Zoya Beach Collection Review

The Zoya Beach Collection is made up of six summery polishes, five cremes and one shimmery metallic. Let's get right to it, shall we?

First up is Wednesday. I might be biased because I love colors like this, but man this is pretty! I used three coats and the formula was great. It may have been a smidge on the thick side, but a drop or two of thinner would fix that in no time. The dry time was top notch as well, even with three coats. It's not quite as bright as this photo shows.

Mmmmm, Arizona. I was kicking myself for not buying China Glaze Papaya Punch when I found it on sale at Ulta, but Arizona totally fulfills my need for a bright mango orange! This is definitely a summer orange and not a pumpkin-y Halloween orange. Formula was absolutely perfect here too.

Here is my least favorite of the collection, Tracie. I'm not a fan of this shade of green and the bit of frostiness makes the application brushstroke-y. Other than the brushstrokes, the formula was good here too. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who will love this one, but it's not for me. Moving on...

Shelby is a bright, bubblegum pink. Very attention-grabbing. I think this one is too blue-toned for my skin, but I'll give it another shot in the summer when I have a bit of a tan. No formula issues here.

Lara is gorgeous! I can't really understand why there needed to be a total of five pink shades between the Beach & Surf collections, but I'm very thankful for Lara! Three easy, perfect coats were all that was needed for this cheery pink mani.

Last but not least is Reagan. Reagan seems very similar to Zoya Areej, so if you have one, you probably don't need the other unless you love berry shades like this. I only used two coats here; three would have been fine too, but it was perfectly opaque at two, so I left it there. I like this shade too, but I probably won't wear it that much to be honest.

My top picks for this collection are Arizona, Wednesday, and Lara. I'm very happy to have a bright orange creme to add to my collection and one can never have too many creamy turquoises! Stay tuned for the Surf collection review coming next week!

*The product(s) in this post were provided by the company for an honest review.*

Sand & Surf Water Marble

Happy Wednesday! We're halfway through the week, yay!! I'm really looking forward to this weekend; my family and I are going out to dinner together Saturday night (for awesome wings!) and Sunday is my boyfriend's birthday and the annual canoe race held in the town that most of my family lives in. Hopefully it will warm up a little by then!

Today I have an awesome water marble that I did a few days ago. Can I just tell you guys how much I love water marbling now? It's so gorgeous and I've gotten so many compliments on it already. For this one, I used Essie Turquoise & Caicos, Zoya Robyn, and Zoya Cho. Zoyas work so well for water marbling, which is awesome because I have so many of them! :P

This next photo is the most color accurate of all of them. I had a hard time capturing the brightness of Robyn; it's much brighter than all of my photos show. I added some dots over Cho with Robyn to all of the nails that I marbled on to fill in some of the empty space. I used two coats of Robyn and three of T&C on my other fingers.

Here's a shot of my left hand to match the one above of my right...

And last but not least are my thumb nails. The one on the right is my absolute favorite because it was the only one that really ended up looking like a wave! I'm really bummed out about how dull the blue looks :( Next up on my water marbling list is the Zoya Beach collection! :D

Don't forget to enter my 800 follower giveaway! :) 

"Girl on Fire" Mani Tutorial

Hello everybody! Over the weekend, I put together a little photo-tutorial for those of you who are interested in recreating my Hunger Games flame mani! This is my first tutorial and it's not the best, but I think you'll be able to follow along and create some awesome flames on your own nails!

Prep your nails and apply your base coat. Let dry. (I didn't take a photo of this because I didn't think it was necessary :P) Step 1: Apply your base color. I chose Zoya Ibiza because I wanted to mimic a night sky, but you could use any color you want. Step 2: Dip a small paint brush in white nail polish (I used Zoya Purity) and swipe it from your cuticle towards the tip of your nail, but don't go all the way to the tip. Step 3: Repeat Step 2, varying the length/thickness of your flames until your nail is sufficiently covered.

Step 4: After your white flame base dries, brush Zoya Sooki on a few of the flames. Step 5: Brush China Glaze Riveting and Lighthouse on the other flames. Once again, you can use different colors, I'm just saying what I used. Step 6: Go over the flames with the three different colors until they are nice and bright. I think I went over mine a total of three times until I was happy with how much they stood out from the blue. Let dry, slap some top coat on, and behold your gorgeous nails!

PSSST! Don't forget to enter my 800 follower giveaway! :) 

800 Follower Giveaway!

Hello everyone! Thank you for helping me reach another milestone! As my way of saying thank you for your support and encouragement, I'm hosting another giveaway. I have a brand new bottle of China Glaze Grape Crush and a beautiful ring that I made using Revlon Whimsical that one lucky reader will win. Please fill out the Rafflecopter form below for a chance to win! Good luck! :)

Happy Hunger Games!!!

