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Nubar Wild West Collection For Fall 2013

Posted on 1 November, 2013 by Cynthia

Hi there! Today I have another Nubar collection to share with you and this one takes us back to the Wild West! Any time that I think about westerns, I think of Paul Newman and Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid.

They are so dreamy. I still remember seeing Robert Redford in The Way We Were when I was a kid and I was hopelessly infatuated with him. Anyway, enough of my childhood crushes and let’s move on to the Nubar Wild West Collection.

Nubar Spirit Walker

Nubar Paint Pony

Nubar Go Native

Nubar Brothel

Nubar Cactus

Nubar Texas Sky

Nubar Never Take Off The Mask

The formula on all of these is pretty decent. All of them took 2 coats for full opacity and they applied fairly smooth. I’m just not that excited about this collection overall. I really like Spirit Walker, Texas Sky and Never Take Off The Mask. Other than that, I can leave the rest. I decided not to purchase one of the polishes from this collection because it was a metallic silver that was just barf central. It should come as no surprise that these are going up on on my blog sale so make sure you check them out there if you’re interested in trying out some Nubar polishes.

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a great weekend!

Nubar Alter Ego Collection – Winter 2013

Posted on 30 October, 2013 by Cynthia

Are you guys ready for Halloween? I’m not planning to do anything so I’m not going to dress up nor am I going to give out candy. I’m probably just going to watch a whole bunch of scary movies at home. We are having a Halloween potluck at work so I’m making my much requested red velvet cupcakes. People at work are always talking about them so I’m happy to oblige since I love baking. I’ve had such a busy day today because I’ve been doing laundry and just general cleaning along with other errands. It makes me kinda mad because I can never seem to just enjoy a day off. Anyway, I also ended up finishing up my swatches of the Nubar Alter Ego Collection which is what I have for you today. This collection is made up of 8 glitter top coats in lightly tinted bases. I layered 2 coats of each glitter top coat over a corresponding solid color, and I got a pretty effect. The formula on all of the polishes is exactly the same: a little goopy but I think it helps you control the glitter application. Let’s take a look at the Nubar Alter Ego Collection, shall we?

Nubar Kristal (over Color Club Silver Lake)

Nubar Trixie (over Color Club Age Of Aquarius)

Nubar Blondie (over Color Club Neon Orange Sunset)

Nubar Vixen (over Color Club Endless)

Nubar Elektra (over Color Club Neon Sunrise)

Nubar Gipsy (over Color Club Abyss)

Nubar Satine (over Color Club Red Rocks)

Nubar Roxy (over Color Club Factory Girl)

Overall, I think that these top coats are pretty but for a lacquerhead like me, they are so boring. I mean, these are not anything that we haven’t seen before so I’m not excited about them at all. I feel that Nubar has been striking out lately and to be honest, so have a lot of other brands. I wasn’t that impressed with Nubar’s Summer and Fall collections either so I hope they get over this slump. The last Nubar collection that I loved was My Sweet Escape for Spring which I reviewed here. Nubar can be a little hard to come buy since I’ve only seen it at independent beauty supply stores, but you can purchase them online where they retail for $8. If you’re interested in any of these, they are going on my blog sale so make sure that you check them out there along with a lot of other goodies. Let me know what you think of this collection–I’d love to hear from you. Are you a Nubar fan? Thanks so much for the visit, and I’ll talk to you soon.

P.S. My giveway is ending in a few hours. Have you entered?? If not, click on the image below and enter for your chance to win some Mariah Carey Holiday Liquid Sand Minis.

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.

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.

Nubar My Sweet Escape Collection Spring 2013

Posted on 11 March, 201323 March, 2013 by Cynthia

Don’t I always start my Monday posts by commenting on how much I hate Mondays? Well, this will be no different. I had a hell of a time waking up this morning because of the damn time change. When my alarm went off at 3:30, I nearly wanted to cry. I also had the most random dream about a guy I haven’t thought about or talked for like 10+ years. You know those people that touch your life in a very significant manner and then things get a little ugly and you decide to walk away out of pure laziness? Yep, the story of my life. I feel like I tend to not want to deal with things when they are challenging out of fear of failure or being hurt. Anyway, it was really strange to have a dream about him but wherever he may be now, I hope he’s happy. Oh my God…I’m such a loser.Let’s move on from the sappiness and focus on the pretty polish, shall we? Today I FINALLY got my act together and I will be sharing my swatches and review of the Nubar My Sweet Escape Collection for Spring 2013. I’ve had these polishes for a few weeks, and I just couldn’t find the time to swatch them all. This Saturday I swatched probably 20+ polishes so I have a good stock of pictures for upcoming posts. Well, here they are! Are you ready for my “perfect little tan fingers?” (One of my readers wrote that in my comments and it made me giggle.)

