Haul Archives - Of Life and Lacquer

Category: Haul

Of Life and Lacquer > Haul

How The Hunger Games Ruined My Night

Posted on 24 November, 2013 by Cynthia

Ok, that title is a little misleading because I ruined my own night by deciding to try and catch this movie on opening night and thinking there wouldn’t be any ridiculous lines to contend with. Yep, I’m a dumbass. I am a HUGE Hunger Games fan (read the trilogy twice), and I love Jennifer Lawrence so of course I was pumped when the new movie premiered. I made plans with my friend to go watch it Friday night, but we didn’t take into consideration the following facts:

1)      Everyone and their grandmother wanted to watch the movie at the same time.
2)      If you want a ticket, buy it online or show up early.
3)      There will be long lines no matter what time you show up. Long, long lines.

The place we went to was so busy that the parking structure was completely full so we were forced to valet park. Fine, whatever. I was so irritated about the lines (I know, I’m unreasonable), that I decided that we should leave and go to another theater. Notice the lack of logic here. Did I think that another theater would magically not have any lines on opening night? Well, you can pretty much guess what greeted us when we got to the other theater. I was just irritated so I decided that we wouldn’t watch the movie that night so I suggested we go get dinner. Since it was pretty chilly that night, I wanted soup—clam chowder to be exact—which was perfect because I spotted a Boudin. I was so looking forward to an amazing sourdough bread bowl filled with delicious clam chowder, but it wasn’t meant to be as they were out of bread bowls. Out of bread bowls? This is Boudin, right?! I was so freaking disappointed and mad, but I contained my furry and instead ordered a Cobb Salad. Bless my friend for putting up with this clusterfuck of a night. Sometimes I am just nuts and completely unreasonable. Despite these setbacks, we did get to see the movie Saturday morning, and I can say that it was totally worth it.

So I know that I haven’t posted in like a week. It’s not like me to not post for such a long time, and I don’t really have an excuse except that I just really didn’t feel like posting or doing my nails. As I am nearing my 2 year anniversary, I am feeling a little burned out but I know it’s just a temporary thing. It could be that there isn’t anything too exciting being released right now; a lot of the Winter and Holiday collections are out so now we have to wait for Spring Collections to start coming out before I get all excited again. In the meantime, I have still been obsessing over products and have spent way too much on stuff I don’t NEED but desperately wanted. Let me show you a few of the items I picked up recently that have definitely raised my blood pressure a little bit:

LUSH Sexy Peel

LUSH Lemony Flutter

Inglot #992

Tom Ford Black Sugar

Oh and here is a bonus picture of my nephew. Yesterday he was 2 weeks old–man how time flies! OmgIjustwanttoeathimupheissocute! Seriously. I know he’s my nephew so I guess I’m a little biased, but that little face is to die for. He is such a good baby too and likes being in his car seat.

I’ll be talking about the products I posted above in more depth when I review them later on. At this point I’m upset that I spent so much on these items and curse the day I stepped into a Lush store because I now want everything they make—but my wallet disagrees. Other than random purchases, I’ve just been laying low blogwise. I have a bunch of posts lined up…well, at least the pictures are done but I’ve been too lazy to write them up. I’ll probably get a few posts up next week since I’ll have THREE WHOLE DAYS OFF from work because of Thanksgiving. I’m going to live it up!!!

What have you been up to?

Ninja Polish Ambrosia

Posted on 2 March, 2013 by Cynthia

I worked at 6 am today which is NOT the way I like to start of my Saturday but it wasn’t very busy so I did a lot of reading. I hate not being busy at work!! I did, however, get to listen to some of my co-workers’ conversation which centered around playing the “Who would you rather….” game. Ok, those of you who know me or have been following me for a while now know that I’m not a prude by any stretch of the imagination. However, does that mean that I want to hear that crap at work? NO! Some people are so unprofessional. I’ve been involved in some unsavory conversations in the past, but I try to keep it quiet and not broadcast it to the rest of the office! Anyway, after work I decided to go to my nail places and I kind of bought too much stuff. Are you ready to see what I got?

