Cynthia, Author at Of Life and Lacquer

Author: Cynthia

Of Life and Lacquer > Articles by: Cynthia

Zoya Entice Collection Fall 2014

Posted on 18 August, 201418 August, 2014 by Cynthia

Well, well…the Fall collections are out in full force and it’s still sweltering outside. To be honest, this Summer hasn’t been horrible for me which is surprising since I’m the queen of the summer haters. Even though I’ve been feeling kind of physically craptastic lately, a lot of good things have happened to me in the last month or so–namely good work stuff. I made a conscious decision not to talk/complain about work anymore on my blog because I felt that I was carrying around stress from my job all the time so writing about it made it feel even worse. I am not even sure if I mentioned that I left my old job and started a new one a few months ago. Well, it has been a huge change for me and I’m a million times happier because now I feel like I have a more balanced life where I don’t have to constantly stress about work and have a normal work schedule. Now that I’m getting used to my new routine, I think it’s about time that I start incorporating the gym into my life because I think that is going to make me feel better both mentally and physically. Now I just have to actually get started–isn’t the first step always the hardest? Yesterday I mentioned that a major swatchfest occurred this weekend and part of it included the Zoya Entice Collection (the Ignite Collection is coming tomorrow!). This half of the Zoya Fall 2014 Collection is full of yummy and traditional cremes which never disappoint. Let’s take a look at my swatches before I share my thoughts with you.

Zoya Genevieve

Zoya Ryan

Zoya Claire

Zoya Margo

Zoya Veronica

Zoya Nyssa

I had zero application issues with this collection. They are all very creamy and opaque 2 coat polishes. You may think that there isn’t anything super interesting about these polishes and part of me agrees with that, but you know that in my polish heart, I can’t resist a good creme. I love that these have a muted almost smokey feeling to them–especially Genevieve. Since that’s my grandmother’s name, it’s my favorite. My grandmother turned 100 this year and she’s currently not doing very well health-wise, but he is surrounded by family and they are taking good care of her. At first I thought that Ryan looked a lot like Cynthia (yay for my namesake!), but Cynthia is much darker. Out of the whole collection, I think Nyssa is the only one I didn’t like.

Are you ready for all the Fall colors? I quite enjoy the darker/richer colors that have been released lately. While I liked this half of the collection, I think that the second part really blew me away. I’ll have that review up tomorrow if you want to check in. You can purchase the Zoya Entice Collection on zoya.com where they retail for $9 a bottle. Let me know if you have a favorite. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Zoya Naturel Deux Collection

Posted on 17 August, 2014 by Cynthia

I’m really annoyed right now because I had all these plans to write up all my posts for the upcoming week today. Want to guess if that happened? Well, I made a mess today in the kitchen so I was in there all day cleaning stuff out and then I finished the last 6 episodes of Orange Is The New Black (OMG OMG OMG the van!!!!) Since I managed to swatch about 30 polishes Friday and Saturday, I am not behind on swatching but I am behind on editing photos and writing up my posts. Once I get home from work, I get so lazy about that stuff. One thing I’m going to try really hard to do, is plan my posts in advance so that I actually have time to not only respond to comments (I am being such a turd about this lately–I’m sorry!), but to also visit and comment on all my favorite blogs. One of the collections that I finally swatched is the Zoya Naturel Deux Collection which I will be showing you today. I realize you’ve probably already seen a billion swatches of this collection, but maybe not so much on girls with my darker skin tone. Let’s take a look at my swatches…

Zoya Madeline

Zoya Aubrey

Zoya Marnie

Zoya Spencer

Zoya Chanelle

Zoya Emilia

I don’t know if I really love these. I mean, on me. The colors are really nice and of course the formula on all of them is spectacular which is something I can count on when it comes to Zoya’s opaque cremes. Out of all of these, Spencer and Madeline are my two favorites and will totally be using them to death. I don’t know if it’s the two browns that are throwing me off, but I just don’t feel like I enjoyed this collection as much. I think that maybe I’m just still in a very summery bright polish mindset so this was kind of a shock to my system even though this was meant to be a transitional collection. I’m just all over the place today, huh? Still, if you’re looking for creamy, glossy and opaque cremes, you can’t go wrong with this collection. All of my swatches show 2 coats of polish and 1 coat of Seche.

