Thursday, January 31, 2013

Twinsie Tuesday - 1 Year Anniversary Post (Then & Now)

Good Morning, all! Happy Thursday. Besides it being one day closer to Friday, we have a special post for today. One year ago today, we started the Twinsie Tuesday posts. Our first post was an international polish, which we were supposed to be reswatching today. Unfortunately, I purged Kiko # 255 a while back but I found another Kiko for today...

Then....



Now....

Kiko # 301



Along the way we've formed strong friendships beyond just the weekly posts. I'm thankful to be able to call the Twinsie girls my friends. :)

Make sure you check out their special posts here:

Amanda at Amandalandish
Ashley at Art Evolve
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Cordia at Seriously Swatched
Elizabeth at Did My Nails
Jamie at Polish, Please!
Katherine at Haul of Fame

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Twinsie Tuesday - Vintage Mani

Good Morning, ladies! It's another Twinsie Tuesday. The challenge for this week was to copy something from a vintage mani. I started checking out vintage beauty ads on Google Images and I kept finding nothing but red, red, and more red. I liked the tone of the one below and how catchy it was so I decided to go for it. I layered two super easy coats of OPI Color So Hot it Berns and topped it with Seche Vite....


The inspiration...

 
Sorry for the super nubbins! The extreme cold weather in NY has not been good to my nails and cuticles.
 
Be sure to check out the other vintage manicures that my Twinsies are rocking:
 
Amanda at Amandalandish
Ashley at Art Evolve
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Cordia at Seriously Swatched
Elizabeth at Did My Nails
Jamie at Polish, Please!
Katherine at Haul of Fame

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Twinsie Tuesday - Cervical Cancer Awareness Mani

Good Morning! Today's post is in honor of Cervical Cancer Awareness.

As the month of January brings cervical cancer into focus, it’s time to increase public understanding of the disease, including its prevalence, approaches to screening and prevention, treatment options, and resources that offer updated cervical cancer information throughout the year.
Each year in the United States, more than 11,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and approximately 4,000 die of the disease. While certain types of the human papillomavirus (HPV) are linked to cervical cancer, vaccines such as Gardasil® and Cervarix™ are designed to prevent infection with high-risk types of HPV and have the potential to greatly reduce the occurrence of cervical cancer.
For more information on cervical cancer, its treatment, and support, please visit Cancer Connect by clicking here.


The polishes used are Essie Where's My Chauffeur, Jordana White and the black nail art pen by Jordana.
 Check out all of my Twinsies and their awareness manicures here:
Amanda at Amandalandish
Ashley at Art Evolve
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Cordia at Seriously Swatched
Elizabeth at Did My Nails


Friday, January 18, 2013

Shimmer Polish - Kelly

Happy Friday! To kick off the weekend I have another Shimmer Polish to share with you today. This one is Kelly, and it's utterly amazing. Kelly is made up of medium green and gold glitter in a clear base. The formula was easy to work with and it was completely opaque in two coats. The glitter laid flat as well, even before I topped it off with Seche Vite. This may be my favorite Shimmer Polish yet!



You can purchase Shimmer Polish on Etsy, here. You can also check out all of the polishes offered by Shimmer Polish on her website, www.ShimmyShimmer.com. They are full size bottles that retail for $12.00 each.

This polish was provided for my honest review.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Twinsie Tuesday - Red Mani (OPI La Boheme)

Good morning! Today's Twinsie theme is a breath of fresh air after the nail art challenge last week. It's a simple red mani. I chose to go with OPI La Boheme which is a medium red with a light duochrome shift. Depending on the light La Boheme can flash orange, which you can see in the photos below. I used two coats of La Boheme and topped it off with Seche Vite.



I just purged this one recently, and now I'm sitting here wondering what I was thinking. 

Be sure to check out all of the red love going on this week:

Amanda at Amandalandish
Ashley at Art Evolve
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Cordia at Seriously Swatched
Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Blog Sale

Good evening! I've been contemplating purging more nail polish for a while now and I have finally decided it's time. If you are interested, my Blog Sale page is back.

I have up some new, old and VHTF polishes.

Thanks for looking! 

Friday, January 11, 2013

Zoya Lovely Collection for Spring 2013 (Swatches and Review)

Good Morning and happy Friday! Today I have something super exciting to share with you, swatches from Zoya's Lovely collection for Spring 2013. The Lovely collection features six season appropriate pastels consisting of three beautiful cremes and three gorgeous metallic shimmers. I've been meaning to post this review for over a week but I've been sick with strep and the flu. The one good thing about delaying this post is that I can comment on the wear for about half of this collection.

