Mode - Jaded

Here is my final Mode costmetics polish.  This one is called Jaded.

Like the others, it applied smoothly and thinly.  This is a beautiful teal shimmer.  I can still see tiny brush strokes, but they certainly don't take away from this lovely colour.

This looks very similar to Revlon Aqua Blast.  I will have to do a comparison swatch to see.

I'm planning to do a whole week of holo posts cause I just got my Nfu Oh holographics in the mail, as well as some more of the OPI Designer Series holographic polishes.

More about → Mode - Jaded

Zoya Perri Vio-Fio

Hello Dear Sweet Nail-art Lovers.
Finally got some inspiration, it is been a while that i made some one stroke nails with acrylic paints. The base color is Zoya Perri - love it - so perfect for sponging and gradient look, and overall just a really nice shade.
I also sponged the ring with this nail polish so it matches color of the nails. I hope you like it.

More about → Zoya Perri Vio-Fio

Zoya Nail Polish is Fashion Forward in Nail Pro

Zoya Nail Polish was BIG at New York Fashion Week this year and the Nail Pro's May 2010 issue highlighted all of the nails that made NYFW even more glamorous.

" ' I noticed that more and more designers are willing to be more creative when it comes to the nails, and they're paying more attention to nails than in the pat. Nails were colored whimsical and edgy. I  hope it continues moving forward.' " -Sunshine Outing, manicurist for Zoya who did the nails at Toni Maticevski and Thuy.

More about → Zoya Nail Polish is Fashion Forward in Nail Pro

InStyle Magazine shows you the smart way to be beautiful (and green)!

There is no need to sacrifice beauty for brains....

In it's recent "10 ways to Green Your Beauty Routine" article, InStyle Magazine put the focus on great color with a healthy formula - Zoya Nail Polish. Proving that Zoya's Adina and Reece are as smart as they are beautiful!

More about → InStyle Magazine shows you the smart way to be beautiful (and green)!

Zoya Swatches on Flickr

Look at all those beautiful Zoya Nail Polish swatches... Flicker Post by makeupmasla

Thanks! This is great tool to use when working on your Zoya Nail Polish Exchange picks!

More about → Zoya Swatches on Flickr

Digital Room Giveaway! Ends 5/13. (Closed)

Digital Room is offering my U.S. readers a chance to win 100 4 x 6 postcards! Details below.

From Digital Room,

Recipe Cards, Thank you cards, Invitations, and much more… What better to use for these than these postcard prints? From marketing materials to personal invitations, postcards have developed from the rather plain and boring. Get a chance to win a set! Design them to your heart’s content and be as creative as you can be.

This is a great prize worth over $45! Digital Room postcards are a great way to promote your blog or your business, ladies! You could use them as a fun alternative to the standard business card. Artists can use them to showcase their work, or you can use them to get the word out about an upcoming event. Digital Room's postcard printing has a very helpful & easy to use design tool for making your postcards too!


RULES:
PLEASE READ ALL OF THE RULES BEFORE ENTERING.

• One winner will receive
  
  • 100 4 x 6 Postcards for One (1) Winner
  • Paper Stock: 14pt Cardstock Gloss
  • Specifications: Full Color Both Sides; 3 Business Days Turnaround
  • Shipping: FREE UPS Ground Shipping

• This giveaway is open to U.S. Residents only.
  
• This giveaway starts today, April 30th, and will end Thursday, May 13th, 2010 at 11:59PM Central Time.
• We'll select the winner with random.org's random number generator and notify the winner by email on Friday, May 14th.
• The winner will have 24 hours to respond. If the winner doesn't reply within 24 hours, that winner will forfeit the prize and an alternate winner will be selected via random.org.

HOW TO ENTER:
I'm going to keep this one super simple. One entry per person.

• Answer the poll question in the form below. Please feel free to leave additional comments for me or for Digital Room in the space provided
• You only need to fill out the form once. This works MUCH better than comments, so I've turned them off for this post to avoid confusion.

