4th of July ~ Cult Nails Evil Queen

Happy Fourth of July to all of my American readers! I'm so thankful to the men and women who have served and protected our country, especially to those in my family!

Today I'm wearing two colors from Cult Nails. Evil Queen is a true red creme that had the typical Cult Nails flawless formula. Tied Up is a cornflower blue jelly that I used for an accent nail. Two coats were used for both polishes.

I've seen polka dot framed nails on several blogs, so I wanted to give them a try. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On was used for the polka dots.

This look is a little busy for my tastes, but I sort of like it. I actually prefer the way my left hand looks in the last picture where only an accent frame was done. While Evil Queen is gorgeous, red just isn't my color. I'm excited to use Tied Up in a full mani now...maybe even a jelly sandwich.

What are your thoughts on this look?

Zoya Elodie

Hey dolls, here's a quick post on a nail art fail that I wore during my hiatus. Zoya Elodie is a gorgeous orange-leaning coral jelly-creme hybrid that's been in my untrieds for almost a year. I've been wanting to wear it for the longest, so I decided to go for it. The formula was great. I applied two coats and there was still some visible nail line, but that didn't bother me because of the jelly-like quality of the polish. I saw this super cute color blocked cloud mani on Neverland Nail Blog that I thought would make a great accent nail. Zoyas Wednesday (turquoise) and Gaia (white) were used for the accent nail. I was rushing to get to a baby shower and I failed...it ended up turning into a regular cloud mani that wasn't very even.

While I love coral and turquoise together, this cloud mani was not nearly as cute as one I did previously. I'll have to attempt this again with another color combo. I wasn't going to show this, but oh well, we can't win them all.

Clouds with Zoya Jacy

Hey dolls, today I'm wearing Zoya Jacy, one of the shades I got during the last Zoya promo. This is a magenta polish with red undertones that has a blue shimmer. It's a super gorgeous shade that went on flawlessly. I used two coats for full opacity.

I love everything about this! I don't have many polishes in the berry family, so I'm glad I picked this one up. To jazz it up, I decided to try one of Nailside's gorgeous clouds as an accent using this tutorial. I chose Zoyas Carey and Tallulah for the cloud colors.

This combo is so adorable! The clouds were super easy to make using the tutorial. Tallulah is a bright, shimmery blue that I can't wait to wear as a full mani.

Do you think you'll try a cloud mani?

Patchwork Accent with FingerPaints Cordur-Orange

After showing my orange stash here a few days ago, Kelly requested to see FingerPaints Cordur-Orange. This color is absolutely gorgeous! It's one of the few new fall collection shades that was a must have for me. Cordur-Orange is a deep burnt orange that is perfect for fall. Once I put it on, I told my hubby that my nails looked like everything fall...lol. This color is extremely pigmented and was opaque in one coat! Just one more thing to love about it. I'm becoming a huge fan of the FingerPaints formula...it's very easy to work with. Onto the pictures...

sunlight

shade

Dare I say that this color has surpassed Essie Braziliant and moved to my favorite orange. It's just so pretty and the color is so saturated. Cordur-Orange reminds me of all things fall: pumpkins, leaves changing colors, pie, sweets with apples and cinnamon, and pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks.  The theme for the Monday mani in the Polish-aholics Anonymous group was patchwork. Excitement!!! I saw this tutorial from Kayla Shavonne a few months ago and I've been wanting to try it for the longest. Here's my take on it using Barielle Make it a Latte, Zoya Dree, and Julep Stella.

sunlight

shade 

I am in love with this accent and the color combo. While I know the lines aren't perfect, I think its pretty good for someone who is still a relative newbie when it comes to nail art. The colors scream fall and I don't want to take this mani off.

What are your thoughts on this mani???

Zoya Cynthia with Batik Print

Zoya Cynthia & Batik Print

Hey dolls! I was so excited to have my news Zoyas arrive that I didn't know which one to wear first. I took to the Zoya fb page to ask all of the loyal pixies and Cynthia got the most votes. Cynthia is described as a smoky, blackened peacock teal with soft, warm undertones. Its the deepest a blue can be without looking black. I didn't have any issues with the formula and it applied in 2 easy coats.

with flash

sunlight, no flash

This color is perfection! At first I didn't think I was ready to start wearing dark colors, but Cynthia may have changed my mind. To jazz this look up a little more, I took some inspiration from my bestie West over at Confessions of a Blog Vixen. She did this fly Batik print as an accent nail and I've been wanting to try it with some different colors. Here's my interpretation:

My dots are a little bigger than hers, but I love the way it turned out. I can't tell you guys how much I love my dotting tools. For this look I used Zoyas Creamy, Sooki, and Dree.

Did you order any of the Zoya Smoke & Mirrors collection? What do you think of the Batik print accent nail?

Lemon Mani with Zoya Apple

Lemon Mani with Zoya Apple

The nail art theme for the week in the PAA group was fruit. At first, I thought I was going to skip this week since my BM plates didn't have any fruit images. A couple of girls told me to check youtube for inspiration, so off I went. Here's what I came up with, thanks to linda165.

Behold the lemon accent nail. Zoya Creamy was used for the lighter yellow, a white SH nail art pen for the lines and Sinful Colors Let's Meet for the lemon peel. This was easy enough for my minimal nail art talent and I think it came out pretty cute. It makes me want a sprite...even though I haven't had a soda in over 5 yrs (other than the occasional ginger ale when sick). I don't think I've ever worn yellow and green together, but making the board above has inspired an outfit for the week! I decided to only do the lemon as an accent nail because I wanted Zoya Apple to be the star. This is such a pretty, shimmery green. It looks awesome out in the sunlight. It applied in 2 easy coats, with the usual awesome Zoya formula. Here's Apple by itself.

with flash

natural light

And here's the video by linda165 that inspired this look...she has some great nail art tutorials! 

What do you think of this look?

I Think I'm Ready to Join...

...the stamping craze! I've been reading up on the process, the materials needed, and what polishes work best. I'm between ordering some of the individual konad plates on amazon that I like or taking the plunge on Bundle Monster and just getting them all. I'm supposed to be on a "no buy" until after my wedding in less than 2 weeks, but purchasing the entire bundle is way more cost efficient...so that means I should go for it...right??? :) I plan to get the double ended stamper and scraper.

Source

I really want to try these plates! 

Konad M45

Konad M57

Konad M62

Some of the best tutorials on youtube on stamping come from Miss80Million. She's super creative and gives very clear and concise steps for how the stamping process works. Here's an example of one of her tutorials.

Please check out her YT page for more great tutorials. She is awesome! Once the wedding is over, I'll be purchasing these image plates for sure...I can't wait! Happy polishing dolls!