Rainbow Tiger Striped Nails!

Let me say that Twitter is awesome; if you aren't there, then you should be! The exchange of ideas on there is constant and you can really find some cool people on there. I follow China Glaze on Twitter and they tweeted about a Tumblr that showcases pretty nails. That's where I got this manicure idea from Artsy RN. She's a pretty cool girl who does some really cute nail designs. Though its not specifically a nail blog, she posts about nails a lot, so I would check it out if you want inspiration.

Here are the supplies I used:

L to R:

• Sally Hansen Blue Me Away
• Essie Pansy
• Zoya Creamy
• Wet n Wild French White Creme
• Seche Vite topcoat
• Art Deco Nail Art Polish in Black
• Makeup sponge

Artsy RN made a YouTube video tutorial which I used as my guide:

The Results!

As you can see, sponging your nails can get a little messy. So this is what they looked like before clean up:

This is Day 2. Getting a little tip wear, but I think it held up well considering the fact that I was moving. The white polish is a cheap, chip-tastic polish so when I do this again I want to use another white polish.

I used my go to topcoat Seche Vite and it kind of smeared the black stripes a bit. Next time I will use a different topcoat. Also you can reuse your makeup sponges just by cutting the used tip off.

Zoya Sparkle Collection Summer 2010

Zoya's Sparkle collection is definitely a winner. I'm sure most of you have seen the collection before but I wanted to show the colors against a darker skin tone. With these glitter metallic shades there's something for everyone! All of these swatches are two coats.

Gilda

The pink addict in me loves Gilda. This hot pink is a stunner. Its bright, flashy and perfect for summer.

Nidhi

Remember how I said there was something in this collection for everyone? Maybe Nidhi would look better on that person. Its not that she isn't gorgeous but if you've read my blog long enough you know about my aversion to reds. This rich red polish is the most opaque of the bunch.

MiMi

Mimi is eye-catching color.You cant go wrong with a deep royal purple like this. It kind of reminds me of Hot Topic's Iridescent Purple:

The difference is that the Hot Topic polish has blue shimmer in it.


Alegra

(Please excuse the mess that is my cuticles)

 Alegra is like Gilda's older sister that still has it. A pink not quite as bright as Gilda and a little more subdued, but still a gorgeous fuchsia. 

Charla

My 2nd favorite polish from this collection and a must have. Charla is a blue green paradise on your nails. I haven't read one bad review about this color.


Ivanka

The best polish in the whole collection. The most head turning, envious green metallic foil ever! Even for this pink lover, Ivanka made a believer out of me. It is hands down the best green I've ever seen and I am so glad to own it!

Want another reason to love these? The Sparkle polishes are also super easy to remove! You get the look of glitter without the hassle of removing it. I made my first (quick) blog video showing the easy removal of MiMi.

Zoya's Polish Exchange is still going on through June 30th. That means you can dump some of your not so favorite shades for these lovelies. Check Zoya's  website for more info!

This post contains a sample product sent for review. For more information about my disclosure policy, please read this post.

Zoya Hot Lips Review

At the beginning of November, when Zoya did their Hot Lips Promo (In case you didn't know about this promo, it pays to follow Zoya on Twitter!) I took advantage of the deal and got three of the lip gloss that I had been wanting to try. Although I took note of this event and made a mental note to order, but I almost forgot really close to the deadline. So, I ended up picking three very quickly and was almost disappointed when they came to my house looking all alike.

L to R: Kiss Kiss, Starlet, Sweet Tart

One of the main reasons I wanted to do a review on these was that when I was searching for swatches, I couldn't find any on brown girl skin. :-( One of the problems I have when buying lip gloss is wondering if the color will actually show up on my lips. So first, here is a picture of them swatched on my arm:

Same order, L to R: Kiss Kiss, Starlet, Sweet Tart
They actually look the same in the tube kind of, but different on the skin. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the color showed up on my brown skin, so go Zoya for making these glossy lip balms that actually show up well on all skin types!

