L'Oreal Eva's Nude

Ohh L'Oreal, how I love thee, let me count the ways!!  Haha, although it is  true... I've said a few times that L'Oreal has to be my favorite drugstore polish brand.  The brushes are my ideal kind of brush, rounded to fit perfectly in the curve near the cuticle with little effort (squared off brushes always lead to either messy spots on my cuticle or extra concentration to make sure I don't touch the sides), the formulas of the cremes I have are lovely one or two coaters, and I am a big fan of the bottles themselves.  They're pretty and easy to store neatly, and I especially love the labels on the new Collection Privée!  Gosh, when did I get to be such a packaging junkie?!

Indoors, daylight bulb

Despite my usual scorn for "celebrity endorsements," I like the glamourous feel of this collection.  In high school speech class, we learned about advertising ploys and that was one of the biggest, of course.  "Buy this product and you too will be rich, famous, and look like said larger-than-life persona!"  Personally, it just rubs me the wrong way, for some reason.  BUT that said, I am really digging all of  Les Nudes polishes and even the looks of the lipsticks!  Check out L'Oreal's site for some lovely, drool-worthy photos. :)

Outdoors, full sun

Here we have two coats of Eva's Nude with Alcatraz...Rocks! as an accent and a heart. :)  You can probably tell I initially used a berry red polish (Julep Joan) but decided I wasn't feelin' it and went with this instead - right over the top.  I like!!!  For the heart, I took Scotch tape, made it almost unsticky by putting it on & pulling it off my palm several times, folding it so two thirds of the strip overlapped (leaving a tail so I could more easily pull it apart), then took a cosmetic scissors and cut out a tiny heart like I used to do as a kid to make paper hearts. :)

Outdoors, shade (aka the sun is behind a cloud!)

 Technically, Eva's nude is not the polish I should've chosen as I am not Hispanic and have decidedly white skin!, but I think I'm in love.  I'd been eyeing butter LONDON'S Tea & Toast, fancying a caramel-toned brown/tan/cream polish, and this has satisfied my craving!  It seems significantly lighter than T&T, but I like it - especially with that beautiful  rosy copper shimmer that is so evident in the first photo. :D  I think Julianne is actually the correct shade for me and I would buy it too (not to mention I like the actress whose name it bears) but I think my ChG Below Deck is quite similar.  Maybe I'll bring Below Deck on a rare field trip with me the next time I go to Wal-Mart and do a bottle comparison! ;)  hehe

P.S. just kidding about satisfying my craving - completely, that is.  I just now found Tea & Toast for $7 on 6pm.com!  Talk about coincidence... or fate!!

I challenge you to...a CHALLENGE!

I've never tried my hands (hehe!) at a blogger challenge before, but maybe now is a good time to start... it is  a new year, after all. And I just happen to like the subtitle of this challenge. :)  So today I have for you my take on the "fresh" mani.  Yes, I know it's a day late, but I worked 'til 6 last night and then had to pack up and drive to my parents' house in some mighty treacherous weather.
Side note: this also happens to be the first mani in a LONG time that I've even bothered to photograph & been excited to share on my blog, despite some imperfections.  The posts from this past week were all manis from months ago.

Using Zoya Godiva and L'Oreal Eiffel For You, I applied two easy coats each, then decided to add one extra coat of Godiva for maximum opacity and sparkle.  To me, these lovely nudes/neutrals classify as a "fresh" look.  I don't know, maybe I'm waaay off!  But alas I don't really know what Californails had in mind when she said "fresh."  So I'm using my imagination!

Please be kind - my cutes got trimmed against my will & I'm having a heck of a time reconditioning them. :(

What, you might be asking, is that fabulous stamping image?!  I know I always  ask myself as soon as I go to a blog and see what must be a stamp used in a mani.  This gem is from MoYou London's Pro Collection plate 04, stamped with Color Club Revvvolution.  Side note: they also have an XL plate with this script image for those of you with bigger nail beds.  Unfortunately, I'm not lucky enough to be blessed with 'em!  

Ok, this is an unconventional shot, and maybe it's not "okay" to do this on a polish blog, but I thought it might be fun to play with the exposure and make it look all softened out and glamorous, perhaps?  Oh, and check out all that silver microsparkle that becomes fabulously obvious in the bottle?!  Gosh I love Zoya's Pixie Dusts!  I scored this baby during one of their December flash promos.  :)  Pardon the fuzzy on my pinkie nail... Disclaimer: no fuzzes were harmed in the photographing of this mani.

