A girl and her love of nail polish

Posts tagged ‘Zoya’

30 Day Challenge Day 16 – Tribal: Zoya Yara and Codie

It’s tribal day here for the 30 Day Challenge. I really didn’t know what to do for this one. Tribal isn’t usually a pattern this polish groupie rocks, so I looked around online and found two posts that I used as inspiration, this one and the Aztec pattern featured here.

tribal nail art with Zoya Yara and Zoya Codie

For never having done anything like this before, I’m actually happy with the way it turned out. Don’t think I’d ever sit down and choose it on my own, but hey, this challenge is all about expanding my horizons.

tribal nail art with Zoya Yara and Zoya Codie

 

tribal nail art with Zoya Yara and Zoya Codie

This manicure includes four polishes, two that fit the bill for the 30 Days of Untrieds challenge I’m participating in simultaneously:

  • Zoya Yara (untried)
  • Zoya Codie (untried)
  • Orly Rage
  • Kiss Nail Art Paint White

tribal nail art with Zoya Yara and Zoya Codie

 

I picked up both Zoya Yara and Zoya Codie on clearance during separate trips to Ulta. Zoya Yara is olive green with a strong green shimmer, while Zoya Codie is a dark blackish brown. Zoya describes Codie as having olive undertones, though I hadn’t read that when I decided to pair them together. Orly Rage is a metallic rose gold.

tribal nail art with Zoya Yara and Zoya Codie

I used the Kiss striper polish for the freehand white lines and used a small dotting tool for the dots.

How about you, do you ever wear tribal patterns outside of nail art challenges? 🙂

30-Day Challenge, 30 Days of Untrieds

Please visit some of the other bloggers that are participating in the 30 Day Challenge this month.
I know we will need a lot of encouragement to get through! Click here to see them:



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30 Day Challenge Day 15 – Delicate Print: Sally Hansen Salon Effects Polish Strips

I’m proud to say I’ve made it to the halfway mark in the 30 Day Challenge, but this particular manicure is a bit of a fail. For the delicate print theme, I wanted to try some Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips, my first time using them (satisfies the 30 Days of Untrieds challenge I’m participating in simultaneously).

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips Vine And Dine

The pattern is called Vine And Dine, and it features a pale blue flower with green leaves and vines on a shimmery white background.

The application on these wasn’t too bad. I used a single strip to cover both my index and ring fingers. They’re a little bit stretchy to enable you to get smooth coverage, which I achieved on my index finger but not on my ring finger (the first one I put on). What I didn’t like was that once on, the strip was a little bit see-through. It would have benefited from a coat of white polish underneath, but the instructions said to put it on a clean dry nail.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips Vine And Dine

After that I used two coats of Zoya Robyn (bright blue creme) on my thumb and pinkie, and then three coats of Color Club Fly With Me (shimmery yellow-green) on my middle finger.

I tried to do some dot tips with larger dots of A-England Morgan Le Fay (white shimmer), topped off with smaller dots of the alternating color, but the effect did not come out as I had hoped. The A-England Morgan Le Fay dots came out looking more like a failed french tip.

Oh well. I did like using the nail strips so will try them again some time. Not sure how long the open package will last without drying out but I did tape it back up and put it into a Ziploc bag.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips Vine And Dine with Zoya Robyn and Color Club Fly With Me

Anyone tried Sally Hansen nail strips over polish or do they really need to go directly onto the nail?

30-Day Challenge, 30 Days of Untrieds

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I know we will need a lot of encouragement to get through! Click here to see them:



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30 Day Challenge Day 14 – Flowers: A-England Iseult

I figured from the get-go that I wouldn’t be able to pull off anything too extravagant for Day 14 of the 30 Day Challenge. But I didn’t want to do just basic dot daisy flowers, so I looked around for some other options. I found this video tutorial on a modified dot daisy and decided to use that but in a different design.

Flower Nail Art with A-England Iseult

To satisfy the 30 Days of Untrieds challenge that I’m doing simultaneously, I started with three coats of A-England Iseult, a pale shimmery pink creme. This is a great, versatile color. It’s pretty on its own but also provides a great backdrop for nail art.

Flower Nail Art with A-England Iseult

For the flowers, I started with Zoya Jolene, a bright pink creme, and used the head of a pin as a DIY dotting tool. I started with five dots to create the flower, and then used a toothpick to drag from the center of each dot to the center of the flower to create some lines on the petals.

