Monday, January 26, 2015

HPB Presents Butter London - No More Waity, Katie and Zoya - Julie

I'm participating in my first "link-up" blog post. Yay! This month's theme is "New to You." So in honor of the theme, I have a polish color that is new to me: Butter London - No More Waity, Katie. Zoya Julie is the accent nail. It's a simple mani for a time crunched week. The fun thing about simple manis is the challenge of finding coordinating colors in my stash (because I cannot bear to wear only one polish at a time...simple or not!).

No More Waity, Katie is a gray jelly that leans a bit purple with lilac glitter. I haven't seen any other polish quite like it, especially from a mainstream brand. Zoya Julie is a shimmery lilac that goes nicely with the glitter in the Butter polish.

The formula on No More Waity, Katie is a bit sheer, but it is opaque after 3 thin coats. The glitter payoff was satisfactory and didn't require any dabbing. Julie is shown here with 3 thin coats, but you could get away with 2 thick coats.

Outdoors, shade
Outdoors, shade



Direct sun

I love how the glitter looks in the bottle here.
I'm really liking No More Waity, Katie. The name is a bit silly, but the polish is a great professional, yet fun color. I believe this polish came out shortly after Prince William and Kate Middleton became engaged, hence the name. Definitely will be wearing this one again!

Be sure to check out some of the talented bloggers participating in this link-up below!

Thanks for reading!
-Melissa


All polishes in this post are from my own collection and were not provided for review. All opinions are my own.



Sunday, January 11, 2015

Nail Pattern Boldness - Le Big Party and Zoya - Evvie

Today I have a non-nail art mani to share. For this one, I used a polish that I've been aching to use for a while now--Nail Pattern Boldness - Le Big Party. It is tiny, matte rainbow-colored glitter. I used two coats as a topper over two coats of Zoya - Evvie, which Zoya describes as "a dark smoky grey cream with strong teal green undertones." I'd also describe it as a grayed out military green. Base coat is Orly Bonder and top coat, Seche Vite.

Nail Pattern Boldness, Le Big Party, Zoya, Evvie, rainbow, glitter, green
Direct sunlight

Nail Pattern Boldness, Le Big Party, Zoya, Evvie, rainbow, glitter, green
Shade

Le Big Party is so pretty. Look at it! LOOK AT IT!!

Nail Pattern Boldness, Le Big Party, Zoya, Evvie, rainbow, glitter, green
Rainbow glitter! (Close-up in direct sunlight)

I am loving this tiny glitter. Not sure if this is considered "microglitter," but it is very small, nonetheless. Le Big Party would look great over pretty much any color and it is a party on your nails!

In other exciting news, I thought it was time for a little cosmetic makeover on my blog. As an utter noob in the graphic-editing department, I am rather proud of my header design. What do you think? Also, I finally figured out how to do curved text so I'm playing with the curved watermark idea, too. 

Thanks for reading!
- Melissa


All polishes used in this post are from my own collection and were not provided for review. All opinions are my own.


Thursday, January 1, 2015

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Boy, 2014 really flew by! Starting a new year always feels like a fresh start, even though it's just an arbitrary time. Last year, one of my goals was to enjoy life a bit more--to live in the moment. I think I accomplished that for the most part. It wasn't perfect, but I'm getting better at it. This year, I am going to work on "trimming the fat." Figuratively speaking, I want to remove unnecessary stress from my life to improve my ability to live in and enjoy the moment. I will also be continuing my pursuit towards a healthy lifestyle. Last year yielded some successes and some challenges on that front. This year will be even better. Lastly, it's time to focus some attention on future goals. More posts, perhaps!

Okay, on to the nails. This is my New Year's mani. Gold, silver, black, and sparkly! I originally intended for this mani to be done with chunky glitter so I started with Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter-A-Peel base coat so that I could remove it easily. Wound up not using chunky glitter, but stayed with the peel-off basecoat since I figured I'd probably change out my mani soon, anyway.

Zoya - Ziv is on the index and pinkie and Zoya - Trixie is on the middle finger. To make it more sparkly, I layered Butter London - Tart with a Heart and China Glaze - Fairy Dust over each. Ring finger is Orly - Liquid Vinyl. For the art deco look, I used a stamp from Vivid Lacquer (VL 031) with Konad stamping polish in black. Each nail has a coat of Seche Vite top coat.

art deco; stamping; nail art; zoya; glitter; gold; silver; black; NYE; New Year
NYE 2014 (shade)

art deco; stamping; nail art; zoya; glitter; gold; silver; black; NYE; New Year
Direct sunlight

My camera struggled to capture the true sparkliness of this mani so I included a blurry photo that gives a slightly better view of the holographic glitter goodness.

art deco; stamping; nail art; zoya; glitter; gold; silver; black; NYE; New Year
Blurry to show the rainbowy sparkliness

Thanks for reading! Here's to a fresh new year full of good times, new experiences, and pretty nails!

Is there something you'd like to see (or see more of) on my blog this year? Comment below to let me know!

Happy New Year!
-Melissa