essie risky business

i really enjoy essie polishes. i love cremes so that's probably why haha. they rarely step out of their little creme box. but when they do, i feel like they really knock something loose and cool. like...ever heard of starry starry night? well I HAVE! haha for instance, this jelly electric orangey/red called risky business, is far from your typical essie varnish. it's super shimmery! it's a JELLY! it's awesomely pigmented. and it's totally fun. and it's not pink. are you suuuuure it's an essie? yup pretty sure! haha, i love the little essie bottle, so sophisticated and clean. so i'm a sucker for them. and i am a sucker for risky business. this is 3 coats & no topcoat. i love it!

 

essie wife goes on

happy thanksgiving! and to those who don't celebrate, happy black friday eve!

i got this essie at trade secret in a discount bin. it was one i had been eye-ing for a while, mostly because i thought the name was funny--wife goes on. it is from the "staring over" collection, which essie put out as a "salute" to the independent woman? i guess celebrating divorce. yeah...no comment haha. anywaaaays, it is a pretty watermelon-ish berry color that leans on the red side. essie's website says this is "a bold true red" but i have to disagree with them on that one, because a true red IMO isn't as pink as this baby looks to me but meh whatev. i'll have to do a comparison of this and essie's watermelon soon. it is a little darker on the nail than it looks in the bottle if you notice, which i find interesting. this is two coats (very opaque and non streaky) and no topcoat.

 

what is everyone doing today? i'm in nevada with my family soaking up some love and R&R :) and of course, stuffing my face! is anyone going shopping tomorrow? if you are have fun and stay safe! i'm hoping to have my sister back home get me a new camera on sale. maybe you'll be seeing some better pics on Also Known As soon! take care sweets ♥

zoya meiko

this is probably my favorite zoya that i've tried so far. meiko is a sweet name too. the next fish i get will have meiko for a name i think :) this polish reminds me of strawberry fields from china glaze, now that i think about it! lovely bright pink berry colored lacquer with amazing gold shimmer. mmmm just heavenly. it is definitely a must-own polish. now enjoy the picture spam!

sun

zoya emme

this zoya is probably the only one i've tried that i haven't loved. most likely because it is a pearl. although miss emme starts off super pretty and lovely as a light pink, you quickly realize it is super pearly and frosty which equals major mamma-jamma brush strokes. and if you know me at all, you know that i hate brush strokes. so emme, dear, we are not a match. no way, no how. but hey, if that's your thing, go pick up this chick and show her a good time! frosty girls need love too ;)

(plus this photo isn't in focus, so it probably looks worse than it really is. soooorrry!)

zoya tallulah

aw lovely tallulah, she is such a pretty girl! zoya made such a bright beautiful candy blue. it looks like it belongs in a skittles bag, uhh YUM! the zoya formula is perfect, it goes on so smooooooth. this is another borrowed one. i'm really going to have to invest and get myself some new ones of my own haha! i have my eye on pasha, elke, ki, and yasmeen.

sun

zoya midori

so it's been a while since i've had any midori (drink), but that doesn't mean that i can't enjoy this kind of midori! zoya midori to be more specific. i love green, any kind of green. and this is a unique one, a bright green apple that reminds me of the kind of color you would find in a magic marker case. soo pretty and it has that familiar zoya gold sparkle in it!

sun

zoya cassi

ooh ooh zoya ahoy! this girl is named cassi and she is a doll! light peachy pink and full of sparkly glassy particles. very pretty, very girly, very polished!

sun

zoya evangeline

this is one of the zoya's my sister clarrisa got from the twitter get 3 free promotion that zoya did a million years ago. evangeline is a BEAUTIFUL deep berry shade with gold sparkle. i tend to like any pink/red with gold in it. this is no exception. very sexy i think.

i hope everyone's weekend went well :) i spent mine sleeping and doing homework. oh joy oh rapture! p.s. how do you like my new blog header? courtesy of miss caitlin bananas :D ciao bellas!

giveaway alert!!!

who loves ya baby? i do!

i decided it was time for another fun giveaway for my lovely blog lovers, so here we go!

prize = 5 nail polishes: Icing Cocoa, NYC Nail Glossies #219, Color Club Black-ish, OPI You're a Doll, and NYC New York Canal Street

RULES:

• you must be a follower of this blog please :)
• leave a comment on this post with your name and email address (if i cannot find it easily)
• in that same comment, please tell me your favorite song & who it is by (just so i have something to read haha)
  
• international followers are welcome
• contest ends on November 30th at 12 midnight MDT
  

that's it!
♥
thanks for reading!

zoya drew

zoya's drew is another lovely deep pink shade, similar to previously posted joy, but the shimmer in this one is the same lovely rose hue as the base, making it monochromatic throughout. i think i like drew a tiny bit better than joy, but who says you have to choose?? haha :D

indirect sun

zoya joy

this zoya is a pretty dark pink with gold sparkles, called joy. and i was filled with joy wearing it haha :) not too crazy but still fun. i really love zoya's range of colors! this polish is borrowed from my bestie mickelle. i think i need more zoyas in my life. yes, i surely do!

essie st. barths blue

until i get my lemming for ChG's moody blue satisfied, i picked up this shimmered pastel grey-ed blue, essie st. barths blue. it's lovely lovely and so classy! i adore it :)

i hope your weekends are going well! it's getting quite chilly here! i wish our autumn had lasted longer, but what can ya do? seems the only real seasons utah has are winter and summer anyway haha ♥

essie ball-timore

i've wanted essie's ball-timore for a while. it has long since been discontinued, but i was able to get it from transdesign :)  it was part of the Summer Balls collection which included a polish with the funniest name i've ever heard, meet-balls. i don't own it personally, but my friend mickelle does. i'll have to borrow it to swatch one of these days haha.

