Showing posts with label Zoya. Show all posts

31DC13 Day 24: Inspired by a book

Yay, I have another challenge manicure to share with you guys today! This time the task was to do a book inspired manicure and it was quite easy to choose the book I wanted to be inspired. I have already done once Hunger Games inspired manicure, but I really love those books and they do give a great inspiration for manicures, so I decided to be, once again, inspired by Hunger Games.

I started this mani by painting all my nails with base coat and one coat of China Glaze Riveting. Then I painted one coat of Orly Iron Butterfly over all the nails but I didn't paint the tips of the nails with it. I left the line between Riveting and Iron Butterfly very uneven and also made it a bit different to all the nails, so they would look more lively. Then using a sponge I added first some Riveting over the tips and Iron Butterfly, then I also added some OPI GoldenEye and Zoya Maria Luisa. Then lastly I finished the manicure with a coat of top coat.

This was quite simple manicure, but I really liked how it turned out. I would also imagine that the inspiration behind this manicure is quite clear, at least if you have read the books, so at least I did better this time than two year ago with this challenge.

I also wanted to try out how this mani would look matte:

I think I liked it more shiny in real life, but in these pictures the manicure looks pretty good matte too!

Which one do you guys prefer, shiny or matte?

Here are the polishes I used: 

L'Oreal Grow Beautiful
Orly Iron Butterfly
China Glaze Riveting
OPI GoldenEye
Zoya Maria Luisa
Mereneid Top It All - Top Coat
 (BK Super Matte Surface Oil)

Like I said, my manicure for this challenge wasn't really too innovative two years ago:
You can check out the full post here.

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Haaste jatkuu taas kerran, vuorossa siis 24. päivä ja inspiraationa tällä kertaa kirja. Kertaalleen olen jo toteuttanut vähän samantyylisen Nälkäpelistä inspiraation saaneen lakkauksen, mutta kirjasarja on sen verran hyvä inspiraationlähde, että se oli oikeastaan aikalailla helppo valinta tähän tehtävään.

Mielestäni lakkaus onnistui todella mukavasti ja tykkäsin siitä kovin! Melko yksinkertainenhan se on, mutta ainakin inspiraatio siitä näkyy, varsinkin jos ko. kirjat ovat tuttuja. Kokeilin lopuksi myös lakkausta mattaisena, mutta jotenkin livenä se ehkä näytti paremmalta kiiltävänä kun taas näistä kuvista katsottuna myös mattainen versio näyttää varsin mukavalta.

Ainakin tämänkertainen lakkaus onnistui olemaan ehkä hieman kekseliäämpi kuin kaksi vuotta sitten tämän päivän haasteeseen tehty lakkaus...

pekal

Geometrics with Zoya Blaze, Aurora and Payton

I did this mani a while ago, but I somehow never posted it here. I really liked this manicure, but it didn't look as good in these pictures as it did in real life. Also, for some reason my skintone looks really weird in these pics... But as it's not really possible anymore to do the pictures all over again, I decided just to show it to you now, so that the manicure itself won't go waste.

I wanted to do somekind of manicure with Zoya Blaze and I thought it would be great idea to compine some other Zoya beauties with it. So I ended up with this geometric manicure where I used Blaze as my base color and Aurora and Payton for the patterns.

I thought these three Zoyas looked really pretty together and like I said, I really enjoyed this manicure. This manicure was quite simple to do, as you don't really need anything else than the polishes and some striping tape.

Here are the polishes I used for this manicure:
 KBShimmer Basic Training
Zoya Blaze (2 coats)
Zoya Aurora
Zoya Payton*
Mereneid Top It All Top Coat

I also took some pictures of the gorgeous Blaze alone:
I have here only two coats with base and top coat. I would have probably done third coat if I was wearing this alone, but since I knew I was going to continue the manicure in someway, two coats was enough. Blaze is really an awesome polish! I love the color and it was fairly easy to apply too.



*I have gotten Zoya Payton originally for review. For more information see my disclosure policy.

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Tämän manikyyrin tein jo vähän aikaa sitten, mutta se on jäänyt esittelemättä täällä blogissa, kun harmittavasti kuvat siitä eivät onnistuneet ihan niin kuin olisin halunnut. Kuvia en luonnollisestikaan voi enää uusiksi ottaa tekemättä koko manikyyriä uudestaan, joten näillä mennään.

