Christmas Skittles!

Good morning, and happy Thursday! Today I have some Christmas nails to show you. I am super excited for Christmas this year - partly because I'm actually excited for Christmas, and a little bit because I just want to be done with the semester. It's wrapping up! I only have one final, two projects and two papers left, and I'll be done it a week. So excited. Anyway, here's my Christmas nail art skittles mani:

Thumb & ring finger: Pure Ice Kiss Me Here with two coats of Lac Attack Holidays in Hogsmeade
Index finger: Two coats of China Glaze White Cap, topped with two coats of China Glaze Snow Globe, topped with two-ish (I say this because there was some finagling involved to get enough glitter on) coats of OPI Lights of Emerald City. (Not looking forward to removing this.)
Middle finger: Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe with gold circles in Zoya Ziv.
Pinkie finger: Zoya Rekha with snow in Cult Nails Tempest

Whew! That was a long list of polishes. I started this mani not knowing exactly what I wanted to do, but I really like how it turned out. This was the first time I tried Lac Attack Holidays in Hogsmeade, despite having bought it almost a year ago - I just felt weird about wearing it in January. I really like it, though, especially the stripey large red hex glitters. So cute.

It's supposed to snow here in St. Louis today, tomorrow, and Sunday. I really hope we get some accumulation, and I might just have to do another wintry/Christmas mani to get in the mood. :) Have a great day!

Dandy Nails: Chilled Down

It's December! Wait, how did that happen? If you're like me, you've been enjoying the opportunity to wear sweaters and scarves and boots and layers, and that's only going to continue into the winter months. Fall is my favorite season, but I love winter, too, and it's time to get chilled down - so today, I'm showing off Chilled Down, a Dandy Nails polish. (See what I did there? Eh? Punny.) I used three coats here.

I actually wore this way back in August, but I can definitely see myself pulling it out again now that colder weather is here. I love how unique this polish is, and the blue and gold color scheme is definitely a plus. In some ways, it's similar to Lac Attack Beauxbatons Academy, which was the very first indie polish I showcased here on Never Unpolished. Beauxbatons Academy is still one of my favorite polishes, and I think Chilled Down may be making its way up the ranks as well.

On a slightly different note, now that it's officially December and thus (in my mind) the appropriate time to start doing Christmasy stuff, I can't wait to get started on some holiday manicures. Any suggestions?

Spring Flowers & Stripes

Hello again! I hope all of you who live in the U.S. had a nice, long weekend and a good Memorial Day - and of course, I hope everyone else had a good weekend too. :) The manicure I'm posting today is actually the last one I did before moving out of my university apartment and going home for the summer. Since I didn't have much time to do anything but study and revise papers during finals, I thought I'd take a short break to do some nail art, and this was the result.

Butter London Henley Regatta

Hello! I don't know how many of you live in the Midwest, but we're getting quite the spring blizzard right now in St. Louis. It's been snowing furiously all day, and we're supposed to get 8-10 inches. (I wrote that yesterday. We did get 8-10 inches. Or more.) I have to say, I'm beginning to get a little confused about what month it is! Anyway, today I tried my first Butter London polish, Henley Regatta. I decided to do an accent manicure, so I chose Zoya Kelly, one of my favorite grays. I used two coats of Kelly and four coats of Henley Regatta (it really only needed three, but I added an extra just because). The first picture is in my light box with artificial light, and the second is in my light box with natural light.

Grey-on-Grey Nail Art

Hello hello! I have good news, bad news, and more good news. Good news: it's almost Friday. Bad news: it's not Friday. Good news: I have some awesome nail art for you today! I started out wanting to do something like a henna pattern on my nails, but it ended up being some weird-but-cool combination of flowers, dots, and whatever random patterns I could come up with Monday night/Tuesday morning at 12:30 AM...yeah, that happened. Fortunately, all went well and I was very happy with the way this turned out! Of course, it doesn't look as good in macro because you can see all the little mistakes and imperfections, but hopefully you get the idea.

left hand

right hand

You even get to see my right hand! I'm not sure "get to" is the right phrase, though, as my right hand is a bit gross compared to my left hand since I'm (case in point: writing callus on my middle finger). For the dark grey, I used Pure Ice Kiss Me Here, and the light grey is acrylic paint. I think it's probably a good thing I did grey-on-grey, because I think if I had used multiple colors it just would've looked nuts! As it is, though, I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

