Cynthia, Author at Of Life and Lacquer

Author: Cynthia

Of Life and Lacquer > Articles by: Cynthia

KBShimmer Men Are From Mars-ala

Posted on 22 December, 201422 December, 2014 by Cynthia

Can you believe that there is about a week and a half left before we enter 2015? I’m kind of blown away by this because I feel like I’m in such a different place than I was a year ago–in a good way for the most part. But, I’ll leave that self-reflection for another post, maybe my last post of the year after I’ve had a few margaritas. Ooohhh….dangerous combination. One of the things I look forward to is the unveiling of the Pantone Color of the year. Having worked in the paint industry for a bit, I learned to love color and all the different trends that affect how products are marketed. As you may know, Marsala is the 2015 color of the year and I actually quite like it. I heard make people complaining about it and how it’s a grandma color and plain ugly. I love the earthiness of the color, and I think it suits my skin tone quite well. I knew that there would be plenty of polishes coming out with Marsala as the main inspiration and to day I have one of the first ones I have seen: KBShimmer Men Are From Mars-ala.

Look, you already know what I’m going to say because we’re talking about KBShimmer here. This polish is absolutely gorgeous. The formula is buttery and opaque at two coats. While it doesn’t look super holographic here, it does look amazing in the sun. Good job, KBShimmer…you never disappoint.

My friend Amy asked me how Men Are From Mars-ala compared to Deja Brew so I decided to do a little comparison for her.

Totally different! I should have included Rust No One, but that one is also not similar as it is much more red/orange.

So what do you think about this polish? What are your thoughts on the color of the year? If you’re interested in picking up this beauty, it will be available on www.KBShimmer.com for $8.75 on January 1st. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Stamping Saturdays #48

Posted on 20 December, 2014 by Cynthia

Happy Saturday everyone. It’s kind of a gloomy day here which feels weird for California. I thought that we were going to have more rain, but apparently we’re going to have a pretty sunny and mild holiday week. I still haven’t done any Christmas shopping, and I think I’m pretty much dead on that at this point. Yesterday I went to Target and it was mayhem–what was I expecting? I’m going to try to go tonight to get everything done but first I’m going to stop by and visit my Peanut Brat. Last night I had such a hard time deciding what to to for today’s Stamping Saturdays until I started digging in my untrieds. Let me show you how my mani came together.

First I started with 2 coats of OPI Get Cherried Away (press sample) from the OPI Coca Cola Collection. It’s such a beautiful berry color that is super opaque. I wanted to use this berry shade as my base for the next polish because it has a jelly finish that needs to be built up.

This is the first time that I use anything from Pipe Dream Polish, and I love it. A big thanks to Frosso for this gorgeous polish. I love being exposed to new brands and sometimes I just don’t even have time to check out what’s out there. Pipe Dream Polish Interference is a glitter polish in a dark jelly base. I love the glitter in this polish, but it does dry super lumpy/gritty which is why you need a good thick top coat to smooth it out. I only applied one coat of Interference over Get Cherried Away and one coat of Seche to give it a smooth and shiny finish.

For my stamp, I used my trusty Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and the paisley image from Bundle Monster plate BM-315. I love how cleanly this stamped.

So what do you think of this mani? I really like it, and I loved trying out a new polish brand. It’s always a love/hate moment because now I’m going to be drooling over yet another brand when I’m trying to to be good about my spending. Well, I hope you’re doing well today and don’t forget to join us every Saturday for Stamping Saturdays. You can use the hashtag #stampingsaturdays on instagram so that I can find you! Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Loading InLinkz ...

The Lacquer Ring – Stars

Posted on 18 December, 201417 December, 2014 by Cynthia

Ello gov’nor! I’ve been wanting to answer the phone at work that way for a long time, but I don’t think that is going to fly. What do you think? I’m feeling kind of silly today and have no idea why. I think that it may be the funky weather, the holidays or PMS…ok, tmi so let’s move right along. It’s that time again when The Lacquer Ring is ready to wow you with our most awesome designs! See? I told you I was feeling silly. Today’s prompt, courtesy of Lesley, is all about stars. At first I wanted to use some stamping plates but then I remembered that I had some nail decals that I hadn’t used so BAM…it all came together.

