Zoya Ornate Collection 2012 Swatches & Review *pic heavy*

As soon as I saw Zoya's Ornate collection I knew that I HAD to have it.  This line is right in my ballpark and I immediately called E and laid claim to this review!  I received my collection on Friday and got busy swatching as soon as the sun came up on Saturday!  Thank God that Ohio had a sunny day because these colors in the sun are ridiculous!

Zoya has really been impressing me with their 2012 releases and this time is no different. Ornate is a group of six really deep rich colors. Zoya describes the collection as, "perfect to decorate your nails with stunning jewel tone colors and special effect pigments this season." I would have to say that I agree!  

All of my swatches, with the exception of Electra, were done using Beauty Secrets Base Coat, two coats of polish and Orly Glosser for the top coat.

Aurora is described by Zoya as "plum with a multicolored crystal shimmer". I would say that Aurora is more of a raspberry plum with a bit of holo. Aurora painted like a dream and with two coats of polish, was at full opacity.

Storm, described by Zoya as "black with multicolor crystal shimmer", is one of my favorites. Again, this polish painted flawlessly. The "multicolor crystal shimmer" or as I would call it, holo, is amazing and creates such depth. It looks almost juicy with the Glosser top coat!  

I am not usually a lover of the red hues but Blaze has really surprised me! I love it!  Zoya describes Blaze as "cranberry glitter glam crystal" and that is just what it is! With two coats of polish and the Glosser top coat, this color almost looked like a jelly sandwich all on its own!  

Gold is another one of my not so favorite hues. I just hadn't found one that really looked good with my skin tone. As an unspoken rule, any golds that I came across I would automatically put in a box for my next shipment to E! Thank you Zoya for giving me a gold that I actually like and think looks good on my skin. This polish was a bit more tricky to paint with. Ziv is a "gold foil glitter crystal" according to Zoya and just that description alone should give you a hint on how carefully you need to paint this one. With two coats I had full opacity but the clean up was a bit trying. The little crystals and glitter seemed to get everywhere but the final outcome looked great so it was worth the extra elbow grease!!! 

I am a green girl and when I saw Logan in the bottle my jaw dropped!  Zoya describes Logan as a "green foil glitter crystal" and it is just beautiful. Same rules apply to Logan as did Ziv. With a nice steady stoke and some tricky clean up, two coats of this polish amazed me!  

Last but not least is what some would consider the show stopper of this collection. Electra is a "holo tinsel special effect" and Zoya suggests that you "wear it alone or layer it for extra drama". For this polish I used Gelous as a base and top coat. This was also a bit of a challenge to paint with.  I didn't really need to manage glitter placement too much however, because of the tinsel being what it is, there was some natural overhang that I fixed with a quick swipe of the brush across the tips of my nails.  

And for the extra drama that Zoya describes I did quick swatch of Electra over some basic colors.  I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Rimmel London Black Satin, Finger Paints Inkblot Blue and Wet'n'Wild Red Red. 

Overall, I have to say that I LOVE THIS COLLECTION!  The colors are amazing and the formula is great!  I would recommend this line to anyone looking for something special for this fall and winter season!  All of these products can be found at Zoya.com for $8 a piece or $48 for the entire collection.  

Let me know what you think!  Do you have a favorite color from this collection or any other 2012 Zoya collection?  

This is a free sample given to me by a company. Either directly from the manufacturer or from a PR company. Receiving this sample in no way impacts my review of the product. My views are my own and are expressed as accurately and fairly to the best of my ability.

Spotted Lizard

Today I am going to really try and not ramble too much!  It is so hard for me!  Here goes nothing!  

Sometimes I like to pull out polish and just play around.  I come up with some crazy stuff and on occasion I come up with something I really like.  The mani that I am sharing with you today is super crazy and fun.  I have coined it the Spotted Lizard Mani.  For this mani I used Finger Paints Guggen I'm Lime, Rimmel London Marine Blue and NYC Matte me Crazy.

Finger Paints Guggen I'm Lime, Rimmel London Marine Blue and NYC Matte me Crazy

With one coat of Finger Paints Base Coat and two coats of Guggen I'm Lime, I used my dotting tool to create the dots on all my but my middle finger.  On my middle finger I used the same base coat with one coat of Marine Blue.  After letting my middle finger dry completely, I used a few thin strips of tape and just placed them in a semi-star pattern. Painting a layer of Guggen and removing the tape, I was left with something really quite cool.  It ended up looking a bit like coral to me.  I followed up by adding some Guggen dots to my middle finger and completed the mani with a coat of NYC Matte me Crazy.  I really hope you like what I came up with!

Lizard Mani 

Lizard Mani

I really had fun with this mani!  The matte finish it made really cool and in person it really looked like spotted lizard.  Let me know what you think.  Do you ever just play with polish or try and come up with something wild and crazy?

Drool Worthy Ozotic Layer

I have fallen in love!!!  Yes that's right... I have been having an affair with polish and I do believe that I have met my match!  I can honestly say that I pride myself on the fact that I don't lust after much!  But, boy oh boy, when I first went on the web and saw some swatches of the Ozotic 500 series polishes I think I actually drooled!  Yes... I totally drooled and now that I have a couple in my collection, I know exactly why!!!

As I am sure that you know, the Ozotic 500 series polishes are being discontinued!  Grrrrrrrr... If I could buy multiples of each color, I totally would!  I am confident that I have at least purchased my personal must haves!  There is still some stock out there, so if these have yet to find their way into your collection, get online and grab a few while you can.  I purchased mine at OverallBeauty.com and the owner operator, Kim, was awesome and I had my choices within a week of ordering them.

