Holly Jolly Texture

I love me some texture polishes, and Zoya's Chita, China and Solange make a lovely giftwrap-style manicure.

Happy Hanukkah!

I thought a jelly sandwich in the traditional colors of Hanukkah, silver and blue, would be a really charming manicure, and this look even evokes a snowy evening to boot, making it doubly seasonal!

Artsy Wednesday: Three Colors

It's never too early to start thinking about Halloween, and so I did a fall-ish, Halloweeny manicure to get me in a spooky mood.  I used Sally Hansen Lickety Split Lime as the base, then Slick Slate and Sun Kissed for stamping, using the LeaLC B plate.  I'm pretty pleased with the result!

Check out the other Artsy Wednesday bloggers; they all do some pretty gorgeous work (and we have two new participants, Makeup and Masala and Every Little Polish)!

Lab Muffin

Maria's Nail Art

Valiantly Varnished

Unnaked Nails

Nail & Polish

Beauty Gnome

M.A.S.P.O.O.A.S.E
Makeup and Masala
Every Little Polish

Happy 4th of July!

My favorite holiday; I'd been cooking up this mani for about a week, and I think it came off very nicely:

Textured fireworks!  I'm loving the textured trend, and JulieG's Hot Cinnamon, OPI's Solitaire and Zoya's Liberty are absolutely perfect.  I do wish the photo captured the deep aqua sparkle in Liberty, and the gold flecks in Hot Cinnamon, they're both so brilliant in person!

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Zoya Earth Day Promo! It's the most wonderful time of the nail polish year :)

Zoya is my favorite nail polish brand, and they host my favorite promo around Earth Day.  They give you an opportunity to get half-priced, super high quality nail polish, AND a way to responsibly recycle your old, crummy, cheap or otherwise unusable nail polish to boot (you can't send them Zoya, Qtica or Nocti polishes, but anything else goes; I have a whole bag of junky dried out ones to send)!!

Here are the details, straight from Zoya:

The Zoya Nail Polish Exchange* is BACK for Earth Day 2013!

Once again, Zoya is helping you do a little spring cleaning with the return of the Earth Day Zoya Nail Polish Exchange* for 2013. Clean out your nail polish wardrobe and get rid of old nail polish that may not be BIG5FREE(Free of Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin, Toluene, DBP and Camphor) and exchange it for a greener alternative - long lasting, award winning, healthy ZOYA Nail Polish Bottles!

1. Go to Zoya.com and pick out the polishes you would like (Note: ALL Zoya PixieDust Collection shades are excluded) and add them to your cart. You must select at least 6 bottles and no more than 24 bottles of polish (Salon accounts minimum 12 maximum 48 bottles).
2. Apply the code: ZOYAEARTH2013
3. Your order value will be adjusted to reflect a 50% discount (we use these funds to properly dispose of the old nail polish).
4. SUBMIT your order!

Then Zoya will ship out your NEW polish! YEAH!
Once you get your order, here is where the exchanging* happens…

1. Ship back the equivalent number of bottles you received to the return address below (ie. If you got 6 bottles of Zoya – you would send us 6 NON-ZOYA polishes). Please check with your carrier on the proper way to ship nail polish.
2. Include a copy of your order. 
   

To clarify the exchange: You do not have to send us the exact amount of bottles that you are ordering. You can send any quantity up to that amount. You can also donate. If you decide you don't want to do either, it's ok "Offer is not contingent on customer returning polish" - we will still love you and will ship the Zoya polishes... we'll just send you on a guilt trip for a while :)

Ship Your Old Nail Polish To:
 

Art of Beauty, Inc.
c/o Polish Exchange
5060 Taylor Rd, Unit D
Cleveland, Ohio, 44128, USA

Once we receive your polish we do the rest! It’s that simple!

IMPORTANT!

The bottles you send in cannot be Zoya, Qtica or Nocti polishes (but they can be any other brand).

We are using the honor code here folks! We want to make sure you get your Zoya Nail Polish! We send you the polish first then you send your old polish back to us! If you do choose to send us your old polish we promise to properly dispose of it according to EPA guidelines. This offer is only good for 1 week so hurry – Don’t Wait!

