OPI - DS Vintage

Hello everyone,

I hope you guys are all feeling great! I'm pretty excited since I'm starting an extra long weekend today.. and sleeping in never felt so good!

On a more depressing/annoying note, my eBay package containing all of the lovely Nubar polishes I purchased aren't here yet, and I'm getting antsy since the USPS tracking still says it's in LA somewhere.. and hasn't been updated since the 8th of June. Boo.

Anyhow, I heard from my sister that her Nfu Oh polishes have arrived, so I'm pretty stoked for that.. since one of them is a flakie that is for me. Yay!

Today I have a holo to show y'all, it's quite pretty even though I wasn't really expecting much from the bottle color (looked kinda orangey-salmon pinky-peach, and didn't really jump out at me). This applied like a dream, smooth and buttery.. and was perfect in 3 coats. Drying time was also fast, I accidentally touched it a few minutes afterwards, but there weren't any marks! Impressive. :D

This was taken indoors. Not too much holo goodness here.

Outdoors, in the sun. I'm not that satisfied with the pictures I've taken.. but unfortunately mother nature is being annoying.. and the weather is still like spring here, even though it's almost July. (Hey, mother nature.. get your act together! I want some sunshine!)

On another note, Zoya has extended their Color Lock promo, where you can get one of the summer collections (Sunshine or Summertime) with the purchase of their Color Lock system. I'm happy that they did actually, we were going to make a purchase and have it shipped to a friend's house in the States, but they didn't accept Canadian CCs.. which made me really annoyed (I want my Sunshine!). We managed to get our paws on an American CC though.. but that was 2 hours after the promo ended the first time. Hopefully now we can make an order, and I can pick it up when I go to the East Coast in August. :D

That's all for today, Thank you all for supporting my blog and reading what I write, even though I do tend to ramble a lot! <3

-Marisa

Odd One Out - Dirty Glitter Zebra NOTD

Hi all,

Sorry for the lack of a post yesterday, but I was still feeling pretty under.. for some reason lately little things have been bugging me, and I haven't really felt like putting a lot of effort into my nails. I'm thinking I'm pretty stoked for the eBay package with all of my long awaited Nubars.. and I don't want to do anything fancy in case the package comes.. so I can do my nails right away when it comes. Do any of you feel that way when it comes to nail mail?

Anyhow, I managed to do one hand today.. the sun didn't really come out at all, and I couldn't take any pictures of the holo polish I'm wearing on my right hand in the sun (the indoor-lightbox pictures will be in a later post though).

So.. I present to you.. the Odd One Out - Dirty Glitter Zebra NOTD!

Hmm, just noticed this one is kinda light.. so here's another picture in lower lighting.. where you can see the glittery bits..

Sorry about how oily my fingers look.. I just rubbed some shea butter on!

I'm relatively pleased with this NOTD, even though it is basically my second time stamping.. and it isn't as clean as I would have liked it to be.

What I used:
BM16
White BG - China Glaze Snow
Black Stripes- Billie Cosmetics Black
Greenish Grey BG - Essie Sew Psyched
Glitter Topcoats - China Glaze White Cap and Fairy Dust

That's all for now! Have a great day!

-Marisa

China Glaze Ahoy!

Hi everyone,

Sorry again for a late post, but earlier today I was thinking about swatching some more Color Club collections, but when I finally got started I realized I was wayy too tired to do anything. I attempted to build myself something like a lightbox.. and it works fine.. but I realize that I prefer natural lighting. That being said, I have a gorgeous OPI DS polish to show y'all, hopefully this sun will come out for the holo-party.

I'm also crossing my fingers in the hopes I get some nail mail tomorrow.. then I'll have some Nubar and an Essie polish to drool over!

Anyhow, back to the polish for today's post..

I must say China Glaze makes some gorgeous glass flecks. I had this on my wishlist, but was undecided after I saw a comparison post with Strawberry Fields.. and since I already own Strawberry Fields I didn't want to buy a polish that looks very similar.

I'm actually glad I got this one. It isn't exactly the same as SF (maybe I'll do a comparison.. one day..) and it is just different enough that I love it too!

