A Love-ly Look with KBShimmer Elle

  Although I have been trying to hold off on buying many polishes lately (medical students don't exactly get paid... anything), I couldn't resist ordering a couple of KBShimmer polishes to add to my collection.  I've seen so many wonderful pictures, it was hard to pick just two to start with, but I finally narrowed it down!  Today I have for you nail art with KBShimmer Elle!

Outdoors, overcast

  Elle is a soft gray jelly base with dark pink, light pink, gray, white, and holographic silver glitters in a variety of shapes and sizes.  I used OPI If You Moust You Moust (dark pink) and Nicole by OPI Up and Kim-ing Pink (light pink) to paint/dot on the hearts and tips.  A very fun look for Valentine's week!

Indoors, lightbox

  Elle is so pretty, I had a bit of a hard time covering any of it up with nail art.  Shown is four coats.  It applied very well, with the glitter spreading nicely on its own - no glitter manipulation required!  I did give it just a bit of extra dry time between the last couple of coats to make sure I didn't push around the glitter too much.  The color combination is soft and feminine, and the many different sizes and shapes of glitter give it a nice complexity.  Please note: you will definitely see this polish again!  :)

Outdoors, shade

Outdoors, sunlight

  I'm really happy with my first KBShimmer experience, and I cannot wait to try out my second polish soon!  And possibly find some room in the budget for a few more...

Basic Bow Konad

Good morning all!  Here is a simple but classic design in neutral colors, perfect for work!  I wore these nails last fall when I needed something super toned down for working in the hospital but still wanted something fun.  Sorry about the sad cuticles, I sort of ignored them last fall.  They are looking better now.  :)

  For the base I used Deborah Lippmann Waking Up In Vegas, a "greige" creme and one of my favorite go-to neutral colors.  It looks fabulous with white designs and I have used it several times when I needed a more dressy, elegant look.  Stamping was done with Konad Special White and plates BM-310 and m59.  Just enough design to be unique, and the accent nail bow is super fun, but still a subtle look overall.

The Weighted Companion Cube

  When Becky saw this polish, she knew I would need it.  As a huge fan of Portal and Portal 2, I have snatched up a lot of related merchandise, and what could be more perfect than a polish designed around my BFF in the game, the companion cube?

Outdoors, sun

  For my companion cube nails, I started off with two coats of Zoya Dove on all but the ring fingers, followed by two coats of NailsIT Companion Cube.  This polish is a medium gray jelly with pink heart, white square, silver hex, and small iridescent glitters.  The hearts were surprisingly east to get out, but I found that adding a second coat made them just a bit too grayed-out, so I used a brush dipped in remover to brighten them up again.  Love this glitter!

Outdoors, shade... with Wheatley

  On the ring finer, I started with two coats of Zoya Kelly, followed by painting on the light gray details with Zoya Dove and the pink details with Nicole by OPI Up & Kim-ing Pink.  I added a pink rhinestone in the center of the heart for good measure  Looks very nice with my companion cube plushie.  

Outdoors, shade

  I pretty much love this manicure... almost as much as the game.  And the cube itself.  I'm not going to lie, I probably ran around for about an hour trying to figure out how to save it... ANYWAY if you haven't played Portal I strongly suggest you do, it is really an amazing game.

  Look at me still talking when there's science to do...

K-S-U Wildcats! Holographic Water Marble

  Here is a water marble that I wore a few weeks back to a home basketball game of my Wildcats!  Unfortunately, it didn't help us win that game... but I am hoping posting it now will help us out as we continue on in the NCAA Tournament!  I have to admit, I may be a bit too optimistic - I have them winning the whole thing in my bracket, haha.  But our family bracket pool is just for fun, so why not?  :)

Outdoors, sun

  For this water marble, I used China Glaze OMG and China Glaze LOL.  I started out with two coats of OMG as the base, then added the water marbling with both OMG and LOL.  I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite.

Outdoors, sun

Right hand - sun

Indoors, artificial light

Outdoors, shade

  My favorite fingers are definitely the index and the ring fingers on my left hand, but they all turned out pretty fun.  I love water marbling with holographics - it combines two of my favorite things in polish!  Here's to hoping that my Wildcats continue to do well in the tournament!  We are going to need all of the help we can get against Syracuse... :)

  Who do you have winning it all in your NCAA bracket?

