Zoya Dahlia

Zoya Dahlia is another fantastic polish from the Zoya Pixie Dust Collection.

Here's what Zoya has to say about these polishes.

Infused with magic and wonder! The latest "must-have" nail polish finish - textured, matte and sparkling! This newly developed formula is sure to captivate with a magical sparkle and sugary finish like no other. The color experts at Zoya have created six, long-wearing stunners for the introduction of this enchanting look.

IMPORTANT Pixie Dust Application Information - Do not use a base coat or top coat. Apply 1-3 (for full coverage) thin coats of polish. Allow product to dry down completely matte in between layers for full textured effect. The Pixie Dust textured formula may take up to 10 minutes to dry completely matte. Once dry, the textured finish is long lasting, matte and ultra-glittery!

I followed the above instructions, no base coat or top coat. Application is very easy as long as you stick with thin coats & make sure to let them dry completely before adding another. Otherwise you'll have some dragging like with most matte polishes. Zoya Dahlia only needs two coats for full coverage.

I'm a voracious reader & this book was an excellent read whose cover happened to look lovely with my nails.

I love Dahlia just as much as I loved Chyna from the same collection. I thought the gritty texture might bother me but it didn't at all. It looks exactly like a black sparkly sandpaper that I use sometimes for concrete projects. Not nearly as scratchy of course!

Both Chyna & Dhalia wear very well even without base or top coats & stay truly matte even after the application of hand lotion. Dahlia is another winner!

Thanks for reading!
April

This polish was sent to me for review. All opinions are my own & were not influenced by Zoya! For more information you can read my disclosure policy.

Pomegranate Curator

I love Pomegranate Curator so much! I don't have anything like it & the formula is excellent. Black jelly base with small silver glitter & medium gold glitter. Shown here at just two easily applied coats with one coat of topcoat.

Thanks for reading!
April

This polish was sent to me for review. All opinions are my own & were not influenced by Pomegranate! For more information you can read my disclosure policy.

Pomegranate Cyberspace & Holographic Stripes!

Pomegranate polishes are big 3free - no toluene, formaldehyde, or DBP. They are also cruelty-free & made in the USA! Pomegranate brushes are very narrow but I know some of you ladies like narrow brushes for more control. They can be purchased from their website for $9.


Pomegranate Cyberspace is an excellent charcoal scattered holographic polish. We all love a good subtle holo! Great formula that covers in just two coats.

 

The next day I added some stripes of China Glaze 2NITE. Sometimes the simple manicures are best. I love this one!

 

 

 

Thanks for reading!

April

This polish was sent to me for review. All opinions are my own & were not influenced by Pomegranate! For more information you can read my disclosure policy.

Lightning

It's go through old photos day at April's house. Here's another quick post with some forgotten nails. I can't quite remember what I was going for here...
I used Sinful Secret Admirer (one of my all time favorites) for the base & the Painted Nail by Nubar OMG Gorgeous for the lightning.

Thanks for reading!
April

Wet N Wild Blackmail & Some Quick Nail Art

I won Wet N Wild Blackmail from Painted Pixies blog a few months ago. Thanks so much for all of the cool polish!
Blackmail is a nice black polish with a hint of copper & turquoise shimmer. I'm definitely keeping it but I wish that the shimmer was much more prominent. That would make this one a stunner instead of just fine.

 

The next day I tried to do some nail art inspired by my killer new pair of shoes, I couldn't quite get the look I was going for though. I used Zoya Phoebe for the fan shape.

Thanks for reading!
April

Chain Nails!

I didn't get very good pictures of these nails which is too bad because I really loved them. These stayed on remarkably well for 2 whole days.
I used one coat of American Apparel Hassid. The chains had earlier been cut with a pair of scissors, just a chain from some old necklace. I added some top coat to one nail & then used a pair of tweezers to add a length of chain. Repeat the process on each nail & then add another layer of top coat and finished!

