Of Life and Lacquer

Color Club Fiesta Collection For Spring 2013

Posted on 13 March, 2013 by Cynthia

Happy Wednesday everyone! I am always happy when Wednesday rolls around because it’s my day off during the week, and I get to sleep in. Why does sleeping in feel so delicious? I was planning on getting up somewhat early to get some stuff done, and of course I ended up waking up at 9:00. There go my plans of rising early, but it was worth it. I felt like angels woke me up this morning. For today’s post, I am busting out my 4 picks from the Color Club Fiesta Collection for Spring 2013. Here we go!

I always loved watching Speedy Gonzales cartoons when I was a kid and I kept thinking about them when I was swatching the Fiesta collection. I’m weird, right?

When I saw this barbie doll/bubblegum pink, I wanted to try it out immediately. Flamingo is such a bright and fun color and I absolutely loved how much tanner it made my hands look. The formula on this one was a little streaky in the beginning but it was fine after the second coat.

I’ve been loving all the great one coat reds that have been coming out and Mamba is no exception. If you’re looking for a gorgeous and creamy red that will look perfect after one coat, you should pick this baby up. The formula is extremely pigmented, smooth and just glossy. You won’t regret this purchase if you love red polishes.

Growing up in Orange County, CA–just 10 minutes from the beach–the first thing I thought of when I saw Endless Summer, is the surfing movie. I’m not a surfer or anything like that (stop laughing), but I really love that movie. Anyway, this is another gorgeous, bright blue. It is important to note that this polish dries to a satin finish, but I went ahead and applied a shiny top coat. I seem to have one of these colors from every brand now–it’s still one of my favorite hues to wear year-round.

I’ve got to be hones: Wild Cactus is the color I was most excited about–especially after seeing it on Frosso’s blog. This color is right on trend since the Pantone Color Of The Year is Emerald. This polish is super duper pigmented so I was very careful not to get any on my skin–especially since Frosso had warned me that it stained her skin. I am happy to report that I didn’t get ANY staining on my skin nor on my nails. YAY!

So there you have it, my fellow lacquerheads. Let me know what you think of these colors. Will you be getting any of these? I also picked up a couple of new Halo Hues so I’ll be swatching those soon. In case you’re interested, I’ve added some of these polishes to my blog sale so check it out! Thanks for stopping by today, and I’ll talk to you soon!

Venique Goes Hollywood Collection

Posted on 12 March, 2013 by Cynthia

Happy Tuesday everyone. I am off tomorrow so I’m really looking forward to sleeping in which means that I’ll be getting out of bed at 6 am. WOOOOOT! hahaha Do you even know how horrible it is to have to get up at 3:30 am? No? You’re lucky! I have been such a turd about getting up my posts in a timely manner, and I am finally catching up. Today I have the Venique Goes Hollywood Collection to share with you. Before I even get into it, I have to admit one thing: I don’t like metallics. I just don’t know what is about metallic finish polishes, but I just can’t appreciate them. I tried to put all my metallic prejudice aside before I started swatching this collection so let’s take a look at the polishes…

The formula for all of these polishes is identical so I’ll talk about that at the end. I also want to mention that I am missing one polish from this collection which is the silver metallic called Reels Of Fun.

Venique Golden Age Of Beauty

Venique Diamond Kisses

Venique Down The Carpet

Venique Acting Is Living

Venique Oceans Of Pearls (over Acting Is Living)

I didn’t think that I would be saying this, but I actually kind of liked these polishes. I don’t find the colors too unique, but they are pretty nonetheless if you like metallic finish polishes. To tell you the truth, I was scared that these would be as difficult to work with as the Essie Mirror Metallics, but the formula was rather easy to work with. However, the brush strokes….OY VEY! I could not find any way to work with these polishes that left me with a brush stroke-free result. Overall, if you like metallics, you should look into these. I haven’t tried using these for stamping but I hope they work!

To learn more about Venique, you can visit them on their website and on their facebook page:

Website: http://veniquenails.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/VeniqueNails

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Let me know what you think of this collection. Do you have a favorite polish finish?

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR firm. For more information, please see my disclosure policy tab here.

