The Beauty Buffs Archives - Of Life and Lacquer

Category: The Beauty Buffs

Of Life and Lacquer > The Beauty Buffs

The Beauty Buffs – Pink

Posted on 15 April, 201514 April, 2015 by Cynthia

Hey there! Did you think I was going to disappear again? Well, I have been extremely lazy as of late so I’m really trying to get my butt in gear. Today I’m posting with my fellow bloggers from The Beauty Buffs and our posts are all about pink today. Have I told you how much I love pink polish? I never thought of myself as a pink lover, but I just think that the color puts me in a brighter mood…especially hot pinks. The other day I was at Rite-Aid and I saw that they were selling the Revlon Parfumerie polishes for $1.49! I never picked any of them up when everyone was going gaga over them, so I couldn’t resist picking one of them to try out which is how I ended up with African Tea Rose.

First of all, the color is pretty gorgeous. The formula was ok–it seemed kind of patchy so I applied 3 coats. I really loved the tea rose scent that this polish gave off once it started to dry, but it pretty much went away once I top coated it. Womp womp.

I then applied 1 coat of Candy Lacquer Unicorn Bubbles just because I wanted to unicorn up my mani. What? It’s a verb, ok? I don’t use this fun glitter topper enough so I’ll be sure to put it in my regular rotation–as if that really exists. Once you have “a few thousand” polishes, there is no regular rotation. I feel like such a hoarder.

So what do you think of this mani? I hope that you like it because it just put me in a fun and sunny mood. Don’t forget to check out the other manis below for more pink overload. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Loading InLinkz ...

The Beauty Buffs – Gold vs. Silver

Posted on 17 December, 201416 December, 2014 by Cynthia

I’ve got to admit that today’s The Beauty Buffs prompt was really hard for me because I hate anything metallic looking. I almost never wear jewelry, but when I do, I make sure that it’s either silver or white gold. I hate yellow gold with a passion and this extends to nails as well so I had to seriously ponder what I wanted to do today. Well, I decided to go with something a little boring, but I did use two great polishes that I never thought I would like until I got my hands on them. Let me show you what I did.

OPI This Gown Needs a Crown (press sample) and OPI Love.Angel.Music.Baby (press sample) are two of my favorite polishes of the year. I think that the beautiful satin finish is what totally made these polishes stand out. I alternated the two polishes on my nails for that added contrast.

I did some dots just to create further contrast, and I did end up liking the end result. A few people actually commented on my nails when I was out and about. Either they were confused as to why I only had one hand done or they really liked them…let’s just pretend they loved them, ok?

Don’t forget to check out the posts of my fellow Beauty Buffs below. What are some colors that you don’t like for your nails? Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Loading InLinkz ...

The Beauty Buffs – Metallic

Posted on 19 November, 201419 November, 2014 by Cynthia

I’ll be the first one to tell you that I am not really excited by metallics. I have never been a fan of metallic nail polishes, but when I got China Glaze I’d Melt For You (press sample) I knew that it would be perfect for this prompt. Today The Beauty Buffs bring you everything metallic. Of course I am showing you a metallic–or chrome–polish because this is a nail blog, after all…at least I think it is. Let me show you the polish before I get into the finer details.

First off, I would like to explain that my nails look weird because I did some damage to my nail beds with some overzealous buffing and filing a few weeks ago. I accidentally made some grooves on the sides of my nails so now they look kind of warped. It’s not normally this noticeable, but this polish is a metallic/chrome which means that it shows EVER SINGLE IMPERFECTION on you nails. In retrospect, this probably wasn’t the best polish choice but hey–my nails aren’t perfect and here is the proof. China Glaze I’d Melt For You (press sample) is one of the polishes from the Twinkle Holiday Collection that I will be reviewing soon. It’s a very opaque silver chrome

In order to jazz this up, I used a design from a new plate that I bought from Born Pretty. The design comes from plate BP-13. No you can really see how badly damaged my nail is because the stamp didn’t even transfer there. Boo! I am not going to buff it anymore and hopefully it will just grow out.

I should have had this post up early this morning but I was so tired last night that I literally passed out with my computer open on my bed. I woke up like 30 minutes late and barely got to work on time this morning–womp, womp. I was super happy to read your guys’ comments when I got home today so that made me want to post again and again and again. I have a few new collections to swatch so that’s going to keep me busy this weekend. Additionally, I have like 5 days off for Thanksgiving so that will give me a bunch of time to do nail stuff. I’m excited about that.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by today and don’t forget to check out all of the posts from my fellow Beauty Buffs below. Talk to you soon!

Loading InLinkz ...

The Beauty Buffs – Black and White

Posted on 13 August, 201412 August, 2014 by Cynthia

It’s Wednesday which means that we are halfway through the workweek! I don’t know about you, but I practically live for my weekends, and I start getting excited as soon as Thursday rolls around. Is that pathetic? Why can’t I just be independently wealthy and not have to work at all? At the same time, would I enjoy my weekends as much if I didn’t have to trudge through a workweek? Hmmm…Anyway, today I am back with The Beauty Buffs for a black and white mani. I love using black and white on my nails, so it took me for-eva to decide what I wanted to do. Well, let me show you what I ended up doing.

I started out with a gradient using Jessica Sharktooth (press sample), Jessica Velvet & Pearls (press sample) and Cuccio Colour Soaked In Seattle. I fidgeted with this forever because I could not get a smooth enough gradient for the life of me.

I was going to try a reverse gradient stamp over this gradient, but I had already spent so much time on the base that I was just DONE! So I took out my bottle of Nubar Black Polka Dot and applied one coat. I was actually super happy about the way this turned out.

What do you think about this mani? Is it too loud and flashy or is this something that you would wear? Well, I hope that you are having a nice week, and don’t forget to check out the other black and white manis from my fellow Beauty Buffs. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Loading InLinkz ...

The Beauty Buffs – Nautical

Posted on 30 July, 201429 July, 2014 by Cynthia

After hiatus, I am back with a new post with my fellow Beauty Buffs! To be honest, I have been feeling kind of blah about blogging lately. It’s not that I’ve stopped loving nail polish, it’s just that it became like a chore for me. Once I took a step back and relaxed my posting schedule, I fell a lot better and I actually started looking forward to posting again. Although my posting has been sporadic at best, I think I am starting to find a happy medium and hope to have a more regular posting schedule starting in August. So are you ready to see what The Beauty Buffs have for you today? Yep, nautical inspired nails! Well, the theme was nautical and/or beachy so I went with Nautical. Let’s take a look.

I used three polishes from the Salon Perfect Paint The Town Red, White and Blue Collection: Paint The Town Red, Salon Perfect Blue Ribbon, Salon Perfect Sugar Cube. I also used some striping tape to help me create some stripes.

At first I was only going to use red and white. Salon Perfect Paint The Town Red is such an awesome red crelly. It reminds me of my favorite red of all time: OPI Vodka & Caviar. It applied flawlessly with two coats. The white, however, was very streaky. I applied 2 thin coats and one thick 3rd coat to get Sugar Cube to look decent.

I decided to apply one coat of Blue Ribbon on my pointer finger over the white because I wanted a little more blue in my manicure. I then used striping tape for the lines on my pinky and pointer finger. Since I wanted to make the whole thing even more “nautical,” I stamped the anchors (CH 36) and wheels (CH 49) using my Cheeky plates and voilà!

What do you think of my little nautical interpretation? Don’t forget to check below for all the other nautical/beachy posts from my fellow Beauty Buffs. Thanks for stopping by today!

Loading InLinkz ...

The Beauty Buffs – Neon Everything

Posted on 4 June, 20145 June, 2014 by Cynthia

Hello everyone! We’re *almost* halfway through the week, and I’m already dreaming about the weekend. Today I am posting with my fellow bloggers who make up The Beauty Buffs and we are excited to bring you NEON EVERYTHING! I don’t know if you like neons as much as I do, but I just find that neons really scream summer and just make everything more fun. That’s not to say that I’ll go neon overboard, but neon nails are always a nice pop. I do have tons of neon polishes, but when I saw these pretty polishes the last time I was doing a quick polish run, I couldn’t resist picking them up.

Jade Hot Pink - Jade Mysterious Pleasure - Jade No Non-sense

To be honest, I had seen Jade Nail Lacquer many times, but I never paid much attention to them because they are super cheap–like $1 each. I should know better than to judge polish solely on price since I have some amazeballs Sinful Colors that perform better than $30 polishes. Anyway, these colors are, from left to right: Jade Hot Pink – Jade Mysterious Pleasure – Jade No Non-sense.

I wish my pictures showed how electric these colors are in real life. Most of the time my camera does a decent job with neons, but it just would not cooperate with these colors. This mani is just a little funky and I liked wearing it. The formula on these polishes was pretty nice. They did need 3 coats to be completely opaque but that’s not a big shocker considering they are full on neons. For $1 each, they are a steal.

Then I decided to pull out my two super favorite bright pink cosmetics…

Nars Desire is like bright cotton candy. You can’t imagine how easy it is to end up looking clownish if you go a little too heavy with this blush–but it’s gorgeous!!

And my favorite lipstick of the moment: Illamasqua Eurydice. It’s electric so I always wear very neutral make up except for the lips because otherwise I’ll look like a drag queen–not that there’s anything wrong with that, but that’s not the best work look. Actually, this is NOT a work lipstick. hahaha

And here are some swatches of those two products. I told you they were super bright!

Well, I hope that you take a moment to check out the other neon offerings below. Have a great day today, and I will talk to you later.

An InLinkz Link-up

The Beauty Buffs – Coral

Posted on 21 May, 201420 May, 2014 by Cynthia

I am finally getting into my old swatching and posting groove, so I am happy to once again be posting with my fellow Beauty Buffs! Today The Beauty Buffs will be bringing to you everything coral. I absolutely love coral–especially for the summer. Let’s take a look at the beautiful polish I have for you today.

