Zoya Faye wants some sunshine! (and some giveaways)

Hey all~

It's almost the weekend again.  Are the days flying by or what?  Yesterday I painted my nails with Zoya Faye.  It's been pretty sunny out lately, so I thought I'd take some pics after class today.  I noticed that Zoya Rica's base color was more visible in sunlight, and the shimmer looked like fire.  So I kind of regretted not getting pics of her in sunlight.  But now I know why it's called the Sunshine collection!  As luck would have it, there was not a hint of sun today.  So here are my pics of Faye indoors.  Not very happy with them, but oh well.  Hopefully, there will more sunny days soon.

Faye is a red toned purple base with a complex array of shimmers: copper, gold, orange, green, red.  The coppery gold shimmer is more dominant, but within it you can see some orange, green, and red.  I used 3 coats and application was good.  As you can see, you can see my tips.  I know I made sure to cover them, so I think that's result of shrinkage from Seche Vite. Boo :(  Drying time was a little long too.  I don't know if it was because I used 3 coats, but I accidentally crinkled one of my fingers about an hour after application.  It was like the top was dry but the inside was not.  The good thing is I was able to smooth it out, and it looked like it never happened.  I think this polish also chips a bit easily.  I don't know if that's because of the shrinkage or not.  Overall, I really love this as a color.  It's very complex and unique.

Hopefully, I'll be able to get some better pics of Faye once the sun decides to come back out again. ^ ^

Pink Wednesday! Skin Food Grape Milk and a Newspaper mani :)

This is my first On Wednesdays We Wear Pink post!  If you're a nail blogger and would like to join, just click the Pink Wednesday badge I have on the side to go register -->

Here it is: Skin Food Milk Creamy Nail in Grape Milk.  2 coats.  Smooth, creamy, and shiny deliciousness.

So okay, it's not exactly pink.  It's more of a pink-toned lilac...but still somewhat pink.  Right?  I got this one when I was in Korea.  The formula was a bit thick when I got it, which was weird because the turquoise one I got with it, Ocean milk, has an amazing formula.  I added about 4 drops of nail polish thinner and now I just adore it.

Here's a story about nail polish thinner.  Buy it!  Especially if you have a lot of polish, you're going to need it eventually as your older polishes evaporate and thicken up.  Never add nail polish remover to thin your polish.  It's bad in the long run because it'll ruin your polish!  The one I use is Beauty Secrets Nail Polish Thinner, which I bought from Sally Beauty Supply.  It costs $3.99.  $3.49 if you have a Beauty Club card.  I also suggest you use a dropper to add the thinner to your polish, since the thinner will leak onto its cap sometimes.  It doesn't cost much and will last a long time.  I've used mine quite a bit and it still looks full.

Anyway, that's my spiel on nail polish thinner.  Back to Grape Milk!

I believe I bought this for around $2, so what's not to love?  The bottle is also a cute baby bottle.  I kind of regret not having bought more.  Sigh...why wasn't I as into nail polish back then?  Which reminds me, I have a pretty Nfu Oh flakie polish coming up soon.  Expect great things. :)

After a day with this polish, I wanted to do something new with my nails but not remove the pretty color, so here's what I did.

Newspaper Mani!

Pretty cool.  This was inspired by one of the nail bloggers I follow, only I follow so many I forgot who it was.  If you know it's you (I commented on your post) or know who it is, let me know so I can give credit.  Since I couldn't link her, I did look for a site with instructions. You can look at it here or read on :)

Here's what you do.  First cut out 10 squares of newspaper.  Take your time and be creative!  Look for cute designs, large print, cartoon strips, etc to decorate your nails with.

I used mainly text, but also used an ad with cute stars, and sudoku and word cross puzzle answers (they're smaller) to make my nails more interesting.  Next, add some rubbing alcohol to a cotton pad.  Place the newspaper down onto your nails with the print against your nail and press the alcohol soaked cotton firmly on the newspaper.  Make sure you take your time and press hard so that the print comes off onto the nail.  Also make sure you don't accidentally move the newspaper, or else you might smudge the print.  Don't forget to pay attention to which part of the print is going on your nail, especially if your using something other than text.  Peel the newspaper off and you'll get this:

Yay.  Although I didn't get as many stars on my index as I wanted.  Only 1/2 a star. :P

 After you're done, seal the print in with your favorite top coat.  I used Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat.

After your top coat is thoroughly dry, use some one of your alcohol soaked cottons to clean the print off your skin (if you got any on you like I did.) 

Ta da!

Word cross puzzle answer key on my middle nail :P

Sudoku answer key on my thumb ^ ^

I think this is a cute, easy way to decorate your nails.  What do you think?  Also let me know if you do this mani by posting your link in the comment section!  I want to see them :)


Liz

L.A. Colors - Radiation

Hello all :)

It's very exciting doing this nail blog and seeing the number of followers growing.  I want to thank you all for following me.  It's nice to know people find this little blog interesting.

