Spotted! Zoya Zenith collection released today!

Let me make something clear.

I. LOVE. ZOYA. NAIL POLISH.

I can't say it any more clearly than that. I have yet to try a Zoya polish that I completely disliked. I will be honest, as I always am when reviewing, there have  been a few that I was not completely pleased with, but I did not dislike them to the point that I refused to continue using them, or regretted purchasing them.

I am SO excited to announce that the Zoya Zenith 2013 collection has just gone live!!!

Zoya Zenith Collection 2013 <<< Link to the whole collection here!

Now if you follow me on Twitter (which you really should, we'll have a lot of fun plus you get updates on great deals! Follow me on Twitter by clicking here!) you would already know that today Zoya had two great deals! Right now the only one that is still live is if you purchase any 3, or more, Zenith polishes you get free shipping (usually $6.50+), just put in code: ZENITH at checkout.

HUZZAH!

I don't know what has been going on with blogger, but for more than a week I have been unable to post! Now it seems like it is finally working again and I will be back on track!

Sinful Colors Blue by You vs. ORLY Royal Navy comparison and video

As I sit here writing this blog post I am reminded why I want my own stretch of land far, far away from anyone else. Today is a perfectly lovely day, nice breeze blowing and some clouds. Oh yeah, and then there is my neighbor across the street with the doors on his beat up jeep wide open, blaring "music" so dang loud that my walls and windows are rattling.

I am going to repeat that just so there is no confusion: the walls and windows of my house, are RATTLING. Because some inconsiderate window licking douche nozzle has decided it is ok to flood the world with "musical" noxious clouds of obscenities and misogynistic hate.

Anyway, this ex-con isn't going to change any time soon; this is NOT the first time this has happened. I'll just have to hope his meth lab gets discovered... or blows up. He's woken me up so many times now that I'll take either one. #sarcasm (kind of...)

ANYWHO!

I have another video up! Yay! Click here for a direct link! 

This video is comparing Sinful Colors Blue By You to ORLY Royal Navy. Sometimes I will look at colors in my collection and think "I already have you... why do I have more than one of you in different brands?!" The answer is because I am a nail polish addict. 

I am CEO, Queen and Grand Royal Empress of La Lacquer League.

That doesn't mean that Her Royal Highness doesn't like a good deal! And I KNOW I can't be the only one! So I am going to be swatching different colors in my collection side by side to see if they really are dups for each other. Just because they look the same in the bottle doesn't mean that they actually are. We are all familiar with finding a polish that is BEAUTIFUL in the bottle and suddenly an evil stepsister when it gets on your nail. 

I also don't believe that being the same color in the end constitutes a dupe. At least not in my book. The end result might be similar, or exactly the same, but what if the higher end polish only required 1-2 coats while the lower end polish required 4-5. Personally, that is a big enough gap that I would still purchase the higher end product. We all know how long it takes for 4+ coats of polish to dry!

That is why I am not just going to show you final results but actually record videos of the application process. You can see exactly how it applies and then judge the final result for yourself. 

 Left: Sinful Colors Blue by You, Right: ORLY Royal Navy

 I truly had to try very hard to get this picture. The ORLY polish IS darker than the Sinful Colors polish, but it is by such a small amount that it is hardly noticeable. The Sinful Colors polish is not a perfect dupe for the ORLY polish, however, I feel that it is close enough.

 
Based on the price, application, color and finish, I suggest the Sinful Colors polish. The ORLY polish is so much more expensive and I did not feel like it truly delivered something that was worth the increase in price. Unless you are truly on a journey of collecting polish, you will be just fine with only one of these in your stash.

You can always check out my nail polish collection on google docs here: My nail polish collection

If you see any polishes in particular that you would like me to swatch, review or compare just let me know!

 

Spotted! New Finger Paints Vintage Glam collection at Sally's

Spotted! New Sinful Colors Geltech display at Walgreens

This is the old display below

Spotted! Two new Sally Hansen Displays at Walgreens: Rent the Runway

Spotted! Revlon Art Major Matte duo at CVS

This is definitely Revlon's try at duping Ciate's chalkboard nails Which can be found here

Spotted! New China Glaze Monster Ball Halloween collection at Ulta

Spotted! New Kiss Halloween collection at Walgreens!

