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Blogger Spotlight: Amy from The Fancy Side

Posted on 16 May, 2013 by Cynthia

Hi everyone! Today I’m super happy to be featuring a blog from a gal whom I adore for all the trouble we get into together on twitter: Amy from The Fancy Side. If you haven’t checked out her blog yet, you should. Go. Do it. Now! If you want to know what she’s like, you have to follow her on twitter as well because the things that come out her mouth are hilarious and I know we are all going to have a good laugh whenever she is involved in the conversation. Not only is she a really fun person to know, but she is also kind, compassionate and is always there to listen and encourage me when I’m having a craptastic day. I hope that you all enjoy the following post.

So, I’m kind of intimidated that I’m here on Cynthia’s blog talking to all of you, but I’ll try to act natural. *Deep Breaths*

I’ve been following Cynthia’s blog for FOR-EVAH, and finally I just decided to force my internet friendship on her. She was a big inspiration behind starting my own blog. So when she asked me to do a Blogger Spotlight, I thought long and hard on what to do. I wanted to do a manicure inspired by Cynthia. There are a lot of things her blog has taught me, but here are 2 of them. 1. Jelly Stamp Sandwiches are fun. 2. Stamping with Holographic polish is AWESOME. I thought to myself, why not combine the two. So here it is.

The first picture is the stamp, before being covered with the top layer of the Jelly Polish. The second is the completed sandwich, and the third is outside in the sun so you can see the amazingness that is the sandwich.

For this look, I’ve started with two coats of L’Oreals Lolly Jolly, and then stamped it with the Bundle Monster plate BM-203 in Color Club’s Harp on It. For an accent I did a true jelly sandwich with OPI’s Which is Witch?. Finally I topped all off with a final thin layer of Lolly Jolly.

I hope you enjoyed this look, and can be inspired by Cynthia, just as I am.

Isn’t this mani totally cute? I love the sparkle to it and the delicate holo stamping. I’ve really been missing doing more nail art on my blog just because I’ve been swatching like crazy lately so I’m glad that Amy was able to share such a fun design with all of you. I haven’t done any of these blogger spotlight posts in a long time so I’m glad that I was able to bring them back with someone who has become such a great friend. Who would have thought I would meet so many awesome ladies because of nail polish!

Thanks for stopping by today and don’t forget to let Amy and myself know what you think of this cute design. I’ll talk to you later!

Blogger Spotlight: Tami From Polished Dreams And Life Things

Posted on 25 February, 201325 February, 2013 by Cynthia

I haven’t forgotten about my blogger spotlights and today I am very happy to have Tami, from Polished Dreams And Life Things, share an awesome review for you.

Hey Peeps! I’m very excited to be writing a guest post for Of Life And Lacquer, I feel honored too. Wow, there are people out there that actually think my content is worth reading. Thank you ladies. Besides my first ever guest post, this is also my first post with my new camera and laptop. I’m lucky to have a hubs that is supportive (he’s an enabler) of my hobbies (my addictions). You may notice by my swatch photos that I had to cut my nails down to stubby little nubbins. Lame! At least I have pretty polish.

Today I am stoked to share 2 gorgeous Kunimitsu Nail Potions with you! The talented owner, Jessica has been sharing her awesome hand-mixed and frankened nail potions since late 2011. All of her polish is made with a 3-free base too. She has many gorgeous polishes listed on her Etsy store, with lots of new potions just released! I can’t wait to get my hands on them, but for now I’m going to show you Nice Planet!

Awesome Sauce is what this is, I love those colors. This polish kinda reminds me of a speckled jelly bean…Nice Planet! is inspired by our home planet Earth. Jessica describes it as “What I imagine space travelers would exclaim once laying eyes on the jewel we all live and breathe on, Earth. A white polish with subtle green shimmer with glitters of green, teal and gold.” The green shimmer doesn’t really show on my photos, but trust me it’s in there. Even without the green shimmer showing it’s still pretty. Here’s a close-up for good measure…

There’s small gold, light green, and teal glitters mixed in with the larger green and teal circles. It’s so friggin cute, my photos do NOT do this polish justice. Nice Planet is unique but versatile, a must-have for any polish obsessed chick. I’d totally rock it for St Patty’s Day or any other time for that matter. It has the perfect consistency and dry time is good. The finish is smooth enough that one thin topcoat is all you really need. I had no issues with glitter placement either, the formula is very easy to work with. I love those circles! Very planetary.

