Dusseldorf Stars

About once a week my sister-in-law, Sarah, asks me to paint her nails.  It seems that I come up with better designs when I'm working with someone else than when designing for myself - and this manicure was no exception!  I was so in love with what I did for Sarah that I recreated the look on my own nails just for this post.

Starting with my pinky I used two coats of Zoya Trixie.  I've long been on a quest for a silver that looks like real silver; this is by far the best I have found to date.  Zoya just keep rocking my world!  I finished off my pinky with a pink star rhinestone, and Essie Good To Go top coat.

My ring finger got a base coat then I stamped the entire nail with Cheeky stamp CH5 using Konad Black special polish.  Once that had dried I taped off a V-shape and painted the bottom half of my nail with one thick coat of OPI Suzi & 7 Dusseldorfs.  I am so in love with this purpley-magenta - it is very rich and regal.

My middle and index fingers got two coats of OPI Suzi & 7 Dusseldorfs, and my index finger was topped off with a clear star rhinestone and Essie Good To Go top coat.

What do you think of using a stamp over a clear coat?  I was very pleased with how it turned out - I'll definitely have to give it a try again soon.

I hope your Monday is off to a good start!

Heavy Metal

I mentioned in this post that I was working on building a light box for taking photos.  I finally got it up and running today and I am so pleased with how my photos turned out.  We're still working on getting a new camera, so hopefully my photos will continue to do nothing but improve!

I've always been a huge fan of grey - it can be warm, cool, or neutral, and goes with almost everything!  Continuing on my Zoya trend I selected two lovely Zoya greys for this look.

I started out by painting my ring finger, middle finger, and thumb with two coats of Zoya Carey, and my pinky and index finger with two coats of Zoya Marina.  To finish off the fingers with the lighter grey, Carey, I placed a square metal stud diagonally near my cuticle and a black metal dot just below it.  When using the metal pieces I find that I need to apply a minimum of two coats of top coat over the top of them, if not three, in order to cover all of the edges and keep them from catching on things.  Essie Good To Go is an awesome, fast drying, high-shine top coat, which is great for use over the metal decorations.

Once my index finger and pinky dried completely I stamped them with Pueen stamp 02 using Konad White special polish.  Next I used two coats of China Glaze I'm Not Lion to add a little sparkle.

What are your favorite grey polishes?  Toodles!

Dree Spree

Before I get going on my next few posts I will warn all of my readers that my posts are going to be very Zoya heavy for the next few weeks.  I've had a modest collection of Zoya polishes for a while, but just recently discovered what an amazing selection of colors and finishes they offer - not to mention all of their polishes are vegan and the company is cruelty-free... what's better than that?  So, needless to say I have expanded my Zoya collection significantly and plan to share some of my favorite colors with you in the coming weeks.

For this manicure I started out with Zoya Dree, which is a creamy military green that immediately caught my eye.  One of my favorite colors is green but most of my green polishes tend to be fairly traditional colors, so this one got me very excited.

It doesn't show that well in the photo but Zoya Happi is a scrumptious pink with green shift.  To finish this look I applied gold metal stars to my index and pinky and used Cheeky CH5 stamp with Konad Bright Gold special polish to adorn my middle finger.

Happy Saturday, Lovelies!

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?