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Of Life and Lacquer > Stamping

Stamping Saturdays #2

Posted on 18 January, 201418 January, 2014 by Cynthia

Hey friends. Welcome to our second edition of Stamping Saturdays. I’m strangely proud of myself for not flaking out because that would have been pretty lame considering I started this up. ha! I really loved how my stamping mani came out today so let me show you the base color I started out with…

Nicole by OPI Better after dark (press sample), called out to me for this week’s mani. I absolutely adore the color and the shimmer is crazy gorgeous. If you didn’t read my initial review, click here because you still have a chance to enter this polish (and a second one) along with a coupon for some free chocolate!

I then used Essie As Gold As It Gets and Konad plate M73 to stamp this image on my nails. I totally love this! All the polishes from Essie’s Mirror Metallics collections stamp really well so I recommend them highly.

So what do you think about this stamping design? I hope you like it as much as I do! I wish I had a little more time today, but I am going to be babysitting my nephew for the first time today! Wish me luck!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Stamping Saturdays – The Beginning!

Posted on 11 January, 201411 January, 2014 by Cynthia

One of the things I miss when I do tons of swatching is doing freehand designs and stamping. Stamping will always be my first love because when I first started getting obsessed with doing my own nails, it was the first technique I felt that I mastered. In order to push myself to at least do some stamping once in a while, a few friends and I will be trying to post stamping manicures every Saturday. For now I am feeling pretty enthusiastic about this, and I hope I don’t flake out like I always do. Ha! I think that because it’s only a once a week thing, I won’t be such a weirdo about it. For my first Stamping Saturdays mani, I decided to start with a gorgeous base: Illamasqua Superstition.

Seriously. This is such an amazingly gorgeous polish that it made me want to fall in love with Illamasqua all over again. I don’t know about you, but I was pretty annoyed when they raised their prices to $17 a bottle from $14. Uhm, yeah…no mas Illamasqua for me. I know that $3 isn’t that much and yes, I am that person who buys $30 polish, but such a sudden price hike rubbed me the wrong way. Anyway, I still love this. The formula is like buttah and it has a beautiful squishy quality to it. Then I started to stamp it up.

I’m not going to lie: I am way rusty with stamping so this manicure was kind of a nightmare. I really hate how the black konad special polish streaks like crazy when you top coat it. I actually had to redo the stamping because I smudged it up pretty horribly the first time. This particular image comes from Konad plate M64 in case you were wondering. I tried creating one of the inlinkz thing for this but I gotta be honest: I was way too lazy and I got confused easily. I’m sure the alcohol contributed to that but let’s not focus on that, ok? Once I figure out who and when my girls are posting, I will list their entries below. Edit: I think Amy figured out the linky thing.

So what do you think? Do you like stamping? I am definitely looking forward to doing more of these so make sure that you visit us next Saturday. Thanks so much for stopping by and I will talk to you soon.

Mentality Gumdrop

Posted on 9 December, 20139 December, 2013 by Cynthia

I had a super hard time waking up this morning mostly because I had such a strange night. I was basically tossing and turning because of some crazy dreams I was having. Sometimes I like that I have such an active imagination, but other times I just feel like I can never get a good night’s rest. Today I found out that one of my co-workers does personal training so I’m going to start training with him a few times a week after work so he can get my big butt in gear. I always need that extra push to get me going and having a trainer has always been something that really helps me. The last time I had a trainer, it was crazy expensive through 24-Hour Fitness, so I am excited that he has very reasonable rates. In addition, another one of my co-workers will be training as well so now I’ll have a gym buddy! Fun times. Speaking of fun times, I have a super gorgeous polish to share with you today: Mentality Gumdrop!

Mentality is a brand that I love to keep a close eye on because they are always coming up with amazing polishes and collections. Gumdrop is part of their Candy Jelly Holos Collection which I am absolutely obsessed with. There are 3 other colors that I plan on ordering: Pastille, Sourball and Hard Candy. The holo effect on this line is not super strong but in certain lights, you can see some of the linear effect. The color is so outrageously vibrant even though the polish is a little thin. Despite being slightly sheer, the color builds up nicely. My swatches show 3 thin coats but 2 thick coats would probably be enough.

