Do I Need Them All? Zoya, Nails Inc London, and China Glaze nudes

Welcome to November's edition of Do I Need Them All!  This month, we'll be taking a look at four nude nail polishes.

From left to right, we have: Zoya Ana, Zoya Chantal, Nails Inc London Radnor Walk, and China Glaze Sunset Sail.  I have the polishes in the same order on my nails in the photos below.

These polishes are pretty surprisingly different once you get them on the nail!  Ana is a Satin finish - somewhere between glossy and matte - which comes as no surprise since that's right on the bottle.  Radnor Walk actually dries to a matte finish, which is a bit of a surprise since it's not written on the bottle at all.  And Sunset Sail has a bit of a shimmer to it, but its shimmer is much more subtle than that of Radnor Walk.

Angled more towards the light to purposefully get a glare - to demonstrate the different finishes.

Colorwise, these polishes kind of pair up: Sunset Sail is almost the same shade as Chantal, though SS leans perhaps a touch more peachy; and Ana and Radnor Walk are very similar shades, though the pinkish sparkle in RW does make it look a bit pinker overall.

 

I found that using flash was the best way to show the differences in finish - and to actually show off the shimmers in Radnor Walk and Sunset Sail.  My camera wasn't really picking up the shimmers at all - and the flash on my camera is ridiculously bright at its lowest setting, so I took this picture on my phone.

These colors are altogether much more different on the nail than they are in the bottle!  There are definitely no dupes here.

So, Do I Need Them All?  Sure!  These babies are definitely all different from each other.  The sparkles in two of them, the matte and satin finishes, and the two different main color tones make them very different nail polishes.  Until I really got in to collecting nail polish, I probably would have picked only one of these four, because I wasn't really in to nude polish.  Which one, I'm not sure, but I use to wear nude colors so rarely that I didn't care to own similar shades!  However, for someone who loves doing nail art but works a job where nail polish can't be too colorful, I would say that you definitely need all of these!  Just be sure to grab a Satin and a matte top coat if you want to secure your manicure and retain the different finishes featured in this post.

Was this post helpful to you?  Are there any specific polishes that you'd like to see compared in this series?  Let me know in the comments!

4th of July nail art - then, now, and then!

Happy Fourth of July, everybody!  Yay America! :)

You get a bonus post this week because I have too many posts waiting around and I didn't want to hold off on posting this one or yesterday's post.  Woohoo!  You also get some bonus nail art because the very first time I ever did a special themed nail art design was for the 4th of July in 2013.  So I find that this is the perfect time of year for me to look back and watch my nail art skills grow.

We'll go in chronological order, shall we?

July 2013

Two years ago, I had no nail art tools or brushes.  I used a toothpick for the white dots, and I freehanded the stripes!  The red was my ONLY red nail polish at the time - OPI's An Affair In Red Square, gifted to me by my mother before she moved to Greece for 3 months.  It is our absolute favorite red polish and I don't know what I would do without it!  The blue is China Glaze's Blue Iguana, and it's one of my all time favorite blue polishes.  And the white is the only white polish I had at the time, the white end of Revlon's Killer Watt duo.

July 2014

For last year's Fourth of July, I decided to go a little bit more abstract.  I had dotting tools and striping brushes by then, so it was all much easier for me!  The red and blue are the same as 2013's nails, and the silver is Sally Hansen CSM's Hi Ho Silver.  Silver metallic instead of white creme = more bling!  The design on my thumb, pointer and pinky fingers was inspired by reddit user Lyongirl.

July 2015

This year, I decided to stick with the abstract theme - and also with the same trusty red, blue, and silver polishes.  The design on all of my fingers except my ring finger is inspired by Robin Moses on YouTube- though admittedly, it didn't really turn out quite the way I wanted it to.  My striping brush was too thick and stiff to get those wonderfully smooth, swirly lines that Robin made.  Oh well, I still like it!  Hooray for abstract designs!  The blue stripes over the red tips is Sally Hansen CSM Blue My Mind, and the red stripes over the blue tips is Sally Hansen CSM's Red My Lips.

