Of Life and Lacquer

Crown Brush HD Set Review

Posted on 18 December, 2013 by Cynthia

I know I’m a slacker. I haven’t been posting regularly and I kind of miss it, but at the same time I am really enjoying not putting pressure on myself to post, post, post! If this starts feeling like a job, then I won’t want to keep doing it so I think this is a very welcome break. The review I have for you today is for a set of Crown Brushes that I received a few weeks ago and that I tested for a bit before making any judgments. Let’s take a look at the Crown Brush HD Set, shall we?

The set comes in a nice little zip case which is very helpful if you’re looking for a travel set. Since I have a lot of make up brushes, I have a huge brush roll that is not very convenient for travel so I appreciate the size of this case.

This is what the brushes look like inside the set. The case has nice pockets for the brushes so that they remain in place, and it also comes with a set of tweezers and a mirror. Now let’s get to the meat of this review: the brushes! I am going to be showing the Crown brushes next to other similar brushes (mostly MAC) just to compare the size.

Pro Powder Brush

Here it is between the MAC 129 and the MAC 150. The Crown Pro Powder brush is a pretty standard powder brush. It’s very soft and I used it to set my foundation with powder. It worked nicely.

Tapered Blush

Here it is between the MAC 168 and the MAC 116. This was also a decent brush that I used to apply blush and bronzer. Because of it’s size, I found that it worked well for contouring. My problem with this brush is that it sheds. I washed it a few times already and it continues to shed so I don’t see myself really using it too often.

Deluxe Contour

Since I don’t really have a similar brush in size, I was really excited about this one. Although it’s a contour brush, I thought that it would be perfect to blend out concealer under the eyes because the size is perfect. It did a great job of that, but it is impossible to clean. I always clean my brushes because I don’t want to keep putting bacteria on my face, but it remains kind of greasy feeling. I’ve used MAC brush cleaner, ELF Brush Cleanser and even Dawn soap, but it still remains dingy and greasy. I won’t be dealing with a brush that I can’t clean!

Crease Blender

I’ve compared this brush to the MAC 224 and the Sonia Kashuk Blending Brush. I thought it did a fine job of blending out eye shadow and it is a good staple brush to have. However, my absolute favorite brush of this type is the Sonia Kashuk one so that’s the one I reach for the most.

Chisel Shadow

This comparison might be a little unfair because the MAC 239 is my favorite brush ever…except for maybe the MAC 187. This brush didn’t do such a great job of picking up the product, and I got tons of fallout. I think that it worked a lot better with creme products so I will stick with those.

Detail Liner

Here it is compared to the Bare Escentuals eyeliner brush. To be honest, I don’t really have much to say about either of these brushes because I don’t like to wear gel or cream eyeliners and this is what these brushes are used for. I tried using the Crown Detail Liner with a cream liner and it worked well except that it didn’t give me a very fine line because the bristles still felt kind of fluffy.

Overall, these brushes are ok. I think it’s a decent set for someone that’s just starting out with make up or if you just want a set that you can easily travel with. These brushes are synthetic and vegan friendly which I know is important to a lot of you. This set can be purchased here for $27.95 and it looks like there is 10% off code on the Crown website as well. Let me know if you’ve tried any of these brushes in the past. Do you have any favorite brushes? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Mentality Gumdrop

Posted on 9 December, 20139 December, 2013 by Cynthia

I had a super hard time waking up this morning mostly because I had such a strange night. I was basically tossing and turning because of some crazy dreams I was having. Sometimes I like that I have such an active imagination, but other times I just feel like I can never get a good night’s rest. Today I found out that one of my co-workers does personal training so I’m going to start training with him a few times a week after work so he can get my big butt in gear. I always need that extra push to get me going and having a trainer has always been something that really helps me. The last time I had a trainer, it was crazy expensive through 24-Hour Fitness, so I am excited that he has very reasonable rates. In addition, another one of my co-workers will be training as well so now I’ll have a gym buddy! Fun times. Speaking of fun times, I have a super gorgeous polish to share with you today: Mentality Gumdrop!

