Zoya Nova

I have been so busy lately with the holidays, work, and classes that I have barely been changing my polish! I've been wearing OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender since Saturday (and it's holding up really well). But this post is about a polish I wore last week, Zoya Nova. It's a glitter polish, pink, and very pretty but it's not my favorite. This is three coats, dried really quickly as glitter polishes usually do. I only had to use one coat of Seche Vite over this polish. It wasn't very gritty at all. Nice.

Milani Gold Glitz

I'm back! I think my broken nail has finally gotten to the point where I can start posting again. In the time since my last post, I went through almost two packages of band-aids keeping that nail covered up. It looked awful and it was pretty painful, too.

Anyway! In my last post I showed two of the new Milani glitters. Since then, I went back and bought all of the rest of the line except for the red one...and I will probably pick that one up the next time I'm at the drugstore because I love these so much. They claim to be "one coat" glitters, and let me tell you - they are! The one I'm wearing today is called Gold Glitz. I have two coats on, but I could have easily gotten away with one. The only thing I don't like about these is that they are gritty. I used two coats of Seche Vite over this to smooth it out, and it seemed to do the trick.

So pretty and sparkly. If you can find these (I found the display at CVS), and you like glitter, you have to take a look at these. I'm dreading removing this...but I think it's worth it!

Party Hearty Dupe

I wanted to share this dupe for China Glaze's Party Hearty in case anyone is still on the lookout for that one. When I went to order it online, it was sold out and I couldn't find it anywhere in stores, so I just decided to pass on it. But today, shopping at CVS, I saw what appears to be an exact dupe by Milani called Gems. The one on the left, obviously:

The one on the right is just a chunky gold glitter called Gold. These are from some glitter collection that must be new - I think it was called Rock Star Glitter or something to that effect. They had a few other nice glitters, too, but nothing really unique besides the Party Hearty dupe. Here's a close up of that one; click the picture to see it more detail.

And here is the reason I haven't been posting:

Yeah. My nails are currently in a disastrous condition. It started Wednesday when I pretty much ripped the nail on my index finger clean off after hooking it on the washer lid. Then my middle nail snapped. Then the index nail on my right hand broke, too. It's probably going to take a month or more for the bandaged index finger nail to grow back, which is so frustrating. In the meantime, I'll try to keep posting...maybe nail wheel swatches or posts like this about polish dupes. Of course this would happen right after I get this nice light box. But hey, they will grow back eventually and my nails usually grow pretty quickly so I'm lucky for that. Oh, the polish I have on in this is Ulta Spice Drop. It came in one of those little kits that are usually five mini polishes for $9.99. This one was Too Faced Loves Ulta, I think. It's a nice pink foil, really sparkles in the sunlight.

Sally Hansen + Zoya + light box!

Okay, since the daylight savings time change, it gets dark around here by 5:30. Since I don't even get home from work before then, I basically never see the light. Therefore, most of my pictures get taken inside in low lighting and they don't look very nice. Pretty frustrating. Luckily, my brother made me an awesome light box for my birthday so from here on out pictures should be much better!

Today I used Sally Hansen Plum Burst (from the Xtreme Wear line) and then stamped over it with Zoya Penny using Konad plate m78. Plum Burst is three coats. The formula on this was pretty hard to work with; thick and gloopy, but it evened out after I put on Seche Vite top coat. Penny is a great polish for stamping and I like the purple/copper combination.

I flipped this picture, that's why the text is backwards. Also, please ignore my cuticles...I don't know what to with them. I use cuticle creams and oils all the time but they still look awful. Does anyone have an suggestions for awesome cuticle creams besides Burt's Bees and Lush Lemony Flutter?

NOX Twilight and Sinful Colors

Long time no blog! I hate that I've neglected this so much over the past couple of weeks. I'll just forgo the usual excuses and get right to the polish (and hopefully back to a normal posting schedule).

I was surprised when I found this NOX Twilight polish in Poseidon at Meijer. I couldn't find a display, just this one polish stuck in amongst the Sinful Colors. I looked everywhere, but to no avail. I had wanted to try this brand, so I picked it up. I'm not a Twilight fan, but the polishes looked interesting and I liked the bottle. This particular one is okay; the application was so-so. I used three coats, but probably should have done four. Dry time was decent. I decided it was missing something, so I layered Sinful Colors Queen of Beauty over it.

Overall, it's alright, but I definitely want to try some of the other shades so I think I might hit up another Meijer next weekend and see if I can find the display! And, as you can see, I cut my nails down. They were getting super long. I swear by Nail Tek Foundation II for long healthy nails and plan to do a post about it soon!

China Glaze Ick-A-Body

Happy Halloween! For my Halloween manicure, I used China Glaze Ick-A-Body. Probably a pretty popular choice this year. It's a glittery orange in a really dark murky green almost black base. Perfect Halloween color! This is three coats with a top coat.

