Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Press Release: Zoya Naturel Satins


ZOYA NATUREL SATINS

The next generation of Zoya Naturel is almost here! Introducing, Zoya Naturel Satins, a collection of six new, neutral nail polish colors in an ultra-wearable, low-sheen, chic satin finish. A hybrid between matte and glossy polishes, the new Zoya Satin* formula provides opaque coverage and is longer lasting than traditional matte shades. The flawlessly smooth finish hides imperfections and creates a luxurious, satin finish nail look.


·      ZP782/Leah: Lavender tinged taupe, exclusive Zoya Satin* finish.
·      ZP779/Rowan: Creamy suede taupe, exclusive Zoya Satin* finish.
·      ZP781/Sage: Mossy sage green, exclusive Zoya Satin* finish.
·      ZP778/Tove: Misty slate grey, exclusive Zoya Satin* finish. 
·      ZP780/Brittany: Rose mauve cream, exclusive Zoya Satin* finish.
·      ZP783/Ana: Light toasted almond, exclusive Zoya Satin* finish.

*Zoya Satin is not intended to be worn with a top coat. For best results: Prep nail with Zoya Remove Plus Nail Polish Remover, apply base coat and finish with 2 thin coats of any Zoya Satin Nail Polish.
AVAILABLE 01/15/15!

ZOYA IS THE HEALTHY COLOR OF FASHION!
$9 (US), Available in top salons, spas and on zoya.com


WANT MORE?
COMING SOON -  Zoya Satin Seal Topcoat!
Turn any color into an elegant Satin finish beauty with just one coat!


Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Snowflake themed nail art

Good evening, dear readers! I've been enjoying some time with my family this week, but I wanted to get a post up tonight to share my snowflake themed nail art from last week! I'm definitely not a fan of cold weather and prefer to look at photos from a distance, but with the official start of winter this week, I had to bring a little snow to my nails here in the Bay Area.
I started out with DIFFERENT dimension Out With The Old, In With The Blue. I then used Zoya Ryan and the Cici & Sisi Holiday stamping plate before adding snowflake decals made by Eat.Sleep.Polish. I then topped my nails off with my trusty HK Girl topcoat from Glisten & Glow.

I had some transfer issues with the stamping image on my ring finger, but I thought it looked pretty cool for this look.

I hope you enjoyed tonight's post, and I wish you a wonderful holiday!
XO!

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Teadora Nourish Body Scrub Review

Press Sample

Good morning, dear readers, and happy Saturday! I hope this post finds you well and you are having a great start to the weekend. It is the last shopping weekend before Christmas, and if you're still scrambling to find stocking stuffers or just want a nice treat for yourself, this post is for you! Winter weather is harsh on your skin, and Teadora has an amazing scrub to help take care of rough skin. The Teadora Nourishing Body Polish is available in two scents: Rainforest at Dawn and Rainforest at Dusk, and each is scented to either help invigorate you to start the day or to help your body unwind and relax. I had the pleasure of testing out Rainforest at Dawn.
This Nourishing Body Polish is available in 1.5oz and 6oz. It is intended to be used twice a week to help reduce blemishes and flaky skin, prevent ingrown hairs, and smooth and even out skin tone.
The Nourishing Body Polish can be used in the shower as an exfoliating wash or you can apply it to the body while dry to absorb minerals and vitamins and just wash it off after it has hardened (about 5 minutes). Shower time is the only time I get to myself, so I chose to use it in the shower as a scrub.
One of the first things I noticed about this product is that it is quite creamy when compared to many other scrubs. It contains pumice to mechanically exfoliate the skin, but it wasn't too abrasive. I certainly can appreciate that!

One of the most appealing aspects of this product is the list of ingredients. Teadora products are made from natural ingredients harvested from the Amazon, and the ingredient list is quite exotic compared to other brands. The Nourishing Body Polish contains ground Açai seeds, Amazonian clay, and their Rainforest Hydration Elixir, a special formulation of 5 oils. As much as I enjoyed testing this product, if you have a nut allergy, you should proceed with caution using this product. It contains Buriti Nut and sweet almond oil.