ORLY Matte FX Flakie Polish Application/Swatch review on Youtube

I can't be the only person who has an obsession with flakie polishes. I would say it started with Zoya Fleck Effect and snowballed from there. Actually my first Zoya polishes were when Zoya was having a huge sale on 3 bottles for $10.00, no shipping. I went bananas! Now Zoya and I are good friends haha

So when I stopped by Sally's and saw that there was a new display for a matte collection and it included two flakie polishes, I just about squealed.

 As you can see there are 4 polishes in this collection, with the two on the right being the flakie polishes. There is also  a slot for ORLY's matte top coat if you just want to grab that for over any of your polishes.

 Here are the two beauties I snagged up! The one on the right is called Green Flakie Topcoat and the one on the right is Pink Flakie Topcoat. I'm not going to say that I buy polishes for the names, but... Come ON ORLY! Such a big nail polish brand, amazing polishes and absolutely NO imagination or attention put into the polish names? Pretty disappointing. Plus, "Green Flakie" is really stretching things. Even in the bottle it looks blue.


Here are the polishes swatched on a nail wheel over two coats of Wet n' Wild black. Green Flakie is on the left, pink flakie is on the right.

If you would like to see a video of the application, as well as the polish in different light settings, check out my newest youtube video: Click here for a direct link to the video or click on the embedded video below.

Lacquer from the League! Apple Store and Lush Cosmetics Store featuring Pure Ice Mani's

Isn't it frustrating when your electronics refuse to charge?  Well on Friday night my iPod touch decided to reject the lightning cable and just would not charge. So I quickly set up an appointment at the Apple store and was on my way Saturday morning. 

The charging problem was a quick fix, I just needed a new cable. Since it was still under warranty I was able to get a new one without having to pay. Which was my excuse to go over to Lush haha

While I was at the Apple store the gal who helped me out had this gorgeous mani! She said that it is Revlon - Rain Forest with Pure Ice - Heart Breaker layered on top. I have briefly mentioned Heart Breaker in another post because it is truly an amazing polish that I think everyone should have in their collection. I will be doing a review on polishes that are great for layering and Heart Breaker will for sure be included!

So I have to say thank you to the lovely young lady who let me take this picture! Also, thank you for sharing with me I Love Nail Polish's new Chrome line! I came straight home and ordered it!

Just look at how BEAUTIFUL this polish is! It's name is Cyngus Loop and I can't wait to get this line and try it out! Credit for this photo is directly from I Love Nail Polish's Etsy shop and can be found here: Awesome Indi Polishes from I Love Nail Polish there are several other polishes in this line, but Cyngus Loop is definitely one of my favorites!

So, like I said, since I did not get charged for a new cable I figured that I wouldn't be doing to much harm if I went over to Lush. Oh boy. Why do  I lie to myself!? For those of you who don't know what Lush is, it is a store full of heavenly goodness! Seriously, just walking into this place is like a hug from Jesus/(insert your preferred deity here)!

This picture is just a quick clip of a counter in the store. Lush specializes in handmade bath, hair, body, face and hand products that are much fresher than what you would find in stores. Notice that I say FRESHER. As in more fresh but not 100% fresh. Some products do contain artificial dyes, sulfates and parabens.

Directly from the Lush site there is this quote:
           "We use less than half the maximum permitted level to ensure the product is as mild as        possible.The parabens are still the safest and mildest we can find."

source: https://www.lush.co.uk/ingredient/detail/id/452/name/Methylparaben

Now I am not bashing Lush AT ALL. Compared to the things in stores, short of just going out and rubbing roots in my hair and on my face, this is as natural as its going to get. However, I do believe that people should know exactly what they are using, and sometimes companies can be a bit deceptive in regards to how they present their products.

Overall though, I love Lush. I have found a new love for baths because of their bubble bars. Jungle conditioner is the only thing that my super curly hair responds to, and R&B tames my wild locks and gives such a beautiful shine while defining the curls and still manages to keep my hair soft!

Plus, I JUST found out that if something really does not work for you, it can be returned for store credit! How in the world did I just find this out!?! This alone makes me happier to shop at Lush because I don't feel like I am wasting my money if something doesn't work. I did rush home to grab Curly Wurly (a shampoo specifically for curly hair) and Cynthia Sylvia Stout (a shampoo made with beer for added shine and volume), and was able to purchase several other products with the store credit and a little extra out of pocket. I will be doing a haul video soon on what I got, as well as covering why Curly Wurly and Cynthia Sylvia Stout did not work for me. 


