Valentines inspired polish options!

Good Morning guys!! Guess what? Its snowing...AGAIN!! I swear we loose the snow then it comes back ten fold.

Did you know that Valentines Day is only 9 days away? I don't particularly like Valentines day, I just never have, maybe its because I haven't had a proper valentine, but you know, I am my own darn valentine! Plus who can pass up 75% off candy the next day?

But what I don't mind is  sporting a Valentines day manicure on the day. So in case you needed to know of some polishes that were V-day inspired, or just looking for new color to wear, or even in need of some inspiration, I have complied some options.

Lets take a look!!

The first polish I have to show you is OPI Charged Up Cherry, its a bright pink/fuchsia polish that isn't that sickly sweet light pink everyone associates with Valentines Day, its kind of on the darker spectrum.

Next up we have my absolute favorite red polish of all time, China Glaze Cranberry Splash. I know this came out in a Christmas Collection but it does scream love and romance to me! 

How about a polish that's name is as sweet as the polish looks, here is Queen Cupcake from Funky Fingers. I don't believe that you can get this polish anymore, but I would say use it as inspiration to find a color just like maybe?

If you want a polish that is the big 3 free and from a company that is pretty awesome, check out Zoya's Flora!

In this photo from 2012 I have it paired with a glitter that is also great for Valentines Day! Its called You Glitter Be Good To Me, from OPI! If you don't have this glitter or can't get to then OPI's Excuse Moi from the Muppet's Collection is another pink glitter that is awesome.

Here is another winner from OPI; Love is a Racket from the Serena Williams Collection.

Here I used it in a french manicure design from two years ago. Its a amazingly beautiful glass fleck polish. You can't tell here which is also when you can tell that my camera sucked. Anyhow this makes me want to wear it for this Valentines Day... We'll see! I also love the little white hearts I stamped on! (That was one of my first attempts at stamping ever!)

Lastly we have one last red polish. This one you know from one of my recent post. Its Wet 'n' Wild's Heatwave.

Now that we have normal polish choices covered, I also chose two texture polishes that are very much appropriate for the big love holiday!

From the Julie G. Frosted Gumdrop Collection we have Hot Cinnamon and Crushed Candy!

These will add just a bit more sparkle to your holiday! Plus the names I think are just adorable for this time of the year!!


Wow! That was a mouthful! I hope you guys enjoyed this post and maybe it did give you some inspiration for colors or polishes to use if you own them! I will talk to you all soon!
<3 Nicole

Zoya VS. L.A Girl

Well hello there! Wow its nice to be back writing here at the blog! As you know things have been crazy over the last month but now that they are al settled down for the most part I hope to get back into a routine and start Free For All Beauty Fridays, like I had mentioned in my post a couple weeks ago.

Today's post is going to my very first dupe post! Back at Christmas time Zoya released their Ornate collection which held highly sought after holographic polishes! I know that I was on the look out for them when they were released, and even though they were not linear holographic polishes, none the less I wanted them for my ever growing collection!

Just before Christmas I was lucky and found them at the Beauty Plus Salon, I also had yet to swatch them or wear them for the blog. Such a fail I know! But now almost five months after Christmas L.A. Girl released a scattered holographic collection. L.A. Girl can be found in some Rite Aids (that's where I got mine) and I believe on Cherry Culture's Website.

When looking at the L.A. Girl collection I had remember someone said that three of the polishes looked like dupes of the Zoya Xmas polishes, and to my surprise I had bought one and didn't realize it. The L.A. Girl Purple Effect was the first one I had purchased and thought that it was actually darker than its counter part Aurora from Zoya. But when I compare the two bottles side by side, there was no denying that they were sisters, identical twin sisters. I even posted a picture on Instagram about it. That became the deciding point that I wanted to purchase the other two to do an official dupe post!

**NOTE: In all pictures I am holding the Zoya bottle since it was easier to get a better picture with it.
Except for the last one... so much for continuity.

**On my middle and pinky fingers I am wearing the L.A. Girl 3D Effect and on my pointer and ring fingers I am wearing the corresponding Zoya polish. Goes for all pictures***

So we shall start with the polish that began my dupe adventure. Zoya Aurora Versus L.A. Girl 3D Effects: Purple Effect.

