China Glaze Mahoganie

Posted on by Cynthia

I don’t even know what to say about this nail polish. It’s glitter. I have issues with glitter. I love THIS glitter.  DOES NOT COMPUTE!

I think this glitter was part of the specialty glitter shades that were released by China Glaze a few years ago. It’s a chocolate pink base with glitter that dries very, very gritty so it will need a thick topcoat. The nice part about this glitter is that it only needs two coats! Hallelujah to baby Jesus on rollerskates! I found this at a beauty supply store that I go to once in a while. They still sell China Glaze for $2.50 but I have to wear a protective mask when I wander in there because the dust in that place is so thick that you can feel it in your lungs. Gross, I know…but they have $2.50 China Glaze!!! Enjoy the swatches!

So what do you think of my new beautiful little baby, Mahoganie?

OPI NYC Ballet Polishes SUCK

Posted on by Cynthia

I should say that I only bought two of the polishes and I have two too many at this point. I knew that these polishes are not meant to be opaque so I steered clear of all the pinks and picked up My Pointe Exactly. It kind of looked like a sheer version of French Quarter For Your Thoughts so I figured it would be ok. Well, it isn’t. This color is disgusting. It basically looks like clear polish on your nails after one coat. I added a second and it looked streaky. I added a third and it started to look a little gray. Fourth coat, fifth coat and it still looked streaky and was not opaque. I took off the gross layers and went for a three coat look and this was the result:

Yuck! What’s the point of wearing nail polish if it’s going to look like this?!?!?!?! I took the glitter of this collection, Pirouette My Whistle, and layered one coat of it.

I still think this is gross. One of my lovely readers from Two Lacquered Girls asked me if Pirouette My Whistle was the same as Servin’ Up Sparkle so I used them side by side. I used Servin’ Up Sparkle on the middle finger and Pirouette My Whistle on the two outer fingers. As you can see, it’s the same exact glitter shape except that Servin’ Up Sparkle is holographic and Pirouette My Whistle is just white and silver. The base colors also differ. Servin’ Up Sparkle has a clear base and Pirouette My Whistle is in a milky gray base. Here are some bottle shots:

There is no way that I am going to buy anymore colors from this collection. I should have stuck with my initial impression when I saw the press release and passed on this collection altogether.  What about you? Do you want any colors from this collection?

P.S. After my previous post about gross nails and stuff, I want to apologize about my super dry skin. I totally forgot to moisturize so I know my skin looks dry like the Sahara. 🙁

Things That Bug Me

Posted on by Cynthia

I’ve been checking out a lot of different blogs lately. I genuinely enjoy reading little snippets of people’s lives. Inevitably, we talk a lot about personal lives whether we are blogging about books, food, nail polish or any other topic. I tend to share a lot of personal stuff because I have diarrhea of the mouth…or fingers…online. I don’t overshare with people in real life because I am 100 times more guarded and like to keep my drama to myself. In looking at other blogs, mostly nail blogs, there is one thing that absolutely drives me bananas. Ok, are you ready for it? I really, really hate when people (cause I have seen a few guys running nail blogs) post nail looks or swatches and their fingers look like they accidentally went through a food processor. I’m talking about those people with hang nails the size of 2 x 4’s who don’t even bother to trim them or anything. Can you please not take a close up pictures of that? Or even worse, seeing pictures of people’s nails when it is painfully obvious that they are nail bitters and you can see the misshapen nails and even some bloody finger tips. Oh Lord…please don’t let me wander onto those blogs again. Am I being mean? I don’t think so. I know my blog isn’t perfect. Sometimes my cuticles are kinda gross but at least I try to fix them up a bit before posting pictures. Hey, maybe those people just don’t care…and that’s their right. And by the way, I used to be a prodigious nail-bitter so I know how horrible that habit is. I also used to bite and rip my cuticles until my fingers were bloody. In order to kick that nervous habit, I wore acrylic nails for about a year. It really did help because I wasn’t able to bite my nails nor my cuticles anymore.

I am also starting to hate the amount of spam comments that I get on my blog nowadays. What’s up with that? WordPress does a pretty darn good job of filtering all the rubbish out but it still annoys the crap out of me. As if I didn’t get enough spam in my email about how to enlarge my penis, buy viagra and meet singles in my area! I keep wondering how I got on those spam lists to begin with. It’s probably from watching porn…uhm, I mean make up tutorials. *cough*

So anyway, that’s just a little rant cause I can’t fall asleep.

