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The Beauty Buffs – Black and White

Posted on 13 August, 201412 August, 2014 by Cynthia

It’s Wednesday which means that we are halfway through the workweek! I don’t know about you, but I practically live for my weekends, and I start getting excited as soon as Thursday rolls around. Is that pathetic? Why can’t I just be independently wealthy and not have to work at all? At the same time, would I enjoy my weekends as much if I didn’t have to trudge through a workweek? Hmmm…Anyway, today I am back with The Beauty Buffs for a black and white mani. I love using black and white on my nails, so it took me for-eva to decide what I wanted to do. Well, let me show you what I ended up doing.

I started out with a gradient using Jessica Sharktooth (press sample), Jessica Velvet & Pearls (press sample) and Cuccio Colour Soaked In Seattle. I fidgeted with this forever because I could not get a smooth enough gradient for the life of me.

I was going to try a reverse gradient stamp over this gradient, but I had already spent so much time on the base that I was just DONE! So I took out my bottle of Nubar Black Polka Dot and applied one coat. I was actually super happy about the way this turned out.

What do you think about this mani? Is it too loud and flashy or is this something that you would wear? Well, I hope that you are having a nice week, and don’t forget to check out the other black and white manis from my fellow Beauty Buffs. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

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Kiko 295 Cerulean Blue

Posted on 27 April, 2014 by Cynthia

Last night I was in one of my moods so I turned to Netflix to see if I could distract myself for a while. Well, I was looking at my long queue of films to watch, and I remembered that I really, really wanted to to watch Blue Is the Warmest Color (La vie d’Adèle). Dude…watch it. It’s beautifully acted, it’s tender, it’s sweet, it’s intense, it’s heart-wrenching and will just leave you feeling like you’ve been completely emotionally destroyed. It probably wasn’t the best movie to watch when I was already feeling like shit, but it actually changed my mood in the sense that I was happy to watch such an amazing movie. The movie is in French so I know not a lot of people like movies with subtitles (weirdos) and it’s also rated NC-17 so if you’re opposed to graphic and long sex scenes (eh?), then this movie may not be for you. Still, I highly recommend it. One of the characters in the movie, Emma, has this really awesome blue hair so it put me in the mood to wear blue. That is how I ended up with Kiko 295 Cerulean Blue on my nails.

I honestly don’t know why I hadn’t worn this beauty before. Kiko 295 Cerulean Blue is so freaking bright that it almost looks neon. In fact, it’s so bright that it made my camera take 5 dumps on me while I was trying to take these pictures. Not only is the color beautiful and saturated–the formula is to die for as well. With careful application it could be a one-coater, but I applied two coats out of habit. The finish is incredibly shiny and glossy so I didn’t even need to apply a top coat.

And because I can never leave well enough alone, I applied one coat of Nubar Black Polka Dot. I love the final look here!

What do you think about the Kiko? Isn’t it gorgeous? I always lament that we don’t have access to this brand in the US, but we can’t be that greedy since we have pretty much everything else. I hope that you’re having a great weekend. Thanks so much for the visit, and I will talk to you soon.

Morgan Taylor Lost In Paradise

Posted on 13 October, 201313 October, 2013 by Cynthia

I don’t know what’s up with me lately, but I’ve been feeling super gross. I’ve had a massive headache for the last 3 days and it doesn’t seem to want to go away. I went to bed around 8pm last night and woke up at 5 to get ready for work. That’s like 9 hours of sleep and I still felt like crapola! Work was super slow today so at least I didn’t have to deal with too many issues. I’m hoping that whatever is going on goes away soon. After work I drove to my favorite carniceria (butcher shop) and bought some of my beloved chorizo. This stuff is so freaking good, and I like to make some eggs and chorizo or sopes or refried beans with chorizo…ok, I’m hungry now. So before I start cooking myself some dinner, let me show you a mani I did a few weeks ago.

Morgan Taylor Lost In Paradise is yet another amazing creme. First of all, who doesn’t like a lovely blue/green Tiffany-esque polish? The formula on this baby is pretty great as it is very smooth and pigmented. The first coat was a tiny bit streaky, but the second coat evened it out nicely.

I then decided to top my mani with Nubar Black Polka Dot. I love the whole speckled look that this top coat gives any polish.

