Of Life and Lacquer

Jindie Nails Summer Chic Collection 2013

Posted on 5 July, 2013 by Cynthia

Friday is here! I’m a little jealous that most of you who are in the US are enjoying an extra long weekend due to the 4th of July holiday. Unfortunately, I worked today and will work tomorrow so poo to this company that doesn’t respect holidays. Anyway, I can be bitter about it but it won’t do me any good so I’ll just keep amusing myself with pretty polishes. Today I’m super excited to be showing you 3 of the 5 polishes that are part of the Jindie Nails Summer Chic Collection!

Hex On The Beach is one of those white crelly polishes that Jen does so well! I felt this one was a little difficult to work with because of the larger glitters. I had a hard time applying the glitter evenly until I added a few drops of thinner and stored the bottle upside down for a few minutes. I applied 3 coats here to get an even look on the milky base.

Quit Staring At My Melons! is a glitter topper extraordinaire. I kept thinking of cantaloupes when I saw this polish which is why I decided to go with a cantaloupe-colored polish. Now I’m obsessed with trying this out on a light green like the flesh of a honeydew melon. The glitter was super easy to apply and I got a nice even glitter distribution with one coat.

Don’t Get Citrus Twisted is my absolute favorite polish from this collection. In fact, it might just be my favorite Summer polish of 2013. I love the combination of the bright pastel green base, yellow, pink and green glitter. I swear I am absolutely obsessed with this polish. I applied 2 thick-ish coats here, and I felt the base was very pigmented and the glitter was easy to apply. Seriously–if there is one gorgeous summer polish that you must get, it’s this one.

The other two colors that I am missing from this collection are That Purple Ish and Betty’s Fetti Milkshake, and I will probably end up picking them up since I’m such a polish hoarder. I have a couple other Jindie babies to show you next week, and also get ready for a Jindie Nails giveaway coming soon. To keep up with Jindie Nails news, make sure that you follow Jen at the following:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JindieNails

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JindieNails

Website: http://jindienails.com/

So, what do you think about these pretties? Are you a Jindie nails fanatic? Which is your favorite from the 3 polishes I shared with you today? I hope you’re staying cool–I’ll talk to you soon!

Disclosure: I purchased Don’t Get Citrus Twisted and Hex On The Beach. Quit Staring At My Melons! was provided for review.

Incoco Love Liberty Nail Appliqués – Happy 4th Of July!

Posted on 4 July, 2013 by Cynthia

Happy 4th of July to all my USA peeps! I hope that you are all having a great time and enjoying the day with your family and friends. As for me, I decided to do absolutely nothing. Since I have to go to work tomorrow, I can’t really stay up late so I’m basically being a bum at home. I went out to dinner with my brothers and my sister-in-law last night so we got a chance to catch up and have some family time. I hadn’t seen my sil in a while and I can totally see her preggo belly now. Awww! I’m so excited about them having a baby. Although he isn’t due until November, I already find myself looking at little boy clothes and toys. I’m gonna be a kick-ass crazy aunt! Since I’m just laying low today, I’ve been playing with my polish storage stuff because I bought 2 more melmers last week. Can you believe I outgrew 3 melmers already? In order to get ready for the 4th of July, I decided to try out these awesome Incoco Love Liberty Nail Appliqués that I recently received for review. Let’s take a look at them:

This is the package of nail appliqués. It comes with 16 strips of various sizes so that you can find your perfect size. They also come with a file and a cuticle stick to help with application.

The instructions are very clear and I had absolutely no problem with application after reading these over.

This is the pack of appliqués. As you can tell, there are a lot of different sizes so you shouldn’t have any problem finding the best size for your nails.

These nail strips are pretty cool. They were super easy to apply, and I can see these being a busy girl’s best friend. Since my nails are pretty wide and curved, I think I underestimated the size I needed for each nail because the appliqués didn’t quite cover my whole nail on the sides–but it isn’t super noticeable. So far these are wearing really well especially since I’ve been doing dishes and other housework without any issues. One thing I do have to work on is making sure that I don’t damage the tips when I am filing the excess off. These are supposed to last for up to 14 days, but I don’t think I’ve ever worn a manicure for 14 days–4 days tops!

