Of Life and Lacquer

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

Posted on 21 October, 201224 October, 2012 by Cynthia

“Es tan corto el amor, y es tan largo el olvido.” – Pablo Neruda

That quotation comes from one of my favorite poems by the great Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda. It roughly translates to “Love is so short and forgetting is so long.” It is part of his work, Twenty Love Poems And A Song Of Despair which fed my soul through much heartache. A breakup can be such a traumatic event and today I am going to tell you about the breakup of a 13 year old relationship. Yes, you read correctly: 13 years!! Today I decided that my love affair with Sephora has come to an end. Why, you ask? Let me tell you…

I still remember the first time I saw the black and white signage for Sephora on the Champs-Elysées. I was a 20 year old student who had never left the confines of my cozy Southern California existence for an extended international experience. I instantly fell in love with Sephora. I loved everything about it. I especially loved how I was free to peruse without feeling like the salespeople were giving me the evil eye. Yes, everything you’ve heard about “customer service” in Paris is true. When my year abroad was up, I was sad to leave Sephora behind since I didn’t know if we had one anywhere near me back home. Soon after, I started a job that allowed me to travel a lot internationally so I never forgot Sephora and visited every time I was in France. Eventually I started ordering from them online and then a store opened up near me…I was in heaven. Since then, I have been an extremely loyal customer and always tell friends and family about the amazing products and service…until today. Over the last year, I have seen the perks and customer service decline and decline, the worst offenders being those responsible for the moderation of the Sephora Facebook page.

If you’ve never visited the Sephora Facebook page, consider yourself lucky as it is usually quite a mess. If you ever post anything that isn’t completely praising them, they will usually either delete or filter out your comment so no one else can see it. It doesn’t matter how politely you state your issue, feedback or question—if it’s not praise, chances are that it might get censored. This recently became very personal when a friend of mine was BANNED from their Facebook page for asking for help when no one was really making an effort to solve her problems in private message conversations, emails and phone calls. Not only did they pretty much continue to ignore her request for help in solving her customer service problems, but they also made her feel like she didn’t matter. That is not cool with me at all.

In the last year, I have noticed a steep decline in perks for VIB’s as well. VIB (Very Important BeautyInsider) is a level you reach in their BeautyInsider program once you spend $350 in one calendar year which means that you spend a decent amount of money at Sephora. Anyone who is a VIB can tell you that we spend enough money at Sephora to become VIB’s a few times over each year. This year, they created quite a stir by NOT offering their Friends & Family Sale discount to the public. Before you say that we shouldn’t feel entitled to a discount, I feel that if they had communicated this properly to their customers, many of us would have purchased directly from all the other brands that recently had their Friends & Family Sales that were open to EVERYONE. Many of us waited because we wanted to purchase from Sephora and instead we are now being given the boot. Let me make this clear: I don’t think Sephora owes us any kind of perk, but it is obvious that offering perks benefits them in the end. If you are a VIB, there will be a 20% off sale in November, but that is a whole separate thing from the F&F sale, and most people won’t be able to take advantage of it anyway. And don’t get me started on the joke that was the spin to win game…

Am I saying I will never again shop at Sephora? No. I am saying that because of their hit or miss customer service, the ridiculous handling of their Facebook page and the lack of communication with their loyal customers, I won’t be recommending Sephora to others nor will I purchase anything from them that I can easily get somewhere else. I’m sad that it had to come to this, but it’s time for me to find another main squeeze that will truly appreciate my business.

So, in order to commemorate a love affair gone wrong, I am having a Sephora breakup giveaway. Up for grabs are three sets of some of my favorite nail polishes:

Prize #1 Jessica Pumpkin Delight, Jessica Cinnamon Kiss & OPI On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

Prize #2 Sation Oh My Oceania!, Sation Rock-a-Guy Blue & Sation Power To The Purple

Prize #3 essence Fame Fatal, essence Gorgeous Bling Bling & essence Chic Reloaded

All polishes are brand new and purchased by me. This giveaway is open worldwide.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Again, I am not telling you to never shop at Sephora again. What I am saying is that Sephora no longer holds a place of esteem for me. These are my personal feelings stemming from what I have seen from the company lately. I have had many pleasant experiences with Sephora over the years so it is truly disheartening to see their customer service and overall attitude circle the drain. Feel free to leave comments below–whether you agree or disagree. I won’t be censoring comments. 😉

When there are so many choices out there for us, you would think that a company like Sephora would make customer service and satisfaction a top priority, but I guess we—the customers—aren’t as important as we thought we were. Thank you, Sephora, for the wonderful years. Too bad it had to end this way.

