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.

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

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched
Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Jamie at Polish, Please!

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Tara at Polishy of Truth

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.

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

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Jamie at Polish, Please!

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Tara at Polishy of Truth

Shimmer Polish - Mary

Good morning! Happy Monday! Sorry for not posting in a few days, I've been fighting a bit of a bug. Everyone at work is sick with the flu and I woke up on Wednesday congested and with a sore throat, which is still hanging around but thankfully it never turned into anything more. Does anyone have any plans for New Years Eve? I have work today, but I'm hoping that they will close my office at least a *little* early. Other than that my boyfriend and I are just making dinner at his place and then probably coming back to my house to watch the ball drop with my parents. I'm off tomorrow and we may take a drive, since the weather here on Saturday kept us on the island. Enough rambling....

Today I have a super awesome polish for you, Mary by Shimmer Polish. Mary has a tinted base, which I would consider a raspberry red. There are different size glitters in a mix of red, purple, black and silver. There is an amazing purple glitter that looks blue at times, depending on the way the light hits it. The formula was easy to work with and not goopy in the least. I found the dry time to be quick and I rocked this mani for almost three days before I removed it. All of the glitter pieces laid flat and 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.

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year. See you in 2013 ;)

The polish in this post was provided for my honest review.

Twinsie Tuesday - Christmas Inspired Mani (China Glaze Glittering Garland)

Good morning and a very Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate Christmas!! I hope everyone gets a few good things, enjoys their time with their family and that everyone stays safe. Today's Twinsie Tuesday theme is a Christmas inspired mani. Sadly, I've only worn two holiday polishes this entire season. My favorite Christmas polish is China Glaze Glittering Garland, so I decided to feature it in this post. Glittering Garland is a medium green packed with glass flecks. The formula is great and opaque in two coats. This may be one of the most stunning polishes I own....

In addition to todays post, we have a very special announcement. Jamie from Polish, Please will be joining the Twinsie Tuesday girls starting today. Make sure you check her out her blog and give her a warm welcome!!

Click the links below to see all of the Christmas inspired manicures  ;)

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Jamie at Polish, Please!

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Tara at Polishy of Truth

Again, a very Merry Christmas to all of you!

Zoya Lovely - Spring 2013 Nail Polish Collection (Press Release and Pics)

Hey all! I have some super exciting information and press release photos to share with you tonight....

 

Zoya Lovely
Beauty is a lovely state of mind

Lovely, just LOVELY!

Spring is awash in six soft and lovely new Zoya shades including three dewy metallics and three fresh blooms of cream. Poetic in nature, this collection is sure to capture the beauty of the season like no other....

 

 

 

Zoya Lovely – spRING 2013

Piaf (ZP652) - Fresh Forsythia Yellow Metallic - Full Coverage (Originally designed for Fashion Designer Zang Toi)

GeiGei (ZP651) - Blushing Cherry Blossom Pink Metallic - Full Coverage (Originally designed for Zang Toi/SS13).

Julie (ZP650) - Soft Wisteria Purple Metallic - Full Coverage (Originally designed for Zang Toi/SS13).

Blu (ZP653) - Lucky Hyacinth Blue Cream - Full Coverage

Neely (ZP655) - Earliest Spring Green Cream - Full Coverage (Originally designed for Peter Som/SS13).

Jacqueline (ZP654) - Perfect Magnolia Nude Cream - Full Coverage (Originally designed for Peter Som/SS13)

 

 

Ultra long-wearing, nail lacquers by Zoya are BIG5FREE - all formulas are completely free of harmful industrialchemicals such as toluene, camphor, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin and dibutyl phthalate (DBP)that are known to cause cancer and birth defects.

Zoya Lovely$8 (US)

 

Follow theZoya Nail Polish and Treatments Blog and stay tuned on Twitter (@Zoyanailpolish) andFacebook for release date updates.

Hashtags: #ZoyaLovely and #nailpolish.

 

Thoughts? I'm beyond excited for each of these new shades!! They all look so soft.