*Offer valid online at www.zoya.com only. Offer expires on 4/26/2013 at 11:59PM EST. Continental US ONLY.Excludes ALL Zoya PixieDust Collection shades. Not valid with any other codes, coupons or promotions. Shipping and handling fees apply. Consumer accounts must exchange a minimum of 6 polishes with a 24 bottle maximum. Salon accounts must exchange at least 12 with a maximum of 48 bottles. Polish can be from any brand EXCEPT Zoya, Qtica or Nocti and can be exchanged for in-stock .5oz Zoya Nail Polish. Offer is not contingent on customer returning polish. Zoya Exchange code is unique and non-transferable. One code per account. Art of Beauty is not responsible for incorrect addresses, credit card entry errors or errors associated with declined credit cards. Please allow standard time for processing and shipping, however if volume is higher than expected please allow up to 6 weeks for shipping and processing. Art of Beauty, Inc. reserves the right to remove any polish that is out of stock from your order. You will not be charged for this polish. Backordered polish is not included in this promotion.

Artsy Wednesday: Easter!

Easter has the best candy of any holiday.

That has nothing to do with today's manicure, chicks in Easter grass.  I've thought a few times that Zoya's Pixiedust shade Vespa was a pretty perfect Easter grass shade, and Creamy is the perfect baby chick yellow.  By their powers combined (plus some Angelina and Pia for eyes and beaks), we have chicks in Easter Grass!

Little cuties :)

I'm really honored to be able to participate in Artsy Wednesday, and you should all DEFINITELY check out these other, very talented Artsy Wednesday participants.  

Pretty Purple Polish

Lab Muffin

Maria's Nail Art

Valiantly Varnished

Unnaked Nails

Nail & Polish

Beauty Gnome

Lacquered Lunatic

Artsy Wednesday: Valentines

I used a tape stencil for today's manicure, and even managed to film a quick how-to video!  I went pretty simple with this one, just a heart accent nail, but the tape stencil makes it way, way easier to get an even heart.  I'm definitely no pioneer with this technique, but I do think it's worth showing off!

While I could've gone frou frou fancy with the colors, I stuck to fresh, almost neons, because I am just yearning for some warmer weather.

Check it out:

I'm really honored to be able to participate in Artsy Wednesday, and you should all DEFINITELY check out these other, very talented Artsy Wednesday participants.  

Pretty Purple Polish

Lab Muffin

Maria's Nail Art

Valiantly Varnished

Unnaked Nails

Nail & Polish

Beauty Gnome

Lacquered Lunatic

Review: Pretty & Polished Sin City Hand and Body Cream

I was given the opportunity to review Pretty & Polished's new hand and body cream, in the scent (or should I say flavor?) Sin City.  Sin City is a dark chocolate scented body cream that Pretty & Polished is releasing as a Valentines Day product.  I'm going to be doing this initial review, and will be "road testing" the hand cream for the next few weeks by using it exclusively, to see how it does long-term as a moisturizer!

First impressions: I had two of them.  The first was the packaging; I was sent this for review, meaning that my focus was going to be on the product, but Pretty & Polished packed my tester sample in a totally charming box with cheerful tissue paper to boot!  I really appreciate companies that add touches like that.

Second first impression: When I smelled the creme, I believe I actually said "Oh my GODDD"; the richness of the scent is phenomenal!  It takes the chocolatey scent of cocoa butter and amps it up to something beyond delicious-smelling.  I'm getting undertones of baked-goods as well as the chocolate, giving the scent in the jar a nice depth.  I also really appreciate that the scent isn't insanely strong; really strong scents for lotions drive me batty, and this cream has a very nice balance of enjoyable scent without being overpowering.

Here are my nails after removing polish; slightly stained, dry, slightly raggedy cuticles.

Here are the same nails after using the hand cream; a definite improvement in skin and cuticle moisture!

Impressions of the cream after use:
First off, scent on the skin.  When you apply the creme, there's a burst of that sweet baked-good smell, and then the lotion settles into a much more subtle scent and settle into a slightly chocolatey, slightly sweet, light fragrance.  I even got hints of coffee after the initial application, though that also mellowed into the final fragrance.  This one's complex!  I like it though; not a punch-in-the-face of tastiness, but there was just a breeze in the room from a door I left open for the cat, and I got a nice waft of scent from my hands on the keyboard, meaning the fragrance is there when you want it!

