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.

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!

Zoya Dream

Hello again! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and that you don't have too much of a food hangover. ;) Today I have Zoya Dream, a blue jelly with a scattered holo effect. It's a polish from the Zenith holiday collection for this year, and let me tell you, it's an absolute dream. This is the polish that immediately grabbed my attention when I opened the package, and editing the pictures for this post just made me want to put it right back on again. I used three coats here.

Sorry for my yellowish hands in the second two pictures - I can never seem to eliminate that without messing up the coloring of the polish, which is accurate in these photos. My favorite thing about good jelly glitters is the extraordinary depth they have, and Dream is no exception. I really want to use this in a galaxy manicure at some point and see if I can get the same illusion of depth by sponging it on a deep blue or black base. What do you think of Dream? Leave a comment and let me know!

Zoya Dream was sent to me for honest review.

Green & Gold Sponging

Hello again! As you're reading this, I'm about to move back into my apartment for the fall semester. I'm writing this on August 11, so hopefully I will have packed by the time this is published, but you never know...I am a pretty good (bad?) procrastinator, particularly when it comes to things like packing, which you just have to undo again later. The nail art I'm blogging about today is a little something I did back in late July. I used Zoya Neely as a base, Zoya Josie, Sally Hansen Green with Envy, and another green (the darkest bits) that is escaping my memory right now for the green sponging, and added a little bit of China Glaze Blonde Bombshell for some sparkle. On a side note, Blonde Bombshell is pretty much the best gold glitter ever, and you should get it now. But anyway, back to the sponging ---

I was very happy with how this turned out. The green sponging is subtle, but pretty, and the gold glitter adds an extra bit of oomph that makes the whole thing pull together. I thought after completing the manicure that it was more of a spring-y sort of nail art, but, ehh, who cares? I say wear whatever you want all year round, whether it's your clothes or you nail polish. Though I do tend to be a bit more versatile with polish, since it's not affected by the whole weather thing. ;)

P.S. The background for my pictures is a page of Mental Floss magazine, which is my favorite magazine ever in the entire world ever. I was reading it at work on lunch break, which is when I took these pictures.

Zoya Carter

Zoya Carter is one of the polishes from this year's fall PixieDust collection. Of course, since it's purple I had to try it first - and, since it's purple, of course I loved it. It was opaque in three quick coats, and quite easy to control (i.e., not get all over my fingers). I only wish the PixieDust polishes were easier to remove. I always have such a hard time getting them off, even with the foil method! I think most of them are worth it, though, and I really like Carter. Unfortunately, my mani was a little chipped by the time I got around to taking pictures.

As far as the color accuracy, Carter is a little warmer and redder than my picture shows - I took pictures with all the cameras in the house under all the different lighting situations I could find, and this is the closest I could get to what Carter looks like in real life. Suffice it to say, if you like purple and glitter, you should probably get this. Because purple. And glitter. Right? ;) Have a great rest of the week! I'm having my wisdom teeth taken out tomorrow, so wish me luck.

P.S. In case you were wondering what the green on the side of the bottle is, that would be the remains of Chita. Sadly, she did not make it to my door in one piece, but many. And boy, let me tell you what a mess that was to clean up...I had to leave it out on the front step for a while before I could even bear to bring it into the house. 

Zoya Carter was sent to me for honest review.

Zoya Thandie

Hello again, readers! Today I'm wearing Zoya Thandie, a bright orange polish with a very subtle shimmer. It's the first one I've tried from the Stunning collection, and I quite like it - I don't tend to wear a lot of orange polish, but I can definitely see myself wearing Thandie once in a while.

I used three coats with top coat here, and the application was silky smooth. However, I will note that it looks like a creme in a lot of lights, particularly if you're not looking closely. Nonetheless, I'd definitely recommend trying Thandie, especially if you like orange!

This product was given to me for honest review.

A Summery Gradient

Hello again! Today I'll be showing you a manicure I did several weeks ago, after I tried Zoya Beatrix. I thought Beatrix and Destiny looked really nice together, so I decided to do a gradient. I used Beatrix as a base and sponged Destiny on top, then finished off with a couple coats of top coat.

