The Goldeneye of the storm...

007


For the last few months or so I've been really unimpressed with the new collections.  The holiday collections are very same-y to me and even the things which are upcoming aren't really catching my eye. I skipped OPI's Germany Collection, only snagged one from the China Glaze Safari Collection and wasn't really interested much in the new OPI Skyfall line for the new James Bond film. Still I decided to make a store run and check it out in person, just 'cause, you never know.  I ended up buying four of these.  I got this golden fleck one called Goldeneye, the dark green shimmer you see in the picture called Live and Let Die, and two others: You Only Live Twice and The World is Not Enough.  I'm going to probably be swatching them all here over the next few days but for now, here's a little teaser.  One thing I love about the colors I got is that they make really amazing suedes.  Once I matted this green there was no going back. It's just stunning.  I really love this gold too because it's shimmery, sparkly, and looks really rich on my nails. I used butter LONDON's matte topcoat on this and it did a very nice job.  My go-to matte, Essie, is cheaper so I doubt I'll switch but I do love that the Butter London comes in a bigger bottle and has a longer brush.  Did you get any Bond colors?

Gilty as gold...

18K gold


Did anyone order the new Zoya Gilty box?   I pre-ordered mine awhile back and it came almost two weeks ago.  I was kind of disappointed in the box...I thought for some reason it would be heavier and less cheap looking BUT let's face it...the box is going in the trash anyway!  I've been interested in the real gold topcoats for some time now and I JUST missed the last round of Rococo's gold leaf lacquer awhile back. :(  I've been lamenting my loss but I guess the polish gods heard me because now everyone is making them!  Sephora for  OPI put one out awhile ago called It's Real! Which I actually used on a mani here before.  The problem I had with it was the flakes were too small.  It was pretty, don't get me wrong but it just didn't pack the punch I wanted it to.  So I debated getting this Zoya or the OPI Man With the Golden Gun.  Both are essentially $30 but I got a sweet discount on this set and ended up paying basically half that for THREE polishes.  Do I need another white and black polish? Well...this is the nail art world so the answer to that is yes. I can always use basic colors!! I will say as well that these are exceptionally nice basic polishes.  A lot of whites are streaky and take hundreds of coats but Purity does not. Raven is a great one or two coater as well.  So onto the mani!!




LOVE.  The flakes in Gilty are a mix but mostly larger sized and there is a fine sheen that runs through the polish.  On my other hand I did an accent of the white but I didn't love it.  I think this is going to be better suited for darker polishes.  Another thing to mention is that since it's real gold and not a glitter, it doesn't really SPARKLE in the sun or bright light. It has a glossy shine off it but it's not super duper flashy.  I think this will be an awesome addition to holiday nail art for the upcoming season!!

Did you pick up a gold flake topcoat? Did you love it?

Ozotic 901

901


Is there anything better than nail mail?  I would normally disclose this subtly at the end of my post BUT I want to draw your attention to a wonderful website and seller.  The website is called Overall Beauty and they sell all kinds of great polishes, like the Ozotic I'm going to show you today.  I was given this polish to give an honest review on and when I opened the package I expected the one polish and perhaps a business card.  I found an extra polish, a few nail wheels, a business card AND a handwritten personal card. I literally was blown away.  It's such a sweet surprise.  And now onto the gloriousness of this Ozotic.


I flaked on a bottle shot. I suck, I know. I meant to go back and take one but I already have a TON of pics of this bad boy so here is a lovely stock photo.  This is Ozotic 901, Sugar.  These new Ozotics....well really MOST Ozotics in my opinion, are NOT meant to be worn on their own.  They have a really amazing ability to change before your eyes over other colors.  However, just to be thorough I went ahead and put two coats on my nail so you can see the pretty crystals.


As you can see it gives your nails a nice pink, shimmery effect but it's nothing exciting.  If you click the picture to blow it up you'll really be able to see the glass flecks in this and even though it's pretty tame looking right now it's absolutely STUNNING the way these shimmer.  The color feels very princess like when it's on it's own.  Now let me take you over to the dark side...muahahahaha....


