I Feel Polished!: December 2012

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Present Nails

These nails are sort of holiday related, but still too cute not to share! I saw a lot of present themed nails on Pinterest but I am so over red and green manicures! (Anyone else? No? Just me? Hahaha!) So, I decided to use Zoya Suri and OPI Your Royal Shine-ness for this regal-colored mani! Suri is a gorgeous, deep shimmery purple and YRS is an awesome silver. Both of these polishes are one coaters! AWESOME! :)

I started by polishing my accent nail with Suri and the rest of my nails with YRS. Then, I placed striping tape on my nail, one piece vertical and one piece horizontal. Then, I polished over the tape with YRS on my accent nail and Suri on the other nails. Once that was dry, I drew on little bows with an orange stick and then I placed a complementary rhinestone on each nail. These turned out really cute and I love the color combination! Enjoy! :)

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Indie Spotlight: Kismet's Pajamas

is an indie brand I've been dying to try. I recently purchased Kismet's Pajamas from a polish selling group, so I finally own my first Whimsical! I love everything about Pam's polishes, from the bottle to the label to the cute little bow to the polish itself! Pam really knows what she's doing and how to make a product that people will love and want to have!

Kismet's Pajamas is a black jelly base with larger and small silver and purple glitter. There are also some very small silver glitters in the polish. This beauty is opaque by itself in two coats and has a ridiculously smooth application. However, I used three for good measure. :) This is one gorgeous polish and I can't wait to own more Whimsical Ideas by Pam! Pam's polishes can only be purchased by emailing her, so visit her Facebook page for more info! I already have four of her polishes on my "need" list and several others on my "want" list. Hahaha! Enjoy! :)

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Santa Hats

Happy Christmas to all of you who are celebrating today! I hope you are staying warm and enjoying time with family and friends today! I wanted a fun mani to wear today, so I settled on these cute little Santa and elf hat nails.

I started out with two coats of Zoya Pasha. It's a really pretty neutral brown metallic with a really subtle silver shimmer to it. It even leaned a little purplish in certain lighting. I used Zoya Sooki, Purity, and Ivanka and Color Club Disco Nap for the detailing. I carefully drew the Santa hats on with Sooki using an orange stick. Ivanka was used for the elf hat. I then used Sooki for the bottom of the elf hat and Purity and a dotting tool for the Santa hats. Finally, I finished the elf hat off with Disco Nap and a dotting tool. All in all, this was really easy, which was good because I was in a hurry! Have a wonderful day and enjoy! :)

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Christmas Tree Nails

I saw these cute nails by Nailside on Pinterest and I knew I had to give them a shot. They are abstract and awesome and turned out to be incredibly adorable! I started with two coats of Zoya Logan on all of my nails except for my accent nail. For the accent nail I used Hits Ares. Once my nails were dry, I used striping tape to tape off the triangular part of the tree. I then used the tape to criss-cross the triangle and then I polished Zoya Ziv over the triangular area. If you use tape for your nails, make sure you always take it off immediately after you're done polishing over it! Once the tape was off, I polished on a top coat and placed a little rhinestone star on the top of each tree. These were pretty easy and received a lot of compliments! Enjoy! :)

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Indie Spotlight: Christmahanakwanzika

The Indie Spotlight today is a fun and festive polish from . Christmahanakwanzika is a clear base chock full of glitter representing Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa. There are black, blue, green, red, and gold glitters in this polish! I love this polish because it's so beautiful and multifaceted! So many lovely glitters packed together into one polish! LOVE IT! This baby applied so nice and perfectly! I applied two coats over Zoya Purity. If you haven't visited Different Dimension's -->Etsy shop -->, you should definitely check it out! Enjoy! :)

*This polish was sent for review. All opinions are my own, as always!

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Remembering Newtown

I've spent the last several days thinking about the heartbreaking tragedy in Newtown, CT. Nail bloggers united to polish their nails white in remembrance over the weekend. As a teacher, I especially had a lot to consider and I could barely form words when anyone wanted to talk about what had happened. The last thing on my mind was polishing my nails. Now that I've had time to process what has happened and discuss school safety at length with my students, I was finally able to polish my nails white in honor of everyone in Newtown. I will have them in my thoughts and heart for a long time to come. What happened there has forever changed what it means to be a teacher. The bravery that came out of such an extremely horrible situation inspires me and I hope I can honor each and every person affected by this tragedy on a daily basis as I teach my own students.

I used Girly Bits January Morning and China Glaze Luxe and Lush over Zoya Purity. The accent nail has a Zoya Blaze apple, China Glaze Mahagony Magic stem, Zoya Logan leaf, and Zoya Raven numbers.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

GRADUATION!

Today is a HUGE day for me! I AM GRADUATING! YAY! :) Today is the culmination of a year of hard work. I began a two year graduate program a year ago and worked my butt off to finish the program early. So I now officially hold a Master's Degree! I'm pretty excited and I can't believe it's officially done and over with. It doesn't seem real yet. I feel really lucky to be surrounded by loved ones as I celebrate this milestone in my life and I obviously needed an awesome manicure to accompany the occasion!

