Throwback Thursday: Zoya Cashmere Swatches & Review

Press Sample

Don't you hate it when you're on your computer, looking through files, and you discover that you never posted those swatches that you did literally MONTHS ago? Awesome, right? I feel like a big ol' dummy. I looked at the date, and these photos were taken in August. Yeah, that month at the end of summer that was, hmmm, let's count...over 7 months ago. Really. The sad part? I LOVED this collection, so I'm not sure how I could have missed posting it!!

Anyway, better late than never right?

Zoya Livingston

Red creme

A bright red creme that isn't anything terribly unique, but it's a pretty nice red. 

Opacity scale (1-5): 3.5

Finish: Creme, 2 coats to be opaque

Zoya Pepper

Brick red creme

I love this one. Love! It's a great brick red, and makes me think of my favorite pop (or if you're not from Michigan- SODA), Dr. Pepper! I wonder if that's why they called it that?!

Opacity scale (1-5): 3.5

Finish: Creme, 2 coats to be opaque

Zoya Louise

Chocolate creme

Another one of my favorites from this collection! (Warning: I'm going to say that a lot in this collection) This is/was a fantastic color for fall. I have a soft spot for browns like this.

Opacity scale (1-5): 3.5

Finish: Creme, 2 coats to be opaque

Zoya Flynn

Tan/camel creme

Another yummy neutral that is perfect for fall, and of course, I love it. Every time i see polishes like these I need them. The name makes me think of Breaking Bad though. :-P

Opacity scale (1-5): 3.5

Finish: Creme, 2 coats to be opaque

Zoya Hunter

Dusty (you guessed it) hunter green creme

A dusty green that makes me think of evergreen trees. Definitely guaranteed to 'SPRUCE' up your manicure! :-D Ba-dum-bum!

Opacity scale (1-5): 3.5

Finish: Creme, 2 coats to be opaque

Zoya Sailor

Navy creme

Ahoy!! This lady is sure to make your nails ready for the high seas! It's not a super deep navy, but it's definitely navy! :-D This one was the most opaque of the bunch!

Opacity scale (1-5): 4

Finish: Creme, 2 coats to be opaque



What do you think, better late than never? Did you love this collection when it came out? Which colors did you get? Tell me in the comments below! 

Zoya nail polishes, as always, are free of formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, toluene, dibutyl phthalate, and camphor and can be purchased at zoya.com and Ulta and Ulta.com for $9. 

Disclosure: Products in this post were provided for review by the manufacturer. See the legal page disclosure for more information.

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A Frog in My Throat

Nothing to Disclose

Rumor has it that there is another Muppets movie out recently. While I did this a few months ago for a 31-day challenge (the theme for the day was 'green'), I figured this would be perfect to post on my blog instead of just my Instagram. This was a super quick and simple design that you instantly recognize, right? For some reason it makes me want to sing Rainbow Connection. lol

I'll be honest, it's been a while, and I only remember what color I used for the base color of Kermit–I'll list it below. :)

I used:

Green base: China Glaze Budding Romance

Basecoat: Sephora Formula X base coat

Topcoat: Seche Vite top coat

Are you going to watch the new Muppets Most Wanted movie? What do you think of my Kermit interpretation? Tell me in the comments below, I'd love to hear from the lovers, the dreamers, and you!

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Luck of the Not So Irish?

Nothing to DisclosePress Sample

Happy belated St Patrick's Day! I posted this manicure on my Instagram (Are you following me yet?! :-P) yesterday and, as promised, I'm posting them here on the blog! I know that I've been horrid about posting lately, but I'm working very hard to get stuff posted and collections swatched for you!! :-D

So about the nails, I usually hate stuff affixed to my nails, but I knew that the gold studs from the Sally Hansen I ♥ Nail Art stud set would be perfect for gold coins left by a mischievous little leprechaun on my nail! I actually like the ring finger nail a lot, and since the studs are so close together, I won't pick them off like I usually do. I used a bunch of polishes for this manicure, so see below for the details!