Halusin vihdoin ja viimein päästä lakkailemaan Zoyan Blazella ja päädyin yhdistämään siihen kaksi muuta Zoyan kaunokaista, Auroran ja Paytonin. Lakkasin Blazea ensin kaksi kerrosta ja maalasin sitten erilaisia geometrisia muotoja Auroran ja Paytonin kanssa kynsiteippiä avuksi käyttäen. Blaze on kyllä uskomattoman upea lakka! Tykkään ihan hirveästi sen väristä ja sillä oli myös helppo lakkailla.


*Zoyan Payton on saatu alunperin arvioitavaksi, muut lakat ovat itse ostettuja.

pekal

Comparison: Zoya Payton, Orly Miss Conduct, OPI DS Extravagance and Zoya Aurora


I have a quick comparison post for you guys today! I have heard people say over and over again that they have for example OPI DS Extravagance so they don't need Zoya Payton or Aurora or Orly Miss Conduct as they are all so similar. I happen to have all those four polishes so I needed to see myself if they were really that close and if I really needed them all.




Here I have three coats of each polish on my nails with a coat of top coat. They are all a bit sheer ones, so you'll get full coverage with three coats, though maybe two would be enough for shorter nails (especially with Payton and Miss Conduct). They are quite similar, but none of these are nowhere near dupes, they are more like little nail polish sisters. DS Extravagance and Miss Conduct have quite similar consistency, they have pretty much similar holographic effect and same amount of those holographic particles in them in the same size, but they are quite different colorwise. Payton has larger and fewer holographic particles in it and Aurora has the same type of particles, but way more. I could have also included Zoya Blaze to this comparison, but it's even more red toned than Miss Conduct, so it's not dupe either for any of these polishes.

Colorwise, I think, these are different enough. I love this type of color, so at least for now I think I'm going to keep all these as I can't really figure out which one I would prefer more than other. They all have similar quality and formula, so I can't really choose any favourites based on those aspects either. If you're not such a big fan of purple/pink scattered holo, then you'll probably do just fine with one or two of these.

Do you guys own any of these polishes? Which one is your favourite and do you think they are all different enough?


*I have gotten Zoya Payton originally for review, other three I have bought myself. For more information see my disclosure policy.
 
 
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Tänään pikaisessa vertailussa on neljä kaunokaista: Zoyan Payton ja Aurora, Orlyn Miss Conduct ja OPI DS Extravagance. Näitä kaikkia neljää lakkaa on usein sanottu suht samanlaisiksi, ja kun minulta sattuu ne kaikki löytymään, niin päätinpä heittää ne pikaisesti kynsille ja katsoa, ovatko ne minusta oikeasti tarpeeksi erilaiset ja tarvitsenko ylipäätään ne kaikki.

Dupeja (eli täysin samanlaisia) lakkoja näistä eivät keskenään ole mitkään. Värisävyltään kaikki ovat erilaisia ja holopartikkelien koko ja määrä vaihtelee myös. Kaikki peittävät hyvin kolmella kerroksella, kaksi saattaisi riittää lyhyemmille kynsille, ja koostumus on näissä melko samanlainen kaikissa. 

Ovatko nämä teidän mielestänne tarpeeksi erilaisia vai liian samanlaisia? Löytyykö teiltä näitä lakkoja ja mikä on suosikkinne?

*Zoyan Payton on saatu alunperin arvioitavaksi, muut kolme lakkaa olen ostanut itse.

pekal

31DC13 Day 22: Inspired by a song

Today I'm finally continuing the challenge! I really thought I would have had this one finished before the new year, so I have tittled all my post about the challenge to the year 2013... I think I'm going to continue with that anyhow. 

I'm showing you a song inspired mani today that wasn't actually inspired by a song in the first place... BUT while I was making it this one song kept playing in my head constantly and so I thought this would be still perfect mani for today's task. I actually made this mani for a nail art contest, which I unfortunately didn't win though. Lunalii won the contest with her gorgeous french mani and she got to make an awesome trip to New York!