This is the Essie Madison Aven-hue Collection for Spring 2013. Ahhh…so purty. The two pink/lavender colors look very similar so I can’t wait to compare them on my nails.

And here I got a selection from the Sation Candylandia and Miss Antoinette Collections. You all know I love me some Sations so I was super excited to find these!! My local places have been seriously lagging in getting these collections so I jumped for joy when I found them. I bought a few other polishes, but I won’t tell you which ones or HOW MANY because I’m just kind of embarrassed. All I have to say in my defense is that work has been hell on earth for me and I really needed some retail therapy. After the polish binge, I headed over to this Vietnamese bakery that has the absolute BEST baguettes and I also bough a few eggrolls which pretty much disappeared before I got to my car. Not only did I have a polish overload, but I also ate some fried delicacies and some really awesome crusty and warm bread with some cheese. Ahhhh….I was in heaven.

Enough of my adventures in heart disease and polish hoarding. Today I’m going to share a new polish from Ninja Polish that came out with Divinity. I could not resist this duo so that’s how my greedy polished hands got these.

What do you think of Ninja Polish Ambrosia? I posted a preview yesterday on Facebook and most people seemed to really like this color. I must admit that while I do think the color is great, it’s just not me. It doesn’t enchant me or make me happy. I’m sure that there are plenty of people who will love this polish and will rock the hell out of it…it just won’t be me. I found that the formula on this polish is a little thin so I had to apply 4 thin coats, but I think 3 medium coats would be enough. I don’t have many Ninja Polish brand polishes, but I really like the brush on the bottles–the remind me of OPI bottles and brushes which are my absolute favorite for my wide nails. If anyone is interested, I will be putting this up on my blog sale so it can go to a loving home. You can also purchase this directly from Ninja Polish by clicking here.

I’m on my way out to go watch Zero Dark Thirty with a friend–finally! I’ve been wanting to watch it for a long time so I’m excited to see it since I’ve heard so many good things about it. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Sephora Day

Posted on 20 August, 2012 by Cynthia

On the heels of asking all of you if I post too much, here I am with a second post today! haha! I just got so excited that I wanted to share these new polishes I picked up today. I think I tweeted earlier that I was going to go scope out all the drugstore deals so I went to Walgreens and Rite-Aid because I wanted to see if I could find those WNW Halloween polishes. Alas, I didn’t find them. Feeling sad and dejected, I went to one of my favorite places:

And I feel super deluxe lucky that my Sephora has a MUFE boutique!! I’m spoiled, I know.

So the reason why I am posting today again is because I picked up two gorgeous polishes that I had not even heard about. Being the Sephwhora that I am, I can’t believe these flew under my radar. Are you ready for awesomeness?

This beauty is the Sephora + Pantone Universe Jewel Lacquer in Parachute Purple. I don’t even have the words to describe it right now.

I only picked up two of the colors because I wanted to try them out first before buying a few of the other colors that looked interesting. These are the two colors I got:

I was also really excited about their latest 500 pt perk so I ended up getting two. If you think about it, I had to spend $1,000 dollars to get these since each dollar is worth 1 point. lol

I usually think that their perks are lame and worthless so when something good comes around, I make sure to stock up. These are full-size tubes of Benefit Porefessional!!!

So what do you think about Parachute Purple? I can’t want to try Reflecting Pond. Are you going to check these out at Sephora?

Kiss My A’s With Sticks N’ Stones

Posted on 15 August, 2012 by Cynthia

When I ran into a nicely stocked Sation display, I knew I was in trouble. My usual Sation nail place is always out of the colors that I really want so I jumped all over this and grabbed way more than I should have:

Most of the polishes come from the Class Of Sation Collection which is freaking adorable. I love all the crazy names such as Jock Juggler, Class Flirt and Miss Emo Shun All.

Now I have another one to share with you: Kiss My A’s!

Sation calls this a vibrant watermelon shade but it looks a little more red/orange/coral to me. The more I look at it, the more I start to see the watermelon reference…although, if my watermelon was that color, I’d probably be afraid to eat it. lol Since this is a neon, it dries to a satin finish so you have to use a topcoat if you want a shiny finish. As usual, I used Seche Vite. If you don’t like VNL, you should use some white undies.