In other news, I saw a preview of Deborah Lippmann's Fall 2011 lacquers, and I'm most excited for Stairway to Heaven. Actually, they're all pretty awesome looking. :D

That's all for today, hopefully I'll be more awake tomorrow.. I'm pretty exhausted right now (but I have no idea why..)

Night all!!

-Marisa

Essie - Limited Addiction

Hi everyone!

Sorry for a late-ish post, but I was away for most of the day watching a production of Hairspray! Yesterday's BBQ was good, nothing too spectacular.. it was raining pretty hard but it cleared up in the end.

Anyhow, I have a lovely red polish to show y'all today, since today was the season premiere of True Blood! I haven't watched it yet, but I will get around to it.. feeling a bit under the weather today.

Now, without further ado, I present to you.. Limited Addiction!

Limited Addiction is a gorgeous red creme that's almost like a jelly -it dries super smooth and glossy, which is awesome. It looks more brown-red in low lighting, and it bright red in the sun. The picture above was taken indoors with low natural lighting.

I'm kind of kicking myself for not getting Cult Nail's Quench, which would have been totally awesome for this occasion, but maybe I'll have it next time!

That's all for now, enjoy the rest of your day!

-Marisa

Doodle Art

Hey everyone, sorry for the lack of a post yesterday, but I was super busy Thursday and I got back late Friday. Today we're having a family BBQ in honor of my brother's -insert number here- birthday.

Yes, I don't know how old my brother is. ;D

Since I got saddled with a lot of prep work, today's post is going to be relatively short.. I did this for my little sister a few days after her summer break started (wow they get off early), and it's based off this addicting game called Doodle Jump that I recently got on my iPhone. Basically, the little guy jumps and keeps on jumping, and you have to tilt the device in the direction you want him to go in, making sure he lands on platforms and doesn't get hit by any aliens or fall into a black hole.

The base colour is OPI's Steady as she rose, and I can't remember all of the other colours I ended up using (there were a lot), but if you want to know a specific colour drop a comment or a tweet and I can probably force myself to remember it (potato peeling marathon on the mind right now).

In other news, I broke another nail on my left hand, so I decided to trim those nails down to match. I haven't had my nails this short in a while (not that short.. but to me..) so it'll take some getting used to. I'm also still hunting for Joe Fresh Twilight (went to two stores with no luck at all).

That's all for today, hope you guys have a great Saturday, and I hope the sun comes out soon! :)

-Marisa

Joe Fresh - Twilight

Good morning everyone!

*edit- I think I forgot to mention where this could be purchased from.. Joe Fresh polishes can be purchased at Real Canadian Superstore, Extra foods and Loblaws in Canada. They retail for 3 for $10 CAD and are small (6mL vs 15mL in a normal OPI bottle).

Today I have a Canada exclusive polish to show you! I actually bought this a while ago but never got around to trying it until a few days ago.

Gosh, looking at this picture makes me want to hoard it. Doesn't it look fabulous?

Pretty colour changing flakies, huh? It's mainly green, but can change to orange and yellow. It is kind of sheer, so best layered over black or another dark colour (these photos have it layered over China Glaze's First Mate, but you can't really tell).

So, what do you guys think? I think this polish is gorgeous (flakies are always gorgeous, aren't they?) but I do feel that it is a bit dark for my taste (geez, I'm weird aren't I? I have some kind of aversion to black nailpolish).. since I do like sunshine-y rainbowness. The inner nail polish hoarder in me wants to keep it, but the rest of me is telling me to add it to a grab bag for the ginormous giveaway I want to host sometime in the future.

Of course, I'm probably going to go see if they still have any of this polish in stock (and pick up JF's Rainforest, which reminds me of RBL's Recycle and the immensely coveted Nars Zulu) and if they do.. well, they'll be a brand new one waiting to be won whenever I reach the magical 1-0-0 followers (I'm excited, what about you?!). If they don't, then I'll give away this one (sorry hoarder :( ).

Actually, if I can find a new bottle of this, I may give that away as a part of a first or second prize pack, and my used one in a grab bag. I think this can probably find a more loving home with someone that isn't afraid of the colour black like I am.