Zoya Beatrix

Hello again! Here I am taking another study break...my first final is tomorrow, so I've been napping studying a lot. Today I'm showing you Zoya Beatrix, a tangerine that's perfect for the 80º weather we're having in St. Louis right now. I don't like the color of Beatrix quite as well as Destiny just because it's not as vibrant, but it's a very pretty orange and I will definitely be wearing it again this summer. This was two coats.

Zoya Destiny

Can we spend a moment admiring how gorgeous Zoya Destiny is?

Zoya Godiva

So, it's been almost a month since I last posted - and guess what I've been doing since then? As I'm sure will shock you all, schoolwork. You may notice a pattern in my posts that come after a month-long absence, which is that I'm not any less busy, I've just reached the point where I have to blog because I can't stand not doing it any more. That is once again the case today, partly because I have an 8-10 page paper due tomorrow that I don't want to write. Instead, I'm writing this post about Zoya Godiva, a polish I tried out about a month ago (bottle shot to the left). It wasn't one I thought I'd like, but as it turns out, Godiva is classy and has an understated beauty that I very much like.

indoors, artificial light

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.

Sequined Savita

It's finally the weekend! Between getting my midterm grades back and the massive amount of homework I had this week, I'm definitely glad it's Saturday...mostly so I can catch up on my schoolwork. Exciting, right? More exciting is the addition I made to Zoya Savita after wearing it by itself. Born Pretty Store was kind enough to send me some items to review recently, and I decided to try the loose glitter sequins with Savita. I used a dotting tool to place them on my thumb and ring finger after adding Wet 'n' Wild Clear to make the nails tacky, and added Cult Nails Wicked Dry on top.

I absolutely love Savita with top coat! I don't think you can go wrong with a good, rich, glowing purple, and I like that it doesn't look weird on my nubbins like some shimmers do. The sequins took a while to place, but I definitely think it was worth it. They laid down nice and flat, so I didn't have to use tons of top coat, which is always nice. I've seen lots of sequin manicures that I really like, so I can't wait to try some more now that I have sequins of my own! You can purchase these here, and if you use my coupon code, ZR5X31, you can get 10% off (I don't get anything if you use the code). Enjoy!

The glitter sequins were provided to me by Born Pretty Store for unbiased review.  I was not compensated for the post.

Zoya Savita

Hello again! I wasn't planning on having time to blog today, but I had one of those pleasant days where you think you're going to be super busy and it's actually not that bad, so here I am. I absolutely love the Zoya Matte Velvet winter collection from 2009 - it's one of my favorite Zoya collections despite the fact that there are only three of them, simply because they're all so fantastic. I love the rich colors, I love the satin effect that you get with a matte shimmer, I love how they glow with or without top coat, I love that they're opaque in two coats...the only thing I don't love is the fact that they chip like crazy if you don't wear top coat, but I suppose the upside to this is that since they're matte and dry quickly, touch-ups are easy to do.

Man. Just look at that gorgeousness. If you have Savita (or Harlow or Veruschka), cherish it, because Zoya doesn't sell it any more. If you don't, find a friend who does and borrow it immediately, even if you don't like mattes - it looks great with top coat on, which I'll be showing you next time along with a little bedazzling (a.k.a. glitter). In the meantime, have a great day!

Zoya PixieDust: Chyna

Happy Saturday! My mom's coming up to visit today, and while I should have spent this morning working on my literature review and EMTALA presentation for Monday, I painted my nails and watched YouTube instead. Story of my life. Anyway, I have to admit something - I went about a week this week without painting my nails...and it wasn't horrible. I think I'm getting to the point where I don't feel like I *need* to have my nails painted all the time, though I still feel more polished when I have a nice mani on. Anyway, it was still definitely time to paint my nails, and since my samples of Zoya PixieDust arrived yesterday, I thought I'd try one out. I picked Chyna just because it looked so freaking gorgeous in the bottle - I just can't resist a glittery red. I used two coats, and two coats of top coat (Cult Nails Wicked Fast) in the second two pictures. All of these were taken in my lightbox.

