Comparison: OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons and Zoya Farah

Hey ya'll!  Today I'm going to show you two nude/neutral polishes.  They are OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons and Zoya Farah.  

First up is Don't Pretzel My Buttons.  This is from OPI's Germany Collection Fall 2012.  It's a creamy beigey peachy nude with yellow-ish undertones.  How's that for a description?  This is almost a "mannequin hands" color for me, but not quite.  The formula is fantastic and smooth.  2 easy coats here.  

Zoya Logan

So I already showed you my 3 picks of Zoya's Ornate collection, right?  Right.  The thing is, I got 2 more...for Christmas.  WOOT!  So today I bring you Zoya Logan.  It is green, it's sparkly, it's a duochrome, it's beautiful!  For any time of year.  

Guest Nails! - butter LONDON Come To Bed Red

 Hey ya'll!  

So on Thursday night I got to do my Mom's nails and we had so much fun!  She let me do a little bit of nail art on her and we both really liked the final look.  SO, today I wanted to feature her nails!  We used a color that I've been wanting to show you for a while but my own swatch photos weren't all that great: butter LONDON Come To Bed Red.

OPI Suzi Takes the Wheel

Hey ya'll!  It's the day after Christmas and I hope that if your Christmas was like mine, you're relaxing today as much as possible.  Stay in your pajamas!  Don't go anywhere!  Sleep!  Read my blog!

Today I have OPI Suzi Takes The Wheel.  This is another shade that I borrowed from my friend Courtney. This color was a part of the 2011 Fall Touring America collection.

Christmas Mani #3!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Hey ya'll - I'm typing up this post Christmas morning so it's going to be a short one!  I just wanted to make sure I showed you my last Christmas look before Christmas was gone!

Today I'm showing you a Christmas water marble!  Yay!  This is only my fourth or fifth one, so, I'm still very amateur, as you will be able to see.  Middle finger on both hands I got a little over-zealous with the toothpick cleaning up the water and I got a couple of bubbles on a few other fingers.  I'm much happier with my left hand, I did it second.  

Christmas Mani #2 - Zoya Aurora

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE YA'LL!  

Today I have my second Christmas themed manicure - I had really planned to get to more of these but life is busy and on top of that I can tend to be somewhat of a scrooge...  In any case, I am SUPER excited about this one!  I don't know why I love it so much, and I hate that all of my pictures came out somewhat blurry, but I love it!  It's so fun and cute!  The main polish used here is Zoya Aurora, my final pick from the Ornate Collection!  Behold it's purpley goodness:

Sation Miss Emo Shun All

Today I have another of my 3 picks from Sation's Class of Sation collection.  (I showed ya'll another from this collection, Loudest Color, here.)  This is Sation Miss Emo Shun All.  I have almost shown this color every time I've posted - and then changed my mind.  It's just, so hard to get an accurate photo!  (Go ahead and do a Google image search - see how many different colors you get...)  This color is very dark, but vibrant and rich at the same time.  It's an unusual juxtaposition of characteristics.  

Zoya Storm

Hey guys!  I had a different polish scheduled to post today, but I changed my mind at the last minute so I could show you another polish from Zoya's Ornate collection.  It's another scattered holo, this time black.  I'm actually wearing this at the time of posting which is unusual!  Also?  This is my twentieth post - I don't know if this is really considered a milestone but it doesn't seem like I've done this 20 times.

Anyway, on to the polish!  This is Zoya Storm.

Zoya Blaze

I'm excited about today's post!  It's Zoya Blaze from the Zoya Ornate collection for the holidays this year.  This color ya'll... I've been to Ulta over and over and over the last 2 months waiting for it to come out (along with Aurora and Storm), and I finally found it!  Yay!  There's going to be a lot of pictures, hope you don't mind!

OPI My Private Jet

Hey ya'll.  I have so many photos of nails it's ridiculous.  The hardest part every time I sit down to blog is deciding what to show you.  Sometimes I really want you to see the color but the pictures I have are crap and don't portray it well, or my cuticles are dry as all get out, or the color isn't so great or it's old and you can't buy it anymore but the photos are good....what's a blogger to do?  Today  I settled on OPI My Private Jet.  

Orly Sweet Tart

It's the beginning of another week, and so close to Christmas!  Let me just tell ya'll I have done hardly any Christmas shopping which is pretty typical.  What can I say?  I'm good at procrastination.  Anyway...