I CAN'T BELIEVE TODAY IS FINALLY HERE! I have been dying to see this movie for MONTHS! I'm almost as excited for The Hunger Games as I was for Harry Potter this past summer. And just like what happened with HP, I was up until 11PM last night finishing my nails for the HG premiere today. Poor planning at it's finest! Thankfully, I was able to come do something totally kick ass!

I started out with two coats of Zoya Ibiza for a nice inky-night-sky look. I know everybody is focusing on how Katniss had flames painted on her nails before the Games, but I was thinking of a specific scene in the book. Gold star for you if you can guess which one! After Ibiza was dry, I took a paint brush and brushed Zoya Purity (so that my other colors would stand out off the dark blue better) starting from my cuticles and flowing up the nails, trying to mimic flames. Lastly, I brushed China Glaze Lighthouse, Riveting, and Zoya Sooki on top of Purity. It's fierce! I hope you all like this as much as I do! Oh, and how do you like that little nubby ring nail I've got there? I got a little too friendly with my nail file a few days ago. :P

My First (successful) Water Marble!!

How exciting is this?! I was finally able to do a decent water marble! One of my friends was learning how to do water marbling at beauty school last week and she asked if I wanted to get together and practice, so we did this past weekend. Here is the result:

I used Zoya Mira, Sally Hansen Caribbean Coral, and Essie Absolutely Shore for this marble. Caribbean Coral photographed WAY too bright and red; it is very bright in person, but it's more pink-toned than red. The nails that aren't marbled have three coats of Absolutely Shore on them. I was pretty happy with my first three nails, but my thumb (below, which I did last) was definitely the best! I can't wait to try this again now that I've gotten the hang of it!

Here is a photo of the fake nails that my friend practiced on. I'm thinking that I have to try the gray and purple one next! 

Blog Sale Update!

Hey everyone, just wanted to let you all know that I updated my blog sale if anyone is interested in checking it out! I've got some recent dusty finds up there :)

HERE!

ManGlaze ILF & Nubar Polka Dots

This is the third ManGlaze polish that I have tried so far and it was just as perfect as the first two. I'm seriously so impressed with these; they have great wear time and they look gorgeous! ILF is a shimmery sea green matte (which is also gorgeous glossy!); I used two coats for this mani. 

And then I got the Nubar Polka Dots set in the mail and had to try them right away! I did two coats of Black Polka Dots first and then two coats of White Polka Dots. They were a pain in the ass! I had to place just about every one of those larger glitters in order for them to look properly dispersed. I'm still going to hold on to these, but I don't think I'll be using them very often.

Kiss Nail Dress

Hey everyone! I was really excited to try these nail stickers out that I received in my Love VoxBox from Influenster. I've never used any kind of nail polish strips or stickers before, so I was anxious to see how they would work. 

I really, really liked the design, called Cocktail, of the ones I received. They were clear and pink zebra print with rhinestones in the clear sections. They are totally flashy and unique and I would be willing to bet that they'd catch just about anyone's eye! They stuck really well, but I didn't leave them on for very long because I'm a serial nail picker and they just peel right off! Which is actually awesome because you don't have to worry about having acetone or anything to take them off, but sucks when you can't leave things on your nails alone!



I didn't have any problems applying these until it came to filing off the extra at the tips of my nails. Some of the rhinestones ended up being right at the tip of my nail and I ended up trying to file some of the off (you can see the result of this on my pointer finger). They were also kind of difficult to file off, so next time I would probably try to cut them with nail clippers and then file them down. Overall, I would definitely buy this again, though I probably would get ones without rhinestones!


From Kiss:

Introducing Kiss Nail Dress, ultimate nail fashion for tips and toes! Just peel, apply, and shape for a manicure that lasts up to 10 days. On in minutes, off in seconds without remover. Nail Dress is available in 18 different styles, many of them featuring 3-dimensional jeweled designs. Check out Peplum, a deep black with multi-colored gems for a pop of color, or Babydoll, for a golden and glamorous jeweled look. Skip the topcoat, Nail Dress has it built in.

With 28 strips in each package, you can cut up your extras to create designs that can be used on top of polished or artificial nails. Nail Dress doesn’t dry out the way other polish strips can, so you can save them to use on your next DIY mani. A nail design booklet is included in each package, just in case you need a little inspiration.

And don’t forget about your feet! Nail Dress looks awesome on toes, too – just use the square side of the sticker for a perfect fit.

