Oh Caitlin, why you so pretty?

Working my way through the Zoya Intimate Collection one bottle at a time!  Here is Zoya's Caitlin in her grey-blue-purple glory!  I stamped the lace print with Konad white from Konad plate M57.  I used this same design on my first Hello Kitty design.  I love how versatile this plate is.  Let me know what you think!

Adventures in Water Marbling

Oh boy!  Back story: ever since getting my konad kit, my mom, Bev (my brother's girlfriend) and I have been doing our nails together every Saturday night.  This week instead of being a traveling manicurist, I had the ladies over here to try water marbling.  I have been watching all the YouTube videos from My Simple Little Pleasures and felt confident that we could handle it.

Well, let's put it this way, it is not as easy as Colette makes it look!  Polish choice makes all the difference between successful water marbling and unsuccessful water marbling!  I wish I had more pictures for you of this, but let's just say it was a mess!  Its hard to do anything with tape all over your fingers, so all I got was after shots.

Here are Bev's nails:

We took these right after, so please forgive the mess on the cuticles.  Bev went with Zoya Charisma as her base and then kept it simple with just alternating a white or silver with Charisma.  I think hers came out great!  She really liked it and I think she's going to try experimenting with different colors to try to find some working combinations.

On my nails I originally wanted to do all grays, but the polishes just wouldn't spread in the water.  So, I ended up going with Zoya Marley, Zoya Danni, Zoya Dove, and Sally Hansen Silver Sweep.

This is the first hand I tried, obviously, it didn't come out that great.  I felt like there was too much silver in this batch of nails, so on the next hand I didn't drop as much of the silver.

This hand came out a little better.  Funny fact: I actually forgot to tape one of my fingers and it was SUCH a mess!  lol. 

My mom thought she was hot stuff at water marbling!  She was the first one to really get the colors to spread in the water. She just got lucky with the colors she picked I think.  She used Zoya Marley, Zoya, Danni, and Zoya Robyn.  I totally copied off her after I saw hers working.

She told me to ask you guys who you think did the best water marbling job, so sound off in the comments section!

If you are interested in trying the water marble technique on your nails, checkout My Simple Little Pleasures on Youtube.  Her videos really are very informative!  And what she can do with this technique is very impressive!

As for me and more water marbling in the future...I don't know.  I just don't know if I have the patience to do it.  This literally took us at least two hours, and I just didn't love the results of all that hard work.

SO much polish, so little time!

You guys!  Lately, I have been out of control with the new polish buying!  It's crazy!  I'm feeling overwhelmed by all the polishes I haven't worn yet!  In the past two weeks I've gotten the entire Zoya Intimate collection in the mail, plus my winnings from Let Them Have Polish's giveaway:

Plus, I'm having a spa night over here for my girlfriends this weekend, which means I HAD to go to Sally's and Target to stock up on supplies!  I got some paraffin so we could dip our hands in wax, plus some pedicure soaks, scrubs and lotions.  I also got a new face mask to try, and of course POLISH!

From left to right we have: Revlon Sugar Plum, Sally Hansen Silver Sweep (heard this was great for stamping), Sally Hansen HD DVD, China Glaze Shower 2gether, China Glaze For Audrey, China Glaze Dorothy Who?, and China Glaze Fairy Dust.

Since I have it out for the spa party, here's a general look at my stash:

I keep it in a drawer organizer in my bathroom closet so that everyone is on display and not hidden away.  Plus, I keep them color coordinated.  Its almost all Zoya because I just love how smooth their formula is and all the promotions they do, and that it is eco-friendly no big 3 brand.

I've already tried my new CG Shower 2gether on my toes, but I wasn't really impressed.  It took FOREVER to dry and I ended up smudging it and had to fix it later! :(  I let it dry while I did my nails.  I was able to do two coats of Zoya Caitlin on my nails plus stamping and my toes still weren't dry!  RIDICULOUS!  Check out my Caitlin manicure tomorrow!  I guess I'm working through Zoya's Intimate collection first.  :)

On top of ALL these new polishes, I totally caved in on the Zoya promotion this week!  I have a weakness!  I got Apple, Zara, Hayden, Kieko, Areej, Phoebe, Sooki, Jancyn, Faye, Breezi, and Lolly!  whew!

Just remembered I also got colors from Forever 21 since they were having an all proceeds go to Japan thing last week.  Dude, I am totally cut off!  NO MORE POLISH!!!!!

Whenever I get new polish, I want to wear it immediately, so having all this at once is torturing me!

Giveaway Roundup!

Picture Polish Giveaway at You've Got Nail - Deadline is March 31st

Oooh Shinies Giveaway - Deadline is April 11th.

