How I Wore it: Zoya Tracie

Do you also sometimes want something to work really badly and then it doesn’t? I have it on a regular basis. Firstly, I was really looking forward to wearing Zoya Tracie. I love the soft green color, and the fact that it is not another light green creme.

I also wanted to wear an accent nail. Figuring it would fit together nicely with Zoya Tracie, I chose color club Holiday Splendor as an accent.

In effect, I didn’t like Tracie on me, and it looked awkward with Holiday Splendor as an accent nail, mostly because Holiday Splendor leans more towards turquoise.

Also, a third thing that didn’t work that day, was my hair. I had just blow-dried it, and it does this tiger-mane thing, that I hate.  I like it better when it stops looking as if I just put my hand in a socket.

Basically, the only thing that worked for me that day, was my outfit. I really liked it – I tried wearing a necklace over my blouse for the first time, and I think it looks fun. The necklace is a gift from my mum, it comes with a corresponing bracelet, but I think that’s a bit much to wear at once. The pullover is from GAP, the blouse is from de bijenkorf, the jeans are from WE.

What do you think, should I give Zoya Tracie a second try, or just call it a day? And should I have paired this outfit with some polish that would fit the necklace better? I think so…

How I wore it: China Glaze Bend over backwards (and a gradient)

Do you know how J calls these How I Wore It posts? HIWI. Like Kiwi, if you’re a German speaker, or HIFI, if you’re an English speaker. Both versions sound absolutely ridiculous to my ears, so don’t be surprised if I will use this abbreviation soon.

Dear M sent me Bend over Backwards, one of the polishes from the China Glaze Cirque de Soleil collection. I had no desire to own this color, so I put it in my “to swatch – to go” box. I must admit, I was wrong to put it there. I thought this brick-red would clash with my skin tone, as it would be too orange.

I was wrong about the color, it is more of a auburn/red, with intense shimmer. It is also very flattering on my, I think, and so vivid, it made me happy to wear it. Especially as the day I wore it, it was raining, but it was ice cold and windy too, a very unfortunate combination!

Keep in mind what I just said about the weather and please disregard my stupid facial expression. It was really cold! I so desperately wanted to wear my new Banana Republic woolen pants in this awesome light grey shade, that I just decided to ignore the fact that it rained.

To match the pants I picked a red cardigan from H&M (one of the first items I bought in red, ever), a scarf I bought in China and a plain grey longsleeve from WE underneath. The ankle boots are from some outlet, they have maybe 5 cm heels, and work good with all my long trousers.

I was so smitten by Bend over Backwards, I decided to wear it another day, but differently. I tried a gradient, usingChG Bend over Backwards (as a base and closest to the cuticle), essie braziliant, Zoya Rica and China Glaze 2030.

I think the gradient turned out pretty cool. I was very proud of myself! In effect, it looked a bit as if I was wearing a tequila sunrise on my nails.

And because I felt so fancy wearing this gradient, here you have two super fancy artsy schmancy pictures of it in action. 

How I wore it: Zoya Carly

Good Monday Morning (depending where you are on this planet)!

Today I have a Zoya nail polish for you, one of the ones I wasn’t sure if I would love or hate. Okay, I’ll tell you right away: I love it. I don’t know why, because usually that color is so not me, but the finish might just have done the trick.

I don’t know how to describe the finish, but I’ll try. Basically it looks as if there are millions of silver particles in this polish, and they stick to the walls of the bottle. But when polishing, they spread evenly on the nails, as a sort of bedding for the color particles, who stay on top but get a sort of metallic/brushed aluminium look from beneath.

All the Zoyas that came out from the Surf Collections have this finish. Hence, I like them all. I decided to wear Carly with a less purple cardigan, which I found on super sale in Paris last year. It’s from Etam, which is mostly an underwear shop, but they have some regular clothing too.

Pants are from WE, the scarf is from Pieces. The white blouse is from WE too. If you didn’t realize yet, I like WE. I should get free stuff from them for all the advertising I do! tssss.

 The ring I’m wearing is a present from my brothers. Pieces have broken off but I still love it. They took me to a shop that I like, and let me pick three things, and then they sent me outside so they could pick their favorite for me. Cute, huh?
 

Last picture of Carly, then I’ll let you go for today! Don’t forget to drop me a comment, it gets lonely here otherwise!

Sunday Spam: random stamping

Are you guys enjoying your Sunday? I hope you have some time to relax and enjoy yourselves.

I posted previews of most of these manicures on my Instagram. You can follow me there, I’m – surprise, surprise – goodlacknail. I love interacting on Instagram!

