Day 8 - Metalic

I've been saving my favorite silver polish for this day. I want you to see how amazing it is so I kept it to a swatch. I took some pictures in the sun (yay it came out) and inside. Here is Zoya's Trixie:

Outside, no flash. Please excuse my scratch. My kitty doesn't know that he can only scratch up my other hand. We had a big talk about it. ;)

Outside, no flash. 

Outside, no flash. 

Inside, with flash. 

Isn't it stunning? It works well for stamping too. In fact it picked up the images a lot better than Konad Special Polish Silver did (that did not work for me at all). 

Application was very easy, it's runnier than my other Zoyas so I had to take care to make my coats nice and thin. Other than that, it went on smoothly and I only needed two coats for full opacity. I used Poshe for my top coat so drying time was very quick. Don't you love how shiny it is? This is a must have, in my opinion! Anything Zoya is a must have, you know how much I love Zoya! 

Thanks for reading!

Day 7 - Black and White

I had a bit of frustration with this one which was surprising because I thought it would be easy. I had an idea in my head which is half the battle but I just couldn't get it to come out the way I would have liked. I took some pictures of my first try before I cleaned up around my cuticles just to see if I wanted to post it. I took if off out of frustration and decided to take the easy way out and do a simple shatter. I of course regret that now and wish I would have just tried my idea again. ;) I'm going to include a picture of what I was trying to do and then the easy shatter as a compromise.

Here is the first attempt: 

I was trying to do black and white flowers using a striper brush and black rhinestones. I don't think  they look like flowers and my brush strokes are a bit sloppy. I will get better with practice. I've only used the striper brush a few times. ;) 

Here is my real picture of today's challenge:

 Before I did this look, I alternated black and white on my nails for my base color. Then, I put white shatter on the black base and black shatter on the white base. My white shatter didn't well, shatter! It had a few lines but no separation. Has anyone else experienced this with white shatter (OPI) or do I just have a funky bottle? It didn't look presentable at all so that was removed immediately and here we go! I think it's a really fun look, I just wanted to do something a little more impressive than this.

Supplies: OPI Envy (base coat), Zoya's Snow White, OPI Black Shatter, Poshe (Top Coat)

I do love how easy this look is, there are so many funky combos that you can do now that everyone is making a shatter, crackle, etc. One of my favorite combos is OPI's Rally Pretty Pink with Red Shatter on top. Do you have a favorite combination? Feel free to post pictures to my facebook page, I'd love to see them!

Tomorrow is metallic and then the challenge gets more challenging. Eeep!

Thanks for reading!

Day 6 - Violet

I've been looking forward to this day. I had my favorite polish reserved for this. It's sadly not available anymore and runs for about $20-$25 on Amazon  & Ebay if you can find it. I checked recently on Amazon and it's not there. They pop up now and then so if you are willing to pay that much for polish, keep checking! It's amazing. I'm going to let the pictures do the talking. The sun has been hiding but this beauty doesn't take much to show it's holo goodness. OPI - Designer Series (DS) Original is my choice for lavender. I'm trying to reserve it so I won't run out. I hate that it's so expensive. I want to get another bottle for a back up. It will be a sad sad day when I run out. The shade is actually called Original. It's the most Holographic polish I own. I don't have a lot of holos (YET), they are too expensive for me. I used two coats. Application was a dream, I did put on a top coat (Poshe) to try to prolong it's wear time. Holos tend to chip easily. Alright, here they are!

 Blurry picture, showing the name of the polish. Even shadowed by the bottle, it's beautiful!

 With flash to show the holo effect. The sun didn't want to come out. It's still gorgeous.

 Love it! 

 My sad bottle is getting low....it's a tragedy!

 You want this now, don't you? ;)

Ok here it is without flash, it's still very pretty. 

This would be a great thing to ask for Christmas if you can find it. These pictures don't do it justice, it's just beautiful. 

Thanks for reading! Please subscribe if you like my blog. I have a giveaway waiting in my closet for when I hit 50 followers. ;)

Day 5 - Blue

I am SO sorry that this is late. I hope the wait was worth it, I L O V E this color. I was torn between two blues and let my sister pick her favorite. 

Do you know about Butter London? I just recently discovered it. It's a bit pricey so using a coupon is a must for me. Ulta carries this line and usually has coupons in the Sunday paper. I have a few now and I love them all. I'll swatch them for you sometime. This is called Bluey. It applied so smoothly and only needed two coats for full opacity. I used three because I bumped one of my nails which is a usual occurrence for me. ;) I put two coats of OPI's Gone Gonzo! from the new Muppets collection on my ring finger and thumb. To finish, I used Poshe for my top coat. 

Tomorrow is violet and I have a treat for you. More like a tease...I will just apologize in advance for any lemmings I may create. ;) Any guesses? 

Thanks for reading!

Zoya

Ok, are you aware of how awesome Zoya is? You must make a free account on zoya.com and "like" them on Facebook. There polish is amazing. I wish I had every single one. I'm not sure where I'd store it but I'd find a way. ;) It's high quality lacquer without the high price tag. Their customer service has always been a positive experience for me. Now, the reason you need to make an account and "like" them is because they have amazing promos. On Halloween, they gave away free polish! You just had to pay for the shipping. Seriously! The next day, a buy 2 get 2 code came out. In fact, that code B2G2 is still valid. It expires on Nov. 5 I believe.

You will be seeing a lot of Zoya love from me. I have a little collection starting and I can't resist a Zoya sale.

If you're not sure which polish will look good on your skin tone, you can order what they call spoons. They are inexpensive, and the money you spend on the spoons go towards a credit that you can use to order your polish!

I did not get payed for this lil shout out. Zoya doesn't know that I exist but I do love them!

Day 4 - Green

I had a hard time picking which green to show you today. They are all so beautiful. I picked one of my favorites, Zoya's Edyta (Wicked Collection). Edyta is one of my most unique colors, it has so many colors that come out with the light. Inside, it looks like a dark metallic green. When the light hits it, a beautiful metallic gold and dark blue comes out with the green. It's pretty awesome if you ask me. =) I recommend using two base coats because this baby can stain. I had a hard time capturing all of the colors that is Edyta. Luckily, you can see what I'm talking about in the pictures of the bottle. What you see in the bottle is what it looks like on the nail in person.

Thanks for reading! Tomorrow is blue!

Day 3 - Yellow

Ok, yellow is so not my color. It completely washes me out. Ok, enough complaining....here we go! 

The one and only yellow polish I own is China Glaze - Happy Go Lucky. It's a pretty good yellow. I tried out quite a few and it was the only yellow polish that had good coverage. The other brands/shades were very shear and hard to work with. This goes on pretty streaky for the first coat but the second coat went on smoothly. After two coats, I put on Seche Vite and gave it time to dry (just a few minutes). Then, I stamped on my flowers from Bundle Monster plate #224 with Konad's Special White polish. I always put on a top coat before I stamp so I can quickly wipe off mistakes without taking off my base color. You can only get away with that once before you start rubbing off your polish but it gives you a little wiggle room! =) After I finished stamping, I put on another coat of Seche Vite and called it a night!

I am SO excited for tomorrow's challenge color. I absolutely love green nail polish. The challenge is choosing just one! Hmm......

Thanks for reading!