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KBShimmer Summer Collection 2016

Posted on 19 May, 2016 by Cynthia

If you are like me, you wait with bated breath every season when you realize KBShimmer is about to drop a new collection. I’m not going to lie, they are kind of a big deal. People know them. They are very important. They have many leather-bound books and their apartment smells of rich mahogany. Ugh…I think I had a strange moment there. Anyway, I am super duper excited to bring you the glorious KBShimmer Summer Collection for 2016. There is a nice variety of colors and finishes here so I’m sure you will find something you like–or you might just buy all the things because it’s KBShimmer after all. Let me get to the good stuff…swatches below!

KBShimmer How Low Can You Flamingo?

KBShimmer Ready For A Good Lime

KBShimmer Playing With The Buoys

KBShimmer Good Reef!

KBShimmer Suit The Breeze

KBShimmer Mai Tai One On

KBShimmer Neon Me

KBShimmer Don’t Play Koi

KBShimmer Along For The Tide

KBShimmer That’s Nude To Me

KBShimmer One Night Sand

KBShimmer Gull, Get Real!

So what do you think? I really love the creamy neons, but the shimmers are just out of this world. As always, every single polish has an absolute perfect formula so you really can’t go wrong. I appreciate the variety of colors and finishes here, but it’s almost like the collection is not totally cohesive as if it could be split into two collections. Hey, I’m not complaining because all of the polishes are pretty great so I’m sure you are bound to find something that you will like. This collection will be officially released on 6/1/2016 so it’s just around the corner. If you didn’t already know, you can purchase KBShimmer at the following e-tailers:

Are you planning to pick any of these up? Do you have a favorite? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

China Glaze Lite Brites Collection Summer 2016

Posted on 17 May, 201616 May, 2016 by Cynthia

I was totally expecting to have this review up yesterday, but it just didn’t work out. I did get all the swatching done on Saturday, but I was so pooped I had to take a break. Then on Sunday I had too much going on so I just didn’t have enough time to put the post together. I know I’ve been super slow at getting content up lately, but I’m not going to apologize for it anymore. I love nail polish, but I also like having a life. Maybe I’m just a slow swatcher, but swatching a collection this big really takes a lot of time. I ended up swatching 2 12-piece collections on Saturday so between that and editing the pictures, I just did not have enough time to do more. The good news is that I still freaking love doing this but I need to have a little balance and not spend all my free time swatching so that I don’t get burned out. I’m thinking of sticking to posting 3 times a week–what do you think? Well, the awesomeness that I have for you today is the China Glaze Lite Brites Collection for Summer 2016. This collection is the perfect representation of 80’s Summers! Let me show you my swatches below and then I’ll get into the dirty deets.

China Glaze Lip Smackin’ Good

China Glaze Bite Me

China Glaze I’ll Pink To That

China Glaze Whip It Good

China Glaze Lime After Lime

China Glaze What I Like About Blue

China Glaze Let’s Jam

China Glaze I Got A Blue Attitude

China Glaze Hot Flash

China Glaze None Of Your Risky Business

China Glaze Papa Don’t Peach

China Glaze We Got The Beet

Welp, these are awesome. Everything you have read online about how great these are is 10000000000% true. Before I get into it, what do you think about the addition of a third one nail macro? I don’t have a fancy camera or anything so I think the quality could be better, but I kind of like this. My cuticles weren’t in the best shape, but now I know that I need major preparation for future swatch fests. Anyway, I really loved this collection. It has a great variety of colors: some creams, some shimmers and some jelly glitters. All in all, the formula on these was absolutely great. I think that every time I hear “neons” I get a little scared because the formula on a lot of neons can be quite problematic. You will not encounter any issues with these gorgeous and bright shades. I’ll Pink To That is my new favorite hot pink–you cannot understand how bright this color is; my pictures don’t do it justice. If you’re looking for a fun Summer collection, look no further because you will love these all. Do you have any favorite shades from this collection? Let me know what you think below. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

LCN Industrial Innocence Collection

Posted on 15 April, 20169 April, 2016 by Cynthia

How are you doing on this Friday? I’m just happy that the weekend is here so I can relax. This weekend will be kinda busy because I am celebrating three birthdays: my mom, my brother and one of my best friends! Yay to birthdays but poo to tax day. Are you like me and still haven’t filed your taxes? Yes, I know it’s irresponsible but dangit it’s a pain in my butt especially when you owe money to Uncle Sam. Oh well…what can you do about it when the only certainties in life are death and taxes? (According to Ben Franklin, anyway.) Today I have a collection to share with you that I unfortunately forgot about in my draft folders from hell. This is the LCN Industrial Innocence Collection.

LCN White Walls

LCN Wow

LCN Sharp As A Bullet

LCN Shiny Bricks and Steel

LCN Like A Wrecking Ball

LCN I Love Industrial Glam

I don’t know about you, but the LCN Industrial Innocence Collection seems kinda disjointed to me; all of these shades don’t seem to go together. I don’t really have anything negative to say about the formulation of these polishes because LCN has always been pretty on point when it comes to that, but the shades are nothing to get excited over. I particularly liked Like A Wrecking Ball and I Love Industrial Glam, but I have pretty close dupes from many brands already. For whatever reason, my camera was being super difficult the day I did these swatches so I apologize for the weird differences in my skin tone. Anway, I hope you have had a nice week and I hope you have a great weekend. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

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Brand: LCN

Price: $7.50 /8ml

Purchase: LCN Boutique

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Vapid Lacquer Nail Sauce

Posted on 14 April, 201610 April, 2016 by Cynthia

You guys have no idea what a deplorable state my hands an cuticles have been in lately. I am going to 100% blame this on the face wash that I bought last month. Since I’ve been getting random acne (poo to adult acne!), I bought this Murad Anti-Aging Acne Cleanser that has salicylic acid as well as hyaluronic acid which is supposed to help keep skin moisturized. My skin is drier than the Sahara so I figured this would be a good product for me. So far it’s been ok–I haven’t noticed any bad side effects–but it has basically killed my hands. My fingers got so dry they started to crack and peel and my cuticles were pretty disgusting. I kept hearing about Vapid Lacquer Nail Sauce so I figured I might as well give it a try and added a little jar to my last order. Buying creams or anything with a scent online makes me nervous because I am so particular about product scents, but I decided to get the Wandering Rose scent against my better judgement. Let me tell you what I thought about this product.

First of all, I was not happy with the scent. You know what it smelled like? Those cheap religious candles that you buy at Hispanic markets. Yeah, not good. Vapid’s website described the scent as “Wild roses, fresh, wonderful and true rose scented cream. This is not a perfumey fake rose, this is the real deal, a plant based natural fragrance.” NOPE. Maybe I’m being kind of critical and I do have a crazy nose when it comes to scents, but I was super unhappy. Whenever I don’t like a scent, it will give me a headache and will actually make me nauseous, so I wondered if I would even be able to wear the product long enough to test it. There is a certain type of spiciness to the scent that I think is what I don’t like overall, but it wore off enough once the product soaked into my skin. The product has a typical cream consistency: not too thick and not runny. It is very easy to work into the skin and cuticles and it soaks in pretty quickly. I’ve been using Nail Sauce consistently for the last 6 days, and I really love the results. My cuticles are softer than they have ever been. I would like to try some of the other scents but I am cautious about disliking the other scents even more. I do not like sweet scents which most of the scents seem to be. Maybe next time I will purchase the original scent which is supposed to be more of a citrus. I’ll let you know if I end up getting it.

Overall, I am happy with the product despite my issues with the scent. While I won’t claim that the product is revolutionary, it is nice. I do realize that if you use any moisturizer consistently, you are bound to see similar results. Still, I like this creme and will continue to include it in my regular rotation of cuticle products I use. Do you have any favorite cuticle products that you can’t live without? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

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Brand: Vapid Lacquer

Price: $5.00 /1 oz

Purchase: Vapid

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Vapid Lacquer Sweaters N Denim

Posted on 13 April, 201610 April, 2016 by Cynthia

This might be hard for you to believe, but I do not have any thermal polishes. Sure I have some random cheapie solar polishes somewhere in my hoard, but I have not purchased any thermals…until now. I think that my main concern when it comes to thermals is that they have a shelf life so when you have 4,000+ bottles of polish like someone whose name starts with the letter CYNTHIA, it’s almost a waste. However, every time I see swatches of Vapid Lacquer Sweaters N Denim, I just die a little inside for not having it. So of course I put my objections aside and bought this little bottle of autumn gorgeousness. Every time I see this polish, I think of this song:

Before I get too carried away, let me show you my swatches of this polish in both the warm and cold states.

Vapid Lacquer Sweaters N Denim (warm)

Vapid Lacquer Sweaters N Denim (cold)

Vapid Lacquer Sweaters N Denim (transition)

Vapid Lacquer Sweaters N Denim is breathtaking any way you look at it. Because the polish has a nude color in its warm state, it looks a little sheer. It took three coats for the polish to look opaque on my nails but it was well worth it. Since I did not initially know if top coating it would affect the color changing qualities, my swatches do not include a top coat. I was a little giddy watching the polish change colors so of course I had to capture it in this nerdy video:

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Pretty, isn’t it? The polish remained in the warm color on my nails unless I ran them under cold water or got close to a cold draft. Considering I live in California and it’s basically never cold here, I guess I will have to console myself with seeing the beautiful coppery shimmery nude most of the time.