I then used the same technique with Sonia Kashuk Smoke and Mirrors  to create a smaller silver metallic flower with a small dotting tool.

Flower Nail Art with A-England Iseult

I applied one coat of regular top coat and then added clear and pink rhinestones, some bigger some small. I sealed them with one coat of Poshe.

Flower Nail Art with A-England Iseult

It wasn’t too challenging but I think it’s cute. A nice easy way to do a fun design.

30-Day Challenge, 30 Days of Untrieds

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30 Day Challenge Day 10 – Gradient: Cult Nails Untamed with Zoya Lotus

It’s day 10 of the 30 Day Challenge, which means I’ve survived one-third of it. Woo hoo for me. Today’s theme is gradients.

Since I haven’t done this kind of gradient before, I tried to keep it simple. For the gradient, I used two colors, Zoya Lotus and Cult Nails Untamed. The latter satisfied the 30 Days of Untrieds challenge I’m doing simultaneously with this one. I also added China Glaze Luxe And Lush, a layering polish with holographic flakies, to make it a little more interesting.

Gradient manicure: Cult Nails Untamed with Zoya Lotus and China Glaze Luxe And Lush

I started with two coats of Cult Nails Untamed as the base, then a coat of Poshe fast dry top coat. I let it dry completely before starting the gradient. Untamed is a medium pink sheer-ish polish with a fine shimmer. Zoya Lotus is an amethyst purple with a stronger pink/gold shimmer (click to see it on it’s own).

Gradient manicure: Cult Nails Untamed with Zoya Lotus and China Glaze Luxe And Lush

I know there are several different techniques for doing gradients; I used a makeup sponge and brushed the polish directly onto it, then dabbed it onto my nail. I dampened the sponge a little with water before I started so it wouldn’t absorb quite as much polish … not sure if it made a difference or not. I put the darker color on first and then the lighter one, making sure they overlapped some in the middle. As I dabbed the sponge on my nail, I moved it back and forth a little, tip to base, to make sure I got Zoya Lotus where I wanted it, and also to help with the blend a bit.

Gradient manicure: Cult Nails Untamed with Zoya Lotus and China Glaze Luxe And Lush

I added another layer of Poshe, then one coat of China Glaze Luxe And Lush, followed by one coat of Gelous since the flakies are chunky in the CG, and finally another coat of Poshe.

Gradient manicure: Cult Nails Untamed with Zoya Lotus and China Glaze Luxe And Lush

I wasn’t able to achieve as much of the blend in the middle as I wanted, so perhaps this technique wasn’t the best for that. It also might have been my polish choices: the Cult Nails Untamed was sheer and light in color, so it didn’t blend into the Zoya as much is get absorbed into it.

Still, I’m glad to have my first sponge gradient under my belt. Any tips you can share would be greatly appreciated.

30-Day Challenge, 30 Days of Untrieds

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30 Day Challenge Day 9 – Rainbow: Laser Tape Nail Art

For Day 9’s rainbow theme, I tried a laser tape manicure. I actually had to use Google to find out what this type of manicure was called, but it’s pretty basic: lay down a base color, apply striping tape to the nail, paint over it with another color, remove the tape to expose the underlying color.

Rainbow Laser Tape Manicure

The lines didn’t come out as cleanly as I had hoped. On some it seemed I waited too long to remove the tape; others seemed like it was too soon. It depends more on the consistency of the top color. If it’s a runny color you need to wait longer; if it dries faster, remove sooner before it sets too much.

Rainbow Laser Tape Nail Art

Since I’m doing 30 Days of Untrieds simultaneously with the 30 Day Challenge, I was able to work a few untrieds into the mix as well.

Here are the polishes used in this manicure:

Pinkie
base: Zoya Jolene
top: Ulta Steppin Out (untried)

Ring
base: Zoya Jancyn
top: China Glaze Riveting

Middle
base: Sinful Colors Let’s Meet mixed with NYC French White Tip
top: Sinful Colors Let’s Meet

Index
base: Sinful Colors Exotic Green
top: Sinful Colors Last Chance

Thumb
base: Zoya Robyn
top: Nails Inc Baker Street (untried)

I used three coats of all of the base colors except the blue nail,which is two coats. The top colors are all one coat except the blue nail, which is two coats. I topped everything off with one coat of Poshe fast-dry top coat.

