Of Life and Lacquer

OPI Ink Suede

Posted on 27 January, 201426 January, 2014 by Cynthia

Yep, it’s Monday–my least favorite day of the week for a variety of reasons. Having to wake up at 4:00 am for work doesn’t help either.

That’s a pretty normal reaction, right? Given the fact that I had such a great day of polish finds yesterday, I’m going to try to look on the bright side and just focus on getting through the day. The weather has turned here again so I’m kind of happy about that because I was definitely missing the cooler temperatures. I am also hoping that we get some much needed rain because otherwise we are going to have a really terrible wildfire season this year. So yesterday I shared with you how I found two amazing polishes and now I am sharing the beautiful OPI Ink Suede.

After using this beauty, I can completely understand why people are crazy over these suede polishes. The formula was absolute perfection as it was easy to apply and control. It is very pigmented so you could almost get away with one coat, but I applied a second coat for my swatches. Since it is a matte type polish, it dries super fast so make sure that you don’t overwork it.

I am going to make a habit of going to dusties maybe once a month to see what else I can find. I’m really trying super hard to cut back on polish spending so I am going to limit myself to a few here and there instead of my usual massive hauls. Since I was able to get 2 bottles of this lovely polish, I have put the second one up on my blog sale. I have added quite a few oldies on there this weekend such as China Glaze Channelesque, China Glaze BFF and now OPI Ink Suede. Make sure that you check it out if you’re interested in getting these or other polishes. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

China Glaze BFF…or the best Sunday EVER!

Posted on 26 January, 201426 January, 2014 by Cynthia

You know when you’re having a shitty week and then you’re looking forward to one thing and it kind of doesn’t happen and then the crushing disappointment is so bitter that you just want to crawl under a rock? Yep, that happened to me yesterday. It’s going to sound silly, but all I had been wanting all week was to get my hands on the China Glaze Sea Goddess Collection so when that didn’t happen on Saturday, I was so incredibly disappointed. It wasn’t so much about the polish but about one more disappointing thing happening this week. So today I woke up early because I needed to run some errands and wash poor Basil because he was so gross and dirty. Yesterday I didn’t recognize my own car because it was so dingy so I definitely needed to go to the car wash. After that, I decided to go to a few dusties that I haven’t visited in a long time. At first I thought that I was just looking for the Sea Goddess Collection, but I ended up just scoping out all their old polish. I don’t think that you will truly understand what happened when I stumbled upon these two…

Yep, this is OPI Ink Suede and China Glaze BFF. I must have squealed like a tween at a Justin Bieber concert because one of the owners came over to see what the problem was and asked me if I was ok. Of course I turned around and this happened:

I grabbed them and ran out of the store like I had just found the holy grail. I was so excited that I was literally shaking. Is this normal? I think other polish freaks will say yes, but most normal people would probably say there is something seriously wrong with me. Oh well…who cares. I got my polish. So let’s take a look at my swatches of China Glaze BFF and see if it was worth all my spazing.

Ok, this is not the color I was expecting. I thought BFF was supposed to be a deeper hotter pink….right? Thanks to google, I learned that it appears that there were 2 formulas: one that was hot pink/purple, which is the one I wanted, and this one which appears more pink/brown/salmon. To be honest, I think this one is really beautiful as well so I’m not going to get all bummed about it. If anything, the high of seeing that label is going to keep me pumped for at least another day. hahaha! As my pictures show, the polish can look a little different depending on the lighting but that holo effect is really strong. It’s not very sunny here today so I couldn’t take any pictures in direct sunlight, but I bet it’s going to be awesome! The formula is a little tricky because it’s super easy to create bald spots if you’re not careful. Initially I tried to apply it over a ridge filling basecoat because I have some nasty ridges going on, but it applied really poorly. Once I applied it on my bare nails, it was much easier to work with.

And because I want to share the happiness of finding a polish that I thought I would NEVER get without resorting to evilbay, I am going to give away one bottle of China Glaze BFF to one lucky reader (yep, i got more than 1 bottle!!! lol) In order to enter, just use the rafflecopter widget below. This giveaway is open internationally, but please make sure that you don’t enter if you know your country has strict restrictions on shipping this type of product.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

So what do you think about this polish? I know it’s not the hot pink I was expecting, but it’s still beautiful. I hope you’re enjoying your weekend and good luck if you decide to enter the giveaway. Talk to you soon!

