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OPI Pink Of Hearts BCA 2014

Posted on 9 September, 20148 September, 2014 by Cynthia

Oh man, today was so crazy busy at work that I barely had a minute to breathe. To top it all off, it was super hot today–hot and humid. In fact, on my drive home it started to sprinkle a little bit and it was like everyone on the freeway forgot how to drive. Why is it that any time that it rains it’s like we forget how to drive? Is this a SoCal thing? What would we do if we had real weather nightmares like ice/snow? We’d probably all die instantly…spontaneous combustion. It’s supposed to remain hot and muggy for the rest of the week, and I am definitely not happy about that. From crappy weather to pretty polish, today I have the OPI Pink of Hearts Breast Cancer Awareness set for 2014.This is a totally adorable set, right?

As a lover of pink polish, I cannot believe that I had never tried OPI Mod About You. I was blown away by the rich creaminess of this pale pink and absolutely adore it. I used two thin coats for my swatches.

OPI The Power Of Pink is a milky based glitter that works better layered over the pink. I tried it on its own but it needed way too many coats for on opaque finish.

Overall, I think this is a great set and if it serves the purpose to raise awareness, then that’s an added bonus in my book. I know that this time of the year, we are flooded with PINK which can make people cynical, but I’m reserving my judgement on that one since I’m just talking about the quality of the polish here. What do you think about these polishes? Are they something you would wear? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

OPI Peanuts Collection Halloween 2014

Posted on 26 August, 2014 by Cynthia

It’s not even September yet and we are already seeing Halloween stuff–and that’s fine by me because I lurve Halloween collections. Since I got out of work a little early today, I went to my nail places and ended up spending my whole polish budget for the next month in 5 minutes. Yeah, polish budget–who am I kidding? I also went to my absolute favorite Vietnamese/French bakery because they have the best baguettes in all of OC, and I wanted to make a killer sandwich for dinner. So when I got there, there was a lady in front of me ordering some stuff. One of the girls behind the counter took my order: 1 baguette and 2 macarons…ok, 3 macarons…I mean 4. Anyway, she placed a baguette on the counter and the lady who was in front of me grabbed it. She was full-on manhandling it with her bare hands on the part that wasn’t covered by the paper sleeve. Since she was speaking Vietnamese, I figured she had ordered one too but then she picks up her bag and leaves the baguette on the counter. Is this real life? Did this lady just touch and squish my baguette with her bare dirty hands????? Even worse, the lady at the register didn’t say squat to her and was acting like nothing happened. I was staring at her and waited for her to give me a new baguette. When she didn’t, I just flat out told her that I needed a new one since that lady had just touched it all over. She looked at me like I was nuts, but she gave me a new one. Am I the only one who thinks that other lady was gross? I mean, if she has no common sense, how do I know what else she has handled with her bare hands? I don’t know why I just told you that long story instead of telling you all about the OPI Peanuts Collection for Halloween 2014. This is such a cute little collection that I bet you will love. Let me show you my swatches first.

OPI Good Grief!

OPI Where’s My Blanket???

OPI WHO ARE YOU CALLING BOSSY?!?

OPI To Be or Not To Beagle

Can I just tell you how much I like this collection and how cute these glitters are??? Good Grief! and WHO ARE YOU CALLING BOSSY?!? are pretty standard cremes that require two coats for full coverage, but it’s the two glitters that really stand out. I love them both and they were very easy to apply as the glitter is plentiful. The lit nerd in me also loves the Hamlet reference in To Be or Not To Beagle. Are you planning to pick any of these up? The OPI Peanuts Collection will be available this September at the usual places. OPI nail polish retails for $9.50/ea for a .5oz bottle, and there will also be a Little Peanuts mini set which you can purchase for $13.95. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Nubar FALLing In Love Collection Fall 2014

Posted on 25 August, 2014 by Cynthia

Well hello there, Monday! So NOT happy to see you, but I hope you understand me when I say that I need my 3 day weekend naow!! I’ve been so lethargic as of late, that I just need more time to veg out and do absolutely nothing. Of course I still have about a million things to swatch, but I’m looking forward to spending some time just painting my nails. Do you find it therapeutic too? I’ve been mostly laying low because I’ve been sad about the loss of my grandmother, but I know she was suffering so part of me is glad that she is no longer in pain. I don’t want to be a drag, so I’ll just leave it at that. I did get quite a bit of swatching done this weekend so I have plenty of things to show you this week. Nubar is a brand that I’ve been using for a few years now because luckily I have easy access to their collections. I think that my favorite collection that they have put out in recent years has been My Sweet Escape just because the cremes were out of this world. It’s no secret that I love Fall collections, so let me show you their Fall offering: the Nubar FALLing In Love Collection.

