Coral and Flowers

Posted by Unknown on Tuesday, February 26, 2008

I was going to use my Konad stamp set last week, but got lazy, and didn’t want to stretch the polish job out over two days again. Instead, I opted for what I like to call “manicurist flowers” – those simple little flowers made of dots that it seems like everyone ends up with after a trip to the manicurist. They’re simple, easy, and I added a rhinestone to the center for a little “dazzle”. Not too bad, though I was in a hurry, so my dots aren’t all that straight.

What I used:

1 coat Nubar base coat
2 coats China Glaze Coral Star
Sinful Snow Me White for dots
Clear rhinestones
2 coats Nubar top coat (which bubbled…could be the Sinful dots)

I’m less than pleased with the Nubar top coat…the tips are pulling back already, and my index fingernail has a chip starting. I know the China Glaze polish wears better than that, so it has to be the top coat. Luckily, payday is Friday, so I’ll head over and get another bottle of OPI since mine is all “gooey”. I do need to grab some “non-big 3 free” top/base coats to use with my new Essie polishes, and I’ll be able to use those with my Sinful polishes as well.

I entered my Hearts and Pearls design in the March nail art contest over at trendyprincess.com...maybe I'll win some more nail art stuff!

I’m looking forward to greens, with St. Patrick’s day coming up. Maybe I’ll go green next week…
More aboutCoral and Flowers

Zoya, Qtica and Smart Spa have it all!

Posted by Unknown on Monday, February 18, 2008

Zoya, Qtica and Smart Spa were recently featured on "That's Life".
See the spot...
click here.

Leo Reyzis, Art of Beauty VP of Marketing, discusses the seasonal benefits of the products.
More aboutZoya, Qtica and Smart Spa have it all!

Zoya Nail Polish in Juno featured in Life and Style magazine

Posted by Unknown

Check out the gorgeous bottle of Zoya Nail Polish in Juno (Utopia Collection) featured in the latest issue of Life & Style.

The TREND ALERT section with a focus on Dark Purples that are super hot in Hollywood right now...gives a whole lotta of love to our gorgeous metallic violet, Juno. We must agree. It's hot!


More aboutZoya Nail Polish in Juno featured in Life and Style magazine

Hearts and Pearls

Posted by Unknown on Tuesday, February 12, 2008

My mother-in-law called my nails “romantic” this week. I don’t normally consider myself a romantic, but I will admit that the soft colors and “girly” design do give me that warm, fuzzy feeling.

Hubby’s choice for color this week was one of the “Moodies” color-changing nail lacquers that I ordered from Nubar this month. It’s “Purple to Pink” and quite soft and lovely. The thing I love about Moodies is that since my nails are long, when my hands do get warm, the tips stay cool, so with this particular one, my nails turn a lovely shade of light pink, and the tips are purple – instant French manicure! I bought a “Silver to White Linen” as well, and can’t wait to try that out.

Nubar is a great company – they sent free base and top coats with my polishes, and I ordered an electric nail polish remover (keep reading) that they sent extra sponges for as well! I was quite pleased with all my little “extras”, and the Moodies polish went on smoothly and dried quickly.

What I used:

1 coat Nubar base coat
3 coats Nubar Moodies “Pink to Purple”
1 coat Nubar top coat
Flat heart charms and flat-backed pearls
1 final coat Nubar top coat to seal
Qtica half-time drops
This art is pretty self explanatory. I centered the hearts first, then put the pearls on in a “necklace” layout that I hoped would mimic the natural smile line that would appear when the polish color changed on the tips. For the most part, I think I did pretty well, considering my hands were cold at the time, so my nails were completely purple. I’ve been having great fun showing off my “mood change” nail polish to friends and making it change color for them (I stick my hands under warm water to turn the nails all pink, then let the tips turn purple again as they cool off). Fun! Yes, the little things really do amuse me…

I think I might enter these into Felicia’s nail art contest for next month…the hearts and pearls are from her TrendyPrincess store (linked to the right).
The power polish remover I also ordered from Nubar is a fun little gadget, and makes it super-easy to remove the polish from my nails! Each of those little sponges is in it’s own little bag, and you just pop the whole thing in the cup at the top of the machine. Then you fill the bag with nail polish remover to saturate the sponge, stick a finger into the middle of the sponge, and press the pink button. The machine turns the sponge around and around, removing the polish! I did have to touch up the edges with a q-tip, but it was a lot faster and easier than cotton balls and polish remover. We’ll see how it does with these nail charms later this week…but it really takes the “work” out of removing nail polish, for me anyways. Nubar sent me enough sponges for 6 months – you toss the sponge, bag and all after 10 nails, so one per week. The packaging says you can use a sponge for cuticle softening too, just put cuticle cream on your finger, then put it in a clean sponge. That can be reused much longer, according to the packaging. Very cool.

