How to Keep Up with Never Unpolished

Happy Friday! I thought I'd do a quick post on ways you can keep up with Never Unpolished after the demise of Google Reader and Google Friend Connect (GFC), both of which will happen this summer. I have to confess I'm not too terribly sorry to see GFC go, as I never thought it was a particularly convenient way for me to read blogs. However, I was initially quite upset to hear that Google Reader would be discontinued - but don't worry, there are lots of other options for following your favorite blogs!

Facebook

Bloglovin

Google+

Twitter: This is my blog Twitter and my personal Twitter, and while I tweet all my blog posts, I also tweet lots of other stuff. So if you don't want to see that...I warned you. ;)

Pinterest: I have a board on Pinterest for just my blog (which is what I linked to), and I also have a couple boards for others' manicures and nail art.

RSS

If you'd like a recommendation for a service to import your Google Reader feeds into, I've switched over to Feedly after trying out a few different services, and I love it.

I Don't Have Any Polish For You at the Moment...

But I just noticed that I've hit 666 followers. Should I watch my back? ;) Seriously, though, thank you all so much!

Do You Have Facebook?

If so, get on over to the Facebook page for Cult Nails and like it! 20 minutes ago, Maria posted this on the page's wall:

"‎1,211 followers - Just 3,789 to go and we put our polishes on sale for $5 for 1 day! Wahoo!"

Do you want Cult Nails for $5? I know I do - so what are you still doing here? Go!

It's All Greek to Me

I got back to the States from Greece Saturday, and arrived home on Sunday. Can I go back now? ;) From what I saw, Greece is a stunning country, though I have to say that modern Athens, where we stayed, is not that great. There are so many things I'd like to share with you, but with 394 photos, I thought I should pare it down a bit. I think Blogger might explode if I tried to put that many pictures in one post, especially as they're all fairly large - not to mention that you might all fall asleep. However, if you do want to see all the pictures, the album can be found here on Picasa Web Albums.

Can I go back now? ;) Before I forget, thank you so much to Make-A-Wish for making my trip possible - I never could've done it without them! But I know what you're all probably wondering, and yes, of course I got some Greek nail polish while I was there - how could I not? I do think I showed remarkable restraint, though that was probably in part because I only had so much money and I wanted to get some other things as well... Anyway, here's my Greek haul:

Sorry for my undignified background...my desk is really cluttered right now, and I thought notebook paper would be better than my computer keyboard. :) I've already tried the blue crackle, and it is fabulous! By the way, in the picture, the green non-crackle polish looks like a dupe of Jade is the New Black, but it's actually a lovely bright kelly green like nothing else I had in my collection. I can't wait to try it and all the others.

Zoya Smoke & Mirrors Press Release

I got this press release a few days ago, and I couldn't wait until July 5 so I could share it with you all! I'm very excited about this collection and can't wait to see swatches - what do you think?

fall 2011 nail color

smoke and mirrors

...beautiful illusions

Zoya Nail Polish presents 12 enticing and mysterious new colors for fall 2011.

Zoya Smoke Collection

Jana (ZP564) - smoky mauve quartz cream

Petra (ZP565) - smoky eggplant mauve cream

Codie (ZP566) - smoky brown taupe cream

Anja (ZP567) - smoky palatinate purple cream

Cynthia (ZP568) - smoky Prussian blue cream

Dree (ZP569) - smoky camouflage green cream

Zoya Mirrors Collection

Nimue (ZP570) - smoky rich thistle metallic

Marina (ZP571) - smoky steel blue metallic

Tao (ZP572) - smoky slate gray metallic

Yara (ZP573) - sparkly olive green metallic

Neeka (ZP574) - sparkly amethyst purple  metallic

Jem (ZP575) - sparkly fandango pink metallic

Zoya is the new color of fashion... The new Zoya smoke & mirrors colors were designed and inspired by top fashion designers and beauty icons.

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 smoke & mirrors as well as over 300 other high-fashion Zoya shades at www.zoya.com. As always, each and every Zoya color is made for beautiful women so we name them after beautiful women.

smoke & mirrors by Zoya - available July 15, 2011 (USA)

Sug. Retail $8.00 per 0.5 fl. oz. bottle (US)

Learned and Lacquered: Emollients & Skin Conditioning Agents

If you don't want to read the whole post, scroll to the end for a few essential points (in bold).