The background on the abstract nails is Nails Inc, London's Radnor Walk, while the fireworks background is Zoya's Ryan.  I'm really glad that I decided to throw in the fireworks nails!  I think they turned out awesome  The red is the OPI red, and the blue is the Sally Hansen - because the China Glaze blue was too sheer to show up over Ryan.

So there you go!  Three years of experimenting with themed nail art.  I can't wait to see what I'll come up with for next year!  Which design was your favorite?  Have you ever done some awesome Independence Day nail art?  Let me know in the comments!

Have a splendid holiday weekend!  Look forward to next weekend, too - I have something special planned for next Saturday. ;)

Beach nails! (Plus some other nail art)

I have three different nail art designs to share with you today!

Beach Nails

Derek's brother and his girlfriend came to visit us over Memorial Day weekend, and we kicked off summer with a trip to the beach!  This was actually the first time I've been to the beach in, I don't even know, over two years I think.  Having grown up in Michigan, that just breaks my heart... Anyway, I had to honor the occasion by painting my nails accordingly!

I've seen this look a few times before, and I was super excited to give it a try.  The tutorial that I followed most closely is by Janelle Estep on YouTube.  I used Zoya Bar for the sand and Zoya Robyn for the water, and China Glaze White on White for the sea foam.  I also threw in a thin coat of Zoya Sparkle Gloss on my right-hand water nails, but I didn't think to do that on my left hand.

Then at the beach, I just had to model my nails next to its matching scenery!

I'm especially proud of this last one:

We were at a small beach on Chesapeake Bay.  Those rock formations in the background were all along the beach - apparently, they're there to keep the jellyfish out of the swimming waters during jellyfish season!  Yikes!  I miss the fresh waters of Michigan. :x

Maddie's Nails

Derek's brother's girlfriend (oh for Pete's sake, there HAS to be a faster way of saying that... can I just call her my sister in law?) loves my nail art.  We've been saying for the past year that I'll do her nails when we get together, but it just never happens.  This time, we had the benefit of a dining room table and my entire polish stash, so it finally happened!

 

She chose the bright green, Zoya Tilda, to match her bathing suit, and I used Zoya Nori to spice it up with the interlocking dots design.  I absolutely love doing this design - it's so simple, but it looks so complicated and intricate when it's finished!

I like interweaving fingers with my friends when I do our nails.

I started polishing that night with my toe nails around 8 pm, and I finished with Maddie's nails around midnight!  So much polishing! :)

Copycat Nails

The day I decided to swatch Zoya Oceane (a post which I have not published but will soon, I promise!), I knew that OPI My Gecko Does Tricks had to be paired with it in some nail art.  So I got slightly less than creative and basically re-created Maddie's nails on my own.  Do I get bonus points for owning the same colors in different textures?

 

I was pleasantly surprised when layering Gecko on top of Oceane on my left hand - one coat of Gecko is so sheer that I expected to need two coats, but the blue didn't show through the green at all with only one coat!

Layering Oceane on top of Gecko on my right hand left a pretty visible line, because of how thick Oceane is.  I think in the future, I'll stick with the thinner color on top.

Macro, just because I love playing with my lens!

I meant to do a photo tutorial of this one, but I forgot.  Maybe I'll just have to do this design again some time soon so I can show you how easy it is!  (Don't worry, I'll pick a different color scheme if I do.)

That's it for nail art today!  What do you think?  Which is your favorite?  Have any of you tried the alcohol-spray watermarble technique to get a design similar to the sea foam design before?  Let me know in the comments!  

ALL the Zoya Pixie Dusts!

**This is another incredibly old post, which I wrote mostly in January.  It's just been sitting around for ages!**

Okay, not all of them.  I can't afford that.  But, in the last few months, I've been accumulating as many of the Pixie Dusts as possible, because as you may have heard, Zoya is discontinuing Pixie Dusts.  All of them.  They're selling out the rest of their stock, but they won't be making any more once they sell out.  They'd better have some amazing plans to replace those beauties!

So, while Pixie Dusts may still be easily attainable for now, pretty soon they're going to be super rare.  Naturally, I just had to buy up all the colors I care about (and then some!) before they end up costing $50 on eBay or Amazon. 

