Spring mani

I needed some happy color yesterday since it was so cloudy. I chose Essie turquoise and Caicos and floam for my accent nails. It looks like happy speckled Easter eggs to me!

I love the color of turquoise and Caicos but hate that it takes three coats. It dries amazingly shiny, though!

Zoya Spring 2013 Lovely Collection

Zoya Spring 2013 Lovely collection - "beauty is a lovely state of mind"

Zoya Blu

Zoya Blu is a baby , blue creme. I love baby blue cremes. Application was smooth - this is three coats.

Zoya GeiGei

An amazing princessy glitter pink! This is two coats. This makes me want to put on a giant cone hat with streamers and a big ball grown.

Zoya Jacqueline

A nude, light buttercream. When I looked at this shade in the bottle I didn't think it would look great on me, but I fell in love. It's a perfect spring nude. Great for a for a wedding, I think! This is two coats, application of course, was a dream.

Zoya Julie

This is glitter lavender, very princess like. I'd love to paint my daughter's walls with this color. This is two coats.

Zoya Neely

A beautiful mint green creme. I love a good mint green creme and this hits the spot better than anyone I've tried before. This is two coats. Application is smooth like all Zoya's are.

Zoya Pilaf

A golden yellow glitter. This is two coats. Application is wonderful but I'm not a fan of the color on myself. My husband said it looks like I smoke a lot, lol yikes.

Zoya always impresses and never disappoints. These are six gorgeous shades for spring! They remind me of dessert mints! You can purchase zoya nail polish here. They retail for 8.00 a bottle. If you're interested in any of these I highly recommend participating in the Zoya 3 Free promo that starts Monday, Jan. 7th. I posted about it here.

*Side note, I hope my camera gets back up and running soon. :(

Models Own Fuzzy Peach

Models Own Fuzzy Peach is a very pretty peach creme. The application can be a bit frustrating but overall it's a very beautiful creme. I don't own many peach shades so this is a very nice addition to my collection. I love wearing it when I want something neutral but not beige.

Essie Trophy Wife

Essie Trophy Wife is one of those colors I always walked by, picked up for a second and then put down. It looked very underwhelming in the bottle. One day I was visiting my mom and she had this color. I had no polish with me so I used it (better than nakey nails, right?) and suddenly realized what a mistake I'd been making.

In the bottle, Trophy Wife looks like a deep teal with subtle glitter. On the nail it turns into this bright deep teal almost-foil! It's AMAZING. The bottle is not an accurate depiction of what this color will look like on your nail.

Sally Hansen Loves me Not

Sally Hansen Loves me Not is from the new Spring runway collection. This one spoke to me the most, and my word it's gorgeous.

In the bottle shot below, you can see there is some gold glitter as well as bright purple and indigo. The gold never showed up on my nail - however, the sun kept disappearing on me so it's hard to say if it was the weather, or the polish itself.

All the photos are two coats with one coat of seche vite on top. The seche really seals this color and gives it a beautiful glass finish. Loves me Not is a dark purple base filled with indigo and purple glitter. The glitter gives the nail this amazing multi-colored finish that I haven't seen too often in the lacquer-world lately. It's an effortless glitter gradient.

Run, don't walk, and go buy Loves me Not!

JELLY SPAMSPAMSPAM

I love jellies and I love being hit with multiple photos of jellies. There's just something about their squishy texture and shiny-finish that makes me gush whenever I wear one. The OPI Texas jellies are amazing. I used to have Houston, We Have a Purple - but I gave it away! I just didn't like that shade of purple on me.

All of these photos are three coats. As you can see, there really is no visible nail line at that point. With two coats you have a bit of VNL but with the third it disappears. At least on me! All these colors are incredibly saturated and beautiful. If you do not own them, you need to.

Too Hot Pink to Hold' Em
Appropriate name - it's a bright pink fuschia jelly. It's very girly, very in your face, and of course squishy.

Big Hair..Big Nails.
The one that made me fall in love with jellies! It's a pink-red. In person it has more pink tint to it than red. I wish this was a true red jelly.

Ya'll Come Back, Ya Hear?
My new favorite. This is very orange, hello citrus. It's just amazing. It's perfect for summer and I cannot believe I hadn't pulled it out of my collection until yesterday.

 

That's it for the jelly fun. I wish I had more to show you! I have OPI my pointe exactly but that one is such a pain to apply. I'm impatient so every time I try, I get bald spots and it pools by my cuticle. 

