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Of Life and Lacquer > Angel with a Leadfoot

Chevrons and Flowers

Posted on 29 December, 201428 December, 2014 by Cynthia

Happy Monday, ladies! Ghhhaaaaa! It’s the last week of the year, and I decided that I wanted to try something a little different today. While I admire all of the amazing ladies who do tons of freehand nail art, I am usually a big fat failure when it comes to anything more complicated than stamping. I got together with Amy and Siobhan to do a mani based off an image or pattern just to mix things up a little. Amy found an awesome pattern, and we decided to use it for today’s mani.

Am I the only one who wants that shower curtain like immediately?

I started off with OPI Angel With A Leadfoot (press sample) as my base. I’ve been using this white a lot lately for my manicures. Can you blame me? It’s so crisp and creamy.

Since I always end up messing up something simple such as chevrons even with vinyls, I decided to use a stamp for this kind offset chevron design. This image is from plate MoYou London Pro Collection 18 (press sample) and I used my Konad special polish in black. For the flower design, I used a water decal that was sent to me by the lovely Jacqui last year after I mentioned that I had never used them before. She has a great post explaining how to use water decals which I referred to today before I used them. Check out her post here. It was super easy to use the water decal, but I did have to do some trial an error. It’s really important to trim them down do that you don’t have any overhang. Because my nails are naturally very curved, the decal did not lay all the way flat at first so I had to fiddle with it to make sure it was as flat as possible before top coating the entire thing. I really loved this design! Even better, I loved doing this with my girls because sometimes I feel like all I do is swatch. While I love swatching, it can sometimes get tedious so doing something like this can get my creative juices flowing.

Make sure that you check out Amy’s and Siobhan’s designs by clicking their links below. What do you think of this design? It was rather easy to create, and it turned out really cute if I do say so myself. I hope you’re having a great beginning to your week. Thank you for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

The Beauty Buffs – Holiday Inspired

Posted on 3 December, 20142 December, 2014 by Cynthia

How many of you have put up your holiday decorations at home? To be honest, I don’t think I’m even going to get a Christmas tree this year because I am just not in the mood to go through the process of unpacking everything. Am I a killjoy? Meh. Instead, I will wear extra festive nails which is why I was happy with our prompt for today. The Beauty Buffs are bringing you holiday inspired posts today so let me show you what I decided to do.

For my mani base, I needed a clean white color so I went with OPI Angel With A Leadfoot (press sample.) This crisp and clean white comes from the OPI Mustang Collection from earlier this year. It’s a nice white but the formula is pretty typical: super streaky on the first coat but buildable. I applied 3 coats for my mani to get full opacity.

I am super new to use decals, but I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to try them. I decided to use the lights strand decals for my mani. I love that they are red because they look awesome against the white background. You can use these vinyls as decals or as stencils–let your creative juices flow. These particular nail vinyls are from KBShimmer (press sample) and can be purchased here for $5. What a steal for all the awesome designs you get!

The vinyls were super easy to use and I just cut them and applied them where I wanted the design to be. Because I wanted a little more bling, I decided to place some glitter on the bulbs.

I used Shimmer Alice (press sample) for the sparkle in the bulbs and I think it was a perfect choice. I really like how this turned out!

So are you into the holiday season yet or are you grouchy like me and don’t want to make the effort? Well, I hope you liked my holiday mani, and don’t forget to check out the other festive posts from my fellow Beauty Buffs. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talking to you soon.

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OPI Ford Mustang Collection 2014

Posted on 11 July, 201410 July, 2014 by Cynthia

You have absolutely no idea how happy I am that it is Friday. I am jumping out of my skin for it to be the end of the workday so I can just relax and swatch my little heart out. I am so excited because of all the new collections that are coming out, especially the Nordic Collection, but I won’t say too much about that since this post is about the new OPI Ford Mustang Collection. I have to admit that I have zero interest in cars and absolutely hate driving, but I love looking at older cars. I think Mustangs are beautiful and I know that to some people, cars are what nail polish is to me so I can imagine them being super excited about this collection. Before I ramble on forever, let me show you my swatches of this small collection…and by small I mean small in OPI terms since some of their collections are just massive.

Let’s get the ugly shade out of the way first. OPI 50 Years of Style is a very frosty and brush-strokey metallic gold. Ick all around. Not only does it show every imperfection, but it also got super bumpy on me. I have seen other swatches where it looks infinitely better, so maybe it was an application issue on my part. Still, it’s not a color I like.

I have a total polish boner for white polishes as of late, so I was excited to try OPI Angel with a Leadfoot. Unfortunately, this is not a super nice white because the formula leave a lot to be desired in comparison to other spectacular whites that have come out lately. I do like how bright and creamy this looks, but be prepared to apply 3 coats to make this look good.

It’s no secret that I love hot pink so of course I like OPI Girls Love Ponies. It’s not really a unique color or anything, but it applies nicely and is a pretty staple color. I applied two coats for my swatches above.

I really don’t know if I really love OPI Queen of the Road or if I really hate it. It’s a strange color. At first I thought it was just a regular kind of coal black, but then it looks like a murky green. I still don’t know what to make of the color–it’s unique, for sure. The formula is a little thin, but it builds up well and only needs two coats which surprised me.

Is it just me, or are you also disappointed that OPI Race Red is super orange? I have a newly found love/hate relationship with orange so I’m not completely digging this color. Still, it’s a nice red-orange with a good formula so there isn’t too much to complain about.

I definitely left the best for last: OPI The Sky’s My Limit. Yep, this is the belle of the ball. I absolutely love how this looks, and it immediately reminded me of the much lusted after OPI Catch Me In Your Net. However, this is much bluer but it creates the same type of effect. The formula is great, but it did stain my nails a tiny bit because I swatched it on my bare nails.

So what do you think about this collection? Overall I like it. While I don’t LOVE every single shade, I think that I love more of them than dislike them. The Sky’s My Limit is my number one pick from this collection so if you only get one polish from this collection, get this one! The OPI Ford Mustang Collection is available now and retails for $9 a bottle. Have you already picked up any of these shades? Let me know what you think of this collection and if you have a favorite. Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope you enjoy your weekend.