Nubar My Sweet Escape Collection Spring 2013

Posted on 11 March, 201323 March, 2013 by Cynthia

Don’t I always start my Monday posts by commenting on how much I hate Mondays? Well, this will be no different. I had a hell of a time waking up this morning because of the damn time change. When my alarm went off at 3:30, I nearly wanted to cry. I also had the most random dream about a guy I haven’t thought about or talked for like 10+ years. You know those people that touch your life in a very significant manner and then things get a little ugly and you decide to walk away out of pure laziness? Yep, the story of my life. I feel like I tend to not want to deal with things when they are challenging out of fear of failure or being hurt. Anyway, it was really strange to have a dream about him but wherever he may be now, I hope he’s happy. Oh my God…I’m such a loser.Let’s move on from the sappiness and focus on the pretty polish, shall we? Today I FINALLY got my act together and I will be sharing my swatches and review of the Nubar My Sweet Escape Collection for Spring 2013. I’ve had these polishes for a few weeks, and I just couldn’t find the time to swatch them all. This Saturday I swatched probably 20+ polishes so I have a good stock of pictures for upcoming posts. Well, here they are! Are you ready for my “perfect little tan fingers?” (One of my readers wrote that in my comments and it made me giggle.)

Am I the only one who has been humming this song the whole time?

Let me just get this out of the way: Resort Yellow is probably the most awesome yellow that I have ever used. Not only is it a true yellow, but it is super opaque and it looked perfect at two coats. I’ve said before that I’ve been completely obsessed with yellow polishes lately and this one just made my cool like Donkey Kong list.

All I can think of when I look at On The Radar is: That is a one spicy meatball. I don’t know why this makes me think of marinara sauce. Is that weird? It’s a cherry tomato color with some orange in it to boot. It’s pretty but it’s not usually a color that makes me get all excited.

I like bright blue polishes. I like From Dusk Till Dawn. That is all. Actually, this one is a little sheer so I felt like I had some bald spots. I have a lot of blues like this one but I still like it.

The Pantone color of the year is emerald so I’m really digging this color right now. Into The Wild is that gorgeous shade of green/emerald that everyone will be rocking this year. I think it’s a little smoky and not as bright as true emerald–more of a gorgeous jade. I’m definitely on board!

I am a little torn about Forbidden Fruit. It’s such a strange looking color, but I kind of really like it. It reminds me a bit of pureed pale yams…or baby food! I actually do like how this color looks on my skintone but I don’t know if it’s a universally flattering color.

Could My New Obsession be my new obsession? It’s so pretty. I just can’t get enough when it comes to blue and turquoise polishes. How many of these do I really need??? I don’t know, but I seem to collect them. Heck, who am I kidding? I collect every color. hahaha

I think that Sour Apple is just kind of strange. It makes me think of Jolly Ranchers. Omg…I use to eat Jolly Ranchers like my life depended on it when I was a kid. Hello, diabetes! The formula on this one was a little thin compared to Resort Yellow. I don’t know if I really like this color

Jaded is my second favorite polish in this collection. It’s beautiful, bright yet smokey. I can see myself wearing this year-round. The formula was pretty good and I only needed two coats.

Since I have some similar colors and bought a few dupes of colors I knew I wouldn’t want to part with, I will be putting up a lot of these polishes up on my blog sale so make sure that you check it out if you’d like to get your hands on any of these colors. Click here for my blog sale page. Also, don’t forget to enter my giveaway for a set of minis from the OPI Oz The Great And Powerful Collection. Click here to enter.

I hope you liked the colors in this collection. I know Nubar isn’t as accessible as other brands, but they are definitely worth tracking down or buying them online. Let me know what you think. Do you have any favorites? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Sation Delete Your Junk Male

Posted on 9 March, 20138 March, 2013 by Cynthia

Today’s post is dedicated to my friend, Nancy, whom I have known since I was 8 or 9 years old. The name of this polish fits perfectly with the advice that I had given her a couple of weeks ago. I hope it makes her smile. Sation Delete Your Junk Male is the only polish from the Miss Antoinette Spring 2013 Collection that I found at my nail place the last time I was on a Sation hunt. I definitely need to go on another hunt because I need the rest of the colors in this collection! So let’s look at my new pretty:

Sation calls this polish an electric cerise red which I feel is fairly accurate. If you love jellies, you will love this polish. It has that glossy and squishy quality to it, but it is also super sheer. I had to apply 4 coats here and I could still see some VNL. I was also a little sad to see that the super pretty pink micro-glitter/shimmer was really hard to see once it was on my nails. You can definitely get a flash of it when you’re out in the sun and it’s glorious but fleeting. Can’t win them all!

I don’t know why I’ve been so bummed out lately. I think that my hate for my job is finally starting to wear me down so today I headed over to Sephora for some polish retail therapy. Since they finally had the speckled Illamasquas, I want to go check them out in person. Once I got there, I went absolutely insane and grabbed a bunch of stuff including 2 Dior polishes: Rosy Bow and Gris Trianon along with all the speckled Illamasquas. While I was standing in line to check out, I looked down at my basket, and I thought to myself: “What the hell are you doing? You’re not rich, bitch!” So I put most of the stuff back. I did however come out with more than I should have but here are my new prized posessions:

These are Superstition, Speckle and Venous. Aren’t they pretty? I’m obsessed with Illamasqua polishes so I can’t wait to try these out–especially Speckle!

