Green on Green manicure

Good evening Ninjas,

I hope you've been having a good weekend. The weather has been a little weird here between pouring rain and sweltering heath. You never really know how to dress. This week is graduation week at the dojo and I'll be graduating this time around. I'm super nervous about my first red belt graduation!

Tonight's manicure is two polishes provided by Zoya PR for review. Rikki and Josie. I used Josie as a base color and did a triangle on each fingertip as a sort of reverse chevron with an art brush. I thought this turned out to be a pretty neat accented look.

Here's what Zoya has to say about these two colors:

"Zoya Nail Polish in Josie can be best described as a full-coverage grassy green cream"

"Zoya Nail Polish in Rikki can be best described as a full-coverage fern green foil metallic."

 Polishes provided by Zoya PR for honest review.

Wordless Wednesday

Product sent for review by Zoya PR.

Zoya Logan

Good evening Ninjas,

How has your week been going? It's test/stripe week at the dojo and I earned my first stripe on my red-white belt! I'm having a lot of fun in the fire element and much to his surprise my husband is also doing really well.

Tonight's manicure is two pretty coats of Zoya Logan from their Ornate collection. Zoya describes Logan as, "a full coverage, yellow-toned forest green with dense, foil-like yellow-gold and blue-green duochrome shimmer!" I kept putting off wearing Logan because it had such hard competition for my affections against the scattered holos in the Ornate collection. I really loved wearing Logan though, it was less gold than I expected and a very rich forest green. I'm definitely a big fan!

Zoya Ziv

Good evening Ninjas!

Hope everyone's week is going well. I can't believe it's only Tuesday here, it feels much later in the week.

Tonight's manicure is Ziv from Zoya's Ornate Collection for Winter 2012/13. Zoya describes Ziv as, "a full coverage, yellow-toned metallic gold foil with silver highlights and warm gold flake glitter accents." I wasn't entirely sure I wanted another gold metallic in my collection but Ziv is really a neat and complex metallic polish. The different color flecks of gold and silver as well as the various sizes of the metallic particles make this one a fun polish to look at, even just in the bottle! This is two coats of easy coverage with one coat of Seche QD on top.

Purple Nail Art

Hello Lovely Ninjas!

I hope you all went out and voted if you're in the US. It's been an interesting day here in NC with a lot of back and forth about how our popular vote would go!

This is a manicure I did so I could wear the wonderful two coat purple manicure from this post for a little bit longer. I added one layer of Essie Nothing Else Metals in a cloudy shape followed by Zoya *Toni in the same shape.

* Toni provided by Zoya PR for honest review.

This is Halloween day 26

Konbanwa Ninjas!!

This wasn't the easiest week but now it's over! As long as I stay healthy and don't pick up another cold  the next week should be great. I need to re-dye my hair red so I can be Poison Ivy for Halloween but it should be an otherwise uneventful (except for work tomorrow) weekend!

For witches, I went with the stereotypical pointed witches hat. They were freehanded with a black paint pen and silver/purple striping polish over two coats of Zoya Ziv. Ziv was an AMAZING gold polish that I almost didn't want to cover it up to do nail art on it. The star is from a glitter I got from Hot Topic a year or so ago and I thought it worked pretty well as an accent on the tip of the hat!

Milani Bridesmaid: OPI Designer De Better Dupe

Hello Ninjas!

It's stripe week here at the dojo which means people are packing themselves in to classes so they can test for their stripes and next belts. Mr. Ninja and I got our second stripes on our belts today so we only need one more stripe until Blue Belt! A lot of the techniques for this test were ground based and ended in arm bars. As a result, my forearm is a little store from being pulled in the wrong direction :( It's alright though, I'm learning to be safer!

This manicure is of Milani Bridesmaid from their Limited Edition Pure Love collection. This is a great dupe for OPI's Designer De Better from the Muppets collection. Since I had only gotten my hands on a mini of DDB, I was super excited when I saw Bridesmaid at Walgreens. The base is the same very pale gold with a generous splash of cooper/rose gold particles. This was a little sheer when applied thinly so I ended up using three coats but it wasn't hard to work with and was a very pretty color even on stormy days!

China Glaze Harvest Moon

Good Afternoon Ninjas!

After some consideration on the matter and a little reality check, I've begun looking at applying to Graduate School. I'm hoping to find a program in Mass Communication or Advertising at one of the local Universities so I won't have to move to continue my schooling. This is sort of exciting for me, and I know my mother is thrilled because she wants me to get "A floppy hat". That's what she calls the different, non-cardboard hats that graduates wear to their commencement ceremonies. So, if anyone knows of a good Advertising/Mass Communication Grad school in NC, I'm all ears!

Today I've got swatches of China Glaze's Harvest Moon for you. Harvest Moon is the polish for District 9 in the Hunger Games which handles all of the grain. HM is a bronze metallic foil polish that looks amazing in the bottle and on the nail. However, in person, this color didn't suit me at all. I don't know that is shows in the pictures but this polish just didn't sit right with my pinkish/olive skin tone. Alas, it was really fun to wear and easy to apply in two thin coats.

