Tag: China Glaze

Of Life and Lacquer > China Glaze

Stamping Sunday: Silver, Gold or Bronze As An Accent

Posted on by Cynthia

I seriously feel like I need to tone it down. This is the second week that I create something for the group Adventures In Stamping and it’s a big fat fail again. I don’t know what it is about challenges, but it seems that I come up with the tackiest ideas ever. I don’t even know what I imagined anymore when I came up with this monstrosity, but at least it wasn’t as bad as last week’s look…at least in my opinion.

I started out innocently enough with China Glaze Exotic Encounters. I don’t know how many times I have said this, but the On Safari collection blew me away. I was really excited when the promo pictures came out and after I got them, they were everything I had hoped for and more. Kudos, China Glaze. “Well done. Whoo, whoo, whoo !” à la Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.

Beautiful color, right?

The next step was taping off my nails in a diamond pattern and I used plate MASH 46 for the design and Wet N Wild I Can’t Stand Up Straight for the stamping polish. I should have taken a picture of that before I went ahead and added the glitter but I spaced out and forgot. It actually looked interesting before I added the glitter. This Dare To Wear glitter called Disco Ball and it is full of different holo glitter shapes. I think it will look very pretty over a dark base.  Once again, I’m not thrilled with this manicure, but I like it a little better than last week’s.

And for Sunday’s food porn, here is my breakfast: a delicious egg and chorizo breakfast burrito. Yes, it was heavenly!

Hope you’re having a nice Sunday! Let me know what you think of my stampicure.

Stamping Sunday: Red & Black

Posted on by Cynthia

A few weeks ago, Jessica from Once Upon A Polish blogged about a facebook group called Adventures In Stamping where everyone votes for a particular look or color scheme and then all the ladies post their manis every Sunday. Well, I thought it sounded really fun so I joined! I really didn’t know what to do so I started looking through my melmers and realized I hadn’t used Layla Flash Black.

    

    

Call me crazy, but I actually don’t really like Flash Black on me.  It just looks so weird on me, and I’m really disappointed…not to mention that Layla holos chip in 5 seconds on me.

    

    

I then stamped over Flash Black with Konad special polish in red and plate BM 322. I then used a dotting tool to add the black dots with China Glaze Liquid Leather. One word: barf. I hate how this turned out but not all manis are going to be winners, and you have to embrace the good with the bad. I have no idea why I thought that stamping over Flash Black would be a good idea. It just looks dingy and grey…not interesting at all. I’m annoyed that I spent so much time on this mani and ended up not even liking it; hey, at least now I know Flash Black isn’t what I thought it would be.

So I think my first Stamping Sunday Challenge is a big fat fail. Hopefully I will do better next week. Voting has already started and our three choices are:

  • Fun In The Sun
  • Olympics
  • Using silver, gold or bronze as a base, accent or stamping color

I voted for using silver, gold or bronze as a base, accent or stamping color. So far this choice is in the lead, and I hope it stays that way! Check out the look Jessica created here. I am in love with it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Illamasqua Muse

Posted on by Cynthia

Are you surprised that I have yet another Illamasqua beauty to wax poetic about? I think that Illamasqua is looking to dethrone Nails Inc. as my favorite brand for creme finish nail polish. I’m feeling a little rotten right now because I had too much to drink last night. I actually hate drinking because it brings back bad memories (I should write a post about that! lol). Honestly, I don’t know why I drank last night…probably to dull my senses if only for a little while. I am not feeling completely miserable this morning despite my little indulgence so I am very grateful to my body for now turning against me. Being hung over is such a horrible feeling so I don’t get how people can do it regularly. Anyway, I’ll stop with the random alcohol talk and come back to the topic at hand: Muse!  (Revenons à nos moutons!)

Muse is gorgeous, right? The name is so fitting because this color inspired me to do so many things: I wanted to stamp the crap out of it, glitter it up, dot it up…the list is endless. Illamasqua calls this a deep teal blue but I don’t see that much teal in it; it’s a lot more blue than green in my eyes. Does this remind you of other colors? Maybe OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui. I don’t care how many similar colors I may already have–the formula makes this an absolute stand out. I applied two thin coats here and it was perfectly opaque.