There is a lot of stuff that I wanted to write about but frankly, I’m so tired right now. I will leave it for a later post. Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope you have a good weekend. Talk to you soon!

Illamasqua MILF

Posted on 8 March, 20137 March, 2013 by Cynthia

And in my series of inappropriate polish name posts, today I have Illamasqua MILF. You all know that I love my Illamasquas and this one did not disappoint. However, I think that I got a super old bottle that had been at Sephora for eons because the bottle design is a little different AND the polish kind of smelled like poison. Despite all that, I didn’t hesitate to slather it on like nobody’s business.

Isn’t this the creamiest and most lovely mint green polish? The formula was very opaque but also kind of runny which I found very strange for Illamasqua. I actually flooded my cuticle pretty badly on the first nail I painted so I had to be very careful not to get too close with the brush. When I saw this gorgeous green, I immediately thought of blinging it up.

This is Sation Ego-friendly. *pause for ooohs and ahhhhs* I’ve worn this over dark colors, but it looks absolutely breath taking over a lighter color. I’ve been messing with polishes all afternoon, and this is the only combination I’ve actually liked. It’s like St. Patrick’s Day threw up all over my nails.

So I’m keeping this post short and sweet. I hope you liked it, and that you have a great Friday. Thanks for the visit today, and I will talk to you soon!

Sation Candylandia Collection Swatches

Posted on 7 March, 20137 March, 2013 by Cynthia

Today I have some really fun swatches for you from a super fun collection from Miss Professional Nail: Sation Candylandia. I was only able to get my hands on 5 of the 12 shades because my nail place had a very disorganized display. I hope that I can find a few more because there are some really awesome colors that I’d like to eventually pick up. Let me show the swatches before I get carried away and start rambling…

As far as vibrant pinks go, Queenie In A Bottle is perfect. It dries to a satin/rubber finish and seems to be a little thin because you can still see VNL at two coats. While I like rubber finish polishes, I couldn’t resist top coating it. I know I’ve said this before, but there is nothing better than a beautiful glossy creme.

I don’t think that Abbacadazzle will be for everyone. I’ve been super obsessed with yellow polishes lately so I was excited to try this one out. This color reminds me of when I was a kid and I would paint my nails with a yellow highlighter. I actually do like this color quite a bit–if only it wasn’t so sheer! I applied 4 coats here and you can still see right through it. The next time I wear it, I am definitely going to put on some white undies.

Peppermint Pedi is just a traditional red. I don’t have too much to say about it besides noting that the formula is nice and it’s very glossy which I appreciate.

I don’t even know where to start when it comes to Cast A Spill On You. This polish is so gorgeous that I did NOT want to remove it. I’ve been enjoying a lot of blue nail polishes lately and this one just blew me away. Doesn’t this look like it’s glowing from within? Even better, the formula is to die for. You can actually get away with one coat if you apply it carefully. If there is one color that I would recommend that you run out and get NOW, it would be this one.

I think my eyes might be playing a trick on me, but Paint Some Sugar On Me really reminds me of Essie Starry Starry Night The glitter here doesn’t look as silvery and pronounced, but it looks a lot more vibrant in real life. The blue base in this polish is very sheer and jelly-like so I had to apply 3 coats to get this deeper and darker color.

Overall, I am really happy with the colors I picked up and can’t wait to see if I can find the rest of this collection. What do you think of these colors? Do you have a favorite? Let me know. Thanks for stopping by today, and I’ll talk to you soon!

Essie Madison Ave-Hue Collection Spring 2013

Posted on 6 March, 20135 March, 2013 by Cynthia

The new Essie collection for Spring 2013 has landed! I was pretty excited when I found these at one of my nail places so I grabbed them all. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t been excited about any Essie collection for eons. In fact, I think that the last collection I really loved from them was the Bikini So Teeny collection. Let’s take a look at the Essie Madison Ave-Hue Collection, shall we?

Madison Ave-Hue is like a Pepto Bismol explosion on my nails. This polish was a little difficult to deal with because it felt kind of runny but also goopy. I know that sounds weird, but that’s what it felt like. I ended up really liking this color because it has this very pretty shimmer that isn’t very visible in my pictures but you can definitely see it in real life.

