Zoya Wishes Collection with a Ritzy Ruffian

Ringing in spring doesn't mean winter collections are out of style, and while I'm late posting this for you, I'm no less excited about the colors in this Winter 2014 collection, Wishes. 

This collection features three PixieDusts and three untexturized polishes with a few different finishes. What's great about it is how they each come in a pair. There's a blue, purple, and black pair. So I kept the pairings true and did a simple but stunning ruffian manicure with four of the colors.

I bumped up the contrast of this ruffian by applying the OPI Matte Top Coat over the PixieDust part. Ready to see them solo? Keep scrolling!

Zoya - Haven

Haven (1-2 coats) is a totally amazing purple foil with a hint of pink shimmer to accent it. The fact that it can cover in 1-2 coats should give you an idea of how awesome it applies. This is hands-down my favorite.

Zoya - Thea

Thea (2 coats) is shown here with no top coat. That's the best way to get the ultimate PixieDust-effect, so all the PixieDusts you'll see in today's post won't have top coat. The gritty glitter is a pinky-purple with tons of rainbow iridescent glitter.

Zoya - Prim

Prim (1-2 coats) covers amazingly, and although it's a little streaky because it's a foil finish, it's still a perfect periwinkle foil color.

Casual Elegance with Glitter Nails & Jord Wood Watches

From time to time, I hear from non-polish companies, and most of the time, I don't do posts about them. I like to keep this blog very nail-centric for your reading pleasure. With that in mind though, I'd like you to check out tonight's post, because it features both nails and a beautiful watch from the wood watch company, Jord.

Jord designs simple and modern wooden watches, with a unique sense of style behind each piece. I've seen wooden watches on Pinterest, and thought that they provided the perfect blend of functionality and style, without the traditional industrial look of other watches. While my nails often scream "Look at me!", my personal style is much more reserved. I'm a tunic-wearing, legging-loving, boot-rocking kind of girl, and I think this beautiful Jord watch complements my style very well.

The beauty of the watch is that it can easily be dressed up. By pairing it with this rhinestone bracelet and a little glitter on my nails, it's gone from a casual clock to a tricked-out timepiece. I used Azature White (from Azature) over Coney Island Cotton Candy (from OPI).

And do you see the little peep hole on the face of the watch? You can actually see the gears working through that, as well as on the back of the watch.

I want to thank the generous members of Jord for sending me the Cora Series watch, in Maple and Silver. After wearing it out one night, I can assure you it's a beautiful conversation starter. My friends noticed it immediately, and boys and girls alike were asking me where I got it. Visit their online shop to see the rest of the models, including unisex, men's and women's watches. I really love mine!

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.

Londontown's lakur Leprechaun

St. Patrick's Day is in a week! Unfortunately, because it's on a Tuesday, I don't know how I'll be celebrating yet, but I do know what I'll be wearing on my fingers. Tonight's lucky mani uses lakur polishes exclusively from Londontown.

lakur is Londontown's long-lasting, high-performance line of lacquers that feature a proprietary blend of nourishing and restorative natural ingredients, including vitamins, minerals and flower oils from the iconic gardens of Britain. I noticed that when I was applying these polishes, a sweet smell lingered in the air. This wasn't surprising, since my last review of Londontown products was nothing but pleasant.

I was sent several pretty polishes, and thought these would be perfect for play with St. Patty's Day!

Here's what you're seeing on my nails:

• Emerald Tower (dark green)
• Secret Garden Posh (light green)
• Britannia (gold glitter)

Of course, my little lucky clover was painted freehand. It's nothing fancy, but it's just enough for you to get noticed. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

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.

NYC Crystal Couture Glitter Swatches & Stained Glass

Gorgeous glitters ahead! Put on your shades, because there's some serious sparkle about to go down.

NYC (or New York Color) released a lovely line of super sparkles, called Crystal Couture. If you visit that link, you'll only see 4 glitters, but I have 6 to share today!

The best thing about this line, in my opinion, is how the jelly the glitter's suspended in is actually quite opaque, so it works great for nail art. Like this stained glass stunner I did for you.

Nope...it's not a stamp or a wrap...it's freehand nail art! See how beautiful and bright those glitters come across? Let's check them out on their own.

NYC - Blue Majesty

Blue Majesty (3 coats) is an aqua blue jelly, with an array of glitter pieces, all in blue. Nice and royal, just as its name suggests.

