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The Lacquer Ring – Orange

Posted on 8 May, 20148 May, 2014 by Cynthia

Who would have thought that orange would become my mortal enemy in the span of one day? I remember how excited I was when Tangerine Tango was the Pantone Color of the Year, and I reveled in wearing every single orange polish that Summer and was in love with all of them. Today–not so much. For our very first “official” post, Nicole chose the color Orange and little did I know that this would become the day I officially swore off orange…at least until the next awesome orange polish comes around because we all know what that is like. Before I tell you all about my fails and flails, let me show you the mani I ended up choosing at the least hideous of the bunch.

This is NARS Ethno Run Left–a yellow orange that is super bright and squishy looking. I quite like this color, but it’s a beotch to photograph.

I then had to sparkle it up so I applied one coat of Shimmer Polish Alice to really make the polish shine. I love this glitter so much!

And because I can never leave well enough alone, I used Bourjois Grenadine Tonic to make a jelly sandwich. The bright red orange tint of this polish intensified the orange base color so I kind of liked the end result. It’s super bright, and I can tell you that it looks fantastic out in sunlight.

Now for the ones that didn’t quite make it…the first two are swatches so it’s not like there is anything wrong with them, it’s what happened to them after they were swatched that became the problem.

Bettina Orange

Jessica Sun-kissed Beauty

As I said, the previous two polishes were nice enough, but this is where things started going downhill…very quickly.

Fail #1 was this sloppy and gross water marble. Seriously. It’s disgusting and you can’t even imagine how long it took me do create this monstrosity. I hate it so hard.

Fail #2 was even more difficult to deal with because it took even longer to create than the sloppy water marble. I don’t know what I was thinking, but this looks disgusting too. My nail mojo was off today. Big time. After those two fugly bombs, I was ready to give up…

Puck knows how I was feeling for sure. I am just glad that I was able to put something together that didn’t make me want to stab my eyes out with a glass nail file. The next challenge will be cherry blossoms which I know is going to destroy me since I suck at freehand designs. I kind of hate Nicole right now…lol (I kid! I kid!) Make sure that you check out the other orange inspired looks from the other ladies. Thanks so much for stopping by today and checking in with The Lacquer Ring! I’ll talk to you soon.

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Stamping Saturdays #12

Posted on 29 March, 2014 by Cynthia

Last night we had a 5.1 earthquake in SoCal which is a little scary but exhilarating at the same time. Don’t get me wrong: I don’t like destruction or the idea of people getting hurt, but it’s a scary and exciting feeling to know just what the Earth is capable of. The earthquake wasn’t strong enough to cause any major destruction besides some shattered nerves and some broken items that fell off shelves. Ever since then, we have been having a lot of aftershocks so I know that people are on edge about the whole thing. For as long as I can remember, I have been hearing about “the big one” that supposed to happen here in SoCal so I definitely hope that doesn’t really happen any time soon. So while the whole earthquake thing happened, I was working on my Stamping Saturdays mani, and I was struggling with a few ideas. The only thing that was easy to figure out was what polish I wanted to use as my base.

Bourjois Lavande Esquisse is such a gorgeous color, and it makes me sad that I can’t get this brand here in the states. Pooh!

For my stamping design, I decided to use one of my MoYou London plates (press sample). One thing to note is that this plate is labeled 02 on the website, but the actual physical plate is labeled 03. Kinda weird!

I like this image because it has a Mod feel to it, but I’m not that happy with the color combination. Now that I look at the design, I think a white base with that black stamp would have looked perfect. I don’t hate it, but I’m also not in love with it.

Today I don’t have much going on. I totally overslept and didn’t get up until like 9:30 and now I’m watching bad reality TV. I am going to get ready in a few minutes to go polish shopping (I know!), but I think my nail place may have some new stuff. Don’t forget to check out the other awesome Stamping Saturdays manis below. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

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Bourjois Violine Chic

Posted on 30 December, 201230 December, 2012 by Cynthia

I seriously haven’t done my nails in over a week which feels super strange. Because I’ve been feeling dumpy, as I have previously discussed, I guess doing my nails hasn’t been on my list of priorities. Well, you know what? Fuck feeling in the dumps. I’ve been keeping myself super busy so I don’t have time to wallow in self-pity. Since I suddenly felt like doing my nails, I wanted to dig into my untrieds stash and pick one of those polishes. I ended up choosing Bourjois Violine Chic which is a polish that Sabrina sent to me a while back. (Sabrina has a great blog called Polish In Paris so check it out!)

Bourjois Violine Chic is one of those super vampy shades that I love wearing when I have super short nails. This particular line of Bourjois polishes has vinyl in the formula and it’s supposed to last 7 days. I can’t verify the claims of longevity since I just applied this polish today, but I do have to say that I was a little confused by the formula. The color seemed deceptively thin when I applied it yet the formula is kind of goopy at the same time. So strange! I ended up applying 3 coats to cover up the streakiness and random bald spots. One thing I learned is that it is essential to let the layers dry between each coat or else you will end up with a mess.