 I purposely included this one to showcase the glorious Godiva sparkle!  So, so nice.  At first I was a bit dejected that it didn't have the golden crumpled tin foil look of Tomoko, but now that I have it on, I absolutely love it, as do my roommates and a couple friends. :)  Dry time is so nice and fast for the Pixies, compared to how long I have to wait to ensure my cremes don't bubble upon application of the second coat.  And it's especially nice that textures are supposed to be...well, textured!! lol  Can you tell how sick I am of bubbles in polish that is supposed to be smooth?!

Thank you for taking the time to peruse my humble blog, and feel free to jump in on the challenge with me!!! :D

I concur: Alcatraz...Rocks!

Good evening!  Brr, it's gettin' cold in here, so put on lots more clothes! :P  ...yet another frigid fall evening here in Minnesota...  I really hope that perhaps some of you are lucky enough to live in places that aren't the closest thing to another ice age! ;)
Okay, it's not quite that  bad at the moment, but come January I can assure you I'll be yelling on a daily basis (as I clean a mountain of snow off my car for the millionth time): "Why on earth do I live here?!?!"

So I think that besides the ever-plummeting temperature (and the fact that I watched The Day After Tomorrow  over the weekend), this mani has me thinking about snow and ice.  See what I mean?

I hate winter, but I LOVE this!! :D  I do have to admit however, that I got the idea from Polished Elegance.  Her post confirmed that I needed Alcatraz...Rocks.  It really is a gorgeous texture polish with soooo many pretty sparkles!  Here's AR "naked":

The base has more purple in it than is showing up here, for some odd reason.  I used two coats, no base and of course, no top coat.  Although I really did want to try some over this polish because I've seen a lot of people show the other side of a texture polish once it's transformed by a glossy top coat. :)  

Compared to my Zoya & Julie G textures (and even OPI Jinx), I must say AR did not wear quite as well (4 days vs. 7 or so) before I got some noticeable tip wear and a couple decent sized chips.  Maybe next time I'll use some Orly Bonder under it.

Dry time was average, maybe 7ish minutes for it to get completely textured.  GAH those sparkles get me every time!  They're by no means holo, but oh so purty!

After wearing nakey AR for a couple days, I knew I had to try the stamping thang over it, so I busted out my Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and Bundle Monster plate 214.  Although I really like the full-size image that Polished Elegance used, this design is one of my favorites from the set I have, and it's got a similar aesthetic.  

Several of my blogger buddies have insisted lately that they could never do stamping, so I also wanted to add this to show how pretty and easy it is!  Seriously took me 10 minutes, start to finish to do both hands.  I wish I could say I have a tutorial video to show you the process, but I have never tried making one and wasn't about to start at 12:30 in the morning!  So you'll hafta settle for watching this one; the video that sparked my addiction to all things nail related. ;)  For reals!

Oy, speaking of 12:30 am, it's nearly that time again so I really need to get to bed before my under-eye craters get any deeper & darker - if that's possible! :-/  For everyone's sake, I sure hope not! :P

I leave you with a parting shot:

Have fun, be merry, and stamp like your life depends on it!!

Shark's Cove chevrons

Hello lovelies!  Awhile back - too far back, I'm ashamed to admit - a dear, sweet blogger buddy sent me a total surprise package with not only one of the Julie G Gumdrops polishes I'd been desperately wanting, but also Julie G Shark's Cove! :O  I could NOT believe it!!!  Melissa (a la Lacquer Reverie) is seriously amazing - and so incredibly thoughtful! :D

Ever since I received that sneaky surprise package, I'd been wanting to use both polishes as they're seriously beautiful, but you know how it goes...we addicts are constantly getting nail mail and sometimes without an inspiration to use a certain polish, it gets lost in the stash!  Well, I finally had some sort of epiphany last night, because I decided how to use both Julie G's AND Julep Nan which I just got off eBay.