Mentality is a brand that I love to keep a close eye on because they are always coming up with amazing polishes and collections. Gumdrop is part of their Candy Jelly Holos Collection which I am absolutely obsessed with. There are 3 other colors that I plan on ordering: Pastille, Sourball and Hard Candy. The holo effect on this line is not super strong but in certain lights, you can see some of the linear effect. The color is so outrageously vibrant even though the polish is a little thin. Despite being slightly sheer, the color builds up nicely. My swatches show 3 thin coats but 2 thick coats would probably be enough.

And because I’ve become a stamping fool as of late, I used an image from Winstonia plate W112 along with Konad’s black special polish for this design. I really like how this looks and I got a lot of compliments today!

I’m hoping that I can get some rest tonight so I don’t feel like death tomorrow morning. Since I like my nails so much, I’m going to try to keep this mani for at least 2-3 days. What do you think of this design? Have you tried any Mentality polishes? If you haven’t, I recommend that you give them a try because they are great quality and are very reasonably priced. Anyway, let me know what you think of this mani–I’d love to hear what you think. Thanks for the visit, and I will talk to you soon!

Illamasqua Poke

Posted on 7 December, 20137 December, 2013 by Cynthia

Lately I have been really good about not spending money on polish. Ok, that is a lie because I recently purchased Black Sugar and a new Inglot polish to try out. However, I haven’t bought anything in about 2 and a half weeks which is kind of a miracle when it comes to my polish spending. To be honest, I started feeling very irresponsible about my polish spending because WHEN AM I GOING TO USE UP ALL THIS POLISH? WHEN?! I know this type of rational thinking flies out the window once a new collection comes out, so let me indulge my fleeting moment of clarity. Since I haven’t bought anything new, I decided to rummage through my melmers for one of my many untrieds. I focused on the drawer that houses all of my Illamasquas because it’s been a while since I played with those. The polish I have for you today is Illamasqua Poke; let’s take a look at it, shall we?

Illamasqua Poke is a purple lover’s wet dream. Seriously. Just look at it. I find the end result completely breathtaking, but I am sad to report that I didn’t find this polish as easy to work with as many people have mentioned. I felt that it went on uneven in a strange way so I had to apply a very thick second coat to even it out and get full coverage. I was expecting a lovely and shiny finish, but it dried a little on the dull side. I just can’t get over how bright this color is and how gorgeous that shimmer looks!

And here is a picture of peanut. He came for a visit yesterday but was a little fussy because he had been out and about all day. He refused to look at me while I took this picture because he was too distracted by the television. He is getting so big! In no time at all, he will be running around wreaking havoc. I can’t wait!

I don’t have much to do this weekend so I’m probably just going to bum around and maybe go Christmas shopping. I am going to try very hard not to buy polish!! What do you think about this polish? Do you like it as much as I do? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

China Glaze I’m Not Lion

Posted on 5 December, 2013 by Cynthia

Brrrrr it’s cold today! We don’t get to say that very often in SoCal so I’m really enjoying the cooler temps and having to bundle up like a tamal. Things have been a little disjointed chez moi, so I that has put me off my usual swatching and posting schedule. Work has been a little off as well, but in a good way, and there have been some major improvements in my work situation so that has put me in a better frame of mind. I haven’t felt much like posting and blogging lately so last night I decided to pull out my stamping plates to see if I got excited by revisiting my first nail art love. Once I picked out an image that I wanted to use, I then had to pick out a polish so I went with China Glaze I’m Not Lion.

One of the beauties from last year’s Fall Collection, On Safari, China Glaze I’m Not Lion is a gorgeous gold holographic fine glitter that offers full coverage with two coats. My lighting doesn’t show the holo beauty of this polish, but believe me: it’s there.

I then stamped the honeycomb image from Winstonia plate W113 with Konad’s special black polish. I just love the contrast here!

What do you think of this mani? I hope you like at as much as I do. So what have you been up to lately? I feel like I haven’t been doing much online lately so I’m woefully behind on reading blogs and commenting. Ultimately, I think I really need this break from blogging EVERY DAY because I’m enjoying just doing my nails when I feel like it without worrying about pictures and all that other stuff. People at work already know me as the crazy nail lady, but most of them seem curious about my hobby so it’s always nice to talk nails…even with the guys. Well, I hope you continue to stop by despite my sporadic posting. I’m sure that this nice break will help refresh and re-energize me for the new year! Have a great rest of your day, and I will talk to you soon!

