Zoya Nova From My Untried Pile

I have no idea why it would ever take me so long to try a glitter polish. Hellooooooo, they are my favorite!!!! But, I've had Zoya Nova from the Ultra Glitters collection sitting in my box of sad and lonely untrieds for probably 6 or 7 months! Months! Not minutes!



So I finally gave Nova a go today and it's very pretty! The base of this polish is a jelly-ish magenta and it has lots of pieces of round pink and possibly silver (or a lighter pink?) glitter. This is three coats and there was a lot less visible nail line in person, dang macro setting!



The formula was great, as is usual for Zoya. Some glitters get thick and goopy, but not this baby. By the way, I just typed "goobpy" somehow. I am a little sick, so the old brain isn't functioning so well today. But at least I will have some bling on my nails to make me feel better!



Zoya Nova came out with the other two Ultra Glitters awhile back. There is a lighter pink (Astra) and a silver (Luna) as well. All three are still available at Zoya.com.

A Post Filled With Random News and Events

One of the smaller waterfalls in the hotel

I have a few things I want to post, two that you may have already seen, and I think I'm just going to put them all in one random post!

The view from our room

First, you may not have noticed, but I took a week-long trip to Nashville, Tennessee for the North American Irish Dance Championships. I do not ever like to announce that I am going away, I don't think it's safe. Even though my dad always stays at my house when I'm away, I don't think you should announce when you won't be home! But now that I'm back, I wanted to post a few quick pics of the hotel, because I love it and it's gorgeous! The competition was held at the Gaylord Opryland hotel for the 5th time. I have been all 5 times and I still love it there!

The river inside the hotel. Yes, inside the hotel.

Funny story from the trip: EK (former co-author of Never Enough Nails) also went on this trip. Between EK, my mom, and myself, we brought a grand total of 27 nail polishes for a 6 day trip. RIDICULOUS!!!! Anyway, if you're ever in Nashville, check this hotel out.

OK now on to more conventional blog material. If you are a Hello Kitty for Sephora fan, here is some news for you!



"Calling all Hello Kitty Collectors and Beauty Enthusiasts!

Tune in to Sephora’s Facebook page on July 14th!

WHO: Sephora invites you to join the party as we debut the new limited edition Hello Kitty Graffiti to you – from the comfort of your own home!

WHAT: We’re rolling out the pink carpet to formally invite you to Sephora’s Facebook page where we will be livestreaming Sephora’s exclusive Hello Kitty Graffiti Beauty Event from Sephora Hollywood & Highland!

Join in on all of the Hello Kitty fun on July 14th by logging onto Sephora’s Facebook page to preview the launch of the new Hello Kitty Graffiti Collection and exclusive interviews with Hello Kitty designer from Tokyo, Ms. Yuko Yamaguchi, world renowned graffiti artist POSE, and Hello Kitty herself, along with her entourage of Lolita Girls!

That’s not all! Be the first to see a new custom Hello Kitty graffiti mural created by Graffiti artist, POSE. For more information, visit Sephora's Facebook.


WHEN: Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 2:30 PM PST / 5:30 PM EST


WHERE: Tune in to Sephora's Facebook page for a once-in-a-lifetime event with plenty of beauty benefits! "

Hello Kitty + Sephora + Graffiti? Count me in!!!!





This news I KNOW you've already seen because my Google Reader was filled with it! I'm just posting these two pics and the color names, although I do have individual bottle shots. China Glaze Metro collection for Fall 2011 will include:
· Skyscraper: A sparkling, glitter blue reminiscent of the sky over the city.
· CG in the City: Glittering dusty purple, bronze and silver multi-tonal glitter, perfect for a pop of edge from West side to East side.
· Urban-Night: Exactly what you need for a night on the town – rich purple crème.
· Traffic Jam: Stop traffic with a breathtaking, raspberry pink crème.
· City Siren: The perfect deep, red crème to match any outfit.
· Loft-y Ambitions: Burgundy shimmer and cocktail hour – nothing better.
· Brownstone: Burnt terracotta crème mirrors the quaint townhouses of the city.
· Midtown Magic: Burgundy base with flecks of gold shimmer captures the latest fashion trend.
· Street Chic: This gorgeous beige crème is the perfect go to shade letting your clothes do the talking.
· Concrete Catwalk: Steel grey crème is amazing for a chic mani.
· Westside Warrior: For the trendsetting woman this camo green crème is to die for.
· Trendsetter: Mustard yellow shimmer translates beautifully from hot dogs to nails.

These sound nice. I'm pretty pumped for Skyscraper and CG in the City. Trendsetter sounds cool too, I have mustard yellows, but they are cremes, not shimmers. I do wish there would be a duochrome or holo in sight for fall, but I guess that's not happening. Boo hiss.

Alright, that's all I have for today! My hands and nails are still recovering from airport soap and neglect, so I'll hopefully have a polish post soon. I have to post Chanel Peridot!!!