Ta daaaa!! :D  It'd been awhile since I did some legit nail art, so it felt really good to do this.  And I really love this combo, if I may say so myself.  I did two coats of OPI Nail Envy (the original stuff?) that was a gift from another friend who no longer uses it, two coats of Shark's Cove, a thin coat of Seche Vite, and then I used scotch tape to make the "main chevron," and finally, freehanded the tiny bottom and side triangles.  Thanks to Liesl, I seem to have a thing for double accent nails, so I showed the chevrons some lovin' with hearts using Julep Nan & a bobby pin. L♥ve 'em!! ;)

The bottle didn't really catch the light in this pic (shoulda paid more attention, Emily, tsk tsk), but Shark's Cove minty green base is positively packed with silver microflakie shimmer!  Yummm.  The first coat was quite sheer and had a tendancy to get bald patches (at least it did over the Nail Envy base), but a second coat covered everything quite nicely.  I really can't speak about the dry time, because the humidity here is still  making every mani take a million years.  For real.  It's a good thing today was Sunday & I had no plans, because I did this at a snail's pace.  -_-

No offense, teensy tiny nail snail!

Julie G Gumdrops Blueberry Fizz is positively amazing in my book!  I like it much better than any of the other blue texture polishes I've seen, and I really love that it has so much silver sparkle and even small silver hexes in it.  The name is quite perfect, I think. :)  Like most texture polishes, it dried within about 5 mins, which was a nice change from waiting and waiting and waiting for SC. (Shark's Cove, that is...not Santa Clause)
And I actually managed to get a good bottle shot in the sun to showcase all of that happy sparkle! ;D

I did put another thin coat of Seche Vite over the pinkie and ring fingers, but opted (for now) to leave Blueberry Fizz in all its textured glory.  I might decide to SV it in a couple days because I've never done that before, but have seen many swatches that show them both ways, and they're sometimes more amazing with a top coat.

I really need to start doing tutorials for my nail art...then again, there are SO many already out there!  I actually used this one, not because I had no clue how, but because I usually do better with a visual aid as a reference.

Ohhh Julie G (by Jesse's Girl Cosmetics), how I wish you were available in drugstores near me!  :(  I live in NW Minnesota, and apparently this brand is moreso in SE and NW United States regions/drugstore chains like Rite Aids and such.  Ahh well...that's what our amazing fellow bloggers are for, right?!  I think we'd all go to great lengths to help eachother get polishes we're not able to get ourselves. :)  I know I would be willing to help a girl out!

As you can probably tell, this is in the shade. ;)

And finally, we have Julep Nan.  I don't know exactly why, but this Nantucket brickey terracotta orange-toned red just spoke to me from the moment I laid eyes on it here.  Reds are usually something I shy away from because of their horrible tendency to stain and simply because they don't do much for me.  It's like, oh, a red...meh. ;)  But I REALLY like this one!  I'm SO glad I found it on eBay with the make an offer option, because I got it still sealed for half the price, shipping & all.  My momma taught me to be a bargain shopper whenever possible! ;)

At the moment, I can't say much about the application nor the dry time of Nan because I just dabbed & spread it on with a bobby pin.  I assure you, I will be wearing it as more of a full fall mani very  soon!   

Well, since I can't seem to get snails off my mind, I give you the requisite parting humor photo:

BAHAHAHA! :P  Hopefully you'll be thinking of this guy while getting up for work tomorrow & he'll make your Monday much more tolerable. ;)

~ ♥ Em

Relax & de-stress with China Glaze Sea Spray

Oh.my.word.  I seriously can't believe it's been about 3 weeks since I posted. :-/  Bad me!!  As at least a few of you know, I was involved in an off-Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof.  But let me tell ya, when I told my friend I'd help her out, I had NO IDEA just how much work I'd signed up for, and how much it was gonna take over my life for about a month.  There were four weeks of rehearsals, (each night going about 4 hrs + my 2 hrs of driving there & back) plus what I learned is referred to in theater as "hell week" - the week of the performances - we sold out the 4 planned performances & voted to add another matinee, just because we're nice. ;-)  YIKES.  It really was a fabulous experience and I have so many great memories that will likely stay with me forever (especially the songs that are permanently engraved in my brain...TRADITION!), but I will surely think long & hard about being a backstage manager/director's assistant if the opportunity presents itself again! :-P

The rabbi, the rabbi!  "May God bless & keep the tsar -- faaaar away from us."  Everyone: "ahahaha!" ;-)

The mani I have for you today is not current, as the production ravaged my nails like you wouldn't believe... I seriously have no idea how long it's going to take for them to get to a "presentable" point.  I was breaking them left & right (what with moving all sorts of set items in almost total darkness as fast as possible), so they're all nubbins (misshapen ones at that), I have hangnails that are running like your grandma's pantyhose, and lots of dried out, cracked cuticles. :-(  I've been using cuticle oil & balm like there's no tomorrow - even the occasional pure vitamin E capsule - but it is slow going!  Oh, and since many of the breaks involved the nails being bent quite acutely, the nail surface is flaky & choppy on quite a few nails. Aggggh! The HORROR! (think of that scene from the old, old movie The Pagemaster ;-)

