It's Zuza time!

Hello, my lovelies! It’s a scorching hot Friday in DC! And most of the country, from what my friends are saying. I hope everyone is staying cool. Don’t forget about the furbabies-they can’t take it either!

Now, PSA done, it’s time for some polish! Today I have Zoya Zuza. Zuza had been making headlines everywhere, and seems to be “the”  color from Zoya’s Surf and Beach collection this year. It’s easy to see why. It’s a perfect summer teal shimmer. Like most Zoyas, this went on smooth as silk and was mostly opaque in one coat. I did two just to fill in a few patchy places. 

Jem is Truly Outrageous!

Hello, my lovelies!  Today’s manicure is a super special labor of love. 

My buddy Jenn over at My Indie Glam Addiction is having an awesome nail art contest and the theme is JEM! Any child of the 80s like myself will know immediately who this is. I can still sing the entire theme song and some of the songs featured in the show. I’ve dressed up as Jem for Halloween at least twice in my life-and one of the costumes is still hanging in my closet ‘cause the last time was just a couple years ago. 

Try It On Tuesday!

Hello, my lovelies! It’s Try It On Tuesday! 

That means I’ve got a polish (or two) that I haven’t worn before. I love TIOT because it makes me try on stuff that has been patiently waiting for its turn. 

This week I went with a couple of blues, in honor of AMC Awareness. AMC is Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita. Jilltastic Nail Design is the hostess of TIOT and she’s also issued a weekly nail art challenge involving the color BLUE, again, in honor of AMC Awareness. Stop by Jilltastic Nail Design and show her some love, and she has more details about AMC and why it’s important to her. His name is Devin and he’s adorable!

This isn’t super artistic but my head is pounding and it might explode soon. First up we have Essie Bikini So Teeny, anew color for 2012. It’s a lovely powdery, periwinkle blue with a hint of lavender crème. I found the application a bit spotty on the first coat, but by coat three, it evened out nicely. I do however, think I need two coats of Essie Fill The Gap on my thumb nail. 

Sunday strawberries!

Hello my lovelies!

Today I have some juicy summer strawberries for you. I had planned a water marble but  then I saw Fancy Schmancy Nails’s toes and thought the strawberries were sooo cute, I had to try them. 

I’ve been using Essie Fill the Gap ridge filler lately as a base, because the small ridges have been driving me nuts. After that went two coats of Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby. I really like Sinful Colors. For one of the cheaper brands ($1.99), they wear very well and go on nicely. The green tops are China Glaze Holly-Day, with black seed from China Glaze Liquid Leather. Both were painted on with a fine paint brush. And topped with Seche Vite. 

Sparkly blue Frenchie!

Hello, my lovelies! 

It's Friday and I usually don't do a new mani on Fridays, but since I took off the other yesterday, I couldn't them naked. Something simple, and kind of a default for me- a funky Frenchie. 

For this, I used OPI Alpine Snow for the white. I have yet to find a white that goes one smoothly and nicely. (I'm open to suggestions!) Two coats of that was decent enough. Threw on Seche Vite and then went with Revlon's Blue Mosaic. I love this polish to look at. It's a sheer, light blue base with fine blue glitter, silver hex glitter, and green hex glitter. It's got massive sparkle and shine in the sun, though as usual, I couldn't capture that in the pics. It's very thick though, and kind of gloppy, but it went on fairly nicely for the tips.

Wanna win some gorgeous OPI polishes?

Hello, my lovelies! 

Pretty and Polished Pointers is having a 900 follower giveaway with two beautiful OPI polishes! Check out and enter the giveaway!

smoochies,

Mal

Try It On Tuesday #1!

Hello, my lovelies! 

It’s Try It On Tuesday! Some of my favorite bloggers put together this challenge, and I have so many that fit the criteria! Essentially, you’re trying on a polish that’s been sitting around, waiting it’s turn. Warning – pic heavy post! And the adorable polish bottle you see is courtesy of Jilltastic Nail Design - one of those favorite bloggers I mentioned.

My first attempt was an epic failure- we’ll get to that in a moment. What I ended up with? Two polishes I’ve had but haven’t used yet. Butter London Trout Pout and HITS Foxtrot.

I Just Spotted a Lizard!

I love lizards. And I love OPI’s Just Spotted The Lizard. I’ve had this hanging around (haha) for a while and since my water marble that I had slated to do tonight didn’t work out, I went with something simpler. Dark and moody, that’s me tonight. So my nails should be appropro.

Just Spotted The Lizard is touted a gold-green duochrome, and is part of OPI’s Amazing Spiderman collection.  They should be in stores now, though my Ulta (always late to the game) just got them a couple of weeks ago.

Warning – picture heavy as I tried to get both colors!

Blogrolls, Blogger and viruses

Hello, my lovelies! Evidently there is some malware making the rounds of Blogger blogs via blogrolls. So I've taken mine down in the meantime, even though THIS SITE IS CLEAN, it was linked to one that had been reported as having malware. A number of bloggers are pulling the blogrolls now, which sucks as we network through them but it's a necessity to keep our sites safe. Trend Micro reports that it's generating through the use of Rafflecopter, a popular widget a lot of us use for giveaways (I haven't, yet, and won't until this is resolved).

Hopefully it will all be resolved soon!

smoochies,

Mal

Summertime Blues!

On a hot summer day, I love to see a refreshing burst of bright blue. Like all colors, Zoya does blues beautifully. I love Zoya formulas. They go on so smoothly, and usually only need two, sometimes even one coat to reach opacity. 

