Press Sample Archives - Page 28 of 39

Category: Press Sample

Of Life and Lacquer > Press Sample

KBShimmer Spring Collection 2015

Posted on 1 February, 2015 by Cynthia

Well, I wanted to get this post up early–even last night, but as usual, I got sidetracked. I had the funkiest dreams last night and I ended up oversleeping big time. I was planning to be up by 7 and I got up at 10:30. Womp womp. Now I have to rush through all my errands, laundry and cleaning. I hate Sundays. Let me tell you how excited I am to share these beauties with you!!! KBShimmer always puts out the most amazing polishes and I can already tell you that this new collection is no exception–I love the musicality of that phrase. Anyway, let me show you the pretties before I jump out of my skin. Behold the beauty of the KBShimmer Spring Collection!

KBShimmer Funky Cold Patina

KBShimmer Wind Swarm

KBShimmer Eyes White Open

KBShimmer Blush Money

KBShimmer Blue-d Lines

KBShimmer Ins And Sprouts

KBShimmer Thistle Be The Day

Ghaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! These are gorgeous. There is not a single problematic polish in this lot–they were all opaque at two coats an applied smoothly. I changes my lighting up a bit for the holographic polishes so I apologize for the shine on my skin in these pictures. The holos are just so mesmerizing–can we ever get enough of holos? I don’ know what else to tell you about this collection besides I’m sorry….I’m sorry that your wallet/bank account is about to get lighter because you will want every single one of these. The collection consists of 12 polishes total and they are all just as amazeballs. The polishes will retail for $8.75 each and will be available on Friday, February 6th, 2015 at www.kbshimmer.com. Will you be getting any of these? Let me know what you think. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Follow KBShimmer

Website – Facebook – Instagram – Twitter

Stamping Saturdays #53

Posted on 24 January, 201524 January, 2015 by Cynthia

Aren’t you guys happy that the weekend is here? Last night I found Masked Affair at my local Rite-Aid and I am still wondering why the display only has two of each polish…is that ridiculous or what? Anyway, I had a pretty big polish week because I bought a ton of new stuff that I’m already regretting but hey–that always happens to me. As usual, I had no idea what I wanted to do for today’s Stamping Saturdays so I just went with the flow. Let me show you the gorgeous polish that I used as my base.

This gorgeous polish is OPI Taylor Blue (press sample). If you don’t know the story behind this polish, make sure that you read it here. This gorgeous polish is so incredibly shiny and has a beautiful crelly consistency.

I then used Mentality White Opaque to stamp an image from plate MoYou London Sailor Collection Plate 07 (press sample). While the Mentality polish stamps beautifully, it has more of a pearl off white finish and I was really looking forward to an opaque white creme. I got so excited with my mani, that I top coated it with OPI I Can Teal You Like Me (press sample) before taking pictures of it. Womp womp. I really love how this looks but dang those bubbles kill it. I’m getting irrationally upset with the bubbles so I may have to take Emma’s suggestion and try the Dance Legend Top Aquarelles.

Minus the bubbles, I love this!!! What do you think? I’m starting to feel really gross because of the Santa Ana winds which make my allergies go bonkers…i’m not looking forward to that so I’m loading up on Benadryl. I have an eye exam later this morning which I’m not looking forward to. Lately I’ve been having tons of issues with my vision which is a huge concern since I’m diabetic. However, I’ve had all the check ups with my doctor and she said my eyes are perfectly healthy. I’ve noticed that I have a lot of trouble seeing up close now with my glasses, and by the end of the day, my eyes are so painfully dry that I can barely see. I bought some eye drops last night and when I got home I realized it said they were for dry “aging eyes.” Yep, I’m old. Well, I hope you’re having a nice Saturday so far and don’t forget to join us for Stamping Saturdays by adding your link below and tagging your posts on IG with #stampingsaturdays so I can find you. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Loading InLinkz ...

