HPBloggers Presents: Fugly Fall Sweater Nails

Purchased By Shelby Lou
Press Sample--Zoya only

Agh, has it really been that long since my last blog post? I have been so busy the last few weeks. I am back because I really wanted to participate in this month's Hobby Polish Bloggers' link-up since it is all about one of my favorite things: Autumn. I am also so #basic it's tragic, but I cannot deny my love of all things pumpkin and fall. I give you: fugly fall sweaters.

I started with a base of Pretty & Polished In The Buff, one of the new Dusty Cremes that I had to get on my nails ASAP and the inspiration behind this whole mani. But anyway. In The Buff is a perfectly dusty butterscotch yellow. I was expecting this to make my skintone look totally distinguiting but look! It's not bad and I actually got compliments. I must also add that it has a fantastic creme formula.

S

Shelby Lou Nails
Fugly Fall Sweaters
Pretty & Polished In The Buff
MoYou London Fashionista 14 & Zoya Geneviev

To make my sweaters I chose an image from MoYou Fashionista 14 and stamped it with Zoya Geneviev. I have used Geneviev so many times for a perfect gray stamper and I recommend picking it up at their next sale if you don't already have it. I finally used a teeny tiny dotting tool and a black creme to add dots to the floral-type elements of the stamp. Check out the dustiness of In The Buff close-up below, it is mind-blowing.

Shelby Lou Nails
Fugly Fall Sweaters (Macro)
Pretty & Polished In The Buff
MoYou London Fashionista 14 & Zoya Geneviev

Can someone make me a sweater dress in this color and pattern, please? I love my inspiration polish. Pretty & Polished's Dusty Cremes are amazing and easily one of my most favorite collections ever! I hope you check out everyone else's Autumn nails today in the link-up! Have you loved your cuticles today?

An InLinkz Link-up

July-August Mani Round-Up

Purchased By Shelby Lou 
Press Samples

I have come to the harsh realization I just don't have the time to really blog about nails and stay sane. Some of my supportive bloggy friends suggested I try still sharing manis (because I love sharing manis!) on instagram though and rounding them up in a monthly blog post. So here are my instagram manis from the end of July and August!

Pahlish Duo for June 2015: Through Tugley Wood

Very Good Advice topped with Mome Raths

Hare Polish - Dreams Under A Microscope 

 Baroness X - Maracaibo

"Girly Stuff"

Zoya Genesis, Nana, & Serenity

MoYou London Tropical 05

KBShimmer Dust In The Bottle

Darling Diva Polish Choking On Swan Gas

Daily Charme Bow Charm

Pahlish Duo for July 2015: Mirror Images

Such Great Heights topped with Freckles In Our Eyes

Check out a macro here!

Pahlish Quite Ribbiting

Check out a macro here!

Quite Ribbing topped with I Love Nail Polish Neon Rosebud

Check out a macro here!

Hare Polish Sea Bunny

Check out a macro here!

I hope you enjoyed this round-up! I have more fun with my polish when I actually get to wear it and don't have to be brilliant with words, too. This will be a monthly feature for a little while. I started blogging almost two years ago and I've had to rethink it a little, but I like the idea of having a permanent place to have my manis. I  Have you loved your cuticles today?

Rainbow Fish Scale Gradient with Zoya Island Fun

Purchased by Shelby Lou
Press Sample 

Fall polishes are already starting to pop up everywhere, including Zoya's! I love fall, really, but summer barely got started here in Buffalo. So I decided to buck the system and do a completely summery mani with my summer Zoyas.

Shelby Lou Nails
Rainbow Fish Scale Gradient
Zoya Chantal, Demetria, Jace, Cecilia, & Talia
Love, Angeline Stuck On Love Nail Vinyls
(lightbox)

I started with a base of Zoya Chantal, one of my favorite nude polishes for my skintone. It's nice and bright without being too yellow on me. I wore this as a base for a few days and got great wear from it.

