You Really Turn Me On

Today's manicure is another nerdy manicure. :-P They were inspired by the power button on your computer, monitor, XBOX, TV, etc. Silly, I know, but I like doing nerdy designs. Plus, I have been on the XBOX waaaaay too much lately. I watched the entire five seasons of Weeds on streaming Netflix in a matter of days. Yeah, I don't half-ass stuff, I go ALL out. :-D I call it dedication, others call it sad. :)



I used China Glaze Millennium as a base, and I have to say, as much as I love and rave about this color for nail art and Konading, I do NOT like it as an all-over color on me. For the On symbols, I used China Glaze Millennium mixed with American Apparel Hassid. Topped it off with Seche Vite top coat.

What a turn-on.

Zoya Reverie Collection for Spring 2010 is one Unique Flower - video review!

Spring has just begun and even though April may bring showers, Zoya Nail Polish is here to fulfill your need for colorful flowers - in the form of polish. Polish Earthgirl explains via youtube why  Zoya Reverie is a unique and wearable collection. We agree - Zoya is the New Color of Fashion!

 You can watch the entire video here.

Pop star pretty and rockin' Zoya Nail Polish in Loredana!

 Zoya Nail Polish is hitting the newsstands down-under! Australian magazine, New Idea, features Zoya Loredana calling it "Military chic" a look that is a "purse-friendly way to put a new spin on an old outfit."  New Idea has definitely hit the nail on the head. Zoya Loredana's matte finish allows everyone, including pop star/actress Dannii Minogue, to shine in a unique way!

Zoya Nail Polish in In Fashion Magazine March 2010

Fabulous editorial manicurist, Jackie Saulsbery, used Zoya Paz in this month's issue of In Fashion Magazine. All we can say is Paz is looking hot and definitely IN fashion! For more polishes that are in fashion go to zoya.com.

Keep it simple - keep it Qtica (Zoya's sister brand!)

Real Simple Magazine (realsimple.com) likes to keep things... well, simple. And nothing is easier than a product you apply before bed and wake up to the results for. In this must- hand "overnight" catagory, Qtica Intense Hand Repair Balm really delivers with it's rich formula and dramatic results - Hello sleeping beauty!

Ulta3 oranges

Here are four Ulta3 colours in the orange range.

First up is Spring Fling.  This is a peachy cream that almost blends with your skin colour, but then you look at it again and it looks like it clashes with your skin.  This is two coats, which applied beautifully and dried fast.

Watermelon - this colour has received some awesome raves.  I like it, its a pinky salmon colour to me.  This was two coats and I can just see a nail line.  Applied great like the other Ulta3s.

Crazy - is a bright orange with a gold shimmer.  Very cool, I like it a lot.  This was three coats, and there is still and slight nail line.

I actually published the post and forgot to include 'Tahiti'- which is a neon pinky orange.  This was three coats, with one Seche Vite top coat because like all neon colours it dries matte. 

I have a big batch of Ulta3 pinks that I have swatched and am writing up, so stay tuned to see.

Eighties Fuchsia

Flashback Fuchsia

Footloose Fuchsia

Gooseberry

Mulberry

Black plum

Silver pink

Star dust

Tahiti

Pink Supreme

Pink Colada

Beesting

Bo-peep

I also swatched my Ulta3 blues and greens which I'm writing up:

Bottle green

Jelly

Jelly bean

Lagoon

Little boy blue

Razzle (and a comparison between the razzle and little boy blue)

Metal

Wasabi

Ch-Ch-Chain of Fools

Today's nails were inspired by the obvious... chains. :-D My friend at work said I should've done whips on the other hand and gone with a whole bondage theme. :-P I've have this idea milling about in my head for a while now, and finally decided to do it. Originally in my brain, it was more complex, with shading and depth and whatnot, but once I laid down the initial shapes, I liked it simple and graphic, so I left it. :) (hope you like it too!!)



I used American Apparel Hassid as a base, with China Glaze Millennium for the silver chains, and China Glaze 2030 for the gold. :) Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat, because I wouldn't want the chains to break, right?!

So in closing, I feel the need to add this.... because it kept coming up when I was trying to think of titles for this post....

You ARE the Weakest Link.... Goodbye! :-P

(p.s. none of you are weak links, I just found this amusing :-P )

BB Couture Polish Sale

Hey all!! There are few BB Couture Polishes on sale for 50% off on bbnailpolish.com

Go here to see the sale polishes!!

