Holiday 2014 Archives - Of Life and Lacquer

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Of Life and Lacquer > Holiday 2014

China Glaze Twinkle Collection Holiday 2014

Posted on 1 December, 2014 by Cynthia

It’s raining here on an off and I love it. We definitely need the rain because of the severe drought here in California, but sadly the showers don’t last very long. This seems to be ideal cozy weather, but I just want to get outside and jump in puddles. Remember how much fun that was when you were a kid? This morning I was rushing because I woke up late, and I had a doctor’s appointment at 9 am. My appointment went well, but as I had mentioned, I still have a long way to go but I am hopeful since I am moving in the right direction. So for today’s post, I have the China Glaze Twinkle Collection for Holiday 2014. Let me show you the 12 shades that make up the collection, and I’ll let you know what I think at the end.

China Glaze Tip Your Hat

China Glaze Out Like A Light

China Glaze No Peeking!

China Glaze Define Good…

China Glaze December to Remember

China Glaze I’d Melt For You

China Glaze De-light

China Glaze Dancing And Prancing

China Glaze Chillin’ With My Snow-mies

China Glaze Meet Me Under The Stars

China Glaze Feeling Twinkly

China Glaze Pine-ing for Glitter

This collection is the epitome of holiday in my eyes. All of these colors are perfect for the holiday season, but they aren’t terribly unique. I really like the glitters in this collection because they are just so sparkly. Shades like December to Remember are very interesting especially because it changes so much depending on the lighting and angle. These are all very pretty, but you probably already have something similar in your stash. I don’t really have anything negative to say about this collection overall, but it also didn’t wow me. What about you? What do you think about this collection? I’d love to hear what you think, so let me know in the comment below. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Pure Ice Bling On The Holidays Collection

Posted on 30 November, 20141 December, 2014 by Cynthia

Normally, this is the time when I would start lamenting that tomorrow is Monday and that I have to go to work, but not today because I have Monday off. Woot! Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, I feel like I can now bring out the holiday decorations without thinking that it’s way too early. Can you believe that tomorrow we will be entering the final month of 2014?! This is both exciting and depressing at the same time because I realize that one more year has gone by and I am still stuck in a rut–but hey, at least I’m alive. Anywho, today I’m showing the new Pure Ice Bling On The Holidays Collection which is made up of 6 glitter toppers. I picked some random colors to pair them with to show that they aren’t just for the holidays, so let me show you what they look like.

Pure Ice Bling On The Holidays

Pure Ice Feeling Ornamental

Pure Ice Gold Peppermints

Pure Ice Pure Icicles

Pure Ice Santa Marry Me

Pure Ice Winter Blues

I have to admit that I was a little underwhelmed when I saw this collection because they pretty much all looked the same to me, but I ended up really liking them. The thing about these polishes is that they can look incredibly different depending on what base color you use. Personally I really liked the outcome when I used a dark base–which is probably why Winter Blues is my favorite of them all. These polish are going to pretty much change your base color because the clear base is full of fine shimmer that gives your nails an icy look to them. And you know what the best part is? These retails for just under $2. Yep, you know I love me some expensive polish, but I am not a polish snob in the least. I love Pure Ice for their affordable and quality polish. If you want to get your hands on these, I recommend that you check your local Walmart. My Walmart is usually pretty well stocked when it comes to Pure Ice, but they do go fast. So what do you think about these shades? Will you be picking any of these up? Let me know what you think below. Thanks for the visit today, and I will talk to you soon.

The Beauty Buffs – Metallic

Posted on 19 November, 201419 November, 2014 by Cynthia

I’ll be the first one to tell you that I am not really excited by metallics. I have never been a fan of metallic nail polishes, but when I got China Glaze I’d Melt For You (press sample) I knew that it would be perfect for this prompt. Today The Beauty Buffs bring you everything metallic. Of course I am showing you a metallic–or chrome–polish because this is a nail blog, after all…at least I think it is. Let me show you the polish before I get into the finer details.