Today's L&L post is about two very important categories of nail polish and nail care product ingredients - emollients and skin conditioning agents. They're basically the same thing, which is why I'm not doing two separate posts. A skin conditioning agent or emollient is something that lubricates, softens, or smoothes the skin. Many emollients and skin conditioning agents (hereby categorically referred to as emollients, because it's a shorter word/phrase and I'm lazy) are natural ingredients, such as coconut oil and soy protein, and many have additional benefits, such as nail growth, antioxidant properties, and so forth. Many nail products, especially cuticle and hand creams, include such ingredients, but I've found that Dr.'s Remedy is the most emollient-rich nail polish brand out of those I own.

image credit

A lot of the emollients used in nail polish are ingredients you could probably recognize without any help. However, there are also quite a few with more "scientific" names, which is why I've compiled a list of all the skin conditioning agents and emollients I know to be used in nail polishes and products. It's a very long list, so I've put it in a smaller font.

Acetyl Tributyl Citrate, Adenosine Triphosphate, Algae Extract, Allantoin, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract OR Aloe Vera OR Aloe Vera Concentrate, Arginine, Ascophyllum Nosodum Extract, Aucoumea Klaineana Oleo-Resin Extract, Biotin, Bisabolol, Calcium Pantothenate, Calendula Officinalis Flower Oil, Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Oil, Cellulose, Centaurea Cyanus (Cornflower) Extract, Cetyl PEG/PPG-10/1, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract, Cholecalciferol, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Codium Tomentosum Extract, Collagen Amino Acids, Corallina Officinalis Extract, Diethylhexyl Adipate, Dimethicone, Glycerin, Glyceryl Stearate, Hippophae Rhamnoides Oil, Hyaluronic Acid, Hydrolyzed Collagen, Hydrolyzed Conchiolin Protein, Hydrolyzed Protein, Hydrolyzed Vegetable/Wheat/Rice/Soy Protein, Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose, Jojoba Oil, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Flower/Leaf/Stem Extract, Mannitol, Maris Sal/Sea Salt/Sel Marin, Mineral Oil, Neopentyl Glycol, Olea Europaea (Olive) Leaf Extract, Panthenol, Papain, PEG-12 Dimethicone, Polyacrylic Acid, PPG-2 Dimethicone, Propylene Glycol, Retinyl Palmitate, Ribes Nigrum (Black Currant) Seed Oil, Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Saccharide Isomerate, Serine, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Soy Amino Acids, Stearyl Alcohol, Threonine, Tocopheryl Acetate, Trihydroxypalmitamidohydroxypropyl Myristyl Ether, Trimethylsiloxysilicate, Vaccinium Vitis-Idaea Seed Oil, Vitamin D, Wheat Amino Acids, Zea Mays (Corn) Oil


Whew! I wouldn't have included the list at all because it's so long, but I thought it might be good for reference.  Here are the essential facts:

• A skin conditioning agent or emollient is something that lubricates, softens, or smoothes the skin.
• Many are natural ingredients - that is, they come from sources found in nature, such as plants.
• Many emollients have additional benefits such as nail growth and antioxidant properties.

P.S. I think trihydroxypalmitamidohydroxypropyl myristyl ether wins the prize for longest nail polish ingredient name ever, don't you? Have a great day!

500 Followers! (But Blogger Sucks)

Edit: Never mind! Steph from Imperfectly Painted suggested that I change my template and then change it back, and that fixed it. YAY! :)

First of all, I'd like to say that I am shocked and very, very pleased to have 500 followers. I don't think it's quite sunk in...500 people?! That is a lot. 500 people is almost twice the size of my high school class. :o So thank you, thank you, thank you! Since I just had a giveaway, I won't be having another quite yet, but I do appreciate all of you more than I can express, and I never would have imagined that my little blog would get to 500 followers.