Zoya Blu



Zoya Blu is a lovely baby blue creme with a strong white undertone. The formula on Blu is a bit thick but easy to work with. Blu was fully opaque in two coats and I wore this polish for three days with minimal tip wear. I actually got quite a few comments on this polish. This seems to be pretty popular even with those who aren't polish obsessed like the rest of us  ;)

Zoya Jacqueline



Zoya Jacqueline is a creamy nude polish with a slight tint of yellow. It was opaque in two coats but I found the formula to much thicker and stringier than the other cremes. It took more work than the other cremes to get it even and opaque. You can even see some areas on my ring finger that started to bubble. (For reference on this nude shade, I'm NW15)

Zoya Neely



Zoya Neely is a gorgeous pistachio green creme. This was my favorite of the cremes. It was opaque in two coats and had the same formula as Blu. I can report that the wear on Neely is phenomenal. I wore Neely for a total of SIX days with minimal tip wear and no chips.

Zoya Piaf



Zoya Piaf is described by the Zoya website as "fresh forsythia yellow metallic" which is spot on. I wasn't sure how I would feel about Piaf once on my nails but I found it to be flattering for a yellow. I looked through my large stash of polish and the color of Piaf is very unique. I used three coats of Piaf to get it fully opaque.

Zoya GieGie



Zoya GieGie is an icy light pink shimmer. This is what Barbie would wear if she traded in her bright pink for a shimmery pastel for Easter. This one wasn't one of my favorites, but I think it would be nice if you needed a color similar to this for a special occasion. I used three coats to get GieGie fully opaque.

Zoya Julie



Zoya Julie is my standout favorite from the Lovely collection. This gorgeous pastel purple shimmer is so gorgeous and flattering. I didn't expect to love this one as much as I did. I used three coats of Julie to get it fully opaque. I wore it for three days with minimal tip wear.



The Zoya Lovely collection is available now on Zoya's website here. They retail for $8.00 each, or you can buy the set for $48.00. Has anyone purchased any of the Lovely collection? Do you plan to? My favorites are Blue, Neely and Julie.

I hope everyone has a good weekend.


*The products featured in this post were sent for my honest review.


Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Twinsie Tuesday - Saran Wrap Mani

Good Morning! The challenge for today is a saran wrap manicure. Honestly, I dreaded this. While I think the outcome is pretty cool the idea of making a mess is what has always held me back. I got my saran wrap cut and slathered the Vaseline around my cuticles to ease clean up. At first, I used OPI La Boheme and Deutsch You Want Me Baby. The colors were too close and I could barely see the Saran Wrap effect. I pulled out Zoya Ziv and went to work. Here's what I ended up with....



This reminds me a little bit of a Christmas ornament, but I like the outcome. If it wasn't for this challenge, I would have never done it on my own. The clean up was pretty minimal, I basically just wiped the polish off the Vaseline each time I finished a nail.

Check out my Twinsies and their Saran Wrap manis:

Amanda at Amandalandish
Ashley at Art Evolve
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Cordia at Seriously Swatched
Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Monday, January 7, 2013

Shimmer Polish - Elsa

Good Morning, all! I hope everyone had a good weekend. I'm still sick so I laid low this weekend. Today I have another Shimmer Polish, this one is Elsa. Elsa has different size glitters in a mix of red, turquoise and gold. All of the glitter in Elsa ranges from small to absolutely tiny. The base is ever so slightly tinted red. The formula was easy to work with and I found the dry time to be quick. Two coats was almost fully opaque, but I chose to go with three to get everything completely covered. I topped this off with a coat of Seche Vite.


You can purchase Shimmer Polish on Etsy, here. You can also check out all of the polishes offered by Shimmer Polish on her website, www.ShimmyShimmer.com. They are full size bottles that retail for $12.00 each.

This polish was provided for my honest review.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Twinsie Tuesday - New Years Inspired Mani (China Glaze - For Audrey)

Happy New Year to each and every one of you! I hope everyone has a fantastic 2013 filled with nothing but the absolute best (nail polish and cosmetics included). This week's TT theme is a New Years inspired mani. I'm cheating on this one and using a polish I wore a little over a week ago. Shh - don't tell anyone ;)

Pictured below is two coats of the famous For Audrey by China Glaze. The perfect Tiffany blue creme with pretty great formula. Application was easy but I did have quite a few chips within the 24-48 hour mark.


For my actual NYE mani I have on one of the new colors from the Zoya Lovely collection. I haven't finished swatching them all and testing the wear so I didn't want to show that one off just yet.

Make sure to check out what my Twinsies are starting out 2013 with....

Amanda at Amandalandish
Ashley at Art Evolve
Chelsea at Nailed Blog