I will be receiving the same prize as the winner of this giveaway. This does not affect my opinion of this company. I had a great experience with them and I love to share great products with my readers! All of the opinions are my own!

Thanks for reading!
April

More about → Digital Room Giveaway! Ends 5/13. (Closed)

Zoya Nail Polish Fairy Control

A couple of the Zoya Nail Polish Fairies were flitting about and getting into a bit of trouble today... One was so bad that her wings were taken away by the Fairy Enforcer!!!

More about → Zoya Nail Polish Fairy Control

Zoya Nail Polish in Australia

Zoya Nail Polish's Truth or Dare collection for Fall has made it's way to Australia,( It is Fall in Australia), and Professionalbeauty.com.au a website for the Professional Spas and Salons in Australia - loves it.

“ 'Whilst the Matte nail trend is in full fashion force this season, high shine, metallic shades in coppery reds, golds and pink juxtaposed against edgy shades of purple, plum, sapphire and jade are also some of the hottest hues of the season. ' ”-  Sharon Mazzeo, Zoya Nail Polish Distributor for Australia.

More about → Zoya Nail Polish in Australia

Spring Daisy Manicure

Hello my Sweet Nail-Art Lovers.
Here is my spring Daisy manicure, which is hand painted with polishes. Quite a rare thing for me those days wit all those stamps and acrylic paints.
I really love how it turned out, kind of simply bu intricate. I used Zoya Dana (flash collection) for the base color and i think this is what helped pull off this manicure. Dana is probably my favorite color from the entire collection - it is very smooth and bright.
I hope you ll enjoy this nail-art

More about → Spring Daisy Manicure

Mode - Blue steel

Here the second of the three Mode cosmetics polishes.

This is Blue Steel *sucks in cheeks and stares intensely at camera*

Despite not being able to get images of Derek Zoolander out of my head now, I want to express what a lovely polish this is.

It really does match the blue steel name very well, because it's a blue metal colour, with a light blue shimmer. It reminds me of that blue crusher dust that you compact down with a whacker before laying pavers. 

It applied very smoothly with no brush lines. This was two coats.  YAY fore Mode polish again.

More about → Mode - Blue steel

Dark Divine Nail Polish

I won this bottle from the lovely Andrea of So Many Books, So Little Time. I have always been a voracious reader. I've worked in bookstores and libraries and I rarely leave the house without a book. You never know when things might get boring. Thanks again Andrea for your contribution to the book blogger world!

I'm not a pink kind of girl in general. The closest thing I have to pink in my polish collection right now is Sinful Dream On & Sinful Vacation Time. I suppose Dark Divine isn't really that pink either. More of a pinkish-purple? I LOVE this color on me! Too bad this is a mini bottle that was made to promote a young adult novel. Can't buy it anywhere!
It turns out this polish is just a shade brighter than some of the packaging of a very popular nail polish remover. Here's a picture for comparison.

Does anyone know of a good dupe for this? I would love to have one!

More about → Dark Divine Nail Polish

Nail Color Layering Zoya Nail Polish Style!

Looking to add a bit of zing to your bling? Layer a sheer  "Zoya Glamsicles" nail color (Zoya Southbeach Ice, Zoya Vegas Freeze, Zoya Soho Punch, Zoya OC Cooler, Zoya Manhattan Mixer, Zoya LA Pop) over Zoya Luna UltraGlitter to get this fun summer glitter nail look.

 ...and while we are talking layering, try adding the "Zoya Glamsicles" gang over a dark color too -  (Try Zoya Raven). Experiment and have fun!

Thanks to My Lucid Bubble for this fun post on layering over darks...

More about → Nail Color Layering Zoya Nail Polish Style!