And because I’ve become a stamping fool as of late, I used an image from Winstonia plate W112 along with Konad’s black special polish for this design. I really like how this looks and I got a lot of compliments today!

I’m hoping that I can get some rest tonight so I don’t feel like death tomorrow morning. Since I like my nails so much, I’m going to try to keep this mani for at least 2-3 days. What do you think of this design? Have you tried any Mentality polishes? If you haven’t, I recommend that you give them a try because they are great quality and are very reasonably priced. Anyway, let me know what you think of this mani–I’d love to hear what you think. Thanks for the visit, and I will talk to you soon!

China Glaze I’m Not Lion

Posted on 5 December, 2013 by Cynthia

Brrrrr it’s cold today! We don’t get to say that very often in SoCal so I’m really enjoying the cooler temps and having to bundle up like a tamal. Things have been a little disjointed chez moi, so I that has put me off my usual swatching and posting schedule. Work has been a little off as well, but in a good way, and there have been some major improvements in my work situation so that has put me in a better frame of mind. I haven’t felt much like posting and blogging lately so last night I decided to pull out my stamping plates to see if I got excited by revisiting my first nail art love. Once I picked out an image that I wanted to use, I then had to pick out a polish so I went with China Glaze I’m Not Lion.

One of the beauties from last year’s Fall Collection, On Safari, China Glaze I’m Not Lion is a gorgeous gold holographic fine glitter that offers full coverage with two coats. My lighting doesn’t show the holo beauty of this polish, but believe me: it’s there.

I then stamped the honeycomb image from Winstonia plate W113 with Konad’s special black polish. I just love the contrast here!

What do you think of this mani? I hope you like at as much as I do. So what have you been up to lately? I feel like I haven’t been doing much online lately so I’m woefully behind on reading blogs and commenting. Ultimately, I think I really need this break from blogging EVERY DAY because I’m enjoying just doing my nails when I feel like it without worrying about pictures and all that other stuff. People at work already know me as the crazy nail lady, but most of them seem curious about my hobby so it’s always nice to talk nails…even with the guys. Well, I hope you continue to stop by despite my sporadic posting. I’m sure that this nice break will help refresh and re-energize me for the new year! Have a great rest of your day, and I will talk to you soon!

Guess who’s having a girl…

Posted on 20 July, 201320 July, 2013 by Cynthia

Nicole from Polish Me, Please! is! Yes, you heard right. After tons of speculation about the sex of her baby who refused to cooperate during her ultrasounds, she finally got confirmation that she will be having a girl. Awww! I am so very happy for Nicole and her husband (and Minnie and Bubba too!) because their life is going to be turned upside down in the most wonderful of ways. I am excited about joining this gender reveal extravaganza with some of the loveliest ladies I have had the honor to get to know. Since we had to wait so long to find out if Nicole is going to have a boy or a girl, we’ve been joking with her that she is actually having a Unicorn who is now affectionately known as Helleborine Bonny Rump. Here is the mani I created to celebrate the fact that Helleborine finally cooperated!

I started by painting my nails with the following China Glaze polishes from left to right: Dance Baby, Pink-ie Promise, Something Sweet and Light As Air.

I then used a dotting took to place some dots on 3 of my nails. I absolutely love dotticures so this is the first thing I thought of. On my middle finger, I stamped a unicorn image using Winstonia plate W117.

So there you have it ladies! Please join us in congratulating Nicole for finally finding out that she will be having a girl.

You can check out some other gender reveal manis here:

Nicole from Polish Me, Please!

Lesley from Twitter and Instagram

Frosso from Lacquer Me Silly

Siobhan from For The Love Of Nail Art

Amy from The Fancy Side

Jessica from Once Upon A Polish

Amanda from Mae’s Beauty

Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope you’re enjoying your Saturday.

