Category: Swatches

Of Life and Lacquer > Swatches

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 3 : Yellow

Posted on by Cynthia

I apologize in advance for what I am about to show you. I actually think my nails look hideous which sucks because I was really looking forward to using this yellow polish. I’d like to say that I do like the yellow polish on its own, but the stamp just looks…barf-worthy. My third submission for the 31 Inspired Days of Nail Art is a big fat fail. Here we go….

This is Nails Inc. Carnaby Street:

Nails Inc. Carnaby Stree Swatch     Nails Inc. Carnaby Stree Swatch

It’s no secret that I love Nails Inc. because they have the best creme formula on the planet as far as I’m concerned. Unfortunately, Carnaby Street fell prey to the usual trapping of yellow polish: it was patchy and kind of annoying to work with. It took 3 coats for me to be able to cover up all the bald spots which is unheard of in my Nails Inc. experience. I should have left well enough alone, but noooooooooooooooo. I had to stamp over this…

Cheeky Plate CH 48     Cheeky Plate CH 48

I used a design from Cheeky plate CH 48. While the design isn’t ugly, per se, the color combo just looks UGLY. Please join me in hating this final look.

I’m late to posting this because I went nuts and removed this immediately: that’s how much I hated it. I guess I can’t always have a nail win.

Don’t forget to check out the looks created by the other ladies participating in the challenge. I’m sure their submissions will be much more interesting–can’t be as ugly as mine…that’s for sure!

Thanks for stopping by and until next time!


China Glaze Deviantly Daring

Posted on by Cynthia

I realize I’m late to the New Bohemian party but I still ended up getting a couple of polishes from the China Glaze New Bohemian Collection. China Glaze Deviantly Daring is probably the only color that really interested me from this collection after I saw what a duochrome fail the whole collection turned out to be. I think that the colors are pretty, but I was so incredibly let down once swatches started popping up online that I just decided to pass on the whole collection when it first came out.I came across some of the polishes at one of my dusties for dirt cheap so I picked up this color and No Plain Jane.

China Glaze Deviantly Daring is a described as an “adventurously bold peacock teal” and I think that description suits it just fine.  I am always a huge fun of teal polishes so I am happy that I decided to pick this one up.  I thought the formula was pretty darn perfect. It was easy to control and it was opaque in two coats.

China Glaze Deviantly Daring Swatch     China Glaze Deviantly Daring Swatch

Something weird happened when I applied my top coat of Seche Vite: I found that the duochrome showed up a lot better.  I could really see the darker blue flash on the tips and edges of my nails!  It’s still not as majestic as I had hoped when I saw bottle shots, but it’s pretty. Brush strokes are one of my most hated polish issues and unfortunately, there were some visible brush strokes: not enough to make me hate the polish but enough to  let me they are there–teasing me.

Since I’ve been on a star kick lately, I decided to use another star stamp over Deviantly Daring.

Cheeky Plate CH 52 China Glaze Deviantly Darling     Cheeky Plate CH 52 China Glaze Deviantly Darling

This star pattern is from Cheeky plate CH52.

What do you think? I think that if I find more of these New Bohemian polishes for cheap, I will purchase them. Did you get any of these polishes? What did you think of them?

Thanks for stopping by and catching up. Stay cool and until next time!

31 Inspired Days Of Nail Art – Day 2: Orange

Posted on by Cynthia

Are you ready for Day 2 of the 31 Inspired Days of Nail Art Challenge?!?!?! I am and today I have something that came out kind of awesomely strange. I’ve been seriously loving Bourjois Grenadine Tonic that the lovely Julie sent to me a while ago and I never miss a chance to use it. I absolutely adore how it’s unlike anything I have ever used. It’s like an orange high gloss polish that easily builds up to a vibrant orange with some red to boot. I guess you could call it tomato orange. I’ve used this polish for a NOTD before and you can see my results here.

Let me wow you with my orange jello nails!

Bourjois Grenadine Tonic Swatch     Bourjois Grenadine Tonic Swatch

This is three coats of the lovely Grenadine Tonic.

Cheeky Stamp CH 51     Cheeky Stamp CH 51

This is my first use of the Cheeky plates that I received today. I used plate CH51 for this design and I think the design is pretty cute. I know Vienna would love this since she loves stars so much. 😉 I applied one coat of Grenadine Tonic after I stamped the design using Konad special white polish.

So overall, I kind of really like this whole look. It reminds me of Jello (and you know there’s always room for J-E-L-L-O!) in a weird way. Now, if you’re a Jello hater, move along. Let me know what you think of my Day 2 creation. I’m usually pretty hard on myself when it comes to creativity and execution, but like I said earlier, I’m really diggin’ this. Can you dig it?