I hope that you’ve had a nice weekend and that you’re ready for the start of another work week. Yay for Mondays…NOT! Don’t forget to check in tomorrow because I’m launching a giveaway–fun times. Thanks so much for the visit, and I’ll talk to you soon.

Illamasqua Speckled

Posted on 20 March, 201320 March, 2013 by Cynthia

Well, today I have a polish to share with you that I had been seriously lusting over since I first saw the promo images. I know it’s been out for a bit now so I’m sure that you have seen plenty of swatches already, but I was still super excited to try it out. Since I’ve been a little slow lately with my polish swatching and such. So without further ado, here is Illamasqua Speckled!

There is no denying that Illamasqua Speckled is gorgeous and the formula is perfection which I have come to expect from the brand. The finish is extremely smooth and you only need two coats for full opacity. As soon as I photographed this, I had a strange feeling of déjà vu so I looked through my stash, which is no easy feat, and I realized that I already did a similar mani a few months ago. Want to see what I used?

I started with 2 coats of Cacee BFF Kim. Sorry about the greasy looking fingers–I went a little heavy with the Solar Oil.

I then applied one coat of Nubar Black Polka Dot and then topped it with one thin coat of Kim. Since I wanted the black to show up a little more, I went back and applied the thinnest coat possible of Black Polka Dot.

I think it’s pretty obvious that I am very loyal to Illamasqua, but it can be a little painful to purchase all of their newest colors when they are $14-$16 a pop. I also know that not everyone can afford those prices, so I wanted to give you a cheaper alternative. Even better, you can make every polish speckled with one bottle of Nubar Black Polka Dots. I’ve seen this polish being sold online for anywhere between $4 and $8 so that’s a pretty good deal if you ask me. And here they are side by side:

The choice is yours. Let me know what you think!

Discolsure: All products featured in this post were purchased by me. For more information, please see my disclosure policy tab here.

Cacee BFF Nail Lacquer Kim

Posted on 15 January, 201315 January, 2013 by Cynthia

I don’t know about you, but I get pretty excited when I get to try new brands of nail polish. There is a moment right before I open up a bottle of nail polish where I whisper a little wish into the universe hoping that the formula is great: not too thick, not too thin, not streaky, not smelly (I’m looking at you, Kleancolor!)…who am I? The Goldilocks of nail polish? Anyway, a couple of my nail places have some huge fully-stocked displays of Cacee BFF nail polishes, and I have kind of resisted purchasing them even though they have some pretty colors. Well, I finally caved so today I have a beautiful pastel to share with you: Cacee BFF Nail Lacquer Kim.

Before I get into the details of this polish, I was looking up this polish line on the Cacee website and they call it BFE and the bottles do look like they say BFE but mine is clearly BFF. BFF = Best Friends Forever. Ehhh…I am kind of confused. Does not compute. Moving on from the naming confusion, I want to say that the formula on this polish is pretty darn fantastic. Colors like this always scare me because I imagine streaky nightmares. However, this polish is extremely smooth and self-leveling. After the first coat, I could barely see any VNL so I decided to apply a second thin coat which made it look perfect. This line of polishes claims to be a one coat lacquer and maybe some of the darker, more saturated colors are, but this one looks best with two coats. This polish is a smooth and milky lavender tinged creme that is PERFECT for that demure and soft look–very girlie yet work appropriate. It also dries to an incredibly high gloss shine.

And now I just wanted to spice this up a little with a polish that literally looks like black pepper. This cute dot top coat is Nubar Black Polka Dot. I really love this little gem of a top coat. It was refreshing to not see bar glitter in this kind of polish and best of all, it was super smooth and not thick at all. It was a little hard to get the bigger black glitter so I just had to make sure I blended the polish well before using it.

So what do you think about the look of this polish combination? Have you ever tried Cacee polish or even seen them in your area? Holy Toledo, I can’t believe I’ll be starting work next Monday! I am thoroughly enjoying my last week of freedom so today I had lunch with a friend, and we went to see Silver Linings Playbook. That movie is pretty darn fantastic. I have noticed that after my experience with being in mental institutions, I can get a little touchy about watching movies that depict mental illness or scenes of being in a psychiatric facility. Both my friend and I have been hospitalized in these types of facilities, but we both really enjoyed the movie despite certain scenes really hitting close to home. If you haven’t gotten a chance to see this movie, I highly recommend it.

Anyway, I hope your week is going well, and I will talk to you later!