You can sort of see the beautiful shift of Ninja Polish Shillelagh best in the second photo; from one angle it is a beautiful emerald, and from another it's a golden green, and sometimes I feel like I can even see a rusty orange. I love it!

Side note: These pictures were unfortunately taken after a shift at work, so there is some slight tip wear...oops!

I used:

Thumb: 

Green: Sephora by OPI I Come in Peas

Green/Gold Shimmer: Ninja Polish Shillelagh

Index:

White: Milani White on the Spot

Red: Zoya Tamsen

Orange: Butter LONDON Silly Billy

Yellow: Wet 'n' Wild Get Lucky

Green: Sephora by OPI I Come in Peas

Blue: Essie Butler Please

Purple: Seche Nails Clever & Confident 

Middle: 

China Glaze Mingle With Kringle

Ring Finger:

Green: Sephora by OPI I Come in Peas

Studs: Sally Hansen I ♥ Nail Art Studs set

Pinky: 

Green/Gold Shimmer: Ninja Polish Shillelagh

Basecoat: Sephora Formula X base coat

Topcoat: Seche Vite top coat


What did you do for your St Patrick's Day Manicure? Tell me in the comments below! 

Disclosure: Some products in this post were provided for review by the manufacturer. However, many of them were purchased by me. See the legal page disclosure for more information. 

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shamROCK OUT!

Get your pinching fingers ready, it's that time of year again–St. Patrick's Day! Time to put your drinkin' shoes on, and don your best green attire, because it's time to do it up right! I'm not Irish, but with the pale skin, red hair, and freckles, I definitely look the part. Here's hoping that this St. Paddy's Day, my 'Irish' looks bring me a few extra tips at work tonight! :D

I totally HAD to use my Zoya Gilty for this manicure, I mean, how much more appropriate can you get than St. Patrick's Day? :D  Michigan winters and being a server have not been kind to my nails/cuticles, my nails break every 2 minutes it seems like (hence the super nubs), and I'm pretty sure I could wear gloves made of Lemony Flutter and my cuticles would still be unhappy.

Anyway, Happy St. Paddy's Day! :)

I used:

White: Cult Nails Tempest
Red: American Apparel Downtown L.A.
Orange: CND Electric Orange
Yellow: American Apparel Manila
Green: CND Green Scene
Turquoise: Zoya Robyn
Blue: Pure Ice French Kiss
Purple: Funky Fingers Riot
Gold Flake: Zoya Gilty
Basecoat: Cult Nails Get it On
Topcoat: Cult Nails Wicked Fast

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HalloWEDNESDAY! I Broke the Mold

Have you noticed that all my Halloween posts have been grotesque or creepy? Today is no different, I've got moldy, mossy, nasty nail art for you today! Only one more HalloWEDNESDAY left, and that will be Halloween, so I have to think of something extra wicked. (In more ways than one!) What do you guys think of the creepy nail art? Are you more of a creepy/gross nail art fan or do you prefer the cutesy/fun kind? 

The design I came up with for today utilizes flocking powder, and actually benefits from the staining on my nails. (YES, I use basecoat EVERY time I paint my nails, not sure why they stain so badly!) They were most recently stained by Zoya Kimber, which I used in my BCA design. That polish is actually pretty gorgeous, but man did it stain! (worth it!!)

Would you wear this design? Tell me why or why not in the comments!

Tutorial to come! :)

I used: 

Olive Green: Zoya Dree

Dark Green: Zoya Envy

Green flocking powder

Basecoat: Cult Nails Get it On

Check out this cool moth that was hangin' out by the fluorescent light outside!

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Have I Crossed the Line? Tutorial!

You asked for it!

I'm overwhelmed by the amount of you that wanted a tutorial for this design (in the best way!), and knew I had to let it jump queue to the top of the list!

With no further ado...

So how do you plan to cross the line?

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Have I Crossed the Line?