Shelby Lou Nails
Rainbow Fish Scale Gradient
Zoya Chantal, Demetria, Jace, Cecilia, & Talia
Love, Angeline Stuck On Love Nail Vinyls
(with flash)

I used Love, Angeline Stuck On Love Nail Vinyls for my fishy scales. I snipped the sides in a couple places and used a liquid latex barrier to protect my cuticles. I sponged a gradient of Zoya cremes from the Island Fun collection in Demetria (a red-orange creme), Jace (green), Cecilia (Teal), and Talia (blue). I only had to do three passes with my make-up sponge for this super-saturated coverage. I know I received these cremes as samples, but seriously, the more I use Zoya for nail art the more I love Zoya's formulas.

Products:
Zoya Summer 2015
Love, Angeline Stuck On Love Nail Vinyls

Are you ready for fall polish or still clinging to summer like me? I might still rock some summer colors into September, but can still legally start eating pumpkin-everything and watching Hocus Pocus. Have you loved your cuticles today?

Zoya Delight for Spring 2015: The Metallics

Press Sample 

Finally! Today I have the rest of this year's Zoya collection for Spring: Delight. You can see the other three cremes in this collection from a previous blog post by clicking here. All of these metallics had a similar formula. I did three coats for all of my swatches, a teeny bit thicker than I tend to or I probably would have done four thin coats. They have a tendency to steak, make sure you leave plenty of time between coats and paint evenly.

First I have Daisy, described by Zoya as a "refreshing lemon meringue yellow metallic with an energizing turquoise metallic flash." This color is... yellow. Even the adorable teeny blue rhinestone bows cannot make this color look good on me (to see it on someone I think it does look good on, click here). The turquoise flash got lost for me unless I caught my nails at the right angle. It does look really shimmery but almost in a frosty way.

Shelby Lou Nails
Zoya Daisy
without flash

Shelby Lou Nails
Zoya Daisy
with flash

Rayne is described as a "spring blue metallic with an energizing turquoise metallic flash." Of course this blue is my favorite of the bunch! It really is metallic and the shimmer looks amazing. Look at that shine in the picture with flash!

Shelby Lou Nails
Zoya Rayne
without flash

Shelby Lou Nails
Zoya Rayne
with flash

Lastly is Leslie (hehe, I like how that rhymes), described as a "soft spring lavender metallic with an energizing turquoise metallic flash." The shimmer is more noticeable in Leslie but I think it does just look like a shimmer rather than a metallic polish. Still pretty!

Shelby Lou Nails
Zoya Leslie
without flash

Shelby Lou Nails
Zoya Leslie
with flash

You can purchase these through Zoya's website linked below! Perhaps someone would like these for a wedding or shower they have to attend this summer? If you don't want to be too flashy but have something fun on.

Featured Products:
Zoya Nail Polish

Have you loved your cuticles today?

The Lacquer Ring: Turquoise Shimmer

Purchased By Shelby Lou 

I have two exciting things to share in this post. Firstly, today is my fourth wedding anniversary, yay! I love being married, and hubby and I are very content with our furbabies and home projects. Four seems like so little to me since we have really been together for 9 years. Well, we dated when we were 18, broke up at 19, and got back together at 20... yeah so 9 years. We are really lucky to have continued to grow together in the same direction. We are still working towards that house in the country. My parents have the land all ready for us and everything haha!

Secondly, this is my first post as part of The Lacquer Ring. The Lacquer Ring is a group of nail bloggers who do themed posts twice per month. I am honored to be joining all of these girls!

Today's prompt is based around a color: Turquoise Shimmer. Luckily I just got my order of Octopus Party Nail Lacquer I snagged in the last restock and instantly knew I must use Piece of Caicos. Piece of Caicos is a turquoise holographic polish with a smattering of subtle blue-green flakies. I actually remembered to take a picture of the base alone this time, too.

Shelby Lou Nails
Octopus Party Nail Lacquer
Piece of Caicos
without flash

Shelby Lou Nails
Octopus Party Nail Lacquer
Piece of Caicos
with flash

And since I can't leave anything alone now... I decided to try adding sea foam on top. I had seen nails like this somewhere on The Internet and have read how to do them several times, but of course I can't find a tutorial that even looks close to what I did.

