Sophistifunk with Zoya Sophisticates

I thought I'd already published this post, but the nail art only made it to Instagram...oops!

The nail art today walks the line between sophisticated and completely gaudy. So I've dubbed it "sophistifunk" (in honor of Outkast). Makes sense for the collection from Zoya I'm reviewing today - Sophisticates.

I used Tabitha and Gal from Sophisticates for the colors in this look. Then, over Gal I used a black from Konad to stamp the reptilian pattern with the Winstonia W101 plate. Finally, I cut and laid this small gold chain around the edges of the stamped nails to top off the gaud. I'm really curious about everyones' opinions on this...gaudy or nah?

Regardless of how you feel about the nail art look, the Sophisticates collection has a color for everyone, so let's take a look at the swatches.

Zoya - Beth

Beth (2 coats) is definitely unique and sophisticated. It's a pretty mauve with a rose gold shimmer.

Zoya - Elaine

Elaine (2 coats) is a cool, dark chocolate brown. It's silky smooth, like most of the cremes in this collection.

Zoya - Gal

Gal (2 coats) is a metallic, almost like a tarnished green silver. There are flecks of gold sprinkled throughout as well.

Zoya - Hadley

Hadley (2 coats) is a smooth and super dark teal denim creme.

Zoya - Hera

Hera (2 coats) is a cheerful yet muted medium rosy creme. When I say "medium", I mean it's not too light, not too dark.

Zoya - Joni

Joni (2 coats) leaves the rosy realm that Hera inhabits, leaning more deep mauve. Like the others, the creme is super smooth.

Zoya - McKenna 

McKenna (2 coats) is a medium cool nude with a slight pearl finish. VERY slight, but there nonetheless. (You can see it best in the vertical lines along my ring finger in the image.)

Zoya - Mona

Mona (2 coats) is a beautiful, rich, dark maroon creme.

Zoya - Padma

Padma (2 coats) is the darker sister of Hera. It's a little more of a red-tinged dark rosy creme.

Zoya - Presley

Presley (2 coats) might be a new favorite neutral for me. It's a light-medium mauve creme. I thought it would look terrible on me, but its softness was stunning after all.

Zoya - Tabitha

Tabitha (2 coats) inspired the nail art for Sophisticates. Its dark, forest green metallic finish reminded me of dragon scales, so the sophistifunk nail art was born.

Zoya - Yvonne

Finally, Yvonne (2 coats) is a dark, brickish red creme polish.

Regardless of how you feel about the nail art, Sophisticates should definitely spike interested in some. Whether you're a creme addict or a metallic junkie, there's a color for everyone. Pick up your favorite from Zoya.com here!

The products in this post were given for review purposes. The reviews are based entirely on my experience with the products and were in no way influenced by anyone.

Taking it to the Matte with LVX Spring & Summer 2017

Today let's take it to the matte! I've got a full review of another summer collection, this time from LVX. The way LVX chooses the colors is by going to all the runways for the season and scoping out the trends in color, so what you may typically think of as a "summer" or "spring" collection might not be what you see with LVX. Nonetheless, I was inspired by the colors they chose to make some matte floral nail art for you all today.

I literally used every single color for this freehand floral design! The pinks played perfectly into one another to give my flowers lots of dimension, and the combination of teal and purple is beautiful. The dark green accents the leaves really well too. To make it matte, I used my OPI matte top coat but the swatches were all done with a shiny top coat. Let's look!

LVX - Argonne

Argonne (2 coats) is a smooth, mossy sage creme...almost as smooth as a sage leaf actually is.

LVX - Camellia

Camellia (2 coats) is an exact dupe of Pepto-Bismol, and just about as smooth.

LVX - Coquillage

Coquillage (3 coats) is a light pastel off-pink white shade. I needed another coat than I normally do to get a smooth coverage though.

LVX - Reine

Reine (3 coats) is a little bit more of a crelly (creme-jelly) than a creme. It's a beautiful, neonish-purple, but it needs a top coat. It's stunning when it's full-shine!

LVX - Schiaparelli

Schiaparelli (2 coats) is a hot, warm pink creme. Simple as that.

LVX - Seychelle

Seychelle (2 coats) is a light pastel robin's egg creme. It's a bit chalky unfortunately, but that led to me deciding to make my design matte, and I think that was a good one.

Each of the colors is still available through LVX's site here (listed alphabetically). Though LVX is a luxury line, I've always said it's worth its money.

The products in this post were given for review purposes. The reviews are based entirely on my experience with the products and were in no way influenced by anyone.

