Summer 2014 Archives - Page 2 of 2

Tag: Summer 2014

Of Life and Lacquer > Summer 2014

KBShimmer Summer 2014 Collection

Posted on 12 May, 201412 May, 2014 by Cynthia

Guess what? The heat is on again!

Not in a good way either because it’s supposed to be back in the upper 90’s here this week. I live in a city that is about 10 minutes away from the beach so I’m not happy about this. I’m just going to focus on the fact that Summer brings juicy collections and today I have one of them for you: the KBShimmer Summer 2014 Collection!! Holy frijoles, I can’t tell you how excited I am about this WHOLE COLLECTION which is a rare. This collection contains 12 polishes: 3 cremes, 3 textures and 6 holos.

The Creams:
Let’s Not Coral– A pink leaning coral cream.
Low and Be Bold – A bright near ultramarine blue polish.
Right As Reign – A deep indigo purple polish.

The Textures:
Partners In Lime – A textured polish with lime, aqua, and gold holographic glitters.
She Twerks Out – A bold aqua polish, featuring teal, lime, and violet holographic glitters.
Too Pop To Handle – A purple toned fuchsia color, with violet, magenta and aqua holographic glitters.

The Holos:
Pt Young Thing – A platinum silver linear holographic polish.
In Bare Form – A near nude holographic polish.
Big Tan On Campus – A light tan-ish brown holographic polish.
Run! It’s The Coppers! – A metallic copper linear holographic polish.
Goldie Rocks – A shimmery gold holographic polish.
Stark Raven Mad – A deep charcoal linear holographic polish.

Here is a picture of all of them together:

Gorgeous, right? Well, now I have 6 of these shades to share with you. I apologize in advance for making you want to spend money, ok?

KBShimmer Low And Be Bold

KBShimmer Let’s Not Coral

These two creme shades were perfection. I am so happy that KBShimmer is continuing to put out luscious cremes because they really are amazing. These don’t even need a top coat because they are crazy shiny on their own. I applied two coats of each polish and the formula was smooth, self-leveling and just juicy. LOVE!

KBShimmer She Twerks Out

KBShimmer Partners In Lime

Polishgasm achieved. You don’t understand how much I love these two textures. The jelly base on these two polishes is electric and the coverage is amazing. You can get away with one coat if you want a sheer-like glitter application or you can use two coats if you want a full coverage look like my swatches show above. Partners In Lime is probably my favorite polish this year and that’s saying a lot considering the amount of polishes that pass through my hands. And because someone always asks about textured polish and top coating it, I decided to top coat Partners In Lime.

Gorgeous! If you want to top coat these texture polishes, just be aware that they suck up top coat. I applied 1 coat of Seche, 1 coat of Gelous and finally 1 coat of Seche to get this glassy look. To be honest, I prefer to wear textures without top coat. I didn’t find these too crazy gritty but you can definitely feel the texture.

Now, for the 2 holo polishes, I have two sets of pictures because my usual lighting just doesn’t show off linear holo polishes very well. I was also struggling with an overcast day today so I had to improvise.

KBShimmer Run! It’s The Coppers!

KBShimmer Stark Raven Mad

The formula on these two holos was great. Stark Raven Mad could almost be a 1 coater! Run! It’s The Coopers needs a little more work because I had to apply 3 thin coats, but I don’t mind since it’s so beautiful. I am not tired of holos yet (can one get tired of holos, really??) so I was super excited to try these out.

You may think I’m a little over the top in my love for these polishes and the brand in general, but you know that when I find something that I love, I want to share it with all of you. In the same vein, I will always tell you when I think something sucks–oh, yes I will! So, now that you’ve seen part of this collection, will you be picking any of these up? The official release date of this collection is 5/23 so you have time to see swatches and reviews before you make up your mind. Don’t forget to follow KBShimmer on their various social media pages to stay up to date.

