#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….

An InLinkz Link-up – CLICK ME

what I’m wearing and my poll results

Just a quickie post today to show you what I’m wearing on my nails.  But also to give you a little update on that poll I put together last week.

I kinda wish I was still wearing those peacock nails from my last post.  They were epic.  But the base coat I was wearing made the design peel right off.  Boo freakin hoo!  I will have to fill you in on this lamo calcium-building base coat soon.  But anyway, since the work week is in full effect now… I went with a quick mani sans nailart.  It’s a nice purple holo that I swatched only once here and have been wanting to wear again.  It’s called Aurora by AVON and it’s from their special Cosmic Collection.  I have been obsessing over every AVON polish I’ve gotten recently.  Their formulas are great, and the brushes?  I dunno what it is about their brushes, but I love them, especially when it comes to painting my dominant hand.  My AVON manis come out looking so clean and professional, even on my “Cinderella hand”.

Originally I wore two coats of Aurora and got perfect coverage.  It dried so fast that I was able to go to bed afterwards without seche vite on top, and still, I got no sheet marks in the morning!  That is unheard of for me.  I think I must lay directly on top of my hands or something because sleepy Jacqui can be a real manicure wrecker!  That’s why I cannot live without seche vite.  But this quickie dry polish was a nice surprise.  AND THEN…. then today I broke two nails!  Whhaaa?  Yup, two.  I think that calcium builder I’ve been using really sucks. So I had to file my nails down, to get them to all match.  But I’m okay with it, they don’t look too short.  So after filing them down I added another coat of Aurora to nicen it up.  So these photos are: one crappy base coat, and three coats of AVON Aurora, and no topcoat.  But really, you should only need two coats of this one.

Now, on to my poll results.  Remember last week I asked your opinion on changing my font?  Well, the results are in and it’s been a really close call between B and C!  Initially after posting this poll I got cold feet about changing my font… I thought I was really gonna miss my little hearts from my current Craftynail logo.  But you know what, my readers have spoken and it’s time for change!  I’m going balls to the wall and taking it one step further too!  I’m changing the whole look of my blog!  I’m keeping the shabby chic appearance, but I’m doing a full re-vamp.  So stay tuned.  Within the next week I should be unveiling my new and improved Craftynail blog !

And I just wanted to say thanks for all your support.  I love you guys. 😀

 

Ruby Wing Moonstone

This is my first Ruby Wing polish!  This one is called Moonstone and it changes color under the sun’s UV rays.

Shown here is one base coat, two coats of Moonstone and one topcoat of seche.  I had a few bald spots, I could’ve maybe went with three coats of this polish.  But it was really late at night and I didn’t really feel like it at the time.  I painted them and then went to bed… then I woke up with some serious shrinkage on the tips of my nails.  It looked like big time tip wear.  I guess this stuff really shrinks with seche vite?  But how well does it change color?  That’s the real question.  I couldn’t wait to run out into the morning sun to check them out.  It was overcast that day but Moonstone still performed well!  My nails turned from a pale bright blue to a deep dusky purple.  The next day I demonstrated this polish to my mom and she immediately had to borrow it.  So, Moonstone is no longer in my possession!  I’ll have to pick up another one of these.  And here’s the kicker–  the Ruby Wing sales display is only a minute from my office.

ILNP swatches – Grape Alicious and Molly

Today I’ve got two I LOVE NAIL POLISH shades for you.  I won these from Brijits Digits giveaway.  I’ve never tried ILNP before, so I was thrilled to get my paws on these!

First up is Grape Alicious…

Grape Alicious is a purple holo. I used two coats here along with basecoat and topcoat too.  The holo didn’t seem too strong for me in Grape Alicious.  But I love this shade!  It’s a purple that leans more towards blue than red, which is my fave kinda purple.  Dark blue-ish purples look so rich and regal to me.  So I love this one.

Next up is Molly…

Molly is a magenta holo.  Shown here is a basecoat, two coats of Molly, and topcoat.  This shade is so pigmented and the formula was great.  So easy to apply.  I wasn’t expecting this, but Molly has tiny flecks of sparkle in it!  On the downside, it chipped pretty bad within 24hrs.

I’m so happy to have some ILNP added to my small stash of indies.  Do you have any of these??

L.A. Girl Purple Effect

I recently ordered this purple scattered holo… and now my L.A. Girl collection is complete! Buauuuahahahaaa!

I know I’ve posted about these L.A. Girl holos a gazillion times (well maybe not a whole gazillion)… but this 3D Effects collection is great!  I had every color except this one.  It’s called Purple Effect but I recently picked it up from Cherry Culture.  🙂 Isn’t it beautiful??

Nail polish like this makes me forget about nail art.  Who needs it?  I got purple magic on my nails!

 

Spring Flowers for #NAILLINKUP

This is my design for the SPRING FLOWERS theme of the N.A.I.L. Linkup!  The colors I chose are a bit more intense than the usual spring pastels.  But then again, it doesn’t feel like spring yet in NY!  It was kinda nice out yesterday, but today is like brrrrr.

BASE COLOR ♥ I Love Nail Polish – Grape Alicious

STAMPING NAIL POLISH ♥ AVON Mirror – Blaze

STAMPING PLATE ♥ MoYou London – Pro Collection 04

RHINESTONES ♥ magenta gems from Sally’s Beauty Supply

ACCENT NAIL GLITTER ♥ Sinful Colors – Star Dust

NAILLINKUP Spring Flowers –

Milani Texture Swatch- Purple Streak

I’ve got a fun purple polish on today!  It’s Milani Nail Lacquer in Purple Streak from their Texture collection.  As far as textures go… I think this polish is a great value!  It’s more affordable than some others (nails inc and zoya pixie dust- I’m talking to you!) and it should be easy to find if you have a Walgreens near you. Purple Streak only needed two coats to be opaque and it dried really fast!  Needless to say, I’m happy with this one!  This purple has a cool (almost eery) look to it.  I’ll have to remember to pull this one out at Halloween and pair it with a funky green or something!

This is only the second textured polish that I’ve tried (I previously swatched some Godiva Pixie Dust here).  And I still have to try out my new bottle of L.A. Girl Sandblast-  it looks similar to Milani in that it doesn’t have glitter.  So which textured polishes have you tried?