So what do you think about this collection? Did you get any of these polishes? They are available now at zoya.com and retail for $9 each. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you had a nice weekend.

Stamping Saturdays #32

Posted on 16 August, 2014 by Cynthia

Last night I stayed up until like 4 am binge watching Orange Is The New Black so I didn’t get up this morning until like 9 am. I had so much cleaning to do today since my brother is a pig and rarely helps out with any of the house cleaning which pisses me off but I feel like I waste more energy bugging him about helping more than to just freaking clean everything myself. Even when he does help, he does such a half-assed job that I end up being pissed and cleaning everything again. Maybe that’s his strategy? Ugh, whatever. I also couldn’t find my gloves so my hands and nails took a beating after I got through the kitchen stuff. Fortunately, I was able to do my Stamping Saturdays mani last night before all of the abuse happened. Last week I showed you an awesome glitter by Kiara Sky, and today I have a lovely creme for you. Let’s take a look at it, shall we?

Holy mother of God! Kiara Sky Blue-letproof Vest is one of those perfect blue cremes that make your heart skip a beat. This polish is seriously perfection in a bottle. What you see here is ONE coat of polish and one coat of Seche Vite. I was obsessed with the color, the formula and the shine. You all know how I feel about cremes so this polish made me super happy.

I then used a geometric pattern from plate MoYou London Pro Collection 18 for my stamped design.

I knew it was going to be hard to center this pattern and while the pattern didn’t come out *perfectly*, I’m not too annoyed by it. There is nothing better than Konad’s black stamping polish for a big design like this because it transfers so crisply.

So what are you up to this weekend? I was thinking about going to watch The Giver or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but maybe I will just spend my whole weekend swatching. I have so much polish to get through, but I’m excited because there are so seriously gorgeous polishes in the mix. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Loading InLinkz ...

The Lacquer Ring – Green

Posted on 14 August, 2014 by Cynthia

I totally flaked out on getting this post up on time. Womp womp. Even worse, this was my month to choose the color and theme…triple womp. I really have to learn to schedule things better because I keep falling behind on so much stuff. I’ve been trying to swatch the last Zoya collection for like 2 weeks now and something always comes up that derails my plans. I finally got a chance to swatch the whole collection last night while I was watching So You Think You Can Dance. I was really impressed with the whole Michael Jackson theme—did you happen to watch it? Anyway, this month I chose green as my color. I love green nail polish so much! I know I say that about pretty much every color when it comes to nail polish (except maybe orange and gold), but I just love how green nails look…unless they’re green because of fungal growth, but I digress… It was difficult to pick one green polish, so I ended up using two of them, but I did go with my #1 favorite green: Color Club Holiday Splendor.

Holy crap, this is a gorgeous polish. It has such an amazing holo sparkle that gives it incredible depth. I’m completely in love with it! If you want a sheer jelly finish, you can get away with one coat. I prefer to apply two coats so that it’s fully opaque. You should see this baby out in the sun! It sparkles like a mofo. It is a little bit of a pain to remove but totally worth it. I’d also like to mention that it dries to a minor rough finish so load up on your top coat if you want a super smooth finish.

I received some of these decals/nail vinyls from KBShimmer (press sample), and I finally got around to using them. They’re pretty much idiot-proof which is why I was able to use them without much trouble.

This is the first time that I do chevrons like this and I quite enjoy the loo. The pretty creamy green that you see here is nails inc. Queen Victoria Street. I love this green as well!