The PolishAholic is giving away FOUR prize packs for her Blogiversary! - Deadline is April 14th

Cel is having a Springtime Giveaway with two prizes!  - Deadline is April 15th

Diava's Lacquer is giving away a bottle of Gosh Holographic! - Deadline is April 16th

OMG Polish 'em is celebrating 100 followers with a giveaway! - Deadline is April 24th

Shortwidenails is giving away a $25 wowsocool.com giftcard to celebrate 800 followers! - Deadline is April 7th


Good Luck Everybody!  I won LTHP's giveaway last week!  I can't wait to use the goodies I got! :)

I'm also starting to stock up for my first giveaway.  Gotta reach 25 followers first though, so feel free to put the word out about my little blog!  Thanks lovelies! XOXO

Green Week Finale!

As hinted earlier this week, I decided to close Green Week off with Zoya's Gemma from their Intimate collection.  I was a little stuck on what art to put Gemma.  I was just so struck by how smooth and gorgeous my base coat went on, that I just didn't want to mess with it.  So I lived with it for it for a day.

And today I decided to just add a simple little flower (fauxnad plate M66) to one nail and added this subtle gold shimmer top coat that I have.  The brand is Diadora.  It has no other information on it.  I think it came from one of those bulk makeup gift sets a million years ago or something.  I love how subtle it is though. 

What do you guys think?  I'll be honest, when I looked at the Intimate collection, Gemma was the one I was least excited about, but now that I've tried it I love it!  I'm not sure it's meant for my skin tone, but I don't care, I'm kind of loving the army green/grayness of it.

Green Week - Day Four Happy St. Patrick's Day

Man, I wish I had something cuter to show you than this, but that was what was such a great challenge of green week, I had to work with what I had.  So, I call this one pot of gold!  I started with Zoya Verushka as my base:

This is the only matte color and I have, but I love the effect of mattes!  It's soooooo velvety!  But, of course I went and ruined it with a shiny top coat and my sparkly gold striper polish.

Oye!  Please forgive me!  I think I just went a little too sparkle happy and ruined the gorgeous matte!  Oh well, there is always tomorrow! 

As a side note, does anyone know why blogger is rotating my images when I upload them?  that last one needs to go counter clockwise 90 degrees, but I don't know how to change it and why it just didn't upload the way it looks on my computer.  *sigh*

Green Week - Day Three

Green Gradient St. Paddy's Day!

This was my first time getting a successful gradient effect.  I'm learning that light colors and very light coats are the key to successful gradient effects.  I started with a base coat of Zoya Purity and then I stamped with two more of my Zoya greens: Tangy(lighter green) and Midori(darker green)  Then I stamped the shamrock from fauxnad plate m71 using Konad special white polish, then added a cute little green rhinestone for a little extra bling :)

In other nail news: I got my Zoya Intimate collection in the mail yesterday!  *insert happy dance here*  The package came with a catalog previewing the new summer colors!  The ModMatte collection looks so freaking hot!  I anticipate all three of those colors to be my go to shades this summer!  SO HOT!!!  I can't wait to finally be able to use the intimate collection next week when green week is over!  I might even have to sneak in Gemma this week since it is technically green...:)

Green Week - Day Two

I'm going to call this one Funky Neon Half Moon

For this manicure I started with Zoya Purity as my base, then I stamped a crisscross shape from Konad stamp m64 using Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lickety Split Lime.  This got me the cute shape at the bottom, and then I just filled in the rest very carefully with the lime color.  To finish it off, I added a cute green rhinestone from a set I got on eBay.

Then, tragedy struck...

TWO NAILS IN ONE NIGHT!!!!!  :(  What is it about the kitchen that always messes up my nails?  With the dishes and the chopping and everything else, it's just a dangerous place!

Green Week - Day One!

 

For my first green manicure I went with Zoya Shawn as my base.  Then I stamped flowers from M69 using Konad Special Yellow polish.  Then I stamped The butterflies from M36 using the Konad Special White Polish

Contests and Giveaways Roundup!

So many cool giveaways and contests going on right now!  Thought I would go ahead and round them all up for you!

That's So Fresh just announced her Bring Spring In with WOWSOCOOL Contest which I definitely want to send some submissions in for.  Winner gets a $50 gift certificate to WowSoCool.  All the details about the contest are explained here

OC Nail Art is having a St Patty, March Madness, or Spring Design 2011 Mani/Pedi CONTEST.  Submissions must be entered by March 31st.  They are giving away a $100 Gift Certificate to OC Nail Art.  All the details about this contest can be found here.  And you can submit your entries on their facebook page. I definitely plan on submitting some nail art for this one!

Color Club is also having a nail art contest for St. Patrick's Day.  Entries must be in by March 14th.  Submit them on their facebook page.  Five winners will receive the Wicked Sweet Collection!  Good Luck everyone!

Nail Crazy is having a giveaway over at her blog.  Check out all the goodies you can get if you win that one:

 

This giveaway ends tomorrow, so get those entries in!

A Polish Problem is also having a giveaway over at her blog She is picking two winners, and this is another contest ending today, so get your entries in!  I for one would love to get my nails on the China Glaze Polishes she is giving away!  

So gorgeous!

I'll add any more contests/giveaways that I find to this post. If I missed any, please let me know!