Don’t forget to check out the blogs of the other ladies participating in the 31 Inspired Days of Nail Art Challenge! Our next challenge will involve yellow which is my color obsession du jour. It will give me an excuse to finally use the crazy Nails Inc. yellow that I purchased a while ago. Woo hoo!

Thanks for stopping by and until next time!


Orly Fired Up Collection Fall 2012

Posted on by Cynthia

I am a little late in posting about this collection since I picked up a couple of colors a couple of weeks ago. Orly’s Fired Up Collection brings us 6 shades ranging from a soft neutrals to dark and vampy shades.

The colors in this collection are: Glow, Flare, Flicker, Ignite, Smolder and Rapture. (Photo Courtesy of Orly FB Page)

When I saw the display for this collection, I was immediately drawn to two of the colors which are the two that I will be sharing with you today.

    

Flicker

    

Smolder

I really wish I could say I love these, but I don’t. I like the colors, especially Flicker, but the formula was kind of atrocious. It was super watery and it flooded my cuticles. Even worse, I needed three coats to make these colors work and then the polish bubbled terribly on my nails.  My experience with these two colors does not make me want to go out and purchase any of the other colors which is a shame because I quite like the shade collection as a whole. I know that I’ve been saying that I am super duper ready for Fall, but are we going to get any original Fall polish collections at all? I think that the best fall collection so far has been China Glaze On Safari–I seriously loved every single polish.

If you have any of these colors, I’d love to know what your experience was like. I know that sometimes products react differently on different people so maybe it was just my nails.  What do you think of this collection as a whole?

Thanks for stopping by and until next time!

Wet N Wild Pick Your Poison Collection – Fall 2012

Posted on by Cynthia

Today I headed over to CVS because I wanted to see if they had the Wet N Wild Halloween polishes. Unfortunately I didn’t find them even though they seem to be out in other areas. I can be patient–I just hope we eventually get them! I hope this doesn’t turn out to be a reverse Saved By The Nail collection for me! haha!

Even though I didn’t find the polishes I wanted, I stumbled upon a full display of new Megalast polishes. A NEW FALL COLLECTION!!! The Wet N Wild Pick Your Poison Collection is full of dark colors that will work like a charm for fall. (Hurry up, Fall! Hurry!! I miss you!) I am not that familiar with the Megalast line from Wet N Wild, but I am a big fan of their Wild Shine and FastDri lines so I thought that these would probably be winners too. Well…I love the colors and the formula was pretty decent, but the brushes on about half of my bottles were wonky–wonktastic. They seemed kind of stiff and and uneven. However, when the brush was fine, it applied the polish evenly and smoothly. I am always a fan of wide brushes, and this line of polishes definitely has a wide paddle-type brush. Let me show you the colors before I blab more about this collection.

    

Poison Ivy

    

Toxic Apple

    

Root Of All Evil

    

Deadly Dose

    

Venomous Vixen

    

Lethal Injection

So my final thoughts on this collection are: This is a very typical Fall collection with dark and rich colors. I like the jewel type shimmer of these colors. I do wish that the brushes were more consistent because when they are wonky, they are BAD. I like the wide brush for my wide nail beds, but I can see that those with smaller nail beds might have some problems with the brush. All in all, I think that these polishes are a steal for $1.99 each and even though the colors are not unique to hardcore polish fans, I think that colors like Poison Ivy and Root Of All Evil are worth picking up.

Let me know what you think of these colors. Have you seen this new collection in your area yet? Will you be picking up any of these colors? Which is your favorite?

Thanks for stopping by and until next time!

EDIT: I didn’t think about this when I first swatched the colors, but doesn’t this collection remind you a lot of China Glaze’s Vintage Vixen?

P.S. There are only a couple more days left to enter my giveaway for 5 essence polishes so enter soon if you haven’t done so already! 🙂
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31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 1: Red

Posted on by Cynthia

I have never participated in any kind of nail art challenge mostly because my nail art is beyond pitiful. You may think I’m being hard on myself, but I actually cringe every time I attempt any kind of nail art. I always find a way to mess the look up no matter how simple it may seem. As you can imagine, this is a huge step for me but I joined up with some lovely ladies for my first ever 31 day-type challenge. Ohmygodimsorryifmynailarthurtsyoureyes.

We will be posting every 3 days which I am super happy about because I wouldn’t be able to handle the challenge if we had to post every day. The other ladies participating in this challenge are:  Jessica from Once Upon A Polish, Nicole from Polish Me, Please!, Alaina from The Little Canvas and Ave from Polish Pixelle.