And for the final look, I layered a coat of Sticks N’ Stones over Kiss My A’s. I don’t know about you, but I lurve this! I am also super happy to get this version instead of giving any money to Miss Shady McShady (I think you know who I’m talking about!)

Today was a great nail mail day. I received my Cult Nails order that wasn’t scheduled for delivery until tomorrow so I was very happy.

Then I also received my latest Sephora order with my Illamasqua goodies and my VIB sample bag.

I accidentally bought 2 bottles of the yellow nails inc. so I’m putting one in my giveaway stash. 🙂

So what do you think about my combo of Kiss My A’s and Sticks N’ Stones? This polish came from my first Ninja Polish order and I am hooked. I also bought Humblebee which I will be trying soon. Currently I am waiting for Alexandrite to come back in stock…it literally sold out in hours. Ugh! I don’t know if the weather was more mild where you live, but it was actually bearable here today so I am definitely happy about that. Let’s hope that this becomes a cooling trend!

Thanks for stopping by!

Zoya Kimmy

Posted on 6 August, 2012 by Cynthia

I really want to get through all my Zoya polishes and swatch them all, but I seem to acquire more bottles than I can keep up with. Last week I bought a few new Zoya babies and this is the first one that I decided to try. Kimmy is such a bright red with gold shimmer and I was instantly attracted to it despite the fact that I don’t usually like metallic-looking colors. You want to know the best part? This is a one-coater!! I used two here, but you can get away with one thickish coat.

Since I was in a MASH plate binge, I decided to use plate 45 for this design with Konad special polish in black.

And the last three pictures are just of my latest binge. I can’t wait until I get to play with all of these colors, especially the a-englands!!! I am going on a no polish week and giving my nails a chance to grow and recover…hopefully I will be able to stick to it and not freak out about a whole week sans polish.

So how was your Monday? I think it’s still the most dreaded day of the week for a reason. Thanks for stopping by my lovelies!

Just Another Day In Polishland

Posted on 31 July, 2012 by Cynthia

Today was such a weird day. I couldn’t fall asleep last night so I read until about 2:00 am and ended up waking up at 6:00 am. Grrrrr! I got up and started doing some cleaning and wanted to do some laundry but I got in bed to read a little and fell asleep again around 8:00. I took a long nap until about 10:00 during which time I missed 10 calls on my cell phone. 10 calls?!?!?! What the hell? All the calls came from an “unknown” number and there were no voicemails so there wasn’t much I could do. A few minutes later, my phone rang again and it was my dad. I should have known it was him. He always calls me a million times and he never leaves a message. Him and my mom were convinced that something had happened to me because I forgot to call my dad for his birthday, and I never forget his birthday. I don’t know what happened this year, I just completely spaced out and feel terrible about it.

This incident also made me very sad because my parents are NEVER at ease about my well-being. They no longer trust me or my brothers to tell them the truth about anything because we kept the truth of my hospitalizations from them last year. My first hospitalization happened around mother’s day so I was unable to talk to my mom, and I asked my brothers to tell her that I had the flu and was just resting and that I would call her soon. Well, her spidey sense perked right up, and she knew something was going on. I called her after I came home and assured her everything was fine. Then a few weeks later, I was hospitalized for a longer period of time, and that’s when my brother pushed me to tell them I was having issues so they could come and stay with me while I got better. Because of that whole episode, my parents are now always thinking that I keep the truth from them. It’s suffocating, but I know they do it because they care about me. How do I let them know that it drives me bananas that they call me a million times or start calling my brothers and friends if one day they can’t get a hold of me right away? That’s kind of crazy, right?

I spent most of the day with L. because she was having a really bad day and she needed some company. She is a good friend and was always there for me when I was going through my stuff so I want to be a good friend and be there for her as well. We went to the mall just to walk around and because I needed to return an eyebrow pencil at Sephora. So my reasoning is that if I return an item, I have to purchase one to replace it…right??? Well, that’s how I ended up with a new Illamasqua polish. Later in the day I also went to Ulta and I cleaned out their Essence polish section. Oh, and I also got my MASH plates in the mail today!!!!!!!!!