Mode - Glitterati

Just look at this little beauty!  This is 'Glitterati' by Mode Cosmetics.  I picked this (and a few others) up from Price Attack - which is actually a hair salon / supplies shop, but they also have a few great brands of polish. 

Glitterati is a rich purple jelly, with tiny irregular shaped micro flecks throughout.  It applies totally smooth, not rough like a glitter and had a super glossy finish.  The colour pigment was good, especially for a jelly polish.  This was three coats.

This pic shows a close up of the beautiful sparkly flecks in this polish.

Fabulous polish, awesome finish and a really beautiful purple colour. 

I love it when you find a really fantastic polish unexpectedly. YAY!

More about → Mode - Glitterati

Giveaway Winner!

We had 204 entries, from 127 different people. Random.org chose #102.
4/18/2010 22:05:17 sarah This is a product I would possibly consider purchasing. I like the periwinkle background. They need a Facebook and twitter link.

Remember if you didn't win, Better For Grownups is offering all of my readers a 10% discount on your whole purchase. Enter CNPBFG at checkout to receive your discount. Expires 4/30/2010.

I'll have a nail polish giveaway sometime soon!

Thanks for reading.
April

More about → Giveaway Winner!

Regarding Giveaway

I received a few e-mails asking if anything besides pet's is ok. It's absolutely acceptable! I'm just a curious cat who likes to see cute things :D ANYTHING including humans, dolls, even a shirt you find cute it totally acceptable :) so fear not if you don't own any pets! Thanks for all the entries so far! Keep them coming!

More about → Regarding Giveaway

Zoya Swatch Till You Drop

There are 300 plus Zoya Nail Polish colors. So it's understandable that you might become overwhelmed when trying to find the colors that are right for you, but never fear there are lots of bloggers out there to help you! Recently many bloggers have been posting  Zoya swatches to help people pick out the colors they want for the Zoya Polish Exchange, but you can use this wonderful resource to help you at anytime.  Here are three blogs that have stepped up their game,

First is Scrangie-  She swatched 34 colors. Below is Zoya Anne and Zoya Brie. You can see the others here.

 Secondly is Nail Fanatic- She swatched 7 colors. Below is Zoya Charity and Zoya Alix. You can see the rest here.

Thirdly is Laquer Laine- She swatched 29 colors. Below is Zoya Savita and Zoya Posh. You can see the rest here.

All of the fairies want to give a big thank you to the above bloggers and all of the other bloggers who are showing great Zoya Nail Polish swatches!

More about → Zoya Swatch Till You Drop

Mood Nails

-not the Claire's mood changing nail polish.. =P

lately, i've been in a really bad mood. im indecisive to begin with, but when im in a bad mood, it gets worse. and i complain a lot [more than usual--i definitely complain a LOT on twitter. haha]. and i also get even more lazy--thats definitely how i've been feeling lately.

so last night i couldnt decide on a polish color..but i know i wanted something pastel. this is what i ended up with;

from my thumb - pinky: Orly Cotton Candy, Orly Lollipop, China Glaze Lemon Fizz, Finger Paints Blissfully Blue, & Icing Mint 2 Be.

of course i couldnt just leave it at that...so i added on:

now i can explain why i titled my blog "mood nails" - haha.

lets see, starting from my thumb...no matter what, music never fails me. no matter how im feeling, music always makes me feel better. next, my pointer finger is of a heart & then dotted white lines under. every time i think of school, i go crazy! its such a big burden on me. i've become such a slacker & im finishing my second year at a community college... and im still undecided. i dont know what the heckkk i want to do and so the heart is "symbolizing" me just letting my heart float around; not to feel so burdened. my middle finger is me... =P i get so stressed out but i always plaster a smile on my face. hmm...my ring finger is me just wanting a beautiful blue sky with clouds. i hate Michigan's mood-swinging, inconsistent weather. i just want something peaceful...which leads to my pinky. i feel overstressed sometimes & i just wanna do something peaceful.

