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The Lacquer Ring – Green

Posted on 14 August, 2014 by Cynthia

I totally flaked out on getting this post up on time. Womp womp. Even worse, this was my month to choose the color and theme…triple womp. I really have to learn to schedule things better because I keep falling behind on so much stuff. I’ve been trying to swatch the last Zoya collection for like 2 weeks now and something always comes up that derails my plans. I finally got a chance to swatch the whole collection last night while I was watching So You Think You Can Dance. I was really impressed with the whole Michael Jackson theme—did you happen to watch it? Anyway, this month I chose green as my color. I love green nail polish so much! I know I say that about pretty much every color when it comes to nail polish (except maybe orange and gold), but I just love how green nails look…unless they’re green because of fungal growth, but I digress… It was difficult to pick one green polish, so I ended up using two of them, but I did go with my #1 favorite green: Color Club Holiday Splendor.

Holy crap, this is a gorgeous polish. It has such an amazing holo sparkle that gives it incredible depth. I’m completely in love with it! If you want a sheer jelly finish, you can get away with one coat. I prefer to apply two coats so that it’s fully opaque. You should see this baby out in the sun! It sparkles like a mofo. It is a little bit of a pain to remove but totally worth it. I’d also like to mention that it dries to a minor rough finish so load up on your top coat if you want a super smooth finish.

I received some of these decals/nail vinyls from KBShimmer (press sample), and I finally got around to using them. They’re pretty much idiot-proof which is why I was able to use them without much trouble.

This is the first time that I do chevrons like this and I quite enjoy the loo. The pretty creamy green that you see here is nails inc. Queen Victoria Street. I love this green as well!

So what do you think of these dreamy greens? I am super happy with these two gorgeous colors and how they turned out. Don’t forget to check out the other manis presented to you by the other ladies of The Lacquer Ring!

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The Lacquer Ring – Geometric

Posted on 1 August, 2014 by Cynthia

Aww man, I feel like such a loser. After postponing this post last week, I still managed to post this late. I sort of have an excuse because I had a really stressful day, and I just didn’t have it in me to write up this post. I’m sorry for being a total flake for my fellow ladies in The Lacquer Ring. I promise I won’t be a flake this month. Can you believe it’s August already? WTF? Where did time go? Where have all the cowboys gone? Anyway, the theme we were working with is geometric. I have to admit I suck big time at freehanding anything especially when it has to be precise so I knew I had to do some stamping. Let me show you what I did.

I started with my two favorite polishes from the OPI Nordic Collection: OPI My Dogsled Is A Hybrid (press sample) and OPI Suzi Has A Swede Tooth (press sample). These are such gorgeous colors and the apply like butta.

Since I’m newly obsessed with China Glaze Fairy Dust (press sample), I applied one coat to really get this to sparkle.

I picked out a design I’ve used before from my MoYou London Pro Collection 18 plate(press sample.)

So what do you think about this end design? I’m happy with it because it is geometric and I love the colors.

I’m cutting this short because I am soooo running late right now to meet up with one of my besties. We have a lot to catch up on! Don’t forget to stop by tomorrow for Stamping Saturdays. I have tons of ideas right now and I just hope that I can execute them.

Talk to you later!

The Lacquer Ring – Chartreuse

Posted on 10 July, 20149 July, 2014 by Cynthia

Since I was such a turd and missed out on the last The Lacquer Ring prompt, I got my manicure done early for today’s post but I still waited until the last possible second to edit my pictures and actually write my post. Will I ever learn? I am such a procrastinator and then I have to rush to get things done on the fly. I hate this trait of mine, but I don’t see it changing like…ever. Anyway, Jessica chose chartreuse as our color prompt today so I had to think hard about what polish I wanted to use. Then I remembered this gorgeous color from the Nicole by OPI Tinkerbell collection which is what I have for you today.

Nicole by OPI Sweet on Pete is exactly the color I think of when I hear he word chartreuse. I wish the formula was a bit better because it was so streaky after the first coat. I ended up applying three thin coats for the final result here. It’s a very unique color in my collection.

And then I used the glitters from Nicole by OPI Be Awesome to create some funky flowers. Applying this glitter was such a pain in the ass but I really like how this looks. It looks sort of like funky flowers and kind of like ninja stars. Ninja Gaiden nails!!!

