I Feel Polished!: June 2013

Saturday, June 29, 2013

4th of July Nails

Shall we begin the 4th of July nail art? :) 4th of July is my favorite holiday! I just love fireworks and spending time with my family! The small town where I grew up always has a fireworks show on the lake and I rarely miss it! So, I've been conjuring up ideas for some time now so hopefully you'll like them! This first set of nails is pretty easy!

I began with two coats of Zoya America, which is aptly named! :) I added one coat of Zoya Electra to my accent nail, which is a clear base with tons of holographic bar glitter. I love how the colors flash and remind me of fireworks! Unfortunately, this polish hasn't been available in months on Zoya's website, but it should be easier to find on Amazon, eBay, or swap sites. I then used a thin nail art brush to polish on Zoya Song is a triangular fashion at the bottom of each nail. I finished these nails off with some Zoya Purity dots on the edges of the triangle! Enjoy! :)

P.S. If you'd like to see how far I've come as a blogger, please check out my 4th of July nails from this date last year! I was just so cute, hahaha!

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Indie Spotlight: ellagee Thermals

ellagee has a new Cocktail Hour Collection and many of the polishes are thermals! Yes, it IS ok to squeal with delight at the thought of thermal nail polish! A thermal polish changes color with temperature! These are the first thermals I've ever owned and they are so much fun! I found that my nails were usually in a state of gradient (warm nail bed, cold tip) but significant temperature changes, like washing my hands with warm water or the air conditioning in the car, changed the color quickly! I purchased Blue Hawaiian and Shirley Temple on my own and Laura was kind enough to include Purple Punch for me as well! Ok, ok, I know you want to get to the pictures. WARNING: There are a LOT of pictures! :) Enjoy! :)

First up is Blue Hawaiian! This polish is chock full of shimmer, which I love! Blue Hawaiian is very light blue when warm and a brighter blue when cold. This is two coats of Blue Hawaiian over one coat of white polish.

Cold:

Warm nail bed, cold tip:

Cold nail bed, warm tip:

Macro:

Purple Punch was so hard to capture because the color shift is very subtle. This one is also shimmery! It leans blue when warm and purple when cold. This is two coats of Purple Punch over one coat of white polish.

Cold:

Cold nail bed, warm tip:

Warm nail bed, cold tip:

Macro:

And finally, my favorite, Shirley Temple! I received a lot of compliments on this one! I was at a training for work and the first half of the training was in a colder building while the second half was in a warmer one. The trainer asked me if I had changed my polish between sessions when we were working together at the second building! HA! Anyways, Shirley Temple has shimmer AND glitter in it! Hexagonal and circle glitter, to be precise! CIRCLE! Ah, I just love circle glitter! :) This polish is a very light pink when warm and magenta when cold! I LOVE IT! I polished two coats over one coat of white polish.

Cold:

Warm:

Warm nail bed, cold tips:

Cold nail bed, warm tips:

Macros:

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Striping Tape Nail Art

I have some super easy nail art for you guys today! If I haven't convinced you that you NEED striping tape yet, let me tell you again why you need it: it makes nail art ridiculously easy! It's super (30 rolls for $3.24 AND free shipping!) and can be used as I usually do (stick it down, polish over it, pull it off), or you can also stick it down, cover it with top coat, and leave it! It makes nail art simple, even for people who are new to it! It's also versatile and can be used in a multitude of ways!

Anyways, for these nails, I began with two coats of Zoya Micky. She's probably my favorite summery pink right now! She just looks so juicy to me! :) Then, I just randomly placed three pieces of striping tape on each nail in a stair-like manner. I polished Zoya Zuza over Micky, pulled off the striping tape, and that was it! Super easy and really cute! Enjoy! :)

Monday, June 24, 2013

Indie Spotlight: Gulf Stream Dream

I have a gorgeous indie for you today that the wonderful Jody of Soflajo sent me! Soflajo makes unique polishes that have always been incredibly smooth and easy to work with. Jody's Floridian inspiration for her collections is something I love also because I too have quite a connection with Florida! :)

This beauty, Gulf Stream Dream, is part of Soflajo's Wet Dreams Collection. Gulf Stream Dream is a deep ocean blue with a lot of holographic glitter! This polish is absolutely gorgeous and has so much depth. It reminds me of when I'm out on a boat and look down into the water while the sun is shining down. This polish is perfectly named. I used two coats of Gulf Stream Dream and one coat of top coat! It was easy to apply, opaque, sparkly, and insanely awesome! It was a little bumpy before top coat, but that smoothed it right out! I love it! Enjoy! :)

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Native American Inspired Nails

I wasn't sure what to call these nails, but they kind of remind me of turquoise and coral jewelry, so I guess we can say that they are Native American inspired?