Quite the transformation, no?  It's still has a pink effect although I think it leans almost purple over black.  This is ONE coat over Zoya Raven.  Because there are SO many gorgeous angles to this polish I have a few more pics for you to drool over...


and some close-ups...







There is a pretty strong duochrome effect on this polish. It leans mostly gold but you can catch flecks of blue through it as well.  Now for some extra fun because black is definitely not your only color option for these polishes!!


Here we have one coat of Sugar over Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream, Models Own Moody Grey, and Zoya Purity.  It's still giving off the pink/gold duochrome effect on the grey although it's less obvious than on the black.  The pink is nice but it looks more like a pink and purple shimmer which is a bit sickly girly to me!  And then we have the white.  It sort of looks pearly over the white.  It has a shimmery effect but just a hint of pink.  Here are some closer looks at these colors:

  

You can see in the close-up of the white that there are still colors in the polish.  There's a hint of purple and pink and a VERY slight tinge of the gold.  It's a very pretty effect but it's not super obvious.


Over the pink the blue flecks dissapear.  There is a gold tinge around the edge but mostly you have a pink glass fleck effect. Very pretty but again, pretty tame.

 

And finally, the grey.  This picture is a little fuzzy which I apologize for. Seems like the grey just didn't want to photograph well!  I actually really love the effect over the grey. The blue is back, the duo chrome is there and it's VERY noticeable.  The main difference between the grey and the black is the shade of the main effect here. On the black the effect is very deep pink. Almost purple or magenta.  Here it's more of a true pink although it still leans a bit purple.  Gorgeous.  

The formula on these is pretty standard for Ozotic. They're not super thick but they're not runny either. One coat is all you need for the effect to show but you can totally layer up if you want to!  They dry relatively quickly and they do dry shiny.  They are smooth to the touch as well but that's to be expected of a glass fleck. To me Ozotics are a GREAT investment for your collection because they are so versatile.  You only need one coat of them and they change your polishes into crazy gorgeous new colors!  Thanks for following along! Do you have any Ozotics?


These are my nails...

after acrylics


These are MY nails on Nail Envy.  Ok so I will start by saying that I have never been a big supporter of nail strengthening products.  There are two main reasons for this.  One: I have never had any real need of them.  My nails have always been strong and grow quickly without peeling unless I'm being really crazy with them (like the week I had three sets of student acrylics and a set of wraps put on and taken off them!!).  I would love to attribute this to my healthy, vegetarian lifestyle but...I probably just need to thank my wonderful parents for the good genes.  Two: they don't really work.  Now, I know some of you are thinking, but they make MY nails stronger.  Well...let me rephrase that for you.  They do work.  In a sense.  Do they add strength to your nails? Yes.  Do they prevent peels? They can.  But are they really STRENGTHENING your nails? No.  Nail strengtheners are a lot like split end "repair" creams in that they DO fix the problem but they don't really FIX the problem.  They work at the surface of your nail which is why if you want to keep seeing results, you need to keep applying them into forever.  I actually have a post planned which will discuss different strengtheners and why to use them or not to and how they work. That's not for today! Today I want to show you why I personally choose to abstain.  I got this bottle of Nail Envy by OPI for free and I have used it here and there when my nails have been wrecked. More so because I find that it feels soothing than anything else. But since I had two nubbin hands I decided, I may as well test out this theory!  I totally flaked on a pic of my nails before I started this routine but both were the same length and they were essentially just below the tips of my fingers.  I did exactly what the Nail Envy bottle said to do and applied two coats the first day and one every other for two weeks.  I didn't use any polish during that time on EITHER hand but left my other one completely free of polish or treatments.  I didn't see much change so I gave myself a mani at the end of the first two weeks and then started over.  This is four weeks of nail growth.  My middle finger broke early on so it's a bit shorter than the others but aside from that I had no serious problems. Now, you might be saying to yourself, those look pretty good, right? Well ladies and gentlemen...let me show you my OTHER hand:



This is pre-manicure so excuse my raging cuticles!  I did have one tragedy on this side as well and you can see it on the pinky. Looks like someone got hungry and took a bite! However, overall the growth is definitely better on this side than the other. Aside from the difference in growth I had another issue with the nail envy side...