China Glaze Summer Reign Collection with Summer Season Watermelons

There are 4 seasons on the calendar, but if you ask most people, they will tell you that summer's best, that summer reigns. China Glaze nailed that sentiment with their summer 2017 collection, Summer Reign. This collection has a swath of colors, but they mostly read "tropical" with punches of metallics. I loved the juicy rich colors from the collection more than the metallics, particularly the dark jade shade, Emerald Bae. It reminded me of the watermelon Blow Pop wrappers.

Emerald Bae is the dark green shade. I also used All Glammed Up and Flame-Boyant from Summer Reign. Don't you love these juicy tidbits?!

Now here's the rest of the swatches for Summer Reign!

China Glaze - All Glammed Up

All Glammed Up (2 coats) is a very smooth turquoise creme. China Glaze has always produced amazing greens (hello For Audrey!), and this one's no exception.

China Glaze - Chroma Cool

Chroma Cool (2 coats) is a good ole silver metallic. Great coverage, easy application, smooth finish. It's not the most reflective silver, but it's pretty good as far as polish goes!

China Glaze - Emerald Bae

Emerald Bae (2 coats) is a very smooth (in texture and appearance), cool, mossy green creme. It's very opaque, so it was easy to use it for the French tip of the watermelon nail art I did. If it weren't full coverage, you'd get horrible patchiness over such a bright red.

China Glaze - Flame-Boyant

Flame-Boyant (2 coats) is a sincerely bright red creme polish. Without top coat, it dries a little matte too.

China Glaze - High Standards

High Standards (2 coats) is another smooth metallic, but this finish is gold.

China Glaze - I Truly Azure You

I Truly Azure You (2 coats) is a good coverage, medium-blue with light blue pearly shimmer. It's not neon, contrary to how I thought it would be when I first opened up the package.

China Glaze - Rosé My Name

Rosé My Name (2 coats) is the last metallic polish of the collection. It's a magenta chrome. It's not the smoothest finish, but it applies nicely.

China Glaze - Simply Fa-Blue-Less

Simply Fa-Blue-Less (2 coats) is such an intense color, I LOVE IT! It's a dark neon (if that's possible) blue jelly. The pictures make it look obnoxiously sheer, but that's not the case. It's really shiny and I truly love it. It really is fa-blue-less!

China Glaze - Sultry Solstice

Sultry Solstice (2 coats) is also neon, with a little more coverage. It's not quite a creme, but not quite a jelly. This neon orange crelly also dries somewhat matte without top coat.

China Glaze - Summer Reign

Summer Reign (2 coats) is the collection's namesake. It's a matte, neon purple creme with very minimal pink shimmer. The shimmer comes out around the edges in the shot above.

China Glaze - Sun-set the Mood

Sun-set the Mood (2 coats) looks basic in the picture, but it's a hot neon coral creme. The coverage is decent, but not ideal. This one also dries matte.

China Glaze - Sunset Seeker

Sunset Seeker (2 coats) is a dark, but still bright classic matte orange creme. It has red, but it's definitely still an orange.

The products in this post were given for review purposes. The reviews are based entirely on my experience with the products and were in no way influenced by anyone.

Zoya Charming Collection with Darling Pineapples

August 2017...this is my redemption song. Nail art brings me so much happiness, and that's all we need in life right?  So get happy, because this past weekend, I did SEVEN new nail art designs that I can't wait to share. First up...Charming, darling.

The Zoya Charming collection is not new, but all the colors are still available individually on Zoya.com here. It's such a polite collection...sweet shades that are very, well, charming. So I put this adorable collection onto my nails with charming little pineapples!

Pineapple Positive

I used the pink and purples from Charming to get this look. Originally, I wanted the big pineapple to be done without the black outlines, but the negative space idea I had didn't pan out like I'd hoped. It also felt a little empty, so I brought out the neon yellow studs I got a while ago from Winstonia.com (who has folded their website in to focus primarily on Amazon.)

I thought I had filmed the process for the negative space pineapple, but apparently, I only recorded me turning off the recording. Obnoxious! So I'll just explain the process.

First, I laid down a base of Jordan. Then, using Abby, Millie and Tina, I did some random dotting. Then, using Abby, I drew the shape of the pineapple, and filled in around the outside of the shape. The pineapple got lost in the design though, so I added black to punch it up. Punch...it...up.

Ready for the sweetness? How about some swatches.

Zoya - Abby

 Abby (2 coats) is the sweetest, lightest, creamiest lavender. It's got a little blue too!

Zoya - Amira

Amira (2 coats) is a dusty, blue shimmer. It's a light denim with shimmer. Almost like vintage teacups.

Zoya - Jordan

Jordan (2 coats) is a non-chalky cool pink creme. Dainty and beautiful.