I'll be sure to check the website and note any that are already sold out at the time of publishing (and maybe I'll even update it as the colors disappear). **Somehow, six months after Zoya announced the end of the Pixie Dust line, every single color is still available in the store.  I guess they made an insanely huge batch of each color before announcing their discontinuation.  Suddenly I feel a bit silly for buying up so many Pixie Dusts right away!**

Liberty

I've already written a full review of Liberty, which you can find here.  But I just wanted to throw a few pictures of it in here, since I have all of my Pixie Dusts in this post!

Liberty was the first Pixie Dust I ever got; it was even one of my first few Zoya polishes! 

I think this is the most insanely long my nails ever got!  I keep them much shorter now.

Godiva

Godiva is one of the colors that I bought way back when Zoya was selling 3 minis for $15 in November/December.  I wasn't super crazy about it online, but I ended up falling in love once I put it on!

A creamy, beige-y neutral color that almost leans peach, Godiva is absolutely beautiful in the Classic Pixie Dust formula.  Two coats yields full coverage, though looking at my photos there is still a tiiiiiny bit of VNL showing through.  Many people have compared Godiva to Tomoko as they're insanely similar, but I don't own Tomoko and don't plan to buy it.  From what I've seen and read online, Godiva is a warmer neutral while Tomoko is more cool-toned.

Nyx

Nyx is a soft, periwinkle-lavender with silver shimmer.  The silver actually surprised me - most of the Pixie Dusts I've seen have been more... I don't want to say flat, because the sparkles are anything but flat - but color-wise, I guess they've been more uniform.  If you look at Liberty and Godiva, there isn't a ton of color variation, just sparkle.

Nyx was mostly opaque at two coats, but I could still see a bit of the whites of my nails at certain angles.  Shown is two coats.  I did three coats on my right hand, and I was surprised by the difference in color!  At two coats, Nyx is definitely a softer periwinkle, but at three coats it leans more to a stormy lavender.

Beatrix

Beatrix is a great, bright, sunny orange with yellow-gold sparkles.  The yellow-gold definitely doesn't stand out from the orange base as much as the silver stands out in Nyx, which I like.

Two coats was, like Nyx, pretty opaque, but if I stared at my nails long enough I could kind of see the whites of my nails.  I tested out a third coat on my thumb, and it's definitely fully opaque; what's also nice is that the color didn't change very much, as it did with Nyx.

Just for fun, I threw on one coat of China Glaze's Fairy Dust over top of two coats of Beatrix, because hell, there can never be enough sparkle!  Even though you lose the texture of the Pixie Dust a little bit, the holographic sparkle from Fairy Dust makes it super awesome.  If you want your nails to be show-stoppers, I'd highly recommend Fairy Dust-ing that shit. ;)

P.S. don't mind my lack of pinkie in some of  these photos.  Two days before swatching Beatrix, my pinkie got in a nasty fight with a cheese grater and lost.  Right above my cuticle.  That nail was out-of-commission for nail polish for a while. :(

Carter

For some reason, I found myself much less able to look away from Carter than any other Pixie Dust so far.  I honestly can't really say why, except that its formula is just so flawless.  And I don't just mean that two coats was perfectly opaque, nor do I just mean that it applies super smoothly (as do all of the 'Dusts).  I think Carter is just more perfectly dense with glitter than those I've shown so far; it's also the most uniform color so far.  Liberty is also pretty uniform, but something about Carter made me really, really glad that I didn't have to drive anywhere while I was wearing it, because I probably would not have looked at the road very much.

Carter is a perfect shade of purple, too; it really doesn't lean reddish or blueish or lavenderish or any other -ish.  It's really a true, royal purple.

Dahlia

Dahlia is the last of the Classic Pixie Dusts that I own.  Like Nyx, Dahlia has a lot of very prominent silver sparkle to it.  But since the main color is black, it doesn't really stand out as that different.

Two coats was perfectly opaque, but it still looked a tad charcoal-grey to me, so I put a third coat onto my middle finger.  There is a slight difference to the color, but it was so minimal that I decided to leave the rest of my nails at two coats.