Robyn is a perfect example. One coat was almost perfect but two gave a stunning, solid summer blue of flawless perfection. To dress her up a bit, I did a funky French and accent nail with Zoya Charla- a perfect compliment! Charla went on smoothly as well, and is a stunning bright blue packed with blue bar glitter.-the pictures just don't do it justice for sparkle and shine! I topped with Seche Vite, and I should have used the new bottle. It’s gotten super thick and clumpy as it gets closer to empty! (I've heard that's normal for it, but ick!)

A Tribute to JR Ewing and Dallas!

For those who are new, or don’t really know me, yet, I LOVE the 80s tv show Dallas. I grew up watching JR scheme and ruin people and (literally) push Sue Ellen into a sanitarium. For years I could only remember parts of the last couple seasons (I was a kid), so last year I started collecting the dvd sets-I think I only need 3 more!

When it was announced last summer that they were working on a "continuation" of the show, I squealed in joy. Since then I’ve followed every scrap of news I could get. The younger generation doesn’t thrill me (actor-wise) but knowing that JR, Sue Ellen, Bobby and co were returning to the screen just makes me grin like a fool. Ray, Lucy and Cliff will be back as well! I feel like I’m going to a reunion of old friends!

What does this have to do with nail polish? Because it inspired me to do a very special mani, as a tribute to Dallas. I came up with 5 things that represent Texas, and free hand painted them on the left. There’s no way I could do them as well on the right, so instead…they got something else, as you see.

Please forgive my ugly cuticles, I touched them up in Photoshop so they wouldn’t be so scary!

My first water marble!

Hello, my lovelies! So I finally got brave enough to do a water marble mani. I’ve been admiring them for ages now but frankly, was a bit intimidated. Using Water Lilies tutorial, I realized it wasn’t that hard. And I had always thought it seemed like a waste of polish but her tutorial explained you had to redo it for each nail, so it totally wasn’t what I was thinking and you’re really not wasting much polish at all. 

I used an old shot glass instead of a cup. For colors I used China Glaze Liquid Leather (black), Essie A Crewed Interest (pale peach) and Essie Turquoise and Caicos (minty green). Essie A Crewed Interest is almost the same color as both the old politically incorrect Crayola color “flesh” and freakishly almost  matches my skin tone. It's all topped off with Seche Vite, of course.

Awesome Zoya limited time promo!

Do you have a Zoya account at Zoya.com? Then read so you don't miss out! 

The "Take Three Free" Zoya Pinterest Contest was a great success and the Zoya Pinterest Trios are now SOLD OUT!!!

Since only 2,000 Limited Edition Mini Trios were available, we wanted to reward those who missed out but still participated in the contest and pushed for their favorite colors...

That's why NOW through 6/25/12, 11:59 PM EST we are offering any three, full-sized (0.5oz bottles) Zoya Beach and Surf Collection colors for ONLY $15 + Free Shipping! 

This offer is listed as a Share the Love bonus item in your online account at www.zoya.com. We have deposited (1) Share the Love Point into all existing accounts. To redeem this offer please follow the instructions below...

Instructions

1. Sign into your account at www.zoya.com
2. Add any (3) colors from the Zoya Beach & Surf Collections to your shopping bag.
3. Go into "My Account" and you will find the "Any 3 Zoya Beach and Surf for $15 Pinterest" Special Offer listed for (1) Love Point under "Redeem Points" (Shown in your account snapshot).
   
   We added 1 " Happy Point " to everyone's Share the Love Account so that you can participate.
4. After redeeming your special offer, click "My Promotion Codes" on the left hand side of the screen to apply the code to your order.
5. Complete Check-Out Process, Review and Submit Order. 

Time for some neon!

I had no idea what to try today, other than bright. A friend suggested neons, so here it is! I don't have many neons, but I've been reading about how putting it over a white base helps it to really pop. It is really bright, lol!

Recent hauls and mail!

Sales, deals, coupons - I can't resist them. So here are some recent hauls and nail mails!

Hauls:

Essie Bikini So Teeny, Essie A Crewed Interest, Orly Be Brave

An Orange V!

A few days ago I was wearing an orange tank top and olive green shorts. I thought the colors looked good together and wondered how to make them into a neat mani. I’ve always liked the “V” manis, but the last time I attempted on a few months ago, it was a disaster. Sloppy, uneven-I couldn’t even bear to take a pic of it. So this time, I thought it through a little better and was more careful with the tape, placing it carefully and removing it quickly. 

This is two coats of China Glaze Agro (from The Hunger Games collection), which, really, Agro is almost good enough to get by with one coat. The triangles are Essie Fear or Desire (3 coats) and topped with Seche Vite. While this attempt is definitely neater than my first, and it looks like how I envisioned (mostly), I don’t love it the way I thought I would. It’s lacking the ‘wow’ factor I thought it would have. I think it’s because the V doesn’t go low enough. I think next time it should extend down the entire nail, instead of the shorter version I have now.And maybe a creme for the green, to go with the orange.

Of course, about the time I finished one hand, I remembered I was going to try a water marble originally. Ah, well, maybe later this week. I’m so bummed over the season finale of Game of Thrones being last night, I may have to work on some Westeros-themed ideas. There’s no way I can freehand paint any of the house sigils…

Don't forget to check the Facebook page!

Remember to check the Facebook page in between posts here...sales, deals, and giveaways are posted there frequently. It's a public page so you don't have to have a Facebook page to see it!

There should be a new mani post up here this evening!

Seriously awesome giveaway!

The Trace Face Philes is having an awesome giveaway with butter London polishes. Go! Sign up!

Beauty Lounge Giveaway!

Very nice giveaway with an Amazon gift card over at The Beauty Lounge!

Another Blog Hop!

Doing Another Blog Hop, from The Giveaway Lifestyle!