My New Year's Eve Polish - A Long Time Lemming!

  You know how there are some polishes on your lemming list that you kind of just assume you will probably never own?  Guess how shocked I was to receive one such polish on Christmas from my amazing sister Becky!

Gorgeous and amazing.  In shade

  OPI Mad As A Hatter is from the Alice in Wonderland collection - a collection that contains my all-time favorite polish, Absolutely Alice, which I credit for my entry into the world of the nail polish obsessed.  Now, I actually saw MAAH in stores, but at the time I was more... normal... and I generally only bought one new polish every couple of months, so I only bought Alice.  Imagine my dismay when MAAH became a huge lemming for me, the elusive multi-colored glitter that I just couldn't justify buying on evilBay.  Thanks so much to Becky for getting it for me - I would have never let myself buy it, no matter how much I wanted it!

Close-up of glitters

  Mad As A Hatter is a multi-colored macro glitter polish in a clear base.  Primarily, it looks silver - although it can also look kind of purple or blue as well.  It has so many different colors in it, which you can see above - blue, magenta, red, gold, and green among the silver can be spotted.  It is completely stunning and definitely one I find myself staring at.

Sparkling in sunlight

  I'm thrilled that this beautiful glitter is part of my collection.  I almost did a design over it but couldn't bring myself to cover it up, at least not this first time.  Next time I might layer one coat over something else (this is three coats) so that I can save it as long as possible.  Thanks again, B - I love it!  :)

Elegant Neutral

  Here are some simple and elegant neutral nails that I wore to my Papa's funeral last month.  I still have a hard time believing he is gone, and I dream about him often.  It is difficult, never having lost anyone close before, to experience for the first time.  When I get really sad about it I just try to reflect on all of my happy memories and remember how lucky I am that I got to have all four of my grandparents with me for 25 years!

Outdoors, shade

  Sorry for the slight green tinge to the cuticles, that is leftover from Viridian Vinyl.  This is two coats of Deborah Lippmann Waking Up In Vegas, followed by a simple white design using Konad Special White polish and BM-213.  Simple and elegant, which is what I wanted to go for for the occasion.  This is such a gorgeous color, I really love it!  And Lippmann's apply beautifully.  I think I may need to get me some more.  :)

Luna Nails

  Last October I did a manicure in honor of my sweet baby boy Leo.  I decided it was about time that I did one to honor his slightly diabolical but still very loving sister, Luna!

 

  For these nails, I started with two coats of Zoya Dove as the light gray base.  I followed this up with leopard print stamping from BM-221 for all but the ring finger, and the design from M57 for the ring finger, using Konad Special Black.  I then added darker gray dots to some of the leopard spots using Zoya Kelly, as well as adding the kitty image to the ring finger in Kelly as well, using BM04.  I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite and was good to go!  I had a lot of fun with this one, especially with the accent finger.  I don't often do accent fingers but it was really fun, I may have to do more in the future!

Luna!

Kitties

  Gotta love them kitties.  :)

I'm Back!!!

  Hello everyone!  I am back from my long and unplanned blogging hiatus.  I am sorry to everyone that I disappeared without any warning.  I have had quite a few work related as well as personal issues going on lately, which have made life very busy and stressful... in the middle of it all I also went away on a (very much needed) vacation.  So I again apologize for my absence, especially to those of you who worried about where I was.  I'm back now though and plan to get Polishology back to its regularly scheduled programming! ;)

 I do, however, have an unfortunate confession to make.  I recently bit off all of my nails.  Strangely enough, I bit off one hand of nails, and did not bite the other until about four days later.  I'm very sad to have ended such a long streak of no biting, but it is just a small setback in my road to nail biting recovery.  I am still much better than I was before this blog!

  Now on to some nails for you all.  These are the last pictures of my nails when they were long, back before The Great Break, which was followed by my falling off the wagon.  They will hopefully look like this again soon!

