Holly Jolly Texture

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

IT IS FINALLY CHRISTMAS MUSIC SEASON (happy thanksgiving)

I love Christmas music.  I don't think I can ever get sick of every hokey, oft-heard standard (except for Christmas Shoes, that song is awful).  But I keep myself from listening to it until Thanksgiving; it just isn't time for Christmas music until then.

So, let's celebrate Christmas music season with a holly jolly manicure!

I bought these Sally Hansen Rent the Runway polishes (Red: Rosey Shooter, Green: Green Rocket) way back in October, as I thought they, along with Glitter Gun (a gold) were PERFECT Christmas shades.  I layered them over Zoya's Hunter and Livingston (green and red respectively), to create a pitch-perfect holiday mani.

Jelly Time

Jelly sandwich time, folks!  I needed a little summer color today, seasons be damned!

Gorgeous!  I love this cantaloupe colored jelly, Zoya's Maya, with Maria Luisa in between.  Gotta love a subtle gold flakie peeking out from a lush jelly!

Deep Purple Skittles

Purple: the color of royalty.  The color of spring, when bright crocuses pop up and peek at the sun.  The color of fall, when some trees change from yellow, to orange, to red, to a nearly livid purple.  The last, lingering color of a winter sunset. I love purple.

Zoyas one and all, from left to right: Valerie, Mimi, Mason and Daul.

Luxurious Brocades from Maybelline

I spotted the Maybelline Brocades in a CVS recently, and snapped up three bottles posthaste.  This manicure layers Embelleshed Blues (dark blue) and Beaming Blue (light blue) over Zoya's Neve, a gorgeous purple-leaning blue.

The Brocades can lean a little lumpy if they're more than one coat, but with the layering over a base color they smooth out beautifully with a layer of topcoat.

The shimmer in Embelleshed Blues has a GORGEOUS green flash to it, and Beaming Blue is a light blue/purplish pink duochrome.  Both have larger blue glitters as well, giving these polishes quite an effect in a single bottle.

I'm back!

I've been a pretty lackadaisical blogger for a while now, but I'd like to change that!  I moved house, got a new job, got some chickens and have been working on increasing my fitness level as well, so I let blogging take a bit of a back seat.

I'm hoping to stick to a Tuesday/Thursday posting schedule.  As my polish collection has done nothing but grow lately, I've got even more to share.

Let's start with my current manicure:

I used Zoya's Jaime as a base, and jazzed it up with one of the new Maybelline Brocades, Gilded Rose, and Sally Hansen Glitter Gun from the Rent the Runway collection (see a fantastic overview here: http://nouveaucheap.blogspot.com/2013/08/spotted-new-sally-hansen-limited_22.html).

Application Notes:

• The application of Jaime was very nice; I still had visible nail line at 2 coats, but no streakiness or tricky application, which can be the case with a pastel like this.  
• Gilded Rose is just perfect; opaque in 2 coats, smooth even before you add topcoat, stunning.  I might just buy a backup.
• Glitter Gun was a shot in the dark for me, because a lot of the major brands kind of miss the mark with glitter mixes like this, but I was pleasantly surprised!  Simple application, not too much dabbing to place the glitter, and a free-flowing base that didn't gloop up.

I, much like Wendy Torrance, love pink and gold together. Gorgeous!

Artsy Wednesday: Inspired by Animation, Adventure Time Nails!

Adventure time!  C'mon grab your friends, we'll go to very distant lands.  With Jake the Dog, all over my nails, the fun it never ends, Adventure Time!

Using Pretty n' Polished "I'm Not a Banana" and Zoya's Creamy, I was able to create the perfect Jake the Dog manicure. I'm pretty proud of how this turned out, it's so cute!

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

Artsy Wednesday: Two Colors

NEONNNN!  

I chose neon yellow (China Glaze Celtic Sun), and a neon pink (Zoya Ali), to create a yellow and neon orange (yay color theory!) saran wrap manicure!  I love this for summer, and it goes nicely with my new Curlformer curlers (which I purchased with my own money).