 

The first post as you can see from the graphic above is centered around “Red” so this is what I decided to do:

    

This is Zoya Posh from the MatteVelvet Collection for Fall 2009. This is such a rich and pigmented color that I surprisingly haven’t worn in eons. That will surely change because I am so freaking ready for Fall.

    

This is Posh with a coat of Seche Vite. Ok, this is absolutely amazing in my book. I am dying at how beautiful this looks.

    

I am normally not a stud/rhinestone person (like a rhinestone cowboy!), but I decided to do this just because I have tons of these studs. I am still not sure that I really like this so you’ll have to let me know what you think.

I have a bunch of polish stuff to share with you but I’ll leave it for tomorrow’s post. 🙂 So what do you think about my Day 1 look? Stay cool and talk to you later!




Kiko #401 Peacock Green

Posted on by Cynthia

It’s no secret that I love holo polishes. When I saw the gorgeous Layla Hologram Effect polishes, I thought: “Prozac be damned! This is a nailgasm!” (Yeah, if you’ve been on Prozac, you know what I’m talking about.) So imagine how incredibly disappointed I was when I realized that for whatever reason their formula just did not like my nails at all. I seriously get chips after like an hour!!!! It was such a major bummer yet I managed to buy 5 of them. Oh, the lack of logic when you’re a nail polish addict…

Fast forward to now and I finally got around to trying the amazing Kiko holo that Sabrina sent to me. OH. MY. GAHHHHH! I am in freaking love with this color. This is 2/2 on the Kiko front. I have a third Kiko polish yet to try out and I’m pretty sure I’m going to love it too. I had a hard time getting an accurate picture of this polish, so bear with me. Without further ado, I present to you Kiko Peacock Green from their LE Lavish Oriental Collection:

    

 

    

 

    

The application on this is flawless. I could say that even one thickish coat is enough. It applied smoothly and evenly. Even better, I had ZERO clean up because the formula was so easy to manipulate. I did not apply a base or top coat and so far it’s wearing well. I’ve done dishes, cleaned up the porch (ew, ew ew!!! you know why if you follow me on twitter) and have washed my hands about a million times. I am impressed!

So what do you think? I think it’s absolutely amazing. Sabrina has unfortunately created a Kiko monster out of me: MUST. HAVE. MORE. KIKO! RAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWRRRRRRRR!

I’m headed to Sephora in a few minutes with a friend and since I’ve been so incredibly bummed out and stressed out about all the issues with my blog, you know what’s about to happen….

Newer Essies I Had Passed On

Posted on by Cynthia

Last time I showed you two Essie polishes from some way older collections and today I have two from more recent collections. I don’t know about you, but the more polish I acquire, the more discriminating I become. I used to just run out and buy whole collections without really thinking about the colors–I just wanted every single polish because I felt incomplete not getting a complete collection. Now I tend to pass on colors more often. Case in point: I only bought ONE of the OPI Germany polishes because all the others were a snoozefest for me.

Today I have two previously shunned Essies to show you:

 

   

First one up is Tour De Finance:

    

This was the only color from the Navigate Her Collection that I didn’t purchase. Why? I have no idea. Maybe I was hating on pink that day. Who knows?! It’s a very shimmery hot pink with an awesome formula. You can get away with one thick coat but I applied 2 thin coats here.

Next up is Dive Bar:

    

Oh, Dive Bar! Why are you so deceptive? When I saw that purple shimmer flash in the bottle, I was drooling. But where did it go once I put it on my nails? Sadness! I’m not saying it isn’t an awesome nail polish, I was just a little disappointed that the purple was MIA.  The formula on this seemed a little watery but  it went on easily and 2 coats were enough for full opacity.  Do I like this? Hell yeah!

Don’t forget to check out Beauty Stop Online if you’re looking for some of these Essie colors (and many other polish brands as well!).  You can click here and browse through their selection.

Are there any polishes that you previously passed on and recently picked up?

****These items were sent for review. This in no way influences my review and opinion of the product.****

Julep Sasha

Posted on by Cynthia

If you’ve taken a peek at my facebook or twitter page, you probably know that I’ve had a mini meltdown about all the issues I have encountered while trying to move my blog to a different host. My blog is going to look messed up for a couple of days while I figure out how to work around all the hurdles that keep popping up every time I think I have things figured out.  I will leave that drama for another post because I just need to get my mind off it all and upload a post I was working on earlier today.

Before I get into my review and swatches of Sasha, don’t forget to enter my giveaway for a FREE Julep Maven Intro box. There are only a couple of days let to enter so why wouldn’t you enter? It’s free and there is no obligation to purchase anything else.

