A blog about a girl, her nail polish, and some delicious noms.
Archive for June, 2012
OPI Spotted Is Mine!!! And There’s No Such Thing As To Many Layers…
13Hey Everyone!
Just a quick post today sharing an instagram from last night with you all. I received a wonderful package in the mail from my lovely Sam of Fashion Polish. Not only was I thrilled to have OPI Spotted staring back at me for this glorious bubble lined mailer, but to my surprise she tucked in a bottle of yet another coveted polish I thought I’d never own: Kiko 270!! I think at that moment I made a noise only dogs can hear, haha!
I also finally received my Zoya trio promo polishes and I wanted to try a gradient with those like the ones that Mimi shared on her blog, Makeup Withdrawal. She is the reason I absolutely NEEDED Zoya Arizona, Wednesday and Tracie. 
Sooooo, I may have gotten over-excited and layered everything except for Zoya Arizona on my nails. 
OPI Spotted With Zoya and Kiko Friends
I first started with 2 coats of Zoya Tracie, then I sponged on Zoya Wednesday. After that I added on a coat of OPI Spotted. And then finished it all off with a coat of Kiko 270. You can’t see the Kiko polish in this photo but I assure you that it’s there.
I’m still learning how best to use OPI Spotted, and I think adding Kiko 270 over the top of everything may have been overkill…. But ah well. Ya live and ya learn. 
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That’s it for today, just a tiny over-zealous NOTD for you all to take a gander at. 
You’ll be seeing a lot more of OPI Spotted and some more swatches of the Zoya Beach & Surf Collection in the near future. ^_^
Review: OPI Pure Lacquer Nail Apps in Gold Lace!!
5
Morning Good Afternoon Everyone!
Late post for you all today! I put these photos on my Flickr then spaced out for a day (or two) about posting them to the blog. Whoops! Anyway, I’ve got one of the OPI Pure Lacquer Nail Apps designs that was sent to me to share with you all today. We’ll be looking at one of the ‘glitter’ designs, Gold Lace.
In the past I’ve had horrible luck with getting these nail app things to look good on me. I have narrow, highly curved nail beds…. Not super ideal for the majority of nail app designs. After many failed attempts at getting them to lay flat on my nails without rippling I’d just about given up on them. These OPI Pure Lacquer Nail Apps may just change my mind.
OPI Pure Lacquer Nail Apps – Gold Lace
The OPI Pure Lacquer Nail Apps come in a set of 2 strips with 8 apps in varied sizes on each strip. I do think that the size difference between the smallest and 2nd smallest strip is too much. I have teeny fingers and I wish there was something in between the two.
With this specific Gold Lace design I did have to cut off and reshape a lot of the strips because my nails weren’t long enough for the black portion of the pattern to be visible after application. You’ll see what I mean in a bit.
Here’s the instructions on the back. Pretty straight forward and simplified. Just how I like ‘em. 
And they’re not kidding about using these things right away. Once they’re exposed to the air you cannot come back to them a day later and use up the leftovers, they’ll be dry as a bone. You could use the excess ones and do your toes as well if you have enough strips left. ^_^
The apps themselves were a breeze to apply! For my ring finger I applied the app without cutting down the size and as you can tell only the gold lace pattern is visible. But I like it because it gave me an instant accent nail! For my other fingers I just re-cut the ends of the app to fit my fingers while they still had the backing attached, then I applied them to my nails and smoothed down the sides with a rubber cuticle pusher. I then bent the excess over my nails and gently filed away the edges. Finally I added a layer of China Glaze Fast Forward top coat to seal the design. Not necessary but I really think it helped with the longevity of this look for me.
My application isn’t 100% perfect but for someone who really sucks at applying these things they turned out pretty damn great!
Here’s some close-ups of the Gold Lace design for you, in both variations on my nails.
