Showing posts with label Creme. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Creme. Show all posts

Wednesday, 8 September 2010

Claire's Mood Peaceful Confident


This is 3 coats of Claire's Mood Peaceful Confident. These are so cool! I took tons of pictures and this was the only one that came close to the real color. It's a super bright sea green except for the tips which are more turquoise. These are super fun for longer nails especially since you can see the color changes almost all of the time. They change with heat so the tips are cooler and therefore a different color. I would love to try some of the other colors from this series. This one is not really for me, but such a great idea!

Thanks for reading!
April

Thursday, 19 August 2010

OPI Atomic Orange & My First Ruffian


This is OPI Atomic Orange. Not a color I will wear on it's own much, but a great orange creme with a perfect formula. No clean up on this one!

This ridiculous color combination was inspired by these shoes that many players wore in this year's World Cup. I used this Toma polish because it is opaque in just one coat, which seems necessary if doing this freehand. It turned out pretty well, but I found this technique kind of difficult.

Thanks for reading!
April

Tuesday, 10 August 2010

Essence Everybody's Talking About & Nail Art


I unexpectedly loved Essence Everybody's Talking About! I've already worn it twice because it just seems like a great summer color. I paired it with Essie Mint Candy Apple and one of my beloved smARTnails sticker stencils for this manicure. One of my favorite manicures for some reason!

Thanks for reading!
April

Thursday, 5 August 2010

A Few Zoya Reds From Wicked & Wonderful Fall Collections & Nail Art


Zoya Kym is a lovely rusty red with glass-flecked, gold shimmer. This is 2 easily applied coats. Not my favorite with my skintone but a great color for fall nonetheless.


Next up we have Zoya Stacy. I think this one is gorgeous! This is 2 coats. I tried a french manicure with Zoya Cheryl.



Zoya Kristi is my new favorite red! Flawless, 2 coat application. Perfect red creme, neither to cool or too warm, just perfect! I used Zoya Kelly and my smARTnails stickers too for this manicure.


Here are my overall thoughts on both of Zoya's fall collections, Wicked & Wonderful.

Thanks for reading!
April

All opinions are my own & were not influenced by Zoya! For more information you can read my disclosure policy.

Sunday, 1 August 2010

Zoya Kelly


This is two easily applied coats of Zoya Kelly from their Wonderful Collection. It's a beautiful purplish grey creme. I love this one and can't think of any dupes for it!

Here are my overall thoughts on both of Zoya's fall collections, Wicked & Wonderful.

Thanks for reading!
April

All opinions are my own & were not influenced by Zoya! For more information you can read my disclosure policy.

Tuesday, 27 July 2010

Zoya Shawn


Zoya Shawn is a drop dead grogeous green creme with slight yellow undertones. Only 2 coats need and an excellent formula. Definitely one of my favorite greens ever! This is from Zoya's Wonderful Collection and you can read my thoughts on the collection here.

Thanks for reading!
April

All opinions are my own & were not influenced by Zoya! For more information you can read my disclosure policy.

Wednesday, 7 July 2010

American Apparel Hassid


American Apparel Hassid is a black creme polish. Nothing fancy, no sparkles or matte effects. I would never wear this alone but it is an amazing polish if you like to do nail art! Hassid is opaque in one easily applied, quick-drying, thin coat! Woohoo! It also works great with water marbling and Konad! If you haven't found a great black creme, I strongly suggest you try American Apparel Hassid.

Disclosure: I was provided a product sample by American Apparel. This in no way affects my opinions of the product. For more information read my Disclosure Policy.

Thanks for reading!
April

Tuesday, 29 June 2010

World Cup 2010 Japan


Another heartbreaking World Cup game today as Japan gets knocked out of the tournament after a scoreless game with overtime that had to be settled with penalty kicks. The Japan team has recently been called the Samurai Blue so I used OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui for most of my nails. I then proceeded to use up lots of time, 2 different white polishes and a few reds to try and make the darn flag! I am not good at making a perfect (or even a decent) circle with a brush! I repainted that nail three times and this is after I had tried out various methods on a nail wheel. Blech. It still turned out ok eventually though.

Thanks for reading!
April

Tuesday, 22 June 2010

World Cup 2010 South Africa


Ashley did this manicure for the opening day of this year's World Cup. I don't have the patience to do something as intricate as the South African Flag! The Daily Nail made the flag on most of her fingers! I know Ashley used Ruby Kisses Caribbean Blue, but I'm not sure what else went into this one.

Well, the host nation, South Africa has been eliminated and so has France. This is the first time that a host nation has ever been eliminated by the round of 16. Poor France just had a giant meltdown this World Cup! What a mess! Since we won't get to see them any more this time around, I'm picking a couple of their players for today's World Cup hotties.
First we have Yoann Gourcuff. Yoann was sent off today with a somewhat questionable red card.
I have to include Thierry Henry! Henry is without a doubt one of the most attractive footballers ever. We have links to plenty of pictures to prove it. Sweet jesus, he's hot! I went straight to Ashley for help with this one because I know she already has a large collection of Thierry Henry photos for her wonderful screen saver which features a slide show of beautiful men from all over the world.

