Cynthia, Author at Of Life and Lacquer

Author: Cynthia

Of Life and Lacquer > Articles by: Cynthia

China Glaze The Giver Collection

Posted on 5 September, 2014 by Cynthia

Ermahgerd it’s Friday! So it’s almost Saturday since I’m posting this so late, but I’m just super excited to have my weekend again. I can’t tell you enough how beat down I have felt this week, but today after work I went to get a haircut and it’s waaaaay short again which I love. That was so relaxing because I love having my hair cut. Then I came home and just vegged out while I did my nails for tomorrow’s Stamping Saturdays. Have you joined us for Stamping Saturdays yet? No?! Why not? You better get on that because I’d love to see your mani. So what should I say about the polishes I have for you today: China Glaze The Giver Collection? The Giver? What’s that? Oh, another YA novel. *yawn* Ok, so I haven’t actually read it and haven’t seen the movie yet, but Meryl Streep is in it so I’m in! Let me show you this collection, and then you can tell me what you think.

China Glaze Friends Forever, Right?

China Glaze New Birth

China Glaze Five Rules

China Glaze Intelligence Integrity & Courage

China Glaze Release

China Glaze Capacity To See Beyond

China Glaze The Outer Edge

China Glaze History Of The World

China Glaze Givers Theme

China Glaze Seeing Red

China Glaze Community

China Glaze Boundary Of Memory

This shit just got real, yo! This collection came out before the Fall All Aboard Collection and China Glaze is definitely on a roll. Man, this collections is awesome. I know they are mostly cremes, but that is my favorite finish. The colors are so classy and have this very classic and serene look to them. The formula on all of them was absolutely perfect and I don’t have any complaints. I know everyone is going gaga over Boundary Of Memory and rightly so because it’s fantastically gorgeous. This type of full coverage glitter reminds me of I Herd That and I’m Not Lion from the On Safari Collection. What do you think of this collection? I have heard that people are having a hard time finding all of the polishes in this collection because it’s sold out everywhere so I guess I was lucky to find them all.

So what do you have planned for this weekend? I have a bunch of cleaning to do because I am planning to throw out tons of junk that I don’t need anymore. In a way I am the opposite of a hoarder because I tend to throw everything away–except when it comes to polish, of course. I hope you enjoy your upcoming weekend, and I will talk to you soon!

P.S. Sadly, this collection is up on my blog sale. I overspent by A LOT on polish recently so I can’t keep these. Hopefully they will find a nice new home.

Giveaway – OPI Peanuts Collection

Posted on 4 September, 2014 by Cynthia

Hey guys! Due to the generosity of OPI, I have the OPI Peanuts Collection to giveaway to one lucky reader. As you know, I really like this cute little collection so I am sure you will love playing with these amazeballs glitters.

Please use the rafflecopter widget below to enter:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

The giveaway is open internationally. I’m feeling kind of blah so I haven’t been that into blogging the last couple of days. I’m going to try to get a post up tonight because I hate being so behind. I hope your week is going great.

Good luck everyone!

China Glaze All Aboard Collection Fall 2014

Posted on 1 September, 2014 by Cynthia

Today kind of flew by and that means the end of my long weekend. I wish I had a few more days off to just be lazy, but I guess being able to pay the bills is more important, right? I know tomorrow is going to be cray cray at work, but at least the day will go by quickly. So this weekend I did some insane amount of swatching, and one of the collections that I swatched is the China Glaze All Aboard Collection for Fall 2014. Normally I break up my posts into two since traditionally China Glaze puts out two six piece sets for their seasonal collections, but today I just decided to post everything together. I’m kind of super excited about this collection because it might just be a Renaissance for China Glaze since I’ve been so disappointed in recent times with some of the collections they have put out. Even the fact that this is a train inspired collection appeals to me because I absolutely adore trains. When I was in France, I always took the train everywhere. My favorite thing to do was get on the train at 7 pm and I’d arrive in Florence early the next morning. It was magical! I have quite a few train stories but I won’t get in to that right now because I’ll never get to the polishes. Before I start blabbing away, let me show you what I’m talking about.

China Glaze All Aboard

China Glaze Cho-Cho Choose You

China Glaze Conduct Yourself

China Glaze Don’t Get Derailed

China Glaze Loco-motive (over What Are You A-freight Of?)