I used Zoya Logan, Zoya Ziv, a decal from RLR Creations, and a make-up sponge to pay homage to my now Alma Mater. Here's what I'm wearing today as I walk across the stage! Enjoy! :)

P.S. Have you entered my giveaway yet?

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Indie Spotlight: Peppermint Kiss

I rarely win anything. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I have won something. However, a few weeks ago I won an amazing giveaway by one of my most favorite indie makers! Sonnetarium had just launched their new website and did a giveaway for three mini polishes and I WON! I couldn't believe it! I've loved Sonnetarium for a long time so this was the perfect giveaway for me to win! I own several of her polishes and I had already added many of her new polishes to my wishlist. I chose three polishes from her winter collection and this is the first one I have used.

This polish is called Peppermint Kiss, which is a light pink cream jelly (crelly) base with white, green, and red hex glitter of varying sizes. I polished two coats of Peppermint Kiss over two coats of Zoya Purity. It gave me a little trouble at first but turned out beautifully in the end! After I was done, I decided to mattify it, which made it look really cool! If you haven't tried Michelle's polishes yet, I highly recommend them! They are beautiful polishes made by a genuinely awesome woman! Enjoy! :)

P.S. Speaking of winning giveaways...be sure to enter my giveaway and the giveaway that I'm part of! :)

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Giveaway: Just Because!

Happy 12/12/12! I have A LOT to celebrate lately...800+ Facebook followers, 15,000+ blog views, 335+ blog subscribers, the winter holidays are fast approaching, and the list goes on! SO, I decided that a mini giveaway was in order! This is just a little thank you giveaway for being so awesome and supporting me and my addiction to nail polish and nail art! :)

The giveaway will be open until Wednesday, December 19th at 12:00am, so it basically closes Tuesday evening. I will announce the winners when I get home from work on the 19th. At this time, the giveaway will only be open to those living in the contiguous United States. I will contact you via email if you win and you will have 48 hours to respond before forfeiting your prize. I will try to accomodate prize requests if you leave your name with them, but seeing as there are only two prizes, you may not get your first choice. :)

If you have any further questions regarding the giveaway, be sure to read the Terms and Conditions at the bottom of the Rafflecopter widget. If your question isn't answered there, email me at and I'll get back to you as soon as possible! Be sure to leave your name if you post a comment under "Anonymous" or if you and your blog do not share the same name. This makes verifying comments a million times easier for me! I will verify each winner, so be sure to complete each item in the widget before submitting it! Thank you! Enjoy! :)

THE PRIZES:

Prize 1: Julep Petra and a pot of white glitter

*Petra is described as a cranberry magenta with silver shimmer

Prize 2: Julep Isla and a pot of red glitter

*Isla is described as a soft, milky-white metallic

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Feather Nails

I've been wanting to try feather nails for awhile. I purchased the feathers in October so I could use them for a holiday mani in December! I finally did them and I think they turned out pretty neat looking. I was worried that the feather would be really hard to work with or lay flat, but it was easy and didn't give me any problems at all!

I started with two coats of Zoya Isla on every nail except for my accent, which had two coats of Zoya Purity. Let me just tell you that Isla is absolutely gorgeous! It's a deep shimmery red with a very dark shift to it in certain lights. This is going to be on my toes very soon! :) After Purity was dry, I polished on a clear coat and set the feather on it. The clear coat kind of just sucks the feather down onto it. I used an orange stick to press down the sides until the polish had dried enough to hold them down. I finished the whole thing off with a coat of top coat. I loved the idea of the feather covering my whole nail, which is what I did on my left hand. However, I did the tip of the feather on my right hand and the husband liked that one better, so I took a photograph of that one as well to show you two different ways to use a feather.

I loved the look of this and the fact that it was so easy means that I will definitely do another feather mani in the future! Enjoy! :)

P.S. Don't forget to enter the giveaway that I'm taking part in! Also, a little birdie told me that a mini giveaway MIGHT be live here tomorrow! :)

And now, the rarely seen right hand! :)

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Holiday Laser Dotticure

And the holiday nails continue! But first, go enter the giveaway I am part of! :)

This could be a Christmas or Kwanzaa manicure since it uses colors that are common to both holidays. I have to say, these nails turned out different than I had imagined them. I still like them, they just didn't turn out how I expected them to! For this mani, I began with one coat of Zoya Purity with one coat of Zoya Ginessa over it. Ginessa seems like the perfect sparkly snow color:

After Ginessa was dry, I used a larger dotting tool to create various dots all over my nail using Zoya Blaze and Zoya Logan. These are both from the Ornate Collection and they are beyond gorgeous:

When my dots were totally dry, I randomly placed striping tape all over my nails. I then used Zoya Storm, another ridiculously beautiful Ornate polish, over the top of the tape. Remember, when working with striping tape, polish one nail at a time and then immediately remove the tape before polishing the next nail. I always use tweezers to remove the tape because that makes it super easy and precise! Anyways, I ended up with a laser dotticure hybrid that got a lot of compliments! Enjoy! :)

And be sure to enter the giveaway that I am involved in!

*Zoya Blaze, Logan, and Storm were sent for review. As always, all opinions are my own.

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