Color Club Jewel of a Girl

I kind of didn't want to post this one because the color is so hard to capture but I have nothing else at the moment so here it is. This is Color Club Jewel of a Girl and it looks like it might be brown in these photos but it's actually several colors depending on the light. I had no natural light for this, but under natural light this color reminds me of black cherries or black plums. See - it looks nothing like that in the pic. Really hard color to photograph! But if you enlarge the pic, you can get a better idea of the color in the bottle.

So yeah. I don't love this polish, but the color is work appropriate so I thought I'd try it. Probably won't wear it again, though.

China Glaze Endurance

This polish if from China Glaze's most recent collection for Breast cancer. This is three coats. Applied great, dried fast - good color for a good cause.

Sinful Colors Daddy's Girl

This is one of those much talked about polishes that I didn't get around to buying until recently. It's Sinful Colors Daddy's Girl. This one is a purple with pink sparkles at one angle, but if you look closer it almost looks like it has a coat of a much milder version of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure over the top. Sort of a flake effect. It's a pretty unique color, but I wasn't too happy with the formula. It was really runny and flooded my cuticles. This is three coats and a bit of a VNL shows in the light, but it's not so bad in person.

I put this on Tuesday night and it's holding up well; only one small chip. I usually tend to change my nail polish every other day, but I haven't had time recently, so I'm definitely keeping a mental note of polishes that hold up longer than others.

Also, I wanted to add that I had planned on doing Halloween themed nails all week next week, but I just found out that we will be hosting the FDA for an audit of some of our clinical studies at work all week, so now I'm going to have to make sure to keep my polish work appropriate. I work in an office and we can generally wear whatever we want no problem, but this totally would be the one time of the year we have to keep it conservative, of course. Anyway, I will still have Halloween nails next weekend regardless, it just won't be the week of fun nails I had hoped for.

Nina Ultra Pro Hey Sailor

This is the first time I've tried one of these Nina Ultra Pro polishes from Sally's. This one is a navy blue called Hey Sailor. Really nice color (I love blues - probably my number one favorite polish color), and I was pleased with how nicely it applied in two coats. It took awhile to dry, though. Still, a decent polish for only $2.99 and I'll probably try some other colors the next time I go to Sally's.

Zoya Charla

When I ordered the Fire & Ice collection from Zoya, I also picked up this beautiful polish - Charla. It has several dupes (the one from the new Orly collection and OPI Catch Me In Your Net) but I don't have either of those so I can't compare. This one, however, is lovely.

It is late and I'm too exhausted to say much else. I began school this week and full time school plus full time work equals a very tired Sara. So glad it's the weekend...goodnight!

Rimmel and Revlon

I know I just got through saying in my last post that I'm not a huge fan of reds, but I guess I do like to wear them from time to time. Now is one of those times. I liked the last Rimmel polish I used so much that I picked up another one. This one is also the lasting finish pro but in Burgundy Flirt. Okay, so it's not a true red but it seems more red to me than burgundy. Another reason I wanted to use a red was because I wanted to try out one of the new Revlon glitter topcoats. This one is in Slipper with red glitter. Here's the finished product:

So these Revlon topcoats - I picked up this one and another one (I think in Galaxy) and, well, they look so pretty in the bottle, however...I really don't think they're that special, but I do like the big chunks of glitter. If you're interested, I got them on sale on CVS so maybe try there.

Zoya Fire & Ice Swatches

All I can say about this collection is wow. Wow! Every single one of these colors is beautiful. When I put them on, I thought they were gorgeous, but then I went outside into the sunlight and was even more impressed. These all glittered so beautifully in the light. Each color went on smoothly and dried fast; wonderful application. Removal was easy, too. I'm so impressed with these so on with the swatches. All are three coats, no topcoat, although the last three probably would have been good with only two coats. I just used three to even things out. (All pictures are clickable to see more detail.)

First up is Tiffany. This is a gorgeous peachy pink.

Crystal. A light blue with gold flecks/shimmer.

Gloria. Kind of a raspberry with some gold.

Lisa. I'm not a huge red fan but wow! The sparkle on this one was amazing.

Sara. Well, my bottle says Sara but it's listed as Sarah on the website. I'm happy my bottle says Sara without an 'h' since that's my name. I love this one; it's another red, a bit darker than Gloria but so sparkley.

And finally, Valarie. Gorgeous blackened purple with shimmer.

So there it is. I love every single one of these; I don't think I can choose a favorite! Zoya is such a great brand with a huge color selection and innovative shades - these are no exception. I can't tell you enough how great these are, especially in the sunlight. They're just mesmerizing! If you get a chance to check these out, do it! You won't be disappointed.

Stamping time!

It's a beautiful day here in Indiana. The weather is perfect! I did this mani last night using OPI Ski Teal We Drop and the orange special polish from Konad. I'm not really sure why I have the orange polish; I'm actually not a huge fan of orange and I don't think I've ever used it until now. Hmmm. Anyway, I used one of the Bundle Monster stamping plates. I like the designs on these plates but as many have complained, the designs are kind of tiny to fit the entire nail. The result is a bit messy, but here it is:

Sally Hansen Purple Gala

Today I'm wearing one of the new Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear polishes in Purple Gala. I've heard this compared to Hard Candy's Mr. Wrong, which I do have but have never worn. I love this one, though, so if Mr. Wrong is like this, I need to try it.