To top it all of there was a really sweet girl working at Lush, a sassy red head from Cuba who was just the nicest person! On top of being super knowledgeable on every product in the store, she also had this beautiful zazzy polish on!

She couldn't remember the name exactly, but she did know that the brand was Pure Ice. Two great Pure Ice mani's in one day? I call that a good day!

Swatch + Application video of Salon Perfect 901 Kaboom

Price: $3.98

Product Amount: 0.5FL OZ 14ml

Can be bought at: Walmart

Lowest Price Found:  Walmart

Layered Over: None

Coats: 5.5

Similar To: None that I can say for sure right off the top of my head. I do know that it reminds me of some indi polishes I saw on Etsy a while back, but I can't remember the name exactly. Overall I haven't seen any other main stream brands do this. 

In some ways it does remind me of feather polishes. However, the particles in this polish are all round, rather than long, thin rectangles.

This was such a fun manicure! I got a lot of compliments on it as well as people asking how I had done it. Imagine their shock when I said it was only one polish! 

Now the only thing is that in order to get it to full opacity, like it is shown here, I did have to use about 5.5 coats, plus base and top coat. The particles are suspended in a clear base so it takes patients to build it up.

Of course this could be used as a layering polish as well. The first 2 coats were certainly thin and sparse enough to be able to still see a base color. Now there are a few things to note when using this polish:
 

Having to use so many coats isn't my main concern. I am not overly concerned about the world supply of nail polish, or even my own for that matter, but this polish SNAGS ON EVERYTHING. If you watch the video (link down below), I mention that the polish settled right before my free edge,so I had to seal my free edge even more than usual. Well the polish dries to a matte, textured finish, and that texture was really obnoxious on my free edge. 

I have never had any textured polish give me problems with snagging. OPI Liquid Sand, Sally Hansen Sugar Nails and Zoya PixiDust are just a few of the textured polishes that I have used that have never given me any problems with snagging, and I don't use them with a top coat! I did use a top coat on Kaboom and yet it still snagged horribly. I ended up lightly filing the tips, but this doesn't just fix the snagging issue, it can also decrease the life of your manicure because you are breaking the seal between the polish and you nail. So I prefer not to have to file the edges of my manicure.

I really suggest watching my application video (for a direct link click HERE), or just click the play button below, so that you can have an idea as to how it applies.

Ulta 21 Days of Beauty!!!!

It's here! It's here! It's finally here! Shout it to the winds and rejoice!

It is officially the start of Ulta's 21 Days of Beauty!

For those who don't know how this works, from September 8th - September 28th, Ulta puts something on sale or has a great BOGO deal each day.

Here's the catch: The deal is only good for that ONE DAY. So snag it if you want it!

Some days and deals are great, while others really fall flat. On day 13 (9/20) the deal is half off Urban Decay's Vintage Grindhouse Double Barrel Sharpener. It is $5.00, originally $10.00. Personally I think that is still ridiculous for a sharpener, but to each their own.

Now on to what us Lacquer Heads really want! What kind of specials are going on at Ulta that are worth grabbing?

Well first mark your calenders for Day 7 (September 14) because Butter London polish goes on sale for $10. 

 

 As far as the actual 21 day event, this is all us Nail Polish lovers have to work with. Take to the Twittersphere and the blogosphere! Write your congressmen/women! We will make them hear our voices! United we are strong, divided we fall! Or you can just settle for some of the other special deals on polish going on right now. Ya know, in between letters to your congressmen. 

So first we have Ulta brand nail polish on sale for $2.00. I believe they are originally around $6.00 so this is a pretty good deal!

Sally Hansen is also getting in on the action with discounts on the Salon Perfect ($9.00 down to $5.99) line. Nail strips and gel strips are also on sale.

Next we have a free Deborah Lippmann polish (full sized in the color "Love is a Battlefield")  when you spend $25 on any Deborah Lippmann purchase. 

• NOTE: This is IN STORE ONLY be sure to call ahead because not every Ulta carries Deborah Lippmann! If you do call, make sure to get the name of the person you speak with. I have had several problems with Ulta employees telling me something was in, when it is not.

Next is the one that I am REALLY excited for! Zoya is offering a free gift with the purchase of any 3 Zoya polishes! The free gift is a sample  of their Zoya Nail treatment set. On Zoya's website it is called the "Zoya Minicure Gift Set" and is priced at $20.00 plus shipping: Click here to take a look on Zoya's website. So this is an AMAZING deal! Especially for those of us (MEMEMEMEMEME) who were going to purchase some of the new fall collection shades anyway.