Second, the cream itself: you can see little flecks of cocoa butter in the cream, which is a pale pinkish color and a fairly fluid consistency.  It's not ultra thick like a Body Shop body cream, but isn't as thin as most lotions that come with a pump; somewhere in-between.  It absorbs in really quickly, and isn't greasy.  You can tell you recently put on hand cream, but I can type on my keyboard immediately after applying without getting little lotion spots on the keys (ah, the modern benchmark for hand cream quality!).

Final impressions: I like this cream; my hands are well moisturized without being greasy, and smell delish without being so overpowering that I get a headache.  Overall, I approve!

Sin City Hand and Body Cream will be released on January 16th, and can be found on Pretty & Polished's website HERE.

Sin City Hand and Body Cream Ingredients: 
Aloe Barbadensis (Organic Aloe Vera) Leaf Juice, Water (Aqua), Isopropyl Palmitate, Glycerin, Stearic Acid, Propylene Glycol, Glyceryl Stearate, Dimethicone, PEG-100 Stearate, Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Cetearyl Alcohol, Ceteareth-20, Triethanolamine, Sesamum Indicum (Sesame) Seed Oil, Carbomer, Methylisothiazolinone, Tocopherol (Antioxidant Vitamin E), Phenoxyethanol, Mangifera Indica (Mango) Seed Butter, Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter, Coffea Arabica Seed Oil (and) Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Manihot Esculenta (Tapioca) Root Starch, Illite (Valley Mauve Natural Clay), Fragrance, Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol, Potassium Sorbate, Hexylene Glycol (Preservative).

Disclaimer: These products were sent to me for review; all opinions are honest and my own and have no external input or influence.

10 Day Nail Art Challenge Days 8 and 9: Holiday Watercolor and a Red and Green Manicure

First up, we've got a watercolor manicure.  I used the tutorial here from Nail Art 101: Watercolor Nails Tutorial to create a soft and sweet red, green and gold watercolor.  I do think this turned out a little more springtime than holiday, but hey, that just means I can use the same colors in a few months!

Next, a good ol' green and red manicure (it was supposed to be red, green and white, but I totally forgot to add white! Whoops!).  I stamped some radiant pointsettias onto a nice kelly green background; I wish my camera could accurately capture how lovely the raspberry red of the Kleancolor Red Metallic is for this manicure, it's just gorgeous!

10 Day Nail Art Challenge Day 7: Holiday Marble

Today's holiday marble was supposed to be a water marble, but I'm sick and don't have the patience for a water marble, so I did a drag marble instead!  I made little sugarplums on my nails, and even created a little video tutorial to go along with it.

I'm going to have to figure out why the recording is choppy, but it's a start!

10 Day Nail Art Challenge Day 6: Holiday Movie; The Santa Clause

I love The Santa Clause; a Christmas movie about doubt and belief, magic, generosity, good fun, family, falling off the roof, burnt turkey, ugly sweaters, snow globes and more? What's not to like!?

My little Santa suit nails are actually pretty easy to do, as evidenced by this video tutorial!

10 Day Holiday Nail Art Challenge Day 3: Gift Wrap

I don't actually own any gift wrap at the moment; I tend to use gift bags because they're so much faster.  So, I drew my inspiration from thin air and decided a nice gilted red would be a lovely giftwrap.

Using the Llarowe LeaLC stamping plate B and Kleancolor Metallic Gold, I stamped a whole bunch of gift-wrappey patterns onto Butter London's Knees Up.  Knees Up is SO gorgeous, and the Kleancolor metallics stamp like a dream!

10 Day Holiday Nail Art Challenge Day 2: Snow/Snowflakes

Snow at dusk, is there anything better?

Julep's Viola made the perfect base for HITS Mari Moon Artsy, to create a dusky, multicolored sky look.

OPI Pirouette my Whistle, the real inspiration for this manicure, gave the perfect glittery depth to my snowscape, and OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and Julep Emma for snow on the ground and the moon in the sky finished off this glittery winter wonderland.

Check out the other Day 2 entries!

