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.

Butter London Keks

Hello all! I hope you've had a pleasant weekend. I know mine has certainly gone by faster than I would've liked. Today I'd like to show you Butter London Keks, a bright medium blue polish I got as part of my Ulta Cyber Monday sale haul. I decided to try it out first, and to keep with the wintry/holiday theme, I added a few coats of OPI Lights of Emerald City on my first two fingers.

Unfortunately I didn't get around to taking pictures of this until the sun had gone down for the day, but I did manage to get a color-accurate picture of Keks under my desk lamp. I have to say, though it's not a particularly extraordinary polish, I really like Keks. It's bright, but not quite neon, and I can see myself wearing it during pretty much any season. I'm hoping to compare it with a couple of other blue polishes I have to see over break, so hopefully you'll see that post in the relatively near future. I don't know if I'll be able to post again this week since I have finals, so good luck with finals if you have them, and if not, good luck with whatever else you've got going. :) Until next time!

Ulta Cyber Monday Haul

Hello all! Just thought I'd do a quick little post today to show you what I got on Ulta's website on Cyber Monday, since it arrived in the mail today. They didn't have a ton of nail polish deals, but they did have Butter London polishes going for 2 for $18, and seeing as that's almost half what they normally cost...let's just say my Butter London collection is now significantly larger.

Yes, I do have alligator and elephant (and giraffe and zebra and rhino) kids' decals on the wall behind my desk...they're fantastic. 

Pretty! I can't wait to try out these new beauties - in fact, I'm doing my next manicure with one of them now...and its name might start with a K. ;) Which one do you think I should try next?

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?

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.

A Good Man Goes to War

Hey! Remember me? Yeah...this semester just about killed me. It's definitely been my busiest so far, and it's not an experience I'm keen to repeat. The semester's coming to a close, though, and I've slept what would normally be an obscene amount over the past few days. I think I'm about caught up, and I'm definitely eager to start blogging again. I haven't even had time to paint my nails much this semester, but I do have a few posts worth of pictures on my computer. My post today is actually showcasing my current mani, Nail Pattern Boldness A Good Man Goes to War. It's a polish from her excellent Doctor Who collection, Time Traveler, so I thought it'd be appropriate to wear Monday night, when I watched the 50th anniversary episode with my friends.

A Good Man Goes to War is a bright red jelly with black square glitter, black microglitter, silver hex glitter, silver microglitter, and gold square glitter. Because of the red jelly base, it's hard for me to tell whether the glitter is silver or gold, but that's my best guess. It's actually out of stock permanently, so if I give you a huge lemming...sorry? It's so pretty that I couldn't resist sharing, though. I used three thin coats here, which I found worked best for glitter distribution. I was very happy that A Good Man Goes to War wasn't patchy like some jellies - it distributed really evenly, and I didn't even have to reposition the glitter. Very impressed! (EDIT: I just took this off...and it stains. Not too badly, but I'd recommend doubling up on base coat with this one if you want to avoid staining.)

All pictures were taken outside on a cloudy day.

Yeah...gorgeous. I am so in love with this polish. I didn't try this for the longest time because I was afraid I wouldn't like it as much as the other Time Traveler polishes I have, but I was wrong - I love it. So much. Also, the name is wonderful. I can't wait for the rest of the season...do you watch Doctor Who? What did you think of the anniversary episode? No spoilers, please!

P.S. Have a great Thanksgiving! And don't worry, you can eat as much turkey as you want, because it doesn't actually make you sleepy.

Red Nail Art

EDIT 09/16/13: Obviously I expect too much of myself, as I haven't had time to do another nail art mani since I posted this originally. I am still going to try to post more nail art and I will probably use the challenge as inspiration; however, I am a college student with unrealistic expectations of what I can do with my time, so...yeah.

Hello all! I decided to do the 31 day challenge again this year, as I did two years ago in November. This time I'm not going to be able to do a post every day, and you'll notice it is no longer the 1st of the month (oops), but I really enjoyed it before and thought it'd be a good way to get my mojo going again. For those of you who haven't seen it before, here's the challenge:

The first day of the challenge is red, so I decided to wear one of my top two favorite juicy reds, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure All Fired Up. It's a squishy, super-bright red that really pops, and I always feel a little more put together when I wear it. After sporting All Fired Up by itself for a day, I decided to add some stripes. I used acrylic paint because I think it's easier to work with, but of course you could use polish as well.

Isn't it a great combination? I've been seeing a lot of the first two fingers as accent nails lately, so I thought I'd try it out. I originally intended the pink to stand out a little bit more, but I think maybe I like it as it is after all - it provides a little balance against the screamingly bright orange, purple and red. Sadly, as I'm typing this my nails have already chipped. C'est la vie, non? *sigh* Anyway, I won't be posting the rest of the weekend because I'm taking a short trip home to go fishing, but I look forward to painting my nails and posting again as soon as I get back! Have a great weekend!

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.