this collection? Let me know below. Also, just for a laugh, I saw this on Instagram and I nearly died laughing.

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Anywho, I hope you’re having a great Monday and hope the rest of the week flies by…cause Mondays suuuck. Take care and I will talk to you soon!