Zoya "Awaken" Spring Collection (Monet All the Colors!)

It's beautiful, isn't it?

Everybody has launched their spring lines, but, in my humble opinion, NONE of them compare to Zoya's "Awaken" collection. Even OPI's "Brazil" collection had me feeling lukewarm in comparison. 

The line includes six beautiful pastel shades and a topper called "Monet". Four of the six shades have a silvery metallic undertone to them, and the remaining two are light creme shades. 

I have two shades and the topper to show you today. I was hoping to have a third shade in the mail by now, but it is on back order due to high demand. 

L to R: "Dot", "Dillon", and "Monet"

First up is "Monet", which has beautiful, iridescent cellophane hex glitters and micro glitter suspended in a light pink base. It is reminiscent of the watercolor impressionist style of the artist Monet, which I assume is where it got it's name. 

Had to go macro for this one

As you can see, the glitter shifts between every color of the rainbow. It is mesmerizing. 

It is meant to be worn as a topper over any of the colors in the "Awaken" collection, but here is a swatch of it alone. 

Sooo pretty

I also found that this topper looks great over pastel shades from some of Zoya's older spring lines, such as "Blu", "Neely", and "Jacqueline" 

See?

So, basically, "Monet" all the colors. My one complaint about it is that it is a little goopy and somewhat difficult to work with, but I think the payout is worth it. 

Next, I have Dot, a pretty, no frills, light pink creme. Typically, I don't wear a lot of pink on my nails. Especially not light pink. Which is exactly why I bought it. I believe this shade and possibly the orange one first debueted in a line for a fashion designer, and Zoya added them to this collection. I'm not 100% on that though. This color is pretty sheer, so I used three coats, and there was still some visible nail line. Just use your discretion. 

"Dot" with "Monet" on accent finger 

Macro of "Monet" over "Dot"

I was really pleasantly surprised with this shade. It has classic beauty, looked great against my skin tone, and is totally work appropriate. In fact, I ended up sticking with this color for my mani for the week. 

...with "Monet" on top, of course. 

Finally, I have "Dillion", which Zoya describes as a "full coverage, green mint metallic with a silver shimmer". I think that this color actually falls around the bluer end of the green spectrum. Is it just me? I used two coats. 

Again, "Monet" accent finger. 

I really love "Dillon". I don't have a lot of green variety in my collection, and this shade definitely added something different to the mix. It is also surprisingly very flattering against my skin tone, which is something that can be difficult to find in a green. The application was also beautiful; the formula is smooth as butter. 

I am still waiting on "Hudson" to come in the mail, which is a gorgeous purple shade. I absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on the rest of the collection, though! They are all so beautiful and perfect for spring. I'll probably be wearing these shades on my nails for a while. 

Kisses and Candy Mani and Nail Vinyls Review!

Happy Valentine's Day! Normally, I like to write new blog posts on Monday, but by then nobody will care about my themed nails. So I figured I would post a little earlier this week. 

Zoya lovin'

I'm a big 'ol romantic softie. I love V-Day, and to be honest, I don't understand why some people get so butthurt and defensive about it. It's gotten to the point where people who are celebrating valentine's day borderline have to apologize for it. Hey, listen: If you don't want couples to use a commercial Hallmark holiday to showcase their love for each other, why do YOU use it to go out of your way to shit all over the holiday? Although, I am in no way encouraging you to be a cynical grinch all the time. 

The bottom line is, whether you have a significant other or not, Valentine's Day is a great day to take the time in our busy SnapChat, Insta, Need-It-Now life to tell someone you care about that you appreciate them. Have a best friend? Go grab dinner together. Get your mom a bouquet of flowers. Go catch a game with your dad. Take your dog for a walk to get some heart shaped donuts. Volunteer your time at a retirement home. Literally do anything but sit online and be a big love grouch. 

Anyway, like I said, I love Valentine's Day. So I took the time to do a themed manicure using Nail Vinyls. Linda, the inventor of Nail Vinyls, made these ingenious little guys to make nail art a hell of a lot easier for just about anyone. So what are Nail Vinyls? They are sheets of vinyl cut into different shapes (chevrons, half moons, zebra pattern, French tips, etc) that you place on your nail, paint over, and then remove to create the desired effect. This is basically like a way better and easier version of a tape manicure. The vinyls are re-stickable, and leave no residue on the nail, unlike regular tape. Here's how they work:

Step 1: Paint a base color on your nails. Let it dry completely. 