So, that said, this is something I did during the first couple weeks of rehearsals as a simple, soothing mani. :-)

Two coats China Glaze Sea Spray, plus matte top coat (can you see the little "v" design I did on the middle finger? ;-)  I didn't intend to do an accent nail, but I hadn't tried OPI Solitaire yet, and it just seemed perfect!  I really like that with only one coat, you can kinda see Sea Spray peeking through.

This was my inspiration for the pattern with matte topcoat...
I think I'm gonna try it again sometime, except get more fancy with it. ;-)

Sea Spray has the faintest hint of  ultrafine silver shimmer. Just perfect.  I've really been loving the dusty grey blue shades lately!  The application was easy for both Sea Spray and Solitaire.  Just what I needed in the midst of the musical madness & difficulties. :-)

Just in case you were wondering - it really IS Sea Spray! (albeit upside down...oops :-P )

I'm not really sure why I hardly have anything to say about this mani.  If you've read my blog at all, you know I'm very long-winded and always have something to talk about. ;-)  Maybe I'm still recuperating from the "trauma of the drama!"  Seriously, if you ever think it's a good idea to only get 2-3 hrs of sleep a night for weeks on end - it's NOT.  Don't try this at home, kids!

Well, I hope I can keep up a better, more regular posting "schedule" now... I really did miss you guys and felt guilty every day of my absence. :-(

In closing, I share with you one more photo from a favorite scene of mine: The Rumor 

Seriously, this scene cracks me up, especially if you've gone over the dialogue as many times as I did to know the crazy (and true to life) distortion of "the town gossip." :-)  If you haven't seen Fiddler in any shape or form before, I would recommend renting the movie, or watching a clip or two on YouTube - although they are actually illegal (violating the UBER STRICT copyright - no performance can be videotaped or recorded at ALL).  But most of all, if you ever have a chance, get thee to a live theater performance of it!!

Ok, I'd best get to bed.  G'night lovely ladies!! 

My mismatched, matching, minty mani...Mmm Mmm Mmm!

After my trip to Chicago, I've been feeling rather uninspired and blaah about blogging...figure that one out: Chicago should've been chock-full of inspiration!  And really, it was, but I think the trip and the last couple weeks have just taken a lot out of me.  Anyhoo, after poring over some really awesome nail art posts this week, and pulling from some old favorites as inspiration, I came up with this:

Left hand!!  Oh YESSS! 

I decided it was time to "go big or go home," so to speak, and I think I accomplished "big."  :-D  It's by no means perfect like so many more experienced nail art bloggers, and of course the area around the cutes is not immaculate and perfectly rounded (I cannot for the life of me figure out how they manage that, even with detailed, intense cleanup!), but anyhoo, I feel rather proud of this mani. :-)

On to what I used and the process!

L-R: Essie Fill the Gap basecoat, Maybelline Green With Envy, Skinfood 22W (Korean polishes & their numbers...sheesh!), Essie Mojito Madness, NYC French White Tip, Rimmel Hot Black To Go, Zoya Vespa, and Sally Hansen 4-in-1 Complete Care

I started with Fill the Gap which is my new base and I really love it!  It's almost like OPI's Barre My Soul, but it dries to a satin finish.  I have considered wearing it on its own, actually. ;-)  Last night though, it was behaving strangely and driving me nuts...the humidity here was pretty atrocious (which I think gave all the polishes a bad attitude last night :-P ) and we had a ceiling fan on over the table, so that probably added to the issues.  I actually had to redo the base coat on  my left-hand thumb and pointer.

 ANYways, I proceeded to lay down Rimmel Hot Black To Go on my thumbs and pinkies and Maybelline Green With Envy on the rest.

Not too shabby!  This was with no cleanup. :-D  If I were channeling Essie, I would've probably happily stopped here. ;-)  . . . But I couldn't quit!  Must. press. on!

Having done dots before, I knew they were relatively quick 'n easy, so I started with Skinfood 22W (a blow-your-mind bright sky blue metallic foil!) & used a good 'ol yellow wooden pencil tip as my dotting tool, making a diagonal line across my pointer and ring fingers.  I then added rows in Mojito Madness and French White Tip.  Sorry, it went so fast I didn't have time to take pictures! :-P  . . . so I'll just have to show you another one of the finished product! Oh bother!