Overall, I’m quite pleased with these. The design is really cute and they have TONS of other designs to choose from. I would not really used the solid color appliqués because I can get that look easily with just nail polish, but I think that the intricate designs are totally worth it if you’re going to use them for a special occasion and plan to leave them on for a while. To check out all the available colors and designs, you can go to the Incoco website. To keep up with Incoco news, you can check them out here:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/incoco

Twitter: https://twitter.com/incoco

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/incoco/

Have you tried any of these Incoco appliqués? What are your thoughts on the longevity of these? Thanks so much for stopping by today and once again, I hope you’re having a great 4th!

Bettina Nail Enamel – Beautiful Cremes

Posted on 2 July, 20132 July, 2013 by Cynthia

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to order a bunch of Bettina polishes. Nine polishes, to be exact, and I learned a very important lesson: always google swatches before you order nail polish online. I ordered the whole Bettina Picnic collection sight unseen and I got an unpleasant surprised: they were all shimmers when I thought I was ordering cremes. Don’t get me wrong, they are pretty, but I really had my heart set on cremes since that is my favorite finish. Don’t worry, though: someone already bought the whole collection from me so they will be getting a lot of love in another home. So I ended up with just 3 of the original 9 polishes but don’t feel bad for me because they are the most amazingly creamy and delicious creams my tan chubby fingers have gotten a hold of in a really long time. Let me show you what I’m talking about.

Grape

Ocean

Peppermint

I was not lying when I said that these three polishes are creme perfection. Just look at them!! They are shiny and smooth and oh so pretty. I can never resist a beautiful creme and the formula on these babies is just amazing. I will forever be a Bettina fan and I can’t wait to get my hands on more of these pretties. For those of you who may be interested, you can order Bettina polishes directly from their authorized US Distributor: Rosame Distributors. Each polish retails for $3.59 and there is a minimum order of 6 bottles but no more than 12. You can check out all the colors at www.bettinacosmetics.com and then you can email Janet at janetmrosado@gmail.com with your choices and she will send you a Paypal invoice. Super easy and super fast!

I’m super happy that I have two days off where I can just be lazy and not have to worry about my horrible job. So after work, my brother and I decided to go to Target to purchase some stuff we needed. Since it was too hot to cook, I ended up picking up this massive sandwich for dinner. This meat behemoth is a Torta Cubana:

This is only HALF of the torta and I only ate half of this before I wanted to die from meat overload. This thing had milanesa (breaded/fried steak), chorizo and ham along with all the various topping. Holy crap this is the King of Sandwiches. It made me think of how much Joey liked sandwiches on Friends which then in turn reminds me of one of my favorite episodes:

LMAO!!! I love how he was trying to shield his sandwich from the car backfire that they initially thought was a gunshot. I miss this show!

Well, I hope you’ve had a nice day today. In case you don’t follow me on FB, I am giving away a bottle of Morgan Taylor Lacquer Nautically Inclined. In order to enter, just go to my post for Nautically Inclined here and leave a comment. I will choose a winner on Friday! Good luck and thanks for stopping by today.

Contrary Polish Ain’t That A Beach Trio

Posted on 1 July, 20131 July, 2013 by Cynthia

Great Odin’s raven, it’s hot and muggy today–the worst combination.

Milk was definitely a bad choice.

I literally started sweating as soon as I walked out of the office and I kind of wanted to run back into the building. Holy hell, I wanted to go back into the miserable building where I work?! I guess it really is that hot. Besided the disgusting heat, I am still freaking sick! Ugh…I can’t take this anymore. I can’t afford to miss work anymore and I’m pretty sure they’re going to fire me if I keep missing work. It’s not like I’m just being an asshole and deciding to call in sick for no good reason, but I still can’t continue to call in sick even though I am sick. Anyway, I guess I’ll just have to deal with it. Despite the disgusting heat, I am super excited about the wonderful polishes that I am about to show you. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but this is my first Contrary Polish purchase. WHAAAAAAAAAT? I know what you’re thinking. I have no excuse except to say that I just get so overwhelmed with all the gorgeous indie polishes out there that I just don’t even know where to start. When I first saw swatches for the Contrary Polish Ain’t That A Beach Trio, I kind of went nuts for them. Being that it’s my first experience with Contrary Polish, I decided to order minis. Let me show you how gorgeous these are:

Sand is such an awesome neutral. Seriously….look at it! I found that the formula was nice but somewhat thin. I think I also experienced some problems with application because the brush on this polish was useless. It was like twisted and wonky so it really didn’t promote easy application. What a bummer. Is it just me or do mini bottles always have the worst brushes? Anyway, I still love this polish despite the craptacular brush. I applied 3 coats for the swatches above.