So what do you think of these dreamy greens? I am super happy with these two gorgeous colors and how they turned out. Don’t forget to check out the other manis presented to you by the other ladies of The Lacquer Ring!

Loading InLinkz ...

The Beauty Buffs – Black and White

Posted on 13 August, 201412 August, 2014 by Cynthia

It’s Wednesday which means that we are halfway through the workweek! I don’t know about you, but I practically live for my weekends, and I start getting excited as soon as Thursday rolls around. Is that pathetic? Why can’t I just be independently wealthy and not have to work at all? At the same time, would I enjoy my weekends as much if I didn’t have to trudge through a workweek? Hmmm…Anyway, today I am back with The Beauty Buffs for a black and white mani. I love using black and white on my nails, so it took me for-eva to decide what I wanted to do. Well, let me show you what I ended up doing.

I started out with a gradient using Jessica Sharktooth (press sample), Jessica Velvet & Pearls (press sample) and Cuccio Colour Soaked In Seattle. I fidgeted with this forever because I could not get a smooth enough gradient for the life of me.

I was going to try a reverse gradient stamp over this gradient, but I had already spent so much time on the base that I was just DONE! So I took out my bottle of Nubar Black Polka Dot and applied one coat. I was actually super happy about the way this turned out.

What do you think about this mani? Is it too loud and flashy or is this something that you would wear? Well, I hope that you are having a nice week, and don’t forget to check out the other black and white manis from my fellow Beauty Buffs. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Loading InLinkz ...

Leesha’s Lacquer Re-pin Rewind

Posted on 11 August, 201410 August, 2014 by Cynthia

Hey you! How’s your Monday going so far? I had a busy weekend so I kind of feel like I didn’t get to relax too much. Unfortunately, swatching fell by the wayside so now I’m super behind on everything. I hope to get a lot done little by little this week, but it’s so hard to do nail stuff when I get home from work because I feel mentally exhausted. I’m having a hard time finding the motivation to start going to the gym after work as well so I feel stuck at the moment. You know what helps when I feel stuck? Pretty, shiny polish. Yep, glitter is the magical panacea to my ennui.

This is Leesha’s Lacquer Re-pin Rewind from The Pinterest Collection. This is an explosion of pink and purple glitter in a clear base.

If you want to use Re-pin Rewind as a glitter topper, you will only need one coat because you get a lot of glitter on the brush. However, if you want to use it on its own, you will need 2-3 coats depending on your application technique. I dabbed the glitter on for my second coat so I was able to get away with 2 coats. You are going to to want to use a good top coat to smooth out the finish–I’ve used Seche Vite for my swatches. For my first experience with Leesha’s Lacquer, I think this is a lovely glitter that is sure to satisfy your need for shiny, sparkly nails. Removal can be a beast as with any glitters of this type so I recommend using a peelable glue base if you have it or just be ready to use acetone and a bit of elbow grease.

If you’re interested in purchasing this baby, you can find it here for $3.50/mini or $7.00/full size–pretty good prices if you ask me. Makes sure to follow Leesha’s Lacquer on her social media sites for news on new collections, sales and giveaways (she has one now on Facebook!) :

Etsy – Facebook – Blog – Twitter

So what do you think? I think this hit the spot for me this weekend. I’ll have another polish from this maker later in the week so don’t forget to check back with me. Thanks for stopping by today, and have a nice Monday.

Stamping Saturdays #31

Posted on 9 August, 2014 by Cynthia

I am super late today with my Stamping Saturdays post but better late than never, right? This morning I was supposed to go watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but I totally overslept and ended up going to my nail places. It was a total waste of time because two of my favorite stores were closed. The only good thing was the coffee macaron I had at this awesome Vietnamese-French bakery I like to go to. Anyway, once I got home I started planning my mani. I decided to use Deborah Lippmann Let’s Hear It For The Boy.

