Zoya Amber

Remember when I told you yesterday that I would show you yet another Zoya polish that I got for free and  how you could also get one (well actually two) for free?  Well keep reading.

Today I'm going to show you Zoya Amber on this very lovely Monday (if we can call it that).  I think this is the perfect shade to easily transition from Summer to Fall.  It reminds me so much of a Summer sunset.

Amber is a very warm-toned, well, amber color.  I guess we could saw it's a bit copper.  lol  I used three coats for full opacity and the formula was amazing.

As you can see, Amber is a satin-finish polish and I know some people (including myself) aren't nuts about the visible brushstrokes especially if you don't have a steady hand.  I managed to keep my hands still while painting but usually the strokes are crooked.  lol  Well there's a way to eliminate that.

Apply your first two coats and let them dry.  Then lightly sponge on the third coat to take away the visible brushstrokes.  This gives the polish a completely new finish without taking away from the beautiful color.  See the difference?  It's a pretty neat idea I think.  I also think it will help me feel better about buying satin-finish polishes.

Now how did I get this beauty for free?  Every Tuesday, Zoya will play a game called Tune Tuesday on Twitter.  They put out a musical clue related to a Zoya polish and then choose three tweeters with the correct answer to receive that polish PLUS one of their choice.

For example:  This song was written about @NicoleScherzy & shares a name with a certain Zoya shade that’s “the color of her energy”
The song was Amber by 311!  See, super easy!

You can find the complete details on how to play HERE at Zoya's Tune Tuesday page .  You have 4 chances to win every Tuesday so you might as well read up so you're well prepared.  I wonder what they will give away this time.  Good luck!

Zoya Carter

Ever since I heard about textured polishes last year, all I wanted was a gorgeous purple.  So out came OPI Can't Let Go, Zoya Stevie, and even Claire's Paradise which I showed you recently.  Those are gorgeous, but not exactly what I was wanting.  I wanted a darker, more saturated shade of purple and finally, with Zoya's Fall 2013 Pixie Dust collection, my prayers were answered.

I present to you, Carter!  Probably the most beautiful polish in my whole collection.  This was one that I knew I had to have as soon as possible.  It really could be the end all, be all of polish, IMO.  lol

Anyway, this is the most beautiful royal purple with pink sparkles just for a little extra something.  It covered well in just two slightly thick coats.  The dry time took a little longer than any of the other textured polishes I have, but maybe that's because I used thicker coats and I didn't wait until the first coat was completely dry.  It was dry to the touch but still a little squishy.

Here is a closer look so you can see the pink sparkles.  Ooooh!  Aaaaah!  lol

I was so lucky to get my hands on this when I did.  I won a Zoya contest and got to choose any polish of my choice.  Needless to say it was an easy choice.  If you want to learn more about the contest I won, check back tomorrow for more information and another Zoya swatch.

Have a wonderful Sunday and do something productive...or do nothing at all.  (:

Zoya Neely

Ooh this is such a late post again, but I've been running around all day and swatching polish for the blog.  I even scored a super huge lemming of mine, but more on that later.  *wink*

This is Zoya Neely.  At first I really didn't think I wanted this polish, but with a slight twist of my arm from a friend, I got it.  I am super happy that I did because it's so pretty.  It's not like it's oh-so-gorgeous or whatever, but it's just really pretty and clean.  Sometimes our nails get so gross and stained from all the polish we use, it's nice to just have a few "palate cleansers".

In just two coat, Neely was fully opaque and not streaky or goopy at all.  I'm not sure my photos do it justice, but it's a light mint green (not as blue as it shows).

Sadly I don't think I would have bought this for myself, but I got lucky and Zoya was giving away 200 bottles with a special code and I snagged one.  What do you think?

Hard Candy Envy

I would definitely envy someone for wearing this if I didn't own it.  Still in my "ready for Fall" mode, today I'm gonna show you one of those "almost-black" beauties.

