Tag: OPI

Of Life and Lacquer > OPI

Sation Hot 4 Teacher + OPI Spotted

Posted on by Cynthia

Young teacher, the subject
Of schoolgirl fantasy
She wants him so badly
Knows what she wants to be
Inside her there’s longing
This girl’s an open page
Book marking – she’s so close now
This girl is half his age

I am a rabid The Police fan so I don’t need much encouragement to burst out into song whenever something reminds me of one of their songs. When I got Sation Hot 4 Teacher, I started singing “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” at the store. Seriously. I’m not lying. People already know I’m a little “whacky” at my usual nail places so they didn’t think anything was out of the ordinary.

My freshman year of college, I was hopelessly in brain love with my literature professor. His class was at 8:00 am. and I never missed a single session despite the fact that it was 3 times a week. I would sit in the back of the class and literally swoon when he would regale us with his stories or get into deep discussion about Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson, John Dunne, Baudelaire or TS Eliot. I found ways to take more of his classes which I did. One year, in his American Literature class, we had to write a paper on Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. At the same time, I was reading Jean Anouilh’s version of Antigone in my French Literature class so I incorporated both books and heroines into my paper. The reason why I still remember this is because he wrote such glowing comments on my paper that I felt I was walking on air for the rest of the week.  So while I really was “half his age,” I wasn’t some ingenue. I don’t even think he was extraordinarily handsome when I look back, but he was so intellectually stimulating that I was so into him. Sadly, not that it mattered because I wouldn’t have done anything anyway, he was happily married. So, Dr. B****, I really wanted to brain bone you. Oh yeah, really badly. (Yes, I’m a nerd. SHUT UP!) Now, if only he had been the one to compliment me in class all the time and act creepy when I went to his office hours for help instead of my Comparative Religion professor…no, the irony is not lost on me.

Talk about tangents…back to the nail polish. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I LOVE SATION. Hot 4 Teacher is another polish from the Class Of Sation Collection, and I am in love with its radioactively bright magenta goodness. Like most neons, this dries to a satin finish which I like but much prefer it with a coat of Seche Vite.

Here are some shots of Hot 4 Teacher with and without topcoat:

    

    

    

And now for the polish I was super excited to receive…OPI Spotted!

    

I received OPI Spotted courtesy of the lovely Sabrina from Polish In Paris. (Merci ma belle! Merci mille fois…tu n’imagines pas combien j’adore ce vernis!!!) I had already read online that it’s important to apply this very thinly or else you won’t get many spots. As you can tell, I applied it too thickly on my pinky so I didn’t get  much of the spotted effect. You really have to apply the thinnest coat possible if you want a lot of spots. And just to make you more jealous, she also sent me 3 other polishes that look amazing and that I can’t wait to try. Eat your heart out:

Ok, so I really didn’t mean to rub it in your face, I just feel like I won the polish sweepstakes. 😀

So what do you think of Hot 4 Teacher? What about my inappropriate obsession with my lit professor? What are your feelings on OPI Spotted? Is it something you would wear?

Thanks for stopping by and catching up with me. I hope you will be back. I swear I’m not psycho. Really, I’m not…….

OPI DS Signature

Posted on by Cynthia

What is it with the weather? It was so humid today that I didn’t even attempt to do anything with my hair despite the fact that I had to go grocery shopping. I am a brunette Annie today! I really want to let my hair grow out, but days like this make me want to cave and get my usual pixie/faux-hawk/pompadour cut.  Do you even know how easy it is to manipulate short hair? My hair is wavy and easily holds a curl with the right product or straightens out nicely if I put in the effort. However, my hair, in this humid weather, looks something like this:

     

Just shorter.  Ghaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Anyway, since the weather wasn’t cooperating I wasn’t feeling good at all so I did what I love to do when I’m feeling crap-o-licious: I cleaned and I did a few loads of laundry. I am a meticulous laundry folder (thank you Martha Stewart for teaching me how to fold fitted sheets properly!) so I had “fun” folding all my clothes, rolling up my underwear…yes, I have a system of rolling my panties and arrange them by categories I have devised. No, I won’t go into that because you might run away screaming.

Enough of my idiosyncrasies and on to the polish du jour!

