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Stamping Saturdays #63

Posted on 1 August, 20151 August, 2015 by Cynthia

Hey there! Welcome to another installment of Stamping Saturdays! Last week I went to Sally’s telling myself that all I needed was a bottle of Yellow Stopper, but of course I was lured in by the discount/sale section. By the way, do any of you guys use Yellow Stopper as a peel off base coat? I guess I was under the (incorrect) impression that it could be used while swatching but no peeling happened so now I ended up with a huge bottle that I have no use for. It’s so annoying. Anyway, while I was at Sally’s I saw this Orly polish off on its own and it ended up being under $2. When does that ever happen? I guess I am just lucky when it comes to polish. Why can’t I be lucky with the lottery, hmmm?

Orly Teal Unreal is a gorgeous teal polish that unfortunately photographs blue because my camera hates me real bad. The polish is incredibly pigmented and is gorgeous at two coats. The best part is that it does not stain at all so it’s a total winner in my book.

I’ve been wanting to use this design from plate MoYou London Back To The 70’s – 03 (press sample) for a while now, but it always seemed kind of a weird image. I ended up liking this quite a bit because my placement came out pretty good. It also helped that my Pure Ice Silver Mercedes stamps like a dream.

So what do you think about this mani? Is it just kinda weird or are you digging it? Do you have any fun weekend plans? We are probably going to be going out to dinner for my dad’s birthday since he turned 76 yesterday. Well, I hope you’re doing well and make sure you check out the other manis below. Thanks so much for the visit, and I will talk to you soon.

PSSSST! Hey, you! Yes, it’s me again. I wanted to invite you to join our stamping group. If you like to stamp, come join us by clicking on the image below to be taken to the group page. The group is growing, and we’d love to have you participate.

Bye for reals, now!

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Stamping Saturdays #48

Posted on 20 December, 2014 by Cynthia

Happy Saturday everyone. It’s kind of a gloomy day here which feels weird for California. I thought that we were going to have more rain, but apparently we’re going to have a pretty sunny and mild holiday week. I still haven’t done any Christmas shopping, and I think I’m pretty much dead on that at this point. Yesterday I went to Target and it was mayhem–what was I expecting? I’m going to try to go tonight to get everything done but first I’m going to stop by and visit my Peanut Brat. Last night I had such a hard time deciding what to to for today’s Stamping Saturdays until I started digging in my untrieds. Let me show you how my mani came together.

First I started with 2 coats of OPI Get Cherried Away (press sample) from the OPI Coca Cola Collection. It’s such a beautiful berry color that is super opaque. I wanted to use this berry shade as my base for the next polish because it has a jelly finish that needs to be built up.

This is the first time that I use anything from Pipe Dream Polish, and I love it. A big thanks to Frosso for this gorgeous polish. I love being exposed to new brands and sometimes I just don’t even have time to check out what’s out there. Pipe Dream Polish Interference is a glitter polish in a dark jelly base. I love the glitter in this polish, but it does dry super lumpy/gritty which is why you need a good thick top coat to smooth it out. I only applied one coat of Interference over Get Cherried Away and one coat of Seche to give it a smooth and shiny finish.

For my stamp, I used my trusty Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and the paisley image from Bundle Monster plate BM-315. I love how cleanly this stamped.

So what do you think of this mani? I really like it, and I loved trying out a new polish brand. It’s always a love/hate moment because now I’m going to be drooling over yet another brand when I’m trying to to be good about my spending. Well, I hope you’re doing well today and don’t forget to join us every Saturday for Stamping Saturdays. You can use the hashtag #stampingsaturdays on instagram so that I can find you! Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

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Stamping Saturdays #47

Posted on 13 December, 201413 December, 2014 by Cynthia

It’s pretty freaking cold here–for California that is. We had a pretty rainy day yesterday which we really need because of the drought, but it’s mayhem when it rains. We actually had a tornado briefly touch down in LA which is pretty crazy for us. It’s supposed to rain later in the week so I hope we don’t have any serious disasters. I’ve been waiting to show you the amazeball polish that I got recently so excuse me if I start to sound slightly spastic. Last weekend, I decided to break my two month no-buy for one of the flaky polishes that was put out by KBShimmer. Oooohhh it’s a beauty for sure! Let me show you what I did with it for today’s Stamping Saturdays.