Morgan Taylor Nail Lacquer Super Ultra Violet

Posted on 17 July, 2013 by Cynthia

Happy Hump Day! Ok, that sounded totally lame but I’m kind of in a good mood today. Of course now I’m waiting for something to blow up in my face and ruin my recent streak of good luck. Why do we always have to wait and expect bad things to happen? Self-fulfilling prophecy anyone? It’s super warm here today, and I don’t have AC so painting my nails is always interesting because I always think that I can have the fan going while I paint them. And I mean I have the fan going full blast directly on me. If you have ever tried this, you know it’s practically impossible. But does that ever stop me from trying? Nope.

Today I have another Morgan Taylor creme beauty. Seriously: if you love creme polishes, you have to get your hands on some Morgan Taylor polishes. The amazing formula of these polishes really make them worth the hunt if you don’t necessarily have them in your area. Let’s take a look at this indigo-violet pretty…

Morgan Taylor Nail Lacquer Super Ultra Violet is one of those dark vampy colors that are so hot during the fall. I have to admit that while this color is not exactly unique (I’m sure I have a few dupes!), the formula really makes this a stand-out. It’s practically a one coater and it dries incredibly smooth and glossy.

MASH40_ Silver Mercedes2

Yay for stamping! I got this swirly design from Mash plate MASH 40 and of course I had to use the absolute best silver stamping polish that I own: Pure Ice Silver Mercedes. For a $1.99, you really can’t beat it.

I’ve been a little MIA on the blog and FB mostly because I’ve been busy with working a lot of overtime. Since I now have that new car payment, I decided to work as many extra hours as I can–otherwise, there will be no pretty polishes in my future. I’ve been really good lately (especially with my blog sale), and I hope I can keep working on that until maybe early August when I will have a visitor who is just as polish obsessed as me. I’m sure we’re going to DESTROY my usual polish haunts. For those of you who have ordered and paid for your polishes, I promise to get them out by Friday. I’m so sorry for the delay! I still have a few emails pending and I promise to get back to you by tomorrow. With all the OT at work, I’ve had to deal with some really horrid customers; Lord beer me strength.

So what do you think of Super Ultra Violet? Is this a color that you would wear? What about the stamping? Yay or nay? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Morgan Taylor Lacquer Nautically Inclined

Posted on 27 June, 20135 July, 2013 by Cynthia

To be honest, I have no idea why I even fussed with my nails today. I don’t know how I made it through work today because I had the worst cough that barely allowed me to do my job. I am now completely exhausted from all the coughing and my body is sore and in pain. Great! Just what I needed: to get sick just as the temperatures are going to be nearing the triple digits in parts of So Cal. Last night I took 3 cups of Nyquil and that KNOCKED ME OUT. I was able to sleep ok last night because of this, but this morning I felt like I got run over by a school bus multiple times. Since I’m apparently missing too many days at work, I dragged my phlegmy, hoarse and feverish self to work…those were 8 hours of pure misery. I don’t think I’m going to put myself through that again so I’m probably going to call in sick tomorrow. What really bites about all this is that I don’t get any sick days so each day I don’t go to work I get my pay docked…that’s going to hurt at the end of the month. I guess that means no crazy polish binges for the next couple of months while I play catch up. This could be a good thing for me! So today as I watched bad daytime tv, I got the itch to do my nails. I don’t know why since I was feeling so craptacular, but I decided to pull out one of my new polishes: Morgan Taylor Lacquer Nautically Inclined.

I know I’ve shown you a few Morgan Taylor polishes before so it will be no surprise to you that I really liked Nautically Inclined! I’ve purchased so many of these blues lately, but this one has a very subtle shimmer throughout so I love how it has that slight difference from the typical creme. I found the formula a little thick so I recommend applying thin coats and letting each one dry before you apply the next. I think I could have gotten away with two regular coats, but I felt 3 thin coats worked for me the best.

I don’t even know how long it has been since I’ve done some stamping. This was one of the first creative nail techniques that I ever used on my blog so I will always have a special place in my heart for stamping. I don’t know about you, but stamping can be really hard so I always wonder why some people are so anti-stamping saying that it’s nail art cheating. This awesome design comes from MASH Plate MASH 44. I used Konad Special black polish for the stamping because I just can’t find a black that is as good as this one.