I was going to do another Valentine’s design for next week, but now I’m not sure. I have some holographic China Glaze colors I’d like to try, and some Essie colors, so we’ll see what strikes my fancy later in the week (or my husband’s fancy).
More aboutHearts and Pearls

Nail Art 2008

Posted by Unknown





=======================================





========================================



========================================



========================================



More aboutNail Art 2008

Acrylic Nail 2008

Posted by Unknown


Blue Crush Icy effect on Sculptor Extension


Normal Extension Paint with Gold Shimmer Graduation & Flower Art


French Extension with Crystal Bubbles


INK Custom Blend Pink Glitters with Heart Crystal from Korea


Dolphin Embedded in Gold Flakes Sculptor Extension


Toe Sculptor - Big French Painting with US Crystal


French Extension with Dolphin Stencil


INK Icy Blue Glitter Sculptor Extension


French Extension with Red Dry Flowers from Japan


INK Custom Blend Blue Glitters with Heart Crystal from Korea


Normal Extension With Red Big French & Flower Art

More aboutAcrylic Nail 2008

Gold Stamped

Posted by Unknown on Tuesday, February 5, 2008

I finally took the time last week to really get cozy with the Nail Art Diva machine. By that, I mean that I polished my nails one night, and then did the stamping the next. Needless to say, it was a far better experience than my first, and I do think I’ll get a lot of use out of this little machine.

What I used:

1 coat OPI base coat
3 coats OPI 18k Ginza Gold
3 coats OPI top coat (you’ll see why the extra below)
Qtica half-time drops
Black nail art paint from Nail Art Diva (NAD)
2 coats NAD top coat
I started with a basic polish in gold (hubby picked the color – he likes to do that). I did three coats of top coat after reading in the NAD instructions that top coat would leave room for fixing stamped mistakes. Then I let it dry, and the following night, I set up at the dining room table with everything I’d need (including a glass of orange pop, which kind of matched my nails!).
The NAD machine is very simple. There’s a suction cup on the bottom that sucks it to the table to hold it in place. There’s a place for the metal plate with the designs cut into it, a silicone stamper, and a metal scraper. At the other end, there’s a spot for your nail to sit, with an adjustable edge to position the center of your nail where the center of the design will be. The gray part moves back and forth over the whole thing like an old credit card machine.

The trick is to have everything set up, the design in place, and your fingernail already on the nail rest before you start. The polish holder they give you is great – it holds the bottles very steady, since you’ll only be using one hand to apply polish with. When I was ready, I put my nail on the rest, grabbed the brush, and started counting.

One-thousand one, one-thousand two, one-thousand three, one-thousand four, one-thousand five.

In those five seconds, I put the polish on the metal plate, then slid the gray shuttle back over the plate, tapped the stamper to pick up the design, slid the shuttle back over my nail, and tapped the shuttle again. Everything goes very quickly. I cleaned the metal plate a few times, but not after every nail, and most of them came out very nicely, as long as I moved quickly enough.

The mistakes were easily fixed with a little polish remover on a q-tip…I simply rubbed off the design, and started over. The extra layer of top coat ensured that I never got down to the polish layer, protecting my gold manicure.

When I was done with all my nails (they dry super-fast), I brushed a couple coats of the NAD topcoat over them (basically a resin), which also dried fast. The entire project took all of half an hour, and that’s with set up and cleaning up the machine with nail polish remover afterwards. Waiting to do the stamping until the polish layer was completely dry the next day was key to my success…not having to worry about messing up a manicure really makes it much easier.

Next time, the first of two weeks worth of Valentine’s Day nails. Hearts, anyone?
More aboutGold Stamped

Zoya Nail Polish Featured in Pregnancy and Newborn!

Posted by Unknown on Friday, February 1, 2008

Editors Pick - Safe Nail Polish Formula
Pregnancy and Newborn Magazine names Zoya as an editors pick for safe nail lacquer in the February 2008 issue! Formaldehyde, toluene and dibutyl pthalate free! Make the safe choice, choose Zoya.



More aboutZoya Nail Polish Featured in Pregnancy and Newborn!

Zoya Nail Polish Featured in Life and Style!

Posted by Unknown

FAVORITE FIREY-RED POLISHES
Life and Style magazines (January 2008)
chooses Zoya's
Kamilah as a top pick!



More aboutZoya Nail Polish Featured in Life and Style!

Zoya Nail Polish - recent blog coverage

Posted by Unknown

Thanks for listing us as a product find, Elke!

More aboutZoya Nail Polish - recent blog coverage