Haul of Fame: Matte Finish

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

The Hungry Asian - Sneeze Breeze

Good Morning! I'm sure some of you noticed, but I completely changed my blog again. This is the 4th time in less than a year, but I realized that the background was pretty distracting. I went plain jane but I think it is easier to read. I get bored very easily - I must change the background on my phone at least once a week.

Today I have another indie for you. This one is from Kae at The Hungry Asian. I purchased two of her minis and they are both drop dead gorgeous. Before I get to the polish, can we check out the amazing packaging?

I was so impressed with the amount of time and effort spent on the packaging. I know it's a little thing, but the little things count. This alone made me feel like my purchase was appreciated.

Now, onto the polish. Her Etsy store describes Sneeze Breeze as matte black and blue glitter in a clear base. It does have a metallic look to it at times and the blue looks to be two different shades (upon removal, I noticed some of the glitter was silver). Application was easy, but I did let it dry completely during after each coat. I used three coats on it's own for the photos below and topped it off with Seche Vite.

I'm loving this polish! You can visit The Hungry Asian on Etsy, she does have a few left in stock. I'm impressed with her creations and her pricing is fair and affordable. The mini I purchased was $4.50, and the large size bottle is $9.25. Shipping was affordable and fast. Once I'm off my no-buy, I plan on picking up a few others.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Twinsie Tuesday: Matte Polish. Presenting Zoya Phoebe

Hey ladies! Today we have another Twinsie Tuesday post. The girls and I were doing a quick trial run with this and a decision was made to extend it, which I'm excited about. We have themes lined up for the next couple of weeks and they are really creative. This is definitely going to push me outside of my 'safe zone' and make me get creative.

Today's theme was a matte polish. Unfortunately, I sold and swapped all of my mattes except for one due to the fact that I'm just not a fan of matte polishes. The closest thing I had besides Zoya Phoebe were my OPI Suedes, but I figured I would stick to the theme especially since I have a matte polish left.

Today's polish is Zoya Phoebe. Before you even scroll to the photos - I'm sorry!!! This was the worst experience I've ever had with Zoya and I couldn't get this polish to work for me. The color is a gorgeous bright robin's egg blue, but the formula was.....worse than any other matte I've worked with. The first coat was runny and almost had a water like texture leaving it extremely sheer. The second coat wasn't much better and by the third coat it was uneven and streaky. I did 4 coats and hated it, so I removed it and started from scratch. I did three coats for the photos shown and they still look horrible. Due to the fact I couldn't use a base or top coat, you can see the terrible split in my pointer finger :::sigh::: On top of that it left terrible staining from the initial removal and I couldn't use cuticle oil or lotion without changing the matte finish so I look d-r-y! (FYI, this was a record 6 days without cutting my cuticles - I'm trying to break the cycle which is leaving my hands super dry looking). After removal, I had horrible staining on my hands and cuticles. I soaked in acetone, used cuticle remover and a nail brush and had to trim my cuticles in order to remove the blue staining. I thought maybe my bottle was a fluke, but a quick Google search and a few MUA reviews later I learned that my bottle seems the same as the others. I had Zoya Mitzi on my wish list, but I'm crossing that one off!!

So, let's cut to the chase....(sorry!)