My first glitter gradient

Hello, Polishists!

For this week's manicure, I wanted to try something that I have previously failed at: a glitter gradient. In the past, I tried a method involving painting the nail multiple times. Didn't work. But recently, I stumbled upon this tutorial, and what resulted was magical.

I love glitter gradients with natural-looking polish. In my mind, I envision myself in a rowboat (think the "Kiss the Girl" scene in The Little Mermaid), dipping my fingertips into the water, and gently dragging them as we merrily row along. Did I mention that the water is made of glitter?

Anyway, onto the polish.

For the beige/ nude polish, I used Essie's Allure. It is probably the closest shade to my natural nail bed. It's pretty sheer, even though I used three coats.

The glitter polish is from Ulta's house brand, in Indigo-go Girl. It's a brilliant glitter polish with differently sized glitter pieces.

Overall, I'm pleased as punch with this mani. It's a really easy way to add a little pizzazz to a basic mani.

Do you have any quick mani tricks when your polish job is just meh?

Happi Nails :-D

Hello, Polishists!

I'm bringing you another installment from my latest Zoya haul. My coworker (a fellow polish enthusiast) brought up the fact that neither of us has worn coral polish in a while. Coral is one of those rare colors that works well for the palest of the pale to the darkest of the dark! So, this week, I turned to my haul for some coral inspiration.

Coral always reminds me of summer, the Caribbean, and the beach... all things that I love to think about this time of year! The weather is pretty miserable in New York today... cold, windy, and rainy :( Good thing I have my nails to make me... Happi!

Happi is a stunning pinkish coral with gold flecks. It is absolutely stunning! It goes on smoothly, and is opaque in 2 coats. I was concerned at first, because the first coat was kind of streaky. But, the second coat masked the streakiness of the first coat, though.

For the accent nail, I used Revlon's Brilliant Strength in Hypnotize. It goes on opaque in one coat.

Just because I wanted to be fancy and do what all the cool kids do, I attempted a striping tape design. I kept the design simple: three vertical lines of varying lengths.

While the design came out pretty clear, I think the colors are too similar to create the desired contrast effect. I love Happy, I love Hypnotize, and I love striping tape manis... but I do not love them all together.

What about you, Polishists? Have you tried a striping tape mani? How did it turn out? Which colors did you use? I'm interested in trying this technique again!

Walking on the Wild Side

Hello, Polishists!

How are you doing? Were you snowed in like me and much of the rest of the Northeast? Thankfully, I was safe and sound. Being cabin-bound gave me loads of time to relax, watch old episodes of The Wire (I had never watched it before... someone write me a late pass! It's soooo good!), and, of course, do my nails.

Cobalt blue has been one of the hottest colors in fashion for a little while now. I LOVE cobalt blue and have several CB clothing items in my closet. I've been seeing the pairing of cobalt blue and animal prints around lately, and I adore the combination. Since I was going to be out of work for a few days, I decided to do an NSFW manicure. No... not like that... just probably not what you would expect from a professional in an office setting. Anyway, enough suspense. On to the nails.

For the zebra stripes, I used Sally Hansen's Salon Effects in Wild Child. The Salon Effects are nail-shaped stickers that you apply to your nails in lieu of painting them. They're pretty cool and pretty easy to use. The Salon pack comes with nail strips of different sizes and a mini orange stick and nail file. You first apply the sticker onto your nail, cut and file the nail down to the correct size, and then finish it off with a top coat. I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri No Chip Top Coat.

The cobalt blue is also a favorite of mine. It's good ol' Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Co-Bolt Blue. It's a rich cobalt with silver and blue shimmer. It's opaque in one coat and dries pretty quickly.

The black polish is Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure in Onyx. Onyx is a bit watery, but I was satisfied with its opacity after two coats. It's a no-frills flat black that I recommend as a Polishist staple.

Both Co-Bolt Blue and Onyx dry with a shiny finish, but I wanted to change things up a bit so I used a matte top coat. Now, I've been burned by matte topcoats in the past. But, I figured something out: matte coats are not like your average shiny topcoat that you can just slap on a couple minutes after your second coat. This time, I waited until the polish dried completely, then applied the topcoat. Success!

The topcoat I used was Gosh Matte Effect Top Coat. I love it! It's a little streaky, but matte coats tend to be unforgiving. I did this mani a couple of days ago and there has been minimal signs of wear- even on the tips.

I'm overall quite pleased with my wild side mani! Now, back to The Wire!

Are there any trends that you've been late on?

Zoya on Zoya on Zoya!

Hello Polishists!

Long time, no see!

I've been super busy lately, hence my lack of posting. But! I'm all the way back!!

I teased you with this little gem...

And now, the big reveal! Here's what was in the box:

From L to R: Happi, Reva, Tosca, Rica, Meadow, Vespa, Skylar, Megan, Julie, Mimi, Mikka, Godiva.

Surprise! There were two boxes :)

Zoya recently had their annual Color Your World sale, where they give away 3 bottles of polish, absolutely free! You only had to pay $10 shipping. I decided that I didn't feel like paying the $10 shipping, so I picked out 3 more polishes so that I would be eligible for free shipping with $25 purchase!

I did that twice, 'cuz I'm sneaky like that.

Phew! I won't need to buy any polish for a looooooong time!

I wanted to make the most of the promotion, so I picked up two bottles from one of their newest collections, Pixie Dust. Polishes from that line have a textured matte finish. I got Vespa and Godiva.

I didn't even know where to start when I went to do this week's manicure, so I decided to keep it relatively simple.

Godiva, featuring Essie Case Study.

Godiva is a soft gold with silver and gold sparkles. It dries matte with a slightly bumpy texture- I would compare it to the surface of a glass file. I used two coats which dried quite quickly (less than 10 minutes). You're not supposed to use a top or base coat with this polish. I'm not good at following directions so I used a base coat, but no topcoat. I like Godiva, it's sparkly without being over the top, and the texture is quite interesting.

Case Study is one of my favorites. It reminds me of when I first started drinking coffee (as a little girl) and I would add approximately one gallon of non-dairy creamer to two teaspoons of coffee. It's a khaki creamish color that goes on opaque in about two coats. It dries quickly and is just generally awesome. This is the third time I've worn it in the last two weeks.

Yeah, there were secret manicures, what of it???

What about you, Polishists? Is there a color you can't stop wearing? Spill the beans!

What's in the box?!?!?

Just a little teaser for my next post.... Stay tuned!