Time And Relative Dimension In Space

Hello Ninjas!

I hope you're all ready for a great three day weekend! I'll be working some extra hours but that's already since my parents are visiting next weekend. I just get to stress about packing and cleaning until they get here.

Tonight's manicure is three coats of Time And Relative Dimension In Space (TARDIS) from LynBDesigns. TARDIS is a navy blue jelly with silver square glitter suspended throughout. If you don't already know, the TARDIS is the name of the spaceship from Doctor Who which is hands down my favorite TV series. This is a really pretty nail polish but my bottle needed a little thinner to make the formula more manageable. TARDIS was also a bit of a topcoat eater so this is pictured with two coats of TC.

Orly High on Hope

Hi Ninjas!

Hope you all had a great weekend out there in the world. This week is graduation week at work so it's cram time getting everything perfect for those students getting promoted to the next rank. On top of that, Hubby and I are going to the house we're hoping to buy for an inspection tomorrow so that will be fun!

Tonight's manicure is two coats of Orly High on Hope. HoH is from their Hope and Freedom Collection for Spring 2013. High on Hope is a dark navy cream base with a duichrome red/orange shimmer throughout. The shimmer is large enough to almost be considered a fleck type finish but it's not so large it effects the texture of the polish. I do wish the red side of the flecks had come out more prominently in these pictures!

What do you think? I really like this polish and think it was a uniquely dark shade for a spring collection. If you're a fan of this color, keep an eye out for my upcoming giveaway!

Review: Zoya PixieDust for Summer 2013

Good afternoon Ninjas!

I hope you're having a lovely Friday. I'll be working today and tomorrow, as I usually do over the weekends but hubby and I do have Sunday off together so that will be fun :)

Today's post is the swatches for Zoya's summer PixieDust polishes. These polishes were sent to me for unbiased review. I really like the color combinations Zoya did for this collection! In fact, they're pretty much perfect for doing color block manicures. Since I thought the colors paired up so well, I swatched them side by side with the color I thought would make a fitting color block manicure. Not only did this save me time swatching but it gives you a neat idea for how to use these summer colors in pairs!

Descriptions of the colors below are from Zoya's site. Links lead to external affiliate website.

Solange:  Zoya Nail Polish in Solange can be best described as a gold metal foil sparkle featuring a Zoya EXCLUSIVE GOLD PIGMENT in the best-selling Zoya PixieDust Textured, Matte, Foil Twinkle formula.

Beatrix:  Zoya Nail Polish in Beatrix can be best described as a tangerine metal sparkle in the exclusive Zoya PixieDust Textured, Matte, Foil Twinkle formula

Left: Beatrix, Right: Solange

Destiny:  Zoya Nail Polish in Destiny can be best described as a coral metal sparkle in the exclusive Zoya PixieDust Textured, Matte, Foil Twinkle formula.

Miranda: Zoya Nail Polish in Miranda can be best described as a rose sparkle in the exclusive Zoya PixieDust Textured, Matte, Sparkle formula.

Left: Destiny, Right: Miranda

Stevie:  Zoya Nail Polish in Stevie can be best described as a violet sparkle, in the exclusive Zoya PixieDust Textured, Matte, Sparkle formula.

Liberty:  Zoya Nail Polish in Liberty can be best described as a blue sugary sparkle in the exclusive Zoya PixieDust Textured, Matte, Sparkle formula.

Left: Liberty, Right: Stevie

Polishes provided by Zoya PR for honest review.

Cinderella manicure!

Good evening Ninjas!

Sorry I missed Wedesday, I had a party to go to and didn't have any time between work and fun time to stop to post. Sorry about that! If it makes it any better, I specifically brought my laptop to my babysitting job tonight to post once the kids were asleep just so I didn't miss two posts in one week!

Tonight's very pretty manicure is done with a base of China Glaze Fade into Hue which is an awesome periwinkle blue. For some reason the polishes from the Avant Garden collection have been bubbling on me so I added a coat of Essie As Gold as it Gets to mask the bubbling issue. To make this pretty blue manicure a little blingy, I added a spiral of light blue rhinestones that I received from MASH for review purposes. When I posted this look in a facebook group, some of the ladies commended on how it was a Cinderella blue manicure and I agree! With all the shine and sparkle it's pretty princess-y too :)

Rhinestones provided by MASH PR for honest review. Affiliate link included in this post.

Black and White and Blue all over

Good evening Ninja readers!

I hope you had a lovely weekend in whatever part of the world you're from. This coming weekend is Easter, I don't have any plans but I hope my lovely readers do. This week is weapons week at work which means that I get to learn sword moves!

Tonight's manicure is two smooth coats of Jessica Sophia under one monochromatic coat of Hard Candy Black Tie Optional. Sophia "True Blue" is a perfect University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill blue (aka, Carolina blue) and I foresee myself wearing it in future NCAA seasons when UNC isn't losing so early on. Sophia has a lovely silver shimmer throughout that makes it more than a plain blue cream polish. Black Tie Optional is Hard Candy's version of the currently popular Black and White glitter combinations that began in the Indie polish world. I like this polish much better than the China Glaze version as it was easier to apply and had more glitter per swipe of polish!

Duochrome Purple Layering

Good evening Ninjas!

The weather here in NC is just toying with my emotions this week. There have been days nice enough to wear summer dresses and others where I needed gloves and a hat when I went outside. Ah well, Spring will be here soon enough!