Twinsie Tuesday - Birthstone Color (Essie Cascade Cool)

Good Morning, ladies! This week the theme for Twinsie Tuesdays is our birthstone color. Since I'm an October baby, my birthstone is pink tourmaline. I went through a few of my polishes and picked Essie Cascade Cool for my mani. It turned out to be a pretty good match.

I used two easy coats of Essie Cascade Cool for the photos above. The formula is easy to work with and completely opaque in two coats. I topped it off with Seche Vite. 

Remember to check out my Twinsies and their birthstone colors! :)

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Tara at Polishy of Truth

China Glaze - Cowgirl Up

Good morning! Happy Friday to each of you. 5:30pm today will begin my four day weekend...woohoo! I expected to have to go into work on Monday, but instead of a Christmas party my job gave us off on Christmas Eve which totally works for me!

Today I have a polish that I'm not too crazy about. It's Cowgirl Up, from the Rodeo Collection by China Glaze. I thought this looked stunning in the bottle, but once on the nail I wasn't very impressed. It's a very dark magenta/purple. The color is very me, but I'm not a fan of the finish which is frosty. When in direct sunlight and bright lighting, there are little blue flecks which you can  almost see in the photos below. These flecks aren't apparent in normal lighting, and the polish looks much more frosty. The formula was good and I only needed two coats to get it opaque. I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite.

I apologize in advance for the funky ring finger. I have a break that is very far up and I tried to patch it - which you can tell is a complete fail. I also have a bit of tip wear, I haven't been good about taking my photos right away lately....

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!!

Twinsie Tuesday - Chanukah Inspired Mani

Good morning, everyone! Today's Twinsie Tuesday theme is a Chanukah inspired mani. I started with Nails Inc Baker Street as a base, which is a vibrant blue creme polish. I topped it off with OPI Pirouette My Whistle, which is light silver glitter in a clear base. I did two coats of Bakers Street, and one coat of Pirouette My Whistle (which I dabbed on in spots for better coverage). I apologize in advance for the camera phone pictures, Bakers Street is extremely difficult to photograph and my regular camera couldn't capture it accurately.

 

I really liked this combo. I rocked this mani last week, and my co-worker at first said it reminded her of snow and then proceeded to call it a Chanukah mani. Score! Mission accomplished!  ;)

 

Again, Happy Chanukah to all of my Jewish readers!

 

Remember to check out my Twinsies and the Chanukah inspiration they have on their nails:

 

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Tara at Polishy of Truth

 



Essie - Sew Psyched

Good morning, all! I hope everyone had a good weekend, and Happy Chanukah to any Jewish readers! I've been digging through my Essie stash non-stop lately and falling back in love with some of my all time favorites. I wasn't feeling the bright or the dark shades last week so I picked out Essie's Sew Psyched. This is one of my favorite Essie polishes ever. I like to call this dusty army green, and I'm slightly obsessed with it. The Essie website calls this cashmere-soft sage pewter, but dusty army green just seems so bad ass in my opinion. It is fully opaque in two coats and the formula is easy to work with. I used Seche Vite in the photos below....

I hope everyone has a good Monday  :)

Twinsie Tuesday - Black & White Mani

Good morning, friends! I'm back today with another Twinsie Tuesday post. This weeks challenge was a black and white manicure. Seems simple enough, but I spent the better part of the week trying to figure out what to do. I started with three awful coats of Essie Marshmallow and after major denting and chippage had to start over. I decided to keep it simple, and I really ended up loving the outcome.

I'm not sure what to call this, other than random freestyle nail art. I wasn't going to a zebra look, I just wanted lines coming from each side of the nail. I started with two coats of Jordana White (much easier than Essie Marshmallow!) and just went and did a couple of random black stripes with a nail art polish. I'm pretty proud, especially for this being nail art lol.  

Sorry for the dry cuticles. The weather in NY has been pretty cold (with the exception of today, where we hit 62 degrees) and the winter weather wrecks havoc on my skin despite slathering on lotion all day long.

Make sure to check out my twinsies and their black and white manicures:

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Tara at Polishy of Truth