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Seche & Live Love Polish Review

Posted on 10 December, 2014 by Cynthia

Don’t you just love the days when you don’t have to go to work? Actually, I take that back because I am not at work today because I am sick. It all started with some congestion and now I have a cough, runny nose and post nasal drip–lovely! I think I was running a fever last night because I woke up drenched in sweat–even more lovely. Since I’m spending the afternoon in bed, I figured I might as well do something productive like write up this post! Today I am going to be talking about Seche Vite. Ahhh, Seche Vite; you are my first and only love. One of the questions that I get most often is what kind of top coat I use to get such a glossy finish on my manicures. I can tell you that 99% of the time I use Seche Vite because there is nothing that works better for me. I’ve tried so many different top coats in my last 3 years of blogging, but I keep coming back to Seche Vite every single time. And what better way to showcase my favorite top coat than to pair it with a beautiful polish from the Seche nail polish line? The beauty I have for you today is Seche Rendezvous.

Seche Rendezvous is a gorgeous magenta cream that is quite opaque. I applied two coats of polish for my swatches above. One thing I have noticed about Seche polish in general is that it tends to set a little quicker than what I’m used to so it’s very easy to overwork it. If you’re not super quick with your application, you can definitely cause an uneven mess. The good thing is that if you do get some unevenness, you can slap on a coat of Seche Vite and it will fix your mani right up!

I know that not everyone is like me in that I live near some really awesome beauty supply stores where I can basically get EVERYTHING under the stars, so you’ll be glad to hear that the Seche line is easily accessible at Live Love Polish. I have a difficult time finding Seche polishes in retail store near me, so I’ve only had the chance to try out a few colors in the past. Just like the famous top coat, I find the Seche nail lacquer line to be good quality and very durable.

As far as the top coat goes, I know that there are a few complaints out there, and it wouldn’t be fair to ignore those points:

It shrinks your polish
It smells and is not 3-free
It gets mega goopy halfway through the bottle

What am I missing? I think those are the three complaints that I tend to hear most often. I am of the mindset that not every product is going to work perfectly for every single person out there. I have had very minor issues with shrinkage (insert Seinfeld joke here). I tend to flood my nail with Seche Vite which encapsulates the polish, and I can honestly tell you that I rarely have shrinkage. As for the smell, maybe I’m weird cause I like the smell–or maybe it’s cause it gets me kinda polish high…who knows?! I do know that many people will not use products that are not big 3-free, but I have nothing for you on that because it’s a personal decision. Lastly, and probably the biggest complaint, is the goop factor. The first time that you open a bottle of Seche Vite, it’s this perfect consistency that glides over your nails with the greatest of ease, it’s the daring young man on the flying trapeze…eehh…see how easy it is to distract me when I’m sick? So anyway, halfway through the bottle you will notice that your once flowing Seche Vite is he consistency of lava which doesn’t lend itself to flawless application. Well, at that point I bust out my partner in crime, Seche Restore, and add a few drops to thin it back to a manageable consistency. Voila! Problem solved. I know that we all have our favorite top coats, but it just happens that Seche Vite is mine. I haven’t found anything that dries faster, harder and stronger. (Is that you, Daft Punk?)

So what do you think of Seche Rendezvous? Is it your kind of color? What is your favorite top coat? I’d be very interested to hear all about your top coat tribulations because as we all know, your mani is only as good as your top coat. Don’t forget to check out Live Love Polish where you can purchase these products and many more. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Seche Coral

Posted on 13 May, 2013 by Cynthia

Oh emm geee…it is so hot today. When I walked out of the office today, it literally felt like I had walked into another circle of hell–my job being one of those circles, of course. I am pretty darn miserable right now because of the heat so I figured I’d share a super bright and summery polish with all of you. Despite the fact that I say that the formula on these Seche polishes is a little tricky, I get lured by their sweet siren song. The last time that I wore a Seche polish, I seriously got so many compliments about it that I could barely believe it. I guess there is something about Snapdragon that really pops against my skin tone. In fact, every time I wear hot pink anything, people notice it right away. Well, Seche Coral is another winner from the Seche polish line.

Gorgeous, right? Seche Coral is such a fiery summer shade that I totally see this as a pedicure color all summer long. I can’t complain about the formula on this polish because it was fan-freaking-tastic. It was so incredibly creamy and smooth that I was actually shocked because normally I tend to find Seche polishes a little finicky. I applied 3 very thin coats here but I could have gotten away with two regular coats. If you can’t tell yet, I absolutely love this color!!!!!!

Well, I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but I’ve had a few more people alert me to ebay sellers stealing my swatch pictures for various collections:

Are these people for real? It just feel like this has gotten out of control lately and I can’t even figure out how to report this to ebay. Ugh, these fucktards are really getting to me because doing all these swatches is really hard work. Oh well. I guess it comes with the territory of nail blogging so I’ll just have to get over it. What else can I do?

I hope that the weather is a little more bearable where you’re at. As for me, I’m going to go take a cold shower and just hope that it’s not disgustingly hot tonight so I can actually sleep comfortably. Right now it doesn’t matter that I live so close to the beach–it’s still too hot! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Seche Snapdragon

Posted on 15 April, 201315 April, 2013 by Cynthia

The product featured in this post was purchased by me.

Are there colors that you feel you get a lot of compliments on when you wear them on your nails? Every single time I wear hot pink, I get tons of compliments whether it’s on my nails or on my lips. I have a definite obsession with hot pink lipsticks (I’ll be doing a review for Illamasqua Eurydice soon!) and nail polish so when I saw Seche Snapdragon, I was on it like white on rice. Let’s look at this new bottle of hot pink love. (Ok, does that sound kind of inappropriate or is it just me??)