However, there is something else I wanted to tell you all today...if you follow me on Twitter, you know I've been having problems with my individual post pages being really screwed up - as in, the posts aren't there and the sidebar is on the wrong side of the page. Since I know most (if not all) of you can't comment because of this problem, I put two polls in the sidebar. One is asking if you can see my individual posts, and the other is asking if I should keep posting until the issue is resolved. PLEASE VOTE! -->


I really don't know what to do. I've tried posting in Blogger's help forums, and I haven't gotten any helpful response. If any of you have suggestions, please shoot me an email at never.unpolished@gmail.com or contact me on Twitter at @zarapetkovic. This is really frustrating, and I really, really want to hear your opinions. Should I keep going? Can you read my posts in some form? *sigh* Stupid Blogger. Anyway, help me out and vote in the poll!

My A-Z

Nobody tagged me for this, but I tagged myself! If you haven't done it yet, consider yourself tagged. :)

A. Age: 18
B. Bed size: Twin
C. Chore you hate: Washing dishes. HATE.
D. Day: Saturday
E. Essential start to your day: Breakfast, which is usually whatever leftovers are in the fridge or, if there are no leftovers, a frozen burrito.
F. Favourite colour: Green or purple - I can never pick. Or blue. I love them all!
G. Gold or Silver: Gold
H. Height: 5'3''
I. Instruments: Piano, tuba
J. Job title: None - though I hope that will change soon!
K. Kids: Haha, NO.
L. Live: South-central Missouri (three hours east of Joplin, since everyone knows where that is now)
M. Mum’s name: Mom. Or Vickie.
N. Nicknames: Zar-Zar (which I hate), Zaraptor (don't hate that one), Z
O. Overnight hospital stays: I have no idea. A lot.
P. Pet peeve: The inability to use the English language. And blind intolerance.
Q. Quote from a movie: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." - The Princess Bride
R. Right or left handed: Right, but I do odd left-handed things like wear my watch on my right wrist.
S. Siblings: Nope.
T. Time you wake up: During the school year, 6:00. During the summer, whenever I feel like it.
U. Underwear: Um, yes?
V. Vegetables you dislike: There aren't any I won't eat, though I wouldn't cry if I never ate Brussels sprouts again.
W. What makes you run late: Life and my own laziness.
X. X-Rays you’ve had: Several for sprained ankles and one for a kidney stone.
Y. Yummy food you make: Cake, cookies, pasta, French toast, baked omelets, gougères
Z. Zoo: I love zoos as long as they take care of the animals.

Learned and Lacquered: Nitrocellulose

If you don't want to read the whole post, scroll to the end for a few essential points (in bold).

About a week ago, I was on my way home from a doctor's trip with some new nail purchases (doctor trip in St. Louis = trip to Ulta), and I started reading the box on my bottle of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri, which I've finally gone back to after giving up the hope that Seche Vite will ever stop shrinking my polish. I looked up all the ingredients, and what I found was pretty interesting to me. I asked my Twitter peeps if they would also find such information interesting, and the resounding response was, "yes!" So, I decided to start a series about the more science-y (but interesting) parts of nail polish - why certain polishes act the way they do, what the ingredients are and what they're for, etc. Today, I planned to talk about some of the main ingredients in nail polish, but I started with nitrocellulose and found that there was a lot to say, so I decided to stick to that.

from GuideChem

Nitrocellulose is the primary film former in nail polish. It gives nail polish durability and allows it to dissolve quickly when a solvent is applied (a.k.a. your nail polish comes off faster - this explains why it takes longer for me to take off my polish when I use Seche Vite, because it doesn't have any), and dries to form a thin coating on the nail.

Nitrocellulose is found in pretty much any nail polish, including top coats and base coats - the only products I've found so far that didn't have nitrocellulose were Seche Vite and GOSH Fix Base Coat, which I found very interesting. (You can see my document with all my polish and treatment ingredients here.) If you remember, I wrote in my post on GOSH Holographic that I found it to work just as well over Seche Vite as over GOSH Fix Base Coat, and I suspect that the absence of nitrocellulose may make for a good base for holographic polishes. I also wonder if the absence of nitrocellulose in Seche Vite makes it shrink...I may try the GOSH base coat over polish to see if it does the same thing.