The middle finger was originally going to be stamped with a Bundle Monster design, but the Rimmel black and a Revlon shimmery black were not stamping well, and I stamped crooked, tried a different design, even gave black acrylic paint a try!  But I just wansn't feeling it, so my eye spied the newspaper on the table & thought ah HA! I've been hankering to try the newspaper transfer technique!  Only took a little rubbing alcohol, some rubbing, and voila!

Here's a YouTube video with a few different techniques:

Then on to the most challenging part of the mani: the hand-painted roses. :-/  The blog I originally saw them on (www.workplaypolish.com) said they were really easy to do as the lines that form the petals are supposed to be "organic" and not "perfect."  That is correct, but it was still a painstakingly long process as I wanted them to be easily recognizable as roses.  Working with a Zoya Pixie Dust was a tad difficult as it dries to its gritty, lumpy texture relatively quickly, especially in such small quantities (for all the dots & the roses, I'd just place a dab of the polish on a piece of cardboard).  I don't have an actual set of nail art brushes, but my roommate just bought a huge pack of pretty good quality craft brushes, so I used a brush with a rounded point, 1/8" wide x 1/2" long bristles.  The technique itself is fairly simple: start with a dot (either centered or off-center, whatever strikes your fancy) and make curved lines radiating out from the center.

I ended up loving my left pinkie ^ and right thumb the best. 

Right pinkie was awful!  I ended up going back with black to "erase" some of the misshapen Vespa blobs & then redefining them with more Vespa.  Painstaking process, let me tell ya!  No wonder it took me like, 3 hours start to finish!  Gotta give a shout-out to my other roommate for helping me keep my strength up during this nail art marathon by literally feeding me grapes when I couldn't touch anything. :-D

Speaking of finishing, I believe this post is coming to a close - to which you are probably drawing a sigh of relief!! 
I finished the minty fingers with the Sally Hansen 4-in-1 clear coat (given to me by my sister - she wasn't a fan).  But I really like it as it can be used as a base that is really nourishing & also claims to help fill ridges (thanks to bamboo extract), and then as a topcoat which although is not nearly as fast drying as Seche Vite and doesn't have that thick, glassiness to it, but it does add a nice shiny protective layer WITH NO TIP SHRINKAGE! :-D lol  There are tradeoffs to everything, I guess. ;-) 

Decided to try a pose I saw on another blog...kinda "meh" about it.

Well, I hope you ladies like this "mismatched" look as much as I do and maybe it'll inspire you to try something similar!  Thank you again for bearing with me through a long post . . . apparently I can't be succinct to save my life!

At long last! OPI Jinx - - you owe me a soda/pop!

. . . wait, I don't even like pop. ;-)  But I do like Jinx . . . and have been drooling over it forever!
My sister and I made a "quick stop" (yeah right!) at Ulta on Saturday when I was down visiting her.  I hadn't been in an Ulta since becoming addicted to polish about 5 months ago, so I was a tad nervous about being able to restrain myself from buying everything in sight!  I did well, I think: my "haul" consisted of: Essie Mojito Madness (I asked & got 20% off 'cuz there was polish spilled on the bottle & it was the last one), Zoya Frida (found it in the
clearance bin!!! :-D SCORE!), a tiny bottle of OPI Coconut Melon Avojuice (I wanted to try it & now that I have, I want a giant VAT of that scent! *swoon*), and at the last moment, I spotted the set of OPI Bond Girls minis.

I'd looked at various eBay listing for this set, and the price was pretty much the same, so I was like MEH, why not?!  Jinx was my first & forever love (in photos alone), but I've been wanting to try Vesper too, and everyone says ____ Galore is lovely, as well as Solitaire. :-)

BEEE.YOU.TEE.FULL!!! :-D
Sooo worth the wait (like other, much more important things in life)

My sister promptly put on _____ Galore when we got back to her house.  She loved it, and it really does look very pretty on.  But lordy, it needs to be renamed!!  Ideas, ladies????
It's a pale, crisp, blue-leaning pink (or maybe a "true" pink?) with light, delicate fuschia sparkles, and it of course dries to the sandy, matte finish.  Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with to take pics of her wearing it.  And my cell phone has the WORST camera EVER.  No high-tech iPhone for me.