Maybe I'll get to visit New York in the future too! At least now I have visited it in the form of nail art:
So quite obviously I took my inspiration for this mani from New York itself and the song that kept playing in my head... You probably already guessed it, but it is of course Alicia Keys' Empire State Of Mind (Part II):




And here's what I used for these nails:

index:
Misa Grey Matters (base color)
Essie Mind Your Mittens (dapped over)
white acrylic paint and Wet n Wild Fergie Miami Spirit (for the letters)

middle and ring:
gradient with Zoya Blu, Wet n Wild Fergie Miami Spirit and Zoya Neve
China Glaze Fairy Dust
black acrylic paint for the skyline buildings

pinky (and thumb):
Essie Mind Your Mittens (base color)
Wet n Wild Kaleidoscope
rhinestones and half pearls

and of course base and top coat for all the nails

I wasn't totally happy with this one, but I was in a bit hurry making it, so I didn't really have time to redo anything. But at least the connection to the song is quite obvious.

Two years ago I got inspired by on of my all time favourite band's song: Coldplay's Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall and made this colorful splatter mani:
You can check out the full post about this mani here. 

*****

Haaste jatkuu vihdoin ja viimein! Oletin kyllä vahvasti tätä aloittaessani syksymmällä, että saan haasteen kevyesti tehtyä vuoden loppuun mennessä, mutta eihän se nyt ihan mennytkään niin... Noh, aion joka tapauksessa tehdä tämän innolla loppuun! Tänään oli siis haasteena inspiroitua laulusta ja esittelenkin teille manikyyrin, jota tehdessä sain aivan toivottoman korvamadon.

Oikeastaan lähdin tekemään näitä kynsiä kynsikisaa varten, enkä varsinaisesti alunperin suunnitellut näitä tämän haasteen kynsiksi, mutta ajattelin, että nämä sopisivat tähän kuitenkin täydellisesti. Kynsiin on siis luonnollisesti haettu inspiraatio New Yorkista ja se toivoton korvamato oli tottakai Alicia Keysin Empire State Of Mind. Ihan täysin tyytyväinen en kyllä näihin kynsiin ollut ja eipä näillä harmittavasti voittokaan irronnut. Toivottavasti pääsen kuitenkin vierailemaan New Yorkissa joskus tulevaisuudessa kuitenkin!

Kaksi vuotta sitten inspiroiduin yhden suosikkibändini laulusta, Coldplay Every Teardrop Is a Waterfallista ja toteutin laulun videota mukaillen värikkään roiskemanikyyrin (kurkkaa postaus täältä).

pekal

My Favourite Nail Polishes of 2013

I've done my favourite nail polish listings in 2012 and 2011, so of course I had to do one for this year too! This has been such a great nail polish year that I just couldn't narrow my list down from 25 favourites, so this is going to be quite a long list. Again, these aren't really in no particular order, because I just couldn't figure out which ones I'd prefer more than others. I do have one favourite though and I'm going to save that one for last, so make sure to check out the full post. I also included the links to my posts about the polishes if you want to take better look.

I only tried to include polishes that have come out this year, but there are couple in this list that came out late last year, that I only managed to get them and try them on this year.


This is from KBShimmer spring 2013 collection and it's really gorgeous blue jelly with hex glitters in different sizes. It just looks so amazing on nail and I love the depth in it!


Zoya Stevie (pinky and index nails)

I don't have proper swatches of this beauty, but you can still see how gorgeous it is in this manicure. Pretty much all the Zoya PixieDusts could have been on this list as they are all gorgeous, but from the summer pixies this one was my favourite. It is also quite unique one as I haven't seen too many textured polishes out there with similar color. 



This amazing blue and green glitter is from China Glaze's Cirque du Soleil collection and it is really so pretty that I needed to include it to this list eventhough it came out already in 2012.



This too came out already in 2012, but I only got it this year and I'm so glad I did. It is really gorgeous polish, but I think it looks best worn over some other polish and it's truly gorgeous in gradients and such (for example I did a gradient tips with this one over China Glaze Light As Air, here).



This amazing brick red creme is from Zoya's fall collection and I just love this color so much! The quality of this one was really great too, so this was quite a perfect polish. 



This is also from the same Zoya fall collection as Pepper and it's really a great polish! There are quite many flakie/gold toppers out there, but this was still something new and different. I especially loved this gradient look with Maria Luisa and Pepper. 



