Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

  I must admit, I am not a big party girl - I have never been that much into going to bars and drinking a lot, haha.  Dan and I are kind of boring and like to stay home and spend time together, or else hang out with our families.  However, I am part Irish (and Dan is very Irish), so I still enjoy celebrating Saint Patrick's Day!

Outdoors, shade

  For my St. Patty's Day mani, I started off with two coats of Zoya Apple over my Lippmann ridge filling base coat.  Then I used Zoya Holly and BM-203 to add a darker green design to the nails.  While it is a bit hard to see in the pictures, it really added a lot of depth to the green base of this mani.  You can see it better in the following close-up image.

Close-up for detail

  I added the white four-leaf clover using the design from Red Angel plate RA-116, then added a green rhinestone to the center of the clover.  Finally I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite!

Outdoors, direct sunlight

  Hope everyone has a happy (and safe) St Patty's Day!  And don't forget to cheer on the K-State Wildcats this afternoon against Syracuse!  ;)

Hot Off The Press - Zoya Summer 2012 Collections!

  As you all may have realized, I don't always share press release info on new collections - mostly because everyone else does, so I figure chances are good that you will have already seen it.  However, every once in awhile I get so psyched about an upcoming collection I just have to share as well!  This is totally the case with Zoya's newest Summer 2012 collections, coming in April!

-------------

OFFICIAL RELEASE INFORMATION - March 17, 2012

New nail color - coming soon to a salon near you and Zoya.com!

Summer 2012 is going to be a super stylish season for nails with the latest offering of nail polish collections, Beach and Surf, from the new color of fashion, Zoya! This new splash of color, designed by the Zoya color experts, is kissed by sea and sand translating beautifully onto the nail in the famous, full-coverage Zoya formula.

Dive into the creamy shades of the Zoya Beach Collection or the shimmering sea foils of the Zoya Surf Collection. The choice is yours – this color palette is sure to be a splash!

Zoya BEACH Collection

• Reagan (ZP614) - deep cerise pink cream
• Lara (ZP615) - vivid cerise pink cream
• Shelby (ZP616) - soft pinky pink cream
• Arizona (ZP617) - soft coral orange cream
• Tracie (ZP618) - sea grass metallic
• Wednesday (ZP619) - soft aqua cream

Zoya SURF Collection

• Rory (ZP620) - lotus pink foil metallic
• Carly (ZP621) - thalia purple foil metallic
• Kimber (ZP622) - magenta pink foil metallic
• Myrta (ZP623) - coral orange foil metallic
• Meg (ZP624) - mermaid green foil metallic
• Zuza (ZP625) - aquamarine foil metallic

Zoya is the new color of fashion...

The Zoya BEACH and SURF collection was designed and inspired by resort runways and tropical get-a-ways.

Ultra long-wearing, glossy nail lacquers by Zoya are free of harmful industrial chemicals like toluene, camphor, formaldehyde, resin, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) that are known to cause cancer and birth defects.

Find Zoya BEACH and SURF as well as over 300 other ultra high-fashion Zoya shades at www.zoya.com. As always, each and every Zoya color is made for women so we name them after women.

BEACH and SURF by Zoya Nail Polish - 12 new colors:
Available April 1, 2012 (USA)

www.zoya.com

Sug. Retail $8.00 per 0.5 fl.oz. bottle (US).

-------------

  Are these just not some of the prettiest colors?  I love Zoya's creme formula, and I can't wait to try out these gorgeous foil metallics as well.  Of course, I personally am most excited for the aqua colors, with my deep love of blue polish, haha.  But they all look really pretty!  I am definitely ready for summer.  :)

K-S-U Wildcats! Holographic Water Marble

  Here is a water marble that I wore a few weeks back to a home basketball game of my Wildcats!  Unfortunately, it didn't help us win that game... but I am hoping posting it now will help us out as we continue on in the NCAA Tournament!  I have to admit, I may be a bit too optimistic - I have them winning the whole thing in my bracket, haha.  But our family bracket pool is just for fun, so why not?  :)

Outdoors, sun

  For this water marble, I used China Glaze OMG and China Glaze LOL.  I started out with two coats of OMG as the base, then added the water marbling with both OMG and LOL.  I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite.

