Swatch and Review: Zoya Naked Manicure System

Long time, no see, everyone! I'm ten days away from taking the NY and NJ Bar Exams (AHHHH!), so hopefully, I'll have more time to get back to swatching and my nail art once that stupid test is over!

In other news, as you may have seen on Facebook, I received the Zoya Naked Manicure System a little under a month ago. Since then, I have been testing the various shades of the collection, as well as the wear of both matte and glossy looks.

Here is what Zoya says about the Naked Manicure System: "The Naked Manicure System is a simple, highly effective system that gives clients instant, gorgeous natural looking nails. It also provides the intense therapeutic, long term benefits for stronger, healthier nails."

Because of what was posted on their website, I approached product testing with three goals in mind:

1) How natural does it look?
2) How long does it last?
3) Does it make my nails stronger or healthier?

Sometimes, from all the swatching, my nails can be a little yellow and I have issues with ridges. I'm also going to be starting a new job in the fall and I wanted a few more professional-looking options that I could wear every day and know they're appropriate for both day and night work events.

You can also layer different Perfector shades to get a more customized color based on your skin tone and condition of your nails, as demonstrated below:

I'm happy to report that I've now gotten the whole collection swatched and tested for wear!

How Natural Does it Look (The Perfector Shades):

Below, you'll find a comparison between my natural nail, the satin (matte) look, and the glossy look.

Easter Chevrons

Happy Easter, my lovelies!

For my Easter nails, I used two different sized Chevron nail vinyls over a base of OPI Skull and Glossbones, plus Colors by Llarowe Good Fortune and Smooth Criminal.

I really loved how this came out. It's sparkly and pretty and very springy!

Barielle Gentle Breeze Watercolor Water Marble

I haven't done a water marble in what seems like FOREVER, so I decided when I received the Barielle Gentle Breeze collection for spring 2015, I would have to give it a shot!

According to Barielle, the Spring collection "reflects the soft, gentle, eclectic hues of this most welcome and delightful season." It is definitely atypical of other brands' spring collections, but that's not really a bad thing.

Under the Sea - A rich, sea scuba blue shimmer

Champagne and Bubbles - A creamy tangerine

Pink Parasol - A creamy strawberry ice

Gray Sky - A rich, creamy glacier gray

Heaven Sent - A soft creamy aquamarine

Prior to starting the water marbling process, I painted on two coats of Under the Sea as the base.

I initially didn't intend for this to have a very soft, watercolor look, but a few of these shades (Champagne and Bubbles, Under the Sea, and Heaven Sent) are on the sheerer side.

I really loved how this came out, even though the colors bled together. It actually made a pretty watercolor effect!

I am TOTALLY in love with this water marble. I wore it for a full week before I managed to take it off!

The Gentle Breeze collection is available from Barielle as a set for $25 USD.

What do you think of this watercolor look?


Disclaimer: The product(s) in this post were provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR company for consideration. For more information please visit my Disclaimer page. 

Swatch and Review: Colors by Llarowe Beam Me Up Scotty

I hope that Monday is treating you all well!

I'm unfortunately STILL sick and can't take virtually any sort of medication post-surgery. *Sighs heavily* I hate this weather.

What I don't hate, however, are holo polishes and Star Trek. In fact, when I found out that Colors by Llarowe named a polish Beam Me Up Scotty, I knew I just had to have it!

(In case you've forgotten, I totally fangirled over Karl Urban, who plays Leonard "Bones" McCoy in the reboot movies, at NY Comic Con)

Beam Me Up Scotty is an icy blue linear holo polish, with tiny flecks of turquoise glitter sprinkled throughout. The glitter was a bit of a surprise, but I really like the extra pop it adds!

All Colors by Llarowe polishes are available at Llarowe.com for between $6 and $12 dollars. (The holos tend to run on the higher end of the price range).

Are you ready to be beamed aboard the Enterprise?

Swatch and Review: Colors by Llarowe Dirty Diana

Here's some swatches of a lemming I squashed last week when I picked it up in a swap. This shade comes from the Michael Jackson Collection from Colors by Llarowe and it's absolutely stunning!

Dirty Diana is a magenta linear holo that is honestly one of the most vivid holo polishes I have ever seen!

Dirty Diana is currently in stock over at Llarowe for $12! Scoop it up while you can!

Swatch and Review: Milani Spotlight White

Okay, I get it. You're probably wondering why the heck I'm dedicating an entire post to a plain white nail polish. I don't blame you. I'd have probably thought the same.

But you see, white nail polish isn't as simple as it should be. I'll admit to trying at least 20 different brands and shades. They're either too runny and streaky or so thick and gloopy that they never dry. So to find the perfect white polish is a pretty big accomplishment.

And guess what? I did. For only $3.99.

Milani Spotlight White is shown here with two coats and no top coat. It's entirely opaque and streak free, but didn't take hours to dry. It's the PERFECT base for neons or nail art. Really, I LOVE it.