Thanks for reading!
April

Layla Magneffect Black Metal

I won my first magnetic polish from the lovely ladies at The Polish Lab. Thanks ladies!! Magnetic polishes are very exciting to me. It's just such a cool idea.
This is 1 coat of Layla Magneffects in Black Metal. The polish applies very easily and covers in one coat. I had a bit of trouble with the magnet; I think my nails are just too rounded to get good stripes. I can only get them in the middle or off to one side. I don't think it has anything to do with the product though. It just doesn't work well for my particular nails. I'm passing this one on to a very happy friend with much smaller nails & I fully expect it to work great for her. A starburst pattern magnet is probably much more suited to my nails.
You'll have to vary your routine a bit when using a magnetic polish. You want to do one nail at a time & then quickly use the magnet. I also recommend skipping the topcoat as it can blur the pattern. The polish dries fast so it wasn't a problem for me to skip the topcoat.

 

I hope magnetic polishes continue to catch on & that we have a wide variety to choose from in the coming year!

Thanks for reading!
April

Born Pretty Kelier Crackle Black & A Giveaway Winner

Here we have Kelier Black Crackle over a few different polishes. The brush is the wonkiest I've ever seen, but it really doesn't matter with a crackle polish. These sell for around $4 with free shipping and no minimum order. The Kelier crackles have a very different effect than the China Glaze Crackles & the OPI Shatters & the crackle I showed you yesterday.

I wanted to try it out as soon as it arrived. This is one coat over Zoya Dove. It looked pretty cool so I've used it a few more times since then.


I really wanted to try it over a red polish because I thought it would look like cooling lava. Again one coat over Color Club Feel The Beat. I love it! Sorry for the messy clean up. The Kelier is REALLY difficult to remove, even from skin with acetone.


I didn't have any untrieds for about a month and I couldn't decide what to do with my nails. I asked Will and he suggested the Kelier over a glow in the dark polish. Great idea, but almost impossible to photograph!


Last I used it as an accent nail over my beloved Maybelline Khaki Fringe.


The winner of my Medusa's Threads giveaway is M. Bhow. Random.org chose her #43 out of 239 entries. Thanks to everyone who entered! I'll be starting a new giveaway soon.

Thanks for reading!
April

Wet N Wild Night Prowl

Here's another Wet N Wild that looks amazing in the sunshine! Wet N Wild Night Prowl is a black jelly with purple glitter. It's a fabulous polish for your money if you like dark polishes. I'm not a big fan of polishes that look black most the time indoors though and this one falls into this category. Thanks to Beautopia for sending me this one when I won a giveaway a while back!

Thanks for reading!
April

American Apparel Hassid

American Apparel Hassid is a black creme polish. Nothing fancy, no sparkles or matte effects. I would never wear this alone but it is an amazing polish if you like to do nail art! Hassid is opaque in one easily applied, quick-drying, thin coat! Woohoo! It also works great with water marbling and Konad! If you haven't found a great black creme, I strongly suggest you try American Apparel Hassid.

Disclosure: I was provided a product sample by American Apparel. This in no way affects my opinions of the product. For more information read my Disclosure Policy.

Thanks for reading!
April

World Cup 2010 "Group of Death" Nail Art

I used my new ManGlaze Matte is Murder for last week's Group of Death games in this year's World Cup. Here's a definition of the term from Wikipedia.

A group of death in a multi-stage tournament is a preliminary group which is unusually competitive, because the number of strong competitors in the group is greater than the number of qualifying places available for the next phase of the tournament. Thus, in the preliminary round, one or more strong competitors in the "group of death" will necessarily be eliminated, who would otherwise have been expected to progress further in the tournament.

Brazil & Portugal made it out this time but Ivory Coast had to go home.

I won all of the ManGlaze polishes recently from Sara of Daily Polish. Thanks again! I used my amazing smARTnails sticker stencils and ManGlaze Hot Mess & Fuggen Ugly for the skulls.

Here's a shot of ManGlaze Matte is Murder before the skulls. It was easy to work with and required three coats.


Thanks for reading!
April

World Cup 2010 Ghana

Ghana was one of my favorite teams last World Cup and they are this time as well. I used China Glaze Solar Power, a Tic Tac red, & BB Couture Poison Ivy for the Ghana Flag. I painted my nail yellow and then the next morning, I used a strip of blue painter's tape to make the green and red stripes. I used my smARTnails sticker stencils for the star. One coat of one of my favorites, Sinful Secret Admirer for the rest of my nails.

