Category: Swatches

Of Life and Lacquer > Swatches

Zoya Kimmy

Posted on by Cynthia

I really want to get through all my Zoya polishes and swatch them all, but I seem to acquire more bottles than I can keep up with. Last week I bought a few new Zoya babies and this is the first one that I decided to try. Kimmy is such a bright red with gold shimmer and I was instantly attracted to it despite the fact that I don’t usually like metallic-looking colors. You want to know the best part? This is a one-coater!! I used two here, but you can get away with one thickish coat.

Since I was in a MASH plate binge, I decided to use plate 45 for this design with Konad special polish in black.

 

And the last three pictures are just of my latest binge. I can’t wait until I get to play with all of these colors, especially the a-englands!!! I am going on a no polish week and giving my nails a chance to grow and recover…hopefully I will be able to stick to it and not freak out about a whole week sans polish.

So how was your Monday? I think it’s still the most dreaded day of the week for a reason. Thanks for stopping by my lovelies!

Deborah Lippmann Almost Paradise

Posted on by Cynthia

I finally got around to using another one of my Deborah Lippmann beauties. This is one of the 4 Deborah Lippmann polishes I got on major clearance on HSN, and I love them. Yes, they are expensive but I think the formula is pretty freaking dreamy. I think these would be a perfect splurge for a special occasion like a birthday, Christmas or Saturday night…hee! I don’t see myself splurging too often on DL polishes, but I think I will really be on the lookout for special and unique colors that catch my attention.

The first thing that comes to mind when I look at this polish is key lime pie. Hmmmm…who doesn’t like that?! Just the sound of it sounds decadent with a refreshing citrus punch. Have you ever had key lime cheesecake? Enough food talk; can you tell I’m hungry right now?

This is such a pretty color! I wasn’t sure it would suit my skin tone, but I actually really like it. Since cremes are my favorite polish finish anywhere, this was a no-brainer for me. The first coat was streaky, but I wasn’t expecting any less. The second coat evened it all out perfectly

It’s official: Insta-Dri polishes are awesome for stamping. Doesn’t Blue By! look amazing over Almost Paradise? I used plate MASH 43 for this design.
I think my stamping mojo is 100% back! Let me know what you think of this design.

Hope you’re having a great weekend, and thanks for stopping by!

Entity Pearl Brights Collection for Spring/Summer

Posted on by Cynthia

I don’t know about you, but it doesn’t really feel like a true summer here in California. I know it’s been incredibly hot in other areas of the country (and the world), but I feel like we have had an atypical summer for sure. Today was fairly hot and I was very uncomfortable in my dusty havens when I went looking for some new nail polishes.  I was definitely feeling the heat today! When I got home, I just wanted to play around with some summery colors and lo and behold, these beauties were waiting for me. I’ve always thought of Entity Beauty as a company that caters more to the professionals since I had never really seen their products at any of the nail supply places I frequent. The only time I came across their products was at one of my favorite nail salons.

First let me say that I am kind of amused by the unique bottle shape. These are the first nail polishes that I’ve tried that have this round bottle, and it just makes them stand out a bit. As far as I’m concerned, packaging is a big part of initial brand appeal so they score points on that end right off the bat. To get to the nitty-gritty of it all, these polishes had a pretty nice formula. I am in the habit of applying very thin coats which usually forces me to apply 2-3  coats of polish. I opted for 2 thicker coats for these swatches and that seemed to work pretty well. I was actually surprised that I didn’t have more problems with the yellow polish since they are notoriously hard to work with. I’ve been on a yellow kick lately so I really liked this color! While these colors are definitely summery, they aren’t necessarily neon. They dry shiny and smooth and with a lovely pearlized shimmer that is noticeable yet not over the top. I know you’re all thinking that you may already have similar colors to these, and I agree that most polish hoarders fans will have dupes no matter what. Either way, this collection is cute and worth checking out if you like bright colors with a pearly/shimmer finish.

So now that I’ve blabbed for a while, here are the swatches:

    

PEARL FUCHSIA

    

PEARL ORANGE

    

PEARL RED

    

PEARL TURQUOISE

    

PEARL VIOLET

    

PEARL GREEN

    

PEARL YELLOW

For more information on where to purchase Entity products, you can visit their website and locate a distributor and/or salon in your area. You can also visit their facebook page for all their latest news and announcements. If you’re interested in purchasing these polishes online, you can find them at  Trans Design.

So tell me: what do you think?

