Summer 2013 Archives - Of Life and Lacquer

Tag: Summer 2013

Of Life and Lacquer > Summer 2013

Misa Lime Love

Posted on 23 February, 2014 by Cynthia

It’s about 70 degrees here today which isn’t hot, but it’s February man! It’s supposed to be Winter! I guess I should count myself lucky that it isn’t 90 degrees like it was a few weeks ago or that we’re not covered in snow, but I’d like to have some kind of normal balance when it comes to our seasons. Since it’s so crazy sunny outside, I decided to show you a super bright and juicy polish: Misa Lime Love. I actually have this polish up on my blog sale, and now I’m rethinking it because it’s so pretty! Another reason why I wanted to wear a bright polish is because I want to be in a happy and positive frame of mind for the coming week. You see, I am up for a promotion at work that I am really excited about. Not only would it be a nice promotion, but I would also have regular hours (no more buttcrack of dawn shifts and no more weekends!!!!). Please send me positive vibes, juju, happy thoughts and anything you can think of so that I land it. I’m not too sure who I’m up against to snag this position, but by the sound of things I think I’m the frontrunner. I don’t want to get my hopes up and then fall flat on my face, but I’m definitely hopeful!

For all you green lovers out there, Misa Lime Love is definitely a color that you’re going to want to have. It’s a juicy lime green with green/gold fine shimmer which isn’t super obvious on the nail, but it can be seen at certain angles in the right lighting. The formula as a little streaky, but it’s of a nice consistency so it does build up nicely. I used two thick coats but you may want to apply three thinner coats so it doesn’t take eons to dry.

To be honest, this is the first time I try Misa because I never find it in any retail setting and I just hate paying for shipping–I’m cheap that way. I know that these can be purchased online at various etailers including misa.com, so you should be able to get them fairly easily. Are you a Misa fan? Are there any must have colors from them that you can recommend? Well, I really hope that you’ve had a great weekend and that you are ready for Monday. I will be having an official interview sometime this week so I am keeping my fingers crossed. If I do get the promotion, I see some major polish shopping armageddon coming my way so I am both hopeful and scared. Wish me luck!

CrowsToes Tiki Torch

Posted on 22 October, 201321 October, 2013 by Cynthia

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. You are actually seeing something somewhat bird related on my blog. Ok, let me tell you about this polish: my lovely friend Lesley sent it to me for my birthday and I know she really put some thought into her choices. She knows how much I hate anything even remotely hinting at our feathered friends, but I think it might have slipped her mind because she was blinded by the awesomeness of CrowsToes Tiki Torch. She also knows that I have unparalleled easy access to most salon brands so she really picked out some indie winners. I feel that I am still sorely lagging when it comes to reviewing indies so I am hoping that I am able to improve on that. My main thing about indies is that I refuse to deal with purchasing hassles. Every time I see the madness that ensues during certain restocks, I just want to say:

If I have to get all Hunger Games on someone in order to secure a bottle of polish, I’d rather pet a cactus. Until the madness dies down, I won’t be purchasing certain brands–especially not the ones that continue to perpetuate the rabid culture of polish scalping. Anyway, I’m going off on a tangent so let’s get back to the pretty at hand: CrowsToes Tiki Torch.

This is Tiki Torch over LCN Liz. OH MYLANTA! Seriously, how gorgeous is this? I realized very quickly that Tiki Torch is a very sheer jelly so I decided to apply it over a darker base in order to eliminate the need for 4-5 coats. Out in the sun, this beauty sparkles like unicorn farts on a sunny day. It’s so beautiful I was staring at my nails obsessively as I drove…which I do not recommend unless you want to get into a car accident.

This polish was part of the One Mad, Crazy Summer Collection and should still be available at various etailers. If you’re interested in getting this or other lovely CrowsToes creations, be sure to check out their blog for a list of online shops carrying this line. I’ve got to say that I am kind of super deluxe loving this baby, and I can’t wait to try the other one. Thanks again, Lesley for such an awesome present. Now, let’s indulge in some innocent enabling: what other CrowsToes polishes can you recommend? I’m going to start making a list and checking it twice…yeah, right…there will be no checking involved. That’s just how I roll. Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!