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 14 : Saran Wrap Manicure

Posted on 19 October, 2012 by Cynthia

As usual, I am waiting until the last possible second to complete my manicure for today’s challenge. I had good intentions of getting it done very early, but I completely forgot that I was getting some windows replaced in my place so I got wrapped up in moving stuff. In fact, I had to move my bed which weighs about a ton. The mattress alone weighs more than a hippo so I am glad my brother helped me. While the guys were replacing the windows in both bedrooms–and walking around my cream colored carpet with their dirty shoes!!–I started watching The Walking Dead on Netflix. Wowsa that show is good! Anyway, in the middle of all that the mailman came and I got some awesome polish.

Aren’t these amazing?!?!?! Thank you, Sabrina! Since I was having a hard time deciding what polishes to use for my saran wrap manicure, I immediately zeroed in on two Kikos.

For my base color, I used Kiko Periwinkle Violet #337.

This polish is perfection in a bottle. It is creamy, opaque in 2 coats and dries SUPER CRAZY shinny. I really like the Kiko brush so I had very minor clean up to do.

For the saran wrap part, I was a little scared because I have never tried this method before and I didn’t want to ruin my beautiful mani with a crappy saran wrap job. lol Well, I headed over to Nicole‘s blog and copied her tutorial.

I used Kiko Cerulean Blue #295 and a ball of saran wrap to apply the color over Periwinkle Violet. I absolutely adore how this turned out because it is super subtle, and I love how the two colors compliment each other.

So what do you think of my saran wrap manicure? Have you tried this before? I have seen two methods: one where you pick up the color with the saran wrap and them apply it on your nails and the other where you apply the second color directly on the nail and use the saran wrap ball to pick up some of the wet polish. I wonder if one works better than the other. If you have tried both, let me know which method you prefer.

Thanks for visiting today and don’t forget to check out the manicures created by the other challenge participants.

Nicole – Polish Me, Please!

Jessica – Once Upon A Polish

Ave – Polish Pixelle

Alaina – The Little Canvas

OPI Tickle My France-y & We’ll Always Have Paris

Posted on 17 October, 201216 October, 2012 by Cynthia

I am just about ready to give up on doing gradient manicures. I just don’t understand why I have such a hard time with them! I’ve tried just about a million tips that other nail gurus have offered, but my gradients just keep coming out harsh and choppy–never smooth and beautiful. My nails for the challenge yesterday, which you can see here, are a perfect example of how my gradients always turn out. I love the colors that I used, but that weird and uneven gradient totally killed it. So in order to make up for that, I picked a Fall color and lovely nude to work with: OPI Ticke My France-y and OPI We’ll Always have Paris–both from the Collection de France. I seriously love that whole collection.

Tickle My France-y is perfection. It’s such a gorgeous pinky nude that is opaque and easy to work with and doesn’t need a billion coats: I only needed two. Since I kind of failed on my previous tape manicure, I decided to try it again WITHOUT the gradient.

After I applied the stripping tape, I then painted over my whole nails with OPI We’ll Always Have Paris. I know this is a fairly common manicure but it’s only the second time I use stripping tape this way. If you’ve never tried this, just make sure that you do one nail at a time because otherwise the top layer of polish will dry and you will have a serious mess on your hands–literally!

So, you tell me: did redeem myself from yesterday’s gradient disasticure? Thanks for catching up with my crazy nail adventures–talk to you soon.

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 13: Tape Manicure

Posted on 16 October, 2012 by Cynthia

I literally just finished my tape manicure…just a little late. I have been late with everything lately which is super annoying. I’ve been lacking a lot of inspiration when it comes to my manicures or anything in general, actually. I hope it’s just temporary! So anyway, here is my tape manicure for today’s challenge:

I don’t think that I have used You Belong To Me since the first time I swatched it, and my only question is: WHAT WAS I WAITING FOR??? I really love this color especially because it has this really beautiful hidden shimmer. These pictures make the color look more blue when in real life it has more of a green tone to it. The formula was ok–a little thick but nothing a few drops of thinner can’t fix.

I hope that the following qualifies as a tape manicure? I mean, I did use stripping tape…

I used a sponge to apply Choose Me! over You Belong To Me and the stripping tape I applied in a crisscross pattern.