China Glaze Lug You Designer Baggage

China Glaze Mind The Gap

China Glaze One Track Mind

China Glaze Nice Caboose

China Glaze Stop That Train!

China Glaze Well Trained

China Glaze What Are You A-freight Of?

Holy polishgasm, Batman! Let me tell you something: this collection blew my socks off. It’s almost as perfect as the On Safari Collection from a couple of years ago–yes, it’s THAT good. I can honestly tell you that the only one I didn’t care for is Stop That Train! cause it’s kind of frosty and orange–ick! However, every other polish is just pure perfection. The cremes are fabulous and the shimmers are killer. I know that for most people, the stand-out shade will be Cho-Cho Choose You, and all I could think about when I wore it was this:

Hahaha! Ralph might just be my favorite Simpsons character–It’s so hard to pick just one! I do love Cho-Cho Choose You and also love Mind The Gap because it’s one of those ugly/pretty colors that always pull me in. The formula on all of these is fantastic–they all needed two coats and some of the cremes could be one coaters if you apply them carefully. I know I tend to be a little harsh with my China Glaze reviews sometimes, but it is only because I expect so much from the brand–they really were the first brand that pulled me in when my polish obsession began. From all the Fall collections I have seen, I think this is THE collection of the season. I’m sorry if this is causing stress to your bank accounts–well, not really cause if it wasn’t me, it would be someone else and I quite enjoy being part of the enabling circle of polish life. What do you think about these beauties? Are there any colors that you are going to pick up? Thanks so much for the visit, and I will talk to you later!

Winner Announced – OPI Nordic Collection

Posted on 31 August, 201431 August, 2014 by Cynthia

Hi there! I know you are all anxiously awaiting the announcement of the winner of the OPI Nordic Collection Giveaway, so I won’t keep you waiting any longer. The lucky winner is…

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congratulations, Rose! The winner has been contacted via email so I am waiting for her response. Thank you everyone–old and new readers. I hope that you stick around. 🙂 I will be having some awesome giveaways in the very near future so stay tuned.

I also wanted to mention that I have put up TONS of stuff up on my blog sale. Unfortunately I have some unexpected expenses and I kind of spent way too much on polish in the last few weeks. Additionally, my camera is on its last lens…leg. Well, you get the picture. I’m so pathetically punny today. Thanks for taking a look and shoot me an email if you want to buy anything. You can click here to go to my blog sale page.

Talk to you guys soon!

OPI Designer Series Polished Quartz Fall 2014

Posted on 31 August, 2014 by Cynthia

I was expecting it to be much hotter than it is today, so I’m kind of happy about that. Since I don’t have AC, whenever it gets crazy hot it gets hard to swatch. You may have seen the crazy pile of polishes that I had to swatch, but I’m glad to share that I have swatched about 35 of them so far. All of them have been so ridiculously gorgeous that I barely even noticed the crazy amount of polishes I went through. I think I may be the only one who is super happy about summer being almost over. I am pretty happy that this summer hasn’t been completely unbearable, but I know that suddenly the weather will take a huge dump on my head and get insanely hot. For today’s post, I have two insanely sparkly polishes that don’t exactly scream fall, but they are ridiculously flashy and bright. I always look forward to the DS releases, so let’s take a look at the OPI Designer Series Polished Quartz duo for fall 2014.

OPI DS Titanium

OPI DS Tourmaline

Was I lying about how gorgeous these two are? Since the polishes are in a jelly-type base, they are pretty sheer so I applied 3 coats for my swatches. I played around with them a bit since swatching them and they look amazing layered over other colors so the possibilities are endless. I have an extra set of these babies so make sure to check back for my next awesome giveaway. I hope you’re enjoying your weekend and if you’re in the US, I hope you are enjoying your long weekend. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

P.S. I have added a lot of items to my blog sale so make sure you check it out.

Stamping Saturdays #34

Posted on 30 August, 201430 August, 2014 by Cynthia

Hey, how is your Saturday going? I’m enjoying my day so far even though I woke up early and did some cleaning around the house. I ended up going out to dinner with my bro, sil and baby peanut. He is such a cutie pie and is growing so fast! He was a very good boy as usual and played with his crayon the entire time.