This post has been way talkier than most of my recent posts, and now it’s going to go the other way. Get ready to get photo bombed!

This is Illamasqua Swinger which I picked up today at Sephora. I really didn’t think I was going to like this polish but when I tried it on, I loved it. L. wasn’t that impressed with it, and I know she thinks I’m crazy for buying polish this expensive. I also took every essence polish they had left at my Ulta which was just 6 bottles, and I also got Zoya Marina. It’s an ok color that was on sale, but I got it mostly for the name because that’s my mom’s name. Best of all, I only paid $8 for all 7 bottles of polish after the discounts and my coupon. I am a coupon savant when it comes to nail polish…no joke. I’m adding most of these polishes to my future giveaway stash. 🙂

I am so excited about these plates…I can’t wait to try them out tomorrow. I hope they all stamp well!!!

And lastly, here is my dinner. Ahhh…..so good.

This delicious and humongous grilled steak salad is from Café Rio. The first time I ever ate there was during a business trip to Utah, and I was hooked!!!! Then, last year I heard that they were opening up a few location in So Cal!!!! Luckily (or unfortunately for my hips), they opened up a location a few blocks from my place so the temptation is there. Ugh!

Today was definitely a weird day. I can’t wait for tomorrow. New month, new day…another opportunity for me to mess up my life royally. Ha! I’ve got some fun news coming soon so make sure you stay tuned.

Self-Control? What’s That?

Posted on 27 July, 2012 by Cynthia

I had mentioned to Nicole on twitter that I had scored a lot of polishes during my latest Ulta escapade. I failed to mention that I also stopped at Walgreens to pick up some polishes for a friend (my imaginary friend that refuses the polishes and I am forced to keep) and that I also went to TJ Maxx and I found an interesting Barielle set. I know what you’re thinking: Isn’t this the girl who is always talking about no-buys? Sadly, yes…that’s me. I am just going to shut my trap from now on about no-buys and just resign myself to the unfortunate fact that I have a serious polish hoarder problem. As far as problems go, this one is not so bad. However, if later this year you see some crazy California chick on Hoarders who can no longer walk around in her apartment because it’s full of polish, yes, that would be me.

I am actually very proud of myself because I got a bunch of polishes for very little money. Let me show you what I got at Ulta before I tell you how much I actually spent.

After my coupon and redeeming some points, I ended up paying around $12.50 for all the polishes above. Can you say fantabulous deal?

I broke down and got a few more bottles of Sinful Colors while the sale is still going on. I actually did grab a few of these for a friend so I don’t feel so bad about this one.

I’m really excited to share these Barielle polishes with you because it will be my first try with this brand.

So how was your Thursday? Happy it’s Friday?

Some New Stuff

Posted on 24 July, 2012 by Cynthia

I’ve been having some really crappy days lately. I think that most of it is my fault because I tend to ignore things until they become huge issues instead of just dealing with everything when it happens. At 32, I definitely should know better yet I let this happen over and over again. How many times do things have to blow up in my face before I learn my lesson? I am so frustrated with myself right now.

Another thing is that I stopped taking my meds and haven’t been back to see my psychiatrist. Actually, he moved to a different facility as of June so I just didn’t want to go through the process of dealing with a brand new person. I have an interesting relationship with the doctor who runs the clinic because she made me have a mini breakdown while I was hospitalized. How does that happen when I’m in there for a breakdown to begin with? I actually don’t recall if I’ve written about this incident yet so I’ll just gloss over the unpleasantness and say that she accused me of lying, “being too smart for my own good” and that I was only telling the doctors what they wanted to hear so they would let me go home. I remember that day very well because I was already very upset with one of the other patients who went behind my back and told my doctor about things I had told him in confidence. Looking back, I know he was just trying to help me but I felt so betrayed at the moment. I’ve seen that doctor a few times already and she seems nice now that I’m not being held against my will (ha!), but something about her makes me feel uncomfortable. I don’t know why I’ve been so hung up on all this stuff lately. Maybe it’s just that I haven’t been taking my meds? I don’t know. But I can tell you that I’m definitely tired of feeling so vacant and drone-like. I hate the hot flashes. I hate the runny nose. I hate the wacky dreams. What would you do? What would Jesus do? lol

Anyway, I don’t know why I just went on some psycho tangent so let’s get back to simpler things like nail polish. I know I said I wasn’t going to go to my nail places but I went today anyway. I didn’t really go crazy so at least I don’t feel that bad. I went to a shop that I haven’t been to in months because I couldn’t remember if they had interesting stuff or not. Well, I did end up getting a few things. Of course.

