Zoya - Giovanna

Leave it to me to break three nails just as I start blogging (almost) every day again. My nails are shorter right now than ever!! And oh man they are painful too. They're not used to being stubs. Sad face.
So until they grow back in a little I'll have to round up some photos from the past few months that I haven't posted yet!

Today I've got swatches of a pretty green polish from Zoya.

Zoya - Giovanna
I have a total soft spot for greens, especially emerald green. So naturally I love this shade!
I got this bottle in my Ipsy bag for October and I was totally pumped that I got the green and not red or blue.

The formula is flawless, just two coats to cover evenly and I had no issues with staining.

I wore this color alone for a couple of days, and then I added some green glitter!

Adding Shimmer - Linna on top was like the magic touch! It was so pretty. But the reflective nature of Giovanna made it impossible to capture how good the glitter looked on top. It blended in great and I had wonderful sparkly green nails! Just how I like it.

Zoya - Nyx (aka FAIL)

Have you ever bought a nail polish, put it on, and thought: "Holy crap, why on earth did I even buy this, I wish I could return this, this cost me six dollars, I could have spent that on something good, I hate this so much I don't even want to give it to a friend because they will hate it too, please get this off my nails right now"?

Well that happened to me last week.

Zoya - Nyx
You may be thinking, "Rebecca, that is so pretty, how come you hate it?"
There are a few reasons why.
1) It looks so much nicer in pictures than it does in person. It's more gray and the sparkle is not so prominent.
2) It is sheer, way more sheer than I was expecting, it needed 3 coats and I seriously wanted to do a fourth. That ain't cool for a textured polish because the more coats, the more dry-time.
3) Speaking of dry time, THIS WOULD NOT DRY AT ALL.

I seriously left it on for 30-40 minutes and while yes, it was dry on the surface, it was not nearly set and I could easily have wiped it all off. After that much time. UGH!

I ended up adding topcoat to make it dry, which of course ruined the textured finish. I only had time for one coat of topcoat so it was still textured somewhat but not in a nice way, and I hated it, a LOT.
And to make matters worse, I didn't have time to put on something else, and ended up leaving it on for TWO WHOLE DAYS days because I was so busy studying for an exam and then writing said exam.
The more I had to look at the polish, the more I hated it.

I was sooooooo looking forward to the PixieDust polishes from Zoya but now I am SO turned off.
I bought one more besides this (London) and I am not even sure if I will bother trying it.

From the reviews I've seen, no one else is having the problem I had. Is there anyone out there who is hating the PixieDust polishes with the burning passion that I am?! Gah!!!

OPI - I Lily Love You

Hey guys! As this post goes live, I will be somewhere in the air over Canada, headed to Toronto for a week!
Never fear, I've got posts all lined up so it won't be lonely here on RLN.

I'm starting this group of scheduled posts with a real stunner!

OPI - I Lily Love You
Lkejhdfwedowkedokefejnf I love this soooooooo much. So much. Bunch of pictures to display my love.

I recently received this polish from my friend Anissa. It was a longtime lemming of mine! And I'm so happy to finally have it.
It is a sheer pink base that is packed with iridescent glitter and flakies. It's really dense, this is two very thin coats. I layered it over another new polish of mine:

Zoya - Charisma
Here we have a crazy bright fuchsia that dries to a semi-matte finish. Kinda sheer, this is 2 coats and you can see my nail line in the photo, but not as much in person. I think this was a fantastic base color for the flakies!

So happy to finally have this beauty in my collection. I don't know why I didn't buy it when it first came out. I'm dumb.

I wonder what goodies I will bring home from Toronto... You'll have to check back in a week and see!

Have a lovely day :)

Elixir Lacquers - Peppermint Barque

Hello darlings! Today I have a super festive polish to show off to you on my appropriately festive blog. Yay!

The lovely Nicole from Elixir Lacquers/Nail Polish Wars created this beauty and sent it to me for review. Let's see it!

Elixir Lacquers - Peppermint Barque
I love Christmas polishes! Here we have different sizes of red and green and white hex glitter in a clear base, plus lots of tiny iridescent glitter.