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

Précision Color FX Collection

Posted on by Cynthia

Last week I stumbled upon a full display of Précision polishes that were on sale. They had me at sale. I ended up picking up the Color FX collection from 2010 and I finally got around to swatching them today. I really liked these colors, but I do think that the formula is a little sheer. I used 3 coats for all of these swatches. I would say that 4 out of the 6 colors could have gotten away with 2 thickish coats but Honey Dew This and Wait A Melon For Me needed those three coats badly. I didn’t have any problems with the brush; it was flexible and easy to manipulate. I had practically no clean up! I’ve provided two pictures of each polish: one in direct sunlight and one in the shade.

    

PINK WITH A WINK

    

HONEY DEW THIS

    

THE NEXT “IT” GIRL

    

WAIT A MELON FOR ME

    

SURFIN’ IN MALIBLUE

    

PUR-FECT FX

So what do you think of these colors? I actually think they are really pretty. I probably would have found them a little more original a few years ago when they came out because I wasn’t such a hardcore polish fiend back then. Nowadays, it seems like we get the same colors over and over again every season. Maybe that’s why when something somewhat different comes out, we all go bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S! I am definitely going to keep up with Précision collections going forward because I think their nail polishes are of good quality and are very affordable. They may not be easily found in your area in retail locations, but you can purchase them online at their website but you may also be able to find them for less at other polish etailers.

Thanks for visiting today and I’m sorry for being such an enabler; enabling means caring in my book.

Essence You Belong To Me

Posted on by Cynthia

I don’t know about you, but when you buy as much polish as your average nail polish fanatic, you are constantly on the lookout for sales. Just look at the great success of Nouveau Cheap! I love that blog because it fills me in on all the affordable cosmetics and drugstore sales. I know a lot of people stocked up on Sinful Colors despite the PR nightmare that ensued when they were caught using bloggers’ photos without their permission. Taking it one step further, they manipulated the images onto their models and incorrectly described the process of achieving the look. I find it rather tasteless on their part, and hope that they do right by the affected bloggers.

On my cheap polish quest, I found myself at Ulta a couple of times this week…and by a couple I mean I visited 3 Ultas in my area trying to find good deals. I had noticed that Essence polishes were being put on clearance and that the images of their bottles were different on the website so I figured they were trying to get rid of old stock. Well, tickle me cheap…I was all over that. I ended up purchasing all the colors I could get my hands on and they ended up being around $.79 each. Score! Today I found a few Zoyas on clearance including one of the flaky topcoats, Chloe. Woot! Major score. One of the polishes I purchased today is You Belong To Me which I decided to wear as soon as I got home.

    

While it’s not very noticeable in the bottle nor in my pictures, You Belong To Me has the faintest shimmer which makes it look so beautiful. The formula was ok…not really problematic but I needed a third coat to smooth it out.

    

I really like how delicate my nails look with this stamp design. I used BM 314 and my favorite WNW Silver for stamping called I Can’t Stand Up Straight. Does anyone have any recommendations for a cheap silver that stamps really well? Upon closer inspection, I think this design looks arachnid-like and it’s kind of freaking me out.

I was feeling really lazy tonight so I didn’t feel like cooking dinner. Instead, I made my special tuna sandwich: tuna, mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, swiss cheese and slices of hard-boiled egg. Egg?!? Yes, egg. You have no idea how delicious it tastes. The creaminess and richness of the egg adds a whole new level of yumminess to this sandwich.

I don’t even know how many times I’ve talked about The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo on this blog, but I’m going to do it again because I have a major girl crush on Noomi Rapace. She is such a crazy badass in these movies. If you have Netflix, the full Swedish trilogy is online and it has like 2 extra hours of content that was edited out when they were released in the US. And yes, I’ve been watching the movies all over again. lol

I hope you’ve had a good and relaxing Saturday! Thanks for the visit and let me know what you think of my “spider nails.” hehehe

P.S. Do you have a preference for the picture size on my blog? I’ve made the images smaller for this post instead of using the full-sized images. What do you think?

Barielle – First Impressions

Posted on by Cynthia

Barielle is not a brand that I’ve ever had easy access to so it’s not a big surprise that I hadn’t used any of their products yet. When I stopped at TJ Maxx the other day to scope out their cosmetics section hoping to find some Deborah Lippmanns (is this just an urban legend??), I was pleasantly surprised to find a bunch of Barielle sets so I didn’t hesitate a second and bought one. Out of all the sets I saw, these dark vampy colors seemed the most interesting especially because I spotted a few cremes in the set and we all know how I feel about cremes.