Shelby Lou Nails
Turquoise Seafoam

I started by doing the first few steps of a watermarble: Drop 3-4 drops of China Glaze White Out into the cup of water, let them spread, and then spray the polish with perfume 2-3 times. I used a stamper and dunked that in the cup instead of my finger and then transferred the image onto my nails like a stamp. I am very comfortable with stamping so this was easier than dunking my finger... with which I have yet to be successful.

Shelby Lou Nails
Turquoise Seafoam

I added the starfish using Zoya Wendy and MoYou London Doodles 07. I wish I had stamped a bunch of things from that plate on my nails before adding the seafoam, but that's for next time!

Shelby Lou Nails
Turquoise Seafoam

I'm so glad I challenged myself with these nails, I love them!  Make sure you check out the other posts this week below.

Have you loved your cuticles today?

An InLinkz Link-up

Mani Mash-Up: Scofflaw & Zoya

Purchased By Shelby Lou (Scofflaw)
Press Sample (Zoya)

I thought I'd share this mani mash-up I wore last Saturday for a nail get-together with my nail friends Joy (IG@joyrserio) and Meghan (Will Paint Nails For Food & Renaissance Cosmetics). We hung around the trendy Elmwood Village in Buffalo and had some great nail polish chat, noms, and shopping times. And it was perfectly gorgeous and sunny all day! Meghan also shared some of her new microglitter collection with us, you can check out a swatch and a macro of Selene on my instagram. The collection releases this Sunday at 12pm EST!

The mani I wore was simple but fun... and it was what I happened to be wearing from earlier in the week haha. On my thumb, index, and middle fingers I wore Scofflaw Nail Varnish Velocipedestrienne--that was still hard to type even with 6 years of French in grade school. On my ring and pinky I wore Zoya Arlo.

Shelby Lou Nails
Scofflaw Nail Varnish Velocipedestrienne
Zoya Arlo
without flash

I know I have been very public about my love-hate relationship with textured polish. I actually found I was able to wear Arlo with one coat of topcoat, which took away the worst of the sand-papery texture I dislike. I think wearing it on only two fingers also helped. I only freaked out a couple times over four days when filing some papers at work haha. I got great wear from both of these polishes. I credit Pretty & Polished's base and topcoat, they work wonders for me.

Shelby Lou Nails
Scofflaw Nail Varnish Velocipedestrienne
Zoya Arlo
without flash

Here is the official mani picture of the day! I had a ton of fun with these two ladies.

Clockwise from right:
Will Paint Nails For Food
IG@joyrserio
Shelby Lou Nails

Products: 
Scofflaw Nail Varnish
Zoya Nail Polish

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Zoya Delight for Spring 2015

Press Sample 

This past weekend was gorgeous in Buffalo! This is rare for my city and it must be utilized to its fullest. I spent most of the weekend outside, but I did manage to swatch a few Zoyas that I, ahem, have not gotten to yet. Since I have been such a slacker with these Zoya swatches (I already have the Summer collections in hand, eeep!), I assume everyone has seen them. So, I thought I would do a few simple, wedding-appropriate manis with the cremes for today. Since I like my swatches to "match" I decided to play with my pearls! Photos show without flash and then with flash.

Shelby Lou Nails
Zoya Tiana
"Pistachio gelato green" creme
Without flash

Shelby Lou Nails
Zoya Tiana
"Pistachio gelato green" creme
With flash

Shelby Lou Nails
Zoya Lillian
"Faded aquamarine"creme
Without flash

Shelby Lou Nails
Zoya Lillian
"Faded aquamarine"creme
With flash

Shelby Lou Nails
Zoya Eden
"Classic spring flower pink" creme
Without flash

Shelby Lou Nails
Zoya Eden
"Classic spring flower pink" creme
With flash

I did three coats of each polish. I initially started swatching when I did not have the air conditioning on so it was 76 in the house. I was having some leveling issues which I was not pleased about, but a nice thick coat of topcoat took care of that. I turned on the air conditioning and by the time I got to the last one the issue was much better but I did need a light touch and thicker coats than I usually do. These colors are all soft but bright, do that make sense? I love Lillian and Tiana the most, those colors are my jam! I like the placement of the pearls especially on Lillian, I will be playing with that again for sure.