NYC - Fashion Queen

Fashion Queen (2 coats) is another glitter with excellent coverage, sort of a gold-bronze shade. The glitter within it are all small.

NYC - NY Princess

NY Princess (2 coats) is my favorite. Look at how luscious that jelly base is! It's a great grape jelly with a variety of glitter sizes.

Zoya Ignite Swatches & Review

I'm really excited to share this week's nails with you. These are the complements to the Zoya Entice collection post from October. And although they're shimmers which generally aren't my favorites, I was able to pull one of my new favorite nail art designs out of it. Check it out!

I saw this sweatshirt and knew it'd be a great way to use Teigen (one of the Ignite polishes) for nail art. The lips and checkerboard patterns were both freehand, and I fished the glitter for the index finger out of an OPI polish, I Snow You Love Me.

Each of the colors applied wonderfully in two coats. You'll definitely need to let each layer dry between coats because the microshimmer can cause a little grit that tends to pull with the brush if you layer on top of wet polish.

Now let's look at the swatches of Ignite! First up...Teigen.

Teigen (2 coats) is a dark pink foil with gold microshimmer engrained within.

Autumn (2 coats) is copper foil with gold microshimmer. (Heads up...there's lots of gold!)

Color Club Made in NY Swatches & Review

Did you know that Color Club polishes were born in New York City? It's completely appropriate then that their latest line of colors represent the city that never sleeps. Today, we're checking out Made in NY from Color Club (available here).

The collection includes 7 polishes - 4 microglitters and 3 non-sheer finishes (though I wouldn't call them all cremes necessarily). The microglitter shimmers each have their own finish, that when placed over black, shine and twinkle like diamonds. This inspired my nail art for the collection...New York diamonds!

Nail Art

See the subtle glint of each diamond? I wish I'd gotten you all a video of the sparkle in each action. I had a great time creating these, because each diamond is quite small, but my fine line practice paid off...in diamonds!

Swatches

First, let's take a look at the swatches of the non-sheer polishes.

Apple of My Eye (2 coats) is a great winter color. This is a classy, sophisticated magenta-burgundy with a little bit of shimmer to accent its shine on the nail.

Zoya Ultra PixieDust Fall 2014 Swatches & Review

I personally don't gravitate to many of the trendy polish fads that start up every now and then. For example, I hated the crackle effect. I remember trying it as a kid (way before the polish days you've all come to know me for), and it never worked as it was shown to. Lo and behold, when it was rereleased a few years ago, nail artists everywhere continued to struggle with it.

"Stop trying to make crackle happen Gretchen, it's not going to happen!"

My pessimism carried forward when the pixiedusts and sand polishes hit the scene. After trying a few of both, I'm pleased to say I liked them! Sand polishes are kind of gritty, but generally have the same color throughout, whereas the Zoya Pixiedust polishes include dynamic glitter, especially their Ultra Pixiedust shades.

Though they aren't rockable for long (you can't wear a top coat with them if you want the gritty effect), they're pretty unreal while they are on. I think they look like raw diamonds, crumbled up on your nails. So I 'sprinkled' my nail with a trail of Ultra Pixiedust (in Oswin) for this diamond road look.

The smooth creamy base (You're So Vain-illa from OPI) totally pops the red brick road!

Now let's take a look at these colors individually after the jump.

Loaded Lacquer - Swatches and Review

Tonight I'm tickled to show you a few glitter mixes from the indie polish company, Loaded Lacquer. After seeing the beautiful work over at Chit Chat Nails, I immediately went online and bought myself the same mix. (The amount of inspiration I draw from Chit Chat Nails is really quite large, so please go check her out if you haven't already!) Then Heather, the lovely owner over at Loaded, contacted me to try and review a few more.

First, check out the nail art I did with one of the shades reviewed below, Fluffy Macaroons.

The colors besides Fluffy Macaroons I used were On Cloud 9 and Enlightenment (Precision Nail Lacquer), Bottoms Up (China Glaze) and Blue Sky's the Limit (Sation). I loved picking out the colors that went so well with the glitter.

Fluffy Macaroons is such a girly, perfectly Easter glitter mix of pinks, blues, yellows and some iridescent pieces. Here I'm showing it over Steady as She Rose (OPI).

Moonshine in a Jar is the amazing color I was inspired to buy Loaded Lacquer for originally. Shown over Chantal (Zoya), the mix is gold and copper, and it's very dense! The ring finger is literally two coats!