Nubar Sweet Hue

Nubar Queen

Nubar Passion’s Pain

Nubar Lush

Nubar Affair

Nubar Don’t Russet

Nubar Love American Style

Nubar First Date

Are you thinking what I’m thinking? These don’t scream Fall to me, but they are certainly pretty. They have this really interesting shimmer to them that keeps them from being just standard cremes. The formula on all of these was ok. They were thinner than I’m used to when it comes to Nubar, The two that were problematic for me were Sweet Hue and First Date because they applied so unevenly that I had to apply 3 coats to even out the coverage. The rest of the polishes in this collection needed two coats for full opacity which is pretty normal. Affair is my absolute favorite from this collection with Queen running a close second–they are just stunning and even more gorgeous in person. What do you think of this collection? Any of them stand out to you? Make sure that you follow Nubar on their facebook page for news on new collections. Nubar polishes can be purchased on their website or $8.40 a bottle and this collection should be out soon. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Zoya Ignite Collection Fall 2014

Posted on 19 August, 201418 August, 2014 by Cynthia

I am such a turd when it comes to scheduling posts. I actually stayed up late on Sunday writing up my post for Monday and accidentally scheduled it to post on Tuesday. hahaha. I guess I wasn’t paying attention to the date until I got home and realized my post hadn’t been published. I am being extra careful about this post because I don’t want a dum-dum repeat of yesterday. Yesterday I showed you my swatches of the Zoya Entice Collection so today I have the other half: the Zoya Ignite Collection. Ignite..IGNITE. They got that right because this collection is explosive. I am so surprised by how much I love this half of the collection because I usually prefer the cremes, but how can you resist these? You can’t. Don’t believe me? Let me show you what I’m talking about.

Zoya Remy

Zoya India

Zoya Yuna

Zoya Teigen

Zoya Sansa

Zoya Autumn

Seriously gorgeous on every level. Not only is this the most amazing collection of Fall shimmers that I have ever swatches, but the formula is out of this world. It is so easy to control and applies perfectly. You will need two coats for most of these if you want a completely opaque look. I had a hard time deciding which one was my favorite but I think I finally made my decision: Yuna, come to mama. I don’t think that I have anything quite like this and I just adore the unusual quality of it. Sansa is my second favorite because I just love that dark purple base and of course I’m pretending that it’s a whole Game Of Thrones reference. Don’t burst my bubble, ok?

You know you want these. You know you want them all. I’m just raving about these like a crazy polish hoarder, but I swear you will not be disappointed. I liked the creme half of the Fall collection, but I don’t need all those cremes. I do want, need and love these shimmers. You can purchase the Zoya Ignite Collection on zoya.com where they retail for $9 a bottle. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Zoya Entice Collection Fall 2014

Posted on 18 August, 201418 August, 2014 by Cynthia

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

Zoya Genevieve

Zoya Ryan

Zoya Claire

Zoya Margo

Zoya Veronica

Zoya Nyssa

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

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

Zoya Naturel Deux Collection

Posted on 17 August, 2014 by Cynthia

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

Zoya Madeline

Zoya Aubrey

Zoya Marnie

Zoya Spencer

Zoya Chanelle

Zoya Emilia

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

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

Leesha’s Lacquer Re-pin Rewind

Posted on 11 August, 201410 August, 2014 by Cynthia

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

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

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

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

Etsy – Facebook – Blog – Twitter

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

The Lacquer Ring – Geometric

Posted on 1 August, 2014 by Cynthia

Aww man, I feel like such a loser. After postponing this post last week, I still managed to post this late. I sort of have an excuse because I had a really stressful day, and I just didn’t have it in me to write up this post. I’m sorry for being a total flake for my fellow ladies in The Lacquer Ring. I promise I won’t be a flake this month. Can you believe it’s August already? WTF? Where did time go? Where have all the cowboys gone? Anyway, the theme we were working with is geometric. I have to admit I suck big time at freehanding anything especially when it has to be precise so I knew I had to do some stamping. Let me show you what I did.

I started with my two favorite polishes from the OPI Nordic Collection: OPI My Dogsled Is A Hybrid (press sample) and OPI Suzi Has A Swede Tooth (press sample). These are such gorgeous colors and the apply like butta.

Since I’m newly obsessed with China Glaze Fairy Dust (press sample), I applied one coat to really get this to sparkle.

I picked out a design I’ve used before from my MoYou London Pro Collection 18 plate(press sample.)

So what do you think about this end design? I’m happy with it because it is geometric and I love the colors.