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You can also sign up to be a Julep Maven for just $0.01 for your introductory box!!! YES, JUST ONE PENNY! How? Well, let me tell you how. Sign up by clicking on my link here and use promo code MAVENINTRO  By signing up using my link, you are helping support my blog so click away! 🙂

For more information about the Julep Maven membership program, here are some details from Julep’s website:

As a Julep Maven, your monthly subscription of just $19.99 delivers exclusive access to at least $40 worth of products handpicked to suit your style.After your introductory box, you’ll start receiving a Julep Maven Box each month, including:

  • At least $40 worth of customized products elegantly packaged in our exclusive giftable box
  • New, never-before-released colors and treatments sent FIRST to you, before anyone else
  • Past hits and cult favorites–the products our girlfriends can’t live without.

Your Maven subscription also comes with free shipping, 20% off all purchases in the Julep Maven Boutique and the peace of mind that comes with knowing there’s never any obligation to buy.

We’ll send an email previewing your upcoming Julep Maven Box on the 20th of each month. Like what you see? Do nothing and your box is on its way. Want to try a new style, send your box to a friend or skip the month? Just log into your account between the 20th and the 24th to submit your request.

 

Before all the blog drama happened today, I decided to use my other Julep polish:

    

This is two coats of Sasha. This color is seriously vibrant, and I’m still on the fence about how I like it on me. Regardless of what I think of the actual color, I am happy to report that the formula was absolutely perfect: creamy, buttery and very pigmented. What else can you ask for when it comes to a creme polish?

Since I’ve been trying to experiment more,  I busted out some other colors and my handy dotting tool to see if I could come up with something interesting.

    

You be the judge: cute or disasticure as Nicole calls them?

So what do you think of Sasha and my feeble attempt at nail art? Don’t be too hard on me. I can stamp and that’s about it. haha! I am super excited because it looks like I might get my newest set of plates sometime this week. Considering the drama I’ve been dealing with, that would make me super happy!

I’m going to say it again: enter my giveaway because who doesn’t love free stuff?! Oh, and Nicole from Polish Me Please! is also giving away a Julep box. Hello! Two chances to win a box if you enter both. You can enter her giveaway by clicking here.

I’m sure you’re sick of giveaways, right? (Sure you are!) Well, get ready because I have some giveaways lined up this month since it’s my birthday later in the month. I don’t usually like to celebrate my birthday, but I do like excuses to host giveaways! Stay tuned because one goes live later today. 😉

 

****This item was sent for review. This in no way influences my review and opinion of the product.****

Essie Oldies

Posted on by Cynthia

As a fairly recent nail polish addict, it pains me to realize how many amazing collections I have missed out on pre-2011 because I wasn’t really following any of the major brands. I was an occasional nail polish wearer until I started getting weekly salon manicures. It was something that I would do every Friday after work to help me de-stress and just put work out of my mind for the weekend. So when I think of all those amazing–and sadly discontinued–collections that I missed out on, I just want to cry! (I’m looking at you China Glaze OMG!)

I am always on the lookout for older polishes so I tend to spend a lot of time searching online for information. I especially like to collect REALLY old nail polishes mostly for the vintage bottles, but that’s a whole other obsession that I won’t discuss right now. There are a lot of polish etailers out there but today I’m going to talk to you about Beauty Stop Online. They have a wide range of products (not just polishes!) so you should definitely check them out if you’re looking for quality products at a good price.

Today I have two Essie polishes that pre-date my polish hoarding days: Poor Lil’ Rich Girl & Looking For Love.

                                                          

 

Poor Lil’ Rich Girl is from the Winter 2004 Frozen Assets Collection. You are probably thinking that there are tons of dark red nail polishes out there and you are right: there are! While this color is not terribly unique, I can never turn down a glossy and vibrant creme polish. Application was not a problem even though I needed 3 coats to even out the color. This is not a straightforward red; I think that it has some brown in it that gives it a vampy feel. This is the type of color that I love to wear when my nails are this short. And before I forget, I can’t stop singing “Rich Girl” by H&O every time I look at this polish!

  

This polish thoroughly confused me. From the Spring 2008 In The Mood Collection, Looking For Love is not a polish I would normally wear, but I think that I have been trying to branch out. Essie is known for their delicate sheers and pastels so I decided to give this one a try. In the bottle, this color appeared to be gray with some blue but once I got it on my nails, I saw a slight lavender/lilac tinge to it. Upon googling this polish, I came across a lot of information from other polish fiends stating that there appeared to be two versions of this polish (My Private Jet anyone?!) While I like the end result, this polish was kind of a streaky nightmare. It took 4 coats to get this manicure done.

If you’re interested in checking out what other Essie colors are stocked at Beauty Stop Online, you can click here and browse through their selection.

When did your polish obsession start?

****These items were sent for review. This in no way influences my review and opinion of the product.****