Born Pretty Store Neon Studs and My Best Nail Art Ever!

 Born Pretty Store nail studs sent for review.

I stink at nail art. I really do. But I give it a try from time to time when I get inspired because it's fun and it's just polish, so I can always take it off if it's terrible. But this time, I am so proud of this look, I think it's my best nail art ever! I received the new and awesome neon nail studs from Born Pretty Store, my source for all things nail art. These square studs come in two sizes, 2mm and 3mm, and a large variety of bright neon colors. I got the 2mm studs in a cool neon yellow-green, #8F. They seemed like the most obnoxiously bright ones from the pictures.

I thought these nail studs were so cute, I wanted to do a really cool look to do them justice. I started with a matte black base to let their brightness pop (KnockOut Cosmetics Flatte Black). When it was completely dry, I taped off a triangle on each tip using Scotch tape and painted that area with my favorite silver polish (L'Oreal Silver Star, but any silver will do!). I then put a drop of Poshe top coat on the back of each stud and placed one stud at the tip of each triangle. I topped the whole nail off with a coat of Essie Good to Go. I am still wearing this look now after 24 hours, a shower, dishes and various cleaning projects, with all studs intact.

If you look super close, you can see that the tips of the triangles are not all in the absolute center of my nails. But, the lines are crisp and from a bit of a distance everything looks really cool. I am quite pleased with this look, and I love these neon studs! They are much brighter in person, like your typical neon polish, and a flashy shade of yellow-green. Born Pretty Store also has a great neon pink and bright orange that I may pick up next. I'd love to cover a whole accent nail with these next, maybe with a couple of different colors.

Born Pretty Store nail studs sent for review.

These neon studs are available for $2.99 at Born Pretty Store. If you order the 2mm size, you get a bag of 200 studs, or the 3mm you get 100 studs, so this is a great deal. Shipping is always free and you can use the code ERJ61 for 10% your order. What do you think? Did I finally do a nail art look that doesn't suck?!?

Rescue Beauty Lounge Turn It Around

 Purchased by me.

Yet another beauty that has been languishing in my untrieds dungeon drawer. I actually purchased Rescue Beauty Lounge Turn It Around during the pre-sale for the Emoting Me collection, but I've been saving it because it seems like a fall color to me. A moody shade of moss green, Turn It Around has really strong, beautiful pinky copper shimmer. Unlike a lot of RBLs, the shimmer in this one is NOT hidden! I'm really happy about this, because the shimmer is what makes this polish stand out in my collection. It's chunkier shimmer than RBLs usually have too, as you can see in the macro below.

I used three coats for these pictures. It might be a two coater, but my bottle has a totally weird brush and I was struggling to use it. It seriously looks like a dog chewed on the ends. As far as I could tell, the formula seemed good, but I hope my brush was just a one off bad one, because it made application very tough.

Turn It Around is still available at rescuebeauty.com. I can't decide if I want any polishes from the Blogger 2.0 collection. I kind of like NailsandNoms, you know I love orange. And I want Scrangie 2.0, but that's sold out. Did you get any Blogger 2.0 polishes? 

 Purchased by me.

Chanel Alchimie

 Purchased by me.

Hmmmmm... either Chanel is on a roll lately, or I have turned into a giant sucker. I usually get maybe one Chanel polish a year, if that, but so far in 2013, I got 3! I received Taboo from the spring collection and Azure from summer through swaps, but I actually went out and purchased Chanel Alchimie from the fall collection. It's mysterious shimmery olive taupey-ness just made me need it. Alchimie is one of those polishes that doesn't seem to be strongly one color or another. It's olive green, but it's also silvery, gold-ish, maybe a tad taupe in some lights, it's definitely hard to pin down.

Alchimie has a great, highly pigmented formula. I used two coats for these pictures, but it was pretty much opaque in one coat! It was nice and easy to apply. You can see some brushstrokes in these pictures, but I feel they were less obvious in person. However, if you are really anti-brushstrokes, you may not love this.

Chanel Alchimie is part of the Fall 2013 Chanel collection, Superstition, and is still available at Chanel.com, Macy's and several other places. I also picked up the eye shadow quad from the collection, because I am apparently Miss Moneybags over here. Oops!

Purchased by me.

You may notice some changes to the blog in the next few weeks. Just some tweaks and improvements really. As always, if you have something you like/dislike, please send me an email or leave a comment!

Lynnderella Spam!!

I have a ton of Lynnderellas I haven't posted, so I think I'm going to start posting a bunch at a time. I usually post a Lynnderella after wearing it as a full mani for a couple of days, but that is not fast enough anymore! I'm getting the new collection shortly, so I'm trying to post some of the lovelies in my untrieds drawer. There will be mostly pictures, not too much chatter, in these posts. Just let me know in the comments if you have a question! All descriptions are from Lynnderella's blog.

