Cynthia, Author at Of Life and Lacquer

Author: Cynthia

Of Life and Lacquer > Articles by: Cynthia

The Lacquer Ring – ILNP Bikini Bottoms

Posted on 9 April, 20158 April, 2015 by Cynthia

Today The Lacquer Ring has a very special post for you and we have a very special polish that we are using. A while back, Jess went through a health scare and when she was given a clean bill of health, Amy bought us all this gorgeous polish to celebrate together. We had been waiting to use it all together.so I’m glad that we finally found an opportunity to do so. I didn’t look to do anything to this beautiful polish besides just wearing the life out of it since it’s so pretty. Additionally, it is my first experience with ILNP and I can tell you that I am very happy.

The polish in question is ILNP Bikini Bottoms. It’s such a gorgeous magenta holographic polish and the formula is to die for. It applies smoothly and is incredibly easy to control. In indoor light you get some faint holo, but in the sunlight this polish comes alive.

While the lighting I used here washes me out, it gives you an idea of what this polish will look like out in direct sunlight. Isn’t it gorgeous? I thought of doing a design or even stamping over it, but I just let it be. It’s gorgeous enough to be the main focus.

I am really looking forward to seeing what everyone else does with this polish since I kept it super simple. I know some people think polish is just another cosmetic that women obsess over, but it’s so much more to me because it was the thing that brought our special little spastic group together. Now it’s your turn to tell me what you think of this gorgeous polish. Do you have any other ILNP recommendations? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

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OPI Hawaii Collection + Giveaway!

Posted on 8 April, 20154 April, 2015 by Cynthia

I don’t think I have ever had so many questions about when I would have swatches of a collection up before this one, so I am glad to finally have this review up. I got the collection a little late so that’s why I ended up swatching it and posting it later than I would have wanted to. I’m sure that you’ve already seen a million and a half swatches of these so mine won’t be a revelation, but I’m glad to bring them to you nonetheless. Coming off of last year’s HOT HOT HOT Brazil Collection, this year OPI is taking us to a tropical paradise. Yep, I am imagining drinking my mai tai by the beach and relaxing under the sun. Wouldn’t it be nice if that could have been my true Hawaii experience? Instead I got drunk at a luau and took a bumpy day-long tour of Oahu while thoroughly hung over the next day. I also could have done without a ginormous wave sneaking up on me on Sunset Beach and drenching me while on said tour. Ahhh…it was still a nice trip though. So anyway, before I tell you about other silly things that happened on my trip, let me show you my swatches of the OPI Hawaii Collection.

OPI Hello Hawaii Ya?

OPI Lost My Bikini In Molokini

OPI Just Lanai-ing Around

OPI Suzi Shops & Island Hops

OPI That’s Hula-rious

OPI Do You Take Lei Away?

OPI Is Mai Tai Crooked?

OPI Aloha From OPI

OPI Go With The Lava Flow

OPI This Color’s Making Waves

OPI My Gecko Does Tricks

OPI Pineapples Have Peelings Too!

I have to be honest in that when I first saw the press release for this collection, I wasn’t that excited about it. I was hoping for super bright and saturated colors–like almost neons in brightness–and these colors are more muted. After actually swatching the colors, I am definitely changing my tune. You know how I feel about creme polishes so I was super glad to see a nice selection of cremes here as well as some pretty shimmers. I really did not have any problems with the formula which I’m getting used to–we are talking about OPI, you know! I think that the red headed stepchild of this collection is going to be Pineapples Have Peelings Too! Where do I start with this one? I feel like it could have been an awesome yellow crelly polish but that ugly yellow frosty base is just…ick.

Anyway, now I have the part you’re waiting for: Giveaway time! One lucky reader will be winning the entire OPI Hawaii Collection (12 full size bottles) courtesy of OPI. This giveaway is open internationally, but please don’t enter if you’re from a country that has strict restrictions on shipping.

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So what do you think about this collection? Is it your cup of tea or have you passed on a lot of these? Personally I am a huge fan of the cremes/shimmers but would pass on Pineapples Have Peelings Too! and maybe on My Gecko Does Tricks. Good luck if you decide to enter the giveaway and thanks for stopping by today!