I layered two coats over Zoya - Dove to show off the bright glitter on a neutral base. It wasn't difficult to get good glitter coverage but I did fish for a few pieces to fill in some gaps.

You can see it layered over lots more colors in Nicole's post! It looks good over pretty much anything. Her post also includes the other two polishes in her Holiday Trio!

You can purchase this polish here from the Elixir Lacquers site, $10 for 15mL. Or get the trio for $25!
Don't forget to also check out EL on Facebook!

What do you guys think? Rocking any holiday polishes yet?

On the subject of the holidays... Check out this Christmas gift I bought myself yesterday:

Cupcake pillow!!! Yes. Can't wait for it to arrive.

Product provided for honest review.

Zoya - Lotus

Hey guys! I don't have a whole lot of interesting things saved up to post right now... So here is a quick-but-cute swatch!

Zoya - Lotus
This is a nice purpley gray with great pink shimmer as you can see! It's from their Spring 2012 collection so I am a bit late posting it but better late than never!

Checking out these pictures makes me wanna go put this on again!
A local professional beauty supply recently started carrying Zoya... I have a feeling I'll be stocking up on some new colors soon!! :)

four layers of crack

I was really looking forward to the China Glaze Glitter Crackles that came out earlier this year but then they ended up being pretty disappointing.

I didn't buy them at first... But then they went on clearance and I bought all four. (It was a weak moment.)

I tried doing a manicure with one of them and did not like the result, so in frustration I layered the rest on top. And it actually turned out pretty cool!

I like how you can see some cracks still and how it is hard to tell that there are actually 4 layers on there. Haha! It made an interesting effect.

You totally can't see the different polishes in this manicure but I will list them here anyway:
China Glaze - Glam-More (fuchsia)
China Glaze - Jade-D (green)
China Glaze - Gleam Me Up (blue)
China Glaze - Luminous Lavender (purple)

What made the glitter crackles so disappointing is that the glitter is really sparse. You don't get an opaque coat of glitter so it is hard to even notice that it is a crackle and not just a coat of regular glitter.

This was what the manicure started out as. Just the blue crackle over the base color. It was barely visible and so not impressive.

Here's a swatch of the base color on its own because I don't think I've shown it before!

Zoya - Wednesday is a very nice turquoise creme that covers well in 2 coats but holy crap, she likes to stain. It doesn't look like a typical stainy color, but watch out!

Perhaps once the glitter crackles are used a few times and thicken up, they will give more satisfying results.
Or maybe they'd look better over dark colors. I'll give them another chance sometime.

What do you think of this quadruple-crack mani? It's pretty strange, but I dig it.

31dc2012 - day 20

Holy crap, it's Day 20 already!

I was not looking forward to this day... It's a tough one!
The theme for today is Water Marble!

When I try to water marble, I always expect it is going to be fantastic. But then I kinda suck a little. And then I get discouraged. But my results do end up decent, usually. It just frustrates me in the process. Haha!

Here's what I came up with:

Tada!
I went for marbled accent nails instead of a full-blown marble mani. I'm really liking the look of a few marbled nails against some solid ones. (I've always drooled over this manicure from The Nail Network, which is where my inspiration came from.)

I didn't get the best photos of this manicure, I had planned on taking more but then an exploding pen situation at my job kinda screwed that up... Haha. Let's just say my nails are a little more blue now than they were a few hours ago...

I added some dots to my thumb for a little bit more 'oomph'!
I really like how the thumb looks and I might have to do an entire manicure with that sort of pattern very soon!

The pink I used is one of my go-to polishes, China Glaze - Dance Baby.
The turquoise color (which didn't show up too much in my marble) is Zoya - Wednesday.
The blue polish is Barry M - Turquoise. (Yes, it is called turquoise but it is blue.)
The purple is China Glaze - Gothic Lolita, another of my faves.

Well there you have it, a cutesy marble mani that I enjoyed wearing until a stupid pen decided to explode all over my hands. Blargh.

I have made it past one of the most daunting days... But now we are entering the hardest section of the challenge! Uh oh!
I'll have to put on my thinking cap...

31dc2012 - day 15

Day 15! I guess we can call this the halfway point! I actually can't believe it's day 15 of the challenge already. It feels like I just started!