NEON!

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!

Winners! 10,000 Blog View Giveaway

Winners!  I've sent emails to the following winners, and they will have 72 hours to respond.  If they do not respond in the allotted time frame, I'll select new winners.

Congrats! I'm cooking up a future giveaway to celebrate the 4th of July, my favorite holiday!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Artsy Wednesday: Pastels

Watercolor manicure time! I used Zoya polishes for this beaut, Gaia as the base, and Jaime, Blu and Neely for the watercolor effects.

Watercolor manicures are super easy; dot one-three small dots of polish (straight from the bottle brush) on your painted/topcoated nail, then dab a small brush with pure acetone (no gelatin, no fragrances, no non-acetone; pure acetone is a must for this) on the polish dots. The polish will spread as you continue to dab, creating lovely dreamy watercolor-like dots of color.

Check out the other Artsy Wednesday bloggers; they all do some pretty gorgeous work!

Lab Muffin

Maria's Nail Art

Valiantly Varnished

Unnaked Nails

Nail & Polish

Beauty Gnome

M.A.S.P.O.O.A.S.E

And don't forget, I'm having a major giveaway, including 3 Zoya minis as a prize (Plus an Ulta giftcard, a Sephora giftcard, and a Llarowe giftcard as other possible prizes)!  Click the image below to enter!

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

Zoya Pixie Dust Review

I bought four of the Zoya Pixie Dust polishes  the second they went on presale; they looked like wonderful soft colors (I got Godiva, Vespa, Nyx and London), and the texture effect was intriguing.   They arrived at my house a few days ago, and have been staring at me, tempting me with their shimmery silver goodness.

These polishes are designed to dry to a textured, slightly gritty texture, a matte finish, with sparkle.  The texture is much like the fine-grit side of an emery board.  They require no basecoat or topcoat, and that's how I swatched them.  They can be topcoated to add a shiny finish and cover up the texture, if that isn't your thing.  Removal was a breeze, way way easier than any other glittery polish I've ever owned.

I love these; I wasn't entirely sure I would, but they're tugging at my rock-loving heartstrings.  They look like little geodes on your nails, and have a subtle, shimmery, crystalline beauty that I am in love with.  Application is a hair tricky, but with a smidgeon more patience than a creme might take, they work just fine.  Their dry-time is pretty quick; not Seche Vite quick, but you won't dent your mani within about 10-ish minutes.

First off, London; a deep foggy grey polish, it dries a touch darker than the bottle color.

The application with this color was flawless, and I used just two coats.  I do recommend wrapping your tips with these polishes, as their base is sheer enough that the white nailtip might stand out a bit, like it does on my ring finger.

Next, Godiva, a pale nude (nice reference, Zoya!):

The sparkle doesn't photograph well with this one, but trust me, it's there.  For this one, I had to add a third coat just to my nailtips, as I had visible nail line with two coats.  I was able to apply the polish just to the top third of my nails, and it blended seamlessly with the rest of the polish, so I bet chips would be easy to touch up with these polishes too!

Third, I have Vespa, a lovely retro sagey green:

This polish applied the best of the four, with two easy breezy coats, one thin, one thicker.  This one is also the sparkliest of the four I bought.  I think it's my favorite shade from this collection, as it's hard for me to find sagey greens that mesh well with my skintone, and Vespa is really flattering.

Finally, Nyx, a faboo periwinkle blue:

I really love this soft blue; I think it compliments my skin fabulously, and is a change of pace from the typical creme finish for periwinkle polishes.  This one is also fairly glittery, like Vespa was.  I did have to watch for bald spots with this one, but this polish is so manipulable that a few extra swipes of my brush didn't damage the manicure at all.

My overall verdict is that as long as you watch your application, these polishes are really something special; unusual in their matte, textured sparkliness, and unique in the burgeoning textured polish market in that they're softer shades instead of the ultra-bright texture polishes you might see from other companies.  I have enough bright glitters, these are a change of pace for my collection that make me really, really glad I bought these!