That's all for now, hope you all have a fantastic day <3

-Marisa

Polish News: Color Club - Back to Boho Fall 2011

Well, this is just a quickie post, and I'm sure you've heard about this in about a million other blogs today.. but I'd like to squee over this too!

Top row, from the left:
Nomadic in Nude – a must have neutral for the season; off white and creamy
Earthy Angel – Gorgeous creamy camel
New Bohemian – a new 70’s take on Tiffany Blue
Shabby Drab – Purple Greige The ultimate boho color
Rad Nomad – Purple brown crème
Red-ical Gypsy – Boho chic red, a new take on a vintage classic red


Bottom row, from the left:
Boho Mojo – Silvery, beige pearl
Nouveau Vintage – The perfect understated vintage frosty gold
Voodoo You Do – The perfect charcoal grey for the season with blue undertones
Artsy Crafty – The ultimate muted military green
Blue-topia – Just as it sounds, the perfect shade of deep blue
Rebel Spirit – Deep chocolate brown creme

I'm excited about New Bohemian, Nouveau Vintage, Voodoo You Do and Artsy Crafty and Rebel Spirit.. although I may just ask a certain someone to pick up the sets for me at Winners whenever they show up there.

That's all from me for now, what do you guys think? Pretty? Any must have colours? I must say I'm pretty excited for fall. I already have a list of stuff I want!

Ciao for now,

-Marisa

Nails of the Day - Hue Rang, Dorothy Who + Navy Shatter

Hi Everyone!

I have a ton of pictures of stuff I've been wearing the past few days that are just waiting to be posted, so I'm going to try to mix a bit of that in along with more current stuff.

Today though, I thought it would be nice to show y'all what I'm wearing right now. :D

Of course, I saw some swatches of OPI's Serena Williams Grape Set Match duo, and of course I had to go hunt it down. Needless to say, I also picked up some other interesting things (Navy Shatter, and another OPI).

I was originally planning to put the navy shatter over China Glaze's Ahoy! (which I was wearing at the time) but I ended up applying the shatter and mucking it up by mowing the lawn (saving my tomatoes comes before manicures!)

Anyhow, I decided to try it over China Glaze's Dorothy Who?, and Finger Paints' Hue Rang?

Finger Paints - Hue Rang? Pretty shimmery-almost frosty lavender purple. Sorry about the smudge marks, this one was taken after mowing the lawn.

Hue Rang? with Navy Shatter on top. I like this.

And now, the glitterbomb that is Dorothy Who? Love this one, even though it is going to be a pain to take off. I really like how the shatter allows some of the sparkle through too. (Again, apologize for the mess!)

This was my first try at using an OPI Shatter, and I thought that it was quite easy to use. The navy shatter itself has a jelly-like quality, which is awesome.

Well, that's all for today. Sorry if my sentences don't really make sense (or if I'm not really making sense in general), but it's lawn mowing season, and that means stuffed/runny noses, watery eyes and repeated sneezing. >_<

Bye for now!
*Edit: realized I posted the un-watermarked photos, so I've changed those.. silly me!*

-Marisa

Cult Nails Week - Let Me Fly

Whew, that was a lot of Cult Nails! I hope you guys have enjoyed that as much as I have!

To conclude Cult Nails week, I bring to you one of my favourites from the A Day at the Races collection.. Let Me Fly!

Let Me Fly is a dusty teal-blue chock full of silver shimmer. I. Love. This. Love at first brushstroke anyone? I got so excited after I put this one on that I ran around and started showing everyone.

See what I mean? I love this. Looove.
That's why I saved it for last!

So I guess my favourites out of this whole stash would be (in no particular order): Let Me Fly, Living Water, Devious Nature, Iconic, Captivated, My Kind of Cool Aid, Always Winning and Cruisin' Nude.

Oh, what's that? Those are all of the Cult Nails polishes I've shown you?
..Oopsies. ;D

So, now it's your turn! What is your favourite out of the lot of them?
And if you don't have any of these yet.. what are you waiting for?! If you love blue, I think Let Me Fly is calling your name!