This Nourishing Body Polish can be purchased directly from Teadora here. Teadora can also be found in different retail sites and salons and spas; details can be found on their website.

Until next time, dear readers, have a wonderful day!
XO!


Disclaimer:  The products reviewed above were provided to me for my honest and unbiased opinion. All thoughts stated are entirely my own and are based on my use of said products.  I love receiving feedback from my readers, and any comments left here are the express opinions and/or property of the individual commentors. I reserve the right to remove any comments that I find to be harmful, unnecessary, or not constructive for other readers.



Thursday, December 18, 2014

Model City Polish Holiday Collection: Swatches and Review

Good evening, dear readers! I hope this post finds you well and you have been enjoying the holiday season thus far. I've been quiet on the blog front for the past several days, although I've been insanely busy with holiday obligations. I don't know about you, but this lacquerista is going to need a break from all the holiday hoopla! Even though it keeps me busier than usual, I still love the holidays, and I'm looking forward to a quiet Christmas with my family.
For tonight's blog post, I wanted to share the new Model City Polish Holiday collection with you. Nina, the creative mastermind behind the brand, has released a wonderful five piece collection with a range of finishes that are sure to appeal to anyone! Let's check them out!

Arctic Sea
Arctic Sea is a lovely medium blue shimmer with a holographic finish and is sure to create that perfect chill.

There is something about blues that are just so perfect for the holiday season, and yet they still work after Christmas is over. As much as I'm personally not a fan of cold weather and snow, I love to look at photos of snowfall! Arctic Sea is beautiful, and the formula was so easy to work with. I used two coats for these photos.

Winter Wonderland
over Bernadette Thompson Sky's the Limit
Winter Wonderland is a clear base blend with silver holographic triangles, micro glitter, micro slices, and snow flakes, and blue holographic dots and hexes.

This is hands down my favorite glitter topper from this holiday season! I'm generally not a fan of odd-shaped glitters, but I love the occasional snowflake that comes out on the brush, and the large blue dots and silver holographic triangles make it the perfect combination. Application was fairly easy- a little dab here and there and the glitters spread out nicely over the nails. I used about a coat using this dabbing technique, and I didn't have to dig around for any glitters. I'd get a few larger glitter pieces per dip of the brush, so if you want more, you might have to fish around a little. I added a coat of gelous and a coat of topcoat to smooth out my nails for these photos.

Evergreen
Evergreen is a rich green shimmer with micro holographic glitter swimming about. The end look is a lovely evergreen with twinkling lights.

What a lovely shade of green for Christmas! I think my favorite aspect of this polish is the occasional flashes of blue sparkle on my nails. I definitely could see the look of twinkling lights against a tree on my nails, and this would be a fabulous base shade for some tree nail art. I used three coats for these photos. My camera did have a little difficulty in capturing the shade of this polish- it was either way too dark or too light for my four-finger shots; the closeup photo here is the most accurate shot I could get.

Winterberry
Winterberry is a red jelly shimmer with micro holographic glitter.

I love red jelly polishes, and Winterberry is a stunning shade for the holidays! There is so much sparkle! The formula was wonderful as well, and I used three flawless coats for these photos.

Christmas With a Chance of Snow
over Evergreen
over Winterberry
Christmas With A Chance of Snow is a clear base blend filled with red and green holographic glitter, and small white hexes.

Christmas With a Chance of Snow is another great glitter from this collection, and it is definitely perfect for Christmas! I used it as a glitter topper by dabbing around a single coat over Evergreen and Winterberry, although I used two coats over my ring finger when swatching over Winterberry. There is still a hint of the red base peeking through, but with careful placement of the glitters, you can definitely wear it alone if you wanted to. Christmas With a Chance of Snow was a little more difficult to work with because of the glitter density, but it only took a little extra patience to help disperse the glitters across my nails. I added topcoat to smooth out my nails for these photos.

The Holiday Collection is available now at Model City Polish here. These colours are beautiful, and you may want a set for yourself in addition to others for your favorite polish elf! You can also upgrade your order to include a cute satin chevron print gift bag to make gift giving even easier!