 

I know I said I wasn’t going to purchase any of the CG Prismatic glitters, but I changed my mind once I started seeing all the great things people were doing with them. I used Optical Illusion for the sponging on my tips, and I quite like how my nails turned out. I’m such a glitter hypocrite!

How has your weekend been so far? Thanks for visiting and I will be back later. I’m headed to my nail polish mecca in a bit and I know that’s just trouble. 🙂

Illamasqua Faithful

Posted on by Cynthia

I feel that I am rather faithful to make-up brands especially when I find something that really works for me. But what about nail polish? I seem to buy anything and everything because I like to think of myself as an equal opportunity purchaser when it comes to nail polish. I don’t have the most lavish budget so I am an avid deal hunter. I am very lucky to have so many beauty supply stores in my area that sell a lot of the major brands at huge discounts. Unfortunately, this also makes me buy huge quantities of nail polish because, well, who can resist discounts? Not me!

Illamasqua is a brand that I don’t mind spending a little more money on…or a lot. Granted, their nail polish sells for $14 which is nowhere near  bloated Chanel prices, but it’s still pricier than I would like.When their Naked Strangers Collection came out, I wasn’t that excited about it because I am more of a bold nail polish lover and the colors just seemed so…tame. I had gone to Sephora earlier in the week because I wanted to see if they had any of the Nails Inc. matter glitter “Sprinkles” polishes. Alas, they are not in store yet so I had to console myself with other nail polishes. I was playing around with the newest colors and Faithful really caught my attention. It looked like it was glowing from within. It had to be mine.

 

How can you resist the metallic looking glow of Faithful? The formula was perfect, as usual for Illamasqua, and I only needed two coats. This is a color that I could wear anywhere because it’s a bit neutral but still has a certain playfulness to it. It’s not overpowering, but it’s not boring either. Can you tell I love this color?

I’ve been playing a lot with glitter lately so I took out my #1 favorite glitter of all time: China Glaza Mahagonie. It has such a beautiful brown/red base with lots of holo glitter thrown into the mix. I think this combination sounded better in my head because I’m not too happy with the way it turned out once I sponged it on top of faithful. I don’t know if it was the sponge, my technique or the glitter, but this just doesn’t appeal to me as much. This just goes to show you that two rights, don’t always make a right!

Since I wasn’t too happy with the sponging, I went ahead and applied one thick coat of Mahoganie over my nails. This glitter is opaque at two coats if you wear it on its own. Since I already had a base color in Faithful, I was able to get away with one coat.

So what do you think? Are you an Illamasqua fan? Have you tried any of the China Glaze specialty glitters? This one is my favorite but Atlantis comes in at a close second. Wow…all that writing about glitter is throwing me off. Hello, my name is Cynthia and I am a reluctant glitter lover.

What To Do When Your Nail Polish Smells Like Shit

Posted on by Cynthia

I never thought I’d say this, but you throw it away. (Pause for dramatic effect) I know what you’re thinking. How can you throw your babies away when they deserve a life of happiness on your nails? Just because they smell, it doesn’t mean that they don’t bleed if you prick them. Now, I’m not really comparing my nail polish to Shylock so don’t get your Bardolatry panties in a bunch. After the experience I had with a nail polish today, I think I know what pure evil smells like. But before I can get into that, I am going to tell you about another polish that I used as my base for the offensive manicure.

I have to say that I was super excited about the China Glaze Summer Neons when I first saw promo pictures, but then my excitement fizzled once I started seeing swatches. Don’t get me wrong…they are pretty and all, but they just don’t call my name like other polishes. I still picked up a few of the colors, and I was excited to try Ride The Waves.

I’m trying to hold myself back because I hate to say bad things about my beloved China Glaze, but I just did not care for this at all. I love blue nail polish, but I just don’t like the finish on this AT ALL. I knew it wouldn’t be completely opaque before trying it on, yet I’m still faulting it for it? I’m mad at a jelly for being…a jelly. Maybe I was just in a weird mood because I was anticipating disaster.  I applied three coats here, in case you were wondering.