Check out the tip there....hello peelies!  Yikes.  I don't think I'll use the Nail Envy again unless it's dire straights. One thing I would like to point out though is that using a nail strengthener on strong nails CAN make them brittle.  That wasn't the issue here but in the interest of full disclosure now you know.  I asked some of you on my Facebook how you felt about Nail Envy and there were mixed reviews.  Some of you mentioned Seche Rebuild, Nail Magic, Nail Tek and Rejuvacote.  I'll definitely be including some of those in my upcoming nail strengthener post!! 

Have any of you had better results with Nail Envy?

The New Black

bloobloo


Awhile back I was perusing the web for some nail inspiration and I came across a nail art design that The New Black had posted to be used with some of their new polish packs.  The premise is two nail colors and a nail art striper and they gave a series of designs for each combo.  This one is meant to be done with a pink/blue/black combo and since I have plenty of those things I decided to give it a go!  I used all Models Own colors for the design and it really didn't take me very long.  One thing I had to trial and error was the blue stripe.  At first I was polishing the whole nail blue and then going over it with the pink but then I decided that I liked it better when I did the pink as the base and just swiped blue across the bottom.  Obviously it's a bit trickier to keep a nice nail line around the cuticle BUT it keeps the whole thing from getting too thick!!  I used Utopia, Bloo Bloo and my trusty Nail Art Pen to create the look! Thanks for following!! Anyone have The New Black set used to create this?

One of these things is not like the other...

butterLONDON
 

This is a combination nail art and comparison post.  It's probably difficult to see the comparison part right now but I feel like when I point it out it will be very obvious.  Anyway sometime back I got a pretty epic Zoya haul.  I'll be honest and say I had never really been very into Zoya  prior to April of this year.  For starters there were no retailers for it around me and I don't prefer to purchase my polishes online since it's really difficult to see what you're getting.  And then I did pick up a few when my Ulta started carrying them but they were kind of meh shades and they seemed to dislike my Seche Vite and chip more than other polishes on me.  Several people suggested I get a different top coat to use over them and recommended that I invest in Zoya's own brand of top coat since it works best with their polish but let's face it.  I'm not a salon.  I'm not interested in branding and with nearly 1,000 polishes I need a top coat that works with anything so I'm not investing in brands for brands.  So what changed my mind?  Discounts.  I ended up with quite a lot of them for pretty cheap and I thought since I wasn't wearing my polish very long it probably wouldn't matter so much if they chipped a day later since I'd be changing up the art anyway.  I also got a lot of wrapping practice working in a salon so I started to do a much better job polishing and wrapping my tips and the Zoya/Seche combination actually ended up working quite fabulously in the end.  So anyway, back to my story....I snagged a BUNCH of these things...

 

Yep. Yep.  This one was in the bunch. It's Skylar and she is a beauty.  Really reminds me a bit of butterLONDON's Victoriana which remains one of my most favorite polishes of all time for it's wonderful ability to be fabulous both shiny and matte.  Skylar is no exception.  After I had it on for a day I decided to dress it up and since I had just gotten a Klout perk in the mail, what better to use than my brand new Essie Penny Talk?  Then I added Seche but I didn't love the shiny look so I covered that with Essie Matte About You.  And now is where the comparison comes in.  I know you probably didn't really notice it and since we mostly do our nails all at once I may never have.  While I was making that infamous matte/shiny decision I matted one nail, intending to cover it with Seche if I disliked it and Seche'd another nail to cover with the matte.  Well ladies and gentlemen...check out my ring finger in this pic vs my other fingers.  Here's a close up if you need more evidence...

