Pink Wednesday :as close to V-day as my nails got

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I'm sure it's the same for every single gal out there. If you don't have a Valentine, your nails probably shouldn't look like they do either! 

I've never had a great reception to my nail endeavors from the male species, but I had to get into the V-day mood a little so I sported pink nails most of last week and did some nail stamping once too...

 Zoya Gei Gei with MoYou London stamping from Tourist Collection 07

I can't decide if I like or hate Zoya Gei Gei.  It's a little pearl/frosty/uneven with flecks of shimmer that puzzle me somewhat. And on the other hand it's a soft, pretty pink... I needed three coats to even it out and get appropriate coverage. I stamped it using my go to Konad Light Pink Special Polish. 

The plate is one of the XL image ones (which FYI are way too big for my nails) with some gorgeous french inspired designs.

xxx

NPA

Zoya PixieDust Stevie

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I think I broke my foot.

It's been really painful for a couple of weeks and today I couldn't limp around on it at all.
The most annoying part is I don't even know how I hurt it! I must have kicked something with it or dropped something on it but God only knows ...

Mercifully, I've got some heavy duty painkillers on board now and hopefully I'll get an x-ray tomorrow :)

So... on to STEVIE!

Zoya Stevie

Stevie is the coolest textured polish ever! A pastel, yet bright purple with silver glitter it looks great both matte (above) and glossy (below). I applied two-three thin coats for full coverage. To make it glossy I added one coat of Glitter Gloss and Seche Vite. Stevie is perfect for Spring and Summer, and I'll surely be wearing it come December!

I hope none of you guys have any broken bones at the moment!
Which texture polishes are you digging right now?


xxx
NPA

Zoya Rekha & Red Creme Comparison

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I seem to be loving everything I'm trying at the moment and Rekha is no exception!
All I have to say is this,
"Imagine the ultimate red creme, true, neutral, flattering to all, now get out your wallets and head to your closest Zoya seller!"

Zoya Rekha

 Rehka is a neutral, classic red creme. It must be universally flattering! I think it's said to have blue undertones but I see yellow too. In these photos it comes off a bit more tomato looking and it really suited me so I think it has to be neutral...
Application was nice, two thin coats covered well but I might have done with a third. It could just be the camera but I think it looks a little lighter around my cuticles?

I know reds are hard to judge based on swatches, so I did a comparison between two of my other plain red cremes to give you (and me!) an idea of where Rekha sits.

Red Creme Comparison: Zoya Rekha, Cult Nails Quench & OPI Keys To My Karma 

Index: OPI Keys to my Karma - maraschino cherry red creme, three coats; it is lighter and brighter, quite pink until full coverage reached
Middle & Pinkie: Zoya Rekha
Ring: Cult Nails Quench - deep red/blood creme, two coats; much darker/deeper and with cooler undertones.


xxx
NPA

Rhinestone Storm: a born pretty store review

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Press Sample

I've got a really handy nail art tool to show you today.

It's a white wax pencil you use to pick up and place rhinestones, glitter, or other nail art decorations on your nails.

I am useless at applying rhinestones and loose glitter/glequins to my nails so these wax pencils are a must have when it comes to me and nail art. This took me a few months to actually use because I didn't have any way to sharpen the pencil except to use a kitchen knife; which I really didn't want to do :) Once I bought a pencil sharpener - there were absolutely none in the house even though me and mum have heaps of eyeliners and lip liners that need sharpening too - I could finally try it out!

Zoya Storm with green and blue rhinestones from Born Pretty Store

It was so easy to place the rhinestones! I just picked them up with the end of the pencil and placed each of them on to the wet polish. They stuck really well too.

You can buy these pencils in a pack of two for US$1.99 from Born Pretty Store with free worldwide shipping.
The next time you make a purchase from BPS feel free to use the NPA 10% discount code below

I love Zoya Storm too FYI. The holo shards sparkle so intensely in person! And it's very black so I think it'd make a great base for a galaxy mani, which I really ought to try out pronto.