Essie Resort Collection 2015

Posted on 7 April, 20155 April, 2015 by Cynthia

Can you believe I kept forgetting to post this review? In fact, you can tell it’s an older review because my nails were a different shape! I picked up the Essie Resort Collection for 2015 a while back because…I must try all the new Essie collections even when they don’t immediately appeal to me. Is that crazy? Some people may say so but it’s an addiction–at least I can admit it. Just like the yearly bridal collections that Essie releases, I like that they are smaller than the usual 6 piece collections. I feel that these collections can be very hit or miss so let me show you the swatches before we talk more about them.

Essie Suite Retreat

Essie Time For Me Time

Essie Stones n’ Roses

Essie Cocoa Karma

I’m just not feeling this collection. I really don’t like Cocoa Karma on me and the other colors, while nice, don’t really wow me. If I only had to pick one color from this collection it would have to be Suite Retreat because it’s the most vibrant color of the bunch and has a pretty kick-ass formula. I don’t really have much else to say about this collection–just a big meh.What are your thoughts on this small collection? Did you pick up any of these colors? Well, I hope you’re doing well and as always: thanks for the visit!

Essie Flowerista Collection Spring 2015

Posted on 6 April, 20155 April, 2015 by Cynthia

Hello friends! I hope you’re doing well today and that you’re ready for this post easter Monday. I had a nice Sunday with my family and we ate waaaaaaaaaay too much which is what usually happens when we get together for any holiday. Since Lent ended on 4/2, I immediately went out to purchase a bunch of polishes as I documented on Instagram. I was really dying to get my hands on the Essie Flowerista Collection for Spring 2015 so of course it was the first collection I decided to swatch. You already know that I have a love/hate relationship with Essie because I love the brand so much yet I end up hating the formulation on the polishes many times. I know you’re all on pins and needles waiting to hear what the final verdict is (not), but let me show you the polishes first.

Essie Perennial Chic

Essie Picked Perfect

Essie Petal Pushers

Essie Flowerista

Essie Blossom Dandy

Essie Garden Variety

Before I move forward with my thoughts, I wanted to share two pictures that are a little more color accurate. I took them with my phone camera so the quality isn’t the same but I did want to show you the way Blossom Dandy and Garden Variety lean more green than what my pictures above show. My camera is so difficult when it comes to blues and greens so I just have to deal with it.

In real life, Blossom Dandy is more minty pale green and Garden Variety is more teal-leaning. So there you have it.

Uhm, I just don’t even know where to start: this collection is freaking out of this world gorgeous! I loved every single shade and to make the whole thing even sweeter, the formula on these polishes is NOT problematic. I used two coats for all of my swatches with a coat of Seche to shine it all up. Does Rebecca Minkoff have the magic touch? Essie Collections this good–formulawise–are a little rare so I’m hoping this becomes a trend. I did not experience a single issue with these polishes, but I did allow plenty of dry time in between coats to avoid creating any bald spots. In case you haven’t realized it yet, I think this collection is peachy keen, the bee’s knees, totally tubular and any other silly saying you can think of. I’m super happy that Essie rebounded with this after the Cashmere Matte disappointment–I won’t lose the faith! So what do you think about this collection? Will you be picking up any of these colors? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Nicole by OPI Coca-Cola Collection

Posted on 2 April, 20151 April, 2015 by Cynthia

I haven’t been sleeping well lately. The reason is that I keep having jacked up dreams that I am in The Walking Dead, and I’m being chased by zombies. And you know what? There’s a reason why there aren’t any fat people on the show. If I had to run away from zombies, they would catch up with me in about 30 seconds. Even Hershel with one leg would be able to run faster than me. I always end up waking up completely freaked out, and then I don’t want to fall asleep again for fear of dreaming about zombies again. You’re probably thinking: “So stop watching the show, you dumbass!” I haven’t been watching this second part of this season cause I want to watch them all at once so I guess I can’t escape the terror! So besides zombie nightmares, things are going pretty good over here. I am enjoying blogging again so that is always good. Today I am sharing a collection that is flying under the radar: the Nicole by OPI Coca-Cola Collecion. Yep, you read that right. After OPI put out a Coca-Cola Collection last year, NOPI also put one out. While the collections are not identical, they have some similarities. Let me show you the 6 polishes that make up this collection.

Nicole by OPI The Look Is Orange

Nicole by OPI Seriously Citrus

Nicole by OPI Always A Classic Coca-Cola

Nicole by OPI DC Lover

Nicole by OPI In Grape Demand

Nicole by OPI Zero Is My Hero

Overall I think this is a very neat and cohesive collection. I really like Seriously Citrus and Zero Is My Hero so those two are my main recommendations. The formula on all of these is nice–I don’t really have anything negative to say about this collection, but it definitely did not wow me. These are nice staple colors so don’t hesitate to pick them up if you like the colors or don’t have anything similar. This collection is out now so go get ’em! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will catch up with you later.

