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Illamasqua Vice

Posted on 4 March, 2014 by Cynthia

I’m kind of hating life right now for a variety of reasons, so I decided to wear a hot, Hot, HOT! nail polish to distract myself from the terrible ennui. After all the massive selling of polishes, I find myself going through my melmers on the regular trying to figure out what else I can get rid of. I also re-discover polishes I forgot I even had…and Illamasqua Vice is one I had totally forgotten. I actually don’t even recall purchasing it so I’m sure it was acquired during one of my many polish shopping binges. Let me show you how pretty this polish is.

Illamasqua Vice has that rubber finish that was all the rage a couple of years ago. It’s not quite matte and it’s not quite glossy so it looks a little off initially. The colors is this deep and vibrant cherry that feels a little thin and sheer but it builds up very nicely.

Since I can’t live without a gorgeous glossy finish, I applied a coat of my trusty Seche Vite to give it this beautiful shine (imagine me saying that in the Cutepolish voice).

So that’s my story for today. I hope that you’re having a better day than me, but hey…at least I don’t work tomorrow which means I don’t have to be up at the buttcrack of dawn. That makes me happy. Thanks for stopping by, and I will talk to you soon!

Stamping Saturdays #8

Posted on 1 March, 20143 May, 2014 by Cynthia

I was feeling so shitastic last night that I passed out fairly early. Then this morning I woke up feeling as if I had consumed a bottle of Tequila the night before, but I had to soldier on and get ready for work. By the time I got to work at 6 am, I was feeling a little better but then my foot started to bother me. It’s been throbbing a lot and it feels swollen so now I’m thinking I should definitely go to the doctor just so they can check it out. My co-worker felt it would be funny to show this to me:

You know what? It is pretty fucking hilarious and so accurate so props to him. The one saving grace of my crappy morning is that work was fairly slow as we were actually adequately staffed…yay! I am glad that I got my mani for Stamping Saturdays done a week in advance because I am feeling super lazy today and probably would have missed posting this week….I am super late as it is but I guess it’s better late than never!

I started out with two creamy coats of OPI Dutch Ya Just Love OPI? I love this color and love the collection it came from!

I then stamped this designs from Bundle Monster plate BM 314 with Essie Good As Gold. I know that I use the Essie Mirror Metallics quite often for my stamping, but they are just fantastic stamping polishes.

So what do you think of today’s stamping mani? I’m liking it but it’s definitely not one of my favorites. I hope to come up with something really cool for next week because I just received my MoYou plates. You have no idea how excited I am to have gotten them!!! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

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Vapid Lacquer Purp-etrator

Posted on 27 February, 2014 by Cynthia

Don’t you love the rain? It was raining so hard this morning and now it’s nice and sunny but a bit chilly. I wish I would rain all day since we’re in the midst of a terrible drought, but I guess a little rain is better than no rain. I took the day off today since I’m still nursing my broken toe back to health. It’s feeling better but my foot just feels all hard and swollen so I’m just going to keep trying to keep it elevated and all that. Today’s polish is a gorgeous creme that I wore last week. If you know me, you know that cremes are my absolute favorites so I loved wearing Vapid Lacquer Purp-etrator. Let’s take a look at my swatches below.

Vapid Lacquer Purp-etrator is a gorgeous creme with insane shine. It least more purple than what my pictures show, but I would still call it blurple. The consistency is nice but slightly thicket than I’m used to. The pigmentation is great so I only needed two coats for full opacity.

I then used Dior Perlé to do some dots. I fail at dots–they look all random but I still liked the end result. My nephew, who loves dark colors, kept staring at my nails so I think that he approved.