Let Me Fly and other Cult Nails polishes can be purchased online for $10 each at the Cult Nails website.

Have a nice day!

-Marisa

Cult Nails Week - Captivated

Hello everyone!

I hope you're all well this morning, I know I'm feeling pretty good myself. :D

Today I have a lovely blingy polish for Cult Nails week.. Captivated!

Captivated is a lovely coral jelly with tons of glitter in it!

Captivated is another one of my favourites from Cult Nails. It's always positively glowing! In the sun, it shines and in the shade, the gold glitter really pops out at you! This is gorgeous.. I don't think I've seen anything like it!

Sooo pretty. I'm glad I didn't decide to put this on during my study week and midterm exams.. I think I would have gotten side tracked a lot by just staring at it!

That's all for now, I hope you enjoy your day!

Captivated and other Cult Nails polishes can be purchased online for $10 each at the Cult Nails website.
-Marisa

Cult Nails Week - Always Winning

Hi everyone!

Today I have Cult Nails' Always Winning to share with you all!

Always Winning is a light metallic olive green-gold, with lots of gold glitter. Maria has stated that this is meant to be a layering polish (but it can be worn on its own).

To change it up a bit, my ring and pinky fingers are Always Winning on its own, and my index and middle fingers are one layer of Always Winning over China Glaze's First Mate.

This polish does have a strong scent, but application was not difficult. This one has me excited.. I wonder what this would look good layered over?

Any suggestions on colours to layer this over? All comments are appreciated! 

Have a great day everyone!

Always Winning and other Cult Nails polishes can be purchased online for $10 each at the Cult Nails website.

-Marisa

Cult Nails Week - Devious Nature

Morning everyone!

Hope you are all feeling fantastic and chipper!

Today's installment for Cult Nails week features Devious Nature, which is an absolutely fantastic pink with slight berry undertones.

I'm usually not a very pink person.. but I really love this one! I've gotten a lot of compliments on this.

The formula of this one was fantastic. it applied nice and smooth, covering in 2 coats.. and also dries to a high gloss shine. I wore this for a week on my left hand and it still looked fine when it came time for me to take it off.

I do think this is similar to the LA Colors pink I swatched a while ago.. so out of curiosity I think I'll do a comparison of the two some time in the future!

Have a great day everyone!



Devious Nature and other Cult Nails polishes can be purchased online for $10 each at the Cult Nails website.

-Marisa

Cult Nails Week - Cruisin' Nude

Good morning everyone!

Today for Cult Nails week, I have Cruisin' Nude to share with you all.

Out of all of the Cult Nails polishes I have received, this one was the only one that I had a tiny bit of trouble applying (I'm thinking inexperience). Actually I can compare this to some other colours belong to other brands that I have used, so it's not too bad.. maybe I'm just being spoiled by all of the other Cult Nails polishes.

Cruisin' Nude is a medium beige with some awesome subtle pink shimmer.

Even though I had some trouble with this one, I'm not about to give it up for anything! This colour is a welcome addition to my collection, which is seriously lacking in neutrals. Besides, that pink shimmer is gorgeous.

Well, that's all for now.. Have a great day!

Cruisin' Nude and other Cult Nails polishes can be purchased online for $10 each at the Cult Nails website.

-Marisa

Cult Nails Week - Iconic

Hello everyone,

Today in continuation of Cult Nails Week, I have Iconic!

Iconic is a slightly browned red with lots of gold shimmer and little flakey bits. I love this one! (does this sound familiar?)

For some reason, Iconic kind of strikes me as being kind of symbolic of Cult Nails on a whole.. I'm not sure why, and I'm probably not eloquent enough to put it into definite words, but I'll leave that idea floating around in the air. Actually, I'd appreciate any comments on this (especially if you feel the same way).. just to make sure I'm not just imagining weird things ;)

I'll throw in an extra picture of another thing Iconic reminds me of.. which is a red Japanese Maple tree.

Hope you all have a great day! If you have any questions or anything, you can leave a comment below, or if you want a quick-ish reply, you can always tweet me on twitter @livelylacquer!


