Catching Up - My Birthday!

I celebrated my birthday in July and my friend made me one of the coolest birthday cakes ever - it was a nail polish bottle!!

She took all of my favorite flavors and colors and integrated them into this cake.  The cap is chocolate, the bottle is funfetti and strawberry layers, and it's all topped in a layer of fondant.

The design was modeled after an OPI bottle, down to
the dots between the "HPI" (happy!) and the cute label name on the bottom. 

It's a shout out to our poodle - that's how we spell our lil Suzie's name

To show the size perspective, here I am with my birthday cake.  

Even with half of the cake served, it's still ginormous!!

Since I had a home-based birthday celebration (movies, pizza, hanging out with amigos), I spent most of the morning straightening up our place.  When I was done, I needed a really quick mani change - perfect time to use a matte.

I went with Harlow from the Zoya Matte Velvet Winter 2009 collection.  It's a red-based purple matte shimmer.  I was good to go in two coats and a few minutes.  The Zoya brush, as always, means there was no extra clean up needed.

Matte shimmers are one of my favorite finishes, especially Zoya's.  A matte finish is cool on its own, but the shimmer adds an extra pop of interesting complexity.  Harlow goes to show that a shade can still be special, even if it was a last minute mani choice.

Zoya Luna

What a Tough Tuesday!  Really!!

It started in the morning and didn’t stop all day - snow flurries came down during the morning commute for the first time this winter, I get yelled at by a crazy lady when I’m trying to get my takeout, I finally catch a bus after work & get told the stop right by my house is being removed soon, our upstairs neighbors overrun their sink and flood our kitchen with disgusting yellow water, I spill my chili dinner on our living room carpet – BUT I changed my polish to something very happy successfully so the day ended on a very positive note.

This is Luna from the Zoya Winter 2009 UltraGlitter collection.  I love Zoya's descriptions, so here's an excerpt - light, shimmering sheer silvery dove gray base loaded with silver glitter.  Just a quick side note - one reviewer on Zoya's website commented they expected a clear base so they must have gotten a bad bottle. Maybe they should read the description before buying and definitely before posting a review?  Sorry for the snark - I said I had a rough day!

Since the day was overcast and snowy, I have some indoor shots.

Looking a little matte, but still glitteriffic...

A glossier angle!

-Flash-

I put Luna on in two thick coats - if you use thin coats, you'll need 3 to get full coverage. This was the sparkly version of today's flurries - the little glitter is the falling snow flakes against the milky gray base that looks like that cloudy sky. This is a lot more sparkly and twinkly than the real stuff we had today, and it definitely brightened my day. Ultra Glitter!

A GingerKittyDesign!

I'm a sucker for a sale - I picked up some RBLs, some Zoyas, and I got my very first piece from GingerKittyDesigns.  My bracelet just arrived yesterday and I've only taken it off while I slept and cleaned around the house.  It's gorgeous and I love it that much!

GingerKitty sells her designs through Etsy and the big thing is she handcreates each piece using nail polish of your choice.  She has a wide variety of beloved shades from OPI Absolutely Alice to Essie Starry Starry Night.  I ordered one of her new bracelets in purple.  She was beyond wonderful to work with - asking what colors I'd like, what kind of effect I'd prefer - I even got to pick my favorite out of multiple samples before she placed it in the setting.  Of course, I recommend checking her site out for yourself.

It's like looking at a galaxy on my wrist. It's so sparkly, so delicate, it's so pretty!!!  I'm not sure exactly polishes went into this final design, but GingerKitty did mention looking forward to trying Zoya Goldie when I asked for swirls of gold and silver through the purple.

In honor of my purple bracelet with a hint of Zoya, I'm wearing Valerie this weekend, which I, of course, picked up during their latest sale.  

Valerie is from the Zoya Winter 2010 Flame collection.  They describe this shade as a "royal purple with dark violet, red, deep pink and gold iridescence amplified by a glittering sparkle finish."  It's like Yasmeen got a makeover from this summer's Sparkle collection.  I think the shade shot really shows that glittery iridescence running through the bottle.  It was opaque in one coat, perfect and deep in two.  Yay for Zoya!

China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway

A tweet from Michèle from lacquerized. inspired me to wear this shade.  She wanted to wear a navy blue creme but couldn't find one, so I got to thinking about whether or not I had one.

Bermuda Breakaway is from China Glaze's Winter 2008 Bahama Blues collection. They describe it as a "Deep Navy Purple Creme."

I don't really think of this creme as a true blurple, but this blue does have a touch of purple in it. I tried to adjust the picture so I could represent the shade as accurately as possible. That's actually why my hands look so dry and winterized in this picture.

I had been avoiding this polish because of the horror stories with the Bahama Blues formula when this collection came out.  Maybe the formula's been tweaked a lot since then because this polish went on really easily! It was opaque in one coat, but I used two coats to even out and deepen the color. 

Some might think that navy is a bit darker than this shade, but I don't care for almost-black shades at all, so I wouldn't want it to be any darker. I think that Bermuda Breakaway fits the bill nicely my stash's navy blue creme. It's clearly blue in all lights and it's a breeze to put on. To think I was going to let this sit untried in my drawer - Thanks for the idea, Michèle!

Nubar Chocolate Caramel

I went to Nails Night Out in NYC last October. It was at the Martini Bar by Union Square. It was a great time - great drinks, yummy munchies, tons of polish people, and my first polish goodie bag. One of my gifts was a base coat, top coat, and Tiara from Nubar.  I LOVE Nubar's Foundation Base Coat. If I had to live with one base coat for the rest of my life, this would be my base coat.

Nubar had a St. Patrick's Day sale, so I decided to try out some of their colors and they arrived today! The first one I had to try was Chocolate Caramel from the Winter 2009 Chocolate Truffles Collection.

I love chocolate on Fridays - why not wear it on my nails? This polish is such a luscious brown-gold. All day I kept looking at this polish and wondering what tasty treat it really really reminded me of - chocolate, coffee, some kind of candy? I still don't know for sure, but I know whatever it is must be yummy. I'm definitely wearing this the next time I'm going through chocolate cravings. It's a visual appeasement.

Chocolate Caramel is a crazy sparkler with a warm medium brown base and golden shimmer. Many of the pictures I've seen of this polish have been in full sunlight to show off the shimmer. This makes the polish look so warm that it's practically a bright orange-ish or yellow-ish brown. It's definitely a shimmery polish, but those pictures didn't really show the green hints in the shimmer. I swear there's even flecks of pink in some light. 

My NOTD mani was two coats of Chocolate Caramel over Nubar's Foundation Base Coat and topped with their Diamont Seal & Shine Top Coat (of course I was going to try out their polish with their treatments).  The application was nice and their brush is so easy to use. I'm looking forward to trying out the rest of the Nubars I picked up!