Tom Ford Black Sugar

Posted on 29 November, 201329 November, 2013 by Cynthia

If you’re reading this, it appears that you have survived the gluttonfest known as Thanksgiving. I had a pretty uneventful day with the fam which involved eating, talking, eating, playing with my nephew, eating, watching movies and finally eating some more. Did I mention we ate a lot? Since I haven’t been playing with nail polish much lately, I was super excited to finally get to try out and share Tom Ford Black Sugar with you. Let’s take a look, shall we?

What can I say about Tom Ford Black Sugar? It looks creamy and glossy like melted milk chocolate…and that’s all the nice things I have to say about it. I feel thoroughly deceived by this polish. Do you remember how much I pined for it? I went to the mall about 4 separate times just to look for this polish and came home empty-handed every time. I think that this made me want it even more. This whole thing reminds me of James. James was this cute guy in my American Literature class who had this quiet and mysterious allure. Maybe it was the way he wore his Chuck Taylors or the way he looked at me when I presented my paper comparing the heroines of Jean Anouilh’s Antigone and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening…I was intrigued by his perceived intelligence and his nerdy aloofness. I admired him from afar until we ran into each other at the student union and we had lunch together. Let me tell you that after spending an hour with him, I wanted to swallow poison just to get away from him. He wasn’t interesting at all…in fact he was dull and disappointing. Anyway, this is how I feel about about Black Sugar: thoroughly disappointed and bamboozled.The formula is…not good. It appeared thick, but it was very streaky and would not apply smoothly. I decided to use thin coats and build it up but after 3 coats, I still didn’t think it looked good. I applied a 4th and that seemed to smooth it out enough and give me full coverage. The beautiful shimmer that you see in the bottle completely disappears on the nail and can only be seen at certain angles…in the sunlight. I haven’t had such a disappointing polish experience in a long time, so let me take a moment to swallow down this thirty-two dollar bitter pill.

Besides the polish disappointment, I have had a pretty awesome week. I’ll have 4 days off this week so I’m enjoying being absolutely lazy. It feels delicious. I had a really great time with my family yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed spending time with our little peanut. He is getting so big!

Isn’t he just the cutest little thing ever?? I know it looks posed, but he totally did this on his own. I am grateful for so many things in my life…even the ones that aren’t “perfect.” I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving and that you enjoy the rest of your weekend.

LCN Homecoming Collection – Winter 2013

Posted on 25 November, 2013 by Cynthia

Let the Thanksgiving gluttony begin! Today we had a Thanksgiving luncheon at work and we stuffed our faces with trip tip, delicious carb-loaded sides and way too many desserts. Whatever happened to my diet, you ask? Erm…what diet? Anyway, it was fun to fart around with my colleagues for a few hours today. As I’m getting ready for Thursday’s cook-a-thon (I swear I wrote cock-a-thon like 4 times), I have a short but sweet collection to share with you: the LCN Homecoming Collection for Winter 2013.

Fist up we have LCN Knitting Wool. This is a mild creamy yellow that applies a little streaky but it builds up nicely. I always expect streak city with these types of colors so I was pleasantly surprised that it looked good with two coats.

I love all the gorgeous and inky blues that have come out this Fall/Winter, so LCN Home Sweet Home is definitely a great color to add to your collection. This color is so pigmented that it could almost be a one coater but I think it does need that second coat. It dries super glossy and best of all: it doesn’t stain!

LCN Chocolate Fudge made me a little hungry. This looks so delicious! It’s a very rich brown that fits in well with the season. The formula was very pigmented and super buttery.

And lastly we have LCN Berry Punch. It’s a pretty magenta shimmer that has some duochrome type of effect when you look at the bottle. To be honest, I wasn’t that excited about this color, but it is pretty.

Overall, I find this collection to be nice but a little uninspired. The colors aren’t really exciting, but the formula on all of these is pretty fantastic which is what I have come to expect from LCN. Each polish in the LCN Homecoming Collection retails for $7.50 and they are available now at the LCN Boutique. Be sure to follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to stay up to date on all of their announcements. Are you over these Winter collections? Let me know what you think!