Jessica Iridescent Eye

Posted on by Cynthia

All last fall, I kept hearing about Chanel Peridot. Peridot here, Peridot there, Peridot EVERYWHERE! I don’t have any Chanel nail lacquers and I don’t anticipate getting any because at $26 for .4oz, that’s just really a ridiculous price. It would take an outrageously unique color for me to even consider spending that much. I admired the swatches online but wasn’t really that tempted. Then I started to see swatches of the Jessica Peacock Queen Collection online and how similar it was to the Chanel Illusions d’Ombre Collection. I don’t like to buy nail polish online because I prefer to look at them in person before purchasing. When I found the collection at my local beauty supply store, I couldn’t resist.

Here are some swatches of Jessica Iridescent Eye:

If you have Chanel Peridot, how does this compare? The swatches online make it look like a pretty darn close dupe. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t like this color THAT much.  It’s interesting enough, but I don’t think it looks particularly flattering on me; definitely not $26 interesting. So what do you think? Is this a color you’re interested in?

Saint Patrick’s Day Nail Looks

Posted on by Cynthia

I wasn’t really planning to do any Saint Patrick’s Day nails on myself, but after I did my sister-in-law’s nails I felt inspired. She went to a SPD party so she wanted something fun. This is how her nails turned out:

Cute, right?

I obviously also went the green route. I started off with China Glaze Gaga For Green as my base color.

Then I used Color Club Holiday Splendor for the chevron design on my tips.

I should have left it at that, but then I decided to add a shamrock sticker and rhinestones.

Then I thought to myself that the rhinestones looked pretty tacky so I pried them off. Unfortunately, this left a ding on my nails.

And because it bothered me that I could still see where the rhinestones used to be, I then tried to cover it up with glitter.

So by this point, I thought that my nails looked pretty gross and just took everything off and started all over.

This was my final look. I used OPI Mermaid Tears as the base color and Color Club Holiday Splendor for the chevron tips. I used only one design on my accent nail and I was pleased with the way they turned out.

I had a nice SPD after all! I went to dinner with two friends whom I have known since we were kids. After we stuffed ourselves as Lucille’s BBQ, we went to a karaoke lounge and sang all the embarrassing songs that we could think of. Ahhh…it was a lot of fun.

How did you spend SPD? Did you sport any fun and festive nail designs?

 

Look Carefully Before You Purchase

Posted on by Cynthia

I learned a lesson today: don’t get so excited when you see nail polish you want that you neglect to look at the bottles closely. I was excited to check out the new OPI New York Ballet Collection in person but when I saw the Jessica display next to it, I squealed. I grabbed the three Jessica polishes that are the dupes of Chanel’s Fall 2011 line and picked up two OPI bottles. Well, when I got home I realized that I took two bottles of the same polish from the Jessica display so I’m missing one of the trio. Thankfully, my nail polish place told me I could exchange it so I’m heading over there tomorrow. So yeah, I’m retarded.

 

So this is what I got today:

OPI: Pirouette My Whistle and My Pointe Exactly

Jessica: Smoky Feather and Iridescent Eye

 

I’ll swatch these sometime soon. Aren’t they pretty?!

Quelle Monstruosité!

Posted on by Cynthia

What do you do when you’re bored? Do you read? Watch TV? Read nail polish blogs (maybe that’s just me)? Well, I do all three of those AND I start doing crazy things with my nails. I was watching American Idol (yawnfest) and I started playing with my nail polishes. I am going to do my sister-in-law’s nails for a St. Patrick’s Day party that she is going to so I took out all of my green polishes to get ready. I am going to use one of my image plates that has a shamrock on it and stamp it white on top of a green base and maybe add some glitter. Who knows?

After I got all my stuff together I thought that I would play around with some of my rhinestones so I took out a few colors. I wanted to use CG Gothic Lolita from their recent Electropop Collection. Now, if you know anything at all about me, it’s that I love purple. PURPLE EVERYTHING. At one point I had purple curtains. (I only kept them for a week because I realized how ridiculous my room looked…especially since I’m 32!!!! And it wasn’t a mature purple…it was crazy Barney purple.) So it started out with such a beautiful purple. Oh, Gothic Lolita:  Gothic Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Gothic Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth.  Gothic Lo. Lee. Ta.

I’m pretty sure that Nabokov is turning over in his grave right now. How dare I blaspheme his work by using it to wax poetic about nail polish? Well, nail polish can be art too so back off lit snobs. But just look at this purple:

 

So how did that beautiful purple become this:

 

 

Yes, my dear readers, this is the kind of stuff that nightmares are made of.  I can’t even call this ghetto fabulous…it’s just so foul. I have removed this monstrosity and promise to never do this again.

Is It Time To Grow Up?

