January Nail Art Challenge Day 2: Pattern

Hello! I'm back just barely in time for the second day of the January nail art challenge. The prompt for today was to do a pattern, and I decided to do dots. My base polish is Butter London Royal Navy (a one-coater!), and I used acrylic paint for the dots. I intended them all to come out looking like the thumbnail does, but obviously didn't quite get there. I'm still rather fond of them, though.

Apologies for the messy edges - I haven't been able to find my cleanup brush, and it's definitely noticeable with such a dark color. 

On another note, if you've gotten to the end of the post, could you do me a favor and compare the challenge image at the top of this post with the one in my previous post? For some reason this one appears darker even though it's the same exact image I used last time. 

Butter London Keks

Hello all! I hope you've had a pleasant weekend. I know mine has certainly gone by faster than I would've liked. Today I'd like to show you Butter London Keks, a bright medium blue polish I got as part of my Ulta Cyber Monday sale haul. I decided to try it out first, and to keep with the wintry/holiday theme, I added a few coats of OPI Lights of Emerald City on my first two fingers.

Unfortunately I didn't get around to taking pictures of this until the sun had gone down for the day, but I did manage to get a color-accurate picture of Keks under my desk lamp. I have to say, though it's not a particularly extraordinary polish, I really like Keks. It's bright, but not quite neon, and I can see myself wearing it during pretty much any season. I'm hoping to compare it with a couple of other blue polishes I have to see over break, so hopefully you'll see that post in the relatively near future. I don't know if I'll be able to post again this week since I have finals, so good luck with finals if you have them, and if not, good luck with whatever else you've got going. :) Until next time!

Red Nail Art

EDIT 09/16/13: Obviously I expect too much of myself, as I haven't had time to do another nail art mani since I posted this originally. I am still going to try to post more nail art and I will probably use the challenge as inspiration; however, I am a college student with unrealistic expectations of what I can do with my time, so...yeah.

Hello all! I decided to do the 31 day challenge again this year, as I did two years ago in November. This time I'm not going to be able to do a post every day, and you'll notice it is no longer the 1st of the month (oops), but I really enjoyed it before and thought it'd be a good way to get my mojo going again. For those of you who haven't seen it before, here's the challenge:

The first day of the challenge is red, so I decided to wear one of my top two favorite juicy reds, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure All Fired Up. It's a squishy, super-bright red that really pops, and I always feel a little more put together when I wear it. After sporting All Fired Up by itself for a day, I decided to add some stripes. I used acrylic paint because I think it's easier to work with, but of course you could use polish as well.

Isn't it a great combination? I've been seeing a lot of the first two fingers as accent nails lately, so I thought I'd try it out. I originally intended the pink to stand out a little bit more, but I think maybe I like it as it is after all - it provides a little balance against the screamingly bright orange, purple and red. Sadly, as I'm typing this my nails have already chipped. C'est la vie, non? *sigh* Anyway, I won't be posting the rest of the weekend because I'm taking a short trip home to go fishing, but I look forward to painting my nails and posting again as soon as I get back! Have a great weekend!

Red Gradient

Hey there! Today's my first post as a 20-year-old, and I decided that my birthday present to myself was going to be no homework or studying (except for the final edit of my paper this morning), so I've been watching Whose Line is it Anyway and painting my nails all day. :) The manicure I took off today was the one I'm showing you now - I made a red sponged gradient using Borghese Sonata Berry, Rimmel Rapid Red, and OPI Red My Fortune Cookie. I wasn't sure how well it would turn out, but I really liked the results.

I always forget how much I like dark red polish until I put it on...it somehow has the effect of immediately making me feel classier. Borghese Sonata Berry is the perfect dark red because it's dark, but not so dark that it looks black. With the other two reds added, I think it makes the perfect gradient! 