Well, I hope that you liked this mani. I’m kind of in love with it and don’t want to take it offffffffffffffffffff! I may leave it on for a few days, but I will be trying out some 4th of July Incoco Polish Strips next week. Since my giveaway for the OPI Couture de Minnie Minnies is ending in a few hours, I’ll try to choose a winner tonight–if I haven’t passed out by 9 pm. But don’t fret if you don’t win….I bough two Jindie Nails Jindie-Pendence glitter toppers so I’ll be giving one bottle away next week so make sure you check in! Talk to you soon.

EDIT 7/5/2013: As you may know, I won a bottle of Nautically Inclined from a giveaway on Morgan Taylor’s Facebook page. Since I already have this color, I decided to hold a quick giveaway for the people who are on my FB page. I asked that you come and leave a comment in order to be entered. The people who had already left a comment before I launched this mini-giveaway got two entries because they are my regulars and I love them! (I love you too, don’t worry!) So the winner is…..

YANIRA

I have sent Yanira an email and she has 24 hours to respond or else I will be picking a new winner. Thanks for participating everyone!

Lupus Awareness Month

Posted on 14 May, 2013 by Cynthia

Hello everyone. I’m in a pretty great mood today since I have tomorrow off so I’ll probably be spending most of my day off swatching so many new pretties. I have about 30 new polish that are in line to be swatched so it’s a little overwhelming, but I think I’ll be able to get through everything rather quickly as long as I break it down into manageable batches. I have something special today for you: as you may or may not know, May is Lupus awareness month. Lupus? What’s that? Ok, I have to admit that I knew about Lupus since I was a teenager because I used to watch One Life To Live and Marty Saybrooke had lupus on the show so I remember looking it up to find out what it was. (For once, a trashy soap opera was actually educational!) Well, yesterday I was chit chatting with my group of lovely ladies from a Facebook group I am part of *waving at all the beauties from PWRC* and my friend Holly asked me if I could feature some purple nails in support of Lupus Awareness Month. Of course I said yes and I decided to do them right away before I get bogged down with my planned swatch-a-thons. If you don’t know what Lupus is, here is a brief description from the Mayo Clinic:

Lupus is a chronic inflammatory disease that occurs when your body’s immune system attacks your own tissues and organs. Inflammation caused by lupus can affect many different body systems — including your joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart and lungs.

Lupus can be difficult to diagnose because its signs and symptoms often mimic those of other ailments. The most distinctive sign of lupus — a facial rash that resembles the wings of a butterfly unfolding across both cheeks — occurs in many but not all cases of lupus.

Some people are born with a tendency toward developing lupus, which may be triggered by infections, certain drugs or even sunlight. While there’s no cure for lupus, treatments can help control symptoms.

No two cases of lupus are exactly alike. Signs and symptoms may come on suddenly or develop slowly, may be mild or severe, and may be temporary or permanent. Most people with lupus have mild disease characterized by episodes — called flares — when signs and symptoms get worse for a while, then improve or even disappear completely for a time.

The signs and symptoms of lupus that you experience will depend on which body systems are affected by the disease. The most common signs and symptoms include: Fatigue and fever, Joint pain, stiffness and swelling, Butterfly-shaped rash on the face that covers the cheeks and bridge of the nose, Skin lesions that appear or worsen with sun exposure, Fingers and toes that turn white or blue when exposed to cold or during stressful periods (Raynaud’s phenomenon), shortness of breath, Chest pain, Dry eyes, Headaches, confusion, memory loss

For all those warriors out there who struggle with Lupus, I hope that treatment options continue to improve and that maybe one day we can find a cure.

OPI Purple With A Purpose is really high up there on my list of most favorite purple polishes and that really is saying a lot considering that I regularly go on purple overload. While the formula on this seems a little thin upon the first coat application, a second coat really levels it out and gives complete coverage. Don’t tell me that you don’t like this polish because I will hurt you. Hurt you bad. I have swatched this polish on my blog before but I am kind of embarrassed because it was in my early days of blogging and the swatch is kind of atrocious. If you decide to search it out, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Don’t ask me about the China Glaze Classic Chromes polish because I know absolutely nothing about it. hahaha! I picked it up in some random beauty supply but it wasn’t labeled or anything. I’d love to find out more about it, but I never heard back from China Glaze when I emailed them about it. Hmmmpphhffff! I used a design from Bundle Monster Plate BM-321 for the ribbon design. I really like how these turned out.

