Cynthia, Author at Of Life and Lacquer

Author: Cynthia

Of Life and Lacquer > Articles by: Cynthia

Giveaway Reminder!

Posted on 28 October, 2012 by Cynthia

Hello my lovely polish addicts. I just wanted to remind all of you to enter my latest giveaway if you haven’t done so yet. Up for grabs are three awesome polish sets from my favorite brands:

Prize #1 Jessica Pumpkin Delight, Jessica Cinnamon Kiss & OPI On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

Prize #2 Sation Oh My Oceania!, Sation Rock-a-Guy Blue & Sation Power To The Purple

Prize #3 essence Fame Fatal, essence Gorgeous Bling Bling & essence Chic Reloaded

All polishes are brand new and purchased by me. This giveaway is open worldwide.

Yes, this giveaway is open worldwide so don’t forget to share it with your friends. There is only a week left to enter so good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Today I have another “foreign” polish to share with you. Kiko is a brand that I have really come to adore because it’s affordable and the polishes are top notch. They have such an amazing array of colors and finishes that I can’t even begin to pick my favorite. The only downside for us US ladies is that we can’t really get this brand locally as it is an Italian brand that is sold in Europe for the most part. Wah wah! This makes me sad, but since I have such lovely polish friends all over the place, I have been able to get some amazing polishes. This was actually one of the very first Kikos I ever received from Sabrina. I got it at the same time as Kiko #336 Blue Elettrico and Kiko #401 Peacock Green and I used it, but I banished the pictures to my hidden folders because once again I applied some questionable glitter on the polish. Anyway, enough of my ramblings and on to to the beauty that is Kiko #397 Aureus Pomegranate!

My experience with Kiko polishes has been perfection in a bottle and this was no different. All I needed were two easy coats! I don’t think this is truly very duo-chromey…I mean, I can see the rose to gold flashes but it’s very subtle. Still, a very lovely addition to my growing Kiko collection.

And because maybe you were wondering about what I did to this beautiful mani afterwards…

Not my favorite look at all, but I have to own it, right?! This is not pretty but at least is not as ugly as my huge hex glitter look. *shudders* Oh, and I made chocolate walnut brownies:

I already ate two. It’s not my fault. They are so chewy and delicious.

Thanks for stopping by and catching up with me. Later, gator.

Swagbucks Saturdays – Starting Out

Posted on 27 October, 2012 by Cynthia

This is my first installment of Swagbucks Saturdays, and I am really happy to start sharing some tips and tricks for maximizing your earnings. Recently I have had to cut down on non-essential spending, so Swagbucks is a nice way to earn some extra fun spending money without dipping into my budget.

First of all, if you haven’t signed up, go do it now! If you sign up now–before Monday 11:59pm–you can get an extra bonus and you’ll end up with 100SB to start with. Yes, 100SB! In order to take advantage of this, click here to sign up via my referral link and then enter code CODEHAUNT to qualify for the extra bonus. Easy as pie, right?

The easiest way to explain Swagbucks is that it is a site where you can earn digital currency which you can then redeem for other items. The easiest way to start earning Swagbucks is to use their search engine. When you use their search engine, you will randomly be awarded point…sometimes is a few swagbucks and sometimes it’s 50+ SB. It’s completely random and it’s truly the easiest way to start getting familiar with Swagbucks. It seems that you can only win 3-4 times per day when you search online and it’s important not to just keep searching non-sensical things because you could get your account suspended. In essence, you should not be searching just to try to win but rather, do your usual regular searches when you’re looking for information on the net.

The second easy way to earn a few Swagbucks each day is to answer their daily polls and scroll through the NOSO (No Obligation Special Offers). Once a day, you can take a minute by going to the home page and clicking on the earn option up on the Swagbucks menu bar and select “Daily Polls” and/or “NOSO” These literally take a few second and you can do them every day.

The third easy way that you can earn Swagbucks is by looking at your Swagbucks home page. There will usually be some videos to view and you can sometimes watch them multiple times. The videos range from 1-2 minutes and they credit instantly.

All of these options are quick and easy. I actually do all of these while I am working online or just browsing so it’s not like they require a lot of time an attention. These are low earning tasks but I think it’s the easiest way to start building up your SB balance while you get familiar with how things work. My next installment will go into some of the high-earning tasks that you can do such as taking surveys and completing offers. I hope that all of this made sense to you. If you have any questions, just drop me a line and I’ll be more than happy to help. I am happy to be able to share this and hope that you are successful in earning Swag Bucks!

