These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Hello there readers! I've just returned from vacation. My nails had to be nubbin-ized due to spray sunscreen and sand damage. So in lieu of swatching (won't be doing that for at least another week or two) I thought I'd post about some of my favorite nail, cuticle, and pedicure products. I've been obsessed with nail care and color for nearly 5 years now, so I've definitely amassed a list of products that are must-haves for my mani-pedi tote.

1. Fast-Dry Top Coat: I alternate between three major players: Seche Vite, Poshe, and Out the Door. I love Poshe because it tends to play nicely with some brands (Zoya!) that do not play nicely with Seche Vite. Poshe dries very fast, but I don't find it quite as shiny as Seche. Out the Door is another one that seems to work well across the board, and it doesn't seem to thicken quite as quickly as Poshe or Seche Vite. Last, but not least, is Seche Vite. It was my gateway fast-dry topcoat. It is still the shiniest. It does have issues with thickening quickly, and sometimes I find bubbles unavoidable, but the shine is unbelievable. Seche Vite is NOT big-3-free.

2.Alpha Hydroxy Cuticle Cream: I use either Poshe Cuticle Care or CND Cuticle Eraser. I find them to be evely matched in effectiveness. With everyday use, I rarely find myself needing to use an actual cuticle remover. And I never, ever cut my cuticles!

3. Cuticle Balm: My hands-down favorite is Qtica Intense Cuticle Repair Balm. Super moisturizing, and I love the smell!

4. Cuticle Oil: Again, I have one hands-down favorite, BB Couture For Nails Cuticle Oil. It is a blend of super moisturizing oils and has an amazing fragrance.

5. Ridge Filling Base Coat: Most definitely Zoya Get Even!

6. Nail Strengthening Base Coat: Gelous. Actually my favorite base coat PERIOD. It makes my manicures wear like iron, and it is amazing as an additional layer over glitter to help prevent a bumpy finish.

7. Favorite nail color brand: Zoya. I love the bottle shape, I love the brushes (perfect for my tiny, short nails), and I love the amazing variety of colors. I only wish they'd make a collection of holo colors!

Thanks to all of you for reading! I hope this post encourages you to try some new products and maybe find something new to love!

The Winners Have Been Chosen!

Good afternoon everyone! The three winners of my Zoya giveaway have been selected and notified via email. Congratulations to Spider Girl, Laura, and Heather! I hope I have a chance to host other great giveaways in the future!

Here are a couple of quick shots of my current "nail of the day", Zoya Breezi topped with OPI Sparkle Teal Sunrise (an Ulta exclusive).



and super close up!



I wasn't able to truly capture how beautiful this combination is, I think the bling blinded my camera! In real life the base color is a tiny bit more green than it shows in the pics. As always, have a great day and I hope to "see" you soon!

Finally, a Giveaway!

It's good to be back to posting! I know you've seen these lovely Zoya summer colors many times in the past few months, but I'm going to share a few quick pics with you since I actually have complete sets of Summertime, Sunshine, and Touch to give away to three lucky readers!

First up is a quick photo I snapped while I had a brief few minutes of hazy sunshine this afternoon. Now the storms are rolling in! This is my current mani, Zoya Mira topped with Zoya Sparkle Gloss.



I absolutely loved how Mira applied. This mani is two coats, and any minor coverage problems were user error, not the polish itself. I'm also currently wearing Sooki on my toes, and I have to admit that I am in love. Any of you who have frequently read this blog know that I adore all things sparkly, glittery, and shimmery. I'm not usually big on creme finish polishes. Sooki, however, is an exception to that rule. It is a nearly perfect one coat color. A true, bright summer red. She isn't too orange or too blue leaning. And so shiny I probably could have skipped top coat, although I didn't.

Here is a quick color wheel shot of all the cremes in the Summertime collection in the following order: Sooki, Tamsen, Kieko, Areej, Mira, Breezi.



Application was excellent on all of these. Only Sooki was a "one coat wonder", but the others were beautiful, even, and opaque with two coats. I really like how all these shades are vibrant enough for summer, but at the same time they have a slightly "dusty" quality. This is a truly beautiful collection. Sooki, Mira, and Breezi are some of my favorite cremes of all time.

Unfortunately, not all polishes can be winners for every individual. While I love the Sunshine collection in theory (vibrant shades with sunshine-y sparkle, what's not to love!), the golden shimmer that is heavily present in all of these shades simply doesn't work well on my skin tone. That's not to say they are all beautiful, just not right for me. Here is a quick color wheel shot in the following order: Apple, Kimmy, Reva, Faye, Rica, Tanzy.



