Christmas Sequin Nails

Hi, and Merry Christmas! I actually haven't ended up doing as many Christmas-themed nails as I had expected to do, partly because I had finals and then got home and didn't feel like doing anything except sleeping. I definitely wanted to do something for the actual day of Christmas, though, and I ended up doing a glitter/sequin mani with Zoya Chantal* (a part of the Naturel collection) as a base. I'm planning on reviewing Zoya Naturel soon, but I will say that when I got them in the mail I knew I was going to love Chantal - I may have finally found my "mannequin hands" shade. On my first two nails I used loose glitter from Born Pretty Store,* and on the second two I used two coats of Lac Attack Holidays at Hogsmeade.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do when I started this manicure, but I'm really happy with the way it turned out. It just so happened that the red and green loose glitter I had perfectly matched the red and green glitter in Holidays at Hogsmeade, so they went together really well, and Holidays and Hogsmeade kept the sequins from being quite so overwhelming. I think I might have to just go for full-out overwhelming and do sequins for New Year's Eve, though... ;) Enjoy the rest of Christmas while it's here!

Zoya Chantal and the Born Pretty Store loose glitter were sent to me for honest review.

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

Zoya True Part 1: Swatches and Review

So, six posts in January...woot? I know I've been painfully absent, but I have been extraordinarily busy with school and extracurriculars (please ignore the fact that I've only been at school for two weeks), and my nails are still refusing to be nursed back to health. Anyway, I have for you today the first half of Zoya's True collection, Cho, Farah, and Bevin. On to the review!

natural light

Cho is the first polish in the collection. It's described by Zoya as a "full coverage, vanilla shimmer metallic," which is sort of accurate, though I wouldn't really describe Cho as a vanilla color - more of a yellow nude. It has the same shimmer finish as the polishes from last year's Touch collection. As you can see, it doesn't complement my skin tone at all, but it was opaque and easy to apply, so I would recommend it to someone it would suit better. I used two coats.

natural light

Farah is the second polish in the collection, a "full coverage, latte beige cream." Zoya's description is definitely more apt in Farah's case than in Cho's, but as with Cho, there's something about the shade that just doesn't suit me very well. It's a shame, because I do like it - just not on me. Farah was opaque in two coats, as well.

natural light

Finally, we have Bevin, a "full coverage, pale sage green cream," or what I see as a cross between sage green and jade green. In either case, it's a gorgeous color that covers perfectly in two coats, and one I will be definitely wearing again, especially when my nails get a tad longer and healthier . . . and hopefully that will be soon. 

Another thing that I hope will be soon - my review of the second half of Zoya True!

P.S. Paula from WoW Nails sent me a very kind email a while back asking me to check out her blog, so I did, and I thought I'd post the link here in case any of you are interested: http://mywownails.blogspot.com/ Have a great day!

These products were provided to me by the manufacturer for a fair and honest review.

Zoya Touch Swatches and Review

Hello again! I normally don't like to do two posts in a day, but I figured it makes sense because this is a swatch post and my earlier post was part of Learned and Lacquered.

I know you've probably seen Zoya Touch a million times already, but for those that haven't, it's a three-piece collection released by Zoya in June. Zoya calls Minka, Shay, and Pandora "full coverage nude creams-softly kissed with a touch of metallic." Minka is the lightest color, Pandora is the darkest, and Shay is somewhere in the middle. For this post, I only took one picture of each polish - the sun wasn't consistently out, so I couldn't take sun and shade pictures, and the ones I took indoors were completely inaccurate.

outdoors, cloudy

First, we have Pandora, which Zoya describes as "medium pink-beige nude with blue and mauve undertones and a hint of pearly silver shimmer." I didn't think this one would suit me when I saw it in the bottle, but while it doesn't match my skin color as much as it appears to in the photo, it doesn't clash horribly, either. I used two coats here, and barely needed the second - the great thing about Touch is that they're not your typical sheer nudes.

outdoors, weak sunlight

Shay, a "dense, fleshy light peach with slight orange-red undertones and a hint of pearly silver shimmer," is the second polish I tried out of Touch. It's a nice latte brown color (and now I want some Starbucks...) that, again, doesn't match my skin tone precisely, but looks nice regardless. Two coats were plenty and application was a dream, as has been my general experience with Zoya.

outdoors, sunlight

Finally, we have Minka, described by Zoya as a "pale, milky beige nude with yellow undertones and a hint of pearly silver shimmer." Oddly, this was the one that matched my skin tone best in real life, but in the photos it appears far too yellow, and both Pandora and Shay look more flattering. This was definitely not the case in person, and I'm not sure why my camera made it appear that way. I also used two coats with Minka.

When the press releases for Touch first came out, I wasn't quite sure how I felt. I was excited about having a collection of opaque nudes, I wasn't sure I would like the shimmer, and while it does look nice, I'm still not sure I wouldn't prefer the polishes without it. I also wish Zoya had made Touch a six-piece collection and included darker shades - Pandora is nowhere near a "mannequin hands" shade for a lot of people, and I think it's a shame that lacquerheads with dark skin are being ignored by Zoya. Overall, I think this is one collection that, while definitely solid, is absolutely a matter of personal preference. That's always the case, but especially with nudes since no one has exactly the same skin.

What do you think about Zoya Touch?