The Lacquer Ring – Splatter

Posted on 22 January, 201521 January, 2015 by Cynthia

I need to tone it down a little today because I’m almost roid raging over a freaking nail. So here I am all happy with being able to use my swatching hand again, and I was all showing off my new nail shape and all…and BAM! My pink nail split lengthwise. How does that even happen? I’ve never had that happen before so I was like…WTF nail? I managed to file it down enough to where the split ended, but now I’m just waiting for the next nail catastrophe. Oh, and I also have a nail starting to peel/break on my non-swatching hand. Of course this happens when I have about 30 polishes to swatch because the universe hates me. Let me get off this rant for now so I can actually show you what I’m supposed to be talking about today: The Lacquer Ring! Yep, we are at it again with a new prompt which was chosen by Amanda. She chose splatter nails, and of course I had to take the easiest way out because, at Sweet Brown says, Ain’t nobody got time fo dat!

I started off with a simple black base using Jessica Velvets & Pearls (press sample) which is a pretty standard black creme. It has a great formula so no complaints here.

I then used Jessica Standing Ovation (press sample) to stamp this splatter image from Konad Plate M70. I thought the contrast would be better, but I kind of like how this looks. I should have left well enough alone but nooooooooooooo…

I then used my Nicole by OPI Matte Top Coat (press sample) to mattify the whole mani and basically ruined it. I do not like how this looks matte. I should have used a different stamping color to make it stand out more when I mattified it.

Welp, I’m sorry I brought you this craptacular mani today. I just gave up. I had a long day and just didn’t have it in me to do anything different after this fail. Hopefully I’ll do better next month. Womp womp. Check out the links below to see what the other ladies from The Lacquer Ring came up with–it sure can’t get worse than this. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Loading InLinkz ...

The Lacquer Ring – Cobalt

Posted on 9 January, 20158 January, 2015 by Cynthia

I am sooooooo glad that it’s Friday. This week has felt really long so I’m looking forward to being lazy all weekend. I feel like I say that every Friday and then I end up feeling guilty when I do spend some totally lazy time. Major props to moms out there who NEVER get a day off–I don’t know how you do it. I had some drama with this post because I accidentally completely deleted it off my drafts and then it wasn’t in my deleted items either so it fell into the blog Bermuda Triangle. It seems pretty par for the course for me as of late, but I’m still pretty darn happy even if I have been kind of emotional lately. I could blame PMS, but I think I’m just weird overall. Today, The Lacquer Ring is featuring Cobalt. Can we all scream every time we see or hear the word cobalt they way they did in Peewee’s Playhouse? How rando was that show? I tried watching it with my brother a bit ago and it almost seemed creepy. Maybe it was the whole masturbating in public thing….Anyway, let me show you the polish I used.

This is Inglot 992 which I haven’t worn in a really long time. Initially it looked cobalt to me, but it’s actually more of a blurple. This polish has a beautiful purple sheen in the bottle that pretty much disappears on the nail. Still, I think it’s lose enough to cobalt where I don’t feel too bad for messing up.

Since I wanted to keep things simple, I just applied a coat of Shimmer Liana (press sample) over my base color to jazz it up. I really love all of the Shimmer Polish glitters that I have ever used because they are so pretty and interesting. I can always count on them to bling out my manicures.

So what do you think? Is cobalt a color that you like to wear on your nails? What is your favorite cobalt polish? To be honest, I think mine is Nails Inc. Baker Street which I probably should have used today but I’ve used it so many times that I just wanted to mix it up a little. Anywho, don’t forget to check out the other cobalt manis below. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and don’t forget to joins us tomorrow for Stamping Saturdays. Talk to you soon!

Loading InLinkz ...

Dollish Polish Wicked Wario

Posted on 7 January, 20154 January, 2015 by Cynthia

Did I tell you that I now have the full Dollish Polish Super Mario Bros. Collection due to the generosity and awesomeness of Amy and Amanda? They are so thoughtful and knew how much I wanted to get my hands on this collection so they sent these to me slowly building up the collection for me. I love you girls so much for being so sweet–these polishes mean a lot to me! I’ve been on a very limited polish budget for a few months now mostly owing to the fact that my rent went up quite a bit, so I just hadn’t picked these up on my own. Polish v. housing…it shouldn’t be such a hard decision, right? Only polish hoarders understand the struggle. Today I’m going to show you Dollish Polish Wicked Wario, but first let me show you what I used as my base color.

