Zoya Beatrix

Hello again! Here I am taking another study break...my first final is tomorrow, so I've been napping studying a lot. Today I'm showing you Zoya Beatrix, a tangerine that's perfect for the 80º weather we're having in St. Louis right now. I don't like the color of Beatrix quite as well as Destiny just because it's not as vibrant, but it's a very pretty orange and I will definitely be wearing it again this summer. This was two coats.

I'm really loving these summer PixieDust polishes! They've really been a pleasant surprise for me, since I didn't think I'd like the whole "textured" trend that much.

Red Gradient

Hey there! Today's my first post as a 20-year-old, and I decided that my birthday present to myself was going to be no homework or studying (except for the final edit of my paper this morning), so I've been watching Whose Line is it Anyway and painting my nails all day. :) The manicure I took off today was the one I'm showing you now - I made a red sponged gradient using Borghese Sonata Berry, Rimmel Rapid Red, and OPI Red My Fortune Cookie. I wasn't sure how well it would turn out, but I really liked the results.

I always forget how much I like dark red polish until I put it on...it somehow has the effect of immediately making me feel classier. Borghese Sonata Berry is the perfect dark red because it's dark, but not so dark that it looks black. With the other two reds added, I think it makes the perfect gradient! 

Zoya Destiny

Can we spend a moment admiring how gorgeous Zoya Destiny is?

 Yeahhhh...look at that beauty. Unfortunately it was cloudy the day I wore this AND the lamp I use with my lightbox broke, so cloudy pics it was - but Destiny looks just as pretty nonetheless! I used two coats here, and application was super easy. I haven't tried all the other summer PixieDust polishes, but this one is shaping up to be my favorite. So pretty!

Yep. There it is. And these pictures don't do Destiny justice at all (and neither does the name Destiny...cheesy, Zoya, cheesy).

P.S. This will likely be my very last blog post as a teenager, since my 20th birthday is on Monday! Hm, I might have to do a birthday giveaway...if I can find time to think of something in the midst of finals and paper-writing, that is.

Zoya Godiva

So, it's been almost a month since I last posted - and guess what I've been doing since then? As I'm sure will shock you all, schoolwork. You may notice a pattern in my posts that come after a month-long absence, which is that I'm not any less busy, I've just reached the point where I have to blog because I can't stand not doing it any more. That is once again the case today, partly because I have an 8-10 page paper due tomorrow that I don't want to write. Instead, I'm writing this post about Zoya Godiva, a polish I tried out about a month ago (bottle shot to the left). It wasn't one I thought I'd like, but as it turns out, Godiva is classy and has an understated beauty that I very much like.

indoors, artificial light

sunlight

This was two or three coats without top coat - I can't quite remember because it was a month ago, but I think it was three because that's what I've use on all the other PixieDust polishes I've tried since then. Application was actually quite easy, to my surprise, and my only problem was getting the glitter to be smoother at the edge of the nail so I wouldn't scratch myself. Overall, I really enjoyed this polish and I don't think the pictures do it justice at all, so I'd encourage you to try it out if you're curious. Have a great day!

Butter London Henley Regatta

Hello! I don't know how many of you live in the Midwest, but we're getting quite the spring blizzard right now in St. Louis. It's been snowing furiously all day, and we're supposed to get 8-10 inches. (I wrote that yesterday. We did get 8-10 inches. Or more.) I have to say, I'm beginning to get a little confused about what month it is! Anyway, today I tried my first Butter London polish, Henley Regatta. I decided to do an accent manicure, so I chose Zoya Kelly, one of my favorite grays. I used two coats of Kelly and four coats of Henley Regatta (it really only needed three, but I added an extra just because). The first picture is in my light box with artificial light, and the second is in my light box with natural light.

The thing I really love about this polish is that it's not *just* teal glitter - it's teal glitter and blue glitter and green glitter, all thrown into one bottle. This gives it a lovely dimension that makes it stand out to me, and I'd definitely encourage you to click on the pictures to enlarge them so you can see all the gorgeousness up close and personal. I'm certainly glad to have picked this one up as one of my two first Butter London polishes, and I can't wait to try it with other polishes - layered, perhaps? Until next time!