 

REMEMBER ME

 

FRIDAY NITE PARTI

 

BLACK ROSE

 

MYSTERY WOMAN

 

HIDDEN HIDEAWAY

I really do like these colors especially Hidden Hideaway and Mystery Woman because of that beautiful lit-from-within shimmer. I think that Remember Me and Friday Nite Parti are way too similar to be together in a set, but both colors are nice. Remember Me was probably the only one I didn’t appreciate as far as the formula is concerned. It seemed really sheer despite how dark the color is. You can see in my pictures that it looks somewhat streaky and uneven which I did not notice until I uploaded the pictures.  In case you’re interested, I got this set for $9.99 so check out your TJ Maxx. They had tons of these and other sets. I know stock varies from store to store but I think these are worth a look.

And for my food chronicles, today I decided to make some chicken strips and Rice-a-Roni. I had seriously been craving potato salad, but I didn’t want to spend a lot of time to make such a small amount so I bought a little side container of it from Sprouts. I love Sprouts!

I’m getting really pumped for some interviews next week so I have to do some boring nail look…can’t go in there with some sparkly stamped up nails…or maybe I can! I am happy to report that I have seen some slight nail growth and that makes me really happy. I ordered the latest MASH plates today because I found a 20% off code online which made them around $11 and they ship for free! I hope that by the time they get here, my nails won’t be so crazy short anymore so I can really try out my new plates!

I hope you have a lovely weekend and thanks for the visit.

Nail Mail!

Posted on by Cynthia

I feel like I haven’t done my nails in eons. Really, eons. Ever since I went chop crazy and cut my nails down to the nub, I haven’t really bothered doing my nails except for a half-assed attempt on Saturday which I promptly removed. As a little reminder, this is how painfully short my nails are right now:

Well, today I received something in the mail. Oh yes, dear readers, my liquid gold arrived!

The lovely Sabrina from Polish In Paris, recently went on vacay to London and she was sweet enough to get me a bottle of Max Factor Fantasy Fire. I know I will never get my hands on Clarins 230 so this is the closest I will get. Since my nails are still so short, I didn’t want to use any of my Fantasy Fire, but I couldn’t resist at least trying out the other polish she sent me: Essence Blue Addicted. For those of you who recognize this polish right away, yes it is a dupe for Deborah Lippmann Across The Universe. The base of this polish is pretty sheer so I knew that I would have to find a color to use as a base for this glitter gem.

So what color did I pick? Wet N Wild Blue Moon!

Pretty, right? Oh boy…look how short my nails still are. Yes, they still hurt and no, I won’t be doing this again.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I love this. Shut up. I know it’s glitter. One thing I have to mention about the formula of this polish is that it is beyond goopy. I tried it on a nail wheel before I did this mani and it was really bad. It was patchy and goopy at the same time so I knew I would have to bust out the Seche Restore. A couple of drops fixed this right up and it was a lot more pleasant to work with. Either way, it’s worth the effort because I love the end result.

I also wanted to share the cutest card and drawing that she included in my package:

Sabrina’s little sister does the cutest drawings for her and you can see some of her other work here and here. How freaking adorable, right?

I hope my nails grow quickly so I can finally try my Fantasy Fire. What base color do you recommend to use under FF?

 

Merci Sabrina pour les beaux vernis et remercie ta sœur de ma part pour le dessin. Elle est vraiment douée! Je suppose que c’est ta soeur qui a fait le dessin! 😉

Under The Sea?

Posted on by Cynthia

Who doesn’t love the little Mermaid? I was so in love with this movie when I was a kid and I still love the music from it. Disney animated movies seriously have the best songs. Anyway, the reason why I was reminded of this song is because the following nail color and stamp combination kind of reminded me of bubbles under the ocean. Maybe you won’t see it, but I totally feel a bubbly aquatic vibe from them.

I started with Sation Miss McTeal as my base color.

What a beautiful color, right?  Then I stamped over it, albeit sloppily.

I like how this looks but I wish the stamping was crisper. What’s the point in having the special Konad polishes if my stamping is still going to look blurry? Ugh! I did this mani about a week ago so I feel like I’m past my stamping low, and I finally got my mojo back.

Earlier in the week I cut my nails down to the nub. In fact, I over cut them in the sense that they actually hurt. There is no white part showing on my nails and they are freaking painful. I don’t know why I did that…it was a moment of short nails frenzy. That means that I haven’t done my nails for most of this week now and I’m ok with that since I’m still trying to nurse my shorties back to health. I do NOT recommend doing this; I doubt anyone is dumb enough except me. Oh, here is a funny story: One time my mom and dad got into an argument (my parents only have two volume settings: loud and LOUDER) so my dad was angry and he had one too many beers that evening. Later that night my mom cut his toe nails as short as she possibly could. I don’t know how she came up with this idea, but it was brilliant! The next day my dad couldn’t figure out why his toes hurt so much when he walked since he couldn’t remember anything happening the night before. My parents are crazy…and then they wonder why I am the way I am. I think my parents have such a unique relationship. They’ve been married 34 years and they fight/bicker every single second of the day yet they can’t live without each other. My dad has the most explosive temper on the planet (thanks Dad for passing that along to me!) and my mom is the queen of the naggers. Can you imagine what that’s like? When they come to visit, it is like they are a 24/7 live comedy show. It no longer bothers me because all I can do is laugh at their antics. Despite their “unique” relationship, they are the most loving parents anyone could ask for. 🙂