Isn’t he just a delicious little cutie pie? So besides cute babies, I do have a mani to show you today for Stamping Saturdays. Are you ready?

I started off with two deliciously creamy coats of Kiara Sky Ms Behaved which is a smoky greyed out purple. The formula was fantastic which has been my experience with Kiara Sky as a whole.

In order to make this polish really shine, I applied one coat of Max Factor Fantasy Fire. Gorgeous, right?

I then stamped this image from Konad M79 which reminds me of wrapping paper, but I just really like how it looks. I went pretty simple this week, and I really ended up liking this. What do you think?

So, I have tons of swatching to do this weekend and I hope I get through it all before my nails fall off or something. I’ve already swatched the China Glaze Fall Collection so now I am trying to decide between The Giver Collection or the Holiday Collection. It’s so hard to decide because they are all so pretty!! Anyway, thanks for stopping by today–I’ll be picking a winner soon so expect that announcement in the next hour or so. So excited! Talk to you soon.

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OPI Peanuts Collection Halloween 2014

Posted on 26 August, 2014 by Cynthia

It’s not even September yet and we are already seeing Halloween stuff–and that’s fine by me because I lurve Halloween collections. Since I got out of work a little early today, I went to my nail places and ended up spending my whole polish budget for the next month in 5 minutes. Yeah, polish budget–who am I kidding? I also went to my absolute favorite Vietnamese/French bakery because they have the best baguettes in all of OC, and I wanted to make a killer sandwich for dinner. So when I got there, there was a lady in front of me ordering some stuff. One of the girls behind the counter took my order: 1 baguette and 2 macarons…ok, 3 macarons…I mean 4. Anyway, she placed a baguette on the counter and the lady who was in front of me grabbed it. She was full-on manhandling it with her bare hands on the part that wasn’t covered by the paper sleeve. Since she was speaking Vietnamese, I figured she had ordered one too but then she picks up her bag and leaves the baguette on the counter. Is this real life? Did this lady just touch and squish my baguette with her bare dirty hands????? Even worse, the lady at the register didn’t say squat to her and was acting like nothing happened. I was staring at her and waited for her to give me a new baguette. When she didn’t, I just flat out told her that I needed a new one since that lady had just touched it all over. She looked at me like I was nuts, but she gave me a new one. Am I the only one who thinks that other lady was gross? I mean, if she has no common sense, how do I know what else she has handled with her bare hands? I don’t know why I just told you that long story instead of telling you all about the OPI Peanuts Collection for Halloween 2014. This is such a cute little collection that I bet you will love. Let me show you my swatches first.

OPI Good Grief!

OPI Where’s My Blanket???

OPI WHO ARE YOU CALLING BOSSY?!?

OPI To Be or Not To Beagle

Can I just tell you how much I like this collection and how cute these glitters are??? Good Grief! and WHO ARE YOU CALLING BOSSY?!? are pretty standard cremes that require two coats for full coverage, but it’s the two glitters that really stand out. I love them both and they were very easy to apply as the glitter is plentiful. The lit nerd in me also loves the Hamlet reference in To Be or Not To Beagle. Are you planning to pick any of these up? The OPI Peanuts Collection will be available this September at the usual places. OPI nail polish retails for $9.50/ea for a .5oz bottle, and there will also be a Little Peanuts mini set which you can purchase for $13.95. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Nubar FALLing In Love Collection Fall 2014

Posted on 25 August, 2014 by Cynthia

Well hello there, Monday! So NOT happy to see you, but I hope you understand me when I say that I need my 3 day weekend naow!! I’ve been so lethargic as of late, that I just need more time to veg out and do absolutely nothing. Of course I still have about a million things to swatch, but I’m looking forward to spending some time just painting my nails. Do you find it therapeutic too? I’ve been mostly laying low because I’ve been sad about the loss of my grandmother, but I know she was suffering so part of me is glad that she is no longer in pain. I don’t want to be a drag, so I’ll just leave it at that. I did get quite a bit of swatching done this weekend so I have plenty of things to show you this week. Nubar is a brand that I’ve been using for a few years now because luckily I have easy access to their collections. I think that my favorite collection that they have put out in recent years has been My Sweet Escape just because the cremes were out of this world. It’s no secret that I love Fall collections, so let me show you their Fall offering: the Nubar FALLing In Love Collection.