The items I have used for today’s mani are KBShimmer Stonewashed (press sample), Max Factor Fantasy Fire (gift) and Salon Perfect Star Struck Nail Decal Kit (press sample).

I know that I talk about KBShimmer. I can’t help it–just look at this polish!!!! Stonewashed is such a perfect opaque creme. This is two smooth coats, and it really doesn’t get any better than this.

If I could topcoat everything with Max Factor Fantasy Fire I probably would. I just had an image of my car being topcoated with Fantasy Fire…is that weird? I applied a super thin coat of Fantasy Fire over Stonewashed just to give it that lit from within look.

And finally here are the stars. I have to work a little more on my decal placement but overall I give this mani a meh. I thought it was going to reach polish boner territory due to the awesome base, but I think it just became too much and now it’s just a semi.

So what do you think about this mani? Did the decals ruin it for you? Regardless, I strongly recommend that you check out KBShimmer Stonewashed cause it’s just divine. Anywho, don’t forget to check out the other stellar designs from my girls. My girls as in the other members of the Lacquer Ring, not my boobs. Just thought that I should clear that up just in case. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Loading InLinkz ...

The Beauty Buffs – Gold vs. Silver

Posted on 17 December, 201416 December, 2014 by Cynthia

I’ve got to admit that today’s The Beauty Buffs prompt was really hard for me because I hate anything metallic looking. I almost never wear jewelry, but when I do, I make sure that it’s either silver or white gold. I hate yellow gold with a passion and this extends to nails as well so I had to seriously ponder what I wanted to do today. Well, I decided to go with something a little boring, but I did use two great polishes that I never thought I would like until I got my hands on them. Let me show you what I did.

OPI This Gown Needs a Crown (press sample) and OPI Love.Angel.Music.Baby (press sample) are two of my favorite polishes of the year. I think that the beautiful satin finish is what totally made these polishes stand out. I alternated the two polishes on my nails for that added contrast.

I did some dots just to create further contrast, and I did end up liking the end result. A few people actually commented on my nails when I was out and about. Either they were confused as to why I only had one hand done or they really liked them…let’s just pretend they loved them, ok?

Don’t forget to check out the posts of my fellow Beauty Buffs below. What are some colors that you don’t like for your nails? Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Loading InLinkz ...

Dollish Polish Go Luigi!

Posted on 16 December, 201416 December, 2014 by Cynthia

It’s supposed to rain here again, and I am super happy about it. I don’t know why I’ve always loved rain so much, but it’s just super cozy weather. I definitely don’t like driving in the rain because here in SoCal, we basically forget all normal rules of the road and drive around as if we were in bumper cars. Since we’ve had such a bad drought, I really do hope that we get enough rain to help us through the dry patch. Last night I worked on two manicures for later in the week, and I was quite proud of myself for actually doing things in advance. Now if I could just write up my posts in advance, that would be great! A girl can dream, right? A couple of weeks ago I pulled out all of my indies from my melmers to admire them. Do any of you do that or is it just me? I love how huge the indie market is no, but I easily become overwhelmed by all the different brands and collections. I think that one of my top favorite collections is the Dollish Polish Super Mario Bros. Collections because I was/am a total Nintendo nerd and Super Mario Bros. was my first video game. I still remember the pure moment of euphoria the day we picked up our NES at Toys R Us. Isn’t it funny how you can remember feelings that you had when you were a child? I don’t recall specifics about that day, but still get butterflies thinking about what it was like to go to the store and pick it up. I also recall the cashier saying it was like $100-something and I was thinking that was sooo much money. Anyway, the reason I started talking about Nintendo is because today I have Dollish Polish Go Luigi! to show you.

I started out with two coats of Sinful Colors Peppered Amazon. I don’t know about you, but I think this is one of the prettiest Sinful Colors to come out in a really long time. The green color is gorgeous and that shimmer really elevates it. Despite the heavily pigmented formula, it did not stain my nails.

