More Gradient Nails...

 Remember when I finally got the hang of doing gradient nails and I was so excited? Well I decided to try them again...with Zoya Charla and China Glaze's Medallion. My index finger chipped so fast! I think its because when I was sponging, I piled so much polish onto the tip to make it darker. As it turns out, I didnt wear this for long...

For some reason, I'm not loving this as much as the first time around. Hmmm, I dont know whats with that. *shrugs*

♥ Lachelle

Orly Space Cadet

By now the blogosphere is crowded with pictures of the Orly Cosmix collection, but I'm about to add my Space Cadet picture spam to the internets. Hey, theres enough room for all of us! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Space Cadet. I was sooooo excited about the Cosmix collection when I first saw it...then I realized I owned most of the dupes. However, Space Cadet is a different story. I don't own anything remotely similar to it. I tweeted that I might be just a bit distracted at work wearing this because with just a flick of the wrist, it changes colors. It is MESMERIZING. So these pictures are after a days work...keep in mind I do heavy typing. Nothing like a close up picture of your nails to show you just how much tipwear you actually have. Lets just say it was more than I thought it was. Errr...on the pictures!

I went right to Sallys after work and snatched this up. There was a full, untouched Cosmix display right there on the bottom shelf. The girl that rang me up had a look like "You're paying 8 dollars for this?" Oh well, I didn't have time to school her on the awesomeness of this polish. Her loss! :-)

♥ Lachelle

Ulta Ultra Violet

 I know fall its coming, with its cooler temperatures and darker colors, but can I hold on to a bit of summer for a moment? I'm loving Ulta's Ultra Violet. This polish puts me in the mind of Color Club's Electro Candy collection with the blue-purple shimmer running through it. There's actually a color named Ultra Violet in that collection, but I don't have it to compare to. Does this look like a dupe? Anyhow, I love this polish. I have nothing in my collection like it.

Ulta's Salon Lacquer nail polish is on sale for $2 through September 25th. I have another Ulta polish to post this week that I think may be a dupe for OPI's Jade is the New Black. Dont sleep on Ulta! I used two coats and this dried matte, but that was nothing a coat of Seche Vite couldn't fix.

♥ Lachelle

Wet n Wild Night Prowl

Night Prowl is packed full of purple glitter in a black jelly base. Absolutely amazing and around a dollar at most drug or grocery stores. What more can I say? You need this in your collection if you love vampies, glitter, or jellies. It almost made the cut as my Halloween mani, but I may have a little something different in mind...

♥ Lachelle

Purple Gradient Nails

So if you knew how long I have wanted to do purple gradient nails and how many You Tube videos I have watched about it, you would wonder why it took so long for me to do them. Truth is I tried them one time and it turned out not so great and I didn't try again. Lame! 

Well I guess it took the awesomeness of Zoya's JulieAnne to get me started. I think those metallic foils are perfect for layering. I also used China Glaze's Grape Juice and Wet n Wild Kaleidoscope.

 Supplies not pictured are CND Stickey, Seche Vite topcoat and eyeshadow applicators.

What I did was put a bit of Grape Juice and Julie Ann on paper and used the eyeshadow applicator to dab the color lightly on my nails, using more pressure to make the color darker towards the tips. I did Grape Juice first as my "base" and JulieAnne on the tips. Then I put a thin coat of Kaleidoscope over the whole nail and topped it with Seche Vite. 

The whole look was super easy to do and quick. I think I did all of my nails in 10 minutes. You can find eyeshadow applicators at any drugstore for super cheap too. I like that you can do this with any color too, so maybe you'll be seeing more gradient nails in the future.

♥ Lachelle

Nina Ultra Pro Flamenco

Sally Beauty Supply was having a sidewalk sale this weekend and everything on clearance was additional 50% off. I got three Nina Polishes on clearance for just a dollar apiece! They aren't really unique colors, but I might need backups of something in my stash and hey I cant pass up one dollar nail polish, ok? :-)

That brings me to today's NOTD, Flamenco. I think this looks a lot like OPI's Dim Sum Plum, but I only have a small mini bottle of that. So turns out I can justify buying Flamenco. *shifty eyes* Since its such a plain color I decided to spice it up with some freehand nail art. My trusty toothpick flower nail art is usually quick and painless. However, for some reason, the flower on the ring finger in the pictures I am about to show you wouldn't cooperate for me. This was my 3rd and final attempt at the flower just on that nail alone, so I decided to call it a day! So its a little small and crazy looking, but I was tired of removing my polishing and starting over. The crazy thing is my right hand,which is the dominant one, looks just fine considering I did the flower with my left hand. Oh well.