When I applied Sky, I think I heard the angels singing. What an incredibly gorgeous blue! Once again, the brush was a pain in the ass on this bottle so the application was somewhat problematic. The formula was nice and pigmented and I applied 3 thin coats. I suspect that two regular coats would have been enough if I had a workable brush.

I think that Surf is my favorite of the bunch but not by much since I love all three. The brush on this bottle seemed normal and flat so I don’t have anything bad to say about it. I just can’t get over how gorgeous this polish is. That color, that shimmer….ghhhaaaaaaaaaa! If there is one polish from this collection that you must get….IT’S ALL THREE OF THEM.

So what do you think of this lovely trio? Have you tried any other Contrary Polish beauties? If you’re interested in purchasing some minis, Carrie, the genius behind Contrary Polish, sells them on her blog on Fridays. You can check them out here. If you want to purchase a full size bottle, you can check at the following stockists: Llarowe, Femme Fatale Cosmetics and Shoppe Eclecticco.

Anyway, I hope I’ve created a brand new circle of enabling. I’m sorry and you’re welcome! Thanks for stopping by today and stay cool!

P.S. What do you think of the new site design? I’m not done with it yet. I think I need a nice header and maybe a cool background or something.

OPI Avojuice in Violet Orchid

Posted on 29 June, 201329 June, 2013 by Cynthia

This is my fourth day dealing with this miserable summer flu and I think maybe I’m finally starting to improve. My cough is still going full force and this runny nose is even worse, but at least I don’t have a fever and horrible body aches anymore. I’ve missed almost 3 full days of work this week so I’m sure they’re not happy with me, but I just couldn’t continue to go in to work feeling like I was going to pass out. Oh well.

One of the things I constantly get asked about is what I use to keep my hands and nails healthy–especially my cuticles. I will tell you that I am most likely just lucky because I don’t really do too much to maintain my cuticles smooth and moisturized. In fact, I tend to treat my hands pretty roughly and they can definitely get dry, rough and cracked if I don’t at least moisturize. Believe it or not, I was a nail and cuticle biter up until my early 20’s which pretty much had my nails and cuticles in the most disgustingly haggard condition. Once I kicked the habit, I found that moisturizing was my best friend. I try to use cuticle oil every day–especially when I am swatching. I also use thick hand cremes at night, and I am always on the lookout for lotions to use during the day. My big dilemma is finding something that is moisturizing, absorbs quickly and is not super greasy. Well, my friends, I was really happy that I got the chance to try out a new scent in OPI’s Avojuice lotion line: OPI Avojuice in Violet Orchid

I have seen the these OPI Avojuice lotions many times but had never taken the plunge to actually try them out. I am so glad that I did because this lotion is amazing. It is super moisturizing but lightweight so that you don’t feel that residual greasiness from thicker formulas. It literally disappears into your skin leaving it super soft. I do have a problem with it, though: the scent. I am notoriously difficult to please when it comes to scents so this should come as no surprise. It is just too darn sweet smelling for me and the scent lingers forever! I can’t stand super sweet smelling products (or anything that smells like coconut or gardenia, for that matter) because they eventually give me a headache. While I didn’t get a headache from the Violet Orchid scent, it definitely is not for me. I love the performance of the lotion but not the scent so I will be looking for something in this line with a cleaner, fresher scent because I really do love how it makes my hands feel.

Have you tried any OPI Avojuice lotions? Do you have any scents from this line to recommend that are not so sweet? I tend to like “cucumber” or “citrus” type scents so if you know of any, let me know! I’m always looking for great lotions to keep my hands in good shape so I can keep swatching.

