China Glaze Capitol Colours: Riveting

Hello again! Today I have the color I wore to go see The Hunger Games movie Friday night, China Glaze Riveting. I was going to do some kind of nail art on top, but Riveting was so gorgeous on its own that I couldn't think of anything that would improve it. I actually used one coat of Riveting over one coat of OPI A Good Man-darin is Hard to Find, but it came out looking like the bottle color anyway.

 natural light

natural light

Isn't it gorgeous? I wish my nails were just a little longer so Riveting could be shown off best, but c'est la vie. Unfortunately, my nails are now very chipped after playing lap tag last night (Google it - best game ever), so I'll be changing my mani soon. I'm thinking something light and springy...

Revlon Whimsical

Hello there! I hope the weather is as nice wherever you are as it is here in St. Louis. Now if only it could just stay in the low- to mid-70s for the rest of the spring and summer, that would be just fine with me! I really don't like the heat, but I suppose it's at least a good opportunity to wear shorts and cute skirts and dresses, right? Anyway, the polish I'm showing you today is one I'm sure you've all seen before: Revlon Whimsical, a.k.a. a dupe for Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air.

natural light

natural light

I have to say, this is not a polish to get if you're one of those who doesn't like to use more than two coats unless you're prepared to layer. I'm not absolutely sure, as I wore this in early March, but if my memory serves me correctly, this was five coats. I probably would've been better off to layer Whimsical over a light blue, but I didn't have any that were pale enough - Sally Hansen Blue Away is the lightest blue I have, and I wanted the base color of my mani to be the actual base color of Whimsical. However, I must say that I think all those coats paid off. I really liked how the glitter was sort of embedded in the jelly, and I think Revlon did a pretty good job naming Whimsical (though I think Glitter in the Air is cleverer, but I'm not willing to pay that much for a cuter name). It's kind of a sweet look, which isn't always what I go for, but it's definitely a polish I'm glad to have in my collection.

What do you think about Whimsical - do you like it, do you prefer GitA, or are you passing them up entirely?

Teal and Purple Ruffian

Hi! It's been a while...I didn't realize until I thought "Oh, I should probably do a post" and logged on to Blogger that it'd been a week and a half since my last non-PR post. Whoops. I guess I wasn't too motivated to do anything but read and see friends over spring break, which I suppose is understandable. Anyway, today I have my first attempt at a ruffian manicure. I used Orly Purple Pleather and and Viridian Vinyl. I wore Purple Pleather on its own for a couple days, then added Viridian Vinyl and top coat. Unfortunately, I broke my ring nail fairly badly right before I was going to take pictures, so I decided to leave it be and cut it after I took the pictures so you could get a better idea of what it looked like originally.

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I was pretty happy with how I did, especially considering I did the ruffian part of the manicure in an Arby's on my way back to college. Yeah...it happened. I'm also definitely excited to do more ruffian manicures, perhaps including some spring-themed ones, since it is now officially spring. I'm also interested in adding other nail art to ruffians - have any of you experimented with that? I'm not sure if it would look good or be a nail fail, though I suppose it would depend on what design I did. Anyway, happy spring!

Zoya Beach & Surf PR

New nail color - coming soon to a salon near you and Zoya.com!

Summer 2012 is going to be a super stylish season for nails with the latest offering of nail polish collections, Beach and Surf, from the new color of fashion, Zoya! This new splash of color, designed by the Zoya color experts, is kissed by sea and sand translating beautifully onto the nail in the famous, full-coverage Zoya formula.

Dive into the creamy shades of the Zoya Beach Collection or the shimmering sea foils of the Zoya Surf Collection. The choice is yours – this color palette is sure to be a splash!

Zoya BEACH Collection

• Reagan (ZP614) - deep cerise pink cream
• Lara (ZP615) - vivid cerise pink cream
• Shelby (ZP616) - soft pinky pink cream
• Arizona (ZP617) - soft coral orange cream
• Tracie (ZP618) - sea grass metallic
• Wednesday (ZP619) - soft aqua cream

Zoya SURF Collection

• Rory (ZP620) - lotus pink foil metallic
• Carly (ZP621) - thalia purple foil metallic
• Kimber (ZP622) - magenta pink foil metallic
• Myrta (ZP623) - coral orange foil metallic
• Meg (ZP624) - mermaid green foil metallic
• Zuza (ZP625) - aquamarine foil metallic

Zoya is the new color of fashion... 