Jessica Explosives Collection – Summer 2013

Posted on 16 September, 201316 September, 2013 by Cynthia

September is the last true Summer month of the year as the Autumnal Equinox falls on September 22nd (my birthday!). I don’t think California really cares about seasons and such considering that I always feel October is one of the hottest months of the year. I yearn to experience actual seasons, but I guess it’s just not meant to be unless I move somewhere else. There was a time when I swore up and down that I would never live in California as an adult, but now I think that I kind of love this place. I have the beach 10 minutes away, I have nice weather year-round and I have the most amazing dusties known to mankind so why would I ever move?!

The collection I’m sharing with you today is like a stealth ninja collection that completely flew under the radar. In fact, I had a hard time finding any information about it when I first purchased it. I did eventually find information on it and it appears to have been released abroad but didn’t get much fanfare here in the US. That is a true shame because this collection blew my socks off. Let’s take a look at the Jessica Explosives Collection for Summer 2013.

Jessica Radioactive is a lime green polish made me think of a refreshing mojito—not so much radioactive goo. I also kept humming that Imagine Dragons song while I applied this polish. Strangely enough, this is not a color that is very well represented in my stash, and I just don’t get why because I really love this type of color

I am never going to get over my love for teal polishes. Jessica Dynamite Teal is a bright teal polish with some dusty qualities. I love that it’s not so bright that it overpowers your nails. As beautiful as this color is, it’s also a major stainer so make sure that you double up on you base coat.

You probably already know that I love pink polish, so it should not surprise you that I am a fan of Jessica Pink Shockwaves. It’s such a bright bubblegum pink that makes me feel so girlie! How unlike me. I’m always trying to find easy ways to incorporate flashes of color into my wardrobe or make up, so this is the perfect way to achieve it.

Since red is the color that launched my rabid love for nail polish (I still swoon when I wear OPI Vodka & Caviar), I never tire of red polishes—especially when they are well-done. Jessica Atomic Red is a highly pigmented red that is almost a one-coater. It’s so bright and juicy looking but it’s definitely more of a tomato red-orange. I definitely approve.

Hello, yellow! I don’t think it’s a secret that I love yellow polishes, so it should come as no surprise that I loved Jessica Yellow Lightning. The formula wasn’t as problematic as some other yellows I have used in the past, but it was fairly streaky so 3 coats were necessary. This polish does stain slightly so make sure that you apply a generous coat of top coat to protect your natural nails.

Who doesn’t like a beautiful sky blue? Jessica Argon Blue has a very dreamy quality about it, and I just loved the crazy pigmented formula. However, the pigmented formula comes at a price–another major stainer here. A stainer isn’t necessarily a deal breaker for me when the color is this nice, but it’s still a downer.

So what do I think about this collection? I FREAKING LOVE IT! While I don’t think that these are traditional neons, they are fairly bright and do dry satiny so a top coat is necessary if you want them shiny. The formula on all of these polishes is everything I have come to expect from Jessica Cosmetics: absolutely flawless. These polishes are everything I wanted the China Glaze Sunsational neons to be but weren’t. I had to totally search the Jessica website for these polishes as they are super hidden, but they are on there if you’re interested in picking these up. Get these. Get them now! You’re welcome.

KBShimmer Summer 2013 Collection

Posted on 13 August, 2013 by Cynthia

Happy Tuesday everyone! Well, not that happy because I’ve had a rough day today, but it is what it is. Last night I decided to use some of my Orly Nail Rescue to fix my one broken nail so it just feels strange because it seems thick like when I used to wear acrylic nails. Ghhaaa! I wore acrylic nails for years, and that helped me kick the habit of biting my nails and cuticles so I will forever be grateful to them. I can’t even imagine wearing acrylic nails now!!! Anyway, let’s move on before I ramble too much. Today I have 3 polishes from the KBShimmer Summer Collection for 2013 to share with you. I am glad to be sharing these with you today because this month, KBShimmer is celebrating their 5th anniversary! This is my very first time trying out KBShimmer so I am super duper excited to share my thoughts with you. Let’s take a look at these beauties, shall we?