Rainbow Laser Tape Nail Art

Not sure rainbow nail art is my thing, but I did like the idea of this one, if not totally in love with the execution.

Are you a fan of rainbow nails?

30-Day Challenge, 30 Days of Untrieds

Please visit some of the other bloggers that are participating in the 30 Day Challenge this month. I know we will need a lot of encouragement to get through! Click here to see them:



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30 Day Challenge Day 2: Orange – Zoya Jancyn with Cos Bar Copper

Orange (tangerine?) was definitely the “it” color of the spring. I didn’t even own one before I bought Riveting from the China Glaze Capitol Colors collection back in March; now thanks to some I bought and a cool giveaway win, I have six or seven.

For Day 2 of the 30 Day Challenge, we’re moving onto orange. I’m simultaneously doing 30 Days of Untrieds, so both challenges are covered here.

This is three coats of Zoya Jancyn, with Cos Bar Copper (untried) from the special Shops At Target collection on the tips. I finished it off with some orange/red striping tape and a generous coat of Poshe fast dry top coat.

Zoya Jancyn with Cos Bar Copper

Zoya Jancyn is an almost-neon tangerine. It runs a little toward the thin side, so this took all three coats and really could have used one more but I didn’t have the patience.

Cos Bar Copper is more of a shimmery orange than a copper, though that’s what was called on the Target Web site when the line launched. It’s not too frosty, so I like it quite a bit. Can’t speak much to the formula since I only used it on the tips, but what you see is only one coat, so that’s promising.

Zoya Jancyn with Cos Bar Copper

For the Cos Bar Copper tips, I used Scotch tape as a stencil to get a clean edge. Your base polish has to be really hard and dry for this technique, and even then I recommend putting the tape on your skin a few times before you apply it to your nails just to reduce the stickiness a bit. I read that tip on a blog somewhere but cannot remember where.

I then added the stripping tape. Calling this vintage is not an exaggeration. I’ve had it in my little nail art box since I was in junior high or maybe early high school, so around 20 years. Perhaps not surprisingly, it’s not staying down all that well on the edges despite the top coat. Alas.

Did you go orange-crazy this year? Still loving orange polish or are you so over it?

Please visit some of the other bloggers that are participating in the 30 Day this month. I know we will need a lot of encouragement to get through!

30-Day Challenge, 30 Days of Untrieds

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Zoya Lotus With Pahlish Your Silver Lining

I recently nabbed a new indie, Pahlish’s Your Silver Lining, and have been dying to try it out. I bought it earlier this month at the end of a crap day not only because I liked it very much but also because I took some higher meaning from the name since I was at that very moment trying to find some silver lining in the midst of a bad situation. It felt like kismet.

Your Silver Lining is a shimmery, sheer, milky white polish with small holographic hex, square and bar glitter.

I paired it with another new-to-me shade, Lotus, from Zoya’s True Spring 2012 collection. Zoya describes it as a “dusty blue-toned amethyst purple with colorful shimmer that reflects pink, red and gold.” I’d say that’s a dead-on description.

The application on Zoya Lotus started out nice, but I swear that it got goopier as I went along, so it was a little challenging for me. This was a brand new bottle, first use. Still, I love this color; it has a lot of depth to it and isn’t a bright in-your-face purple.
Here’s Zoya Lotus by itself, two coats plus a top coat:

Zoya Lotus swatchZoya Lotus swatchZoya Lotus swatch
Your Silver Lining is a great shade for layering, but it did take a few tries to figure out how much I needed on the brush for optimal application. I had to fish around and dab to find and place the glitter where I wanted. As a result I ended up with much thicker coats than I intended on some nails, but I got better at it. You can see that my ring finger looks milkier than my middle finger.

The (male) trainer at my gym described this manicure as “whimsical but elegant.” I thought that was pretty funny, but I think it is an apt description.

Here’s Zoya Lotus  with one coat of Pahlish Your Silver Lining on top plus top coat:

Pahlish Your Silver Lining over Zoya LotusPahlish Your Silver Lining over Zoya Lotus

Pahlish is scheduled to launch today at Llarowe at 3pmET and again at 9pmET, so you might be able to grab Your Silver Lining there. Pahlish also has a shop on Etsy.

What nail polishes have you purchased recently more because of the name than the color?

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Indies, NOTD

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