OPI Extra-va-vaganza

I swatched all of the glitters I showed in the last post, but I wasn't happy with how they turned out (and it was pretty cloudy), so for now I'm just going to show you this one. I will post the others as I wear them.

This is Extra-va-vaganza. I used three coats but probably could have done four. No top coat. If you liked the glitters from the Alice in Wonderland collection, you'll probably like these.

OPI Burlesque

Here's a little preview of the OPI Burlesque shades I picked up. Click for big pictures that show much better detail!

Top and bottom are both L to R: Show It and Glow It!, Simmer & Shimmer, Extra-va-vaganza!, Sparkle-icious

The sun is setting here (always is by the time I get home from work), so I will get some real swatches up this weekend if it's sunny. These are really sparkley and pictures without sunlight just don't do them any justice!

China Glaze Ingrid

I decided to use this nice shimmery brown (taupe-mushroom?) shade from China Glaze called Ingrid from the Vintage Vixen collection. I love China Glaze, but this isn't my favorite collection. Still, this it's a good fall shade. Sorry for the messiness. My clean up was fail and I was in a hurry.

Space Glitter

I love this combination of Rimmel Midnight Blue and N.Y.C.Starry Silver Glitter. First up is the Midnight Blue alone:

I didn't have any sunlight today but you can kind of see the slight shimmer in this polish. The application of this was really nice. The brush seems little bit weird (reminds of the Sally Hansen insta-dri brushes):

But, it actually worked really well for me. I was a little worried at first but I felt like I had a lot of control with this brush. This polish only needed two coats and dried fast. It claims to last up to 10 days. I don't normally wear a polish for that long, but we'll see how this holds up.

Next I added the N.Y.C. Starry Silver Glitter:

Kind of reminds me of space. This glitter is gorgeous with small flecks of silver that reflect all kinds of colors along with chunky blue and silver pieces. Plus this polish is super cheap ($1.99 or so, I think) and you really can't go wrong with it.

I ordered some of the new glitters from the OPI Burlesque collection last night so I will swatch those when they arrive if I get a nice sunny day next week. Have a good night!

OPI & Orly

Double feature! Today's nails began with OPI's Dim Sum Plum. Really nice color, went on smoothly but more of a pink than a plum, I think. Oh, and I meant to mention this in my last post featuring OPI - I used to hate OPI a couple years ago. I found the formula so thick and gloopy (Gargantuan Green Grape, for example) and I couldn't get all the hype. But since giving them another chance as of late, I have been really pleased with the formula, color choices, and dry time. Click for big pictures!

I decided this was a bit boring and to Konad over it. I used a design from plate m65 with Orly Luxe.

I love this Orly polish. Great for stamping and as an all over color. Lots of sparkle.

OPI Yodel Me On My Cell

I decided to switch my polish to OPI Yodel Me On My Cell from the Swiss collection:

I have several of the polishes from this collection and I have to say, I love them all. The application on these is great, especially if you're in a hurry - I find they dry really quickly. Now I have to admit, when I first saw swatches for this collection I actually was not initially interested in this particular polish and didn't pick it up. But people kept raving about its beauty and I do love blues so I decided to get it. Wow! Pictures cannot justify the beauty of this polish. When the sunlight hits it, it sparkles like crazy. So glad I ended up getting this one!

Revlon

I'm back! I think my nails are finally in decent shape...but please ignore my cuticles which seem to defy me no matter how often I try to treat them. Anyway, today I decided to use some Revlon polishes I found in a package of two at Big Lots for a dollar. I usually can't find shades I like when I go hunting for polishes at Big Lots or the Dollar Tree, but the gold in this set caught my eye. I used three coats of Pink Chiffon topped with two coats of Gold Get 'Em. I really love Gold Get 'Em; I can see it being very pretty over a multitude of colors.

That's all I have for now. Hopefully it will only be a few days before I post again instead of weeks!

Studio M on sale at Meijer

Hi guys! I know, I still haven't posted any actual content...but I do have something I want to share. I don't know if Meijer is phasing out the Studio M polishes (previously known as Massini) or what, but at my Meijer, ALL shades of Studio M polishes are on sale for $1.00. Usually they are $2.99 so this is a great deal! My store had tons of shades left, including the famous Slamming Red and Purple Medallion, so if you have a Meijer near you, go check it out!

Coming soon - watch this space!

Hi! Long time no blog. This is just a quick note to please sit tight! Posts are coming soon. I'm in the process of building a light box so that my pictures might not be as crappy. In the meantime, I will be attempting to catch some natural light. I'm still doing my nails several times a week and intend on putting a lot more effort into this blog. Thanks for reading!