Butter London Henley Regatta

Hello! I don't know how many of you live in the Midwest, but we're getting quite the spring blizzard right now in St. Louis. It's been snowing furiously all day, and we're supposed to get 8-10 inches. (I wrote that yesterday. We did get 8-10 inches. Or more.) I have to say, I'm beginning to get a little confused about what month it is! Anyway, today I tried my first Butter London polish, Henley Regatta. I decided to do an accent manicure, so I chose Zoya Kelly, one of my favorite grays. I used two coats of Kelly and four coats of Henley Regatta (it really only needed three, but I added an extra just because). The first picture is in my light box with artificial light, and the second is in my light box with natural light.

Not a St. Paddy's Day Manicure

I actually had a St. Patrick's Day mani all planned out. I planned it last night, in fact. And then I went ahead and painted my nails pink and glittery, because I forgot that today was St. Patrick's Day. Whoops. I'm just going to blame it on spring break, because when I'm not at university, I have no idea what day of the week or date it is. Anyway, I really like this manicure and didn't want to take it off after less than 12 hours of wear, so here we are! Maybe this is for St. Patty's Day instead of St. Paddy's Day? (Hint: If you didn't know, Patty is a girl's name in Ireland.)

Eyeko Military Polish

Hello, and I hope your Mondays are going well! I started class today and had Research Methods from 1:10 to 2:00 and then Contemporary Challenges in the U.S. Health Care System from 2:30 to 5:00. Research Methods sounds like it's going to be kind of scary - it's never a good sign when the professor starts class by saying, "this is the worst class you will have as an undergraduate." Eek! Good thing I only have 15 hours this semester, and no honors classes. Tomorrow I'll have Intro to African-American Studies (which I'm taking as a core "U.S. Diversity" requirement), Issues in Political Philosophy, and my English class, which is on Muslim women in literature.

But more importantly (on here, anyway), I'm wearing Eyeko Military Polish for the first time today! I don't even remember where I got my bottle at this point, but I've had it for at least a year and hadn't worn it, so I figured it was about time. I used two coats, and I took this picture before I applied top coat.

Unfortunately, I'm not a huge fan of Military Polish. From the way it looked in the bottle, I thought it might be a little more green, but in most lights, it just looks brown with a green tinge. It's nice, but not quite what I expected. I've been collecting a few polishes that I don't think I want, and I think this will go in that pile. I think I might have a blog sale once I have enough to get rid of, but I feel like it would be a huge hassle. Anyway, we'll see!

China Glaze Whirled Away

Good morning! It is still morning for a few minutes, right? Today I'm writing about a polish that everyone knows by now - but it's still amazing. China Glaze Whirled Away came out as part of the Cirque du Soleil Worlds Away collection (which my local Sally's still doesn't have - get on the ball!), and it's a black and white glitter topper that positively makes my socks roll up and down. Here, I wore it with Sally Hansen Blue Away.

Unfortunately, my top coat bubbled on several of my finges - oh, the vicissitudes of top coat! However the bubbles weren't as visible in real life as they are in the picture, so I quite enjoyed wearing this manicure yesterday. 

In related news, I seem to be on another blue kick. Before this mani, I was wearing Zoya Blu from the Lovely collection, and as I type this, I'm in the process of applying another (mostly) blue polish, which I'll show you next. Hint: it's nerdy. :)

Have a great day!

Zoya Rekha

I'm here again! Zoya Rekha is the second polish I've worn from Zoya's fall collections this year. Normally I'm not a huge red person, but I really, really, really like Rekha. It's one of those that blurs the line between jellies and cremes, giving this wonderfully glossy sheen while still being entirely opaque. I had an unusually hard time getting my camera to shoot accurately when it came to Rekha's color. In my pictures, it appears brighter and more candy-like than it is in real life. It's hard to describe, but Rekha's closer to what I think of as a true cherry red (you know, like actual cherries).

 natural light

Zoya Evvie Goes to Work

Hello there! I hope you're having a good Thursday, also known as almost-Friday. Today I have Zoya Evvie, one of the beauties from the Zoya Designer NYFW collection for this fall. While it's still entirely too hot and dry out to pretend that it's fall - if you've seen news about drought in the Midwest, well, that's where I am - I still wanted to take Evvie out for a spin. I probably won't post all of the polishes from this collection individually, but while at work yesterday I started worrying that Evvie would chip before I got home to take a picture with my proper camera. As I'm sure many of you know from experience, office work can be surprisingly hard on nail polish. So, I snapped a picture with my phone while sitting at my desk.

