Zoya Aurora

Today's mani is Zoya Aurora, and I'm also trying out a new treatment/basecoat.  My nail have been ridiculously soft and I keep breaking the corners.  I hate it because when I was pregnant and for a few months after, my nails were like rocks.  You seriously couldn't bend them if you tried (I tried).  I was between Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Hard As Wraps Powerful Acrylic Gel and Nail-Aid Almost Gel 3 Minute Artificials.  What I'm basically looking for is a gel or acrylic base I can polish on top of, to strengthen my nails.  I've also started taking Biotin and did my first olive oil soak tonight. Per directions, I applied 2 coats of the 3 Minute Artificials (should be one if using color), 2 coats Aurora, and one coat 3 Minute Artificials as a top coat.

Sunlight

Shade

Aurora was a bit thin but no issues, two coats was fully opaque. This is a gorgeous bright purple polish, with tons of scattered holo in it. This is an amazing polish in the sun or the shade.  I love it just as much as I thought I would, I think it would be hard for anyone to not like this polish

The 3 Minute Artificials left a nice thick glaze, but not too chunky. It dries like crazy slow though, dry to the touch but still impressionable.  My nails do feel slightly stronger now, not like I imagine gel nails would and certainly not like acrylic overlay would but a definite improvement!  I love how shiny and thick this stuff is, and I really like that my nails feel stronger, although its weird that it didn't seem to work on my left hand, but worked great on my right hand.

Left: Sunlight , Right, Shade

 Sunlight, Bottle Shot, Macro

  Shade, Bottle Shot, Macro

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MINI-HAUL

Here are two Orly's I picked up at Sally's today.  The were 4.49, BOGO.

Left: Monster Mash, Right: Right Amount of Evil

 Left: Monster Mash, Right: Right Amount of Evil


I also picked up China Glaze Liquid Leather because I needed a good black, and Gelous Topcoat.

I'm also adding Melmer pictures on my Stash Page, tab is at the top of the page!

 *** Y'all please take a minute to also check out my jewelry page, the tab is at the top of the page, Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)

Zoya Kimber, Sienna & Mimi

Today I got my Zoyas from the Color Your World promotion, 3 Zoyas Free, just pay $10 shipping.  I ordered Kimber, Sienna & Mimi, on January 11th and just got them today.  Normally Zoya has really fast shipping (I usually get mine in 2-3 days) but this was a huge promotion for them and they said to start with it could take up to 4 weeks.  

I'm really excited about these colors, they are bright and have glass flecked shimmer (my favorite!) I always have a hard time narrowing down my order from Zoya but these were all chosen for a reason. Mimi is what my son calls my mom, Kimber because I haven't bought a pink in a while and pink is my favorite, and Sienna because I only have ONE orange.

Here are all three...

 

With flash

 Without flash

Color Codes

Zoya Kimber

 Left: Without flash, Right: Flash

 Bottle Shot

 Zoya Mimi

 Left: Without flash, Right: Flash

 Bottle Shot

Zoya Sienna

 Left: Without flash, Right: Flash

 Bottle Shot

Nail Wheels

 Flash

Without Flash

 

Left: Flash, Right: Without flash

 
*** Y'all please take a minute to also check out my jewelry page, the tab is at the top of the page, Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)

Polish Removal Method

I want to share today, the method I use for removing nail polish.  I take no claim to this trick, I read it on another blog, GingerBreadManne.  I made a picture to show the steps but it's pretty easy to follow :)

-The first thing I do is unroll my cotton ball into a flat piece.

-Next, I split it into two strips

-Then I take the strip, and tear it into inch-ish size pieces.

-Take the cap to your remover and pour the remover in it.

-Slightly dip a piece of your cotton ball into it. Don't dunk or it will drip all over you.
Just a little bit will travel up the cotton

-Place it on your nail, making sure to fully cover it. Continue with all nails.

-Let the cotton sit 3-5 minutes.  If there's no glitter, try 1-3 minutes.

-Apply pressure at your cuticle and pull the cotton down towards the tip.

-This will remove the majority of polish. As you can see in the picture I had some glitter left over.  A quick swipe with a new cotton piece got that off with little effort.

-As you can see I usually have cotton left over. So that's less than one cotton ball for all 10 fingers.

I usually use acetone polish remover, from walmart/target/dollar general.  I try to only use pure acetone for cleanup or stubborn polishes to keep from drying my skin out.  I've also noticed with remover, the glitter seems to stick to the cotton.  With acetone it seems to end up every where else.

For comparison, the cotton on the left was with remover, and the right was with acetone.  See all the glitter on the left? The glitter from the cotton on the right was all over my shirt and table, but barely on the cotton.

*If you are wearing a full glitterbomb, multiple layers or glitter, glitter with no base, or particularly stubborn glitters, you may want to add a small piece of tin foil, wrapped around your tips to accelerate the process*

*** Y'all please take a minute to also check out my jewelry page, the tab is at the top of the page, Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)

Scallop Mani & Haul Pics

Today I tried a design I've never done before, scallops :) This is a tape mani, but I used painter's tape instead of my usual scotch tape. I've got to say, I liked this a LOT better!

