Zoya - Coraline (Blogger Series)

Oh my GOSH, I've been horrible about updating. Let my nails do the explaining, as they are proof of how stressful and crazy last week was! I work for an event management company, and we had a very busy week prepping for an event which was last Friday evening. It went smoothly, but after a week of loading and unloading, and a bit of nervous chewing... my nails were shot! Saturday I was up early to head home for my sister's graduation party, which was another long, but equally fun day. Monday and today I spent on tear down for Friday's event, and my nails were totally wrecked by this afternoon. So I hope that is enough excuse to make up for my blogging absence - and if that won't cut it, I'm sure today's polish will! 

And on another note - my camera batteries died, so I have crappy iPhone pics - SORRY!

This beauty is Zoya's Coraline, from Zoya's Blogger Collection. You might recall my post about Kate, another polish from this collection. I really love these gorgeous jellies. What I said about Kate holds true for Coraline as well - it looks like candy! It looks like I could lick my fingers and they'd taste like orange!

I used two coats to give an almost complete coverage, as I kind of like the nail line peeking through the jelly polish (well, the very minimal nail line I have after all my nails broke!). I topped this off with one coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat and called it done. Here's to hoping my nails grow quickly, and my battery charger can be found soon! 

Zoya - Drew

If any of you followed my Tumblr account before I switched over to Blogger, you know my love for Zoya runs deep. Their polishes are amazing, they have excellent customer service, and the fun promotions they ran right around Christmas time had me hooked! I got this beauty in one of their awesome deals this December, and it's been sitting in my untried pile since. I love a nice pink polish, and Zoya's Drew does not disappoint!

I used two coats of this exceptional polish, although one would have cut it. You can see in the bottle that there is verrrrry subtle gold and pink metallic shimmer in it. It is even less obvious on the nail, but it gives it the mani just the right amount of kick. The thing that I love about Zoya is that the polishes stay on so well, the formulas are amazing, and the broad spectrum of colors to pick from is ridiculous. Dare I say, Zoya might be my favorite brand of polish? Hmmm... 

This look is very simple. All I used was one coat of Zoya's Anchor base coat, two coats of Zoya - Drew, and one coat of Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri Anti-Chip top coat, and wa-lah!

What do you think?

China Glaze - Prism

I was so excited when this Prismatic collection came out. I love lots of glitter, and most of my stash is made up of various glitter polishes. However, I only ended up buying two from this collection - Liquid Crystal, and the polish you see here - Prism, and I can't say I'm sorry I didn't buy more.  These two are very similar polishes. 

One of the things I don't like about this collection is how easy it chips. It makes sense, I suppose. Thick glitter is way more brittle than most formulas, so one wrong tap of your nail and there goes half of the polish. I painted my nails on Saturday evening, and already I have some sizable chunks missing. 

I decided to add a layer of China Glaze - Crushed Candy to my ring finger as an accent, but it didn't crack very well. That's something I don't like about crackle polishes as well - if you paint them on even a tad bit too thick, they hardly crack (which is frustrating after you've already put enough work in to the bottom layers below it!) 

I put Prism on my toes too and I think it looks much better than it does on my hands. It doesn't chip as fast, and it's always fun to have sparkly toes in the summer time for flip flop weather. I think I'll solely use Prism and Liquid Crystal for pedi polishes from here on out.

Was anyone else unimpressed with this collection, too? 

Wet n Wild - Lady Luck

This is an older polish that has been sitting in my unused pile for awhile and I totally regret not pulling it out earlier! This gorgeous pink is two coats of Wet n Wild's Lady Luck. It's really summery and bright (although I couldn't quite capture it's true color... it's a bit darker than it looks)! I think it would make for a fantastic pedicure color! 

I hardly needed two coats as it looked great with just one, but I figured it would look richer with two. The application of this polish was truly awesome, too! I had no idea Wet n Wild polishes were so nice! 

I wanted to spruce things up a bit, so I peeked through my "nail inspiration" board on Pinterest and found a picture of a glitter gradient much like this one. I used an unnamed The Color Workshop polish that is a really pretty silver holo. It's really thin and spices up just about any manicure. This is my first attempt at trying to do a gradient mani, and I'm actually quite satisfied!

And just so you can see, here is a picture of what I used:

(Poshe basecoat, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat, unnamed The Color Workshop holo, Wet n Wild - Lady Luck, China Glaze peppermint cuticle oil)

Sally Hansen - Deep Blue Sea

Seeing as it's Memorial Weekend I wanted to paint my nails in the spirit of the holiday! I'm not a huge fan of blues, but I have to say this color is kind of nice. This is two coats of Sally Hansen - Deep Blue Sea from the Xtreme Wears collection, a pretty blue foil polish that reminds me of denim jeans. 

I haven't used my design polishes in a long time, so I pulled out the white and red glitter LA Colors art deco polishes and used my imagination a bit, and there you have it! My ring finger looks surprisingly better on my other hand than it does in this picture, but my thumb looks much better on my left hand (shown here). I already chipped my other thumb... grrr...

One coat is very sheer, but once you apply the second coat, Deep Blue Sea is the perfect consistency. I topped it off with Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri top coat, and called it good.

Anyone else sporting a Memorial Day mani?

China Glaze - Electric Pineapple

It is a beautiful day here in southern Minnesota and as I looked through my pile of untried polishes, I started looking for something that screamed summer. That's when my eyes locked on a polish from China Glaze's 2011 Island Escape summer collection called Electric Pineapple.

In the bottle, this looks very neon, but once it's on it's more of a muted greenish yellow creme polish. I bumped a couple nails and messed them up, but regardless, I still really like how this color looks! This is two coats of Electric Pineapple, topped off with Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri top coat.

I added a couple purple rhinestones just for fun, and there you have it! A great color for summer!

So great in fact that I decided it was time for a pedicure, too!

And wa-lah, my toes are ready for flip flops! I really like the row of purple rhinestones at the top, which compliments Electric Pineapple nicely. I pressed the rhinestones on as the polish was close to dry, and then once it dried completely I put superglue around them to hopefully ensure they stay on awhile! 

What color are you wearing to welcome in the warm weather?

Sally Hansen - Lavender Envy

Well, my nails are still looking pretty rough after I broke every single one while moving last weekend and sadly, this polish is just not the most flattering - but hey, I figured I better show you this one as proof that not every manicure is a success. This is two coats of Sally Hansen - Lavender Envy from the Xtreme Wear collection. The color itself is not so bad - it's a very sheer purple with greenish blue micro shimmer - but I think the Kleancolor - Matte Magic topcoat I used screwed everything up. 

Kleancolor - Matte Magic is a very thick and goopy top coat that takes forever to dry (are all matte topcoats like this? I have only ever tried this one, as I'm not a huge fan of  matte polish). It made the polish bubbly and it smeared and wrinkled and made a glob around my nail sticker. 

I'm going to be perfectly honest when I say I hate this manicure, but I'm just too lazy to do anything about it right now. Come Monday, hopefully my nails will have recovered a bit, and I'll do something much cuter than this! 

What manicure of yours did you absolutely hate?