I wasn't so sure if I liked the other colored jelly base Polka Dots polishes that Maybelline did this year, but this blue one is really gorgeous one! I really seem to have some sort of soft spot for blue toned jelly bases with glitters...



Essie made some really really great collections this year and there were quite a few polishes of pretty much each collection that I could have included in this list as they were all quite gorgeous ones. From the summer collection I decided I liked the color of Rock The Boat best, but I really loved all the polishes from the collection and that gorgeous silver shimmer. 



Of course I had to include at least one of those gorgeous Zoya fall PixieDusts to this list too and my choice is this amazing green called Chita. This is by the way also a perfect polish for some Christmas nail art. 



This one was really a surprise favourite of mine from Essie's fall collection. This doesn't really look nearly as good in any pictures as it does on nail. It has a gorgeous glow in it that doesn't translate into the pictures.



This is one of my favourite textured polish ever! The name suits this polish perfectly as it really is a chameleon one. This one you really need to see in real life! 


KBShimmer It's Razz-ical

 This delicious raspberry glitter jelly is from KBShimmer summer collection. Unfortunately I haven't done proper swatches of this one either, but you can still see the gorgeous color and the awesome depth of this polish from this picture.

Essie Parka Perfect

I had quite a hard time choosing my favourites from Essie winter collection as all the six polishes from that collection are gorgeous ones. I had to include two polishes from that collection to this list and the first one is this awesome dusty grey with that gorgeous silver shimmer.



I haven't been so much into holographic polishes this year compared to previous years, but there have been still a few really nice ones. This Perfect polish H7 was nice surprise as it has really really nice color, it coveres very well and it's also really cheap one!



Essie's spring collection was also one of those from which I could have included every polish to this list. Besides this Go Ginza one (and Maximillian Strasse Her which I have coming up later in this list) I really loved Avenue Maintain and Bond With Whomever. I chose Go Ginza as it is really awesome by its own, but it's also perfect base color for any type of layering combos.



KBShimmer's Teal Another Tail is from their fall collection and it's one of the most unique polishes I have seen in a while.



IsaDora Rocky Ruby has really nice mix of different glitters and I love the color. It looks great alone, but it's also really nice one for layering and glitter gradients and such. Perfect for the holidays!



This is my other favourite from Essie's winter collection and probably the one I liked the most from that collection. The color of this one is also quite unique to me and it is truly gorgeous. Also the formula is amazing!



I had one of the 2012 Color Club Halo Hues in my top list last year and I just had to include Eternal Beauty from the 2013 Halo Hues to this list as it truly is a gorgeous holographic polish! The formula and quality of all this Color Club holographics is truly great and of course the color of this one is so pretty.



There were quite a few of black and white glitter toppers this year, but for me L'Oreal Confettis had the best mix of smaller and bigger glitters and also that nice little shimmer. It's also the one I have used the most eventhough I do have (at least) two other similar ones.



Kiko also made some really beautiful textured polishes this year and I especially loved the shimmery Sugar Mats. My absolute favourite was Poppy Red (640) and actually it has been also my favourite pedicure polish of this year.



Zoya Julie is truly a perfect spring color and like with some of the Essies that I have in this list, I love that silver shimmer very much. The color is so delicate and sweet, I just love it!



I also love the color of this one so much, as it is quite unique take on grey, at least to me. Also like with all the other Essie spring collection polishes, the formula was really great on this one too.



Like I've told you many times already, I loooove round glitter so much, so it's probably no wonder that this Elevation Polish lacquer is one of my favourite toppers of this year. It also doesn't hurt that the mix of glitters in this one has such lovely colors.



Did you figure out which was going to be my ultimate favourite of this year already? Well, if you thought Zoya Dream then you were right! To me it is truly a perfect polish! The color is just so amazing! I really can't say much more about this one, I just love love love it!

My favourite brands this year have certainly been Zoya and Essie, and that really shows in this favourite list. Also this year I have really loved blue nail polishes and you can definately see my crush on blue from this list. 

Tell me guys, what did you think about my favourites? Did you have any of the same polishes in your list? Or did I miss something really spectacular?


*I have gotten some of the polishes in this post for review and some I have bought myself, for more information see my disclosure policy. 

