Zoya - Faye (Summer Sunshine Collection 2011)

I thought for sure I had a dupe on my hands when I started polishing my nails, but alas, no dupe here.  We'll get to that a bit later.  On to the review...


Color Description:  Who better to describe this lacquer than Zoya!  Faye is said to be, "A bronzed mauve with purple and brown undertones flooded with bright gold sparkle.  A unique gilded shade that will work in any season."  These undertones give Faye a duochrome effect that is very, very fancy.

Faye/Wild And Willing

Similar To:  Okay, so I was a bit bummed when I did this mani because I thought it was exactly the same as Color Club's Wild And Willing.  It is similar in every way, as if it were made from the same formula but WAW has no purple *whew!*.  So if you like the finish of WAW you will love Faye with its purple flash.


This Look: Base coat of Starting Over After Artificials, three coats of Faye and one coat of Sally Hansen Mega Shine.  You won't have to look too closely to see that I have the dreaded shrinkage.  Faye is extremely slow drying and dentable for hours and with a fast dry topcoat shrinkage is inevitable, oh well...  It's not awful, though.

Faye/WAW: 3 coats/2 coats/1 coat

Price Point/Availability:  Zoya is availabe at most Salon/Beauty Suppliers and online at Zoya.com for $8.  I try to purchase these when they're having new collection promotions (seasonal).

I can't thank you enough for your feedback and well-polished thoughts!  Have you picked up any new Zoyas lately?  New or old this is a great brand to have in your collection.

Summer Zoyas Have Landed!

With the exception of Phoebe, which I'm saving for a Fun Friday mani coming sometime soon, which color would you like to see first?  Would ♥ to see what my well-polished readers prefer! Click here for my previous post which shows close-up bottle pics.

Zoya definitely takes special care in the packing process.

There was even a box within the box.  Nice!

And there they all are.  Thanks, Vitali!

American Apparel - Summer Peach (03/28/2011)

Today my nails are short and sweet in Summer Peach by American Apparel.  Spring has just arrived which means Summer is right around the corner and with that said, you may want to look into beautiful pastels such as this.


Color Description: Summer Peach is a very pale peach creme.  It's definitely on the stark side which looks great many skin shades and I really like it on my tan skin!


Similar To:  There's nothing in my collection that even comes close to this, however, it has been compared to MAC's Seasonal Peach and from pics I would agree but I've not seen it IRL.


This Look:  One coat of Starting Over After Artificials as the base and two coats of Summer Peach (applied very thick and somewhat streaky) with one coat of Sally Hansen Mega Shine to top of the look.


Price Point/Availability:  Online and in-stores at American Apparel for $6 or 3/$15.  Great price for really awesome quality!


Well, that's the look and hope the hear from you soon.  Stay well-polished!

Fun-Friday Mani: OPI/China Glaze - Teenage Dream Layered with Black Mesh

I know, I know!  You may have seen this combo a hundred times, but I finally broke down and purchased a crackle nail lacquer.  Crackles are not necessarily my cup of tea but I wanted to try out China Glaze Black Mesh, so here's my review.  Oh, and my friend highly recommended OPI's Teenage Dream from the Katy Perry Collection, so I'm giving that a whirl, as well.


Color Description:  
Black Mesh goes on nice and thin, dries to a deep matte black and crackles thin and fast.  OPI's Teenage Dream is very sparkly and girly with various types of glitter including larger round holographic sparkles.  I actually used Black Mesh to calm down Teenage Dream.


Similar To: 
OPI's Black Shatter is very close to Black Mesh from China Glaze's CRACKLEglaze Collection , however, the OPI version has a thicker consistency and may dry a bit slower.  Teenage Dream has been compared as a pinker/prettier version to Sally Hansen's Strobe Light by Addicted To All Things Pretty.  I've now tried both and totally agree!

This Look:  
I based two coats Teenage Dream with Chameleon's Calypso and then added one thin coat of Black Mesh.  Topped that off with my Shine & Hold Top Coat.


Price Point/Availability:  
Chameleons Calypso is readily available at drugstores nationwide (i.e. Rite Aid); Black Mesh and Teenage Dream, not so much.  These two are both Limited Edition I picked mine up with in the last week at JC Penney (Teenage Dream) and Sally Beauty Supply (Black Mesh).  Right now JC Penney is having a BOGO50% for their OPI in the Salon section of the store and Sally's has their China Glaze priced at $4.99.


Have you gotten into the crackled effect?  It took me a long time but like I said I fell for it and though it's not LOVE, it's not HATE either - IT'S JUST PLAIN FUN...  Would love to hear you well-polished thought down below!

My Zoya Summer Nail Polish Selections!

Which are you getting?  These were my choices!  I just had to get the red, albeit basic, this was my nickname in high school - Kimmy!  Well, you can't beat $2 shipping and BOGOFree, so I thought I'd check these out.  I missed the Intimates Promo but I didn't want to let this one slip by.

Phoebe (Mod Matte Collection)

Kimmy (Sunshine Collection)

Faye (Sunshine Collection)

Mira (Summertime Collection)

Keiko (Summertime Collection)

Areej (Summertime Collection)

Have a well-polished week!  See you soon... and for swatches of all the collections check out Catherine's handiwork at the Temptalia Beauty Blog.  For more information on the Summer BOGO offer check out Zoya.blogspot.com!

CLOSE-UP: Designer Perfect Eye Liner Brush (for NP Clean-Up)

I found this Designer Perfect Eye Liner Brush at Big Lots last week and thought I'd try one for its intended purpose, eye liner, and one for nail polish clean-up. 


I've used many types of brushes in the past but there are a few reasons why I like this one the best.

1. The fact that it's angled makes it versatile.  I can clean a little (with the tip of the brush) or a lot (with the entire length of the brush).
2. The bristles are white, which makes it easy to see if there's left-over nail polish on the bristles.  This is especially nice when using dark nail colors.
3. My favorite thing about this brush is that the bristle are very thin yet sturdy.  Thin is important so that you don't remove too much polish and sturdy is nice so that you can really get in between the nail and cuticle area when cleaning.

I'm just seeing this brush pop up at my Big Lots, and hopefully this post will help someone that is still looking for the perfect clean-up brush or maybe you don't have one yet; either way, this is a nice way to stay well-polished for $1.00.


Do you use a brush for clean-up?  If so, what type...  Let me know if you pick this up and how you like it!

American Apparel - African Violet (03/19/2011)

I discovered this beautiful color on a fellow MUA nailboarder (p0key) and said, "What is that?"  She told me that it was her absolute favorite brand, American Apparel and it was called African Violet.  Needless to say, I was there within days to find this gorgeous purple.


Color Description:  This is an extremely rich, comic book, BOOM, POW, WOW, purple.  It's a medium to dark creme that photographs on the blue side but definitely has a hint of magenta in there somewhere.  I attempted to capture the true hue of African Violet...  This is definitely one to own, ladies!


Similar To:  I, honestly, have nothing to compare this with in my collection.  It's uniquely different for a purple.

This Look:  One coat of Starting Over After Artificials, two coats of African Violet and one coat of Mega Shine.


Price Point/Availability:  These are sold online or in-store at American Apparel for $6 ea. or 3/$15 and can go for as low as 7/$32 online.


Alright, ladies, I'm going to go make some tea and try to kick this cold!  Have a nice and well-polish weekend for me, because I won't be going anywhere for a while. :)