Update!

Hi everyone!

Well, I've been working a ton lately, with very little time to paint my nails. To give you an idea of my schedule, usually I get to do a mani on Tuesday night, enjoy it Wednesday, and remove it Wednesday evening. Thanks a lot Starbucks no nail polish rules! Last week I had to go in to work on both of my days off for various reasons so I didn't even get one day with a manicure :(

So needless to say I don't have very many manicure pictures to show you. I'm not sure when I will have more time, because working 5-6 days a week is my normal at this point. I will continue to paint my nails on my day(s) off when I can and will lovingly share my photos with you guys! I wish it could be more often because a)I love painting my nails and b)I love sharing my photos and thoughts with you guys, but at this point in time with this job, it doesn't allow me to have enough time to post more.

ON TO THE POST!!!!

I'd love to share my Valentines Day manicure with you guys! I actually got to enjoy this as a Day After Valentines Day Manicure, since I worked on Valentines Day! But I painted my nails when I got home to enjoy the next day! My sweet husband got me some pretty peach colored roses, and a thing of chocolate gelato! (I love ice cream, and chocolate!). On Wednesday (day off!), we slept in, then cooked scrambled eggs, sausage, and toast on our new electric skillet, enjoyed some television, took our recycling out (exciting!!! but seriously, it was getting really bad, like piles of water bottles and stuff, HAHA!), and then I went to my adult gymnastics class! It was a really enjoyable day off, and I love that we both have Wednesdays off from work, so we get to spend the day together!

OK seriously this time, here is my manicure! I used a lovely pink holo polish I got when I swapped with Inge at Polish Sis, Teeez 'Smooth'. I was going to do little hearts with China Glaze 108 Degrees, but the pink was too close to Smooth in shade, so I made a little heart on one finger with Zoya Astra, and one with Zoya Trixie! I really really love this shade of pink! Inge also sent me a purple holo which is also amazing, I love them both! Here it is!

This photo doesn't do the holo justice but you can see my cute hearts and the gorgeous shade of pink! AND you can see I've been doing so good getting my nails grown to the same length! I had a little peely thing on my ring finger so I had to cut the corner (I couldn't bear to cut the whole thing!) but oh well...it will grow out :)

Well, I hope you all enjoyed my Valentine mani and I hope you have a wonderful week!!! :)

Zoya Renee & Astra!

Hiiii guys! Here is one of my Zoya polishes which I feel so mixed about - Renee. I decided to give it another shot to see how I feel about it, since I haven't worn it since about April. Zoya describes Renee as "Ultra-bright red-toned medium neon pink creme. Bright and eye-catching, perfect for showing off a deep summer tan." I guess I didn't bother to read the description well before I ordered it, because I really thought it would be more along the lines of a nice not-too-bright pink. Well, I also ordered Ali, another neon-y pink color, so I was a little frustrated when I got them (at the same time) and realized how similar they look, both in the bottle and on the nail. They seriously are almost identical in the bottle. Renee is slightly less neon than Ali. 

I will say, though, Ali is very blinding on the nail (in a good way, haha!) and Renee is a little more toned down, which is nice. Renee seems to photograph a little more muted than it really is, so I've made a note by the one which I feel is most accurate to the color in real life!

Seems to photograph kind of muted, but in real life it's very bright and very pink! It shows up a little coral here, which it's definitely not.

This is a fairly color accurate picture, probably the most similar to how it actually appears. Nice and bright. It's definitely grown on me since the last time I wore it. I still don't think you need both Ali and Renee, though. Pick one.

Again, very color accurate. A nice juicy pink! Again I do want to stress it is pretty neon, though. Don't get fooled like I did, lol!

Typical gorgeous Zoya formula, I did three coats here because I felt like I needed that third one, but I think it was just because it dries a little matte thanks to the neon. It was a little thick on the brush and hard to control, so I just made sure to wipe the brush off well before applying on the nail which helped a lot.

Then I decided to spiffy it up a little bit with some tape and Zoya Astra, a beautiful ultra sparkly pink glitter! I've never done a tape mani before so I was a little apprehensive, but mostly this mani is just for a day or so, so I figured it was ok if it didn't work! (But it did, great success!) I cut some random tape strips and did mostly one diagonal line but a couple of the strips were very skinny so I doubled up on a couple of the nails just for fun! My middle finger makes me think of a candy cane!!

One more view of my first tape mani! It looks a lot better in real life, not such a stark contrast between the colors like it seems in the pic. Renee is much brighter in person so imagine it that way :)

And because I saw it in my bag and thought it matched, here's my new Starbucks cup sleeve!!! It's a red glittery fabric and I love it! It was $2.99 with my discount and I normally would have saved my money but we only had two of them and it just called to me! And it matches my Astra :) Here you can see my thumb glitter, which I think is my favorite!

What do you guys think of Renee, Astra, and my first tape mani?! Have a great day!! :)

Franken #4 - Pink Sparkle!

Hi everyone! I'm back with some photos of Franken #4, which I'll call Pink Sparkle. It's a pretty generic name but....oh well! To create this pretty pink, I mixed the rest of my Petites Pretty in Pink with a little clear, and Zoya Astra, which is a super sparkly raspberry jelly-ish polish. Astra is GORGEOUS but I get frustrated when trying to remove the super-glitters, plus I wanted to give it a little solid color to mix in with the sparkle. I like how it turned out! :)

Sorry it's a little messy! I did it in the car while my husband and I were driving to watch a soccer game! :P I love the bright pink shade from Pretty in Pink, and Astra adds just the right amount of sparkle for my liking! :)