Guest Post on Peace, Love, and Polish!!

Hey guys! Just a quick update- I did a guest post for Peace, Love, and Polish and it actually posted yesterday! I totally forgot to let you know about it, but you should definitely check it out. I LOVE the look I did for this post! Check it out here and let me know what you think!!

NOTD: Milani Twinkle and China Glaze Secret Periwinkle

Sometimes, I read so many nail blogs that I get over-saturated with certain collections or polishes, and lose interest in them. One good example is the new Milani One-Coat Glitter colors. I bought a few of the original Milani One-Coat Glitters and liked them, but I had no interest in the new ones. That is, until my friend EK (original co-founder of Never Enough Nails) told me that I HAD to borrow Milani Twinkle and swatch it for the blog.

I am SO glad she made me try this!!! Milani Twinkle is a clear base filled with medium sized blue hexagon glitter and small purple glitter. The combination is magical! The purple glitter really sparkles in person. I layered one coat of Twinkle over two coats of China Glaze Secret Periwinkle for these pictures.

I don't know why Blogger decided to flip this picture on it's side... but look at that pretty glitter!! Twinkle is unique in my glitter-tastic collection. I don't own anything with just blue and purple glitter together. They make a great pair!

I'm sure Twinkle would be full coverage in two thick coats or three thin ones if you'd like to wear it alone. I am obsessing over this combination though, so I'll be wearing it this way for awhile. I either need to buy Milani Twinkle for myself or "forget" to give this back to EK (just kidding bearpants, I'll bring it back tomorrow!) (yes I call EK bearpants. Among other weird names).

Milani Twinkle is currently available at a CVS near you!

Tips For Dealing With Spring Allergies, Brought To You By Canada Drug Pharmacy!!

Spring has officially hit Connecticut!! The evidence is everywhere, from the beautiful daffodils in my garden to the constant sneezing and scratchy throat I've had for a few weeks now. It is definitely hard to remain calm, collected, and lookin' pretty with all of my allergies symptoms, but I do have some tips for you fellow sufferers! All products mentioned are available online at Canada Drug Pharmacy.

My first tip would be to try an over-the-counter allergy medication. Many of them are mild and very effective!! Tylenol even makes a multi-symptom allergy pill now, available at Canada Drug Pharmacy. However, I know a lot of people are anti-medication as much as possible, so I do have some advice if you'd like to avoid pills. First, get yourself some eye drops!! I like Visine Advance Allergy drops, they really help me look like a human being with normal eyes during the worst of allergy season. I'd hate to be confused with a zombie, you know. 

I also tend to get really itchy skin during allergy season. I like to keep some Benadryl Itch Relief Cream on hand for these occasions. Benadryl Itch Relief Cream also works for bug bites and sunburn, so it's a handy product to have around for the summer months. If you have really horrible allergies plus asthma (like me), you'll probably be in need of a stronger prescription medication. I personally have been taking Singulair for several years now, but it is CRAZY expensive!! It's like $8 a pill or something whackadoo. Fortunately I have just discovered that Canada Drug Pharmacy does sell this at a discount and I may be able to save quite a bit of money every year! You absolutely need to chat with your doctor about any prescription medications, as I, a nail polish blogger, am certainly not qualified to dispense medical advice!

Do you have any other tips for surviving allergy season?? Let me know, I'd love to hear them!!

This is a sponsored post. Sponsored posts help me pay for giveaways and other blog-related expenses. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy.

Sephora + Pantone Universe Collection Available Now!!

Have you seen this collection yet?? I just ordered the nail polish set (duh, you know I love an orange polish and there is a glitter AND a matte in the set!!) and the Apricot Brandy blush. Mostly because "Apricot Brandy" sounded delish.

