In Lavender Love

Back in this post I mentioned that I have been obsessed with neutrals this winter.  One of my absolute favorites is OPI My Very First Knockwurst.  It is this creamy, slightly pink, slightly purple, dreamy, delicious, heavenly neutral that looks amazeballs with my skin tone.  Yes, AMAZEBALLS!

I know...it's amazing, right?  If I die tomorrow I want to be buried with my nails painted with My Very First Knockwurst, because wearing that color I couldn't possibly be turned away from heaven.

...back to the task at hand - no pun intended!  I used two coats of OPI My Very First Knockwurst and two coats of Zoya Adina on my middle finger.

Get dreamy with your favorite neutrals and let me know which ones get you all excited like this has done to me.  Chao, Cuties!

Zoya Lovely Swatches

With Easter coming up what is more appropriate than a collection of pastel polishes?  The Spring 2013 collection from Zoya, Lovely, is just that - lovely!

The Lovely Collection includes three cream shades - Jacqueline, Blue and Neely, all of which are shown with two coats, and three shimmer shades - Julie, Gei Gei, and Piaf, all of which are shown with three coats.

Jacqueline, a cream formula, shown here with two coats, is a beautiful yellowish neutral.  The formula was a bit on the thick side and hard to work with, but it may have been because the bottle I received was slightly open and had leaked a bit.  Other than being slightly thick the color is nice.  I am unlikely to paint my entire hand this color when I am not swatching, but it could be a nice neutral to use for stamping or as an accent nail.

Blue, also a cream formula, is just as the name indicates - blue - think a dense, creamy baby blue.  The formula for this was thinner and more like other Zoya polishes, which are very easy to work with.

I love the name for this polish because it reminds me of just that - Vespa.  Being that I love green and I love cream polishes this one is by far my favorite of the collection.  I'm already dreaming of the green gradient manicure I can accomplish now that I've added this dreamy shade to my collection.

Julie, a purple shimmer, is such a fun color that reminds me a spring.  Of the three shimmer shades in the Lovely collection Julie offered the best coverage (shown here with three coats). 

Gei Gei, another shimmer, is a very girly pink.  After three coats it offered decent coverage, although I really thought it could use another coat for maximum opacity.

Piaf, the final shimmer formula of the Lovely collection, is a yummy goldish-yellow.  I used three coats for this photo, but like Gei Gei it could have used another coat for better opacity.  Piaf leans more gold than yellow, which doesn't show in this photo, but I'm excited to try this shade with a gold glitter in a clear base over the top.

I'm sure I will get a lot of mileage out of these polishes as they are a great supplement to my heavily saturated nail polish collection.

May Spring find you soon, Sweeties!

Half and Half (with step-by-step photos)

This bright and fun manicure is another one inspired by my wonderful niece.  Last week she dressed up as an 80's punk for Decade Day at school.  I immediately thought of this look, which turned out super cool!

I started by painting four nails with two coats of China Glaze Heli-Yum, and one finger with two coats of Essie Vermillionaire.

 Once that had dried completely I taped off the outer half of each nail.

I then painted the inner half of each nail with one coat of Essie Licorice.  Be sure to remove the tape no more than 30 seconds after applying a coat of black.  If the polish is allowed to dry with the tape on it is likely to rip up the black, and we don't want that!

Apply a high-shine top coat and voila!

On a side note I would like to apologize for my subpar photographs.  I am currently working on a design for a light box, which will help immensely in producing better photographs, and Jeff has offered to buy a new camera for me...in case anyone is wondering why I am marrying him that's example #384,572 right there!

I hope you are all enjoying your Sunday!  Toodles!

Land, Ho!

Today is another collaborative effort between my niece, Anavah, and me.  Anavah was in love with Zoya Godiva the moment I pulled it out of the box, as was I.  Neutrals have been a go to polish for me this winter.  Hopefully, I can get around to showing you some of my favorite neutrals before too long.

We started out with three coats of Zoya Godiva on four fingers and two coats of China Glaze First Mate on the index.  The index finger was stamped with Cheeky plate CH6, using Konad Special Polish in Light Brown.

Which color from the Zoya Pixie Dust collection is your favorites?

Black Pearl

The Zoya Pixie Dust manicures continue today with Black Pearl.  This post is going to be brief because after caring for my nieces and nephews, who have been down with the flu, for the past week it has finally caught up to me and now I have it too.  Without further ado here is Black Pearl.

I've been meaning to share with my readers my excitement about stumbling across the premiere issue of a consumer nail magazine called Nail It!.  What was also very excitement about the release of the magazine was that there were free nail wrap samples from Kiss inside.  Before this I had been quietly sitting on my soapbox thinking that nail wraps are for cheaters, but since I received a free sample I had to try them out, right?  While I can't say I'm totally sold on the idea of nail wraps, they can add a beautiful punch to a simple manicure.  

And then yesterday as I was thoroughly scouring the nail section at my local drug store I happened to come across the exact set that the nail wrap shown here came from.  So, I had to pick it up, right?  I mean I couldn't just walk away, could I?  So, you may see a few more manicures using Kiss nail wraps in the future.  The biggest downside to using them is that they don't last long.  

By the end of day one my wrap was beginning to peel up.  So, don't expect to get long wear out of them if you give them a try.

Back to the Black Pearl manicure - I started with three coats of Zoya Dahlia on four fingers, and the Kiss nail wrap on the fifth.  I added some three dimensional dots using half moon pearls.

What do you think of nail wraps?  Have you given them a try?

Keep painting, Pretties!

Red Racer

This awesome design was a suggestion from my super-awesome, car-minded fiance.  

On each finger I started out with three coats of Zoya Chyna.  Once that had completely dried I taped off a stripe on my ring finger and used two coats of Zoya London.  To give the design a sparkly, high sheen like a car I used two coats of Essie Good To Go top coat.

This is a relatively simple design that looks very sleek.  Thanks to my favorite person in the world and love of my life, Jeff, for the inspiration.

London Rain

As I mentioned in a previous post I had a lot of fun coming up with manicures using the Zoya Pixie Dust collection.  For this look I used Zoya London with two of my favorite purples - Splash of Grenadine, and Pilates Hottie.  I also did some stamping and because I was being impatient the stamp smeared a bit when applying the top coat, but I quite liked the effect and aptly named the manicure London Rain.

As was the case when I swatched Zoya London the color is coming out very green in the photographs.  I did do some color correction in Photoshop but it is still showing quite a bit more green than it is in reality, so you're going to have to use your imagination. :-)  On my ring finger I started with two coats of Essie Pilates Hottie, and on my pinky I used two coats of Essie Splash of Grenadine.  Both my ring finger and pinky were stamped with Pueen plate 04.

More Pixie Dust manicures to come in the following days!  Toodles for now, Lovelies!