Until next time, dear readers, have a wonderful evening!
XO! 

Friday, December 12, 2014

DIFFERENT dimension Shooting Stars: Auriga, Cetus, and Pegasus

Good morning, dear readers, and happy Friday! I am so thankful that the weekend is almost here; I definitely need a little bit of rest and relaxation! I've had a lot going on in my life outside the blog, and I may be taking off from the blog the week of Christmas so I can focus on my family and hopefully get a little "me" time in. Now to today's post!

Today I have the DIFFERENT dimension Shooting Stars Auriga, Cetus, and Pegasus to share with you. For those of you that may not be familiar with them, Shooting Stars are limited edition one time release polishes. Missi, the creative genius behind the brand, makes a single batch of each Shooting Star polish, and once they are sold out, they are gone! The three shades in today's post released last Friday, and at the time of this post, they are all still available for purchase. Let's check them out!

Auriga
Auriga is a royal blue jelly, packed with sterling silver flakies.

I was so excited when I first heard about Auriga! I adore jelly polishes, and this blue shade with sterling silver flakies is gorgeous! While the other two shades are beautiful, Auriga is my current favorite type of polish and my favorite of these three shades. This polish was really easy to work with: the formula was great! I used two flawless coats for these photos.

Cetus
Cetus is a rich berry holographic polish with added shimmer.

I've been enjoying berry shades a lot lately, and Cetus is a very welcome addition to my collection. The extra shimmer makes it dazzling, and my camera had a difficult time capturing the beauty of this polish. The formula was fantastic, and I used two coats for these photos. Cetus is quite pigmented, and if you tend to paint with thicker coats, you should only need one coat.

Pegasus
Pegasus is a cobalt blue crelly with rainbow shimmer, flakies and color-shifting flakies throughout.

When I was a little girl, I really wanted to have my own Pegasus and now it has finally happened! Woo hoo! I'm reasonably sure I didn't sprout wings to fly while wearing this lovely shade, but it is still pretty to look at! The extra pops of colour are much more apparent when you have lighting on your nails, and as much as I hate glare in my photographs, that was the best way for me to show off the rainbows. The formula of Pegasus was great as well, and I used two easy coats for these photos.

I really love these polishes, and if you love blue jellies, crellies, or berry holos, you certainly won't be disappointed!

All three Shooting Stars are currently available at DIFFERENT dimension's site here. They are extremely limited edition, so you definitely want to grab them before it is too late!

Until next time, dear readers, have a wonderful day!
XO!










Wednesday, December 10, 2014

January A Box, Indied: DIFFERENT dimension Out With The Old, In With The Blue

Good evening, dear readers, and happy hump day! This week has been hectic, and I apologize for the late posts. I prefer to get my posts up earlier in the day, but that just doesn't seem to be in the cards this week. Hopefully the subject of today's post makes it worth the wait!
For tonight's post, I have the DIFFERENT dimension nail polish that will be sold exclusively in the upcoming January A Box, Indied sold at Llarowe.com. The theme for next month's box is quite appropriate for the start of a new year: New debts, new diets, new polish. 
Let's check out DIFFERENT dimension's contribution, Out With The Old, In With The Blue!
I am in love with this colour! I thought it was beautiful was I first saw it, but it took my breath away at first stroke. This colour is magic in a bottle, and I cannot stop staring at the exquisite beauty on my nails!

Out With The Old, In With The Blue is an icy blue holographic polish that is loaded with golden green microflakes and a touch of blue sparkle. While this polish is blue in the bottle, the microflakes play with my skin tone to give it the slightest mint green colour in some lighting.

This polish has a great formula and was really easy for me to work with. I used three smooth coats for these swatch photos.

The January A Box, Indied is currently scheduled to launch on Llarowe.com on December 26th. You can sign up on the website for email updates or you can follow Llarowe on Facebook here. The other polishes from the January A Box, Indied should be revealed soon on other blogs, and you can keep an eye out for photos on the Llarowe page or on the A Box, Indied Facebook page here. I am infatuated with the DIFFERENT dimension contribution, and I can't wait to see the others!

