Zoya - Nina/Rage Konad

does anyone else wonder who Zoya names their polishes after? i can't think of any famous Ninas off the top of my head, so i'm going with Nina Williams from Tekken for now :-P. Nina is a vampy brown creme that doesn't look black/almost black. although, for some reason it was showing up black in the pictures and i had to use flash. so sorry about it looking a bit weird, but at least it's more color-accurate.

i used two coats, almost one. the Konad is from disk m57 and i stamped it with Orly's Rage which worked really well, it was a little more gold in person than in the picture. and to seal it, i used China Glaze's Fast Forward top coat which didn't smear/shrink it at all, but i really recommend using it near an open window, or outside if you can. maybe it's because i'm a bit sensitive to smells, but it has a very strong scent to it.

Urban Decay - Gunmetal

*sigh* posting this is making me want old school and old old school UD polish even more. although they did re-release Big Bang in the Apocalyptic set (the same set Gunmetal came from), so maybe they'll do another re-release when they come out with Book of Shadows III. i'm really hoping for Salmonella or Live Wire, but i'd be happy with anything.





Gunmetal is a shimmery charcoal that has some blue in it as well. in some lights it also takes on a brown cast. i used two coats here, if i remember correctly it applied a bit streaky but was fine after the top coat.

Zoya - Salma/Sparkle Gloss Top coat

yay, more Zoya! i also got my exchange polishes the other day, so you can expect to see more Zoya for awhile :D the ones i got are:

Buffy
Charla
Gigi
Ivanka
Nina
Jo
Perrie
Trixie

i had to only get 8, which was a LOT harder than i thought it would be. but i'm really happy with what i got, so it's all good. anyway, here's two coats of Salma with one coat of Sparkle Gloss topcoat (which i found at Goodwill for $1.99!):




Salma is a warm shimmery red with a teeny bit of brown. Sparkle Gloss is a sheer top coat with small particles of glitter, that for some reason would just NOT cover the tips of my nails. maybe i got too much on the brush, i know the Zoya shimmers i have tend to do that sometimes. i don't know if this functions as a real top coat (as opposed to just using it to layer over polishes), so i used Seche Vite anyway. i'll try and get some more backlog up tonight/tomorrow, and i'm doing a red creme comparison soon, i only have five of those so that should be pretty easy!

Pinta/Mad as a Hatter

i wanted to layer MaaH over something that wasn't black, but also something that would coordinate. so i decided on Zoya's Pinta, which is a dark purple that does appear black in some lights, but mostly you can see the purple in it. it's one coat of Pinta (which has a really good formula by the way, although i haven't had a Zoya creme with a bad formula!), and i think one coat of MaaH.

indoors, no flash. this is how it usually looked (in most indoor light, anyway).

indoors, flash. i used the flash and made it bigger so you could see the glitter better. sorry about the tip shrinkage! glitters dry faster than normal polish, plus i think i used an older bottle of Seche Vite so that didn't really help.

Leaf Him at the Altar/DS Shimmer

Sephora by OPI - Leaf Him at the Altar with OPI DS Shimmer over it. two coats of LHatA, and one of DSS. i'll do a separate entry on LHatA later, i'm just going by alphabetical order and this happened to be next. i wish Shimmer hadn't lightened up the green as much as it did, but it still looks pretty. does anyone make a holo green? except for the one Nubar did for the Going Green collection, i don't think i've seen any!

China Glaze - Agent Lavender

i thought i'd already posted this, but i guess not...hmm. also, this picture is old and when i was more reluctant to file down one nail when the rest were shorter. my nails look way better now, but in older pictures they're pretty wonky looking sometimes.

Agent Lavender is... not really a lavender. it has a little bit of lavender in there, but it's more blue than anything. it's pretty, but if you want more of a true lavender, ChG's Light As Air is a better choice. if i remember correctly, the formula wasn't bad at all. it was a bit streaky on the first coat, but mostly gone by the second coat/top coat (which was Seche Vite).