Website – Facebook – Twitter – Pinterest – Instagram

Hey, I hope that you had a great weekend and that you’re tolerating Monday…cause we all know how I feel about Mondays. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

P.S. Go enter my giveaway! 😉

OPI Neons Collection 2014

Posted on 11 May, 201411 May, 2014 by Cynthia

One of the only things–if not the only thing–that I love about Summer is the fact that we see tons of color everywhere and I’m not just talking about nail polish. Every Spring, I get giddy seeing previews of juicy Summer Collections and this year has been no exception. When I first started hearing about an OPI Neons Collection, I was very excited. Excited is not really the right word because I was going apeshit crazy for them. I don’t like to necessarily say that I have obsessive qualities in my personality, but you can definitely qualify my polish idiosyncrasies as such. Now, I do have to tell you that while I love bright neon colors, I definitely do not like neon formulas. I cannot stand the idea of 3+ coats of polish, and I just about lose my shit when I am told to use a white base under a polish. Do you understand my conundrum? For this review, I decided to follow OPI’s inscructions and used their Put a Coat On! white base coat which they state will further enhance color and basically make them pop. Look at me: following directions for once. Let’s take a look at my swatches before I break it down for you.

OPI You’re So Outta Lime!

OPI Life Gave Me Lemons

OPI Hotter Than You Pink

OPI Down To The Core-al

OPI Juice Bar Hopping

OPI Push & Pur-pull

Am I the only one doesn’t really see true neons here? Well, I shouldn’t say that because Life Gave Me Lemons is kind of electric. Other shades are very neon-esqe, but I was expecting something more retina-searing. Let’s get the ugly out of the way first: Push & Pur-pull, you are a beast. This polish was basically unmanageable. When I applied it over the white base, it never looked good. I applied 2 coats of the white base and 4 coats of Push & Pur-pull hoping that would make it look nice. NOPE. You may be thinking that I over-applied it, but I actually went really slowly and let each coat dry before making the decision to add another and another and another. Finally I took it all off and applied it without the white base coat which is what you see above. I am still not happy with it, but I would highly recommend that you skip the white base with this one. As far as the other 5 polishes are concerned, they weren’t horrible but they weren’t that nice either. Out of the collection, Life Gave Me Lemons had the best formula and coverage. For all of my swatches, excet Push & Pur-pull, I applied 2 coats of the white base and 2 coats of polish which I ten top coated with Seche Vite I am not a huge fan of the satin finish that most neons carry which is why I always Seche Vite the crap out all my manis. When did Seche Vite become a verb?

Let’s talk about the Put A Coat On! base coat…

Yep, hated it. It is the strangest white polish I have ever used. It’s chalky and strange and it felt like it never dried. When I applied polish over it, it kind of came off and would get runny. It was just weird. Also, can I tell you how much I hate that no matter how hard I tried, I can see some of the white peeking out around the edges of my mani? It’s a huge pet peeve of mine so it’s driving me nuts that I’m posting what I feel are sloppy swatches. If you are able to apply the white base in one swipe, then you don’t need more than one coat. If you need to make a second pass, then you’re going to get a streaky mess which is why I applied 2 coats of the white base.

Overall, I’m not diggin’ this whole collection. The three that I really like are You’re So Outta Lime, Life Gave Me Lemons and Hotter Than You Pink. Hotter Than You Pink is much brighter in real life than my pictures show and it has some beautiful shimmer to boot. I’m so conflicted because I wanted to love this whole collection so much and now I don’t. The OPI Neons Collection will be available this month and will retail for $9.00 ($10.95 CAN) at Professional Salons, including Beauty Brands, beautybrands.com, Beauty First, Chatters, Dillard’s, jcp Salons, Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, ULTA and ulta.com. What do you think of this collection? Will you be picking up any of these shades for the Summer? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

P.S. Have you entered my giveaway for a set of the OPI Sheer Tints? Come enter here.

