Cynthia, Author at Of Life and Lacquer

Author: Cynthia

Of Life and Lacquer > Articles by: Cynthia

Essie Hide & Go Chic Collection Spring 2014

Posted on 17 February, 201416 February, 2014 by Cynthia

I’ve got to warn you before I get started: I’m feeling off. Basically, I am feeling a little stressed out about a variety of things and that stress is carrying over to every area of my life. Last night I went on a binge trying to get rid of tons of polishes I never use so I added A LOT of stuff to my blog sale. Thank you to all the ladies who have purchased from me already–I was surprised by how much I sold in the first few hours. I’m going to try to not be such a weirdo at least while I write up this post. Deep breath…you can do it! On Saturday, I told myself that I needed to get up really early on Sunday in order to do some swatching so of course I went to bed at like 2 am which made it really hard to be up by 7:00 but I did it. Yay me! The first collection I wanted to tackle is the one I am sharing with you today. The Essie Hide & Go Chic Collection for Spring 2014 looked really promising in the promo shots so I was super excited to get my hands on it so early. Is it worth all my initial excitement? Let’s take a look.

I really, really love colors like Essie Spin The Bottle. Unfortunately, they don’t really love me. I think this looks a little gross on me and makes my skin look uber-yellow. I do have a lot of yellow undertones, but this is just too much for me. It is a rather sheer nude color, so expect multiple coats if you want a more opaque look like my swatches above. This was 4 thin coats. Nope. Not liking it.

I don’t find Essie Romper Room too original as it is just a very pale pink, but I do like how it turned out on me. Again, the formula is pretty thin and streaky which I was expecting considering the shade, but it’s always a bit disappointing, you know?

When I first saw the promo pics, I was so excited about Essie Fashion Playground because it appeared to be super fun an shimmery. Hello shimmer? Where are you? Oh, you’re one of those disappearing on the nail shimmers that we all love–said no one, ever. Despite the fact that the shimmer doesn’t show up at all, who doesn’t love this type of greens? Besides, it’s perfect for Spring. Again, I found the formula very streaky and disappointing.

The curse of my blue hating camera strikes again. I think I have mentioned that my camera has serious issues photographing blues accurately, so Essie Truth Or Flare is a little more dusty than what it looks like here. I thought this was going to be very opaque but it ended up being not very pigmented. It felt like a jelly polish in that it applied smoothly but looked kind of glossy and squishy. Personally, I like it even though it wasn’t as pigmented as I had hoped.

And here we have the collection’s namesake: Essie Hide & Go Chic.What a pretty blue. Out of all the shades in this collection, this one had the best formula. I was afraid that it would stain, but luckily I had no staining issues with it. Again, the color is a little off in my pictures because it has the slightest bit of green in it that makes it look somewhat teal. I applied 2 coats for my swatches above.

And lastly we have Essie Style Hunter which also had a pretty nice formula. This polish made me think of a juicy ripe watermelon and reminded me of traditional Summer colors. I think that Style Hunter and Hide & Go Chic seemed a little too pigmented for a traditional Spring collection, but I rather enjoyed seeing them here. Maybe the contrast of these bolder colors against the other pastels in the collection made them stand out even more because they ended up being my two favorite shades.

Well, once again I’m going to be a party pooper and say that I am not that impressed by this collection. The colors are ok…some traditional and some not so traditional Spring colors. The lighter shades had streaky formulas which I was already expecting while the 2 dark shades were super pigmented and easy to work with. Overall, I can’t say that this is a “must-have” for me so I’ll be placing these in my blog sale in case you’re interested in them. For me, the Resort Fling Collection was a dud and now this one didn’t even manage to get me mildly excited. Oh well. Summer is just around the corner, right? That’s when all the super juicy colors come out and I get all obsessed with them all. So tell me what you think: Am I being too hard? Am I too hard to please? Please chime in as I would love to hear what you think of this collection. Thank so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Blog Sale Update

