NOTD - SF Blues

Another Nail of The Day look to be shown. As anyone who owns a large stash of polishes would know, you always have a stash of "untrieds" as well. Overwhelmed by acquiring so many new polishes, naturally there was a desire to wear everything at once. If only humans had ten sets of hands instead of just one, huh? Since I am not a mutant, a compromise in the form of a skittle mani was created. The mani is mostly made up of polishes from the OPI San Francisco collection, hence the post name.

Excuse the tip wear, but I waited a couple of days before taking these photo's. Now you guys know which polishes didn't wear as well~

All fingers had two coats of polish with top coat, except the pinky (1 coat polish and top coat).
Thumb - OPI Haven't The Foggiest
Index - OPI Peace & Love & OPI
Middle - OPI Dining Al Frisco
Ring - Zoya Natty
Pinky - Zoya Hazel

I should adorn skittles more often, they are quite fun and allow maximum number of polishes to be worn. Right off the bat, Hazel is drawing me in becoming a favorite!

Which of these five are your favorite? Do you wear skittle mani's often?

NOTD - Sparkling Black Elegance

Lame title but the mani is far from lame! Came up with this mani when I decided to see what Zoya Tomoko looks like glossified by top coat. The look was so breath taking that a mani must be made out of it! At the time I really wanted to wear something gothy and dark = black. Tada! This mani was born.

 Some blurry pictures to show just how sparkly Tomoko is with top coat. Gorgeous is far from exaggeration!

Mani Composition:
Thumb, Middle & Pinky - OPI Black Onyx
Index & Tomoko - Zoya Tomoko (2 coats with 3 coats of top coat)

There is a beautiful balance between hard and pretty in this mani, which is what I love about it. Hope you like it as much as I do and will try it out~

What are your favorite textured polishes turned glossy?

NOTD - Halloween Nails!

Hope everyone had an awesome Halloween! Hope you guys got to have a festive and exciting way to celebrate the day. I did not get up to anything whatsoever; didn't even dress up for work. I realized, since my teens, I have only dressed up and done something festive two or three times. Perhaps next year I should force myself to do something even if Halloween falls on a weekday. Enough rambling, on to the manicure!

Short blurb on the manicure: me and my fellow polish loving co-worker went to work on Halloween with very similar nail art. We went around the office showing other girls our mani's and everyone thought we had done our nails together! Guess great minds think alike ;)

So much blood! Middle finger has blood dripping and pinky blood splatter. My Frankenstein ended up having very creepy, soul-less eyes that I thought was very fitting. Originally, the index fingers were supposed to be stamped with skulls but it was bed time (I need my sleep!). The thumb was an excuse to use one of my "fuzzy" polishes and I also ran out of nail art ideas. In case you are wondering my right hand had an identical mani.

Mani Composition:
Thumb - OPI My Vampire Is Buff (MVIB) topped with China Glaze You're A Hoot
Index - Zoya Arizona (base) topped with Zoya Rica
Middle - OPI MVIB with dripping OPI All I Want For Christmas (Is OPI)
Ring - Nicole by OPI Sweet On Pete, OPI Black Onyx, OPI MVIB
Pinky - OPI MVIB (base) spattered with OPI AIWFC

This was a fun mani to do. I got to try out a lot of nail art techniques that I have been wanting to do, such as the dripping and splatter techniques. The dripping turned out nicely, but the splatter needs more work (I think I need a thinner straw).

Did you guys do Halloween themed nails for Halloween?

Swatch - Zoya Blu

This polish has been on my wish list every since the collection came out, so I'm very excited to have it part of my stash! Welcome Zoya Blu!

Zoya Blu:
Pale baby blue cream. This is so delicate, clean and pretty. One note about the formula is the polish is on the thick and gloopy side resulting in thick coats. The thick coats could then lead to bubbles (as seen on my pinky). Don't let all that deter you because for a colour like this formulas are usually awful and this one actually had wonderful formula. Another note, I got lobster hands from this polish but that only intrigues me more since I hardly get lobster hands.

Two coats with no top coat shown.

Specifications:
Formula - Little thick making thick coats of polish inevitable (thin coats end up not covering the whole nail and streaks)
Pigmentation - Good, two coats
Dry Time - Average
Shine - Shiny and glossy
Prone to - Nothing
Removal - Easy
Staining - None

All the anticipation of this polish did not let me down. I love it just as much as I thought I would, isn't it nice to get that feeling? This is the first polish that made me notice the lobster hand effect. Some find it hard to ignore LHE but nothing deters me from a polish color I love. 

What colours give you the lobster hand effect? Does it make you avoid those polishes?

Swatch - Zoya Tomoko

Woohoo! My very first Pixie Dust polish from Zoya. Before there was no intrigue in Pixie Dust for me because they didn't look as glitter-tastic as some of the OPI liquid sands I own. However, Zoya managed to come out with two textured polishes that captured my attention big time. One of these polishes is Tomoko, which is what I will be reviewing today.

Zoya Tomoko:
Champagne (silver with the slightest bit of gold to give the colour warmth) textured polish. The texture feels a little "sharper" (more rough, getting closer to fine grained sand paper) than liquid sands to me. This guy was on the sheer side, where at two coats you could see just a hint of VNL at some angles. As for sparkle factor this one sparkles beautifully in the sun and under warm lighting; but just has a soft twinkling under fluorescent light.