Layla Flash Black

Hello again! I've made it through the first few weeks of the semester, and I think I *might* be figuring out how to both do my homework and have free time (where I'm not procrastinating)...maybe. We'll see. At any rate, at least I have time to write a couple blog posts now and then! I really miss being more active on Never Unpolished, but of course school has to come first. A few weeks ago I finally tried my bottle of Layla Hologram Effects in Flash Black - what took me so long, I have no idea. I also tried out my brand-spanking-new light box, which I got for myself with Christmas money. I really love it, but I accidentally dropped one of the lights on the floor tonight when I was taking pictures of my current manicure, so now I only have one light. Oops. Anyway, here's Flash Black:

Gorgeous, no? I'm so glad I got this while I had the chance - now I just have to get a purple holo...and a red holo...and all of the holos... ;) You can never have enough holos, right? That's what I thought. Have a great day!

Lac Attack Beauxbatons Academy

GUYS. I am so super excited about this polish. It's the first indie nail polish on Never Unpolished (I know, I'm behind the times), and it couldn't be more deserving of the title. I was so thrilled about this beauty that I went out and stood around in the damp and chill taking pictures of my nails, probably confirming my neighbors' opinion that I am strange - and I guess they wouldn't be wrong. In any case, Beauxbatons Academy is absolutely gorgeous. I used four coats, but it was definitely worth it, and it hasn't shown any signs of wear so far (I've worn it for two days as I type this). As always, you can click the pictures to enlarge them, and I strongly encourage it with this one. So pretty!

Zoya Evvie Goes to Work

Hello there! I hope you're having a good Thursday, also known as almost-Friday. Today I have Zoya Evvie, one of the beauties from the Zoya Designer NYFW collection for this fall. While it's still entirely too hot and dry out to pretend that it's fall - if you've seen news about drought in the Midwest, well, that's where I am - I still wanted to take Evvie out for a spin. I probably won't post all of the polishes from this collection individually, but while at work yesterday I started worrying that Evvie would chip before I got home to take a picture with my proper camera. As I'm sure many of you know from experience, office work can be surprisingly hard on nail polish. So, I snapped a picture with my phone while sitting at my desk.

artificial light

As you can see, Evvie is a gorgeous deep grey, and I used two, easy coats here. It's definitely a fall color, but I can also see myself wearing any time of the year - say, in the middle of the summer. But of course, between work, more work, and going home, there's that hour of the day called lunch. Yesterday I went out to a local restaurant for lunch with my mom, and naturally Evvie came with.

Mm, bahn mi! I love Vietnamese food, so I was thrilled when the owners of this cafe decided to put bahn mi on their menu full-time instead of just as a special (now I just need a local source for some good bun!). But back to the polish, I think Evvie stands out even more in this photos, probably because the light was natural and not quite so harsh as in my cubicle. I just love this polish, and I can't wait to wear it when it's actually fall outside and not a very large oven. For now, at least, I can only enjoy fall color through nail polish.

This polish was provided to me by Zoya for honest review. For more information, see my disclosure policy.

China Glaze Capitol Colours: Stone Cold

Helllooo! Today I'm reviewing Stone Cold, one of the colors I received from the China Glaze Capitol Colours collection. Stone Cold is a matte, metallic gunmetal-colored polish, and I have to say, I'm a huge fan. I wish my nails were less nubbiny so they could show off the polish more, but c'est la vie, so here are the nubbiny pictures I have:

 sunlight

indoors, natural light

Isn't she gorgeous? I'm really keen to do some kind of sponge like this...I feel like it would be a really good color to sponge. Then again, I've been on a sponging kick lately, so maybe it's just me. Anyway, to get off my tangent, let me tell you some more about Stone Cold. Not only it is an awesome color with an awesome finish, it's really easy to apply and is perfectly opaque in one coat. ONE coat, people! What can I say, I'm impressed.

The next color I have from Capitol Colours is Dress Me Up, so you'll be seeing that soon (though I hope to get a few more when they come out for sale - *cough* Riveting *cough*), though I may have a post or two in between. Also, midterms are next week, so I may have to slack off a bit on the blogging. I'm determined to get good scores on my midterms, so I'll be hitting the books hard (at least, that's what I think now). Until next time, have a good day!

Stone Cold was received by me from China Glaze for review. For more information, see my disclosure policy.

