Z: Zoya America

This is the last post of the ABC challenge!! I am so sad this challenge has come to an end. Thank you ladies for letting me be a part of this!

Well, for Z, I chose Zoya, and for another special occasion today is Independence Day, here in the U.S.  America is Zoya's classic cherry red.  It has been such a long time since I have worn simple, plain, red nails.

Two coats with top coat.

That is it for today.  I hope we get together soon for another nail challenge.

Zoya Wednesday

I can not wait until "W" or "Z" in the ABC challenge to come around to wear Wednesday!  So you get to see it today!

I have to tell you Wednesday has a very nice retro, mid-century feel to it. Very close to China Glaze For Audrey, just more green. For Audrey is more blue. They're not dupes but they are pretty darn close and they have the same effect from afar when worn alone.  I'm glad I have both.  I think if your into nail art and added red the differences will become obvious.

Here's two coats of Wednesday.  A very nice creamy formula too, I might add.

Went a little picture crazy.

Here's a comparison to the other teals I own.  Wednesday is the same shade but more green than For Audrey, and it is one shade lighter than Sweet Addiction.  Barielle's Sweet Addiction by the way is a possible one coater, and it is sitting in my untried pile.  I did a swatch of Athens last spring.



Here is a shot at the bottles.

I like any shade of teal or cyan. I wanted to get Bevin too.... must have discipline!

Oh, here are two pictures of the demolition of the bench.

This took three hours or so to take apart.  Inside was lined with cedar so we salvaged that, which is why it took so long.  I am totally relieved to find dry wall behind the bench, but whoever installed it ripped out the windowsills, so I'm going to have to get a carpenter to put those in and fix all the broken molding.  And look gross brown carpet that came before the cream carpet!

Click back two posts to see before photos.

More to come, enjoy the photos!

C: Cho, Zoya

Howdy!  This is going to be a jammed packed post today, so hold on tight.

First, for the ABC challenge; C: for Cho by Zoya... I want to say heeerrreee's Margaret Cho (the comedienne).... that's who I think about when I see this polish.  Anyways, Cho is a warm neutral... yellowish khaki, with a very subtle silver shimmer. It goes on like a pastel, uneven and tacky, which requires a bit of patience. The results are nice and calming, here is two coats.

On to a bunch of things to show you today. If you remember in an earlier post, I mentioned I hated my wedding band.... love my engagement ring though. Here they are.

Maybe I'm old fashioned, or from the "less is more" camp, but I don't really like to wear rings with flashy nail polish. So sometimes I will wear rings when I wear a nice neutral polish, like Cho.

My wedding band is not attractive when worn alone, that's basically why I don't like it.

Also, below is what I got at the big Zoya sale a couple of weeks ago, 3 polishes for $10 with shipping. DEAL!

I got Pasha, Wednesday, and Cho, (left to right).  The polishes came in this nice box and they sent me a color chart which is really cool. I love color charts, they are like eye candy.

Lastly, home improvement.... The latest project I'm working on is renovating my master bedroom. I think the best way to present this is to post a picture as the project unfolds. At the beginning.....

This is the view from the door looking in.

This is the view with my back facing the window... there's a peek at my bathroom.

So this room is 17 feet by 12 feet. Lavender leaning periwinkle color the walls (sigh), what can I say? They were not my choice, painted by the previous owner, and to my dismay I lived with this for nearly nine years!  Jeeze, almost a decade! I guess it was possible to live like this because my eyes were shut most of the time and I'm too tired from work to deal with it. So, who cares, just go to bed. The cream colored carpets are stained and worn out from us, my clumsy husband spilling drinks, coffee and what not, cats and dogs. Mainly dogs. I had an Italian greyhound who passed away in late 2009 of kidney failure and he vomited a few times on this carpet. I've tried to scrub up the bile but... I know I'm totally grossing you out now.

To add to the negative aspects, this room is dark too, the window faces west and somewhat north. So, it going to be light, neutral walls in here. Maybe even white. I know white can be boring, but lots of people have been doing jewel tones. Moreover, its a bedroom and I need a break, a palate cleanser. I hate red dining rooms! I hate purple walls! I'm tired of khaki and tan. I did the spare bedroom in blue, so no blue.