So this design MAAAAAAAY look a little familiar. Just a little. It may have been one-fifth of yesterday's design. Ok, it was. It totally was. I seriously loved how the thumb turned out, and thought it'd look totally rad as a full manicure in that style. The main difference this time around it that I didn't stick to red, I decided to totally taste the rainbow- but only when I eat with my hands.

Someone mentioned they'd like a tutorial for the thumb (or in this case, the full manicure). Anyone else interested? Let me know, and I'll try to work it in to the tutorial schedule. :) I have some fun ones that I'm planning to film soon (if the ideas work out other than in my brain). Anyway, I won't babble on too much more, here's the nail arty-ness.

I used:

White: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On

Black: American Apparel Hassid

Red: Cult Nails Evil Queen
Orange: CND Electric Orange
Yellow: CND Bicycle Yellow
Green: CND Green Scene
Blue: CND Anchor Blue

Topcoat: Seche Vite topcoat

Basecoat: Seche Vite basecoat

Eyes hurt yet?

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Under My Umbrella-ella-ella

Imagine lounging comfortably on your couch innocently watching reruns of Season 1 of Grey's Anatomy, when all of the sudden—the cable goes out!? CRASH! BOOM! CRACK! FLASH! What? Where did that come from?! Five minutes ago there wasn't a cloud in the sky! Yeah well, welcome to monsoon season in India. I swear to god there is a switch somewhere 'upstairs' that someone flicks to change the weather here. It goes from pleasant weather to booming thunder that you can feel in your guts and lightning that looks like strobe lights–shall we call it strobe lightning?!

I know, I know. Another weather-related nail design, but Reader Rita said I HAD to do it since I mentioned it, and who am I to be a tease?! This design makes me smile when I see it, and I'm glad that I did it!

What's the weather look like where you live?

I used:

White: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On
Red: China Glaze Hey Sailor
Red Shadow: CND Bloodline
Red Highlight: China Glaze Hey Sailor + Zoya Arizona
Yellow: American Apparel Manila
Yellow Shadow: Zoya Arizona
Yellow Highlight: American Apparel Manila + Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On
Blue: MAC Breezy
Blue Shadow: Cult Nails Time Traveler
Blue Highlight: American Apparel American Denim + Cult Nails Time Traveler
Green: CND Green Scene
Green Shadow: CND Green Scene + Cult Nails Time Traveler
Green Highlight: CND Green Scene + Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On
Dark Brown: China Glaze Mahogany Magic
Tan: Essie Brooch the Subject + American Apparel Manila
Light Blue: American Apparel American Denim
Topcoat: Seche Vite topcoat
Basecoat: Seche Vite basecoat

Who else finds it ironic that I took a picture of these nails on a sunny day? (I swear it was a crazy storm last night!)

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All Things Being Equal

A while back after seeing some super awesome nail striping tape manicures, I decided to order some striping tape from eBay (the easiest place to order nail art things here in India). This design kinda hit me today, and I have absolutely NO IDEA where it came from, but it DOES use striping tape! The only other tool required is a cosmetic sponge! The thumb nail turned out to be my favorite, since it was the easiest to apply the tape to. I sponged the gradient first (over my yellow base color), then after that dried I applied a zillion strips of striping tape and painted the exposed nail black. Fairly easy, right?!  The hardest part is making sure the stripes are evenly spaced...or dare I say 'equal'? Get it—because its an equalizer?! *groan*

I used:

Green: CND Green Scene

Light Green: Sally Hansen Grass Slipper

Yellow: CND Bicycle Yellow

Orange: Zoya Arizona

Red: China Glaze Hey Sailor

Black: American Apparel Hassid

Clear topcoat: Seche Vite

striping tape

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Indian Flag Nail Art Tutorial!

You may know that I've been living in India for the past 9 months, and today is India's Independence Day! I could hardly do this Flags of the World tour and not include my current home, right? I figured that today of all days would be the perfect day to post it, too.

There's more to India than curry, saris, and Hinduism. I'll be the first to admit that this country is sometimes maddening, but to balance out the madness are some of the most kind, generous, and generally selfless people I've ever met.