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Final Thoughts:
I really enjoyed these nail apps! And I want to add that these babies wore like friggin’ IRON on my nails. I’ve had these suckers on for a week now, through 4 days at the salon in and out of acetone with clients and through 389434.6 manis and pedis. And I have just the slightest amount of tip wear on my nails. I definitely feel like you get your moneys worth out of these OPI Pure Lacquer Nail Apps! I have 2 more designs to try out and I can’t wait to play around with them! ^_^
Purchase Info:
OPI Pure Lacquer Nail Apps are available at Professional Salons, including Beauty Brands, Beauty First, Chatters, Dillard’s, JCPenney, Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, and ULTA, for the suggested retail price of $11.95. You can see what the other nail app designs look like by viewing the press release [HERE].
* The product(s) in this post were sent to me for unbiased review consideration.
For more information, check out my Disclosure Policy.
Beauty Blogger Coalition 4th of July Competition!
011 months ago
The Beauty Blog Coalition members may not all be American, but we do love to celebrate all holidays with our friends, so we bring you the 4th of July Competition, with not one but two $300 USD Visa gift cards! All terms and conditions may be found at the bottom of the Rafflecopter widget.
• Competition ends July 5th, 2012.
• You may enter on any of the blogs below – Rafflecopter won’t allow you enter twice.
• You may tweet about the giveaway (the last option in the Rafflecopter) every day for extra entries!
Please visit the lovely sponsors of this competition!
Zoya Pinterest Mini Trio Swatches and Review!!
13
Morning Folks!
Today I’ve got even MOAR Zoya polishes to show you all. This time we’ll be looking at the Zoya Pinterest Mini Trio! Earlier this month Zoya held a ‘Take Three Free’ Pinterest event where you could pin your favorite polishes from their Beach & Surf Collections. The top three most pinned polishes would be turned into a limited edition mini trio set that they would give away for free! There were only 2,000 mini trio sets created so they sold out pretty fast!
I’m a sucker for miniatures so I just HAD to snag these cute little baby Zoyas for my collection. Luckily I was able to snag one of the sets before they disappeared.
I used Models Own 3-In-1 basecoat/topcoat for my swatches today.
Zoya Kimber
Zoya Kimber is a drop dead gorgeous bold magenta pink that’s filled with a strong golden shimmer. I absolutely ADORE this one. Kimber is so pigmented that this was an easy 2 coats. And for it being a metallic it had an easy formula to work with, no patches or balding/cuticle drag during application.
Zoya Zuza
Zoya Zuza, oh the name for this one amuses me. I know that Zoya likes naming their polishes after women but I’ve yet to come across anyone with the name ‘Zuza’ yet.
Anyway, Zuza is a bright turquoise metallic foil filled with gold and silver shimmer. I had a few minor balding issues with this one, but they were easily remedied by waiting a few minutes before applying my 2nd and final coat.
Zoya Myrta
Last and certainly not least, we have Zoya Myrta. Myrta is a saturated orange coral metallic foil with red undertones and gold/silver shimmer. Do I really need to say how much I love this one? I had the same slight balding issue as I experienced with Zuza, but a 2nd coat made everything perfect.
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Final Thoughts:
I really am happy that I was able to snag the Zoya Pinterest Mini Trio while it lasted. I’d been eying several shades from the Beach & Surf Collections and this was a great opportunity for me to try a few things out. I love all three but if I had to pick a favorite it’d be a toss-up between Myrta and Kimber. ♥
The brush for the minis was fabulous. It was full length despite the mini size of the bottles and it was thin and flexible, my perfect style of polish brush. ^_^
Purchase Info:
Sadly the Zoya Pinterest Mini Trio was limited edition, and once the 2,000 sets that were created sold they were gone forever. 
That being said, Zoya has a new offer available to any of their customers. Through 6/25 you can now receive three full size bottles of any polish from the Beach & Surf Collections for $15 + free shipping! You can find out more info on how to redeem this offer on Zoya’s Blog.
I took advantage of this promo too, so expect to see a review of Zoya’s Arizona, Wednesday and Tracie soon!! ^_^
Zoya Blogger Collection by Birchbox Swatches and Review
10
Morning Lovelies!
