Tag Archives: Zoya

Manicure Monday: Heavenly Jewel Tones

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For Manicure Monday this week, I got to use a glitter topper I absolutely love. Revlon’s Heavenly is a beautiful mix of iridescent glitters. It looks incredible over dark colors; I wore it over black about this time last year. I decided to try it over jewel colors for a fancy, muted look. My under-colors this week are Zoya’s Envy, Revlon’s Persuade, and Ulta’s Moody Blues; I’m wearing two coats of each, two coats of Heavenly, and one coat of Seche Vite.

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I don’t know what to say about Heavenly I haven’t already said. It’s nothing short of amazing. It transforms any polish into a shining beautiful mermaid. It’s so cool how so many colors can come from two different glitters. The first coat of it was kind of lacking, so I went for a second, and made a bit of a mess with it. That’s why my cuticles are so rough-looking. I’m a little embarrassed by it.

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A quick word to my under-colors: Zoya’s Envy is a dark green creme that is the perfect base for this glitter. I almost used this color only until I started to wonder how it would look over blues and reds. Moody Blues is a dark blue creme that dries with a matte finish. Persuade, the wine creme, flooded my cuticles because it was so thin, but I’ll chalk that up to being a brand-new full bottle. All three cremes look fantastic in two coats, and all three work very well beneath this glitter.

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One more thing: I did some shopping this weekend at Ulta, and I grabbed a lot of new hand creams to try. My dishwasher has been broken and washing dishes by hand every night is destroying my hands, making them red, flaky, and itchy. I fully admit to buying this Anatomicals cream because it made me laugh, but I really like the cream so far. I put it on before I go to bed, after I finish my skincare routine, and it makes my hands really soft and smells fantastic.

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I almost chose pastels for this instead since it’s still summer, but I’m so glad I didn’t. I love this look.

Manicure Monday: Opulent Gold and Crimson

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Manicure Monday is awesome this week! I have on two great polishes, a unique red and a real gold flake top coat. It’s bold, warm, and opulent. For this look, I used three coats of Julep’s Nan, two coats of Zoya’s Gilty 18k top coat, and one coat of Seche Vite.

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Nan is an interesting color for sure. It’s a soft, faded crimson creme that reminds me of old fire hydrants and flaky paint. Application was pretty nice for a Julep polish; I usually have coverage issues on the first couple of coats, but this one covered pretty well on the first go. It dries with a smooth, shiny finish. This is a softer color than I like to wear, but I don’t think I have another color quite like this one, and I like that.

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I love gold top coats. Gilty gives any polish luxury and shine. I wish there was just a little more gold floating in my bottle, because I got fewer flakes than I wanted, which is why I used two coats. In any case, it makes for a fantastic look, and is amazing over a warm red like this one. And what’s better than looking at these gold flakes shimmer in the sun? Nothing. Maybe pizza.

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I have to take this off tomorrow. I’m totally going to do this manicure again when July is over.

Summer of Untrieds Day 25: Zoya

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Zoya is the name of the game for the challenge today, so I’m wearing my first-ever Zoya, Odilia. I got this in a swap from someone who didn’t like it. Here it is at three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

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Odilia (spelled Odeilia on the Zoya site for some reason) is a reddish-copper shimmer. It’s a soft color reminiscent of autumn leaves, pumpkin spice, etc. It’s a softer red than I like to wear, but it’s quite pretty in its own right. I’m neutral to this polish. I don’t love it, but I don’t hate it either. I can see why my friend wanted to get rid of it.

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Application with this polish was smooth and easy; I had no problems whatever with it. It’s a bit on the sheer side, and so my tips didn’t get covered well. I don’t know whether to blame the polish or myself for that. Apart from that, I got really nice coverage with it. It was very nice to work with.

Outdoors, full sun

Outdoors, full sun

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There are six more days of this challenge. I can’t wait!

Manicure Monday: Green Green Ocean

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It’s Manicure Monday again! This week I’m wearing Green Ocean from Sinful colors over various greens. At least, they were green before I started. This is one coat of Green Ocean over two coats of Julep’s Fiona, Revlon’s Posh, and Zoya’s Envy.

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Green Ocean is a ton of iridescent shred and hex glitter floating in a green-tinted base. As you can see, depending on the color it’s layered over, the glitter looks different, as is the case with most iridescent glitter. Over the yellow-green Fiona, the blue color is the most obvious. Over Posh, it’s the darker blue-to-purple. Over the dark Envy, the shape of the glitters is more defined. Shredded glitter sometimes stands up and doesn’t lay flat on the nail; I used two coats of Seche Vite to smooth it down, but I still have some bumps and points from it. Despite that, this is still one of my favorite glitters. You can tell by looking at the bottle; I’ve had this bottle for years, and even though this is it’s first time on the blog, it’s a pretty well-loved polish.

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A quick word to the other polishes I used: Julep’s Fiona is a yellow-green with good coverage; it dries to satiny finish. Revlon’s Posh dries with a beautiful shine, but remains still a bit translucent after two coats. Zoya’s Envy is so dark it may as well be black, but it looks great after two coats .The colors do appear a little different after applying the glitter coat, and I can’t tell if the green tint of Green Ocean is strong enough to change it, or if it just looks different because of the glitter. Either way, these nails are totally blinding in the sunlight, and they’re a ton of fun to wear.

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I know the last day of spring was last week, but this is probably the best spring manicure I could have hoped for.

Manicure Monday: Gold Leaf Over Green

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So here’s another bandwagon I missed by a year or so: the gold leaf top coat. Yes, that’s real 18k gold on my nails. It was part of my splurge binge the other month, when I scooped up all the polish and things I’d wanted for months but was too broke to buy. I was so happy to finally use it this week! The green color I used this week is actually from Germany. I got it in a Reddit makeup and nail polish gift swap last summer. She sent me a bunch of eyeshadow and a four bottles of German nail polish. I’ve had this stuff for a year, and I’ve just gotten around to using it.

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Overall, I like this look. I feel kind of bad; this is one of the most expensive nail products I own, and even though P2 is impossible to find in the US, it probably costs like €2 in Germany. I love it though. I love all kinds of products from around the world, and this is no exception. It’s worth it to me to pair it with the gold leaf.

P2's Artful, Zoya's Gilty 18k real gold top coat

P2’s Artful, Zoya’s Gilty 18k real gold top coat

The best comment I’ve gotten on these so far? “I see a retarded brachiosaurus on your middle finger.”