The last polish shown today is Steampunked (shown over I'm So Ogre It from Sation). The colors are perfect for the name - copper, gold, black and silver. Just as cogs, gears and all manner of metal trinkets make up the revived steampunk style, so too does the variety of shapes in this polish - square, hexagonal, bar, and even some large circles. It's a little difficult to work with, so you need to apply with a dotting motion.

Loaded Lacquer has plenty of other amazing mixes to choose from, all available from the Loaded Lacquer store. I highly recommend these as toppers to spruce up the most boring manicure in the most exciting way! Thank you Heather for the beautiful polishes to try!

These products were sent to me by Loaded Lacquer. The reviews are based entirely on my experience with the products and were in no way influenced by anyone.

A Week of Shimmer - Day Five, My Holiday Picks!

Welcome to the last day of the Week of Shimmer! Today I'm showing you seven colors that are absolutely perfect to deck your nails for the holidays! Whether that's a New Year's Even look or a Christmas pageant special, you'll need these in your collection.

Alice. Oh my god Alice. Take me down the rabbit hole, because you're a gorgeous stunner! Unfortunately, I can't fully capture this beauty, which is silver holographic glitter pieces. It seemed perfect to use over No Place Like Chrome (essie). An obvious New Year's Eve choice.

Cindy is named for the company's lovely founder, and could be one of my favorite jelly glitters of all time. In the red jelly base is red glitter and small accents of gold. I used it over Carmen (Zoya). This is a lovely Christmas dinner spectacular.

Cristina Christmas...that's the name I've given Cristina. These dark green/teal glitter has red and purple accents, in a clear base. I used it over teal (Wild Cactus from Color Club), so it looks more teal, but in person, it appears more green.

Julia works as both a holiday neutral color, as well as a great pick for Hanukkah. Perfect, since I have a friend named Julia who's Jewish! It's an all pale blue glitter with larger accents of holographic pieces. It works as a winter wonder over Blueberry Blast (Misa).

Now Katherine isn't the most traditional Christmas color, but it reminds me of cinnamon on hot chocolate, which is about as Christmas as it gets! I love that these pieces are all the same size, and vary from copper to brown to gold. It's used here over Farah (Zoya).

Marilyn is way prettier than my swatch. I promise. I used a chunky top coat for this swatch, and it's unfortunately muddled the beauty. I also picked a color that doesn't quite highlight it as well (Purr-fect Plum from China Glaze). Marilyn is a deep red jelly base with all red glitter, virtually all the same size.

For a better look at Marilyn, Work Play Polish did a wonderful swatch you can see (original post here.)

Image courtesy of WorkPlayPolish.com

The pot of gold at the end of this Week of Shimmer is one of the best gold glitter mixes I've ever used, Tracy. She's a yellow gold glitter and even has a few bar pieces, and spatterings of holographic beauties! I used it over Goldie (Zoya).

Which of these holiday picks do you like most?

This is the last of the Week of Shimmer! I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I've enjoyed posting it!

All of the polishes from the Week of Shimmer are available in the Shimmer Store for $12, and custom mixes can be discussed with the store owner, Cindy, for $15.

Shimmer Store  |  Shimmer Blog  |  Facebook  

 

These products were sent to me by Shimmer Polish. The reviews are based entirely on my experience with the products and were in no way influenced by anyone.

A Week of Shimmer - Day Four

Was that few days of hiatus too much for you to handle? Were you missing the Week of Shimmer? Are you completely confused about what a "Week of Shimmer" is? If you answered "yes" to my last question, I highly recommend you check out days one, two and three before reading today's post. It'll fill you in on what this Week of Shimmer is, and why the swatches look the way they do.

First up tonight is Tammy, shown over My Boyfriend Scales Walls (OPI). This is a unique glitter compared to most, as it has some bar glitter. I love the amount too...it's Three Little Bears just right! Tammy is a gold and purple glitter with black and holographic gold accents.

Taylor is another odd ball. This uses a very dark magenta jelly base, and mixes in green, purple and red glitter. I've used it over Monica (Zoya), but you can hardly tell there's a difference!

Next is Tiffany, a baby pink and pale blue glitter mix in a clear base. I used it over Ripe Rashberry (Misa). (And yes...that's the name of it...don't ask me why.)