China Glaze Electric Nights Collection Summer 2015

Posted on 1 April, 201531 March, 2015 by Cynthia

Hey guys! Happy April and happy April Fool’s Day! I don’t have any pranks for you today so don’t worry. I did think about doing one prank, but I thought it might be offensive so I decided not to do it. Are we getting too PC nowadays? It seems like it because I constantly find myself questioning if things I’m about to write could potentially offend someone. It’s not like I’m Ann Coulter or anything, but some people are really serious about this nail business! Well, today I have a new collection to share with you that we will all probably agree is fan-freaking-tastic. As you know, I get really excited when Summer collections start coming out so I was pretty much spazing out when I saw pictures of the China Glaze Electric Nights Collection for Summer 2015. As excited as I was, I was also really apprehensive because I know that neon collections an be really hard to pull off, and I always end up disappointed with the formula of the polishes. Well, let me show you the polishes before I let you know what I thought of them.

China Glaze Treble Maker

China Glaze DJ Blue My Mind

China Glaze UV Meant to Be

China Glaze Glow with the Flow

China Glaze Violet-Vibes

China Glaze Plur-ple

China Glaze Red-y to Rave

China Glaze Home Sweet House Music

China Glaze Daisy Know My Name?

Let me talk about the neon cremes before we get into the glitters…they are gorgeous. If you were expecting horrible formulas, then you will be pleasantly surprised because these are not problematic. They do not dry too quickly and do not dry satin/matte. They’re not perfect like some cremes because they do require a little more care when it comes to application, but since they are so gorgeous–do you really care? The key for me was to let the polish dry a little longer in between coats. If you do that, you can get away with two coats for most of these polishes. Daisy Know My Name? is the only one that gave me some trouble but that’s to be expected with yellows in general and this one is extra bright and somewhat sheer so I applied 4 thin coats. I would also like to mention that I did NOT wear a white base under these because I don’t think that they really need them. Yes, they are technically neons–some more than others–but they can also be called very bright cremes. In any case, I love them…I love them so hard.

China Glaze Point Me to the Party

China Glaze Let the Beat Drop

China Glaze Can I Get An Untz Untz

I know everyone has been going crazy over these glitters, and I can totally see why. They have an indie vibe to them and they are super pretty. I decided to swatch them over white because I wanted to show you all the different colors within each bottle. While it’s not difficult to get a decent amount of glitter on your brush, it is easy to flood your nails with the clear base. I recommend doing the dabbing method to avoid pooling of clear base at your cuticles. I think this glitters will look fabulous over black and over the saturated solid color polishes in this collection so I can’t wait to experiment.

Overall, China Glaze hit it out of the park with this collection. I love the colors, I liked the formula and I just think the feeling and vibe of this collection is fun and full of energy. I did not have any significant staining to report except for some minor staining from the two blues, but I was only swatching them and did not wear any base coat. The China Glaze Electric Night Collection officially comes out today but they’ve been available online at various etailers for a while now so you should be able to pick them up easily. Now I leave it to you: what do you think about this collection? I am really looking forward to hearing what you think so leave a comment below letting me know if you’re planning to pick any of these up and which are your favorites. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Cirque Colors Metropolis Collection April 2015

Posted on 31 March, 2015 by Cynthia

Can you believe this is the last day of March? Where does time go? I’ve been away for most of March but even though I haven’t been posting, it doesn’t mean that I haven’t been painting my nails like a crazy person. It felt pretty good to just paint my nails and not have to worry about writing up posts and such. Now that we are entering a new month, that means there are two new beauties to add to the Cirque Colors Metropolis Collection! Aren’t you excited? I really look forward to these monthly releases because Cirque Colors does cremes like nobody’s business. Let me show you the two beauties for April.

Cirque Colors Sunset Park

Cirque Colors Vigo

Yes, they are gorgeous. Yes, the formula is perfection. Yes, you need these. Any questions? I am already excited about seeing next month’s colors–am I weird? These beauties will be available April 1st so make sure to check them out. What do you think of these lovely shades? Thanks for the visit and talk to you soon.