Sequined Savita

It's finally the weekend! Between getting my midterm grades back and the massive amount of homework I had this week, I'm definitely glad it's Saturday...mostly so I can catch up on my schoolwork. Exciting, right? More exciting is the addition I made to Zoya Savita after wearing it by itself. Born Pretty Store was kind enough to send me some items to review recently, and I decided to try the loose glitter sequins with Savita. I used a dotting tool to place them on my thumb and ring finger after adding Wet 'n' Wild Clear to make the nails tacky, and added Cult Nails Wicked Dry on top.

I absolutely love Savita with top coat! I don't think you can go wrong with a good, rich, glowing purple, and I like that it doesn't look weird on my nubbins like some shimmers do. The sequins took a while to place, but I definitely think it was worth it. They laid down nice and flat, so I didn't have to use tons of top coat, which is always nice. I've seen lots of sequin manicures that I really like, so I can't wait to try some more now that I have sequins of my own! You can purchase these here, and if you use my coupon code, ZR5X31, you can get 10% off (I don't get anything if you use the code). Enjoy!

The glitter sequins were provided to me by Born Pretty Store for unbiased review. I was not compensated for the post.

How to Keep Up with Never Unpolished

Happy Friday! I thought I'd do a quick post on ways you can keep up with Never Unpolished after the demise of Google Reader and Google Friend Connect (GFC), both of which will happen this summer. I have to confess I'm not too terribly sorry to see GFC go, as I never thought it was a particularly convenient way for me to read blogs. However, I was initially quite upset to hear that Google Reader would be discontinued - but don't worry, there are lots of other options for following your favorite blogs!

Facebook

Bloglovin

Google+

Twitter: This is my blog Twitter and my personal Twitter, and while I tweet all my blog posts, I also tweet lots of other stuff. So if you don't want to see that...I warned you. ;)

Pinterest: I have a board on Pinterest for just my blog (which is what I linked to), and I also have a couple boards for others' manicures and nail art.

RSS

If you'd like a recommendation for a service to import your Google Reader feeds into, I've switched over to Feedly after trying out a few different services, and I love it.

Zoya Savita

Hello again! I wasn't planning on having time to blog today, but I had one of those pleasant days where you think you're going to be super busy and it's actually not that bad, so here I am. I absolutely love the Zoya Matte Velvet winter collection from 2009 - it's one of my favorite Zoya collections despite the fact that there are only three of them, simply because they're all so fantastic. I love the rich colors, I love the satin effect that you get with a matte shimmer, I love how they glow with or without top coat, I love that they're opaque in two coats...the only thing I don't love is the fact that they chip like crazy if you don't wear top coat, but I suppose the upside to this is that since they're matte and dry quickly, touch-ups are easy to do.

Man. Just look at that gorgeousness. If you have Savita (or Harlow or Veruschka), cherish it, because Zoya doesn't sell it any more. If you don't, find a friend who does and borrow it immediately, even if you don't like mattes - it looks great with top coat on, which I'll be showing you next time along with a little bedazzling (a.k.a. glitter). In the meantime, have a great day!

Not a St. Paddy's Day Manicure

I actually had a St. Patrick's Day mani all planned out. I planned it last night, in fact. And then I went ahead and painted my nails pink and glittery, because I forgot that today was St. Patrick's Day. Whoops. I'm just going to blame it on spring break, because when I'm not at university, I have no idea what day of the week or date it is. Anyway, I really like this manicure and didn't want to take it off after less than 12 hours of wear, so here we are! Maybe this is for St. Patty's Day instead of St. Paddy's Day? (Hint: If you didn't know, Patty is a girl's name in Ireland.)

I got both of these lovelies Friday at Ulta - the base is three coats of OPI Don't Burst My Bubble from the Oz collection, a sheer pale pink I got to replace Catch My Garter, which was my go-to pale pink until I ran out of it about a month ago (I used it for frankening as well as painting my nails). The glitter, as I'm sure you recognize if you read other nail blogs, is OPI Lights of Emerald City, also from the Oz collection.

