Monday, April 29, 2013

Bridesmaid Nails Possibility: Pearls on Fire


I'm going to be a bridesmaid this upcoming Saturday, so of course I had to test out polish combos!  The bride requested I do nudish/pinkish for the nail look, so I tried out this combo first.  I like the jelly-ish, pink pearl quality of the base colors, and then the Shine of the Times on top adds a little flashy pop that tickles my artistic fancy!

What do you think?

Friday, April 19, 2013

Zoya Earth Day Promo! It's the most wonderful time of the nail polish year :)

Zoya is my favorite nail polish brand, and they host my favorite promo around Earth Day.  They give you an opportunity to get half-priced, super high quality nail polish, AND a way to responsibly recycle your old, crummy, cheap or otherwise unusable nail polish to boot (you can't send them Zoya, Qtica or Nocti polishes, but anything else goes; I have a whole bag of junky dried out ones to send)!!

Here are the details, straight from Zoya:


The Zoya Nail Polish Exchange* is BACK for Earth Day 2013!

Once again, Zoya is helping you do a little spring cleaning with the return of the Earth Day Zoya Nail Polish Exchange* for 2013. Clean out your nail polish wardrobe and get rid of old nail polish that may not be BIG5FREE(Free of Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin, Toluene, DBP and Camphor) and exchange it for a greener alternative - long lasting, award winning, healthy ZOYA Nail Polish Bottles!
  1. Go to Zoya.com and pick out the polishes you would like (Note: ALL Zoya PixieDust Collection shades are excluded) and add them to your cart. You must select at least 6 bottles and no more than 24 bottles of polish (Salon accounts minimum 12 maximum 48 bottles).
  2. Apply the code: ZOYAEARTH2013
  3. Your order value will be adjusted to reflect a 50% discount (we use these funds to properly dispose of the old nail polish).
  4. SUBMIT your order!
Then Zoya will ship out your NEW polish! YEAH!
Once you get your order, here is where the exchanging* happens…
  1. Ship back the equivalent number of bottles you received to the return address below (ie. If you got 6 bottles of Zoya – you would send us 6 NON-ZOYA polishes). Please check with your carrier on the proper way to ship nail polish.
  2. Include a copy of your order. 
To clarify the exchange: You do not have to send us the exact amount of bottles that you are ordering. You can send any quantity up to that amount. You can also donate. If you decide you don't want to do either, it's ok "Offer is not contingent on customer returning polish" - we will still love you and will ship the Zoya polishes... we'll just send you on a guilt trip for a while :)
Ship Your Old Nail Polish To:
 
Art of Beauty, Inc.
c/o Polish Exchange
5060 Taylor Rd, Unit D
Cleveland, Ohio, 44128, USA

Once we receive your polish we do the rest! It’s that simple!

IMPORTANT!

The bottles you send in cannot be Zoya, Qtica or Nocti polishes (but they can be any other brand).
We are using the honor code here folks! We want to make sure you get your Zoya Nail Polish! We send you the polish first then you send your old polish back to us! If you do choose to send us your old polish we promise to properly dispose of it according to EPA guidelines. This offer is only good for 1 week so hurry – Don’t Wait!

*Offer valid online at www.zoya.com only. Offer expires on 4/26/2013 at 11:59PM EST. Continental US ONLY.Excludes ALL Zoya PixieDust Collection shades. Not valid with any other codes, coupons or promotions. Shipping and handling fees apply. Consumer accounts must exchange a minimum of 6 polishes with a 24 bottle maximum. Salon accounts must exchange at least 12 with a maximum of 48 bottles. Polish can be from any brand EXCEPT Zoya, Qtica or Nocti and can be exchanged for in-stock .5oz Zoya Nail Polish. Offer is not contingent on customer returning polish. Zoya Exchange code is unique and non-transferable. One code per account. Art of Beauty is not responsible for incorrect addresses, credit card entry errors or errors associated with declined credit cards. Please allow standard time for processing and shipping, however if volume is higher than expected please allow up to 6 weeks for shipping and processing. Art of Beauty, Inc. reserves the right to remove any polish that is out of stock from your order. You will not be charged for this polish. Backordered polish is not included in this promotion.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Artsy Wednesday: Re-do your first blogged Nail Art

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My first blogged nail art is here: Memorial Day Manicure.  Not too shabby for just starting out!  I decided an exact duplicate manicure would be boring, so this is more of an "Inspired By" type of thing :)

I busted out my good old Orly Stone Cold and Rock-It; these colors are so stunning I can hardly stand it!  Plus, they're one-coaters. I'll always fall in love with a one-coater.  The holo triangles and stars are Gosh Holographic Hero.