Here's a list of some other film formers found in nail polish: Cellulose, Cellulose Acetate/Cellulose Acetate Butyrate, Diethylhexyl Adipate, Ethyl Tosylamide, Hydrolyzed Collagen, Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose, Nylon Fiber/Nylon, Phthalic Anhydride/Trimellitic Anhydride/Glycols Copolymer, Polyacrylic Acid, Polyethylene Terephthalate, Polyvinyl Butyral, Styrene/Acrylates Copolymer, Sucrose Acetate Isobutyrate, Sucrose Benzoate, Tosylamide/Epoxy Resin, Tosylamide/Formaldehyde Resin

That's all for today! I'm not sure how often I'll be doing this series - probably about once a week. Here's your recap on nitrocellulose.

• Nitrocellulose is the primary film former in most polishes.
• It helps make your nail polish come off faster when you use remover without affecting wear.
• The absence of nitrocellulose may make polishes a good base for holos.

Handwriting Tag!

I'm sure you've seen this handwriting tag about a zillion times now, but I thought it looked fun, so when Lacquer Ware for Tips and Toes tagged me, I did it!

1. What is your name? And your blog.
2. Blog url
3. Write: the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
4. Favorite quote
5. Favorite song
6. Favorite band/singers
7. Say anything you want
8. Pass it along to a few bloggers

You can click to enlarge it...and if you want to do this and haven't done it yet, I'm tagging you!

EDIT: I just realized I put a comma after "daylong" in #4...yeah, that's not supposed to be there. The quote is "Color is my daylong obsession, joy, and torment." Fitting, don't you think?

New Camera!

Look what I got for Christmas!

A brand-new Canon SX130 IS! Wheeee! In macro, it can focus at 1 cm away, so I'm super-excited to try using it for my blog pictures. This is the camera I'd been saving up for, but I got it for Christmas instead! Thanks, Mom!

Also, I went to Walmart today to look for a camera case and was pleasantly surprised by an Essie display. I don't think they were supposed to appear until January, but I'm not complaining - I bought Lilacism, Turquoise & Caicos, and Lapis of Luxury. No nail pictures today, though, because I wore OPI Sparkle-icious on Christmas (I was in a hurry) and though I'm wearing Lilacism now, I'm still figuring out my new camera settings, plus I want to take pictures outside. I hope you all had a great weekend, and a great Christmas if you celebrate it!

VERY Brief Hiatus

I'm packing for a trip today and I'm going to be out of town tomorrow and Friday and I really need to focus on what I'm doing where I'm going, so I won't be posting for a few days. I am taking pictures of my current manicures, though, so I will have stuff to show you when I get back. I also won't be commenting on posts for a few days - I'll be reading all the blogs I usually do on my phone, but it takes forever to comment on my phone. Sorry. Hopefully everything will be back to normal Saturday. Until then, have a great end of the week!

Oh, oh, and HAPPY DECEMBER! I feel like it's winter now, even though it's not really until December 21. Still, I'm going to be breaking out the winter/holiday manicures!

Ooh, Goodies!

I was literally just about to post my NOTD when I heard a knock at the door. When I went and looked, I found a mysterious package...actually, it wasn't that mysterious - I knew my Reviva products from the Painted Lady Fingers giveaway had arrived! But first, nails. I added a matte top coat to yesterday's The Girl Who Played with Fire manicure, and while I don't think I like it quite as well as the glossy version, I do like it.

indoors, artificial light

And here's the package I got from Reviva Labs. It included Rosewater Facial Spray; Organic Cleansing Milk; Organic Skin Tonic; Sun Protective Moisturizer; Alpha Lipoic Acid, Vitamin C Ester, & DMAE Cream; a Vitamin E Stick; Firming Eye Serum; Hyaluronic Acid Serum; and DMAE Firming Fluid.

I can't wait to try all of these! Would you be interested in reviews of these products, or not?

A Blog Award!

Lacquer Ware for Tips and Toes very kindly tagged me with the A Blog With Substance award. She makes incredibly awesome frankens and I love her blog, so you should definitely go follow if you don't already.