Disclaimer: I purchased these products with my own money, and all opinions are my own.

Artsy Wednesday: View from your window

 

I put birdseed out on our deck every day, specifically so I can watch the birds while I work from home.  I love love love seeing the different species that drop by, including bluejays, carolina chickadees, carolina wrens, house finches, dark eyed juncos, striped sparrows, brown headed cowbirds, cardinals and even a raven or two!  I think birds are absolutely beautiful, and will always love watching them through my window :)

This week's Artsy Wednesday is a bit of a punt; I had the opportunity to go out with some friends I haven't seen in weeks last night, so my fingernails are currently super boring.  So, I bring you a previous manicure that WAS inspired by the view from my window, bluejay nails!

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

10 Day Holiday Nail Art Challenge Day 1: Silver and Gold!

Silver and gold, silver and gold

Ev'ryone wishes for silver and gold

How do you measure its worth?

Just by the pleasure it gives here on Earth.

Silver and gold, silver and gold

Mean so much more when I see

Silver and gold decorations

On ev'ry Christmas tree.

I've had that song stuck in my head since I signed on for this nail art challenge.  I tried to do striping tape trees in gold, with Zoya's Luna as the background, for the silver element of the nail art.  I added little iridescent stars on top of each tree, to create a super shimmery, gorgeous manicure!  I'm in love with this one, and the tape trees are SO easy to do!

Photographing them, on the other hand, is NOT easy, especially when they're this glittery!  My lighting was shining off of it so brightly that I barely got any usable photos.  However, moving my hands around creates this gorgeously distracting glitter

Artsy Wednesday: Glitter gradient dotticure!

I just got a dotting tool, so I thought a snowy, tinselly glitter gradient was in order.  With Zoya's Luna and Trixie, I got a pretty nice (if not subtle, but sometimes subtle is nice!) glitter gradient dotticure:

I'm going to be putting more effort into blogging in the coming days, including the possibility of recording video each time I do an Artsy Wednesday manicure, or other nail art, and then posting it along with pictures.

I love Luna so, so much.  It's such an unusual, one-of-a-kind polish!  I'm pretty sure I bought it on a whim, probably during a promo of some sort, just a cart filler or what have you, but it's in my top 10 polishes, without a doubt.  The milky white silvery shimmery goodness is just so pretty!

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: Drag Marble

You guys are going to have to excuse the slightly crummy pictures today; it's been raining like crazy, and my old junky Nikon doesn't like my lightbox, so my lighting options have been limited.  On that note, what kind of camera do you like to use for close-up photos?  I could use some recommendations!

Anyway, back on track, today's Artsy Wednesday is a drag marble.  A drag marble involves slathering a thickish layer of a base polish on, then dabbing a bit of another color and dragging a needle through it to make designs.

I had Pretty & Polished Pretty as a Peacock on, and didn't want to take it off because it's so pretty, but didn't want to cover it up either.  Jelly polish to the rescue!  Zoya's Frida was a perfect base for my drag marble, and Julep's Sienna (the perfect gold polish), was a nice accent to the teal base.  My technique could use refining, as I basically just made little sunshiny splats, but it was a pretty neat process.

You do end up with a lot of polish on your nail; even after a 30 minute dry time and a fast-dry top coat, I wrecked both my thumbs :(  So, set aside a lot of time for a drag marble!

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: Inspired by the season

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."-George Eliot

I love fall.  The colors, the smells, the cool air, my birthday, fun holidays, good food, cozy clothes, migrating birds.  Fall makes me feel calm, like the world is how it's supposed to be.

To celebrate, I now have a super super cute apple manicure!

It's like back-to-school, pies, changing leaves and a harvest wrapped into one.  Also, since a large portion of the Eastern U.S.'s apple crop was wiped out this year from an April frost, it's something of a memorial (no worries though, trees that are well rested should produce even better than usual next year!).

I don't think I've been happier with a manicure in a long time; every time I look at my nails I get a little surge of delight!   

Hooray for fall!

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
Kaka Beauty Blog