While I was really feeling iffy about the PixieDust polishes from looking at the press release and promo stuff, I actually really liked Chyna. The textured effect was not as obvious (or as weird or gross) as I thought it might be, and turned out to be quite the cool effect. I'm now very much looking forward to trying the rest of the collection.

And now, I have a little questionnaire posted by the lovely Elizabeth of Life and Polish! I haven't done anything like this in quite a while, so I thought it would be fun.

1. How many foundations do you own?
None, actually! I do, however, love Pixi Illuminating Tint & Conceal, which is a wonderful tinted moisturizer I use sometimes.

2. How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?
Well, it depends on whether or not you count the amount of time I spend convincing myself to actually get out of bed...but usually 30 to 45 minutes including shower and breakfast.

3. Do you have a go-to makeup look?
If mascara is a go-to look, yes. I also go with mascara and lip stain quite a lot.

4. What about nails, a go-to nail polish look?
Not really, actually. Just whatever happens to catch my fancy.

5. How often do you try new skin care products?
Not very often. When I find something I really like, I tend to stick with it for as long as I can. I do like to experiment, though.

6. Steak, chicken or fish?
Since it's Lent right now and I gave up red and white meat and popcorn, I have to say fish. :)

7. What is your favorite lip balm?
Burt's Bees Beeswax Lip Balm with Peppermint! I literally never use anything else. It's my number one "beauty" staple (I'm going to argue it's a beauty staple because, you know, chapped lips ≠ pretty).

8. When did you start wearing makeup consistently?
Actually only in the past year or so. I've really made an effort recently to always wear at least mascara, because I feel like mascara alone makes so much difference in both my appearance and how put-together and confident I feel.

9. Do you find you look older or younger with makeup on?
Definitely a bit older.

10. How many lipsticks do you own?
Only one that I actually use, which is Maybelline Red Revival, a classic bold red. I also have two lip stains, Pixi Lip Blush in Love (which they no longer make! sad) and Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain. While I absolutely love the products I have, I also want to expand my collection of lipsticks and lip stains. I don't really have any paler pink shades, so I'd like to work on that.

11. What beauty product do you wish was still made?
Ohmygoodness Pixi Lip Blush. It is my absolute favorite thing ever (okay, maybe that's a bit of an overstatement), and Love is one of those shades that looks good on everyone. I really wish I'd had the chance to get the other shades before the discontinued it. Pixi still makes lip stains, but they're not the same product or the same colors. I haz a sad.

Feel free to do this survey if you like, and have a great weekend!

This product was provided to me for review.

Bad Moon Rising Jelly Sandwich

Hello there! I hope you're all having a lovely Wednesday. I've been having a hectic couple of weeks, with a 6-page paper, two presentations, and a literary review (part of a 20-page paper; the whole thing will be due on my birthday in May) in the past week and a half, so needless to say I haven't had time for much recreational activity, except sleeping. Yes, that is considered a recreational activity now. But I'm taking a brief break today to write a blog post! And by brief break, I mean I just woke up and am not awake to go back to outlining journal articles yet. Either way, I have a jelly sandwich to show today, which is one of my favorite kinds of manicures, even though it's hell to remove. I used Zoya Frida and Lac Attack Bad Moon Rising.

Aren't they gorgeous together! I love Bad Moon Rising, and I think it went perfectly with Frida. This is actually the first time I've used one of the Zoya jellies and not taken it off immediately, because I really don't like them on their own. Now that I've tried (and loved) this combination, though, I might have to try jelly sandwiches with the other two!

P.S. I forgot to mention the fact that the lit review and the 6-page paper are still not done...and due Friday...what am I doing blogging?!

Zoya PixieDust PR

Zoya PixieDust
Infused with Magic and Wonder!
Featuring the latest “must-have” nail polish finish – Textured, Matte & Sparkling.

This newly developed formula is sure to captivate with a magical sparkle and sugary finish like no other. The color experts at Zoya have created six, long-wearing stunners for the introduction of this look...

ZOYA PIXIE DUST - SPECIAL EDITION

Dahlia (ZP656) - Black Beauty sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Matte Sparkle formula.

Chyna (ZP657) - Red Dazzle sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Matte Sparkle formula.

Godiva (ZP658) - Soft Nude sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Matte Sparkle formula.