This past weekend most of my Sunday was spent swatching. Although I love polish and painting my nails, I must admit that swatching is not my favorite thing in the world to do!  I have a hard time with the removal!  LOL!  Let's keep it real, I buy polish that I like.  I buy polish that I really want to wear out.  I buy polish with the goal of sharing it not only with the readers but people on the street.  So, for some reason I just feel bad polishing, taking shots, removing and then moving onto the next one!  E always laughs at me!  The entire time I was swatching, I knew in the back of my mind that the last mani I did was going to be the one for the night.  I was going out and I am always mindful of what I have on my nails.  People see it and like it, then I network my little butt off!  Hahahahahahaha!
Here is what I chose...

Finger Paints Inkblot Blue & Ozotic 515

I picked up Finger Paints Inkblot Blue last week and was inspired when I saw it next to the Ozotic 515.  I started with the Finger Paints Base Coat and one coat of Inkblot Blue.  I only used one coat because I knew I was going to do the layering.  I am sure that with two coats of this polish you will have full opacity.  Inkblot Blue painted really well and dried pretty fast.  Love it!

Finger Paints Base Coat w/ 1coat of Inkblot Blue 

Finger Paints Base Coat w/ 1coat of Inkblot Blue

With one coat of Ozotic 515, I had the most awesome mani ever!  Ozotic 515 polished like a dream and, unlike some of the other holos that I have, it gave great coverage with one coat.  It dried really nicely and did not need a top coat.  I still have this mani on and have no tip wear or chipping!  And yes, it made me drool again! I may have even danced around the house a bit!  

1Coat of Ozotic 515 w/ flash

w/ flash

This polish is nuts!!!  Under the club lights it glowed and just like I thought, people loved it!  Tell me what do you think?  Do you have any of the 500 series in your collection?  Which ones are your favorites?

Ricans Gone Wild, Boricua Pride!!!

You could say that I am a proud Puerto Rican and you would be correct!  I take great pride in my culture and each year around the same time Puerto Ricans around the country gather in New York to show just exactly how proud we are!

 This year marks the 55th annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade!!!

Even though I cannot be there in person, I am so there in spirit and mani!  LOL!  

I will preface these post with a warning...  there is a ton of Puerto Rican going on in here!  So much so that E called my mani the drag queen of manis!  I will admit that I may have gone a bit nuts but ya gotta sometimes, know what I mean? There were just so many ideas floating around in my head and I think I used them all.

For my Puerto Rican Pride mani I used a base coat, one coat of China Glaze Ruby Pumps and my new Finger Paints Liners for the art.  Hip Hip Hue-Ray is the white liner and Royal Renoir is the electric blue liner.  I will say that I found them a bit thick but the colors are amazing and they weren't too terribly hard to work with.  I even managed to do my right hand with the exact same design and that is no small feat my friends! After completing the flags on all but one finger, I added my fimo stick Puerto Rican flags and blinged them out with some rhinestones.  Voila!  A Puerto Rican Pride mani that would make any 'Rican happy!  

I hope you like them!  

Woooooooohooooooo!

Bet you can't guess that I am 100% Puerto Rican from 100 miles away!  

Nothing like a drag mani to get the party started!  :)

I hope that the parade is a blast and if there are any NYC Rican's reading this blog... go and dance in the streets for me!  I will be rocking my mani, making some rice and beans and jammin' to some salsa all day long! Besos!

P.S.  I tried to get E to bust out her best 'Rican inspired mani for today (she is Puerto Rican too) but she decided to leave it to me since her fungal visiter hasn't left yet :(

Holy May Polish Haul! *pic heavy*

Hey there!  I hope you all enjoyed the Memorial Day Holiday and took some time to thank a solider!  With our interview with celebrity manicurist Kimmie Kyees being such an exciting post for us, we decided to let it run for a few days!  She really had some awesome tips for us and hearing some of her stories about her work was super fun too!  If you didn't get a chance to read it, it can be found here!

Now onto the business at hand! There is nothing like being able to come home with some new polish and share it with E.  She gets just as excited as I do when I find something I love and the month of May was chock full of some lovely finds!  I really tried hard to keep track of all of my May polish purchases.  So, here goes my attempt at a May polish haul post!

Faint of Heart, Artificial Sweetener, Jealous Much?

Passion Fruit, Orange Punch, Bailamos

Royal Velvet, Fowl Play, Androgynie, Space Cadet

Late Night Rendezvous, Art Dealer Teal-er, Beach Bound

Vermillion $ Painting, Guggen I'm Lime

Jamin' in Jellies, Full-on Brogue, Blue Suede Shoes, Shady Ombre, Step In My Blade!

Base Coat, Top Coat

Tinsel Town, Senorita Bonita, Tantalize Me, Ghoulish Glow

Splish Splash, Surfin' For Boys

Dragon Fruit, Acid Purple

Magnetized, Attract, Electrostatic, Magnetic Field

Awesome Magnets: Star, Chevrons, Multi Lines, Bullseye 

Wooooooooohooooooo!!! My march of the Studio M army!

Thunderbolt, Glitter Astral

Grape Escape, Total Wow, Blue Funk

Glitter Envy, Energy Star 

Orange Sunset, Psychedelic Scene, Neon Caution

De-Luxe-Cious, Ms. Haute

Pure Silver, Baby Pink, Marine Blue, Crushed Pearl

Number One Nemesis

Layla Hologram Effect Mercury Twilight, OutTheDoor, Northern Lights

MASH Fimo Sticks

Cheeky Rhinestone Set

Well, there you have it!  Now that I've finished the post I am sure that I have missed a few!  Maybe I should keep a drawer of the current months finds to make this process easier!  Hmmmmm... there's a thought!  LOL!

I'm loving my May haul and be sure to let me know what your favorites are.  Have you found any awesome deals or colors that you've been looking for?  Please comment below... I love hearing your thoughts!