In addition to my Indian flag, nail art tutorial, I wore a saree/sari to work yesterday! (We didn't have work today) I felt awkward and exposed all day, and have a whole new respect for the Indian women that choose to wear saris on a regular basis. I rewarded myself with wearing jeans today. :D My friend Sheba was an absolute godsend, since there was no way I could wrap this thing alone- every time I tried, it looked like a giant slate blue diaper.

At the beginning of the day- Jasmine flowers in my hair, bindi on, all put together. :D

My friend Diana fussing over my pleats to make sure they looked right :D

My friend Sheba fussing over my pleats at the end of the day before having pic taken again. Stupid things kept coming untucked.

The back view. I love the pallu (the hanging piece) of this sari- all gold and copper metallic threads. so pretty!

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Spotted!

After some of the recent designs I've done, I wanted to keep it simple today. Super simple. This design was inspired by an interesting invitation fold where 4 semi-circles come together to make a cool looking center. The best part about this design is that is entirely done with a dotting tool! But wait–you don't have a dotting tool? How about a toothpick? Maybe a pin? A nail? Anything with a small, round tip can work! Easy stuff.

Another thing that is nice about this design is that it can be done in a zillion different color combinations if you don't like grey, purple, lime, hot pink, and turquoise! :D (But, let's be realistic- who doesn't like those colors?! Maybe not necessarily in this combination, but still! :-D)

I used:

Grey: Nubar Stronghold

Purple: American Apparel Imperial Purple

Lime Green: Sally Hansen Grass Slipper

Hot Pink: Zoya Lara

Turquoise: Zoya Robyn

Topcoat: Seche Vite

Disclosure: All Zoya links in this post are Zoya Love links, and points earned when you click on them, start an account, and make a purchase go directly back to you— as Giveaways!! :)

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That's a Wrap!

First off, thanks for the suggestions (and compliments) for my tutorials! I'm glad that you guys are liking them. I'll do everything I can to take your suggestions and use them to influence my future tutorials! Keep those suggestions coming though- don't be shy, I can take it! Don't forget- there's something in it for YOU too! :)

I work in an office, and our dress code by U.S. standards is pretty casual. Common attire is polo shirts and jeans, though the women usually wear kurtas (a type of tunic) with leggings or salwar (loose, pajama-y pants). I often wear kurtas with jeans, but when I don't, I wear cute, work-appropriate tops. Today my top, though bright-colored, felt a little plain, so I threw on one of my favorite scarves...I've had it for years, and it made the trip to India with me. I initially bought it because of the bold graphic print and the color combination, but it's grown to be somewhat of a frequent accessory in my wardrobe. Anyway, when looking at it today, I felt the desire to do a nail art design inspired by the print of the fabric. It's not the same, but it uses similar colors and patterns. The best part about this design? It almost exclusively uses a dotting tool to make the design, I only used the nail art brush in a few places!

I used:

Brown: Zoya Codie
White: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On
Pink: Zoya Lara
Turquoise: butter LONDON Artful Dodger
Green: Sally Hansen Grass Slipper
Topcoat: Seche Vite

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A Dash to the Finish Line

So I know I've been posting a lot of tutorials lately, and not as much nail art, so I decided to post something other than a flag today!! :-D  (Speaking of, are there any that you want to see? I have a few requests already, but I'll get to them!  :) )

It always amazes me how designs change even while I'm painting them. This design originated as dashes of all the same length in white over black, with an occasional red accent dash. It eventually evolved to different lengths of white dashes on back creating a wave-ish pattern with no red. Finally, I added color to each nail, making a sort of rolling gradient across the dashes. In retrospect, I wish I would've stuck to one color family for the entire manicure, instead of a different one on each nail. The orange and blue nails were my favorites...maybe I could've done an orange palette with a blue accent nail? (or vice versa?) Maybe next time?