Until next time, dear readers, have a wonderful night!
XO!

Monday, December 8, 2014

Heavy Metal Nail Art System Review

Press Sample

Good evening, dear readers, and happy Monday! For today's post, I have the Heavy Metal Nail Art system. This system is made up of foil sheets that are supposed to transfer easily to the nails and have a lasting finish up to 14 days.
Each kit comes with 5 sheets of foils, 4 foil guard sheets, 2 sealers, and 1 premium bond. I used the Gold Metallic sheet and the Pewter Leopard sheet to create today's look.
To apply these foils, you first paint your nails with premium bond. It is a milky colour, and you know it is dry when it turns clear. This steps takes between 2 and 4 minutes, and I waited an additional 10 minutes after my nails were clear before applying the foils. The premium bond dries to a very sticky finish, so you definitely have to apply the foils very carefully. Otherwise, you end up with a little folding and crinkles in the foils. Even though my nails were definitely clear, a few of my nails gave me some issues. When I tried to lift the foil sheet and leave the foil on the nails, the rest of the sheet kept sticking to my nails. No matter how hard I tried to remove the foils, I could not keep little areas from tearing off and leaving gaps on my nails. After this step, you once again paint premium bond on your nails, over the foil this time obviously, and you let it dry to a clear and tacky finish. Even though it should have been try the first time around at 15 minutes (and looked it too!), I waited half an hour to ensure it was dry. I then pressed the clear foil guard against my nails. I had the same problem with sections sticking to my nails, only making the gaps worse and introducing new ones to the foils. I then sealed my nails in with the Heavy Metal sealer.

I originally chose to use both these foils together because I wanted to do a little nail art on the gold foils to tie it in with the leopard print, but it did not transfer and leave the sleek gold foil finish I needed for my planned work. I took these photos, went about my planned activities for the day, and went to bed. The next morning, my nails looked terrible. I'm generally not this blunt on my blog, but unfortunately there is no other way I can describe it. The small gaps that were once in the foils had grown larger and sections of my nails were missing foil completely. I knew I wouldn't get to test this system out for 14 days on my fingers, but I was shocked and extremely disappointed that I didn't even get 24 hours of wear. The sticking troubles and originally tears and holes likely impacted the integrity of the foils on my nails, but it is still upsetting to say the least.
Obviously my experience with these foils was not ideal, but there are several nice foil patterns to choose from. I'm going to play around a little more to see if I can figure out what went wrong with my first attempt. I hope to be able to report a better experience a second time around! I love the idea of these foils so I'm crossing my fingers!

Have you tried these foils? I'd love to hear about your experience with them and know what went wrong for me!

Until next time, dear readers, have a wonderful night!
XO!

Disclaimer:  The products reviewed above were provided to me for my honest and unbiased opinion. All thoughts stated are entirely my own and are based on my use of said products.  I love receiving feedback from my readers, and any comments left here are the express opinions and/or property of the individual authors. I reserve the right to remove any comments that I find to be harmful, unnecessary, or not constructive for other readers.







Friday, December 5, 2014

December Weekly Nail Art Challenge: Glitter

Happy Friday, dear readers! I have a quick post for you today to share some nail art. I decided to participate in the weekly nail art challenge for the month of December, and today's theme is Glitter. I found the theme to be almost too vague and wasn't feeling as inspired as I hoped I would be. I'm now sick, so that likely explains my blah feeling. I'm not particularly happy with how this turned out, but it will have to do for now.
I really wanted to use loose glitters for today's theme, but I discovered last night that my small stash walked off on me. I had to make do with glitter polishes, and I chose to grab shades from the new China Glaze Twinkle Collection.
I used I'd Melt For You, De-Light, and Pine-ing For Glitter. I also used Out Like a Light with the Cici & Sisi Christmas stamping plate. I finished off my manicure by adding two coats of Glisten & Glow's HK Girl topcoat.

