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Zoya Naturel Satins Collection

Posted on 3 February, 20152 February, 2015 by Cynthia

I can’t believe how much swatching I got done this weekend and now I have tons of stuff saved up to show you. I was in a swatching mindset and things were just going my way so that’s how I managed to get so much done. One of the collections that I swatched this weekend is the Zoya Naturel Satins Collection. To be perfectly honest, I was totally expecting to hate this one so hard because I just kind of hate dealing with most matte/satin collections because the formula on them ends up being a huge pain in the ass. Well, I know you are dying to hear what I thought (not), so let me show you my swatches before I get into it.

Zoya Tove

Zoya Sage

Zoya Rowan

Zoya Leah

Zoya Brittany

Zoya Ana

Ok, let m just say that I really like how these look. They are the perfect in between finish–everything that was promised. Surprisingly, the formula is not horrible but it’s not perfect either. For all of these I applied 1 regular coat and 1 thick coat to smooth everything out. The polish doesn’t set up lighting fast, so you have a little time to play with the polish, but it is also very easy to overwork it and get a super lumpfest. I findt he shades here very lovely and perfectly transitional as they were meant to be. I’m a little torn on these. I guess I can say that I don’t love them, but I don’t hate them either. If these had been regular cremes, I would have lost my marbles over them. I guess I can just top coat them, but I just don’t want to have to fiddle with the finicky formula. If I had to pick a favorite, I would go with Sage or Tove. Overall, I am pleasantly surprised with these and can recommend them if you don’t mind the formula and the finish. You can find these on Zoya.com where each polish retails for $9. What do you think about these? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

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!

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Essie Cashmere Matte Collection 2015

Posted on 28 January, 201528 January, 2015 by Cynthia

Hey chickadees! How is your week going so far? I can’t believe that we are almost through the last week of January. Holy frijoles! Where does time go? I’ve been chugging along…working, swatching, buying a million polishes…new year, same old same old. I am pretty excited about all of the Spring collections that are about to drop so that’s definitely keeping my swatching schedule busy. I should have the Zoya Satins up on the blog next week (since quite a few of you have asked me), the KBShimmer Spring Collection will be on my blog on 2/1 and you are going to DIE–it’s amazing. I will also have the Essie Resort Collection up next week and the Zoya Spring Collection as well. After that I am expecting my shipment of OPI Hawaii and some of the Infinite Shine polishes that I’m super excited to try out. So yes…lot’s of fun stuff coming to ye olde blog. Today I have a collection that I had been lusting over ince I first saw swatches. I stalked my beauty supply until they came in and of course I grabbed them all. Since I’m the one person on the planet that adored Belugaria, I was thinking I would enjoy these “different” polishes. Before I get into my thoughts (and oh boy do I have thoughts), let me show you my swatches. Here is the Essie Cashmere Matte Collection for your perusal.

Essie Coat Couture

Essie Spun in Luxe

Essie Wrap Me Up

Essie Just Stitched

Essie Comfy In Cashmere

Essie All Eyes on Nudes

When I first saw swatches of these, I was like chomping at the bit: Essie. Check! Shimmer. Check! Luxurious mattes. Check! Beautiful transitional colors. Check! Then I tried them. Uncheck errrything. I think that these look absolutely horrendous on me. In the words of a friend who shall remain nameless: “these essie cashmere mattes or whatever make your fingers look shitty.” I seriously cracked up reading that because it’s so true. These look kind of foul on me. Not only do they look gross on me, but I had the hardest time working with them. You can see how uneven my application looks in my pictures. Part of it might be that I have a really damaged and uneven nail surface right now, but I also found them kind of goopy and just hard to deal with–like most mattes. I think that top coating them might have helped to make them look more smooth, but I was just not in the mood to even deal with them any longer. In their defense, the idea of what these could have been is freaking spectacular. The shimmer in these polishes elevates them–makes them infinitely more interesting. The shimmer doesn’t disappear on the nail so of course that excited me to no end. Now, if you want to see swatches of how gorgeous they can look, you can check out Eugenia’s post or Karen’s post about this collection. They made me want them bad…and then I wanted to drop an a-bomb on the whole collection. I’ve started to call them the Cash-smears Collection just cause I don’t like them and cause I’m terribly sad about it. Look, I wouldn’t be this sad about it if I didn’t love Essie so much. I feel like I write this in 80% of my Essie reviews–not a good trend. haha Anyway, considering how torturous this collection was, I leave you with Shakira’s La Tortura cause they were pure torture to apply…and because this video features my #1 hot lava Alejandro Sanz. Yep, enjoy…and I’ll talk to you later.

China Glaze Road Trip Collection – Spring 2015

Posted on 27 January, 201527 January, 2015 by Cynthia

Hello! This is kind of a late night post for me since I usually like to post in the morning, but I’ve been kind of out of it lately so I figured that since I got a burst of energy now, I might as well write this up right now before I go to bed. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you know that I love China Glaze. You also know that I never miss out on a collection because…well…I am a freak and have no self control. When I first saw the promo shots for the China Glaze Road Trip Collection for Spring 2015, I just about pissed myself just because I love spring collections, I love China Glaze and I love anything that remotely hints at travel. As soon as my beauty supply got these in, I got the whole lot so I could try them all out. Well, how do you think it went? Let me show you the colors before I get into the dirty details.

