Zoya Holly

       Hi guys! Like five hundred years ago, I posted Rina from Zoya's Gems and Jewels Collection. Today, I have her companion color, Holly. Also, excuse my awkward nubbins...I'm trying to sort them out, but my nails (not so) secretly hate me. -__-

Holly is a pretty straightforward green metallic shimmer. The name for it escapes me right now, but it's the same shade of green as a really lush Christmas tree. 

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    Holly is quite pretty. The metallicy finish of it makes it look really smooth and sexy, and the shimmer gives it a nice bit of depth and richness. The shade of green is also nice to look at, and very appropriate for the season. However, I find it kind of hard to be excited about Holly, because it does feel a little generic. I can understand why Zoya would make it, because it does round out their lineup nicely, but because I have so many shimmery greens already, this one doesn't quite stand out for me. But if you don't have many greens and need to fill a shimmery-green-shaped hole in your collection, you could do way worse for yourself than Holly. 

    Holly's formula was okay. It needed three layers to be opaque, but they dried quickly and went on with no incident. 

And that's all from me today! Thanks for reading, and have an awesome Friday!

Zoya Rina

     Hi guys! With Thanksgiving behind us, the next big holiday is Christmas, which is also my favorite holiday!! It also helps that there is always an abundance of glitter polishes released around this time, and I am the biggest glitter whore ever. One of those collections this year was Zoya's Gems and Jewels Collection, and for you all today, I have Rina from that collection.

Rina is made of emerald green bar and square microglitter, as well as a sprinkling of holographic bar glitter. The holo glitter isn't too obvious, but if you look really close, you can see it.

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This picture shows a little more of the holo glitter. 

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       I've never been a big fan of bar glitter, but Rina has totally made a believer out of me. It's so pretty and sparkly, and I love the richness of the shade of green. It looks like sparkling pine needles in a magical forest. Or tinsel, if you wanna be boring about it. Either way, it's gorgeous and absolutely screams Christmas! My only complaint is that I wish the holographic glitter was a little more prominent, because when I do see it, I love it, but I almost never see it. But that's a minor thing. 

       Rina's formula was pretty good. It was opaque in three coats, which is what you see in the pictures, and it dried pretty quickly and smoothly. I ended up using two layers of top coat, but I think it would have done fine with two. The only thing is that it looks kind of patchy before it gets opaque, so I definitely would not want to layer this over anything, except for maybe another green. In that way, I'd say Rina is a little...limited, I guess. And that's not fun. Also, it was messy to apply...it gunked up alot around the bottle neck and after I finished polishing, I had to go back and file the sharp bits of glitter off my tips. But once all that was done, it was totally worth it.

And that's all from me today!! Thanks for reading, and have an awesome day!

Zoya Astra

   Hi guys!! I finished doing the entries thing, and am happy to announce that I finally have a winner for my last giveaway. So yayness for...

Noir Lacquer!!

  She has a fab blog, so make sure to go check it out! A big congrats goes to her and a big thank you goes to everyone who entered! 

On the nail polish side of things, some of you may have noticed that October has begun (Happy October, btw!), which of course means that it's Breast Cancer Awareness and Depression Awareness Month! I'm planning to wear lots of pink and green this month, and starting off the parade will be Astra, from Zoya's Ultra Glitter Collection.

Astra is pepto pink and rose red hex glitter in a raspberry pink-tinted base. 

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      Going in, I didn't think I'd like Astra very much, but I do. It's cheery and youthful, and I love how the glitter is sparkly and bright in all lighting conditions. I also appreciate that Zoya made the glitter two different colors, because they give Astra some dimension and make it more unique. And I like unique polish...makes me feel like I didn't waste my moniez. 

    Astra's formula was pretty good. It applied smoothly, built easily, and dried quickly, which made for an entirely stress-free application. Removal is another story altogether. x_x

The pictures are with three coats of color and two thick layers of topcoat, because Astra dries gritty and eats topcoat like I would eat chocolate sauce off Cristiano Ronaldo's stomach. Which is quickly and greedily. 

But that's all from me today! Thanks for reading, and have an awesome Monday!!

 (Icon courtesy of  lizbot)

Zoya Julieanne

       Hi people! For today, I have Zoya Julieanne, from last year's Wicked Collection. This was the same collection that delivered unto me my beloved Edyta and Cheryl, so I had high expectations for this girl going in. I'm glad to say that I was not disappointed. :D

Julieanne is a blackened grape purple base with flat, metallic violet shimmer throughout it. The shimmer has a very very very subtle duochrome effect, where it turns gold at certain angles on the nail.

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     Julieanne is such a pretty color and my pictures don't do it justice at all. The shimmer is so sparkly and bright, and I love how it looks suspended in the much darker base. The contrast between the two really gives the polish a depth and sense of luxury that's just fantastic, and I really love how it looks on my nails. I've been wearing Julieanne for four days, and still am not tired of it.

    Julieanne also boasted a great formula. It was nice and smooth, and was opaque in just two coats. I went with three, just to get a little more depth in the color, but two would have been just fine.

And unrelated to this color, I'd like to thank everyone for entering my 400 Follower Giveaway. I don't think I've ever had so many entries for a giveaway, so I really appreciate you guys for being so enthusiastic! I need a couple more days to finish validating the entries, but I feel like I'll have a winner for you guys before the week is out. I'm planning another giveaway for some time in the next couple of weeks because I finally found a job, thank sweet baby Jesus, so stay tuned for that! 