Zoya Meg!

Hello Lovely Ninjas!

So, the transition to the new software at work is not a smooth one... I haven't figured everything out yet and it's super stressful to have to deal with right now. Alas, I get to go in to work today and no only try to figure out the new system but there's also a belt graduation tonight! Eesh, talk about everything happening at once. Oh well, I'll make it! I might just need a large amount of caffeine to do so.

Today I've got Meg from the Zoya Surf collection. This is a super pretty polish and it's the one I used as the base for my guest post over at Toxid Lotus last Thursday. Meg is a great metallic apple green that makes me think of a chrome granny smith apple. The foil finish of this polish was excellent. Zoya describes Meg as "Light yellow-toned mermaid green with heavy gold and silver metallic shimmer and a sparkling foil finish" I have to say, I agree with them on this one!  Super easy application in two thin coats.

 Polish was provided to me by Zoya PR for honest review.

Zoya Zuza

Hello darling Ninjas!

Today I've got another one of Zoya's fabulous summer colors for you: Zuza. Of the Surf and Turf collections, the two colors that most appealed to me were Wednesday and her metallic sister Zuza. I'm a huge fan of all things teal and these beauties are a great seafoam teal color. I was tempted to sponge on white or silver tips with this color to make it look like waves at a beach but I was very short on time the week I wore this (Lots of prep for graduation at work!)

Zoya describes Zuza as " Deep, saturated, oceanic turquoise with gold and silver metallic shimmer and a foil-like finish". I can respect the description of turquoise instead of teal but I'm not so sure about deep. To me, Zuza was more the color of the ocean you see in commercials for trips to tropical locations, a gorgeous blue-green with a bit of mystery. I applied two easy coats for opacity and this wore very nicely with minimal tipwear. Please excuse my pictures, I'm not sure why but my camera did not want to pick up the sunlight very well. This is a gorgeous polish.

 

Products in thei post were provided by Zoya PR for my honest review.

Orly Rage

Hello Ninjas!

Today I've got a pretty rose-gold foil for you: Orly Rage. I picked up Rage after I fell in love with OPI Designer De Better but couldn't find a full size bottle in stores. I looked around and saw that Rage was similar in finish and color plus it was part of the permanent Orly line so it's easily accessible. I picked up the bottle at Ulta and tried it on the very next day because I was so excited to have it! This is a great color, I'm really beginning to fall in love with foil finishes. The darker flecks that make this look like rose-gold are more densely packed in that in DDB so the color looks more solidly like rose-gold than a silver with gold tint. This is two easy coats in a couple of different lights/angles to show how it glows in the sun.

Color Club Perfect Mol-ten

Hello Ninjas!

Finally another polish post for you. How did you feel about my cosmetics post? This is Color Club Perfect Mol-ten from their Fall 2011 Foiled Collection. This is a super pretty pale green foil that reminds me of Rimmel Rags to Riches. Two easy coats for full coverage, and this was a nice subtle metallic to wear at work. And it's green, I love green!

I need your help deciding which Illamasqua polish to wear next weekend. There's a huge outdoor Ninja event at my work and I'll be in a forest both Saturday and Sunday. I can't decide if I should wear Kink or Viridian! Help please :)

Zoya Izzy

Hello darling Ninjas!

Today I've got for you the polish I wore on Christmas Eve/Christmas. I let my grandmother pick out my polish so I wouldn't offend her better judgement as to appropriate holiday colors *laughs* Anyways, she picked Zoya Izzy from their Holiday 2011 collection. Izzy is a polish I chose because it is my beloved dog's name and it's even spelled the same way! This is a gorgeous and glowing fuchsia foil that was a great bright color to wear for the holidays. Two super easy coats was all it took for an incredible color pay off that we've all come to expect from Zoya.

Rimmel Pro Rags to Riches

Good afternoon!

Today I've got a pretty metallic green for you from Rimmel London's Lasting Finish Pro line. This is a preally pretty lighter green foil with a nice extra shimmer in the finish. This is three coats of polish, the formula was thin but easy to work with and it dried quickly. I loved this color, I wore it December 1st with red eyeshadow to be a little festive!

OPI Miss Universe Collection

So, in a gift swap my dog forum does every summer, my swap partner sent me some great gifts. The one I was most excited about and jumped up and down when I opened it was the entire OPI Miss Universe Collection. Best gift ever to come back to after a loooong car ride home from NY.

I could not for the life of me get a good picture of the four bottles together but here's a quick run down of all of the colors. My absolute favorite was Swimsuit...Nailed it! and I got at least 20 compliments on it the two days I wore it. I don't really like Crown Me Already but maybe it was because I only did a quick (and messy) swatch of it.  Its My Year was great, I loved the gold glitter but I had a lot of trouble getting the shimmer to show up in Congeniality is My Middle Name.