Happy Go Lucky and Lasso My Heart are relatively new polishes but Stone Age is an oldie. I think it’s from before China Glaze went 3-Big free. It smells different. I also got the super old Color Club just because I like red, and I like the old bottles. Since it was just $1.50, it wasn’t a difficult decision. haha

Now, this is a brand I haven’t used before. I’ve seen Précision at a few places already, and I decided to get this collection because it was on sale. This collection is actually from 2010 which goes to show you how every spring/summer we get the same darn colors and we go bonkers over them anyway.

And this is my regret for the day. Since I was dealing with some crap in the morning, I didn’t have breakfast or lunch because I wasn’t hungry. Well, by around 5:00 I was hungry like the wolf.

These carne asada tacos were so massive that I couldn’t eat the rice or beans. How much meat did they put in my tacos??? Anyway, they were pretty good, but I felt like death after I ate them and I still haven’t recovered 4 hours later. I hope that tomorrow is a better day. My friend L. is coming over tomorrow since she will be in the area and she’s bringing over some polishes so I can thin them out a bit. I think D. is coming over too so we might all go to the beach or just hang out. Since I linked Hungry Like The Wolf, I will leave you with another Duran Duran song that brings back a lot of memories.

P.S. “How much meat did they put in my tacos?” That sounds kind of inappropriate.

P.P.S. I watched The Dark Knight Rises today and it was AWESOME! I highly recommend it.

Sunday Fun Day?

Posted on 22 July, 2012 by Cynthia

I am such a polish loser. I keep saying that I need to stop buying so much nail polish, but I fail spectacularly every single time. I know that a strict no-buy doesn’t really work for me because all the pent-up pressure just makes me go on gargantuan binges which pretty much put me back in the negative. Sooo…what should I do? Maybe limit myself to a couple of bottles per week? (Sounds like I’m talking about alcohol!) I think I need an intervention.

This is what I ended up getting at the Walgreens sale. The colors I picked up are: Glass Pink, Winterberry (2), Kissy, Nail Junkie, Let’s Meet, Rain Storm, Ciao Bella, Savage, Blue By You, Slate, Why Not, Leap Flog, San Francisco and Irish Green. After this purchase, I am awaiting delivery of my first a-england polishes, and I am so excited. I can’t wait to get them. At this point, I really need to back off the polish purchases. I know this is a lot of unhealthy retail therapy, and I need to find a new outlet and coping mechanism.

Since I spent all morning/afternoon cleaning like a maniac, I didn’t eat breakfast or lunch. By the time I finished, it was 4 pm and I was starving. But…polish first! I went to Walgreens to get my polishes and then, as I was driving back home, I saw that a new sandwich place had opened up so I stopped to check it out. Well, I ended up getting this:

This is a philly cheesesteak in all its delicious gooeyness. I could actually feel it coating my arteries as I consumed it. Here’s another thing that I’m going to seriously work on: no more eating out. I really enjoy cooking so I think it would be very beneficial–financially and health-wise–to stop eating out. I’ve been eating way too much junk lately and haven’t been to the gym in weeks…this is NOT good. This new sandwich place claimed to have authentic philly cheesesteaks. Now, I’ve never been to Philadelphia (airport doesn’t count) so I don’t know how authentic this is, but it sure was yummy with the mushrooms, onions, peppers and cheese. Why is everything that goes directly to my thighs have to taste so good??