Vicki is another pink glitter mix, in a slightly pink base. It's speckled with shards of iridescent pieces, but it's almost entirely pink. I used it over Mod About You (OPI).

Finally tonight there's Wendy, a total party mix. With pieces of royal purple and lilac, and accents of gold and teal, it really looks great!  I used it over Walking on Air (Precision Lacquer).

I know that tonight there's only 5 Shimmer Polishes, but that's because tomorrow, I'll be showcase my picks for Christmas colors! You don't want to miss that!


And as always, all the polishes are available in the Shimmer Store for $12, and custom mixes can be discussed with the store owner, Cindy, for $15.

Shimmer Store  |  Shimmer Blog  |  Facebook 

These products were sent to me by Shimmer Polish. The reviews are based entirely on my experience with the products and were in no way influenced by anyone.

A Week of Shimmer - Day Three

Happy Friday the 13th everyone! If you've had any strokes of bad luck today, hopefully day three of A Week of Shimmer will help it be better.

For details on the review of the polishes and an explanation of why the ring finger looks different, please read day one's post here.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? Mary soes the seeds of glitter in a magenta jelly base with pink glitter and larger black and rainbow accents. It's shown over a chrome Color Club, Hot Like Lava.

Natalie is a royal blue and copper gold glitter mix in a clear base. It's shown over Westside Warrior (China Glaze).

Nichole is a patriotic glitter! It's a lovely mix of red, silver and blue glitter in a variety of sizes, all in a clear base. I used it over Igniting Love (China Glaze).

The dainty Sonia loves lilac. With the lilac glitter as the main color, there are flecks of gold and some occasional iridescent pieces. Perfect over Planks a Lot (OPI).

Sophisticated Sophie. Mostly, this is a pink glitter in a clear base. There's an occasional gold, purple and red accent. It works well over Recessionista (Essie).

This is Stephanie. A dark blue glitter mix with light blue, red, and purple. I used another Essie for this swatch, Mezmerised.

Finally, there's Strength. You may notice that this all baby blue glitter is named differently than the rest. The rest work like Zoya polishes, named after women. This polish provides proceeds to PCOS, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.

Which is your favorite polish in this bunch? Any of your favorites can be purchased in the Shimmer Polish Store for $12. I'll be back with another Shimmer Week post on Monday!

Shimmer Store  |  Shimmer Blog  |  Facebook 

These products were sent to me by Shimmer Polish. The reviews are based entirely on my experience with the products and were in no way influenced by anyone.

A Week of Shimmer - Day Two

Welcome to day two of Shimmer Polish! If you missed day one, go read about what this is all about, the reviews, and why the heck my ring finger looks different. Go do that now.

This is Gerry, a dark blue jelly with primarily royal blue and purple glitter, and a mix of red and black accents. This one's definitely one of my favorites, especially over OPI...Eurso Euro (OPI).

I noticed my previous batch of swatches was looking a little blown out on some screens, so I pumped down the exposure settings on these. Tell me which you prefer...day one look (plus Gerry) or day two look (all of those below).

This is Jennifer. Jennifer is a clear base with pale glitter in blue and purple. Larger black and gold accents are mixed in as well. I used it over Decoded (ORLY).

Jenny is another baby blue and purple mix, with teal, gold and some royal blue accents. It's all finished off with larger gold glitter. I used it over Fancy Pants (China Glaze).

Karen is another standout. (Maybe I've got a crush on purple glitter I didn't realize.) Another clear base with shades of purple and larger, silver glitter. It's used over Vant to Bite My Neck? (OPI).

I love Kim! This is a less crowded polish, and looks absolutely fantastic over a muted base (like I Vant to Be A-Lone Star from OPI). It's a steel glitter with big blue and purple pieces.

Lorene is a magenta jelly base with gold, pink and teal glitter. It darkens up its base nicely, as it's done here with Dutch Tulips (OPI).

The last Shimmer for tonight is Melissa. This is another clear base, with mostly purple glitter. It includes purple, red, and gold glitter throughout though. I used it over a no name hot pink from Color Club.

Which is your favorite in this bunch? How would you pair the glitter mixes, and what nail art would you like to see from them at the end of the week?

All the polishes are available in the Shimmer Store. The store's hardworking owner, Cindy, also takes custom orders for $15.

Shimmer Store  |  Shimmer Blog  |  Facebook 

These products were sent to me by Shimmer Polish. The reviews are based entirely on my experience with the products and were in no way influenced by anyone.