Isn’t she purdy? The pictures above were taken in a light box so it was really hard to capture all the holo magic. Below, I took three more pictures in direct sunlight.

The last picture here is blurry because I felt you could see the holo a little better. The linear holo on this polish is nowhere near as crazy amazing as the Layla holos produce, but this is still really pretty. I wasn’t that into nail polish when the original OPI DS line came out so I never thought I’d own these  without having to pay crazy eBay prices (which I refuse to do). You can’t even imagine how psyched I was when I found a few bottles of these at one of my dusties. I got this one and DS Sapphire which I will be trying in the near future, but I can already tell that I will love it. After I purchased these, I went back and picked up two more bottles to use for a giveaway. 🙂 Since I’m so lucky to have such amazing dusty luck, I want to spread the luck and love!

How have things been in your corner of the world? I can barely wait for fall and not just for the nail polish collections. By the way, can you tell me what show “Jeannie Bad Perm Victim” appeared on? (Hint: Show within a Show…no, not Hamlet.)

American Classic Kissin Cousin

Posted on by Cynthia

Today I have another oldie for you from American Classic. I am still actively trying to hunt down more information about this company and this phantom line of nail polishes. I might just have to go and talk to my nail polish guy again since he told me some background info on the the founder of the company. I was looking at the ingredient section on the back and it is definitely not Big 3-Free…not that it’s a big surprise considering how old the bottle looks.

 

This color is called Kissin Cousin. What is a “kissin cousin” anyway? I mean, it sounds a little incestuous to me.  The formula on this was very sheer but also very buildable. I love this soft color because it just looks so delicate and bright.

 

Will you stop with the glitter already!? Here is Kissin Cousin with a coat of Servin’ Up Sparkle. I also applied a mattifier  to change the look of the glitter and polish.

Have you ever come across these American Classic nail polishes? Please let me k now if you have any information about them; I’d love to know how old these are! Thanks for visiting today and I hope that you have a lovely weekend.

Sara Smile

Posted on by Cynthia

Has there ever been a song named after a person and you secretly you wish that was your name…even just for the length of the song? Well, that’s me with Sara Smile.

I don’t really know why I thought this would be a good way to open up this blog post, but the only reason I can think of is that I heard a bit of this song when I watched The Fighter tonight. Believe it or not, I had not watched this movie until tonight, and it was freaking awesome. I think I’ve stated on here before what a huge H&O fan I am, but I don’t think anyone understand what an understatement that is. Any time I hear a H&O song, I have to sing along with it…no matter where I am.

Let’s move along from Hall & Oates and back to nail polish! OPI DS Coronation has made quite a few appearances on my blog and rightly so! It’s a freaking amazing scattered silver holo.

DS Coronation applies like a dream. It only take two coats and it really settles and flows perfectly on my nails. There is absolutely no way that you can mess up a mani if you’re using this polish. And since my Bundle Monster obsession continues, I stamped this baby up!

I used plate BM 319 for this design. I really like the design but I keep thinking that these nails look Christmas-y because of the color combination I used. Maybe I would have liked them better if I had used black for the design. Despite my reservations about my color choices, I adore this design. Ugh…I am a stamping fool lately.

What do you think of these nails? Do you have any Designer Series OPIs? Do you think they are worth the extra money? What different color combination would you use for this stamping look?

“Hello Oscar Mayer Weiner…Lover.”

Posted on by Cynthia

My hot dog looks a little anorexic and frankly kinda burnt. So what?! It was still good. Oh, 4th of July was a day of ridiculous feasting for my family. We had a bbq and endless snacks. My mom made a beautiful fruit platter so that she could fool herself into thinking that at least we were eating one healthy thing. Yeah, right! The city where I live allows fireworks so we went outside to watch everyone set off their fireworks. My youngest brother bought a bunch and was creating his own by ripping up picolo petes and the like. Boys! Overall, I had a really nice time playing Scrabble and watching movies. I finally watched Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid and I really liked it. I mean, what is there not to like? Robert Redford. Like! Robert Redford. Double Like!! And Robert Redford…

 

I’ve been super excited about playing with my new Bundle Monster plates so I tried stamping without using my special polishes. I really like the look of the special polishes because they are so pigmented and always produce really crisp designs.  I started with a base of OPI French Quarter For Your Thoughts.