I encourage you to visit the Lupus Foundation Of America and that you sign the petition to urge congress fund more Lupus research. I truly hope that you take a moment to do this and that you learn a little bit more about this chronic disease that affects so many people around the world. Thank you so much for stopping by today!

Ninja Polish Divinity & Some Stamping

Posted on 25 April, 201325 April, 2013 by Cynthia

All products featured in this post were purchased by me.

Since it’s hotter than Satan’s crotch lately, I’ve kind of been in a shitty mood. In case you don’t know this about me, I hate the summer. Pretty strange considering I was born and raised in Southern California, right? Well, I was watching the news and it’s supposed to be in the 90’s on Saturday. I am so NOT looking forward to that. I’m going to turn into a raging lunatic trying to stay cool and this is only the beginning. Now we just have to wait for all the lovely wildfires we get each Summer. Anyway, I should stop being such a Summer-hater and just focus on all the pretty nail polish colors that come out during the hot season–yay! Speaking of pretty polish, today I’m showing you a stamped mani that I did with Ninja Polish Divinity as my base.

I’ve previously shown you Ninja Polish Divinity so I’m not going to go on and on about it. It’s glowy. It’s hot. It’s gorgeous. You get it.

And here I decided to use a design from Winstonia Store plate W112 along with the fantabulous Silver Mercedes from Pure Ice. I’m sure people are tired me of saying this, but if you love to stamp, you have to get this polish–it’s stamping perfection for only $2.00. I am very happy with how this mani turned out. I have to admit that I wasn’t expecting to like the Winstonia Store plates as much as I do so I’m pleasantly surprised.

The weekend is almost here–so what big plans do you have? On Saturday I’m going to one of my best friends sister’s wedding. It should be fun but now I have to figure out what to wear and what to do with my nails–decisions, decisions!!! Well, I hope you’re having a nice day and hope your Friday isn’t too crazy although I’m anticipating a shit storm at work tomorrow. Such is life! Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

All products featured in this post were purchased by me.

Sation Board Girl Blue

Posted on 24 April, 201324 April, 2013 by Cynthia

Sation Board Girl Blue was a press sample. All other products were purchased by me.

Wednesdays are fun for me because I don’t have to go to work, but at the same time I feel like I don’t truly enjoy my day since I’m just dreading that I have to go back to work on Thursday. Oh well, nothing can be perfect, right? Today is such a weird weather day since it was really hot the last few days and today is overcast and it has been sprinkling all day. Damn you, crazy California weather! This is the kind of weather that ends up making me get sick so I’m trying to just relax and not get too worried about it. I’ve actually been doing some cleaning all day so at least that has been relaxing. Since the weather was so summer-like in the last few weeks, I decided to look through my summer colors from last year and I stumbled upon Sation Board Girl Blue. I previously reviewed this polish last summer, and I kind of cringe at the quality of my pictures. I hope that I have learned a little about how to improve my pictures since then! I still love this color so much, and I can’t stop thinking about one of my favorite silly movies: Blue Crush. Yes, I know…it’s dumb, but it’s soooooo entertaining. hahaha Anyway, let me show you some swatches of Sation Board Girl Blue.

I’m going gaga about how beautiful and vibrant this color is. The formula remains the same: smooth, highly pigmented and glossy. If you’re not too familiar with the Sation polish line, you are definitely missing out. In fact, for those of you who are subscribed to Ipsy, a Sation nail polish was included in the last bag. How cool! I love that more people are getting the opportunity to try Miss Professional Nail–especially if it’s hard to find their polishes where you live.

I had mentioned earlier that I was reminded of Blue Crush (which is a surfer girl movie) when I wore this polish so I decided to stamp over it. This funky circle pattern from Winstonia Plate W112 ended up reminding me of bubbles in a way! How appropriate. Let me know what you think about this color and how it looks with this stamping design. Thank so much for stopping by to catch up with me today–have a great day, and I will talk to you soon!

Sation Board Girl Blue was a press sample. All other products were purchased by me.