Dollish Polish Go Luigi! is a great glitter topper full of blue, green and turquoise hexes in varying sizes as well as silver stars. I absolutely love this!

What do you think of this glitter topper? What do you think about Peppered Amazon? I really like this combination, but I think that next time I will use a dark black polish as my base because the glitter will really pop. Well, I hope you’re having a nice day, and I will talk to you soon!

Nothing to disclose

OPI 50 Shades of Grey Collection

Posted on 15 December, 201414 December, 2014 by Cynthia

Hello and I hope you’re doing well on this Monday morning. Nothing to report here except for the usual case of the Mondays, so I’m just going to move right along. How are things going with your holiday shopping? I haven’t started buying presents yet so I’m sure that I’m going to wait until the last second and then it will be pure madness. I am a procrastinator so I’ve resigned myself to the inevitable. Today I have something that I think might be a little polarizing: the OPI 50 Shades of Grey Collection. I’ve already come across quite a few people bemoaning the fact that OPI decided to make a collection about “that book/that movie.” To be honest, I have read the books and they are mildly smutty, poorly written and uber predictable. Basically I equate them to the literary equivalent of bad reality TV. I can give you a quick synopsis of the books if you haven’t read them: Beautiful, virginal and brainy girl who doesn’t realize how gorgeous she is despite every man around her being in love with her meets a mega rich bad boy who is scarred and broken by his past. He falls in love with her, she falls in love with him. They have problems because she wants to change him and he doesn’t want to change. They have a lot of sex. He changes for her and they live happily ever after in their mansion. The end. It’s basically a smutty fairy tale which apparently tons of women loved. I wasn’t offended by the sex in the book–I was more offended by the horrible writing. Anyway, I don’t care that the collection was inspired by the books and I can almost guarantee that I will watch the movie cause it’s Jamie Dornan and all. That’s all they needed to say. Now that I blabbed away, let me show you the actual polishes and you can be the judge of whether you’ll want these or not.

OPI Cement the Deal

OPI Embrace the Gray

OPI Shine For Me

OPI My Silk Tie

OPI Dark Side of the Mood

OPI Romantically Involved

So what do you think about these? To be honest with you, I ended up liking this small collection a lot more than I had anticipated. I am a fan of grey polish overall so I quite enjoyed the two lighter greys. The red, Romantically Involved, was a nice welcome pop of color in an otherwise very one tone collection of colors. Formula-wise, all of the polishes were great except for Dark Side of the Mood which required 3 coats for full opacity. Can we all agree that we just don’t nee anymore silver polishes like My Silk Tie? I am so tired of seeing this type of polish in every collection in the last few months especially because it’s not a color I really like. I don’t think it’s as prone to brush strokes as some of the other silver foil/chromes, but it’s best to work fast and not overwork the polish. So what do you think about this collection? Let me know in the comments below. Thank you for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

All items featured in this post were purchased by me.

Stamping Saturdays #47

Posted on 13 December, 201413 December, 2014 by Cynthia

It’s pretty freaking cold here–for California that is. We had a pretty rainy day yesterday which we really need because of the drought, but it’s mayhem when it rains. We actually had a tornado briefly touch down in LA which is pretty crazy for us. It’s supposed to rain later in the week so I hope we don’t have any serious disasters. I’ve been waiting to show you the amazeball polish that I got recently so excuse me if I start to sound slightly spastic. Last weekend, I decided to break my two month no-buy for one of the flaky polishes that was put out by KBShimmer. Oooohhh it’s a beauty for sure! Let me show you what I did with it for today’s Stamping Saturdays.

I started with two coat of OPI Miss You-niverse (press sample.) This color photographed darker than it is in real life, but you can still appreciate how rich this polish is.

Here is the star of the show: KBShimmer Rainbow Shield. This is one thick coat of the polish over OPI Miss You-niverse.

And here it is mattified. Holy shitballs. There are no words. Seriously, just look at the beauty of the flakes.