i guess that explains everything...was this entry too personal? haha.

enjoy your Wednesday!,
<3KATRINA

OH! by the way! today--well, actually tonight...but whatever--marks my 2nd month in the blogging world. big thanks to everyone who reads my boring blog =) and to those who comment me, i really enjoy hearing from you..so a bigger thanks to you =) if it wasnt for you ladies, this blog wouldnt have survived. haha

More about → Mood Nails

Zoya Flash and Sparkle - recent blogger coverage

Zoya Ivanka is one of the six captivating beauties in the Zoya Sparkle Summer 2010 Collection, so it comes to no surprise that beauty blogger KarlaSugar can't keep her eyes off it.

"I wore Ivanka to go swatching last weekend, and I could not stop admiring my nails in the sunlight. It was like arriving at the Emerald City.  Of course, Ivanka looks even more remarkable in person (such an amazing and intensely green flash!)" - The Next Best Thing To Going Shopping Yourself 


Blogger for  The Shades of  U just got a hold of the Zoya Flash Summer 2010 Collection and she is majorly in love with how fun the colors are. 

" I have a few of their collections in my nail polish stash, but when I saw the Flash collection, I just had to have it, so I bought this set on the Zoya website. I am such a sucker for cream polishes and the colors are so bright and cheerful, they really do scream 'summer!'." - The Shades Of U

You can read her thoughts and see her swatches on Zoya Robyn, Zoya Jancyn, Zoya Dana, Zoya Jolene, Zoya Perrie, and Zoya Maura here.

More about → Zoya Flash and Sparkle - recent blogger coverage

Holy holo foils Batman

This here is my first ever attempt at doing foils.  It almost classes as a fail, as it was really bodgy job. Let me explain.

First I put on one coat of Ulta3 Snazzle.  This gave me a shiny base on which to put my foil, and if I had gaps in the foil, hopefully they wouldn't be too noticeable.

I cut up all my little foil pieces and then applied some glue to each finger on the left hand.  I let it dry and then applied to foils, starting with the pinky.  I pretty much managed to everything that I read online that you should try to avoid.  Eg

• don't touch the glue on the nail (I bumped mine umpteen times),
• let it totally dry before applying foil (I'm not that patient),
• don't apply glue too thick (I read this one after doing my nails, wondering what I did wrong, I thought the more glue the better and in some cases it just stayed wet.)
• peel the foil backing off the nail quickly (I read this after the fact too, I peeled mine soooo slowly)

In the end I had a lot of gaps showing my polish beneath.  BUT the effect was still good. 

Super super shiny and metallic, with awesome holo madness.

I tilted my nails here to show the holo pattern of the foil.  I think this pattern was very forgiving too, it hid a lot of the flaws in my application.

I also read online not to apply a quick dry top coat, as it crinkles up the foil.  I listened to this and applied a generic brand top coat I had.  I let that dry for about 10 mins and then put on Seche Vite.  I saw a little crinkling at first, but it relaxed out as it dried.

I bought a sample pack of 25 foil designs, so I will see if my application gets any better with practice.

Has anyone else tried foils? Got any more tips for me to get better adhesion?

More about → Holy holo foils Batman

Dreamsicle

Hey Ladies! This is another summer design that I created. It's pretty simple and I didn't use to many different products to create it. It's inspired by the yummy icecream treats made by good humor.

For this design, I used Neon orange glitter acrylic that I mixed myself with white glitters and acrylic glitter that I made with just the white glitters alone. I got those glitters from Joann's Fabrics. I placed a fimo slice on the nail bed under the acrylic and I also sliced a few peices from the same fimo cane to look like the pieces that you put on the edge of a glass. I just wanted to show y'all that the fimo can be used with just polish for you Ladies that don't wear acrylic nails. That's another great thing about fimo that I love! The fimo were purchased from depalace-store.