Thanks for reading!
April & Ashley

Wednesday, 16 June 2010

Essie Chinchilly


This is 2 coats of Essie Chinchilly. It's a gorgeous grey creme, but still doesn't beat Recycle. Chinchilly seems to have some yellow undertones. What's your favorite grey creme? Or are you opposed to grey polish in general?

I have major World Cup Fever! Ashley and I went to Germany for the last World Cup 4 years ago. We get up early for every game and occasionally even scream at the television. It's the biggest thing that happens on the planet and I get totally caught up in the magic! And the men! That's how I first got hooked on the World Cup way back in 1994. I was flipping channels when suddenly my tv screen was filled with beautiful men from around the world!

So now I present to you April's World Cup Hottie of the Day! Today's pick is Diego Lugano playing for Uruguay! I don't know all of the ins & outs of posting photos that you find on the internet, so unless one of you can help explain the rules to me, I'll just link to a photo. (That's allowed right?)

Thanks for reading!
April

Wednesday, 2 June 2010

OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui


Will loves OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui, but I'm not so sure. I thought it would be dustier. It's still nice though. Easy application, three coats.

Thanks for reading!
April

Friday, 28 May 2010

Essie Downtown Brown & A Konad


Essie Downtown Brown looks like cherry cola! I really thought I would like this one more. Maybe it didn't do anything for me since it's not fall or winter right now. This is 3 coats.

I used American Apparel Poppy and Konad plate S6. Not a very successful color combination but I sure do love this design!

Just a few more days to enter my Zoya giveaway!

Thanks for reading!
April

Tuesday, 25 May 2010

BB Couture Poison Ivy & Layering With Zoya Bailey & Zoya Raine


I won BB Couture Poison Ivy and 3 other BB Coutures in a fun giveaway on Overall Beauty's Facebook page last month! This has been on my wishlist for quite some time and it does not disappoint. Great application! Gorgeous green creme! I think BB Couture has more polishes that I want than any other brand. I only have Green Goblin so far which you can see here. My nails sure have changed in the past year!

Here is BB Couture with one coat of Zoya Bailey on my pinky and one coat of Zoya Raine on my ring finger. I really think these are outstanding polishes for layering! Bailey gives things a lovely sugar coated look and Raine is unbelievable in person. The microshimmer shifts from purple to pink and you can still clearly see the base color. This makes for some amazing color changes that I just couldn't quite capture while chasing the sun that day. If you like either of the Zoyas, please enter my Zoya Underrated Beauties Giveaway for a chance to win them!

Thanks for reading!
April

Sunday, 16 May 2010

Zoya Underrated Beauties Giveaway! Ends 6/1. (Closed)

I asked Zoya if their staff had any favorite polishes that often get overlooked. They have over 300 colors and I felt sure that there were some gorgeous colors that hadn't gotten much attention. They sent me six colors to show you & I'm also including Pasha and Gaia which I purchased myself. So here we go, eight lovely Zoyas that you don't see very often. Lots of pictures!

First we have Zoya Bailey, shown here with four coats, but it would have been fine with three.

Zoya describes this color perfectly.
Light neutral pink sheer base with cool pink duochrome shimmer and sparkling silver microglitter.
The silver microglitter reminds me of lightly sprinkled sugar. This one looked pretty sheer, so I asked my sister Alisa to swatch it too, since my nails are lightly stained. Here's her photo. Thanks Alisa! Alisa used just two coats.

I ended up liking Zoya Bailey a lot more than I thought I would. It's a nice color, not really my style, but it works GREAT as a layering polish! I'll show it over Zoya Coco later in this post and will show it over other colors soon.


Next up is Zoya Brizia, shown with three coats. I love this one!


Zoya Brizia is a taupey lavender metallic with a silvery blue duochrome effect! I've never seen anything else quite like it and it goes with nicely with most of my wardrobe.


Zoya Coco is one of those colors I would never pick up, since I'm not really drawn to anything in the red family but I ended up really liking this one.

It's a dusty burgundy creme that looks like a dusty reddish brown in low lights. Beautiful color and easy application. This is two coats. Here's Zoya and my dog Wally with some very silly looking fur. What happened that day Wally?


Zoya Flowie is my least favorite because I don't find it very flattering with my skin tone. This is 3 coats.

I would call this a light, peachy brown creme. Easy application. This will probably look great on ladies with much paler or much darker skin tones than mine.


From my least favorite we go to my all time favorite, #1 nail polish, Zoya Gaia! You can read my full post on this beauty here. This is the polish I would keep if I could only have one for the rest of time. Soft white with gold microshimer. This is 4 coats and yes it's totally worth it!


Zoya Pasha is another favorite. You can read my full post about it here. This is 2 coats. I think it looks like iced coffee.


Zoya Raine is another sheer that works as an AMAZING layering polish. This is 4 coats.

This is another one that I thought might be too sheer for my nails. Here it is on my sister Alisa with just 2 coats. Thanks again Alisa!