I used:

Black: American Apparel Hassid
White: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On
Dark Orange: CND Electric Orange
Medium Orange: Zoya Arizona
Yellow: American Apparel Manila
Dark Green: American Apparel Hunter
Medium Green: CND Green Scene
Light Green: Sally Hansen Grass Slipper
Dark Teal: American Apparel Peacock
Medium Teal: Zoya Robyn
Light Blue: American Apparel American Denim
Dark Purple: Zoya Pinta
Medium Purple: American Apparel Imperial Purple
Light Purple: American Apparel L Esprit
Dark Red: CND Bloodline
Bright Red: China Glaze Hey Sailor
Pink: Zoya Shelby
Topcoat: Seche Vite

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Brazilian/Brasilian Flag Nail Art Tutorial!

A lot of you lovely (and handsome) readers are Brazilian/Brasilian, so how could I NOT do a Brazilian flag tutorial during my Flags of the World nail art tutorial series? My apologies for almost certainly murdering the Portuguese language in the intro!! (I tried!)

The Bandeira do Brasil!

 Espero que os guste!

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Olympic Rings Tutorial!

So I'm going to be doing a series of tutorials for the Olympics, and this is the first one! :) I decided to get into the tutorial spirit, and get my ass in gear. Unfortunately my internet disagrees. It takes a full hour to upload a 4.5 minute video! Awesome right?

Anyway, I hope you like the first in my Olympics-themed Nail Art Tutorial Series!

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Poppy Extravaganza!

Today I have a design that I did a few months ago for the Rite Aid Nail Extravaganza nail art competition. The judges were Suzi Weiss-Fischmann of OPI, Essie Weingarten of Essie, and Julie G of Julie G Beauty. Needless to say, I wanted to IMPRESS. With this design I made it to the finalist round, where I was sent a box of products that I had to use to create a new nail design. Here's the catch, I could ONLY use the tools/polishes in the box. Unfortunately this did not include A. topcoat B. a nail art brush. I did contact the PR people handling the contest to make sure I was not allowed to use topcoat or brushes, and they said if it's not in the box...no.

The kit included: a set of 5 polishes from the Jesse's Girl Julie G line, 2 Essies, a NOPI red, and 5 Sally Hansen Nail Art Pens. I spent 4 hours. FOUR. HOURS. trying to make these products work. Sure, the polishes were all AWESOME. Unfortunately not many of them coordinated, and on top of that, the lack of topcoat meant that anything I drew with the nail art pens wiped off. After several failed attempts (every time I drew something I was mildly OK with, the pen would shit on my nail and make a big splotch...there was a lot of unparliamentary language goin' on that night), I came up with something that I wasn't horribly embarrassed to submit. This round was voted on by the public... needless to say, my design didn't win.  You can view the other submissions on the Rite Aid Nail Extravaganza site.

In any event, I was REALLY happy with my initial submission. I tried a new watercolor technique where I painted the shape of where the color was the boldest/most opaque, then dipped my brush in acetone and 'pulled' the color to create the other shapes.

I used:

White: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On
Red: Nicole by OPI Red-y to Runaway Love, sometimes mixed with Zoya Arizona
Darker Red: Essie Blood Curdling
Yellow: CND Bicycle Yellow
Green: Essie Pretty Edgy, sometimes mixed with CND Bicycle Yellow

Black: American Apparel Hassid

Topcoat: Seche Vite

The OTHER design. 

I used:

Essie Merino Cool

Silver, Black, and White Sally Hansen Nail Art pens

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Wherever the Chips May Fall

My nails are FUZZY!!!

I can't take credit for the fuzzy part- I was inspired by Jen over at The Polishaholic blog! The rest of the inspiration for this nail art came from being homesick, and from being bummed about missing out on CosmoProf North America right now in Las Vegas with all my other blogger friends!! *BUMMED*

In honor of all the lovely bloggin' ladies in Vegas right now, I made Vegas poker nails!!  I used green flocking for the felt, and poker chips to make the half-moons!

I used:

Green: CND Green Scene

Yellow: American Apparel Manila

Red: China Glaze Hey Sailor

Blue: MAC Breezy Blue

Black: American Apparel Hassid

White: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On

Topcoat: Seche Vite

Next year.

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