Well, my 1st blog giveaway ends this week and there was a great response! I just wanted to let y'all know that the winner will be chosen using random.org. Also my Prom nail art contest will be ending on Monday May 3rd so not much time left to get your entries in!

I hope you ladies like the design. On a side note, I know I haven't been posting much lately. That is not for lack of trying! LOL My designs have just been complete & utter failures as of late. And I've been goin nuts shoppin for glitter =D Hopefully I'll step my game up cause I want to post much more often.

Have a great week y'all!

More about → Dreamsicle

GIVEAWAY for 200+ followers!

OK, here's my giveaway for having 200 followers. I know it's nothing big, but I thought I'd show some appreciation to my readers/followers for checking out my blog!



Prizes:
- China Glaze Spontaneous
- China Glaze Salsa
- China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat
- OPI Pink Me I'm Good (that's right I'm giving up my bottle!)
- China Glaze Heart of Africa
- China Glaze Coconut Kiss
- Color Club Catwalk Queen
- Color Club Electronica
- Color Club Blue Hawaii
- Color Club Emerald Depths
- Massini Fall Promo Shade - Glitter
- Massini Fall Promo Shade - Metallic Silver
- Orly Star Bombay
- OPI Isn't That Precious (From PINK 2010 Collection)
- OPI It's A Girl! (From PINK 2010 Collection)
- OPI Pink-A-Doodle (From PINK 2010 Collection)
- Milani Purple Passion
- Milani Breezy

Extras:
- Bath & Body Works body lotion in midnight pomegranate
- bareMinerals Lip Gloss in Chiffon
- Scented candle

Rules are pretty simple:

1) You must be a follower to my blog.
2) Enter by leaving a comment on this entry with your name and e-mail address.

For extra entries:
- You may blog about my giveaway (1 extra entry)
- Tweet about the giveaway (1 extra entry)
- E-mail me a cute picture of your pet (2 extra entries) [my e-mail address is : nailfanatic@gmail.com]

I want to see cute pictures of cats, dogs, hamsters, or any sort of pet you own. For those who don't own any pets, you can show me a picture of anything you own that you find cute.

I want to make this giveaway interesting, so that's the only reason I included the picture showing for two extra entries. I like to see cute pictures of cute things :D

If you do e-mail me a picture, please include your name as well so I can know who you are.

Also if you did any extra entries, provide links in your comment.

This is open to everyone and yes this includes international readers outside the United States :)

This giveaway starts now, and will end on May 22nd 11:59PM New York time. So you have almost a month to enter!

Winners will be announced on May 23rd.

Good luck to all and thanks for entering :)

More about → GIVEAWAY for 200+ followers!

Random Zoyas and my storage

Hey guys! I know it's been awhile since I've last posted but life's not going my way lately and I didn't have the passion to do any swatches or take pictures of them. But I decided to post some Zoya's I did in the past few weeks to show you guys.



Zoya Roxy - purple/magenta glitter


Zoya Irene - moss green shimmer


Zoya Charity - dusty mauve with gold shimmer


Zoya Alix - deep red creme


Zoya Happi - pink with gold/green flashes


Zoya Reece - dark pink mauve with golden finish


Zoya Adina - purple green duochrome


Purple


Green and purple shown

I love Zoya nail polishes, and they're doing their Nail Polish exchange once again. Check here for details!

I want to show you guys my nail polish storage. When I first started to 'collect' nail polishes, I used a simple Snapware Craft Organizer that came in two from Target. But my collection started to grow and grow and I end up buying more snapware. I've bought a total of 5. I don't think it was the perfect solution for me to store my nail polishes.


(Half collection)

That's when I decided to make a trip to Ikea and purchase two helmers to store them. And I love it. They're perfect :)


They fit nicely in my closet. The two boxes on the top are my untried nail polishes -_-

And I am getting ready to post a giveaway right after this entry so stay tune! Thanks for looking!

More about → Random Zoyas and my storage