Sorry, I couldn’t help it. This song was huge when I was in 6th/7th grade and I remember everyone wearing their jeans and sweatshirts backwards. I tried to join in on this fad until my mom made me change and told me to stop acting like a fool. Ahhh…I love my mom. hahaha.

So back to the final mani: I still hate my sponging but I do like the colors. Again, the pictures make everything look more blue than green. Choose Me! is such a pretty polish which is a dupe of OPI Catch Me In Your Net/Zoya Charla/Orly Halley’s Comet/WNW Teal Of Fortune/Sinful Colors Kissy so it is definitely more green than these pictures makes it out to be. The beautiful shimmery flecks make this polish a favorite of mine…along with the other dupes as well.

So, let me know what you think of my tape manicure. Don’t forget to check out the other challenge submissions below as well. Thanks for stopping by–catch up with you later!

Come See Who Won My Giveaway: WNW Fantasy Makers

Posted on 14 October, 2012 by Cynthia

I would like to thank everyone who enthusiastically entered the giveaway for 2 sets of the the Wet N Wild Fantasy Makers Halloween polishes. I have picked two winners via the Rafflecopter widget and have emailed both of them. So, congratulations to Jamie and April!

If I don’t hear back from them in the next 24 hours, I will be picking new winners. Thanks again to everyone for entering and making this giveaway fun. I will be hosting more giveaways in the future so don’t forget to check back. 🙂 I have really enjoyed interacting with all of you–especially all the wonderful ladies on Facebook.

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 12 : Chevron Nails

Posted on 13 October, 2012 by Cynthia

I was feeling completely uninspired about doing today’s challenge. I love chevrons on my nails, but I don’t think that chevrons would look good on my rounded super short nails so I decided to to inverted chevrons.

Sation Rock-a-guy Blue is a great blue that I recently purchased. It’s my favorite color from the Little Horse On The Prairie Collection.

I then used Sation Blue Sky’s The Limit for the inverted chevron tips. I am so annoyed that I didn’t see a couple of fibers on my nails and now I can’t do anything about it. Grrrrrr!

I don’t know why I decided to stamp over this, but I did…

I used the paisley print from Bundle Monster plate BM 315 and Wet N Wild’s I Can’t Stand Up Straight. This is so subtle that I can barely tell the stamping is there in indirect light. I’m totally not feeling this stamp on these base colors–can’t win them all.

I need to go cook dinner so forgive me if I’m not particularly talkative throughout this post. Today is a crappy day–just feeling a little down in the dumps so hopefully I’ll feel better once I eat something. Food: always the answer! 🙂

Don’t forget to check out the other manicures my lovely challenge participants created. Thanks for catching up with me today.

Sation Violet Sapphire

Posted on 13 October, 201213 October, 2012 by Cynthia

I don’t remember when I first purchased Sation Violet Sapphire…I actually don’t remember purchasing it at all! Does this happen to any other nail polish enthusiast out there? I must have hundreds of polishes that I have never used–even for swatching. Yes, I am hanging my head in shame, but I know that some of you out there understand!

Violet Sapphire is such a girlie color. When I first looked at the color in the bottle, I was afraid that it would be super brush stroke-y, but it really isn’t. It’s has a pearlized shimmer that makes it look delicate, but I’m not going to call it the dreaded F-word…FROST!

For this final mani, I used Konad Special white polish and a design from image plate MASH 39. I like this fish scale design, but I don’t really like the colors I used. I think that the white looks too harsh against the base color. I am imagining something much more delicate like maybe a pastel with this pattern stamped in silver.

So a couple of my girlfriends and I are trying to motivate each other to work out (hopefully we can start going to the gym together) and eat better. So what did I do today? I didn’t eat anything all day and then I went out and got this:

I don’t know how big and widespread the Chipotle chain is, but that is where I got this massive burrito. It is full of cilantro rice, pinto beans, grilled steak, cheese, sour cream and salsa. If you’re wondering if I ate the whole thing….well, a girl with a gullet the size of the grand canyon would never eat and tell. haha!

Are you excited about the weekend? Do you have any plans? I don’t have much going on except maybe doing some more polish organizing since I acquired over 100 bottles in the last month or so. I know…it’s a sickness. All I have to say in my defense is that I got a bunch of them for free and some as gifts. Speaking of gifts, once my nails grow out a bit, I’m going to start featuring the lovely polishes I received for my birthday.