I don’t know why I had Sation Drama Doll on my blog sale, because it is fan-freaking-tastic. Yep, not on the blog sale anymore! Drama Doll is an opaque pink-leaning coral that borders on neon which is why my camera had a hard time capturing the color. It is a bit more saturated than what my pictures show. The polish is a bit thick but it is very opaque and you have to apply a top coat if you want a shiny finish since this dries a bit satin-y.

I then applied one coat of Nailventurous A Dash Of Princess which was a gift from my lovely Jessica from Once Upon A Polish. I love this polish so much because it came from her stash and she knew how much I wanted it but was very hard to find at that point. I think it looks gorgeous over Drama Doll.

So what do you think about these two polishes? As much as I love coral, it’s a color that is more prevalent during the summer and we all know how I feel about the heat. Poo! Don’t miss out on some awesome posts by the rest of The Beauty Buffs so make sure that you check out the links below. Also, you can follows us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Thanks so much for visiting today, and I will talk to you soon!

Loading InLinkz ...

The Beauty Buffs – Royal Blue

Posted on 9 April, 20148 April, 2014 by Cynthia

Happy Wednesday everyone. I’m not going to call it hump day because it drives me up the wall when people say that, but hey: we are halfway through the workweek…yay! I’ve been uber-busy lately so it feels like time is flying and suddenly I find myself scrambling to get my post together for The Beauty Buffs. Today we are going to be showing you what’s crackalackin in the world of Royal Blue. I have 4 polishes to share with you as well as some eye shadows that I found in my make up stash. Let’s take a look at the polish first.

Color Club Bright Night – Essie Butler Please – Kiko Electric Blue – Nails Inc. Baker Street

The polishes are applied from left to right on my nails with the Color Club on my pointer and ending with the Nails Inc on my pinky. If you are not a polish psycho like me, you definitely don’t need ALL of these polishes since they end up looking fairly similar on the nail. Yes, there are some slight differences, but not enough to justify getting them all. However, if you are a blue lover like me…well, let’s just say they can be justified!

Now for the eye shadows: I have a ridiculous amount of make up as well so I looked through my palettes for some blue shadows. No, it’s not the 80’s as these are not frosty baby blues. While they may not all fit the royal blue mold, I think they are deliciously vibrant.

In Artificial Light

In Sunlight

These colors come from the Kat Von D Beethoven palette, the Smashbox Masquerade palette, the UD NYC BOS and the UD 15 Year Anniversary palette. These shadows are incredibly pigmented! I love these colors but I find them a little hard to wear. Normally I can pull off crazy colors because I’m very tan, but darker blues can look like bruising on my eyes. For example, the blue in the Masquerade palette tends to get a lot of fall-out, so I get crazy blue raccoon eyes. However, if you’re looking for awesome blue shadows, definitely check these out.

So what do you think about my royal blue choices? Do you have any other polish or shadow recommendations? Don’t forget to check out the posts by my fellow Beauty Buffs because they have so much great content to share with you. Thanks for the visit, and I will talk to you soon!

Loading InLinkz ...

The Beauty Buffs – Pastels

Posted on 26 March, 2014 by Cynthia

Hi everyone! Today I am super excited to be sharing my first post as part of The Beauty Buffs!

I have to tell you that my first scheduled post was a big fat fail. I finished up last night before going to bed, and I scheduled it to go live today at 5 am. You know what would have been helpful? if I actually clicked on the “schedule” button. Womp, womp! I didn’t even realize it didn’t publish until a few minutes ago that I got home from work. Hopefully the next time I will actually schedule it correctly. The Beauty Buffs is a group that was organized by the always fantastic Nory from Fierce Make Up And Nails. I’m really happy that she asked me to be a part of this group because I am getting to know some really wonderful ladies in the process. We will be posting bi-monthly on Wednesdays so I hope that you will visit us. For our very first post, we are focusing on pastels so you will be seeing some great posts from my fellow Beauty Buffs. I decided to re-swatch a collection that is the epitome of fun pastels: Jessica Gelato Mio! Don’t even get me started on how much I love every single polish in this collection. In fact, this is my favorite Jessica Collection of all time. Let’s take a look at my swatches below:

Jessica Lime Cooler

Jessica Strawberry Shake

Jessica Tangerine Dreamz

Jessica Banana Peel

Jessica Barely Blueberry

Jessica Surfer Boyz ‘n Berry

Before you even ask, I will tell you that the formula on all of these beauties is really fantastic. I was really surprised because similar colors always require a billion coats to even out and look good, but these applied like buttah. While this collection is from 2012, all the polishes are still readily available online so don’t fret! If you’re not familiar with Jessica, you’re going to want to give them a chance–I promise that you will fall in love!

So, let me know what you think of this collection. I hope that you love it as much as I do and that you will take a moment to check out some other fun pastel posts below. Thank you so much for stopping by today, and I will catch you on the flippity flip.

An InLinkz Link-up