I'm a bit puzzled as why OPI chose to use Oz for their SoftShades collection instead of doing it as a standalone thing, because I would imagine an Oz nail polish collection to have a lot of bright colors and colorful glitters. However, I do love these polishes, particularly Lights of Emerald City. I definitely agree with Chalkboard Nails that it has quite the indie vibe to it, particularly with the square glitter. I'm hoping that as indie polishes become more popular, mainstream polish companies will take the hint that we want more exciting polishes! Of course, indie companies will always be a little more daring, which I love, but it'd be nice to see more fresh ideas in the mainstream polish scene.

P.S. 450 posts! Woo! If you're still here, thanks for sticking around despite my now-permanent super-nubbins (I have endocrine problems that caused my nails to get very weak and my hair to get a lot thinner over the past couple years).

Zoya PixieDust: Chyna

Happy Saturday! My mom's coming up to visit today, and while I should have spent this morning working on my literature review and EMTALA presentation for Monday, I painted my nails and watched YouTube instead. Story of my life. Anyway, I have to admit something - I went about a week this week without painting my nails...and it wasn't horrible. I think I'm getting to the point where I don't feel like I *need* to have my nails painted all the time, though I still feel more polished when I have a nice mani on. Anyway, it was still definitely time to paint my nails, and since my samples of Zoya PixieDust arrived yesterday, I thought I'd try one out. I picked Chyna just because it looked so freaking gorgeous in the bottle - I just can't resist a glittery red. I used two coats, and two coats of top coat (Cult Nails Wicked Fast) in the second two pictures. All of these were taken in my lightbox.

While I was really feeling iffy about the PixieDust polishes from looking at the press release and promo stuff, I actually really liked Chyna. The textured effect was not as obvious (or as weird or gross) as I thought it might be, and turned out to be quite the cool effect. I'm now very much looking forward to trying the rest of the collection.

And now, I have a little questionnaire posted by the lovely Elizabeth of Life and Polish! I haven't done anything like this in quite a while, so I thought it would be fun.

1. How many foundations do you own?
None, actually! I do, however, love Pixi Illuminating Tint & Conceal, which is a wonderful tinted moisturizer I use sometimes.

2. How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?
Well, it depends on whether or not you count the amount of time I spend convincing myself to actually get out of bed...but usually 30 to 45 minutes including shower and breakfast.

3. Do you have a go-to makeup look?
If mascara is a go-to look, yes. I also go with mascara and lip stain quite a lot.

4. What about nails, a go-to nail polish look?
Not really, actually. Just whatever happens to catch my fancy.

5. How often do you try new skin care products?
Not very often. When I find something I really like, I tend to stick with it for as long as I can. I do like to experiment, though.

6. Steak, chicken or fish?
Since it's Lent right now and I gave up red and white meat and popcorn, I have to say fish. :)

7. What is your favorite lip balm?
Burt's Bees Beeswax Lip Balm with Peppermint! I literally never use anything else. It's my number one "beauty" staple (I'm going to argue it's a beauty staple because, you know, chapped lips ≠ pretty).

8. When did you start wearing makeup consistently?
Actually only in the past year or so. I've really made an effort recently to always wear at least mascara, because I feel like mascara alone makes so much difference in both my appearance and how put-together and confident I feel.

9. Do you find you look older or younger with makeup on?
Definitely a bit older.

10. How many lipsticks do you own?
Only one that I actually use, which is Maybelline Red Revival, a classic bold red. I also have two lip stains, Pixi Lip Blush in Love (which they no longer make! sad) and Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain. While I absolutely love the products I have, I also want to expand my collection of lipsticks and lip stains. I don't really have any paler pink shades, so I'd like to work on that.

11. What beauty product do you wish was still made?
Ohmygoodness Pixi Lip Blush. It is my absolute favorite thing ever (okay, maybe that's a bit of an overstatement), and Love is one of those shades that looks good on everyone. I really wish I'd had the chance to get the other shades before the discontinued it. Pixi still makes lip stains, but they're not the same product or the same colors. I haz a sad.

Feel free to do this survey if you like, and have a great weekend!

This product was provided to me for review.