2 coats of Jinx, no base nor topcoat

Jinx is described as a mesmerizing matte coral with lucky (gold) sparkle.  It is a great, summery, coral shade that I love, and the gold sparkle is VERY eye catching.  Lucky?  Not so much.

Why am I only showing 3 fingers you might ask?  And what happened to the long, (relatively) gorgeous nails from my previous post?  Both good questions.  And the answer would be: my brother's broken car door handle is what happened.  I had forgotten about that, so in our haste to leave on Friday night, I gave the handle a good yank, my hand slipped, and my pointer and middle finger nails broke into ragged smithereens. :-(  I used to think it was sooo stupid when girls were like OOOH, I broke a nail!  But now that I have a nail polish blog, and I finally HAD purty, long, nicely squared nails, it was quite sad.  I seriously felt my heart sink as I crawled into the car and we drove off.

And then I angrily proceeded to clip and file the remains and cut the rest of my nails down to match. 

Oh, the reason I'm only showing 3 fingers is because the pointer and thumb are chipped enough for them to be non-blog-worthy.

Yes, I realize it's out of focus . . .  bloggers are right - it is the best way to show glitter!

Speaking of out of focus, it's interesting how life events such as tragedies can bring things into focus.  AND how quickly things become fuzzy again.  For instance, I'm sure that when the Oklahoma tornadoes happened recently, many of us said and/or thought, wow, I'm soooo blessed to still have my home and my husband and kids, parents, family, and friends all alive and (maybe mostly) well.  I need to remember to tell these people that I love them, and be grateful for the many blessings (big & small) that God has give me.

Then the days and weeks wear on, and those intense emotions and clarity of perspective are muddied by the demands of the daily grind.  It's easy to do, in so many ways, and I'm guilty of it myself.
I honestly don't know what the solution is, but maybe even something as simple as leaving a note for yourself on the mirror or in your car (or hey, smartphones are phenomenal tools!) to compliment your spouse on something, or do something you know they'll enjoy, and make some extra special one-on-one time with a child or parent or friend.  And most importantly: taking time to thank God who gave us (in one way or another) all of the people and things in our lives.  :-)

Yes, that was "off-topic," but my dear friend inspired me tonight and that is why the "n'stuff" is part of the name of my blog.  So thank you all for bearing with me!  I'm very thankful for all y'all!! :-)  Nighty night!

Zoya Pixie Dust "Vespa" - my first textured polish!

As I said, I'm thoroughly in love with all my new Zoyas, so that made choosing which one to wear first somewhat of a nail-biter. (haha, J/K!)

So in order to enjoy as many as possible, I decided it would make sense to use Neely as undies for Vespa, and since FeiFei has some of that green shimmer, I would use it as an accent nail.
I also wanted to try a bit of an experiment with base coat again, so I only put my Revlon base coat on my right hand (since it'll get the most use) and applied Neely directly to the nails on my left hand.
Oops, back up a step - after taking (more like peeling . . . I know, it's a HUGE no-no) off my Revlon Royal jelly sandwich, a fair number of my nails were rough, pitted, and . . . flaking?; also I have relatively big ridges in my thumbnails, so I used this amazing 7-sided nail file to buff the worst of the unevenness out.  I know Essie said she's not a fan of this kind of file, but I used to have something similar when I was in high school and would buff my nails to a polish-like shine on the bus ride to school.  I loved it!  So when I was at Target last weekend, this file fairly jumped off the shelf at me.  :-)  So glad I got it (for only $2. 86), as it gave me a really nice surface for this mani.

I realize now this sorta looks like my pinkie is broken, but I really wanted my gorgeous "Adrift" ring from Lia Sophia in the photo. ;-)

Aaaand this perspective makes my palm look abnormally wide & flat like a flapjack! 

This mani consisted of 1 coaters all around - that's how good Zoyas are!  One coat Revlon Quick-Dry base (RH only), then one coat of Zoya Neely, followed one coat of Zoya Vespa, and one itsy bitsy coat of FeiFei on her own little accent nail!  And actually, FeiFei is over the top of Vespa as I always, always forget that I'm going to do an accent nail! lol

Application was great on both Neely and Vespa.  I definitely think you'd need 2 coats of Vespa if you used it on its own, maybe 3?  I did decide to do two coats after the photos just because I wanted it to feel more texturized.  Oh actually, my pointer finger has the two coats in these photos.  I added one quickly at work because there was a patch that was driving me nuts.