So what do you think about both the color and my glitter mani? Are you a fan of unique colors such as this or is it just too bold and out there for you? Don’t forget to check out the other chartreuse looks from my fellow ladies who make up The Lacquer Ring. Thanks so much for the visit, and I will talk to you soon!

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The Lacquer Ring – Pink Holo

Posted on 12 June, 201411 June, 2014 by Cynthia

Hey, look! The Lacquer Ring is back! It feels like it’s been forever since we posted, and I’m still confused about the success of my Cherry Blossom nails. I ended up liking them but I wasn’t thinking they were anything special…and then they ended up on StumbleUpon and they got over 25,000 views on imgur. What the heck?! For real, yo. Anyway, today Amanda has chosen her color: Pink (holo or neon). Uhm, thanks Amanda for choosing my color of the moment! Of course I had to go holo so I ended up using Jade Déjà Vu.

Gorgeous, right? I’ve used this polish a couple of time already in recent times so you know it’s a favorite considering the amount of polish I have. Then I decided to stamp over it for shits and giggles.

This is plate MoYou London Pro Collection 18 (press sample). I think I’ve used half of the images on this plate so far. Love them all!

I went with this image because it doesn’t completely hide the beautiful polish. I’m not going to lie: I like this a lot. What do you think?

Forgive my sporadic posting lately. I’ve still been trying to get use to my new job so sometimes I am just mentally exhausted by the time I get home. Even though I haven’t been posting every day, I have been doing my nails and wearing my favorite polishes. I wore OPI DS Pewter for 2 days!!! Omg…one polish for 2 days. That’s unheard of for me and my swatching ways. It’s nice to take a break once in a while. I hope you liked my pink holo creation and don’t forget to check out the other posts below. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

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The Lacquer Ring – Cherry Blossoms

Posted on 22 May, 201421 May, 2014 by Cynthia

After my orange debacle, I was sure that I was going to crash and burn on today’s challenge. Let me tell you that I am not one of those people who can do awesome freehand nail designs–there is a reason why I love stamping so much! I can admire the amazing skills that other ladies have when it comes to nail art, but I just don’t like it on my own nails because I want crisp lines and geometric patterns. I had to suck it up for this post because Nicole chose Cherry Blossoms as her second prompt for the month of May. You want to know what I kept thinking about? Ken Watanabe.

I kind of love him. Not as much as my childhood crushes, but he’s up there. I really like The Last Samurai even though I strongly dislike Tom Cruise. Rather, I strongly dislike Tom Cruise’s public persona and the whole Scientology thing but to each his own. Anyway, I kept thinking about what to do for this manicure so I took out some polishes to get started.

Here you see Nicole by OPI At Least I Pink So, Nicole by OPI Promises After Dark and OPI Minnie Style (all press samples). I also needed a nail art brush to draw the branches.

To start with, I applied 2 smooth coats of Nicole by OPI At Least I Pink So which is a delicate and creamy baby pink.

I then used Nicole by OPI Promises In The Dark and my nail art brush to draw some tree branches. I feel that they look super sloppy. Grrrr!

Finally I used the glitters in OPI Minnie Style to create the cherry blossoms. This was not very time consuming and I think it gives the whole mani a little bling factor. Maybe it’s a little tacky but I can be a little tacky with my manicures sometimes so who cares?

So what do you think? Be honest! I don’t totally hate it, but I’m not super happy with it either. To be honest, this was my second attempt. The first time, I used a base color that just looked awful so I removed everything and started all over again. I almost gave up completely, but I’m glad that I kept going because this is all about challenging myself. So, thanks Nicole for picking a design that I had never attempted before. Make sure that you check out the other Cherry Blossom manis from the other members of The Lacquer Ring. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I hope you have a great Thursday!

GIVEAWAY REMINDER

There is about a week left! Have you entered my giveaway to win a full size 4 piece set of the OPI Sheer Tints? Click on the image below to go to the giveaway post. Good luck!

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The Lacquer Ring – Orange

Posted on 8 May, 20148 May, 2014 by Cynthia

Who would have thought that orange would become my mortal enemy in the span of one day? I remember how excited I was when Tangerine Tango was the Pantone Color of the Year, and I reveled in wearing every single orange polish that Summer and was in love with all of them. Today–not so much. For our very first “official” post, Nicole chose the color Orange and little did I know that this would become the day I officially swore off orange…at least until the next awesome orange polish comes around because we all know what that is like. Before I tell you all about my fails and flails, let me show you the mani I ended up choosing at the least hideous of the bunch.

