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Illamasqua Glitterati

Posted on 13 March, 2014 by Cynthia

I know I haven’t posted in like 3 days which is like eons for me because I’ve been trying to post regularly, but I’ve been so stressed out lately that all I want to do is sleep, sleep and sleep some more. I feel like a donkey for not being able to comment on the blogs I read on the regular and for not staying on top of responding to your comments here. I am now woefully behind on my swatching, and I think I must have about 30 polishes in line. Yep, 30. Among them are the OPI Glitters, the OPI Muppets Most Wanted, China Glaze Sea Goddess, Zoya Magical Pixies and a bunch of other random stuff. Just to let you know how sick I am, I think my nail place may have the Essie Wedding Collection so I may get those tomorrow. If they have any new China Glazes, I will probably get those too. Anyway, I’m just hanging on for dear life and relishing the idea of my upcoming weekend which will be full of sleep and lots of polish. Since my mood is so blah, I kept listening to MIKA’s Grace Kelly on a loop. I can never get enough of MIKA and his first album. Enjoy some MIKA:

The polish I have for you today was a gift from my lovely sister-in-law. Illamasqua. As a gift. Yep, she knows what’s up in polishland! Let’s take a look at Illamasqua Glitterati…

While the jelly base of Illamasqua Glitterati is pigmented enough to be worn on its own, I ended up applying it over Illamasqua Vice which I reviewed here. The base covers up the glitter a bit, but boy does this baby come alive in the sun. The glitter just sparkles and you may be tempted to stare at your nails even when you shouldn’t…like when you’re driving…down the freeway…in rush hour traffic. Anyway, this is a total win for me!

The last few days I have been falling asleep by 7:30 or 8:00 so it’s almost my pathetic bedtime. I won’t be able to stay up and watch Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal or Hell’s Kitchen but I’ll be sure to watch them this weekend at my leisure. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I hope you have a good Friday!

Illamasqua Vice

Posted on 4 March, 2014 by Cynthia

I’m kind of hating life right now for a variety of reasons, so I decided to wear a hot, Hot, HOT! nail polish to distract myself from the terrible ennui. After all the massive selling of polishes, I find myself going through my melmers on the regular trying to figure out what else I can get rid of. I also re-discover polishes I forgot I even had…and Illamasqua Vice is one I had totally forgotten. I actually don’t even recall purchasing it so I’m sure it was acquired during one of my many polish shopping binges. Let me show you how pretty this polish is.

Illamasqua Vice has that rubber finish that was all the rage a couple of years ago. It’s not quite matte and it’s not quite glossy so it looks a little off initially. The colors is this deep and vibrant cherry that feels a little thin and sheer but it builds up very nicely.

Since I can’t live without a gorgeous glossy finish, I applied a coat of my trusty Seche Vite to give it this beautiful shine (imagine me saying that in the Cutepolish voice).

So that’s my story for today. I hope that you’re having a better day than me, but hey…at least I don’t work tomorrow which means I don’t have to be up at the buttcrack of dawn. That makes me happy. Thanks for stopping by, and I will talk to you soon!

Stamping Saturdays – The Beginning!

Posted on 11 January, 201411 January, 2014 by Cynthia

One of the things I miss when I do tons of swatching is doing freehand designs and stamping. Stamping will always be my first love because when I first started getting obsessed with doing my own nails, it was the first technique I felt that I mastered. In order to push myself to at least do some stamping once in a while, a few friends and I will be trying to post stamping manicures every Saturday. For now I am feeling pretty enthusiastic about this, and I hope I don’t flake out like I always do. Ha! I think that because it’s only a once a week thing, I won’t be such a weirdo about it. For my first Stamping Saturdays mani, I decided to start with a gorgeous base: Illamasqua Superstition.

Seriously. This is such an amazingly gorgeous polish that it made me want to fall in love with Illamasqua all over again. I don’t know about you, but I was pretty annoyed when they raised their prices to $17 a bottle from $14. Uhm, yeah…no mas Illamasqua for me. I know that $3 isn’t that much and yes, I am that person who buys $30 polish, but such a sudden price hike rubbed me the wrong way. Anyway, I still love this. The formula is like buttah and it has a beautiful squishy quality to it. Then I started to stamp it up.