I think the dry time was the same, maybe a minute or two better than other cremes, but the finish to Neely is SO glossy all on its own.  Vespa didn't take very long to dry down to the grit either - maybe 5-8 mins?  I'm pretty sure I could've still dented them at this point, but they were definitely dry to the touch.

I'm thrilled to have selected Vespa as my first textured polish!  The color is really beautiful and definitely unique for this finish/type of polish (so far).  And the amazing silver glitter flecks really do make it seem like pixie dust!  Oh, one random comment - I love the texture of the cap on the Pixie Dusts.  The others were all the standard, high-gloss black.  This one has almost a velvety rubber feel to it.  Random observation, I know!

I'm interested to see what the durability of this finish is like.  It seems like it should grip my nail well and stay there for a good long time, which I wouldn't complain about . . . it's a beautiful polish!

Color accuracy with NO editing?!?! Say WHAAA . . . ?!

Oh my gosh, and this pose rather gives the effect of  having 6 fingers!  WOW . . .  I guess my plan of experimenting with poses to find "mine" did not turn out so well!  Oh well, hopefully you guys were entertained by my awkwardness! :-P

The amazing file!

I feel a Sesame Street vibe: "Today's 'show' brought to you by - the letter 'N' for nail file, without which the good base for this mani would not have been possible."

All in all, I'm a big fan of the textured trend.  I've been feeling my nails all day long, and making other people feel them! haha
Oh, and another handy "feature" of textured polish: it can double as a nail file in emergency situations!  Ok, ok, yes, I've got to be pulling on your leg (MOVIE REF!) - textured polish is NOT  by any means 100-grit sandpaper, but I had that thought today & it made me chuckle.

Thank you for hanging in here with me 'n my crazy self!  :-)

Zoya haul-ette?

Hi everyone!  Despite being ridiculously tired (ridiculously as in it's ridiculous how horribly my brain is functioning right now - thank God for spell check!), I am SOOOO excited about the Zoya polishes that I got from the Earth Day Exchange deal. WOW.  I've tried 3 on my nails so far and LOVE them all!  I wish I'd had the complete color chart they send in all packages when I was placing my order 'cuz I surely would've bought more than 5 then!  Hahaha, my bank account is probably very glad I didn't, but seriously, HALF OFF Zoyas?!  What a deal!!!  Gotta say I can't wait for Earth Day next year - forget planting trees - I'm gonna save the planet, 10 Zoya polishes at a time! ;-)

L-R: Neely, Vespa, FeiFei, Daul, Reagan
I edited this photo a bit to make it as close to shade-accurate as possible.
The cremes do dry darker on the nail - Reagan is definitely NOT magenta!

I'm sure you polish addicts can understand this:

I'd been watching the FedEx tracking information and it said my package had arrived in my town on the 6th, well, what the heck were they doing with it?!  Why were they estimating delivery on the 8th?  I forgot that seemingly every stinkin' UPS or FedEx package that comes here gets handed over to USPS for actual delivery.  They don't call it snail mail for nothing.  So I barged in there, explained the situation, and stood there 'til he went and searched the pallet.  Victory was mine!  :-D

My *star* attraction . . . 'tis true that out of focus shows the sparkle better
P.S. It really looks like this on the nail, and definitely glittery indoors!

Outdoors, in the shade.  Color accurate.

FeiFei
The colors in her shimmer are AMAZING!  Best purchase ever!
There's a coppery gold, champagne pink, medium purplish, and definitely dusty green shimmer.

Neely
Calming, creamy pale dusty mint green

Reagan
Haven't worn this yet, but I did a tiny swatch on some white cardboard, and it definitely looks to be a juicy raspberry creme. As I said, it is NOT magenta IRL.  Sorry, I couldn't adjust this photo enough.  They all look like this, probably because it's so highly pigmented.

Daul
It's like a bottle of royalty in the palm of my hand!  The gold glass fleck shimmer is SO prominent and perfect in the bluish leaning purple base.  I plan on wearing this over Dutch Ya Just Love OPI? to conserve it.

This pretty color accurate

Faye
The raisin-y/plum version of Daul.  I almost got one for myself too, but just bought it for my roommate instead.

These are the polishes I picked out for her.
L-R: Faye, Kimber, Reece, Karina

 

 What amazing polishes Zoya has!  I'm officially in love!  <3