Author: Cynthia

Of Life and Lacquer > Articles by: Cynthia

American Classic Kissin Cousin

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Today I have another oldie for you from American Classic. I am still actively trying to hunt down more information about this company and this phantom line of nail polishes. I might just have to go and talk to my nail polish guy again since he told me some background info on the the founder of the company. I was looking at the ingredient section on the back and it is definitely not Big 3-Free…not that it’s a big surprise considering how old the bottle looks.

 

This color is called Kissin Cousin. What is a “kissin cousin” anyway? I mean, it sounds a little incestuous to me.  The formula on this was very sheer but also very buildable. I love this soft color because it just looks so delicate and bright.

 

Will you stop with the glitter already!? Here is Kissin Cousin with a coat of Servin’ Up Sparkle. I also applied a mattifier  to change the look of the glitter and polish.

Have you ever come across these American Classic nail polishes? Please let me k now if you have any information about them; I’d love to know how old these are! Thanks for visiting today and I hope that you have a lovely weekend.

Illamasqua Faithful

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I feel that I am rather faithful to make-up brands especially when I find something that really works for me. But what about nail polish? I seem to buy anything and everything because I like to think of myself as an equal opportunity purchaser when it comes to nail polish. I don’t have the most lavish budget so I am an avid deal hunter. I am very lucky to have so many beauty supply stores in my area that sell a lot of the major brands at huge discounts. Unfortunately, this also makes me buy huge quantities of nail polish because, well, who can resist discounts? Not me!

Illamasqua is a brand that I don’t mind spending a little more money on…or a lot. Granted, their nail polish sells for $14 which is nowhere near  bloated Chanel prices, but it’s still pricier than I would like.When their Naked Strangers Collection came out, I wasn’t that excited about it because I am more of a bold nail polish lover and the colors just seemed so…tame. I had gone to Sephora earlier in the week because I wanted to see if they had any of the Nails Inc. matter glitter “Sprinkles” polishes. Alas, they are not in store yet so I had to console myself with other nail polishes. I was playing around with the newest colors and Faithful really caught my attention. It looked like it was glowing from within. It had to be mine.

 

How can you resist the metallic looking glow of Faithful? The formula was perfect, as usual for Illamasqua, and I only needed two coats. This is a color that I could wear anywhere because it’s a bit neutral but still has a certain playfulness to it. It’s not overpowering, but it’s not boring either. Can you tell I love this color?

I’ve been playing a lot with glitter lately so I took out my #1 favorite glitter of all time: China Glaza Mahagonie. It has such a beautiful brown/red base with lots of holo glitter thrown into the mix. I think this combination sounded better in my head because I’m not too happy with the way it turned out once I sponged it on top of faithful. I don’t know if it was the sponge, my technique or the glitter, but this just doesn’t appeal to me as much. This just goes to show you that two rights, don’t always make a right!

Since I wasn’t too happy with the sponging, I went ahead and applied one thick coat of Mahoganie over my nails. This glitter is opaque at two coats if you wear it on its own. Since I already had a base color in Faithful, I was able to get away with one coat.

So what do you think? Are you an Illamasqua fan? Have you tried any of the China Glaze specialty glitters? This one is my favorite but Atlantis comes in at a close second. Wow…all that writing about glitter is throwing me off. Hello, my name is Cynthia and I am a reluctant glitter lover.

Wet N Wild Saved By The Bell Collection Giveaway!

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EDIT 7/19/2012: A Winner has been picked. Please refer to this post for details. Thank you for entering!

 

Ok, I’m going to give this a try and host my first giveaway! Yay!  Since this is my first giveaway, I am only opening this up to US residents. I’m sorry! I just want to make sure this works fine before I do a bigger giveaway for everyone. The giveaway is open starting today, 7/12, and ends at 12:01 am est on 7/20.

Because I still haven’t transitioned from free wordpress hosting, I can’t embed the Rafflecopter widget in this post, so I hope it  still works. I created the giveaway on Rafflecopter so you will have to click on the link below and enter that way.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You will be able to accumulate a total of 5 entries should you wish to complete all 4 tasks.