I’m cutting this short because I am soooo running late right now to meet up with one of my besties. We have a lot to catch up on! Don’t forget to stop by tomorrow for Stamping Saturdays. I have tons of ideas right now and I just hope that I can execute them.

Talk to you later!

Salon Perfect Neon Pop! Collection

Posted on 29 July, 201428 July, 2014 by Cynthia

Is it hot in your neck of the woods? I know it’s supposed to be really hot here in Southern California, but to tell you the truth, I think it is unseasonably cool. Maybe I’m just on crack or something because it was in the low 90’s here today, but it did not feel that gross. Since it’s really starting to warm up, the collection I have for you today is perfect. The Salon Perfect Neon Pop! Collection is made up of 12 bright colors to sear your retinas. I have 9 of the 12 polishes to share with you today so let’s take a look at the colors first.

Salon Perfect Flamingo Flair

Salon Perfect Fired Up Fuchsia

Salon Perfect Haute Pink (don’t ask me why this looks so orange…my camera took a dump on me)

Salon Perfect Plum Sorbet

Salon Perfect Tickled Pink

This is Loopy Lime, Bermuda Baby, Yowza Yellow and Traffic Cone sponged over a white base of sugar cube. I wasn’t being very careful about my sponging as you can tell by the extreme sloppiness and the muddled outcome. I wasn’t too concerned about it since I was planning to stamp over it anyway.

This is what my mani ended up looking like after stamping it up with an image from Bundle Monster BM 319. I kind of like the grungy end result!

Now, let’s talk formula. These were typical neons but some had better formulas than others. All of the polishes I swatched on their own were rather opaque, and I did not need to use white undies. They dried to a satin finish so I applied a clear top coat to give them some shine. They dried really quickly so you can’t overwork the polish because you will have a major mess on your hands. Loopy Lime, Bermuda Baby, Yowza Yellow and Traffic Cone were a lot thinner so I recommend using a white base to get the most out of them because otherwise you might be applying 5 million coats and still see VNL. If you don’t have similar color, I can recommend these. My absolute favorites are: Plum Sorbet an Fired Up Fuchsia. If you’re interested in purchasing these, you can find them at Wal-Mart where they retail for $3.98 each. My Wal-Mart still had a great selection of these, but they are limited edition so get them while you can.

How do you feel about neons? Strictly for summer or do you rock them year-round? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

China Glaze Pop Top Collection

Posted on 28 July, 201427 July, 2014 by Cynthia

Ugh, the dreaded Mondays. Why is it that the weekend goes by in a blur but the workweek goes by so darn slow? I feel like I barely got anything done this weekend and here I am ready for another week at work. Welp, I am not going to dwell too much on it, and I’ll just focus on getting to my next weekend. haha! For today’s post, I have collection of repromotes…I know, I know…you don’t like repromotes. I usually don’t either mainly because I buy everything when it first comes out. Like everything. For those who didn’t get the items initially, repromotes can give you a new opportunity to pick up something that you missed out on or just didn’t see when it first came out. The China Glaze Pop Top Collection is a collection of eight polishes:

Heart of Africa: Shimmering deep red
White on White: Crisp white crème
Pizzazz: Twinkling multi-dimensional glitter blend
Fairy Dust: Delicate silver sparkle overcoat
Luxe & Lush: A high octane flaky overcoat
Your Present Required: Multi-sized and multi-colored glitter
I Pink I Can: Multi-sized pink glitter
Techno: Glitter confetti polish

I used Heart of Africa and White on White as my base colors and used the glitters to top them off. Let’s take a look:

China Glaze Heart of Africa

Fairy Dust – Pizzazz – Luxe & Lush – Your Present Required

Your Present Required – Luxe & Lush – Pizzazz – Fairy Dust

China Glaze White on White

Luxe & Lush – Techno – I Pink I Can – Fairy Dust

Fairy Dust – I Pink I Can – Techno – Luxe & Lush

So what do you think? Do you have these already? You will be able to purchase these separately or in 2 sets:

China Glaze® Pop Top will be available in August 2014 along with the two four-piece box collections, “Glisten Up” and “Feeling Sparkly”. Individual polishes will retail for $7.50 MSRP and the four-piece box collections retail for $19.95 each. China Glaze® Pop Top will be available at fine salons and beauty supply stores nationwide; the four-piece kits will be available exclusively at Ulta.

To be honest, I had not used Fairy Dust before and I quite liked it. I can see myself using it as sparkly finishing touch over so many different manicures. White on White is one of my staple whites and have gone through two bottles in the last 2 years so this is definitely one that I am a fan on. All in all, these are nice polishes to have. Do you have a favorite glitter from this collection?

Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!