artificial light

As you can see, Evvie is a gorgeous deep grey, and I used two, easy coats here. It's definitely a fall color, but I can also see myself wearing any time of the year - say, in the middle of the summer. But of course, between work, more work, and going home, there's that hour of the day called lunch. Yesterday I went out to a local restaurant for lunch with my mom, and naturally Evvie came with.

Mm, bahn mi! I love Vietnamese food, so I was thrilled when the owners of this cafe decided to put bahn mi on their menu full-time instead of just as a special (now I just need a local source for some good bun!). But back to the polish, I think Evvie stands out even more in this photos, probably because the light was natural and not quite so harsh as in my cubicle. I just love this polish, and I can't wait to wear it when it's actually fall outside and not a very large oven. For now, at least, I can only enjoy fall color through nail polish.

This polish was provided to me by Zoya for honest review. For more information, see my disclosure policy.

Blue on Blue Ruffles

Apparently I haven't posted for nearly a month. Well . . . that went quickly. In the meantime, I started my first full-time job, continued my online history class, and watched this blog enter the Terrible Twos. To me, it seems like the two-year mark is a particularly significant one for nail bloggers. Maybe it signifies that since you've had enough stick-to-it-iveness (yes, I just made that word up) to last two years, you know what you're doing (ha! As if. I always feel like I still have something to learn). Anyway, for my first post as a two-year-old - or, well, you know what I mean - I have some ruffly tips to show you all. I did this Friday night, and they came from the fact that I wanted to do some nail art, but I didn't have a lot of time to do it. Hence, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Blue By got topped with lighter blue acrylic paint.

 outdoors, sunlight

I was really happy with the results. While they don't all look exactly the same, I actually kind of like the differences. If I'd had the time, I would've probably done alternating ruffles with these two colors, but perhaps that's for another time. And with that, I go back to my history book. What have you been doing with your summer?

Mint & Pink Accent Mani

Hello! I'm posting this as a short break from taking history notes, because I've been taking notes for about an hour and a half now and figured it was time for a break. Last night I did my nails, and I almost immediately knew exactly what I wanted to do: an accent nail manicure with Essie Mint Candy Apple and Exotic Liras. I really think these two colors complement each other well, and I used three coats of each with Cult Nails Get It On and Wicked Fast. The picture's of lesser quality than usual because I took it on my phone, but I know I wouldn't be able to take proper pictures until tomorrow, and I just didn't want to wait. Anyway, I hope you're all doing well, and that it's a bit cooler and wetter where you are than it is here!

Ruffles Mani

Hello there! Today I have a ruffles mani to show you, a technique I learned from Chalkboard Nails. Of course I had to try it right away, so I went through my Melmer drawers and ended up pulling out American Apparel Peacock, OPI Dim Sum Plum, OPI A Good Man-darin Is Hard to Find, Nina Ultra Pro Salsa, Ulta Sun-sational, Zoya Robyn, Essie Exotic Liras, and Sally Hansen Green With Envy. I used the largest dotting tool I own.

 indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

As you can see, I was starting to get some tipwear by the point I took these pictures, and as you can also see, the tips of my nails were getting a bit thick from all the polish. I think I should be able to get it a little thinner with more practice and control, though, and I'll definitely be trying this again - in fact, I'm wearing Icing Grande Margarita right now, and I think I might try a ruffles mani on top of that. One note I should make is that because I took these under artificial light (I suspected they wouldn't last until the sun came out again, and I was right), the colors don't appear as bright as they did in real life. If only I had a tiny personal sun that I could summon whenever I needed to take polish pics...