Posted on 16 February, 2014 by Cynthia

Hi everyone! So for the last 3 hours, I have been trying to store all of my polish and I am horrified that I have once again outgrown 5 melmers. I really can’t keep all this stuff, but I’m having a hard time figuring out what to do with it. There are some polishes that I know I probably won’t be able to sell since they are drugstore polishes and with shipping costs and such, it probably doesn’t make much sense to buy them off a blog sale. However, I do have a lot of Essie, Julep, China Glaze that I just don’t have room for. I have lowered the prices on a lot of things as you can see in my blog sale page. Excluding some of the newer stuff or specialty stuff, most of the Essies are $2.50 and China Glaze/Nubar are $2. I also have Zoyas for $3. I really do want to sell this stuff off so take a look and see if there is anything you’d like. All of the polishes I am putting up for sale have been purchased by me.

Click here to go to my blog sale page.

Alternatively…what can we do with unwanted nail polish? Can it be donated? Where can it be taken so it can be properly disposed of? GHAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Help!

If you are interested in anything, please email me at this new email address: blogsale (at) att dot net

My normal email address is kind of a mess right now, and I know things were sent to spam that shouldn’t have and I just need to really clean it out so I want to make sure that I get your emails if you want to make a purchase.

Thanks!

Winner Announced: China Glaze BFF

Posted on 16 February, 2014 by Cynthia

Hi everyone! This will just be a quick post to announce the winner of my giveaway for a bottle of China Glaze BFF. The lucky winner is…

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congrats Lorraine! I have emailed her so she can get back to me with her mailing information. A big thanks to everyone who entered and shared this giveaway. I never really got around to doing anything for my 2 year blogiversary, but I haven’t forgotten! I hope that I can organize something fun in the near future so stay tuned.

I have so many gorgeous polishes to share with you in the coming days so make sure that you stop by. Also, don’t forget that today is the last day where you can purchase items from my blog sale with a 15% discount so check out my current polishes for sale here.

I hope you have had a great weekend, and I’ll talk to you soon!

Stamping Saturdays #6

Posted on 15 February, 201414 February, 2014 by Cynthia

I’ve gotta be honest: I had a hell of a time coming up with today’s stamping manicure. Not only was I having some serious mani inspiration block, but my camera was giving me a lot of problems and wouldn’t focus. The only way I could get it to focus was to change my hand position which is why today you will see a different angle. Things just weren’t working out for me! When I started thinking about what I wanted to do, I remembered how much I love Butter London Wallis so that is where my mani started. Let’s take a look at this gorgeous polish.

Butter London Wallis is like a perfect combination of gold and green and just looks incredibly rich. A metallic olive gold you say? Yep, perfect description. Here I top coated it with Seche to give it a nice shine.

And here I applied a matte top coat over it. Doesn’t it look even more amazing?

I the picked a design from Bundle Monster plate BM-319 and stamped it with my black special polish. I initially wanted to mattify the whole design, but it just didn’t look as great because there wasn’t that much of a contrast. I much prefer this as a shiny manicure.

So what do you think of this mani? I’ve gotten a lot of questions about stamping and what I use and how, so I was thinking about maybe doing some sort of tutorial? There are a lot of tutorials out there so I don’t want it to just be boring and/or redundant. Would you guys be interested in this? Don’t forget to check out the other Stamping Saturdays manis from the other participants. Thanks so much for the visit today, and I hope you enjoy your weekend.