The white is Milani White on the Spot, and I just had to jazz it up a bit.  I won a  Shimmer Polish giveaway a few months ago, and that blue beauty was a perfect way to snazz up my manicure!  Shimmer Polishes are really impressive; packed with glitter, but not goopy, no taco glitters, easy application and not too topcoat hungry either.  Impressive!



Check out the other Artsy Wednesday bloggers; they all do some pretty gorgeous work!  And welcome to our newest blogger, M.A.S.P.O.O.A.S.E!

Friday, April 5, 2013

Indie Spotlight: Hot Mess Lacquers

*none of the links in this post are affiliate links
Hot Mess Lacquers is a personal favorite for me.  I own a fair number of her line already, and so when I got the opportunity to review polishes for my blog, I jumped at the chance!  Hot Mess Lacquers  was kind enough to provide three polishes for review, and I even got to select one myself, with the other two being surprises.

Unsurprisingly, I love all three. A lot.  I knew I got a Hot Mess package in the mail by the fun neon pink zebra duct tape, but I didn't expect coordinated wrappings for the polishes!  I love these kinds of details, they make getting packages so much fun.

For review, I was given "All Hail the Queen", an Alien movie series reference, "Across the Trailer Park", and "Bourgie Bitch".  I love the Hot Mess labels; they really make a statement, but you can still see the polish in the bottle, it's a great design balance.

Below are the gorgeous swatches:

First off, All Hail the Queen.  I love the Alien movie series, even the terrible 4th movie.  I rarely get into a horror series, but I think the grandeur, the good acting and the quality of the cinematography is beyond compare for these movies.  So, to get a nail polish themed after these movies was extra fun.  What was extra, extra fun?  Discovering that the label was printed in the title font for the Alien movie; such attention to detail is a fantastic example of why I love Hot Mess.

 All Hail the Queen is an olivine jelly with forest green square glitter and golden-orange hexes in at least two sizes.  The coverage is fabulous; the swatches below are 2 coats, no topcoat.


I love the square glitter in this; it's a great departure from the typical hex, and the effect is insecty, lizardy, alien.  It's also appreciable that it's not a grey or black polish; it's not too literal, but it gives the great hidden, haunting, non-human effect that the films provide as well.

Next, Across the Trailer Park.  While I was given All Hail the Queen and Bourgie Bitch as surprises, I chose Across the Trailer Park.  I was looking forward to the deep blue with blue and green hexes, but I had no idea it'd be such a bright, peacocky color that made my nails look like they were covered in sequins!  Below is two coats, no topcoat:


Three thin coats would eliminate all visible nail line, but I didn't mind the hint of it with two coats.  The base is a bright peacock jelly, and the two types of hexes plus the mini blue glitter provide a fantastic finish.  I dabbed this a bit to ensure I got good glitter placement, but the application itself was smooth.  I didn't have to worry about bald patches or dragging at all.

Finally, Bourgie Bitch.  I think I gasped when I saw this one, and I'm so glad Hot Mess Lacquers picked it out to send to me for review.  It's a baby blue base with a pink flash, all with baby blue and rose gold hexes, along with two sizes of golden glitter.  Below is two effortless coats:


This polish is so subtly beautiful.  The dreamy, almost robin-egg blue with the pink flash, the glittering bits of gold adding luxury, oh my nails are so pretty right now!

You could draw some parallels to Revlon Whimsical or Deborah Lippman Glitter in the Air, but this polish is SO MUCH prettier.  I always thought Whimsical looked a little...barfy.  Just the wrong tones together.  Bourgie Bitch, along with being a beautiful full coverage, has a charming pink flash and golden glitter to really round it out as a beautiful polish.

I'm so flattered to have been selected to receive these polishes for review from Hot Mess Lacquers, and I am pleased to say that all three polishes here covered well in two coats, have fabulous glitter combos, and are just a pleasure to apply and wear.  A+!

*All products reviewed here were provided by Hot Mess Lacquers for review.  All opinions are my own.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Artsy Wednesday: Inspired by Graffiti

I knew I wasn't going to be able to really emulate graffiti with this manicure; I've never been that good at sharp outlines, so I wanted to take the "inspired by" of this week's theme and run with it.

I was fortunate enough to win a set of MASH nail art brushes from a giveaway Set in Lacquer ran, and I wanted to give the fan brush a shot, to add artistic strokes of bright colors to my  nails.

I used Julep's Eileen as a base, and the It Girl April colors, Eden, Abbie and Mackenzie as the bright bright bright graffiti stripes.  The white base really made these colors pop, and the manicure kind of reminds me of fruit stripe gum.




I'm really honored to be able to participate in Artsy Wednesday, and you should all DEFINITELY check out these other, very talented Artsy Wednesday participants.