Will anyone be rocking some Zoya to a wedding this summer? Or maybe at your own?

Products:
Zoya Delight

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Saturday Stamping: Hidden City Lagoon

Purchased By Shelby Lou 

Oh Em Gee what a week at work. I ended up doing five hours of "unplanned overtime." I'm always torn about overtime. Like, yay OT pay! But also, boo.... more work. It has just been a rough couple of weeks that have left me emotionally exhausted, which also physically exhausts me. I've been painting nails but have had no energy to photograph and share them. Ah well. Here is a mani I did earlier in the week which I saved for today!

I am calling this look Hidden City Lagoon. I started this mani with a base of Aliquid Lacquer Hidden City--I shared a macro on instagram which you totally need to check out because it is amazeballs. This was my first experience with Aliquid Lacquer. This treasure was sent to me by my buddy Gio from @injeebwetrust. She knows me well! Besides being an amazing deep teal linear holo, it also has copper and gold shimmer. Holoshimms all the way! I apologize for the major lobster hands in my photos, you know I don't do much color editing though. The polish is true!

Shelby Lou Nails
Saturday Stamping
Hidden City Lagoon

After a couple days I decided to stamp it with a new plate I just purchased from MoYou London, Doodles 07. Such an adorable plate! I slapped on some images I liked but took care with my lil turtle, how cute is he?! I used Essie Good As Gold, a fantastic gold metallic stamper.

Shelby Lou Nails
Saturday Stamping
Hidden City Lagoon

I thought I could still further improve this mani and busted out my new Zoya Frida. I purchased the jelly trio from the Zoya Earth Day sale and I am so pleased I did. Just one coat of Frida and I had a lovely little Lagoon.

Shelby Lou Nails
Saturday Stamping
Hidden City Lagoon

I love the process of nail art. What do you think of this week's stamping? Make sure you check out what the other ladies did this week!

Have you loved your cuticles today?

An InLinkz Link-up

get the InLinkz code

Stamping Saturday: Henna-Mehndi Inspired

Purchased By Shelby Lou 
Press Sample--Zoya only 

Hey guys! I don't really have anything to say today. It's been a long week, my brain is done. Let's see just get to the nails, shall we?

I shared the base for this Henna/Mehndi-inspired mani on some social media earlier this week (see it on instagram or facebook) which is Picture Polish Cherish. One of my new favorite nudes! I love the holo particles that are somehow unique to the brand (and maybe Zoya, too?). WHERE DO THEY GET THE SPARKLES

Shelby Lou Nails - Stamping Saturday
Picture Polish Cherish
MoYou London Explorer 22
Zoya Emilia

I chose some random spots on a full image plate from MoYou London Explorer 22 and stamped them with Zoya Emilia. I have been eyeing this plate for a long time and it lived up to all my expectations.

Shelby Lou Nails - Stamping Saturday
Picture Polish Cherish
MoYou London Explorer 22
Zoya Emilia

I am not totally happy that the scale of the parts I chose are not all that similar, but that is just something to keep in mind next time I use this plate.

Shelby Lou Nails - Stamping Saturday
Picture Polish Cherish
MoYou London Explorer 22
Zoya Emilia

I have Henna/Mehndi-inspired tattoos I designed, but I get really unclear on what exactly I am supposed to call this Indian art. All I know is I absolutely love these kinds of designs. I think I need to do some more research! What do you think of this week's edition of stamping?

Have you loved your cuticles today?


get the InLinkz code

An InLinkz Link-up

Zoya Naturel Satins for Spring 2015

Press Sample 

I have some exciting news! Two of my BFFs are expecting this year. I knew one was having a girl and we just found out my other friend is having a boy yesterday. Basically I get to have a niece and a nephew this year! I've never been baby-crazy, but seeing my friends so happy and getting to be an auntie just has me so jazzed. Yes. Jazzed.