The bay window with the horrible cushioned "seating" area..."how romantic", NOT! Everyone says that when they see this room. "Oh a bay window, the seated storage area... how nice!" NO, no, no, NO!!! This "romantic seated bench" is going to the dump, where it belongs. It is not efficient use of space, it is inconvenient, uncomfortable and no one wants to sit on it. I used to store bed linens and blankets in that "hole" but they would just get lost and forgotten about. It was a messy way to store things. When I needed to change my bed linens, I had to remove all the cushions and lift up the top. Then while digging around, I had to hold up the heavy lid with one hand, which only left me one other hand and arm to reach down and find what I needed.  UGH!  A really bad and ill conceived idea. Thankfully, I did not build it, it was not my idea.  Don't ever build a bench like this, you'll regret it.

What's the plan for this room? A neutral palette, new furniture and hardwood floors. Next we demolition the storage bench. It gets much worse before it gets any better. Stay tuned!

Go Pink Wednesday - Zoya - Alegra

Hey there!

It's time to honor Breast Cancer Awareness again!  I'm wearing a special, sparkly, fuchsia, metallic foil polish; Alegra from Zoya.  Below is two coats.

Alegra totally reminded me of Ahoy... but my memory is obviously foggy.  As you can see below they are totally different.

A very good place to learn about breast cancer is from the American Cancer Society. http://www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/index?ssSourceSiteId=null 

All of the information provided there is from experts in the field, up to date and peer reviewed.
Muy importante!

Well that's it for now!  Add your post below!

Zoya Dita

Hey guys!

Quick post on this week's work mani.  This week is DRAGGING by.  For those of you still in school, stay as long as you can because working for a living SUCKS!!!

ANYWAYS, Zoya's Dita has been helping me cope.  A purple-based red creme, and super smooth formula, Zoya delivers excellence again.  This is two really easy coats. 

This mani took me 17 minutes to do, not including old nail polish removal.  I started with a clean canvas, one base coat, two color coats and one top coat, a standard mani.  Since this was so easy to apply my clean up process was really minimal.  17 minutes is a record for me. 

How long does it take you to do a standard manicure?  Do you have a record time?

Haute America Glitter Gradient

Hi guys!

Today I have a manicure to show you, that I wore recently, to a little soiree.....

Did I go a bit overboard with the glitter?  What do you think?

Half way through, I wondered what my nails would look like with the gradient in the reverse direction and without the excess glitter, so I tried this on my thumb.  Then I started to regret my first decision to pile it all on and I did not want to start over because I was running out of time.  Urgggh. 

What I used, in order.

 
Above are all the products I used.  I know, its a bit much, but I can explain. 

I love Bonder, but its a bit thin, and my nails are stained.  So I used Nail Defense, a protein nail strengthener underneath, to hopefully protect against staining and strengthen my nails.  I can't tell if it is doing anything or not. 

Two coats of Zoya's America, a beautiful bright red.

I used INM out the door before applying the glitters because it is fast drying and does not cause shrinkage.

ChG's Some Like is Haute is the main glitter I used at the tips.  Ulta's silver top coat for the area near the cuticles.  Then Nubar's black polka dot, I thought would add and extra dimension because they are nice dark black plain hex glitters, with tiny matching black glitter. 

Top off with Seche Vite, which does a great job of leveling out glitters - smoothing out the entire surface at the end.  Whew!

For instructions on how I do my glitter gradients click here, this post has more detail.
I'm going to try the combo that's on my thumb next time.   What do you think?

Zoya - Chloe - Layering experiment - Part 2

So here is part two.  Orly's Rock the World was another polish I thought would go well with orange-green mylar flakies.  Rock the World's base color is purple where as Space Cadet's is green, so I thought it might be better with Sinful Color's Fig. 

Zoya's Chloe

Orly's Rock the World - purple base with strong gold shimmer.

Overall.

Macro shot.

Instead of two coats of Chloe this is just one coat.  Topped off again with Seche Vite, and the base is still the same, Sinful Colors Fig.

Between the two I liked Chloe with Space Cadet better.  The flakies stood out more against the purple shimmer and more color shifting was apparent.  Rock the world was more monotone with gold being very prominent and the orange shifting was lessened.  Its not too terribly different from yesterday's post but small differences sometimes are noticeable. 

Click on yesterday's post to see part one, in case you missed it.

Are you going to try this?

Zoya - Chloe - Layering experiment - Part 1

This post will be part one of two series on my layering experiment with Zoya's Chloe. Its pretty sheer and I don't think its intended to be worn alone.