I hope that you’re having a good day and that you are ready for the weekend. I’m glad I got two days off to rest but I do work Friday and Saturday so womp, womp. If you’re interested in Purp-etrator or any other Vapid Lacquer pretties, I suggest that you check out their big cartel site here. Purp-etrator can be purchased for $8 for a full size bottle and $4 for a mini. Speaking about buying polish, yesterday I updated my blog sale with a bunch of new stuff. I even added the grab bag option that I had first brought up on Facebook. Help me destash and regain some of my sanity and space!!! Check out my blog sale here to see if there’s anything that you’re interested in. Well, enjoy the rest of your day, and I will talk to you soon!

Nicole by OPI Roughles Collection

Posted on 26 February, 2014 by Cynthia

If you follow me on Facebook, you probably read about how I broke my toe because of these polishes. Yep, these polishes made me break my toe…let me explain. When I got home from work, the box of polishes was waiting for me so I teared into it like a lunatic, and I was admiring their speckled pastel gorgeousness. I immediately put one on, and I jumped up from the couch so I could go to my light box to photograph them. In my excitement, I stubbed my toe on the coffee table and I heard/felt it snap. It hurt like hell, but I proceeded to take pictures of my freshly polished nails. It wasn’t until a few minutes later that I noticed the swelling and the tenderness and now it’s just a bruised mess. There’s not much that I can do about it except keep it bandaged and not hit it again which will be hard since I’m so clumsy. Despite the broken toe, I am feeling pretty hopeful about a few things, so not everything is bad. And of course, I am so excited to be sharing the Nicole by OPI Roughles Collection with you. When I first saw the press release, I read it as roofies or ruffies which prompted Jessica to call them puppy drugs…I know…I know….haha! Let’s take a look at my swatches below, and I will share my thoughts with you at the end.

Nicole by OPI I’m Stucco on You

Nicole by OPI On What Grounds?

Nicole by OPI Rock the Look

Nicole by OPI Sand in My Shoe

I don’t know how you feel about pastels, but I have to say that I am in love with these. The beautiful pastel shades are perfect for this time of year, and the speckled effect gives them a little extra kick. The formula was a breeze to work with because it applies so smoothly and easily. I do recommend that you apply 2 thin coats and that you let the first coat dry for a few minutes before applying the second because otherwise you might create some bald spots. Luckily, these dry super fast so you won’t have to wait too long. I also wanted to mention that On What Grounds? leans very blue in my pictures, but in real life it is more of a turquoise color–my stupid camera strikes again! I really hope that polishes with a similar effect are release in the future because I’d love to have these in a bunch of different colors. What do you think of these? Do you have a favorite or are you over textured polishes? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

From Nicole by OPI

Nicole by OPI formulas are long-lasting, fast-drying, and salon-quality. The 4 new nail lacquers will be available in stores beginning March 2014 for $7.99 each at retailers including select Duane Reade, Kroger, Kmart, Fred Meyer, CVS locations. In Canada, these shades will be available for $10.99 each at Shoppers Drug Mart, Jean Coutu, Rexall, Walmart Canada, Loblaw, and London Drug. For more information, visit nicolebyopi.com. Follow Nicole by OPI on Twitter @NicoleByOPI and become a Facebook fan!

LeChat Belle La Vie Collection

Posted on 25 February, 2014 by Cynthia

Oh man you guys, I broke my pinky toe yesterday so I’m kinda pissed about it. I stubbed my toe so hard on the coffee table that I heard it snap and now it’s swollen and bruised. It sure was fun going to work today without being able to wear a shoe. To top it all off, I had my interview today for the position I applied for. I actually think that it went well, and now it’s just a waiting game. Since I had this interview today, I thought it would be fitting to share with you a trio of beautiful work appropriate polishes from the LeChat Belle La Vie Collection. If you’re not familiar with LeChat and their Dare To Wear line, you are missing out. Their line was recently relaunched with a new bottle design and new polishes, so I definitely recommend checking them out. The Belle La Vie Collection is comprised of 6 neutral polishes and today I have the three that caught my attention to share with you.

LeChat Dare To Wear Mi Amour is a gorgeous light putty color. I absolutely love how this looks on me and the formula was pretty nice. I applied three thin coats, and it covered beautifully. It’s such a shiny and creamy nude color!