KBShimmer Blinded By The Bright is what I wished my nails looked like when I would use my yellow hi-lighter over white-out during a particularly boring class. I am sure I was not the only one to do this…right??? Anyway, when I first saw Blinded By The Bright, I groaned a little because I figured that the base color is so bright that I would need a billion coats for full opacity. Well, I got pretty good results after the second coat! I didn’t really need the third coat, but I applied it anyway to smooth out the color.

Be still my beating hear! For a blue/teal lover such as myself, I gasped when I first saw KBShimmer Totally Tubular. Not only is the color amazeballs, but the formula is pretty darn fantastic. It was very easy to apply and I had no problems getting good even glitter coverage! As much as I like glitter, I always dread having to fish for glitter so I was happy that I didn’t have this issue with Totally Tubular.

Lastly, I have KBShimmer The Dancing Green. Freaking A I love this one too! I love the gorgeous green base even if it was a little thinner compared to Totally Tubular. Once again, the formula was super easy to work with and it had fantastic and even glitter distribution…and no fishing!

Well, ladies and gents, I can tell you that my first experience with KBShimmer has been pretty darn great and I can’t wait to show you some offerings from their upcoming Fall collection…you are going to DIE. And in order to properly enable you, KBShimmer is having a 20% off SALE from August 8th to August 14th. Shipping deals begin on August 15th. What are you waiting for? Also, don’t forget to follow KBShimmer on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and their website for all their latest news. Thanks so much for stopping by, and I will talk to you soon!

Pure Ice Citrus Collection – Summer 2013

Posted on 7 August, 2013 by Cynthia

I don’t know where you are in the world, but I feel like we really haven’t seen a normal summer here in Southern California which leads me to think that we are going to be having a really horrid long summer where we will be sweltering in November. Don’t you hate it when it’s Thanksgiving and it’s hot as hell and you’re sweating your ass off while you prepare for the crazy dinner feast? I really hate that. I don’t, however, hate all the awesome polish colors that come out during the Summer. Today I’m going to show you two polishes from the Pure Ice Citrus Collection.

The Pure Ice Citrus collection includes four luminous shades:

Showstopper – Crème primary yellow
Drive Me Crazy – Crème flame orange
Can’t Stop – Crème rustic orange
Excuse Me- Sunshine Yellow Shimmer

The two I have for you today are Drive Me Crazy and Excuse Me.

I don’t know too many people who love yellow polishes the way I do, so I was kind of excited when I saw this yellow in promo pics. I think that because of my skintone, I can get away with wearing a lot of different colors. However, once I applied Pure Ice Excuse Me, it was barf city. This is a frosty/shimmer mess that makes me want to curse frosty polishes to the seventh circle of hell. The formula wasn’t THAT bad, but it was very easy to create bald spots so it is important to allow each coat dry before you apply a second…and third.

Well, hello there beautiful! Pure Ice Drive Me Crazy is my kind of color: super bright, pigmented, smooth and glossy. This is almost like a crelly type polish so I noticed that although I got pretty good and even coverage with 2 coats, I still had VNL so I applied a third coat to make it more opaque. This polish had a pretty great formula so I have no complaints about it.

Are you ready to move on from all these hot Summer colors and ready for the darker side of Fall? Personally, I wear bright colors year-round so gimme more brights!!! What are some of your favorite Summer colors? How do you feel about yellow polishes in general? Anyway, thanks so much for catching up with me today, and I’ll talk to you soon!

All Pure Ice nail enamels are free of formaldehyde, toluene and DBP and retail at only $1.99, Pure Ice nail enamels are available at Walmart.com & Walmart stores nationwide.For more information, please visit www.pureicecosmetics.com/ or follow OfficialPureIce on Facebook

Twitter (@OfficialPureIce) and Instagram.

Essie Summer Collection 2013

Posted on 31 May, 20131 June, 2013 by Cynthia

Remember when I started crying because I didn’t find the new Essie Summer Collection? Well, today I am crying because I did find it. Ok, I won’t be so dramatic, and I will leave the polish commentary for below. I can’t tell you how excited I was when I first saw the promo pictures for the Essie Summer Collection. I was picturing brightly painted nails and flashy pedicures for a hot beach day–ok, not really, but I was still really really looking forward to it. I called my nail guy this morning, and he informed me that they had the new collection so I rushed over there after work to pick up a set. As soon as I got home, I immediately proceeded to swatch them since I just couldn’t help myself…womp womp. Let’s dive right into the swatches, and I will tell you what I thought of each polish.