But that's all from me today!! Thanks for reading, and have an awesome day! ^_^

400 Follower Giveaway! (And Back to School Nails)

     Happy September everyone! I know it's been a while since my last post, but I'm hoping that once I get settled down, find a job, and can figure out when I get sunlight in my new room, I can go back to a more regular posting schedule. So please don't abandon me, lmao.


*Giveaway is now closed! Thanks for entering!*


In the meantime, I finally have that 400 follower giveaway that I've been talking about having for kind of a long time now. So without further ado, here's what's up for grabs:

Sinful Colors Adventure Island Collection (minus Rise and Shine)

And some polishes donated by the beautiful people at China Glaze!

R-L: Liquid Leather, Flip Flop Fantasy (which I'll be posting soon), White Cap, and Fairy Dust

Everything is brand new and has never been used, as far as I know. The Sinfuls are kind of a toss up because they come from the drugstore, and someone may have opened it. But if that did happen, rest assured, it was not moi. >_>

And that's it! Good luck to everyone, and thank you all for reading, commenting, participating, following, and basically not leaving me to blog....

.

*Giveaway is now closed! Thanks for entering!*

I also have a few pictures of the nail look I wore for the first day of school! 

I used two layers of Zoya Phoebe as a base and then put two layers of Diamond Cosmetics Chunky Red Glitter on top of that. I wanted to matte-ify it, but I can't find my Matte About You, so I just used regular topcoat. I really liked it and got lots of compliments too! A guy in the student store said that it looked like a Smurf with chicken pox, which was pretty funny. 

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And that's all from me!! Thanks for reading, and have a fantastic Thursday! 

Uncle Sam's Tuxedo

    Happy Fourth of July guys!! For Independence Day, I did a tuxedo mani with a bit of an Uncle Sam twist. 

So this was actually pretty easy to do. I started with two layers of Color Club Pretty in Platinum, and then drew on the suit with Zoya Kimmy. I used Funky Fingers Alice and a bobby pin (I lost my brushes and dotting tool...maybe they got left at school) to make the tie and then put a gemstone in as a tie pin. I finished it by using the bobby pin and Pretty in Platinum to make a vaguely lapel-ish thingy, and sealed everything up with a thick coat of Poshe.

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     Even though this came out janky (as usual), I actually like it. In person, you can't really see all the mistakes, so it looks better. And the sparkliness from Kimmy and Alice make it really festive and fun, and distracted people from noticing how many hot dogs I shoved into my face. I'd like to try it again though when I actually have some real tools, because I wanted a bow tie and not a neck tie. 

I'm gonna go away now because I'm still in a haze from my hotdoghamburgerothermeatsvegetablefruitsodaicedtea rampage this afternoon, and can't really think clearly or even breathe right.

Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone is having a fabulously amazing Fourth of July! And if you don't celebrate this particular holiday, I hope your Monday was fabulously amazing all the same. ^_^

Zoya Kelly

          So, as many of you probably know (courtesy of Zara from Never Unpolished) May is Brain Tumor Awareness Month. Grey is the patron color or whatever you call it for this cause, which I think is pretty cute, because much of the brain is grey matter. Heehee. Zara is going to be wearing grey nails every day of May, and I thought it would be fun to join in. I can't do it every day like she is. That's dedication, yo. But I'll try to wear it quite often. 
As my first grey of the month, I have Zoya Kelly, from the Wonderful Collection.

Kelly is a dark grey creme with undertones of blue and maybe purple. 

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    I quite like Kelly. It's a fairly complex shade of grey, and all the undertones make it look different depending on the skin tone of the wearer and the lighting conditions. This dynamism is what makes Kelly fun and sets it apart from other grey cremes. I also think that the darker tone of it gives it a more refined, modern, and chic feel. And if I do say so myself, it looks really good on my nails. Yeahhh conceited moment. However, I think Kelly has been kind of hyped up as the best Zoya color of life, and in my opinion, it is not alllllll of that. I could think of some other Zoyas that I'd name as must-haves before Kelly. But with that being said, it really is nice color and I don't own anything quite like it, so I will be giving it a permanent home among my children.

  As far as formula goes, Kelly was fab. I only needed two coats for opaque, creme-y deliciousness, and I also found the dry time to be quite good.

Zoya Cheryl + Lower Keys Marsh Rabbit

          Happy Easter everyone!! 
          With today being what it is, I thought it would be fitting to look at an adorable and completely non-creepy little bunny. Meet the Lower Keys Marsh Rabbit:

     

    Although people in the U.S. generally think that we have too many rabbits, this particular one is in some real trouble. It only eats the plants that are found on the mid to high marshlands of the Florida Keys, making it particularly susceptible to environmental pollution and habitat degradation. The Lower Keys Marsh Rabbit also gets into altercations with cats and dogs, with the household pets usually winning. :(

  Based on the Lower Keys Marsh Rabbit's beautiful chocolate brown fur, I chose to wear Zoya Cheryl, from their Wicked Collection.

Cheryl is made of chocolate brown and like...rose-ish? flat and metallic shimmer pieces in a deep mahogany base. 

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     Cheryl will always be very near and dear to my heart, because it was gifted to me by the wonderful Kris over at My Lucid Bubble. But even if it had been a regular polish, I would still like it. Cheryl is so pretty! The shade of brown is strong and flattering, and it does that beautiful bright in the center, dark at the edges thing that I love so much. The flecks of shimmer also give it some nice sparkle and depth.. I still don't like brown polish, but Cheryl can be the exception to that rule. ^_^

     As far as formula goes, Cheryl's was quite good. I needed three coats for the opacity and depth that I like, and it went on nicely. I also found the dry time to be quite agreeable. 

And that's all from me today. n_n

 Thanks for reading, and I hope that everyone is having a wonderful Easter!!