I’m not going to lie: I am way rusty with stamping so this manicure was kind of a nightmare. I really hate how the black konad special polish streaks like crazy when you top coat it. I actually had to redo the stamping because I smudged it up pretty horribly the first time. This particular image comes from Konad plate M64 in case you were wondering. I tried creating one of the inlinkz thing for this but I gotta be honest: I was way too lazy and I got confused easily. I’m sure the alcohol contributed to that but let’s not focus on that, ok? Once I figure out who and when my girls are posting, I will list their entries below. Edit: I think Amy figured out the linky thing.

So what do you think? Do you like stamping? I am definitely looking forward to doing more of these so make sure that you visit us next Saturday. Thanks so much for stopping by and I will talk to you soon.

Illamasqua Poke

Posted on 7 December, 20137 December, 2013 by Cynthia

Lately I have been really good about not spending money on polish. Ok, that is a lie because I recently purchased Black Sugar and a new Inglot polish to try out. However, I haven’t bought anything in about 2 and a half weeks which is kind of a miracle when it comes to my polish spending. To be honest, I started feeling very irresponsible about my polish spending because WHEN AM I GOING TO USE UP ALL THIS POLISH? WHEN?! I know this type of rational thinking flies out the window once a new collection comes out, so let me indulge my fleeting moment of clarity. Since I haven’t bought anything new, I decided to rummage through my melmers for one of my many untrieds. I focused on the drawer that houses all of my Illamasquas because it’s been a while since I played with those. The polish I have for you today is Illamasqua Poke; let’s take a look at it, shall we?

Illamasqua Poke is a purple lover’s wet dream. Seriously. Just look at it. I find the end result completely breathtaking, but I am sad to report that I didn’t find this polish as easy to work with as many people have mentioned. I felt that it went on uneven in a strange way so I had to apply a very thick second coat to even it out and get full coverage. I was expecting a lovely and shiny finish, but it dried a little on the dull side. I just can’t get over how bright this color is and how gorgeous that shimmer looks!

And here is a picture of peanut. He came for a visit yesterday but was a little fussy because he had been out and about all day. He refused to look at me while I took this picture because he was too distracted by the television. He is getting so big! In no time at all, he will be running around wreaking havoc. I can’t wait!

I don’t have much to do this weekend so I’m probably just going to bum around and maybe go Christmas shopping. I am going to try very hard not to buy polish!! What do you think about this polish? Do you like it as much as I do? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Greens Smackdown

Posted on 22 June, 20131 July, 2013 by Cynthia

Guess what, chillens? I’m done with work for the weekend so that definitely deserves a little bit of a celebration…which means that I bought some polish. I bought a few colors at my local beauty supply and I also ordered some minis from Lush Lacquer. I’ve never tried that brand before so I’m super excited because their new collection of bright polishes is right UP MY ALLEY. I wasn’t super happy with how long it will take to get my polishes, but I don’t have to be an impatient asshole…I can definitely wait since I have plenty of stuff to play with and swatch in the meantime. For those of you who read about my head banging episode yesterday, I am glad to say I feel a lot better. My head is still a little sore where I hit it but I don’t feel sleepy or nauseated any longer…well, no more than usual after having to be at work on a Saturday at 6 am. Thank you for all sweet messages on here and on twitter.

So for today, I have a fun post. My Blues Smackdown post got a lot of hits last time so I know that people are always looking for dupes. Being that emerald is the Pantone Color Of The Year, I decided to do a comparison post for some gorgeous greens. I hope you enjoy this and that it can save you a few bucks if you’re wondering if you have a dupe or not. Let’s get ready for my Greens Smackdown!

