Swatch Time: Zoya Erika + floral design

Hey Polishers!

I hope you've all had a great weekend! I finally finished my first semester finals last week and luckily for me, I have another extended weekend due to a "cold day" today. So no school for me! :)

Anyway, this past Saturday I went over to Ulta hoping to buy some polishes from the new Spring Collections since there are so many good collections coming out. Sadly, none of them were out yet. But since I somehow am never able to leave Ulta empty handed, I ended up buying a Zoya polish called Erika, which I will be swatching for you today.

Zoya Erika is a pale pink polish with a gold shimmer from the Summer 2008 Chit Chat Collection. I would describe this polish as being very pearlescent. The formula was a little on the thin side, but thankfully it wasn't streaky. I used 3 coats for the pictures below.

Even though I'm no much of a pale pink person, I think the gold shimmer in it makes this polish beautiful! I also really like the pearlescence feel to it as well.

Here's a floral polka dot design I did using Zoya Erika as the base color.

I did the white polka dots in order to bring out the pink a little more.

Other polishes used: OPI Hey Baby, Sinful Colors Tempest, Nicole by OPI Hit The Lights, and Pure Ice Superstar!

What are your thoughts of this polish? I really like it and I think it will be useful to use for a base color for nail designs. It's actually my first Zoya polish, and I have to say that I'm quite impressed!

I hope you have a great start to your week!

-Colleen

Pink Rose Nails

Hey all!

I hope you've all had a great weekend! I know I did! :)

Today I have a pink rose accented manicure to show you today.

Here it is:

The polishes I used were: 

-Love &Beauty Pink/Gold

-Essie Pink Works

-Pure Ice Superstar!

-China Glaze In The Lime Light

-a gold color from Sephora by OPI  

I guess I was just in the pink and floral kind of mood today haha. I hope you have a great rest of your day!

-Colleen

Purple Floral On Red-y & Willing

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Yesterday I did a swatch on the China Glaze polish Red-y & Willing (which you can see here), and since I usually like to do a design with a polish after I swatch it to give you ideas for using the polish, that's what I will be showing you today!

At first, I really didn't think that many polishes would go to well with this deep red shimmer (well, other than gold, silver, white, or black), but as I started going through my polish collection, I grabbed a lilac purple color and found that it looks great against the China Glaze polish I swatched yesterday!

Here it is:

The picture above is the one I did with my right hand (my good hand), and the one below is the one I did with my left hand (my non-dominant hand)

 

In the picture done with my left hand (the one directly above), I kind of struggled with controlling my left hand with the pollen in the center of the flowers so they ended up being clumps of pollen instead (Well, I tried my best). Hopefully with more practice, my left hand will get a little better lol.

The polishes I used for this mani  are:

-China Glaze Red-y & Willing (base color)

-Sinful Colors Tempest (purple)

-Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet (mint)

-Delia's Coral Cascade (coral)

I hope you all have a great rest of the weekend!!

-Colleen

Purse-Inspired Mani

Hey everyone!

Today I have for you a mani inspired by one of my purses! It's a Betsy Johnson purse, with a mix of leopard print and roses. Here's a pic of the pattern:

I thought it was really cute when I got it, so I thought doing a manicure off of it would be pretty cool!

Here's my mani:

I thought it tuned out pretty cool! Actually, I think it's my best mani yet :)

For the gray base color, I used a sparkly gray from Sephora by OPI, which was from the 2012 Holiday Collection. For the light maroon color used for the leopard print, I used another Sephora by OPI polish, again from the 2012 Holiday Collection. For the black, I used Sinful Colors Black On Black. The two pink colors used in the roses were Sally Hansen Ruby Sequin and a hot pink by Delia's; and the green used was Essie The More The Merrier.

I hope you guys like the mani! If anyone would like a tutorial posted, please let me know via the comments or by email (see the contact me tab)!

Have a fabulous rest of the day,

-Colleen

Purple Roses

Hey everyone!

I'm so glad that the weekend is finally here! After seeing the lovely purple roses Jayna did on her blog The Sequined Nail, I just HAD to do my take on purple roses. You can see her purple roses on her blog here.

Anyway, here's mine:

For the mint-colored base, I used Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet, for the light purple in the roses I used Sinful Colors Tempest, for the dark purple I used L.A. Girl Hustle, and for the green leaves I used Essie The More The Merrier. I have to say, I really like these roses against the mint base color.

How I did it:
1. 2 coats of Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet
2. dab on small flower-like splotches of a light purple...to do this I used the end of a bobby pin
3. take either a toothpick or a striper nail brush (I used a toothpick for mine...I personally think that toothpicks are a little easier to control) and outline the light purple splotches with a dark purple polishes
4. take a toothpick or a striper nail brush and draw thin lines within the roses to give it more depth
5. take a either a toothpick or a striper nail brush and draw some thin lines with a green polish for the leaves of the roses.

And there you have it. If anyone wants to do a rose mani like this one with purple or another color (maybe orange or blue?) I would LOVE to see it!!

Have a great rest of the weekend!!

-Colleen
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