  • +2 entries Follow my blog
  • +1 entry Leave a Blog Post Comment
  • +1 entry Follow @LifeAndLacquer on Twitter
  • +1 entry Tweet About the Giveaway

You won’t get any extra entries, but you can also follow me on facebook and pinterest if you are so inclined.

For swatches of the collection, please see my previous post here.

I want to thank all the wonderfully creative, caring and lovely ladies whom I have had the pleasure to meet in the 8 months that I’ve been working on this little blog. I know I’m just one person in a sea of talented ladies so I appreciate every single one of you who visit my little world.  And for those of you who are regular readers and who join in the insanity that my comments section sometimes becomes, I love you! 🙂

Here is the prize. I am going to bubble wrap it nice and secure. (My set is in the background since someone asked me if I was giving away the set I swatched: no, they are brand new.)

I really hope there aren’t any issues with the rafflecopter link, but if there are, please let me know right away.  I know this isn’t some huge prize or anything, but I hope someone gets to enjoy it if only for the fond memories of being a kid.

Wet N Wild Saved By The Bell Collection

Posted on by Cynthia

I went shopping at Ulta today because my mom wanted to buy some make-up so of course I had to get another Layla holo. I know…I know. Afterwards, we went to CVS to purchase some vitamins and other health stuff and I saw a Wet N Wild stand with a bunch of neon polishes. Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was a Wet N Wild Saved By The Bell collection. OMG!!! I nearly shit myself. Saved By The Bell?!

(For whatever reason, it was really hard to find a clip of the intro to the show. Totally weird…that’s why I went with this crappy one. Sorry.)

I used to watch Saved By The Bell religiously when I was a kid. It was one of my favorite shows along with Small Wonder, California Dreams, I Love Lucy and Gilligan’s Island. Fuck, I feel old. If you’re in your late 20’s-early 30’s, you probably watched some or all of these shows. It’s ok to cringe when you think  about  the Screech sex tape or Jesse in Showgirls. Anyway, on to the polish!

Pom Pom Kelly

Nerd Alert: Screech

Straight A Jesse

Pin ‘Em Slater

Fashionista Lisa

Chick Magnet Zack

I really liked this collection despite the fact that I think I’m on neon polish overload. My favorite color is Nerd Alert: Screech. I love that it’s such a fun, shimmery, neon lime green. I’ve never really been too impressed with the brushes on Wet N Wild Wild Shine polishes because they seem to work against me when I try to apply smooth coats. I did not apply any top coat to my swatches because I wanted to show you the satiny finish. Overall, I am beyond happy with this collection. Come on…for $.99 a bottle, can you really complain?  Let me know if you spot these. I don’t know if they are exclusive to CVS and I haven’t been able to find any information about this collection online. I find it very strange.

Ah, memories! Would anyone be interested in a Fresh Prince of Bel Air nail polish collection? No? Just me, huh?

 

What To Do When Your Nail Polish Smells Like Shit

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I never thought I’d say this, but you throw it away. (Pause for dramatic effect) I know what you’re thinking. How can you throw your babies away when they deserve a life of happiness on your nails? Just because they smell, it doesn’t mean that they don’t bleed if you prick them. Now, I’m not really comparing my nail polish to Shylock so don’t get your Bardolatry panties in a bunch. After the experience I had with a nail polish today, I think I know what pure evil smells like. But before I can get into that, I am going to tell you about another polish that I used as my base for the offensive manicure.

I have to say that I was super excited about the China Glaze Summer Neons when I first saw promo pictures, but then my excitement fizzled once I started seeing swatches. Don’t get me wrong…they are pretty and all, but they just don’t call my name like other polishes. I still picked up a few of the colors, and I was excited to try Ride The Waves.

I’m trying to hold myself back because I hate to say bad things about my beloved China Glaze, but I just did not care for this at all. I love blue nail polish, but I just don’t like the finish on this AT ALL. I knew it wouldn’t be completely opaque before trying it on, yet I’m still faulting it for it? I’m mad at a jelly for being…a jelly. Maybe I was just in a weird mood because I was anticipating disaster.  I applied three coats here, in case you were wondering.

Now here is the offensive little turd: Kleancolor Chunky Holo Purple. I took a picture of it in the shade so you could really appreciate the beautiful color shifts. The beauty of this is completely cancelled out by the stench that fills your nostrils once you open the bottle. If you want to know what death and evil’s baby would smell like, look no further.