Color Club Abyss – Illamasqua Venous – OCC Chlorophyll – YSL Vert d’Orient

I don’t think that any of these polishes are 100% exact dupes, but OCC Chlorophyll and Illamasqua Venous are pretty darn close. They are the exact same size (.5 oz) but Illamasqua retails for $17 while OCC retails for $10. In terms of formula, I think that OCC Chlorophyll is just a tiny bit thinner, but it’s not a huge difference. The priciest one is YSL Vert d’Orient and it is also the darkest one of the bunch. I reviewed it here yesterday. Now, is it really worth $25? That’s up to you to decided. Color Club Abyss is the brightest one here and at $8-it’s a steal!

Here is another comparison of 4 more gorgeous greens:

Color Club Wild Cactus – Nubar Into The Wild – Sation RV There Yet? – Sinful Colors Rise And Shine

What do you think about these? I feel pretty confident in saying that Sation RV There Yet? and Color Club Wild Cactus are 100% dupes in terms of color. The Sation ($5.00) has a super sheer jelly formula that takes a lot of coats–4 here–to build up while the Color Club ($8.00) only took two. They are both gorgeous! The base color of the Nubar ($8.00) and the Sinful Colors ($1.99) is very similar but the Sinful Colors has a lovely shimmer throughout. I also found the Sinful Colors formula to be very thin but it was very buildable.

I hope that this post was helpful. I kind of dread doing these comparison posts because I realize how many dupes I probably have and don’t even realize it. However, I know that these posts are good in helping you decide if you really need a particular polish. Let me know what you think in the comments! Do you end up purchasing a lot of dupes? Do you regret getting them? Let me know if you have any other polishes that you think might be good dupes for these.

Have a wonderful weekend, and I will 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.

Illamasqua MILF

Posted on 8 March, 20137 March, 2013 by Cynthia

And in my series of inappropriate polish name posts, today I have Illamasqua MILF. You all know that I love my Illamasquas and this one did not disappoint. However, I think that I got a super old bottle that had been at Sephora for eons because the bottle design is a little different AND the polish kind of smelled like poison. Despite all that, I didn’t hesitate to slather it on like nobody’s business.

Isn’t this the creamiest and most lovely mint green polish? The formula was very opaque but also kind of runny which I found very strange for Illamasqua. I actually flooded my cuticle pretty badly on the first nail I painted so I had to be very careful not to get too close with the brush. When I saw this gorgeous green, I immediately thought of blinging it up.

This is Sation Ego-friendly. *pause for ooohs and ahhhhs* I’ve worn this over dark colors, but it looks absolutely breath taking over a lighter color. I’ve been messing with polishes all afternoon, and this is the only combination I’ve actually liked. It’s like St. Patrick’s Day threw up all over my nails.

So I’m keeping this post short and sweet. I hope you liked it, and that you have a great Friday. Thanks for the visit today, and I will talk to you soon!

Illamasqua Load

Posted on 9 January, 2013 by Cynthia

Load. Yes, you read that correctly: LOAD. I think my blog has always been PG-13 or maybe R at times so I apologize if Illamasqua is offending your sensibilities. Nothing really shocks me nowadays (Sinful Colors Beau Khaki anyone?) and I just kinda giggled every time I saw this polish. I finally decided to get it because I have been pretty obsessed with white/off white polishes lately Illamasqua Load was released in the 2011 Throb collection for Valentine’s Day of all things. haha!

Illamasqua Load is a milky and creamy off white polish with some yellow undertones. Not only have I been super obsessed with white polishes, but I am also a huge fan of yellow polishes as well because my mom always dressed me in yellow. I guess it brings back fond memories of being a kid. The formula on this was definitely not what I expected considering Illamasqua is usually perfection in a bottle. This color was beyond streaky and I never thought I would be able to get it to look right after the second coat. I decided to apply a thickish third coat and that seemed to do the trick.

Ok, I don’t know what I was thinking when I did this. I am not feeling the gold hex glitter at all. I think it looks kind of strange and it was a pain in the butt to apply since it is loose glitter. I got the idea of doing this after I saw Nicole’s poopy brown nails yesterday. Considering that we both agreed that we didn’t like them, I guess I had a brain fart when I went a head and took inspiration from them. I feel like I have ghetto gold on my nails!

It’s Wednesday so happy hump day! Are you looking forward to the weekend? I am because I may have more celebrations in store. That’s just how I roll. 🙂 Do you have any fun weekend plans? Oh, and I almost forgot to ask you: what do you think of Load? Is it something you would wear? Are you totally turned off by the name?