Am I the only one who has been humming this song the whole time?

Let me just get this out of the way: Resort Yellow is probably the most awesome yellow that I have ever used. Not only is it a true yellow, but it is super opaque and it looked perfect at two coats. I’ve said before that I’ve been completely obsessed with yellow polishes lately and this one just made my cool like Donkey Kong list.

All I can think of when I look at On The Radar is: That is a one spicy meatball. I don’t know why this makes me think of marinara sauce. Is that weird? It’s a cherry tomato color with some orange in it to boot. It’s pretty but it’s not usually a color that makes me get all excited.

I like bright blue polishes. I like From Dusk Till Dawn. That is all. Actually, this one is a little sheer so I felt like I had some bald spots. I have a lot of blues like this one but I still like it.

The Pantone color of the year is emerald so I’m really digging this color right now. Into The Wild is that gorgeous shade of green/emerald that everyone will be rocking this year. I think it’s a little smoky and not as bright as true emerald–more of a gorgeous jade. I’m definitely on board!

I am a little torn about Forbidden Fruit. It’s such a strange looking color, but I kind of really like it. It reminds me a bit of pureed pale yams…or baby food! I actually do like how this color looks on my skintone but I don’t know if it’s a universally flattering color.

Could My New Obsession be my new obsession? It’s so pretty. I just can’t get enough when it comes to blue and turquoise polishes. How many of these do I really need??? I don’t know, but I seem to collect them. Heck, who am I kidding? I collect every color. hahaha

I think that Sour Apple is just kind of strange. It makes me think of Jolly Ranchers. Omg…I use to eat Jolly Ranchers like my life depended on it when I was a kid. Hello, diabetes! The formula on this one was a little thin compared to Resort Yellow. I don’t know if I really like this color

Jaded is my second favorite polish in this collection. It’s beautiful, bright yet smokey. I can see myself wearing this year-round. The formula was pretty good and I only needed two coats.

Since I have some similar colors and bought a few dupes of colors I knew I wouldn’t want to part with, I will be putting up a lot of these polishes up on my blog sale so make sure that you check it out if you’d like to get your hands on any of these colors. Click here for my blog sale page. Also, don’t forget to enter my giveaway for a set of minis from the OPI Oz The Great And Powerful Collection. Click here to enter.

I hope you liked the colors in this collection. I know Nubar isn’t as accessible as other brands, but they are definitely worth tracking down or buying them online. Let me know what you think. Do you have any favorites? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Kunimitsu Nail Potions Lucky Goldfish

Posted on 1 March, 201328 February, 2013 by Cynthia

This polish brought me back to my childhood in a good but kind of tragic way. Let me explain. Growing up, I was never allowed to have a pet because my mom always had major allergies along with severe asthma. I always longed to have a pet–a cute little dog to play with just like all the other kids I knew. One day, my godmother gave me an awesome present: a goldfish! A goldfish of my very own! I ran around like a bat out of hell with my little goldfish in a plastic bag filled with water until my mom calmed me down enough to help me put it in a bowl. I immediately named him Roger. I took out my little bottle of fish food and I sprinkled some in. And then I sprinkled in some more. And then a little more. And then some more. The next morning, I woke up and ran to Roger’s fishbowl and I noticed that he was floating upside down in his bowl. How cute–he was floating and relaxing. Well, by now you know that he was relaxing all the way to fish heaven. I was distraught when I couldn’t get him to swim around, and I screamed when my mom flushed him down the toilet. Just like that. Welcome to the real world, Cynthia. It’s a cold, cold place. I had to wait another 20-some years before I had a chance to get another pet and that ended in heartbreak as well. Am I just meant to never have a pet? Ugh…sadness. Anyway, my sob stories definitely don’t change the fact that I am pretty much gaga over Kunimitsu Nail Potions Lucky Goldfish.

I know this song is called Lucky Love, but I am kind of obsessed with Ace of Base and I kept humming this song while I was polishing my nails with Lucky Goldfish. Don’t judge, ok?

I started out with two coats of Nubar Dusk Till Dawn.