Preppy Stripes & Tutorial

Hello there! Today I bring you some nail art I did Thursday night. I ordered some striping tape off of Amazon a couple weeks ago, and I hadn't gotten around to using it yet, so I decided it was time to break it out. I wanted bold colors, and ended up picking China Glaze First Mate, China Glaze Grape Pop, and OPI Red My Fortune Cookie. The overall effect reminds me a bit of a prep school uniform, hence the title.

natural light

Click "read more" to see the tutorial:

Zoya Beach Swatches & Review

Greetings! Before I start the polish talk, I have to do a little self-promotion and remind you to go like my Facebook page. (And thanks for doing so!) I hope Monday is going well - or at least tolerably - for everyone. Like I promised, I have swatches of the Zoya Beach collection to show you today, starting with Reagan.

natural light

Zoya describes Reagan as a "deep cerise pink cream," which I think is actually a pretty good description of this gorgeous color. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to show up very accurately in any of the many photos I took of Reagan. It's a bit more purpley than in the picture, but I think I managed to capture the vividity (which, yes, is a word - Google it) well. It's also very opaque at one coat. I'm going to be posting a comparison post for Beach later, but I'll say now that I think Reagan might be a dupe or close cousin to OPI Dim Sum Plum. Unfortunately, I didn't bring it to college, so it won't be in my comparison post.

natural light

The second polish in Beach, Lara, is what Zoya calls a "vivid cerise pink cream." To me, it's a bit more of a cross between bubblegum pink and cerise, but that's very subjective anyway. Like Reagan, Lara is opaque in one coat. Also like Reagan, I couldn't get it to photograph well, and it's a bit more purple in real life. If you're in need of girly pink to add to your polish stash, Lara would be a great choice, though I honestly don't like it quite as well as Reagan.

natural light

Speaking of girly pinks, Shelby seems to me like the epitome of Barbie pink, or as Zoya says, a "soft pinky pink creme." While it's not an uncommon color in the least, that doesn't mean it's not pretty, and I can definitely see myself doing some sort of tape mani with Shelby and, say, China Glaze For Audrey or Zoya Wednesday. Shelby is opaque in two coats.

natural light

Moving away from the pinks, Zoya Arizona is a "soft coral orange creme" that goes on easily in two coats. I'm not sure I'd describe it as coral - or soft, for that matter - but it's certainly a great color, especially for summer. Again, it's not terribly unique, but I'll talk more about that in my comparison post. Oh, and as a side note: could someone explain the logic behind naming a child Arizona?

natural light

Tracie is sort of the standout polish in Beach, as it's the only one that's not a creme. Zoya calls it a "sea grass metallic," and while I see the sea grass part of it, I really consider Tracie to have more of a pearlized finish. Normally I don't like that finish much, but while Tracie isn't my favorite, I did actually end up liking it once I put it on. The base color is very pretty, and I think it helps that the pearlescence isn't too awfully streaky. Tracie was opaque in two coats.

flash

Finally, we have Wednesday, a "soft aqua creme" that I ended up wearing as a full manicure. I love dusty cremes like Wednesday, and while I tend to think of them as more spring-y as far as seasonality goes, I will wear just about any color during any time of year. Wednesday (again, I'm not quite sure why someone would actually name their child Wednesday, but whatever) was opaque in two easy coats.

Overall, while I don't feel that any of these polishes, save Tracie, are that unique, they're all very pretty colors that would be well worth adding to a polish stash that doesn't already contain dupes. As the application and opacity was also very good for all of the polishes, I would definitely recommend Zoya Beach.

These polishes were provided by the manufacturer for honest review. However, that has and will never change what I write in a post. For more information, see my disclosure policy.

Lavender Mint

Hey there! Today I have a mani that's been sitting in my "Nails" folder for way too long. It's actually from late October last year, and while I had almost started to think I should just not post it, I'm working on the Zoya summer collection right now, and since it's going to take me a little while to get through, I thought it'd be good to post something in the meantime. However, just because it's been sitting on my hard drive for several months doesn't mean I didn't like it - I honestly don't know why I haven't posted it before now. I used Icing Mint 2 Be for the mint green and Zoya Malia with Sephora by OPI Only Gold for Me for the accent nails.

outdoors, sunlight

outdoors, shade

I realize that Malia isn't a lavender, but when I was thinking of what to name this post, I thought of Paul Mitchell's line of lavender mint hair products (they smell wonderful, of course - what of theirs doesn't?) and decided it was about as interesting a title as I was going to come up with. I need to start doing accent nails more often again, I think...I haven't done any lately, and it's one of the easiest ways I can think of to give your nails a little more pizzazz.