I used 2 coats of Hard Candy Envy for full opacity.  You would think because it's so dark, you could just do a thicker coat and be done with one.  That is not the case.  The formula is very easy to work with but the first coat is a bit weird looking.  It's very black and streaky with very little green shimmer.  With the second coat is when you really start to see the green glow from within...with the right lighting of course.  Otherwise it just looks black at first glance.

This is one of those colors I like to wear around Halloween because it can be very spooky and the green really sneaks up on you.  With the right costume - Poison Ivy *cough, cough* - this could really complete the entire look.

I made this post pretty short because I'm not entirely focused.  This post took me about an hour to write up because I kept getting side-tracked.  lol Have a great night!  Remember - tomorrow starts the weekend!  Woooo!

Water Marble Wednesday

Afternoon!  Welcome back to another Water Marble Wednesday.  Today was probably one of the most successful marbling days I've had in awhile.  Let's take a look.  (:

I love the idea of doing different types of nail art over gradients, especially water marbles.  It can be a bit difficult though to find a clear polish that wants to cooperate with the colored polish.  Today I decided to make it a bit easier on myself and use a sheer glass-flecked top coat instead of just plain clear polish and it worked!

First I did my gradient using China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy - coral, Jesse's Girl JulieG Fashion Friday - purple, and China Glaze Four Leaf Clover - teal.  On a side note, I just noticed that I used all polish names that begin with the letter "F".  That was not intentional.

Anyway, back to the mani.  After my gradient dried, I taped off my nails and started my bulls-eye in the water using a plain white creme polish from NYC and Zoya LA Pop, the sheer glass-flecked top coat.  I made a chevron kinda design in the water and tried to dip my nail to where the "points" were completely vertical.  I think I pulled it off though.  The design is still not as perfect as I would like, but it's just nail art for fun anyway.  (:

Now I have to get ready for work so I won't get to talk to you all for a whole 8 hours.  With that being said, please let me know what you think of this amazing water marble.  You can leave all your comments below and/or comment on my Facebook page.  Have a great day!  (:

Color Club Lava Lamp

Good Evening!  Today on the blog is super hot creme to go along with the super hot weather today.  

Here I have Color Club Lava Lamp which is such a Summer-y color.  Lava Lamp is a blinding neon orange creme that dries semi-gloss as most neons do.  I used three coats for this swatch to get full opacity.  The formula was a tad on the thick side but not unmanageable.  It was also a bit streaky and had some bald spots but it builds up nicely and the three coats helped smooth out those flaws.

I know I said I was ready for Fall, but it's always nice to post a season-appropriate manicure.  lol  Have a great night!

Zoya Codie

I think I have stated this before recently, but I'll say it again...I am so ready for Fall.  I am starting to see all the Fall fashion come into the stores, I love wearing boots and would wear them year-round if it wasn't so damn hot here, and Fall means October is coming.  October means Halloween and my birthday are coming.  Ya know who else' birthday is in October?  My boyfriend Cody!   That's kind of what inspired me to put this color up today.  I just wished it was spelled the same way, but oh well.

Codie is a super dark, almost black brown creme.  This mani only needed 2 coats and, of course, because it's Zoya, the application was flawless.

I'm not a big fan of cremes at all but Zoya makes me think I am.  The formulas are always so perfect in my opinion.  I noticed they are thinner but they build well which makes my life much easier.  With other brands, the cremes are always so thick and then of course over time they get thicker and then, for me, are just unmanageable even with thinner.

I am so happy that I have found a polish brand that I can run to for such things like this.  I would hate to have a polish collection of nothing but shimmers and glitters.  I love shimmers and glitters but not enough to have only those.  lol

What are your favorite creme polishes?  Is there a certain brand that you run to?  Let me know in the comments below!  (:

Textured Gradient with Stamping

Good Evening Readers!  Thanks for checking in tonight.  I have a really cool gradient to show you and I even stamped over it.  (:

This is my textured gradient using OPI Jinx from the Bond Girls collection and Claire's Paradise that I showed you all the other day.  I really just can't get enough of how gorgeous that purple is and that's why I keep featuring it on the blog.  I promise I'll stop soon.  lol

I haven't done a gradient in awhile because I ran out of sponges but I finally purchased some today and I was ready to gradient everything.  I really love how these two colors work together.  At first sponge I didn't think they would make it because I could clearly see the line between the two.  Obviously that line was blurred and created a really beautiful gradient.