Sally Hansen HD DVD

During my little swatch-marathon today I grabbed Sally Hansen HD DVD. I swapped for this a long time ago, put it away, and never pulled it out again until today.

Wow. Was that the biggest mistake I've ever made? Not quite, but it makes the list somewhere.

I'll just let the photos speak for themselves. Guys, there are TWO colors on my nails AT THE SAME TIME. This is more than a duochrome, it's just..GAH. Spectacular, spectacular, no words in our vernacular! I saw all of the HD Sally Hansen's at Ulta the other day for 2.50 a piece. I wish I would have bought them all! Keep your peepers peeled, these are still in random drugstores!



One coat of DVD.

Three coats of DVD w/Seche Vite.

Woooo, bottle shot.

Pure Ice: new display/polishes

There is a new display of Pure Ice nail polish at Walmart called "Vinyl Remix". The display shows a bunch of manicured hands with this awesome rainbow effect. Each polish is a duo: one base coat, one color, and one nail file.

I don't have any photos of the display because my phone is in the stone age with no photo capabilities, and I generally don't go toting my large Nikon around LOL. Anyway, I stood in front of the display with my sister wondering if each individual polish provides that rainbow effect, or if these are individual colors that are layered. The bottles were very vague but we came to the (maybe obvious conclusion, but the display is so misleading) that each set is one color. She grabbed the blue. Not pictured is a vinyl nail file included (which is cute and I wish my sister would just give to me...I love kitschy stuff like that, lol).

I thought the term 'vinyl remix' was neat and bringing something new to the table. I love old records so the idea was very appealing to my inner hipster. Pure Ice already has a line of colored crackle so it didn't occur to me they'd try that AGAIN. Turns out, it really is just some crackle, ya'll. LOL. Glad I didn't buy it. If my sister goes back out to buy another one, I'll layer the two and let you guys know if this is anything special. The magic base coat is just white polish and the blue is....blue.

Apparently, the vinyl that comes with this is supposed to help you make designs with the polish. I'm going to try it today and see what happens.

CORAL SHOWDOWN.

L-R: Wet n Wild Blazed, Sinful Colors Island Coral, Butter London Trout Pout, Sally Hansen Coral Fever

I have a coral problem. They speak to my heart and are the perfect shade for my skin tone regardless of the season. I was going through my collection and noticed these four shades look super similar, so I swatched them on a nail wheel to see how they all compare to Trout Pout..and ... here we are!



WnW Blazed is more peach toned and darker than Trout Pout. Sally Hansen Coral Fever is also darker, but more pink toned.

Now, Sinful Colors Island Coral is a bit thin. That's three coats. I obviously didn't wait for any of these layers to dry so it looks like my nail wheel is melting. ANYWAY! Sinful Colors Island Coral, in my opinion, is a dupe for Butter London Trout Pout. Trout Pout has a much better formula. It's a bit thicker. That's two coats in the photo. But, ignoring the bald spots in Island Coral and the colors aren't that discernible!

If you want Trout Pout but don't to shell out $14 for it, go buy Sinful Colors Island Coral for .99 cents this week (regularly 1.99 at Walgreen's). The formula is different but the color is the same! I'm sitting here with my nail wheel right up to my face and I cannot see a difference.

Thoughts?

Zoya Julieannie - take II

Zoya Julieanne was one of the first few posts I did. The photo was really lacking though considering I took the photo in my kitchen, so I decided to try again. This photo isn't so hot, either. I took about 50 of them and only one came out.

Julieanne is from the 2010 Wicked collection. It's a very deep, blackened, jewel-toned blue-based purple with lavender flakes of glitter. It's STUNNING. Come on, I used four adjectives just to describe what shade of purple it is! In the bottle it shows this beautiful gold-glitter but that doesn't resonate on the nail at all, which is a huge bummer. Imagine how much more awesome this polish would be if the gold showed up? It's even described on the website as being a peachy-gold duochrome but...it's not. It's just a gorgeous deep purple glitter.

This is two coats of Julieanne, you really don't need more than two!

If you like Julieanne, you can buy her here.

Models Own

Quick post before bed, it is midnight after all!

Models Own Juicy Jules. A rather thick scattered holo-glitter in a clear base.

This is REALLLLLLY scattered. It barely shows up on camera but does look pretty in person. This is 2 coats. Maybe more coats = more fun holo?

Zoya Kimber vs China Glaze Strawberry Fields

This is a quick nail wheel comparrison of Zoya Kimber, from the 2012 Beach & Surf collection, and China Glaze Strawberry Fields from the 2009 Summer Days collection.