SEPHORA + PANTONE UNIVERSE Unveils the Color of the Year Beauty Collection

A vibrant cosmetics collection inspired by the 2012 Color of the Year, PANTONE 17-1463 Tangerine Tango

Sephora unveils its first comprehensive beauty collection under the SEPHORA + PANTONE UNIVERSE™ partnership in all Sephora stores today. The limited-edition Color of the Year (COY) beauty collection, featuring the 2012 Color of the Year, PANTONE 17-1463 Tangerine Tango, a vibrant orange reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset, made is now available at Sephora stores nationwide.

With sleek, minimalist packaging inspired by the iconic PANTONE® Chip, and Sephora Collection’s high performance product formulations, this collection allows for on- trend, uninhibited expression, yet remains exceptionally wearable. In addition to a SEPHORA + PANTONE UNIVERSE Color of the Year Collector’s Edition set that contains the Color of the Year Eyeliner, Eye Shadow Quad, Prisma Chrome Blush, Blush Duo, Crème Lipstick and Lip Gloss, the collection offers an assortment of lip colors, eye shadows, eye liners, nail colors, blushes and accessories. The cosmetics are embossed as a nod to the voluptuous, rounded shape of a tangerine and its layers, while the false lashes, makeup brushes and other accessories, add a vibrant edge to any look. 

Sharing a strong passion for how color can transform a face, mood or even an attitude, Sephora, the leading beauty specialty retailer, and Pantone LLC, the global color authority, have created this extraordinary partnership to change how you wear, feel and think about color. Together as SEPHORA + PANTONE UNIVERSE, the partnership will continue to deliver insightful color forecasting, timely trends and powerful seasonal product collections – available exclusively at Sephora. 

“Our beauty expertise has united with Pantone’s unparalleled color knowledge to become one authoritative voice at the forefront of color trend products,” said Margarita Arriagada, Senior Vice President of Merchandising for Sephora. “Through our partnership, you’ll be introduced to products that inspire experimentation and reawaken your own passion for color.”

“As the world’s color authority for nearly 50 years, partnering with a world-renowned beauty retailer like Sephora just made sense,” said Lisa Herbert, Vice President of the Consumer Products Division at Pantone. “Together we bring fashion-forward color trends, innovative marketing and technology know-how to beauty customers, instilling the confidence and creativity to choose cosmetic colors that suit their every mood.”

To celebrate the launch of the new collection, Sephora has also created a striking, interactive Pop-Up Color Shop modeled after the PANTONE® Color fan and featuring stunning images taken by famed fashion and beauty photographer David Sims. Appearing exclusively at New York’s Meatpacking District from March 22^st through March 30^th, and at The Grove in Los Angeles from April 18^th through April 22^nd, consumers can explore the new collection while receiving personalized application and color advice. For more information on the SEPHORA + PANTONE UNIVERSE Color of the Year beauty collection, log on to Sephora.com/GO/PANTONE/ or follow our feed at #SephoraPantone.

Please click the link below to view and experience the beauty of the SEPHORA + PANTONE UNIVERSE Color of the Year Collection.

SEPHORA + PANTONE UNIVERSE Color of the Year Collection

The Zoya Surf Collection: Possibly the Best Zoya Collection EVER!

I can't believe it's been a whole week since I posted the Zoya Beach collection!! I was really hoping to get the Surf collection swatched quickly, but there were some rainy days in there and I had to work a lot. I also had 4 St. Patrick's Day shows on the weekend! Come on people, St. Patrick's Day is over!! Stop having parties! LOL... anyway, I finally have the Zoya Summer 2012 Surf collection for you today, and it is stunning!

Zoya Carly is probably my least favorite of the Surf collection, but it's gorgeous and I still really love it!! I first thought it would be similar to Zoya Valerie, but Valerie is much darker. Carly is like Valerie's lighter, more sparkly summer cousin. Zoya describes Carly as a "thalia purple foil metallic". Now, I had no idea what that meant, so Google came to the rescue. Apparently thalia is some kind of a red-purple plant or flower. I just kept thinking of the character Thalia in the Percy Jackson series (any fans out there? I'm a huge fan of those books!).