Where to Buy

Nail Dress’ suggested retail is $6.99 and is available in all major drug chains and mass retailers like WalMart, CVS and Walgreens.

Visit KissNailDress.com to learn more!

*This product was provided free of charge from Influenster via the Love VoxBox for an honest review.*

My review:
I used the Venus & Olay razor the day after I received my VoxBox and I loved it! All you do is run the razor head under the shower water and shave! You don't need soap or shave gel or anything, which is nice because it cuts a little bit of time off of my shower. It shaved very closely and left my skin soft and smooth. They are, however, pretty expensive as far as razors go (in my eyes), so I probably won't be buying replacements heads for this. 

For those interested in the Venus & Olay Razor, here is more information:

Venus & Olay Razor

For the first time ever, Gillette Venus, a global leader in female shaving, and Olay, a global leader in skincare, are coming together to deliver a gold standard in shaving with the new Gillette Venus & Olay razor. Venus’ best shaving technology works with Olay Moisture Bars, offering women best-of-both-worlds shaving and skin expertise. Olay Moisture Bars help lock-in moisture to your skin for less dryness, and with every smoothing stroke, Venus’ five blades shave you close.

Product Details

• Venus’ five-bladed razors shave you close and adjust to women’s curves for a smooth and comfortable shave, even over tricky shaving areas like knees and ankles.
• Olay Moisture Bars contain skin-enhancing elements found in Olay products: Petrolatum helps lock in skin’s moisture for less dryness and Glycerin helps offer that goddess glow! Just wet the razor to release a light lather – no separate shave cream required.
• As with most Venus razors, new Venus & Olay also features a rounded, pivoting head designed for women’s curves, and a soft-grip ergonomic handle for confident control, even in wet and soapy environment

Where to Buy

A refillable Venus & Olay with one replacement cartridge sells for approximately $8.99-$10.99. Packages of three replacement cartridges are available for about $14.99 - $19.49.

Venus & Olay will be available starting March 15, 2012 at food, drug, convenience and mass merchandise stores throughout the United States.

*This product was provided complementary for an honest review.*

Influenster Love VoxBox Review

I heard about Influenster about the time that their Holiday VoxBoxes went out, so I decided to sign up then and see if I would be chosen to get one of their boxes in the future. I was chosen to review their Love VoxBox which came out around Valentine's Day. I received this box completely free from Influenster in return for my honest opinions on the products included. Read on to see what I got!

These are nail stickers from Kiss. I have worn them and will have a separate review posted later today! :)

A tea sampler from Stash was also included in my box. There are 2 bags of each different flavor tea included in the box. I have yet to try any of these, but Cinnamon Apple Chamomile and Mango Passionfruit sound so good! 

This is a box of Truvia sweetener packets. These are going to my mom. I don't really ever add extra sugar in anything I eat/drink, so I don't think I'd be able to tell the difference and make an accurate comparison. 

I used the Venus & Olay razor the day after I received my VoxBox and I loved it! All you do is run the razor head under the shower water and shave! You don't need soap or shave gel or anything, which is nice because it cuts a little bit of time off of my shower. It shaved very closely and left my skin soft and smooth. They are, however, pretty expensive as far as razors go (in my eyes), so I probably won't be buying replacements heads for this. 

Ah, now this... this I was excited about! Food! And chocolate specifically! Mmmm. This gourmet milk chocolate bar from Ghirardelli was gone pretty much as soon as I opened it. It was creamy and tasted amazing. I'm sure there are tons of you out there who have never tasted the deliciousness that is Gertrude Hawk Chocolate, but this bar from Ghirardelli tastes very similar! I also received a coupon for these bars in the box, so I will most definitely be buying more! 

So what you think, readers? I was really excited to be part of this awesome program and I was even more excited when I saw what was in my box. Let me know if you decide to try anything out that you saw here!

*The products in this post were provided by Influenster via the Love VoxBox for an honest review.*

Zoya Beach & Surf Collection Press Release!!!

OMG YOU GUYS! I can't even tell you how excited I am for this collection... feast your eyes on this...

Summer 2012 is going to be a super stylish season for nails with the latest offering of nail polish collections, Beach and Surf, from the new color of fashion, Zoya! This new splash of color, designed by the Zoya color experts, is kissed by sea and sand translating beautifully onto the nail in the famous, full-coverage Zoya formula.

Dive into the creamy shades of the Zoya Beach Collection or the shimmering sea foils of the Zoya Surf Collection. The choice is yours – this color palette is sure to be a splash!

