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Of Life and Lacquer > Swatches

Essie Going Guru Collection Resort 2016

Posted on 28 June, 201626 June, 2016 by Cynthia

How hot is it in your neck of the woods? A week ago, we had the most disgusting heat wave here in California that gave us a taste of what is to come this Summer. Personally, I hate Summer with an unreasonable passion which is kind of weird considering I’m a native Californian. I’m just glad that I live close enough to the beach to have the relief of cooler temperatures than those who live more inland. Every year, Essie puts out a Resort Collection that gives us shades that would be a welcome addition to any luscious summer getaway. The Essie Going Guru Collections offers us 4 beautiful shades that are sure to get a lot of use. Let me show you some swatches before I get into the details.

Essie Delhi Dance

Essie Taj-Ma-Haul

Essie Going Guru

Essie Nama-Stay the Night

I don’t know if I am just used to the finicky Essie formula, but I did not have many issues with these polishes. I applied two regular coats of each polish and top coated them all with NYC Grand Central Station. I find that with the Essie formula, I have to float the polish on the nail because if I apply too much pressure, I will 100% create bald spots. While you may say that these colors are not anything new (is anything ever knew anymore in the nail world?), they are really beautiful staple colors. They are bright enough to be fun for summer yet muted enough to not be super in your face. Nama-Stay the Night is probably my favorite color here with Going Guru a close second. What do you think of this year’s Resort Collection? Well, I hope your Tuesday is going well! Talk to you soon.

Zoya Sunsets Collection Summer 2016

Posted on 27 June, 201626 June, 2016 by Cynthia

Hey there. Happy Monday. It certainly is a happy Monday for me because I’m finally feeling better. I was feeling all kinds of messed up for the last week and a half ever since I started taking a new medication to help with my blood sugar. I’m sorry, but Actos is the devil. If you thought getting used to Metformin was hard, Actos is like it’s psychotic sibling. I couldn’t sleep, I had severe weakness and muscle pain and all-day nausea. I dealt with that for about a week and a half before I decided to stop taking it. Anywho, I’m starting to feel much better now so I’m thankful for that. Now that I feel a little more normal, I can get back to showing you all the pretties I had swatched. I know I’m super behind on stuff so I’m going to try to catch up in the coming weeks. I currently only have the OPI Infinite Shine Summer Collection left to swatch so I’m happy about that. Today I have the Zoya Sunsets Collection which is made up of 6 beautiful cremes. This is the second part of the Summer Collection; the first part is all about PixieDusts and you can check out my review here. Let’s get on with the swatches!

Zoya Brynn

Zoya Cam

Zoya Dixie

Zoya Dory

Zoya Liv

Zoya Ness

This collection is marketed as “one coat cremes,” but I did not find that one coat was enough unless you applied a super thick coat. I have always preferred to apply thin coats even if that means I will have to do 2+ coats. For these polishes, I did two coats of each polish and top coated them with NYC Grand Central Station. By the way, I was really into this polish as a top coat, but it has gotten incredibly stringy and thick after only 3 weeks of use. I’m going to try to thin it out to see if it will continue to work for swatching purposes. Overall, I really love these cremes. I’m not cool with the one coat claims, but there aren’t that many true one coaters out there anyway. Zoya has always put out really great cremes that marble beautifully, so I’m glad to have these in my arsenal. What is your favorite polish finish? Did you get any of these? Let me know below. If you’re interested in purchasing these, check them out on the Zoya site where they retail for $10 each. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Zoya Seashells Collection Summer 2016

Posted on 21 June, 201620 June, 2016 by Cynthia

Lately I have been trying to rework my lighting situation when it comes to swatching. I am not happy at all with the way my pictures have been turning out lately, so I’ve purchased a few new bulbs (that are on the way to me), that I hope will help me get crisper images. I think that I’ve reached a point where I just need to bite the bullet and invest in a decent camera. I have been using a cheap point and shoot for years so maybe upgrading my equipment will give me some motivation. For today’s post, I have the Zoya Seashells Collection which is the Pixie Dust half of their Summer 2016 Collection. I’ve always liked the PixieDust formula so I was glad to see these. Even though there was a period of time where I was on PixieDust overload, I am happy to see this finish return. Let me show you my swatches below.

