Found a Way to Use Areej

Zoya Areej is too dark of a color for me to wear by itself.  I managed to wear it for a day before breaking out the nail polish remover.  I've incorporated into my new manicure and think it looks a lot better.  The inspiration for these nails comes from this video by Miss Chievous.

I painted my nails this color Wednesday evening but didn't take the pictures till Friday evening - after it started chipping off.  The Zoya Color Lock system couldn't keep my nails safe from metallography. :(

I used China Glaze For Audrey as a base (I love this color), Kiss Nail Artist Fine Art Pen in Black for the branches, Zoya Snow White for the petals, and Zoya Areej for the center of the flower.

Color Changing Polish (Pt. 3)

I was peeling off the top coat of my color changing manicure and happened to walk outside in the middle of it only to notice that without the top coat my nails change color much faster (and look pinker!).

This was the pink that I couldn't capture on camera before:

Lesson learned: Seche Vite does a pretty good job of blocking UV rays!

Color Changing Polish (Pt. 2)

With the Del Sol polish my friend brought over, I wanted to try a design I'd seen on The Daily Nail that she called the "Mullet Mani."   

Indoors my nails looked like this:

Outdoors my nails looked like this:

I wish my camera was able to pick up the pinks that are present in this nail polish.  I was out biking on Sunday and my nails were a much brighter pink that I was able to capture on camera.  

I painted my nails with Sassy as a base, stamped a flower from M.A.S.H. plate m26 using Konad Special Polish in Black, added black tips with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Black Out.

Pink

I'm not great at coming up with creative titles for these posts.  Oh well.

This is Zoya Areej with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Disco Ball over top.  I suffer from "it looked a lot lighter in the bottle..." syndrome.  I would love this shade if it looked more like Moondancerjen's nails in this photo than mine.

Manicure Groupon

If you're in the Milwaukee area (or plan to be before 3/21/2012), you may be interested in this Groupon for two Shellac or Gelish manicures in Whitefish Bay.

Color Changing Polish (Pt. 1)

Last Friday night a friend and I got together for a girls night.  We went to college together (plus she's one of my awesome sorority sisters!) but haven't gotten to see as much of each other since graduation.  Dinner plus nails was a nice way to spend time together.

My friend brought over a nail polish I'd been wanting to try: one of Del Sol's color changing polishes!  We did our nails at night and then spent a while fooling around with my camera trying to get an image that captured the color of the polish on my friend's nails.  I'll post some images of my own nails with the polish later, including what the polish looks like in the sunlight so you can see it in its color changing glory!

I think the photo closest to capturing the color is the middle photo, though there is a lot of shimmer and my nails mostly looked like the last photo.

We used Del Sol's Sassy for the base color stamped with Konad Special Polish in Black, the image from M.A.S.H. plate m26.

Pink

Since my last post was about Pinterest, it's only fitting that this post include a photo I found on Pinterest from Chloe's Nails!  Chloe did this manicure last month, an adorable use of pink base color with white flowers and tips.

My interpretation of the design used Sally Hansen's Hard as Wraps in Sheer Lilac Gloss, Zoya Snow White for the tips, and the flowers were stamped in Konad Special Polish White with M.A.S.H. plate m73.  I'm guess the Sally Hansen color is discontinued as I'm not finding color options for this series on their website.

I used Seche Vite as a top coat and my tips shrunk really badly on my left hand (but not the right, weird) so I ended up doing a touch-up in the middle of the week.  This photo was taken almost two days into being worn so please excuse the slightly beat-up look; this week has been quite hectic.  

Pinterest!

Last Thursday I received an invitation to join Pinterest, a web community where you 'pin' pictures from the internet to 'boards' and share these boards with others.  I'm really pumped that I can now use the service.  There are many times I've come across something great on the internet, forgotten I've got it sitting in an open browser window, closed that window, and lost it without realizing it.

I think I have the ability to invite some friends, so if you'd like to give it a try let me know!

Definitely expect to see some posts saying "I found this on Pinterest, which led me to ____" soon.

Misty Blue

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I painted my nails this color.  I was rifling through my box of polish, looking for something soft, maybe a pale pink or pale purple.  I picked out Zoya Breezi, a color I got when I bought their color lock system back in June, and thought I'd give it a whirl.

This color is much darker than I was expecting.  Zoya describes the color as:

"Soft, dusty, dirty medium cerulean blue with an opaque cream finish.  A super chic high-fashion denim look for nails."

but in the bottle I thought it was more sky blue than steel blue.  It's not.  To try and hide the color I stamped M.A.S.H. plate m63 with China Glaze Platinum Silver on top.  I have a lovely sweater that would go great with this polish, too bad it's summer.  Please ignore my thumb; I probably redid that nail four times before I gave up on it.  Smudges, bubbles, crooked design, ugh!

I really like how this polish looks in the light bulb photo but the actual color is more true to the sun photo.  Lame.

I have to admit, this is the nicest polish job I've ever done on my nails.  I usually flood my cuticles with polish, or get it all over the sides of my fingers - trying to overcompensate for having really small nail beds!  This looks so much better.

Lavender for Innocents

Its been hard to ignore the media onslaught regarding the Casey Anthony case, especially this week as the verdict was released Tuesday.  Regardless of whether or not you think she's guilty, we can all agree that young Caylee didn't deserve what happened to her.  I painted my nails Caylee's favorite color (lavender) but I'd like to dedicate my nails to all the innocent children who have perished before their time.

Child abuse can happen anywhere.  If you suspect abuse, or want to report it, there are many places you can turn to such as:

• Child Welfare Information Gateway
• Childhelp
• Prevent Child Abuse America

For this manicure I used Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle in Loyal Lavender with the butterfly image from M.A.S.H plate m78 stamped using Konad Special Polish White.

Oxidized Aqua

Let me start off by saying I love love love this color.  I've seen the crackles for a while now but I've never felt compelled to buy them - plus I thought the colors were kind of ugly.  I want nail colors that are both fun, yet still acceptable for work, and the crackle polishes were just too out there. Hot pink?  No.  Gold? No.  Black? No.

And then I met Oxidized Aqua, a delightful blue with a metallic shimmer.  I was hooked!   When the polishes became available for purchase at Sally Beauty last Thursday I headed over and picked up my very own bottle.

I love the way the polish glitters in the sunlight:

I love the way the polish looks indoors:

Have I mentioned that I love this color?  I used Zoya Snow White for the base with China Glaze Oxidized Aqua on top.

I was running out of sunlight when I took these pictures so I skipped the polish clean up around the nail.  Of course I cleaned them up before work in the morning, but I wish I could get better control over the brush when I paint them the first time!

Independence Day

My original idea for holiday nails was to do alternating solid read, white, and blue nails with some Konad stars stamped over it.  After I finished five nails I realized my idea didn't look as good on my nails as it did in my head. Bummer!

I scraped that idea and went for three colors on each nail doing diagonal stripes.  My boyfriend said my nails reminded him of the BMW M3 logo:

;

but they really looked like this:

.

After I added the stars the final design looked like this:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness...

I used Zoya Snow White for the base, Zoya America for the red, Zoya Robyn for the blue, and M.A.S.H. plate m50 for the stars with Konad Special Polish White.