Pantone September 2013 Nail Challenge

Hello All! I've been in Instagramland (allthingsnails_) for the last year and promised one of my friends I'd post again because I've come to realize that everyone doesn't have Instagram or even want it, so...

I've challenged myself in two ways with today's post, 1. To come back to Blogger after my hiatus, and 2. To polish my nails more this month and for that reason I created the September 2013 Pantone Nail Challenge!

"For more than 20 years, Pantone, the global authority on color, has surveyed the designers of New York Fashion Week and beyond to bring you the season’s most important color trends. This [color selection] previews the most prominent hues for fall 2013." -- www.pantone.com

So with that said, I will break this up into a three-post series from the Fall 2013 Top Ten color spectrum (above).

Today we will be showcasing the brights of the bunch:

• Samba (Red) is OPI's Vodka and Caviar

• Koi (Orange) is Misa's Flame Angel

• Vivacious (Magenta) is Zoya's Areej 

Thank you so much to the 500 of you for sticking around, I really hope you like this series and sincerely hope to hear from you. With Blogger, comments mean everything!!! 

Zoya - Cynthia and Comps (08/28/2011)

Zoya Cynthia is from the Fall 2011 Smoke Collection, of which, I purchased two: Cynthia and Dree.  I now see that I can't resist a green in any form from dark to light from teal to olive, greens are great!


Color Description: Zoya describes Cynthia as "a smoky, blackened peacock teal with soft warm undertones. A very uncommon shade of blue for a subtle but funky look."  It also is a creme with the slightest hint of shimmer, so slight it's not a secret it's just abut non-existent.  And, it is true you don't find this shade of teal very often but I now have at least four versions of this color in my collection, wanna see?


Similar To: Cynthia is extremely dupish to two, if not three shades that I own: L'Oreal Mystery, Jessica Frost At All Cost and CQ Slate.  Of these the least similar is Slate (a bit more green than blue) but to the "normal" eye they are all pretty much the same. (see pic directly below - can you tell the difference?)

Slate (index), Frost At All Cost (middle),
Mystery (ring), and Cynthia (pinky)

This Look: One coat of Starting Over After Artificials, two coats each of the above four shades and then topped off the final look (first picture) with Zoya Cynthia; used Sally Hansen Mega Shine as the topcoat.


Price Point/Availability: The most difficult of the four to get your hands on would be Jessica Frost At All Cost because it's not as widely available as the others.  The easiest would be CQ Slate from you local Rite Aid (or drugstore) and L'Oreal Mystery, although Limited Edition, can still be found at many drugstores including Bed, Bath and Beyond.  Zoya Cynthia can be found online at Zoya.com for $8.


Hope this helps when deciding which deep teal lacquer to purchase next.  Have a great Sunday, y'all!

Slate, Frost At All Cost, Mystery, Cynthia

Zoya - Kimmy (Summer Sunshine Collection 2011)

Color Description:  Zoya Kimmy is serious fire on my fingertips!  This color is from the Zoyas new Sunshine collection and they got this one 100% right.  This reminds me of the core of the sun while Zoya Faye (my previous post) reminds me of a beautiful Summer sunset.  This is a super gorgeous orange red with lots of golden micro-glittler.  It's a WINNER!


Similar To:  I went to my collection to check out Orly's Cherry Bomb, as well as, Maybelline's Red Hot Reds (pic from audraelena on MUA).  The actual color of each are very similar, but finish and application are different. Red Hot Reds could qualify as a dupe if it wasn't so thin (it takes at least 4 coats to get to 1 coat of Kimmy), while Cherry Bomb is a frost/shimmer with no micro-glitter taking away from the "wow-factor!"


This Look: One coat of Starting Over After Artificials, two coats of Kimmy and one coat of Shine & Hold topcoat.


Price Point/Availability:  Zoyas Sunshine collection is available in salons and online for $8.  Orly's Cherry Bomb can be found at Sally Beauty Supply and Red Hot Reds by Maybelline is discontinued but has been popping up at Big Lots and Dollar Trees nationwide.


