Wordless Thursday

Barielle U-Concrete-Me under LynBDesigns Weeping Angels

Barielle U-Concrete-Me under LynBDesigns Weeping Angels

Don't forget the Multi-Blogger Giveaway!

Jessica Nadia: Sterling Queen

Good evening Ninjas!

I hope you've been having a great week. The weather here in NC is lovely as can be, finally reflecting Spring! Of course Spring means green season here in NC so my car and the roads are covered in allergy inducing pollen. So far my allergies haven't been bad, I hope it stays that way!!

Tonight's manicure is two surprisingly easy coats of Jessica Nadia. This is from Jessica's Spring 2013 collection that I won in a giveaway a few month back. Nadia: Sterling Queen is a lovely light grey with a fine silver shimmer throughout. I was pleasantly surprised how quickly this became opaque considering the pastel nature of the base grey. This was a fun polish to wear!

Zoya London

Hello Ninjas!

The weather has been up and down all week here in NC. We started off the week with a bitter cold snap then had days in the 60's but it's getting chilly again. My husband is running his first half marathon on Sunday so I hope the weather is nice for that day!!

Tonight's swatch is Zoya London. I'm pretty sure they named this one London for London Fog, it's a very pretty grey! Zoya describes London as, "a fog gray with a sugared sparkle." Which means I was right about the inspiration for the name :) This one had great coverage, two easy coats for this color which was a relief after the three long-drying coats from the previous pastel colors.

Only two more colors until I finish up this collection, are you loving the textured polished or wishing companies would quit making them already?

London provided by Zoya PR for honest review.

Soft Grey Holo

Hello Ninjas!

This is weapons week at work and I have the opportunity to do sword classes with the red belts. Sword was SO MUCH FUN tonight in class! I think I'll really like the Fire Element and there is only a little over a week left until I'm wearing a red-white belt :)

Tonight's manicure was sort of a whim to make what could have been a plain manicure a little more interesting. I used two coats of Smoke Screen from Ulta as a base under one coat of a holo topcoat I received in a nail polish swap a few months back. The result was a very pretty soft grey holographic that looked a little like a wintery slush.

Cirque du Soleil

Hey Ninjas!

I'm feeling a little off tonight so this is will be a post light on words.

This is two really irritating coats of Whirled Away from their by China Glaze Cirque du Soleil collection over two smooth coats of Essie Cocktail Bling. WA was difficult to apply, the clear suspension base was very prone to bubbling, and it was a pain to fish out the white hex glitter to make the black/white contrast happen on the nail. Also, I am more sure than ever that I hate bar glitter. Yuck!

This is Halloween Day 29

Hey Ninjas!

Hope you're all staying safe with the crazy weather out there! It's pretty miserable here in NC, and I'm a few hours inland. Keep warm and dry if you can!

This is not my best work. I sponged Wet n Wild Black Cream over Barielle Decadence then added ManGlaze Fuggen Ugly for the hedgestones. I highlighted the shape with a white striper then did the RIP (or AD for Albus Dumbledore) with a black striper.

Essence Grey-t to be Here

Hi Ninjas! 

Short post, just polish description and pictures today! Tango was up sick last night so I'm running on fumes this evening.

This is the base for my Saw Manicure from this past Monday. Two smooth coats of Grey-t to be here which is a light grey cream polish with a lot of pink/red glass fleck shimmer that occasionally shifts to gold at extreme angles. This is a really nice take on a fall neutral with the surprise shimmer you can see. The shimmer didn't photograph very well but trust me, it's there in person!

October Halloween nail art challenge!

Hello Ninjas!

I spent all weekend learning cool new ninja moves and having a fantastic time with my fellow martial artists. I gotta say, ninjas know how to party; my body hurts more from the dancing on Saturday night than from getting thrown around like a rag doll during training. Good times all around!

This is my first attempt at a nail art challenge. I've joined a great group of ladies with a love for lacquer in a Halloween themed challenge. The first day is Horror Movies! I had these grand plans for a really awesome SAW manicure but it doesn't look nearly as pretty as I hoped. Ah well, that's why it's a challenge! Two coats of Essence Grey-t to be here, ManGlaze Fuggen Ugly to look like saw blades on the tips of the nails, and two art stripers were used to make this manicure. The lighting wasn't working with me so I made one black and white for a little variety.

Essence Chic Reloaded

Hello Ninjas!

It's stripe week again at the dojo so Hubby and I got our first stripe on our blue belts. I also had a lot of fun in my first official Mon Jin (Black Belt Club) class last night. It's a cool opportunity to work with so many belt levels on those nights because it's open to anyone with a black uniform! That ranges from a Blue-White belt to a Fifth Degree Black belt!

Tonight's manicure is two smooth coats of Chic Reloaded from Essence. This is one of their new colors with the new bottle design. Chic Reloaded is a fantastic multi-chrom polish that flashes purple, teal, and gold in the right lights. This has a slightly metallic finish and the base color is a really nice charcoal grey. There are some funky hand angles in this picture in my attempt to capture the colors to the best of my ability.