Here's my favorite of the bunch, Kiss Kiss, on my lips:

• The consistency of these are really thick which is great in my book. They are really moisturizing in my opinion, since its been really cold here in Texas lately (yes, I said that) and my lips haven't been feeling dry since I keep one of these in my bag.
• Another thing that I ended up loving was that they are applied using the ball at the end of the tube. I wasn't too fond of that at first, but since I use them on the go a lot, its convenient for application when I'm not near a mirror.
• I thought they were really small at first but its okay because a little goes a long way with this product.
• One thing that I didn't like, and this may just be my personal experience, is that on my favorite one, Kiss Kiss, the tube split open right under the cap. It is a slit going halfway around the opening so when I squeeze the tube, the product oozes out of that slit as well as the ball tip. I have to be careful about either not squeezing too hard or using that product that comes out of the slit.

Overall, I felt these were great. They moisturize and give your lips nice color and really isn't that what all great glosses and balms do? Well these do and they are a good buy. You can check out more swatches or order them here.

P.S. Did you notice this is my first non-nail related review? You're welcome to leave any feedback in the comments section. Thanks for reading!

Essie Matte About You + My Favorite Purples

One of my lovely friends on Twitter, RebeccaKaz, sent me Essie Matte About You topcoat! So this post is possible because of her! Thanks again! I love Essie's Matte About You, I mean its a great solution to the matte nail trend. You can use it to make any nail polish you already own matte. It has a smooth velvet texture when it dries. There's nothing I don't love about this topcoat! So while looking through my stash, wondering what to try it out on first, I came across Sinful Colors Daddy's Girl. I also gathered 3 more of my favorite purples to try out. Here they are:

L to R: Zoya Hope, China Glaze Grape Juice, Hot Topic Iridescent Purple, Sinful Colors Daddy's Girl

The before picture: 2 coats of each polish with no topcoat:
L to R: Daddy's Girl, Iridescent Purple, Grape Juice, Hope

These polishes are already so gorgeous, lets see them with Essie Matte About You.

I love all of these polishes with the matte topcoat! But guess which ones are my favorite?

Zoya Hope + Matte About You. Isn't this a great purple to matte? I didn't cover all the polish with topcoat though,so a little glossy polish still remains by my cuticle. Besides that, I love this!

I saved the best for last. Hot Topic Iridescent Purple is already gorgeous. With the matte topcoat, I think it becomes even more dramatic. I love it. I'm going to do a whole manicure with this one and the Essie topcoat. You can see the purple and blue shimmer in it as well.

I'm sold on Essie Matte About You. That's coming from someone who didn't like the matte trend at first! Did you love these purples with a matte topcoat? I did!

Zoya Hope

Another great polish from Zoya! Here's what their website describes it as: Magenta lavender metallic with metallic shimmer finish.
Woah! And I was just going to say its a gorgeous deep purple shimmer but their description sounds so much better. This is two coats + Zoya Armour topcoat. I could have honestly been fine with one coat because that's all it took to get the bottle color. This is tied with Malia for my favorite Zoya purple. What's your favorite Zoya purple?

I Took the Plunge...Matte Nail Polish!

I said I'd never do it. However, I couldn't resist ordering one of the Zoya mattes when they had their Zoya 5000 offer. I picked Dovima, a black shimmer, with the intent of putting a topcoat on it. I've seen this polish with a topcoat and I think it's better that way. Also, I felt I wouldn't be making an informed decision to dislike mattes if I'd never tried it. So here it is:


I don't like it! Mattes just don't do it for me. But that bottle does. It's frosted, like the polish is suspended in ice. The polish is very smooth to the touch, Matte Velvet is the perfect name for it. Here it is with Zoya Armour:


If I ever buy another matte, it will be a color that I just want to slap a topcoat on. But I don't know why I would do that when there are plenty of gorgeous cremes I have yet to get!