OPI Avojuice Skin Quenchers Hand & Body Lotion in Peony & Poppy and Violet Orchid will be available beginning July 2013 at professional salons, including Beauty Brands, Beauty First, Chatters, Dillard’s, jcp Salons, Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, ULTA and ulta.com. Suggested retail price is $7.95 ($9.95 CAN) for each 6.6 fl. oz bottle.

For more information, please call 800-341-9999 or visit www.opi.com. Follow OPI on Twitter @OPI_PRODUCTS and become a Facebook fan

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will catch up with you soon!

Winner Announced: OPI Couture de Minnie Minis

Posted on 28 June, 201329 June, 2013 by Cynthia

Happy Friday everyone. I’m taking a brief moment to let you know who was chosen as the winner of my OPI Couture de Minnie Minis giveaway. Let’s all congratulate Denisse! I have contacted Denisse and she has 24 hours to respond or else I will be choosing a new winner.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A big thanks to everyone who participated. I will be launching another giveaway soon so make sure that you stop by and enter. I’ll keep this brief as I am home sick. I was hoping that I’d feel better by now but it looks like I have the flu. I spent last night in the fetal position moaning and coughing through a raging fever. I usually get the flu once a year but this year I got it in January and now again in June. I hope that will be it for this year.

Anyway, I’ll catch up with you later!

Morgan Taylor Lacquer Nautically Inclined

Posted on 27 June, 20135 July, 2013 by Cynthia

To be honest, I have no idea why I even fussed with my nails today. I don’t know how I made it through work today because I had the worst cough that barely allowed me to do my job. I am now completely exhausted from all the coughing and my body is sore and in pain. Great! Just what I needed: to get sick just as the temperatures are going to be nearing the triple digits in parts of So Cal. Last night I took 3 cups of Nyquil and that KNOCKED ME OUT. I was able to sleep ok last night because of this, but this morning I felt like I got run over by a school bus multiple times. Since I’m apparently missing too many days at work, I dragged my phlegmy, hoarse and feverish self to work…those were 8 hours of pure misery. I don’t think I’m going to put myself through that again so I’m probably going to call in sick tomorrow. What really bites about all this is that I don’t get any sick days so each day I don’t go to work I get my pay docked…that’s going to hurt at the end of the month. I guess that means no crazy polish binges for the next couple of months while I play catch up. This could be a good thing for me! So today as I watched bad daytime tv, I got the itch to do my nails. I don’t know why since I was feeling so craptacular, but I decided to pull out one of my new polishes: Morgan Taylor Lacquer Nautically Inclined.

I know I’ve shown you a few Morgan Taylor polishes before so it will be no surprise to you that I really liked Nautically Inclined! I’ve purchased so many of these blues lately, but this one has a very subtle shimmer throughout so I love how it has that slight difference from the typical creme. I found the formula a little thick so I recommend applying thin coats and letting each one dry before you apply the next. I think I could have gotten away with two regular coats, but I felt 3 thin coats worked for me the best.

I don’t even know how long it has been since I’ve done some stamping. This was one of the first creative nail techniques that I ever used on my blog so I will always have a special place in my heart for stamping. I don’t know about you, but stamping can be really hard so I always wonder why some people are so anti-stamping saying that it’s nail art cheating. This awesome design comes from MASH Plate MASH 44. I used Konad Special black polish for the stamping because I just can’t find a black that is as good as this one.

Well, I hope that you liked this mani. I’m kind of in love with it and don’t want to take it offffffffffffffffffff! I may leave it on for a few days, but I will be trying out some 4th of July Incoco Polish Strips next week. Since my giveaway for the OPI Couture de Minnie Minnies is ending in a few hours, I’ll try to choose a winner tonight–if I haven’t passed out by 9 pm. But don’t fret if you don’t win….I bough two Jindie Nails Jindie-Pendence glitter toppers so I’ll be giving one bottle away next week so make sure you check in! Talk to you soon.

EDIT 7/5/2013: As you may know, I won a bottle of Nautically Inclined from a giveaway on Morgan Taylor’s Facebook page. Since I already have this color, I decided to hold a quick giveaway for the people who are on my FB page. I asked that you come and leave a comment in order to be entered. The people who had already left a comment before I launched this mini-giveaway got two entries because they are my regulars and I love them! (I love you too, don’t worry!) So the winner is…..