The next Kunimitsu nail potion is Eclipsed, inspired by Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of The Moon. It’s a holo/glitter top coat containing spectra-flare, black bars, medium black matte squares, and small multi-colored hex glitters that totally set it off. Spectra-flare isn’t cheap, so obviously Eclipsed costs a bit more than the other KNPs. You can get a full size bottle for $10, but it’s so worth it! It’s perfect, seriously. Very psychedelic. I think Mr. Floyd would be proud. I only purchased the mini, and as soon as I used it I knew I screwed up. I really need to get the full size bottle, I love this stuff! I decided to swatch it with a few different colors. Here’s a shot of Sinful Colors Happy Ending with 3 coats of Eclipsed and a coat of Seche Vite…

The formula of Eclipsed is awesome. It goes on smooth, I had no issues with the bar or square glitters. The polish consistency makes it so easy to arrange the glitters where you want them. I like being able to easily add or remove the bars and squares without jacking up my finish. I was curious to see what Eclipse looked like over yellow, so I decided to swatch it over Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lightening. The swatch shows 3 coats of Eclipsed with a coat of Seche Vite.

Ok, my photography skills are obviously lacking in this photo. I’ve been experimenting with different backgrounds, I think the black background works better. I’m very pale too, so yellow really isn’t the best color for me. I also did not realize I had overdone the cuticle oil. Sorry about that! To make up for it, I saved the best for last. Here’s a swatch of Eclipsed over Spoiled Checkin’ Into Rehab…I left out the black squares and only used a few bars for this swatch. I thought that would be the best way to do it over a dark purple. No bottle in this shot. I find it ridiculously hard to include my thumb in the bottle shots and I really wanted you to see it. This one was a very distracting combo for me, I couldn’t quit staring at my fingers.

So, the verdict on Kunimitsu Nail Potions…I love ’em! They are unique and easy to work with, reasonably priced for the quality too. I can’t wait to order more. If you have not tried Kunimitsu yet, you really should. Click here to be directed to the KNP Esty shop. The polish is gorgeous and the prices are very reasonable. I had a very hard time deciding which ones to try first! I want all of them. To stay on top of KNP happenings and new releases, like her Facebook here. Now I’m going to close my review with some awesome news. I’m having a mini-giveaway on my blog! Yay! It’s my first time doing a giveaway, so I’m really excited about it. Please click here to enter. Good luck!

A big thank you to Tami for sharing yet another awesome indie brand with me and all of you. I hope you have enjoyed Tami’s post–she cracks me up and I’m glad I’ve gotten the chance to meet her. She actually won one of my giveaways (check out her awesome swatches of the Sation polishes she won here.) Don’t forget to enter her giveaway! Just click on the picture below if you didn’t follow the link in her blog post.

If you’re interested in being featured in a future blogger spotlight, don’t hesitate to contact me!

Blogger Spotlight: Kat From Kat Stays Polished

Posted on 11 February, 201311 February, 2013 by Cynthia

Happy Monday everyone! Every time I say that, I am reminded of one of my favorite workplace movies: Office Space.

Is it just me or do people like that make Mondays even more miserable? I seriously hate Mondays because it’s so hard to wake up early again–especially if you totally slept in on Sunday. I’ve been having a lot of trouble staying asleep lately so I usually feel tired even if I went to bed at a decent time. I tend to wake up every 2 hours but fall back asleep pretty quickly. I guess it’s just stress.

I mentioned this on facebook already, but I’ll mention it here as well. I am going to give my hands a little break so I won’t be swatching for at least a week–or until my hands and nails recover from the beating they took this past weekend. For those of you who know me rather well, it comes as no surprise to hear about my cleaning fit. Well, since I’m so smart, I refused to wear gloves even though I was handling bleach and ammonia. I can’t even show you what happened because my hands look like I soaked them in battery acid…it’s horrible. I got upset so I ended up cutting my nails down to the nub–I no longer have a white nail edge. I know I do this periodically so now I just have to deal with it. Luckily, I have a few things in store such as today’s Blogger Spotlight. Help me welcome Kat from Kat Stays Polished!

When did you first start your blog?

· My first post was November 15, 2012, so not that long ago. I had a Facebook nail page for a while…I think June of 2011, but I wasn’t TOO active on it.

Why did you start blogging?

· Lots of reasons! The main reason I think is because I started to get asked to review products. You can’t blog about products if you don’t have a blog! I also wanted to REALLY showcase some of the awesome ideas I had as well as my collection of polish. I think the nail polish community is awesome and I love meeting so many people who share the same passion. I know that there are always going to be newcomers to the polish world and if I can help them get started in any way, I’m happy to do it.

Do you have a favorite nail polish brand?