MAC Blogger's Obsessions Lip Swatches

MAC Sonoran Rain

I wasn't originally going to post more about the MAC Bloggers' Obsessions collection because it sold out. Why torture you guys with swatches of things you can't have? But now, MAC is making a second production run of this collection, so I can post away! If you want to get on a waiting list for this collection, it should be up soon on MACcosmetics.com.

bare lips for reference

MAC Evolution Revolution

A few notes about these lip swatches: my lips are not very pigmented (see bare lips photo), so the two red glosses show up quite well on me. Also, I will do lip swatches of Caqui shortly. I was losing the daylight when I did these, and Caqui is TOO AMAZING to not capture accurately.

MAC Nitro:licious 2046

The two red glosses are really pigmented and pack quite the colorful punch when you wear them! I love them, but they're definitely not for my everyday life. That's what Evolution Revolution is for!! This is my new everyday, wear it constantly gloss. I may pick up a back-up when this is re-released!

MAC's Semi-Precious collection hit counters yesterday (and went online Tuesday). Did you get anything? I'm going today to get Warmth of Coral mineralize blush, possibly Gem of Roses lipstick, and Jade's Fortune mineralize eye shadow. Swatches soon!

OPI Electric Eel Is A Slippery One

I'm kind of disappointed in my pictures of this polish more than anything else. This is a sheer green shimmer with gold/pink duochrome. The duochrome is nicely obvious to my eye, but not so easy to photograph. I tried different light, I tried moving my hand around, but no such luck. I think maybe if I try it over black next time, it will be easier to capture the duochrome effect.



This is also five coats of this polish, I should warn you. I quite like the look of it at five coats, but I admit, it doesn't look so hot in the pictures. So next time, a layer or two of black will go under this baby. I think it will be worth it, it's really pretty!



Electric Eel applied nicely anyway, despite needing five coats. If you have the chance to get this, I would pick it up. I think it will look great over black or navy. I did try it quickly over Essie Pretty Edgy and it looked amazing! I will be posting that combo eventually as well.

Zoya Fall 2011 Smoke and Mirrors Preview!!!!

OK, please go get a napkin to wipe away your drool. I'll wait while you go.

Alright, now that we've cleaned that up, SMOKE AND MIRRORS LOOKS AMAZING! Zoya will continue in it's pattern of releasing two collections for fall, for a total of 12 polishes. The shades include:

Zoya Smoke Collection

Jana (ZP564) - smoky mauve quartz cream

Petra (ZP565) - smoky eggplant mauve cream

Codie (ZP566) - smoky brown taupe cream

Anja (ZP567) - smoky palatinate purple cream

Cynthia (ZP568) - smoky Prussian blue cream

Dree (ZP569) - smoky camouflage green cream



Zoya Mirrors Collection

Nimue (ZP570) - smoky rich thistle metallic

Marina (ZP571) - smoky steel blue metallic

Tao (ZP572) - smoky slate gray metallic

Yara (ZP573) - sparkly olive green metallic

Neeka (ZP574) - sparkly amethyst purple metallic

Jem (ZP575) - sparkly fandango pink metallic

These are MY COLORS. These are EXACTLY what I want to wear on my nails in the fall/winter. Plenty of vampy colors, a slate gray metallic (!), *sigh*. I'm loving the warm weather, but Zoya almost makes me wish it was fall! Delicious. So what do you think about this collection?

Fourth of July Shatter Mani!

A lot of times, I don't do theme manis for holidays (except Christmas because there are so many fun combinations). This one just jumped out at me and I had to do it. Because I've been obsessed with OPI Shatter lately, here it is... a Fourth of July Shatter mani!





This is two coats of my favorite white, OPI Alpine Snow topped with OPI Red Shatter and OPI Blue Shatter alternating. Is this probably cheesy? Yes. Do I care? No! There aren't many days of the year where you can wear red, white, and blue all together, but this is one of them, so I say go for it!





This mani also reminded me of how great that Red Shatter really is. I think it's the best shatter/crackle formula I have tried! And it cracks apart so easily too. This will be indispensable when it comes time for cheesy Christmas manis!



So what are you planning on sporting on July 4? Anything thematic?

OPI Red and Blue Shatter were sent to me for review by a public relations agent for OPI. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy.

Oldie But Goodie: OPI On Collins Ave

I've decided to make "Oldie But Goodie" into a new series here on the blog. I do have a lot of older polishes that I've never posted here, so I think I will slowly start to make my way through them. Today's post is OPI On Collins Ave from the 2009 spring/summer South Beach collection. Though I only own two polishes from this collection (this and Overexposed in South Beach), I always meant to go back and pick up some more. I thought it was a pretty good collection.





OPI On Collins Ave is a super bright near neon orange-red creme. I love this kind of color for summer, especially on toes. This particular one is almost opaque in one coat! I did two coats for this post, and let me just say... this is nail polish perfection. It practically painted itself on my nails, that's how easy it was. I wish every polish was like this. Between the opacity, the smooth formula, and OPI's Pro Wide brush, it was heaven.





I totally didn't want to take this off after swatching it, but I had more swatching to do afterwards (boo hiss). I will definitely be wearing this color again soon. I love finding older polishes that rock. Sometimes I get all caught up in the latest releases and forget awesome stuff that I already own.

Indoors