The color of Rock The Boat is really pretty. I don’t think I have too many similar blues and the shimmer really makes it somewhat unique in my collection. Too bad the formula spread like diarrhea. Seriously. The formula on this is atrocious. Maybe I am exaggerating a little, but I found the formula so incredibly hard to work with. It was super streaky and I did my best to apply super thin coats and left plenty of time in between to make sure that I didn’t create any bald spots. Well, what you see in my swatches is 4 coats and it still looks uneven. Major sadness.

Why does Essie always have to throw in some lilac/purple color like Full Steam Ahead in every single collection? While the shimmer in this is nice and the polish color is pretty, it’s so yawn-worthy. Additionally, the formula on this polish was just as bad as on Rock The Boat. This is also 4 thin coats and I am not too happy with the end result.

Sunday Funday is a color that I imagined as a perfect pedicure color. The formula on this one was also streaky, but I felt that it covered a little better than the previous two polishes. I still wasn’t very happy with it even though I really like the color!

All I could think of when I saw The More The Merrier was pea soup. The fancy people call this chartreuse, but I just call it radioactive pea soup color because that’s how I roll. This polish was a little easier to work with, and I felt it leveled out a lot better than the previous three. I applied 2 thickish coats here.

The Girls Are Out (OMG how does Essie know about my UPS man mishap??) is a pretty color that I don’t find too unique but the formula was everything that I had hoped the other polishes had been like. It was smooth, very pigmented and leveled out perfectly after two coats. As soon as I applied the first coat, I knew this was going to be a winner.

And here is the very Naughty Nautical. This is the clear winner out of this 6 polish collection. The color is to die for. The shimmer adds that extra something to it AND the formula was immaculate. This is by far my favorite polish from this collection because of the color and formula. I just wish all the other polishes had been as easy to apply. I applied 2 coats for the swatches above.

Well, overall I am kind of disappointed with this collection. I’ve read a few reviews already which make me feel like I’m maybe doing something wrong with these polishes since they didn’t seem to have too many application issues. Is it me again? Are you there, God? It’s me, Cynthia. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG? Another thing that I noticed is that the brushes on a few of these bottles seemed “fluffier” than usual so I think that also threw me off a bit. To sum up my feelings on this collection in a few words: blog sale. Yep, these are all going on my blog sale so check it out before they are all snatched up. I’m really curious to see more reviews for this collection because I keep wondering if I’m the problem (kind of like with the China Glaze Summer Neons!). It’s really too bad because I really do like Naughty Nautical, The Girls Are Out and The More The Merrier–those are my recommendations if you’re going to be getting any colors from this collection. And lastly, I did pick up a mini set to give away to one lucky reader. Make sure that you enter for your chance to win this mini set by using the rafflecopter widget below. As usual, this is open internationally.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Please let me know what you think of this collection! Good luck and thanks so much for stopping by today.

Ruby Wing Summer Festival Paint Collection 2013

Posted on 29 May, 201329 May, 2013 by Cynthia

So, I had planned on waking up early so I could get some laundry done but I ended up NOT doing that and just being a lazy bum all morning while I watched a bunch of episodes of Doctor Who. I may be super new to the Doctor Who fan club but man this show is addictive. I’ve been humming that doooo weeeeeeeeee oooooooooo sound from the intro all morning.

I am totally feeling some Doctor Who nails coming on. Now that you think I’m a total weirdo, let’s talk polish again. Today I have two polishes from the Ruby Wing Summer Festival Paint Collection from 2013. This is not my first experience with solar color changing polish as some of you may remember my BBM (Blue Balls Manicure) which you can see here. I am glad to report that the formula for these Ruby Wing polishes is pretty great. I applied 1 thin coat and a second thicker coat for full coverage for both of these polishes. I am sorry for the really horrid pictures of the polishes out in the sun: I don’t know why my camera decided to take 5 dumps on me any time I tried to take pictures in direct sunlight. The polish top coat looks kind of streaky even though it wasn’t at all. Ugh…so frustrating! Believe it or not, those were the best pictures I ended up with so I just had to suck it up and use them.