Zoya - Lacey

Lacey (2 coats) is a light, sweet mossy sage green shimmer. The shimmer is a little gold, but it's a beautiful subtle sheen.

Zoya - Millie

Millie (2 coats) is a bit of an oddball for this collection, because it's more of a bright magenta shimmer, standing out among the soft pastels in the collection. It speaks volumes!

Zoya - Tina

Tina (2 coats) is the last color, and it's a lilac creme shade to die for.

See? Wasn't that so sweet?! Get your pastel on with Charming.

The products in this post were given for review purposes. The reviews are based entirely on my experience with the products and were in no way influenced by anyone.

Zoya Wanderlust 2017 Collection Swatches and Retro Pattern

Nailed It studios moved recently, so you'll have to forgive the shortage of posts. A light went down in the move, so I needed to order a new one. Expect plenty more posts this month, I've got a great new one I'm really excited for. 

As you can see, the light attaches right onto the camera. It's already diffused, and I can easily adjust the temperature of the light, from a warmer to a cooler tone. So far, I've really enjoyed it, and it's just right for the price. It's battery-operated too, so there's no extra cords and I can snap nail pictures in the wild now. I picked this up on Amazon for $45.99, and I've loved it. Here's the link to the Amazon page. (Truly just sharing this find, not linking for any profits.)

If I were vacationing, I would love to have this light for fabulous pictures. While I do have a few travel plans, my full wanderlust hasn't evolved. Oh hey...speaking of wanderlust...let's look at the Zoya Wanderlust collection! (Like that segway?)

Wanderlust 2017 might be Zoya's brightest collection, and with not just 6, but 12 colors? They knocked it out of the park for so many nail addicts. I was taken by one of the "weird" colors that we probably won't see many women wearing, Arbor, which is a crazy chartreuse creme. I don't have kids, but I sort of imagine this color shows up in babies' diapers from time to time. Not to say it isn't pretty though...the color, not the poo. So I took what I knew about chartreuse, and turned that into nail art. This is the retro wallpaper pattern that came out of that.

Is this a pattern anyone would like a tutorial for? It's detailed, but not all that terribly difficult for someone who knows their way around a nail art brush.

Let's see the rest of Wanderlust, baby poo green and all!

Zoya - Arbor

Arbor (2 coats) is...well...no way around it...a mossy, chartreuse, and truly poopy green creme. While great for nail art, I don't see many women, men, or anyone in between wearing this. Except Shrek.

Zoya - Byrdie

Byrdie (2 coats) is a much more likely candidate for wearability. This HOT pink creme was even almost perfect after 1 coat.

Zoya - Cora

Cora (2 coats) is a delicious, neon mandarain orange creamsicle...well...creme. 

Zoya - Esty

Esty (2 coats) is a cooler bright pink than Byrdie, which very slight hints of shimmer. So slight, that I'm almost doubting the notes I took on this color when I swatched it months ago. 

Zoya - Journey

I've always thought that Zoya did colored metallics with sparkle the best, and Journey (2 coats) proves it. For those loving metallic shimmers, this coral pink with gold shimmer is idillic. 

Zoya - Lois

Lois (2 coats) is strikingly similar to Tina, another Zoya color from a previous collection, but this bright purple is a little less pink. Oh by the way...the Charming collection from Zoya will be up for viewing pleasure soon!

Zoya - Mandy

Mandy (2 coats) is another metallic shimmer, but this sweet hot pink polish is cooler than Journey. Tweens probably trade this for scrunchies and friendship bracelets, because Barbie is too young for them now.

Zoya - River

River (2 coats) is an ocean-blue metallic shimmer. It's a medium blue...not really light or dark. Just...medium.

Zoya - Sawyer

Sawyer (2 coats) was the base for my retro wallpaper nail art up above. It's a light and bright orange sherbet creme. Now...here's some food porn to remind you of exactly what that Thrifty rainbow sherbet tasted like.

Image Source 

Zoya - Scout

Scout (2 coats) is a shiny poo. A bright, more sparkly version of Arbor, it's a yellowish-green metallic shimmer. This tough sell probably wouldn't leave the shelves readily if it wasn't sandwiched in such a pretty collection.

Zoya - Sonja

Sonja (2 coats) was used on my nail art as well. I like the bold contrast of this neon reddish coral creme against Sawyer and Arbor.

Zoya - Winnie

Winnie (2 coats) is the lightest pink of Wanderlust, but it's still a hot pink, a little bit coral-y, but tending more baby pink. 

Wanderlust, sold as a collection, is gone. BUT...you can get the colors individually from Zoya.com. It's almost better that way. We can put Arbor and Scout to rest that way.

The products in this post were given for review purposes. The reviews are based entirely on my experience with the products and were in no way influenced by anyone.