#TheBeautyBuffs – Zoya Radiant Orchid

You may have heard that I’m part of a beauty blogger group called the Beauty Buffs.  This week we’re all talking about the Pantone color of the year- Radiant Orchid.

The orchid shade that I’m highlighting is Zoya Perrie.  I’m shocked at how opaque this color is!  The above swatch is one base coat and one coat of Perrie (no topcoat).  I also wanted to do some floral nail art to tie into the orchid theme.  I tried out my first attempt at one-stroke painting.  Nope, you will not be seeing the results!  It was less than stellar.  I need some practice, for sure.  So instead, I grabbed a bunch of Zoya colors and went for an abstract floral orchid design.  I enjoy doing nail art like this.  It’s not too planned out and I just let my creativity do the work.

Perrie – used as my base color and a few dots here and there

Ginessa – sponged onto my tips for some subtle shimmer

Belinda – for the dark purple petals

Pippa – as the yellow accents

I hafta admit- I borrowed Zoya Perrie from my mom! 😉 She has good taste in nail polish.  I’m just realizing that this shade of orchid looks great on me though!  I was never really attracted to these pinky-purpley colors before.  I always preferred purples that leans more towards blue than pink.  But now that my eyes are opened, and considering it’s the color of 2014, I really need to grab some shades like this!

What radiant orchid shades do you have?

Here’s what the other Beauty Buffs are wearing….

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#TheBeautyBuffs – my favorite yellows!

Welcome to another Wednesday with The Beauty Buffs! We are discussing YELLOW this week.  I’m always on a quest to find some yellows that don’t need a zillion coats… and today I’ll share my findings with you.  I’m showcasing my top three yellow two-coaters!

Now I know that yellow is not a fave among nail bloggers. The formulas can be disappointing and a lot of ladies find yellow unflattering with their skintone.  But, I happen to love yellow! This stems from my childhood where one year the Easter Bunny gave me two Revlon polishes.  (The bunny never gave me candy.  So sad.  Yet I wonder why I have food issues.)  So one year my easter basket contained two cream polishes- a robin’s egg blue and a pale butter yellow.  I cherished them.  If I got peanut butter cups they’d be gone in two seconds flat.  But my nail polishes… they were the gift that kept giving!  I still remember the exact images of the bottles in my head.  I can’t remember my school teacher that year, but I remember my pastel Revlons.  Oh, Jacqui!!  Anyway, I think those nostalgic feelings about yellow polish carried into my adulthood.  Plus, my mom loves yellow polish and the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

I don’t know if one-coat yellows exist or not.  But for now, I’ll covet these three yellows which need only two coats each to be opaque:

First up is I Just Can’t Cope-Acabana by OPI.  We’ve all seen a lot of swatches of this one lately.  It’s the perfect true yellow- nice and bright and most similar to the primary yellow on the color wheel.  I thought the formula would be a little chalky since a couple of the other Brazil collection polishes were a wee bit chalky to me. But honestly, the formula is really nice for a yellow.  It dries glossy and you can’t go wrong with OPI !

Next I’ve got Pull Over by Sinful Colors.  This mustard shade has a touch of orange to it.  It’s similar to egg yolks, or a school bus.  I like that it’s a little different than your average yellow.  The formula is so fluid and juicy.  It has some jelly-esque qualities too it, but it’s opaque in two coats so it’s definitely not a jelly.  But it looks sorta glassy on the nail and I really enjoy the hue.

Last but not least is Inspire by AVON.  Remember when the 2013 Peter Som Trio came out by Zoya??  The collection contained a yellow, an orange and a mint?  Well AVON sorta copied them and came out with a trio of their own last year.  The AVON shades were darker, but still, very similar in concept.  I jumped on that train and picked up the AVON yellow called Inspire.  Wow, I love it.  How do I describe it?  It’s a bright yellow cream that has a tinge of green to it.  It’s almost a little bit pukey (especially in sunlight), but in the best way possible LOL!  It sorta has a 70’s retro feel to it.  The formula is really good and opaque (but as it ages I notice it’s getting a wee bit string-y).  I love how intense and opaque this yellow is, especially for nail art. I’ve used it tons and tons and now my bottle is getting low.  Good thing I have backup!  Surprisingly, Inspire is THE ONLY bottle in my entire stash that I own a backup of.  That says a lot I think.

My post wouldn’t be complete without a little yellow nail art…

I hand painted some blue triangles on the base of my nails using Orly Sweet Peacock.  I think the metallic blue really looks cool against my AVON Inspire.  I loved wearing this to work yesterday.  It’s simple but a little quirky and definitely bold.  I hope you like it!