I seriously love this color. It’s so different from all the bright and crazy colors that I have been wearing lately.

 

I used OPI Ski Teal We Drop as the stamping color and plate BM 319 for the jigsaw puzzle design. This color stamped better than I thought it would. I usually don’t have much luck with stamping using regular nail polish so I’m glad this wasn’t a total disaster. If you like stamping or are interested in getting started, you MUST get these new Bundle Monster plates. They are so much fun and will change the way you do your nails.

How was your 4th of July?

P.S. Do you know where the title of my post came from?

 

Nails Inc. Tate

Posted on by Cynthia

Tate is the color that I imagine Roxanne wearing: a beautiful, glossy harlot red that she would wear before going back to her “home on whore island.” Sorry ladies, I just couldn’t help myself. I am a creme finish lover (wow, that sounds inappropriate), so of course I adore Tate. It’s bold, glossy, creamy and absolutely gorgeous. I love to wear red nail polish because it’s so LOUD and immediately commands attention. I am very animated when I speak, moving my arms and hands all over the place, so I love to have strong colors on my nails for dramatic effect. Ready for some swatches after I have babbled on and on about prostitutes, whores, and creme finishes? Ok!

No, I wasn’t lying. This is gorgeous and it’s a one coater!!!! I used two coats because that’s what I’m used to, but you can definitely get away with one coat.

GASP! Glitter!!!! I know, I know. I keep saying that I hate glitter, but I’m starting to think that maybe I’m just lying to myself. I can almost guarantee that I will *never* pay over $5 for any glitter but I am open to anything under that price point. I just hate how hard glitter is to remove most of the time and the thing that bothers me most is that rough feeling that it usually leaves on my nails. I really do like sponging–even though I still can’t get the gradient sponging right–so I mixed two glitters to sponge on my tips: OPI Servin’ Up Sparkle and Wet N Wild Rockin’ Rubies.

How do you like Tate? Do you love wearing red on your nails or is it just too loud for your taste? How do you feel about the glitter mix on my tips? Let me know! I love to hear your opinions.

Father’s Day & My First Gradient Attempt

Posted on by Cynthia

Today being Father’s Day, we took it upon ourselves to use that as an excuse to get together, watch movies and eat as if it were our last meal. My brother and sister-in-law came over and we just hung out all day with my parents. My other brother had to work so he missed out on the fun. Why does celebrating always have to involve being gluttons for my family? I don’t know why, but we ended up watching Rocky movies on Netflix…omg…how cheesy yet entertaining. Who doesn’t like an underdog movie anyway?

Since I was wearing a purple top today, I decided to finally try a gradient nail look. I had seen the Nailasaurus’ tutorial linked on Nicole’s page so I went to check it out again before starting. Well, I am a gradient loser and I have never been able to do it properly so I was excited at the prospect of finally being able to do a decent gradient. It didn’t quite turn out the way I hoped. I used a foundation sponge and it seemed to soak up tons of the polish and not leave any on my nails. I even tried wetting the sponge in hopes that it wouldn’t absorb so much nail polish but that didn’t work either. I wondered if it would work better if I used a different kind of sponge so I tried it with a foamy sponge and that seemed to work slightly better. I am still not really happy with the way this looks because Sammy from The Nailasaurus makes it looks gorgeous and effortless and mine just looks…botched? Anyway, here are some pics. I used OPI Do You Lilac It? for the lighter color and China Glaze Grape Pop for the darker tip color.

And this is what I HOPED it would look like:

(Photo Source)

So what do you think? Maybe I just need a little more practice before it looks the way I want it to. Thank you Sammy for the awesome tutorial and thanks to Nicole for blogging about it!

Oh, I have a question for all of you nail polish addicts out there: Are you at all worried about the health risks of the chemicals in nail polish and acetone? I try not to use pure acetone too much, but non-acetone removers just don’t work. Are you concerned at all? I know for most people it’s not a big deal, but for those of us who blog and change our polish like we change shoes, I feel this is an important question. I sometimes wonder if the concerns are completely overblown and you’d have to basically drink acetone in order to get sick from it. Anyway, I’d like to hear what you think so share away!