Don’t forget to enter by Monday 11:59 PM in order to receive your bonus. Sign up here and enter the code CODEHAUNT for your 100SB bonus.

Bourjois Lavande Esquisse

Posted on 27 October, 2012 by Cynthia

Good morning my dear polish lovers. I have some bad news: my hands and nails are a wreck so I don’t know when I will be able to post nail polish again. I cut my nails all the way down a few days ago and today I started fiddling with my cuticles while I was watching a movie and all of a sudden I had blood on my fingers. I know…I know. This was a terrible habit that I had when I was a kid and I used to do it out of boredom. I would either pick or chew on my cuticles until my fingers got bloody. It’s disgusting, I know, and I promise I won’t do it again.

I was looking through my computer files and I came upon a folder with some old swatch pictures that I hadn’t uploaded. At first, I wondered why I had forgotten about these pictures but then I saw the horrid nail art I had attempted so it all came rushing back to me. There was nothing wrong with the polish–just my half-assed attempts to try to be “creative” with loose glitter. Maybe I will post a pic of the monstrosity at the end of my post.

Bourjois is a French brand that I really like but that is not easily obtained states-side so I usually just drool over pretty swatches. Julie, of my most favorite French bloggers in the entire galaxy, hunted down Bourjois Grenadine Tonic for me and she surprised me with this extra lovely bottle of Bourjois Lavande Esquisse. The 1 Seconde line (One Second–duh!) is supposed to be a line of polishes that should take “1 second” per nail to polish as they claim that you will only need one coat. Well, I guess I could have gotten away with one coat if I had been more careful, but I wasn’t so I had to apply two. Here we go with the swatches:

I don’t know if maybe I didn’t wait long enough for the second coat or what, but I got some very slight bubbling. Then when I applied Seche Vite, it all went to pot. I guess now I know that this particular polish does not mesh well with SV. I found the brush a little strange but easy to get used to after a few tries. Despite those little bumps in the road, I adore this color. It’s so bright yet so delicate.

Since you know I am not afraid to post my disasticures, here is what I was talking about earlier:

While I was doing this, I knew the hexes were way too big, but I didn’t want to stop. So I kept going, and I was more and more horrified. Look, someone just showed Justin a picture of my nails:

I stopped midway and added a coat of SV which caused more bubbles and then it shrunk around my cuticle area. Isn’t that the weirdest thing ever? Oh well. Can’t fight city hall. When in Rome.

Maybe I’m a little delirious since it’s 2 am already. Let me know what you think. Talk to you all later.

Have You Heard About Swagbucks?

Posted on 26 October, 2012 by Cynthia

I’m sure that I have mentioned Swagbucks on my blog in the past, but never really went into much detail. I was introduced to Swagbucks by a friend who is a freebie and coupon maven, so I knew that it had to be worthwhile if she was doing it. My initial understanding of Swagbucks was that it was a site where you earned digital currency or “Swag Bucks” which you could then redeem for prizes including gift cards. You can do so many things there to earn SB (Swag Bucks). For example, you are able to complete surveys, watch videos, vote in polls, complete special offers and so much more. While you may be thinking that nothing is free, you are able to ear SB while you do things that you would normally be doing online anyway. When I first started doing Swagbucks over a year ago, I could easily earn 200-400 SB a day depending on what I was interested in doing. The nice thing about this program is that you are free to do whatever you want, whenever you want. To give you an example, I was able to trade in my SB for Amazon gift cards and and the end of 6 months, I had already earned about $300 worth of Amazon Gift Cards–that sure came in handy during Christmas! They don’t just have Amazon gift cards, but also Target, Kmart, CVS…the list is endless. You don’t have to redeem your SB for gift cards, but this was the best option for me. If you are interested in signing up, click here to go to the Swagbucks site. As a special thank you for signing up under my link, enter the code CODEHAUNT during sign up, and you will be automatically awarded a total of 100 SB!! That’s a nice way to get started for sure!

And to get you in the Halloween mood, I am happy to share with you the information for the the Swag Code Haunt:

For all of you fans of Swagbucks, this Monday will be a terrorizing treat: an all-day Swag Code Haunt where you can get multiple codes that add up to 70 reward points that you can use to get free stuff on Swagbucks.com The fun begins at 4am PDT on their blog and you should download this image – it’s got a bunch of hidden images that will serve as clues to help you get codes all day long. Remember that if you are new to Swagbucks, sign up here and enter the code CODEHAUNT and you will automatically receive 100 Swag Bucks! If you want to take advantage of the extra bonus Swag Bucks, make sure that you sign up before Monday at 11:59 PST. Happy Haunting…

I hope that you decide to give Swagbucks a try if you are looking for a great way to earn rewards online. I will be sharing with you tips about how to earn SB and make the best of the program in my Swagbucks Saturdays posts. Let me know if you have any question; I’ll be happy to share what worked the best for me.