Thanks for stopping by to visit my little pyscho corner of polish addiction…and massive burritos. Talk to you soon!

China Glaze On Your Knees!

Posted on 12 October, 201211 October, 2012 by Cynthia

Is it just me, or were polish names a little more risqué in the past? I seem to keep running across a lot of older polishes with very interesting names, and today I have another oldie but goodie. China Glaze On Your Knees! was part of the 2002 Winter collection called Crown Jewels. Lately I have been on a total old polish buying binge–the older they are, the more excited I get. You can blame all the dusties in my area for my recent obsession with older polishes.

Behold the Fall beauty of China Glaze On Your Knees!

This polish has a glowing cinnamon aspect to it so it reminds me a little bit of Jessica’s Cinnamon Kiss. This polish is definitely not 3-free and I found the formula dreamy: it is a little sheer but it’s super easy to control and apply. These are the type of colors that I look forward to wearing every fall and winter.

And because I’ve missed my stamping…

I really don’t like the Essie Mirror Metallics as regular polish, but I love them for stamping. Look how gorgeously crisp the stamping is with As Good As Gold! I used a design from Mash plate 41 for this design in case you were wondering. Doesn’t it remind you of a chain link fence?

I might have asked this before, but does it annoy you when I feature polishes that are discontinued and are probably hard to find? I have found so many amazing polishes (some even pre-2000) lately so I’m super excited to share them on here. Let me know what you think about this and about my latest mani. I love hearing all your opinions. Thanks again for stopping by–your feedback keeps this blog fun for me. 🙂

Deal Alert: Free Nails Inc. Nail Polish

Posted on 11 October, 201211 October, 2012 by Cynthia

EDIT: There seems to be some conflicting information as to whether this is legit or not. I can say that I do tend to get tons of freebies so I am a bit of a risk taker. I would not, however, click on any links they might send me or something of that nature. I hope this is a legit freebie. Please use your own discretion when filling things out online.

Hi Ladies! I just submitted my request for a free bottle of Nails Inc. nail polish thanks to another master enabler who let me in on the deal. It looks like they still have polish available so head on over to Amazing Beauty and fill out their form. Hey, it’s free so it’s worth a shot, right? They have 6 different colors to choose from

I hope this is legit and we all get our free polish! 🙂

Nicole By OPI Fall 2012 (Target Exclusives)

Posted on 11 October, 2012 by Cynthia

Sometimes I can be a total weirdo and focus on insignificant details. Take the brand Nicole By OPI, for example: I have a handful of these polishes and generally like the formula and the brushes, but I really hate the awkward bottle shape. For whatever reason, I have fixated on my distaste for the bottle shape and don’t usually purchase a lot of these polishes. I also kind of can’t stand the Kardashian Empire so when I see the NOPI Kardashian Kollection, I want to hurl. Anyway, enough about my weird fixations…this is about the polish!! There are 5 Target Exclusives from the Nicole By OPI Fall 2012 collection, and I have 2 of those to share with you today.

The first one up is Just Busta Mauve.

I really thought that this was a strange color when I looked at the bottle. I had absolutely no idea what it would look like on my nails with all those weird colors floating around, but it really surprised me. In fact, I love it. If I had to complain about something, it would have to be that the formula is a little thin but it does build up without any problems. From the look of the polish, I was expecting it to be kind of gritty but it was perfectly smooth. As an aside, the name of this polish brought back fond memories of me playing Bust-A-Move on the Neo-Geo arcades when my mom would go shopping with us. She would give my brother and I a bunch of quarters and we would run to the back of this store we use to go to and we’d play Bust-A-Move and Super Mario Bros. 3 on another machine until our hands cramped or our eyes bled–or both. Ahh…to be a kid again.

The second color is If The Blue Fits.

Since I’ve been on a blue kick lately, I really like this polish because it’s not a boring color: it has just the right amount of kick to attract attention. The formula on this was better than on Just Busta Mauve as it was a little thicker so you can get away with less coats. I love all the different colors in this polish!

Overall, I think both of these polishes are total wins! If I had to pick just one, I would probably go with Just Busta Mauve. These polishes have been out at Target stores and online since August so you should still be able to pick them up if you like either of these. They retail for around $7.00 unless you wait and catch them on sale. So what do you think of these two colors? Which one would you get if you could only have one–what a true Sophie’s choice! (Not! You know you’d get both.)

Thanks for catching up with me and talk to you soon!

**These products were provided for review purposes. All opinions are my own.**