Stamping Saturdays #3

Posted on 25 January, 201425 January, 2014 by Cynthia

Hello there and welcome to Stamping Saturdays! I was planning to get this written and posted earlier in the day, but I just didn’t have time to do anything while I was at work this morning. After that, I went to a couple of nail places but didn’t really find anything….except a few bottles of Channelesque! Yayyy for backups!!!! For today’s stampicure, I started out with my base color of Channelesque which I reviewed here.

Yep, you know I love this color! Because I wanted to make Channelesque a little blingy, I added one thin coat of Max Factor Fantasy Fire on top of it.

I know that this looks uneven, but I didn’t really care because I was going to stamp over it anyway. Doesn’t it look pretty with that purple and sparkly tinge?

I am a huge fan of houndstooth print in everything (nails, clothes, shoes) so I decided to use Pure Ice Silver Mercedes to stamp on the houndstooth design from plate BM-322. I absolutely love how this turned out. I wish that that the beautiful base stood out more, but when I went outside with this design, it was like my nails were glowing.

What do you think of this design? I’m already starting to plan my design for next week because I have so many ideas! I hope you’re having a nice weekend so far and thanks so much for stopping by today. Also don’t forget to check out my other girls’ designs. Talk to you soon.

Amanda from Mae’s Beauty

Siobhan from For The Love Of Nail Art

China Glaze Channelesque

Posted on 24 January, 2014 by Cynthia

Since you’re here, you are probably a polish freakazoid like me so you will understand my excitement regarding today’s polish. Since I came into this obsession later in life (early 30’s), I missed out on TONS of amazing collections. I still want to cry tears of regret when I think of how amazing my local beauty supply stores must have been about 10 years ago. When the polish bug hit me in 2010/2011, I began to explore my local dusties but didn’t really know what was considered a HTF polish nor did I know how valuable they were. I’m sure that I passed up some amazing finds, but I can’t dwell too much on that because I will just get annoyed. Eventually I got smart and started making a wishlist of polishes I would love to have and always carried it with me—just in case. Imagine my surprise and joy when I came across a super old stash of polishes and amongst those dusty and rejected bottles, I spotted a few gems that made my heart skip a beat. Amongst the rubble of collections past, I found 2 of my biggest China Glaze lemmings: Who’s Wearing What? and Channelesque. Let’s take a look at Channelesque, shall we?

China Glaze Channelesque is a dusty lavender taupe mushroom-y dream. This color is so beautiful so I can imagine what a revelation it must have been when it first came out in 2004. Sadly, like so many gorgeous shades, it was discontinued. I had previously read that the formula was amazing: smooth, pigmented and opaque. WRONG! I don’t know if the polish change a bit in the bottle since it’s so old, but it was super streaky and goopy. In fact, it applied so poorly that I took off the polish and added a few drops of thinner to the bottle for round 2. The thinner made a world of difference because it applied so well this time around. For my swatches, I applied 2 coats and a coat of Seche Vite for extra shine.

Do you have any polishes that are on your major lemming list? How do you go about acquiring long discontinued polishes? I hate going to evilbay because the pricing is mostly ridiculous on there, so I try to go to local places. I’ve pretty much given up on getting certain polishes like those from the OMG! Collection, but I do think that some of my dusties have tons of hidden gems. One place in particular must have thousands of polishes, and I think I would need a whole day to go through that store. Anyway, I am planning to go to one of my nail places tomorrow hoping that they have some new collections…particularly the Sea Goddess Collection. I’m kind of excited about those! Don’t forget to stop by tomorrow for another installment of Stamping Saturdays; I can’t wait to show you my mani! I hope you’re having a nice day, and I will talk to you soon!

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls

Posted on 23 January, 2014 by Cynthia

Remember when the OPI The Amazing Spider-man Collection came out? Yeah, me neither. The one thing I do remember is going super nuts over OPI Spotted which was a French exclusive. I did manage to get a bottle of this through my French polish fairy, Sabrina, and I was super excited to try it out. I recall purchasing two polishes from the collection but they sat there collecting dust for a while. When I finally got around to trying them out, I was floored. OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls is such a beautiful polish that instantly became a favorite. Let’s take a look at my swatches below.

The beauty of this polish lies in the beautiful creaminess and gloss of this slightly greyed white. It doesn’t have that stark white and chalky look that some white polishes tend to have so it’s a lot more wearable. Since this is a white polish, I was expecting an application beast, but it was fine with three thin coats. The first coat is a little scary because of the streakiness, but it evens out nicely. You may not think this is anything special, but I assure you that it’s absolutely stunning in person.

Today I was thinking about making slow changes in my diet stuff. Since I was reading Marlena’s blog, I liked that she was talking about making slow changes. My first change is to not use the vending machines at work. Even when I think I am making a healthy choice with trail mix or something of the like, I am just a button away from those bags of Cheetos. I love Cheetos. I can’t be around them. So that’s my plan for this week. Small changes seem more manageable and those small changes will add up to big results over time. I think that my biggest hurdle is giving up coke. I drink about 2-3 diet cokes each day which I know is way too much. I do drink a lot of water and I like iced tea, but I just can’t seem to give up soft drinks. I love the carbonation and I love the coke taste. Uuughhh! If you’ve given up soft drinks, let me know if you have any advice or tips. So how’s your Thursday going? Mine has been pretty meh so far, and I’m already looking forward to my next day off. Thanks for the visit today, and I’ll catch up with you later.

Geometric Gumdrops

Posted on 22 January, 2014 by Cynthia

Does calling Wednesday “Hump Day” annoy you? It usually doesn’t annoy me but for some reason I cringed when I typed it out. Maybe it’s the fact that my pseudo-diet is putting me in a shitty mood cause I want to eat junk. So how is my diet going, you ask?

Yep, just like that. Now that I’m feeling a little better, I’m going to start incorporating going to the gym after work. I think that’s going to help me in a lot of different ways especially to relieve stress and just put me in a better frame of mind. Let’s hope that all happens and that I don’t end up sad and eating a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey.

The other day I was talking with some friends about this bare nail design that Chalkboard Nails did with some Nicole by OPI Gumdrops so I totally wanted to do something in that same vein. This is what I came up with:

For this design, I used Nicole by Opi My Cherry Amour and A-nice Treat and some stripping tape. All I did was to apply the tape in a criss-cross pattern and then carefully filled in the areas with the two polishes. Lastly I applied a silver stud in the middle because I felt that really finished off the look. I really like how this turned out! I’m getting more excited about doing more than just swatching so I hope that you guys like this.

So what are you up to today? I have work tomorrow so I’m getting ready for that…after being off/sick for the last 5 days, it’s going to be rough! My little nephew is coming over tonight so I’m excited to see him. On Monday he had his 2 month check up and he also got some vaccines. Here’s a recent picture of him:

He’s being very scratchy lately so you can see the little nicks on his nose and cheek. Isn’t he freaking adorable?? Anyway, I hope you’re doing well today, and I’ll catch up with you later.

Golden Rose 37

Posted on 21 January, 2014 by Cynthia

Well, here I am still sick. I think that now that the weather is changing again (it was really cool this morning), my body is just going nuts. It’s kind of crazy that while we have been in the 80’s for the last week, other parts of the country are completely snowed in. Yep, I shouldn’t be complaining about sunny, hot days even though it is the middle of January. Today I have the other polish that Daniel brought back for me from his recent trip to South Africa. Here is Golden Rose 37:

This color screams Spring to me so it’s actually rather fitting considering the warm weather we are experiencing lately. I really like this beautiful melon color, but I found it to be an application beast. The formula is touted as a 1 coater, but it needed 3 coats to even out. Still, I love this juicy color and anticipate wearing it a lot this Spring/Summer.

So what have you been up to lately? I hope that I get over this nasty allergy/head cold thing so I can actually feel normal again….well, as normal as I can get. I decided to do some major purging today so I’m going to be setting up a lot of stuff for sale including eye shadow palettes mostly by Urban Decay, Stila and Too Faced. Make sure that you check out my blog sale page here for all the new items. I hope to have them up to day in addition to all the nail polish I have on there already. Thanks for the visit today and talk to you soon!