KBShimmer Hugs & Wishes (press sample) is just gorgeous. There is nothing else I can say about this polish that you haven’t heard yet: beautiful creme and opaque with two easy coats.

Dollish Polish Wicked Wario is such a unique glitter topper. It has purple micro glitters with small green hexes as well as gold and white glitter. I have no idea how this glitter combination works, but it totally does. I don’t think it would be a full coverage glitter on its own, so you definitely need a solid color underneath.

What do you think of this combination? Are you a huge Super Mario Bros. fan like me? What collection have you been lusting over but haven’t bitten the bullet yet? Is there a discontinued collection that you missed out on that you’d like to get your hands on? Well, I hope your week is going well so far, and I will talk to you soon!

Cirque Colors Metropolis Collection January 2015

Posted on 5 January, 20154 January, 2015 by Cynthia

Today you are seeing my much ignored non swatching hand. I don’t really have a hard time painting my nails with my non-dominant hand, but polishing them in blog quality, meaning not getting polish on my cuticles and doing good clean up if necessary, can get difficult. I usually don’t have to do any clean up on my manicures because after 3 years of almost daily polish changes, I have gotten pretty good at being neat–but it’s still more difficult when I’m using my left hand to apply polish. Well, for the next few weeks/months you’ll be seeing my right hand in my reviews because I chopped off my nails on my left hand. I ruined my nails due to over-buffing and they were so paper thin and painful that I decided to just cut them down to nubbins and wait for the damage to grow out. I don’t know how long that will take, but I can guarantee that I will never buff my nails again. Today I’m pretty excited to be showing you 2 amazeballs creme polishes because you all know how I feel about cremes. I love glitter, I love holos, I love shimmers, I like duochromes, but there is nothing more gorgeous to me than a rich, buttery and shiny creme polish and these do not disappoint. Cirque has been putting out two monthly creme polishes that have NYC as their inspiration. For January, the Cirque Colors Metropolis collection brings you Midnight Cowboy and Empire State of Mind.

Cirque Midnight Cowboy is one of those rich navy blue cremes that blue lovers go gaga over–myself included. The formula on this baby is so creamy and delicious that it basically applied itself. It’s very opaque, but you will need two coats to achieve full opacity.

Who doesn’t love vampy nails? Well, for all of you vamps out there, I offer you Cirque Empire State of Mind. This rich red oxblood color is beautiful and has the same perfect formula as Midnight Cowboy. The redness you see around my cuticles is not actual staining from the polish, it’s slight irritation from a new cuticle remover I used that I left on too long. That’s what I get for watching The Walking Dead while doing my nails.

This is the first time I try out cremes from Cirque and goddam they are amazing. Considering how pigmented these shades are, I did not get any staining even though I didn’t use a base coat–now that’s saying something. I also love how shiny the finish is, almost like patent leather. I always use Seche Vite as my top coat, and the shine was the same even before I top coated them. These 2 new additions to the Metropolis collection became available on January 1st and you can buy them here where they retail for $13. Will you be getting any of these? Don’t even mention Mirror Mirror to me because I am still kicking myself for not getting it when it was last restocked. Well, I hope you’re having a good Monday (oxymoron?) and that you’re staying warm if you live somewhere that has actual Winters. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Follow Cirque Colors

Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

Stamping Saturdays #50

Posted on 3 January, 2015 by Cynthia

It’s the first Stamping Saturdays of 2015! Where has the time gone? Where is my happy ending? Where have all the cowboys gone….? I just had a Paula Cole moment–it just happened organically. What happened to Paula Cole anyway? I remember really being into her music back in 1997–goddam I feel old right now. It’s kind of freezing right now, but next week our temperatures are going to go back to Cali-Winter norms so we’ll be in the upper 70’s. We really are spoiled, aren’t we? For today’s Stamping Saturdays mani, I used yet another gorgeous blue: Cirque Midnight Cowboy. I’ve been using blue a lot lately which isn’t surprising since it is one of my favorite colors. Let me show you how gorgeous it is.