Today I’ve got the Zoya Blogger Collection by Birchbox to share with you fine people. This collection snuck up on me, the first I’d ever heard of it was randomly seeing swatches of it from another blogger on Twitter!
This collaboration between Birchbox and Zoya was created by three different bloggers and voted on by fans. I don’t know where the heck I was during this whole process because I only heard of it after it was already on sale at the Birchbox website, hah!
Anyway, as soon as I saw the collection of bright summer jellies I just knew it had to be mine! Let’s take a look at these beauties. ^_^
I used Models Own 3-In-1 topcoat/basecoat for all my swatches today unless otherwise stated.
Zoya Belle
Zoya Belle is described as a coppery pink with flecks of iridescent glitter. I love the pinkish-golden glitter that is present in this one! I used 3 coats.
Zoya Kate
Zoya Kate makes me feel like I’m taking crazy pills. On the Birchbox site this polish is described as being a grapefruit pink coral. This polish is totally leaning on the orange side of coral for me. O_O Every other swatch I’d seen for this one shows it as being more pink, but every single other swatch I’ve seen has also been on someone with a much cooler skin tone than mine. Maybe it’s my monitor? I don’t effing know, lmao.
So I guess Kate is just orange-ish pink on me. It’s still gorgeous, just not really all that pink on me. I used 3 coats here, no topcoat and it’s still super glossy! You can see what Kate looks like on a cooler skin tone on Scrangie’s blog.
Coraline
Zoya Coraline is hands down my favorite in the trio. Coraline is a bright tangerine orange and we’re in love. I used 4 coats here, and the VNL isn’t super visible in person. Again no topcoat here.
Zoya Kate + Zoya Belle
This is 1 coat of Zoya Belle over Zoya Kate. I love this combination and how Belle just pops when layered on top of Kate. This combination brings out a little more of the pink coral hue in Kate that I normally don’t see when it’s by itself on my nails.
Zoya Coraline + Zoya Belle
And here is 1 coat of Zoya Belle over Zoya Coraline! This layering just glows! I think I’ll have to try this combination for my next pedicure. All I need it for the dang sun to come out for more than 20 minutes and I’ll hit the beach running.
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Final Thoughts:
I’m really quite happy with this little trio of polishes! I’m a sucker for jellies, so add coral and orange to the mix and it was pretty much a given that the Zoya Blogger Collection had to be mine. The formulas for the jellies were medium thick, but easy to apply and quite buildable. You’ll want to wait a few minutes between coats to prevent cuticle drag though. I think it would be fun to do a jelly gradient with these three polishes, so I’ll have to keep that in mind for a future project.
Purchase Info:
The Zoya Blogger Collection is a limited edition trio that can be purchased exclusively from Birchbox. It retails at $22.00 for the set of three.
Tutorial: DIY Neon V-Gap Manicure For Beauty Blitz!
6
Morning Everyone!
Just a quick post for you all today. :-p
I totally forgot to tell you all about the tutorial I did for Beauty Blitz last month! You can check out my super easy tutorial for a summer ready neon v-gap manicure by clicking [HERE]! ^_^
NOTD: BeYu 330 – Behold The Multichrome Gorgeousness!!
23
Morning Everyone!
Today I’ve got another beautiful international polish from my lovely Sabine to share with you all! This time we’re taking a look at the stunning BeYu 330! BeYu is a polish brand that comes from Germany, but according to their website their brand is also sold in 39 other countries. So for those of you that have access to these little gems, count yourselves as lucky!
I was lucky enough to have been sent BeYu 330 by my pal, so let’s get to the swatches so I can show you this looker.
BeYu 330
BeYu 330 is a beautiful and complex multichrome that flows from dusky turquoise with grey undertones, to a greenish hue. It’s then filled with multichromatic glass-fleck shimmer that alternates from a teal to a purple shade. I could stare at this polish forever! This is 3 coats of BeYu 330 on its own, but I absolutely MUST try layering it over black soon to see if that changes the color at all.
BTW, you should be clicking on each of these pictures to enlarge them. You won’t regret it. ♥
Here’s a macro shot of BeYu 330 in all of its magnificence. This polish has my heart.