The sale ones are all the way at the bottom! :)

Hurry though, rumor has it that these are only on sale through March!!

My Manicure Essentials

We all have to have some essentials to have great looking and healthy nails don't you agree? Well these are some of mine. (I guess you're saying that's enough huh?) You can call me a product junkie. Lol!

Starting from the left front:


First off my SWISSCO Crystal File- I use this to file my nails down and to shape them. It's gentle on natural nails and not harsh as emery boards..

Orly Smudge Fixer-Now this is a must for me. While polishing my nails sometimes I bang a nail or two in the process , well this baby fixes it right up making my polish nail smooth again.

Creative Nail Design(CND) Solar Oil-I use this oil to push back my cuticles and to moisture them.

Barielle Manicure Extender-Its a protective top coat. I use it to refresh next day after polishing.

NailTek II-Intensive Therapy for soft , peeling nails. Sometimes I use this as a base coat.

Starting from Left Back:

NailTek Foundation II-This is a ridgefiller and yes I do have ridges. It fills in the gaps!

Nail Magic-It's a nail hardener. I use this first before a base coat.

Barielle Camouflage-This too is a ridgefiller. It helps polish to apply on smooth as butta.

CND Stickey-This is a truly must have for me because my polish sticks right to it! and keeps it from chipping. Yay!

Zoya Remove+ I talked about this in an earlier post. It is great it removes polish without drying out my nails/cuticles and it doesn't smell as strong as other removers

I hope all my manicure essentials helps you!  What are your essentials?

Zoya Nail Polish at Caress Skincare Event

Caress Skincare just released two new dessert-inspired scents, and what better way to celebrate then with a Zoya Nail Polish Manicure!? Caress Skincare hosted an event for top bloggers at Sweetiepie restaurant in New York City and they chose Zoya Nail Polish to be the extra little treat. Guests had the pleasure of receiving manicures with their choices of Zoya colors such as Zoya Ali, Zoya Paz, Zoya Jancyn, Zoya Sabrina, Zoya Sweet, Zoya Giselle, Zoya Maya, Zoya Tasha, Zoya Barbie and others.

Shown: Deana Blackwell (Lead Manicurist), Adina Zilberman (Blogger - AKA Kraseybeauty), and Sunshine Outing (Manicurist)

 You can read the full story about the Caress Skincare event here.

More Ulta3 swatches - Gold, bronze and metallics

In this batch of swatches, I have chosen my gold/bronze/metallic Ulta3 colours.

Let me start by saying I love gold polishes. I just can't get enough of them.  In fact at least 1/3 of my polish collection would be gold toned polishes.  And the one polish that started my crazy obsession with nail polish in the last six months - "Palladium" by Jessica, is the most amazing gold polish ever!!

First up, Antique copper - Beautiful - I think my favourite of the bunch. And there are some great polishes here. And remember they are only AUS$2. AWESOME!! Anyway, this polish is a light metallic gold. It's a cooler shade of gold than precious and it has tiny flecks of particle glitter which makes it look so blingy. This was three coats.

Earth - This was three coats and it had a streaky finish. It's a purply brown shimmer. I had a bit of trouble applying this one cleanly, but that might just be a reflection of my painting skills, not the polish.

Envy - Beautiful. A metallic pinky mauve silver foil. Very shiny with full coverage in two coats.

Jazzle - An interesting polish. I'd describe it as a peachy gold with blue, green and gold shimmer. This is three coats, and it was still quite transparent. I think this polish would be great layered. So I tried it.

Jazzle over black - up close you can really see the blue and green shimmer to this. I might just have to try make a frankenpolish out of some of this as I think it could be really great.

Neutral - Almost a flat brown colour, but catch it at the right angle and you see a lovely subtle gold shimmer. Applied very smoothly and this was two coats.

Precious - BLING - This one is right up my ally. A very shiny warm gold foil finish. The foil finish looks to be made up of tiny flecks of particle glitter. But the application is totally smooth. This gold version of Envy and Snazzle.

Snazzle - BLING again - just like the gold above, this is a silver foil finish. It's very similar to my Revlon Diamonds are Forever. I believe it would also be similar to the Orly Foil FX range.