Most of the Sunshine colors are not completely opaque at two coats (Reva and Kimmy being the exceptions), but with a third they have pretty nice coverage. I could still spy a tiny bit of VNL (visible nail line) on Tanzy and Rica with three coats, but not enough to be really bothersome. No one else would ever notice unless you had them examine very closely.

And now, what you've all been waiting for! Details on the giveaway! Zoya has graciously provided me with one set each of Summertime, Sunshine, and Touch to share with three lucky readers. To enter, simply send me an email at hlemonds@gmail.com and tell me what name you would love to see given to a Zoya polish and what it would look like. Each entry will be assigned a number and I will draw the three winners using a random number generator. Each of the three winners will receive one of the above collections. All entries must be received by midnight eastern 7/11 (Monday morning). I will contact the winners directly for mailing information. Please do not include any mailing information in your entry.

Coming Soon!

Hello readers! I am happily returning to the world of blogging. I'm hoping to catch up on all of the new trends and colors that I've missed. I've had a lot of fun playing around with the new-to-me crackle/shatter glazes. My current mani is a gorgeous combination of an oldie-but-goodie (OPI Absolutely Alice) topped with one of the current hot trends (OPI Navy Shatter). My apologies for the less than stellar photo, I am very out of practice. I was also quickly trying to snap this yesterday evening with little sunlight and dying batteries, so take it for what it's worth!





I am also very pleased to announce that I will (very soon!) be hosting a Zoya giveaway right here! I owe special thanks to Zoya for being the first polish company to take notice of this tiny blog. This giveaway will be a way for me to celebrate my return to the blog-o-sphere, and I hope you'll participate!

Crystal File 087: Zoya is saving my summer!

So far I have found the spring and summer collections being released this year to be very disappointing! Anyone who has read my blog or encountered me on Makeupalley, knows that I prefer my polish with some shimmer, or Sparkle if you will. So many of the releases I have seen this year have been either all, or nearly all, creme finish colors, which means I truly haven't had many "Oh my, I must have that!" moment.

At least this was the case until I received the press release information for Zoya's upcoming summer release, the Sparkle collection. As usual, Zoya is presenting two summer collections consisting of six polishes each. In this case, one set of six are all "metallic" (Sparkle), while the other set of six are all bright cremes (Flash).

The Sparkle collection will include Ivanka (mermaid green sparkling metallic), Charla (tropical blue sparkling metallic), Mimi (royal purple sparkling metallic), Alegra (fuchsia pink sparkling metallic), Nidhi (rich red sparkling metallic), and Gilda (fashion pink sparkling metallic). The Flash collection will include Robyn (perfect turquoise cream), Perrie (soft lavender cream), Dana (american rose cream), Jolene (summer pink cream), Maura (electric crimson cream), and Jancyn (soft tangerine cream).

I am hoping that I will have time to post photos of these collections once they are available. I think that Sparkle is going to blow many of the other summer collections out of the water. What do you think?

The Crystal Files 086: Long Time No See!

My apologies for not posting regularly! Life with a three year old can be quite hectic, and to some extent my polish habit has backed off a bit. I have a secondary addition to perfume oils by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, and only so much cash to throw around, as i'm sure you can all understand! Well, i had this Zoya Spring preview show up in my inbox, and i knew i had to share with all of you cyber polish fans out there.

The Reverie Spring 2010 collection includes six new Zoya shades, each polish will retail for $7. The colors are Laney (moonlit silver metallic), Adina (duochrome violet metallic), Reece (gilded rose metallic), Happi (pink blush metallic), Gwin (sunny melon metallic), and Lana (rich red metallic). Here's a little teaser promotional photo for all my pretty polishes peeps.



Any thoughts on this collection? Will you be waiting eagerly for your chance at these new shades? Do share!

Crystal File 085: Coming Soon! Zoya MatteVelvet Winter 2009!

I'm sure you all have gathered by now that I'm not a huge fan of matte finish polishes. However, Zoya is releasing a new collection of three more MatteVelvet shades for winter, and these colors look very promising! I'm hoping perhaps the wear will be a bit improved, as i have found the wear length on previous mattes quite lacking. I'll have to wait and see. From the promo photo i think these look really gorgeous.



The colors are Veruschuka (Evergreen matte shimmer), Savita (Plum Grey matte shimmer), and Harlow (Rose matte shimmer). You can check out swatches at Scrangie.com!I also hope to have them to swatch for you eventually! And keep your eye peeled for more Wizard of Ooh Ahz swatches and new Color Club shades coming soon!