Despite the stench, I love how glowy my nails looked. I went to the supermarket after I finished my mani and a few people commented on them so at least I know that they are attention-grabbing nails. I wore these for about 2 hours and then I had to take them off. My fingers smelled–reeked–even after applying a top coat.

Do I recommend Kleancolor? Sniff at your own risk.

Color Club Hydrangea Kiss

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Did you know that the hydrangea is the 4th wedding anniversary flower? I didn’t. I didn’t even know there were “anniversary flowers” to begin with. Who comes up with this stuff? I mean, isn’t it completely arbitrary? Maybe I can start saying that a can of Hormel Chili is the new 1st anniversary present. Forget the whole “paper” thing. I mean, what’s more romantic than a can of Hormel Chili? Despite my annoyance with certain weird traditions, I have to admit that hydrangeas are gorgeous.

Hydrangea Kiss is the only color that I purchased from the Color Club Spring 2012 Blossoming Collection, and I don’t know what really attracted me to it. Yeah, it’s pretty but is it really unique? Not really.

I don’t know if it’s the same with other polishes from this collection, but I found that the formula was a little thin and sheer. The first coat was seriously like a wash of color on my nails. I ended up applying 3 coats because the second coat dragged a bit, and I had to even it all out. It’s important to let the polish dry a bit in between coats to avoid this.

Are you surprised that I did more stamping? I used a design on BM 314 to stamp the area between the silver striping tape. I bought my striping tape on eBay, and it doesn’t seem to stick very well. I wonder if maybe the heat from the trip from Hong Kong made the glue go bad. It was definitely a pain to manipulate the tape, and it was almost curling up on a couple of areas. Ugh! Still, I really like how this turned out.

Did you purchase any colors from this Color Club collection? What do you think of these nails? Let me know what you think about this and my Hormel Chili idea.

Sara Smile

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Has there ever been a song named after a person and you secretly you wish that was your name…even just for the length of the song? Well, that’s me with Sara Smile.

I don’t really know why I thought this would be a good way to open up this blog post, but the only reason I can think of is that I heard a bit of this song when I watched The Fighter tonight. Believe it or not, I had not watched this movie until tonight, and it was freaking awesome. I think I’ve stated on here before what a huge H&O fan I am, but I don’t think anyone understand what an understatement that is. Any time I hear a H&O song, I have to sing along with it…no matter where I am.

Let’s move along from Hall & Oates and back to nail polish! OPI DS Coronation has made quite a few appearances on my blog and rightly so! It’s a freaking amazing scattered silver holo.

DS Coronation applies like a dream. It only take two coats and it really settles and flows perfectly on my nails. There is absolutely no way that you can mess up a mani if you’re using this polish. And since my Bundle Monster obsession continues, I stamped this baby up!

I used plate BM 319 for this design. I really like the design but I keep thinking that these nails look Christmas-y because of the color combination I used. Maybe I would have liked them better if I had used black for the design. Despite my reservations about my color choices, I adore this design. Ugh…I am a stamping fool lately.

What do you think of these nails? Do you have any Designer Series OPIs? Do you think they are worth the extra money? What different color combination would you use for this stamping look?

Jessica Cosmetics Gelato Mio! Collection Summer 2012

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I have to say that I wish these colors had been named in a more gelato-inspired manner. Think about it: nocciola, fragola, stracciatella, pistacchio, bacio…oh, I need to go to Italy soon. I always make sure to stop by Vivoli and gorge myself whenever I go to Florence, so this collection brought back many delicious memories. I am more of a dark and vampy colors kind of gal when it comes to nail polish so I was very happy at how much I loved these colors. They are so incredibly creamy looking and flow like butter. I am usually squeamish about pastels because they are mostly chalky, harsh and application nightmares. These colors where a joy to apply: highly pigmented, opaque with two coats, even and glossy. I am completely in love with these!

Lime Cooler

 

Tangerine Dreamz

 

Strawberry Shake It

 

Banana Peel

 

Barely Blueberry

 

Surfer Boyz’n Berry

What do you think of these colors? I really didn’t find these streaky at all because I used medium coats, but I can see that if you use thin coats, you  would probably get some streakiness. The creaminess of these colors is what makes them stand out to me. The Jessica Gelato Mio! collection is out now so go get ’em!