Sunkissed - A warm shimmery bronze. It showed a few streaks on application, but they almost all disappeared on drying. This is three coats.

Tropez - This is a pearly shimmer finish. It's a warm netural bronze colour. A little streaky, even after drying. This was two coats.

All in all, I love the range on bronze colours and the foil finish polishes from Ulta3 are just fantastic for the price.  What I want to see from Ulta3 now would be some good glitter polishes (their current ones aren't great) and some holographic polishes!  Wouldn't that be awesome!!

Ulta3 reds

I went a little crazy on the weekend doing new swatches of my Ulta3 collection, which is now up to 59 polishes.

Here are the three reds I have.

English rose - is a great bright red with a slight red and gold shimmer.  The first coat on this one looks very pink, so you have to make the effort and do three coats. But it's totally worth the effort.  I have actually made an awesome frankenpolish out of this, which I will show to you soon.

Brandy wine - is a very pretty maroon with a pinky red shimmer. It applied very nicely. This was two coats.

Finally Fire Truck.  This is one of the speed dry range.  Which to me didn't really dry any quicker than the other Ulta3 polishes - they all dry super quick.  This one was a rich strong bright red.  This was two coats.

None of these had a top coat, and they were all a lovely shiny finish.

Flight of the Bumblebee

Fun fact of the day: Melissa means bee/honey. It comes from Greek mythology, where Melissa was a nymph who discovered honey and its uses, and fed Zeus honey when he was a baby instead of milk. Crazy, eh? Today's nails are inspired by my name! :)



I used Orly Snowcone as a base, with American Apparel Hassid for the flight path, and for the black outlines/stripes of the bee, American Apparel Manila for the body of the bee, and a mix of American Apparel Cotton and American Apparel Mount Royal for the wings. Topped it off with only one coat of Seche Vite top coat, as I was running low on time.

Where do you think the bee is heading to?

Maybe to see his 'honey'? haha!

Sally Hansen New Lengths-Mosiac Creme-NOTW

I found a bunch of old Sally Hansen old formula polishes at several of my Dollar Tree stores. I was so excited because guess what? They were only $1.00 you can't beat that! They are on the thin side application not too bad this took 3 coats. I'm still working on my picture taking skills and finding the correct lighting. So, these pictures are not the true color it's a bit darker irl. It's a blue/steel gray. I tried a little konading used konad plate M81..still practicing.

New Beauty Blogger We Love!

Kris Primps is a strong new voice in the beauty blogosphere. Visit her site for excellent pictures as well as great product descriptions. She loves Zoya Nail Polish and we can't help but love her back!

You can check out her Zoya Nail Polish Reverie Collection for Spring 2010 review here.

It's my turn to konad

Just a quick one, because I forgot to post yesterday.

This was China Glaze - It's my turn from my last post, stamped with Ulta3 Chocolate Cake using plate m63.

That's all.

It's like But-tah

Today's nails were inspired by the fact that I wanted to use my new butterLONDON polish in Rosie Lee. :-D I'm usually not a pink girl, but I this is a very purty glitter. :-P Adding the halftone dots make it less girly, right?! RIGHT?! I just finished Season 3 of Weeds on Netflix Instant Queue or whatever its called when I watch it through my XBOX. That makes 3 seasons in less than a week. I think I may have a problem. Or drink too many caffeinated beverages, not sure.



I used butterLONDON Rosie Lee as a base, with American Apparel Peacock applied with Konad Plate m60. Topped off with two coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Zoya Remove+

There was a time I thought polish remover was just  polish remover.  Well, there is a difference.  In my opinion and I'm sure many of you will agree that this is the best!  What I love about it, it doesn't dry out my cuticles and nails and it doesn't have that strong smell like other removers.  Give it a try and you will see what I'm talking about. zoya.com

That's Just Grey-t

Hey there kids!! (Don't worry, I call everyone kid, regardless of their years) So the Bad Religion concert las night was PUNK-tastic. I had a blast, and got a rad t-shirt that earns me dirty looks when I wear it. (Google Bad Religion images, you'll see why) Today was a busy day- I went and tried on (and bought) the bridesmaid dress for the wedding I'm going to be in in May, and it was surprisingly VERY flattering. (the color will be a different story- Guava is not a color that should be in a redhead's vocabulary. (or wardrobe). After that, I helped a good friend paint his bedroom- Ground Cumin is the color, and it turned out fantastic. He was smart not to question my interior design skills. :-P I love picking out paint colors for people, perhaps one day I'll have my own house and can do it for myself!! I managed to squeeze in a nap in there, which was great, too.