Well, talk to you later on in the week!  What were your well-polished selections from the Zoya Sunshine Collection?

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!

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!

Zoya Madness - Swatches

Just thought I'd chime in to the recent Facebook Zoya "Like" Us Offer  madness!  Well, they've surpassed their goal and now will have to come good on the actual offer: 3 FREE Zoyas for the cost of shipping.  I learned today that it actually costs $6.95 may still cost about $3.50 for 3 bottles; that's a pretty good deal!

So to help you all decide I'm posting swatches of my Zoyas, 10 to be exact!  And, believe me you, I've been checking all of your Zoya pics out to help me decide which ones I should get.  So many colors and so little time to decide.  Well, here goes it:

Anthea

Cheri

Demi

Faith

Isla

Ki

Ki (bottle pic flash)

Nova

Perrie

Roxy

Adina

Well, now it's for you to decide!  All of these were taken in my "light box" except for the the bottle pic of Ki (isn't she beautiful?).  I find that the light box pics give a soft, pretty daytime lighting effect.  I will have a post on what I use for my light box in the near future.

The 3 Zoya's I am thinking of adding to my collection will more than likely be from this list:

Yasmeen, Lael, Kotori, Mimi, Zara, Indigo and Akyra.  

Which ones do you recommend?  I'm open to suggestions and if you have a link of the pic, by all means, go ahead and add it!  Talk to you well-polished lacquer connoisseurs later!

COMPS: Bruised Beauties - Orly Galaxy Girl Q&D's

Over the past week I've collected a few "Bruised Beauties", all of which, were inspired by Orly Galaxy Girl,  however, the first of the bunch was purchased months ago - Misa Embroidered Emerald. Recently, alizarine claws requested a comp so here goes it.  Below, I have "quick & dirty" comparison pics for your perusal:

           Orly Galaxy Girl (index), Misa Embroidered Emerald (middle),           Zoya Ki (ring) , and Borghese Stellare Notte (pinky)

                          L-R: Zoya Ki, Borghese Stellare Notte,                                                 Misa Embroidered Emerald and Orly Galaxy Girl

          

My favorite has got to be the Orly Galaxy Girl, and coming in quick second is the Misa Embroidered Emerald, third would be Borghese Stellare Notte with Zoya Ki coming in fourth place - all are beautiful.  Though these are in the same color family they are different and if you're a lover of "bruised beauties" then you should own all of these.  

I do not own the namesake of this post, you guessed it, Urban Decay Bruised, which is identical to Misa Embroidered Emerald per this comparison by j e l l y n a t.  So if you own Bruised you do not need Embroidered Emerald .  Here is another comp of Bruised and Galaxy girl by AllYouDesire (beautiful pics, yes?).  

As you can see GG has the beautiful glass flecks, whereas, Bruise/Embroidered Emerald has a beautiful micro-shimmer - they are different. Oh, and as we know, if you own Orly Galaxy Girl you definitely don't need to plop down $13 buck-a-roos for MAC Formidable! as temptalia.com describes in this recent article.

Hopefully you enjoyed this post as much as I had making it!  Take care and have a well-polished tomorrow...

Zoya - Isla (09/08/2010)

I decided to let my husband pick my mani for our cousin's memorial service today by painting all 10 nails a different color - he chose Zoya Isla.  

This was my first choice, as well, so I was relieved.  He was only 40 years old and died of a heart attack.  Life is so very fragile and because of that I try to remember to cherish every moment and use my time wisely.

Isla is very pretty but was difficult to photograph without it looking extremely frosty (I am not a lover of the frost).  So here's my attempt at capturing the beauty of this beauty. 

This is one coat of my base coat (SH Hard as Wraps),  two coats of Isla and on coat of my current favorite base coat (SH Mega Shine). 

Have a great and well-polished "hump-day"!