Is This Real Life?

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I love this video. I think it’s my second favorite kid video on youtube with Charlie Bit My Finger being #1

I was asking myself if I really bought this much nail polish today. I look at it and I am still wondering what possesses me to go on these nail polish buying binges. It’s like a high. Is anyone else understanding this or am I just nuts?

So much polish…………………..

 

I picked up the whole Gelato Mio collection from Jessica Cosmetics. I’ve gotta admit that the main reason why I got these is because I am dying to go back to Italy. Some of my fondest memories of Italy are food related–gelato being a huge part of it. The last time I was in Italy, way back in 2003, V. and I went to Rome and Florence. Despite how cold it was, we were still dedicated gelato eaters the whole time. Ahhh! Also, I have the funniest picture of D. and I during our first trip to Italy. We went out for a really awesome dinner and we had probably the most pivotal conversation in our 15 year friendship. We also proceeded to get plastered on red wine and then wandered around the city drunk and crazy trying to find a gelato place that was open. Once we did, we bought some and headed back to the hotel. The next morning, D. was asking me what the hell we had done the previous night because his jacket was coated with something. We never figured it out until I developed the pictures and we got a picture of him drunk, eating gelato while it was melting down the cone and down his arm all over his jacket. LOL

One of my dusties had a crapload of these American Classic nail polishes. I wanted to get a bunch of them because the one I previously tried was awesome. I still don’t have much info about this nail polish line, but I got to talking with the owner of the nail polish store and he told me that the guy who started this company also started China Glaze. Huh? He was telling me how he had designed the bottle and stuff. When you look at these, they do look exactly like CG bottles except for the ridges on the cap. How cool. Sally Beauty Supply gave me a contact # for American Classic (who make Gelous) so I’m going to call them and see if they can give me any info about this. I’d love to know how old these are.

 

Ahhh…Kleancolor. These smell like the vas deferens of a platypus. The smell is beyond disgusting so I don’t know if I’ll be able to deal with them. These are all glitters!!!! I decided to get them because they are dirt cheap and I will never pay a lot for any glitter.

 

These are just some assorted goodies from China Glaze (yay for super old polishes!!!), Nubar, Essie and Dare To Wear.

 

And lastly, I got some more special Konad polishes for stamping and some nail art stuff.

I need to cut the crap and stop being such a nail polish hoarder. I only have 20 nails…why do I need so much? Well, for now, nail polish makes me happy and I really need a little happiness when I’m usually feeling so rotten. I hate feeling like I’m just a shopaholic, but I guess it could be worse.

Miss Professional Nail Sation Line For Fall 2012

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“To kick off the holiday, Miss is honoring the Wild Wild West Coast by launching its first Fall Collection soon, Little Horse on the Prairie!

America is known for pioneering many great hallmarks: Freedom! Independence! Liberty! As well as countless inventions, such as Covered Wagons and Iphones. Although wagons aren’t for everyone; iphones, horses & gorgeous nails are still in high demand! Dream along with us as we whisk you away to the scenic views that our ancestors have fought for; open prairies & big blue skies! Miss elevates the celebration with an awesome indie music video of sizzling red hot & cool blue nails to die for!”

You all know how I love fall nail polish collections. I think I have said that a million times before, but if you didn’t know, then listen up my dear polish fiends. It should come as no surprise to you that I can’t wait to get my hands on this collection from Miss Professional Nail:

I am really drooling over these especially Weed Out The Wimps. Oh man, I want these pretty bad.

 

Here are some interesting promo pics for the upcoming Little Horse On The Prairie Collection. Is it just me or do these images have a soft-core porn look to them? They are pretty images: beautiful model, beautiful scenery and an angelic looking horse…but why does the model look like she is having an orgasm? I mean, maybe that’s what would happen to me if I found the China Glaze OMG collection at one of my dusties so I guess I shouldn’t judge.

Here is a behind the scenes type video about this collection.

Am I the only one that almost wanted to cry when I saw all that wasted polish dripping on the rocks and tree stumps? If you’re interested in getting any of these colors, the collection will be released in August.

Which is your favorite season for nail polish? Have you tried any Sation polishes yet? If you say no, I’m coming after you.