Ruby Wing Crowd Surf Indoors

Ruby Wing Crowd Surf Outdoors

Ruby Wing Groupie Indoors

Ruby Wing Groupie Outdoors

Overall, I think these are super fun colors and I think they are worth picking up if you like the whole idea of color changing polishes. As I mentioned before, the formula on these polishes is pretty great as well. There are a total of 6 polishes in the Summer Festival Collection, and I think I am going to have to pick up Eternal because it is the most amazing turquoise changing to grey polish!!! I’m in love with it! My greasy looking hands are really bugging me in these pictures today!! I need to find a better way to moisturize before taking swatch pictures that don’t make me look like I dipped my hands in a tub of lard. I guess I’d rather have over-moisturized hands than crusty, ragged or flaking cuticles. Amirite? No one needs to see that!

For news on Ruby Wing and to keep up with all their new releases, you can follow them here:

Website: http://rubywing.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RubyWingNailPolish

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rubywingpolish

Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/rubywingpolish/

Thank so much for stopping by today, and I hope you’ve been having a great day!

Color Club Kaleidoscope Collection For Summer 2013

Posted on 23 May, 2013 by Cynthia

Happy Thursday, everyone! Normally I’d be super excited that the weekend is almost here but weekends don’t mean much to me since I have to work. And to add insult to injury, I get the privilege of working on Memorial day. Woopdee-doo! Today I had a pretty normal (meaning not horrible) day at work mostly because I was carrying on a scandalous email exchange with a few ladies. I swear to God that the universe will implode if and when we all get to hang out together! After work, I went to look for the missing polishes from the Kaleidoscope collection. I received Evolution and Pearl-Spective for review from Color Club but since I’m so anal, I had to try to hunt down the other 4 polishes. Sadly, I am missing one from the collection and none of the 3 places I went to had it. So, I have 5 of the 6 polishes to share with you today from the Color Club Kaleidoscope Collection for Summer 2013.

Ok, so Endless is kind of a boring color for a Summer collection, don’t you think? Don’t get me wrong, I love pink but this color does not make me think of hot Summer beach days one bit. This baby pink also has a streak-a-riffic formula. It was so streaky and patchy that I had to apply 3 thick coats and the end result still wasn’t smooth despite a thick coat of Seche Vite at the end. The color is pretty and delicate, but the formula leaves a lot to be desired.

I felt like I had the sky on my nails when I wore Evolution. It’s such a beautiful sky blue–just right up my alley! I tried to apply this polish yesterday while I was still half blind from having my eyes dilated so the end result was kind of atrocious. The formula seemed really terrible and streaky so I added a couple of drops of thinner today to see if that would help it and it certainly did. While it was still a little thin, I only had to apply 2 coats here and it leveled out rather nicely.

Another gorgeous and pigmented blue to add to all the blues that have come out this year: Bright Night. Ok, I may be a tard, but I actually bought this like a month or two ago and ended up sending it to my friend Lesley–I didn’t even know that it was from an upcoming collection. hahahahaha! Anyway, this blue is very pretty and doesn’t stain at all which is a miracle considering how pigmented it is. It dries to a satin finish but I ended up applying a coat of Seche Vite since I like my manis shiny. The formula appears to be a little thin at first, but it covers well with two medium coats.

Here we have Bright Night with a coat of Pearl-Spective which is one of those flaky glitter polishes that flash all sorts of colors depending on the angle. I mostly see a pink/magenta/purple shift which is really pretty, but I unfortunately was not able to capture it too well here in my pictures.

And here we have my favorite color from this collection: Abyss. Ahhhh….it’s so pretty and aquatic! The formula on this is pretty darn pigmented so I only needed 2 thickish coats. However, something weird happened when I top coated it with Seche Vite: it got all streaky and wrinkled so I had to top coat it with something else and that agreed more with this polish. This is the second time I get some weird Seche Vite reaction so I’m pretty lost as to why this would happen with just one polish from the bunch. Oh well!

To finish up my swatches, here is Abyss with a coat of Pearl-Spective. Pretty, eh?