World Cup fever is real and I have it! It's safe to say that the World Cup has taken over my life. I've watched all but one game! I'm way behind on the blog! I was supposed to start my blog anniversary giveaway on the 17th but I STILL haven't had a chance to get to it. I promise I will soon.

I wanted to post this yesterday, but no time! So yesterday's World Cup hottie of the day is the entire team of Ghana! Especially Ayew & Gyan!

Thanks for reading!
April

80's Prom Fashion Show Nails or What I Did Friday Night!

My friends Lynn & Robbo put on a huge 80's Prom in Tulsa every year and this time they asked me to be in the fashion show. I'm not a big fan of the 80's as a whole, but I love Lynn & Robbo, so I agreed. It ended up being super fun! The fashion show had 4 segments based on 80's movies. Mannequin, Labyrinth, Say Anything & Lost Boys. I got to be a vampire! Yay! My outfit was over the top as you can see below and I decided to do my nails to match the stripes.

I used American Apparel Cotton & Hassid and a tip I picked up from one of my new favorite blogs, Blue Tape & Nail Tips!! I was in a hurry and nervous about how the night would go, so I wasn't very careful, but they looked great anyway. I cut strips of blue painters tape into fairly uniform strips that I then applied to my nails after the Cotton had dried. Then I just used Hassid for the black stripes. Super simple! You really have to go check out Blue Tape & Nail Tips if you haven't already. Look at her Easter nails!
I love getting dressed up! I had a great time and even got nominated Prom Queen!
Tonight's the last night to enter my Point Blank Design Print Giveaway! Here's her fantastic Dracula print!

Thanks for reading!
April

Tic Tac Polishes and bees

Since the last two Tic Tac polishes I had to post were black and yellow, I wanted to share a some links with you guys. A couple of our friends posted this link on facebook today. It's an article about the continued problem of dying bees. Here's another link from a website called Learn 2 Grow. It's about Sedum plants. If you can, plant some in your garden. We need bees!
Sorry I didn't have a bee manicure to post. I'll try do one one in honor of spring and post it soon.

This picture comes from the creative commons section of flickr and belongs to Brenda.

Tic Tac black. I've never worn black nail polish as a manicure, but I wanted one around to use in nail art. I never would have spent $5 or more on a black polish, so at just $1 this works just fine for me. It took 2 coats and the application didn't give me any problems.



The yellow however was awful. This is 5 coats and it probably could have used another. Typical yellow I guess. I'm gonna put it on our frankening pile. Looking at the pictures makes me want to wear yellow again. I like it a lot and it's perfect for spring.




Thanks for reading
-Ashley

Sinful Secret Admirer & A Giveaway Roundup

I have had great luck with the Sinful polishes I have tried so far. Secret Admirer costs $2 & I can get away with just one coat if I'm careful. I really love any nail polish that can look good with one coat. Sometimes I'm in a hurry! Black creme nail polish is not something I'm interested in wearing. (or any of those polishes that look black unless you are in the sun, for that matter!) But the superfine silver shimmer in Secret Admirer makes this black polish a winner for me. This Sinful polish is great for Konad and nail art because it is so pigmented. It worked great for the tuxedo on my Dracula nails.
I used Nail Tek Foundation II on my ring and pinkie fingers for a matte effect.


Giveaway Roundup

• Win a PUR Water pitcher from Saving Cents with Sense. Ends 1/21.
• Win a gorgeous lingerie set from Diary of a Vintage Girl. Ends 1/21.
• Win a $300 Target gift card from Health Bistro. Ends 1/22.
• Win a Hairfree Ceramic Brush Set from Sweeps4Bloggers. Ends 1/23.
• Win a Yak Pak Nobu Handbag from Sweeps4Bloggers. Ends 1/23.
• Win a set of Wilton's Ultragold Bakeware from Outnumbered 3 to 1. Ends 1/23.

Thanks for reading!
April