Iconic and other Cult Nails polishes can be purchased online for $10 each at the Cult Nails website.

-Marisa

Cult Nails Week - Living Water

Hi all,

In the second installment of Cult Nails week, I present to you... Living Water!

Living Water is a dark blue-black with green and blue glitter. I've been lemming this since I first saw a picture, and it does not disappoint! Loooove it.

I'm not sure why my fingers look so wrinkly.. Sorry about that.

I just had an idea of a great picture of this.. but it involves two people and a clear, deep pool of water. Not sure if I can find one of those around here *scratches head*

Hope y'all have a good day!


Living Water and other Cult Nails polishes can be purchased online for $10 each at the Cult Nails website.

-Marisa

Cult Nails Week - My Kind of Cool Aid

Hello everyone, I'm baaaaack!

Finally done my first set of midterms, so now I have about 3 weeks before I have to stress about the next set!
As I probably mentioned in one of the last posts, my package from Cult Nails has arrived!

I had been reading Maria's blog for sometime, before I decided to bite the bullet and finally own some of that awesomeness I had been drooling over. My sister and I (we like to order things together) ended up getting the whole A Day at the Races Collection, and 3 of the inaugural collection (missing Quench).

Today I have My Kind of Cool Aid to share with y'all.

MKOCA is a dusty light purple with some subtle silver shimmer. I wasn't really that excited about this one, but everything changed when I put it on. I actually really like this colour. I also realized after I put it on that it actually matches the colour of my bedsheets exactly (see, this was meant to be!)!!

MKOCA in the sun.

 MKOCA in the shade.

What do you think? Like it? What is your favourite Cult Nails shade?

In other news, I MAY be going to Las Vegas with family for Canada Day. I'm busy trying to plan out where to go to shop.. especially for polish! I really want to hit a bunch of stores like Sally's and ULTA, but it doesn't seem like any are close to the strip (probably where we'll be staying) and I can't drive either. Hm, maybe I'll convince someone to drive me there..

Hope you all have a fantastic day!

My Kind of Cool Aid and other Cult Nails polishes can be purchased online for $10 each at the Cult Nails website.

-Marisa

Strawberry Fields Forever

Let me take you down..

Yeah, so I'm a big fan of The Beatles. Huge fan.

So obviously, when I saw the name of this polish, and some swatches online, I had to get it. This came a few months ago, in my first ever online mega order, and since then it had been quietly sitting in my polish drawer collecting dust.. until yesterday.

Long story short, I did my nails in the morning.. went out and then decided I was unhappy with how it looked.. so I took it all off and did something else.

Today, I present to you this "something else".. China Glaze's Strawberry Fields with Fairy Dust on top.

Sorry about the crappy pictures, my camera is still sporadically MIA, so I took this with my sister's new phone.. which has a 8.1 megapixel camera on it (am I the only one that finds that.. crazy?)

I love this combination. I first swatched SF on a nail wheel, and I thought it looked nice.. but I didn't think it was exciting enough to drop everything and put it on. I'm glad I put it on though. It's love. I just love that gold fleck-y shimmer.. urgh. My pictures don't do this justice. Strawberry Fields is gorgeous.

Well, that's all I have to say for now. I'm pretty frazzled about my midterms, so expect a brief intermission in posting until after the 13th!

By the way, my Cult Nails order has arrived.. so expect to see a lot of that gorgeousness when regular posting resumes!

Ta-ta!

-Marisa

Color Club - Wicked Sweet

Hello everybody!

Today I have Color Club's Wicked Sweet set to show you!
This was purchased at Winners for $12.99 by my sister (I mentioned this in the Keep it Under Cover post).
This set features bright summer colours that are also fruit-scented. I'm fairly sensitive to smells (especially those sweet smelling candy fruit smells) so you probably already have an idea of what I thought of the scent. Out of all of them, the only one I liked (smell wise) was the grape. The rest of them weren't as bad as I was originally expecting!

Get Your Lem-On - Lemon scented

The Lime Starts Here - Lime Scented

Gimme a Grape Big Kiss - Grape Scented

I always get my Man-Darin - I guess you could say that this is orange scented

Wicked Sweet - Another hard to describe scent. It smells.. sweet?

