Zoya Winter Zenith Collection

I had a coupon for Ulta and I knew I needed to use it for nail polish since you could use it on the good stuff.  I had eyeballed some of the different winter collections that I saw and picked up a few that I liked.  (side-note,  it was extremely shocking that my Ulta had these,  since it took them months to get the fall collection in.)

I only chose two of the batch because I'm not too keen on the textured polishes anymore,  and the others looked like ones I already have.

First up is Belinda,  a GORGEOUS royal purple with a magenta flash.  This is so incredibly pretty.  I have a weakness for purple polish as it is,  and this one does not disappoint. The formula is almost  a one-coater,  but I did two to make it completely opaque. It just looks so regal and rich.

Lighting : shade

The other one I purchased was Mosheen,  a holographic bar / feather glitter with holo specks too.  This was a surprise for me,  since I've tried the feathered polishes and they were just  Ok... I think I don't care for how the little flakes peak out along the tip of the nail. This one does the same,  but I forgive it because it's so unbelievably stunning.

We're lucking out today with some lovely sunshine,  and it picked up every little holo speck flash...  Just beautiful. Please forgive all of the pictures,  but I was capturing so many pretty ones!

Lighting : shade

I also really wanted Dream,  which is a deep blue with a scattered holo,  and Payton is a nice burgundy with light holo sparkle... But I figured I wouldn't wear them as much as these two.


I picked up one of Essie's new Luxe Effects polishes as well,  so I will swatch that one out to show you. It's shockingly beautiful also.

Too early for holiday collections? I'm torn.  Now that I am out of the retail sales world,  I enjoy the holidays. Although my birthday is around Christmas time and I'm always a little bitter about that... Too many cheap relatives!

Have you gotten any of this collection?
April

Baddy Scaddy Nails

So I know that you've seen a ton of these manis,  but I couldn't help myself.  There is something so spooky but awesome about it that I just had to do it too.

Blood.  Bloody Nails.

It's the splatter technique,  where you dip a straw into polish,  and then short blast it onto the nail.  My base coat is OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls,  and the blood is Essie's A List.

Totally spooky,  right? I was going to redo the ring finger but I like the huge splotch. Here's the right hand too.

My sisters and I had a weird childhood where we didn't watch those normal kids movies,  we watched scary movies.  And loved them.  It freaks my hubs out that I haven't  seen some Disney flicks,  but we liked to be scared. We also took trips to the old cemetery in town when we were bored to look at the tombstones. Again, weird.


So,  as I am typing this,  I'm watching this horribly scary movie,  Mama.  I'm seriously spooked.  This is one of the freakiest new scary movies I've seen.  Kind of crappin myself right now. Also, why does every actor in scary movies never turn on the lights? Idiots.



So,  what's the scariest movie you've seen lately?

April

Dark blue matte

Best day of football ever on Saturday.  It's no surprise to some of you that I love the Iowa Hawkeyes and I have season tickets this year.  We've had our ups and downs,  but we won in overtime this weekend. I have never yelled so much in my life.  I do a black and gold mani every game, so maybe I need to create an album of just those.


Today I have a quick mani to share.  I was fumbling around on Pinterest and saw a lovely manicure that was a super dark blue shimmer that was mattified and decorated with silver studs.  I totally stink at studs.  I get nail glue all over the nail and on my fingers.  Hate it.  So, I dug out my new Pueen stamping plates, and did that instead.

My blue is Essie's Aruba Blue.  This is just two coats and is a deep royal blue. The accent nail is Pueen plate #33 and the polish is Maybelline Bold Gold. The matte finish top coat I use is Essie's Matte About You.

I love how royal and elegant this looks when matte.  I'm not usually a big fan of blue nails, but I'm totally loving this.

I also need some more practice with stamping. I'm fairly new to it, and I'm having issues every time. Either the polish is not working, or the stamper doesn't grab the image. Top it off with that then I tend to put it on crooked.  I just need to sit down and mess with them more I think.


Also- I uploaded a ton of pics to Instagram on Sunday.  Follow me here and help a sister out.  ;)


Any tips with stamping? What's your favorite matte finish?
April

Pointed purples

Today I finally took off the last Mani I did,  the one with the purple and black  blocking.  I'm still pretty obsessed with nude polish so I redid that for my base and then did one of my favorite looks.  Pointed nails.  Have you seen the crazy super pointy claw nail shapes lately? They are weird and lovely at the same time.

The blue color is from Ciate, Pepperminty.  You just take the brush and swipe it towards the middle and then repeat on the other side. Let that dry,  and then go over it with the purple color...  I used OPI Pamplona Purple.  I added a stud to the ring finger and called it complete.

I actually got dressed this morning before I did this look,  and didn't even realize that I was wearing  a flannel that was the exact same colors.  What a weirdo.



In other news,  I finally uploaded my existing pics to Pinterest.  Follow me here and help get these out there for me.  I would really appreciate it.



