The Polish that Started it All!

  I was never really into nail polish when I was younger.  I would occasionally paint them, but mostly my nails were naked and bitten down to painful nubs.  If I polished my nails, I never really looked at them and said "wow, that is gorgeous"!  Until one day, my mom gave me a set of minis from OPI (my first high-end polish) and I fell in love!  One of the minis was this gorgeous pink that looked different depending on what angle my nails were at and I used the whole thing up.  I was really sad when it was gone.

  Fast forward to last month... I was thinking about that polish.  I had no idea what the name of it was, but I thought it maybe had something to do with Broadway?  So I searched around... and I found that fabulous polish!  I was thrilled - of course I had to go find it on eBay and order a bottle!  What was this fabulous polish, you might ask?

OPI Movin' Out

From the 2003 Holiday on Broadway collection

  Movin' Out is a very sheer, shimmery medium pink.  It also has a gorgeous multichrome effect to it that is very subtle when on its own, but intense when layering.  I definitely plan to layer this soon, however I first wanted to wear it the way I remember wearing it back in 2003.

  For this coverage, I used four coats - yes it is that sheer!  But it applied really well otherwise.  It was really fun to find this old polish - the very first polish that ever made me look at my nails and say "wow"!  From them on, I really enjoyed painting my nails.  Although I didn't go totally polish crazy until last year, haha.  I plan on layering this beauty soon to show off her amazing multichrome nature, but for now I hope you enjoyed my story of the first polish I ever loved. :)

OPI Nice Stems! - Swatches and Review

  What a fun little collection of pinks!  The OPI Nice Stems! collection consists of four gorgeous pink shades perfect for summer.  While I enjoy a wide range of polish colors, it is always fun to go back to a "classic" pink manicure!  I did not swatch I Lily Love You by itself (too sheer) but you will see it over each of the other three colors!  All colors are shown without base coat, with top coat, in natural outdoor lighting.  All pictures can be clicked to see maximum detail.

Play the Peonies

 A very pretty pale pink with delicate shimmer throughout.  This is a really nice feminine, safe color.  I used three coats for full coverage.

Play the Peonies with two coats of I Lily Love You.  This combo creates a gorgeous light/medium pink with great rainbow glitter and flakies.  I love this combination!

Come to Poppy

Bright coral pink with a touch of shimmer.  I really love this for summer!  One coat was almost enough but just barely not... so this is two coats for full coverage.

Come to Poppy plus two coats of I Lily Love You.  Another gorgeous combo.

Be A Dahlia Won't You?

Super shimmery fuschia with blue undertones.  I just love polishes like this!  It sort of reminds me of Wing It! from last summer... perhaps I will have to do a comparison?  Two coats.

Be A Dahlia plus two coats of I Lily Love You.  This ends up almost looking like the bottle color!  I wore this as a full mani for a few days, very pretty.

Overall Thoughts

A great collection of summery pinks! The clear must-have for me is I Lily Love You, since it can be used as a top coat to so many different colors to give them that gorgeous sparkle flakie look!  However all colors in this collection are fabulous, and there are both bold and safer colors to choose from.  Overall very pleased with these summer pinks!

DISCLOSURE: The polishes featured in this post  were provided to Polishology by OPI for review purposes.  This is an honest and independent review and was in no way influenced by the company.

Happy 4th of July!

  Hope everyone is having a fabulous Fourth of July - whether you are here in the US celebrating Independence Day (and hopefully a day off) or you are elsewhere simply enjoying a lovely Monday.  :)  I of course had to do something red, white and blue for the holiday!

Outdoors, full sun

  For these nails, I started out with three coats of China Glaze Ruby Pumps, a gorgeous glittery red I have shared here before.  It is a fabulous red.  On top of that, I used Bundle Monster plate BM21 with Konad special white to add stars.  I topped that off with Seche, waited for it to dry, then used tip guides to add OPI Absolutely Alice (one of my favorite all time polishes) to the tips.  I added silver rhinestones to the centers of the large stars, one for coat of Seche and was good to go!

Outdoors, shade

  I really love how this turned out!  I had a lot of different ideas for what to wear today but I am glad I chose this one.  Can't wait to show it off at the family pool party later!

Nova!

  In other non-nail news... we decided to keep the puppy!  After a week long "trial separation" where she stayed with the in-laws, I was so depressed and missing her we just had to have her back.  I am so happy - I know we will find a way to make it work when we go back to clinical rotations.  Isn't she so cute and festive in her red, white, and blue bandana? :)

Aw!

  Have a great day! :D

Zoya Touch Collection - Swatches and Reviews

  I was very excited to receive the Zoya Touch collection, which consists of three gorgeous nude shades with a subtle shimmer.  Finding a good nude to match your skin tone can be difficult, but Zoya provides three lovely options so you are bound to find a great fit in at least one of the three!  All swatches are shown with two coats, without top or base coat, in both shade and sun.