Today's nails are simple, but I really like them, and despite the beginning of my experience with butterLondon (took 5.5 weeks to get my polishes due to Paypal marking the order as complete, and no one returned emails from BL), I am 100% in love with the one polish I've tried out of the 3 I bought... Billy No Mates! It applied smoothly, and only took 2 coats to be opaque.



I used 2 coats of butterLONDON Billy No Mates as base, with 1 coat of Essie Matte About You, then for the moons, I used about 8,000 coats of Urban Outfitters Grey 1, it was pretty hard to get opaque and even. For the ring finger moon, I used American Apparel Berry. I also used American Apparel Berry for the 'stitching' on the grey moon fingers, and Urban Outfitters Grey 1 for the stitching on the ring finger.

How is everyone's weekend going? I get to wake up early for class, blargh. :-D My weekend off last week because of Spring Break felt nice. :)

Seche Vite...Dry Fast Top Coat

Many people have trouble with seche vite gooping up when the product is halfway down the bottle.  I think its due to excess air that dries out the product.  I found the little bottle at my local Trade Secret.  I  keep it filled (whispers: I need to fill it up) which keeps excess air out.  Hope my little tip helps everyone.

China Glaze Kaleidoscope Collection

I only have six of the eleven polishes, and I think I will gradually have to get them all.  These polishes are really awesome.  My favourite collection in my whole stash. I really, really love them. Really!

'It's My Turn' is a gold holographic.  I love gold polish and this is no exception. I think this was three coats.

'He's going in circles' is a light pastel green holo.  And I just had to bling it up more by adding green stars.  The stars just didn't really stay on, they kept catching on everything.  I don't know how people manage to do anything when they wear all sorts of embellishments on their nails.  This was three coats and it was very sheer. 

'Visit me in prism' is almost a silver holo, but it has a slight pinky mauve tone to it.  It's beautiful.  Again three coats.

'Sexagon' is a pure silver holo.  It was a little cloudy for this picture, so you can't see the holo effect as much as you can in the other pics, but believe me, it's just as holo.

'Spin me round' is a tan coloured holo.  Really beautiful again.  I'd say it's a work appropriate holo, but then again I wear just about anything to work!

Finally, my favourite of them all, 'Lets do it in 3D'.  This is amazing polish.  It just yells WOW at you.  It's a charcoal base holo with so much holo speckles that it's, well, just amazing.

All these polishes are super fast to dry, which is good, because they all needed at least three coats.  The holo particles in these are much chunkier than the ones in the OMG collection, but they still apply absolutely smooth on the nail.  They also lasted a bit better on my nails than the OMG ones, but still not very long.  But when the polish is this spectacular, it just doesn't matter.

Pure Ice Frosted Ice Celestial

This is a mid-tone blue frost texture, 2 coats.  Pure Ice polishes can be found at your local Walmart.  

Dukes of 'Hazard'

ACK! People are sick here at work, everywhere I turn, *cough* *HACK* *sniff*. Gross. Major gross. They inspired today's nails... the Biohazard symbol. :) I really hope that I don't get sick, that is about the last thing I need right now. :-/ On the bright side, going to a Bad Religion concert tonight- woo! :)



I used Electric Orange as a base, with American Apparel Hassid. Sealed the deal with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Put your dukes up!

Tia Williams of Essence.com rejuvenates her polish with Zoya Renew

Have you visited out Shake Your Beauty on You Tube yet? The lovely Tia Williams, Beauty Editor of Essence.com, brings you her expert insider insight into the hottest beauty products on the market today. Here she demonstrates how easy and economically smart using Zoya Renew - Polish Rejuvenator to bring your thickened nail polish back to life is.

See the Essence.com beauty editor video here!

Zoya Renew is a unique thinner specifically designed resolve thickening of complex toluene, formaldehyde and DBP FREE formulations of nail polishes, top coats and base coats. As polishes are opened and closed, vital solvents evaporate causing thickening and reduction of product efficacy. Now there’s no need to throw away thickened polishes, top coats or base coats. Unlike traditional thinners, which were designed for outdated polish formulas that were loaded with toluene, formaldehyde and DBP, Zoya Renew is designed to work with Big 3 Free Formulas. (NOTE: If you use a traditional thinner to thin out your polish, you may actually be destroying your polish).