Zoya Ali

Ali, the way you make me feel...to steal a page out of MJ's book :-)
A lot of nail polish bloggers have their favorite color; for some its green, some blue or for others it may be purple. But me? I've loved pink since before I started blogging. Even with all the wonderful colors I've discovered since getting into nail polish, pink is still my first love. Nothing lifts my spirits like a hot pink manicure.

I used a Zoya trinity: the base coat Anchor, Ali and topcoat Armour. Color Lock! This manicure isn't going anywhere! Here it is, the beautiful Ali, in all it's Zoya glory:

I tried to promise myself I wouldn't order another pink from Zoya, but I couldn't resist. I love pink cremes! The formula on Zoya polishes is amazing! This went on smooth and dried quickly and matte since its a neon. Immediately I thought to myself. "How does this stand up to my China Glaze Shocking Pink?" Well, Ali takes it up a notch! It's even brighter!

A picture of me holding both with Ali on my nails:

I'll still be wearing this in the fall! I don't care how many vampies come out, this one will be year around for me. Who says I have to follow the rules?

Zoya Trinity + A Little Nail Art

Today's polish is one that's already been done, but I think it deserves better pictures. This Zoya's Trinity, their website describes it as a "duochrome hot pink purple with subtle pink metallic highlights." I love this color! I got it during the Zoya Polish Exchange just from looking at swatches on The Polish Addict. It's one of my favorite pinks. This was originally supposed to be a polka dot manicure but it is getting late and I am getting frustrated. I love polka dots so much and it bothers me that I cant get them right. The polish gets so thick and stringy before I can finish two nails, so those look okay, but after that, the following nails look terrible. Why? Why?!

Also, I have no idea what that is on my index finger. Blame it on...I don't know. I'm going to sleep. Thanks for reading...

:-) Lachelle

4th of July Inspired Manicure

Okay, here's a warning. This is a crazy red, white and blue skittle kind of manicure. A different design on every nail but I did it so I could decide what I wanted my 4th of July manicure to be. 4th of July has been one of my favorite holidays ever since I was a little kid but they seem to have gotten less "magical" the older I get. Its like that with Christmas too but that's a story for another time. Anyway, here's all the polishes I used:


L to R: Zoya Valentina, LA Colors Static Electricity, OPI Himalayan Hideaway, OPI Blue My Mind, Art Deco nail art polish in white, Stripe Rite silver glitter and Wet n Wild French White Creme. (Not shown is Zoya Armour topcoat)

Yes, that's red you see. I put aside my feelings about red polish and did it because whats a 4th manicure without red, white and blue? Sigh, I know. Anyway, here's what I came up with.

I think I'm going to go with the design on my middle or ring finger because I like them the best. I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July weekend! Be safe! :-)

Clean Up Method?

Okay, I don't know about you, but I have not perfected my clean up method and the nail polish around my cuticles is driving me insane! Usually my nails end up looking like this:

Do you see the polish pooling around the cuticles? Never mind that this magenta looks red on me, but the cuticles!!! So last night I was reading Getcha Nails Did and Brooke did a post about how she cleans up after her manicure. I think the cotton on the orange stick method is great, but I still have problems. Then she said something about not painting the whole nail, just getting as close to the sides and cuticles without touching them. A light went off in my head and I tried this with last nights manicure. Plus I added a little bootleg method of my own. Haha. Check it out:

Yes that is scotch tape! I didn't have any Vaseline to put around my cuticles, so I used tape and the orange stick method. My Zoya Barbie( a color I absolutely adore!) manicure turned out like this:

Okay, that's only slightly better, but now the space between my cuticles is too wide. One of these days I'm going to get it. I promise. Trial and error, trial and error.