Today's post is about L.A. Colors!  Last week my boyfriend surprised me with a few polishes that he picked up while he was out.  He got me L.A. Colors Radiation, Wave Length, and Current from the Color Craze collection.  As a new nail polish addict, a lot of brands are new to me, as was this.  All three colors he got me were shimmers and I am very pleased with them.  They are pretty sheer though, but the shimmer is very pretty.  Since I'm not a big fan of having to do four coats to achieve opacity, I like to use these polishes to add some sparkle to my tape manis.

See what I mean?  This is two coats of China Glaze First Mate, a extremely pigmented luscious blue creme that I absolutely adore.  Then I did a diagonal tape mani with Radiation.  Radiation is a light blue that shimmers turquoise and green.  Very pretty.  Unfortunately the camera wasn't picking up the green flash.  I think this is my favorite out of the three, but I haven't done a mani with the other two yet, only swatches.  I've been thinking of layering combinations and have one for Current, so you'll see that when I do it. :)

Oh yeah, this was after I cut (winces) my nails.  If you haven't noticed with the more recent pics, my nails are indeed shorter.  Here's what happened.  I tried to file my nails down into squovals, but my index and middle nails refused to take on square shapes.  So then I tried to round my ring and pinkie nails into ovals, but that wasn't working out too well either.  Eventually, I got frustrated and grabbed the nail clipper.  The result is this: shorter nails, not much difference in nail shape.  I did file them a little since I took this pic, so I'd like to think they're a bit more uniform now.  Cutting them also got rid of the weird inward curve my middle nail was taking on.  This seems to be due to lack of moisture.  You can read about it here: moisturize your nails!

Also Tara's giveaway ends tomorrow, so if you haven't entered yet go to: Tara's Giveaway

Well that's it for now!

Come back tomorrow!  I have a pretty cool mani waiting for you, and the post will be picture heavy. ^__^


Liz

Zoya Sunshine Collection - Rica and Faye

Is today the best Monday or what?  Guess what finally came in the mail today?  The Zoya polishes I bought on BOGO from the spring '11 Sunshine Collection .  And they're so gorgeous!  I'm actually still not up to date on my posts, but I had to skip them to show you this! 

Meet Rica (coral) & Faye (purple)!

Are they not gorgeous?  As soon as it came in the mail, I ripped it open and sat in awe of the swirling colors in their bottles.  Then I quickly removed my existing nail color from two of my fingers and swatched them.  This is two coats!

Gah...look at that gorgeousness in the bottle!

I had trouble deciding which one to use for my new mani first and ended up leaving it to fate and picking without looking.  So here's Rica!  I promise I'll get to Faye next soon!

Rica has a pretty pink base that is a tiny bit sheer.  I used two coats for my mani.  If you look really close you can see my VNL, but it's not apparent enough for me to be bothered.  If you want it to be completely opaque, three coats should do it.  But honestly, two coats is fine!  Rica is also full of gorgeous coral, orange, and gold shimmer!  Application was perfect.  It dries fast enough to put a second coat on without much waiting, but not fast enough that it turns gloopy before you cover the entire nail.  I'm the type that likes to take my time shaping it near the cuticle, since I don't do any clean-up.  (I will once I get a brush.)  Overall, I'm totally enamored of her.  Indulge in these pretty pics :)

I shed some LED light on it so you can see the base color better.  See the pink?  So pretty!

Have you bought any polishes from the Zoya Sunshine collection?  Love it, hate it?  Let me know! :)


Liz

Sinful Colors Haul

Second post for today!

Here's my Sinful Colors haul of 6 polishes.

From L-R: Unicorn, Black on Black, Social Ladder, Timbleberry, Mint Apple, Green Ocean

This was my second time buying Sinful Colors.  The first time I bought Let's Meet (a shimmery lemon yellow) and What's Your Name? (black with teal glitter).  Both didn't quite live up to my expectations in terms of color and formula, but since these are sold at Walgreens for $1.99, I guess I shouldn't have expected too much.  However, Sinful Colors has some really cute colors and there are some colors that are total gems.  You just have to find them. ;)

From L to R: Social Ladder, Unicorn, Timbleberry, Black on Black, Mint Apple

I used three coats for all of these.  Social ladder is this pale pink tinted white with pink and green shimmer, although the green doesn't show up as much on the nail.  It's pretty and opaque in three coats, but can be a tiny bit streaky.

Unicorn was my least favorite from this haul.  It's a bright light yellow and extremely streaky.  Even after three coats I wasn't satisfied.  Seche Vite did make it more even, but still streaky.  Yellows are known to be streaky, so if you're looking for a good yellow, I'd suggest spending a few more bucks for one with a better formula.  The yellow was also bit too bright for me.  I was expecting a more soft, pale yellow.  This polish also stained my nails yellow! Yuck :(  Be sure to use base coat with this one!