Now here is the offensive little turd: Kleancolor Chunky Holo Purple. I took a picture of it in the shade so you could really appreciate the beautiful color shifts. The beauty of this is completely cancelled out by the stench that fills your nostrils once you open the bottle. If you want to know what death and evil’s baby would smell like, look no further.

Despite the stench, I love how glowy my nails looked. I went to the supermarket after I finished my mani and a few people commented on them so at least I know that they are attention-grabbing nails. I wore these for about 2 hours and then I had to take them off. My fingers smelled–reeked–even after applying a top coat.

Do I recommend Kleancolor? Sniff at your own risk.

Is This Real Life?

Posted on by Cynthia

I love this video. I think it’s my second favorite kid video on youtube with Charlie Bit My Finger being #1

I was asking myself if I really bought this much nail polish today. I look at it and I am still wondering what possesses me to go on these nail polish buying binges. It’s like a high. Is anyone else understanding this or am I just nuts?

So much polish…………………..

 

I picked up the whole Gelato Mio collection from Jessica Cosmetics. I’ve gotta admit that the main reason why I got these is because I am dying to go back to Italy. Some of my fondest memories of Italy are food related–gelato being a huge part of it. The last time I was in Italy, way back in 2003, V. and I went to Rome and Florence. Despite how cold it was, we were still dedicated gelato eaters the whole time. Ahhh! Also, I have the funniest picture of D. and I during our first trip to Italy. We went out for a really awesome dinner and we had probably the most pivotal conversation in our 15 year friendship. We also proceeded to get plastered on red wine and then wandered around the city drunk and crazy trying to find a gelato place that was open. Once we did, we bought some and headed back to the hotel. The next morning, D. was asking me what the hell we had done the previous night because his jacket was coated with something. We never figured it out until I developed the pictures and we got a picture of him drunk, eating gelato while it was melting down the cone and down his arm all over his jacket. LOL

One of my dusties had a crapload of these American Classic nail polishes. I wanted to get a bunch of them because the one I previously tried was awesome. I still don’t have much info about this nail polish line, but I got to talking with the owner of the nail polish store and he told me that the guy who started this company also started China Glaze. Huh? He was telling me how he had designed the bottle and stuff. When you look at these, they do look exactly like CG bottles except for the ridges on the cap. How cool. Sally Beauty Supply gave me a contact # for American Classic (who make Gelous) so I’m going to call them and see if they can give me any info about this. I’d love to know how old these are.

 

Ahhh…Kleancolor. These smell like the vas deferens of a platypus. The smell is beyond disgusting so I don’t know if I’ll be able to deal with them. These are all glitters!!!! I decided to get them because they are dirt cheap and I will never pay a lot for any glitter.

 

These are just some assorted goodies from China Glaze (yay for super old polishes!!!), Nubar, Essie and Dare To Wear.

 

And lastly, I got some more special Konad polishes for stamping and some nail art stuff.

I need to cut the crap and stop being such a nail polish hoarder. I only have 20 nails…why do I need so much? Well, for now, nail polish makes me happy and I really need a little happiness when I’m usually feeling so rotten. I hate feeling like I’m just a shopaholic, but I guess it could be worse.

Happy 4th Of July!

Posted on by Cynthia

I was not feeling any kind of inspiration for a 4th of July nail look. None at all. I’ve been posting like a machine lately, and I’m trying to slow down. The thing is that I am working really hard to keep myself occupied. I have not been feeling very motivated lately, and I’m afraid of my anxiety getting worse. I thought Prozac was supposed to help with anxiety as well, but it’s not working very well lately. I’m having problems sleeping regularly and have started the stupid cycle of nightmares. It seems that my nightmares always center around my worst insecurities so they seem even more intense and leave me completely emotionally overwhelmed when I do wake up. I hate feeling like this but there isn’t that much to do about it right now except to keep my head above water and not let it get the best of me again.

As far as being patriotic, I don’t think I’ve ever been crazy patriotic. I am grateful for living in a country where I can say and write whatever I want without fearing persecution. We enjoy many freedoms that we take for granted so it’s worth taking a moment to be thankful for all that we do have. I always try to put things into perspective because in the grand scheme of things, we are almost living in paradise compared to other places in the world where war, extreme poverty and hunger are just something that is in their every day reality. I’m not trying to be preachy or anything; I just think it’s nice to have a day to spend with your friends and family even if you’re not all hyped up on Independence Day.