Vespa (ZP659) - Mint Kiss sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Matte Sparkle formula.

Nyx (ZP660) - Perfect Periwinkle sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Matte Sparkle formula.

London (ZP661) - Fog Gray sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Matte Sparkle formula.

Shipping January 15, 2013

Ultra long-wearing, nail lacquers by Zoya are BIG5FREE - all formulas are completely free of harmful industrial chemicals such as toluene, camphor, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) that are known to cause cancer and birth defects.

Zoya PixieDust $9 (US)

Follow the Zoya Nail Polish and Treatments Blog and stay tuned on Twitter (@Zoyanailpolish) and Facebook for release date updates.

Hashtags: #ZoyaPixieDust and #nailpolish.

Zoya PixieDust: COMING SOON VIDEO… http://youtu.be/mUOVE4Iswrk

ZOYA IS THE NEW COLOR OF FASHION!
Find it at zoya.com

_ _ _

Instructions for Zoya PixieDust application:

·         Clean and prep nail using Zoya Remove +
·         Magic Time! Apply 1 thin coat of Zoya PixieDust to each nail  - allow to dry completely (will appear matte with sparkle).
·         Apply an 1-2 coats of polish (allowing each to dry) as desired. We suggest 2-3 thin coats of Zoya PixieDust for a full coverage manicure.
·         That’s it - Done! You now have the latest textured nail look in the famous long-wearing, Big5Free Zoya PixieDust Nail Polishformula!

NOTE: Zoya PixieDust Nail Polish dry times are a little slower than with traditional polish but once dry, the Zoya PixieDust formulation will provide extended wear.
Best results are achieved by using the product alone. No basecoat or topcoat required. Layering of the Zoya PixieDust formulation with other polishes may produce less than desirable results.

Remove Zoya PixieDust by saturating a cotton pad in Zoya Remove + and pressing to nail for a few seconds. Repeat on each nail for best results.

Zoya Lovely Swatches & Review

Happy New Year! It sure seems like 2012 went by quickly...and here I am reviewing Zoya's spring collection for 2013, Lovely. I have to say, I wasn't too excited about most of the colors in Lovely, but I ended up liking a few of them.

sunlight

shade

Piaf is a medium yellow with silver shimmer. I used three thin coats, though two thick ones would probably do just as well. I wasn't really a fan of this one...I tend not to like warm colors with silver shimmer, so the first three polishes in this collection were at a disadvantage from the start.

White Christmas

Hello again! Thanks bunches to those of you who have stuck around during my semester-long hiatus - I really appreciate it. Today I have some Christmas nails that, while I like them, aren't quite up to par in my opinion, at least on one of the nails. In my defense, I packed in a huge hurry because I had to pack and move out pretty much right after finishing my last two finals, and therefore forgot important nail art implements like...well...all of my nail art implements. Except toothpicks - I have toothpicks. So, this is a toothpick friendly manicure. What do you think?

 

Aaaaand I'm Back! Zoya Lovely PR

Hello again! It's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry I've been gone for so long - I've really missed blogging, but just didn't have time with everything I had going on this semester. In retrospect, I don't have the faintest idea why I thought taking 18 credit hours was a good idea, considering that half of them were honors and that I'm also in an a cappella group and that I volunteered for the Obama campaign this semester...yeah, don't know what I was thinking. At any rate, I got my grades back yesterday, and while they were still quite good, I'm definitely not trying anything like that again.

I'll be back with a proper post soon, but for now I wanted to show you the press release for the Zoya Lovely collection coming out this spring. I'm not a huge pastel person, but I think these look really pretty and I can't wait for my samples to come in the mail!

Zoya Rekha

I'm here again! Zoya Rekha is the second polish I've worn from Zoya's fall collections this year. Normally I'm not a huge red person, but I really, really, really like Rekha. It's one of those that blurs the line between jellies and cremes, giving this wonderfully glossy sheen while still being entirely opaque. I had an unusually hard time getting my camera to shoot accurately when it came to Rekha's color. In my pictures, it appears brighter and more candy-like than it is in real life. It's hard to describe, but Rekha's closer to what I think of as a true cherry red (you know, like actual cherries).

 natural light