Glitter Tips

Today I have a quick and easy mani refresh with Zoya's Miley.

I am still loving my French refreshes lately and wanted to try out another Zoya from my untrieds that I thought would be a good companion, Tomoko. Tomoko is a light gold pixie dust glitter that tries to a gritty finish on it's own.

Using my striping tape I marked off each nail and applied a generous coat of Tomoko. I Thought of leaving Tomoko as-is with a textured finish, but decided on adding a glossy topcoat to make the glitter shine.

Stevie

I have another Zoya polish today from the last purchase I made from their Earth Day promo. They just recently had another promo over the weekend for three free with $15 shipping. I DEFINITELY took part in that promo as well, but was disappointment it wouldn't let me add Daisy to my cart :(

Back to the polish at hand, today I have Stevie.

Stevie is a gorgeous light lavender Pixie Dust with a silver glitter. I have always shared my love of the Pixie Dust formula and this is no exception. The first coat was a bit sheer, however I only needed two easy coats for full opacity.

It also wore awesomely! I'm still wearing it now and it's been a week and three days! I have some tip wear now and I think it's at the point where I'd like to remove it and wear a new shade.

Dahlia

Although the texture trend seems to be so passe, I feel myself gravitating towards them for a quick and easy mani. I also just purchased a few, as you can see here, from Zoya. Surprisingly I am actually wearing them! I don;t know about you, but I usually tend to forget about some of my newly purchased polishes, especially when they take over a month to be delivered... Today I pulled out Dahlia to wear.

 Zoya Dahlia is a dark charcoal textured "Pixie Dust" polish that reminds me of the most awesome coal ever. As always I love the Zoya Pixie Dust texture, rough, shiny and sparkly. I applied two thin coats for full opacity. I like that it was not a stark black polish, it is on the softer side of black which really compliments the sparkle and finish.

The Pixies always wear well and Dahlia was no exception. I love textured polish for an easy and quick option when I may not have a lot of time to spend on my nails but NEED to change a chippy mani.

Which is your favorite textured polish brand? OPI definitely comes in second for me!

Zoya Mystery Minis + 3 Free Promo - My Picks

So, as I mentioned in a previous post, I FINALLY received my Zoya mystery box promo (along with the three polishes I picked out). Was everyone else as disappointed as I was with the minis?

I was originally excited to find out that Zoya now ships internationally and I could finally participate in their promos without shipping to relatives in the States. Accompanying this news, they announced a "Mystery Mini Trio" promo which included three polishes of your choice, plus three "free" mystery polishes all for $15. Great deal right? For Canadians it turned out that International shipping includes an additional fee, so that sucks. On top of that I waited over a month to receive my polishes! I am usually very happy with Zoya, I love their formula, polish selection and formulation (3+free) but this was a disappointment... Here are the "mystery" minis:

From left to right, Severine, Anais and Charlott.

Severine is a mid-gold frost/shimmer which appears to be on the sheer side, although I have not swatched these yet.

Anais appears to be an off black with some murky undertones (green and brown) with a slight shimmer running throughout. However, I think this one will appear black or close to black once one the nail.

Charlott is the one I think I like the most, it is a light neutral khaki creme with yellow undertones. It reminds me of a yellow based version of OPI My Vampire is Buff..

Now to the ones I picked out, left to right is Dahlia, NYX and Vespa. All three are textures Pixies Dusts.

I guess this was the best deal since the Pixie's are a tad more expensive than the regular shades. I have also been hearing rumors that they will be discontinuing the Pixie Dusts soon, so I figured I should purchase the ones I like now before I don't get the chance again. From Left to right I picked up Dahlia, NYX and Vespa.

Dahlia is a dark black textured polish with silver shimmer running throughout.

NYX is a cornflower blue textured polish with silver/gold shimmer running throughout.

Vespa is a pastel green textured polish with silver shimmer running throughout.

So far Zoya has produced my favorite "texture" polishes. It looks like sand and is just so pretty! I hope they have their usual eco/earth day promo coming soon. I want to check out some of the newer spring shades.

Zoya Hits and Misses

Happy Friday!

I FINALLY received my Zoya mystery box promo (along with the three polishes I picked out). All I have to say is what a disappointment! I was so excited to find out that Zoya now ships internationally and I could finally participate in their promos without shipping to relatives in the States. Accompanying this news, they announced a "Mystery Mini Trio" promo which included three polishes of your choice, plus three "free" mystery polishes all for $15. Great deal right? Well, they didn't mention that there is an additional fee for shipping internationally, that kind of sucks. On top of that I waited over a month to receive my polishes! And the "mystery minis"... Lets just say they were not worth the wait. I am usually very happy with Zoya, I love their formula, polish selection and formulation (3+free) but this was a disappointment...

End rant..

...probably more to come in a separate post about the polishes I received.

 

Now on to one of the polishes I picked up, NYX. I had been considering picking up some pixi dusts for a while now, but with the increased price (and the low Canadian dollar) I couldn't see my self sending that much. Lucky for me I picked up three pixi dusts for practically half off retail with this promo, definitely a win.