How The Hunger Games Ruined My Night

Posted on 24 November, 2013 by Cynthia

Ok, that title is a little misleading because I ruined my own night by deciding to try and catch this movie on opening night and thinking there wouldn’t be any ridiculous lines to contend with. Yep, I’m a dumbass. I am a HUGE Hunger Games fan (read the trilogy twice), and I love Jennifer Lawrence so of course I was pumped when the new movie premiered. I made plans with my friend to go watch it Friday night, but we didn’t take into consideration the following facts:

1)      Everyone and their grandmother wanted to watch the movie at the same time.
2)      If you want a ticket, buy it online or show up early.
3)      There will be long lines no matter what time you show up. Long, long lines.

The place we went to was so busy that the parking structure was completely full so we were forced to valet park. Fine, whatever. I was so irritated about the lines (I know, I’m unreasonable), that I decided that we should leave and go to another theater. Notice the lack of logic here. Did I think that another theater would magically not have any lines on opening night? Well, you can pretty much guess what greeted us when we got to the other theater. I was just irritated so I decided that we wouldn’t watch the movie that night so I suggested we go get dinner. Since it was pretty chilly that night, I wanted soup—clam chowder to be exact—which was perfect because I spotted a Boudin. I was so looking forward to an amazing sourdough bread bowl filled with delicious clam chowder, but it wasn’t meant to be as they were out of bread bowls. Out of bread bowls? This is Boudin, right?! I was so freaking disappointed and mad, but I contained my furry and instead ordered a Cobb Salad. Bless my friend for putting up with this clusterfuck of a night. Sometimes I am just nuts and completely unreasonable. Despite these setbacks, we did get to see the movie Saturday morning, and I can say that it was totally worth it.

So I know that I haven’t posted in like a week. It’s not like me to not post for such a long time, and I don’t really have an excuse except that I just really didn’t feel like posting or doing my nails. As I am nearing my 2 year anniversary, I am feeling a little burned out but I know it’s just a temporary thing. It could be that there isn’t anything too exciting being released right now; a lot of the Winter and Holiday collections are out so now we have to wait for Spring Collections to start coming out before I get all excited again. In the meantime, I have still been obsessing over products and have spent way too much on stuff I don’t NEED but desperately wanted. Let me show you a few of the items I picked up recently that have definitely raised my blood pressure a little bit:

LUSH Sexy Peel

LUSH Lemony Flutter

Inglot #992

Tom Ford Black Sugar

Oh and here is a bonus picture of my nephew. Yesterday he was 2 weeks old–man how time flies! OmgIjustwanttoeathimupheissocute! Seriously. I know he’s my nephew so I guess I’m a little biased, but that little face is to die for. He is such a good baby too and likes being in his car seat.

I’ll be talking about the products I posted above in more depth when I review them later on. At this point I’m upset that I spent so much on these items and curse the day I stepped into a Lush store because I now want everything they make—but my wallet disagrees. Other than random purchases, I’ve just been laying low blogwise. I have a bunch of posts lined up…well, at least the pictures are done but I’ve been too lazy to write them up. I’ll probably get a few posts up next week since I’ll have THREE WHOLE DAYS OFF from work because of Thanksgiving. I’m going to live it up!!!

What have you been up to?

Sation Dating The Duke

Posted on 17 November, 2013 by Cynthia

Lately I’ve had tons of stomach issues. I had my gallbladder removed in 2007, and I don’t think that my stomach and digestive system has ever been the same. I have noticed that the blander my diet is, the better I feel which really sucks because now that my parents are visiting, I am eating a lot of spicy food. It’s oh so delicious, but it’s killing my stomach. Sadness. Since Thanksgiving is right around the corner, I am going to work on my diet and also get back into the gym. I’ve been going sporadically, but I really want to get a nice routine going. I’ve been feeling especially fat and disgusting lately so I need to stick better to the changes I have made. I have lost a few pounds (nothing too excited about yet), but I just want to feel better and no so tired and lethargic. I do hope that Thanksgiving—the time of decadent gluttony—doesn’t completely derail all my best efforts. I finally did some stamping last night and it felt good to do that again, but I’ll be sharing that mani with you tomorrow. What I do have for you today is a swatch of a pretty color I got a few months ago: Sation Dating The Duke. Let’s take a look at it!

Sation Dating The Duke is a polish from the Miss Antoinette Collection that came out this last Spring. It’s such a fun cyan hue and I definitely agree that it’s a perfect spring color. It looks a little muted in my pictures because of my lighting, but it’s definitely bright. I didn’t have any issues with the formula as it was thick and pretty easy to work with. I applied 2 coats for my swatches and that worked out just fine.