Zoya BEACH Collection

• Reagan (ZP614) - deep cerise pink cream
• Lara (ZP615) - vivid cerise pink cream
• Shelby (ZP616) - soft pinky pink cream
• Arizona (ZP617) - soft coral orange cream
• Tracie (ZP618) - sea grass metallic
• Wednesday (ZP619) - soft aqua cream

Zoya SURF Collection

• Rory (ZP620) - lotus pink foil metallic
• Carly (ZP621) - thalia purple foil metallic
• Kimber (ZP622) - magenta pink foil metallic
• Myrta (ZP623) - coral orange foil metallic
• Meg (ZP624) - mermaid green foil metallic
• Zuza (ZP625) - aquamarine foil metallic

Zoya is the new color of fashion... 

The Zoya BEACH and SURF collection was designed and inspired by resort runways and tropical get-a-ways.

Ultra long-wearing, glossy nail lacquers by Zoya are free of harmful industrial chemicals like toluene, camphor, formaldehyde, resin, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) that are known to cause cancer and birth defects.

Find Zoya BEACH and SURF as well as over 300 other ultra high-fashion Zoya shades at www.zoya.com. As always, each and every Zoya color is made for women so we name them after women.

BEACH and SURF by Zoya Nail Polish - 12 new colors:
Available April 1, 2012 (USA)
www.zoya.com

Sug. Retail $8.00 per 0.5 fl.oz. bottle (US).

Zoya Areej & Soho Punch

I've had this used bottle of Zoya Soho Punch for ages now and it never dawned on me until recently that I should layer it over something instead of wearing it alone. I got Zoya Areej for xmas and figured that they would be a great match together! I was really surprised at how sparkly and pretty Soho Punch looked layered over Areej. I wasn't expecting so much depth from it. 

I used two coats of Areej and then layered one coat of Soho Punch over it. Areej is a cool-toned muted berry pink shade that is bold without being bright and obnoxious. You could easily wear this to work as a "safe" color or jazz it up like I did with some layering. What do you think?

Girly Bits Hippity Hop

For those of you who aren't familiar Girly Bits, they are the brainchild of a brilliant woman named Pam with a knack for creating unique and exciting handmade polishes! Pam recently came out with her newest collection, Calendar Girls, and Hippity Hop is the color for April. I decided that the best way to showcase Hippity Hop would be to apply it over a skittle mani of pastel, spring shades. Details of which shades I used are below! If you are interested in ordering Girly Bits polishes, you can do so on her blog or on Llarowe! 

Below is two coats of Hippity Hop over three coats of Milani Mint Candy on my ring finger and Orly Kiss the Bride on my pinky nail. What's really neat about Hippity Hop is that some of the little hexagon glitter pieces are 3D! It's like having little tiny rhinestones in the mix!

Here I layered Hippity Hop over three coats Essie Nice is Nice and Finger Paints Lemon Sour. I don't really ever wear skittle manis, but I loved this one so much and I cannot wait to recreate it for Easter!

China Glaze Agro

How many of you have read the Hunger Games books? How incredible are they?! I was so psyched to find out that China Glaze was doing a Hunger Games collection as a tie-in to the movie coming out on March 23rd. At first, I was planning to buy the whole collection on principle, but after seeing initial swatches, I cut my list down to 8. 

Agro is an absolutely stunning olive green metallic with multicolored shimmer pieces. This is my favorite shade of green to wear. Agro's formula was perfect. I used two smooth coats for this mani. I hope the rest of the polishes I got from this collection have the same formula! 

Walt Disney World Series: Part 3

As I was flipping through all my photos from our trip to WDW for inspiration this week, I knew there was no way I could leave this one out. When we were in Epcot, my momma got the prettiest margarita I've ever seen from a booth in Mexico. It was called a Fiesta Margarita and it was made of three different layers of lime, mango, and strawberry margarita. It was so pretty, so I made a mani out of it! 

I started out with two coats of Zoya Purity for my base. I sponged Essie Navigate Her for the lime margarita, Essie Tart Deco and Finger Paints Circus Peanuts for the strawberry, and Finger Paints Lemon Sour for the mango. I'm kicking myself for not buying China Glaze Papaya Punch when it was on clearance at Ulta... it would have been perfect for the mango color! Anyway, I sponged more Purity on my tips and added China Glaze Luxe and Lush on top in an attempt to mimic salt.

And here's my lovely mother with her beverage! Aren't they beautiful? :) And yes, super observant readers, I did mess up the colored layers in my mani...

So how did you like my WDW Series week?? I loved it! I'm going to leave this series open-ended because I definitely think that I want to come back and do more of these inspiration manis!