Zoya Mirrors Swatches & Review

Hello again! I am having a major freakout over here because I just found out that my local theater is in fact showing HP at midnight, so I'm trying to figure out whether or not there are still tickets and whether or not I can go. I tell you this because I may be a little fragmented in this post due to my freaking out. Anyway, Mirrors is the non-creme half of Zoya Smoke & Mirrors. I say non-creme because not all the polishes have the same finish.

 outdoors, sunlight

outdoors, shade

First, we have Nimue, a "smoky rich thistle metallic." A purple-grey frost, Nimue isn't the sort of polish I would tend to pick out on my own - I'm not a huge fan of frosts, and brushstrokes tend to make my stomach curl up. However, I do quite like the base color and brushstrokes are minimal, so I can definitely see myself using this as a base for layering, if perhaps not on its own. Nimue was opaque in two coats.

 outdoors, sunlight

outdoors, shade

Marina, the second color in Mirrors, is a "smoky steel blue metallic" that, again, is more of a frost than a metallic in my opinion. I like this one a bit better than Nimue, partly because its brushstrokes are even less visible. However, the color is not something that particularly stuns me, though that's just personal preference. I used two coats.

outdoors, sunlight

outdoors, shade

Tao, a "smoky slate gray metallic," is the last of the frosty Mirrors polishes, and my favorite out of the three. It's opaque in two coats, I can see myself wearing on its own, and I do like a good gunmetal grey. It could be just me, but I think Tao has a bit of a green tint in real life, though it doesn't show up in my pictures. However, I still think I would like the first half of Mirrors infinitely more if they were in the same sort of finish as Yara and Neeka.

 outdoors, sunlight

outdoors, shade

Oh. My. Goodness. Yara is so effing gorgeous! Zoya calls Yara a "sparkly olive green metallic," but that doesn't really capture how amazing this polish is. I adore this finish, which reminds me of Rescue Beauty Lounge Catherine H, I love olive green, and I love gold glass flecks. Put it all together, and you have one amazing polish that's opaque in two coats, though it barely needs the second. I wouldn't be at all surprised if I wear this roughly two zillion times this fall.

outdoors, sunlight

outdoors, shade

My pictures do not do Neeka, a "sparkly amethyst purple  metallic," any sort of justice. It's a grurple (what an unattractive adjective) with gold and silver glass flecks, though it's more purple than grey, as well as more purple than it looks in my photos. I used two coats, but only to cover up one bald spot on one nail - otherwise, it would've been fine with one. I'm sure you could use one thick coat and be perfectly fine. 

 outdoors, sunlight

outdoors, shade

Like those of Neeka, my pictures of Jem don't quite do the polish justice. A "sparkly fandango pink metallic," Jem looks like a burgundy/gold duochrome in the bottle, but is just a burgundy shimmer with some gold shimmer thrown in (though it's not as obvious as in Zoya Zara) on the nail. It's still a very pretty color, but I do feel slightly disappointed. On the bright side, it's opaque in one coat! Also, my apologies...as you can probably tell, I forgot to do cleanup on this one, and I didn't feel like reswatching it. Oops.

So, that's the end of Zoya Smoke & Mirrors! To recap, my favorite out of both collections are Jana, Dree, Yara, and Neeka, and my overall favorite is definitely Yara. What do you think? Will you be buying any of these?

These samples were provided to me by the PR company for review. However, this will never influence what I say in a review. For more information, see my disclosure policy.

Skull Capped

For my last grey day of the month, I used OPI Skull & Glossbones topped with China Glaze White Cap, hence the dreadful cheesy title. I really like White Cap over pale greys in general, but I think this combination is especially lovely due to the slightly "dirty" quality of Skull & Glossbones. I used two coats of Skull & Glossbones and one of White Cap. Sorry for the lack of cleanup.

Over 500 people a day are diagnosed with a primary or metastatic brain tumor in the United States. - National Brain Tumor Society

indoors, artificial light

I don't have much else to say today, partly because I'm sleepy and partly because I feel a bit ill. Thanks for sticking with me through all my grey posts for National Brain Tumor Awareness Month!

Grey-Blue Gradient

Happy Memorial Day! If you're American, be sure to take today as an opportunity both to honor the courage of those who serve in our military...and to eat some great food. :) If you're not American, then happy Monday! Today I have my next-to-last National Brain Tumor Awareness Month grey mani, and my next-to-last fact: "As many as 69% of children with brain tumors will survive, but they are often left with long-term side effects." - Miles For Hope My mani for today is, as I'm sure you deduced from the title, another gradient. This time, I used OPI Skull & Glossbones for the grey, American Apparel Peacock for the blue, and different mixes of the two for the colors in between. I finished it off with a coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri for the top coat.

indoors, artificial light

I took pictures of my right hand this time because I thought it looked better than my left, and I am incapable of holding a nail polish bottle in an appropriate picture-taking pose with my right hand, so you just get those three fingers today. Later in my mani's lifespan, as I often do, I added some crackle - in this case, I used Sally Hansen Fracture Foil.

indoors, artificial light

It looked much cooler in real life, I assure you, but my camera was so distracted by the shininess of the silver that it didn't do such a great job at picking up on everything else. I imagine gold, white or black crackle would also look very cool over this. Until tomorrow!

