Zoya Reece

Luckily I had some posts scheduled because we have had some illness running between each person. A few days on antibiotics has done wonders for the little ones. And even though I haven't been well either, my nails have grown out some. yeah!

Now all these photos will show that I painted my nails while dealing with sick kids, i.e. there is a serious nick in the middle finger that i got when my top coat was drying, and I did the cop out fix of just painting another coat on top. so yes not perfect, but my other hand is the one that clicks the button and its a lot harder to take decent photos when the camera is held at funny angles.

Reece is a shimmery rose pink with gold microglitter that shows when the light hits it. Reese is not as light of a pink as Happi, which is a similar gold microglitter combo and from the same Spring 2010 collection, but its more of a mauve shade. 

Above is in morning sun. Below are in light shade outside. You can see how the gold shows up in both, but is more obvious in the shade actually.

This is 2 coats, except the middle nail with 3 thanks to an oops. Great coverage and no issues with streakiness or anything. My nails are rather short right now, so for longer nails you might need a 3rd layer to help cover any nail line.

Zoya retails for $8 and can be bought at Zoya.com. Zoya is 5 free and not tested on animals. https://www.artofbeauty.com/rd/014DD042 If you don't have a Zoya account, go sign up. They offer promos rather often. I am hoping for a big Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale.

Mario Mushroom nail art

Random unscheduled post!

This is an inspired by nail 'art' post. And my art looks like a child did it, but since it was done during preschool I had no 4 year old helper. My 2 year old only has interest in pencil/crayon type art and pretty much ignored me. So that means a full grown woman in her 30s was this skilled. Jealous?

If you want to see nicer looking ones go check out Munchy's Nails' post here. The knockoff is below using polish I had in my stash.

Base color is Covergirl Heavenly Heather,* the red is OPI The Color of Minnie, green is Sinful colors Happy Ending, black is Sinful Colors Black on Black, and white is China Glaze White Out.

I did 2 coats of CG heavenly heather, then used Hole Reinforcements (from the stationary/office supplies) for the mushroom shaping. I should have put these much lower on the nail.  Next time I will.

Then I used a dotting tool for the eyes and the dots.

I did have some issues with the glue from the hole reinforcements getting stuck to the polish. That partly explains the funky black eyes. So don't press them down really hard.


**I believe Covergirl no longer makes polishes. I bought this color 6 years ago and wore it to my wedding. So you can be jealous if you want, it matched my top perfectly. Its the perfect disappearing nail color for my skin and has a wee bit of silver micro glitter. I actually meant to do a whole post on this color before I realized it was no longer available. Oh and I had to clean up a 2 qt pitcher of red koolaid from the inside of my fridge and under it so my cuticles got stained pink before I did those pics. So pics didn't happen, maybe next time I wear it**

Rainbow Polish Cupcakes

I won a nail polish giveaway from Apple Laquer. Yay! And every single one is a brand I have never tried before. I don't usually like to branch out to new brands, especially pricey ones, because I have run into pricey polishes that are not worth it and indie polishes that suck. Not this time though!

Though clean up sucked and i wished I had started with an Elmer's glue base coat. Oh well, it did look really good on the polish I already had on. The pointer finger is Cupcakes alone, 3 layers. The rest are Cupcakes over Essie Mint Candy Apple with 1 layer on middle finger, 2 layers on ring finger, and 3 layers on pinky.

This is actually 2 days into the manicure because we all got sick over the weekend and I couldn't be bothered to take photos. I painted the nails Saturday evening and took photos Monday. It wore great! I do think a big part of that was the base coat (Zoya) and the top coat (OPI), but I am still pleased. I haven't had as long of wear with the OPI top coat with other colors so I think the polish itself is a  factor.

This was packed with glitter. No fishing here. It did dry rather gritty feeling, but a nice layer of OPI top coat smoothed it out just fine. I did a rather thick layer especially on the nails with 3 layers of glitter.

I loved this polish from start to finish and now I want more.