Do any of you struggle to pick up and place nail decorations too? Do you think you'll give these pencils a go?


xxx
NPA

Zoya Chyna

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Just time for a quick swatch today guys.

Zoya Chyna

Chyna is a deep red textured glitter finish polish that contains glowing orange/red glitter that resembles embers in a fire! I used two coats waiting for it to dry completely before adding the second coat. It dried fast enough for me and wore like iron!!!!!!! The finish is akin to a fine grit nail file or sandpaper. It makes for a good scratching aid, but didn't catch on my clothing or anything.

The more I wore Chyna matte. the more it grew on me. I can't believe I'm such a fan of the texture trend, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Oh well, whatcha gonna do?

Zoya Chyna with Aqua Daisy Glitter Gloss

I added 1-2 (can't recall which) coats of Glitter Gloss to smooth Chyna out to a glossy finish. Look at the larger red glitters, you don't really notice them when it's matte. I actually think of Essie Ruby Slippers when I look at these photos...

So Chyna is great glossy or matte. Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

xxx

NPA

Red & Gold: KKCentreHK 4mm square gold stud review

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Press Sample

Ok, what do you do when an adorable little, white, soft and clean smelling dog is sprawled out on your bed sleeping at 10:30pm? I don't want him to spend the night on my bed because he was hell to crate train and I can't play favourites while the other dog is in his crate all night! But I don't want to wake him up, put him on the cold wet grass outside for a pee and then shove him in his cold crate! 

How hard is it for parents to be consistent with their kids?!!

Ooohhh, looks like he's stretching, now's my chance!

I'm back, poor Charlie's in bed. He gave me his puppy eye look, followed by his withering stare. Boy knows how to make me feel both guilty and anxious!!!

Today I've got a review of some square studs from KKCenterHK. I did some really basic nail art (hangs head in shame) because I couldn't think of anything else to do. They look great on the sparkly, red Chyna.

KKCenterHk 4mm square gold studs Zoya Chyna

These studs are great. Only, they're too big for my nails. Why aren't my nail beds wider?????
I could probably manage a 3mm stud but 4mm is just too wide for every nail besides my thumb. The curve of my nails = sharp edges don't make contact with my nail and end up as a hazard. I was scared they'd catch on something and be pulled off my nails.

Of course, if your nails are a bit bigger than mine (and some length would help too), you'll be able to rock these. The gold is very yellow so it'll pop with darker skin tones - I might need to break these out next summer!!!
You get a decent amount for US$5.28 (approx. 50 studs).

KKCenterHK have kindly offered my readers a 10% discount coupon valid through to January 2014.

NPA10

The discount code and link is always on my left hand sidebar too.

Have you bought any nail art supplies lately? Where do you usually buy from and what goodies are you using to create kick ass manicures?


xxx
NPA

Zoya PixieDust Godiva

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When all these texture polishes were announced by all the big polish makers, I was so disappointed. I thought the trend was just an excuse to make glitter polishes that dried gritty without any apologies.

Fast forward a few months, I've tried a few and I'm completely SOLD on the texture manicure!
They aren't just gritty drying glitters, they do have a special formulation that allows them to have a fine grit sandpaper finish. (which comes in handy when I have a itch that won't go away, key back of nail scratch!!!!).

Here's my favourite so far:

Zoya PixieDust Godiva

 Godiva is a sand beige with silver glitter. It's got yellow undertones so I don't recommend it to women with cool skin tones, but I adore it! It does have a slightly dirty look to it, but I love nudes!!!! The silver glitter is seriously sparkly and it applied well but needed 3 thin coats for full coverage. It could easily be layered over a matching creme though. I waited until each layer was dry before I added the next and no issues with Godiva drying properly. It wears really well too; 24 hours and no chips or wear.


With top coat:

I like the glossy look too. I used two coats of Aqua Daisy Glitter Gloss and it was perfectly glassy.

Zoya released 12 Pixie Dust polishes; six muted and six brights for summer. Have you got your eyes on any of them?