All of the Surf collection polishes had an excellent formula. I happen to adore Zoya's foil metallics anyway, and these were particularly excellent. They were buttery smooth, pigmented and easy to apply. I'm only going to say that once so that I don't sound like a broken record!! I used two coats of Carly for these pictures.

Zoya Kimber is one of the colors I was most looking forward to and it doesn't disappoint! Kimber is a beautiful pink mixed with a little peach/orange. Zoya described Kimber as a "magenta pink foil metallic", but in my mind, magenta is always more purple-toned than this. In any case, Kimber is a beautiful pink for spring or summer!!

I used two coats of Kimber for these pictures.

Zoya Rory was a sleeper hit for me! I can't believe how much I like this polish!! You all know pinks are not usually my thing, but Rory has a lavender tinge to it that it really beautiful! It reminds me of one of my favorite MAC lipsticks, Lavender Whip, but a bit more pink. Zoya calls this one a "lotus pink foil metallic". I (again) googled "lotus flower" and I guess this could be an accurate description. Lotus flowers are gorgeous, by the way!

YUM! Look at that macro shot! It reminds me of cotton candy a little bit too! I used two coats (!) of Rory. I feel like I never find two-coater awesome pale pinks that I actually like!

My absolute number one top favorite of this collection is Zoya Myrta! I am really having an orange make-up moment (hey, it's the color of the year!) and Myrta fits right in to my current orange-a-thon. Myrta is a stunning juicy red-orange foil metallic. Zoya calls it "coral orange" and I'd agree with that too. I would also remind you that including the word "coral" in a description of a make-up product statistically makes me 90% more likely to obsess over it.

I did use three coats of Myrta for these pictures. It looked perfect at two coats, but I wanted to make sure it would look perfect in the pictures so you could fully understand my obsession with this polish. When I finish typing this post, I am removing my current pedi color and putting on Myrta STAT.

Zoya Meg is a stunner for the green lovers out there! I wasn't sure how to describe this one, besides using the word "gorgeous" 50 times, but Zoya says it's a "mermaid green foil metallic". I don't think I can top the descriptive power of the words "mermaid green", so I won't even try!! Love this!

Meg was a very solid two-coater, definitely no need for a third here!

Zoya Zuza is my second favorite in this collection and a definite hit of summer 2012. Zuza is an amazing mix of blue and green (it's actually a hair more green than my pictures show). I don't anything like this! I think I own maybe somewhat similar colors, but with a creme finish. The foil metallic finish plus this color= a home run hit for Zoya! They describe it as an "aquamarine foil metallic". I think they could have done a bit better with that description. Maybe like "seafoam from an exotic Caribbean island beach foil metallic"... yea, that's better.

I did three coats of Zuza for the pictures, and it's the only one in the collection that I felt actually needed three coats. No worries though, it was well worth three coats and the foil metallic formula dries very quickly.

Overall, I think this is possibly my favorite Zoya collection ever. Period. I normally love Zoya collections, but I can't come up with one that I adore as much as the Surf collection. I normally tell you my top picks from the collection, and then I give you advice for which ones to get if you can only get one or two. I can't even choose here!! I know my top top picks are Myrta, Zuza and Rory, but I really think you should put the whole collection on your list! The only one I would even possibly contemplate skipping is Carly, but even that one is a gem! This whole post is a Never Enough Nails Necessity.

So which ones are on your list?? Are you better at narrowing down choices than I am?

The Zoya Surf collection looks like it is available now on Zoya.com!!! (That link is my "Share the Love" link.  If you click this link and set up a Zoya account, you get a $5 coupon to use immediately. For a full description of the new Zoya "Share the Love" program go here)

These polishes were sent for review. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy.

The Zoya Beach Collection Makes Me Want To Break Out the Kayak!!

Tuesday was just the first day of spring, and yet here in Connecticut, it was over 70 today and the beach down the street from me was packed! The Zoya Beach and Surf collections for Summer 2012 fit right in with this early heat wave we're having. I won't lie to you, when I saw the box from Zoya sitting on my doorstep, I said "yesssssssssssss!!!" out loud and did a nerdy little dance. I was still outside, and my neighbor gave me a really funny look... But the Zoya Beach and Surf collections deserve a nerdy dance!