Seche Snapdragon is a gorgeous bright pink creme polish that is a little Pepto-Bismol-y, but I think that it definitely pops against my skin tone. I wore this color for three days and everywhere I went, people complimented my nails–even men! I have mixed feelings about the Seche nail polish line, though. I am a hardcore fan of Seche Vite as you probably already know, but I just can’t get on the love boat when it comes to the nail polish line because I find the formula a little strange. I think the colors are great–saturated and vibrant–but the formula is just a little strange. I feel that they get gummy really quickly when you’re applying it so if you don’t work quickly enough, your nails can become a streaky mess. Despite this, I will continue to purchase these polishes because I just can’t stop myself! Ha!

This weekend I stopped by a convenience store that was selling Pop Rocks candy/gum. Do you guys remember that? It’s a grainy, pebble-y candy that crackles and pops once it comes in contact with your saliva. Basically it’s just the carbon dioxide being released that makes that popping sound that makes you feel like something is exploding in your mouth. (Get your mind out of the gutter.) So anyway, the reason I am mentioning this is because I couldn’t stop laughing when I remembered a story about this candy: my youngest brother (whom some of you may know as “the mooch”) is 10 years younger than me so that is a prime torture age difference. One day I had some Pop Rocks and of course he wanted some. The evil in me decided to play a trick on him so I sweetly gave him my Pop Rocks. As soon as he put them in his mouth, he asked me why they were popping and I acted like I didn’t know what he was talking about. I then proceeded to tell him that the exploding Pop Rocks were going to travel to his brain and then make his brain explode. Of course he started bawling and then I started to feel bad about playing that joke on him. He is 23 years old now and he STILL remembers that day. Evil sister, much?

Anyway, I don’t have much of an update regarding all my issues and stuff. I’m just hanging in there and hoping that all my efforts will help me get to a better place in my life. I hope that you have all been doing well and thanks so much for stopping by today.

The product featured in this post was purchased by me.

Seche Empress

Posted on 17 January, 2013 by Cynthia

Ever since I first reviewed my first Seche polish (Seche Irresistible review here), I’ve been wanting to try more of their polishes. When I saw that my nail place had gotten some new colors, I decided to pick up another one which is how I ended up with Seche Empress. This is such a Fall vampy color, but I am so going to rock it now. Today was so gorgeous and warm outside so it feels like the weather is finally more California-appropriate. I really enjoyed it! How unlike me! I can be such a grump…probably just like grumpy cat.

Seche Empress is a very dark purple creme that looks basically black in most lighting. It is incredibly pigmented but doesn’t stain which is awesome. I did notice that the first coat was incredibly patchy and I had a few bald spots. I then applied a second thick coat ant that seemed to fix it. Since I have have tried two of these Seche polishes now, I think it’s safe to say that they are of good quality. However, I find that because they tend to dry a little quicker than other polishes, you have to work fast or else it gets goopy. They don’t dry like Seche Vite fast, but I did notice that these polishes dry faster.

Do you remember those ‘This is your brain on drugs.” commercials from the 80’s?

These are your nails.

These are your nails on drugs.

Yes, I like to call Max Factor Fantasy Fire, crack. It is liquid crack for your nails. I really wish that my pictures could show how awesome this looks in real life. I wasn’t able to capture the purple/blue/green color shift in my pictures so poo to that, but I think most of you have probably already seen how amazing this polish can look in the sun.

Lastly, I wanted to mention that I will be closing my blog sale this Sunday. Thank you so much to everyone who helped me re-home so many of my pretties. It was hectic at times, but the money was a huge help while I was stressing about being jobless. Thankfully that is no longer a concern, but I still want to do one last purge. From now until Sunday, I will be offering a 20% discount on all orders (excluding shipping). While I have shipped internationally in the past, I will only be shipping to US addresses for this last round. You can check out the items I have for sale here.

Let me know what you think about my nails on crack. I’m kind of loving them right now! Thanks for stopping by, and I will talk to you soon.

Seche Irresistible

Posted on 28 November, 2012 by Cynthia

As most of you may already know, Seche came out with its first line of nail polishes a few months ago, and I was super curious about it but hadn’t come across the line at any of my usual places…until yesterday. I came upon a big display full of Seche polishes so of course I had to pick one up. My first instinct was to grab one of each, but as a reformed polish hoarder, I backed away from the display and only chose one polish to try out: Seche Irresistible. I felt proud of myself! I also think that it’s a good idea since this will be my first experience with this line of polishes but not my first experience with the brand since I am a pretty loyal Seche Vite customer.

Let’s look at my final mani:

This is my finished manicure. Do you want to recreate it? Read below to see what I used.

Seche Irresistible is a vibrant and shiny red-berry colored polish. It is a one-coater if you are careful, but I applied 2 thin coats for these swatches. I had heard that some people experienced shrinkage with these polishes when they used Seche Vite, but I am happy to report that I did not. This polish dries incredibly shiny and glossy which I love! I usually don’t have a lot to say about polish brushes, but I tend to prefer wider brushes (my favorite being OPI’s Pro-wide brush) so I wanted to mention that the Seche brush is pretty thin.

Despite the thin brush, I didn’t feel that it made that much of a difference in application for me. The brush does not fan out as nicely so I did have to be more careful with it because it would be very easy to flood my cuticles with polish–which I HATE.

I used an image from Bundle Monster plate BM 319 for this design along with Konad’s special white polish. The red and white is definitely getting me in the mood for December and Christmas!

What do you think about Seche Irresistible? Have you spotted these polishes already? Since I have you here, I might as well pimp out my blog sale again. I added A LOT of new polishes today so check it out. Please help me give these babies a new home–I just know they won’t get any use here anymore.

Thanks for stopping by and see you tomorrow where I will find a million way to mess up tomorrow’s movie inspired challenge.