When I first saw LeChat Dare To Wear Heart & Soul, I thought it would be my favorite of the three, but I ended up not liking it as much as I thought I would. The shimmer is really pretty, but it almost borders on frosty which is a finish I definitely don’t like.

And in the book of greyed taupes, LeChat Dare To Wear Utaupia is a star…a two coat creamy and glossy star.

You may think that these colors are a little boring, but they really are not–at least not in my book. What do you think of these three neutrals? Are they something that you would wear or are they too safe? Well, I’m going to cut it short here since I’m going to go catch up on two of my favorite shows: The Following and The Black List. Talk to you soon!

Misa Lime Love

Posted on 23 February, 2014 by Cynthia

It’s about 70 degrees here today which isn’t hot, but it’s February man! It’s supposed to be Winter! I guess I should count myself lucky that it isn’t 90 degrees like it was a few weeks ago or that we’re not covered in snow, but I’d like to have some kind of normal balance when it comes to our seasons. Since it’s so crazy sunny outside, I decided to show you a super bright and juicy polish: Misa Lime Love. I actually have this polish up on my blog sale, and now I’m rethinking it because it’s so pretty! Another reason why I wanted to wear a bright polish is because I want to be in a happy and positive frame of mind for the coming week. You see, I am up for a promotion at work that I am really excited about. Not only would it be a nice promotion, but I would also have regular hours (no more buttcrack of dawn shifts and no more weekends!!!!). Please send me positive vibes, juju, happy thoughts and anything you can think of so that I land it. I’m not too sure who I’m up against to snag this position, but by the sound of things I think I’m the frontrunner. I don’t want to get my hopes up and then fall flat on my face, but I’m definitely hopeful!

For all you green lovers out there, Misa Lime Love is definitely a color that you’re going to want to have. It’s a juicy lime green with green/gold fine shimmer which isn’t super obvious on the nail, but it can be seen at certain angles in the right lighting. The formula as a little streaky, but it’s of a nice consistency so it does build up nicely. I used two thick coats but you may want to apply three thinner coats so it doesn’t take eons to dry.

To be honest, this is the first time I try Misa because I never find it in any retail setting and I just hate paying for shipping–I’m cheap that way. I know that these can be purchased online at various etailers including misa.com, so you should be able to get them fairly easily. Are you a Misa fan? Are there any must have colors from them that you can recommend? Well, I really hope that you’ve had a great weekend and that you are ready for Monday. I will be having an official interview sometime this week so I am keeping my fingers crossed. If I do get the promotion, I see some major polish shopping armageddon coming my way so I am both hopeful and scared. Wish me luck!

Stamping Saturdays #7

Posted on 22 February, 2014 by Cynthia

I almost didn’t get to post today for Stamping Saturdays because I was being super deluxe lazy last night and didn’t prepare my post ahead of time, and today I just got super busy. I worked really early today and then when I got home, my friend called me so we could get dinner so I met up with her. I was then planning to meet up with another friend to go watch a movie but we decided to just do it another day since we were both feeling tired. So here I am vegging out on a Saturday night and watching some Air Disasters show on Netflix. I’m currently watching an episode about Delta flight 191 that was brought down by a microburst. I used to work for Delta so it’s the first episode that grabbed my attention. Anyway, since I’m not home and relaxing, now I have time to get my post up…yay! Yesterday I went to my nail stores but didn’t find much except for the polish I’m going to show you today and some quick dry drops that I use any time I do stamping or nail art. Let me start off by showing you Morgan Taylor New York State Of Mind.

I decided to show you a blurry picture with bright lighting to really give you an idea about how sparkly this polish is. It’s a polish with a dark jelly base full of tiny rainbow glitter. It’s so sparkly!

In different lighting, you can see all the different colors, but I decided to show you how this sparkles out in the sun.

