Bubbly!

Tody I have a mani refresh with Zoya's Zuza. I wanted to do some stamping and had this idea of my head of a bold, white lined design over the teal. After looking though my plates I found a design I was happy with from Konad. This bubbly design can be found on Konad plate M-85. I believe this is one of the newer plates they have released.

To stamp I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White. It worked perfectly with this image, just as good as the special polish, nice and thick.

To top everything off I applied Claire's Mermaid over the design. Mermaid is a light teal shimmer with a pink/magenta sheen that unfortunately is hard to see in pictures. I wish this polish could be built up to opacity but it is just too thin. It is great over top another colour, so at least it is useful.I thought it was perfect for the bubble design, in the right lighting it has the same reflective sheen soap bubbles have :)

Promos and Hauls

I've heard of some great deals, promos and finds lately at U.S retailers, most of those I have found on Nouveau Cheap. I love that blog! Since I was heading across the boarder a couple of weekends ago I hoped to be lucky enough to participate in some great finds which included:

Sally's Beauty Supply - An additional 50% off all red tagged merch! Plus I had a spend $20 get $10 off coupon

Ulta - 20% off coupon

Big Lots - various discontinued and hard to find cosmetics

So, what did I end up getting? No polish at all from the States!! Big Lots didn't have what I was looking for, however they did have some nice sets of Sally Hanson Salon and Hard as Nails polishes for reasonable prices, none really interested me unfortunately. Sallys didn't have the Orly glitters I was hoping to find either :( And Ulta I didn't even have time for!

So why write a post, right? Well there were actually some good promos for polish at some Canadian retailers. The Superstore in particular had a few going on including $3.95 for their full stock of all Revlon polishes ( including those new "gel" shine ones in the different bottles that usually go for $8-$9) and $4.95 for Sally Hanson's Salon line of Salon polishes.

At first glance. Didn't see anything that caught my eye, but on the way out of the cosmetics section I found some Revlon's I've never heard of before, they must be new. They are scented as well :) I picked up Mint Gelato and Lemon Meringue which smell like chocolate mint and lemony sweet! Do you know what collection this is apart of? As an extra bonus I had two $1 off coupons, so each polish was only $2.95 each! Woohoo!

I have one more polish to share that I got a week or two ago that I had nothing else to post with, this is School of Pyrotechnics from Wet n' Wild which was apart of their recent summer glitter collection, Stars and Stripes.

One final deal to let you in on before I end this post, if you didn't already know Zoya was having a buy one get one free promo for existing account members as of or before August 22. I meant to post this earlier, but just didn't get around to it. You could have gotten up to 4 polishes free (that would be an order of 8 polishes total) plus if you order 6 or more polishes you get free shipping!! You can find your unique promo code through Zoya's website in your account. I couldn't pass this one up and purchased 6 polishes! Can't wait to share them with you!

I think I may be going crazy...

I wrote a full post with photos and everything about a polish I THOUGHT I was wearing for the first time, when in reality I had actually worn it about two months earlier! I realized this when going though the last couple months of nail photos to pick my fave polishes for summer 2012 for an upcoming post. I don't know why I forgot I wore this polish because it it just too beautiful to forget... but here we go again, totally on it's own this time, the Lovely Zuza! The funny thing is I had a small hunch that I wore something similar to this in July... now I know why!

Zuza is a bright teal foil that is like nothing else I own in my collection.

The formula was thick which was expected, usually their polishes are good to go in one coat. I did find that if you went over the same spot twice you did get some balding. To avoid this I applied very little pressure to the brush and swiped three quick swipes per nail. I added a few drops of thinner to the bottle after the first coat and applied a thinner second coat to help even out any bald spots. I added a coat of Seche Vite since I was heading to bed right after application and I was set!

This colour is so pretty, it has this awesome gold/silver shimmer that makes it so much more than your average foil. I guess this is kinda like my last hurrah for summer polish seeing is how fall is this month! I always love summer but I can't wait to bust out some fall polishes. Lots of duochromes this year :) All in all I love this polish, even more so the second time around ;)

Do you have a favorite polish polish from any of the summer collections this year? Have you ever forgotten about trying a polish in your collection?

Avocado Nails

HAPPY FRIDAY!! and Long weekend ;)

Inspired by the colour of my most recently applied polish, Zoya's Tracie, I created some nail art with avocados in mind :) I was also partly inspired by a post on Chalkboard Nails of some some lovely avocado nail art inspired by the latest OPI fall collection.

I used Bundle Monster plate 212, at first glance this pattern reminded me of peacock feathers, but when stamped on green they are sooo tiny little avocados :) I stamped with an older Sally Hanson Diamond Strength, Jade. In the bottle it is a deep, almost black green with emerald green glitter. When stamped it appears to be a simple murky green which I think is the perfect contrast.

For the ring fingers I dotted the "pits" with two polishes, Crushed Grape (SH New Lengths Ceramics) and Ruby Red (Sally Hanson Diamond Strength), purple and red shimmers. These are also older Sally Hansen Polishes. I kind of wish I used a more subtle, lighter colour for the pits, I feel like they stand out a little too much.

What do to think? Are you inspired by food for nail art?

Guacamole Nails!

Today I have an unique polish I picked up from Zoya's latest promo a while back now, this is Tracie.

Tracie is apart of Zoya's 2012 summer collection and. Think it's a pretty unique colour, it totally reminds me of alvacado!! I would describe it as a soft, light green with white/silver microshimmer. You can see the microshimmer more in the bottle but I am ok with that. On the nail it really brings out the shiny finish.

I used one medium stroke followed by a second thinner one to even out the first. The formula was about the same as the other Zoya's I own, thick and smooth, overall easy to work with. Next time I will have to thin it out a bit to get it to a slightly smoother consistency.

Wallpaper Nails

Today I have a mani refresh with Orly's Pixi Stix. For stamping I used Bundle Monster plate BM-201 and Sally Hansen Amber Chrome (apart of the chrome collection).

Amber Chrome is an amber/coral chrome and I find that it plays really well off of Pixi Stix. I think it is one of my fave chromes :). I find that chromes give the cleanest stamps.

The pattern I chose was geometric flowers. Since it's so linear and geometric it reminds me of wallpaper lol.

Not too much more to say about this one, just a super simple and quick mani refresh :)

Pixie Polish

Today I have a bright, fun pink, Orly's Pixie Stix. I picked up this polish because in the photos I had seen online it appeared to be a pretty salmon creme. Although it has some yellow undertones next to my skin it pretty much just looks pink :( I do find that it warmer lighting such as evening sun and warmer light bulbs it does appear to be a bit more salmon/coral... But mostly pink.

The formula was great, I only needed two coats to reach opacity. It is a creme finish but I did it to be semi translucent, not so much a jelly, but it has a similar consistency in the bottle, like a creamy jelly lol, I guess milky would be a better description. On the nail it's totally a creme though.

I have enjoyed wearing this, it appears quite bright in certain lighting as well. I brainstorming ideas of what type of nail art I can do on top :)