OPI Vintage Minnie Mouse

Posted on by Cynthia

I grew up in Orange County, CA and have only been to Disneyland 3 times in 32 years. No joke. When I was a kid, my parents couldn’t really afford to take us to Disneyland (damn you greedy Disney) so I didn’t grow up being in love with that place. Yes, I would watch “The Wonderful World Of Disney” on TV and loved all the classic Disney animated movies, but I was never Disney obsessed. When I saw this new OPI collection at my nail place, I decided to get three of the four polishes; I passed on the glitter which should be no surprised to you if you have followed my blog for a while now.

My friend V asked me to swatch one of the polishes for her so I figured I might as well swatch the other two. To tell you the truth, I’m not super excited with these colors. They looked cute when I saw the bottles and the fact that they are Minnie Mouse inspired was the biggest draw, but now they are are just kind of blah.

If You Moust You Moust is a saccharine sweet color. I don’t find it that interesting but I don’t think I have any dupes for it so it’s a welcome addition to my collection even if it reminds me of Pepto-Bismol.  I remember that one time I faked a stomach ache because I wanted my mom to give me some Pepto. Is that weird? I had a really hard time applying this polish because the brush was wonky. It was thin in the middle so when the brush fanned out, I would get very few bristles in the middle. I think that because of this, I had some weird bald spots. I hope it was just my retarded brush and not the formula.

 

The Color Of Minnie was the least interesting of the colors in my opinion. It has a certain shimmer that makes it look somewhat frosty, and I don’t really like frosts much. I can also see some VNL and I don’t like that at all. At all.

 

I’m All Ears is the color that I was most interested in trying when I saw the promo pics. I actually really do like this color even though I can still see VNL after 3 coats. I wonder how this would look layered over another color…probably pretty cool.

 

Today I got another email from Alfie’s new mom…I’ll call her BB. She wrote that Alfie is doing really well and that he’s a very happy go-lucky dog. They have another Wheaten, Rose, who is now 14 years old. Rose seems to be super grumpy and doesn’t want anything to do with Alfie so of course he follows her around ALL DAY. I can totally picture him trying to get in her face the way he does with everyone and Rose just wanting him to go away. He has been on a few short car rides without throwing up which is great, but he still won’t get in the car on his own. I always had to pick him up and put him in the car if I wanted to take him with me. I hope he gets over it soon so he can learn to love car rides. I know that eventually it won’t hurt as much to talk about Alfie so for now I am taking comfort in hearing how well he is doing.

What’s Up With Your Nails?

Posted on by Cynthia

My neighbor asked me this when she saw me taking pictures of my nails this afternoon. She’s about 3 years old and very talkative. I told her that I was taking pictures because I wanted to share how they looked with some friends and she thought that was cool. Invariably, someone always catches me taking pictures of my nails outside, and I always get strange looks. It used to bother me but not anymore…the light is too good.

I was messing around with the OPI drawer in my melmer and I saw Fly. I love Fly because it’s so bright and creamy looking so I decided to use it today. I actually hadn’t used it since I swatched it a while back. I know you like it. Don’t tell me it’s not gorgeous.

 

Since I’ve been trying to lay off the Konad, I played around with another color and my Jessica holo topcoat. OPI Pamplona purple is the other polish I picked for this manicure.

Frankly, this was way too much work for me. I am going to try to leave this on my nails at least 3 days because it’s a waste of time otherwise. How often do you change your nails? What are you wearing right now?

Blue’s After My Heart

Posted on by Cynthia

There can never be enough blue nail polishes. How much better can it get than a creamy, vibrant and glossy blue?

OPI Dating A Royal is one of those colors that instantly grabs my attention. Who am I kidding? Most nail polishes call to me like vodka to an alcoholic. It’s pretty, right? This color is very similar to Essie Mesmerize but they are not exact dupes. The main difference is that Dating A Royal is so sheer; it needed three coats while Mesmerize is perfect in one coat. Since I am a Konad freak, you know what’s coming….

This is the first time I’ve used this stamp and I absolutely love it. What do you think?