Yum Gum -gum scented, reminds me of old fashioned pink bubblegum

Raspberry Rush - Raspberry scented

The colours in the pictures are a bit off, these are all very bright (GYLO and TLSH are highlighter colours for reference).
In terms of coverage, Get Your Lem-On and I always get my Man-Darin were both very sheer. Actually, most of these were kind of thin, with the exception of Yum Gum.

In conclusion, I really like these colours (yup, bright stuff), but I'm not too crazy about the scent. I don't mind perfume (in small quantities) but I think my nose is still scarred from memories of high school and Axe sprayed in copious quantities in the narrow hallways. I mean, yeah maybe a little bit of scent will make you seem attractive to women. Okay. Try not to kill any interested parties before they actually get within 5 feet of you first.

Have a great day all!

-Marisa

PS: I have midterm exams on Friday and Monday, so I'll be focusing on studying and not posting.. but I have a post scheduled so there won't be too many days of post-lessness. :)

Color Club - Keep it Under Cover

Hi all,

Today I have a set from wayy back in the Spring.. Color Club's Keep it Under Cover, which is half of their Alter Ego collection.
This set was purchased at Winners by my sister for $12.99. She also bought the Wicked Sweet set that was also in stock (more on this in a later post).

This set came with 6 colours and a top coat.

Alias

Alias is a very pretty purple duochrome that appears gold and green at different angles. I really like this colour - it's very mysterious.

On a side note, the word "alias" reminds me of Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace, which was a good read but slightly disturbing (I'd still recommend it to people though).

Alter Ego

This colour is pretty sweet too, I mean.. look at that gold and purple!

Masquerading

All of the polishes in this collection were 2-3 coaters.. and then I applied this one, which was prefect in one coat (you see two on my middle finger because I missed a spot the first time around).

Secret Agent

If I recall correctly, this was more pink based than the picture shows.

Secret Agent

You can't really see it, but the colour is more of a violet blue, with some gorgeous pink and blue shimmer.

Ulterior Motive

This one also has a similar shimmer to Secret Agent, but if you enlarge this picture you'll be able to see it.

So, what do you think?
I rather like this collection on a whole, I can't really pick out any outstanding colours.. except maybe Alias, which blew my socks off.. but they're all great in their own respective ways.

Bye for now!

-Marisa

A little something interesting

Morning everyone,

I don't have any new polish pics for you today, but I was sent this interesting (well, I think it is) video (after I posted the Deborah Lippmann post) and I would like to share with you all!



I thought this video was interesting because (aside from the fact that all of the names were from songs) I didn't know the reasoning behind it all.. and because I know whenever I pull out Across the Universe or look at it on my nails, I start humming (and occasionally singing to myself -yes, looking like a crazy lady all at the same time) it.

Anyhow, please enjoy the video, and we'll return to our normally scheduled programming soon!

-Marisa

Misa - Paradise Shore (-1)

Hi everyone!

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, my camera has been MIA and I was only able to take pictures yesterday.. so I took a boatload, enough for a few posts.

Today I have Misa's Paradise Shore collection (or most of them) to show you.

There is some pretty awesome glass fleck action going on in these!

L to R: Summer Love, Endless Keys, Under my Sunbrella, Mega Margarita, Krystal Waters

I'm only missing Mermaid Dreams, which is a dark blue.

Application was alright, Under my Sunbrella (isn't that such a cute name?) was fairly sheer and there was still VNL after 3 coats. I love the finish on these.

Overall, I like the brightness of this collection. The colours kind of remind me of the China Glaze summer collection, Summer Love especially reminds me of 108 Degrees. My favourites from this set are Mega Margarita (ooh, reminds me of that 2 for $8 margarita deal at a local Maxican restaurant) and Endless Keys (mm, juicy orange).

I'm also still waiting on my Cult Nails order, will try to post pics as soon as I get them (hopefully I will -someone else in this province had her order destroyed ><)

What are your fav summer polish picks?

tata for now,

-Marisa