Nude and Pastels

Hi guys! As I mentioned yesterday, today is my very first day back at work. I've been having a pretty nice time sitting around doing my nails, reading, and watching non-stop TLC and Stanley Cup Playoffs so it's a bit of a bummer to be headed back to work, but guess who can't wait to actually be earning money again! Anyway, today's nail art look came from me playing around with striping tape while watching hockey the other night and I really love this colour combinations!

The base colour is one of my favourites - OPI Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh, and the two pastel colours I used are Zoya Neely and OPI You're Such a Budapest.

Is it just me, or does the purple OPI polish lean periwinkle-blue in these photos? It sure looks a lot more lilac-esque in real life.

Thanks so much for reading guys! I'll let you know how my first day of work goes later this week!

Zoya Lovely Gradient

Hi guys! Today I have a sweet little gradient I did with two colours from Zoya's Lovely collection for spring. I started with a base of Zoya Gei Gei and then sponged with Zoya Julie to create this very girl and simple manicure.

Since these two colours are a little more sheer than the cremes I'm used to using for gradients, this look wasn't exactly easy to achieve, but it was well worth it. I love the ribbons of silver shimmer that you can see in this manicure!

Yum, pink and purple have always been two of my favourite colours. I wish there was a light blue colour with this same formula..that would be so much fun to use in a gradient manicure. 

I hope you guys liked this short and sweet post!

Zoya Lovely - Comparisons

Hi guys! Today I have the comparison post that I promised you the other day to accompany my swatches and review of Zoya's Spring 2013 collection appropriately titled Lovely. Let's see if I managed to find any dupes!

Here we have Zoya Blu vs. Zoya Kristen. Zoya Blu is much cleaner and more of a true blue while Kristen is very gray in comparison. In case you couldn't tell, Blu is on my index and ring fingers while Kristen is on my middle and pinky fingers.

Here's a bottle shot showing off the differences which I personally think are more obvious on the nail. Kristen is on the left and Blu is on the right. 

The next comparison I was able to do was between Zoya Neely and OPI Thanks a Windmillion. I really though these would be similar but the OPI is much darker and makes Neely look like a much better option for spring in my opinion.

See? They're not even similar! Are you convinced that you need Neely yet? She's amazing!

This last comparison compares quite a few lacquers. On my index finger I have OPI My Vampire's Buff from the new Euro Centrale collection, then on my middle finger I have Zoya Jacqueline, on my ring finger I have Zoya Avery, and finally on my pinky I have OPI Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh?

I personally don't think that the new OPI is a dupe for Jacqueline and I think this bottle shot illustrates it best. The OPI is a little more rosy while Zoya Jacqueline leans a little to the yellow side in comparison. Are these two extremely similar? Yes. Do you need both? Probably not. Honestly I would recommend the Zoya just because the formula is a bit easier to work with, but I love both of them and would be happy with either one.

If you're convinced about some of the Zoya Lovely colours you can follow this link over to the website and make an account. Using this link will allow you to get a coupon for a free bottle of nail polish, and by adding two more to your cart you can get free shipping!

Don't forget to check out my ongoing giveaway here because I know that all of you want a chance to win some free polish! The prizes are two OPI polishes, one from the Mariah Carey collection and one from the yet unreleased Euro Centrale collection!

The link provided is my personal referral link for the Zoya "Share the Love" program.

Zoya Lovely - Swatches & Review

Hi everyone! Today I have an exciting collection to show you that most of you have already seen, haha. To be fair, I just got these in the mail on Thursday so there IS a reason to why I'm so late in posting these. I love the Zoya Lovely collection so much that I could sit around looking at swatches of it all day, so I hope you don't mind some repetition.

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So here I've shown you the bottle pictures both with my blinding flash, and then in natural light in my apartment. I honestly think that every single colour in this collection is perfect for spring. Let's get started with the review and swatches!

First up is Zoya Blu, a gorgeous, clean baby blue shade. The formula on this colour was okay. I used two coats for opacity, but it seemed a little chalky and it wasn't good at self-leveling so I added top coat and it was perfection!

I really like this colour and I think it translates extremely well into spring. This will be a really nice creme to have around to use in nail art!

Next up is Zoya Neely which is my absolute favourite from the collection. Seriously people, you NEED this colour in your life. Neely is a perfect light mint green creme.

The formula on Neely was better than the one on Blu, it was a little more watery but there was no problem with getting ugly ridges. I will be using this polish over and over and over again.

This stunner is called Zoya Jacqueline and she is a lovely off-white colour. At first glace she seems similar to OPI's My Vampire is Buff but I will get into that in a comparison post soon. Jacqueline had a similar formula to Blu, two coats for opacity but a bit of a chalky feel to it. A coat of topcoat smooths everything out deliciously.

I am in love with neutral shades like this. You can be sure that I will be wearing Jacqueline all spring for a clean, fresh manicure, and after spring is over I'll be using her in a lot of nail art.

Next I would like to introduce you to Zoya Piaf. I guess I'm thrown off a little by the name, I thought that Piaf would be a pink colour (La Vie en Rose anyone?). This shade was surprisingly flattering on my skin tone which is something that yellows don't usually accomplish for me.

I love the silver shimmer in this polish, it really brings it to life. This polish and the two other shimmers in the collection have very similar formulas and take three thin coats for opacity. They were all very easy to work with!

This pretty pink is Zoya GeiGei (spelled GieGie on my label..hmm). GeiGei has the same silver shimmer running through her as Piaf and I think this is a really great colour for spring. I'm not sure how original it is but I can get behind it because it's unique to my collection.

You guys know how I am, I just can't get enough pink polishes!

The last lacquer from the Lovely collection is Zoya Julie. Apart from loving the name Julie, I cannot get enough of this pretty purple shimmer. 

I'm not sure why I love Julie so much more than GeiGei and Piaf, but I think the silver shimmer really goes well with this light purple. 

I don't have anything bad to say about this collection, I really enjoyed all six of the colours and I think that they're both great for wearing this spring and incorporating into nail art for the future. You know what the colour scheme reminds me of? Easter eggs!

Will you be picking up any of the Zoya Lovely collection? You can check these beauties out by following this link. If you click on that link and create an account, a coupon for a free bottle of Zoya nail polish will be placed in your account, and by adding two more polishes to your cart you can get free shipping!

The products in this post were kindly provided for review. The above link is my personal referral link for Zoya's "Share the Love" program.