Zoya Bay

Zoya Cece

Zoya Levi

Zoya Linds

Zoya Tilly

Zoya Zooey

The PixieDust formula remains incredibly easy to work with. For all of my swatches, I applied two coats of the polish. I find that the second coat works well when it is lightly dabbed on which can help you avoid any bald spots if you haven’t waited enough time in between coats. I’m sure you are all intimately familiar with the PixieDust formula so I will leave it at that. Hopefully I will have the creme half of the Summer collection up tomorrow so stay tuned. Anywho, thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

OPI Alice Through The Looking Glass Collection

Posted on 13 June, 201612 June, 2016 by Cynthia

Guys, I’m in a serious nail funk. I have had zero motivation to do nail stuff for my blog. You’re probably getting tired of hearing this, but I just don’t know how to break out of this and get back to consistent blogging. Part of me is wanting to just quit, but the other part of me wants to soldier on. Nothing happened…I have just felt extremely lazy and uninspired as of late. Don’t get me wrong: I am still all over nail polish. In fact, I had to buy another melmer since I painfully ran out of room months ago. Even after doing a mini purge where I got rid of a few hundred bottles, I still needed another melmer. Do I sound crazy? Maybe I am. Anywho, even though I haven’t been doing that much nail stuff, I still found some time to swatch a few collections. I don’t know about you, but OPI is still my gateway polish brand so I am fiercely in love with a lot of the collections they put out. Today I have the OPI Alice Through The Looking Glass Collection to share with you so let’s take a look at the swatches first:

OPI Oh My Majesty!

OPI Mad For Madness Sake

OPI Having a Big Head Day

OPI What’s The Hatter With You?

OPI The I’s Have It

OPI Fearlessly Alice

OPI A Mirror Escape

OPI What Time Isn’t It

So what did I think? Look, any time that OPI puts out a bunch of cremes, I’m going to be very happy. Very happy indeed. While we all love a good glitter, holo, flaky, shimmer, etc…there is nothing more classy than a luscious creme polish. All of the cremes are spot on: great formula and opaque with two easy coats. You may say: “But Cynthia, those colors are nothing new!” Well, maybe you are right but goshdarnit who can say no to amazing cremes? If you don’t have something similar they are are definitely worth picking up. My three favorites are: Mad For Madness Sake, Fearlessly Alice and The I’s Have It. Now, let me move on to the last two: Mirror Escape and What Time Isn’t It. Mirror Escape is just a weird polish. I did not want to even try wearing it by itself so I applied an uneven coat of it over Fearlessly Alice. To tell you the truth, I kind of like the way it looks–but not enough to probably wear it again. It has a rough texture and it’s just a weird glitter combination. Props for “creativity” but NOPE. And lastly we have The I’s Have It. I have been wondering if there is one person who comes out with these interesting polishes. Like is the same person responsible for this and Pineapples Have Peelings Too? Because I’d like to get in that person’s brain. This is the one special edition polish from the collection and I’d like to point out that it’s the least special in my opinion. It’s just weird and I was not a fan when bar glitter was all the rage a few years ago and I like it even less today. I definitely was not impressed with these last two polishes. If you enjoy flawless cremes, you really can’t go wrong with these. I can also see fans of the movie snatching these up which is the whole point of collaboration collections such as this. What do you think of this collection? Let me know below. Also, just for a laugh, I saw this on Instagram and I nearly died laughing.

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Anywho, I hope you’re having a great Monday and hope the rest of the week flies by…cause Mondays suuuck. Take care and I will talk to you soon!

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 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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