Today I have an awesome awesome red.  I figure red is kind of appropriate considering the season.  

Link Love: Favorite Manicures by My Favorite Bloggers

Happy Sunday ya'll!  Today I have something a little bit different.  As I mentioned in my first blog post, I've been reading other people's blogs regularly for two years!  So I wanted to share some of my favorite manicures from some of my favorite bloggers with you.

Let Them Have Polish! - Rainbow Water Marble  Water marbles are hard.  Very hard.  Trust me on that one.  I've done a few but it takes a lot of work to get them to look decent.  This one is so so awesome to me!  And her marbles make me want some Bettina polish so bad!

Let Them Have Polish! - Summer Neons Weekend Mani  I wanted to copy this one exactly after I saw it, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.  I do own all three polishes she used on the water marble nails though...

Let Them Have Polish - Cute Owls  I've really gotta try these one day!  Aren't they adorable?

Let Them Have Polish - Sation Little Horse on the Prairie Nail Art  I love how Cristina puts colors together -  I probably never would've thought to put these colors together but look how good they look!

The Polished Perfectionist - Bath Duck  Amy Grace's nails are ... perfect.  I love her posts that match the mani to the cake.

The Polished Perfectionist - Cirque Never Nude  This is a favorite because it's neutral but also fun and interesting because of the polka dots and the holo!!

The Polished Perfectionist - Peacock Inspired Nails  The colors she chose for this gradient work so well together.  I love how they are the same depth and richness but different colors.  They both stand out this way instead of one over powering the other.  And that peacock stamp?  Every time I see someone use it I think I have GOT to get the set that thing came in...

Nailside Tutorials  This page shows a link to all her tutorials. I have tried and succeeded at quite a few of these.  I get excited when this girl posts a new tutorial.

Sincerely Stephanie - Cute Skull Water Decals  Love the color combination and how the skulls bring it all together.  I've never tried water decals but these look like fun.

Sincerely Stephanie - The Cutest Santas Ever  I don't really do 'free-hand' nail art but these Santa Clauses make me want to try it.

The Nailasaurus - Tadashi Shoji Nail Art Contest   Um - hello!  It's blue, and has a gorgeous pattern.  What's not to love?

The Nailasaurus - Blue and Bronze Gradient  This gal knows how to do a gradient.  Take a minute to look through all her gradients!  I have no idea how she gets the fade so smooth and blended!  She has a tutorial though - try it!

The Nailasaurus Mernails  Glequins.  Enough said.

The Nail Network  I am new to this blog and haven't been reading it long so I didn't want to pick out any "favorite" manicures.  I did want to share her page though because so far I have loved every swatch and design she has posted!

Doing this blog post has created an unintentional shopping list for me.  Whoops.

Winter Theme with Essie Borrowed and Blue

Hey polish friends!  

I missed posting yesterday but I'm back today with something awesome!  And seasonal.  This is a winter themed design and I think the first one I've ever even done!  Behold my Essie Borrowed and Blue snowflake design:

butter LONDON Slapper

Happy Thursday guys!  Today I have one of my most favorite polishes in my collection (you'll probably hear me saying that a lot on this blog...) - butter LONDON Slapper.  It is a part of butter LONDON's 2012 Spring Collection.  Isn't that name great?

Layla Ocean Rush

Happy Hump Day ya'll!  (Ok, I'm sorry, I kinda hate that phrase, but I needed an opening line...)  

Today I have for you the totally AH-mazing Layla Ocean Rush.  

Go ahead and squeal.  I'll wait... 

Claire's Candy Shop

Back in October, before I started this here little blog, I wore pink the whole month for Breast Cancer Awareness.  This is my favorite manicure from that month.  I think.     

butter LONDON Toff

And here we go again - another Monday!

Today I have butter LONDON Toff to show you.  This color is almost in that mushroom color family (Think, OPI You Don't Know Jacques!, China Glaze Below Deck, Essie Mink Muffs, etc.) but not quite.  See for yourself...

Read more after the jump.

Sation Loudest Color

I know it's almost officially winter, but, I love neons.  I love them in every season.  I just wore this a week or two ago.  This is Sation Loudest Color from the Class of Sation collection.  

See more of this FUN color after the jump... 

Color Club Insta-this

Little later than usual (if I can even have a usual, yet) today...sorry guys!  

