'Tis the Season to be Jolly!

No, this isn't a Christmas manicure... and if it were, it'd be a totally morbid holiday manicure! Oh, wait, I DID do a skully christmas manicure last year. Oops. :-D Today's nail art is in honor of Robert Louis Stevenson's 160th birthday, which is today! :) As you may know, one of his famous works of literature is 'Treasure Island', a tale of pirates and buried gold. In reference to that, I chose to do Jolly Roger nail art today! (as if I needed a reason to do pirate nails :-P)

I used American Apparel Hassid as a base, with Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the skull and crossbones. Topped it off with my still-fresh and amazingly well applying Seche Vite top coat. lol

YARRRRR!

Zoya Flame Collection - Crystal - swatches & comparison

Zoya Flame Collection

Zoya's latest collection brings us six new metallic colors. You might have heard of the Zoya Fire & Ice collection, well, this is the same thing! They changed it into the Flame collection, rumor has it that it's because of Revlon, who trademarked the Fire & Ice phrase ages ago. Anyway, today I'll be showing you one of the prettiest polishes in this collection: Crystal, a frosty blue sparkling metallic.

Crystal

I'm not sure what to think of polishes who get named after women's names. I think it's lacking originality and it's a bit too easy as well. Thankfully, it's just a name. Crystal is a gorgeous cold, medium blue frosty polish with a bunch of golden flecks to spice it up.

As you can see the golden sparks in Crystal really compliment the icy, snowy blue color. For me this is the ultimate winter color. This may sound ridiculous to you, but this polish reminds me of winter fairies with golden locks. I know, right?

Application

Most Zoya polishes don't dry that well one me. Crystal does dry rather quickly, so yay for that. The formula was spot on, not too thick or thin, and completely opaque in three coats. Two coats would be quite okay already though.

Crystal versus Reflecting Pool

From the moment the first promoshots rolled in, I knew it had to be similar to OPI's Reflecting Pool. Reflecting Pool is quite hard to get since it was exclusively sold in certain European countries. Nowadays you'll usually find it on eBay for ridiculous prices.

Well, I did suspect both colors would be similar, but I was surprised to see they're dead on dupes! The formulas are very alike as well, so if you couldn't get your hands on Reflecting Pool, this is your chance!

Where to buy

You can get Zoya nail lacquers from their website: www.zoya.com and eBay. Zoya Crystal costs $7 for 15ml.

Evolution of a Mani.....

I was looking through my stash in search of, god knows what, and saw Ivanka sitting there. I might have only used this once, when I first got it, but realized I needed to use it again. As we all know, it is very hard for me to ever leave a mani alone, the only time I really ever have a plain mani on is if 1 - I'm swatching or 2 - I'm in a hurry.

So I did 2 coats of Ivanka

Then did the houndstooth Konad design, using Sinful's Black on Black

And that couldn't be all, I was bored within minutes, lol, so I decided to do diagonal black tips as well, using Scotch tape, like always, and Sinful's black.

What do you guys think? Did I go to far? lol

Note Worthy?

Happy Friday, people!! Today went by about as slowly as a day could POSSIBLY go. It felt never-ending, but we made it, and the weekend has begun!! Today's manicure was based off a pattern that I found on some notecards that I bought a million years ago in the $1 section at Target! :) I love the retro pattern and colors, so I HAD to use it for a design! :)

I used American Apparel Cotton as a base, with Pure Ice Wild Thing for the green side of the nail and for the green spots, Zoya Jancyn for the orange stripes and dots, MAC Rich, Dark, Delicious for the dark brown dots, and American Apparel Esprit for the periwinkle/lavender dots. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat, have I ever mentioned how much I love the first manicure out of a brand new bottle of Seche Vite? So lovely. lol Nailgasmic, one might say.

Pinup Girl mani......

Again I got some water decals off of eBay, and tried the Pinup girl decals. Since they don't have much color, and the majority of them are clear, you need a white base to see them the best.  I did this one a few weeks ago, and really liked it. For the red, I used China Glaze Ruby Deer, and just Sinful's white, don't recal the actual name sorry.

How about some holiday manis..........

I finally got Meet Me Under The Mistletoe. I had seen some swatches, and fell in love. After trying it out myself, I'm hooked. This really is such a pretty green! Then I decided to go crazy with the layering, lol.

Here she is all by herself.

Then I decided to add Finger Paints Holly Good Time over top. Doesn't get much more festive than that.

Since I was so in the mood for layering, I went and grabbed my Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure. This made it much more Fallish than holiday, IMO. I actually kind of liked it.

Away from 12th to 19th nov. Will reply all emails/SMS when I'm back. Thanks!

Away from 12th to 19th nov. Will reply all emails/SMS when I'm back. Thanks!

Written in Ink

Tonight was an interesting night, I went with my friend (and new co-worker) Stephanie to a book signing for Kat Von D's new book. It was insane how many people showed up- they were wrapped around the outside of the building!! Luckily, Steph and I went early this morning and got our wristbands, and they were color-coded, so we got to cut the line to the end of our bracelet's color line. Fun fact that I learned tonight- Red Bull tastes great with mint gum (especially when the red bull is free), I also learned that I get super talkative with red bull in my system. lol Another fun part of the night (besides the free sample-sized Kat Von D eyeshadow primers) was that 2 other members of the LA Ink crew were there too!! Dan, who is delightfully adorable, and Rooftop! :-D All three signed the book, and I got a hug from Kat, and she was super nice and even complimented me on my jacket! :) (Did you know she is super tall?!) Anyway, in honor of the occasion, I did Kat Von D nails, I originally drew them in Sharpie, but as soon as topcoat hit them, they faded to almost nothing, so I had to go over them again in polish.

On the thumb is part of her lipstick 'Hollywood' tattoo, on the ring finger is her famous star eye area tattoos, and on the pinky is the LA Ink logo. The middle and index finger are just generic tattoos. Stupid OPI topcoat smeared the crap out of them. :(

I used MAC In the Buff as a base, with American Apparel Hassid for the black, and Nubar Sexy Red for the red. Topped it off with a coat of OPI Speed Dry, because I'm out of usable Seche Vite.

The pic of me and the crew (I swear I'm looking at the camera, but the glare makes both Kat and my eyes look weird):

The book I got signed for Krystal: (aka Keysgoround)

DRAGONFLY

This is hand painted bamboo and a dragonfly.



This is opi gel polish and then I painted designs on the top using regular nail polish.