I have the Beach collection for you today, so let's start with Zoya Wednesday, a gorgeous aqua creme. I love that Zoya used Wednesday for a name, but I thought it would belong to a goth-looking color. This Wednesday is bright and cheery! In the bottle, I thought it looked kind of dusty and maybe a little pastel, but on the nail, the brightness really shows up.

I thought the formula for Wednesday seemed a bit different from the usual excellent Zoya creme formula. I'm used to Zoya's cremes practically applying themselves. This one wasn't bad, but it was thicker than usual. I also used three coats for these swatches because I felt it looked uneven with two coats. I felt this took longer than usual to dry as well, just thought I'd mention.

Next up is the AMAZING Zoya Arizona. Zoya calls this one a soft coral orange creme, but I think it looks like a particularly orange cantaloupe. Melon orange! Arizona is my kind of color and I could not think of any dupes in my collection. I will be getting a lot of use out of this one!!

I thought the formula of Arizona was better than that of Wednesday, not so thick and easier to maneuver. I did still use three coats, but I think two thicker coats would do nicely.

Zoya Tracie is hands down my favorite of the Beach collection polishes!! Zoya calls Tracie a "sea grass metallic" and I think that is quite accurate. I love that they incorporated a green like this to represent sea grass! All of my favorite beaches have loads of sea grass ( I'm looking at you, Jetty's in Nantucket!), so this is definitely a quintessential beach element for me. Plus, Tracie has such pretty shimmer!!

Tracie had an excellent formula, much more like typical Zoya! This is two coats and the polish flowed onto the nail super smoothly. I can't think of a dupe for this one either. Most polishes I can think of that are this color don't have shimmer.

Now we are getting into the three pinks of this collection, starting with Zoya Reagan. Reagan is described as a "deep cerise pink creme" and I would probably just call it deep fuchsia. It's very pretty and bright for summer, especially great for pedis. I wouldn't say it's the most unique color in the bunch, this tends to be a shade we see a lot in the summer collections. Not a problem though, as it is lovely!!

Reagan had the typical Zoya creme formula, nice and smooth and it only needed two coats. It actually made me wonder a bit if maybe my bottle of Wednesday was just a little off. 

Zoya Shelby is a pretty cotton candy/bubblegum type of pink creme. Zoya amusingly describes it as a "soft pinky pink creme". I don't know what "pinky pink" is, but it's a pretty polish!!

The formula for Shelby was kind of like the Wednesday one... thick and not Zoya-like. Wednesday evened out after three coats, but Shelby looked like it was getting less even after the second coat. I probably should have tried a third coat for evenness. It was opaque in two anyway! Sorry for the lack of a macro shot of this one, it came out looking very purple-y and this polish is pinky pink, as we already knew.

Finally we have Zoya Lara, described as a "vivid cerise pink creme".  This is Reagan's fun-loving, bright and vivid younger sister. I like Reagan, but I love Lara!! Lara looks juicy too, like a strawberry candy or maybe Jell-O!

Lara had the usual wonderful Zoya formula too!! So I guess it's just Wednesday and Shelby that were a bit weird for me. Lara applied smoothly, with no streaks, in just two coats. Could maybe be a lazy day one-coater too!

Overall, I really love the Beach theme of this collection. My top picks would be Tracie, Arizona and Wednesday!! I do like the three pinks and will wear them, but pink is never my favorite color to wear. I also don't really think of pink when I go to the beach... maybe pink bikinis, but that's about it! There is something about Zoya collections that makes me so happy!! And I absolutely CAN'T WAIT to swatch the Surf collection!!!!

The Zoya Beach collection is available now on Zoya.com. (That link is my Zoya Share the Love program link. If you click that link, you and I both get a chance to earn coupons to redeem at Zoya.com. For more information about the Share the Love program, go here.)

These polishes were sent for review. For more information, please read my Disclosure Policy.