Natural light, Cloudy, Shows the orange flash

I started with a base coat of Orly Rock It, an awesome reddish fuchsia jelly base, with tons of red and golden orange shimmer, however that orange flash doesn't translate well on the nail.  Then I used craft scissors to cut the painter's tape in a scallop pattern, added Pure Ice Silver Mercedes (which Pure Ice is changing the name to Silver Star, per their site), then I added Wet N Wild Ebony Hates Chris.  I went back and added dots to my ring fingers with the smallest dotting tool.  I had a little bit of smearing with my topcoat from not floating the brush, but overall I'm happy with it!

The scissors I used

This is one coat of all polishes & one coat top coat :)  As far as application issues the only real problem I had was Ebony Hates Chris, i hate the brush, it's really stiff so it either leaves brush strokes & bald spots or it's really thick.  Silver Mercedes applies fine as long as you don't go back over anywhere as (like most metallics I've worn) it pulls.  Rock It was great, this is one moderate coat and it was fully opaque. 

Left: Nautral Light, Cloudy  

Right: Flash

Now for the haul pics I got in today :)

I ordered a Barielle polish earlier this week for 20% off with free shipping, so that puts it around 57% off.  The rest are from Bloom during their 70% off closeout sale.

 All together

 Left: Barielle Lily of the Valley

Center: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Grass Slipper

Right: Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle Forbidden Fudge

 Left: POP Beauty Magenta Muse

Center: Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Rose Amore 

Right: Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Peach Pave

 Left:Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Ruby Sequin 

Right: Comparison in the new one & my old bottle from 8+ years ago

And here are swatches of all of them, in order as I've shown them (minus Ruby Sequin)

*** Y'all please take a minute to also check out my jewelry page, the tab is at the top of the page, Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)

Sandy Hook Fundraiser and Giveaway

I want to let y'all know about a giveaway I'm participating in, hosted by Carly at Lacquered Lover.  A bunch of bloggers have gotten together to hold a giveaway with TONS of great prizes, with all donations going to Sandy Hook families. 

The way this will work is for every dollar you donate to Sandy Hook families (there is a list of how/where to donate) you get one entry in the giveaway.  At the end of the giveaway, 5 winners will be randomly drawn to win a prize package, with over 25 items! 

This is a great (& fun) way to help the families of this tragedy!
Below you will find the link to go enter the giveaway & pictures of the prizes :)
Sandy Hook Giveaway

 

I'm also including the like to my jewelry page, Steel & Sashes.  Here you can find pictures of the custom necklaces I've donated to the giveaway.  You can also see the other designs I have done, and visit my etsy page :) 

Pizazz & Wulung and Hauls Pics

Morning Y'all! 

This week I had to do a mani that was cute and quick for a birthday dinner for my SIL Saturday, and a car club meeting Sunday.  It took me FOREVER (like 2 days) to decide what colors/styles/techniques to use.  I ended on China Glaze Pizazz and Goldie Wulung.  

 

This is one coat Wulung, and one coat Pizazz. On my left hand the glitter came out a little more dense but this stuff is crazy glitter packed even in one coat!  on my accent nail I did a stripe with it, & I pretty much just laid the brush down and that's what I got. I don't think it would be hard to build this color to opacity.

 

Natural Light,  Shade

  

Natural Light, Sun

 Close Ups, Shade on Left, Sun on Right

I also made my first visit to an Ulta store this weekend!  I picked up OPI Stay the Night (one of the Liquid Sand shades from the Mariah Carey collection), Orly Rock It, & Zoya Aurora.

OPI Stay the Night

Every review I saw of these polishes seemed to favor the Blue and Purple Liquid Sand shades, then the Red/Pink, then Stay the Night.  However, from the moment I saw the collection, THIS is the one I wanted.  I think it looks like lava :)  This is two coats, and you can see how well those pinkish glitters pop.  The bottom half of the nail swatch shows 2 coats of my normal top coat.  Also, I know a lot of people are concerned about the roughness but I tested it on my hair, face, clothing (including materials that grab at rough skin) and it didn't grab anything, its just not smooth. I think it felt like a matted glitterbomb.

Orly Rock It

This is one I didn't plan on but saw it on the clearance rack and fell in love. Its a pinkish red with a golden shimmer. It reminds me of a material used in Indian clothing and decor. Zoya Daul also reminds me of Indian clothing and decor.

Zoya Aurora

This is one I think everyone has, and I've been wanting for a while.   I finally got around to getting it and I can't believe I waited so long! This is a gorgeous purple holo, and I think its a shade that will work year round.

Here's nail wheel swatches of all three...

 Stay the Night, Rock It, Aurora

  Stay the Night, Rock It, Aurora

 Stay the Night, Rock It, Aurora

No Flash to show texture

I also won a bottle of Silly Bee's Chickadees Mystery Mix Volume 1!

She describes this as " Here’s the deal: I keep a jug in my polish “lab” and pour in it any misfit polish mixes that just didn’t come out quite right. Once the jug is full, I bottle it and start all over again" You can also find her on Facebook :)

 

I also just received 2 Jindie Nails polishes

This is Burrrberry, it's a milky white base with several sizes of glitters in "berry colors" such as blue, magenta, strawberry, raspberry, blackberry (wine colored) glitters

This is Be Someone Cute, its a slightly pink tinted base, with neon pink, white and black matte glitters and hot pink micro flakies.
You can also find Jindie Nails on Facebook

**I have updated my Nail Wheels page, the tab is at the top! **

*** Y'all please take a minute to also check out my jewelry page, the tab is at the top of the page, Contact me if you'd like to purchase one, and Thanks for looking :)