When wearing both polishes on your hands you really cannot tell a difference at all. The sparkle is the same on the nail so neither polish has more scattered holo than the other.  So if you don't own the Zoya or don't have access to it, then the L.A. Girl might be a nice alternative for availability  and price point. Zoya sells for a bout $8 and L.A. Girl was $3.99

If your a nail blogger you will notice the subtle differences, such as L.A. girl is a bit thicker than the Zoya and applies to the nail thicker as well. Even though L.A. Girl is thicker drying time is not affected.

Next up is Zoya Blaze Versus L.A. Girl Sparkling Ruby.

I noticed that the names of the L.A. Girl Polishes were not very unique at all where as some had fitting names. Some just said the name of the color and then 'effect' after and some have names like this one.

With Blaze and Sparkling Ruby once again identical twins, even formula wise they were the same not thick but not watery either. The holo effect is nice in person and most difficult to capture on camera. One detail I did notice is that in the bottle Zoya Blaze looks like it has more chunky pieces of holo than L.A. Girl but it doesn't translate on to the nail that way.


Finally we have Zoya Storm Versus L.A. Girl Black Illusion.

Who doesn't love a black holo? I have to say I do not like black polish on me unless its being used to stamp with. It makes my fingers look stubby and overall its just a hard color to clean up. I think I had black polish on my cuticles for days and still a little bit on my thumbs.

Anyway Storm and Black Illusion conclude as the identical twins, once again formula wise they are the same, a bit sheer on the first coat but by the second its opaque and ready to go. The holographic bits are no different; as like I said with Blaze; Storm also looked more holo in the bottle than Black Illusion.

So all in all if you have the Zoya you don't need the L.A. Girl or vice versa, unless you want back ups of course. If your a polish addict who doesn't need a back up of a polish once in a while.

Going toe to toe, Zoya is slightly more expensive at $8 a bottle and L.A. Girl at $3.99 a bottle. Please also remember prices may differ where you live due to location. I believe the $8 price tag for Zoya is always the same on their website, as for purchasing Zoya polishes in beauty supply stores like Ulta or Beauty Plus Salon the prices may vary.

 That's all for today! Hope you enjoyed and I will talk to you all soon!
<3 Nicole

Breast Cancer Manicure!

Hello! How are you all? I'm doing okay on my end, lots of stuff going on as this fall season gets going, parties, visiting with my new niece and my work load at my job has picked up more since we are a man down in the office until further notice. I have been pulling six to seven day shifts in a row. Sadly they are not in the same pay period so no extra money to be had in my wallet :(

These six-seven day stretches really wear me out and by the time I have a spare minute blogging is not the first thing that comes to mind, although I have been taking pictures of manicures that I've done and some swatches, so now that I actually have a spare minute I'm trying to get a few post pre-published to help me out. I feel like I've been in a slump lately with blogging since work is killing me, but with the Holiday seasons creeping up on us I want to get back in the game.

And the way to get back into the game is to post my Breast Cancer Awareness manicure that I did back a couple weeks ago for a fundraiser my supervisor started two years ago!

I don't personally have anyone in my family who suffers from Breast Cancer or any Cancer for that matter, thank god but I do know people at my job outside my job that includes customers and even friends of fellow bloggers who have had to battle this awful disease.

So for this manicure I used the most appropriate polishes I could find/owned and that was the OPI Breast Cancer Duo, and last years Essie Breast Cancer polishes.

I started out with two coats of Zoya Flora, a nice dusty pink color that would help contrast the nail art I wanted to create. Flora is a lovely pink polish that like with most pastel pinks is a little streaky on first coat but by the second coat its pretty opaque. It has this almost jelly like finish two it but its more on the creme side. It dries kind of dull so a top coat is needed to wake it up.

Then on my left hand I created a pink ribbon using Essie's Raise Awareness, with the small end of a dotting tool. On my right hand I couldn't re-create the pink ribbon so I took the Glitter from the OPI Duo and covered my ring finger in about three coats of it over flora!

Essie Raise Awareness is probably my favorite pastel pink that I own, its not streaky at all and its just a fun girly pink color. The Glitter from the OPI Duo, (which the name escapes me) but I think its You Glitter Be Good To Me, is pale pink round glitter with darker pink small hex glitter mixed in. You can wear this glitter by itself with about three coats for full coverage, but just remember how much a pain in the butt glitter is to remove! Unless you use the foil method of course!