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Including BeYu 330 I only have two BeYu polishes in my possession and they are both heart stoppers. I’m not sure that I want to even know about any more of these little beauties for fear of my bank account being quickly depleted.
Do any of you own any BeYu polishes! If so, what are your favorites? ^_^
NOTD: Catrice Blues Brother Vol. II
13Hey Everyone!
Just a quick one here since I need to get back to a big polish project in the works. I wanted to share with you one of my special polishes, Catrice Blue Brother Vol. II. I call it special not only because it’s a gorgeous polish, but because I consider all of my international polishes to be a rare gift to own. This polish came to me via the wonderfully amazing Jeanette, thank’s love!
I’ve sat on these pictures for a while because I honestly forgot they were in my nail folder, haha. So here they are for you now! ^_^
Catrice Blues Brother Vol. II
Blues Brother Vol. II is a beautiful dark blue shimmer that has the ‘glowing from within’ look that I love so much. This was 2 easy coats.
Here’s a macro shot for you all. I simply cannot get enough of this polish, and I’m happy it found a home in my Helmer before it was discontinued by Catrice. ♥
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Beauty Blogger Coalition Roundup For June 15th!
011 months ago
Morning Everyone!
I hope you’re all enjoying your weekend! I’ve got some awesome things to share with you this upcoming week so stay tuned! If you haven’t entered the Zoya Giveaway you’ve still got some time, so check out that post [HERE]!! In the meantime, enjoy this weeks Beauty Blogger Coalition Roundup! ^_^
- Is your hair and skin dry and damaged? MyStyleBell explains the difference between Argan Oil and Grapeseed Oil and explains which one is better for your hair.
- Are you interested in trying a monthly sample service for beauty products? Emily has tried a few and was happy with the first impression of Sample Society by beautybar.com. See what came in the June Sample Society box!
- Everything has a scent, even cold! Designer Serge Lutens celebrates it in his avant-garde, new fragrance, l’eau Froide. Alison Blackman of the Advice Sisters checks out the fragrance and gives a report. Cool yourself all Summer long!
- Miss L from Beauty by Miss L tried L´Oreal Youth Code Luminize Super Serum and now shares her thoughts about it.
- Confessions of a Sarcastic Mom showcases polishes inspired by the movie Snow White and the Huntsman.
- Glitter.Gloss.Garbage has swatches of MAC Casual Colour.
- Brooke from BlushingNoir shows you what is in her first (and second!) Little Black Bag with this open box video!
- BeautyJudy wear-tests, reviews and shares swatches of Dermelect’s new ME Anti-Aging Color Nail Lacquers. Do theydeliver on the company’s promise of chip-resistance and nail strengthening? Find out!
- BeautyTidbits is giving away a bunch of new NIVEA skincare goodies and a trendy beach tote to get you ready for the beach season!
- Phyrra brings you the best in bright hair from Premiere Beauty Orlando.
- The Pink Sith yammers on about mermaids and cable TV, but she shows you some awesome pictures of Models Own Nail Polish in Indian Ocean while she does it.
- Take the headache out of nail art and try this simple trick from Blushing Basics.
- Are you looking for a great peel for summer-ready glowing skin? Lola from Lola’s Secret Beauty Blog is a huge fan of Suki Renewal Bio-Surfacing Facial Peel because it’s natural, vegan, and highly effective!
- There are some big-name must-haves out there, but when you shop locally a whole new world can open up for a beauty enthusiast! Follow Bailey around a farmers market and see what local beauty she finds.
- Beauty Info Zone wants to teach you about double cleansing with Dermalogica PreCleanse. They also want one US reader to win the product to see how great it is for themselves.
- Beauty and Fashion Tech looks at some truly odd beauty items with The 8 Strangest Beauty Products.
- Girl Gloss has a MAC Casual Colour Collection Swatch of the Shade Keep it Casual.
- How do you remove your makeup? TheFabZilla tried a gamut of ways but got hooked with Micellar water. Check out her recent faves.