Outdoors, sun

Right hand - sun

Indoors, artificial light

Outdoors, shade

  My favorite fingers are definitely the index and the ring fingers on my left hand, but they all turned out pretty fun.  I love water marbling with holographics - it combines two of my favorite things in polish!  Here's to hoping that my Wildcats continue to do well in the tournament!  We are going to need all of the help we can get against Syracuse... :)

  Who do you have winning it all in your NCAA bracket?

Happy First Birthday, Nova!

  Nova turned one on Monday!  It has been a bit of a crazy year, raising a puppy - kind of like a practice-baby, haha.  For someone who has never had a dog before, it was frustrating at times, but she has grown into a (mostly) very well behaved little pooch and we are so glad we added her to our family!  :D

Nova and her Birthday cake!

We let her sniff at the whole thing a bit before we cut her off a chunk to eat

  I thought that a great way to honor my cute little puppy for her birthday would be to wear her namesake polish, Zoya Nova!

Outdoors, shade

   I borrowed this pinkish-purple glitterbomb from Becky, and somehow after sitting around for several months is has turned totally watery - which is interesting, since normally the glitters I have get thicker over time, not thinner.  Any thoughts on that one?  Because of this I actually layered Zoya Nova over Zoya Rihana, a pretty perfectly matching shade.  Then I used Zoya Trixie and Red Angel plate RA 101 to add the tips.  Finally, I used Butter London The Black Knight to add cute little paw prints on my ring finger and thumb using a dotting tool.

Outdoors, sun

  Nova is a gorgeous color - while the glitter is a silvery light pink, the base is a sheer fuchsia, and when layered the glitter takes on many different colors, giving the polish a lot of depth.  A great polish with an equally great name!  Happy Birthday to my sweet puppy - it has been a great first year and I look forward to many more years to come!

Tired after a birthday run with her Daddy :)

OPI Holland - Swatches and Review, Part Two

  Here is the second part of the OPI Holland Spring 2012 collection.  Sorry for getting it out a bit late, I have (once again) been really sick... I am getting so sick of being sick, hah hah.  The second half of the collection includes five cremes and one dark metallic shimmer.  Remember comparisons are coming soon - if you have one you really want to see let me know and I will make it happen if I can!  :)

Did You 'ear About Van Gogh?

Outdoors, shade

 A putty-beige creme.  Smooth application, two coats for full coverage.  I'm not always the biggest fan of neutrals but this is a nice color.  Similar to Zoya Farah - comparisons to come.

Outdoors, direct sun

Thanks A WindMillion

Outdoors, shade

A slightly dusty seafoam green creme.  Another smooth two-coater, another shade very similar to one from Zoya True...

Outdoors, direct sun

Vampsterdam

Outdoors, direct sunlight

 Dark plum metallic shimmer.  This one just doesn't seem to fit in this collection at all - totally different finish, totally different type of color, and it feels a bit more fall than spring to me.  BUT, it's still a pretty vampy purple.  Three coats for full coverage.

Outdoors, shade

A Roll In The Hague

Outdoors, shade

  Bright orange creme.  What an attention-grabbing color.  It is not neon-bright, which I greatly appreciated.  This is an orange I could definitely see myself wearing!  Two easy and smooth coats.

Outdoors, full sun

Kiss Me On My Tulips

Outdoors, shade

Bright medium blue-toned pink creme.  A great staple pink creme, which also means it is something we have seen before, but if you don't happen to have something like this yet, this is a great option.  Two smooth and easy coats.

Outdoors, direct sun

Red Lights Ahead... Where?

Outdoors, shade

 Bright coral-red creme.  I absolutely love this color!  It is red without being RED, if you know what I mean.  It has that touch of coral to it that softens it up.  Gorgeous.  Two smooth coats.

Outdoors, direct sun

Overall Review

Once again let me reiterate - I love the names on these, they are so clever and cute!  Out of this half, my top picks are Red Lights and Roll in the Hague - they are bright, fun, and unique shades perfect for spring or summer.  Vampsterdam is pretty but feels out of place, and the other three are shades we have seen before.  Overall, the 12-piece collection is definitely a win in my book!  While some of the colors are very similar to other recent collections (especially Zoya True), there are still many unique and gorgeous shades, and the mix of brights and pastels, shimmers and cremes is great.  A very fun spring collection!

Since you got to see Leo last time, and will get to see Nova on Wednesday, here is Luna so she doesn't feel left out.  :)  This was also while swatching this collection.  She looks a bit guilty... wonder what she was up to, haha

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.