Thanks so much for stopping by today and catching up with me! Talk to you soon.

Illamasqua Noble & Cameo

Posted on 9 December, 201210 December, 2012 by Cynthia

I think that I start out every single post that I do on Illamasqua saying how much I love their line of nail polishes, so why break a habit, right? I’ve had these two polishes ever since they first came out at Sephora and have no idea why I hadn’t tried them yet. I guess I can plead insanity because these two colors are perfection in a bottle. I mean, they are seriously bright and outrageously pigmented–what more could I ask for? When these two colors came out, they were Sephora exclusives but apparently Illamasqua is now offering them through their website as well so jump to it my friends. If you couldn’t get your hands on these before, now is the time!

Illamasqua Noble is AH-MAZING. Look at how beautiful and bright this robin’s egg blue polish is. I may have some similar polishes, but not 100% dupes as far as I can tell. This is the type of color that I would wear all Spring long and would find a million different things to do to it. However, the more I look at it the more I see it would be a travesty to do anything but leave it as a clean mani with zero embellishments because it doesn’t need anything. Not a thing. This polish required two smooth coats for complete opacity and it dries shiny and gorgeous.

Illamasqua Cameo is a beautiful periwinkle blue that dries super glossy and smooth. When I wore this I immediately thought of China Glaze Secret Periwinkle but I think this is much brighter. I am going to have to do a side-by-side comparison to double check, though. I don’t know if I was just being hasty, but I noticed that the polish dragged a bit on my pointer finger and made created some slight balding. I think I just didn’t wait enough time to apply the second coat on that finger. Other than that, this polish did not disappoint in color or formula.

So what do you think of these two beauties? Are these colors that you would normally wear?

Hopefully you are still reading because I have something to ask of all of you. I have never been one to do the guest post thing because I never understood the point of it…probably because I’m a turd. I think I am going to be pretty busy in the next couple of weeks and don’t know how much I will be able to post so I wanted to ask if anyone would be interested in doing a guest post for my blog? If this is something that you would be interested in, please send me an email at oflifeandlacquer (at) att (dot) net and we can set something up. I think it would be really great to see some fresh faces–er–nails on my blog! Besides being busy, I also feel like I need a little break so this would be perfect for me right now. Don’t fret if you don’t have a blog: non-bloggers are welcome too, especially if you have been thinking about starting a blog (ahem, Lesley!) Ok, so this might turn off a few people but please don’t send me pictures of bloody cuticles. I won’t survive that. And don’t call me a cuticle bully, ok? 😉

So there you have it. I hope you have had a nice weekend and that your week starts out on the right foot. As always, thank you for stopping by and catching up with me.

P.S. Did you enter my giveaway? It’s pretty freaking awesome, according to me, so go check it out if you haven’t done so already.

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 16: Polka Dot Nails

Posted on 3 November, 2012 by Cynthia

After the short break, we are back to the 31 Day Challenge! Are you excited too? No? Well, alright…

I finally got to use one of my new Illamasqua babies! Yayyyyy! Charisma is one of the two polishes from their Generation Q Fall 2012 collection, and as usual I would like to report that I love this polish for so many reasons. Look at it.

Illamasqua calls this a “deep raspberry pink” but this is actually darker than I imagined when I first saw some swatches. Nonetheless, this is a perfect call color. It’s dark but vibrant and glowy. As usual, the formula was perfect and opaque at two coats.

Since the challenge calls for polka dots, I was just going to use my dotting tool to apply dots on my nails but I decided to use some loose gold hex glitter.

I am feeling a lot more comfortable with using loose glitter now so I’m proud of myself for actually getting this mani done. While this may not be difficult for some people, I usually fail big time at anything that isn’t a simple manicure with some stamping. Doesn’t this just look like Christmas exploded on my nails?

So, what do you think of my polka dot manicure? Let me know what you think of this polish. Are you a fan of Illamasqua? Don’t forget to check out the other challenge polka dot manis below. Talk to you later.