YANIRA

I have sent Yanira an email and she has 24 hours to respond or else I will be picking a new winner. Thanks for participating everyone!

Sation Beyond Bubblegum Pink

Posted on 26 June, 201330 June, 2013 by Cynthia

Any time I wear pink–especially super hot pink–I tend to get a lot of compliments. Maybe it’s because neon colors really POP on my dark skin? Either way, I love how hot pink look on me and some of my favorite lipsticks include NARS Funny face, Illamasqua Eurydice and MUFE #36–yep, all eye-searing pink. Yesterday my friend coaxed me out of my sickness coma and we went out to get some lunch and then we went to Michael’s to pick up some melmers. They are currently BOGO Free so how could I resist? You may recall that early this year I had some massive blog sales where I think I probably got rid of close to half my stash–I think I sold over $1,000 in nail polish!!! In 6 months, I think I have pretty much bought back the quantities I sold off and then some! That’s pretty scary and I’m in a delusional frame of mind where I am telling myself that the reason I have acquired so much new polish is because I’ve gotten a lot of them for review. *cue delusional music*

Anyway, today I was working on putting together my two new melmers and also wanted to consider a new way of organizing my stash. Well, I saw this pretty pink polish and couldn’t resist taking it out for a spin. Sation Beyond Bubblegum Pink is a beautiful bubbleyum-bubblegum pink with a lot of shimmer in it which makes it look a little frosty. Let me show you what I’m talking about:

This polish so full of shimmer that it does have a sort of frosty look to it. It is a very bright pink and it acts like a neon in that it dries to a satiny finish. I applied 3 thin coats for the swatches above and did not top coat it.

Miss & Makeup is a super fun glitter topper from their I Love Miss-self glitter collection. There is something about that shard black glitter that really makes this look unique. It’s a really easy glitter to apply and I didn’t have trouble getting a nice even coat. I did notice that I had to shake it up real well because the glitter in the bottle had settled.

So what do you think of this pink polish? Is it something that you would wear? How do you feel about bright pink polish and make-up in general? I am still super sick so I’m not looking forward to going to work tomorrow. My throat is bugging me a lot and my cough is really dry and painful. I am probably going to have to drink some hot tea at work tomorrow to soothe my throat and be able to get through work. Why did I have to get sick just as the summer season is starting? It’s supposed to get outrageously hot in the next few days so I’m dreading it big time. Thanks for catching up with me today, and I’ll talk to you soon!

P.S. Have you entered my giveaway for the OPI Couture de Minnie minis? Click on the image below to be taken to the giveaway post!

Jessica Bright Wings Collection

Posted on 25 June, 201316 September, 2013 by Cynthia

I’m not feeling too well today. In fact, I came home sick because I was coughing so much that I could barely concentrate on my work and calls. The other night I had this weird gurgling and wheezing sound coming from my chest when I was trying to sleep: I actually woke myself up with the weird noises I was making! Anyway, I hope that resting up today and tomorrow will help me get better because I’ve been missing work too much lately. I’m so bitter about not having health insurance right now because this just seems to be a rotating sickness that keeps coming back, and I just can’t afford it! This could potentially affect my polish budget! Haha!

As some of you may know, I am a total Jessica fan so I’m always super excited when they put out their new collections. Imagine my delight when I saw their new summer collection at my local beauty supply store! Saweeeeeeeeeet! Of course I picked up every color in the 6 piece collection which I am sharing with you today. This is the Jessica Bright Wings Collection:

Fanciful Flight

Fierce Flyer

Floating Beauty

Social Butterfly

Nature’s Fairy

Wing Woman

If you follow my blog, you probably know that I cannot resist a beautiful creme polish so I was in creme heaven with this collection. Jessica makes some of the BEST cremes out there and this collection just highlights this even more. All of these polishes are creme perfection: they are buttery, smooth, pigmented and dry super shiny and gorgeous. The only polish that I felt had a somewhat thin formula is Nature’s Fairy, but it built up nicely with 3 coats. All of the other polishes only needed 2 regular coats and I topped them with Seche Vite for extra shine. Let me say this about this collection: the colors aren’t all that original. I am sure I have dupes for almost all of these, but the formula is just so perfectly glossy and smooth that I do not regret picking these up. My two stand-out favorites from this collection are Social Butterfly and Fanciful Flight. I could have done without the red and the orange in this collection, but they are still great colors if you don’t have something similar in your collection

What do you think of this collection? Are you as excited with gorgeous cremes as I am? Do you have any favorites from this collection? Thanks for stopping by today….I think I’m going to go pass out now. Talk to you soon!