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Colores de Carol for Live Love Polish

Posted on 30 March, 201529 March, 2015 by Cynthia

I am really happy about finally being back on track with my blogging. I spent a good chunk of time on Sunday swatching, editing pictures and putting posts together. I made a pretty big dent in my swatching pile (I only have 6 polishes pending right now!), but about 20 more are arriving this week so I’m back where I started. haha I guess that’s not a horrible problem to have, but it can get a bit overwhelming to someone like me since I’m so anal about staying organized. In any case, I hope that I can stay on track with my blogging and swatching because I really miss doing it. I am definitely glad that I took a month to recharge my batteries because we are getting super close to the release of summer collections which always blow me away. Today I have some glittery beauties to share with you. These 4 glitter-dense polishes are my very first from the Colores de Carol brand and they also happen to be limited editions and exclusive to Live Love Polish. Let me show you how blingtastic they are!

These holographic glitter polishes are very pretty and in my opinion work better layered over a solid color base. Since the glitter is so dense, you can wear them alone but be warned that you will need multiple coats to get fully opaque coverage. It is recommended to use the sponge method if you will be using these on their own otherwise you may end up with very thick coats on your nails. For my swatches below, I applied 1 coat of each glitter over a similar color base–no top coat needed.

Colores de Carol Gatsby

Colores de Carol Don Draper

Colores de Carol Harvey Specter

Colores de Carol Dexter

So what do you think? While these glitters first struck me as being super basic, I ended up really liking them especially over the colored bases. I bet that there are a bunch of different colors that these will look good over. You can purchase these polishes over at Live Love Polish for $12 each or you can purchase the 4 piece set for $39, and you get free shipping on orders of $20 or more. These are LE so make sure to grab them before they’re gone if you want them. If I could only have one of them, I would go with Gatsby just because I love green glitter and because The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite novels of all time. I’ll leave you with the final lines of the novel:

And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock.He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…. And one fine morning ——

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

Is there a The Great Gatsby nail polish collection out there? Cause I’d buy it! I’d also like to see someone do a Cien años de soledad collection, but I think that would be as impossible as Essie doing that The Office collection but we can all dream, right? Anyway, I’d better stop here before I start raving about Invisible Man and Catcher In The Rye. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

The Lacquer Ring – Negative Space

Posted on 26 March, 201525 March, 2015 by Cynthia

Hey! I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaack! I’m trying really hard to get into blogging again because I am not going to start April with this slump so I decided to participate in today’s prompt for The Lacquer Ring. Nicole chose negative as her design prompt and you know I was moaning and groaning because negative space is totally not something I normally like. I guess one of the awesome things about doing these prompts is that we try new things or things we don’t usually want to try. Let me show you what I decided to do:

This beautiful polish is Illamasqua Dedicate. Have I told you how much I love Illamasqua? I used stripping tape and nail vinyls to create the negative space designs. It’s a very basic mani–almost too basic, but I wasn’t really feeling the inspiration to do anything too complicated.

Anywho, I’m keeping this post short but have tons of things in the works. I’m really pushing myself to get worked up of April so wish me luck. How do you feel about negative space manis? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

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Where Have You Been?

Posted on 15 March, 2015 by Cynthia

A few people asked me why I haven’t been blogging or posting on IG and Facebook lately so I figured I’d say something since I am still around. I’ve decided to take a little break. At first it was a forced break because my nails were so damaged that swatching sessions were out of the question, but now I’m feeling ok about giving myself some time to recharge. Slowly all the damage is growing out on my swatching hand so I think it will take another couple of months before I see all the buffing damage gone. Additionally, I went on a no-buy for Lent so I haven’t purchased any polish since early February and won’t until early April. My brother made fun of me since I am still technically getting some polish via press samples, but it’s nowhere near the amount I normally purchase on my own. There have been a few moments of painful uncertainty and I have almost broken my no-buy twice, but now I am 100% sure that I will stick it out.

For the next few weeks I won’t be posting regularly, but I do have a few draft posts that I’ll be publishing this coming week. Other than that, I will enjoy my break and I hope to see you guys when I’m back. I do have some items that I need to swatch, so I’ll get to it as soon as my nails begin to cooperate again. It’s been crazy hot here–like in the mid 90’s–so I’m kind of in a pissy mood altogether. It’s March for God’s sake–not freaking August! Sometimes I really hate California weather.

Anyway, thanks for still coming by even when I’m being a bad blogger. You guys are the best. See you around and I’ll be back soon with a more regular blogging schedule!