China Glaze My Way or the Highway

China Glaze License & Registration Pls

China Glaze Boho Blues

China Glaze Dashboard Dreamer

China Glaze Sun’s Up Top Down

China Glaze Trip of a Lime Time

China Glaze Pop The Trunk

China Glaze I Break for Colour

China Glaze Pack Lightly

China Glaze More To Explore

China Glaze Pinking Out The Window

China Glaze Wanderlust

While some of you may think that these colors are kind of boring and that you’ve seen them all before, let me tell you that even for a nail polish freak like me that really has one of EVERYTHING, I really REALLY loved these colors. Maybe it’s because it’s one of the first Spring collections that I have gotten my hands on after a bunch of Fall and Winter colors, but I really fell hard for this collection. It just seems so cohesive and just plain pretty. The blue shades are gorgeous, the pink/peach colors are a gradient selection made in heaven. Hell, I even loved the yellow…and the green…the green! Ahhh…seriously, I really loved these colors. But. BUT! I hate using the word but because I always feel that everything that comes after the word but basically negates everything that came before it. However (a fancy but), I found the formula on these–not ideal. I don’t know if all of a sudden I suck at applying polish, but all of these felt kind of streaky. The only ones that didn’t really give me any trouble were My Way or the Highway, Boho Blues and License & Registration Pls which only required 2 thin coats. The rest of the polishes required 3 coats…some of them thickish. That definitely did not make me happy. If you’re a person that uses base coat and top coat, that’s like 5 coats of polish on each nail!!! 5 coats of polish make me a sad panda. I haven’t seen too many reviews of these polishes out yet so I don’t know if I just suck at doing my nails now or if others will also find them a bit streaky. Most of these polishes have a really lovely microshimmer that doesn’t show up too much in my pictures but man they look pretty when the light hits them just right. I don’t know about you, but when a polish is really pretty like some of these, I tend to be more forgiving for some formula issues. Ultimately, I would highly recommend the three blues that I mentioned above and a few others if you’re ok with some formula issues. This collection officially comes out in February, but I know that you can get them at a few places already. What do you think of this collection? Will you be getting any of these? Let me know! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Cirque Colors Doyers

Posted on 21 January, 201520 January, 2015 by Cynthia

Today is my first day back to work after a 4 day weekend…oh the horror! Actually, I kinda miss work–it’s the waking up part that I have a problem with. I was talking to a couple of friends about how exhausted I am all the time no matter how much I sleep. I think that a big thing contributing to my exhaustion is that I still don’t have total control of my diabetes so my body is still flipping out. How many time have I said that working out will probably make me feel a lot better? Probably more than I can count but I’m stil dragging my feet. Sweet baby Jesus, help me get back on the right path. I’m so sick of feeling so shitty yet I continue to make bad choices. It’s a neverending cycle! Anyway, despite the exhaustion, I still seem to find plenty of time to play with nail polish. Who needs naps when you can have fabulous nails?! Yesterday I got a package from Cirque Colors that contained the February release for their Metropolis Collection: Cirque Colors Doyers. Before I show you the polish, let me show you the state of my nails in the ongoing overbuffing saga.

I decided to round off my little dagger nails a bit, because they were just a little too pointy. The damage is growing out slowly but I think that this shape is helping me avoid more nasty breaks. To be honest, I’m really liking this shape–it has a retro vibe to it. I know a lot of you prefer my square nails, but let me show you what they look like with polish.

Let me tell you that I have a love/hate relationship with red nail polish. It’s like I really want to love red nails, but then I just find them too in your face. Does that even make sense considering the crazy nails I post regularly on here? Well, I can tell you that Doyers does not disappoint. It’s such a bright and luscious red with a flawless formula. You can get away with one coat if you apply it carefully and it is so shiny!!!!

Well, what do you think of my new (temporary?) nail shape? And most importantly, what do you think of the polish? It’s such a classic red that I was singing The Police’s Roxanne while I was doing my nails. This new addition to the Metropolis collection becomes available on February 1st and you can buy it here where it will retail for $13. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

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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!

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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.

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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!

Pure Ice Bling On The Holidays Collection

Posted on 30 November, 20141 December, 2014 by Cynthia

Normally, this is the time when I would start lamenting that tomorrow is Monday and that I have to go to work, but not today because I have Monday off. Woot! Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, I feel like I can now bring out the holiday decorations without thinking that it’s way too early. Can you believe that tomorrow we will be entering the final month of 2014?! This is both exciting and depressing at the same time because I realize that one more year has gone by and I am still stuck in a rut–but hey, at least I’m alive. Anywho, today I’m showing the new Pure Ice Bling On The Holidays Collection which is made up of 6 glitter toppers. I picked some random colors to pair them with to show that they aren’t just for the holidays, so let me show you what they look like.

Pure Ice Bling On The Holidays

Pure Ice Feeling Ornamental

Pure Ice Gold Peppermints

Pure Ice Pure Icicles

Pure Ice Santa Marry Me

Pure Ice Winter Blues

I have to admit that I was a little underwhelmed when I saw this collection because they pretty much all looked the same to me, but I ended up really liking them. The thing about these polishes is that they can look incredibly different depending on what base color you use. Personally I really liked the outcome when I used a dark base–which is probably why Winter Blues is my favorite of them all. These polish are going to pretty much change your base color because the clear base is full of fine shimmer that gives your nails an icy look to them. And you know what the best part is? These retails for just under $2. Yep, you know I love me some expensive polish, but I am not a polish snob in the least. I love Pure Ice for their affordable and quality polish. If you want to get your hands on these, I recommend that you check your local Walmart. My Walmart is usually pretty well stocked when it comes to Pure Ice, but they do go fast. So what do you think about these shades? Will you be picking any of these up? Let me know what you think below. Thanks for the visit today, and I will talk to you soon.