And at $3.99 at your local CVS or other retailer, it's a steal.

Spotlight White is my go-to... what's yours?

Milani Fierce Foil Nail Lacquer Snowflake Nail Art

While swatching the brand new Milani Fierce Foil collection, I found my snowflake nail vinyls and thought that the colors would lend themselves nicely to a little winter nail art.

For this look, I used Milani Venice and Rome:

Milani Venice is a cobalt blue metallic polish that I used for the snowflakes and Milani Rome is a metallic orchid that I used as the base.

I really liked how wintery these came out with the combination of colors, but also the metallic shimmer. It's still colorful, but icy in a way. I really loved it.

And even though these are metallic, I had no issues with staining or removal. These came off really easily.

Stay tuned for a full review of the entire Milani Fierce Foil Nail Lacquer collection later this week! In the meantime, you can find these two shades at your local CVS for $3.99. But act fast! These are limited edition!

Disclaimer: The product(s) in this post were provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR company for consideration. For more information please visit my Disclaimer page. 

Swatch and Review: Jade Mystic Gold

TGIF! And to celebrate, I wanted a little sparkle on my nails. So what better choice than a little linear holo in what I affectionately call Command Gold (after Star Trek)!?!

Jade Mystic Gold is a gold linear holo polish. The above is with three coats, but you can still see some visible nail line. It's just as visible in person as in the photo. Here, it has a marigold sort of tint indoors, but you can see below that it has a much truer gold look in sunlight.

I actually wore Mystic Gold last weekend when, as many of you saw on Facebook, I underwent surgery. I was only allowed to wear nail polish if they could still see my nails underneath and I thought this was a good compromise. The doctors and nurses LOVED it, actually. It was kind of funny.

I have a bunch of different Jade polishes in my stash, though this is the first one I've swatched. Jade is a Brazilian company that makes a ton of different finishes, but my favorite are the holos in the Holografica collection. They're also reasonably priced at a price of $7-$8, which is right on par with a lot of salon brands. 

The only downside is that you can't purchase them in stores, but can purchase them from stockists such as Llarowe. (Link will take you to the Jade Holograficas collection). I know that Llarowe offers free shipping on orders over $50, so with six or seven polishes, you'll get them shipped for free.

What do you think of Mystic Gold? Would you like to see other Jade holos on the blog?

Swatch and Review: Emily de Molly Oceanic Forces

This was a polish that was a lemming of mine for an exceptionally long time. I don't own a lot of indie brands, but this was the first I ever saw use the big circle glitter and I fell in love.

Check out Emily de Molly Oceanic Forces!

Oceanic Forces is a dark teal jelly base with silver holo and hex glitter. The above is with three coats.

The goods: This color is stunning. The depth of the jelly is breathtaking and there are plenty of silver circles to go around.

The bads: The circular glitter took a long time to fish out, the polish took even longer to dry, and last, it turned my nails yellow. YELLOW. And I use basecoat!

Now, it could be that the polish reacted poorly to the basecoat, which was the OPI Glitter Base. I didn't care to try again with another, but would be interested to hear if you've had similar or different results with other basecoats!

Emily de Molly is available via the brand website for Australian residents or at seven different stockists, which cover the US, Canada, and Europe, and ship worldwide! Prices vary based on retailer.

Swatch and Review: Layla Ocean Rush

Here's some holo for this hump day! I'm finally up to doing some swatching again, so while I build up some new posts, check out one of my favorite holos to date!

Check out Layla Ocean Rush!

The above is an indoor shot with three coats. I love how quickly this polish dries. It was ready to go at around 10 minutes, which was fantastic dry time for me!

And here is the same, but outdoor. Ocean Rush truly is a stunner!

I haven't seen Layla Holographic polishes in stores in a few years, but these are still floating around on Amazon.

Up Your Nail and Holo Nail Art

Happy Saturday! Today is my first new post since I've gotten home from the hospital and I'm really glad to say that I'm starting to feel leaps and bounds better than my first day after surgery. My pain is minimal and I'm sleeping through the night, plus most of my nausea is completely gone! Woo hoo!

This post features two of my favorite things: holographic polishes and nail vinyls.

The nail vinyls used to make this manicure were fancy chevrons from Up Your Nail. Up Your Nail is pretty much my go-to store for the vinyls because their prices are ridiculously awesome. These chevrons came in my mystery bag but are 100 vinyls for $2.50. I haven't seen anyone else's prices come remotely close to that!

To achieve this look, I used three coats of Layla Ocean Rush as my base with one coat of a-England Tristam on top. I like the look of the scattered holo on top of the linear holo, though I'm interested to see how this would have turned out with two linears.

What's your verdict on this color combo and pattern? Have you tried Up Your Nail?

Zoya Loredana with Studs

Hello, everyone! I just picked up some awesome clearance stuff while at Ulta, including backups of the Zoya MatteVelvet Collection and a nail wheel of studs. Both were on clearance for 50% off!