The pictures show two coats with no top coat.

Here is a blurry picture to show all the magnificent sparkles!

 Here is a picture comparing top coat versus no top coat (middle & pinky). VNL becomes more noticeable when you apply multiple top coats (2 very thick coats here) until a glossy finish. This becomes a full glitter polish with top coat and is real sparkly. Breath-takingly beautiful!

Specifications:
Formula - Good, easy application
Pigmentation - Okay, on the sheer side so apply thick coats or three coats
Dry time - same as average creams (faster than OPI liquid sand)
Removal - Easy

My first Pixie Dust is a hit! I love this polish! This guy is amazing in the sun and warm indoor lighting. So so beautiful! Can you tell how much I like this polish? Not to mention this is a nice neutral colour that will match just about anything. There is nothing negative to say about this polish except that it could be more pigmented. However, even that isn't much of an issue in my opinion. All in all, I will definitely be wearing this polish again and again.

Do you own any Pixie Dust polishes? Which brand of textured polishes do you like best?

NOTD - Easter Dotticure Mani

Happy Easter everyone! Hope you are all having an awesome weekend with family and friends, perhaps around a turkey even. I did not realise Easter is not an extra long weekend in the USA, in Canada we get both the Friday and Monday as holidays. Easter seems like a common holiday; but different country, different holidays, I guess. Onto more important issues like this Easter mani.

 L-R: Color Club Factory Girl, OPI Rumple's Wiggin', China Glaze Lemon Fizz, Zoya Neely 

 L-R: OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI Oh So Glam!, Kiss white polish

Two coats of each base colour was used before adding dots. The exception being Factory Girl, which required 3 thick coats due to its awful formula. The thumbs consisted of two coats MBSW, one coat OSG and dots (using the base colours). White dots were done with a white polish from a Kiss French Manicure set. One coat of top coat was applied to all nails.

One thing I have to shine the spotlight on is my thumbs. Love love LOVE the layering of OSG on top MBSW. The layering softened the white and added this beautiful, subtle golden glow. 

This was a fast, simple manicure that anyone can do at home without special tools. Just paint each nail a different colour; and add dots using pen, pencil, bobby pin, etc. The most time consuming nail would be the thumb, because you have to dot each colour one at a time.

I have no idea when this mani will be removed. I don't think I have the heart to take this off because I love it too much. It's so soft and cute, definitely reminds me of easter eggs!

Hope this has inspired some Easter mani's out there. Thanks for checking in!

NOTD - St. Patrick's Day Clover Mani

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! I have never celebrated this day in full swing; meaning being decked out in green, drinking green beer and having difficulty remembering any of it the next day. The most I have ever done was last year me and a friend went to an Irish pub and each drank a "cup" of Guinness. And that is the only time I have ever gone out on this day. I think my avoidance of going out on this day (and any other major partying days of the year) is because I am afraid of the craziness. All the bars and clubs are jam packed with extremely drunk people (much more so than usual). So I avoid the madness and have a quiet night at home doing my nails~

This mani idea came from a St. Patrick's Day tutorial that China Glaze posted on their facebook page. I had to practice a few times on a piece of paper before actually drawing the clovers on my nails. They didn't turn out perfect, but I am pretty happy with it considering this is my first time. I should mention that China Glaze Running In Circles turned out to be the PERFECT St. Patty's green and it's sparkly (doesn't get any better than that)!

Polishes used: 

Base:
China Glaze Glittering Garland (index & pinky)
ChG Running In Circles (middle & ring)

Clovers:
ChG Gussied Up Green (middle & ring)
Zoya Neely (index & pinky)






How To:
Two coats of each base colour was painted. Different sized dotting tools were used to create different sizes of clovers. I put a drop of polish on paper, dip the dotting tool in and drew hearts with it. Use the heart just draw as a positioning guideline for the next heart to create either a 4 or 3 leaf clover.

Tada! Below was the final product (forgot to put top coat on middle and ring fingers > <)

Before I added the clovers, I actually just wore the base colours for a couple of days. Absolutely love the pairing of these two greens together.

The sun finally decided to make a short appearance. Naturally, I had to snatch up this opportunity to show how these two polishes shimmer and sparkle. The picture is blurred to show the sparkling better.

This last picture is where I was originally going to stop adding nail art. But then I decided to add more clovers. Which mani do you prefer?

Thanks for stopping by~ What was on your nails this St. Patrick's Day? Did you also do some nail art?

Swatch - Zoya Neely

Woohoo! I never thought I would see the day when my name becomes a nail polish name (since I have yet to meet a person who has the same name as me). Well the day is here my friends! I have to admit this is the only reason I bought this polish...but hey, I gotta own polish that literally has my name on it, right? The spelling is a tad different but it's the same name nonetheless. Without further adieu here is Zoya Neely, a dusty seafoam mint cream! (Part of the Zoya Lovely collection released last month).

 Just look at how shiny this baby dries!

Sunlight

Specifications:

Formula: easy application

Pigmentation: Good (2 coats in pics above)

Dry time: bit longer than what I expected for a cream

Finish: shiny and glossy (see 2nd pic)

Removal: easy

Prone to: nothing (no streaks!)

I ended up liking this colour against my skintone quite a bit, so this ended up being a great match for me! This is a definite winner in terms of formula for such a light pastel colour. 

How do you like this colour? Do you also own a Zoya polish that bears your name (which one)?