Base: one coat Nicole by OPI Base Coat Plus

Color: two coats Zoya Pepper, two coats Lynnderella Chocolove Cherry

Top: one coat Gelous

Application: excellent (out of poor, average, good, excellent)

Zoya Pepper was sent for review. Lynnderella Chocolove Cherry was purchased by me. All opinions are my own honest thoughts.

From the Groundhog Day collection, January 2013. "Chocolove Cherry contains brown, red and opaque bubblegum pink glitter (stars, hearts, squares) in a clear base. Originally conceived as chocolate cherries, but by a happy accident, colour combination may sometimes resemble Bing cherries, too."

Base: one coat Nicole by OPI Base Coat Plus

Color: two coats Illamasqua Load, two coats Lynnderella Egging On You

Top: one coat Gelous

Application: good (out of poor, average, good, excellent)

Illamasqua Load and Lynnderella Egging On You were purchased by me. All opinions are my own honest thoughts.

Limited Edition polish, spring 2013.

Base: one coat Nicole by OPI Base Coat Plus

Color: two coats Zoya Hunter, two coats Lynnderella Emerald Hope

Top: one coat Gelous

Application: excellent (out of poor, average, good, excellent)

Zoya Hunter was sent for review. Lynnderella Emerald Hope was purchased by me. All opinions are my own honest thoughts.

From the Talismans and Birthstones collection, June 2013. "Emerald Hope (May) is a green multiglitter in a clear base. Very complex."

Base: one coat Nicole by OPI Base Coat Plus

Color: two coats Zoya Sailor, two coats Lynnderella Sapphire Starfire

Top: one coat Gelous

Application: excellent (out of poor, average, good, excellent)

Zoya Sailor was sent for review. Lynnderella Sapphire Starfire was purchased by me. All opinions are my own honest thoughts.

Also from Talismans and Birthstones. "Sapphire Starfire (September) is a dense blue multiglitter in a strong blue-shimmered clear base."

Base: one coat Nicole by OPI Base Coat Plus

Color: two coats Zoya Neve, two coats Lynnderella Tanzanite Truth

Top: one coat Gelous

Application: excellent (out of poor, average, good, excellent)

Zoya Neve was sent for review. Lynnderella Tanzanite Truth was purchased by me. All opinions are my own honest thoughts.

Talismans and Birthstones. "Tanzanite Truth (December) has blue violet, purple and blue glitters in a multi-shimmered clear base."

Base: one coat Nicole by OPI Base Coat Plus

Color: two coats OPI Solitaire, two coats Lynnderella Back In Watermelon Sugar

Top: one coat Gelous

Application: excellent (out of poor, average, good, excellent)

OPI Solitaire was sent for review. Lynnderella Back In Watermelon Sugar was purchased by me. All opinions are my own honest thoughts.

Limited Edition polish, summer 2013.

Lynnderella polishes are available at lynnderella.com, Glitter Connect and Norway Nails.

Zoya Satins Fall 2013, Part Two!

Base: one coat Nicole by OPI Base Coat Plus
Color: two coats Zoya Claudine
Top: one coat Essie Good to Go
Application: excellent (out of poor, average, good, excellent)
The Zoya Satins were sent for review. All opinions are my own honest thoughts.

The Zoya Satins continued to impress me today, starting with Zoya Claudine. Claudine is a super shimmery dark gray metallic. It's so dark it's nearly black, but you can still tell that it is actually a deep gray.  The shimmer in this one is stunning! It's so shimmery it almost has an olive green cast to it. I LOVE this polish!! Just gorgeous!

Claudine has a flawless formula. So flawless in fact, that my index nail has only one coat on it! Can you tell? I wasn't expecting this to be a one-coater, so I wasn't very careful applying the other nails. But if you were expecting it, you could definitely do one coat. Fantastic pigmentation and buttery feel!

Base: one coat Nicole by OPI Base Coat Plus
Color: three coats Zoya Neve
Top: one coat Essie Good to Go
Application: average (out of poor, average, good, excellent)
The Zoya Satins were sent for review. All opinions are my own honest thoughts.

I am starting to think that Zoya has mind-reading abilities because I have been wishing for a blurple metallic just like this! This gem is Zoya Neve and it is a stunning shimmering tanzanite purple. That's my description because I recently found out what tanzanite looks like, thanks to Lynnderella, and this is a match! (There will be a Lynnderella Tanzanite Truth and Zoya Neve mani in my future, they are perfect for each other).

The only downside to this beautiful color is the thin, almost runny formula. It kept wanting to pool into my cuticles and the sides of my nail beds. I had to be really careful and also clean up some areas. I also had to use three coats because the first two were a tad streaky. I thought was strange because the other Satins are all so good. Maybe I got a bad bottle?

