Unconventional Memorial Day Weekend

For most people, Memorial Day weekend is filled with BBQ's, parties, and days at the beach. This was not the case for me (although, okay, maybe I did party a little bit).

I spent my Memorial Day Weekend working at Pier 1, and when I came home, I was helping Mike with what yardwork we could manage to get done around the weather. We did, with the help of friends, successfully lay down the first coat of paint on our main deck. Opening the pool, however, was a complete disaster. 

For an unconventional MDW, I decided to go unconventional with my MDW nails. Normally I'd go red, white, and blue, but I figured I'd save that for 4th of July and do something a little more outside the box. 

I decided to do another gradient, and then hand paint tribal print on top. I forgot to take a picture of the bottles, but the colors used were OPI in "You're Such a Buda-PEST!", "Can't Find My Czechbook", and "Did It On 'Em", as well as Sinful Color's "Black on Black" for the tribal print. Here is the result:

The design was surprisingly easy to do and impressive; one shopper at work commented on how much she liked them. I haven't done anything this intricate in a while, and it was nice to get back into some freehand stuff :)

Neon Everything

Fall and winter gives us jewel tones. We rock pastels at the first sign of spring. And summer is for neons. 

Several big name brand polish companies are coming out with neon colors for their summer collections. I recently picked up most of Orly's "Baked" collection, which boasts six, highly pigmented neon colors. 

L to R: "Neon Heat", "Ablaze", "Tropical Pop", "Lush", "Hot Tropics", and "Saturated"

I snagged all but "Tropical Pop", because I'm still not wild about yellow polishes. I may get it to round out the collection, but it wasn't an immediate must-have. 

One of my favorite bands, Neon Trees, played a concert at the House of Blues on Friday, so I figured it made perfect sense to play around with my new polishes for the show. Their new album, Pop Psychology, features a multicolored brain on the cover, which I used for inspiration for this neon gradient...

Gradient colors: "Saturated", "Hot Tropics", "Neon Heat", "Ablaze"

My favorite thing about the gradient (besides how smooth it came out!) was that the color "Hot Tropics" has a golden glittery sparkle to it that mixed its way into the other colors once I started sponging it on.

For my non-accent nails, I used "Saturated" which is an awesome, deep neon purple shade; I don't have anything else like it. I put a layer of white polish underneath all my colors, but I think it was only necessary for the gradient. "Saturated" was pigmented enough on its own, so I don't think it needed the base, which is so great for a neon!

The concert was out of this world. Neon Trees puts on a phenomenal show that sounds even better than the studio recorded album. They will be headlining one of Radio 1045's summer block parties this year, so you should definitely go check them out, especially since the show is free ;)

I have been obsessed with this manicure all week, and I'm definitely looking forward to experimenting with more gradients in fun, summer colors! All of these shades would be perfect against a nice tan. Together with my new Zoya's, I think I'll have the perfect array of bright, fun colors to choose from all summer long. 

Zoya "Tickled" Summer Collection

Summer is just around the corner. If you live just about anywhere else in America, you're probably under the impression that summer starts in late June, but you're wrong. If you live near or on the Jersey Shore, or vacation to the Jersey Shore, you know that summer actually starts on Memoral Day weekend. 

Nail Polish companies do even better than that, coming out with seasonal lines months before the actual season is upon us. So I'VE been ready for summer since mid-April, when Zoya announced the release of their two summer lines: Tickled and Bubbly. 

The Tickled collection features six, full coverage creme shades that are supposed to compliment most skin tones. The Bubbly collection boasts another six shades in an opaque, full coverage, jelly holographic formula (that means "sparkly and buildable" to you and me). 

The Easter Bunny was good to me and ordered me the Tickled line for my Easter Basket, and I finally got the chance to swatch all the colors! Without further ado...

L to R: "Kirtridge", "Wendy", "Rooney", "Rocha", "Tilda", and "Ling"

First up is "Kirtridge", which is a light, bubble gum pink color. I usually don't pick up colors like this, but almost always love the way they look against my skin. 

This is "Wendy", which is actually the color that I would have picked up first if I did not get the whole collection at once. "Wendy" is a super flattering coral creme. I did my mom's nails in this color this week and it looked awesome on her, too. Definitely one of my favorites. 

