Zoya's Gossip Collection 2008: Audrina, Lo, Elodie, Heidi, LC, Whitney

These colours are super bright, excellent for summer. Almost neon, but not quite... The polishes in the Gossip collection are all cleverly named after the girls from The Hills.

Audrina - Quite possibly my favourite Zoya and character from The Hills, but most definately my favourite of the Gossip collection. A bright purple with pink undertones. Opaque in two coats, super glossy and it dries quickly.

Whitney - My second favourite from Gossip. A hot pink. This photo was taken when my nails were little nubs :) Opaque in two coats, super glossy also. Very similar to OPI's In-dia Mood For Love.

Lo - A very cute peach-pink. Opaque in two coats, very glossy without top coat. Very similar to OPI's Elephantastic Pink.

Elodie - A bright peach with orange undertones. Opacity and glossiness is the same throughout the Gossip collection. Very close to OPI's Cajun Shrimp, maybe a few shades lighter.

Heidi - The slightest bit more orange than Elodie. Opaque in two coats, super glossy like the others. Similar to OPI's Mod-ern Girl. A tinge oranger.

LC - My most disliked character on The Hills, but I do love this shade of red. Nothing really unique though, similar to China Glaze's Revolution, OPI's Lunch at the Delhi and a whole ton of Essies.

Zoya Cyma

I love how Cyma has magenta shimmer throughout out, it makes the red seem to be brighter and warmer. Cyma is also from Zoya's Flourish collection. A very festive red from Zoya.

OPI South Beach 2009

Here are the promo pics for OPI's Summer/Spring collection 2009, South Beach.

I will be getting my hands on all of these as soon as I can! They will be released on the 4th of February.

Click on the pics to see them better :D

OPI Yokohama Collection!

Here is a good reference if anyone wanted to know what some Yokohama's looked like, their names, numbers etc. I made this up today :D I am very pleased with it hehe! 

Included in the swatches are Blush of Adrenaline, Penny For Your Thoughts, Starbright Sparkles II, Baby Blue, Swirl of Euphoria, Bay Bridge Sunset, Cherry Blossom, Sweet Love at Ferris Wheel, and Yokohama Twilight.

INCOCO Soho Chic

These are stickers of nail polish, little tabs that you place onto your base coat free *shudders* nail. Every time I get a wiff of these, it keeps reminding me that there is nothing protecting my nails from this horrible sticker thing :(

Moving on, I found these at Smith and Caugheys at New Market the other day. The SA wouldn't stop praising the product, "one lady bought four this morning!", they were $12 a pack and the colours looked pretty cool on the display wheel. Sadly, Soho Chic did not transfer its coolness on to my nails.

Lets talk about the application - It says to start from your pinky to your thumb, I didn't do that, I usually like to start from my middle finger then pointer, ring, pinky and lastly thumb. I'm a free spirit on the order I do my nails in LOL. Ok, so it comes with a little test packet of two sizes, completley different colour to what you get, which isn't that great. You have to peel off the plastic covering the colour, then you have to peel the sticker off the tab and line it up with your cuticle.

The SA tried showing me how they work in the store, she couldn't get it to stick on her nail, didn't give me much confidence but she explained that she had been showing oil to a previous customer....

Once you have lined the flimsy sticker up with your cuticle you need to push it down with a free finger. Once it is stuck on you need to rub all over your nail to make sure it is stuck down firmly. Lets add another feature to the Con list - if you have ridges, damage, bumps etc. it WILL show it. It showed me ridges I had never noticed before. After it is stuck down, you bend it over your tip to cut off the excess. I don't see how this would work well for people with shorter nails...

Your done, no top coat, no clean up needed and it has lasted throughout my day of shopping without one chip. Which makes me kind of worried, what are in these things?

Lets do a list.

Pros:

No clean-up needed afterwards

Makes your cuticles look perfect

No chipping after one day, supposedly suppose to last 14 :S

Cheap

Cons:

Hard to apply - I only did my right hand, I'd hate to even attempt to doing my left.

Stinks (literally)

Not good for people with different cuticles other than round

To much size jump between sizes, there are big gaps on some of my nails

Would not suit wide nailed people, thin sticker sizing

Brings out all your imperfections

Only enough for two manicures, thats if you use different sizes each time :S

I have another pack to try of these, a bright sparkly fuchsia, well thats how it looked on the wheel anyway...

Gradient Tutorial! Zoya Morgan and Starla

Ok, here is my first tutorial! Firstly apply your base coat. I used Nailtek's Foundation II here, it dries matte. Then you need to get a creme or jelly polish. I used Zoya's Morgan. Then you need to find a sheer sparkly/glittery/shimmer polish that builds up a colour when layered. I chose Zoya's Starla.

This tutorial will be on my thumb :D

1. Get your creme polish (Morgan) and free hand it on your tip as if you were doing a french manicure. If you don't feel confident doing this you can always use the french guides, but it doesn't matter if you make a mistake as it will be covered anyway :)

2. Get your sheer (Starla) and brush over your whole nail or 90% of the way.

3. Do another coat of your sheer only 75% up your nail.

4. Another coat of your chosen sheer, this time only going up 50% of your nail.

5. Do another very small coat of your sheer this time only going up 25% of your nail from the tip. It's like painting your nails backwards so it may take some practice :)

You are all done now! Add your top coat and you're set. Easy huh?

My First Gradient!

I attempted my very first gradient manicure today, and I am very pleased with the results!

The colours used in this manicure are Zoya's Morgan and Starla. Morgan was used to colour my tips and Starla was used for the graduation :D

Doing this has got my creative juices flowing, I want to try two colours, Christmas manis, reversing the gradient. The possibilities are endless!