Kelly Cracked

Poor Kelly...it was just too much to handle. She couldn't help it - she cracked.

I'm not talking about a person, of course, but Zoya Kelly, a cool dark grey that is not only gorgeous, but a dream to apply in two coats. I couldn't resist seeing how Kelly's cool blue tones would contrast with Sally Hansen Antiqued Gold, so here we are. But first, a fact! (I feel like an infomercial sometimes...) "The cure rate for most brain tumors is significantly lower than that for many other types of cancer." - Miles For Hope And now, the manicure:

indoors, artificial light

I'm definitely a fan of this combination. The gold really pops against the dark grey, and since I applied Antiqued Gold over a slightly tacky layer of polish, it cracked much better than when I tried it over Skull & Glossbones - I may have to revisit that combination at some point. What do you think? Is there hope for Kelly, now that she's gone round the bend? ;P

OPI Skull & Glossbones

National Brain Tumor Awareness Month fact: Brain tumor symptoms often mimic other diseases, often making them difficult to diagnose.  - American Brain Tumor Association

I promise this IS a grey, but it pulls green on me when it's on its own. It's a very pretty color, though, and one of the two colors I knew I absolutely had to get from the OPI Pirates of the Caribbean collection, the other being Stranger Tides. I clearly have a thing for weird colors; what can I say? I found the formula of Skull & Glossbones (which is kind of a stupid name, in my opinion, but that's what I've come to expect from OPI) to be excellent: it required two coats for me, but it went on wonderfully and dried fairly quickly as well. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to take pictures until after one nail had already chipped - the day I wore it, I did a lot of cooking and made homemade lemonade (the work-intensive kind where you cook the syrup and stuff), and I didn't have a chance to take a picture until afterward. Fortunately, there was only one small chip, so I didn't feel obliged to re-polish that nail for the picture.

indoors, artificial light

Even though I was about to take it off due to the chip, I couldn't resist playing around with Skull & Glossbones. I'd found the Sally Hansen crackles at Walgreens the day before, and I got Cherry Smash, Distressed Denim, Antiqued Gold, and Fractured Foil. I was eager to see how well the metallics would crackle, so I went ahead and put a coat of Antiqued Gold on over Skull & Glossbones.

indoors, artificial light

I do like the effect of this, but it didn't crack much - I discovered later that it cracks better if you put it on over polish that's still a bit tacky. I'll have another grey with gold crackle on top for you Saturday (since tomorrow's grey-free Friday), and I like that combination much better. Care to guess what it is?

Pink Wednesday: Pink and Grey Crackle, Part 2

Earlier this month (May 4, to be exact), I did a pink and grey crackle mani for Pink Wednesday/National Brain Tumor Awareness Month. And that's the last Pink Wednesday I did. *hangs head in shame* However, Pink Wednesdays are officially back with this combination - OPI Skull & Glossbones (which I will show on its own tomorrow...I intended to today, but took an unexpected day trip instead) and China Glaze Broken Hearted. (I actually didn't intend to do a crackle mani, but more on that in a minute.) But first, a brain tumor fact: "A “benign” brain tumor can be life-threatening because of its location or behavior." - North America Brain Tumor Coalition This is something that some people don't realize - even if a tumor isn't malignant, it can still be very dangerous.

indoors, artificial light

Me like! You like? ;P I've always had trouble getting the China Glaze crackles to even out, regardless of what top coat I used, but I finally got this mani to lay flat by using two coats of Wet n Wild Clear and then one coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri.

So, I said I didn't intend to do a crackle mani. And I didn't. This was supposed to be a dotty pirate Pink Wednesday - that is, I intended to do a dotting manicure with OPI Steady as She Rose on top of OPI Skull & Glossbones. And I did. And then I realized that the two colors were so close together that I could barely see the dots when I stretched my hand out an arm's length from my face. So, I just added the crackle on top. You can probably see some of the Steady as She Rose dots, but only if you're really, really looking for them. I guess that's all for today...until tomorrow! 