How do you feel about the texture trend?


xxx
NPA

31 Day Challenge: Day 9 - RAINBOW

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Today's  challenge was rainbow nails. I had a wee think and decided to do some bona fide nail art.
It's rather messy but it's kind of fun too. These pics were taken under a lamp.

So the concept was 'A pot of gold at the end of the rainbow'.

After painting the rainbow, I had lots of space to fill in on my middle and ring fingers so I tried to freehand some tree like greenery in there, but I couldn't be bothered getting a brown polish so made do with the black for tree trunks. Oh so lazy!

I just did a rainbow flag on my thumb because it was plain all on it's lonesome.

I topped this mani off with some Seche Vite - didn't do any cleanup so my cuticles look a bit rough - they're not that bad in real life. I PROMISE!

Polish used:
Base: OPI What's With The Cattitude?
Trees: Black striping polish, NYX Alaskan Wild
Pot of Gold: OPI Black Onyx & China Glaze Solar Flare
Rainbows: Zoya Sooki (Thumb only), Red striping polish, Miki mini - orange (no name), OPI The 'It' Color, NYX Alaskan Wild, Essie Mesmerize,  Miki mini - purple (no name)

xxx
NPA

31 Day Challenge: Day 6 - VIOLET

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Hey ladies,

Gonna keep it short (like my nails - bashed my index finger and a bit of the nail broke so I filed the lot down) and sweet.

So, VIOLET - I chose Zoya Mimi

Sunlight

Sunlight

Indoors

Indoors - shows the pink duo chrome in the glitter flakes

Mimi is a medium purple jelly with lots of small irregular flecks of glitter - I think. The flecky pieces do a kind of gold/yellow - pink duochrome thing. It's purple and pretty - I like. Three coats for opacity, lovely formula, decent dry time.


Counting down to the Wales v France semi. Go the Welsh!!!!

xxx
Michaela

31 Day Challenge: Day 1 - RED

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Let the challenge begin!

Sooki just arrived in the post last week. I'm a huge True Blood fan (well I was until this season - now I'm a bit angry with HBO). So, after season 1 I got all the books in the Southern Vampire series and I have reread them all many, many times - I'm back on book 7 right now, haha.

So, the point is that once I saw that Sooki (the perfect true red creme) was part of the Zoya Summertime collection, I had to have it!!!

Sunlight

Sunlight

Shade

In the sunlight pics my camera decided to make Sooki look really coral like - it's not. It's a true red (not overtly blue or orange toned, fairly neutral), very classic looking.

I wanted to add some stamping a la LTHP but I made many attempts and I just couldn't get it to take - maybe I had too much hand cream on them? Anyway I used 2 coats here and in some lights you can see a bit of VNL (why do red cremes always have that issue?!) but I think if I'd used ridge filler as a base coat it'd have been opaque.

If you don't already have a classic true red get Sooki now -she'll "want a do bad things to you!"

xxx
NPA

Zoya Neeka & Yara - Oh My!

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Happy not so pink Wednesday!

I've have some nail mail & my oh my, what did the postman bring?! Some lovely Zoyas of course.

As soon as I saw photos of the Fall Smoke & Mirrors Collection I knew I had to - I mean HAD to - have Yara & Neeka!!!

sunlight

sunlight

indoor lighting

Yara is a beautiful olive/khaki green with small gold fleck-like glitter pieces. Oddly enough it seems to look darker in outdoor lighting. I was actually a bit surprised to find that it was a lot darker in real life than in the photos I'd seen. The first picture is most colour accurate. But it is still gorgeous (and keeps up with the fall trend of army greens) and applied beautifully in two coats. On the thick side, formula wise.

sunlight (it was a bit cloudy)

sunlight

sunlight

Neeka is the smoky purple version of Yara. In fact Neeka is the same as Yara in every other way too: 2 coats, thickish formula, perfect application. It too was a bit darker in real life than I'd expected, but I didn't mind, it looked so good.

I should also mention that they dried seriously quickly. Very impressive. I decided to limit myself to just these two colours from this collection. Though I often dream about adding Jana... hhhhmmm

Til next time
xxx NPA