Zoya Giveaway!

I'm holding an exciting giveaway of two of the polishes from Zoya's fall 2012 collection; Toni and Natty.

Entering is very simple. To start off make sure you are following this blog, and then leave a comment on this post letting me know what kind of manicure you could see yourself doing with the polishes from this collection. Be sure to leave your email address in your comment so that I have a way to contact you if you win!

You have until October 7th to enter, so be sure to get your comment in this week. This giveaway is only open to people in the contiguous United States.

Thank you to Verve 360 Pittsburgh salon for providing the prize for this giveaway!

Rainbow Dotted Nails.

Today's manicure has  a bunch of different elements. I did a different gradient on each of my nails to create a rainbow, and then I added a shimmer polish on top of the gradients, and finished things off with gradating dots. 

The red to pink nail was done with Julep January and CND Raspberry Plunge. The yellow to orange nail is CND Bicycle Yellow and CND Electric Orange. The green to teal nail is OPI Don't Mess with OPI and China Glaze Shower Together. The blue to purple nail is China Glaze Spontaneous and China Glaze First Mate.

On the warm toned gradients I added CND Raspberry Sparkle, and for the cool toned ones I added CND Sapphire Sparkle. Then the dots were done with CND Oilslick and a few different sizes of dotting tools.

Girly Floral Nails.

Today's manicure is probably my favorite stamped design I've done in a while! I painted my nails with China Glaze Spontaneous and then I stamped a pattern from BM-221 with Sally Hansen Lively Lilac. To add more dimension to the design I added a floral print from BM-224 with Sally Hansen Fuchsia Chrome. 

Funky Watercolor Nails.

For today's manicure I decided to try out  the watercolor technique. I could definitely see myself doing it more in the future, it's so easy to do and hard to mess up. I started with two coats of Milani White on the Spot and then used a bunch of my favorite neon polishes for the watercolors.

The watercolor design looks cool on it's own, but I decided to add a fun pattern on top. I used a Sally Hansen black nail art pen to add the same pattern I used on these nails.

Cool Toned V-Gap Nails.

I realized I hadn't done a v-gap manicure in a while when I saw photos of them all over the runways at New York Fashion Week and decided it was something I needed to do more of.

My color inspiration actually came from my hair, which I've been enjoying having dip-dyed (colored ends.) The ends of my hair are currently purple and my teal, so I used OPI Ink and Wet n Wild Teal or No Teal.

Fun Leopard Nails.

Today's manicure was an easy one to decide on, I knew I wanted to do a freehand leopard design and I wanted to use Orly Rage as my base color. It's a gorgeous polish that I haven't worked into my nail art enough. Then I chose to do the leopard spots in China Glaze First Mate and Shocking Pink, which ended up being a very fun color combination.

Born Pretty Detail Brush Review.

I reviewed the other Born Pretty Store products I received most recently at the end of August, but I was holding off on the last product I had to review. That product is this single Born Pretty brush. I waited a bit longer to post about it so that I could work it into my nail art routine and try it out for a few different manicures.

I reviewed a BPS brush set a few months ago, but I thought it would be helpful to talk about an individual brush. And a detail brush is what I reach for most often when I'm doing any freehand nail art. I'm always looking for new detail brushes since they get worn out, and this one is a nice size and has made a nice addition to my nail art supplies.

My brushes definitely take a beating from all the manicures and all the acetone, so this brush's $1.32 price tag is perfect, that way if it starts getting worn out it is no big deal to replace!

If you're interested in ordering this brush or anything else from BPS, you can use my 10% off coupon code, BRJ61.

Simple Suede Nails.

Adjusting to my busy fall semester schedule has helped lead me to a new appreciation of the OPI Suede  polishes. I've had a few that I've used from time to time for a while, but never felt they were particularly special until now. 

They apply super easily, and then dry super fast. What more can you ask for out of a polish? 

For this manicure I used OPI I'll Always Have Paris Suede and OPI Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees Suede.

Strawberry Nails.

I think fruit makes for really cute manicure inspiration, I've already done watermelon and kiwi in past blog posts. Deciding on which fruit to do next wasn't hard after I saw this manicure. I really liked the idea of using bullion beads for the seeds of strawberries. Placing all the beads ended up being a bit tiresome, but the results are definitely extra cute. 

I used China Glaze Ahoy! and Watermelon Rind for the strawberries, and used the bullion beads that I reviewed here.

Sheep Nails.

I knew I wanted to do a freehand design for today's manicure, but couldn't decide on anything. After a few failed ideas, I found inspiration from this manicure. And I think the results are super cute!

I did a gradient with Revlon Blue Lagoon and China Glaze Tree Hugger for the sky and the grass. For the actual sheep I used acrylic paints.

Dotted Circle Nails.

I had a color combination picked out for a manicure, but no design, so of course I decided on dots. 

The base color is OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue and the dots are China Glaze Shower Together, OPI Ate Berries in the Canaries, and Wet n Wild Silvivor.

Gradient Half Moon Nails.

I was cleaning my computer desktop off today and among many inspiration photos was this one, and I knew it had to be my next manicure.

For my take on the design I used OPI Mermaid Tears as the base color, and added the gradient with OPI Who The Shrek Are You?