Benefit Face Powders – A Review

Posted on 25 October, 2012 by Cynthia

After falling in love with the beauty that is NARS blushes (see my review here), I started looking at other brands for interesting blushes, face powders, and highlighters. And guess what I stumbled upon? Benefit Face Powders! I freaking love their little boxes of color delight. (Ok, that sounds kind of weird but bear with me!) The first face powder I purchased was the lovely Coralista. I had heard so many good things about it that I just couldn’t resist it. And then as it usually happens, I started adding to my collection…

If you are used to crazy dark blushes, these face powders are probably not going to do it for you. I find them to be delicate but they can definitely be built up if you’re looking for a more dramatic look. Some of these face powders can be used as blushes or as all-over face color if you use a light hand. Some of them are very shimmery so you don’t want to go overboard with them unless you want to look like a hot mess with a glitterface. These powders are very soft and blend beautifully. I don’t really have any issues with longevity since they seem to last all day on me. The swatches below are on my bare skin. The bottom swatch in each picture is just a finger swatch and the bottom is a little more blended out. As I mentioned before, these powders are not dramatic or intense unless you decide to build them up.

CORALista

CORALista is my favorite coral blush out there. It reminds me a little of NARS Orgasm without the chunky glitter. For me, this is the perfect summer blush.

Hoola

Hoola is my absolute favorite matte bronzer. I use it to contour or if I just want to give myself a subtle tan (tanner!) look without all the shimmer.

10 is an interesting combination of shimmery golden bronzer and a pink highlighter. For those that are cosmetic application challenged, this might be a great solution when you want to add that perfect amount of shimmer and brighten the top of your cheekbones.

Sugarbomb

Sugarbomb is the best all-over face powder of the bunch. It’s subtle enough where you won’t look weird if you apply it everywhere. The shimmer in it will definitely brighten your complexion.

Dallas

Dallas is another pretty bronzer, but it does have a fair amount of shimmer in it so I wouldn’t really recommend it as an all-over face bronzer unless you like shimmer all over your face. Hey, some people do. I use this on my cheeks only and it works well as a subtle cheek contour.

Bella Bamba

I am in love with Bella Bamba. It’s just such a bright watermelon pink color. I don’t care what time of year it is, I always reach for my Bella Bamba.

Dandelion

And lastly, Dandelion is the most delicate face powder. I think this color suits very fair-skinned ladies who are looking for a light flush with some shimmer. When I use this, it doesn’t show up too well on my skin but I do get some brightening and it works great as a highlighter for me.

Benefit Face Powders can be purchased directly from their website and retail for $28.00. Have you tried any of the Benefit Face Powders? If so, what are your favorites?

Apotheke: M and Scent Bar – A Review

Posted on 24 October, 201224 October, 2012 by Cynthia

Although it may not seem like it, Winter is just around the corner which means that I begin my yearly hunt for something to help my skin survive the dry, cold months. You may be snickering right now if you know that I live in Southern California–the land of eternal summer. However, my skin is very sensitive and Winter is the absolute worst time for me because my skin gets dry, flaky and painful. When I start looking for moisturizers, I am looking for something that is gentle yet moisturizing. I absolutely hate products that make my skin feel greasy or that are super heavily scented, so that eliminates a lot of products. Recently, I got the opportunity to try two new moisturizing products: Apotheke: M and Scent Bar.

Both of these brands are completely new to me so I was really looking forward to using them. First up, is Apotheke: M. Target currently carries this brand which is comprised of bath/shower gels, nourishing body cleansers, after bath tonics, smoothing body polishes and enriched body cremes. I used their enriched body cremes:

Their product line comes in 3 scents: Coconut Jasmine, Mandarin Guava and Blackcurrant Fig. I was a little wary of the two scents I received because I am extremely sensitive when it comes to bath & body product scents. Mandarin Guava was the one I was most concerned about because, while I looooove to eat guavas, their scent is incredibly overwhelming. Have you ever had a ripe guava in your home and suddenly EVERYTHING smells like guava? Fortunately, the main scent I picked up was the mandarin. It has a sweet citrus scent that isn’t overbearing. The coconut jasmine scent has a stronger sweet coconut scent and I can’t really pick out the jasmine. Both of these body cremes are very thick and silky. I used them mostly on areas that need extra moisture like my elbows and knees. I also used them on my hands after swatching nail polish because that’s when my hands are at their worst after using acetone products. The cremes took a bit to soak into my skin so I found that applying them right after showering helped the products seep into my skin. After a week, I did notice softer, more moisturized skin!