NYX is a cornflower/periwinkle blue textured polish with silver/gold shimmer that changes depening on the lighting source. I love the matte sand finish, it really makes the shimmer sparkle. The formula was a bit on the thinner side, but I usually apply thinner coats of textures polishes anyways, I find the finish it a lot more matte and textured. I used between 2-3 coats for full opacity.

Overall wear was great, it only started chipping on some of my weaker nails (which I find has been the case for all polishes I have been wearing recently). I love that it is an option for a quick and easy mani, not topcoat is needed and it dries pretty quickly compared to regular polishes. It is also easy to touch up should any small chips arise, it blends in well.

I'm excited to try the rest of the polishes I purchased, which I will mention in an upcoming post along with the mystery minis (which were most of the disappointment!).

Godiva

I have been lacking in posts lately, mostly due to the fact that I have been super busy, that and leading to less polish changes and purchases. In a mad dash on the weekend I found just enough time for a polish change before a family event. So much was on my mind I didn't even know what shade I wanted to wear. Sometimes just choosing a shade takes up enough time on its own! I was hoping to wear something nude but knew it wouldn't dry in time for me to finish getting ready.

Lucky for me I had a few untried options on my desk, one of them being a pixie dust, Zoya to the rescue! Godiva was the perfect colour and easy to apply! Godiva is a nude glitter/shimmer textured polish. The formula was fantastic, not too thick or clumpy, very smooth and opaque. I only required two coats for full opacity, and although it took a tad longer to dry than the standard textured polish it hid any prefect ions perfectly!

The sparkle on this one is awesome and totally work appropriate. It remindes me of wet sand sparkling in the sunlight, I love this shade a lot more than I thought. The wear is also awesome, when I did get some chipping I easily filled them in and it blended in seemlessly.

A Small, Neutral Haul

I ordered some polishes from Amazon around early February, and receiving them now I can see I was totally inspired by the hopes of spring coming early and Valentines. None of these polishes are from newer collections, just ones I had been meaning to pick up, plus I had some Amazon credit accumulated from Swagbucks. Lets start off with the OPIs.

From left to right, My Vampire is Buff and I Theadora You.

My Vampire is Buff has been calling to me for a while, I've just put off buying it for too long. It's a very light beigey neutral with the slightest hint of nude. MrCandiiPants on YouTube (among others) uses it often for her beautiful artwork, I just knew I had to add it to my collection as well. Two coats of this creme are shown in my swatch below.

I Theadora You is from the Wizard of OZ collection released last year. This sheer baby pink jelly is super sweet and delicate. I love OPI Bubble Bath and wanted a pinker option to wear on its own or a base for nail art and glitter sandwiches. Three coats are shown in my swatch below.

Next Up is a sparkly China Glaze.

China Glaze Hello Gorgeous was released apart of the United in Purpose collection from 2012. It is so much more awesome in person! It is comprised of dense pink HOLO microglitter. This just shines to beautifully. It dries a bit gritty which is expected from glitters like these from China Glaze, so extra topcoat will be needed for a smooth and glossy shine. I used three coats for full coverage in my swatch below.

Last, but not least, I have a new Zoya Pixie dust, the second Pixie Dust added to my collection, and it impresses way better than the first, Carter. Godiva, I just love that name, is a neutral tan textured glitter.  really love this one, mainly because it is like sparkling sand on your nails and it makes me crave  summer! I applied two regular coats and a final thin coat on top for full coverage in my swatch below.

One last random that was not apart of my Amazon purchase is this adorable Cover Girl Outlast polish in Pina Colada.

The RCSS was clearing a bunch of makeup items last week for crazy cheap, between 25 to 50 cents each! There were also some other items between $1.00 and $2.00. This cute little yellow polish set me back 50 cents and I just had to try it out. It is a little brighter on the nail than the pastel colour in the bottle and took me two to three coats to get fully opaque, it was a tad streaky. But it is a yellow creme!

Pixie Dust Confusion

I was convinced that Zoya's pixie dust polishes were the only texture polish I would truly appreciate based off of photos I saw online. I was super excited for Carter, a deep purple glitter pixie dust, however I feel like something isn't right. First of all this polish took FOREVER to dry when I attempted to swatch it on my nail wheel. The final outcome was't what I had expected either, it looked more like a regular, dull glitter to me.

I'm not sure if I got a bum bottle or something, but I'm super disappointed. I read some mixed reviews online, so this may be the case. Most of the negative comments were based off of the issues I experienced as well, this includes being sheer and taking long to dry.

Three to four coats, this photo was taken the day after application. In comparison to the
liquid sand OPI to the right, you can see the Zoya does not have the same sugar like finish.

I love Zoya's formula, they are usually one coaters, and from what I have read some of the other pixie dusts are opaque in only one coat. This took me three coats for full opacity, combined with the fact that matte polishes generally dry a lot faster than regular polish is weird. It's not like you can add a quick try top coat to help it along either!

On a side note, I found this at Marshals for around $6 or $7, the whole pixie dust display was there. A few other salon brands I spotted with full displays included OPI and Orly.

Do you own this polish specifically? Have you had the same issues as me?