Today, I have my favorite blue.  Blue is not my favorite color ever, but for whatever reason, blue is my favorite polish color ever.  I love it.  I have a lot of blue polish and I always want more!  

This is Color Club's Insta-this.  It is a Birchbox exclusive.  (Find out about Birchbox here.)  You can bet I have a subscription to Birchbox - opening that box every month is a highlight for me!  Especially when it has a polish like this and if I'm being honest, I'm a little disappointed with the whole box if it doesn't have any polish.

See (lots) more pics after the jump break...

Christmas Mani #1

It's Friday!  Woot!  And it's getting mighty close to Christmas... so here I am with a Christmas manicure!  

I'm addicted to striping ya'll - I have a million color combinations in my head I want to try!  So it only made sense for me to do stripes in a holiday color theme!  

 

More afer the jump!

China Glaze Def Defying

Today I have China Glaze Def Defying.  It is one of 2 colors I bought from the Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away collection.  The other I have is Whirled Away which I plan to show you soon!  I will say, I also have my eye on Escaping Reality and Ignited Love.  If anyone out there owns those two...should I??

Click on for more... 

Orly Miss Conduct

Let me begin by saying I'm not totally happy with these pictures.  If any of you out there have much experience looking at scattered holo pictures compared to what they look like in real life, you will probably be able to imagine what this polish looks like.  If you don't, you won't, and for that I apologize!  

More after the jump... 

OPI Casino Royale and China Glaze Bizarre Blurple

Aaand it's Tuesday!  Today's mani is a combination of OPI Casino Royale, from the James Bond inspired collection, Skyfall and China Glaze Bizarre Blurple from this years Wicked Halloween collection.  Some might consider this an odd combination but I just couldn't resign myself to one.  I ended up really liking these together.  

Casino Royale has a great 2-coat formula.  It is a rich, royal (ha) plummy purple.  Although it's not the most unique color (and granted, I don't have the largest collection around) I didn't have a color like this already.  The closest being Essie Big Spender which is much more red/pink leaning and a little lighter than Casino.  With all that said, I think this is a really beautiful color and very easy to work with.  It's a little darker in real life than in these photos.

Bizarre Blurple is, to me, just awesome.  I kept staring at this color when it was on my nails!  It also had a great 2-coat formula, and as the name would suggest it is a deep blue-purple shade.  It leans more towards the blue side and has a shimmer finish.  It's just so pretty!  

I did a subtle stamp over this with BM321 using Layla Mercury Twilight.  I saw AmyGrace at The Polished Perfectionist stamp with a Layla holo polish here, which I loved.  Hers turned out much better than mine, but I was still happy with the results.  My base colors were too pretty to cover up too much!    

Sorry this one got a little wordy ya'll!  Thoughts on these two colors together?  What about middle and ring finger accent nails?  

a-England Galahad

Happy Monday ya'll!

Today I have a manicure I did using a-England Galahad (from The Mythicals collection), and China Glaze Passion.  The formula on Galahad is perfection, as I've found with all my other a-England polishes.  I used 2 coats.  

On my left hand I did stripes with striping tape on my thumb, ring and pinky nails.  I used BM319 on my index and middle nails.  I LOVE striping and the way it looks on my nails in real life but I'm still pretty new to the technique and it seems like it takes forever to place the tape!  I usually decide it was worth it though.    

On my right hand I did the opposite, striping on index and middle and stamping on thumb, ring and pinky.  I wore this for 4-5 days because I loved it so much!  That probably doesn't seem like a long time to most people, but for me - it's forever!

Essie Secret Story

I love this color.  It has to be my favorite pink.  I first found this color at Target, but it seemed a little boring or like I might have it already, so I didn't buy it.  But then I noticed it at every drug store and it jumped out at me every time I went to Target!  So, I decided to look up a swatch first - but couldn't find any!  I didn't even think it was possible that there was any polish in the world that didn't have a swatch up on the internet somewhere.  Eventually I caved and bought it.  My friend, Courtney, said that I needed to start a blog just so I could do a swatch of that color!  This has been a long time coming...

I'll say, I still don't think my pictures do it justice.  I'll try to get better ones next time I wear it.  Just trust me ya'll, if you like pink at all you need this pink.  It is a jelly.  It is pink.  It is blue-based.  It is perfect.  Win, win, win and win!!  This is 3 coats.  Click on to see more pics...