I mentioned that I am missing one polish from this collection which is In Theory: an orange/coral shade that I would have liked to try out. Sometimes, it’s just not meant to be so I will shed a tear for this elusive shade. One day we may meet, my pretty–one day! Overall, these colors are nice but they definitely don’t scream summer to me. Those two pastel colors seemed sorely out of place in a Summer collection. As you already know, I’m in love with Abyss and Pearl-Spective is a fun way to spruce up a mani.

For news on Color Club and to keep up with all their new releases, you can follow them at:

Website: http://shopcolorclub.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ColorClubNailLacquer

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ColorClubNail

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/colorclubpolish/

So, if you’re in ‘Merica, do you have any plans for Memorial Day weekend? Normally I do have plans but not this year since I’m forced to work. Oh well. At least I have a job, right? Thanks so much for stopping by today and let me know what you think of this collection. Talk to you later.

Clinique Hula Skirt

Posted on 12 May, 2013 by Cynthia

Have you heard that Clinique brought back their nail polish line? Well, being the insane polish hoarder that I am, I found myself at Bloomingdales this Sunday morning waiting for them to open their doors. It was kind of like those old Mervyn’s commercials: “Open, open, open”…am I aging myself here? hahaha

Anyway, I showed up an hour early so I went to do some grocery shopping to kill time. Damn the mall and Sunday hours! I always hate walking through the mall because I have such horrible self-restraint. I have been a beauty product junkie since I was 15 and I would spend all my summer job earnings at the beauty counters. In fact, Clinique was probably one of the first brands that I loved for skin care. But really, what does a 15-year old know about skin care anyway? Still, I always loved their clean packaging and got a kick out of the white lab coats that the associates wore. Today was almost like walking through a little bit of heaven wandering through all the make up counters: I had to walk by the Tom Ford, Chanel, YSL, Givenchy and Dior counters before getting to the Clinique counter so I could spaz out all over the new polish display. I didn’t really have many details about shades and sizes so I just played around with a few of the colors and settled on two. Today I am going to be sharing Clinique Hula Skirt with you.

Hula Skirt reminded me of a pale pistachio green ice cream cone so of course I had to scoop this one up immediately. The formula on this baby is pretty luscious and creamy. The first coat applied a little streaky but a second thicker coat evened it all out. The swatches above are two coats of Hula Skirt and one coat of Seche Vite. The polish does dry pretty glossy on its own, but I never go without a good top coat to protect my mani. For those of you who are concerned with 3-Free formulas, I didn’t see any information about that on their website so I’m assuming that they aren’t because that’s always a huge selling point. However, Clinique claims that the formulation of their nail polish is ideal for people with sensitive skin and eyes. I don’t know much about that since I pretty much wear anything on my nails without a reaction so I’m curious to hear from people with actual skin sensitivities to normal nail polish. Here is my beef, though: these polishes are $16 for .3oz. $16!!!!!! I would imagine that this is not a problem for someone with skin sensitivities, but that’s way too pricey for me. I would only purchase more of these if they had a truly awesome and unique color which I didn’t see in their display. Yes, the colors are pretty and the formula seems great–so far–but you can get the same colors and quality at a much lower price point.

I also wanted to share something with you which you might have seen on my Facebook page if you’re on there. I was notified by another fellow blogger that Nail Polish Direct was using my pictures from my review of the China Glaze Texture Collection on their website to sell that collection. I was infuriated and posted on their page and tweeted my indignation and demanded that they remove my pictures from their website. I know this is nothing new to our nail polish community–in fact, it’s not the first time my pictures are stolen–but there comes a point where enough is enough. For a “business” to do something like that is really sneaky and dishonest so I have no qualms putting them on blast. What ensued are the following Direct Messages from Nail Polish Direct on Twitter:

Huh? Did these messages even make sense? What I would be happy with is a public apology to me and to all the other bloggers who have had pictures stolen, but since I know I’m not going to get that, I’m happy to share what a slimey company NPD is. If they have no problems ripping off and stealing from bloggers, what can you expect from them from the customer standpoint?

So that’s my story for this weekend. I’ve been pretty busy so I haven’t had a chance to reply to comments and a bunch of emails so I’m sorry, but I promise to get right on it! Thank you so much for all the support on my FB page and on twitter. I saw a bunch of posts on NPD’s FB in support of bloggers but of course they deleted everything, but thank you anyway! Besides the picture thievery, I’ve had a pretty nice weekend so far and I hope you have had the same. Let me know what you think of this new Clinique nail polish line. Have you checked them out yet? What was the very first make-up and skin care brand that you remember falling for? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you later!