Artsy Wednesday: Christmas

I can't believe Christmas is right around the corner; wasn't it July just recently?

This manicure isn't going to make any kind of sense without a backstory, so here it is: Bees.  My manicure is a tribute to a very large Secret Santa exchange that happens over the internet, wherein the Secret Santas and Santees regularly make jokes about sending and receiving bees (can you imagine receiving a box full of bees in the mail? Terrifying!).

I was lucky enough to get a Santa who sent me a fabulous gift, including 4 Julep polishes I didn't own (a feat in itself, since I own something like 30!), some fabulous nail art glitters, and a nice black polish (for bee striping, of course!)  I set out to make a bee-like manicure with the bee colored portions of their gift, and made a honeycomb/stripey design for my Christmas manicure.

I've participated in this Secret Santa exchange for 2 years now, and it's so much fun to send gifts to people across the country (or the world!), get thoughtful and fun gifts from a relative stranger, and basically add even more excitement to the holidays.  So, I have a bee manicure, because it wouldn't be Christmas with out bees!

Bzz!

I'm really honored to be able to participate in Artsy Wednesday, and you should all DEFINITELY check out these other, very talented Artsy Wednesday participants.  

Pretty Purple Polish

Lab Muffin
Maria's Nail Art
Valiantly Varnished
Unnaked Nails
Nail & Polish
Beauty Gnome
Lacquered Lunatic

Indie Spotlight: Pretty & Polished Holiday Polishes

One of my favorite things about indie polishes is that when you buy a bottle from a reputable indie maker, and get to see it in person and on the nail, there's always a little something special, a little extra, a surprise about the polish that makes it seem all the more fantastic to own.

When I was given the opportunity to purchase some of Pretty & Polished's holiday polishes, I chose polishes that I knew I didn't have in my collection, so I expected them to feel pretty unique to me.  But I really was surprised at how fantastic and unique these polishes were!

S'no Mans Land is a pearlescent white with satiny white hexes and tiny iridescent glitter.

I chose it because I only own creme whites, and wanted a pearly white to add to my collection.  Little did I know that this polish had these fabulous larger hexes that look like pearls on your nails, and that the iridescent glitter would really evoke the fresh-snow-in-the-sun look.

As for application, I did put the bottle on its side while I put on my basecoat, just to make sure the larger hexes were available to the brush when I polished.  I do this with pretty much all of my polishes with larger glitter, and it's a technique that has served me well.

The polish is thickish, to suspend the glitter, but not gloppy.  It isn't brushstrokey or too frosty either.  It really is more of a pearl finish than a frost, and is a nice soft white, instead of being stark or harsh.

Next, I chose Love Always, Candy Cain (what a fabulously sassy name!).  This polish contains white, red and silver glitters of various sizes in a clear base, obviously invoking the imagery of candy cane colors.  I don't have any larger red glitters, and have wanted one for a long time, so I figured it'd be a good choice.  Here, I layered it over S'no Mans Land:

When it arrived, I was thrilled by the mix of glitters; big white matte hexes, red hearts, white hearts, big, medium AND little red hexes, red and silver microglitter etc.  It's fabulous, but it's also a very thoughtful mix; it doesn't look like a glitter pinata broke over a bottle, it looks like a really appealing glitter topper.

The consistency of the polish isn't globby like some glitterbombs, but the thinner polish meant I ended up doing my "bottle on the side during basecoating" trick just to make sure I'd get a good blend of glitters.  Application was easy, and I found one coat sufficient, although going to town with 2 or 3 would be a lot of fun.

Overall, I was really impressed with these two polishes.  The colors fit the holiday theme, but they don't scream CHRISTMAS at you.  I know for a fact I can wear these other times of the year and not feel unseasonably elfish.  Application was pretty easy, especially for polishes with such large glitter, and the glitter itself is obviously well chosen and well thought out.  Dry time was surprisingly quick; I expected it to take longer, but with a good coat of Poshe I was all set!

The Pretty & Polished holiday collection is launching tomorrow, and can be purchased at the Pretty & Polished Etsy store.

Disclaimer: I purchased these items with my own money, at a discounted price for use in a review on my blog.  My opinions are my own and were not influenced in any way by Pretty & Polished.