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Dior Perlé

Posted on 14 February, 201414 February, 2014 by Cynthia

Are you happy that it’s Friday? I should be, but unfortunately I work tomorrow morning at 6 am AND I don’t have President’s Day off…poo! One thing I am super excited about is that House Of Cards Season 2 is on Netflix!!!!! Holy crap I’ve been waiting for this forever, and I anticipate a huge Kevin Spacey binge this weekend. If you haven’t watched House Of Cards, I am going to tell you to watch it–you will love it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Robin Wright in such a splendidly cold role! Some other great news is that my medication stuff got figured out; my doctor changed my meds to something my insurance wouldn’t give me a hard time about so instead of $400 a month, my co-pays total $40. Not bad! I’m lucky to have such a responsive and attentive doctor and she always emails me back quickly which I appreciate. I guess that all in all, things are looking good and now I can start taking my meds and get my big ass to the gym. I was telling my co-workers that I have to lose 65 lbs this year and we were all talking about the changes we are going to make. I’m hopeful that I can get there and can’t wait to share my progress with all of you. Now, let’s get to the polish du jour: Dior Perlé. I’m sure you all know how I feel about Dior (love!), so it was a no brainer when I saw their new spring collection. I managed to control myself and not buy all the polishes in the collection and only picked out Perlé since it seemed so unique. Let’s take a look at it, and I’ll let you know what I thought.

I started out with two delicious coats of OPI I’m Feeling Sashy (press sample). This is such a gorgeous polish!

And this is one coat of Dior Perlé over I’m Feeling Sashy. Ehhh…I don’t know how I feel about this. On the one hand, I absolutely had to buy this because it’s Dior and limited edition (the most evil words ever), but I am also not that impressed with it. It’s like I want to LOVE it, but I’m still holding my full judgment until I try it over a super dark color. This polish gives your nails a sugary sparkly matte finish which I know a lot of people love–including yours truly.

I am currently stressing about what to do with my nails since tomorrow is Stamping Saturdays! I have a bunch of ideas in my head, but usually when I am this indecisive it just means I’m going to have a major fail on my hands. Let’s hope that’s not the case although it will be difficult to top last weeks awesome design. Well, what do you think about Perlé? Would you pay the $25 price tag or is this a pass for you? Let me know what you think! Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Finger Paints Chromatic Creation

Posted on 12 February, 2014 by Cynthia

Today kind of sucked. I have been trying to get my prescriptions filled but every time I check, my pharmacy says they haven’t gotten the script from my doctor. They request it and I call, and nothing happens despite them saying it was sent. Finally I was told by my pharmacy that they received everything so I go to pick it up. Surprise! My meds aren’t covered by my insurance so it will be about $400 a month. Uhm, yeah….that ain’t gonna happen. So now I’m back to the drawing board and will be asking my doctor to prescribe something different. I need to make sure it’s in the stupid formulary for my insurance so I can get it covered. I’m so irritated because this new insurance I got kind of sucks balls. Freaking cheap Blue Shield plan! There isn’t much I can do until I get together with my doctor so hopefully we can find something that won’t cost me an arm and a leg. I also got a call from the lab because apparently they messed up my urine sample and want me to go back in again. Can I get some sort of good health news today? Oh yeah, I also got my blood tests back and my a1c is at 10…which is pretty bad. Fuck my life. I’ll discuss this more after we get to the main point of this post which is Finger Paints Chromatic Creation.

I took these pictures out in the sunlight because I wanted to get a good picture of the delicate holo. This isn’t one of those crazy wham bam linear holos that we see so often as it is very subdue and classy. I really like it and especially like the budget price. I picked this one up at the same time I got Rock Hard Lilac so it ended up being free. Pretty holo and free??? Yes, please! The formula was pretty standard so it wasn’t crazy like some holos. Since this polish is part of their core line, it isn’t LE so you don’t really have to rush out to get it. However, I’ve heard that it’s hard to find and sold out all over the place. I got the last bottle at my Sally’s!

So, here is the deal-io. My sugars are too high, my cholesterol is high and so is my blood pressure. I weighed in at 260 lbs last week which means I gained 10 lbs in the last year. I thought I had reached a breaking point last year, but clearly I’m still struggling. Now that I have insurance and that I will be taking medication regularly, I hope that those numbers go down, but that won’t happen unless I also exercise. I refuse to spend the rest of the year hovering at such a horribly unhealthy weight so I am going to take the bull by the horns. I am committing to losing 65 lbs this year and get out of the 200’s. This means that I have 10 months to do this so that’s about 7lbs a month which is totally doable. Slow and steady, right? I had mentioned to my blogger girls that if I don’t manage to do this, I will legit give them all my nail polish. Well, maybe excluding the polishes in my “expensive” drawer of my melmers. hahaha I know they are going to hold me to this so I better get to work unless I want to lose all my polish! Lose the fat, not the polish. Hey! That could be my new hashtag and tagline. While some of you may think this is just TMI, I think that it helps me feel accountable…like you are all helping me stay on track. I’m looking forward to sharing my success with you because there isn’t really an alternative. Thanks for the visit today, and I will talk to you soon!