The Jessica Bright Wings Collection is available now at www.jessicacosmetics.com and at salons and spas internationally.

Nicole by OPI Tink Collection

Posted on 24 June, 201329 June, 2013 by Cynthia

Hey ladies…and gents? I wonder if any guys read my blog. If they do, they’ve never commented but considering the amount of men that are into wearing nail polish, it wouldn’t surprise me. Sweet baby Jesus it was hard to wake up this morning. Not only is it Monday, but I also couldn’t fall asleep last night so I ended up going to bed after 10:00 pm which means that waking up at 3:30 am would be horrific. I actually didn’t have that hard of a time getting out of bed because I had the most horrid dream ever. I was dreaming that one of my best friends and I were taking a trip to Russia. We were on the plane and she decided we should fly in first class so we upgraded and moved to the front of the plane. The weird part was that there was no real cockpit door, we could see into the cockpit and therefore look out their window. Well, we were going down the runway gaining speed so we could take off. All of a sudden, another plane was taxing right in front of us and crossing our path. In my dream I felt this loud boom and a lot of heat. I felt like I was thrown up in the air and everything went black and I could hear people screaming. I felt like I was floating and then I things started to come back into focus and I was suddenly outside falling onto runway in the snow. Apparently we were making a layover in some Eastern European country in the middle of winter. Considering I used to work for 2 major airlines, I was never afraid of flying. In fact, being on the airplane was one of the favorite parts of my job (didn’t hurt that I always got to travel in first/business!) but, it’s like now I have this irrational fear of flying. The last time I was on an airplane, it was for a work trip and I had to like load up with a few drinks to even make it on the plane. I’m such a spaz. It was a really bad dream, and I was so grateful to wake up. However, I felt terribly uneasy about my dream all day. I haven’t started back up on my Prozac yet, but these are the kinds of dreams I have when I’m on my meds…EVERY SINGLE DAY. Eeeek…I hate that.

Anyway, now that I’ve told you about my terrible dreams, I am going to share with you the Nicole by OPI Tink Collection which is a new and limited edition collection inspired by Disney’s Tinker Bell.

Tink’s In The Pink – This happy fuchsia makes me, well…happy!

Sweet On Pete – This lime green is the “key” to Pete’s heart!

Half Charming Half Alarming – This coral is perfect when you’re feeling unpredictable

Fairy Fairy Quite Contrary – Not, it’s NOT orange…it’s tangerine. So there!

After swatching this collection, I’ve got to say that the formula on all four polishes is fantastic. I had zero issues with application and they all covered very well with two regular coats of polish. All of my swatches are two coats of polish plus a coat of Seche Vite. While these colors aren’t exactly groundbreaking, they are nice staple colors that are worth picking up if you don’t have them. My favorite color is Sweet On Pete because I don’t have a dupe for this in my collection as far as I can tell. It’s one of those weird and pretty/ugly colors that kind of draw me in. I also wanted to mention that I am missing two of the polishes: Pixie Glitter and How Fairy Nice Of You!

Pixie Glitter – This clear gloss is sprinkled with tiny rainbows.

How Fairy Nice of You! – This sweet pixie pink gives me wings

This limited edition collection will be available July 1, 2013 for $7.99 each at select Walgreens locations nationwide. For more information, visit nicolebyopi.com. Follow Nicole by OPI on Twitter @NicoleByOPI and become a Facebook fan!

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you’re having a nice Monday. Let me know if you’re a fan of Tinker Bell and/or all things Disney. I’ll leave you with a picture of my gluttony….ceviche and a giant Tecate. I feel kind of ghetto with that giant beer but it was in my fridge and Guinness doesn’t really go with ceviche tostadas. Ha!