Franken: Before the Rainbow

"Children’s brain tumors require specific research and different treatments." - Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation

Very quick post today - I thought I'd get this up before now, but I was busy all day either cooking or getting ready to cook. Before the Rainbow is a franken I made a while back using Zoya Kelly, Love My Nails Angel Baby (the glitter), and some other polishes that I didn't write down and don't remember. I haven't worn it till now for some reason, and I really like the way it looks on the nail. This was three coats.

indoors, artificial light

What do you think? Like I said, short post. :) Good night!

My Musical Manicure

Yay, alliteration! Anyway, today's brain tumor fact is: "Pituitary tumors represent 13% of all primary brain tumors." - American Brain Tumor Association My grey manicure to go with that fact is the one I did for my final choir concert this past Sunday. I actually didn't get the manicure done until Sunday evening, but I'm glad I did it anyway. I used Dr.'s Remedy Healing Heather Grey for a base, drew the music notes with a black Sharpie pen, did one coat of Wet n Wild Clear (because it smears the Sharpie much less than Seche Vite), and finished it off with Seche Vite.

 indoors, artificial light (left hand)

indoors, artificial light (right hand)

Even though the Sharpie smeared some and the clear top coat faded it a little for some reason, I'm still very happy with this manicure - you couldn't see most of the imperfections from a distance, anyway, and the result is much better than what it would have been if I'd tried to do this with actual nail polish. If you have any questions as to what any of the musical symbols are, please leave them in the comments and I'd be happy to answer.

On a different topic, tonight is FINALLY my high school graduation! I'm going to miss choir, a few friends, and a few teachers, but all in all I am beyond ready to get the heck out of Dodge. In accordance, I did my nails for graduation, and you'll be seeing that manicure tomorrow on grey-free Friday. Maybe now that school's completely done with I can get back to posting on a regular schedule! And with that, I really ought to go take a shower...

Cracked Jade

Sorry to have disappeared on you all like that. For the past couple weeks, my life has pretty much consisted of sitting and doing nothing while I'm at school, and running around like a chicken with my head cut off when I'm not in school trying to do everything that needs done. Therefore, I haven't had any time for blogging or for reading blogs. I'm not sure when this state of being will end, but I do have time for a blog post today, fortunately. Here's my brain tumor fact for the day: "More knowledge about brain tumors has been gained in the last ten years than in the past hundred years." - American Brain Tumor Association

 indoors, artificial light

 outdoors, sunlight

outdoors, shade

To create this manicure, I used OPI Jade is the New Black, China Glaze White Cap, and China Glaze Cracked Concrete, all topped with a coat of Seche Vite. I guess that's about all I have to say about this...I liked it, but not as much as I hoped to, and I didn't wear it for long. Now, hopefully it won't be a week until my next blog post!

P.S. I graduate next Thursday. :)

Birthday Cement

An estimated 64,530 new cases of primary brain tumors are expected to be diagnosed in 2011. - American Brain Tumor Association 

Yeah, I come up with the most clever titles... *rolls eyes* Sorry, I just couldn't think of anything else to call this post. Anyway, this is going to be a short one, because it's almost tomorrow and I need to paint my nails so I can go to bed (really, I just need to go to bed, but I'm not going with naked nails!). This is the mani I wore yesterday and today, and which prompted my nephrologist (I had an appointment yesterday) to say, "I like your nails. They're shiny." :D I love my doctors. Anyway, here it is:

indoors, artificial light

Like it? I did a glitter gradient with Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday over a base of Sally Hansen Wet Cement, then added a coat of Essie Matte About You. That's all for today...I said it was going to be short! I'

Don't forget, you have 50 minutes left to enter my giveaway! (And I have 50 minutes left of being 17! Woohoo!)

Pink and Grey Crackle

Only two new treatments for brain tumors have been approved in the past 25 years. - North American Brain Tumor Coalition


Today I have a combination of a Pink Wednesday manicure and a grey National Brain Tumor Awareness month manicure. I used one of my favorite pinks, Color Club Yachty, Yachty, Yadda, and I topped it with China Glaze Cracked Concrete. Sorry for the shoddy cleanup - I always think I've gotten everything, and then I take the pictures...and I haven't. Whoops.

indoors, artificial light

I hope you don't mind crackle two days in a row, because I couldn't seem to come up with anything else that appealed to me. Don't worry, though, tomorrow will be something else (and I'll give you a hint...it's related to what's happening Friday)!

In other news (and if you don't want to hear about my personal life, stop now), my kidney stone is gone! Well, it's in a zippy bag on its way to the urologist...but it's out of my body! I am so thrilled - this is the best early birthday present ever. :) Have a great day!