I started with two coat of OPI Miss You-niverse (press sample.) This color photographed darker than it is in real life, but you can still appreciate how rich this polish is.

Here is the star of the show: KBShimmer Rainbow Shield. This is one thick coat of the polish over OPI Miss You-niverse.

And here it is mattified. Holy shitballs. There are no words. Seriously, just look at the beauty of the flakes.

Since it is Stamping Saturdays, of course I had to stamp this up! I used Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and an image from Born Pretty plate BP-13 for this design. There is something about the flakes peeking from behind this pattern and I’m really digging!

If your interested in purchasing KBShimmer Rainbow Shield, you can find it exclusively at KBShimmer’s Etsy shop. It’s a super duper limited edition polish along with 5 other flakies that were released recently. They are priced at $9.75 each or $58 for the set of 6. I’m thinking about picking up Flame Queen and Lighting Ridge as well, but I’m trying so hard to be good about my polish spending. WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME, KBSHIMMER?!?!?! Anyway, let me know what you think about this mani. If you love stamping as much as I do, join me every Saturday for Stamping Saturdays. You can use the hashtag #stampingsaturdays on Instagram to link up with us–we’d love to see your creations. Thank you for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

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Stamping Saturdays #36

Posted on 13 September, 2014 by Cynthia

It is so incredibly hot today, so I have no idea why I decided to focus on dealing with my serious make up hoarding problem. You see, before I even started getting obsessed with nail polish, I was even more obsessed with make-up. My make-up collection grew so much and so quickly, that it got to the point that I became disgusted with the amount I was collecting and also the amount of money I had wasted on everything. I say “wasted” because there is no way I can get through all the make-up I bought before it goes bad. Who needs 15 NARS blushes? I only have one face, right? A couple of weeks ago I wanted to use one of my favorite lipsticks: Bobbi Brown Cocoa Berry. Well, it had gone rancid. Almost $30 for a lipstick and it went rancid. I then checked Bobbi Brown Heather Mauve and it was rancid as well. And that is how the great make-up destashing of 2014 began. I’ll share a little more about that below but first let me show you what I did for Stamping Saturdays today.

Illamasqua Poke is such a gorgeous polish. Please excuse the bad pictures and the bad polish job. The truth is that I had to use my non-swatching hand today because I broke a nail on my swatching hand. I didn’t mean for my skin to look so greasy, but I had to use some serious moisture because my cuticles were a total mess. Are you as sad as I am that Sephora no longer carries Illamasqua??? I think that Nordstrom carries the brand now, but I have kind of fallen out of love with them because of the price hikes. I have a lot of Illamasqua polishes in my collection, so I will probably only buy new ones if the colors are really unique.

I then used Pure Ice Silver Mercedes to stamp this chain link design from one of my MoYou London plates. I wasn’t feeling too inspired mostly because it was such a pain to do this on my non-swatching hand…I wish I was ambidextrous!

Now, let me show you all the stuff that I junked today…

I want to cry just thinking how much money I just threw in the garbage. Some of those items were used maybe once or twice. The worst offenders are the NARS lipglosses because those definitely went bad quickly. I think that it’s just the nature of the product, but at 20-some dollars a pop, I will not be buying lipglosses in this quantity. I have a lot more make-up that I should probably get rid of but I just can’t bring myself to do it just yet. This is probably 1/4th of all the make up I have so there is plenty more to sift through–I am definitely not looking forward to it.