Base: one coat Nicole by OPI Base Coat Plus
Color: two coats Zoya Giovanna
Top: one coat Essie Good to Go
Application: excellent (out of poor, average, good, excellent)
The Zoya Satins were sent for review. All opinions are my own honest thoughts.

Zoya Giovanna... I don't have words for how much I love this!! What an incredible emerald metallic!! It's so reflective and is a real true emerald, not too blue leaning. A must for green lovers everywhere. Giovanna was originally designed for the Zang Toi A/W13 fashion show. If I were a fashion designer, my models would wear this polish for sure. I did not even want to take this off to keep swatching!

Happily, Giovanna has an excellent formula and only needs two coats, so you do not need to suffer to wear this beautiful polish. You can see some VNL in my pictures, but it really was not there in person. My camera did that weird thing where it makes some shimmery polishes look sheer in the sunlight.

Overall, the Satins collection is probably my favorite Zoya collection in recent history, possibly in all of history. I already have plans to wear some of these with glitter on top and they look incredible all on their own too. I'll be wearing these all fall and winter, just try to take them away from me! Usually I tell you my top picks from a collection, but honestly it's impossible here because I love them all!

The Zoya Satins are available now at Zoya.com.

The Zoya Satins were sent for review. This review also contains my Zoya Share the Love link. All opinions are my own honest thoughts.

Zoya Satins Fall 2013, Part One!

Are you ready for swatches of three of the polishes from my current favorite Zoya collection?? The Zoya Satins are all so pretty!

Base: one coat Nicole by OPI Base Coat Plus
Color: two coats Zoya Channing
Top: one coat Essie Good to Go
Application: excellent (out of poor, average, good, excellent)
The Zoya Satins collection was sent for review. All opinions are my own honest thoughts.

Zoya Channing is a GORGEOUS coppery rust metallic. It has a hint of pink in some lights that helps to make it more unique. Channing is a really glowy shade, it looks like it's burning in the sun! I love all copper polishes, and I honestly think this may be my new favorite copper. Some coppers can look too brown, but Channing is all glowing orange-y glory. Also, I don't know if there are any girls named Channing, so I immediately just think of Channing Tatum (drool).

I only needed two coats of Channing, it's very nicely pigmented. The formula is lovely, not too thick or thin, just perfect and easy to apply.

Base: one coat Nicole by OPI Base Coat Plus
Color: three coats Zoya Mason
Top: one coat Essie Good to Go
Application: good (out of poor, average, good, excellent)
The Zoya Satins collection was sent for review. All opinions are my own honest thoughts.

Zoya Mason is a bright shimmering fuchsia. Zoya describes it as "an exciting red violet or "Fandango Pink" metallic". I don't know about "exciting", but Mason is really pretty! I googled Fandango Pink and it seems appropriate to describe Mason. "Fandango" was first used to describe this shade of fuchsia in 1925, by the way.

I used three coats of Mason for these photos. The formula was good, my only complaint was that it was slightly less pigmented than the likes of Channing and some of the other Satins.

Base: one coat Nicole by OPI Base Coat Plus

Color: one coat Zoya Maria Luisa over three coats Zoya Mason
Top: one coat Essie Good to Go
Application: excellent (out of poor, average, good, excellent)
The Zoya Satins collection was sent for review. All opinions are my own honest thoughts.

Zoya Maria Luisa is a REALLY cool gold glitter topper. According to Zoya's description, it's gold cellophane and was originally designed for the Rafael Cennamo/AW13 show at Fashion Week.  Maria Luisa is really unique in my collection, and that's saying something because I have a ton of gold glitter toppers. The "glitter" in this is not regular glitter, it's very flat and smooth. It's also irregularly shaped, more like flakies than glitter. I will be using this over everything!!

Base: one coat Nicole by OPI Base Coat Plus

Color: one coat Zoya Maria Luisa over two coats Zoya Louise
Top: one coat KnockOut Cosmetics Flatte Top
Application: excellent (out of poor, average, good, excellent)
The Zoya Satins collection was sent for review. All opinions are my own honest thoughts.

 I had to try Maria Luisa over the deep brown from the Zoya Cashmeres, Zoya Louise. I also was dying to trying it with a matte top coat! My pictures do not do this combo justice!! I couldn't get good pictures in the sun because Maria Luisa is so reflective. My nails just looked like a shimmery blur. But these pictures in low light aren't great either. If you like gold glitters or flakies, you should definitely get this one!

The Zoya Satins are available now at Zoya.com.

The Zoya Satins collection was sent for review. This review also contains my Zoya Share the Love link. All opinions are my own honest thoughts.