Since it is Stamping Saturdays, of course I had to stamp this up! I used Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and an image from Born Pretty plate BP-13 for this design. There is something about the flakes peeking from behind this pattern and I’m really digging!

If your interested in purchasing KBShimmer Rainbow Shield, you can find it exclusively at KBShimmer’s Etsy shop. It’s a super duper limited edition polish along with 5 other flakies that were released recently. They are priced at $9.75 each or $58 for the set of 6. I’m thinking about picking up Flame Queen and Lighting Ridge as well, but I’m trying so hard to be good about my polish spending. WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME, KBSHIMMER?!?!?! Anyway, let me know what you think about this mani. If you love stamping as much as I do, join me every Saturday for Stamping Saturdays. You can use the hashtag #stampingsaturdays on Instagram to link up with us–we’d love to see your creations. Thank you for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Loading InLinkz ...

Seche & Live Love Polish Review

Posted on 10 December, 2014 by Cynthia

Don’t you just love the days when you don’t have to go to work? Actually, I take that back because I am not at work today because I am sick. It all started with some congestion and now I have a cough, runny nose and post nasal drip–lovely! I think I was running a fever last night because I woke up drenched in sweat–even more lovely. Since I’m spending the afternoon in bed, I figured I might as well do something productive like write up this post! Today I am going to be talking about Seche Vite. Ahhh, Seche Vite; you are my first and only love. One of the questions that I get most often is what kind of top coat I use to get such a glossy finish on my manicures. I can tell you that 99% of the time I use Seche Vite because there is nothing that works better for me. I’ve tried so many different top coats in my last 3 years of blogging, but I keep coming back to Seche Vite every single time. And what better way to showcase my favorite top coat than to pair it with a beautiful polish from the Seche nail polish line? The beauty I have for you today is Seche Rendezvous.

Seche Rendezvous is a gorgeous magenta cream that is quite opaque. I applied two coats of polish for my swatches above. One thing I have noticed about Seche polish in general is that it tends to set a little quicker than what I’m used to so it’s very easy to overwork it. If you’re not super quick with your application, you can definitely cause an uneven mess. The good thing is that if you do get some unevenness, you can slap on a coat of Seche Vite and it will fix your mani right up!

I know that not everyone is like me in that I live near some really awesome beauty supply stores where I can basically get EVERYTHING under the stars, so you’ll be glad to hear that the Seche line is easily accessible at Live Love Polish. I have a difficult time finding Seche polishes in retail store near me, so I’ve only had the chance to try out a few colors in the past. Just like the famous top coat, I find the Seche nail lacquer line to be good quality and very durable.

As far as the top coat goes, I know that there are a few complaints out there, and it wouldn’t be fair to ignore those points:

It shrinks your polish
It smells and is not 3-free
It gets mega goopy halfway through the bottle

What am I missing? I think those are the three complaints that I tend to hear most often. I am of the mindset that not every product is going to work perfectly for every single person out there. I have had very minor issues with shrinkage (insert Seinfeld joke here). I tend to flood my nail with Seche Vite which encapsulates the polish, and I can honestly tell you that I rarely have shrinkage. As for the smell, maybe I’m weird cause I like the smell–or maybe it’s cause it gets me kinda polish high…who knows?! I do know that many people will not use products that are not big 3-free, but I have nothing for you on that because it’s a personal decision. Lastly, and probably the biggest complaint, is the goop factor. The first time that you open a bottle of Seche Vite, it’s this perfect consistency that glides over your nails with the greatest of ease, it’s the daring young man on the flying trapeze…eehh…see how easy it is to distract me when I’m sick? So anyway, halfway through the bottle you will notice that your once flowing Seche Vite is he consistency of lava which doesn’t lend itself to flawless application. Well, at that point I bust out my partner in crime, Seche Restore, and add a few drops to thin it back to a manageable consistency. Voila! Problem solved. I know that we all have our favorite top coats, but it just happens that Seche Vite is mine. I haven’t found anything that dries faster, harder and stronger. (Is that you, Daft Punk?)