So, what do you think about collecting make-up? Are you also a make-up collector or do you focus on nail polish? I think that the fact that polish doesn’t truly every go bad (thinner to the rescue!) makes me feel a little bit better about my collection. Anyway, I hope you’re staying cool today if the temperatures are infernal where you live. Unfortunately, we are entering wildfire season here in OC so I’m always sad when that starts up because so many people end up losing their homes and all the brave men and women firefighters are put in such danger. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

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Stamping Saturdays #35

Posted on 6 September, 2014 by Cynthia

Happy Saturday and welcome to another installment of Stamping Saturdays! I can’t believe that I stayed up until like 4 am last night and then I woke up at 8:30 for no apparent reason. Now I’ve just been watching Project Runway and putting off doing the cleaning I need to do. I’ve always loved Project Runway but I still sorely miss Michael Kors. I do like Zac Posen, but Michael was in a class by himself. I was having a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do for today’s post, so I looked through my melmers and decided to use Chanel Taboo. I’ve only used this polish once since I bought it mainly because it wears like crap on me. It basically stared completely peeling off my nails the same day. Anyway, let me show you what a did for my stamped mani today.

Yes, Chanel Taboo is gorgeous. Yes, it is too expensive. No, it’s not really worth it if the brand wears poorly on you. I think that body chemistry has a lot to do with how polish wears on you so I’m sure that Chanel wears perfectly fine on other people–just not on me. I guess this is a good thing because I only have one Chanel in my collection but that doesn’t keep me from admiring others from afar. My wallet is happy.

I then used this flowery image from plate MASH 42 and Pure Ice Silver Mercedes to stamp this design. I’m feeling a little meh on this overall, but it has this laid back island feel too it that I’m kind of enjoying.

What are your plans today? It’s pretty freaking hot here today so I’m probably just going to be lazy and do some cleaning…and maybe watch a bunch of zombie stuff on Netflix. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

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Stamping Saturdays #18

Posted on 10 May, 201410 May, 2014 by Cynthia

Welcome to another edition of Stamping Saturdays! Let me ask you: have you done your stamping mani? We would love to see what you come up with so join us by linking your mani at the end of this post. Stamping is probably the very first nail art-y thing that I ever did when nail polish became my #1 obsession so it’s something that will always be fun for me. I hope that it’s fun for you too–fun enough to join us, that is. Ha! Anyway, today I am feeling kinda blah (not mentally, but physically) so I’m being a bum. I think I just ate some questionable things like the “Le Burger de Madame” at Mimi’s Cafe. My first mistake was even going to Mimi’s cause that place is pretty barftastic. I’m sure that it shaved off at least a day of my life considering the amount of fat and calories that this buttery bovine behemoth contains. (Buttery bovine behemoth–alliteration at its finest or at its worst?) I also watched the newest Captain America movie and I did enjoy it despite the shitty reviews. To be honest, I will pretty much enjoy any action movie and can’t even think of one that I have hated off the top of my head. I really liked watching Alien vs. Predator which was universally despised, so I should stop talking about movies since I clearly have no taste. By the way, why didn’t I know that Robert Redford was in this movie??? He’s one of the pillars of my childhood crush trifecta: Robert Redford, Harrison Ford and Sean Connery.

I was definitely a weird kid…you don’t have to say it! But come on! Sean Connery was always at the top–it must have been the accent. Harrison Ford was a hot archeologist/professor (and we all know how I feel about professors). Enough said. And Hubbell, I mean Robert was just…Robert Redford. Wait, wasn’t this post supposed to be about nail polish and stamping? Oh yeah, duh…

The polish I decided to use as my base is China Glaze Social Animal. This is one of those ancient polishes that I love hunting for at dusties. Social Animal is from the Fashion Lounge Collection that came out sometime in 2004. It’s a sheer red with lots of shimmer, and I quite liked it despite needing three coats.

I then used an image from Bundle Monster plate BM 322 and Pure Ice Silver Mercedes. I’m feeling a little meh about the design because it was so hard to line it up correctly. You can see that the design on my pinky nail isn’t centered, but whatever–it can’t always be perfect.

Before I forget to mention it, I got a chance to meet Robert Redford like 10 years ago when I was working at the airport as a ticket agent. I may have lost my ability to speak momentarily or maybe I burst into a heartfelt rendition of “The Way We Were.” Who can remember that far back anyway? So, what do you think about this mani? Yay or nay? Please weigh in below and don’t forget to check out all the other Stamping Saturdays manis. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

P.S. I’m really not crazy. I’m just passionate. At least that is what I tell myself…

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Stamping Saturdays #3

Posted on 25 January, 201425 January, 2014 by Cynthia

Hello there and welcome to Stamping Saturdays! I was planning to get this written and posted earlier in the day, but I just didn’t have time to do anything while I was at work this morning. After that, I went to a couple of nail places but didn’t really find anything….except a few bottles of Channelesque! Yayyy for backups!!!! For today’s stampicure, I started out with my base color of Channelesque which I reviewed here.

