Zoya Jules

A while ago I jumped on a sale that Zoya had for the Intimate collection. I think the entire collection was $25, and included free shipping, which was a steal. Here's a polish from that collection, Jules.

Jules is a nude base with gold and silver shimmer mixed in, which combine to create a gorgeous champagne. I love nudes with some shimmer or glitter mixed in. I unfortunately can't remember how many coats I used, but I don't recall it being too finicky, so I'm going to guess two. This is definitely a pretty color, and the shimmer gives the nude base some extra oomph.

Models Own Purple Blue and GOOD NEWS!

I'm still here! I apologize for being absent, but I have a good reason for it. First, let's get to the nail polish. Even though I haven't been blogging, I have still been wearing polish and photographing my nails, so I have a backlog of posts that I am working on getting through. Up first is a polish sent to my by the ever-lovely Nicole at Top to Toe. Here's Purple Blue by Models Own.

Purple Blue came out with the Beetle Juice collection that made a big splash. My pictures are not the greatest, but it's a pretty duochrome that shifts between (you guessed it!) purple and blue. It was on the thin side - I used three coats - but it applied easily. I really loved looking at my nails and watching the colors shift back and forth.

Now, onto my exciting news. I've officially been accepted into graduate school! In London! Starting this fall I will be studying Art Conservation at Camberwell College of Arts. I am equal parts excited and terrified. This will be my first time out of the country, and my first time away from my family for so long. I'll be gone for two years. I am really excited to be back in school and back in an artistic environment. And I can't tell you how excited I am to (hopefully!) get out of retail.

As far as my little blog goes, I honestly have no idea what its future is. I plan to continue updating until I leave in September (though I have TONS to do, and don't know how regularly I'll post). But I only intend to bring a few nail polishes with me to London, as I'm trying to travel as lightly as possible. I'm sure I'll buy some nail polish while I am there, but hopefully not a lot as I will have to bring it all back or leave it. I will keep you all updated with my plans.

All that said, I'm sorry I was gone so long. I missed not only updating my blog, but commenting on your blogs as well. How have you all been?

Milani Rad Purple

The moment I saw Milani's Rad Purple on Short 'n Chic, I knew I HAD to have it. A really pretty purple that's also a jelly, my most favorite nail polish finish ever! Count me in! When I placed my order with drugstore.com, which also included Whimsical, I picked Rad Purple up as well.

I absolutely adore this. This was three coats. It has some neon qualities to it, though I wouldn't call it a true neon, so it dries to a satin finish. But once you pop some top coat on, it's full of shiny, squishy goodness!

The nail of my middle finger peeled pretty far down, unfortunately, so I chopped the rest of 'em. They were getting to such a nice length, too! I guess they will grow back in no time, but it's still a bummer. I'd love to see Rad Purple on longer nails.

Revlon Whimsical

I'm slacking again. Ugh. I'm just so stressed with waiting on grad school news, and working on submitting some new pieces to a gallery. Nonetheless, I have Whimsical by Revlon to show you today.

Whimsical is the highly sought after dupe of Deborah Lippmann's Glitter in the Air. I know people are selling this for more than it is worth because it's a bit harder to find, but, people, you can still find this on drugstore.com for $5.

It's a pretty sheer polish. This is three coats, and you can see the nail line. I liked that effect, as we all know by now, so I kept it. If you wanted something less sheer, I'd recommend layering it over a light blue. It applied smoothly.

I really love the juxtaposition of the milky, sheer blue and the glitter. It was one of those manicures that had me staring at my nails frequently.

Sinful Colors Verbena

Just a quick post before I run off to work. Here's Verbena by Sinful Colors.

Verbena is a medium purple, dusty creme. The color is so pretty. It applied quite easily - two easy coats, and it was good to go. Overall, a great polish, perfect for welcoming spring.

The Night Circus Inspired Nails

For a brief period of time, I considered changing around the style of this blog. I was going to do my manicures based on the book I was reading. I quickly realized that wouldn't work out well, as my reading and nail polishing paces are different. Plus, I read a lot of embarrassing young adult books, and I don't know that I want you to know about all of those! At any rate, I decided doing that every once in a while would be fun. Here's the first one, based on Erin Morgenstern's novel The Night Circus.

The Night Circus is about a circus which only occurs, obviously, at night, and the only colors at the circus are black and white. There are fans of the circus who follow it around, and they wear black and white, with a red accessory so they can recognize one another. This color scheme was the inspiration.

I started out with a couple coats of Man Glaze's Mayo, and then added Man Glaze's Matte is Murder for the stripes. I chose these rather than cremes because I liked the added shimmer. The red was Tate by Nails Inc. I think these turned out pretty cute. But I have to say, I am so envious of those of you who can paint an even stripe.

There's much more to The Night Circus than I told, so if you haven't read it, I highly suggest you do so. It's so good! I really like circus themed things, particularly from the past, so I was really into all the imagery in the book. I also was a fan of Water for Elephants (not the movie though, that was awful). Actually, the first thing I remember wanting to be when I grew up was a tight rope walker in the circus. Have you read either of those books? Are you a circus fan?

L.A. Colors Berry Red

I just dyed my hair red, and in honor of that, I decided to do a red manicure! Here's Berry Red by L.A. Colors.

My photographs of this are not the most color accurate. Berry red is actually, well, more berry than these images show. It's a bit darker, but just as juicy and squishy. A classic red jelly. Sigh.

While not the most unique color, and not exactly unique in my collection, I was actually quite surprised with the ease of application. It slid on very easily, was not messy at all, and dried very fast and shiny (even without topcoat, though I was wearing a coat of Seche in these photos). I used two coats, which allowed for just a bit of visible nail line. I found this at the dollar store a while back, so I must admit I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that it "flowed like butter". Sometimes it's nice to have a reminder that one doesn't need to spend $20 on good quality nail polish. I also bought a champagne/gold color, so I'm interested to see if the application of that is just as flawless.

Here's a crappy shot of my new hair color, for those interested. I wish it was sunny out today so the red could really shine, but of course it is gloomy. I'm really enjoying being a red head again, and I think next time I will go a bit brighter!