Outdoors, shade, no flash

  This is the gorgeous Zoya Caitlin, from the Intimate collection.  Fabulous purple-gray creme.  Great formula on this one as well - I am fairly sure this was two coats but this was like a month ago and I can't find the post-it I wrote it down on.  Went on super smooth just like I have come to expect from Zoya cremes!  This is a really nice color - lighter than its fall cousin Kelly.

Outdoors, direct sunlight

  I added a very basic little floral pattern here with Konad Special White and Bundle Monster plate BM10.  I thought this basic white design looked really nice on the medium gray creme.  Oh how I miss those long nails!

  Thanks so much to all of you who have continued to check on my blog every once in awhile, I really appreciate the support of this awesome community!  I have been missing you all, haha.  I am glad to be back in the swing of things now and can't wait to show you some awesome polish and designs! :D

Grayscale Nails with Dove and Kelly

  I have another gorgeous shade from the Zoya Intimate Spring Collection to share with you today - paired up with her darker cousin from the Fall collection.  These were my "Blizzard Day 2011" nails, that I did on Tuesday while 14 inches of snow was dumped on us and we were trapped in our house.  :)

Indoors, natural lighting, no flash

  Zoya Dove is a light gray creme - it is really "dove" gray, for lack of a better term!  Absoultely stunning on the nail, and very sophisticated and classy.  This took three coats for me, but only because I messed up and put one nail on way too thin, so this easily could have been a two-coater.  Application was deliciously smooth, evened out beautifully, and dried quickly!  Here is a picture of Dove alone:

Indoors, natural light, no flash

  For the pattern, I used Zoya Kelly, Dove's older cousin from the Fall collection, and Konad plate m78.  I really loved the gray-on-gray combination.  I find myself really loving these more neutral colors a lot, which is funny because back before I became obsessed with polish I probably never would have thought to wear them.  Now they seem to be some of my absolute favorites!

Happy Anniversary!

  Dan and I celebrated our second Anniversary last month.  I borrowed one of Becky's new polishes that fit the day perfectly - OPI Happy Anniversary!

Outdoors, full sun

  Happy Anniversary is a hard color to describe - it is a very sheer, silvery-white polish full of pale multicolor and silver glitter.  It has a sort of opalescent sheen to it and it really shines in direct light.  I used four coats to achieve something close to opacity, however this is really pretty with just one coat as well, for something more sheer.  Forgive my slightly terrible pictures, as these were the first I was taking on my new camera and I was still figuring it out! :)

Indoors, artificial light, no flash

  I added the image with Konad plate m64 and Konad Special Black.  I wore this for our Anniversary date to watch Tron in 3D at the AMC Fork and Screen, where we ate some really yummy food while watching the movie.  A very pretty manicure for a very special day!

Zoya Kelly - and 300 Followers!

  First off, I want say - Thank You!!  Polishology reached 300 followers the other day, and I am ecstatic!  I really appreciate all of you taking the time to look at my blog!  I have plans in the works for a multi-prize 300 follower giveaway, as a thank you to all of you, so stay tuned!

Outdoors, sunlight

  Now on to the gorgeous Zoya Kelly.  I was thrilled with this polish - it is a dark slate gray creme, with just enough of a hint of blue to make it really interesting.  It applied very well, two coats and super smooth, no complaints on application.  A fabulous fall and winter color!  Here are some pictures of Kelly on its own.

Outdoors, full sun

Outdoors, shade

  I decided to add a simple design with this one, a double flower stamp from Konad plate m37.  I thought that the white contrasted nicely with the dark gray.  I topped it off with a coat of Deborah Lippmann Addicted To Speed, my new favorite topcoat!  I wore this for three and a half days with only minimal wear.  This is a gorgeous color that I would highly recommend adding to your collection!  I still have yet to meet a Zoya polish I don't like... I can't wait to try my three free from last week, which arrived yesterday!  I plan on making another order soon, when the spring collection comes out (more on this soon).  What is your favorite Zoya polish?

DISCLOSURE: The polish featured in this post was provided to Polishology by Zoya for review purposes.  This is an honest and independent review and was in no way influenced by the company.