I haven’t heard anything about any holiday Sation collection so I’m excited to see what they put out. I always find their collections to be really fun and I can’t complain about the awesome formula and great price point. So what have you been up to this weekend? Since I had to work early this morning, I’m a little grumpy, but I’ll get over it…maybe. I hope you’re doing well, and we’ll talk soon!

Nanacoco French Macaron

Posted on 16 November, 201317 November, 2013 by Cynthia

How’s your Saturday going? I’ve had a pretty darn lazy day, and it suits me just fine because we all need lazy days, right? I was looking through my “to swatch” box, and I decided to give this polish a whirl. I had never heard of Nanacoco until recently so I picked this one up to try out before purchasing a buttload of them.Nanacoco French Macaron has a definite indie feel to it because of the milky base with various glitters. It was just a matter of time before mainstream brands got the picture and started producing these types of polishes.

Here is a macro shot of the polish. Doesn’t it seem promising? Let’s move on to the swatches.

If Kleancolor had an evil twin, it would be Nanacoco. Sweet baby Jesus on rollerskates, this polish smells like Satan’s fermented pit sweat. I am sensitive to some scents and odors, but I do like the smell of nail polish. I love the sound of the cap as it unscrews and that strong chemical smell that fills my nostrils and kills a couple of brain cells. However, this polish made me want to douse myself in holy water to rid myself of the demonic smell. Ok, maybe I am exaggerating…just a bit. Once I got past the smell, I proceeded to apply it. And then I did get on my knees to pray for forgiveness. I must have done something truly horrible in life to deserve such a polish: stinky, goopy, thick and unmanageable. I applied three coats of the polish to get full coverage, and smoothed it out with a generous coat of Seche Vite.

Sorry, Nanacoco…unless the smell on this is a fluke, I won’t even be looking in your general direction the next time I see you at my beauty supply haunts. I picked this polish up during one of my visits to the much revered polish warehouse, but I noticed that another beauty supply I frequent is now carrying them. I don’t remember exactly how much I paid for this, but it might have been about $2…definitely under $3. I wish I could get my $2 back. I wish I could get back the nostril hairs that this polish singed off with its demonic odor. Alas, this is what us polish fiends have to go through in the name of polish exploration. I will continue to sacrifice myself to bring you the best and worst of the polish world–somebody has got to do it. Have you been unfortunate enough to get a whiff of these polishes? Am I the only one who feels this way about them? Are you willing to have the odor of Satan’s pit juice on your nails if the polish is interesting enough? Anyway, let me know! I am VERY curious to hear your thoughts on this. Talk to you soon!

Dare To Wear Kiss The Rain

Posted on 15 November, 2013 by Cynthia

Oh, hai there! Yes, I’m still around. I know I’ve still been posting regularly, but I feel that I’ve been kind of absent. I haven’t really been playing much with polish–it’s like I lost my polish boner, but my Viagra kicked in when I decided to swatch Dare To Wear Kiss The Rain. Ahhh…Kiss The Rain. Do you guys remember that Billie Myers song from the late 90’s?

I get so nostalgic when I hear old 90’s songs because this song came out right around the time I graduated from high school. My first year of college was kind of a strange experience–but in a good way. Anyway, let’s get back to the polish! Let me show you the beauty that brought me back to my senses.

Dare To Wear Kiss the Rain is a beautiful steel blue-gray with scattered holographic glitter. The formula feels a little thin, but it builds up very easily. I applied 3 thin coats for my swatches, but I think I could have gotten away with two coats. The polish dries rather dull and still doesn’t look super shiny after a coat of Seche Vite. I decided to change my lighting up a bit so you could see the beautiful holo.

Now you can really see the holo, right?! This is pretty close to what it looks like in sunlight. Holy Fish Jesus, this is pretty!

So…whatdaya think? Isn’t it beautiful? I am soooo obsessed with finding older and unique Dare To Wear polishes so I’m going to have to make a trek out to my polish warehouse to see what else I can discover amongst the ruins of collections of yore. Anyway, I’m going to cut this short because I’m about to go out with a friend so we can catch up. I need to get out tonight! Thanks so much for stopping by today!