Next Friday's theme is "Snow", and I'm hoping to have better luck creating a design I am happy with then!

Until next time, dear readers, have a great day!
XO!



Thursday, December 4, 2014

SuperChic Lacquer: Frozen & Flurrious Collection Swatches and Review

Good afternoon, dear readers! I hope this post finds you well and that you've been having a wonderful week! It has been so depressingly grey and rainy here, and I've really had to rely on bright colourful nails to cheer me up. I don't know how those of you in the northwest do it all the time! Thankfully, I had just received the new SuperChic Lacquer Frozen & Flurrious Collection from Wonder Beauty Products; these colours are lovely, and definitely lifted my spirits! Let's check them out!

Royal Pain in the Ice
A deep lush royal blue base with a vibrant contrasting green shimmer-chrome flash and strong multi-faceted holographic effects.

There was a time that I wore blue polish all the time, and at some point, I just stopped. I don't know why because I still found them beautiful, but they just didn't draw me in like other colours. I've noticed lately that I've renewed my relationship with blues, and I am so happy about that! Royal Pain in the Ice is certainly one of my favorites from the collection, and the name makes me laugh. The formula was really nice, and I used three easy coats for these swatch photos.

Stoked and Cloaked for the Bifrost
A lush vibrant raspberry-purple base with contrasting cool blue chrome, copper shimmer and packed with multi-faceted holographic effects.

Warmer red-based purples are my favorite types of purples, and this one is so pretty! The formula was great on this one as well, and I used three coats for these photos.

Chillin' With My Sister
A stark lush neon pink base with contrasting blue shimmer-chrome flash, loaded with icy multi-faceted holographic effects.

While Chillin' With My Sister fits perfectly with the other shades in this collection, it set itself apart for me when I swatched it. It was much more opaque than the other polishes, and I only needed two coats for opacity for these photos. The formula was a little thicker than the others due to the pigment density, but it was still very easy to work with.

Liquid Nitro Queen
A cool wintry lavender base with a strong contrasting flash of green shimmer-chrome, packed full of icy multi-faceted holographic effects.

I'm generally not a fan of lavender, but the flashes of green makes Liquid Nitro Queen really cool! It's a great contrast, and it made this a very surprising favorite for me. I used three easy coats for these swatch photos.

Mmm, Chocolate Snocaps
A semi sweet dark chocolate base with a flash of cool blue shimmer-chrome and chocked full of icy multi-faceted holographic effects.

I am loving this brown polish! It is just so warm and cozy for the cold winter days and nights, and I am thrilled to see it as part of the collection. The blue flashes are a pretty awesome touch; I hope to see something similar to this with the green shimmer-chrome flash too one day! *hint hint* The formula was great, and I used three flawless coats for these photos.

Ice Rageous
Vibrant retro "Santa Red" base with subtle copper shimmer, and loaded with icy multi-faceted scattered holographic effects.

You can't have a winter collection without a red for the holidays! I don't wear a lot of red during most of the year, but I always grab for them around the holidays. Ice Rageous is gorgeous, and I'll certainly wear it quite a bit this month! I used three smooth coats for these photos.

Cold Hands, Warm Hugs
A lush blue-turquoise base with strong fiery violet shimmer-chrome and icy multi-faceted holographic effects.

Cold Hands, Warm Hugs is simply beautiful. I love the violet flashes as you move your nails, and the hint of yellow adds another fun element to this polish. It's a pretty colour for the winter, and I like that it will transition perfectly into spring a few months from now. Like the others, the formula was really nice, and I used three coats for these swatch photos.

I'm really enjoying this collection! The colours are beautiful, and they coordinate so perfectly together. The shimmer-chrome flashes of colour is probably my favorite aspect of these polishes, and I hope to see more of them in the future!

The Frozen & Flurrious Collection is scheduled to launch on the Wonder Beauty Etsy shop here on December 8th at 4pm PST. Be sure to follow Wonder Beauty on Facebook here and Instagram here for shop news and announcements!

What colours are you most excited about? I'd love to hear from you!

Until next time, dear readers, have a wonderful day!
XO!



















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