Chloe's mylar flakies shift from mainly green to orange, but sometimes you can spot some aqua blue in there.  I picked up Chloe because I don't have very many flaky polishes.  However, when I got it home, I did not know what I was going to do with it.   So it sat for a couple of months while I hemmed and hawed over what to do. 

What looks good with something that looks like a clumpy oil slick?

I know, Orly's Space Cadet!?

Two coats of Chloe on there.

At a sharp angle.

Space Cadet.

Up close.

The base color I used was Sinful Colors Fig, but any medium purple underneath Space Cadet would produce the same affect.

So here's what I used, 1 coat Cult Nails Get it On base coat,  2 coats Sinful Colors Fig, 1 coat Cult Nails Wicked Fast top coat, 1 coat Orly's space cadet, 2 coats of Zoya's Chloe, 1 coat Seche Vite.  Eight whopping coats of nail polish. 

I didn't do all of this at once.  I was wearing Sinful Colors Fig for a couple of days alone.  So this was an easy recycled mani.

Side note: For those readers who are big 3 free, Seche Vite is not, it contains toluene. 

Please feel free to comment.  I love comments!

Zoya's America Belted Stripe

Need some color in your life?  More than one?  Yes, please.

Zoya - America

China Glaze - For Audrey

How did I do this?

1.  Start by painting just the area where you want your stripe.

2.  Allow the base color to completely dry, about 3 hours. 
3.  Cut scotch tape, or stationary tape into thin strips. 
4.  Place a tape strip on the nail and smooth out any bumps or bubbles.  I used a cuticle pusher to smooth down the tape and I also pulled the tape really taut.
5.  Paint two coats of Zoya's America.
6.  Remove tape immediately with tweezers.
7.  Wait for paint to dry. I waited 10 minutes, however, I probably needed to wait a good 30 minutes!
8.  Apply top coat.

Here's how it came out.  I had a few issues/trouble spots and I will explain.

Problems:

I needed a bright red for this mani, and Zoya's America, although beautiful, and excellent cream formula was not opaque enough.  In person, and you can see it in the photos if you look carefully, For Audrey was effecting the red and making it a darker, blue based red.  Not good, America is such a clean, crisp red, I wanted this to come through more.  This would have been much better, and easier with a one coater nail polish, which is hard to find.  I used two coats of America and I didn't have a nice smooth mani, plus the color started bleeding and took forever to dry.    Cutting tape, tape placement and removing tape requires patience and some skill.  This is a mani that requires a lot of time.  I would say this is a medium level manicure. 

What I will do in the future:

I will apply the stripe color in a smaller area.  When applying the final top coat I may paint in two directions, to prevent bleeding/ or paint dragging.  If you notice the top coat was dragging the red in the direction of the brush.  So next time I think I'll start placing top coat on the striped area, downwards then go back to the striped area and apply top coat towards the cuticle.  I'm I making any sense?  If I'm short on time I may just do a stripe on the ring finger. 

Overall, I loved this mani and was worth the effort. 

Anyone know of any good one coaters?

Sourcing for Nail Polish and Other Manicure Supplies

This certainly isn't a new idea, but have you ever tried going to a nail salon supplier to find nail polish?  There are two suppliers in my area that I'm willing to drive to that will sell to individuals without a nail tech license.  The benefit of going to these places are wholesale pricing and a large inventory of "salon, professional" quality supplies.  I'll review one store, that I try to get to, on a monthly basis. 

Skyline nail supply is located in Falls Church, VA in a dumpy, run-down, ethnic strip mall.  This place is always busy, at least when I go there.  There are trucks dropping off and picking up merchandise by the pallet continously.  The front of the store is littered with cardboard boxes and inside is somewhat a disorganized mess.  The shelves are rougly organized by nail polish brand and the individual colors are all mixed up on messy shelves.  Essie and Station nails dominate the store.  There are rows upon rows of dust covered old Station nail polish its gross!  China Glaze and OPI share a section, Zoya and Orly share another.  Color Club is shoved in the back and for the longest time they only had neon Color Club to choose from.  CND is there too but covered in so much dust I don't want to touch it.  Other than nail polish, you can by nail files by the case, tubs of lotions, cleansers, scrubs, and giant message chairs.  Cuticle remover and cuticle oil too come in massive amounts!  Oh they also have an endless array of fake nails and acrylic and gel nail supplies. 