Out-of-focus because I realized when swatching this one that I didn't take any out-of-focus photos

to show off the crazy sparkle of Pixie Dusts!

Unfortunately, Dahlia fell a little bit flat on its own.  The sparkle didn't photograph that well, as you can see, because of how dark it is; but it doesn't really sparkle THAT much more in person.  While most Pixie Dusts have a stunning sparkle, Dahlia is just kind of... sparkly black.  I probably won't be wearing this one on its own very much.  But Dahlia, Carter, and Beatrix would look amazing together for a Halloween-y mani.  I know what I'll be doing to my nails in a few months!

I also own a few of the Ultra Pixie Dusts, but since this post is already getting pretty long, I'm going to go ahead and give those their own separate post.

Which of the Pixie Dusts is your favorite?  Do you prefer the Classic or the Ultra finishes?  Let me know in the comments!

Pi Day 2015: The Date of the Century!

Starting in 2003, every year has had a cool consecutive date when written out numerically in the American fashion.  1/2/03, 3/4/05, all the way on up to 12/13/14 - which, sadly, is the last one that I'll see.

But this year?  This year holds the very best date that anyone alive will ever see.  Today is March 14, 2015: 3/14/15.  The best Pi Day ever.  Watch your clocks for 9:26:53 pm, for that shall be the best second you will ever see!

Yeah, in case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a little bit of a geek.  I like math and numbers and stuff. :)

Anyway, because this year's Pi Day is so epic, I painted my nails to celebrate!  They didn't turn out quite as epic as I'd hoped, but I like them all the same.

I used China Glaze Sunset Sail as the background color, which is the closest I have to pie-crust-tan, and the numbers were done with China Glaze I Brake For Colour.  The letter Pi on my right thumb was done with Sally Hansen Red My Lips and I'm super proud of how neatly it turned out (except for the top coat smears).

I don't even want to show you the rest of my right hand.  I tried some stamping, with a little pie and also some circles, but apparently stamping is really hard and everything turned out wibbly and piece-y and horrible.  I may have thrown a mini tantrum and sworn off stamping forever...

I'm going to be spending the afternoon making apple-cranberry pie, and for dinner I'm making Shepherd's Pie. :D

What are you doing to celebrate Pi Day today?  Do you think I'm a total dork for even caring? ;) Let me know in the comments!

Some Zoya Christmas Art

Zoya Ziv may be from a two year old Christmas collection, but I got it this October because she's such a gorgeous, stunning gold that I don't think she could ever go out of style.  Even if she did, you should know by now that I wouldn't give a darn - I like colors when I like them and I don't care who tells me whether it's In or not!

When Zoya put four collections on sale back in mid-November - Naturel, Naturel 2, Ignite, and Entice were BOGO - my mom picked out three shades and was kind enough to let me pick out a fourth!  I picked Chantal, because all of my nude colors have a rose-y base, and I wanted a more neutral, cream-y nude.

Zoya Ornate: Ziv

Ziv is a beautiful warm, yellow-toned metallic polish.  She's packed full of reflective microglitters, but the glitters are so small that it doesn't feel like a glitter polish.  Yet the microglitter is substantial enough to really stand out from other metallic polishes that I've worn.  It's just... wow.

 

One of the best parts about Ziv?  She's a mythical One-Coat Wonder!  I used two coats, but it was really only out of habit.  After painting the second coat on two or three nails, I looked at the nails with only one coat on them and realized that there wasn't a difference!  How magical.

Sometimes when I swatch polishes, I take tons of photos because I can't seem to get the focus or the lighting or the alignment of my fingers right.  This time, I took tons of extra pictures because Ziv is just SO stunning.  So feast your eyes on four out of, like, 25 pictures that I took.

I also decided to matte-ify Ziv.  It still looked nice, but I am definitely way happier with keeping her glossy. 

Zoya Naturel: Chantal

Chantal is a very lovely nude creme.  She's actually quite close to my perfect nude!

It photographed a bit... I'm not sure... more peach-y than it is in person?  It just looks oversaturated on the screen.  I couldn't quite figure out how to show it more accurately, but this is quite close.