Finger Paints Rock Hard Lilac

Posted on 11 February, 201411 February, 2014 by Cynthia

Today felt like such a looooooong day. I had all these plans about what I was going to do, but as soon as I got home, I spent 3 hours playing with my nephew who is absolutely scrumptious. Look at that face! I’ve been saying that we have the same hair because that’s what my hair looks like when I get up in the morning except it looks hideously scary on me.

So after my nephew was picked up, my mom, my brother and I went out to dinner and just hung out. I wanted to get my mom out of the house because lately she has been just cooped up with the baby and basically cleaning and cooking. After that she asked me to take her grocery shopping which she is totally clueless about because that is something that my dad has always taken care of. So that was my whole evening and now I’m pooped. However, I’m not pooped enough to show you a polish that I picked up: Finger Paints Rock Hard Lilac.

I don’t know what you’re thinking right now, but I think that this polish if gorgeous. Since I rarely go into Sally’s because of the aggravation of employees who don’t know anything, I didn’t even know about the Rock The World Collection which is a collection of 4 chrome textures. CHROME TEXTURE. Now, I know that those two words evoked some PTSD from when I showed you the China Glaze Crinkled Chrome (which no one claimed even though I was giving it away for free–lol), but this collection is everything that the China Glaze one wasn’t. Let me tell you how amazing the formula is on this Finger Paints beauty: as a chrome, it’s super thick and would probably come out looking like brush stroke central, but the texture here saves it. The formula is thick but not goopy so it’s very easy to control. It is also super opaque so you could get away with one coat. I wanted a more uniform and gritty texture so I opted for two coats. The polish dries lightning fast so I didn’t see the need of using a fast drying top coat. Yadi, from Night Swatcher, has some great swatches of this whole collection on her blog so check them out in case you’re interested in picking these up.

So my final words on this polish? IN YO FACE, CHINA GLAZE! This is what you could have had on your hands: an awesome chrome texture but you had to go ahead and add those hideous bars to create your satanic abomination. Oh well. If you want to get these polishes, now would be the perfect time since they are buy one, get one free. Yep, now that’s worth a trip to Sally’s! Let me know what you think of this–yay or nay? Thanks for the visit, and I will talk to you soon.

Gradient Success?

Posted on 10 February, 2014 by Cynthia

Hi everyone. I’ve got some news today: I’m a challenge loser. I was supposed to join a Valentine’s Day Challenge, and I was all pumped and even completed 3 of my 5 manis this weekend…and then I ruined my SD card and lost them all. I am so sad about this and feel kind of defeated, but I hope that tomorrow I will have some time to recreate the manis I lost. Sadly I will be missing the first day but hope that I can get back on track because it’s only a 5 day challenge! Since I didn’t want to NOT post today, I decided to share with you a gradient I did. If you follow me on facebook, you may recall my posts (here and here) asking for advice on how to do a gradient because I’m such a gradient loser. A couple of weeks ago I was lamenting to a few friends how ugly my gradients are and how I always hope my gradients would turn out like Sarah’s from Chalkboard Nails. Sadly, they always end up looking like I did them with my toes. One of my friends told me to stop comparing my gradients to hers because she’s not human. lol Seriously, though–how amazing are her gradients? I was drooling over her black and white Leather Gradient and thought that maybe I would be able to do something similar. Let’s take a look at what I feel is my first semi-successful gradient:

I started off with 2 coats of OPI This Gown Needs A Crown. I love this polish!

I then used OPI 4 In The Morning which is a black satin polish from the Gwen Stefani collection to sponge on the gradient. I used a rough and porous latex sponge and applied the two polishes directly on it and sponged the polishes on twice to get them to blend well.