Zoya Raine is a pink/purple duochrome. You can see Raine layered over Coco later in this post. I tried it later in the week over a green creme and it looked INCREDIBLE!


Last but certainly not least, we have Zoya Sasha. This is another color that I would never pick up but I love it!

Zoya Sasha is a cool toned, blood red creme.

This is 3 coats. I tried it with 4 coats but couldn't tell a difference.


Golly, that was a lot of pictures. This is the longest post I've ever done! Here's a couple of bonus pictures.
This is Brizia with a little Konad. I used Zoya Coco on my pinky and middle fingers and Zoya Sasha on my ring and pointer.


And this is Zoya Coco with one coat of Zoya Raine on the left & one coat of Zoya Bailey on the right. So cool!!! You can really see how lovely both Raine and Bailey are once they are layered over other colors! I'll be showing them over more colors in the next couple of weeks. See what I mean about Bailey's lightly sprinkled sugar effect?


So we have eight lovely, underrated beauties from Zoya! Zoya has kindly offered one lucky winner their choice of any three of these polishes!! You have Bailey, Brizia, Coco, Flowie, Gaia, Pasha, Raine & Sasha to choose from. This prize can only be shipped within the continental US shipping, no P.O. boxes.

RULES:
PLEASE READ ALL OF THE RULES BEFORE ENTERING.
  • You must be a follower of our Concrete and Nail Polish blog. If you have a question on how to become a follower contact April at lirpaskoorb@gmail.com.
  • This prize can only be shipped within the continental US shipping, no P.O. boxes.
  • This giveaway starts today, May 16th, and will end Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 at 11:59PM Central Time.
  • We'll select the winner with random.org's random number generator and notify the winner by email on Wednesday, June 2nd.
  • The winner will have 24 hours to respond. If the winner doesn't reply within 24 hours, that winner will forfeit the prize and an alternate winner will be selected via random.org.
HOW TO ENTER:
Each person is allowed to enter up to three (3) times as follows:
  • Be a follower of our blog and tell me which of the underrated Zoya polishes you would like to win. No entries will count unless this first entry is completed.
  • You can earn an optional second entry by posting about this giveaway on your blog. You can do this in a post (it doesn't have to be it's own separate post) or by posting in your sidebar. Just make sure you leave the link in your entry.
  • You can earn an optional second entry by tweeting about this giveaway. Leave the link to your twitter status update in your entry.
  • You only need to fill out the form once. This works MUCH better than comments, so I've turned them off for this post to avoid confusion.


I received six polishes from Zoya that I reviewed above. Gaia & Pasha were purchased by me at an earlier date. All opinions are my own & were not influenced by Zoya! For more information you can read my disclosure policy.

Thanks for reading!
April

Tuesday, 11 May 2010

Rimmel Steel Grey


This is another polish that I won from R3 Daily. Perfection! I love everything about this polish except for the name. I wouldn't call this Steel Grey! The formula was lovely and I am one of those weirdos who LOVE the wide brushes. I love the bottle shape and the crown on the top of the cap. Only 2 coats needed for a nice finish. I'll be buying more from this line in the future!
R3 Daily and Little Music Boxes have great comparison posts featuring this color!

A few more days to enter my custom postcard giveaway!
And don't forget to check out the UPC Fashion giveaway too!

Thanks for reading!
April

Thursday, 15 April 2010

Essie Mint Candy Apple


Essie Mint Candy apple is what I was wearing in my last post about our current giveaway. Ashley bought this one for me a few weeks ago and I think it's gorgeous. This is only the second mint color that I've tried. The first was a Tic Tac that ended up being too yellow and I hated it. I think it's amazing how two polishes that are relatively similar can end up on opposite ends of the love/hate spectrum.
I broke my first nail today! It was shockingly upsetting. My nails were the longest they've ever been by far until I trimmed them down a bit a few days ago. The break didn't end up being as bad as I first feared. Once I got home and applied some polish to the broken part and evened it out, it looked much better. I don't post my pictures in any kind of order by the way. Just kind of whatever order I end up going through and fixing my pictures. Do most of you post in order? I think the answer is yes. Also I can't decide if I should label this one a green or a blue. I'm going with blue for now.

Friday, 2 April 2010

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lickety Split Lime & a French Manicure


I love this color and I'm in the minority who love the wide Insta-Dri brushes. But I almost threw this bottle across the room in frustration! I don't even know how to describe what the formula was doing. It was kind of like trying to spread Elmer's glue in really thin layers with a paint brush. I used a super thick coat of Insta-Dri Clear and everything mostly evened out. I tried adding thinner and it helped some, but not enough for me to pick this one up again any time soon.

I haven't heard about anyone else having problems with this color and I love the other Insta-Dri's that I've tried so maybe I was just having a bad polish day. Do you ladies have any recommendations for a fabulous lime green? I don't want a neon, just a nice bright lime creme.

I used the brush option of one of my Migi Nail Art pens for the french manicure. Nowhere close to perfect, but not bad without guides.

Thanks for reading!
April