This lovely glitter is Silly Lily Halloween 2012. I bought this a few months ago and never got around to using it until today. Let me just say that I am in freaking love with all the colors in this polish and I love how it looks over Bourjois Violine Chic. As with most glitter explosion polishes, I had to work with it by dabbing the glitter so I could get even distribution. Even though this is technically a Halloween polish, I wouldn’t hesitate to wear it year round! You should head on over to Lily’s Etsy shop so you can see all the unique and interesting items she sells. In fact, she has a big clearance section right now and has a promo where you can get a freebie when you make a purchase of $15 or more. One of the things a lot of you suggested when I asked what you would like to see more on my blog was more indie/glitter polishes so here is a start! I plan on doing more indie polish posts next year because there are so many amazing and unique creations out there AAANNND I think it’s important to support the little guys!

Thanks to so many of you who came and checked out my blog sale! I have sold around 60 bottles of polish in the last few days which kept me super busy with answering emails and wrapping all my babies to go to their new homes. I hope no one thought I was being whiney and was trying to guilt you into buying my polish!!! That was the last thing I wanted to convey. Thank you for all your purchases and for all the wonderful messages of support that I received–they all helped to lift my spirits!

I hope that you are all doing well and that you are excited about welcoming the new year. What are your plans for new year’s eve?

Birthday Polish: Bourjois Vert Chlorophylle

Posted on 26 November, 2012 by Cynthia

I don’t know what it is about me and green polishes, but I have found myself really attracted to them. When I saw some swatches of Bourjois Vert Chlorophylle online, I instantly wanted it. I was beyond psyched when I got this beauty for my birthday from one of my lovely French polish enablers: Sabrina from Polish In Paris. She has single-handedly created a Kiko monster out of me with all the lovely polishes she has sent me that are not available in the US. It’s a double edged sword, I tell you! Bourjois is yet another brand that is not easy to come by here in the States so this makes this polish EXTRA special.

This is 2 buttery coats of Vert Chlorophylle WITHOUT a top coat. Look how amazingly shiny this polish is. I guess their Ultra Shine line really is that shiny.

I was feeling a little dot-happy so this happened:

I don’t know about you, but dotting tools have recently opened up the crazy world of nail art for me. I’ve had dotting tools for a while but I guess I never really used them except for, uhm…dots. Let me tell you, they are not just for dots! These dots remind me of a conversation I had with my friend who is a jr. high school teacher because she was telling me how she has to have like 30 sets of eyes going all over the place to keep her kids in line. We started doing crazy googly eyes with our fingers and we laughed because we got to talking about what horrible kids we were in jr. high. Because of this, she can anticipate everything those kids are even thinking of throwing at her.

So what do you think about this polish? Do you like using dotting tools? Thanks again to Sabrina for sending me such a lovely polish!

Bourjois Lavande Esquisse

Posted on 27 October, 2012 by Cynthia

Good morning my dear polish lovers. I have some bad news: my hands and nails are a wreck so I don’t know when I will be able to post nail polish again. I cut my nails all the way down a few days ago and today I started fiddling with my cuticles while I was watching a movie and all of a sudden I had blood on my fingers. I know…I know. This was a terrible habit that I had when I was a kid and I used to do it out of boredom. I would either pick or chew on my cuticles until my fingers got bloody. It’s disgusting, I know, and I promise I won’t do it again.

I was looking through my computer files and I came upon a folder with some old swatch pictures that I hadn’t uploaded. At first, I wondered why I had forgotten about these pictures but then I saw the horrid nail art I had attempted so it all came rushing back to me. There was nothing wrong with the polish–just my half-assed attempts to try to be “creative” with loose glitter. Maybe I will post a pic of the monstrosity at the end of my post.

Bourjois is a French brand that I really like but that is not easily obtained states-side so I usually just drool over pretty swatches. Julie, of my most favorite French bloggers in the entire galaxy, hunted down Bourjois Grenadine Tonic for me and she surprised me with this extra lovely bottle of Bourjois Lavande Esquisse. The 1 Seconde line (One Second–duh!) is supposed to be a line of polishes that should take “1 second” per nail to polish as they claim that you will only need one coat. Well, I guess I could have gotten away with one coat if I had been more careful, but I wasn’t so I had to apply two. Here we go with the swatches:

I don’t know if maybe I didn’t wait long enough for the second coat or what, but I got some very slight bubbling. Then when I applied Seche Vite, it all went to pot. I guess now I know that this particular polish does not mesh well with SV. I found the brush a little strange but easy to get used to after a few tries. Despite those little bumps in the road, I adore this color. It’s so bright yet so delicate.

Since you know I am not afraid to post my disasticures, here is what I was talking about earlier:

While I was doing this, I knew the hexes were way too big, but I didn’t want to stop. So I kept going, and I was more and more horrified. Look, someone just showed Justin a picture of my nails:

I stopped midway and added a coat of SV which caused more bubbles and then it shrunk around my cuticle area. Isn’t that the weirdest thing ever? Oh well. Can’t fight city hall. When in Rome.