Monochrome Manicure

Good evening Ninjas!

Tonight has been a night of zombies for me. There was a huge dojo party to celebrate a Second Degree black belt graduation as well as a number of awesome peoples' birthdays. The party had a zombie theme and I went all out with the makeup for me and a friend. I think I'll save the pictures until closer to Halloween though, they're pretty scary!

Tonight's manicure was one I wore for quite a while because it lasted well and I just loved how it looked on the nail. This is two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Wet Cement with an awesome coat of Pretty & Polished Valentino. I got a mini bottle of Valentino in a great swap I did a while back and I could not be more happy with this polish!

This is a little wooden "Armless Doll" mirror from Japan and a student gifted me with.

Rimmel London Steel Grey

Hi Ninjas!

Before I get to the fun stuff I need to clarify a few things about my giveaway. First off, it says in the post that it is open to US/Canadian readers only. If I find out that you are not in either of those countries, your entries will be deleted. Second, don't try to scam me. If you didn't leave a blog comment, don't complete that entry.  I've had at least three people already who tried that trick on me and quite frankly, that makes me mad! I'm moderating the entries every day so please, don't try to game the system. This is done in good spirit as a means to share a little of the excitement surrounding a belt promotion, not a way to just cheat and get free polish. I have to say, I'm disappointed in the people who are lying and I kind of hope none of them were my existing readers :(

Today's polish was a gift from one of the lovely black belts at work. Every time I would see her she had this wonderful purple leaning taupe polish on and I always made a point to compliment it. Well, one day she surprised me with my very own bottle of the polish! It was Rimmel London Steel Grey from their Pro line. I love this polish! It is a wonderful neutral that goes with just about any outfit you can imagine and it and matches today's stormy skies. This is a warm taupe with purple undertones and a cream finish polish that was easily applied in two medium coats or three thin coats.

butter LONDON Dodgy Barnett

Hello Ninjas!

Over the last couple of weeks or so there has been a ridiculous amount of photo theft from the nail blogging community. As such, I took the time to create my own watermark that you'll be seeing from now on in my pictures. It's fairly small so it shouldn't change the picture quality and it certainly won't hamper your view of the polish. I just wanted to let you all know why I started to add it! Also, do you like my new blog header?

Today's manicure (and actually the one I'm wearing today!) is Dodgy Barnett from butter LONDON's Fall 2012 collection.  I picked this up at the Nordstrom Buy 2 Get 1 Free that happened on Sunday. I love holos and this polish is not exception! Butter LONDON describes this polish as "A highly holographic lacquer in a classic shade that blurs the line between grey and silver. " Which is pretty accurate. When I was looking at it in the sunlight, DB made me think of AEngland's Princess Tears without the strong duochrome effect. I love this, and if you've been lemming Glitter Gal Light as a Feather, this is pretty similar and more accessible!

These pictures are three coats which isn't bad at all for a very light colored holographic!

Zoya Designer Collection

Hello Ninjas!

Happy Monday. I spent most of the weekend sleeping, reading, and recuperating from my sinus infection. Now that I can breathe through my nose. I've got a dry cough to contend with. That's alright though, I'll take a few cough drops over a box of tissues any day! This week is set up to be crazy so you might not see another post until Thursday so let's make this a good one!

Today I've got the Zoya NYFW Designer collection for you. The first two colors up I wore as a full manicure and the last 4 I swatched when I got down time tanks to being sick. Yes, I chopped my nails off and squared them last week. I'm still getting used to this length and nail shape. All of these are two coats, the first three with topcoat, the last three without.

First up, Rekha " Bold medium blood red with a glossy cream finish. A custom runway shade created for fashion designer Bibhu Mohapatra."

 Second, Toni "Dark, warm raisin-wine cream with strong purple tones. A fashionable muted purple for a classic vampy nail look"

Third, Monica (This is where I changed my nail shape/length) "Dark, soft blue-toned purple with a glossy cream finish. A bit of vibrant couture color, darkened for a bold, dramatic nail look."

Fourth, and my personal favorite, Natty "Smoky deep steel blue with an opaque cream finish. A standout smoky blue for an unexpected but very wearable runway look."

Fifth, Evvie, "Dark smoky grey cream with strong teal green undertones. A custom-mixed runway shade created for designer Peter Som."

And last but not least, Noot, "Very dark grey cream with strong blue-green undertones. Smoky, smoldering dark grey nails with a twist from the addition of green tones."

Overall, my favorites were Rekha, Natty, and Evvie. The other colors were nice but those three really stood out. I love how vibrant Rehka is without looking like any old red in the crayon box, it's sort of the red of fresh blood which is really fitting for fall when you think of Halloween coming up. I enjoy Natty immensely, I don't have anything like this smokey slate blue in my collection and this is one of the colors that I both swatched and decided to wear as a full manicure after the fact. Evvie is really pretty, another color that is unique in my collection, Evvie reminds me of shade in an Australian forest (C'mon, they called it eucalyptus!)

This is a great collection and you can order it now from Zoya.com!

Polish in this post provided by Zoya PR team for honest review.