Ok, I know I sound like an idiot but polish always makes me lose my mind.
For my stamping design, I used the paisley image from Bundle Monster Plate BM 315 and my Konad White Special polish. I really love how this turned out because I love the contrast of the delicate paisley design and the sparkly dark base.

So what do you think about this mani? What about the base polish? I am really loving all the colors peeking through the super dark base! Well, I hope that you’re having a nice weekend so far, and don’t forget to check out my girl’s posts below for other awesome stamping manis. Thanks for stopping by, and I will talk to you soon.

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Orly Terra Mauve

Posted on 20 February, 2014 by Cynthia

You know those days when nothing really bad happens, yet you happen to feel super shitty? That’s me today but I actually think I’m PMS’ing so that’s normal, I guess. Yeah, TMI but whatever. I haven’t painted my nails in a few days so today I sat down to pick through all my untrieds and I zeroed in on Orly Terra Mauve. I know that a lot of people think mauve is such a grandma color, but I actually love how it looks on me. Even though this lighting washes out my skin a bit, it usually gets the polish color right which I find is really difficult with my other lighting. I guess it’s a trade off, so I’m while I’m searching for a better (and economical) lighting set up, this will have to do.

I found this bottle of Orly Terra Mauve in this crazy polish warehouse and of course I grabbed it because it’s in the huge old style Orly bottles. Look how humungous it is at .75 fluid ounces! The formula on this smelled kind of horrific. It is a very old bottle and I’m sure it is full of those 3 chemicals that everyone tries to avoid nowadays. It seriously made my eyes water a bit! I also found that the formula was beyond thin and it took multiple coats to get a good, even result. While I like the color, I don’t think it’s worth the annoyance.

So what do you have planned for the weekend? Anything fun? I work on Saturday so maybe I’ll do something fun Saturday night but usually I’m so tired and annoyed after work that all I want to do is veg out. I do have to work on my stamping mani for Saturday tomorrow night so wish me luck because I’m totally blanking on ideas. I am planning to go polish shopping tomorrow after work (I will limit myself to 3…max 5 items) so maybe I will find a cool polish to use. Anyway, thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Vapid Lacquer – Grape Stomp & In The Pink

Posted on 19 February, 2014 by Cynthia

Usually I look forward to Wednesdays so much because I don’t work on Wednesdays. However, a few weeks ago I had agreed to work overtime and completely forgot until my manager sent me a reminder on Tuesday. Working on my day off?

Do you know how much it sucks to not have two consecutive days off? I feel like I never have enough time to do anything or really have a break. However, I could always use the extra cash for polish…I mean bills…I mean polish. I only worked half a day so I guess technically it wasn’t that bad, but I had a bunch of errands to do and also needed to do a bunch of laundry. Now I’m doing laundry instead of playing with my nephew the entire time. Harrumph! Anyway, I did get a chance to swatch a couple of polishes earlier in the week that Krys from Vapid Lacquer had sent me. These are some delicious linear holos so I hope you enjoy the rainbow.

Vapid Lacquer In The Pink is a great pink holo that comes alive in sunlight. I tried to swatch both of these in direct sunlight for about 3 days, but every time I was ready it became overcast–every single time! I had to use my light box and some different lighting to get this to show the awesome holo. The formula is a little sheer so I applied 3 coats for my swatches above. You guys know I love pink nail polish, so I love this. The only thing I want to make you aware of is that this polish stained my nails a lot. I had bright pink nails after I removed this and not even pure acetone helped so I buffed them lightly to get rid of the staining. I didn’t wear a base coat when I swatched it so I do recommend a good base coat to minimize any staining.

As an avid purple lover, I was instantly in love with Vapid Lacquer Grape Stomp. It is such a vibrant purple with a strong holo effect. In direct sunlight, the linear holo effect is much more pronounced–it’s absolutely gorgeous. This also needed three coats for full opacity and did not stain at all.