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Tänään ajattelin siis listata hieman tämän vuotisia lakkasuosikkejani. Tämä lakkavuosi on ollut niin loistava, että jouduin kasvattamaan listaa ja ottamaan mukaan 25 suosikkiani, eli lista on melko pitkä. Lakat eivät varsinaisesti ole missään paremmuusjärjestyksessä, sillä en vain pystynyt järjestämään näitä minkäänlaiseen järjestykseen. Yksi kuitenkin nousi ylitse muiden ja se on listan viimeisenä oleva Zoyan Dream.

Oliko teidän suosikkilistoillanne samoja lakkoja? Tai onko minulta mennyt ohi joku upeus, joka pitäisi ehdottomasti olla suosikkilistallani?


*Jotkut postauksen lakoista on saatu alunperin arvioitaviksi, toiset olen ostanut itse.

pekal

Christmas Tree Manicure

Hi guys! I have the last post for you before Christmas and of course I'm showing you a Christmas manicure, eventhough this isn't the one I'm wearing for this Christmas as I already did this like a week ago.

So I used a Seventeen polish that I got from our meeting (it was sponsored by beautycosmetic.biz) as the white base color, then I topped that with KBShimmer I Only Have Ice For You. Then I placed some water decals on my other nails and I did some Christmas trees for my ring finger nails with Zoya Chita and some striping tape. And then finally I added a blue round glitter (from Adenina) to the tree tops.

I quite liked this mani and especially those accent nails with the trees. The water decals were some really bad quality ones from ebay and they kinda ruined the mani a bit. But still, this was a quite fun Christmas mani look!


I really liked the combo of white base and I Only Have Ice For You on top, so I wanted to share couple of pictures of that look too:


Merry Christmas to all my readers!
Hyvää joulua kaikille!

pekal

Zoya Zenith Collection: Cassedy, Dream, Payton and Seraphina

This is a scheduled post as Im currently (hopefully) enjoying a little vacation. I'll answer your comments as soon as I get back, so feel free to comment as much as you want. 

I have four Zoya Zenith collection polishes to show you guys today!

I got these four for review from NailCity and these were the ones that interested me most from this Zoya holiday collection. These are of course from left to right Seraphina, Cassedy, Dream and Payton.

I used two coats of each polish for these pictures, no base or top coat.

First one is Cassedy and this one was almost one coater, but I did two just to be safe. Cassedy is a metallic pewter and the formula was really nice, so this was very easy to apply. I really like the metallic look of this one!



Next one is Dream, a deep blue scattered holo. This is absolutely my favorite one from this collection and it's also probably one of my all time favorite polishes! If you are only going to get one polish from this collection, get this!




This one is called Payton and it's a dark purple scattered holo with a jelly base. This one is also a really gorgeous one! There were still some spots that might have needed more polish, so I think you'll be safe with three coats with this polish.


Last one is called Seraphina, which is a silver metallic shimmer with a hint of grey. I really liked this one too, though also with this you could need another coat to get full coverage. I love the icy metallic look of this one and the fact that it's metallic silver but it's not a foil.




*I have gotten the four Zoya polishes in this post for review, for more information see my disclosure policy.

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Tänään esittelyssä neljä lakkaa Zoyan Zenith -kokoelmasta: Cassedy, Dream, Payton ja Seraphina. Näistä Dream oli ehdottomasti minun suosikkini ja ehkä jopa yksi upeimmista lakoista ikinä, mutta kolme muutakin olivat ehdottomasti kovin nättejä tapauksia! Kaikissa kuvissa lakkaa on kaksi kerrosta, mutta Cassedy voisi hyvinkin peittää jo yhdellä kerroksella ja Paytonia ja Seraphinaa voisi paremman peittävyyden saavuttamiseksi levittää vielä kerroksen.

Zoyan lakkoja voi ostaa monilta jälleenmyyjiltä, NailCityn sivuilta löytyvät kaikki jälleenmyyntipaikat. Myös suoraan maahantuojalta voi ostaa lakkoja lähettämällä sähköpostia osoitteeseen info@nailcity.fi, lakkojen kappalehinta on 15,50 euroa.


*Postauksen lakat on saatu arvioitaviksi.

pekal

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