Timbleberry was my favorite out of these and all Sinful Colors polishes I own.  (Hint: This is one of the gems!)  The formula was great and the color was extremely pigmented.  It's this gorgeous bright hot (x100) pink coral.  I could have used 1 coat for this, but two is better.  In the swatch I did three for consistency.  Also...timbleberry?  I don't know if it's supposed to be spelled like that or if was a typo.  It looks like it goes by both Timbleberry and Thimbleberry, but my bottle's label is missing its "h."

Black on Black also had a nice formula like Timbleberry.  I was a bit hesitant to buy it, but Erika from Chloe's Nails seems to love it so I had to give it a try.  And I'm glad I did!  This was also a potential one coater, although I recommend two.  I also layered Green Ocean over it as seen below.

Green Ocean is a clear base with green flakies and regular green, blue, and orange glitter.  The orange seems to be more of a flash but I'm not sure.  I'll let you know once I do a full manicure with it. This is so pretty against a black base, BUT it's so lumpy!  And won't smoothen out. :(  Otherwise, I love it.

Finally, Mint Apple, a shimmery mint green with a subtle gold shimmer.  I've heard a lot about this one, so I bought it to see if it lived up to the hype.  The formula was a bit sheer, but overall it was okay and not streaky.  My swatches aren't showing the exact color of Mint Apple.  This color just wouldn't photograph and my pics are making it bluer than it really is.  It's a lot greener and minty-er...(well, duh).  It's a nice color, but I don't know if I'm loving it as much as the other bloggers.  I think I prefer the more blue Ocean Love Potion from Sephora by OPI.  I haven't done a full mani with this color yet, so maybe my opinion will change.  I'll also do a comparison when I get the chance.

Unicorn was in the Polka Dots display for Sinful Colors, so I tried using it for the dots with Timbleberry as the base color.  As you can see, I suck at doing polka dots.  Next time I'll make them smaller and more spread out.  I also decided it looked too summery for right now, so I tried this:

This is Unicorn topped with Nicole by OPI Make a Comet-ment.  The dense holo glitter did a good job of hiding any streaky-ness.  It looks nice in this pic, but I really did not like this.  Because the glitter is so dense, it looked like gray dust against the light yellow.  I think Make a Comet-ment looks better with dark colors, or if you do top a light color, don't do the whole nail.  Instead do something like this:

This is a mani I did for my little sis before leaving for school.  The blue is China Glaze First Mate; the light blue is Essie Coat Azure, and the glitter is Make a Comet-ment.


Whew!

Hope you all enjoyed your Saturday, and I'll see yous tomorrow! :)


Liz

Wet n Wild - Gray's Anatomy

Hope everyone's Saturday is going well.  This is my first post for today, and I'll be posting another one before the day ends.

Here's Wet n Wild's Gray's Anatomy.  It's a silvery duochrome of predominantly purple and green, but also blue.  It's a bit sheer, so I used 3 coats for these swatches.  Application was pretty good and dry time was fast.  It's fastdry, so it should be... right?  I assess dry time by if the polish is dry enough to allow me to put on a second coat after finishing my first coat on the other hand.  I didn't have any problems, so dry time is at least normal. 

Apparently this a dupe for Deborah Lippman's Wicked Game.  I don't own Wicked Game so I can't do a comparison, but Scrangie did one and you can see it here.  The duochrome effect is most visible under low light, but you're nails will shift from purple to green depending on the angle the light hits it.  Overall, I think this is a nice polish, and a much cheaper alternative if you don't want to spend $16-18 on Wicked Game.

If you didn't know, Imperfectly Painted is holding a 1 year blog-o-versary giveaway.  There are 3 prize sets, so go enter!
You can also win a set of 7 BYS Colour Change laquers by entering You've Got Nail's giveaway.

Well, that's it for now.
Don't forget to check back later for the second post. :)


Liz

Misa- Genie in This Bottle

Yay it's finally the weekend!  I have so many polishes to show you, so I might start posting more than one a day this weekend.  The swatches I've been showing you lately were from last week, when I couldn't upload them.  Since then I've swatched a bit more, so I want to be up to date on my pictures.  That way I can show you my NOTDs.  :)

Today I present you with Misa's Genie in This Bottle.  This is my first Misa polish and I'm hooked.  Genie in This Bottle is a pale gray base with pretty purplish pink shimmer.  It's really gorgeous in the sunlight.  I've done gold tips with this polish  before and it looked so angelic.  (I'll try to do it again and post it sometime.)  The application for this polish was excellent, and even though it's light it was pretty opaque in two coats.  All my swatches are two coats and you can see VNL, but I personally like it because it kind of looks like a french.  If you don't want VNL, I'm guessing 3 coats will be sufficient.

And finally, here are a couple more giveaways:

Polish this!

Lovin Nailz


Enjoy your Friday!

Liz