Zoya - Adina

most of the other pictures i need to post will be a few polishes in one entry, but this color needs it's own entry because it's friggin' awesome. my mom is wearing this one in the pictures, i've yet to wear it myself (i'm trying to get through more of my untrieds first!). all are outdoors, no flash, and two coats. as you probably know, Adina is a purple/green duochrome and like a spring version of Ki. i would definitely recommend this one if you're doing the Zoya polish exchange!

Show Me Your Teeth!

i'm finally going through the memory card and editing pictures! they'll most likely be posted randomly, so that's why you'll see some pictures with no gap, some with a crappy gap, and some with a slightly better gap since i'm still trying to get that technique down. anyway, i'm just going to start off by saying that this isn't very good. it's good for a first attempt, and considering i haven't tried to do something this complex before. but overall, still kind of bad.






now, i didn't just randomly say "hey, i'll do some vampire fangs nail art!". this was partially inspired by True Blood (i'm re-watching the first and second seasons to make the wait for season three seem shorter!), and partially by the Lady GaGa song "Teeth". i used nail art brushes that i got at a local beauty supply. i don't remember exactly what the brush types were, but i used a long thin one to draw the outline, a shorter, fuller one to fill in the teeth, and another short one for the blood. i used China Glaze Liquid Leather for the base, OPI Alpine Snow for the teeth, and Zoya Isla for the blood. i'll probably try this again soon, with some serious tweaking.

10 things tag!

this took longer than i wanted it too, but it was hard to come up with ten things! also, i can never decide who to tag in things like this, so whoever wants to do it :)


How it works: list 10 things that make you happy and tag 10 blogs, and make sure you let them know.

Here we go;

1. music.
2. animals.
3. books.
4. Alice In Wonderland.
5. Marvel comics, especially X-Men.
6. makeup.
7. nail polish, of course.
8. candy.
9. Resident Evil.
10. coffee.

so yeah, some of them were vague (wow guys, i like music! what a surprise! :p) but if i got specific on them, we would be here forever.

Hen Party/Sea? I Told You!/Sunshine on Snowflakes

i have some backlog to catch up on! this is two coats of butter LONDON Hen Party, and one or one and a half of OPI Sea? I Told You!. i got inspired to do this while i was watching The Little Mermaid :D




Hen Party is a sheer nude with a lavender flash, i don't think you could get it opaque on its own. if you wanted to you could use one coat because it's not streaky, i just used two because my nails are more yellow than i'm comfortable with.

Sea? I Told You! is a gorgeous shimmery blue that really does remind me of the sea!

a couple days later, i added a coat of Piggy Polish Sunshine on Snowflakes, which is my favorite holographic top coat.


i really like it with SoS, it makes it more mermaid-y!

my Konad stuff shipped a couple of hours ago, i'm so excited to get them! i got the starter kit, and plates m57 and m73. i'm going to be so indecisive when they get here.

MAC - Seriously Hip

EDIT: i just saw that my blog has comments! i thought it would automatically send me email notifications, so i didn't notice them until now. i set it up to notify me now, though. thank you to those who have commented, it really does make me happy that people like it enough to comment. especially since i'm a pretty new blogger :)

another color i got for Christmas! i really wanted this color, i went to a few different MAC counters and one store but none of them had it. after i opened it, my mom said she went to Macy's (i hadn't gotten to Macy's yet since i made a polish stop at Urban Outfitters) and got the last one they had. i was so excited to put it on! sorry for the not so good picture, it was the only one that came out right and i'm still trying to figure out what looks best.



i'm pretty sure this was in sunlight. i did one coat, but two would be better. Seriously Hip is a dark olive-gold with shimmer and various sized flakies. it looks gorgeous in the bottle, but once i put it on i was a little disappointed. it was darker than in the bottle, and there wasn't as many flakies as i thought there would be. but once i got out in the sun it looked much better! you could see more of the flakies and it was lighter. not quite as light as it is in the bottle, but it's still very pretty.