Flamenco could have been a one coater; it was very pigmented and flowed well across the nail. I don't really have a problem with any Nina polishes I own. I think its a great, inexpensive line with a good formula.

♥ Lachelle

China Glaze Secret Periwinkle

So I'm glad I decided to get Secret Periwinkle at Sallys this weekend because I love it! Its a color that's unique to my stash. I decided to do a little something different to the ring finger with NYC skin tight denim and nail art brushes.

Oh yeah, I'm still wearing my gel overlays. No breaks yet and I find that my polish stays chip free longer. I'm on my second week wearing them and I haven't applied a second coat of gel yet.

Zoya Spoons...Online Polish Shopping Revolution!

Alright, I will admit I buy most of my polish in person, where I can actually see the colors. However, I have ordered polishes from Zoya online based on swatches from various nail blogs. Most of them have worked for me and lived up to my expectations...some of them haven't.

This is where Zoya Spoons come in handy. From the press release:

Zoya Nail Polish wants to Spoon with you!
 
Do you REALLY love nail polish? Have you ever purchased a color online or from a color chart only to find that it doesn’t match the picture? Have you always wanted to be able to try on nail polish the way you do clothing?
 
Well, what if you could see EXACTLY how any Zoya color would look on YOU before you buy it? What if you could make sure you ALWAYS get your perfect pink? Or perfect red. Or purple! ANY color! Any shade, EVERY TIME! Well now you can...
 
Zoya presents a new way to shop for nail color - The Zoya Color Spoon!
 
Every incredible Zoya nail color made will now be available as a spoon so you can try it before you buy it! This is a revolution for the online nail polish consumer and salon and spa buyers alike who previously only had online color representations or printed color charts as a guide. Never before have you been able to try so much color for so little money out of pocket. This is same Zoya color that comes in the bottle poured into small nail shaped wells to create a tester color spoon - you can see every subtle detail of the color and hold it up to your nail to see exactly how it will look. Plus, the amount you pay for the spoons will be added to your account in the form of code that will be available for use on a future Zoya purchase and BONUS Zoya will ship the spoons to you at no charge. “It’s amazing that we will be able to do this for our customers - there really is nothing else like it in the nail polish market today” stated Leo Reyzis, VP of Marketing at Zoya.
 
So quit the color guessing game when purchasing nail color online and try any one of Zoya’s over 300 formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate and camphor free, vegan friendly shades. Now you can be sure that the color you try is the exact same color you buy!
 
See it - Try it - Buy it!
 
Zoya Nail Spoons - $0.50 ea. (free shipping on all spoons - value of spoon(s) will be added to your account for a future zoya.com purchase).
 
Zoya Nail Spoons will be available at www.zoya.com starting September 1, 2010.
 
Here’s how it works...
Simply visit www.zoya.com, select a color(s) to try, click on the coordinating Zoya Color Spoon option in the product ordering area to add the color spoon to your shopping cart. Order as many as you would like. After your order has been approved and processed, zoya.com will ship your selected color spoons out for you to try and email you a confirmation along with your spoon value code (code will also be available under the “my account” section of www.zoya.com so you never have to worry about losing it).*
 
* All Zoya Color Spoon sales are final. One time personalized spoon value code. Zoya Color Spoon value code can be applied to any polish or treatment item at www.zoya.com. Code cannot be used to purchase additional spoons.

How cool are these? I think they are awesome because:

• They are basically risk free...you hate a color, its okay! You don't have to buy the full sized polish.
• The money goes towards a future purchase on Zoya.com
• They remind me of those little spoons that come in the vanilla ice cream cups. Random, I know. However anything that reminds me of ice cream cant be bad!

Way to go Zoya! Always keeping us nail fanatics happy.

♥ Lachelle