Day 15 is Delicate Print.
Delicate print can mean a lot of things, I guess, but I decided to go with a cute subtle stamping mani.

It turned out pretty sweet I think!

I always love wearing pastel nails and I'm sad that I'll only have these on for a few hours... Haha!

I don't have a whole lot of time to write this post today (I'm a busy busy bee!) so let's get right to the details:

The base color is OPI - Steady As She Rose, which needed 3 coats full coverage. I really love this color, a muted nude-pink creme, very soft and clean looking. I skipped this one originally when the Pirates of the Caribbean collection was released, but recently picked it up on clearance for $2. I'm glad I did!

I did a very light shimmery gradient with OPI - Pedal Faster Suzi and then China Glaze - No Way José.

I stamped the floral image from Konad M73 using Zoya - Caitlin. I love the way all the colors look together!

I know I keep saying this every day, but I really love this manicure!!! I'm like a broken record.

Hope you guys like my delicate nails, and stay tuned tomorrow for tribal! Hmm... what shall I do...

(P.S... I'm now offering sponsorship ads on my sidebar! My friend Whitney from I Wore Yoga Pants turned me onto it and it seems like a pretty cool idea! You can find more info here.)

ruffle mani à la chalkboard nails

Bonjour!

Many of you have probably seen the Ruffle Manicure Tutorial from Chalkboard Nails.
I've always thought those ruffle manis were adorable and I really wanted to try it!

I'm sad to say my first attempt wasn't spectacular... But it is still cute!

Creating this look is really easy but getting it perfect takes a lot of patience and careful dotting!
As you can see, mine is far from perfect. But I still like it!
Next time I try this, I will definitely take my time and try to line it up better! Haha.

I really like the colors I chose for this mani! I didn't really have a color scheme in mind and I just started pulling things out of my drawers that looked cute together.

Here are all the polishes I used:
Sephora by OPI - Cartwheels On The Catwalk (base color and also at tip)
China Glaze - Recycle
Essence - Joe
Zoya - Megan
Essence - Viva La Green
Essence - Movie Star
Essence - Absolutely Blue
Essence - Got A Secret 

I think I applied this too thick, I couldn't really get it to dry. And I dented my middle finger. Pay no attention to that.

I look forward to trying this again. With quick-dry polishes. And more patience.

Have you guys tried a ruffle mani yet? Did you do it better than me?

Zoya Savita gets laced up with Born Pretty stickers!

Hey guys! Tonight I'm going to be showing you some cool nail stickers from Born Pretty Store.

I was lucky enough to receive a bunch of different stickers/nail decals to try out!
There are Hello Kitty stickers, Angry Birds, some bows, lace, and flowers!
I'll be trying out most of these but to start out, I have a manicure to show you using these pretty white lace ones.

I was worried that they might be really obvious and thick on the nail but they are actually awesome!

The stickers don't really look like stickers once you have them on the nail. They are thin, and blend into the polish. There's no obvious bumps. I'm very impressed!

You don't have to be extremely careful because once you lay it on your nail, you can move it around if it isn't perfect. When you get it in the right place, smooth it down and get out any wrinkles.
Once you seal them with topcoat, they stay on well! I wore this for 24 hours before removing it and did not experience any lifting.

I used the same sticker to do the four matching nails. I used cuticle nippers to closely cut the edges to match my nails. And then for the index finger, I used one piece of a sticker that I clipped off.
I found it really easy to clip them with the nippers.

The base polish I used here is Zoya - Savita, a beautiful purple matte polish with an amazing formula! It takes 2 coats and of course, it dries super fast because it is a matte.
It really comes alive with topcoat, as you can see in this next photo!

Such a gorgeous purple!
And I love these stickers. The lace designs are really cool because there is no way I could paint that on so perfectly!
I have the same stickers in black as well and I am imagining them over nude polish! I'll have to try that out soon.

Overall, these stickers really impressed me! Thumbs up for sure.
You can buy these specific ones right here, but check out all their sticker selection because holy cow, there is a lot!

And don't forget, they ship free worldwide, and you can use my coupon code for 10% off your entire purchase.

Have a great evening everyone!
And check out my Zoya giveaway if you haven't yet!