- It is Giveaway time over at Pammy Blogs Beauty! So, head on over to enter to win a Total Beauty Collection sample box!
- Polarbelle spends a little time getting her nautical on with the Mac Hey, Sailor eyeshadows.
- Nails and Noms shows us some pretties from the new indie kid on the block, Cirque Nail Polish with their Dark Horse Collection!
- The Makeup Divas shares swatches and reviews MAC Ditto Shade & Smoke Shadow Liners.
- Have you been searching for a Polish that wears like a Gel? Midnight Manicures presents Dazzle Dry, it’s vegan, big 5-Free and dries in 5 minutes!
- Want a tan without the wrinkles? Lipgloss Break reviews Dr. Dennis Gross’s New Glow Pad sunless tanning towels.
- Playing Russian Roulette with your Hair? Cosmetically Challenged gives you three tips to help keep you and your hair safe.
- Stephanie Louise- All Things Beautiful is traveling across the country & shows you the L’Occitane Verbena Sachet & Fragrance/Gloss Duo that are traveling must haves!
- Gia of Bottles and Bottles of Polish wore 3 purple polishes at the same time- check out how amazing they looked together
- Where the party at? Lynn shows you the After Party on her nails over at Oh So Lacquered.
- Always on the search for great makeup, Christina of Curls N Pearls shares a review of the RevitaLash Spotlight Highlighting Pencil. Check out what she thinks!
- Nails Beautiqued has some summertime fun mouthwatering hues for your nails? Checkout Jessica Gelato Maio Collection.
- Always looking for the best in skin care, Spontaneous Chick posted 4 avocado face masks that work.
- Hello Dollface copies Julianne Hough’s natural makeup for a pretty daytime look. Will you see Rock of Ages this weekend?
- Geniabeme has a bright FOTD using Kiss My Sass Cosmetics!
- Do you believe in happy endings? Mina of Fabulous Awesomeness swatches the Fairytale Collection by Cult Nails!
- Katia-Blondycandy went to Beauty Trend Show at Nordstrom in South Coast Plaza and was lucky to get two great makeovers from YSL and Guerlain. Watch her funny photos and read advices from best makeup artists.
- Want a colorful, dramatic, and edgy look? Nancy from The Dark Side of Beauty shows us how to create it with the Sugarpill Burning Heart palette!
- Perilously Pale shows us how to achieve the on trend anti-smokey eye look with the new Maybelline New York Luminous Lights Quads.
- Beauty from Liz shows beauty products that she has purchased in May. Maybe it is interesting to see what you can buy when you live in Estonia?
Layering Experiment No. 9 – ANNY The Answer Is Love With Max Factor Fantasy Fire
1011 months ago
by Rie
in Layering Experiment
Allo Everyone!
It’s been a few months since I’ve done a layering experiment post, and this one that I’ll be showing you today is possibly one of my new favorites. This was the base polish combo I was wearing underneath my X-Out Nail Project mani from the other day.
I’m a bit sleep deprived and groggy so I’ll just get on with the photos! You’re gonna want to maximize every single one of this pictures.
ANNY The Answer Is Love + Max Factor Fantasy Fire
I started out with ANNY The Answer Is Love, my new favorite vampy polish of all time. ^_^ Then I added 2 coats of Max Factor Fantasy Fire. The infamy of this polish being a close dupe to the beloved Clarins 230 (aka “Unicorn Pee”) is all over nail blogs around the world. My lovely Esther was amazing enough to snag a bottle of Fantasy Fire for me and I’ve been in love with its layering possibilities ever since. ♥
The combo of Fantasy Fire and The Answer Is Love is pretty much the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen! I love how the multi-chromatic shimmer dances from orange to copper to green, and I got SO many compliments from clients at the salon about this layering in the past few days. Imma need a back-up bottle for both.
Here’s a macro shot. Just take a moment to bathe in all of its beauty.
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That’s it for today lovelies! Do any of you have Fantasy Fire in your lives? If so, what have you tried layering it with? I’d love to hear your suggestions!