Before I forget, I wanted to show you how I finally organized my stamping plates. This was such a pain in the rear to get done. I had to put up little squares of contact liner to place inside each pocket so the plates don’t slide out. I’ve seen quite a few people do this and I thought it was a great idea!

How do you store your plates? Speaking about plates, I only have a bunch of Konad plates and the newest Bundle Monster plates so I was wondering if anyone has any other plate recommendations. Let me know! I’d love to hear about your favorite plates.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

P.S. Don’t forget to enter my giveaway for a second chance to win the WnW Saved By The Bell nail polish collection.

 

American Classic California Copper

Posted on by Cynthia

Never in a million years did I think I would actually like this color, but I do because it’s so rich and pretty! If you’ve read my previous posts about American Classic, you know that I am still trying to figure out where this phantom brand comes from. I haven’t given up, but I’ve just been too preoccupied with other things to really put in the time into making phone calls and such. Oh well…I choose to just enjoy the nail polish for now and worry about its origins later. The brush for this bottle was way wonky. Actually, it was the plastic stick that hold the brush that was deformed and somewhat bent. It didn’t really interfere with the application of the polish so it’s not a big deal.

Does this qualify as a frost? Normally I am not a big fan of frost finishes and rarely purchase them, but this one looked so different from anything else I own that I couldn’t resist. It almost makes me think of molten magma…I said almost, okay?

 

Here I used plate BM 313 with the black special polish. I have been a little annoyed lately because I have been messing up my stamping a lot. I don’t get it! I hate it when it gets all smudged. Since my nails aren’t too curved, I’m going to stop rolling the stamper and just stamp the crap out of my nail by just pressing down. Hopefully that works better.
It was so hot today. Ugh! My brother and I went to Red Robin for dinner (Yum!) and I got a grilled chicken caesar salad wrap…it was so good. I hadn’t had a wrap in a long time. and it really hit the spot.

 

The giveaway is ending in less than an hour…I can’t wait to see who will win. 🙂

OPI DS Signature

Posted on by Cynthia

What is it with the weather? It was so humid today that I didn’t even attempt to do anything with my hair despite the fact that I had to go grocery shopping. I am a brunette Annie today! I really want to let my hair grow out, but days like this make me want to cave and get my usual pixie/faux-hawk/pompadour cut.  Do you even know how easy it is to manipulate short hair? My hair is wavy and easily holds a curl with the right product or straightens out nicely if I put in the effort. However, my hair, in this humid weather, looks something like this:

     

Just shorter.  Ghaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Anyway, since the weather wasn’t cooperating I wasn’t feeling good at all so I did what I love to do when I’m feeling crap-o-licious: I cleaned and I did a few loads of laundry. I am a meticulous laundry folder (thank you Martha Stewart for teaching me how to fold fitted sheets properly!) so I had “fun” folding all my clothes, rolling up my underwear…yes, I have a system of rolling my panties and arrange them by categories I have devised. No, I won’t go into that because you might run away screaming.

Enough of my idiosyncrasies and on to the polish du jour!

Isn’t she purdy? The pictures above were taken in a light box so it was really hard to capture all the holo magic. Below, I took three more pictures in direct sunlight.

The last picture here is blurry because I felt you could see the holo a little better. The linear holo on this polish is nowhere near as crazy amazing as the Layla holos produce, but this is still really pretty. I wasn’t that into nail polish when the original OPI DS line came out so I never thought I’d own these  without having to pay crazy eBay prices (which I refuse to do). You can’t even imagine how psyched I was when I found a few bottles of these at one of my dusties. I got this one and DS Sapphire which I will be trying in the near future, but I can already tell that I will love it. After I purchased these, I went back and picked up two more bottles to use for a giveaway. 🙂 Since I’m so lucky to have such amazing dusty luck, I want to spread the luck and love!

How have things been in your corner of the world? I can barely wait for fall and not just for the nail polish collections. By the way, can you tell me what show “Jeannie Bad Perm Victim” appeared on? (Hint: Show within a Show…no, not Hamlet.)