Nubar Sweet Hue

Nubar Queen

Nubar Passion’s Pain

Nubar Lush

Nubar Affair

Nubar Don’t Russet

Nubar Love American Style

Nubar First Date

Are you thinking what I’m thinking? These don’t scream Fall to me, but they are certainly pretty. They have this really interesting shimmer to them that keeps them from being just standard cremes. The formula on all of these was ok. They were thinner than I’m used to when it comes to Nubar, The two that were problematic for me were Sweet Hue and First Date because they applied so unevenly that I had to apply 3 coats to even out the coverage. The rest of the polishes in this collection needed two coats for full opacity which is pretty normal. Affair is my absolute favorite from this collection with Queen running a close second–they are just stunning and even more gorgeous in person. What do you think of this collection? Any of them stand out to you? Make sure that you follow Nubar on their facebook page for news on new collections. Nubar polishes can be purchased on their website or $8.40 a bottle and this collection should be out soon. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Stamping Saturdays #33

Posted on 23 August, 201423 August, 2014 by Cynthia

This week I lost my last living grandparent. Part of me is angry–angry at myself for not being able to see her before she passed, but I know that she was surrounded by all of her children (all 9 of them!) on her last days including countless great great great grandchildren. You see, my grandmother was 100 years old and she was lucid up until her last day when she fell asleep and didn’t wake up. As sad as our whole family is to have lost her, we know that she lived a long and full life and we are consoled by the idea that she is no longer trapped in a body that just wasn’t able to keep up with her sharp mind.You might think that it’s silly that I am here showing you a manicure after such a sad loss, but nail polish has always been an escape for me: it helps me stay focused, it calms me. When I saw a picture of my grandmother that I took many years ago, I was inspired by the pattern I saw on her dress for my Stamping Saturdays mani.

I started with two coats of OPI Umpires Come Out At Night (press sample) from the MLB Collection. This is a gorgeous and opaque blue that dries to a shiny finish.

I then used a pattern from Konad M61 and Konad’s special white polish for the flowery design.

That was my grandma. I was able to sneak in this picture since she always hated being photographed. She was never without her rebozo (a type of shawl/scarf hybrid) because she did not like to show her hair. She had the most amazing completely white hair that was so plentiful that she had a hard time managing it. I always loved seeing her brush her hair out before she covered it up. Thank you for all the stories you would tell me, the candies you would sneak into my hands and for being the woman who raised my mother to be a loving and compassionate mother in turn. I’ll miss you, abuelita.

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Zoya Ignite Collection Fall 2014

Posted on 19 August, 201418 August, 2014 by Cynthia

I am such a turd when it comes to scheduling posts. I actually stayed up late on Sunday writing up my post for Monday and accidentally scheduled it to post on Tuesday. hahaha. I guess I wasn’t paying attention to the date until I got home and realized my post hadn’t been published. I am being extra careful about this post because I don’t want a dum-dum repeat of yesterday. Yesterday I showed you my swatches of the Zoya Entice Collection so today I have the other half: the Zoya Ignite Collection. Ignite..IGNITE. They got that right because this collection is explosive. I am so surprised by how much I love this half of the collection because I usually prefer the cremes, but how can you resist these? You can’t. Don’t believe me? Let me show you what I’m talking about.

Zoya Remy

Zoya India

Zoya Yuna

Zoya Teigen

Zoya Sansa

Zoya Autumn

Seriously gorgeous on every level. Not only is this the most amazing collection of Fall shimmers that I have ever swatches, but the formula is out of this world. It is so easy to control and applies perfectly. You will need two coats for most of these if you want a completely opaque look. I had a hard time deciding which one was my favorite but I think I finally made my decision: Yuna, come to mama. I don’t think that I have anything quite like this and I just adore the unusual quality of it. Sansa is my second favorite because I just love that dark purple base and of course I’m pretending that it’s a whole Game Of Thrones reference. Don’t burst my bubble, ok?

You know you want these. You know you want them all. I’m just raving about these like a crazy polish hoarder, but I swear you will not be disappointed. I liked the creme half of the Fall collection, but I don’t need all those cremes. I do want, need and love these shimmers. You can purchase the Zoya Ignite Collection on zoya.com where they retail for $9 a bottle. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.