 

Yep.  If you haven't picked out the difference yet look for the shine on the middle finger.  On the fingers I added Seche to before I added the Essie there is just a hint more shine than on the ones I straight matted.  They're still all nicely matte but the metallic still has some sheen to it on the Seche ones.  Interesting, no?  I've only done that once so I'd love to hear it if any of you have had similar experiences!!! Thanks for following!!




What's in your arsenal?

1/4 jaw

It's tool day!!  OK, that sounds a little silly, but today I'm going to give you a basic rundown of some tools I use and love.  Nail care is important, not just for those of us doing nail art or running blogs, but for everyone.  It will help you feel better, look better and be healthier.  Just like anything else though, having the right tools is essential to caring for your hands and nails.  What you see above is my 'tool' box.  I have a self lowering box which cleans my tools for me while they're not in use.  Do you need one? Probably not!  If you're just using your tools for yourself you can rinse them in water after use, dry them and store them.  If you're using them on other people you'll want to at the very least invest in some barbicide to properly clean them between clients.  My box has all my basic tools for nail care inside.  You can see from the top: nail clippers, a spoon pusher, two sizes of curette, flat and rounded edge toe nail clipper, and to the far right, my cuticle nippers.  These are your basic tools for care.   So how do you choose your tools and where do you get them?  Well here we go!! If you look back on my Did You Know... post about nail clippers there is PLENTY of info for choosing the right ones so we're going to focus today on cuticle pushers, curettes, and cuticle nippers.

We'll start with cuticle pushers:



Here we have a selection of pushers. These range from cheap (on the left) to expensive (on the right).  One, two, and three are you standard drugstore pusher/nipper combo.  Honestly, while you can snag these for $1 or less sometimes, they are useless.  The cuticle nipper end can work well for beginners who want to fully remove cuticle BUT it dulls quickly and will then simply tear the cuticle. Bad news.  Number four is a pusher I ended up snagging for free at Ulta. I think the regular cost is between $10 and $12.  It's not my favorite but it works well and is the one I generally use. It has a spoon on one end and a squared end which CAN be used for cuticles but shouldn't be. The one I've linked to has a UNC (under the nail cleaner) on the other end which is preferable.  Number five is a fancy OPI titanium pusher. I believe it's called a pusher plus and it costs around $26 at pro stores. I don't love it. The angle is great for some people but for me it's awkward to hold.  So why choose a spoon pusher over a flat, square or angled one?


The first picture here is a basic, flat spoon pusher. Notice the way it curves like your nail bed? The second picture is the OPI angled pusher.  It has more of a curve and therefore should work better (and does presumably!) however, you have to hold it differently.  It's a great investment if you want really great cuticle work but I feel that a standard spoon pusher when used properly will yield the same results so it's up to you if you want to learn to use the flat or the angled. To the far right we have a series of different cheap pushers. Notice that there is no curve to them? They just don't have the angle to give you great results. They are not going to last as long because they're plastic and they're not as easy to clean.  Remember when you're investing in these tools that stainless steel versions CAN last years so it's really a great time to splurge a little!

So what about a curette?


I have two curettes.  You only need one!!  The important thing here is the size of them.  You really want a smaller end on the curette because a larger end is not going to do any good.  I have one with larger ends which I bought before I knew about sizes.  Then I got a smaller one.  You can use the larger end to clean under the nail and also for toes.


See the difference? This is the smallest end on each of my curette's.  It really makes a big difference.  Again these can be costly.  I got both of mine at a professional shop for less than $10.  I recommend this one by Mehaz. Just be sure when searching online that you're looking at nail curette's and not dermatological ones or ear ones!!

So that just leaves us with nippers!! All my nippers pics came out blurry. :(  But I have three pair and the ones I love the most are my Mehaz 1/4 jaw.  They are not cheap. At pro stores they run about $35.  And on top of that nippers are really only good for about six months to a year. BUT it really makes a difference.  You may get longer use out of yours if you're using them less but since mine get used on clients regularly I'm not getting more than 6 months out of them!  You can grab cheaper ones almost anywhere.  Just be sure when you nip they cut cleanly and don't pull the skin. 

Here's a size comparison for you!



Thanks for following!!

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