Rainbow polish retails for $8.50 for a full size bottle and you can buy them at her store on BigCartel.

Essie Mint Candy Apple

One of the most popular colors ever. OK maybe not ever, but you can find dupes and nearly dupes of this color or a very similar shade in nearly every brand.

I have it here with 2 coats. Sorry the cuticles are so scary. I ran out of remover and clean up didn't happen. I didn't wait long enough between coats and got some drag when I added a second coat. It didn't really 'need' 2 coats, but I wanted to make sure to have a good solid layer. My nails are still quite short so probably with longer nails I would need 2 coats anyway.

First photo is with flash. Second photo is the next morning.

OPI The Color of Minnie

Take 2! Because I now know how to use the macro setting. And well, that first post was just sad. So time to have better photos!

Super short nails today as the cracked nail split more so I cut it all off. Then I made the rest match. Clean up on tiny nails seems incredibly hard for me for some reason. I kept wiping the end of the nail too. That might have something to do with holding a cranky toddler at the same time, but I want to believe its just because my nails are super short.

This is 2 coats over my new Zoya anchor basecoat. 1 coat might have been plenty on my super short nails, but I wiped the tips several times on accident during clean up, so 2 coats it is. Photos taken in part shade outside. Love this color! I might even try it under some other colors since bright red nails and super short look funny on my hands.

 The below pic, the label is the bottom label, so oops. I have kids that are pickers and off comes the top layer with the bar code.

This is from OPI's vintage Minnie Mouse collection that came out Spring 2012. OPI retails for $8.50 and can be purchased at most salons and other retailers. See www.opi.com for reputable retailers.

Butter London Knackered

I have finally figured out macro! It only took a few weeks of failed blurry pics. I have not mastered flash yet, and it is a sort of cloudy day so no bright direct sun. But I am not totally embarrassed by these pics. so wohoo!

Knackered is a purple to turquoise green duochrome. It has bigger sparkle flecks in it. Trust me none of the photos you can find online will do this color justice. If you find it in a store you WILL me mesmerized.

This color is rather sheer and would be an awesome top coat for darker colors like black, navy blue and even some dark greens. Well I am sure there are others but I want to try it over those colors. Sadly my nails are showing how much I have scrubbed the kitchen and floors too much lately so I won't be swatching this polish with multiple undies for the sake of my splitting nails. Some are even on my non-dominant hand because the nails are in better condition.

See those pictures, you can't see the awesome colors at all! My camera tends to have problems with purples anyway, so that is part of the problem. This is 3 super thin coats of Knackered with OPI's top coat. Its not my fave top coat, but a certain 2 year old smashed some bottles together and there is a big chip on the side, so I am using it for everything now. Until its gone.

And one coat over OPI's Siberian Nights (Deep purple, see my post here)

Butter London retails for $14 for 0.4oz. I purchased this polish myself and all opinions are my own.

OPI Siberian Nights

I am trying to post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This means on days when I feel like posting, I schedule in advance. And days when I don't want to paint or write, I do nothing and you still see posts. I think its a good plan for me. I won't forget the blog, but I don't spam you all with 3 posts in one day and then none for a week.

OPI Siberian Nights is a dark, dark cream purple. It looks more purple in the bottle than on the nail though, on the nail it was pretty much black.

It went on a little more thick than some OPI colors, but it was opaque in 2 coats no problem. I might try adding a drop of thinner just to decrease drying time. But I won't test the polish on my hands for a bit.

My camera doesn't do purples as well as some other cameras, but yes it really looks this color in person. (Unless you get bright sunlight then its more purple, but for most real life applications its virtually black.) That being said, its great for going under something that you don't want a straight black. I have pics coming Wednesday with this layered. Trust me, it is a world of difference. Holographic top coats, fun glitters, etc. If plain black isn't you, this color might be.

OPI retails for $8.50 and can be found at most salons. I can also purchase locally at JC Penny, Beauty Brands, and Ulta. Find authorized retailers at www.opi.com