Swatch: Zoya Monet

The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

So if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you might have seen that I got a haul of Zoyas and Essies in yesterday! The lovely Kirby of The Mercurial Magpie wanted to see Zoya Monet first, so here it is!

Monet is a brand new polish from Zoya's spring collection. It's a glitter topper with what looks like three types of translucent iridescent hex: pink/orange/yellow, yellow/green and blue/purple. The polish base actually has a pink tint, but it doesn't really show up on the nail (unless you wear it over white I guess). I wore it over a dark and a light color to show how different the glitter can look with different bases.

Zoya Monet. One coat over Revlon Stiletto and Essie Warm & Toasty Turtleneck. Out the Door topcoat.

This next picture is kinda funny: I was taking a shower and noticed that my nails looked especially fabulous, so after I got dressed I hopped back in the shower stall to take some pictures! (Sorry about the dry skin.)

Gorgeous, no? The glitters have the same vividness as a nice flakie, always a plus. The formula was just OK; it was kind of sticky and didn't want to level out. I had to dab at times to get the glitter evenly distributed. And as you can see, I got a lot of bubbling--I don't know if that's due to the thickness of the polish, or if I put topcoat on too soon. Either way, try to use thin coats if you can.

Finally here's an intentionally-blurry sparkle pic:

Monet is available at zoya.com for $10 (15 ml).

The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

Swatch: Finger Paints Colorful Dream

The product in this post was given to me as a gift. All opinions are my own.

Hey! Today I have swatches of one of the new Finger Paints flakies from the Kaleidoscope collection! Colorful Dream has rainbow flakies in a clear base.

I should note that these are more like shards, not "true" flakies like Essie Shine of the Times, and in comparison they are less colorful and don't have as much of a color shift (barely any actually). The effect is still nice though!

Finger Paints Colorful Dream. Two coats over black. Out the Door topcoat.

The formula on Colorful Dream was fine; I had no problem getting the flakies to spread evenly or lie flat.

I was a little disappointed in the lack of color with these flakies, but I do kind of dig this ethereal look! Colorful Dream is available at your local Sally Beauty (it's not up on the website at the moment).

The product in this post was given to me as a gift. All opinions are my own.

FingerFood's Theme Buffet #5: Party time!

It's Sunday, and that means it's time for FingerFood's Theme Buffet! This week's theme is birthdays and celebrations. I was a bit short on inspiration this week, but I ended up trying to reproduce the shaggy texture and fun colors of a pinata.

I just used a small nail art brush to paint on little irregular streaks of polish. I started at the tip of each nail so each color would be layered over the one below it. Here are the polishes I used: China Glaze Aquadelic, Julep Nina, Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Color Club Twiggie, Zoya Ali (the closest Zoya's gotten to my name!) and Sally Hansen Lightening.

Don't forget to follow our Pinterest board to see all the challenge manis so far!

31-Day Challenge #9: rainbow tie-dye

The "colors" section of the 31DC is wrapping up with the prompt "rainbow", which just screams tie-dye to me. I decided to try the needle drag method; it's not perfect, and I definitely pressed too hard at times, but for a first attempt I think it came out pretty well.

For some reason my camera couldn't capture the orange at all, even though to the eye it looks quite distinct from the yellow. Maybe because it's neon?

Anyway, I started with a base of Sinful Colors Snow Me White and added a coat of Out the Door. Then I painted on the rainbow stripes and dragged the tip of a safety pin from the pink down to the purple. The colors I used for the rainbow:

• pink: Zoya Ali
• orange: Color Club Psychedelic Scene
• yellow: Julep Abbie
• green: Essie Shake Your $$ Maker
• blue: Zoya Robyn
• purple: Essie DJ Play That Song

To celebrate the end of this part of 31DC, I made a compilation image of all my color-themed manis! (You can click on each one to see the post.)

Swatch: China Glaze It's a Trap-eze!

The polish in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

I bought this polish a while ago when a lot of people were going nuts over it, but never wore it until today. I just felt like wearing a glitterbomb! It's a Trap-eze! comes from China Glaze's Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away collection  from last year. It's got silver, magenta, orange, yellow, green and blue hex glitter in two different sizes, suspended in a milky base.

China Glaze It's a Trap-eze! 3 coats with Revlon Matte Top Coat.

I think this polish has a real indie vibe, which is pretty rare for a commercial polish! And of course I always prefer glitter in a colored base rather than as a topper. It's a Trap-eze! reminds me of Fruity Pebbles in milk. :-D

I needed three coats to get decent coverage of my nail line. The polish itself was easy to apply, but I did need to dab on glitter to get it even (and still ended up with some bare spots). I think it looks better when mattified like this, but YMMV!

It's a Trap-eze! doesn't seem to be available at sallybeauty.com anymore, but you can still find it on Amazon (which is where I bought mine) for a low price.


In other news, I thought I'd mention that starting September 1 I'll be attempting the 31 Day Challenge! Sarah at Chalkboard Nails (one of my absolute favorite nail blogs) will be updating daily, and I'll do my best to keep up. I'm no great nail artist, so it should be good practice for me!

If you want to join in, here's the schedule and hashtag!