I was really excited about Maximillian Strasse Her but the formula was super runny. I don’t know if maybe I needed to shake it up a bit more to mix the polish, but it was way too thin for my liking. I had to apply 4 super thin coats to avoid flooding my cuticles as well. It’s too bad because I really like this type of color.

Avenue Maintain is definitely the winner of this collection. This polish is so incredibly gorgeous and pigmented that you can get away with one coat if you’re careful. This is one of those colors that just screams for attention, and I can see myself wearing this all summer long.

I wasn’t very excited about Hip-Anema when I first saw it. It’s a very nice fiery red-orange crelly, and I always appreciate a great formula which this one has. I love how glossy and shiny this polish is!

Are you getting tired of these bright lilac polishes such as Bond With Whomever? I do continue to appreciate these colors but I don’t think I want to have a million of them. The formula on this was decent, and I got complete coverage at 3 coats.

I am conflicted about Go Ginza. I really want to love it, but I think I would have wanted it to be a little less pink/purple. The formula on this was also a bit difficult and it applied a little streaky which you can probably see in these swatches. I also don’t like that Go Ginza and Bond With Whomever are so close in hue. They obviously are not dupes, but did we really need them both in the same collection?

So what do I think about this collection overall? Well, I really do love Avenue Maintain and that’s about it. hahaha I actually do think this is a very pretty collection but it’s so ho-hum that it feels uninspired. Don’t we all have dupes of these colors even from Essie itself? Eeehh….most of these are going on my blog sale. I’m really interested to hear what you think about this collection. Do you have a favorite color here? Let me know!

Thanks for the visit today, and I hope to see you around here again soon.

Winner Announced: China Glaze Avant Garden Giveaway

Posted on 5 March, 2013 by Cynthia

Hi everyone! Today I have the pleasure to announce the winner of my China Glaze Avant Garden Collection polishes. The winner will be receiving these beauties as soon as she gets back to me.

Now, the winner is…..

Yay Angela! Congratulations on your win. She has24 hours to get back to me or else I will be forced to pick a new winner. A big thanks to everyone for the amazing participation; there were more than 4,000 entries! And in case you missed it, I just launched a new giveaway for a mini set of OPI Oz The Great And Powerful polishes. Click here for swatches of the whole collection and to enter the giveaway.

Thanks for the visit today, and I hope to see you around soon.

OPI Oz The Great And Powerful Collection & Giveaway

Posted on 4 March, 201310 February, 2019 by Cynthia

*************Come check out my blog sale!**************

Hello there and happy Monday everyone! Yeah, yeah…I hate Mondays too, but let’s try to be positive, ok? I had a rather uneventful Sunday full of laundry and cleaning, but I did have fun on Saturday night. I had mentioned that I was going to watch Zero Dark Thirty, and I can’t tell you enough how much I recommend that you watch this movie. It’s amazing and I swear that I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I was the same way with Argo–I just love suspense movies, but I feel like a wreck by the end. Oh, and I also made an astounding discover: Red Robin sells Guinness milkshakes. Whaaaaat??

Well, hello there Mr. Guinness milkshake. Where have you been all my life? The shake is made with Guinness , Jameson and chocolate ice cream. Need I say more? It’s actually really tasty and for a Guinness lover (yes, lover…I can drink this stuff for breakfast) such as myself, I was super excited to try it. I’m sure it’s one of those limited time type drinks, so that makes me sad. I’m shedding dark brown Guinness tears.

Wait, wasn’t this post supposed to be about the new OPI Oz The Great And Powerful Collection? Could have fooled me. Anyway, let’s get down to business. Here are the lovely shades that make up this new collection.

There are three soft jelly-type polishes, 3 glitter top coats and one new Liquid Sand Color. Are you ready to see them?

OPI Glints Of Glinda – “Only a good witch could turn beige from meek to chic.“

OPI I Theodora You – “This adorable, sheer pink is bewitching on you.“

OPI Don’t Burst My Bubble – “Don’t wake me…I’m dreaming about puffy clouds of white.“

The formula on these three polishes was identical: very delicate, airy and sheer central. I am not usually a person who really likes very sheer polishes, and I think these are like almost clones of last year’s NYC Ballet polishes. However, I do think they are pretty and like they way they ended up looking on my nails. I can see these working very well for jelly sandwiches as well. I applied 3 thick coats of each polish for these swatches because I wasn’t diggin’ the super obvious VNL.

Are you ready for the glitters?

OPI When Monkeys Fly! – “I’m simply bananas for this gold confetti.“

What’s with the taco glitter on this polish? Yo NO quiero Taco Bell. I don’t really have anything similar to this glitter so I like the idea of it, but those huge curling hexes are a big no-no. The strange part is that after I applied top coat, the glitter felt pretty smooth on my nails but still LOOKED all curled and weird.

