Go With the Flow

I was recently the lucky recipient of these lovely Zoya polishes – pink Kristie, blue Maren, turquoise Harbor, and purple Jessica – thanks to the kind folks at Nail Polish Canada.  I swatched them all, of course – see my previous post for those details – but I also wanted to do a bit of nail art with my new, candy-coloured polishes.

Problem: I’m SO out of practice these days, both in terms of nail art ability and actual nail care, that a good mani for me is one in which my nails are not encrusted with a solid quarter-inch of gardening grit.  I figured at best I’d come up with something ultra easy, like a simple dotticure.

Instead I decided to shoot for the moon and do a water marble manicure, perhaps THE most difficult nail art technique, one that requires you to float polish on the surface of water.  Because that just sounds SUPER easy (spoiler alert: it’s usually not, and it’s always hella messy!)

Except….this time, with these polishes, it wasn’t.  Even after my extended absence from the nail art realm.  I think it’s because these four lacquers – rich cremes, all – are brand new, and at the peak of their polish power, having not picked up months’ and years’ worth of oil and grime.  All four are of a completely identical consistency as well, making it ultra easy to float the polish on the surface of water AND toothpick-out a swirled design.  TL;DR?  These Zoya polishes make water marbling EASY, even for the woefully out of practice.

Speaking of, I realize that without photos of the water marbling process, this must all sound like utter gibberish.  So might anyone be interested in a little tutorial?  Because I’d like to give this technique another try, see if I could come up with a slightly more consistent design finger-to-finger (much as I like the every-digit-for-itself approach.) 😉  Please do come back soon to see how I work out with that!

Splash Into Summer With Zoya

Throughout this pandemic period, I have been losing things – sunglasses, car keys, paperwork, and, if the above is any indication, occasionally my own dang marbles.

Perhaps the thing that’s irked me the most about all of this forgetfulness is that I seem to have lost the ability to paint my nails!  Pandemic concerns aside, I’ve been busy for pretty well half a year now settling us into our new home, and I’m finding the property – a single family home with a lot of landscaping – to be quite demanding of my time.  As such, I’ve barely done a lick of nail art, and the thought of giving myself a manicure just for fun has been incomprehensible (mostly because for the majority of the spring and summer, I’ve been sporting a gungy gardening mani – cracked, breaking and caked in a whole lotta dirt.)  I am woefully out of practice, and boy howdy, do my nails look it, too.

So I was thrilled when Nail Polish Canada recently asked me to use and review one of Zoya‘s new six-piece summer collections.  Gave me a wonderful excuse to get back to the nail art and blogging that I love so very much, and the even better excuse to get my nails in shape and give myself a number of pretty manicures.  So thank you for the timely reminder to do something nice for myself – and my nails – Nail Polish Canada and Zoya!

Zoya is a long-standing polish manufacturer whose name, in my experience, is synonymous with quality, consistency and a leading edge approach to animal and human welfare.  Their polishes are Big 10-free (that would be free of all of those toxic ingredients you can hardly pronounce), cruelty-free and VEGAN, which delights Mr. Finger Candy, who is vegetarian but leaning vegan, to no end.

Moreover, Zoya’s polishes are uniformly great, with a nice self-leveling formulation that you will fall in love with if you’re not great at painting your nails, or if you, like me, have nearly completely forgotten how!  I’ve yet to use one that hasn’t applied well and worn like the dickens.  Zoya’s creme polishes also come in about a bajillion beautiful colours, making them perfect for nail art.

This is Zoya’s six-piece summer Splash collection.  I had my choice of two Splash collections, and I chose B because of its lush, vibrant cremes, and those two perfect beachy shimmers.  Let’s jump in the pool and take a closer look at these lovely polishes, shall we?

First up is Barbie pink Kristie, the perfect summertime hue.  This would look fantastic on toes dangling off the edge of a diving board.

Next we have the first of two shimmers in the collection, Fisher.  This is a lovely Cinderella blue shot through with silvery-purple microshimmer.  I used a top coat with Fisher and the other shimmer because they were both just the tiniest bit dull, and I wanted to bring out every ounce of that beautiful shine.  This colour reminds me of beach glass.

Jessica is next on (the pool) deck with this deep, glossy raisin.  Tons of shine in this one, even without the benefit of topcoat.

Next up we have Maren, a gorgeous ocean blue that is the very definition of “Splash”!  I own a number of these cobalt blue polishes, but Maren stands apart from the others with its warm, barest-of-green-leaning hues.  Beautiful.

In the penultimate spot we have Corrina, the perfect shimmery shell pink.  This is such a flattering hue, and while I think it looks beautiful on my freckled Celtic hide, it would be absolutely gorgeous on people with darker skin tones.

Finally, we have the one true blue(-green) polish of the collection, Harbor.  Small word of warning, though, when it comes to Harbor, and indeed, nearly all turquoise or green-leaning hues – they will stain, so use a base coat.

TL;DR;JCOTP (too long; didn’t read; just checked out the photos): Zoya’s vegan, cruelty-free, non-toxic polishes are some of the best ones out there, and this Splash collection is a gorgeous slice of summery fun.  Get yours at Nail Polish Canada by clicking the embedded links above, and please come back later on this week when I’ll have some cute, Zoya-ful nail art to share with you.

