Zoya Aurora

So far I've shown you two of the three colors I picked up during Zoya's recent promotion.  If you missed it, check out Zoya Ziv here, and Zoya Blaze over here.  Today I have the last, and perhaps one of the most talked about, color from the 2012 Zoya Ornate Collection: Zoya Aurora.  Aurora is best described as a plum polish chock full of holographic particles that cat and toss the light about.

Pictured here is two coats of Zoya Aurora.  I love the formula on this polish.  It glides on smoothly, has excellent coverage, and wears gracefully.  If I have to go a long period without changing my polish, I can count on Aurora to survive the test of time.

Circling Hearts

Today I'm showing you my last Valentines Day manicure (check out my other two: Minty Hearts here and A Little Love with a Kiss here).  I'm head over heels in love with how this turned out.  With last year's Pantone color being tangerine, I added several orange pieces of clothes to my wardrobe.  I don't want to be too matchy-matchy so I usually pair my orange pieces up with bright pink ones.  The orange and pink combination seems to work out so well I thought it would be a good combination for my nails as well.

On my nails I'm wearing two coats of Zoya Rory, a shimmery mauve pink, and for my accent nail three coats of Zoya Rica, a sparkling pink/orange coral.  On top of each nail I've stamped Bundle Monster plate BM-317 using Konad Special Polish in White.  What do you think of the combination of pink and orange together?

A Little Love with a Kiss

Good morning!  Today I'm bringing you my second manicure for Valentines Day (check out my first, Minty Hearts, here).  I've always wanted to do this style of manicure: newsprint style with a colorful accent.  One of the new Bundle Monster plates is a romantic lettered plate and I thought it would be perfect for this!  I was right.

For my base I used two coats of Zoya Dove and stamped the text on using Konad Special Polish in Black and Bundle Monster plate BM-311.  On my accent nail I added a pair of lips using Color Club Hot Like Lava and Bundle Monster plate BM02.  Dove is my go-to grey because the formula is superb  the coverage is excellent, and the wear time is fantastic.  As long as my nail bed is undamaged Dove easily lasts five days (or the longest amount of time I've ever been able to go without changing my polish) without chipping or much wear.

Minty Hearts

Good morning!  Today I'd like to kick off a short little series of Valentine's Day manicures.  To start I have a simple heart stamped design in red and mint.  I was inspired for this design by a red cardigan I wore with a mint bubble necklace.

I've used three coats of Essie Turquoise & Caicos for my base then stamped Zoya Sooki on top using Bundle Monster plate BM-317.  This was incredibly cute to wear and I got a lot of compliments on it!

Zoya Blaze

I don't normally do red colors.  As of the last time I updated my polish stash spreadsheet, the red category make up only 4% (11 reds in case you were wondering).  In one of the recent Zoya promotions I picked up Blaze with the intent on branching out into wearing more of the color red.

Pictured here is two coats of Zoya Blaze.  Blaze is a mulberry red sprinkled throughout with holographic glitter.  I was a little disappointed by the holographic particles in Blaze.  Once I added a coat of Seche Vite Blaze appeared to fizzle out.  It still glowed from within but the holographic particles were practically invisible.

Green and Gold

This is a manicure that didn't turn out quite how I was imagining but ended up being pretty good anyway.  I was hoping to come up with a turquoise or mint and gold combination but came up short.

This is two coats of Zoya Bevin with a coat-ish of NYX Girls Gilded Glitter dabbed on.  I did not achieve my desired nail look here because Gilded Glitter is gold glitter suspended in a gold base.  This turned Bevin into a darker green than it actually is.

Here's a side by side for comparison:

It's like a whole different base color once the gold is added.  With Gilded Glitter on top, Bevin is more of a army green than the sage it is normally.  I'm now on the look out for a gold topper in a clear base.  Do you have one that you would recommend?

Super Bowl XLVII Manicure

I had grand, grand plans for my super bowl manicure this year.  Unfortunately, my plans didn't quite work out.  I'm sort of stuck in my graduate research lab all weekend trying to get more data for a grant update but I brought a bunch of polishes along to do my nails with.  One of the polishes turned out to be an absolute nightmare to work with.  I wanted to create water marbles for each team playing today, but I was trying to use Zoya Ziv.  Ziv is a gorgeous warm gold flake glitter polish but absolutely not pleasant to work with because of the larger particle size that is inherent with flakie glitter.  Despite my problems I managed to get something resembling a water marble on all my fingers.

I used two coats of Zoya Snow White for a base polish, then added one coat of Zoya Ziv on top before beginning the marble.

My left, San Francisco 49ers hand:

Here I used China Glaze Salsa and Zoya Ziv.

My right, Baltimore Ravens hand:

Water marbling here used Zoya Mira, Sally Hansen Black Out, Zoya Snow White, and Zoya Ziv.

My hands together are locked in  eternal struggle...until the game concludes and a winner emerges tonight.

Happy Super Bowl XLVII! What are you wearing today?