Speaking of babies, I've been kind of a baby about swatching the Zoya Naturel Satins, but I finally have them to show you guys today. I promised myself I would do these before I did the Delight samples and it's only been over two months haha. The bottom line is: I dislike mattes. Yeah yeah, these are satins, but they are not shimmery or glossy and that how I like my nail polish.

Application was essentially the same for all of the Satins. I started with a thick coat of ridge-filling basecoat, as one does for any matte polish. The formula is thick and creamy and surprisingly opaque. They start to set fairly quickly so it is important to be fast, steady, and decisive in your application--any little mis-stroke will show. This can be corrected on your second thick coat which is all that is needed for opacity, but if you need to smooth things out you can do a third coat. I had a little trouble with Leah and Rowan not self-leveling very well, which none of them really did but these especially, but I'm not sure if that was the formula or user error.

I am not happy with some of my swatches, however, I also did not want to baby the polishes too much so that I had an inaccurate experience to share. I have the swatches shown as intended without topcoat and then with topcoat. Color descriptions are right from Zoya's website.

Zoya Ana
"light toasted almond" satin
I swear this is the same polish.

Zoya Brittany
"rose mauve" satin

Zoya Leah
"lavender tinged taupe" satin

Zoya Rowan
"suede taupe" satin

Zoya Tove
"misty slate gray" satin

Zoya Sage
"mossy sage" satin

For me personally, I love the colors. So perfectly dusty! However if I was trying to apply these three years ago I would have thrown them across the room because there is no way I would have made them look even halfway decent. Having applied so much polish over the years I did alright, and the finish is quite pretty from normal viewing distance. I would like to add topcoat to these before they set to smooth them out, or use them as a base for nail art or glitters.

I would say if you loves mattes, satins, or other novel textures, definitely give one or two of these a try. If you are going to do just one manicure instead of swatching six I think the experience would not be nearly has frustrating haha! Give yourself some practice time and plenty of dry time and you can have a lovely satin manicure. I'll be sure to share mine on instagram at least when I do!

Products:
Zoya Naturel Satins

Have you loved your cuticles today?

My Favorite Nudes Comparison

Purchased By Shelby Lou 
Press Samples--Some of the Zoyas

Remember me freaking out about having to renew my social work license unexpectedly this month? Well I also just found out I need to renew my driver's license next month. Birthdays used to be fun! Now they are going to be full of boring adult chores and expenditures, like license renewal and doctor appointments. I am bitter, friends.

Anyways, today's post is about nudes! I used to think they were useless, but now I practically hoard them. My favorite combinations are neon and nude, nude and glitter, holo stamping over nude... (say this to yourself in Bubba's voice from Forrest Gump. You'll like it, I promise). Top photos in this post were taken without flash and bottom photos taken with flash. I am also impressed with myself because I only messed up numbering one set of photos, teehee.

Shelby Lou Nails
Mah nudes!
Without Flash

1. Color Club Silver Lake
2. OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls
3. OPI Angel With A Lead Foot
4. KBShimmer Eyes White Open

5. Polish My Life Birthday Suit
6. OPI My Vampire Is Buff
7. Polish My Life Nude Lace
8. You're So Vain-illa

9. Zoya Chantal
10. OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons
11. Zoya Taylor

12. Zoya Rue
13. Polish My Life Mauve Rose
14. OPI Don't Bossa Nova Me Around
15. OPI My Very First Knockwurst

Shelby Lou Nails
Nudes--With Flash

I am pleased to find I didn't have any dupes in my carefully curated collection. How many of these do you own? I think the most iconic ones everyone should own are OPI My Vampire Is Buff, My Boyfriend Scales Walls, and My Very First Knockwurst. The Zoyas all have great formulas and their Naturel line has a great variety of darker tones if you are not fair like me. My new favorites are my indie nudes from Polish My Life! What are you favorite nudes or some others I might need to check out? I am eyeing OPI Do You Take Lei Away this year, I'm waiting for an Ulta coupon to come my way...

Have you loved your cuticles today?