With Flash

In The Natural sunlight, this was taken in the early am.

My right hand with flash

Now these pictures were taken after a day of wear so please forgive me for the slight tip wear. My coat has been a mix of Orly Sec n Dry and Sally Hansen Insta Dry. My Base is Orly Bonder. I Hope you enjoyed this post and stay tuned for more.

<3 Nicole

Zoya Savita

Hello! Happy Friday to everyone! Hope you all are having a fabulous Friday!

Today I have a manicure I did over Easter weekend. Its what I wore on Easter and was supposed to post it on Easter as well, sadly the holiday got in the way and I didn't have time to get to the computer! I do hope you all had a lovely Easter too!

My untrieds are starting to generate more and more, I think right now I have about 25 or so if I were to go and look right now. I purchased two Zoya Polishes for the first time back in January when they had the get two free polishes and just pay shipping. That promo was good, so many people participated that my polishes didn't get to me until the end of January!

From that promo I got Zoya Savita and Zoya Flora! I have used Zoya Flora in the 31 Day Challenge. I plan on doing a full post about Zoya Flora soon. Today though I have Zoya Savita, to share. It is a matte polish, my first one actually! Mattes are growing on me more and more, I actually just bought a couple more from different brands over the last couple of months,

Savita is a matte purple , Zoya has it labeled on their bottles as a Matte Velvet Lacquer.

I'm surprised I never wore any purple matte before! I do love this polish in its natural form. However with the way matte polishes chip so easily because obvious use of top coat would defeat the purpose!

Here is Savita with a top coat. I had no idea Savita had a ton of pink/orangish shimmer in it!

Of course I couldn't leave it like that. Lately I have been about stamping, so I added some silver daises with Sally Hansen Celeb City.

In each photo Zoya Savita is two coats although with a little thicker coat one could be just fine! The formula is really easy and isn't runny at all and allows for the optimum control!

Zoya Polishes can be found on Zoya's website and I believe at Ulta as well! Hope you all enjoyed this ! Talk to you all soon.
Nicole

31 Day Challenge. Day 26 Inspired By A Pattern

Happy Thursday!

Soooo... today is all about patterns or what inspires us. I've been feeling springy lately only because we still have no measurable snow fall this winter. Its crazy! It snows, then rains and gets washed away, I'm not complaining though. I haven't had to call out of work yet due to weather!

So for today's manicure I used my new Zoya polish and new favorite pink Flora. Its a bright bubblegum pink creme that is gorgeous! I cannot wait to wear this more for spring time! I purchased Flora when Zoya had their get 2 polishes free as long as you pay the shipping. I plan on doing a review of my Zoya Polishes after the challenge is over.

After applying my base color I stamped with my Wet n Wild Black Creme polish the argyle stamp from my Salon Express Kit.

31 Day Challenge. Day 25 Inspired By Fashion.

I have to say with only about five days left of this challenge I am going to be sad to see it end, but also relieved. Changing polish everyday is just crazy but so much fun! If anyone else takes on this challenge let me know so I can see how you interpret the challenges. Once this challenge is done I have some pretty awesome things coming up (that I have some to still think of). I don't think I am going to post every day only because my schedule changes every week and I like to keep a manicure on more than 12 hours lol. Otherwise I think that probably twice a week possibly three times will be the schedule from then on. I have a couple of product reviews that I want to try out ( Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips :) ) and some Valentines Day nail art!

I know I have probably done that whole speech before so bare with me if I did, sorry! I do want to come up with at least 3 nail designs for each month whether there is a holiday or not to celebrate so look out for that after the challenge too!

On to the challenge!

I am by no mean a person who follows fashion. I love seeing the different trends but I usually wear what I feel comfy in. With that said, today is inspired by fashion so at first I was at a total loss. No idea what to do, I googled fashion ideas and then taking a cue from Lindsay I googled fashion shows like she did and found this design.

Its from a fashion show last year in Vietnam, its the dress that has the multi-colored flowers on it.

So that's what I recreated! I used 2 coats of Sinful Colors Tokyo Pearl as my base color. Then I stamped with Sinful Colors Fig, China Glaze Blue Years Eve and Zoya Savita.