Going out with Zoya Dove

Hi guys! Long time no see, sorry about that. Today I want to share with you the mani that I did last night for going out with DF (we went to one of his friend's birthday party).

I did a mani with Zoya Dove as base in all nails and an accent of China Glaze Tinsel Town on my index finger nails.

Zoya Dove is one of my favorite neutrals. It's a medium grey creme, which only slightly leans to the cool side of the spectrum, very much the color of doves. It's really fitting on my skintone :)

China Glaze Tinsel Town is a very dense dark grey glitter with a gunmetal base. On my pointer nails I applied *one* coat of it over Zoya Dove. This is a glitter you can wear on its own in 2 coats. It has a very good depth as there are varying sizes of glitter (dark grey and silver).

So, there it is. Thank you for reading!

Orly Ingenue

Hola! Hoy les quiero mostrar un esmalte que recibí recientemente, Orly Ingenue, es un glass fleck rosa con un brillo dorado muy distintivo. Para hacerlo más interesante estampé un diseño con esmalte especial Konad negro y un diseño de la placa BM-224 (del segundo set de Bundle Monster). Gracias por leer!

Hi guys! Today I want to share with you a stamped mani I did with one of the polishes from my last nail mail post, Orly Ingenue, though I don't have any pics of it alone.

Orly Ingenue was released as part of the Holiday Soirée collection in 2011. It's a mauve sheer jelly base packed with gold glass flecks. It was easy to apply, but a bit sheer, I did 3 coats and still had some visible nail line (VNL) in some angles. It's very similar in color to Zoya Faye.

On the second day of this mani I stamped over it with Konad Black with a design from the BM-224 plate. Ironically, I chose this set because the designs were bigger and lots of people had problems with the size of the designs from the first set. Well, turns out my nails are TINY so I can barely fit half of any design grrr.

I used the design on the top left. Please forgive the sorry state of my plate :p I love doing stamping on nails because it's a nice way to extend a mani for a couple more days and it's not that difficult to do once you get the hang of it.

Thank you for reading and for putting out with my chaotic blogging schedule. I added a couple buttons on my sidebar so you know where you can follow me, or you can add my RSS, to be notified of new posts.

Gradient with Essie Lapis of Luxury

Hi guys! sorry this post is late, I had to work in a presentation and was up to 3am, ugh. It's the end of semester around here, so my posting schedule will probably be affected. I'm really sorry about that. To be notified of new posts I'll suggest you to add me to your RSS reader, or follow me on Twitter or Tumblr.

Anyway, today I want to share my first nail art here, which is a simple gradient. It started with a base of Essie Lapis of Luxury, which is a pretty cornflower blue with a jelly-ish formula. It's not the easiest polish to work with, it needed three thick coats to be opaque. But I love the color so much I'm willing to stand its annoying formula.

On day two of this mani I did a gradient with Colorama Missão Azul, which is a darker periwinkle creme. I used the method described in this tutorial, using the sponge as a sort of rubberstamp over my nails. The gradient ended up very smooth.

For a little bling, I added a glitter gradient with Love & Beauty "Gold Rush" from Forever 21, which is micro and medium sized gold holo glitter.

Doing gradients is very easy, but it can be a bit time consuming with the sponging and the cleanup. It's a great alternative if you have tipwear or a bit of chipping but don't feel ready to change your entire mani yet.

Thanks for reading!

Soft french with OPI NYC

Hi guys! Last week I had a presentation an needed a subtle mani for the ocassion. Since I had just got my first sheer polishes, from the OPI NYC Ballet collection, I decided to try pairing them up in a french mani.

For the base I used two coats of Are You Callin' me a Lyre? and for the tips Don't Touch my Tutu. As everyone is aware of now, these are very sheer jellies. They are really easy to work with and leveled quite  well, and look so shiny and yummy. I don't know how many coats it'd have taken for full opacity, my guess is... a lot.

I usually run away from french manis because they strike me as tacky, but I was really pleased with the result. It is very subtle and soft, so much at first no one noticed I had anything on my nails (as if my nails would look this pretty naked LOL). Overall it was a nice change from my usual loud and bright manis.

What do you think of this take on the french mani? Have you tried any of the OPI NYC Ballet shades?

Thanks for reading!

Nail Mail

Last week I took a flash trip, and look what was waiting for me on my return... nail mail!

Anyone up for a closer look?

First we have two of the OPI NYC Ballet collection, Don't Touch my Tutu and Are You Callin' Me a Lyre? (oh, silly, silly names). I usually run away from sheers, this are the first I've ever own, but I was hopeful that their jelly texture would change my mind. I already did a mani with these, and yes, they're wonderful.

Next we have some new Zoyas that a kind NBer sent my way, because Zoya is almost impossible for me to get, Mimi and Arizona (this one from the new summer collection). I was attracted by the beautiful shade of orange that is Arizona, even though I'm not a fan of that color, plus I'm a big Grey's Anatomy fan.

Finally we have Essie Navigate Her and Orly Ingenue (from the Holiday Soireé) collection. The Essie was also sent to me by the same girl who send me the Zoyas (thank you, thank you!!), the Orly I bought on eBay. 

I'm a little disappointed by Navigate Her, I thought it'd be a bright pistachio green, as I saw on promo pics and some swatches. This is a reaaally pale green and more cool toned. I'm on the fence on what to do with it, frankening to make it look like I anticipated or swapping? :( The Orly, on the other hand, looks glorious and I can't wait to try it.

Do you have any nail mail coming? What do you think of my latest picks? I'd love to read your thoughts. Thanks for reading!