Minka

Minka - Outdoors, shade

Zoya Minka is a yellow based beige with a touch of soft silvery microshimmer.  Minka is intended especially for those with olive skin tones.  I personally found this one to be a bit too yellow on my skin.

Minka - Outdoors, direct sunlight

Shay

Shay - Outdoors, shade

 Zoya Shay is a peach based beige with the same silvery shimmer.  This was my personal favorite - I feel it complements my skin tone very nicely, almost giving me "mannequin hands."  Intended for warmer skin tones.

Shay - Outdoors, sunlight

Pandora

Pandora - Outdoors, shade

 Zoya Pandora is a pink beige with silvery microshimmer.  To me, this leans a bit more to a blush pink than beige.  I also like this one a lot on my skin.  Intended for cooler skin tones.

Pandora - Outdoors, sunlight

Overall Thoughts

Zoya has provided a great collection of nudes here in which you are bound to find at least one polish complimentary to your skin - I found two I really loved.  The polish is of the high quality you would expect from Zoya, with great application and a smooth glossy finish.  I definitely recommend these polishes if you have had a hard time finding that perfect nude for your skin.  If you are unsure of which color will look best on you,  remember that you can always order a Zoya Color Spoon to try it out first!

DISCLOSURE: The polishes featured in this post was provided to Polishology by Zoya for review purposes.  This is an honest and independent review and was in no way influenced by the company.

CND Shellac Review!

  I have to admit, ever since I heard of Shellac I have been dying to give it a try.  I gave my mom a gift certificate for a local spa for Christmas and waited to go with her... and waited and waited, haha.  She is not normally a nail person but does enjoy it occasionally - but she hates chipping and would definitely not want to redo her nails ever few days so this seemed perfect for her!  We finally went near the end of May before our vacation, so we would not have to mess with our nails there.  Let me point out that these nails endured not only a lot of use while at work but also a lot of swimming, lake sports and a week with (the most adorable ever) baby!  I picked Tutti Frutti, a fun and bold summer pink.  So here we go!

Day One

Indoors, artificial light

This shows my nails late the same night that I had them done.  Really wonderful application, smooth and shiny and perfect around the cuticles.  I was really pleased!

Day Five

Outdoors, Shade

 Starting to see a little bit of growth and a tiny bit of tip wear.  And some nasty cuticles (sorry about that, haha).  Still smooth and shiny and looking great!  Regular polish would most likely have chipped by now.

Day 10

Indoors, natural light

 Slightly more growth, just a smidge more tipwear.  Still gorgeous and shiny and wonderful!  There is no way I could have worn a regular polish this long.

Day 14

Outdoors, sun

 Finally hit the two week mark!  And got those nasty cuticles from day 5 looking lovely. :)  14 days is how long CND claims Shellac lasts.  Day 14 and I am seeing no reason to take this off yet.  A bit more growth, about the same (small) amount of tipwear.  Still shiny!

Day 18

Outdoors, shade

 Time for me to say bye-bye to Shellac on day 18.  If I was a normal person, I totally could have worn this longer, but I was just dying to change up my color at this point (and to try the new Zoya Touch polishes!) so it had to go.  This would definitely last three weeks if you were okay with the same color and the outgrowth.  After 18 days it is still gorgeous and shiny, with just minor tipwear.  I did have the tiniest of chips on my other hand, but I am 99.9% sure that this was because of a standing weakness in the top layer of my nail before application.

Removal

Okay, removal was a pain.  Rather than get it removed professionally I went for a DIY at home (those Zoya's were calling to me...) and used the foil method.  Left foil on for 10 minutes each and it was still rather hard to got off.  It involved a lot of rubbing and some light scraping with my other nail (not enough to damage the nail but just enough to get the last bits off).  The tough removal was worth it though, for the convenience of gorgeous color for 18+ days!

Overall Thoughts

Amazing.  While I will not be doing this all the time (I couldn't stand to have my nails the same color constantly), I will definitely keep this in mind for vacations where I just don't want to mess with my nails.   This was a really great experience and I can't wait to try it again on our next trip.  My mom and sister were also very pleased with theirs.  In addition, I feel like my nails are a bit stronger after Shellac - maybe it was just having that time without me messing with them every two or three days, but they really are growing nicely right now.  I'm sure they will break tonight now that I said that, haha.  I recommend giving this a try at least once, even if you are a chronic polish changer like I am!  It is a lot of fun.

Click here to learn more about Shellac and find a location near you!

Thanks so much to Tammy, the awesome nail professional that applied our Shellac manicures - you did an awesome job!  Expect to see us again soon - we have another trip coming up.  ;)