Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Artsy Wednesday: Vintage

I wanted to tip a hat to the aesthetic of the '20s-'30s, and did a sort of Art Deco/Geometric manicure with vampy, glamorous colors for this one!


I channeled Doris Duke a bit, with her embrasure of geometric patterns, and so I threw a tropical background into these pictures to further the effect!
I used Julep's Trina and Sienna for the luxe colors, and used striping tape to get the diamond patterns.  I love the fancy french tip concept, and with the striping tape this look really is a breeze; just make an X at the tip of your finger with the striping tape and paint the tip color over the gaps in the X.  Peel the tape off, and voila!   

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



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!

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

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!



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!

Friday, May 10, 2013

10,000 Blog Views; you know what that means! GIVEAWAY!!


It happened!  10,000 blog views (plus 2!)  Thank you so much for your support, this has been an awfully fun project, and I wanted to host a giveaway as a thank you to all of you :)  There will be four winners, picked at random from the Rafflecopter results.  U.S. only for now, for shipping purposes.  The giveaway runs until 6/1/13, good luck!!

Giveaway Prizes!

Three Zoya Minis!  Pippa, Gilda and Zuza, perfect for summer!


$10 Sephora Gift Card!

$10 Ulta Gift Card!

$10 Llarowe Gift Card!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Artsy Wednesday: A color I usually hate

I tend to really dislike caramel colored polish against my skin; it can lean so yellow as to be atrociously ugly, or so red as to look almost ketchupy (or make my nails look like wounds, gross!).  I tried to harmonize a caramelly colored polish with my skin by adding metallic peachy tips; I think it turned out okay!  




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



Monday, April 29, 2013

Bridesmaid Nails Possibility: Pearls on Fire


I'm going to be a bridesmaid this upcoming Saturday, so of course I had to test out polish combos!  The bride requested I do nudish/pinkish for the nail look, so I tried out this combo first.  I like the jelly-ish, pink pearl quality of the base colors, and then the Shine of the Times on top adds a little flashy pop that tickles my artistic fancy!

What do you think?

Friday, April 19, 2013

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.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Artsy Wednesday: Re-do your first blogged Nail Art

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My first blogged nail art is here: Memorial Day Manicure.  Not too shabby for just starting out!  I decided an exact duplicate manicure would be boring, so this is more of an "Inspired By" type of thing :)

I busted out my good old Orly Stone Cold and Rock-It; these colors are so stunning I can hardly stand it!  Plus, they're one-coaters. I'll always fall in love with a one-coater.  The holo triangles and stars are Gosh Holographic Hero.


The white is Milani White on the Spot, and I just had to jazz it up a bit.  I won a  Shimmer Polish giveaway a few months ago, and that blue beauty was a perfect way to snazz up my manicure!  Shimmer Polishes are really impressive; packed with glitter, but not goopy, no taco glitters, easy application and not too topcoat hungry either.  Impressive!



Check out the other Artsy Wednesday bloggers; they all do some pretty gorgeous work!  And welcome to our newest blogger, M.A.S.P.O.O.A.S.E!