So back to nail stuff…

I used Adventure Red-y which is an amazing one coat red from the China Glaze On Safari collection as my base color and then used Man Hunt, also from the same collection, for the chevron tips. Using Konad plate M84 and their white special polish, I stamped the stars over both colors. Simple, right? This was actually the second look I tried today. The first one was a complete disaster–better as an abstract idea because it was horrid once I tried to execute it. Oh well…you live, you learn.

If you’re in the States, do you have anything fun planned for today? Stay safe whatever you end up doing!

Color Club Wham! Pow!

Posted on by Cynthia

Ahhhhhh summer! The heat is starting and it’s not just my prozac. I am dreading the weather so much this year, but it’s been really cool lately so I’m not ready to full on complain just yet. The warmer it gets, the crazier I want my nails to look. Is that normal?

 

I know I’ve talked about radioactive polishes, but this one takes it to another level. I had to take about a million pictures in order to get something that didn’t make my camera lens explode. This orange is so aptly named: Wham! Pow! It really is like a punch to your eyeballs, right? The formula was pretty good and applied very smoothly. I LOVE THIS ORANGE!

 

Dreamsicle is another China Glaze specialty glitter. I thought about layering this on top of white because it made me think of those 50/50 bars that I loved so much when I was a kid, but when I saw how crazy Wham! Pow! looked on its own, I decided to tame it down a bit with glitter. Since when does glitter tame any polish?

 

Since I got my new BM plates yesterday, of course I wanted to try them out. I couldn’t make up my mind what design to use until I saw this citrus-y design. I just wanted to see how the quality of the plates stood up to Konad. I am pleasantly surprised to report that the Bundle Monster plates are freaking awesome.

I am going to start on my 4th of July nails right now, and I am afraid that it’s going to be a huge mess. Wish me luck.

Color Club Twiggie

Posted on by Cynthia

I asked my brother what he thought of when he hears the word Twiggie and he said: model, skinny. I know this color does refer to Twiggy, but I don’t see the connection. I started rambling that maybe it’s green like a twig from a tree or whatever. Yeah, I’m just going to enjoy the polish and not overthink it.

This seems like a really weird green to me but weird in a good way. I don’t think I have another green quite like this one. It’s almost milky. Now that I think of it, maybe it’s similar to Essie Mojito Madness? I did have some problems with the formula because it was super streaky. It took three coats to finally level out this polish and cover up a few bald spots.

Your eyes are not deceiving you: yes, this is glitter.

This is one of the specialty glitters that China Glaze put out a few years ago. This one is called Sour Apple and I love how well the name fits the look of this polish. This is all I could think of while I while I applied this glitter:

And as a sweet, sweet ending, here is a song that everyone should love:

China Glaze Classic Chromes

Posted on by Cynthia

Wearing this nail polish is making me rethink If I really want the Essie Mirror Metallics collection. I think I have the same love/hate relationship with chromes as I do with glitter. Firstly, I’d like to ask if you like seeing these super old polishes. I realize that because of their age, most people won’t be able to find them so it’s not like I’m helping if you really like an old polish that I showcase on my blog. I’ve decided to include these on my blog because, as a nail polish collector and fanatic, I think it’s always fun to see really old stuff. Anyway, your input would be greatly appreciated!

This polish is from China Glaze’s Classic Chromes collection and, because it wasn’t labeled and there aren’t any swatches online, I don’t now what it’s called. There were about a dozen polishes in this collection from what I have been able to find online.  I had to apply this polish twice because the first time it was a complete disaster. I did not use a base coat and every single imperfection on my nails was magnified x1000. Then I put a top coat and the polish started to wrinkle…wrinkle bad. Then it started to look runny and I took it off in disgust. The second time around, I used Seche Base, which is a ridge filling base coat, and did not apply a top coat. I am satisfied with how this turned out but I am not a fan of brushstrokes.

 

 

So what do you think of this polish? Do you like chrome polishes in general? Are you going to be getting the Essie Mirror Metallics Collection?