Essie Summer Neons 2013

Posted on 9 May, 20139 May, 2013 by Cynthia

So my life is really sucking big time lately, and it’s all due to my crappier than crap job. Have you ever had a job that literally sucks the life out of you? That’s what I’m going through right now and it seems that it just keeps getting worse and worse. I’m doing everything that I can to really continue to motivate myself so I can keep looking for something else, but even that is hard right now. It’s basically a vicious cycle where I hate my job and get really depressed and then can’t muster the motivation to look for something else. I have been sending out resumes, but I think I need to be a little more aggressive with my efforts. I just wish the job market and the economy wasn’t so bad so that there were some decent opportunities out there. Ugh…I hate that I keep talking about all my job issues because I’m sure you’re all tired of hearing about it so I hope that the next time I write about work, it will be to say that I’ve quit because I found something way better. Dare to dream, Cynthia…dare to dream. So what did I do today after a particularly horrible day? I came home to play with pretty polish. Since I was in a dark mood, I ended up finishing up my swatches for another neon offering: Essie Summer Neons 2013. Are you ready for these pretties?

The sheerest of them all is Shake Your $$ Maker. I was so excited about this color just because I love this kind of green polishes, but boy is it sheer. I applied 5 coats here–some of them thick–and you could still see VNL. Visible nail line doesn’t bother me as much as it used to, but that is a whole lotta polish on your nails and as Sweet Brown would say: Ain’t nobody got time fo’ dat!

This polish definitely gets the Cynthia seal of approval. As you already know, I love hot pink polishes so Bottle Service is right up my alley. I think this polishes was the most pigmented of them all: it looked pretty good after two coats but I applied 3 just to make sure I couldn’t see any VNL. If I had to pick a favorite from this collection, it would be Bottle Service.

You know I love me some orange polish as well, so I really liked the finished mani here. Of course this one was pretty sheer but definitely not as sheer as some of the other polishes in this collection. Saturday Disco Fever makes me think of a beautiful radioactive sunset that we see here in So Cal on particularly bad smoggy days. haha!

DJ Play That Song is another rather pigmented color. Despite me being a magenta/purple lover, this one wasn’t as interesting to me. Yes, it’s a beautiful color but I wasn’t totally in love with the color. It did however make me think of one of my favorite childhood shows: The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air.

I couldn’t find a clip of Ashley singing “Hey Mr. DJ” but this clip is from the same episode and I was snorting water out my nose when I saw Will and Carlton as back up dancers. hahahaha! Is it weird that I can still sing the whole theme song from The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air?

Boom Boom Boom is pink. Very pink. It’s a girlie neon baby pink if that makes sense. I really like this color, but I would much prefer it with a pigmented creme formula like Dior Rosy Bow which this kind of reminds me of. If you’re looking for a bright jelly pink, look no further.

Call me crazy, but I think that I may have finally had my fill of these blue polishes. Doesn’t it seem like every single new collection seems to have a version of this color lately?? Bouncer It’s Me takes the prize for the second most sheer polish from this collection. I had to apply 4 thick coats of polish here and you can still see VNL. This really is a beautiful and vibrant blue so I don’t blame you if you love it.

Before I forget, I do want to mention that these polishes are all jellies that dry to a satiny finish so I top coated them all with Seche Vite for an extra squishy look. Also remember that Essie recommends that you use Blanc as a base coat (or any other smooth white polish) which will make these colors pop and will also decrease the number of coats that you will need to get even color development. So my final thoughts is that this collections is really fun and bright–not necessarily NEON but bright. If you’re a jelly polish lover, than you will definitely like these. As for me, I am not really a jelly polish lover…give me creme polishes and I’m all over them. I do have a special fondness for crelly polishes because they are the best of both worlds. Anyway, as you can guess these are going on the blog sale so check them out before they’re gone.

Thanks so much for stopping by despite my Debbie Downer posts–I promise I’ll work on not being such a complainer because ultimately, that doesn’t get me anywhere. I must charge forward and continue on my job search before I go completely nuts. I’ll talk to you later!