Zoya Dove with Burst Crackle in Aqua Marine and Violet Flame

Hey everyone!  For our American readers - I hope your long weekends are off to a good start!  The boyfriend and I are on Hilton Head, SC for the weekend and I love it so far.  Tonight I have an old mani, Zoya Dove with Burst Crackle in Aqua Marine plus a Burst Crackle in Violet Flame accent nail.  I originally wanted to just wear Zoya Dove, but I had some serious bubbles to cover up!  I will review these crackles and Zoya Dove in more depth at some later point.  I will mention a few quick notable things though! I love Burst crackles.  The have my favorite formula to date.  Also, Violet flame has a shimmery finish that I love.  Aqua Marine dries matte, so you need top coat for sure.  You should always be using it with crackles anyway if you want it to last at all!   You can find Burst crackles at TransDesign.com or VictoriasNailSupply.com and they are far cheaper than OPI.

2 coats Dove + 1 coat Aqua Marine and one coat Violet Flame w/ Seche Vite, artificial light

Everyone needs to try these for sure!  Maybe I'll toss one in for our lucky giveaway winner!  Don't forget you have until 11:59 on July 4th to enter!  Click here if you haven't entered yet!

~Shbecky

First Try w/Konad Plate m57

I'm home sick today with an evil sore throat, so I thought I'd give konading a try.  I kept Cult Nails Devious Nature on for 2.5 days 50% out of love for the polish and 50% because I felt too blah to switch my polish (that's how you know when I really don't feel well).  I am happy to report that I had little to no wear or chipping after that time.  Anywho, I recently acquired a stamper and a few Konad plates from BornPretty (*I'll be giving them a little write up soon!).  When they first arrived I gave it a quick try with no success.  After watching a tutorial I roughed up the stamper with a buffer and practiced on a notepad.

Devious Nature topped with fishnet stamp in Zoya Dove + Seche Vite

 I was having limited success on the notepad, so eventually I turned to my nail to see if that would work better.  I swapped out the metal scraper for an old credit card and some thicker polishes and I am pretty happy with the results.  I definitely need to find out which polishes work well since I don't have the special Konad polish.  Some stamps worked better than others, but I figured I'd show you all of results!

Devious Nature w/ flower stamp in Butter London Blagger + Seche Vite

Devious Nature stamped with Zoya Caitlin + Seche Vite

 Zoya Caitlin was way too light against Devious Nature :(

Devious Nature stamped with animal print in Butter London Blagger + Seche Vite

 Here I didn't push down evenly.  The whole nail stamps are much more difficult for a newbie.

All of the practice stamps!

Verdict? I need more practice, but I don't think it's totally beyond my ability.  Any tips for me??

Don't forget to enter the Nfu Oh 61 Giveaway !

-Shbecky

Zoya Mod Mattes, Summer 2011 swatches

This never-ending overcast weather has me all sorts of blah, so I thought I'd post my swatches of the Zoya Mod Mattes collection from this summer as a pick me up.  I grabbed the mini set on amazon, but these are also available directly from Zoya.  All Zoya polishes are 4-Free (including camphor) and vegan friendly.  Zoya is known for its collections of matte polishes, so I had pretty high expectations for these polishes.  These polishes are gorgeous, but they are kind of a pain to apply.  However, the great colors make up for it in my opinion.  Another bonus with this Zoya mini set is the bottle.  Unlike the terrible OPI mini bottles these seem to have the same flexible brush as the full size bottles and have a bottle and grip that doesn't make application hard.  Since these are so pretty I applied top coat to each to see the shiny versions.  These pics look great full size - if you click the images you can see for yourself.  Enjoy!

Pheobe

3 coats Pheobe, natural light, no top coat

Pheobe is a light neon-ish blue creme with a silvery shimmer.  It dries to a matte finish on its own, so the shimmer adds a pretty cool effect.  Pheobe reached opacity in 2 coats, but I needed a 3rd to even things out.  These polishes need to have time to try in between coats or you will get some serious dragging.  I'm not exactly known for being patient, so I obviously rushed between coats and had to do some repair work.  Look at this beauty with top coat!  The color on this is great.

3 coats Pheobe, natural light, 1 coat seche vite

Mitzi

3 coats Mitzi, no top coat, natural light

Mitzi is a bright apple green matte creme.  I used 3 coats again to keep things even, but you can definitely get away with 2 coats.  Mitzi is way easier to apply than Pheobe, but was pretty darn difficult to remove.  I had bright green cuticles that would not quit.  The color on this is really unique, but I can't decide if I like how it looks on me.  What do you think?

3 coats Mitzi, natural light, 1 coat Seche Vite

Lolli

2 coats (by luck) Lolli, natural light, no top coat

Lolli is SO pretty and by far the easiest to apply of this trio.  It's a bright barbie-esque pink matte creme.  By some miracle I pulled this off in 2 coats.  I love that feeling of applying a polish that flows onto the nail the way you would hope.  This is definitely a polish that gives that feeling.  If you are looking for a matte, but are concerned that you don't have the application skills to apply one evenly, this is the polish for you.  It evens out very nicely.  Lolli also surprised me with the color.  I didn't expect I'd care for such a bright pink, but I really think it's great both matte and shiny!

2 coats Lolli, natural light with 1 coat seche vite

Verdict? While I'm not so sure I love Mitzi on my nails I am going to be keeping this trio stashed.  Maybe it will look good on a friend?  Maybe I'm a hoarder?  TBD.

What are your favorite Zoya mattes?  Can someone send me some nice weather?  K, thanks.

-Shbecky