From what I can see on Zoya's website, the minicure comes with a small bottle of Zoya nail polish remover, Anchor base coat, Armour top coat, and fast dry drops.

 Spotted! New Zoya PixiDust and Cashmeres & Satins displays at Ulta!

Now before I continue I have to share that I was actually going to get this today. When I found out about it I was beyond excited! I picked up the phone right away and called Ulta asking if the deal was live (because I know some of them don't start until later) and if they had the free gift in stock (because, once again, sometimes they don't come in on time). The girl I spoke to assured me YES on both accounts and so I dropped everything and rushed over to Ulta.

I do not live close by Ulta, and in fact I have had so many bad experiences with the in store Ulta (there is only one in my area) that I generally shop exclusively online, or I wait until I go visit my dad and go to the Ulta over there and get everything I need.

Well sure enough I get to the Ulta and they inform me that they do not have the free gift. I ended up speaking to a manager, who was very nice and really was trying to help, but the honest truth is that the only reason I was there was because of the free gift with the purchase.  This Zoya one specifically. I was pretty frustrated because, like I said it was the only reason I went and I DO NOT live close by the Ulta at all. Plus I had called ahead of time! I have worked in retail and I was just always taught that unless you have the item in your hand, you NEVER tell a customer that it is in. Even if you saw it 5 minutes ago, you go get it and make sure. This wasn't the case here. Apparently they just didn't get them in and they had even had a meeting about it earlier that morning.

Anyway, the manager offered to give me one of the other free gifts with my purchase of 3 Zoya's but, like I said, that wasn't why I was there. In fact, at this Ulta store this has happened SEVERAL times in the past. This is why I try and avoid it at all costs. Anyway, I did call customer service and let them know what happened, because this has happened in the past. I stressed that the manager did try and help and that my frustration was not in the product not being there, because I understand that that happens, but rather with the fact that I specifically asked if it was in and was told yes. If when I called the girl had said that they did not currently have it, I would have said "Ok, thank you! I'll check back in a few days." Instead of wasting my time and gas. Anyway, they said someone should contact me within 24-48 hours. I'll let you know what happens.


Ok moving on! The next two things that were put in this months ad were OPI and Essie. No sales or free gifts, just looks at their new collections.

There are some pretty good deals and awesome colors coming out! I am sure that many of us cannot wait to get our hands on some of it! If this isn't enough for you there is one more deal that you might want to check out.

China Glaze, ORLY and Piggy Polish are all doing a Buy 2 get 1 free deal right now. This was NOT in the ad, I saw it when I went into the store and I don't believe it is going to last that much longer.

And last but not least, lets not forget that Ulta has a coupon for $3.50 off any purchase of $10.00 or more! It's not a huge amount, but it is something!

What deals are you looking forward to in this 21 Days of Beauty? Anything specific you are holding out for to splurge on?

Best way to remove ANY nail polish! Nail polish remover pods

I am so excited to be able to say that my first youtube video is up! I thought it would be appropriate to do an accompanying post. If you want to see the video itself it can be found here:Nail Polish Remover Pods Review

Please take a look and let me know what you think! If you find it helpful be sure to like and subscribe :)

The video is reviewing and showing how to use Nail Polish Remover Pods. I have found them to be the best way to take off nail polish, gel polish, ASP Light less Gel/ Resin, and I thought other people might like to know about them.

All you do is put your nail polish remover into the pod, and put your finger into the top of the pod. Here are my suggestions to make things easier:

1. Do one hand at a time! You get 10 in a pack but they are not air tight. You can move around a little bit, but for the most part you just have to wait. 
2. Designate one or two pods for your thumbs and one or two for your pinky. The pink part will get stretched out, so marking off the ones for your biggest and smallest fingers will keep them from leaking as much as possible. 
3. Have a spare towel or napkin handy and keep your hand over it. This way if there are any leaks or spills it is not a big deal.
4. Put Vasaline, lotion or cuticle oil around your finger. This will keep the polish from making your skin dry. 

 

As you can see from these pictures you do look like an alien for a little bit, but it is so worth it! The polish comes off so easily and just settles to the bottom. In this case it looks like fairy dust! So pretty!

Let me know what you think and what other reviews and comparisons you would like to see.