Saint(s) and Sinners

Despite the fact that this gorgeous Zoya polish is the exact pink-tinged periwinkle of a perfect Bachelor Button, the name of Saint is an apt one – during the Renaissance period, these sorts of blues were reserved for paintings of only the highest ranking of biblical figures.  Blue pigment – particularly that of the cerulean or purple-leaning variety – was both expensive and exceedingly difficult to come by; as such, only your top tier saints were garbed in blue.  So there’s a fun little trick for picking out the important people in Renaissance paintings.  The things you learn in a day, right?

And what I learned today is that this polish, a very recent purchase from Nail Polish Canada’s Black Friday sale, is stupendous.  I adore polishes like Saint – clear, vibrant jellies infused with pink micro-shimmer.  The resulting look is quite oil slicky, with a deep purple streak that makes the polish look like it’s glowing from within.  One of my favourite polishes to use this effect is Girly Bits Cosmetics’ Dead Man’s Toe, a dark khaki creme that looks like queasiness in a bottle (and I mean that in the best possible way!) But Saint, with its pink-hued shimmer and glassy, periwinkle hue, is beauty divine, no caveat (or names that invoke cadavers.)

Except here comes one small caveat.  Being a jelly, Saint wants to pull back from the edges of your nails, an effect that’s exacerbated by quick dry topcoats.  So when applying, run the polish (I used three light coats for this manicure) right up to the edges of your cuticles. By the time it’s dry, it will have shrunk a bit, leaving you with a nice little frame around the edges of your nails that hopefully won’t require too much cleanup.  Zero sinning.

A Speckled Egg of a Different Sort

Yeah, you don’t see them in electric cobalt blue all that often, do you?  I certainly can’t deny that the overall look of this manicure – Ardene’s black-and-blue glitter topper, Following, over Nails Inc.’s blue creme, Baker Street – is Easter Egg ramped all the way up to 11, first with a glossy topcoat, and then dialed back a bit with the addition of a matte topcoat, Zoya’s Matte Velvet, to highlight all that nearly-hidden blue glitter (matte topcoats, as always, also destroy your manicure; I’ve yet to encounter one, no matter the brand, formulation, age, etc., that doesn’t deposit white fleckies all over your hard work. It’s a cool look, but regrettably also a destructive one.)

Disney Girl Challenge: Patchwork Sally (Again)

Small administrative note: I posted these nails earlier on this afternoon, and owing to what I’m assuming was a glitch in publishing, they didn’t show up in the WordPress Reader or in any other meaningful way until about half an hour ago. So I’ve deleted the original post and replaced it with this exact copy, in the hopes the admin issues have sorted themselves out – with apologies to the folks who were kind enough to like this post as originally published.

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My goodness, does our girl Patchwork Sally have an affinity for the muted print or what? At one point whilst doing these nails, I think I had about 15 different polishes open and on the go. The lady’s got a busy, busy wardrobe.

I attempted a Sally design as part of my self-imposed Disney Girl Challenge very, very early on in my nail art-ing career, and I still think it remains a pretty decent effort.

I actually thought I had left that original effort glossy, but it turns out I had the foresight to matte it up even back then, because I really think all Nightmare Before Christmas manis should be in a hazy matte finish, don’t you? The one change to this updated Sally mani that I thought was sort of inspired, though, was my choice of holographic polishes, which take on a cool, textured look when topped with a matte topcoat. I thought that was a great choice for Sally’s cute, but totally burlap or itchy wool, sack dress.

On that somewhat related note, I’d like to sing the praises of my new matte topcoat of choice, Zoya’s Matte Velvet, which, as the name suggests, gives your manis a matte, velvety sort of look. I used to be quite loyal to Essie’s Matte About You, but as you’ll note in the older Sally manicure, it had the unfortunate habit of depositing tiny white flecks all over my hard work. So I tried out something a little new, and so far, I’m super pleased with Zoya’s topcoat – soft and satiny smooth.

Cyclone Pop

More wishful thinking expressed through my nails, as it’s presently crapping icy precipitation all over the city. Again. Usual weather-related pessimism aside, I’ve really tried to stay positive throughout this never-ending winter, but popsicle season still feels a ridiculously long way off.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t jump the gun ever so slightly, which is where this fun manicure comes in, a Cyclone pop-inspired gradient using a trio of summery textured polishes from Zoya (the sparkling champagne shade, Godiva) and OPI (I’m Brazil Nuts Over You and What’s a Little Rain Forest, the hot pink and turquoise shades from OPI’s four piece Beach Sandies collection.)

I’ll also point out that my husband had no idea what that little animal on my ring finger is. It’s supposed to be a Cyclone popsicle, although his first guess (delivered with a kind of wild eyed, “Oh my lord, I have to say something positive here, but WHAT is that thing?” sort of intensity) was “Hey! Cute…um…caterpillar?” Okay, sure, we’ll go with caterpillar; makes as much sense as a popsicle!

Red Velvet

Two new-to-me polishes came my way this week, A England’s holographic Rose Bower and my first Zoya polish, Godiva from the Pixie Dust collection. In the interest of saving a bit of time in testing, I thought I’d put them together into one manicure featuring a little sugar-dusted gradient work and some freehanded hearts. The end result is something highly reminiscent of red velvet cake, ubiquitous mainstay of most modern bakeries, coffee shops, grocery stores, patisseries, donut shops…seemingly there’s a red velvet for all occasions, including your nails!