Maybe I’m a little delirious since it’s 2 am already. Let me know what you think. Talk to you all later.

31 Inspired Days Of Nail Art – Day 2: Orange

Posted on 13 September, 2012 by Cynthia

Are you ready for Day 2 of the 31 Inspired Days of Nail Art Challenge?!?!?! I am and today I have something that came out kind of awesomely strange. I’ve been seriously loving Bourjois Grenadine Tonic that the lovely Julie sent to me a while ago and I never miss a chance to use it. I absolutely adore how it’s unlike anything I have ever used. It’s like an orange high gloss polish that easily builds up to a vibrant orange with some red to boot. I guess you could call it tomato orange. I’ve used this polish for a NOTD before and you can see my results here.

Let me wow you with my orange jello nails!

This is three coats of the lovely Grenadine Tonic.

This is my first use of the Cheeky plates that I received today. I used plate CH51 for this design and I think the design is pretty cute. I know Vienna would love this since she loves stars so much. 😉 I applied one coat of Grenadine Tonic after I stamped the design using Konad special white polish.

So overall, I kind of really like this whole look. It reminds me of Jello (and you know there’s always room for J-E-L-L-O!) in a weird way. Now, if you’re a Jello hater, move along. Let me know what you think of my Day 2 creation. I’m usually pretty hard on myself when it comes to creativity and execution, but like I said earlier, I’m really diggin’ this. Can you dig it?

Don’t forget to check out the blogs of the other ladies participating in the 31 Inspired Days of Nail Art Challenge! Our next challenge will involve yellow which is my color obsession du jour. It will give me an excuse to finally use the crazy Nails Inc. yellow that I purchased a while ago. Woo hoo!

Thanks for stopping by and until next time!

Bourjois Grenadine Tonic

Posted on 24 August, 201227 October, 2012 by Cynthia

I have the most amazing nail polish connections in France. Yesterday I got a package from Sabrina and today I got another from Julie. Oh man…am I spoiled or what??? If you haven’t visited Julie’s blog, go visit Un Brin De Julie. Her blog is in French, but you can use google translate. She speaks English so you can always talk to her! She is so sweet and does the most beautiful nail art. Here is one of my favorite looks that she has done:

You can see her blog post here and see more pictures of this look. How freaking cute is this? I don’t know why I have always loved Navy/Sailor everything (Hello, sailor!) and this made me remember a dress my mom got for me when I was a little kid. I think I used to wear it ALL the freaking time, AND I would wear it with cowboy boots. Huh?! When I asked my mom why she combined the two, she said I was the one who insisted on wearing the boots. Oh well…tacky from birth. Anyway, here is a picture of me in the infamous dress. I think I was maybe 2 or 3 years old in this picture.

Yes, I was wearing shorts underneath! My mom knew that I liked to play with the boys and dresses and jumping off things don’t really go well together. I was such a boy growing up. I hated dolls unless it involved decapitating them, cutting their hair, burning them or making clothes for them. I envied my brother for having He-Man toys, Tonka Trucks and marbles. Since I’m a year and a half older than him, I would always find a way to butt in and take his stuff or force him to play with me. I was such a bossy kid.

The polishes I received today are two Bourjois beauties!

I had been drooling over the orange one, Grenadine Tonic, ever since I saw it on Ommorphia Beauty Bar. I am so lucky that Julie went out of her way to track it down for me. She also sent me this lovely lavender polish called Lavande Esquisse. (Exquisite Lavender) On to the swatches!

This is three coats of Grenadine Tonic. It is such a strange and lovely (in my opinion) jelly-like polish. It’s so glossy that I thought it was still wet the whole time I was wearing it. Obviously, if you don’t like VNL, this is not the polish for you.

Since I just picked up China Glaze Techno, I layered one coat over Grenadine Tonic. I know I’m tardy to the party on this glitter, but I just never wanted it until I found it for dirt cheap today and caved.

And lastly, I ended with one last coat of Grenadine Tonic for a strange jelly sandwich. Let me tell you something: this may not look impressive in my pictures, but when I went outside, it was completely magical. It was like my fingertips had the sun in them! I was actually blinding myself with the orange shine. People stared. People ran away in terror thinking I was a Drew Barrymore Firestarter-like creature. In short, I loved this.

And just to give you a better idea of my depravity, these are the polishes I have acquired in the last 2 days. Yes, 2 days. In the famous words of Patrick Henry: “Give me polish, or give me death!” I am 90% sure that’s what he said.

For fun, here is a little flash mob video that my friend shared:

I worked for Air France for a few years in my early 20’s and she said that she could totally picture us doing that. Haha. What a crazy time, but I loved that I was able to travel so much.

Wow, I’m tired. Crazy day today. As always, thanks for stopping by.