How do you feel about thermals? I am still not happy about the short shelf-life, which most people say is about a year, but I really wanted to have Sweaters N Denim in my collection. I don’t see myself buying many other thermals just because I won’t get enough use out of them before they stop changing colors, but I do not regret this purchase. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

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Brand: Vapid Lacquer

Price: $11.00 /15ml

Purchase: Vapid

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Vapid Lacquer Who Needs Luck?

Posted on 12 April, 201610 April, 2016 by Cynthia

Happy Tuesday, friends! I hope this day finds you well and that you are ready to be blinded by sparkly rainbows. Ok, not not really–I don’t want to blind you. However, I do want to show you a beautiful polish that I ordered a couple of weeks ago. I feel that all of us in the nail community are fairly used to seeing “different” nail polish colors, so sometimes I forget that not everyone is into “non-traditional” colors. Personally, the brighter the colors are, the happier they make me. As you can imagine, Vapid Lacquer Who Needs Luck? makes me very, very happy. Let me show you this green jewel!

Vapid Lacquer Who Needs Luck? is an extremely saturated and bright green holographic polish. The first coat can appear slightly thin, but a second coat will give you completely opaque results. The first two pictures were taken under direct indoor lighting and the second set of pictures were taken under LED lighting to better show off the holo. I hate to admit that I am pretty sure I bought this polish by mistake because for whatever reason I thought this polish had flakes in it. Despite my initial confusion and disappointment, I am very happy with this polish.

What is your favorite polish color–if you have one? Tomorrow I have my absolute favorite Vapid to date so don’t forget to check in tomorrow. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

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Brand: Vapid Lacquer

Price: $10.00 /15ml

Purchase: Vapid

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Vapid Lacquer Resting Bitch Face

Posted on 11 April, 201610 April, 2016 by Cynthia

Let me welcome you to the week of Vapid here on Of Life and Lacquer! Recently I’ve been keeping an eye on the restock times for Vapid because there are quite a few polishes that I want, so I am happy to report that I’ve gotten my hands on a few of them. I don’t know about you, but red was the first color that attracted me when I first started wearing make up. I remember this bright red Revlon lipstick that my friend Veronica had in Jr. High School and how much we all loved it. Also, one of my favorite polishes of all time is a gorgeous red: OPI Vodka & Caviar. Well, it should come as no surprise that one of my first purchases was Vapid Lacquer Resting Bitch Face. If you don’t know what Resting Bitch Face is, watch this:

As someone affected by RBF, all I have to say is…

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Anywho, let me show you this beautiful polish!

Vapid Lacquer Resting Bitch Face is a gorgeous red creme that is basically a one coater. You really can’t go wrong with this polish. While you may be thinking: “Oh, it’s just another red,” I can tell you it’s a perfect red and who wouldn’t buy it just for the freaking name? For swatching purposes, I applied two thin coats and one coat of KBShimmer Clearly On Top.

So what do you think of this beauty? If you are someone who deals with RBF, go out and get this polish and polish your nails in solidarity! Or just get it cause it’s an awesome red. You know us polish addicts can justify just about any purchase. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

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Brand: Vapid Lacquer

Price: $9.00 /15ml

Purchase: Vapid

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Ooh La Lacquer – Giveaway

Posted on 30 March, 201629 March, 2016 by Cynthia

Hey all! I hope you’re having a good Wednesday! Since I decided to take Monday off, I feel like my week has been thrown off so my brain isn’t understanding that we are pretty much halfway through the week. Did you do anything fun for Easter? I basically just hung out with the fam so it was nice. I was also kinda busy because I decided to do some Spring cleaning and that snowballed into my typical “THROW EVERYTHING OUT” episodes. I am the anti-hoarder to the point that I want to throw everything out when I start cleaning and organizing. Anyway, I digress. Today I wanted to show you two awesome polishes from Ooh La Lacquer and I also wanted to giveaway a bottle of one of my favorite holos from her line! Let me show you the polishes I recently received and then I will tell you which one is up for grabs.

Ooh La Lacquer Je Ne Sais Quoi (Indoor Lighting)

Ooh La Lacquer Je Ne Sais Quoi (LED Lighting)

Ooh La Lacquer Specktrum (Indoor Lighting)

Ooh La Lacquer Specktrum (LED Lighting)

Aren’t these pretty? I am very partial to Je Ne Sais Quoi because it’s so freaking delicate and almost dainty. Specktrum is also pretty and very versatile because it will look very different depending on what base polish you use. Nastassia sent me a bottle of one of my favorite holos not realizing that I had already purchased it a few months ago, so that turns into a win for one of you because I’ll be giving it away to one lucky reader. This giveaway will only last a few days so make sure to enter right away! This giveaway is only open to US residents. Please enter the giveaway by using the widget below. The polish I will be giving away is: Indigo-go Dancer.