Step 2: Apply Nail Vinyls, making sure that all edges and spaces around your cuticles are sealed (lifted edges = polish bleeding!)

Step 3: Paint over the stencil

Step 4: Carefully remove vinyls while polish is still wet. Clean up. Top coat. You're done!

I did some hand painted candy hearts on my ring finger just for fun. I love the way the whole thing turned out. Also, the heart midi rings I got at Forever 21 are so cute!

 

This past week I also painted my friend Jess's nails. I thought this fun Scrabble themed mani would also be appropriate to post this week...

I practiced those letters so hard. 

So that's it! I hope that no matter what, you had a lovely Valentine's Day. And make sure to check out that Nail Vinyls link I posted above! At $5 and up a sheet, it's a total steal to get artsy nails the easy way. Her IG is @teismom too, and she always posts new designs and sales! 

Color of the Month: Amythyst

There wasn't a lot going on this past week, besides a rowdy night in AC that I'd rather not go into detail about. So I figured that maybe as a monthly addition to the blog I would do a spotlight on that month's gemstone and do a manicure featuring that color. 

For all you Februay babies, this week's manicure is inspired by amethysts. I did a simple purple gradient/ombre manicure with an ombre chevron accent nail. 

For the chevrons I used @teismom's Nail Vinyls, which have become an almost overnight sensation in the nail art community. I'll be doing a full review of her Nail Vinyls in next week's posting, so definitely look out for that!

I also forgot to take a picture of the polishes I used, but if any of you are truly curious feel free to ask in the comments. 

Pretty reminiscent of my salon wall, right?

I really loved this manicure. Simple, with just the right splash of fun. 

Next week will be much more exciting, with a write up on my Valentine's Day themed nails that I'll be doing later in the week, as well as a feature of a girlfriend's Scrabble nails that I did for her and the Nail Vinyl review. Lots of exciting things! 

Super (Boring) Bowl

I am notoriously not into sports. 

When I was little, maybe 7 years old or so, I probably had more sports enthusiasm than I do now. I'd regularly go to baseball games with my mom. I could name most of the players on the Buffalo Sabres hockey team and would watch the games regularly. I would even sometimes dress sporty because I liked "looking athletic", even though I knew I couldn't even throw a ball to save my life. 

I still root for my Sabres to win a Stanley Cup one day (Fuck you, Dallas!) and I enjoy seeing hockey and baseball games live, but football has never. EVER. Been my thing. 

So imagine my surprise when I discovered we were hosting a Super Bowl party, and I actually got into it. I chose a team. I wore Seahawks colored eye makeup, and I did a football themed manicure. 

I picked the Seahawks for two reasons: Firstly, because my college mascot, the Osprey, is a type of Seahawk. The second, because, color scheme. Let's be honest, any girl or guy out there that doesn't know anything about football was rooting for Seattle because their uniforms are pretty clutch. 

Despite the fact the team I picked won, it was easily the most boring Super Bowl I have ever watched. I really only find football exciting when the game is close. So when it gets to the point where everybody on Facebook is praying for a shutout, just to make things interesting, you know it's bad. 

And was it just me, or were the commercials even pretty lame this year? Usually my favorite part of the Super Bowl is the commercials and the food, and this year all I was left with post-game was a 5lb food baby and, ironically, a feeling of emptiness. It wasn't even fun bragging that the team I picked won. Literally nobody cared. 

But at least I got this cute manicure out of it. 

Basic Lineup (ha! See what I did there?): OPI "I Saw...U Saw...We Saw... Warsaw", China Glaze "Pellican Grey", and OPI "Did It On 'Em"

The full team

My favorite nail was my thumbnail. I used Zoya's blue flakie (I forget the name) and Sinful Color's "Green Ocean" over the OPI "I Saw..." Base. I'm thinking of removing the other four nail art colors and doing the rest of my hand like this for the week. Check out those color shifting flakies!

What did you think of the Super Bowl turnout? Were you as bored as I was? At least I was surrounded by delicious food and great company!