· You know, it’s so hard to say. My collection is nearing 400 but I still don’t have a LOT of brands! I mostly have China Glaze and I purchased my very first butter LONDON polishes last year. I LOVE those. I love OPI but sadly I only have a few of those, too. I really want to get deeper into the indie world, maybe start my own line sometime soon.

Do you have a favorite nail polish finish?

· Holographic anything! I love crèmes if they are streak-free. I like glitters if I can actually use them often on my nails. Some glitters are just not practical sometimes.

Do your family and friends know about your blog?

· I’m pretty sure all my friends know about my blog. As much as I post on FB and talk about it at work, they probably can’t get away from it. I know my parents and my brother know about my blog, but I live lots of states away from my family so I don’t get a chance to talk to them often. I also have more male cousins than female so that doesn’t do me much good either, lol.

What do you like most about blogging?

· I love being able to show people my own takes on designs and new ideas that I come up with. I love being able to interact with so many people because of my love for polish. I LOVE that I have made so many new friends through my blog and my Facebook page. I’m pretty darn lucky.

How often do you blog?

· I try to post at least 2-3 times a week. If I get busy with reviews, it’s not uncommon for me to post every day for a couple of weeks.

Is there anything you don’t like about blogging?

· When my personal life gets busy, it takes away from blogging. When my blogging gets busy, it takes me away from my husband. There has to be a balance between the two worlds. I don’t have kids yet, so it’s a little bit easier to sneak away into my polish room. Other than that, blogging is wonderful and being able to swatch and post can sometimes relieve all the stress of the day. I just want to point out that ANYONE can blog. It does take a certain amount of dedication and a pretty good camera, but your posts are really just about YOU. It about YOUR polish, YOUR opinions, and YOUR art. Don’t get discouraged and start slow if you have to. Eventually you’ll have a following and people will be flocking over to your blog.

You can also watch a tutorial for these nails on youtube here.

Make sure that you visit Kat on her blog and her facebook page–show her some love by following and liking.

http://katstayspolished.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/KatStaysPolished

If you are interested in being featured in a future Blogger Spotlight, don’t hesitate to contact me. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Blogger Spotlight: Perly From Nails For All

Posted on 3 February, 2013 by Cynthia

How about that Superbowl, eh? I couldn’t NOT mention it considering it’s the first time I have ever watched a whole game and of course I thought the power outage was kind of funny. Anyway, this is the first time that I do one of these blogger spotlights which I had mentioned in the past. My reasoning for wanting to do this is that I know how incredibly hard things can be when you first start blogging. I used to always wonder if people even read my blog and then I would get so discouraged. I still feel that way sometimes even now, but I have met so many lovely people because of this blog so I’m always happy to continue sharing my love for polish even when others may think it borders on psychosis. Although my blog is still a little baby blog in a sea of a million others, I would have loved if someone had done this for me when I first started out.

Today I have the lovely Perly from Nails For All who will be sharing a little bit about herself and her blog.

I started my blog in September 9^th, 2012 in course of a school assignment (I studies society and media) about to learn the system of WordPress. At the moment I just had started my “manicure mania” and saw the assignment as a good way to document my progress. -And when it was done I was stuck.

I “only” own about 100 polishes excluding topcoats (and so on), and about the half of them is glitters, my polishbox is screaming for different crème polishes, a truly scarce. Really surprising because of the fact that I love lime crèmes but I’m still not sure about my favorite finish, but I love glitters if I find the right layering polish so glitter would be it. About favorite brands it’s hard to tell, at least it aren’t any Swedish one because the only one I know from here is Viva la Diva and their polishes are kind of boring in my eyes. So out of the brands I own my favorite is China Glaze even if OPI is near to take the spot with the loveliness of Gone Gonzo! But their brushes are way too wide for me to work with. But my most used polish I found in Bulgaria last summer from the brand Flomar.

Among my family and friends I think the most of them know about my blog but probably it´s just about 1-2 of them reading it, maybe because I only have contact with people in school (I don’t have that much time and at my free time at weekends I prefer to visit family) and most of them are sport or game freaks.

What I mostly like about blogging is the fact that I can get and give advice from other that also is stuck in the nail polish obsession. Also I like the fact that I can feel free about when I blog or not, because we are all in the same boat about time for manicure making and blogging in combination with the rest of our lives.

Perly hails from Sweden which is a country I’ve always wanted to visit. Hopefully I’ll get the change to take a vacation there sometime in the future. Here is a manicure that Perly created for this post as well as her adorable mani profile picture:

Make sure that you check out Perly’s blog at http://nailsforall.wordpress.com/

If you are interested in being featured in a future Blogger Spotlight post, just send me an email and we can chat. Thanks for stopping by today!