The Rules:

1. Thank and link back to the giver of the award:
I linked above...and thank you, thank you, thank you! :)

2. Sum up your blogging philosophy, motivation and experience using five words:
I never, ever go unpolished!

3. Pass it on to other blogs that you feel have substance in their blogs:
I could put many more, but here are five.
Bright Lights, Big Color
GildedNails
Imperfectly Painted
The Daily Nail
Nihrida

Tag, You're It!

I'm also going to do a tag from Lacquer Ware for Tips and Toes. I liked the questions, and she tagged everyone, so here it is:

1. Favorite type of music/band?
I don't really have one specific type of music that I listen to more than another, so I'm going to go with classical - I'm in my school's choir, and I love singing the classical music we do in there, as well as listening to classical music.

2. Heart's desire?
To figure out what I want to do with my life, and do it.

3. Most embarrassing TV show you watch regularly?
I don't watch any TV shows regularly...I watch Glee, Psych, and NCIS off and on, but I'm not a big TV person. I prefer reading.

4. Favorite color?
Either purple or green. I can't pick.

5. What clique you fell into in high school?
For me, it would be "fall," not "fell" - I'm a senior in high school this year. But I don't really fall into one traditional clique - the only clique-ish thing I would fall into is the speech and debate team, which is like my second family. I have friends from most cliques, though, so I don't really think I fit into any.

6. Trend follower or setter?
I definitely don't set trends, but I don't follow them either. If I see something I like, I'll use it for inspiration, but that's the extent of it.

7. Where do you love to vacation?
Pretty much anywhere,  but my favorite trip was to Poland and Germany for a choir tour.

8. Favorite Disney character and why?
They're a group of characters, but the Muses from Hercules.

9. What is your security blanket?
My falling-apart copy of Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone.

10. Favorite nail polish brand and why?
What? I have to pick one?! Well...it would probably be different if I owned more brands, but I'd have to say China Glaze.

As for my tags...I tag YOU, and YOU, and YOU...yes, all of you! Let me know in the comments if you decide to do it - I'd love to read what you all have to say.

New Polish Blogs

Now, keep in mind that these aren't all brand-new - some of them are, but others are just new to me. However, I do read, enjoy, and recommend them all!

Nail Polish Obsession
Persistently Polished
Call Me Cheri
Never Enough Nails
Glammed-up
Do Not Refreeze

Enjoy!

Breast Cancer Awareness AND National Depression Awareness Month

I'm sure most, if not all, of you have heard by now that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which is represented by the color pink. However, not nearly as many people know about National Depression Awareness Month, which is also October, and is represented by green. Because I strongly support both of these causes, I will be wearing more green and pink nail polishes this month. Every time I wear pink or green, I will include a fact about breast cancer or depression (depending on the color I'm wearing) in the post. My hope is that this will help raise awareness for both causes. To start off, here are a couple facts:


Although the risk of breast cancer increases with age, women of all ages can and do get breast cancer.


Depressive disorders affect about 18.8 million American adults each year.


Are you doing anything to raise awareness this month? If so, what?

Hm, what's that in the sidebar?

In my spare time (a.k.a. when I should be doing homework or college applications), I've been working on a couple polish-related spreadsheets, and I just decided to add them to my sidebar. My stash list has existed for a while, and I linked to it in an earlier post, but I just thought it'd be more convenient and easier to find in the sidebar - if you have any requests, I'd be happy to fulfill them! :) My new and upcoming collections list is based both off of Lacquerized's lists and various other sources. I also got rid of the lemmings section in my sidebar and made a spreadsheet for that, too, mostly because I thought my (numerous) lemmings took up way too much space. What do you think?

New Polish Blogs

Here are some nail polish blogs I've discovered and enjoyed lately:

The Phalanges Files
Cel's Deco Nails
Alice's Restaurant
Twisted Nails
Nails_r_us
QUICK DRY IS A LIE

Enjoy!

New Polish Blogs!

So I've been REALLY bad at updating this...whoops. Anyway, here are some new (and some not-so-new but new to me) polish blogs I've started following:

Confessions of Polishaholic
Bitten Apple
TesJOe's Blog
For Your Nails Only
Bellyful of Nail Polish
Tuli's Nails
You Nailed It!

Enjoy!