You can read my review for this polish here. Last week I bought a few holos from her shop so I hope to get them in soon so I can show you how awesome they are. See? I don’t just get stuff for review–I also buy!!! That’s when you know the stuff is gooooooood. I should also mention that there are some holos at unreal prices so make sure to check everything out–especially the newest spring collection! Check out the shop here.

Good luck if you decide to enter the giveaway! Thanks for stopping by and I will talk to you soon.

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Vapid Lacquer Birthday Bitch

Posted on 9 March, 2016 by Cynthia

How’s your Wednesday going so far? I’m having a good week so far–busy, but good. Last night my parents arrived for a visit so I’m pretty excited because I haven’t seen them in over 6 months. They’re coming to visit because they want to see their first-born, moi, but also because my brother and sister-in-law are having their baby this weekend. I’m soooo excited to be an auntie for the second time. This past weekend I picked up Peanut in the morning and we had a super fun Peanut/Auntie day. Yes, he’s spoiled but he’s my little love and now I’ll have two to spoil! Yay! Since I was kinda busy this weekend, I didn’t get too much swatching done, but I did swatch couple of polishes because I just could NOT wait. Today I have a beauty that I’ve been eyeing for a while: Vapid Lacquer Birthday Bitch.

Isn’t this a gorgeous polish? I’m completely obsessed with it because it’s unlike anything in my stash. The formula was pretty good and you only need two coats. In fact, I applied 3 coats and I think it looks much better at two coats.

So what do you think of this beauty? Do you own any Vapids? Which are your favorites if you do? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

KBShimmer Spring Collection 2016

Posted on 1 March, 20161 March, 2016 by Cynthia

Oh hai. Is it Spring yet? You mean that 90 degree weather in California during February is not normal? I am dreading Spring AND Summer because these crazy temperatures do not bode well for us. The only thing that makes me happy about Spring is, of course, lovely Spring nail polish collections…but you knew that already. This is a pretty big collection and it is actually a two parter: 7 polishes are part of the traditional Spring collection and the other 7 polishes are part of the Mega Flame Collection. Mega Flame: they are hot like lava and will singe your eyeballs with their holo/glitter/sparkly goodness. Let’s start with the first part of the collection which includes glitters, crellies and holos.

KBShimmer Hello Dahlia

KBShimmer Upside Round

KBShimmer I Wet My Plants

KBShimmer Pools Paradise

KBShimmer Prints Charming

KBShimmer Peony Pincher

Note: These pictures were taken under bright LED light which intensifies the color and also shows off the holo the way you would see it in bright sunlight.

KBShimmer Purr-fectly Paw-some

Note: These pictures were taken under bright LED light which intensifies the color and also shows off the holo the way you would see it in bright sunlight.

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Now, let’s talk Mega Flame. These are some amazing polishes. They are scattered holo glitter suspended in a tinted base with some linear holo to boot. They are not super gritty, but you will feel minor texture if you don’t top coat them. Once you apply a top coat, such as Clearly On Top, you will get a completely smooth finish. I am in love with every single one of these.

KBShimmer Things That Make You Go Bloom

KBShimmer Stalk Market

KBShimmer So Flamous

KBShimmer Smells Like Green Spirit

KBShimmer Set In Ocean

KBShimmer Ripe For The Pink-ing

KBShimmer Night Bright

I don’t know about you, but these two collections pretty much killed me–in a good way. They are everything I love about KBShimmer and more. The formula on all the polishes from the Mega Flame collection is perfection. One thing to note is that when you remove them, you will have glitter. All over. But it’s totally worth it. The crellies from the Spring Collection are so pretty and delicate–my favorite being Pools Paradise. I also love the two holos that are joining my beautiful KBShimmer holo collection. I know that this is a big collection so you will have to pick your favorites–unless you regularly purchase 14 polishes at a time in which case GET THEM ALL. I certainly have been known to buy 14, 16, 20 polishes at a time so I know it’s not as outlandish as it sounds. My top picks from the Spring Collection are: Pools Paradise, Peony Pincher and I Wet My Plants. Boy that was hard! From the Mega Flame Collection, my top picks are: ALL OF THEM. The great news is that you don’t have to wait that long to get your hands on these pretties. The official release date for these babies is 3/15/2016 on kbshimmer.com I have a few more items to share with you that are new so keep an eye out for that later in the week. I hope that you’re as excited about this new collection as I am. I am anxious to hear what you think so let me know in the comments below. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!