The Zoya BEACH and SURF collection was designed and inspired by resort runways and tropical get-a-ways.

Ultra long-wearing, glossy nail lacquers by Zoya are free of harmful industrial chemicals like toluene, camphor, formaldehyde, resin, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) that are known to cause cancer and birth defects.

Find Zoya BEACH and SURF as well as over 300 other ultra high-fashion Zoya shades at www.zoya.com. As always, each and every Zoya color is made for women so we name them after women.

BEACH and SURF by Zoya Nail Polish - 12 new colors:
Available April 1, 2012 (USA)

Sponging with Skylar

Good morning! I took my last midterm this morning, and I think they all went pretty well, so now I'm ready for spring break! Unfortunately, that means I have to pack first, but...I'll do that later. Today I have a manicure from early February. I did this after I wore Zoya Skylar, a gorgeous blue that I didn't want to take off when I started getting tipwear. The solution? Sponging. I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Bronze Ablaze, Orly Luxe, and a regular kitchen sponge that I keep specifically for nail art.

sunlight

indoors, natural light

I was really happy with this - I think it looked particularly nice because of the depth I got from using two colors that are sort of different tints of the same color. I'm not sure if that makes any sense the way I worded it, but to clarify, I think you'd get a similar effect using, say, a dark purple and a light purple over another color. Plus, the great thing about sponging is that it looks fabulous, is very easy, and can be used as a mani refresher for when you don't have time (or the heart) to redo your whole manicure. I'm also thinking that I should try using sponging as a base for some other nail art, but I'm not sure what I'll do yet...like I said, though, it's spring break now, so I'll have plenty of time to think about it!

Mustachioed

Hey there! Look, it's only been two days since my last post, even though it's midterm - wait, let's not talk about the fact that it's midterm week. *ahem* Moving on...during The Week That Shall Not Be Named (am I the only one who thinks midterms are worse than finals?), sometimes one needs a little something to cheer oneself up. I did this manicure a couple weeks ago, but I'm posting it now because I think it's just about time for something a little silly. And what might that be? Mustachioed nails, of course.

indoors, natural light

There - I told you it was silly. And before anyone asks, yes, I did wear this out in public, and yes, people did comment on it, and no, no one told me I was bonkers. I have to say, I did mess up the pinkie a bit, but it certainly didn't detract from the fun I had wearing it, and other than that, I think it turned out quite well. You see, facial hair is not just for the face! Um. Yeah. I just said that. It's possible that it miiight be a little past midnight while I'm writing this and maaaybe I should be studying for my international studies exam tomorrow and maaaybe I'm just a little tired and it's making me slightly nuts...so. Yup. *whistles* Au revoir! 

Deep Sea Flakies

Happy Saturday! I'm writing this on Thursday, but by the time this is posted, hopefully we'll all be having a great weekend. I did this manicure about a month ago and am just now getting around to posting it. At the time, I was going through one of those phases where you wear the same sort of polish for about five manicures, and at the time, I was in a dark polish phase. One of the manicures I wore during that phase was Essence Just Rock It layered with one coat each of FingerPaints Flecked and FingerPaints Motley. This was one of the first manicures I did with Flecked and Motley, and I have to say, I think it turned out quite well.

 indoors, artificial light

China Glaze Capitol Colours: Dress Me Up

Hello again! Today I have the second color I received from China Glaze Capitol Colours, Dress Me Up, which is described by China Glaze as "a stripped down dark rose pink creme." To be honest, I didn't think this would suit me when I saw it in the bottle. I thought it was kind of a "meh" color, and I was far more excited about some of the other colors in the collection. Now? I've changed my mind. While it's not the most amazing awesome unbelievable color in existence, Dress Me Up is quite the classy neutral.

 indoors, natural light