After all this, if you still hate yellow-  oh well, I tried.  I look forward to hearing your opinions though!

Don’t miss what the other Beauty Buffs have to say:

 

 

The Beauty Buffs- Royal Blue

Have you heard that one of the hot nail colors for spring 2014 is royal blue?

Just because cobalt and royal blues are trending right now that doesn’t mean you need to run out and buy new bottles of polish!  This is a perfect chance for you to ‘shop your stash’ and see what blue beauties you have tucked away in your nail polish collection.

Blue is one of my favorite shades to wear!  I have a bunch- shimmers, navies, pastels, holos.  But I wanted to find one that reminds me of the intense blue hues that I’ve seen on the runways this season.  And I think I found the perfect shade!

Here I’m wearing two coats of  Butler Please from Essie.  This color is actually my very-first-ever bottle of Essie!  It’s intense, eye-catching and is the personification of blue.  It dries sorta matte so you’ll want some topcoat to make it shine.

I went ahead and did simple nail art on top using another color that I notice is on trend this spring- chartreuse.  I think I was in Kohl’s when I realized how hot this color is right now. I looked around and saw tons of this funky yellow/green color dotted throughout the women’s clothing section.  If you’re looking for a great chartreuse you may want to try Sinful Colors Innocent.  I have a few funky greens, but none are as perfect as this one for nail art.  It’s nice and opaque and the formula is great.

Now I’m styling for spring!  You should totally shop your stash for the perfect blue too!

See how the other Beauty Buffs will be wearing royal blue this season >>

The Beauty Buffs- Pastels

New things are happening over here at Craftynail headquarters!  And when I say headquarters I mean-  me, my nails and my computer.  LOL

I’m thrilled to finally tell you this!  I’m now part of a group called The Beauty Buffs!  We’re a wonderfully diverse collection of beauty bloggers brought together by Norelis of Fierce Makeup & Nails.  We will collaborate every other Wednesday to post about our top picks in color trends, nail polishes, makeup, beauty and more.  Our series has a new theme every two weeks and today is our first one… we’re talking about PASTELS!  So who are The Beauty Buffs?   Drop by our blogs and you’ll see all kinds of wicked nail art, swatches, makeup, fashion for all sizes, health, and product reviews.  Make sure to click #TheBeautyBuffs – PASTELS (also at the end of my post) so you can meet the other Buffs.  I know you are going to love our new biweekly series!   Especially you nail art fans out there. So let’s get to it…

Today we’re talking about pastels!  The pastel trend of soft muted colors is ‘a given’ when springtime arrives.  But what about when all the pastels are too sugary sweet for your liking?  Sometimes you feel like Sasha instead of Beyoncé, amiright?  That’s when I like to pair my pastels with a dark color to give them a fiercer look.  Fierce, haha that’s me!  Yup, just ask my boyfriend- he can give you a whole list of words that describe me. 😉

This dotticure is cute and springy, but it also has a little extra kick, don’t ya think?  I love how the muted colors really jump to life against the black.  Here are the polishes I used…

BLACK ♥ Black Onyx by OPI

PURPLE ♥ Charming by Revlon

MINT ♥ Honeydew by Fresh Paint

YELLOW ♥ Mellow Yellow by Sally Hansen

PINK ♥ Bubblegum Pink by Sally Hansen

BLUE ♥ Breezy Blue by Sally Hansen

My dots came out very uniform!  I want to share with you how I did that.  Take a look at my Perfect Pastel Dots Tutorial below.  You can use an unbent bobby pin or like me, I used an inexpensive dotting tool from Amazon….

The key is to start at the base of your nail and make one straight line of dots.  If your middle line of dots is evenly-spaced and straight (like in picture 3) then there’s a good chance that your whole nail will look good!  Then move on to your second line of dots.  You see how my second line started a little lower on the nail in picture 4?  It’s important to make the lines staggered like that … that way your first line of dots is offset from your second.  That’s what makes the polka dots look evenly distributed, kinda like checkers laid out on a checker board.  It’s hard to explain in words so I hope the pictorial demonstrates my technique. 🙂

Thanks for checking in with me today!  I hope you like my dots and that you find my little tutorial useful.  Dotticures were intimidating for me until I got my technique down.  Try this one out!  Then we can all be dot-dot-dotting like mad-women. 😀

Don’t forget to see what the other Beauty Buffs have got goin’ on….