First off, I would like to explain that my nails look weird because I did some damage to my nail beds with some overzealous buffing and filing a few weeks ago. I accidentally made some grooves on the sides of my nails so now they look kind of warped. It’s not normally this noticeable, but this polish is a metallic/chrome which means that it shows EVER SINGLE IMPERFECTION on you nails. In retrospect, this probably wasn’t the best polish choice but hey–my nails aren’t perfect and here is the proof. China Glaze I’d Melt For You (press sample) is one of the polishes from the Twinkle Holiday Collection that I will be reviewing soon. It’s a very opaque silver chrome

In order to jazz this up, I used a design from a new plate that I bought from Born Pretty. The design comes from plate BP-13. No you can really see how badly damaged my nail is because the stamp didn’t even transfer there. Boo! I am not going to buff it anymore and hopefully it will just grow out.

I should have had this post up early this morning but I was so tired last night that I literally passed out with my computer open on my bed. I woke up like 30 minutes late and barely got to work on time this morning–womp, womp. I was super happy to read your guys’ comments when I got home today so that made me want to post again and again and again. I have a few new collections to swatch so that’s going to keep me busy this weekend. Additionally, I have like 5 days off for Thanksgiving so that will give me a bunch of time to do nail stuff. I’m excited about that.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by today and don’t forget to check out all of the posts from my fellow Beauty Buffs below. Talk to you soon!

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Zoya Wishes Collection Holiday 2014

Posted on 3 November, 20142 November, 2014 by Cynthia

Hi! How was your weekend? Mine was way too short as usual, so here I am lamenting the start of another work week. I didn’t manage to get through my swatching pile so now I’ll have to do a few polishes every night to catch up–at least that’s what I always say and then get too lazy. I did manage to swatch the Zoya Wishes Collection for Holiday/Winter 2014. I was so looking forward to this collection because last year’s collection was a total winner in my book. How did this year’s offering fare? Let’s find out.

Zoya Prim

Zoya Haven

Zoya Willa

Zoya Imogen

Zoya Nori

Zoya Thea

Where to start? Well, it’s safe to say that I dislike this collection. It would be an understatement for me to say that I am OVER the super magical ultra super duper Pixie Dust formulation. They never dry down matte which is what I think would make them look a little more special. Thea and Nori are very pretty, but Imogen is kind of a snoozefest. Now for the other three…Prim, oh Prim! Metallic, frosty, brush strokes. Enough said. I didn’t care for Haven either because it’ kind of metallic as well, but it doesn’t show brustrokes like Prim. The color isn’t something that I’d go out of my way to wear again. Willa is a good basic black with a nice formula, but that’s about it. You guys know I really love Zoya, but this collection is just a miss for me with the exception of Thea and Nori. What do you guys think? Will you be picking up any of these shades? You can purchase these polishes for $9 each (or $10 for the Pixie Dusts) over at zoya.com. Thank you for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

OPI Gwen Stefani Holiday Collection 2014

Posted on 28 October, 201427 October, 2014 by Cynthia

I was catching up on episodes of The Voice, and I was getting in the move to write up my review for this collection since I was watching Gwen on the show. Does anyone else think she looks more amazing than ever? How does she not age? I remember being in high school and freaking the fuck out when their Tragic Kingdom album came out. I still listen to that album often–ahh, simpler times. Every time I start talking about holiday collections, it surprises the heck out of me that in a few days it’s going to be November. Where did the year go? My little nephew is going to be 1 year old in a couple of weeks–when did that happen??? Soooo….where to start with this massive collection? Before I even saw bottle shots, I knew that Gwen + holiday would mean a whole lotta red and I was not wrong. Before I start rambling, let me show you the 18 polishes that make up the OPI Gwen Stefani Holiday Collection.

OPI Fashion A Bow

OPI Cinnamon Sweet

OPI What’s Your Point-settia?

OPI Red Fingers And Mistletoes

OPI First Class Desires

OPI Sleigh Parking Only

OPI Just Be-claus

OPI Kiss Me-Or Elf!