I think that you can see the gradient effect a lot more clearly in this picture. I’m kind of proud of myself right now because I have struggled with so many of these techniques forever so it feel like I just conquered my second Everest (water marbling being my first).

Is it pathetic to be all excited about a manicure? Hey, it’s the little things that make me happy, ok? So what do you think of my gradient? Win or fail? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Jessica Coral Symphony Collection Spring 2014

Posted on 9 February, 2014 by Cynthia

This weekend has just flown by. I guess it doesn’t help that I only have one weekend day off, but I feel like it has just gone by in a blur. I’ve been super lazy all day today and only cleaned my room and organized some of my melmers. I’ve also been watching all the Twilight movies at the same time–don’t judge. I’m not a fan, per se, but I just felt like watching them. Last night I watched that new Kate Winslet/Josh Brolin movie, Labor Day, and it was pretty bad. I love the actors, but the movie was just so damn lame that I had a hard time enjoying it. I have been meaning to post my swatches for this collection, but I just had a bunch of stuff queued up already and decided to just jump ahead and post it tonight. Starting tomorrow, I will be doing Valentine’s Day Challenge so I have those manis to post for the next 5 days. Yes, you read that right: Valentine’s Day. If you know me well, you’re probably laughing because I am not a hearts and flowers type of girl, but I figured that I should to a challenge where I am not really a fan of the holiday inspiration just so that I can push myself. Also, it was organized by Jessica and she’s pretty awesome so I jumped right on it. So, the collection I have for you today is the Jessica Coral Symphony Collection for Spring 2014. Are you tired of all the Spring Collections yet? Well, bear with me because this is a really nice one!

Jessica Starfish Glow

Jessica Conch Shell

Jessica Ocean Bloom

Jessica Tropical Sunset

Jessica Monsoon Melon

Jessica Sharktooth

Jessica is one of my favorite brands because they always do the most amazing cremes out there so I get giddy any time they put out all-creme polish collections. All of the polishes in the Coral Symphony collections are dreamy: smooth, pigemented, self-leveling and opaque. All of them required two coats for full opacity–even Sharktooth. You know I love me some white polishes, and this one is great. I can see myself using it often as a nail art base color. Overall, I am really happy with this collection because of the beautiful colors and the glorious formula. I would say that the colors aren’t super exciting as there are a lot of similar colors being released for Spring so I am sure that you may have dupes. However, if you want a perfect creme, you may want to check these out.

This collection should be available now in cause you’re interested. You can follow Jessica Cosmetics on their website and facebook page for all their latest news. Let me know what you think of this collection. Thanks so much for stopping by, and I will talk to you soon.

Stamping Saturdays #5

Posted on 8 February, 20147 February, 2014 by Cynthia

It has been 5 Saturdays since I started up Stamping Saturdays and I think today we have most of the girls participating so I’m super excited. When I say the girls, I am talking about my girls (no, not those!). The girls are Amy, Siobhan, Frosso, Nicole, Amanda, Jessica and Lesley. While I have only met one of these amazing ladies in person so far (Southern California is still not over the polish destruction that Lesley and I caused), I spend so much time emailing back and forth with them about EVERYTHING. And I mean everything. Stamping Saturdays was just an idea for all of us to do something together without the pressure of a challenge. We’re all pretty relaxed about it, and we post when we can. It’s only fitting that today I have my favorite stamping mani ever. Maybe I’m biased, but I absolutely love how this turned out, so I hope that you all love it too. Let’s take a look at my pictures below so you can be the judge.

I started out with the delicious OPI Ink Suede. Absolutely breathtaking polish. There are no more words.

I used Konad M64 and my white special polish to stamp this design. I know that there are a lot of polishes out there that work for stamping, but nothing really beats the white special polish. I find that it stamps so cleanly and crisply that it’s definitely worth the expense. I usually buy my konad polishes on amazon and have always been happy with my purchases.

So what do you think about this design? Do you like it as much as I do? For other awesome designs, make sure to check out the links below, Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope you enjoy your weekend.