-Lachelle

Zoya Valentine

This shade feels like Christmas on my nails. Something about the shimmer and maybe the fact that I don't like red polish. Anyway, it just has a holiday feel. Zoya's website describes this as a romantic bright red metallic with duochrome pink shimmer. I cant just wear a plain red mani; so here is the before picture, 2 coats and no topcoat:

Indoor + Flash

I'm loving my silver Stripe Rite polish, but the pink one not so much. I don't like the way it dries but that's another story. So just to spice up my nails, I added a...well I don't know what to call it, but there's some silver swooshy things in the right corner of my nails. It helped me to feel better about the red. This is with Zoya Armor topcoat.

Both pictures are Indoor + Flash

Pre-cleanup nails. I like the end result but I don't think they will be staying long.

-Lachelle

Zoya Creamy

Indoor + Flash

Outdoor + No Flash

This color is BRIGHT! It's like having a traffic light on your nails! It's something I 1)rarely do unless I'm feeling crazy and 2) I could only pull off with my new short nails. Other nail bloggers have swatched yellows this week on their long, fabulous nails but I personally could not pull it off. Yellows are notorious for being a hot streaky mess to apply. This one is not exceptional but then again I have no other yellow polish to compare it to. This was going to be my last venture into yellow nail polish but then I haven't done a pale, pastel yellow so I'll keep hope alive.

This two coats + topcoat.

-Lachelle

Zoya Richelle

Indoor + Flash

Indoor + No Flash

I like the name of this polish, it's close to my name. :-) However, I hardly ever wear this polish. I think this is the 2nd time ever. I got it during the Zoya polish exchange and I did my research on it too. If you call research looking up swatches on other nail blogs...

Unfortunately my "research" could not stop my disappointment.

Zoya calls this a "metallic royal gold with gilded sparkle highlights and a foil finish." Wow, that sound gorgeous. Whoever writes these descriptions is good. Great polish in the bottle but somehow it gets lost in translation on the nail. I don't think it looks good on me. With the flash, it sparkles and its beautiful but without flash it kind of looks weird against my skin tone. Like a golden-olive color?

The formula is a dream though. Very opaque and glides across the nail like butter. This is two coats + Zoya's Armor topcoat.

-Lachelle

Zoya Lauren

Outdoor + No Flash

Indoor + Flash

Here is something I never do, a nude-color nail. However, I got to get my hands on Zoya's Lauren and I decided to go for it. They describe it as a pink nude beige with shimmering golden metallic highlights. It's sheer so this is four coats. That's one more than I usually do with any polish but the end results made me somewhat happy. It's a work safe color, that's for sure. I think this color looks really good with my dark skin tone though, so that's a positive out the whole experience.

Are you feeling nude color nail polish?

Zoya Color Lock System

That awesome picture you are looking at is Zoya's Color Lock System! Let me say I was so excited to try this out. Thanks to beauty blogger Brittney over at http://www.clumpsofmascara.com/ for making it possible for me to try this out. The system consists of :

• Zoya Remove + 3 in 1 nail polish remover
• Zoya Anchor Basecoat
• Zoya Get Even Ridge Filling Basecoat
• Zoya Armor Topcoat and UV Block
• Zoya Hurry Up Speed Drying Drops
• Zoya Restore Polish Rejuvenator
  

Indoor + Flash

I also received these 3 polishes from Zoya: (L to R) Valentina, Brooke and Lauren. The first polish I picked was Brooke to try with the system. Here is a picture of the 1st day with the Color Lock System + Brooke

Indoor + Flash

My experience with this system was positive. First off, Zoya's Remove is the best nail polish remover I have ever had. It has a pleasant smell, removes the polish fast and doesn't dry my nails out. The ridge filling base coat was great, it made my polish go on very smooth. Some bloggers said they had problems with bubbling but it was not an issue with me.The Armor topcoat is a really good topcoat, it's really shiny. The Hurry Up Drops...well this was my first experience with speed drying drops so I don't have anything else to compare them to. My nails were dry fast, it was just a weird experience. It was like dropping oil on my nails, the only thing I could compare it to.

I'll be updating the blog about how my experience with the Color Lock System goes, it will be hard to keep this polish on with my nail polish ADD. :-)