Today I’m showing you random stamping manicures I wore lately. Here I started off with two coats of China Glaze Traffic Jam. I wanted to try the stamping quality of China Glaze Mistletoe Me. Mistletoe Me was sent to me by my dear swap friend M., but it broke, and I was sad. Somehow, B. got her hands on it, and gifted it to me – how thoughtful is that?! I absolutely love dark foils that are so full of color. It also works very well for stamping, but due to the fact that the colors are so very close, it’s a subtle tone in tone stamping. As usual, I completely forgot which plate I used. The pattern looks like triangles, I guess that’s a rather common stamping pattern?

Here I tried gold over light yellow. The base color is Illamasqua Load, and I stamped an image from a Bundle Monster plate, no 312. I liked that it looked a bit like porcelain, but I wasn’t too fond of this. Somehow it reminded me of faded royal wallpaper.

Well, this was a great idea I think, but something didn’t work in the execution process. The base color is Manhatten Green Chai, which is a mint green polish interspersed with micro glitters in white, red and darker green. I figured that red stamping would look cool over it (you know, red glitters in this polish – red stamping over it, matchy-matchy, etc). Nails Inc Villiers Street theoretically works for stamping (such a gorgeous gleaming red!), but I guess I didn’t have a steady-hand day? Or I shouldn’t have picked this rose image from the DRK-A plate? I don’t know. 

Mostly I stamp if I want to spice up a manicure I already wore for a day and got tired of. This was also the case when I wore OPI French Quarter for your thoughts, so I decided to try the stamping quality of GOSH Silver. Result: it works, but it’s not my favorite. It somehow looks as if it doesn’t fully transfer the image onto the nail – that’s because GOSH Silver is not a real metallic, but more of a foily metallic polish, meaning it has particles in there, that don’t transfer 100%.  I think I used an image from the DRK-A plate, but I can’t say for sure.

I saw this on so many blogs, but I still can’t figure out if I like it or not: The houndstooth pattern. Here I tried it in white (wet’n'wild) over OPI Nein!Nein!Nein!OK fine!, the image is from the DRK-A plate. 

Last, and least, a bit of a fail. This is Zoya Luna, stamped with Topshop Mercury Miasma. Luna is not a good stamping base, as it is a light grey packed with silver glitter, and that just doesn’t look very good with the stamping design on top.

Pink Wednesday: Zoya Rory

Happy Pink Wednesday! It’s a happy day because it is Wednesday, which means it is actually already Thursday, and we all know Thursday basically is Friday and Friday means weekend! Plus it’s pink. And glitter.

Zoya Rory is a medium pink, it must be a cool toned pink, because my hands look normal (as in opposed to a lobster). It has silver flecks all throughout, giving it a metallic, rather foily look – but not of the shiny foil kind, it has this etheral glow that brushed aluminium surfaces have. Add pink to that, you’ll have Zoya Rory.

I decided that ICING Party Confetti would be perfect to top off this manicure. Party Confetti is a clear base with small pink glitters and larger pink and purple glitters. It is a glitter topcoat, so the glitters aren’t very dense, even though it looks like it in the bottle. I used one coat of (a bit dabbed on) glitter for the pictures below. 

Zoya Myrta Harlekin Nails

Meet Zoya Myrta, a beautiful orange-red (Zoya says coral) with a metallic, even foily finish. The color itself is super vibrant and the metallic gold shimmer adds a warm hue to the color. I used two coats and I absolutely loved wearing Myrta.

I wasn’t prepared to like Myrta as much as I did, mainly because I am of the opinion that orange doesn’t go very well with my skintone and usual choice of outfit. Nevertheless, this was such an attractive color that I just had to change my mind!

In the end I had a bit of tipwear (I type quite a lot, as you can imagine – at least a blogpost a day!), so I wanted to try a tapemanicure again.  I opted for triangles, pointing towards my cuticles. For the triangles I used color club Artsy Craftsy. I decied to name those Harlekin Nails, as they somehow reminded me of Harlekins.

Artsy Crafty is a very dark dusty green creme polish, which was not a good choice to use over Myrta, because it doesn’t cover in one coat.  In effect, the triangles turned out to be a bit fat. I also added a dot at the end of each triangle, in Illamasqua Swinger. I liked the design, but I think next time I’ll pick less contrasting colors, and definitely a polish that covers better.

This is what it looked like from further away. What do you think?

Renee Connect(s) the Dots, Marley finds Precious Gems

For today I have two quick layering swatches for you – I hope you enjoy them!

I’m never sure how to combine Connect the Dots by lynnderella – over soft colors, dark colors, contrasting colors – the options are seemingly endless! This time I opted for Zoya Renee as a base color. Renee is a bright coral red creme. The application was up to Zoya standard (easy, flawless, 2 coats). Then I layered one coat of Connect the Dots over Renee – I adore this combination.

A different manicure experiment started with Zoya Marley, which is a greyed out pastel lavender creme polish. I used two coats, but as a full manicure it seemed a bit boring to me. Sometimes I just need glitter in my day, so I can look at my nails and enjoy the sparkle. I therefore decided to remove Marly on my ringfinger and add 4 coats of NYX Precious Gems instead. Precious Gems is very sheer, so if you decide to wear it on it’s own, you have to use 4 coats for coverage. The polish base is a sheer pink, made prettier by fine holographic glitters and larger holographic glitters. It isn’t my favourite, but it fit perfectly to this manicure.

How do like these manicures?

How I wore it: Zoya Reagan

Today I have a fun dress-polish-scarf-necklace combination for you! I am big on scarfs – any color, size, etc. But polish first!

I decided to wear Zoya Reagan, a creme polish in pink. I wasn’t blown away by the uniqueness of the polish, as it isn’t something I haven’t seen before. I love all those pinks, so I have many, and Reagan didn’t seem super unique. Nevertheless, I was happy by the quality (2 coats, quick drytime), and the easy application.

I wore it with a dress I received from Zalando. I have ordered from www.zalando.at before, and I was always content with their service. The packages arrive quickly and the prices seem just fine to me. I mainly ordered shoes there before, but as I received a voucher for whatever I may like, I decided to try out the brand Mint&Berry, which is available on zalando.I look a bit dumb, but that picture shows the dress properly. It’s grey mixed with a bit of beige, so it has a very neutral color. I ordered size M, and that fits just fine. It’s not even that short – at 1,74m usually every dress is too short for me these days. I hate always having to pull on my skirt, because I have the feeling I’m showing my behind to the whole world. (btw: I’m so happy opaque tights are still a trend. What would I do without them!) The necklace is from H&M, I think it was the Lanvin Guest Designer thingy? I don’t wear it often, as it is very heavy, but it fits my ring and earrings, and I wore it for drinks with my friends. Shoes are from Audley (love the weird heel!), and yes, I’m missing a button on my sleeve. I didn’t realize that it was missing when I unpacked the dress, and now it is too late to send it back. Luckily I’m handy with a needle, and I’ll just add a new button!This is how I wore the dress during the day. I pared it with a Scarf from Marimekko (also from a H&M cooperation) and a black cardigan from Uniqlo.

Obviously, I wore less high shoes during the day. I can’t wear heels all day long, I don’t know how people manage that. My feet want flats! And, to end this post with a laugh, you’ll get a picture of me when I didn’t feel like posing anymore. (A nail polish fanatics interpretation of the scream.)

Everything purchased by me but the dress, which was sent to me for free from zalando.at. Thank you!

SOPI What’s your Poison? vs. Zoya Astra

 

So I hopeyou enjoyed some free time from my nail polish adventures? I returned back to Vienna this past weekend and started my job literally a day after I arrived, so between all the unpacking, the early work hours and just plainly the fact, that my vacation is over, I have been rather dead tired.

Nevertheless, I found more red glitter polishes to compare, namely Sephora by OPI What’s your poison and Zoya Astra.

First up, 3 coats of SOPI What’s your poison by itself – it’s a mix of tiny red and silver and magenta glitters in a red jelly base.

And here is what it looks like compared to Zoya Astra (also 3 coats) – Astra is on the pinkie and ring finger, What’s your poison? is on pointer and middlefinger. Astra has a darker base color and more silver glitters throughout the glitter mix. What’s your poison? is also more red, and Astra tends towards a berry color. I wouldn’t be able to say which one I like better, but I think Astra fits me better. What do you think?

The Green Flash

It’s a shame I didn’t review Zoya Adina on my blog before. I have had this polish right from the beginnig of my nail polish craze, and I have not worn it enough.

I’m so fond of the green flash in polishes, I don’t even mind that Adina’s base colour is purple!

Somehow the greyish purple with the green flash reminds me of spilt oil on the street. I used to love looking at oil when I was a kid! Weird, huh?

Anyways, Adina is rather sheer but builds well. On the pictures you see 3 coats. I used SV as a topcoat which dries Zoyas quicker than their in-house topcoat, but it also shrinks the polishes.

Above: daylight. Below you can see a picture of Adina with flash:and one pic in artificial light:

What do you think? Do you also love the green flash? I feel like The Green Flash is a superhero in my nail polish bottles!