Tonight's manicure is one coat of Cult Nails Charlatan over two coats of Illmasqua Vice. I really liked the way that Vice looked with the rubberized finish and sort of wished I hadn't layered anything on top of it. I can always wear it again though! Vice is a really pretty magenta that Illamasqua calls a "deep cerise" where Charlatan is a sheer pink jelly with pink/blue duochrome particles suspended in it.

Volts the pretty Cobalt

Hello Ninjas!

So now that I'm in fire element training, class is way more tiring. I think that's mostly because some of the moves involve a lot of pulling on your attacker and definitely a lot of bending your knees. Needless today, my arms and legs are tiiiired!

Tonight's manicure is Volts from Funky Fingers. This is a super bright blue that shows up a really pretty neon Cobalt blue once it dries. I don't know if you can tell but the polish dries a good three or so shades darker than the bottle color. This is three coats of color which were easily buildable. Without topcoat, this polish dries to a rubber/matte finish which is a big indicator that it is indeed a neon polish.

Zoya Nyx

Good evening Ninjas!!

Hopefully you had a great weekend and were refreshed on Monday morning. I'm having a little trouble with the time change still but I'm sure it will even out in my sleep cycle soon enough.

Tonight's swatch is three coats of Zoya Nyx. Zoya describes Nyx as, " a perfect periwinkle with a sugared sparkle." Nyx was easier to work with than the previous two colors. Now, this may have been because I learned how long I had to wait between coats or because the formula was just more opaque on this color but I was happy with Nyx. The pretty blue of Nyx is more of a stormy sky blue or cornflower blue rather than periwinkle but this is definitely a great spring color regardless.

Nyx provided by Zoya PR for honest review.

Micropost

Sally Hansen Snow Blast over China Glaze First Mate

Stamping and Rhinestones!

Good evening Ninjas!

I took my test for red-white belt on Monday and I passed! Now I get to keep practicing my water until graduation on March 6th and I still need to plan my graduation manicure as well. Red and white would have been perfect for Valentine's Day!

This is a pretty complex manicure. The base polish is four frustrating coats of Zoya Kotori which Zoya describes as "A dense bright blue shimmer superimposed over a sheer black base." Kotori is rated at a 3 out of 5 on the Zoya sheer scale but I really wanted three coats to be enough! I stamped Kotori with Blu from the Lovely collection. I used the dandelion seed image from MASH plate 30. Then, because I couldn't be happy with that, I added a border around the ring finger nail using the silver rectangular rhinestones from Cult Nails that came as a free gift with purchase around Christmas time.

Blu and MASH 30 were received from their respective PR companies for honest review.

Illamasqua Glitter Gradient

Good evening Ninjas!

Happy Monday, hope you had a lovely weekend. I think the highlight of my weekend was Walking Dead coming back for the Mid-Season premiere! Do you watch that show?

Tonight's manicure is one I really didn't want to take off. This is two coats of Illamasqua Phallic which is, hands down, my new favorite blue nail polish. Illamasqua describes Phallic as a "deep midnight blue, shimmer finish" which doesn't do this polish justice. This polish absolutely glows on its own but I couldn't just leave well enough alone. I did a sponged glitter gradient on the tips of my nails with Finger Paints Falling for You which is a Copper mini and hex glitter combination. This was an awesome duo!

Zoya Lovely Day 5

Happy Ninja Thursday!

I'm not entirely sure why it's a Ninja Thursday but it just seemed like a fun day to belong to those stealthy folks. Here's the second to last installment in the Zoya Lovely series, Blu!

Zoya describes Blu as, " a full-coverage, soft and delicate pale baby blue with a glossy creme finish. A dreamy, calming blue that's both fun and flattering on the nails." This was a nice two coats for opacity. I think I'd like this better of it wasn't so brightly white based. A nice medium grey base would have made this a little more wearable for me. I guess that's why I've got Kristen.

Product sent for consideration by Zoya PR for honest review.

Color Club Angel Kiss

Hello Ninjas!

I hope you're all finding this new year to be starting off well for you. Tomorrow is graduation here at work and after the big seminar we just had, it's been hectic. I've been running pretty consistently though and I'm up to 10 miles for the year so that's something.

Tonight's manicure is two coats of Color Club Angel Kiss from their Halo Hues collection. AK is a light teal/blue linear holographic polish. This is probably the easiest linear holo polish I've ever worked with, no special base or topcoat needed and no bald spots or dragging on application. My MiL bought me this along with two more of the Halo Hues collection so you can look forward to those in the coming weeks!

Light box photo, thus the different lighting.

Artificial Light

Artificial Light

Artificial Light

Two in one!

Good evening darling Ninjas!

It's winding down here at work as we get ready to close next week for the Holidays. I've had fun over the last couple days decorating our windows for the Holiday spirit :)

Tonight's manicure is one that served a double purpose. I did my "Inspired by a holiday song" on one hand and "Ugly Christmas Sweater" on the other! The base here is butter LONDON Victoriana which was a gift from my lovely Mother in Law. The accents are done with color club art brushes.

I chose the Dreidel song for my Holiday Song :) I went with a blue dreidel with white characters like this one:

source: http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/webking/webking0511/webking051100250/283514-isolated-blue-dreidel.jpg

Then for my inspiration for the Ugly Christmas Sweater I did something that was reminiscent of this cute little dog sweater!

source: http://www.baxterboo.com/images/products/medium/east-side-collection-christmas-star-dog-sweater-blue-1.jpg

And my customary bottle label shot!