Anyway, I began with two coats of Square Hue Lincoln Road.

I then polished one coat of Models Own Indian Ocean on top. I am honestly convinced that Indian Ocean is one of the best polishes ever. It transforms any cream polish into something simply amazing. Seriously:

Gorgeous, right? I then played around with striping tape and found a design I liked. Then, I polished Ocean Drive over the tape on every nail except for my accent nail. I used Collins Avenue on that accent. Finally, I added some complementary dots with my dotting tool! Enjoy! :)

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Indie Spotlight: Lucy in the Sky

Oh ellagee, how I love thee! I cannot get enough of Laura's polish! Smooth application, awesome colors, fresh ideas, ahhhhhhhh! Laura sent me Lucy in the Sky to review and I must say, this must be one of the most gorgeous holographic top coats ever made. Most indie makers would just throw some Spectraflair into a clear base and call it a day. But not only does Laura have the ultrafine holographic shimmer, she added some tiny holographic glitters to it as well to take it up a notch.

I paired Lucy in the Sky with Zoya Rocky to create a match made it heaven! I didn't want to take this beautiful combination off of my nails! I used two coats of Rocky and one thin coat of Lucy in the Sky. Lucy went on flawlessly which is exactly what I've come to expect from Laura's polishes. The first two photographs are normal lighting and the rest are with an LED light to show what Lucy would look like in the sun! Enjoy! :)

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Bubble Nail Art

I did a version of these on a friend of mine a few weeks ago and I loved them so much that I decided to recreate them myself! These bubble nails are really easy to do with the polish of your choice and some dotting tools!

I began with two coats of Zoya Bobbi on all of my nails except for my accent nail, which is two coats of Zoya Hazel. I then used Zoya Purity and my largest dotting tool to create a scalloped french tip. I also dotted two to three large dots above the tip. I used a smaller dotting tool to add some smaller dots around the larger ones above the scalloped tip. Then, using the base color, I dotted inside of all of the white dots except for the tip. Enjoy! :)

Monday, June 17, 2013

KBShimmer Summer Collection

Welcome to my first Monday post! I've been having so much fun with indie polish lately that I've decided to increase my indie posts to twice a week! Hope that's ok with all of you! <3 Today I have three polishes from the Summer Collection. KBShimmer has a fantastic reputation and I have loved every single polish I've ever used by them. They are smooth and easy to apply. They dry normally and they always, always look absolutely beautiful! These new polishes from the summer collection aligned perfectly with my previous experience with KBShimmer.

The three polishes I received to review were Blinded by the Bright, Grayscale, and It's Razz-ical. I immediately loved all three as soon as I took them out of the package! They are everything I could ever want in a summer collection: neon, holographic, and glittery! YAY!

I've been obsessed with neon for a few weeks now, so I began with Blinded by the Bright. This bright, neon yellow polish has a rainbow of glitter in it and it didn't even need white undies like most neon yellows do! This is three coats alone:

Grayscale is THE BEST black and white glitter top coat EVER. Why? Because it also has grey glitter in it! GREY! AHHHHH, I just love it! This baby has white, black, and grey glitter in all shapes and sizes: hex, rectangle, circle, and square. One coat is all you need! I chose to use Square Hue Ocean Drive as the base for this gorgeous glitter top coat.

Finally, I have It's Razz-ical. What can I say, this beautiful polish is pretty much the epitome of everything I love in a polish. Pink? Check. Glitter? Check. Holographic elements? Check. LOVE. This raspberry hued crelly polish is chock full of magenta, silver, and pink glitter. All of the glitters are holographic and absolutely sparkle like crazy! I took pictures normally and with an LED light to show how sparkly this beauty is in the Sun! This is two coats of It's Razz-ical all by itself! Enjoy! :)

Pages