image credit: beauty realm

ball-timore isn't a shade i normally go for, as it is kind of frosty. i hate hate hate brush strokes so i had to be careful with this guy. and it does take a fair amount of coats to make opaque. this is three (rather sloppy now that i can see the pics blown up sorry!) coats with no topcoat. i think i'll use a thicker ridgefiller next time too... but i still love the pretty candy pink that is ball-timore! it's very girly and fun.

essie amalfi

i love gooooolllld!

that's what Goldmember says. and that's what i say too! haha, i actually don't care for that Austin Powers movie all that much, Mike Myers sunk pretty low with that one haha. but honestly, i have a soft spot in my heart for golds. i would never wear gold jewelry, haha i think it's soooo ghetto, but on ma fingaaas?? grrrrl please! hand ova the bling!

this polish is the amaaazing! essie amalfi is a white gold frost polish (discontinued) that shine shine shines. a bit sheer, this is three coats and i still have VNL but i don't mind. also, little to no brush strokes = a win!

my first nubar haul!

i've been wanting some nubars for a long time, and when my bestie (and fellow polish fiend) told me there was a nubar discount going on on their website, we jumped at the chance to do a joint order. behold the polish porn!!

hahahaha we went hog wild! only about 1/5 of these are mine, the rest belong to mickelle-o :D you can bet i'll be borrowing them ALL and doing a hellza lotta swatching for you! i'm soooo happy right now!

the above is the lacquer head version of "doing lines" hahaha--swatching on tape on my arm :) get it? instead of shooting up? yeah...i have a problem.

strawberry fields

aw china glaze, why you gotta do me so right? haha, i have to say that i am head over heels in love with this polish. strawberry fields is a rich vibrant pink filed with gallons of golden shimmer. it was released with china glaze's summer days collection '09. the entire set of paints were all pretty fun, personal favorites being watermelon rind, grape juice, this guy, and cherry pie. but they were all amazing. china glaze knows how to do their shimmers and glass flecks that is fo' sho!

strawberry fields is probably my favorite out of the bunch because of the great contrast of the pink and gold. also, the closest town to where i live has a "Strawberry Days" festival every summer. there is a fair and a rodeo and tons and tons of strawberries & cream to eat everywhere you look for about a week!  if you don't have this polish yet, what are you waiting for?? go get it :D

tagged: sugar doll award

the adorable caitlin bananas tagged me for this sugar doll award, what a sweetie! thanks !♥

here are 10 things i want to do in my lifetime:

1. be in a movie, even if it's just as an extra (which it probably will be haha!)
2. go to Italy, Greece, France, Spain, etc. all the European countries
   
3. learn to scuba dive, after i get over my fear of being underwater that is...
   
4. design my own nail polish color (stole that one caitlin!)
5. learn another language, maybe two
6. live for at least a year in England
   
7. get married
8. learn to cook, not just microwave stuff
9. buy my mom a house out in the country
10. become an avid gardener
    
    i tag:
    phenomenail
    lipglossiping
    iceomatic's nails
    have fun :D
    

china glaze wagon trail

does anyone remember that awful game we used to play in grade school "the oregon trail"? if you went to grade school in the 90's, then you probably know what i'm talking about. that's the first thing that came to my mind when i heard about this cult phenomenon of a nail polish color. china glaze's wagon trail is a dark olive green shade from the rodeo diva collection.

at first, i was all, wha what whaat? how can everyone love a dark olive green color so much? and i have to be honest, the pictures i saw were not doing it any favors. but then i stumbled across scrangie and e-polish's sites and they of course loved it too. and their pictures finally did the polish the justice it so rightfully deserves. in fact, the entire rodeo diva collection is a huge win in my book. there is not one color in there that i wouldn't wear twice, three times over again.
wagon trail is gorgeous, deep, dark, and hued to perfection. there is just the right amount of green/gold shimmer in it to keep one's eyes flickering down to it in the sun and dark enough to qualify it as dark and punky/goth/vampy which i love. how did i ever doubt you, dear? the above is 2 coats, no topcoat, flash.

top coat trials

the Edge of Sanity blog is doing a "top coats undressed" series right now where they investigate and report on 12 different topcoats by 8 different polish fiends. it's really cool and super interesting so far! they're on topcoat #3 from the bottom as of today, i believe. the posts are very thorough, complete with a scoreboard of categories and explanations as well as comments from each of the testers. go ch-ch-check it out HERE! i was super surprised to find out that Poshe scored the lowest out of the 12 topcoats so far. i am dying to find out if my dear lover SECHE VITE will reign supremeo or not. guess i'll have to wait and see!

3 little polishes from denmark

my dear maria from polishign the nails! blog surprised me a while ago with some pretties to add to my collection! some gorgeous lacquers that i did not have and probably would never had have gotten on my own. :D she made my day!

nubar pink dot, barry m pale purple, and h&m my favorite jeans

nubar pink dot is my first nubar, and is almost like exactly like a polish i had on my "wishlist" (sugar), isn't she thoughtful! it's a jelly transparent pink base with round holo glitter and tiny glitter suspended in it. this is three coats.
the pale purple was my first barry m and i LOVE the bottle! the handle & brush worked great for me as well. i think i'm definitely going to have to get some more barry m's! this color is a lovely creme that leaned toward the pink side of purple; three coats.my favorite jeans is a GORGEOUS darkish blue with tons and tons of shimmer. it really does look like the threads in a great pair of jeans! this looks killer in the sun, too bad i failed to get a sunlit picture. Sorry!thanks again so much maria (rijaH!) you're such a sweetie-pea♥