Zoya Bubbly Collection Summer 2014

Posted on 5 May, 20144 May, 2014 by Cynthia

Hey, look! I have all 6 polishes here because Peanut did NOT break any of them. Yay! I’m still a little sad about the loss of Rocha (and about my table being ruined!), but I’ll just classify this as Peanut’s first polish destruction. I’m sure that there will be many more to follow. Today I have the Zoya Bubbly Collection to share with you, and I can tell you that I am a bit surprised. Surprised good or surprised bad? Keep reading and you’ll find out…

Zoya Harper

Zoya Binx

Zoya Muse

Zoya Staasi

Zoya Jesy

Zoya Alma

When I first saw the promo pictures for this collection, I had no idea what to expect. In fact, the idea of jelly polishes with holo glitter seemed kind of strange considering the images that were released.I wouldn’t really consider these polishes holographic in the sense that we were all expecting and hoping that they would be. These are very thick glitter polishes in a tinted jelly base which means that they are very sheer. I applied 3 thickish coats for all my swatches because I wanted them to be fully opaque without having to layer them over a solid color. The final result is a lovely glitter packed finish that almost makes them look metallic. I certainly was not expecting to like these, but I kind of do. I’m not like dying with excitement, but I do think these are pretty and anticipate that they will be fairly well-received. So what do you think of these? I’ve been hearing mixed feelings about these and I can tell you that if had to pick one or two, I would go with Muse and Harper because I just love how they look. If you want to get your hands on these, they can be found at Zoya.com for $9 each. They should start shipping out May 15 which is right around the corner. Don’t forget to check out my swatches of the Zoya Tickled Collection! Will you be getting any of these?

Zoya Tickled Collection Summer 2014

Posted on 4 May, 20143 May, 2014 by Cynthia

Remember how I had mentioned that my Friday had turned into a comedy of errors? Well, fortunately my Saturday was pretty mellow so I was able to get a lot of swatching done–namely the Zoya Tickled Collection (as well as the Bubbly Collection!). As soon as I saw the press release for this half of the Summer Collection, I knew I was in love because I am a sucker for cremes. Let’s take a look at my swatches, and then I will let you know what I think.

Zoya Wendy

Zoya Kitridge

Zoya Rooney

Zoya Tilda

Zoya Ling

You may notice that I’m missing one polish here. Well, there is a story about that. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen this picture of Peanut admiring (trying to grab) all the polishes.

Sometimes I forget that he can actually grab things now and that he can also throw things. It’s always fun and games until someone gets hurt, and this time Zoya Rocha was the victim.

I did see Peanut grab a polish and then throw it back into the pile. I heard the smash, but everything seemed fine. I gathered up the polishes and put them back into the boxes and went back to playing with Peanut. A few minutes later I noticed that the living room was smelling a lot like nail polish which is pretty normal but it was much stronger than usual. I was putting some stuff away when I picked up the box and polish was pouring out of it. It had gotten on the glass tabletop, on the wood and some had dripped onto the carpet and on my shirt/shoes. WHAT IN THE WORLD??? It was one bottle of polish…half an ounce and it felt like a gallon of polish had spilled all over the place. When I tried to clean it up, the finish on the wood came off.

Womp, womp! I’m so irritated, but it was totally my fault. It wasn’t Peanut’s fault since I let him play with the polishes, but I think this is going to put an end to any future Peanut Picks posts. hahaha So that is the unfortunate story about Rocha’s demise.

Now that we have taken a moment to mourn Rocha’s sad fate, let me tell you that I adore all of these cremes. They are just so gorgeous and shiny that I can barely stand it. I want to wear them all at the same time. The formula on all of them was rather similar: opaque but a little streaky. I tend to prefer thin coats to thick coats, so I applied 3 thin coats for all of my swatches. I think 2 thick coats would have been enough, but I like doing thin coats. I am completely in love with these colors even though they may not be that original. To be frank, when you get to be this polish obsessed, original colors is something that you rarely encounter. I just can’t deny my love for cremes, and these don’t disappoint. Stay tuned for the second half of the collection which will be up tomorrow. If you’re interested in purchasing any of these beauties, they can be found at Zoya.com for $9. Let me know what you think of these pretties. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

Julie G Cruise Time Collection Summer 2014

Posted on 29 April, 2014 by Cynthia

Apparently I didn’t get the memo that it would be hotter than Satan’s butthole this week so I’m currently melting. It is also super windy (damn you, Santa Ana Winds!!!) so my allergies are acting up. Oh well. I should be used to this by now. I had been meaning to post my swatches of the Julie G Cruise Time Collection for Summer 2014, but I’ve just been…unmotivated to say the least. I’m trying to clear out all my backlog of posts so this was the next one on my list.