Cirque Midnight Cowboy (press sample) is part of the January duo release for the Metropolis Collection. Each month, two luscious NYC inspired cremes are released by Cirque and this month we get a gorgeous navy and a deep oxblood red. Midnight Cowboy is creamy perfection. It applied like a dream and needed two coats for full opacity. Love this!

I can’t get enough of white and blue nails so I took this strange pattern from plate Born Pretty 05 (press sample). I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be, but since it was in an aquatic type plate, I figure it must be coral? It kind of also looks like brains to me. Am I weird? If you’re interested in checking out these plates, you can see them on Born Pretty Store here.

So what do you think about this mani? I think it looks so strange that it somehow appeals to me. I hope you’re enjoying your weekend so far, and thank you for stopping by today. I will talk to you soon.

Loading InLinkz ...

KBShimmer Men Are From Mars-ala

Posted on 22 December, 201422 December, 2014 by Cynthia

Can you believe that there is about a week and a half left before we enter 2015? I’m kind of blown away by this because I feel like I’m in such a different place than I was a year ago–in a good way for the most part. But, I’ll leave that self-reflection for another post, maybe my last post of the year after I’ve had a few margaritas. Ooohhh….dangerous combination. One of the things I look forward to is the unveiling of the Pantone Color of the year. Having worked in the paint industry for a bit, I learned to love color and all the different trends that affect how products are marketed. As you may know, Marsala is the 2015 color of the year and I actually quite like it. I heard make people complaining about it and how it’s a grandma color and plain ugly. I love the earthiness of the color, and I think it suits my skin tone quite well. I knew that there would be plenty of polishes coming out with Marsala as the main inspiration and to day I have one of the first ones I have seen: KBShimmer Men Are From Mars-ala.

Look, you already know what I’m going to say because we’re talking about KBShimmer here. This polish is absolutely gorgeous. The formula is buttery and opaque at two coats. While it doesn’t look super holographic here, it does look amazing in the sun. Good job, KBShimmer…you never disappoint.

My friend Amy asked me how Men Are From Mars-ala compared to Deja Brew so I decided to do a little comparison for her.

Totally different! I should have included Rust No One, but that one is also not similar as it is much more red/orange.

So what do you think about this polish? What are your thoughts on the color of the year? If you’re interested in picking up this beauty, it will be available on www.KBShimmer.com for $8.75 on January 1st. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Seche & Live Love Polish Review

Posted on 10 December, 2014 by Cynthia

Don’t you just love the days when you don’t have to go to work? Actually, I take that back because I am not at work today because I am sick. It all started with some congestion and now I have a cough, runny nose and post nasal drip–lovely! I think I was running a fever last night because I woke up drenched in sweat–even more lovely. Since I’m spending the afternoon in bed, I figured I might as well do something productive like write up this post! Today I am going to be talking about Seche Vite. Ahhh, Seche Vite; you are my first and only love. One of the questions that I get most often is what kind of top coat I use to get such a glossy finish on my manicures. I can tell you that 99% of the time I use Seche Vite because there is nothing that works better for me. I’ve tried so many different top coats in my last 3 years of blogging, but I keep coming back to Seche Vite every single time. And what better way to showcase my favorite top coat than to pair it with a beautiful polish from the Seche nail polish line? The beauty I have for you today is Seche Rendezvous.

Seche Rendezvous is a gorgeous magenta cream that is quite opaque. I applied two coats of polish for my swatches above. One thing I have noticed about Seche polish in general is that it tends to set a little quicker than what I’m used to so it’s very easy to overwork it. If you’re not super quick with your application, you can definitely cause an uneven mess. The good thing is that if you do get some unevenness, you can slap on a coat of Seche Vite and it will fix your mani right up!