This is NARS Ethno Run Left–a yellow orange that is super bright and squishy looking. I quite like this color, but it’s a beotch to photograph.

I then had to sparkle it up so I applied one coat of Shimmer Polish Alice to really make the polish shine. I love this glitter so much!

And because I can never leave well enough alone, I used Bourjois Grenadine Tonic to make a jelly sandwich. The bright red orange tint of this polish intensified the orange base color so I kind of liked the end result. It’s super bright, and I can tell you that it looks fantastic out in sunlight.

Now for the ones that didn’t quite make it…the first two are swatches so it’s not like there is anything wrong with them, it’s what happened to them after they were swatched that became the problem.

Bettina Orange

Jessica Sun-kissed Beauty

As I said, the previous two polishes were nice enough, but this is where things started going downhill…very quickly.

Fail #1 was this sloppy and gross water marble. Seriously. It’s disgusting and you can’t even imagine how long it took me do create this monstrosity. I hate it so hard.

Fail #2 was even more difficult to deal with because it took even longer to create than the sloppy water marble. I don’t know what I was thinking, but this looks disgusting too. My nail mojo was off today. Big time. After those two fugly bombs, I was ready to give up…

Puck knows how I was feeling for sure. I am just glad that I was able to put something together that didn’t make me want to stab my eyes out with a glass nail file. The next challenge will be cherry blossoms which I know is going to destroy me since I suck at freehand designs. I kind of hate Nicole right now…lol (I kid! I kid!) Make sure that you check out the other orange inspired looks from the other ladies. Thanks so much for stopping by today and checking in with The Lacquer Ring! I’ll talk to you soon.

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The Lacquer Ring – Unicorns Unite!

Posted on 24 April, 201424 April, 2014 by Cynthia

I almost didn’t get this post done, which would have been unfortunate because this is the inaugural post of…

What is this Lacquer Ring I speak of? Well, it’s a group of crazy polish chicks who spend way too much time emailing each other all day long about polish, life, woes and more polish. While we haven’t all technically met in person (except for me and Lesley and Amy and Frosso), we are pretty good friends and hope that we can all meet one day. Unfortunately, the universe will end that day because that much awesomeness is not allowed all in one place. While you may already know the ladies who make up The Lacquer Ring, let me introduce them all:

Amanda from Mae’s Beauty

Amy from The Fancy Side

Frosso from Lacquer Me Silly

Jessica from Once Upon A Polish

Lesley from IG @MisfitLesley

Nicole from Polish Me, Please!

Siobhan from For The Love Of Nail Art

Now that you know who will be participating in The Lacquer Ring, let me tell you that we will be posting twice a month and each month, one of us will be determining the two challenges for the rest of the group. For our very first post, we will all be using a special polish that Nicole got as a gift for all of us: Candy Lacquer Unicorn Bubbles. Let me show you what I did with this awesome glitter topper!

I started with two creamy and delicious coats of Jessica Sharktooth (press sample). I’ve mentioned how much I love this polish many times because it is an amazing white polish.

I then used my OPI Sheer Tints (press sample) to create this watercolor design. Ever since I saw The Polish-Aholic’s post about this, I knew I had to do it. You can read more about it here. I should have used thinner coats of the Sheer Tints because I got some bubbling, but I decided to let it go since I was planning to put on a glitter topper anyway.

This is my very first Candy Lacquer, and I was quite happy with it. I love circle glitter so this is right up my alley. Like most glitter toppers, using the dabbing method will give you the best results. I ended up fishing the glitter out with a dotting tool because I was getting a lot of bubbling from the thick base. Although the base is clear, it does have some holographic micro glitter that kicks it up a notch.

Lately I have been obsessed with making everything matte, so I pulled out my OPI Matte Top Coat (press sample) and mattified my whole mani. I don’t know how you feel about the end result, but I absolutely love it. OPI’s Matte Top Coat has become my favorite amongst many others so I highly recommend it.

Currently I’m working through a lot of unpleasant stuff so excuse me if I’m not around as much. I had mentioned that I may not post as regularly for the time being, but I couldn’t miss out on the first post of The Lacquer Ring. Thank you so much for continuing to stop by despite my irregular posting. We were not very organized for our first post, so they will be trickling in as everyone gets a chance to publish. Some are already up, so make sure that you check them out below. Thank you so much for stopping by today, and I hope that you will join us for the next The Lacquer Ring post.

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