Now I have a question for you all - would you rather have me split Zoya Beach and Surf into two parts, or four? I kind of like doing it in four because I feel like I can devote a little more description to each polish and because I can post more often that way, but I've done Zoya collections in two posts before, and I can certainly do it again if that's what you prefer. Please leave a comment telling me if you'd rather have two posts, four, or if you don't care either way. Thanks!

Teal and Purple Ruffian

Hi! It's been a while...I didn't realize until I thought "Oh, I should probably do a post" and logged on to Blogger that it'd been a week and a half since my last non-PR post. Whoops. I guess I wasn't too motivated to do anything but read and see friends over spring break, which I suppose is understandable. Anyway, today I have my first attempt at a ruffian manicure. I used Orly Purple Pleather and and Viridian Vinyl. I wore Purple Pleather on its own for a couple days, then added Viridian Vinyl and top coat. Unfortunately, I broke my ring nail fairly badly right before I was going to take pictures, so I decided to leave it be and cut it after I took the pictures so you could get a better idea of what it looked like originally.

natural light

I was pretty happy with how I did, especially considering I did the ruffian part of the manicure in an Arby's on my way back to college. Yeah...it happened. I'm also definitely excited to do more ruffian manicures, perhaps including some spring-themed ones, since it is now officially spring. I'm also interested in adding other nail art to ruffians - have any of you experimented with that? I'm not sure if it would look good or be a nail fail, though I suppose it would depend on what design I did. Anyway, happy spring!

Mustachioed

Hey there! Look, it's only been two days since my last post, even though it's midterm - wait, let's not talk about the fact that it's midterm week. *ahem* Moving on...during The Week That Shall Not Be Named (am I the only one who thinks midterms are worse than finals?), sometimes one needs a little something to cheer oneself up. I did this manicure a couple weeks ago, but I'm posting it now because I think it's just about time for something a little silly. And what might that be? Mustachioed nails, of course.

indoors, natural light

There - I told you it was silly. And before anyone asks, yes, I did wear this out in public, and yes, people did comment on it, and no, no one told me I was bonkers. I have to say, I did mess up the pinkie a bit, but it certainly didn't detract from the fun I had wearing it, and other than that, I think it turned out quite well. You see, facial hair is not just for the face! Um. Yeah. I just said that. It's possible that it miiight be a little past midnight while I'm writing this and maaaybe I should be studying for my international studies exam tomorrow and maaaybe I'm just a little tired and it's making me slightly nuts...so. Yup. *whistles* Au revoir! 

Deep Sea Flakies

Happy Saturday! I'm writing this on Thursday, but by the time this is posted, hopefully we'll all be having a great weekend. I did this manicure about a month ago and am just now getting around to posting it. At the time, I was going through one of those phases where you wear the same sort of polish for about five manicures, and at the time, I was in a dark polish phase. One of the manicures I wore during that phase was Essence Just Rock It layered with one coat each of FingerPaints Flecked and FingerPaints Motley. This was one of the first manicures I did with Flecked and Motley, and I have to say, I think it turned out quite well.

 indoors, artificial light

China Glaze Capitol Colours: Dress Me Up

Hello again! Today I have the second color I received from China Glaze Capitol Colours, Dress Me Up, which is described by China Glaze as "a stripped down dark rose pink creme." To be honest, I didn't think this would suit me when I saw it in the bottle. I thought it was kind of a "meh" color, and I was far more excited about some of the other colors in the collection. Now? I've changed my mind. While it's not the most amazing awesome unbelievable color in existence, Dress Me Up is quite the classy neutral.

 indoors, natural light