Yep, you know I love this color! Because I wanted to make Channelesque a little blingy, I added one thin coat of Max Factor Fantasy Fire on top of it.

I know that this looks uneven, but I didn’t really care because I was going to stamp over it anyway. Doesn’t it look pretty with that purple and sparkly tinge?

I am a huge fan of houndstooth print in everything (nails, clothes, shoes) so I decided to use Pure Ice Silver Mercedes to stamp on the houndstooth design from plate BM-322. I absolutely love how this turned out. I wish that that the beautiful base stood out more, but when I went outside with this design, it was like my nails were glowing.

What do you think of this design? I’m already starting to plan my design for next week because I have so many ideas! I hope you’re having a nice weekend so far and thanks so much for stopping by today. Also don’t forget to check out my other girls’ designs. Talk to you soon.

Amanda from Mae’s Beauty

Siobhan from For The Love Of Nail Art

Morgan Taylor Nail Lacquer Super Ultra Violet

Posted on 17 July, 2013 by Cynthia

Happy Hump Day! Ok, that sounded totally lame but I’m kind of in a good mood today. Of course now I’m waiting for something to blow up in my face and ruin my recent streak of good luck. Why do we always have to wait and expect bad things to happen? Self-fulfilling prophecy anyone? It’s super warm here today, and I don’t have AC so painting my nails is always interesting because I always think that I can have the fan going while I paint them. And I mean I have the fan going full blast directly on me. If you have ever tried this, you know it’s practically impossible. But does that ever stop me from trying? Nope.

Today I have another Morgan Taylor creme beauty. Seriously: if you love creme polishes, you have to get your hands on some Morgan Taylor polishes. The amazing formula of these polishes really make them worth the hunt if you don’t necessarily have them in your area. Let’s take a look at this indigo-violet pretty…

Morgan Taylor Nail Lacquer Super Ultra Violet is one of those dark vampy colors that are so hot during the fall. I have to admit that while this color is not exactly unique (I’m sure I have a few dupes!), the formula really makes this a stand-out. It’s practically a one coater and it dries incredibly smooth and glossy.

MASH40_ Silver Mercedes2

Yay for stamping! I got this swirly design from Mash plate MASH 40 and of course I had to use the absolute best silver stamping polish that I own: Pure Ice Silver Mercedes. For a $1.99, you really can’t beat it.

I’ve been a little MIA on the blog and FB mostly because I’ve been busy with working a lot of overtime. Since I now have that new car payment, I decided to work as many extra hours as I can–otherwise, there will be no pretty polishes in my future. I’ve been really good lately (especially with my blog sale), and I hope I can keep working on that until maybe early August when I will have a visitor who is just as polish obsessed as me. I’m sure we’re going to DESTROY my usual polish haunts. For those of you who have ordered and paid for your polishes, I promise to get them out by Friday. I’m so sorry for the delay! I still have a few emails pending and I promise to get back to you by tomorrow. With all the OT at work, I’ve had to deal with some really horrid customers; Lord beer me strength.

So what do you think of Super Ultra Violet? Is this a color that you would wear? What about the stamping? Yay or nay? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Precision Shine, Wine N Dine

Posted on 21 March, 201316 November, 2013 by Cynthia

All products featured in this post were purchased by me.

Hello there and happy Thursday. Normally I would be all excited that it’s Thursday because one of my favorite shows, Scandal, is on tonight but since I have to go to bed so early, I won’t get to watch it until tomorrow. Double poop. Anyway, at least there will be one good thing to look forward to tomorrow. I’m really excited about the polish I’m featuring today because it’s just so dang pretty. I actually got this polish the day that stupid dog bit me–and from the shop where the dog bit me. I’m not going to let that experience taint my love for this outrageously gorgeous baby. Are you ready to see Précision Shine, Wine N Dine?