Thanks so much! Let me know what you think!
April

Finally, Day 31-Re-create a Mani You Love

Sorry for the lack of posts this last week... life got out of control and I ended up wearing that Louboutin mani for a long time because I was so scared to take it off. (Which it wasn't that bad... I soaked my nail and then used a Q-tip to grab out all the underside)

But today is the final prompt for the 31 Day Nail Polish Challenge,  re-create a mani you love. This took me FOREVER to find one that I wanted to do. And I'm still not completely sold, so look for a do-over sometime soon.

So after searching for hours on Pinterest,  reading a multitude of nail blogs, I went back to one on my own Nailed It Pinterest board that I pinned like a year ago.

And of course, in true Pinterest fashion, I'm not sure if the link that I have on the pin is correct.  So for the copyright Nazi's that might be reading this, I hope that whatever language the link is in says that it's her own nail art.  ;)

Source (I hope) Linvant

I altered this slightly for my version.  Since we are expecting snow today, (SNOW!!! Ugh!) I thought that the pink and lilac was just too springy. I instead used OPI's My Vampire is Buff as the base. Then because I did this last night at like 9 pm, I free handed the purple shapes- which is OPI'S Do You Lilac It? . And again, since it was slowly creeping on my bedtime,  I free handed the black shapes too, which is Essie's Licorice.

I'm strangely liking the overall look, but as what happens with me all the time, is that I don't have the patience or the plan-aheadiness to have a completely dry base before attempting to tape. Oh well, like I said,  I will most likely do another version sometime down the road.

Well, that takes me to the end of the 31 day challenge.  How long did that actually take me, lol? I hope to still post regularly.  I just got a new nail polish station upstairs, so my DH will be very happy that my crap is not clogging up the dining room table anymore.  He's already got to refinish the table because varnish and acetone don't mix well.  (Whoops).

Have a wonderful day, and for the rest of you in the Midwest today, be safe for the first bit of bad weather today. People tend to get all wackadoodle when this happens.
April

Day 30, a Tutorial

One day left. I can't believe I have made it!!!

When I re-discovered nail polish,  I found several different ideas and blogs. One of my favorites was the Louboutin Nails.


If you have been living under a rock, and don't know what a Louboutin is, its a delightful fabulous shoe that the soles are red. Awesome story,  the first pair that were red bottomed were painted with nail polish!


The tutorial that I found had you first paint the underside of the nail with red. I used an Essie polish (A-List) because the brush is narrow,  and it dries quickly.  Then it said to paint the first coat in white so that the red pops and shows easily with the dark top. After that dries, paint on the black. I used two coats of Essie Licorice.

I wore this one day earlier,  and I would walk up to people and show them my black mani. I was like, isn't this pretty?  I would get the blank stare so then I would turn them over. Wait for the wow.

Its one of those fun surprises that you get to show people.

I totally plan on doing this again, but experiment with other colors.  And actually,  today I added a matte finish top coat, and I am really digging it. There's something about black polish that I think looks so classy. Which is weird, because its black!


So, thoughts? Are you as nervous as I am to attempt to remove this one? Ha!
April

Double Duty... Days 28 and 29

Hey there. I didn't post yesterday because I was running so late. I never even got a chance to catch up all day.  Oh well. I also had jury duty on Monday,  and so I keep on thinking that today is Thursday.


I am posting two days worth of the challenge today, because I'm not super pleased how either one turned out.


Day 28 is inspired by a flag. Well I'm not very inspired by flags, so I looked forever at pictures of flags. I gave up.

I remembered the Big 10 flags that are all around Kinnick Stadium,  so I was like why be inspired by one flag, when I can be inspired by 6?

My beloved Hawkeyes are in the Legends division of the Big 10. I took the other 5 teams and made little pennants on the nail. The pinky has those 3 team's colors layered in glitter.

Meh... I think it looks childish and rookie. And kind of like party hats.

Moving on to Day 29, inspired by the supernatural.  April says what? What a weird prompt. I think that they must have ran out of their own inspiration making this list, because flag and supernatural is bizarre.

Anyways,  I wanted to do something other than a ghost. I typically only read paranormal stories, and so in searching through my Kindle library,  I saw the Percy Jackson series. (Don't judge... the books are actually quite good.) So my supernatural mani is Greek Gods.


Pointer is Aphrodite,  goddess of love and beauty.  Middle is Poseidon, god of the sea, ring is Athena, goddess of wisdom,  pinky is Zeus, king of the gods, and the thumb is Dionysus, god of wine.

I love my Athena nail. And I somewhat like the thumb. I wish that I had done the entire hand in all grey and then did the accents in colors. Again,  I thought this looked campy and amateur. I mean, Zeus looks like a hot dog with ketchup and mustard.


Oh well, you win some, you lose some. Honestly,  I think I'm getting burnt out on the prompts. Good thing there are only two days left!


So that's it. I almost didn't post them because they are so not my standard in art. But I want to have a full challenge,  dammit!   ;)


Enjoy the day!
April