Next up is Scent Bar’s Shea-Intense Body Butter. Scent Bar’s product line at Target is fairly new and have 4 fragrances: Cabana, Forbidden, Blush and Sunswept.

Cabana has notes of coconut, Tahitian vanilla and papaya so it is quite a summery and beachy scent. This body butter was also very thick and creamy; I also used it to smooth out and moisturize the skin on my knees, elbows and feet. I actually found that I loved this product on my feet. I slathered some on, put on some socks and went to bed. When I woke up, my feet were soooooo soft.

Overall, I quite enjoyed these products. They are obviously thicker than lotions which some people may not like, but I really liked how well they moisturized my skin. My only negative is that, although the scents are nice, they were a little too much for me. I must say that I am not the average scent/perfume wearer as most scents will make me ill if they are too sweet. I asked a few people what they thought of the fragrance in these products and most said that they were not overbearing or too strong. Apotheke: M products can be purchased at Target in store and online here. Their body cremes retail for $8.99 for an 8 oz tube. Scent Bar products can also be purchased at Target in store and online. Their shea-intense body butters can be purchased for $8.99 for 6.5 oz.

Have your spotted any of these products at your local Target? What are some of your go-to winter products? What are some of your favorite bath & body product scents? Thanks for catching up with me, and I’ll talk to you soon!

**These products were provided for review purposes. All opinions are my own.**

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 15: Jelly Sandwich

Posted on 22 October, 20125 November, 2012 by Cynthia

Once again I had intentions of doing my nails early today but instead I went to see Paranormal Activity 4. I tend to watch every horror/paranormal movie that is released so I was kind of looking forward to watching it, but it turned out to be horribly boring. It actually pissed me off because I kept waiting for something–anything–interesting to happen but nothing ever did. What a waste of an hour and a half! Anyway, today’s challenge calls for a jelly sandwich manicure. I’ve never really done a jelly sandwich manicure because I don’t have too many jellies so I had to improvise. I actually ended up making everything way more complicated than it needed to be so let me show you what I did.

I started with Butter London Slapper.

I got a bunch of Butter Londons recently and this is one that I still hadn’t tried. I love this colors! It is gorgeous, buttery and glossy.

I then added a coat of OPI The Living Daylights from the new Skyfall holiday collection.

And lastly I slapped on two coats of Revlon Whimsical.

I think that this ended up looking a little like the Nails Inc. Sprinkles polishes. I kinda like how muted the base color looks, but overall, I did not like all the polish layers–my nails felt super thick. So what do you think about my first jelly sandwich manicure attempt? Can you recommend some really awesome jelly polishes? I really want to get a few more jellies so I can experiment with them.Our next challenge will be on November 3rd as we are taking a little break for Halloween. I am going to take a break from doing my nails until then. Don’t forget to check back with me since I will be doing non-nail related posts until 11/3.

Take a minute to check out the other jelly sandwich manicures below from Nicole, Jessica, Ave and Alaina. Thanks for stopping by.

Sation Gimme Jimi

Posted on 21 October, 201225 October, 2012 by Cynthia

A few days ago, I had a dream about my cousin. In my dream, she was her usual loud, boisterous and animated self. We all knew that she was gone, but she was still there talking to everyone and she was castigating us for being sad. I do believe in my dreams and maybe it was her way of saying that she was ok. I wish I had spent more time with her. I wish I had known her better. You always think that there will be more time to make it to the family get-togethers. You always think that there will be more time…until there isn’t.

A month ago today, we lost her. We lost a daughter, mother, grandmother, wife, cousin and friend. My cousin had a lot of stories regarding dragonflies and how they showed up at random times that ended up being not so random. I decided to do my own dragonflies today.

I used Sation Gimme Jimi from their limited edition Nailstock Collection as my base color.

The dragonfly design comes from plate MASH 41, and I used Konad special polish in black for stamping.

These are my dragonflies for her. Her passing has left a big hole in our family, but I am grateful for having known her. She will live on in the fabric of our family’s love that will weave us all together always.