Posted on by Cynthia

People always comment on my nail polish. Some older women but mostly younger women. The younger girls seem to comment more whenever I have a glitter explosion on my nails or I am sporting an in your face Konad design. After a teenage girl made a comment on my nails today, I wondered to myself if it is time to grow up…nail polish-wise. At 32 years of age, is it time to move away from the crazy designs I sometimes wear? Should I be moving towards the taupe/beige/mauve office appropriate colors?

Hell-to-the-no. If I get to be old, I am going to be the old lady with crazy nails…and purple eyeshadow. Yeah, all the craziness minus the cats.

So here I am again using another color from the Up & Away Collection. Bubblegum pink? Oh yes, the perfect bubblegum pink.  Sugar High was a dream to apply: smooth, saturated and shiny. I love this color for spring and summer!

 

Konad plate M66 is very Japanese inspired and I tried one of the designs. I think I should have picked a more muted pink for this design…something along the lines of OPI’s Japanese Rose Garden would have looked better.

 

So what do you think about this color? Do you think there is an age where elaborate and colorful nails start to seem tacky?

I’m In Love…

Posted on by Cynthia

In love with nail polish, that is. I just about crapped my pants when I saw this color. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating, but I got really excited. This is another beauty from the Up & Away Collection that I had forgotten about. I think that these blue/teal/green/turquoise polishes are replacing my obsession for purple polishes. Can that even happen? The formula was dreamy and 2 thin coats was all I needed. If you don’t have Flyin’ High in your collection yet, you are really missing out.

Yes, I cut my nails SUPER short again. They had grown out a little and were driving me nuts. After I finished painting my nails,  I layered this gorgeous glitter called Blue Hawaiian and now I have shiny ball syndrome. I can’t stop looking at it. I don’t care that it’s going to be a pain to remove. I. Cant. Stop. Looking. At. It.

 

I can’t wait to see this in the bright sunlight tomorrow.

 

Color Club Back To Boho Part 2

Posted on by Cynthia

I spaced out and realized I didn’t get around to posting the other half of this collection. I actually much prefer this other half because I find the colors more interesting. This is an older collection from Fall 2011 but it’s still really nice in my opinion. Some of these colors don’t scream Fall to me so I’d still use them any time. Enjoy the swatches!

Nomadic In Nude is just such a weird color. It’s like a putty color that just reminds me of a corpse. Yeah, how’s that for morbid? This color was such a pain in the ass that I don’t know if I am really excited about wearing it again. I mean, it’s not really a color that I would normally gravitate towards and when you add the problematic formula, forget it! I had to apply 4 coats to make it look somewhat smooth and even then it still looked a little bumpy. A coat of Seche Vite helped to even it out a bit.

Earthy Angel is the perfect café au lait color. This is not a color that I would have picked up in my earlier days of nail polish obsession, but I’m definitely starting to like nude colors more and more. It has a decent formula and I thought it was going to be fine with two coats. However, once I looked at my nails more closely, I noticed some bald spots where the polish dragged. It looked pretty good with the third coat. I knew this color would be the perfect matte mannequin manicure polish so I applied a coat of Essie Matte About You.

Not satisfied, I applied a coat of glitter to see what it would look like. Here it is with OPI Servin’ Up Sparkle from the Serena Williams Collection.

And finally I mattified it–glitter and all.

I really like this look!

New Bohemian was unexpected for a Fall collection. It’s definitely a spring color for me. It was a lot more sheer than I expected so it took 3 coats for full opacity. I really love this color but it’s such a common color now that it’s not that exciting. I immediately wondered how close this would be to China Glaze’s For Audrey so I swatched them side by side.

It may be a little difficult to tell from these pictures, but these are not exact dupes. They are definitely close but you can tell that For Audrey is brighter with more blue while New Bohemian has more green in it. Do you need both? Probably not. But you know me…there’s never enough polish.

Shabby Drab kind of reminded me of China Glaze’s Secret Peri-wink-le but it photographs so purple. It was pretty sheer but the color was buildable without any issues. It’s a dusty lavander periwinkle color that I really liked in this collection.

This color is right up my alley. Rad Monad is one of those purple, taupe, gray, beige mixes that are ever present now. Remember when Metro Chic started a frenzy? This was super pigmented and only required two coats.

Lastly here is Red-ical Gypsy. I don’t have much to say about this color. It’s nice. It’s dark with some magenta/berry in it. Very saturated and only needed two coats.

These colors should be readily available in case you’re interested in getting any of them. Ross continues to carry these collection sets for $7.99 so keep an eye out for them if you’re looking for a good deal.