As you can see, they're really close. Dangerously close. The left is China Glaze Strawberry Fields and the right is Zoya Kimber. Kimber is much deeper and the gold is more prominent. Strawberry Fields is a lighter, more fruity pink and the gold is just the tiniest bit more sparse.

This is taken indoors, with flash, because someone asked for a comparison at 1030 at night.




I want to say I love Kimber more - I love how much deeper she is...but in all honesty, choosing would be like choosing a favorite child or picking only one dessert at Golden Corral. It is not going to happen.

Zoya Tanzy

Zoya Tanzy. Another gem I swapped for and put away in the depths of my polish drawer - never to see the light of day until I feel like swatching. Tanzy reminds me a lot of OC Cooler, but OC Cooler is a bit darker.

This is three coats of Tanzy. It's a great, light orange color with tons of gold glitter. TONS. My camera had no idea what to do with itself so it ran away and pouted in the corner until I decided to manually focus on my nails.

IT'S SO PURDY, and summery! I think I might put this on my toes once I take Rory off. I haven't decided yet.

Zoya Rica

I received Zoya Rica in a swap and just pulled her out today. I don't know what took me so long. I love these modern rose gold colors. Rica is a light, coral-pink with lots and LOTS of gold glitter throughout. It looks amazing against fair skin and just flickers in the sunlight. I took so many photos where my camera just didn't know what to do.

These photos are two coats, no top coat. I will definitely be pulling this color out more. It's such a stunner!

OPI DS Reserve

Another fairly old swatch - OPI DS Reserve. I took this the same day as yesterday's Radiance. Reserve is a light pink shade with really pretty holo glitter throughout. It's subtle but very stunning. This is two coats.

OPI Ds Radiance

OPI DS Radiance looks like liquid silver. It's awesome and applies easily in one coat, it looks amazing in two. It's actually fairly easy to remove, as well. It's one of those shades that seems to show every flaw in my nail, though. This is a really old swatch but I have nothing else to post today! Eek.

OPI It's my Year

I found this in a small-time jewelry store in an equally as small town. They had Swimsuit Nailed It! and Crown me Already from the Miss Universe collection. Those didn't catch my eye as much as It's my Year.



This color is so gorgeous and shiny. It's this a really light pink-purple with TONS of gold shimmer. My camera could barely capture how amazing this color is. I love it so much. It applies relatively sheer. This is three coats. The formula is amazing and easy to manage. You'll definitely want to enlarge this photo to see the true beauty that lies within this color.

China Glaze Kaleidoscope

Yesterday I was driving back from a three hour trip and decided to make a pit stop so my daughter could stretch her legs. We went to this mall, a mall I'd been to a thousand times before and never thought twice about the salon. Why would I? Before now, I'd never truly be interested in nail polish and dusty hunting was not in my repertoire.

So here we are. Daughter playing in this little car and I spot LA Nails. Some dinky little nail salon in a crap-tastic mall. The salon is covered in carpet and wood paneling. I thought I'd venture in a take a peek to see if anything good is inside. You never know, right? The mid-west is a ripe dusty hunting ground. Then I see these silver caps.

Noooo way. NO FLIPPING WAY. At this point I am on this dirty floor that hasn't been vacuumed in months with my nose up against the glass. I think I flashed everyone in the mall my crack. Silver caps always mean gold (haha).

Boom. Four China Glaze Kaleidoscope polishes sitting in front of this glass case. Who knows how long they've been there. They were hiding in a section all their own, in this gigantic sea of old OPI. I had no cash on me so I asked the lady to hold them and she gladly obliged, completely unaware of the mega gems I just found. I bolted out of the salon whisper-screaming at my significant other 'OH MY GOD OH MY GOD JJJJAACKPOT MUTHHAAS.'

Visit me in Prism, two Rated Holographic, and He's Going in Circles. They're in my possession and I'm just in awe. Here are some quick and dirty swatches. The colors are so rich and holographic my camera had a very difficult time focusing on the nails!

He's Going in Circles - three coats. This one is my favorite. It's a beautiful seafoam green (one of my favorite shades ever!) with just..well, look!





Visit me in Prism - 3 coats

I did one finger with some navy underwear and the pinky finger has three coats of just Visit me in Prism. My S/O thought it was a good idea to use underwear - I don't like it, but I didn't want to hurt his feelings so I left it. :) It doesn't need underwear, though. It just takes away from the holographic magic that happens.





Rated Holographic - three coats