I thought it would be kind of cool to play with the matte silver metallic look of Zoya Loredana with the shiny gold metallic pop of the square studs.

The above is with three coats of Loredana. In order to make the studs stick (because they're concave), I had to apply top coat to my ring finger before applying the studs. After I felt the top coat was dry and the studs were secure, I went back over the polish with a matte top coat. I honestly wouldn't notice the difference.

Will you try the mixed metallic look anytime soon?

Swatch and Review: L'Oreal Masked Affair

TGIF! And in honor of the weekend, I have a VERY exciting swatch to share with you today. It appears that there is now officially a linear holographic polish that is available at drug stores and other national retailers!

And it comes from a very surprising source: L'Oreal!

Masked Affair was released as part of the Dark Sides of Grey Colour Riche collection, which I assume is in honor of the novel "50 Shades of Gray." But whatever the reason, I am incredibly excited that they did!

L'Oreal 701 Masked Affair is a silver linear holo with pinkish undertones.  I used three coats to achieve full opacity, but this dried INCREDIBLY quickly. I honestly could have gone about my day after fifteen minutes and not even remotely dinged it up.

The above photo was taken indoors without a top coat. Please continue to scroll for more indoor photos, a photo with top coat, and an outdoor shot.

Hanukkah Dreidel Nail Art

Hanukkah begins tonight at sun down, so I thought it would be appropriate to kick off the eight craaaaazy nights with a little ode to the dreidel.

The dreidel frustrated me to no end as a child because I was highly unskilled at getting it to spin and always seemed to lose to my dad. Oh well.

At the least, painting them was more fun than having all of my chocolate coins stolen.

For this manicure, I used navy, teal, red, yellow, lime, and white acrylic paint over Zoya Blu. Blu has been lingering in my polish drawer for so long now and I had forgotten how much I adored her.


A very happy Hanukkah to those of you who celebrate and please keep posted for more Hanukkah nail art, as well as upcoming Christmas manicures, as well!

Swatch and Review: Milani Color Statement Skittle Nails

Good evening to you all and a very happy weekend!

Over the course of the past few months, I've been doing a lot of nail art with my new Milani Color Statement polishes. I've used blues and reds and greens and sheers... but there are so many more shades in the collection. So to keep this post relatively short and sweet, while having all the colors in a single post, I decided to skittle swatch the polishes. However, I kept them in color groups for easy viewing.

All polish names are listed from index to pinky finger and have two coats applied.

Green and Yellow Polka Dots

Happy Thursday, everybody! Today I have some quick and simple nail art to show you. It's not very complicated to replicate, but I really liked this color combination.

For my base green, I used Barielle Do Unto Others and my yellow polka dots are SinfulColors Gel Shine Bananappeal. It's pretty much my go-to yellow because it's very opaque. I struggle to find yellows that aren't sheer for the purposes of nail art. This was vivid and perfect!

Polka dots have become my default nail art because it's so easy to just throw on to change up a look with minimal dry time.

Until tomorrow!

Swatch and Review: Barielle AND a Promo Code

Recently, I had the opportunity to select three shades from Barielle to review for you all. It was an arduous process to narrow my choices down, but I finally landed on Blue Cotton Candy, Decadence, and Do Unto Others.

However, my all-time favorite Barielle is Elle's Spell, so I included that in here, too!

Swatch and Review: NYC New York Color Crystal Couture Collection

Hey, everyone! Up on the blog today is a new, limited edition collection from NYC New York Color called Crystal Couture. All Crystal Couture shades are jam-packed with glitter particles for some mega sparkle.

Swatch and Review: SinfulColors Tricked Out Top Coats (Halloween 2014)

Happy Hump Day and Hallo-week, everybody!

I have for you four of the glitter toppers from SinfulColors' fall collection, which are perfect for Halloween!

See what all these toppers truly look like in bold color after the jump!

Swatch and Review: Milani Sheer Nail Art

Happy Thursday, everyone! It's almost the weekend!

Today, I have some quick nail art to show you! Normally, I don't do your typical French manicure with white and sheer shades. But when I was provided the Milani Color Statement collection for review, I knew I had to put my own spin on the Classic French Manicure.

To achieve this update French, I used three coats of Milani Lady-like Sheer for the base color with two coats of Milani Frenchie Sheer to paint on the French tip. Then I used black acrylic paint to make the flower petals, the arches, and the dots, the latter using a dotting tool. Of course, I used two rhinestones, as well.

I was surprised at how well Frenchie Sheer built up. The Lady-like Sheer was a little streaky at first, but with three coats, I got it under control.

The new Milani Color Statement line is now available at CVS stores for just $3.99 or from Milani’s website HERE at just $3.99 each.

Keep an eye out for more swatches of the Color Statement polish collection!

Disclaimer: The product(s) in this post were provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR company for consideration. For more information please visit my Disclaimer page.