So what do you think of Seche Rendezvous? Is it your kind of color? What is your favorite top coat? I’d be very interested to hear all about your top coat tribulations because as we all know, your mani is only as good as your top coat. Don’t forget to check out Live Love Polish where you can purchase these products and many more. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Stamping Saturdays #46

Posted on 6 December, 20146 December, 2014 by Cynthia

Something horrible happened last night, something that didn’t allow me to sleep: American Horror Story Coven is on Netflix so of course I’m not going to sleep this entire weekend just binge watching every single delicious episode. I actually stayed up until like 4 am watching episodes which means that I didn’t wake up until like 11 am this morning. UGH! I hate sleeping in that late, but I was pretty tired. It seems that whenever I sleep in super late, I am extra lazy the rest of the day which means that I will be rushing to get all my stuff done on Sunday. Womp womp. Last night I got it in my head that I wanted to go buy Sinful Colors Prosecco for my Stamping Saturdays mani. Apparently I’m the only person on the planet who didn’t know that it’s really hard to find because I went to 5 different stores and no one had it. Once I got home, I decided to look through my “high end” melmer drawer and couldn’t decide between Dior Rosy Bow and YSL Vert d’Orient. Of course I ended up going with Rosy Bow which is probably my favorite baby pink of all time. Let’s take a look at it.

I know that most people balk at the price, but Dior Rosy Bow is worth every penny in my book. I just love this polish so much and I am a super huge fan of the Dior brush as well. This is two smooth coats of the polish with a coat of Seche to amp up the sine.

I then used an image from Born Pretty plate BP-02 for this lace design. I also used my Mentality stamping polish in Black Opaque and I really loved how it performed. One thing that I really love about this stamping polish is that it is opaque but doesn’t stain like crazy unlike my black Konad polish. I also like that it doesn’t smear and smudge like the Konad one either. No matter what I do, my black Konad polish smears when I top coat it.

What do you think about this mani? I personally like the way it turned out BUT it almost pained me to stamp over my base color because I love it so much. The beautiful simplicity of this creamy baby pink just blows me away. So how is your weekend so far? I am thoroughly enjoying being lazy so I hope you’re enjoying your weekend as well no matter what you’re doing. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Loading InLinkz ...

The Lacquer Ring – Fuchsia

Posted on 4 December, 20143 December, 2014 by Cynthia

You guys, I am so happy that I got a chance to post today. As you may have heard, Southern California is in the midst of rainmaggeddon and all hell has broken loose. The state is going down in flames–er, water? Yes, I’m kidding. We’ve had sporadic showers in the last two days, but people act like it’s the new biblical deluge. Everyone forgets how to drive, which causes tons of accidents, people fight each other Hunger Games style for parking spots close to the entrance of the store and it’s just general mayhem all around. I sit back in my car wondering what would happen if we had real horrible weather like some places back east–I guess we would all die instantly. For reals. So today The Lacquer Ring is bringing you the color fuchsia per Lesley’s choice. I pretty much love the color so I am very happy with Lesley’s choice. When it came to deciding which polish to use, I went with the obvious: Sation Fan The Flames Fuchsia.

Sation Fan the Flames Fuchsia is a super vibrant neon that dries to a satin finish. I adore this polish because he formula is perfection. Even though it dries kinda of satiny, it’s not difficult to apply, and it’s super opaque. I’ve been wondering what happened to Sation/Miss Professional Nail because I haven’t seen a collection from them in over a year and their FB page basically has no activity. I loved their collections so I’m sad that they fell off the face of the earth.

To finish everything off, I did a sort of sloppy glitter gradient with Shimmer Polish Alice (press sample) which is probably my favorite Shimmer beauty. I top coated the whole thing which gave my whole mani some shine–I kind of miss the satin look of the polish so maybe next time I’ll use a matte top coat.

What do you think of this mani? Is it to blinged out for you? I personally love it even though I wish I had done a better job with my glitter gradient. Don’t forget to check out the other fuchsia manis below. Our next prompt is all about stars so I need to start figuring out what I will do. Anyway, I hope you liked today’s post, and I will talk to you soon!

Loading InLinkz ...