Using Zoya Renew saves your polish and it saves you money since your polishes, base coats and top coats can now last up to 50% longer.

My camo copy

Inspired by the Daily Nail's camo design I thought I would try my hand at it. I didn't have any of the colours she used, so I went through my stash to see what I could do.

The brown is Ulta3 chocolate cake and the two greens are ones that I frankened up based on Ulta3 Jelly. I used a french nude as the base - can't remember the brand. Did two coats of Essie Matte about you for the top coat.

I loved this polish, and wore it to work when I was in a Prince2 training course. My nails kept distracting me from all the principles, themes and processes.

InStyle Magazine loves Zoya Anaka

Featured in InStyle's 20 Shades We Love online is Zoya Anaka. Anaka is not your typical pink - InStyle classifies it as a "Loud Pink", and we couldn't agree more.  Anaka screams pink, fuschia, and purple all together creating a bold pink that will WOW all.

Bloggers put their spin on the Flash Collection by Zoya Nail Polish

Proving once again that Zoya is the New Color of Fashion and ahead of the curve... nail polish blogs Scrangie and All Lacquered Up recently reviewed the Zoya Flash Collection for Summer 2010  AKA the freshest look in nail color - bold but not neon, fruity but not pastel.

" So... they're not quite neon but they're not pastel either. I'm glad to see that they didn't go with the flow and to the neon/pastel route! I've really been into my pastels lately but I'm very happy to see something fresh."

Scrangie


"Flash, the second summer collection from Zoya is a set of six glossy cremes that feel very candy-ish.  Like a companion set to one of my fave Zoya collections, Candy, from a few summers ago.  Couldn’t you just see all those shades as big glossy jawbreakers in a candy machine? "
All Lacquered Up

You can see the entire Flash Collection: Jancyn, Maura, Jolene, Dana, Perrie, and Robyn in both Scrangie's review here and All Lacquered Up's here.

I Ain't No Ho-Ho!

:-D ok, I'll admit, today's title cracks me up. I'm SUCH a dork.

The inspiration for today's nails came a few months ago via email from Niki C., of Polish on Digital Paper fame, and while I've gotten inspiration from other designs people have sent in before, (with permission, of course ;)) I usually don't copy them stroke for stroke... These however, were too awesome not to, I loved their quirky simplicity. Thanks Niki, you rock! :)



I used MAC Showy as a base (can't find it for sale), then used my white Migi Nail Art Pen for the frosting swirl. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat to simulate the tasty glossy chocolate frosting. Oh damn, I know what I'm going to buy at lunch. *drool*

Anybody got any milk?!

Fluro spatters

This is another Konad design I did a couple of months ago. It was the first one I did using real Konad special polish. I thought it probably didn't matter about using the special polishes. But it really does. I've only got black and white at the moment, but hope to build on that soon.

This design was NYC (same as Ulta3) Citrus as the base, then konad plate m70 for the splatters. It looked really good. But my only problem was with a top coat. I don't have the konad special top coats, and really don't think I will ever get them. I tried a top coat on my pinky, and the black all smeared. So I didn't bother with top coat on the other fingers. I have since worked out how to apply Seche Vite top coat to konad without this problem, but thats another post.

I've also read that you should put on a coat of top coat before you stamp with konad.  That way if you stuff up, you can usually remove the konad design without having to take off the entire base.  I will have to try this.

Here are the stamping steps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Konad plate 70, which has four full nail designs and one tip design. I then painted the plate with Konad special black polish and used the konad scraper. Then roll the stamp onto the plate, then roll it onto your nail.

Holo nail art

Can there be any better combination that holographic nail polish and nail art stamping. I don't think so.

Here we have OPI DS Original stamped with Konad special polish in black.

This design uses image plate m73, which has four full nail designs and a heart tip design.  I then painted the plate with Konad special black polish and used the konad scraper.  Then roll the stamp onto the plate, then roll it onto your nail.

I love the idea of this, its just that I'm a unco at applying it.  No matter how hard I try I can't get the damn konad stamp lined up right on my finger. I think I just need more practice.