Waking Up In Vegas

  For Christmas, my sister Christy totally spoiled me.. again.  Some of you may remember that she bought me an early Christmas present of six amazing Deborah Lippmann shades (I have worn 4 of the six and can't wait to try the other two).  However on Christmas Day she got me even more Lippmann!  An awesome set with two colors, base and top coat, polish remover called their "Get Nailed" set, as well as the polish featured here!

Outdoors, shade, no flash

  I went all out Lippmann with these nails - I started with their ridge filling base coat, which I really liked a lot!  I then added two coats of Waking Up In Vegas, which is a "greige" (as I have seen it called, gray/beige), or a kind of taupe creme.  When I first saw this one I wasn't sure if I would like it on me - these neutrals really have to look right with your skin tone!  But I loved it.  Absolutely loved pretty much everthing about the polish, actually.  I really think this is a fabulous color, very trendy and wearable for professional situations.  The application was fairly flawless and was almost a one coater, totally smooth and this held up really with with basically no chipping!  I then added a design with Konad plate m60 for the design in Konad Special White.  I topped it all off with a coat of Deborah Lippmann Addicted To Speed, which is a really nice top coat - just as speedy and glossy as Seche Vite but I felt like there was less tip shrinkage.  Maybe I have a new favorite top coat?

Outdoors, shade - not color accurate

  I wanted to include a picture of the polish alone, to show how perfect and smooth it was!  Unfortunately, I was still figuring out how to use my new digital camera I got for Christmas, so the color balance was a little off because I had it on the wrong setting.  Oops.  The color is much more accurate in the first shot.  I finally think I have gotten the hang of the new camera now and hope it will make some of the pictures on my blog even better!

Party Hearty!

  Yesterday, I tried to do a Christmas water marble.  I tried three reds, three greens, and three silvers, all in different combos, and could not get anything to work right. Then after the frustration of the failed water marble, I knocked over a bottle of red polish when reaching for the phone and it went everywhere.  Needless to say, not the most relaxing polish I've ever done.... so I decided to whip out something easy but really fun instead! :)

Outdoors, partial shade, no flash

  This is one coat of Zoya Trixie followed by four coats of China Glaze Party Hearty.  I thought the from other blogs I had seen this glitter was a bit more opaque than this, achieving a similar look after only two coats.  And I wasn't doing super thin coats either...?  Oh well, adding a couple of extra coats was a minor inconvienince.  This is the perfect Christmas glitter - I love it!  It was great for the party I went to last night.

  Now I need to decide what I am doing to my nails tomorrow for Christmas!  I still have so many holiday ideas I didn't get around to using, I have no idea how I will decide! :)

China Glaze The Ten Man and Silvery Snowflakes

  Today I wanted to share with you a really gorgeous silver glitter polish, China Glaze The Ten Man from the Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection.

Outdoors, Shade, No Flash

  The Ten Man is a frosty light silver polish loaded with silver microglitter.  It has a very similar finish to GOOD WITCH?, another polish from the same collection that I reviewed earlier (on much longer nails!).  Here I used three thin coats for full coverage.  It is a bit on the sheer side, but these three thin coats really applied nicely and dried quickly for an overall very positive application!  The only downside is that the finish on this one is a bit bumpy without a topcoat (which I am not wearing in this particular photo), but one coat of a nice topcoat should smooth it out very nicely!  This is one really sparkles quite a lot in the sun.  It is a really great silver! 

Indoors, artificial lighting

  I recently used this polish to do my Mom's nails for a work party.  She was wearing a glittery silver sweater and dark gray pants and wanted something wintery to match - I knew this was the perfect polish!  I used three coats of The Ten Man, and follower by adding snowflakes and tiny stars from Konad plate m59.  Then, on each of her ring fingers I added a small rhinestone to the center of the top snowflake.  She really liked the manicure, and got several compliments on it at the party!  It matched her outfit perfectly.  It is a lot of fun to do my Mom's nails, since she has always been one of those people that never wear nail polish.  I plan to get this addiction rubbed off on everyone! :D

DISCLOSURE: The polish featured in this post was provided to Polishology by China Glaze for review purposes.  This is an honest and independent review and was in no way influenced by the company.