I wanted to use three colors but I also didn't want to go crazy since I was planning on stamping over it.

This is the gradient stamped with a striped design from Bundle Monster plate bm-207.  I think it came out looking more like zebra than the actual design suggests which I'm not crazy about.  I just don't like zebra print unless it's on a real zebra.  lol  Then again it's not the worst design because I think the textured gradient makes up for it.  (:

On my left hand I used the same gradient but a geometric type stamp and that looks pretty cool too.  I put them on all crooked or else I'd show you.  lol

I plan on doing more gradients in the upcoming weeks because I've been having withdraws so if there is any color combo you'd like to see, textured or not, let me know in the comments below or you can hit me up on my Facebook page.  Don't forget to hit the "Like" button while you're there.  ;)

Leopard Mani for International Nail Art Day!

How could you not love that color combination?  I am so tired I could just faceroll right now, but I wanted to put something pretty on my nails before bed.  I just chose the quickest mani I could think of that wasn't completely plain.

Well here it is!  I really like how this one turned out.  My boyfriend always says how my leopard manis look like camo print...I don't really get how that is, but that's what he says.  This is the first one he said looked like leopard.  lol He's a goof.  Anyway, I used one coat of Ulta High Roller for the gold base, then added random leopard spots using Zoya Phoebe, the blue, and Zoya Codie (which just so happens to by my boyfriend's name - but with a Y and not an IE) which is the dark brown.

Here is one photo of my hand slanted to take the metallic shine away.  Now you can really see the print without being severely blinded by the gold.  I totally didn't even realize today was International Nail Art Day so I'm happy I could bust something out in such a short time (I had to work today) and join in the fun.  (:

Happy INAD!!

Comparison - Claire's Paradise/OPI Can't Let Go

Well here it is!  The comparison that I promised you.  I don't do a lot of comparison posts because I really try not to buy dupes.  I have a pretty small polish collection so it's easy for me to remember what I have when I'm out shopping for polish.  Today's comparison is of the Claire's sand polish I showed you on Tuesday and one of the first OPI liquid sands.

This is Paradise which I showed you one Tuesday.  You can read the post HERE in case you missed it.  (:

The is OPI Can't Let Go which I showed in THIS POST back in December when they were first released.

Looking at those two photos I can already tell they aren't exactly the same shade of purple.  That might be due to my lighting so let's see them side-by-side.

  

Above are two bottle shots.  You can definitely see the grainy effect in both bottles.  Not one looks more dense than the other.  The glittery bits really stand out as well.  OPI Can't Let Go definitely has bigger chunks of glitter.

I used two coats of OPI Can't Let Go on the left and two coats of Claire's Paradise on the right.  Can't Let Go leans a little more to the blue side whereas Paradise leans a little more the red side.

As I said before, Can't Let Go has larger chunks of glitter.  Paradise does have two sizes of glitter, they just aren't as large as Can't Let Go.  As far as finish and texture, they both dry very matte and have the same gritty finish.  The most noticeable difference is that Paradise has a very reflective finish.  The white flash is almost blinding in the right light.  Pretty cool.

 Claire's Paradise

OPI Can't Let Go

My final consensus is that these are definitely not dupes.  They are extremely close in color however they have very different qualities.  If you are like me and try not to buy dupes, then you would be safe by only buying one of these especially since they are close in price...OPI sands sell for $9.00 and the Claire's sands sell for $7.00 (however they are BOGO 50% off).  Can I, myself, justify keeping both?  Yes!  I just can't bear to get rid of either one because I love textured polish so much.  That's the hoarder in me coming out.

Anyway I hope this was an informative yet fun comparison post.  Have a great night!  (: