CND Limited Edition (Spring 2010)

CND, a company that has reinvented their nail polish, sent out this release on their 3 new manicure looks - please click the picture to read it better.  These will be made available in either March or April 2010.


CND is available for $9 per colour, and $11 per effect and you can find locations to buy here. TransDesign and Head2ToeBeauty has the colours for $4.50 and effects for $5.50.

Essie Art of Spring Collection

 I've seen some good swatching reviews of this collection, specifically Lilacism.  You can always click on the image to see it bigger, in case you miss the bottom line about free shipping on orders of $40 or more (enter code: FREESHIP40).  


Essie can be purchased on their website [official website] or etailers like Head2ToeBeauty [official website] or TransDesign [official website]

I'm still alive!

I haven't forgotten about my pretties just yet!  For some silly reason, we're stuck in winter.  Now for South Texas, where I live, this is WEIRD.  I don't understand this whole rain, fog, cold thing.  I had on a LOVELY blue yesterday from the China Glaze OMG! collection but with NO SUN, I couldn't capture the amazing color on camera.  :(


Also I started the new job, and until I get myself an air card and my laptop packed up, I'm sitting all day, without real Internet (I have my iPhone!) and that makes me a sad panda.  I'll get to it though, I promise!


And finally I need to pick up some lamps and a cheapo table so I can set up my light box that arrived 2 (?) weeks ago from Hong Kong.  I also need to iron the backdrop since it was squished into the cube at arrival.  


Great things are coming!  I know of one summer collection I'm getting to advance review, one really awesome line that is sending me some nifty polishes for review, and I think I have my hand in for a second summer collection, but I'm not 100% on that one yet - more emails need to be exchanged I think.  Ooh, and with that, I think I know what I'm going to paint my nails today.  If only I had sun!

Zoya Reece

From the Zoya Reverie collection, I decided to wear Reece out tonight.  Zoya calls this color "gilded rose metallic" but I'm calling it purple mauve with a yellow orange shimmer.  Again, I have NO SUN, so you really can't see the beautiful duochrome that this is.  Here's a badly focused indoor picture so you can see the yellow orange shimmer.

I must admit, getting used to the Zoya brush takes a bit.  It's shorter than China Glaze but that also leaves less room for pooling in the cuticles.  I had to go back and paint just the sides of my nails since I missed those the first few times.  I probably could have gotten away with one coat with just a bit of VNL, but I went for two coats over Seche Natural and topped off with one coat of Seche Vite.


One "sun" picture - you can see a bit of the shimmer.

One shade picture - you can see more of the base color in this one

And one icky inside picture so you can really see the duochrome (!).

Zoya [official website] can be purchased on their website.

Zoya Reverie

When I first heard about Zoya's "metallic spring 2010" collection, Reverie, I was intrigued but it wasn't until I started to see swatches that I started jumping for joy.  Although Zoya calls these "metallics", I'm calling them all duochromes (!).


Official Press Release from Zoya
Laney - moonlit silver metallic
Adina - duochrome violet metallic
Reece - gilded rose metallic
Happi - pink blush metallic
Gwin - sunny melon metallic
Lana - rich red metallic


Zoya's ultra long-wearing, glossy nail lacquers are free of harmful industrial chemicals like toluene, camphor, formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) that are known to cause cancer and birth defects.  Zoya 2008 Awards - voted the longest lasting polish by Women's Health Magazine (beauty awards, US), named longest lasting nail polish by Lucky Magazine (green guide, US), named best nail polish by 9 AM with David & Kim (morning show beauty awards, AU) and voted best nail polish varnish by Lifescape Beauty Awards (UK).

I bought the whole collection online but haven't had a chance to take pretty pictures yet because THERE'S NO SUN.  What on earth is going on with this weather?! Grr.  I decide to make a blog, and I have no sun.  For weeks...


Well I did take some pictures myself but it's in no way showing off the amazing duochromes that each color shows.

Happi is a Barbie bubblegum pink with yellow orange shimmer.  Laney is a silver with a tiny bit of greenish purple shimmer.  Gwin is an orange with the same same yellow orange shimmer that Happi has.  Reece is a purple mauve with the same yellow orange shimmer as Gwin and Happi.  SURPRISE - Lana is a reddish orange with again, the same yellow orange as Reece, Gwin, and Happi.  Finally, Adina is a purple with the same green shimmer from Laney, but with loads more of it.  Adina looks like it could be a dupe of Ki, but I've seen a comparison before and they aren't dupes but I may have to blog about it later for you.  

Zoya [official website] can be purchased on their website.