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

Posted on 21 October, 201224 October, 2012 by Cynthia

“Es tan corto el amor, y es tan largo el olvido.” – Pablo Neruda

That quotation comes from one of my favorite poems by the great Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda. It roughly translates to “Love is so short and forgetting is so long.” It is part of his work, Twenty Love Poems And A Song Of Despair which fed my soul through much heartache. A breakup can be such a traumatic event and today I am going to tell you about the breakup of a 13 year old relationship. Yes, you read correctly: 13 years!! Today I decided that my love affair with Sephora has come to an end. Why, you ask? Let me tell you…

I still remember the first time I saw the black and white signage for Sephora on the Champs-Elysées. I was a 20 year old student who had never left the confines of my cozy Southern California existence for an extended international experience. I instantly fell in love with Sephora. I loved everything about it. I especially loved how I was free to peruse without feeling like the salespeople were giving me the evil eye. Yes, everything you’ve heard about “customer service” in Paris is true. When my year abroad was up, I was sad to leave Sephora behind since I didn’t know if we had one anywhere near me back home. Soon after, I started a job that allowed me to travel a lot internationally so I never forgot Sephora and visited every time I was in France. Eventually I started ordering from them online and then a store opened up near me…I was in heaven. Since then, I have been an extremely loyal customer and always tell friends and family about the amazing products and service…until today. Over the last year, I have seen the perks and customer service decline and decline, the worst offenders being those responsible for the moderation of the Sephora Facebook page.

If you’ve never visited the Sephora Facebook page, consider yourself lucky as it is usually quite a mess. If you ever post anything that isn’t completely praising them, they will usually either delete or filter out your comment so no one else can see it. It doesn’t matter how politely you state your issue, feedback or question—if it’s not praise, chances are that it might get censored. This recently became very personal when a friend of mine was BANNED from their Facebook page for asking for help when no one was really making an effort to solve her problems in private message conversations, emails and phone calls. Not only did they pretty much continue to ignore her request for help in solving her customer service problems, but they also made her feel like she didn’t matter. That is not cool with me at all.

In the last year, I have noticed a steep decline in perks for VIB’s as well. VIB (Very Important BeautyInsider) is a level you reach in their BeautyInsider program once you spend $350 in one calendar year which means that you spend a decent amount of money at Sephora. Anyone who is a VIB can tell you that we spend enough money at Sephora to become VIB’s a few times over each year. This year, they created quite a stir by NOT offering their Friends & Family Sale discount to the public. Before you say that we shouldn’t feel entitled to a discount, I feel that if they had communicated this properly to their customers, many of us would have purchased directly from all the other brands that recently had their Friends & Family Sales that were open to EVERYONE. Many of us waited because we wanted to purchase from Sephora and instead we are now being given the boot. Let me make this clear: I don’t think Sephora owes us any kind of perk, but it is obvious that offering perks benefits them in the end. If you are a VIB, there will be a 20% off sale in November, but that is a whole separate thing from the F&F sale, and most people won’t be able to take advantage of it anyway. And don’t get me started on the joke that was the spin to win game…

Am I saying I will never again shop at Sephora? No. I am saying that because of their hit or miss customer service, the ridiculous handling of their Facebook page and the lack of communication with their loyal customers, I won’t be recommending Sephora to others nor will I purchase anything from them that I can easily get somewhere else. I’m sad that it had to come to this, but it’s time for me to find another main squeeze that will truly appreciate my business.

So, in order to commemorate a love affair gone wrong, I am having a Sephora breakup giveaway. Up for grabs are three sets of some of my favorite nail polishes:

Prize #1 Jessica Pumpkin Delight, Jessica Cinnamon Kiss & OPI On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

Prize #2 Sation Oh My Oceania!, Sation Rock-a-Guy Blue & Sation Power To The Purple

Prize #3 essence Fame Fatal, essence Gorgeous Bling Bling & essence Chic Reloaded

All polishes are brand new and purchased by me. This giveaway is open worldwide.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Again, I am not telling you to never shop at Sephora again. What I am saying is that Sephora no longer holds a place of esteem for me. These are my personal feelings stemming from what I have seen from the company lately. I have had many pleasant experiences with Sephora over the years so it is truly disheartening to see their customer service and overall attitude circle the drain. Feel free to leave comments below–whether you agree or disagree. I won’t be censoring comments. 😉

When there are so many choices out there for us, you would think that a company like Sephora would make customer service and satisfaction a top priority, but I guess we—the customers—aren’t as important as we thought we were. Thank you, Sephora, for the wonderful years. Too bad it had to end this way.