Artsy Wednesday: Halloween

Ooh, ooh, witchy woman, see how high she flies. Ooh, ooh, witchy woman, she got the moon in her eye.

I'm so proud of these!  These are my real nails, by the way; I filed them to points!  I was going to cut them down anyway, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to do something a little crazy.

I won 365 Days of Color's Boouk!  in a giveaway, and it's a fantastic addition to my witchy manicure!  The creamy base softened the lines of my gradient without obscuring the colors.  It's like a veil for your nails, so to speak.  The very charming neutral glitter also added a pretty wartiness (if such a thing can exist) that I just love!  I think neutral glitter colors are underrated; purple is fun, but copper and pale bronze are just so classy (says the woman with pointy witch fingers).

I don't know that it would have occurred to me to layer Boouk! over a darker color if I hadn't done a witchy manicure, but boy am I glad I did.  I've been having an "every other week" success rate with how much I like my Artsy Wednesday offerings, but this one has definitely broken my 50/50 streak, as I like it a lot!

I'm really honored to be able to participate in Artsy Wednesday, and you should all DEFINITELY check out these other, very talented Artsy Wednesday participants.  

Pretty Purple Polish

Lab Muffin
Maria's Nail Art
Polished Genius
Valiantly Varnished
Unnaked Nails
Nail & Polish
Beauty Gnome
Lacquered Lunatic

Happy 4th of July!! (And farewell to 1/3 of my right thumbnail!)

I love the 4th of July.  I hope you all have a wonderful day of grilling, relaxing, parades, fireworks and fun!  I'm celebrating with a pretty simple 4th manicure:

I finally busted out the FingerPaints magnetic polish, and used the China Glaze star magnet to make little stars/fireworks on my nails!  I don't have striping tape, and for some reason couldn't find any actual tape, so I used OPI's Pirouette My Whistle over Nailtiques Moscow for my thumbs.

Why did I photograph my left hand for this?  Because I broke my right thumb nail on a gate at work.  Not just broke, practically obliterated it.  Here's the damage:

You can actually see how far down the nail a layer broke off; I'm super, super lucky it wasn't worse though, as I didn't even bleed.  Here's my thumb compared to my whole nails, to show how I like to keep my nails (when they aren't polished!).  

Fingers crossed that it grows back soon.  Field work is rough!

4th of July giveaway!

The 4th of July is my favorite holiday.  It's so wonderfully low-key; go to a parade, eat a hot dog, watch some fireworks, wave a flag, go to bed.  It's easy, it's fun and it celebrates something I really like (I really do like America).

I can't spend this 4th of July with my family in my hometown, as it falls on a Wednesday and it's just not practical to fly 800 miles one way for a single day.  My hometown has an annual parade where half the city is in the parade, and half is watching.  Then we'd have a barbecue with whoever is around for the day, and watch the city's fireworks display.  You can actually see the fireworks from my bedroom window.

I'm sad I can't be there, but I'll have fun in my new town, going to a festival and seeing some fireworks here. It's time to start some new 4th of July traditions!

To celebrate further, and to share my total love for the 4th of July, I'm giving away 3 nail polishes to one winner!  Julep's Molly is the red,Maybelline's Colorshow in Porcelain Party is the white, and FingerPaints Electro-Midnight is the blue (and it's magnetic!).  Simply fill out the Rafflecopter widget below to enter; this giveaway will end on June 26th, and the winner will have 24 hours to e-mail me their address.  If they don't contact me in the allotted time, I'll pick a different winner.  U.S. only for now, sorry! Good luck!
4th of July giveaway!

Memorial Day Manicure

Click picture for larger

It feels a little frivolous to post a manicure on Memorial Day, but this is a blog for nail polish, so it seems fitting even if it is a little silly.  

A day set aside to honor Americans lost to war is  a pretty somber, serious and needful kind of day.  However, I feel like the atmosphere of the day has become one of enjoyment of our freedoms, spending time with friends and family, a day of gratitude.  That's how I choose to observe Memorial Day.  I'm certainly grateful for my life, and am grateful to know the people I know, live where I live, and to be able to do what I do.  Thank you, to anyone and everyone that has made this country a better place.