I'm sorry I don't have pictures of the inside but the owners are Vietnamese, which I am not, and I didn't want to start snapping pictures and get kicked out!  Can you imagine getting cursed at in Vietnamese over nail polish?  OMG! OMG!

Here's a recent haul from early April.

Left to right: CG: Foie Gras, Dance Baby, Electric Beat, Seduce Me, Hook and Line, Orly Rose Colored Glasses, CC Gingerbread, Candycane, Zoya America, Dita. 

All China Glazes are $3 each.
Orly $4
Color club $2
Zoyas $4  (They have a bad selection of Zoyas all mainly reds and pinks.)

OPI are $3 each, but If you haven't noticed I don't buy OPI because they are owned by Coty a parent company that tests on animals and same with Essie, owned by Loreal.  This may change in 2013, as I wonder if these companies will have to comply with European regulations to stay competitive. 

I have bought some old nail polishes from here that were no longer good and I got burned (both Zoyas).  There are no refunds or exchanges allowed.  So I only try to buy new collections here because I know that they are fresh.  When the Hunger Games collection came out March 23, Sally's was ransacked and there was nothing left.  At Skyline they had the whole collection in cases, so there was plenty to go around and they were $3 each, not $5.99 at Sally's or a whopping $7.99 like they are at Ulta.  They also still have a bunch of China Glaze and Orly Christmas sets still left over.  There kits are cheap too, for example if you wanted the whole China Glaze electropop collection, there are two sets of six, so each set is $18, still $3 per bottle.   And they come in the plastic box that you see on Amazon or Transdesign.  They also let you take apart the sets too.  The guy in the store said to me if I only wanted to buy two I could take apart the set and leave the other four behind.  I said "Really?  Won't that ruin your set?"  He said, "No worry, I will sell the four later."   COOL!  I thought.

So put up with the dust and be super nice, (because the prices are not marked) and have fun shopping for hard to find salon polishes on the cheap. 

Do you ever go to wholesale nail suppliers?

If you missed this morning's half moon mani post click HERE.  It is awesome, so don't pass it up!

Zoya - Dove

Today I have a beautiful pale grey to show you from Zoya's Intimate 2011 Collection.  Dove is such a soft, cool and calming color, I just love it and I can't get enough!  I hope I captured it in the photos below.

Two coats.

Up Close.

Even closer.

In this picture the color seems softer than the first photo to me for some reason. 
Maybe because it is a little lighter than the first photo?

Unfortunately, Dove is one of those tacky pastels that can be hard to apply.  The first time I wore this, I applied three coats and it was a sticky mess that took longer than normal to dry.  The first coat applies unevenly and thin.  The second coat builds very well, but takes some skill in consistently getting just the right amount of paint on to the brush and covering all the bald spots.  I think the trick with some pastels is to get the best two possible coats on and leave well enough alone.  Hopefully, the top coat fixes any unevenness, which it did.  If I start to fix any smudges or unevenness with a third coat it starts to become thick and tacky.  The other approach which I haven't tried is to let the first two coats dry completely before applying a third coat.  Like I said... (which I say to myself, really)...is to know when to leave well enough alone. 

Now that I've said all of that, just look at what I did to ruin this manicure....

I love wearing grey and brown together, so I thought I would experiment and do a glitter french with my new brown glitter....  I totally hated how this turned out, and should have left things alone!  Sheesh, so after an hour of doing this manicure, I had to start all over again!

Has this ever happened to you?

Zoya - Sarah

I have a beautiful red for you today.  Zoya's Sarah (ZS).  This is my fourth bottle of nail polish from Zoya, and the formulas have all been fantastic.  Highly pigmented, smooth, and easy to apply formulas.  ZS is the same shade of red as China Glaze's Ruby pumps (CGRP), sans glitter, with gold foil shimmer added.  Usually golds don't work on me, since my skin tone is cool. (I have blue veins and pink nail beds.) However ZS does coordinate with my skin tone, I think because the red is a blue based red, rather than yellow based. For example, orangy-reds are yellow based.  Now that I have ZS I can't decide what to wear for Christmas, CGRP or ZS???

See the gold foil shimmer?

Tried to reduce glare in this photo.

I got ZS from Ulta, $8.  Gorgeous red!  Vegan formula, cruelty free, Big 3 free!  LOVE!