Walt Disney World Series: Part 2

Welcome to Day 2 of my WDW Series! Today's design was inspired by one of the pins I got while in Walt Disney World last year, which I included in the second photo. Disney offers this cool activity called Pin Trading; basically, you buy pins and can trade with Disney employees (who often have special ones that aren't available for purchase) or other visitors, but I've only ever asked employees. I was too shy to participate the first time I went to WDW, but I finally started trading on my last trip. I love collecting little goodies like this (you know this!) and these pins are great souvenirs. 

I used three coats of Zoya Purity for my base, Confetti Red Carpet for the red polka dots, and Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme for the black dots and Mickey Mouse outline.  One thing I learned with this mani is that polka dots are HARD! I haven't used my dotting tools very much and it was really hard for me to make equal-sized dots, even with the same dotting tool. These look really good from farther away though! Stay tuned for Day 3 on Friday!

Walt Disney World Series: Part 1

Hey everyone! I'm on Spring Break this week (yay!) which is nice but kind of sucks at the same time because last year at this time, I was spending Spring Break in Walt Disney World with my family! To pay homage to that trip and to hopefully make myself a little less sad that I'm not there now, I decided to do a few days of Disney nail art instead.

Today was inspired by the new Sinful Colors Cinderella polish. I wore this mani for 6 (SIX!) days and had only very minor tip-wear and one or two tiny chips. Needless to say, I was incredibly impressed with it, even after I need three coats for opacity.

I had this on for three days before I got the idea to do Cinderella-inspired stamping over it and then use it for my WDW art week. I stamped crowns on my thumb and ring nails and the full-nail shoe design on all the rest using Konad Special White polish. I will definitely be rocking this (for at least a few days) on my next trip to WDW! I loved it so much, but starting getting antsy for a change around the 4th day. 

Here's one last photo of Cinderella by itself... I know this photo is a little flare-y and not totally sharp, but what are your opinions on this angle? I feel like it's a bit more flattering when my nails are at a longer length. 

Giveaway Winner!

Good morning everyone! My 600 follower giveaway ended last night and since I used Rafflecopter this time around, it was super easy to choose a winner this morning! And the winner is.... 

Allison F!! 

I have e-mailed Allison and she has 48 hours to respond before I will pick another winner. Thank you all so much for following and entering and I look forward to planning another giveaway for you all! 

Finger Paints Gumdrops & Lollipops Collection Review

Even though my local Sally Beauty Supply has a large and well-stocked supply of Finger Paints polish, I'm ashamed to say that I haven't tried them until right now. The Gumdrops & Lollipops collection is Finger Paints's Spring 2012 collection and should be available now in your local Sally's and online. This collection is composed of pastels, brights, cremes, and shimmers that are perfect for spring!

First up is Lemon Sour, which is a light yellow creme. As with most yellows, the application on this one was a little testy and I needed three coats in order for it to level out and be opaque. Patience is definitely needed for shades like this. I always say that I hate yellow on me and even though this makes my skin appear slightly red, I can't help but like it anyway.

Up next is a peach/coral creme called Circus Peanuts. Finger Paints calls this an orange creme, but I just don't see the orange. I love bright coral-ly shades like this so much! Circus Peanuts was a little streaky and required three thin coats as well.

Choco Mint is one of those minty/muted greens that seems to have become really popular in the past year. This one had much better coverage and needed only two coats. In the bottle, it seems pretty close to OPI Mermaid Tears, but I have to say that the Finger Paints formula was actually much better than my OPI's, though it photographed brighter than it actually is.

Fair warning, but this next one did not photograph nearly bright enough. In person, Blue Raspberry Taffy is a gorgeous, bright, and vivid shade of blue. The press release photo (that you can see here) is much more accurate. I need two coats here and had zero application issues. Double up on the base coat for this one!!

Mmmmm, purple. How obvious was it that I was going to love this one? As far as formula and color go, Grape Gumball is my favorite of the whole collection. Absolutely perfect formula, two coats for opacity, and amazing shimmer? Sold.

Last, but not least, is Pop Rock Pink. If you enlarge this photo, you can see all the slight shimmer that is suspended in the hot pink jelly base of Pop Rock Pink. I was a little surprised to find that this had a jelly finish, but in a good way. It covers nicely in three coats and seems like it would be great for a spring version of the popular glitter sandwich trend.

Overall, I think this collection works very well for spring, but it's a little on the "safe" side. I feel like I've seen a lot of these colors before. Grape Gumball is the standout for me because I really don't have anything else comparable to it in my collection (and I love purple!). I'm very pleased to have them all in my collection though; they would make great bases for some spring-themed stamping!

*Some or all of product(s) in this post were provided for an honest review.*