I decided to post four pictures of Précision Shine, Wine N Dine: the first two in artificial light and the second set out in direct sunlight. It’s not always possible for me to take picture in direct sunlight so I’ve been relying on my light box ever since I started working. Précision Shine, Wine N Dine is a gorgeous pink based red polish with very fine and delicate holographic particles suspended throughout the squishy jelly base. Being a jelly, it’s rather sheer so you do need 3 or more coats for complete coverage. I think that the fine holo particles really kick this polish up a notch.

Since I just received my Winstonia Store stamping plates, I was dying to try them out. Here I used Pure Ice Silver Mercedes to stamp an image from plate W113. If you’re ever looking for a perfect silver stamping polish, you have to get Silver Mercedes because it’s just perfection. Look how clear it transfers! I was also worried that the full nail images might be too small for my wide and curved nails, but the size was perfect on this image. I can’t wait to try it more of the designs and hope to have a full review of the plates for you in the near future.

Holy shiznit, that was a fun mani! I haven’t been doing much stamping lately just because I haven’t had much time, but there is also a more tragic reason: I think I may have thrown away all my stamping plates by mistake. I am hoping that maybe I put them in a box in my closet the last time I was trying to get everything organized, but I also remember that I threw out tons of stuff so I really hope I didn’t through out my stamping plates. I think I had about 100 plates altogether so that makes me want to cry. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I bought an extra bottle of this gorgeous polish for a future giveaway. In fact, I’m hoping to reach 1,500 likes on Facebook so I can have a super fun giveaway so spread the word! I’m way behind on responding to comments lately, but I promise to get to them soon. Thanks so much for the visit today and talk to you soon!

Julep Trina

Posted on 22 January, 201323 January, 2013 by Cynthia

Well, hello there friends! I am a little disappointed in myself that I didn’t post anything after my first day of work, but I had forgotten how exhausting sitting in a training class for 8 hours can be! I actually did do my nails last night with the intention of posting them, but I felt like my nail mojo just disappeared. I seriously took about 50 pictures and not a single one turned out–they all looked shit-tastic. So I just gave up. Today I got home super flustered because I had so much stuff to do–who knew that having a job again would leave me with absolutely no time at all? Ah, well…I shouldn’t complain because getting a paycheck again means I can continue to enjoy the luxuries I have become accustomed to such as a roof over my head, food in the fridge and electricity. After finishing up my laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning and preparing my lunch for tomorrow, I sat down and thought I’d give it another try. Want to know what polish I settled on? Julep Trina!

Julep Trina is an amazingly rich and saturated metallic aubergine polish. It was a little on the thick side, but it was easy to work with. I only needed two coats for these swatches. Did you hear that the Julep boxes are getting holos? I hope it’s true because you doesn’t love holos??? If you’re interested in becoming a Julep Maven for just a penny, you can use my referral link here and enter the code JULEPVIP. Yep, for a penny. Awesomeness.

I then used an image from Mash plate MASH 43 which is kind of a strange flower and vine design. I am also wowed by the polish I used for stamping: Pure Ice Silver Mercedes. I finally found a decent Pure Ice display at a new Walmart and there was ONE of these babies left. This is such an amazing polish for stamping and you seriously can’t beat the under $2 price tag!

A lot of you have asked me about my new job and what I’ll be doing. I just wanted to say that I’ve made a very conscious decision not to discuss any details about my job. I’ve heard of way too many horror stories of people getting in trouble professionally about stuff they post online. While I do tend to share–and overshare–a lot about my personal life, that will not include details about my job. This will hopefully allow me to share funny people stories about my job–with names changed to protect the clueless, of course! I should have gone to bed about an hour ago but I stayed up to watch the series finale of Private Practice, and it was even more lame than I had anticipated. This show really jumped the shark about a year ago so I’m glad it’s over.

Well, I’m heading to bed now. It’s Wednesday tomorrow so I’m almost half-way through my first week of work. Woot! Hope you have a wonderful day, and I will talk to you soon.

Disclosure: Julep Trina was provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR firm. All other products featured in this post were purchased by me. For more information, please see my disclosure policy tab here.