Chantal has a good formula, but it's not as smooth as is typical of Zoya.  It's a bit streaky, and thinner than usual as well.  The streaks evened out pretty nicely on the second coat, and a topcoat evened them out even more.  Definitely a solid addition to your collection if you're in to nudes!

Let's Make Some Art!

Ziv just happens to match a tank top of mine perfectly - one of those amazing wardrobe-to-nail coordinations that I didn't even plan.  Naturally, upon realizing how perfect the match was, I decided that I just had to do my nails to match the outfit.  That's another reason I picked Chantal - it's not a perfect match for the sweater that I like to wear with the gold tank top, but it's very close.

And, since Ziv is from a Christmas (well, Holiday) collection and since I really only wear the gold tank top during Christmas, I decided to make this a delicate Christmasish manicure by throwing in Prim from this year's holiday collection!

The inspiration for this design comes from this post on Hey Nice Nails.  My uncle shared a picture of it with me on Facebook and I just had to recreate it!

Silly old me forgot about taking a picture of my nails with the sweater/tank top combo that matches.  You'll just have to trust me when I say that it was a great match. ;)

What are your favorite polish/clothes pairings?  Let me know in the comments!

Big Summer Send-Off Nail Art!

It's been between 65 and 75 degrees for two weeks (except for last Sunday, which was 86) here in Maryland, so now that it's technically fall, it actually feels like it, too!  But I wanted to hang on to neon nails and tank tops for at least a few more days!

I also wanted to show you Nails Inc, London's Knightbridge, since I mentioned in my previous post that I can't seem to find it online.  All I can find online is Knightsbridge Road, which is a gold-based glitter from the Galaxy collection with some pink and blue glitters.  The Knightsbridge that I found at ULTA is from the Special Effects collection and is pretty much a shattered disco ball - silver glitters with a rainbow reflection effect.  I suppose this was a limited edition polish and that's why I can't find it online - but I can't even find other bloggers swatching it because all that turns up is Knightsbridge Road!

So in order to do both of these things, I decided to do some braided nails to match one of my favorite summer shirts, and paint Knightsbridge over solid colors as well.

I meant to take pictures of my nails before adding Knightsbridge, so you could see the color underneath better, but oh well.  Isn't that glitter incredible?  It has a lot of really cool irregular-shaped glitters, as well as normal hex and micro glitters.  The irregular shaped ones especially add to the shattered disco ball look!  I really, REALLY like this glitter.

 

Application is a little tricky, even for a glitter top coat.  If you spread the brush over your nail as you normally would, the glitters will stay with the brush and swipe across the nail, leaving a hole where you started.  To correct this, I used two coats and sort of dabbed the glitters on, rather than spread them on.

 

Just... just LOOK at the way the glitter in the bottle reflected the sunlight onto my hand at the right!  I love it!

 

I was going to use this photo as a macro shot on my middle finger, but with my pinky out of focus, I really liked how you can see the rainbow effect in the sunlight.

 

Last photo focusing on the glitter, and then I'll talk about the braided pattern!  Here's a macro shot, on top of OPI "It's All Greek To Me."  I absolutely love the combination of different sizes and shapes of glitter here!

 

Now, let's focus on the way I matched my nails to my shirt!  From left to right, the colors that I used are: China Glaze "White on White" as a base; ORLY "Ablaze"; China Glaze "Sunset Sail"; ORLY "Saturated"; Zoya "Robyn"; Zoya "Mitzi"; and OPI "It's All Greek To Me."

 

Shazam!  For the braids, I used the technique in this YouTube video by Meliney, starting at 0:45.  I decided to only do the braids on two nails per hand because this design takes a long time, and of course because I wanted to have enough nails to show off Knightsbridge on!  I love this shirt and I love having so many colors on my nails at once!  The shirt also has some black in it, but I decided not to use any in my nails because it's a little too dark to use in the braids.  Though the purple in this photo does look almost black, while the matching color in the shirt looks a lot bluer than it is in person.

What's your favorite summer manicure design?  Are you excited for fall and the matching manis that are to come?  Let me know in the comments!