Zoya Adina

            Adina (from the Reverie Collection) is another Zoya that I tried out today. lol, yes...at the moment, I have quite a bit of time on my hands. smh.

Adina is another strong duochrome. She's mostly silvery-lavender, but also has a strong green shimmer and flashes pink.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Shaded sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash. Behold the pink.

     With Adina, I had a funny time. Immediately after putting it on, I did not like it. I'm not sure why...I just didn't get that...angels singing type feeling. Blasphemy, I know. But I wore Adina as a full mani, and she eventually grew on me. I think I was expecting something a little darker and greyer, and was just taken aback by how pale a lavender this is. But once I acclimated to that, everything was gravy. The color scheme is lovely and the lavender, green, and pink work together nicely. Also, the colors combined with the shimmer makes Adina kind of dreamy...almost ethereal even. Adina does mean gentle and delicate, so once again...dead on, Zoya! I'd love to try it under one of the floral Bundle Monster plates.

   The formula on Adina was great. Smooth and easy. I used my Seche Ridge Filler again, and after two coats of that, Adina was opaque in three coats. 

   

And completely unrelated to nail polish, look at what my little sister made in ceramic class! At the beginning of the semester, she  said that she would make me a piggy, but somehow, she ended up with this cute, yet strange creature:

I have noo idea what this mouthless, noseless creature is. She says it's a monkey. I think it looks like a cross between a panda, a lemur, and the abominable snowman. Either way, I love it! lmao, it's so cute and indescribable. 

Zoya Ki

           Another sunny day, and another day of Zoya swatching. Today, I did Ki, from the Suede Collection. My pictures don't really capture her beauty, but hey...I tried. 

Bottle Ki. She really does look like a gasoline rainbow.

More pictures and whatnot after the jump!

Zoya Mimi

           This post will be about Mimi, my other color from Zoya's Sparkle Collection. Before I get on with the other stuff, I just need to mention how much I love that each of Zoya's polishes have an actual name. And not a pun or some random phrase or word. They have people names...like each new color is a baby. Something about the whole thing just strikes me as really sweet and tender, and it can come in handy. While I was swatching, my sister came in and asked what I was doing.  I insisted that I was hanging with Mimi and Charla, which earned me some looks, because quite clearly, I was the only person in the room. She kept calling me crazy and I just kept on saying that Mimi and Charla were right here (they were), and that they don't appreciate being ignored.  It was fun.  But enough of my mad ramblings. 

Mimi is a saturated violet base with small pink and purple glitter. This picture is horrible, but it was the best one I had. That's because Mimi was being a betch (Mimi is such a betch name) and gave my camera a hard time.

Sunlight, no flash. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash. 

Natural light, no flash.

      Even though Mimi was a prima donna and getting decent pictures was hard, I'm a fan.  I love that it's a bold, robust shade of purple, instead of a lighter purple. Light purple is all well and good, but there's something about a purple that proudly proclaims its purpleness, if that makes sense.  I think Charla was sparklier and had more evident glitter, but Mimi is no slouch. She's much prettier than my pictures would lead anyone to believe. 

    Mimi's formula was also perfect. I needed four coats to get her to full opacity, but unlike Charla, Mimi did need all four coats. It wouldn't have been okay to leave it at three. However, Mimi is one of those polishes where the extra coat was worth the work, so I don't mind. Application was very easy...Mimi spread easily and smoothly and was quite manageable. Removal was easy too.

   I know that I only have two colors from the Sparkle Collection, but man, I love them! Few things make my heart sing the way that beautiful and trauma-free glitter polish does. 

Zoya Charla

           Since today was sunny, and according to the news man, the sun won't last long, I decided to swatch my sparkly Zoyas this afternoon. I'll be posting them individually, because I went a little too far with the pictures to put them all in one post. So this post will be dedicated to the lovely Charla, from Zoya's Sparkle Collection!

Charla is an aqua, vaguely metallic base, packed with small iridescent blue glitter. The glitter also faintly flashes green at times, although the effect is much more pronounced in the bottle than on the nail. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash. 

Bottle Charla is so beautiful, but she exaggerates just a tad.

      I'm in all types of love with Miss Charla. It's such a fun and flattering polish, and I love the glitter. Although it was sparkly and eye-catching, it was still fine and delicate, reminding me of the scales on a beautiful fish. My beautiful fish, in fact. His name was Neptune, and even though he was a fighting fish, he was so good and friendly. He didn't jump out of his tank (like some fish do) and was never finicky. And he used to play with me. I had a penlight, and he used to chase it around when I shone it into his bowl. And on top of that, Neptune was freaking gorgeous. 

    If it was sunny outside and I was doing my homework on the dorm balcony, I'd take him with me. Although he was nice to look at indoors, the sun really made him a star. It would reflect off his scales and filter through his fins, and he would look so hot. I'm sad I don't have any pictures of him. He was a really nice fish and I miss him often. Charla looks like him, which probably has something to do with why I love her.  

   Charla also boasts a perfect formula. It applied so smoothly and easily, and was opaque in three coats. I could have gone for a fourth, but it was fine in three, so that's where I left it. It also dried nice and smooth, so topcoat was only needed to enhance the sparkle factor. And removing it was so easy. I just used some Cutex Acetone remover and it came right off. No elbow grease required. ^_^

P.S. Oh yeah, I almost forgot! Charla gave me a stain. I'm surprised, because it doesn't seem the type to stain, but it did. So I guess I recommend using a good base coat with it. The one I used (Borghese Hydrati Treatment) isn't really much of a base coat, but I like to use it when I swatch.