Overall, I am very happy with my first experience with Vapid Lacquer. I have three other polishes from this brand that I will be sharing with you later this week and they are all very pretty. Both of these polishes can be purchase at the Vapid Lacquer shop for $9.50 each for a full size bottle and $5.00 for a mini. Let me know what you think about these beautiful holos. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Essie Hide & Go Chic Collection Spring 2014

Posted on 17 February, 201416 February, 2014 by Cynthia

I’ve got to warn you before I get started: I’m feeling off. Basically, I am feeling a little stressed out about a variety of things and that stress is carrying over to every area of my life. Last night I went on a binge trying to get rid of tons of polishes I never use so I added A LOT of stuff to my blog sale. Thank you to all the ladies who have purchased from me already–I was surprised by how much I sold in the first few hours. I’m going to try to not be such a weirdo at least while I write up this post. Deep breath…you can do it! On Saturday, I told myself that I needed to get up really early on Sunday in order to do some swatching so of course I went to bed at like 2 am which made it really hard to be up by 7:00 but I did it. Yay me! The first collection I wanted to tackle is the one I am sharing with you today. The Essie Hide & Go Chic Collection for Spring 2014 looked really promising in the promo shots so I was super excited to get my hands on it so early. Is it worth all my initial excitement? Let’s take a look.

I really, really love colors like Essie Spin The Bottle. Unfortunately, they don’t really love me. I think this looks a little gross on me and makes my skin look uber-yellow. I do have a lot of yellow undertones, but this is just too much for me. It is a rather sheer nude color, so expect multiple coats if you want a more opaque look like my swatches above. This was 4 thin coats. Nope. Not liking it.

I don’t find Essie Romper Room too original as it is just a very pale pink, but I do like how it turned out on me. Again, the formula is pretty thin and streaky which I was expecting considering the shade, but it’s always a bit disappointing, you know?

When I first saw the promo pics, I was so excited about Essie Fashion Playground because it appeared to be super fun an shimmery. Hello shimmer? Where are you? Oh, you’re one of those disappearing on the nail shimmers that we all love–said no one, ever. Despite the fact that the shimmer doesn’t show up at all, who doesn’t love this type of greens? Besides, it’s perfect for Spring. Again, I found the formula very streaky and disappointing.

The curse of my blue hating camera strikes again. I think I have mentioned that my camera has serious issues photographing blues accurately, so Essie Truth Or Flare is a little more dusty than what it looks like here. I thought this was going to be very opaque but it ended up being not very pigmented. It felt like a jelly polish in that it applied smoothly but looked kind of glossy and squishy. Personally, I like it even though it wasn’t as pigmented as I had hoped.

And here we have the collection’s namesake: Essie Hide & Go Chic.What a pretty blue. Out of all the shades in this collection, this one had the best formula. I was afraid that it would stain, but luckily I had no staining issues with it. Again, the color is a little off in my pictures because it has the slightest bit of green in it that makes it look somewhat teal. I applied 2 coats for my swatches above.

And lastly we have Essie Style Hunter which also had a pretty nice formula. This polish made me think of a juicy ripe watermelon and reminded me of traditional Summer colors. I think that Style Hunter and Hide & Go Chic seemed a little too pigmented for a traditional Spring collection, but I rather enjoyed seeing them here. Maybe the contrast of these bolder colors against the other pastels in the collection made them stand out even more because they ended up being my two favorite shades.

Well, once again I’m going to be a party pooper and say that I am not that impressed by this collection. The colors are ok…some traditional and some not so traditional Spring colors. The lighter shades had streaky formulas which I was already expecting while the 2 dark shades were super pigmented and easy to work with. Overall, I can’t say that this is a “must-have” for me so I’ll be placing these in my blog sale in case you’re interested in them. For me, the Resort Fling Collection was a dud and now this one didn’t even manage to get me mildly excited. Oh well. Summer is just around the corner, right? That’s when all the super juicy colors come out and I get all obsessed with them all. So tell me what you think: Am I being too hard? Am I too hard to please? Please chime in as I would love to hear what you think of this collection. Thank so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.