Deborah Lippmann Let’s Hear It For The Boy is a streaky nightmare, but it sure is pretty. If I had paid full price for this, I would be pissed but I got it on clearance on HSN so it’s ok. This is three coats and it’s still kind of streaky.

Have you heard of the brand Kiara Sky? I had not until I saw a huge shiny new display today. I picked up one glitter and two cremes to try the brand out. This is Kiara Sky Serene Sky.

This is two coats of Kiara Sky Serene Sky over Deborah Lippmann Let’s Hear It For The Boys. The polish is full of glitter and is very easy to apply. Isn’t it pretty?

I then used an image from Konad M51 to stamp with Mentality Black Opaque. I just recently purchased this polish for my stamping needs and it’s a decent stamping black. I noticed that this polish dries a lot quicker than the Konad black so you have to work fast before the image dries on the stamper. The image on my pointer finger did not transfer nicely because I waited too long to stamp it. Once thing I like is that the polish isn’t a huge pain to clean up. If you get the konad black on your skin, it is a PITA to clean up because it’s so incredibly pigmented. I will have a more in depth review of the two Mentality stamping polishes that I purchased in a later post.

So what do you do think of this mani? I’m not in love with it, but it’s ok. I can’t wait to try the other two cremes I bought from the new Kiara Sky line so I’ll let you know how they work out next week. Thank you for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Winner Announced – OPI Ford Mustang Collection

Posted on 8 August, 20148 August, 2014 by Cynthia

Happy Friday everyone!

Just a quick post to announce the winner of my giveaway for the OPI Ford Mustang Collection. The lucky winner is….

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Join me in congratulating Jennifer! She has 48 hours to contact me to claim her prize.

If you didn’t win here, don’t lose hope because I just launched another giveaway for the entire OPI Nordic Collection! Good luck!

OPI Nordic Collection Giveaway!

Posted on 7 August, 20147 August, 2014 by Cynthia

Hi there! Guess what I have for you today?! Courtesy of the lovely people at OPI, I have an extra set of polishes from the OPI Nordic Collection. One of you lucky readers will walk away with the whole set! Are you excited yet??

As always the giveaway is open internationally but please don’t enter if your country has strict shipping restrictions. You must be over 18 to enter. Use the rafflecopter widget below and good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Orly Color Blast Bright Blue Neon

Posted on 5 August, 20144 August, 2014 by Cynthia

I feel like I’m the only one who is super excited about the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. So many people are already talking smack about the movie, and I am shitting my pants with excitement about it. TMNT is one of those cartoons that I absolutely adored as a kid. I can still clearly remember how it would take me 30 minutes to put on one sock because I was so engrossed in the cartoons. My mom would be so pissed yelling at my brother and I about being late to school, but we just did not want to tear ourselves away from the television. Then the video games came out and I wanted to kill myself every time I couldn’t get through TMNT 2. That game was ridiculously hard but it was so much fun. Did I mention that the first movie I ever saw at a movie theater was TMNT? I still remember the excitement of that day and how fun it was! So now that I’ve rambled about this movie, I can’t wait for this weekend so I can go watch it. So…for today’s post I have a cute little polish to share with you: Orly Color Blast Bright Blue Neon. Have you seen these polishes around? I ran across a big display at on of my nail places and this super bright blue really called out to me.

Since this is a neon, the formula was a bit difficult. It dries really fast so it is prone to overworking. I had to work quickly and had to be careful not to go over the same spot twice while the polish was setting. I applied 3 coats to get a smooth and even finish which is rather normal for neons.

I had to make this baby shiny so I applied one coat of Seche Vite. Do you love this as much as I do? The color plus the shine are an amazing combo.

Let me know what you think of this small but explosive polish. Despite the difficult formula, I am so pleased with the end result. Are you excited about the new TMNT movie? Let me know if you’re planning to see it. Do you remember what the first movie was that you ever saw in a movie theater? Thank you for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.