   

L.A. Colors Nuclear Energy (And some Nfu-Oh)

           Today, I'm wearing Nuclear Energy from L.A. Colors. It's a bright and cheerful color, which is exactly what I needed after breaking another nail this morning. *sucks teef*

Nuclear Energy is a darkish, red-based, purple jelly. The first time I looked at this on my nails, I immediately wanted a green Konad polish, so I could do a Barney-inspired mani. Nuclear Energy is the color of his flesh, but I think the color in this pic is slightly off.

Kind of sunlight, no flash. 

We got a little bit of sun, but it was pretty watery and thin, so I don't know if I can count it all the way as sunlight.

Kind of sunlight, no flash. 

Natural light, with flash. 

    Nuclear Energy is another simple, inexpensive, and pretty color. I bought it thinking that it would be creme, but was pleasantly surprised to see that it was in fact, a jelly. Jelly polish is so cute...I always feel like squishing it.

     The formula was....a little iffy? It spread easily and dried in good time, but it was also quite watery. I know that translucence is par for the course with jellies, but Nuclear Energy took it too far. smh. The pictures are with four thick coats, and even though I can't see it on my nails with my eyes, the pictures still show my tips. In the future, I'll be wearing this over white, because I generally like to draw my line at three coats, unless the polish is so spectacular that it warrants the extra work. While Nuclear Energy is nice, it isn't spectacular, so I'll be taking the lazy man's way out from here on out. However, it did dry super glossy and didn't even need topcoat. I put on some anyway out of principle. 

   Overall, I'm happy with Nuclear Energy. This is my very first time ever trying a L.A. Colors polish (I never see it in stores), so I'm happy that my experience was positive with them. I hate trying a brand for the first time and having it be awful. *looks at Nubar*

Later:

I added one coat of Nfu-Oh 51 to Nuclear Energy.

The sun suddenly came out. o_O

Sunlight, no flash. 

Natural light, no flash. Sorry about all the glare. >_<

Natural light, no flash.

    I like this! The shimmer and color-changing flakies are so pretty!

Funky Fingers Alice

           Before anything else, I'd like to thank all the lovely ladies who kindly informed that other people have gone and are going through similar things and are not dead, and therefore, everything would in all likelihood, be alright. I really appreciate all the kinds words and support, and it means alot to me that you guys would take out time from your respective days to try to help me. Thanks guys! ^_^ 

          

        Today is gloomy and dark, and it's raining rats and frogs outside, but I love it. Rainy and cold weather is the best weather for me, as long as I don't have to go outside too much. Although I intended to wear something grey today, at the last minute, I changed my mind and picked something more cheerful: Funky Fingers Alice. Alice is a part of the Funky Finger's Alice in Wonderland Collection. I didn't buy any of the others that I saw in Five Below, although I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for Jester, which they didn't have last time I went.

Alice is a cerulean blue foil. Although it's not visible in the picture, the surface is speckled with silver. 

And I'm using my index finger because the foil pronounced every bump and ridge in my ooglay patch, and no one needed to see that. 

Natural light, no flash. 

Natural light, no flash.

Indoors, flash. 

        I really like Alice. I didn't really like the other FF Alice-themed colors, because they were a little plain and not so fitting of their characters, but Funky Fingers did a good job with this. The shade of blue is perfect. It's deeper than the shade OPI chose for Absolutely Alice, and due to the foily finish of the polish, it shows different darknesses across the nail. Really pretty. 

      I thought the formula was on the easy side too. It was a little thick, and I had to be careful to let the polish dry between coats, because if not, I got cuticle drag. But besides those two things, there were no problems, and drying time was reasonably fast. 

Funky Fingers Screamin' Fucshia + New Girls on the Block!!

            I'm a little blue today. First, I accidentally leaned on my flat iron and now my arm vaguely resembles a ball park hot dog, complete with grill lines. Second, my mother's minivan attacked me, and now my right thumb looks like this:

I miss having a usable thumbnail on my dominant hand.

    And lastly, I'm pretty anxious about school. My grades this past semester were great, but I still need lots of credits to graduate on time. I'm not sure that I can complete them, while maintaining my GPA and fulfilling my work study requirements.

      I'm trying to stay positive and calm, because if I work really hard, give up some things, and do a summer semester, I think I can manage. But I want to have  a meltdown, because I'm scared. So to cheer myself up (it worked a little) I decided to wear Funky Fingers Screamin' Fucshia.

Screamin' Fucshia is a highlighter-pink, neon creme. 

Natural light, no flash. The weather is so gloomy today.

Natural light, no flash.

        I like Screamin' Fucshia. It's a pretty, basic,  and inexpensive pink neon.  It's also a little more wearable to me than other neons, because it just doesn't seem that bright. The formula on it was pretty good too...it applied evenly and smoothly, but I think I would have preferred something more opaque. I'm wearing three coats of Screamin' Fucshia over two coats of Essie Limo-Scene, and I think I can still see a hint of VNL. I'm not sure if I should blame Screamin' Fucshia though, because Limo-Scene is already pretty sheer, so next time, I'll use SH White-On instead. It dried matte, but I put some Poshe on it, and everything was all good. It shrunk a little bit at the tip, and clean-up was a half-hearted effort, but it's shiny, soo...it's all good. ^_^

   And there are new girls on the block!

Meet Bebe, Adina, and...Adina. Yes...I accidentally bought two Adinas. >_< I'm struggling with myself about whether I want to exchange it for something or not. I guess it depends on how I feel about Adina on me.

And here's Mimi, Ki, and Charla.

      Such lovely ladies, no? ^_^

      Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go out and hunt Hidden Treasure today, because my mom made me stay at home and wait for the TV guy. So yes...my no-buy begins today and ends on August 17.  But if I happen to see Hidden Treasure in the store, I openly admit that I cannot be held responsible for my actions. 

    And this is why I like blogging. Can you believe I feel more calm about school even though nothing has changed?  lol!