I have a few more manicures to share and then I am completely out of backlogged manis. My nails are still painfully short so I haven’t been doing too much with them so I’m probably going to take a little break from the nail posts until my nails grow out. I do have some other stuff I want to share like my make up and polish storage so I may do that. I haven’t really been writing too much personal stuff lately and there is a post that I have had in my drafts for weeks, but I just haven’t posted it because it’s so personal. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever expressed what I wrote in that post to anyone in my life so it makes me nervous even though there is “some” anonymity to this blog still.

Lastly, a friend posted this on Facebook, and I just thought it was the most inappropriately brilliant thing I had ever seen:

I apologize if you find this offensive, but I still think it’s hilarious.

I hope you have had a nice weekend and don’t forget to enter my latest giveaway! It’s over in a few days. 🙂

Nails Inc. Sprinkles Polishes & How My Brother Would Starve Without Me

Posted on 16 July, 2012 by Cynthia

I’ve seriously been drooling over the Nails Inc. Sprinkles polishes so I was psyched when I saw them at Sephora today. I was running low on my MUFE HD foundation so I wanted to go get another bottle. While I was there, I noticed that there was a new Sephora brand foundation that looked exactly like the MUFE HD…bottle design and all. I asked one of the cast members if she would color match me. I knew I had a great cast member when she guessed my MUFE HD color immediately. So I took off my make up and she redid it with the new foundation and she applied blush and bronzer too. Very nice! So far, I absolutely love the new foundation and it’s $22 compared to $42 for the MUFE. If you love your MUFE HD and are looking for a more cost-effective alternative, definitely check this foundation out! I also wanted to try the Anastasia Brow Whiz. I currently use the Anastasia brow powder and apply it with an angled brush, but I wanted to try a pencil now. Well, they were sold out of the brunette shade. Wah, wah! The Sephora employee showed me a comparable one from their Sephora line and it seemed like a good alternative. (The price was also better: $12 vs. $20). Unfortunately, she must have grabbed the wrong color because when I got home I realized the color is honey blonde. LOL Grrrr. So I’m going to take it back and exchange it for the Midnight Brown. I also headed to Ross and got a couple of things from their cosmetics section.

As soon as I got home, I had to try out one of my sprinkles polish and I am in loooooooooooooooooove! (Why am I always saying this when it comes to polish?)

I completely adore the way this polish looks!!! You can get away with one coat but adding the second coat adds depth to the polish and how the sprinkle/glitter looks. Nails Inc, you’re killing me…

So here is the rundown of what I got today:

Nails Inc Sprinkles polishes in Topping Lane and Pudding Lane

Doesn’t this look exactly like the MUFE HD bottle??? EDIT: I did not notice this right away but this is not exactly the super amazing, great deal I was touting. The MUFE HD foundation is $42 for 1.01 oz and the Sephora Instant Radiance foundation is $22 for .67 oz. DAMN THEM FOR TRICKING ME! lol Well, it’s my fault for not looking at the bottle more closely.

These are the items I picked up at Ross:

I’ve never tried this line of SH polishes so when I saw these for $1.99 each, how could I resist? I actually saw these at Rite-Aid a few minutes later for like $5.99!!! Same exact polishes.

I am always on the hunt for good cuticle stuff and this was just $2.99 at Ross. I tried it already and I really like it! It’s really thick and leaves my skin really soft even after I wash my hands. It also smells great so double win!

This is what I had for dinner:

You know how they say that if you use smaller plates, you will eat less? Well, that doesn’t quite work when you help yourself to multiple servings…

Since my brother is working late today, I told him I’d leave him some food so he can eat when he gets home.

Oh, the joys of having my little brother live with me. He’s 22 but he is a complete dunce when it comes to cooking anything except cup o noodles. Sometimes I leave him a plate with food prepared and all he has to do is pop it in the microwave and eat it. I will wake up the next morning, and it’s still there. When I ask him why he didn’t eat it, he tells me that he didn’t know how long to heat it in the microwave and that I was already asleep so he couldn’t ask me. Oh dear Lord, help me. Why would I ever want a child if I have my brother?

How was your Monday? Anything exciting happen? Mondays are always my least favorite day of the week. Well, hope your weekend was pleasant and I am so enjoying the cooler weather. Thanks for stopping by and talk to you later!