Nicole by OPI New Core Colors For 2014 – Part 1

Posted on 20 January, 2014 by Cynthia

And another week starts up again. I wasn’t able to go to work this morning because my allergies continued to torture me. I took some Benadryl last night because my face and eyes were swollen like crazy. Then this morning I still couldn’t open my eyes all the way. Ahhh….this stupid weather is going to be the end of me. Oh my glob, I almost forgot that The Following is back on TV!!! I just saw the first episode on my Hulu queue and I nearly pissed myself with excitement. I was so nervous that FOX would cancel this show just like every other awesome show (Dollhouse anyone?). I always go off on TV tangents, don’t I? I’ve completely stopped watching any kind of reality TV so now I’m watching a few dramas, mainly: The Following, Scandal and The Black List. I may watch a few other shows here and there, but I don’t follow any of them religiously. So today I have some awesome new polishes to share with you. Last week I received an amazing polish package which included the Nicole by OPI New Core Colors For 2014. Since there are 15 new colors, I decided to break up the post into 3 separate parts to showcase 5 polishes at a time. For today’s post, I have picked my 5 favorites to share with you, but it was sooo hard to pick 5 colors because I loved so many of them. Let’s take a look at the first 5 pretties, shall we?

Nicole by OPI Teal Me Something New

Nicole by OPI I Shop Mintage

Nicole by OPI Emerald Empowered

Nicole by OPI This Blue Is So You!

Nicole by OPI At Least I Pink So

The consistency of all these polishes is superb. They are all super smooth and apply beautifully. I would like to mention that Teal Me Something New stains like a mofo, but I didn’t wear any base coat so that’s my bad. Even though my pictures don’t really show it, Emerald Empowered is a duochrome that flashes green and blue—very pretty! All of my swatches show two coats of polish and top coat. The darkest color, This Blue Is So You! could almost be a one coater which is always a welcome surprise. We’ve seen so many of these dark and smoky navy blues lately, and I’m still not tired of them. These new nail lacquers should be available now for $7.99 each at retailers including select Walmart, Target, CVS, Kmart, Kroger, ULTA, H-E-B, Meijer and Duane Reade locations. In Canada, these shades will be available for $10.99 each at Shoppers Drug Mart, Walmart Canada, Jean Coutu, Loblaw, and London Drug.

What do you think of these first 5 new colors? I can’t wait to show you the rest later this week because they are all so gorgeous and they are mostly crèmes!!! My favorite!!! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Kiko 816 Taupe Brown

Posted on 19 January, 2014 by Cynthia

How’s your Sunday going? I am still trying to work through all my allergies, but I think I am losing the battle because I’m kind of miserable. When I am feeling completely off, I usually just veg out and watch tons of stuff on Netflix. Since I love watching documentaries, my feed is usually full of documentary recommendations. One of those recommendations caught my attention: Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony. Basically, the documentary is about adults (they focus on males) who are fans of My Little Pony (Bros + Ponies = Bronies). I would have never known that this even existed if I hadn’t watched this documentary. It was actually pretty interesting! The reason why I even watched this is because I have a soft spot in hear for My Little Pony. When I was a kid, I wanted one so bad but my parents couldn’t get one for me because we were broker than broke at that point. Many years later, like when I was 19/20, my mom bought one of the original ones for me randomly at a garage sale because I guess she remembered how much I wanted one when I was a little kid. I still get choked up a little bit when I think about it because it meant so much to me. Alright, alright…enough of My Little Pony and let’s move on to the polish. If there is one color that I don’t have much of in my stash, it is brown so I am happy for this addition: Kiko 816 Taupe Brown.

While this is not a color that I would normally go gaga over, I ended up really liking it because it applied so smoothly and effortlessly. It only needed two coat for full coverage and it dried pretty quickly since it is a quick dry formula. I can see this polish working really well for some nail art! A big thanks again to Sabrina for sending this to me.

So, I hope that you’ve enjoyed your weekend. I’ll try to super medicate myself so that I can actually be functional for work tomorrow. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Stamping Saturdays #2

Posted on 18 January, 201418 January, 2014 by Cynthia

Hey friends. Welcome to our second edition of Stamping Saturdays. I’m strangely proud of myself for not flaking out because that would have been pretty lame considering I started this up. ha! I really loved how my stamping mani came out today so let me show you the base color I started out with…

Nicole by OPI Better after dark (press sample), called out to me for this week’s mani. I absolutely adore the color and the shimmer is crazy gorgeous. If you didn’t read my initial review, click here because you still have a chance to enter this polish (and a second one) along with a coupon for some free chocolate!

I then used Essie As Gold As It Gets and Konad plate M73 to stamp this image on my nails. I totally love this! All the polishes from Essie’s Mirror Metallics collections stamp really well so I recommend them highly.

So what do you think about this stamping design? I hope you like it as much as I do! I wish I had a little more time today, but I am going to be babysitting my nephew for the first time today! Wish me luck!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.