I know that not everyone is like me in that I live near some really awesome beauty supply stores where I can basically get EVERYTHING under the stars, so you’ll be glad to hear that the Seche line is easily accessible at Live Love Polish. I have a difficult time finding Seche polishes in retail store near me, so I’ve only had the chance to try out a few colors in the past. Just like the famous top coat, I find the Seche nail lacquer line to be good quality and very durable.

As far as the top coat goes, I know that there are a few complaints out there, and it wouldn’t be fair to ignore those points:

It shrinks your polish
It smells and is not 3-free
It gets mega goopy halfway through the bottle

What am I missing? I think those are the three complaints that I tend to hear most often. I am of the mindset that not every product is going to work perfectly for every single person out there. I have had very minor issues with shrinkage (insert Seinfeld joke here). I tend to flood my nail with Seche Vite which encapsulates the polish, and I can honestly tell you that I rarely have shrinkage. As for the smell, maybe I’m weird cause I like the smell–or maybe it’s cause it gets me kinda polish high…who knows?! I do know that many people will not use products that are not big 3-free, but I have nothing for you on that because it’s a personal decision. Lastly, and probably the biggest complaint, is the goop factor. The first time that you open a bottle of Seche Vite, it’s this perfect consistency that glides over your nails with the greatest of ease, it’s the daring young man on the flying trapeze…eehh…see how easy it is to distract me when I’m sick? So anyway, halfway through the bottle you will notice that your once flowing Seche Vite is he consistency of lava which doesn’t lend itself to flawless application. Well, at that point I bust out my partner in crime, Seche Restore, and add a few drops to thin it back to a manageable consistency. Voila! Problem solved. I know that we all have our favorite top coats, but it just happens that Seche Vite is mine. I haven’t found anything that dries faster, harder and stronger. (Is that you, Daft Punk?)

So what do you think of Seche Rendezvous? Is it your kind of color? What is your favorite top coat? I’d be very interested to hear all about your top coat tribulations because as we all know, your mani is only as good as your top coat. Don’t forget to check out Live Love Polish where you can purchase these products and many more. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

The Lacquer Ring – Fuchsia

Posted on 4 December, 20143 December, 2014 by Cynthia

You guys, I am so happy that I got a chance to post today. As you may have heard, Southern California is in the midst of rainmaggeddon and all hell has broken loose. The state is going down in flames–er, water? Yes, I’m kidding. We’ve had sporadic showers in the last two days, but people act like it’s the new biblical deluge. Everyone forgets how to drive, which causes tons of accidents, people fight each other Hunger Games style for parking spots close to the entrance of the store and it’s just general mayhem all around. I sit back in my car wondering what would happen if we had real horrible weather like some places back east–I guess we would all die instantly. For reals. So today The Lacquer Ring is bringing you the color fuchsia per Lesley’s choice. I pretty much love the color so I am very happy with Lesley’s choice. When it came to deciding which polish to use, I went with the obvious: Sation Fan The Flames Fuchsia.

Sation Fan the Flames Fuchsia is a super vibrant neon that dries to a satin finish. I adore this polish because he formula is perfection. Even though it dries kinda of satiny, it’s not difficult to apply, and it’s super opaque. I’ve been wondering what happened to Sation/Miss Professional Nail because I haven’t seen a collection from them in over a year and their FB page basically has no activity. I loved their collections so I’m sad that they fell off the face of the earth.

To finish everything off, I did a sort of sloppy glitter gradient with Shimmer Polish Alice (press sample) which is probably my favorite Shimmer beauty. I top coated the whole thing which gave my whole mani some shine–I kind of miss the satin look of the polish so maybe next time I’ll use a matte top coat.

What do you think of this mani? Is it to blinged out for you? I personally love it even though I wish I had done a better job with my glitter gradient. Don’t forget to check out the other fuchsia manis below. Our next prompt is all about stars so I need to start figuring out what I will do. Anyway, I hope you liked today’s post, and I will talk to you soon!

Loading InLinkz ...