Julie G Santorini

Julie G Tahiti

Julie G Canary Islands

Julie G Rio De Janeiro

Julie G Miami Beach

Julie G Old San Juan

These polishes are so pretty! I know that there’s nothing “revolutionary” about them, but it’s always nice to see a good creme formula. They are all very buttery and opaque so I applied 2 coats and that was enough for all 6 polishes. My two favorites from this collection are Tahiti and Santorini–they are flippin’ gorgeous. Since I’m preparing myself for financial Armageddon, I put these up on my blog sale. SO SAD. However, knowing the amount of polish that I have, there really is no point in me keeping most of the new stuff that I buy because they will probably never see the light of day after the initial swatching.

What do you think about this collection? I think it’s super cute, and I am very impressed by the quality of these polishes. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.

OPI Brazil Collection Spring/Summer 2014

Posted on 3 February, 201426 February, 2019 by Cynthia

******** COME CHECK OUT MY BLOG SALE********

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been patiently waiting to get my hands on the OPI Brazil Collection ever since I started seeing promo pictures and random swatches online. When the box of polish joy showed up, I was bursting with excitement when I realized this collection is mostly cremes. Don’t gorgeous cremes make you ridiculously happy? Am I the only one whose mouth waters just looking a beautiful and buttery cremes? Ok, I guess I’m just weird, but it’s the truth.This 12 piece collection also includes a collection of mini Liquid Sands, Beach Sandies, that really are like the cherry on top of this luscious grouping. Let’s start by taking a look at the 4 Beach Sandies.

OPI What’s A Little Rain Forest?OPI You’re So Flippy Floppy

OPI Samba-dy Loves Purple

OPI I’m Brazil Nuts Over You

These 4 textured polishes all apply beautifully. They all need two coats for full opacity and dry lightning fast. If you are not a lover of textured polishes because of the rough feeling, these are surprisingly smooth. Obviously they still have a textured feeling, but they feel very fine and definitely not chunky at all. These are super shimmery and just look fantastic out in sunlight. You know what my beef with these is? They only come in mini-size!!! WHAAAAAAAAATTTT???? I would kill for a full size of these–especially that blue–so I’m feeling kinda sad about that. Now let’s move on to the main collection so get ready for some awesomeness.

OPI Where Did Suzi’s Man-go?

OPI Toucan Do It If You Try

OPI Live. Love. Carnaval

OPI Kiss Me I’m Brazilian

OPI Red Hot Rio

OPI Scores A Goal

OPI Next Stop…The Bikini Zone

OPI Don’t Bossa Nova Me Around

OPI Taupe-less Beach

OPI I Sao Paulo Over There

OPI Amazon…Amazoff

OPI I Just Can’t Cope-acabana

I didn’t get into describing each polish individually because the formula on all of them is nearly identical: they are luscious cremes, highly pigmented, smooth, buttery and glossy. Application on all of them was flawless. and they were all perfect with two coats. In fact, many of these could be one coaters if you’re careful with your application. The most surprising polish was the yellow as this too, is almost a one-coater!!! I found the variety of brights and neutrals in one collection pretty refreshing. I am so happy with this collection and loved every single polish. What do you think of this collection? Is it what you were expecting?

Brazil by OPI will be available in both nail lacquer and GelColor formulas beginning February 5, 2014. Nail lacquers will retail for $9.00 ($10.95 CAN) each at Professional Salons, including Beauty Brands, Beauty First, Chatters, Dillard’s, jcp Salons, Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, ULTA and ulta.com. Beach Sandies Liquid Sand mini pack will retail for $12.95 ($14.95 CAN). For more information, please call 800-341-9999 or visit www.opi.com. Follow OPI on Twitter @OPI_PRODUCTS and become a Facebook fan!