OPI Lights of Emerald City – “White confetti adds city girl flair and style to nails.“

This is the glitter I was most excited about trying, and I can say that it’s still my favorite of the three, but the application is kind of difficult. It’s really hard to get glitter on the brush without getting wayyyyy too much of the clear base. The base seriously felt like gel–like rind of runny hair gel. It was strange. I resorted to doing some dabbing, fishing for the white mate squares with a toothpick. Maybe a little too much work went into this, but I do like the end result. I’ve seen some swatches of this over a dark color and it looks amazing!

OPI Which Is Witch? – “Is this silver glitter with iridescent sparkle or the other way around?“

I don’t have much to say about this one. Very easy application and super sparkly. Even though it has some of that dreaded hairy glitter that I am not a fan of, it’s so tiny and fine that I’m not going to complain about it. And really–who doesn’t love holo glitter?

OPI What Wizardry Is This?

Last but not least, here is the poop colored Liquid Sand. I kid, I kid…not really. I was a little disappointed that this wasn’t chunky like the previous Liquid Sand offerings, but I actually ended up loving this. It’s an unusual color and it really sparkles in the sun. I didn’t get a chance to top coat it, but I’ve seen some amazing swatches of it with a shiny top coat. Removal was super easy which I always appreciate.

And just because I love doing this, I am holding a giveaway for a set of minis. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! Just enter using the rafflecopter widget below. This giveaway is open internationally. Since I am still struggling to pick a winner when my giveaways end, I will repeat this: the only requirement is to be an email blog follower. If you don’t receive an email asking you to confirm your subscription, that means that your email probably didn’t go through so you won’t show up as a follower when I’m trying to pick a winner.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So let me know what you think of this collection–which are your favorites? Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope you have a good start to the week.

P.S. Some of these are going on my blog sale so don’t forget to check it out here.

Ninja Polish Ambrosia

Posted on 2 March, 2013 by Cynthia

I worked at 6 am today which is NOT the way I like to start of my Saturday but it wasn’t very busy so I did a lot of reading. I hate not being busy at work!! I did, however, get to listen to some of my co-workers’ conversation which centered around playing the “Who would you rather….” game. Ok, those of you who know me or have been following me for a while now know that I’m not a prude by any stretch of the imagination. However, does that mean that I want to hear that crap at work? NO! Some people are so unprofessional. I’ve been involved in some unsavory conversations in the past, but I try to keep it quiet and not broadcast it to the rest of the office! Anyway, after work I decided to go to my nail places and I kind of bought too much stuff. Are you ready to see what I got?

This is the Essie Madison Aven-hue Collection for Spring 2013. Ahhh…so purty. The two pink/lavender colors look very similar so I can’t wait to compare them on my nails.

And here I got a selection from the Sation Candylandia and Miss Antoinette Collections. You all know I love me some Sations so I was super excited to find these!! My local places have been seriously lagging in getting these collections so I jumped for joy when I found them. I bought a few other polishes, but I won’t tell you which ones or HOW MANY because I’m just kind of embarrassed. All I have to say in my defense is that work has been hell on earth for me and I really needed some retail therapy. After the polish binge, I headed over to this Vietnamese bakery that has the absolute BEST baguettes and I also bough a few eggrolls which pretty much disappeared before I got to my car. Not only did I have a polish overload, but I also ate some fried delicacies and some really awesome crusty and warm bread with some cheese. Ahhhh….I was in heaven.

Enough of my adventures in heart disease and polish hoarding. Today I’m going to share a new polish from Ninja Polish that came out with Divinity. I could not resist this duo so that’s how my greedy polished hands got these.

What do you think of Ninja Polish Ambrosia? I posted a preview yesterday on Facebook and most people seemed to really like this color. I must admit that while I do think the color is great, it’s just not me. It doesn’t enchant me or make me happy. I’m sure that there are plenty of people who will love this polish and will rock the hell out of it…it just won’t be me. I found that the formula on this polish is a little thin so I had to apply 4 thin coats, but I think 3 medium coats would be enough. I don’t have many Ninja Polish brand polishes, but I really like the brush on the bottles–the remind me of OPI bottles and brushes which are my absolute favorite for my wide nails. If anyone is interested, I will be putting this up on my blog sale so it can go to a loving home. You can also purchase this directly from Ninja Polish by clicking here.

I’m on my way out to go watch Zero Dark Thirty with a friend–finally! I’ve been wanting to watch it for a long time so I’m excited to see it since I’ve heard so many good things about it. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!