I’m always a complete sucker for a rich and saturated blue so you can already guess that I love this polish. Dusk Till Dawn is a new color from Nubar’s My Sweet Escape Collection for Spring 2013 so I’m glad to be giving it a whirl. Why are there so many amazing polishes out there lately. I want them all! The formula on Dusk Till Dawn is a little sheer. The first coat was very sheer and somewhat streaky but it built up nicely. I applied 2 additional thin coats and that seemed to do the job. I then topped this with one coat of Lucky Goldfish.

Lucky Goldfish is a sheer blue jelly based polish full of gorgeous coppery glitter. This reminds me of Barielle Falling start but better…way better. This polish was the perfect consistency, and I did not have to fuss with the glitter despite just purchasing a mini. I am completely obsessed with the copper glitter and how it looks against this vibrant blue.

So what do you think about this polish? Is it something you would wear. Be sure to check out all the other lovely Kunimitsu Nail Potions creation here. What are you waiting for?? Thanks for catching up with me today, and enjoy your Friday!

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!

Nubar Absolute

Posted on 2 December, 2012 by Cynthia

I was looking through my melmers today trying to decide what other polishes to put up on my blog sale (yes, go check out my blog sale now!), and I ran across Nubar Absolute. Believe it or not, I didn’t even realize I had this lovely polish and was shocked that I hadn’t worn it before. I had to remedy that immediately. This is the manicure I did today:

Read below to see what I used for this look.

Nubar Absolute comes from the fantastic Prisms Collection from 2010 which predates my polish obsession. Thankfully, I was able to find some of these locally so I snatched them up. I absolutely love this polish, but I do have some beef with it: it is super SUPER sheer. I had to apply 4 coats because I still had VNL at 3 coats. I found that because the polish is so sheer and the holo pigment particles are so fine, this polish dries very quickly. Absolute looks pretty but not that spectacular in regular light, but boy did it blow me away once I went out and it caught the sunlight…it really shines. Despite having to apply 4 coats, I still love how beautiful and delicate this polish is.

I’ve been all about stamping lately so I pulled out Konad plate M3 and used two designs for the stars. I don’t know about you, but stamping is not as easy as some people make it out to be. It takes time to get the hang of it so I don’t now why I’ve been seeing people say that stamping is “cheating.” I’m a stamper at heart because it was the first “nail art” I ever did when I first became obsessed with nail polish. I really like how this turned out–especially because the stamp didn’t cover up much of the lovely base polish.

What do you think about Nubar Absolute? Are you a Nubar fan? Let me know what you think!

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 17: Striped Nails

Posted on 6 November, 2012 by Cynthia

Ahhh…election day is here! I’m not one to lecture people so I won’t get all soapbox-y on everyone. For me, voting is a privilege, a right and a responsibility. There are so many people in other areas of the world who are not allowed to vote so I’m not about to piss on election day. I don’t care about your politics–just make your voice count. To think that less than 100 years ago, women were not allowed to vote makes me wonder why so many women don’t vote.

Anyway, enough politics talk. Today is day 17 of our 31 day challenge so we are a little over half-way through. I think that the fact that we have spaced it out has made it seem like it is just draaaaaaaaaaaaaging, but at the same time I like the fact that I have a few days in between to do other things. The challenge calls for striped nails today and as usual, I had no idea what to do. I took out my Nubar Jeans trio and told myself I had to use these three for whatever look I settled on. In case you’re not familiar with Nubar, this is the trio I am talking about:

Faded Jeans – Boyfriend Jeans – Dark Wash Jeans

This trio is supposed to be a dupe for the Les Jeans de Chanel Collection, but I don’t know how similar they are since I don’t own any Chanel. I’ve seen a few swatches and they do seem to be pretty similar, but I can’t assert that they are 100% dupes. I started out with a full manicure of Faded Jeans.

This polish is pretty, but I found the application kind of weird. It was opaque at two coats but when I looked closely, it had some streaky bald patches so I had to apply a third coat. Luckily, the other two polishes did not have this problem.

I then left a little area at the bottom and polished the rest of my nail with Boyfriend Jeans and let that dry a bit. I then left another small strip of the Boyfriend Jeans color and polished the rest of my nail with Dark Wash Jeans. Don’t worry if the lines look a little crooked because the stripping tape will make it all look neat. (Can you tell I’m not good at tutorials? hahaha)

So there is the finished look. What do you think? I had a hard time photographing these colors because my skin would turn so red in the pics. I tried to color correct as much as I could without affecting the polish colors, but since I am a big edit fail, it didn’t turn out so well. My hands are in a terrible state right now because I decided that I didn’t need no stinkin’ gloves to clean with bleach. Yeah…moron.

Don’t forget to check out the other striped manis for today’s challenge. Talk to you soon.