Zoya Shawn

Zoya Shawn was a green creme in the Wicked/Wonderful Fall 2010 Collection and at first, I just wasn't sure how I'd like this color.  It's darker than a Granny Smith apple, but not so dark that it was black (which I'm just not loving the blackened colors).


The formula on this was great.  I used a base of Zoya Anchor, 2 coats of Shawn although I probably could have gotten away with one, and a top of Zoya Armor.

I'm still debating on how I like this color for me.  I think it would be amazing in nail art, but as a whole color, it's just so bold.  Great for women who don't mind people staring at their hands, because this is a BOLD green.

Here in the shade, the color doesn't hide either.  It's still nice and bold - just a great green.  It reminds me of the color of money in cartoons.  ^_^


Zoya [official website] can be purchased on their website for $7/bottle.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

CND Spring 2011

Please enjoy the following release from CND.

Better Than Bare: Manicures Lighten Up For Spring 2011

CND Introduces Spring's Limited Edition Colour & Effect

October 2010 - "Ethereal, femme manicures in opaque porcelain, shimmery finishes, dark blues, grays and reds will be the 'it' looks this spring," says CND Co-founder and Style Director Jan Arnold.  

Clean, gorgeous and modern - the new neutral for Spring is better than natural.  To get a peachy-perfect manicure, try CND's limited edition Perfectly Bare Colour, a porcelain crème, or layer it with limited edition Perfectly Bare Shimmer Effect for a kiss of texture.  To achieve Behnaz Sarafpour's "Halo Manicure," try Perfectly Bare Colour with Silver Chrome edged along the perimeter for a heavenly finish.  At Marc Jacobs and Marc by Marc Jacobs, flawlessly fresh manicures were created by mixing Perfectly Bare Colour with Super Matte Top Coat for a warm, satin matte finish. 

Shimmer steals the spotlight this season as Effects provide a manicure makeover with tone and dimension in pops of reflective color in copper, scarlet, or gold.  For a gorgeous glimmer, try Scarlett Shimmer as seen at Carolina Herrera,or layer Perfectly Bare Shimmer over Putty like the luminescent manicures at Monique Lhuillier.  To get 3.1 Phillip Lim's "City Slick" nails, top Asphalt with Copper Shimmer for an elegant, deep-bronze manicure with attitude, or mix a custom blend of  Silver Chrome, Putty, and Ice Blue Shimmer for the washed-out chrome look seen at Gottex.  For a truly decadent look, embellish your Effect manicure with nail jewelry fit for a duchess, like the "Cocktail Nails" seen at Diego Binetti. 

Turn your back on black and say hello to rich tonal shades of blue, oxblood red and berry.  For luscious nails like the pedicures at Marc Jacobs, try berry-hued Bloodline, or grab CND's Jason Wu Collection (available in May 2011) for the blue-based red Veronica, seen on the runway at Jason Wu.  For Ruffian's "Monogram Moon Manicure," use  one layer of Putty layered with Washed Down White and trimmed in Blackjack for a new spin on classic 40's manicures.  To achieve "Van Gogh-blue" nails seen at L.A.M.B., mix half a bottle of Speedey Top Coat with equal parts Inkwell, Anchor Blue and Brilliant White.

  

NEW The Look: Spring 2010 box set of Perfectly Bare Colour and Perfectly Bare Shimmer Effect is $20, available while supplies last starting in March 2011 at select salons and professional beauty stores. 

Colour & Effects are available in professional beauty stores, salons and spas nationwide.  Suggested retail price for Colour is $9, Effects are $11, and Base and Top Coats are $8.50.  For additional information, please visit CND.com.

OPI Burlesque

I haven't seen them yet at any of my local places but please enjoy this following press release from OPI

OPI Steals the Show!

Take Center Stage this Holiday with OPI Lacquers Inspired by Sony Pictures’ Burlesque

This holiday, OPI hits a high note with the release of Sony Pictures’ upcoming film Burlesque.  With an all-star cast including Cher and Christina Aguilera, this musical written and directed by Steven Antin opens nationwide in theaters on November 24, 2010. 

Inspired by the film’s outrageous costumes and bold choreography, OPI launches twelve limited-edition Nail Lacquers for Holiday 2010. “OPI is thrilled to partner with Sony Pictures’ Screen Gems on this exciting movie release,” said Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, OPI Executive VP & Artistic Director.  “The colors were modeled off the majestic glamour, over-the-top costumes and mesmerizing Cabaret that are typically seen in Burlesque performances. The resulting bright, dazzling shades are perfect for the holiday season.”

The Burlesque Collection features a series of glitters and shimmers:

Bring on the Bling

A gold glitter that’s beyond dazzling.

Glow Up Already!

You’re ready for this glittering green.

Extra-va-vaganza

This orange glitter is not for the shy.

Simmer & Shimmer

In this glitter bit of blue.

Show It & Glow It!

If you’ve got this fuchsia glitter, flaunt it!

Sparkle-icious

Multi-color glitter-iciousness!

Rising Star

Lustrous glimmering gold.

Take the Stage

A warm orange spotlight shimmer.

The Show Must Go On!

With this deep pink shimmer on your nails!

Let Me Entertain You

Multi-talented fuchsia glimmer.

Ali’s Big Break

This glowing red shimmer breaks through in style.

Tease-y Does It

In this tempting burgundy shimmer.

The Burlesque-inspired Nail Lacquers by OPI contain no DBP, Toluene, or Formaldehyde, and feature OPI’s exclusive ProWide^™ Brush for the ultimate in application. 


This limited edition OPI Holiday 2010 Burlesque Collection will be available beginning November 2010 at Professional Salons, including Beauty Brands, Beauty First, Chatters, Dillard’s, JCPenney, Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, and Ulta, for  $8.50 ($10.95 CAN) suggested retail for each Nail Lacquer.  For more information, please call 800-341-9999 or visit www.opi.com. 

Evil Shades Cosmetics Nightmare

Evil Shades Cosmetics is the company created and run by Andrea who also has her own polish blog Black Nail Polish and Lip Gloss.  Back in August of this year, she created and reviewed this custom franken she made called Nightmare which was a blue teal purple holographic duochrome...  Let me just say I really wish this was available in full bottles everywhere.  Because it was her own custom color, I never thought I'd see it anywhere, but she ended up splitting her own bottle up and making mini-bottles for sale.  I didn't realize that at the time, so I bought 4... one for me, and 3 to giveaway.  Oops.  Sorry guys for stealing your Nightmares (heh).

This was not the easiest to photograph, and even then I didn't get the best of pictures.  I used a base of Seche Natural, 3 coats of Nightmare, and a top of Seche Vite.  Either I didn't wait long enough or this is just one of those polishes, but it didn't play nice with the Seche and wrinkled on me.  I have several other brands of top coat to try, so eventually, I'll find one.  First, bottle pictures.

Can you see all that holographic and duochromy goodness?  Loves.

Sun picture - just beautiful.

Shade picture reminds me of wispy smoke.  It's funny because I used to work at a hard rock radio station, and we saw many a CD cover with blue and purple wispy smoke.  It's almost a staple!


Now as I mentioned, I purchased 4 bottles.  While looking at them all, I noticed that it seemed like they were slightly different formulas - one had more duochrome look and the other didn't.

I emailed Andrea who said that she's not too sure what happened but that this was both from the same formula that she made.  Because it's a custom franken color that she made, and not some big batch of polish, there's bound to be some differences.  It almost looks like my bottle on the left was from the bottom of the frankened bottle (where the duochrome had settled in) and the bottle on the right was from the top of her frankened bottle.  Here's the difference on the nail:

Without the purple duochrome, the color base color is lighter but still holographic (you just can't see all the rainbow sparkles).  So what I've done is I'm keeping these two bottles and the other two (which contains one duochromed bottle and one non-duochromed bottle) went into my 500+ readers giveaway.  Have you signed up yet?


I purchased my Nightmare for $3 a bottle but it has now been discontinued.  Check out other makeup from Evil Shades at her website.

Zoya Sarah vs Lisa

In the just released 2010 Winter collection "Flame", two different reds were released, both with pretty interesting descriptions.  Sarah was called "possibly the prettiest sparkling red metallic ever!" (exclamation point included) whereas Lisa was called a "celebration red sparkling metallic."  Okay, what?  On the actual press release, Lisa was shown as much more pink than Sarah, but as you can see above in the sun picture, the colors don't look that different.  I used a base of Zoya Anchor, 1 coat of both colors, and a top of Zoya Armor.  Lisa looked a tad thin on the nail this time because of Sarah but it was fully opaque for me.

Even here in on the nail, there's not THAT much difference other than Sarah is slightly darker than Lisa.  But wait, there's more!

As always, the truth is in the shade.  You can totally see these are different - with Sarah being at least 4 shades darker (not a scientific measurement).  Also Lisa looks more like a liquid metal to me, where Sarah is much more of a blackened red (in comparison to Lisa only).

Here you can really tell that these are two different colors and depending on the look you're going for, you'd want to choose carefully.  Are they both totally worth it in the collection?  For me, the answer is always yes but I also have a collection problem and normally want complete collections.  While I would have liked to see a green in Flame (for winter), Zoya has put out a lot of greens lately, and they have all been super pretty, so it's a win/win situation in my book.


Zoya [official website] can be purchased on their website for $7/bottle.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.