Monday, April 29, 2013

Purple Polka Dot Gradient

Hi everyone!

Happy Monday! Did you have a good weekend? Mine was nice... the weather just keeps getting better and better so I spent some time on my bike out in the sun. I also went on an awesome night hike on Saturday with my roommate Sara! So much fun. I don't have class today, so it still kind of feels like weekend, except not really because I have to study for my two tests this week. I have an anatomy exam tomorrow and another neuro written exam on Thursday... then three-day weekend! Woo!!

On Saturday my plan was to get a lot of studying done, but I got distracted doing my nails and playing outside haha. The mani I want to show you today is a product of that distractability, and I think it turned out great! It's been a really nice fun manicure to have on my nails while I study. It makes me happy =D haha. 

Anyways, click the link below for more information about my inspiration, how I did it, and the colors I used!


Thursday, April 25, 2013

Zoya Piaf Swatch and Review

Hello!

I hope everyone is having a great week so far! And if not, don't worry, because it's almost the weekend! I've been studying a lot this week because I have two big neuro tests next week, so this weekend probably won't be too exciting. But I'm really looking forward to next weekend when I will (hopefully) have absolutely nothing to worry about. =)

Today I want to show you a polish that was released a few months ago as part of Zoya's Lovely collection, which contained six soft but colorful shades that have been perfect for spring. This polish is called Piaf (maybe named after Edith Piaf? who knows). Click on the link below to see more pictures and a review!


Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Zoya PixieDust Miranda - Swatch and Review

Hello!

Today I'm really excited to show you one of Zoya's new PixieDust polishes that was just released for Summer 2013 - Miranda. I'm sure most of you (if not all) know about the big textured trend that's going on in the polish world right now, and I must say, at first I was skeptical.  But once I tried Nyx and Godiva from Zoya's original PixieDust collection, I was sold on the whole textured thing. I think the texture is really fun and makes the polish look interesting and different. Definitely doesn't look like any ordinary creme or shimmer! What I love about the PixieDusts is the large amount of glitter packed into them - the texture and glitter together make for some stand-out polishes, which I always love, especially now that we're getting into some warmer weather!

My problem with the original PixieDusts were the colors. I think they fell a little flat, at least for me, since I don't usually wear too many greys or muted colors. I ended up with Nyx and Godiva, and while I really liked them both, I'm way more stoked for the fun and bright colors that we're seeing in the Summer collection. You can see my original post of Nyx here for information about removal and my thoughts on the texture.

Read after the jump to see more pictures and a review of Miranda!


Monday, April 22, 2013

Zoya Robyn and a Comparison

Hello everyone!

How was your weekend? The weather in California was AMAZING - it was 90 degrees out with a nice breeze, so it was perfect for hiking! I got a lot of outdoor time in, and I couldn't be happier!

Today I want to show you Robyn, an amazing blue polish from Zoya! I love blue polishes, and Robyn is no exception. She was released as part of Zoya's summer collection in 2010, so it's one of Zoya's slightly older polishes. But it's gotten a lot of praise in the blogging world, so I'm sure most of you have heard about it or seen it before.

The interesting thing about Robyn is that most of the swatches I've seen online aren't super color-accurate. When I first used Robyn, I was surprised at how dark it was - in most of the swatches online, it appears as a much lighter blue shade. But that's okay! I was far from disappointed, and I really love the actual shade of this polish.  Click the link below to read the rest of the post!


Friday, April 19, 2013

More Floral Nail Art Feat. Lime Crime Parfait Day

Happy Friday! 

I hope you've had a good week! I'm really looking forward to the weekend, especially since we've been having such nice weather, so I plan on being outside as much as possible. Hopefully I'll even get a little tan so I can start rocking some bolder summer colors since I'm starting to get in summer mode already.

Today's mani is another go at some flower nail art. Like I said in my last post, I've really been loving all the florals everywhere - whether it be on nails, shorts, or a backpack (a girl in my class has the coolest floral-print backpack. want.). 

I'd been eying Lime Crime's Parfait Day since it came out a year ago as a part of their Les Desserts d'Antoinette collection, and I finally decided to get it. I'm so happy I did, because I honestly think this is the perfect shade of pink. It's a really bright and (somehow) pastel pink creme. And the formula was amazing for a polish like this! It went on slightly streak on the first coat, but a second coat evened it out nicely.

For my middle and ring fingers, I used three coats of China Glaze Dandy Lyin' Around, a soft white shimmer. To make the flowers, I used dotting tools, LC Parfait Day and Zoya Kimber as the darker pink. I don't really like how Kimber looked here... it's too dark and red-based. I wish I had used either just Parfait Day, or a pink that wouldn't contrast with it so much. But oh well. I like this many anyway! I used Zoya Creamy for the yellow in the middle of the flowers, and China Glaze Exotic Encounters for the leaves.

Sunlight.
Shade.

Even though I'm not the happiest about the choice of Kimber for the flowers, and my nails are shaped kinda weirdly because I have to keep filing them down due to dryness and peeling ( :( ), I still like what I did with these nails. It's a super bright and cheery manicure that went really nicely with the 75-80 degree weather we had last week. I also think the polka-dots on my thumb added a nice twist.

Anyway, I hope everyone's not getting tired of flower nail art, because I'm probabllyyyy going to do some more! Haha. 

As always, thanks for stopping by my blog, and have a great weekend! =)


Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Some Springy Flower Nail Art

Hey guys!

I know I've been out of the loop for a while... and I'm really sad about that! School got really crazy once we started learning hematology and neurology, and the last thing I wanted to do by the end of the day was look at my computer.

But my nail polish addiction has by no means subsided whatsoever, and I have still been stalking all the nail blogs on my blog news feed on a daily (hourly?) basis. And I have still been doing my nails, but not nearly as often as I would like because the dry weather of winter took its toll... the many months it took me to restore my nails to good health last year went down the drain, and I now have horrible peeling on most of my nails. I've been taking week long breaks of no nail polish, and it's sad. But hopefully with some TLC and my CND solar cuticle oil, I'll be able to remedy my sad, sad nails. It'll just take some time and patience, which I don't have much of.

Anyway, no more of that nonsense! On to the mani. I did this look over a month ago because I wanted something cheery and bright after all of the darker vampy shades we were seeing for fall/winter. And the weather was starting to get warm, so of course I was inspired. Click the "Read More" link to see the rest of the post!


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