OPI I Carol About You

OPI Christmas Gone Plaid

OPI In A Holidaze

OPI Love Is Hot And Coal

OPI Rollin’ In Cashmere

OPI Unfrost My Heart

OPI I’ll Tinsel You In

OPI Snow Globetrotter

OPI Comet In The Sky

OPI So Elegant

Swatching a collection this large can seem like a huge chore, but I actually got through it rather quickly because the formula on all of these polishes was superb. They all applied easily and of course the OPI brush is perfect for my nails–I just can’t rave enough about it. I am feeling conflicted here: while I love the formula and the colors are really nice, I am just left feeling flat. Is it too much red? I don’t know. I just keep thinking of how majestic the Skyfall collection was a couple of years ago and how this doesn’t even compare. There are a few shades like Red Fingers and Mistletoes, First Class Desires, Snow Globetrotter and Christmas Gone Plaid that I LOVE SO HARD, but the rest I can live without. I kept going back and forth between liking and HATING Rollin’ In Cashmere and I think I have settled with disliking it. The color just looks horrible on me, but I can see it working on other different skin tones. You already know that I hate I’ll Tinsel You In because it’s silver and a foil. Barf. I guess the good news here is that your wallet will thank you for passing on a lot of these shades. If you have plenty of reds, then you don’t necessarily need to pick them up from this collection. Now I want to hear from you: what do you think about this collection? Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Stamping Saturdays #41

Posted on 18 October, 2014 by Cynthia

Well hello there and welcome to another Stamping Saturdays! I haven’t posted much in the last week, but I won’t get into it here because I have a lot to share and I’ll never get through this post. Ha! I am super happy with the weather lately because it’s finally starting to feel like fall. I’m going to do a ton of stuff around the house today so I’m kinda looking forward to everything being spic and span. For today’s mani, I used one of my new pretties: OPI Christmas Gone Plaid.

I really hate that my pictures make this polish look darker than it is. It’s actually a lot more green in real life and it’s gorgeous! The good news is that OPI Christmas Gone Plaid (press sample) is super amazing, smooth, opaque and incredibly shiny on its own.

I just wanted to jazz everything up so I applied a coat of Nubar 2010 which is one of my favorite flaky polishes.

This large houndstooth design is from plate MoYou London Pro Collection 18 (press sample). I just love houndstooth everything!

Well, what do you think about this mani? I hope you’re doing well today and that you are enjoying your weekend. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

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The Lacquer Ring – Vampy

Posted on 9 October, 20149 October, 2014 by Cynthia

I know I’m super late for The Lacquer Ring post today, but I wasn’t in the mood to do my nails last night and then tonight I was having issues with my camera so it took me a long time to get it to work. The camera did not want to turn on and then it would shut off by itself. I think that it is finally time to get a new one. I’ve bought 2 cameras lately and returned both because they just didn’t work out for me. I use a point and shoot camera that was under $150 a couple of years ago so I’m not looking for anything crazy fancy or expensive. I have my eye on a Nikon that is $100 so I’m going to go check it out at Best Buy this weekend. I’m excited about going camera shopping! Today’s prompt is vampy, and I received the perfect polish today.

OPI Sleigh Parking Only is a new polish from the Gwen Stefani Holiday Collection. I am a little surprised by how much darker this polish looks on the nail. It’s a beautiful dark raisin polish with a great formula. I applied two coats for my swatches above and it covered perfectly. It dries incredibly shiny which you know I love when it comes to cremes.

I could not leave my mani nice and simple so I applied one coat of OPI Snowflakes In The Air. I adore this glitter and love how it pops against the dark base.

I am watching Grey’s Anatomy right now and am patiently waiting for Scandal. I love that show! I have a crapton of polishes to swatch this weekend, and I have no idea how I’m going to get through them all, but I’m going to give it my best shot. Aren’t you happy that tomorrow is Friday? I’m looking forward to the weekend laziness for sure. Don’t forget to check out the other manicures for today’s The Lacquer Ring posts. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

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