Here we have "Rocha". Zoya describes this color as a "classic folly red with warm undertones", and it certainly photographs that way, but when I put it on my polish rack it just belongs with the oranges, to me. It definitely has orange undertones to it, but it's a wonderful firey shade that is a perfect summer twist to your traditional fire engine red. 

 

This one is "Ling", a royal blue creme with a neutral undertone to flatter most skin tones. I'm not exactly sure what I did with the lighting here, but sorry it looks so golden! I do enjoy this color, but it looks different on my skin than I thought it would... It's hard to place. 

"Tilda" is one of two examples of how this color photographs completely different than how it looks on my nails in real life. This is described by Zoya as a "warm mantis green". On my nails it looked exactly like pimento olive green. When I snapped a photo, BAM! Granny Smith apple green. I suspect this color will look slightly different depending on what kind of lighting you're in. It's a great green shade either way though, I didn't have anything like it before!

Finally, we have "Rooney". This color screams "RADIANT ORCHID" to me, even though Zoya's description of a "mid-range magenta" places it firmly in the pink range. It's definitely a color that messes with your perception of it. I painted my nails this color for the week, and my husband asked, "Pink? Or, wait, purple?". Exactly. In this photo it definitely appears hot pink. But check it out in natural light...

It has a totally different tone. I was surprised at how obsessed I was with this color on my nails. It has been my favorite of the bunch so far! When I couldn't bare to take it off, I just put a coat of Essie's "Shine of the Times" and OPI's Matte Top Coat on it and fell in love again...

So much fun! I completely adore this collection. The formula on all the colors was a total dream, smooth application and completely full coverage in two coats. I know I'll get a ton of use out of all of these colors all summer long. 

Indie Feature: Gridlock Lacquer

As many of you may know, I was born and raised in Buffalo, NY and lived there for half my life before moving to New Jersey. If you've never been to Buffalo, you probably only think of the horrendous winters we are known for, but B-Lo natives know that there is so much to love about the land of pizza, wings, and Mighty Taco.

Yeah, food is definitely one of Buffalo's best features. It was in Buffalo that Frank and Theresa Bellissimo opened up their famous Anchor Bar and created the first Buffalo Wings (you're welcome, world). 

NOT real Buffalo Wings. 

We are also the home of Mighty Taco, a delicious Mexican fast food chain that puts any Taco Bell to shame. 

However, Buffalo has a lot more than food to be proud of. Our city boasts some beautiful architecture, we celebrate cultural diversity with festivals throughout the year (Italian Fest, Irish Fest, Dyngus Day!!), and our people are some of the nicest around (I mean, come on; our nickname is the City of Good Neighbors). 

Buffalo native Lisa Menchetti has recognized all that the city has to offer, and has decided to honor it by creating her own line of nail polish. Gridlock Lacquer takes traditional and historical Buffalo references and bottles them up into pretty, hand-mixed lacquer for your nails. Some of the polish names include "Beef on Weck", "Loganberry", "The Aud", "Wingin' It", and my personal favorite, "Power Play" (Let's Go Buff-a-lo!). 

My aunt went to the Broadway Market before Easter where Gridlock Lacquer had a booth set up to sell their polishes and she picked me up a bottle called "Butter Lamb". 

A butter lamb is a lamb shaped butter sculpture that traditionally accompanies Easter dinner for Polish Catholics. Gridlock Lacquer does an excellent job of capturing the perfect yellow color of the butter lamb, as well as throwing in lots of glitter for good measure!

Traditional Butter Lamb

Macro of Gridlock Lacquer's "Butter Lamb"

"Butter Lamb" is a beautiful yellow lacquer packed with tons of iridescent glitter that perfectly represents Easter time in Buffalo. 

I wasted no time in swatching it:

I usually find it difficult to find a yellow polish that flatters my skin tone, but "Butter Lamb" nails it! The formula is thick but smooth and applied beautifully. And best of all, all Gridlock Lacquer polishes are 3-free!

I am totally in love with the concept of Buffalo themed polishes; what could be better than combining my favorite hobby and my hometown? If Gridlock Lacquer keeps it up, it looks like Buffalo is going to have something else to be proud of.

Buy Gridlock Lacquer polishes HERE and follow them on INSTAGRAM, TWITTER, and FACEBOOK for the latest news!