Refined and Polished: silver

Showing posts with label silver. Show all posts

Monday, October 22, 2012

Reader's Choice Monday ~ China Glaze Immortal

Hey dolls! The winner for this week was China Glaze Immortal with 42% of the votes. This is a gorgeous gray with flashes of blue glass flecks. The formula was pretty good. I haven't used a China Glaze in awhile, so I forgot how long and thin their brushes are. I used two coats for opacity.

I was secretly hoping Immortal would win! This color is perfection! But of course I couldn't stop with Immortal alone because I also picked up Make a Spectacle from that collection. Make a Spectacle is a topper that is filled with iridescent glitter. The glitter is very dense and I had no problems getting it onto the nail.

These two colors compliment each other so well! I've been staring at my nails all day at work as the light reflects off of the glitter. I totally recommend this duo while the Wicked collection is still readily available at Sally Beauty Supply.

For this week's poll, I have three Butter LONDON's for you that I added to my collection during the Ulta BOGO deal. Please take a second to vote dolls!

surveys & polls

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Zoya Ornate Collection

Hey dolls! I have an amazing collection for you tonight! Several months ago, the Zoya fairies posted on their facebook page that holos would be coming to us soon. Well, they are finally here in the winter collection! The Ornate collection consists of three scattered holos (which you all know I prefer over linear holos), a shimmer, a foil, and a bar glitter. The formula on the entire collection was great and all applied well. The Ornate collection is full of win, so let's get to the photos.

Blaze is a cool-toned medium mulberry red with a high concentration of micro fine diamond holographic glitter. I know I love a color when I'm constantly telling my hubby how pretty it is as I apply it. Two coats were used.

Storm is a holiday black with a high concentration of micro fine diamond holographic glitter. This color is absolutely stunning! You all know I've been into dark colors lately, so Blaze is right up my alley. Two coats were used.

Aurora is a medium sugarplum purple flecked with a high concentration of micro fine diamond holographic glitter. Holo lovers, this is the one you NEED! Once again, I was saying out loud how gorgeous this polish was. By this point, hubby was probably tired of hearing me say it! The sparkle is crazy in this polish. Aurora is not quite as pigmented as the rest of the collection, so I used three coats.

Electra is a micro fine diamond holographic glitter mixed with large silver holographic bar tinsel in a clear base. Oh Electra. I would have been perfectly fine with this collection if Electra was not included. I'm sure those who like bar glitter will be pleased though. Electra surely provides the bling factor. I am not a fan of bar glitter; especially bar glitter that is this dense. Only one coat was used over Aurora.

Logan is a yellow-toned forest green with dense, foil-like yellow-gold and blue-green duochrome shimmer. This is one pretty green! I love how heavy the gold shimmer is. I didn't realize until I went outside that there was a little balding in some areas, so three coats (as opposed to the two I did) are needed for opacity.

Ziv is a yellow-toned metallic gold foil with silver highlights and warm gold flake glitter accents. I adore Ziv! This gold foil is so complimentary to my skin tone. I love the depth that the flakes add, which makes this a really unique shade. Two coats were used.

Excluding Electra, I absolutely love the Ornate collection! The best thing about the three holos is that the sparkle is visible in all lighting. Zoya has really impressed me this time around! If you'd like to purchase any of these Zoya polishes, you can find them here for $8 each.

Which shades are you loving from the Ornate collection?

*Products featured in this post were provided by PR for review.*

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Fail ~ V-Gap Nails

Hey dolls! I told you all in my geometric stamping post that I failed at several other nail art attempts. Below you will see the only fail that I took pictures of. I started with two coats of Barielle Blossom. The formula was somewhat thick and didn't self-level well at all. I used three coats of Essie Turquoise and Caicos. I can't believe I've had this polish for over a year without wearing it! The formula on Turquoise and Caicos was sheerer than I thought it would be, but it wasn't problematic at all.

Using Nailside's tutorial, I wanted to do a V-gap/chevron look. This is what would be described as a Monet; looks good from far away, but it's a total mess up close (two points for all my Clueless fans)!

Total fail. The lines were not clean at all. My gap also appears to be too small. I think my long nail beds made the space between the tape look deceptive. I even went to the store specifically to buy stationery tape because I tried cutting different designs with my craft scissors. I added Barielle Stardust to try and make the look cohesive, but overall, I'm just not a fan of this one. The only good thing about this look is that the colors are fab together. Oh well, we can't win them all, nor do I try to.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Polish Days ~ Olympics

Hey dolls! The theme for this month's Polish Days is the Olympics. I'm a huge fan of the games. I've been watching it all from the very beginning. My favorites are track, gymnastics, swimming, basketball, and volleyball. I had so many different nail art ideas in mind when I first heard of the theme. I tried them all on nail wheels, but none of my ideas were speaking to me or turning out the way I envisioned. I decided to go with something simple and tried and true for me - dots. My inspiration was the three medal colors: gold, silver, and bronze. For the base, I used Orly Au Champagne. The dots were Zoya Goldie, OPI Your Royal Shine-ness, and Diamond Cosmetics Decadence. My index finger got horribly smudged as I was taking pictures, so they didn't make the cut. :)

Au Champagne is just the most gorgeous white ever! I love the way the dots turned out and how the design is not super literal. I'm looking forward to seeing what all of the other ladies came up with for this theme.

What's your favorite Olympic game?

Here are the other participants: