OPI Two Plums Up

With Pro FX Quick Dry Top Coat

With NYC Matte Me Crazy

This is OPI Two Plums Up.  The second pic is with a matte top coat.  I think this shade is nice enough.  I don't love it, but it is good. OPI just wears O.K. on me, 4-5 days.  I can get 6-7 out of a few other brands.

Pure Ice Mint Dream over Essie Nice is Nice

This is a coat of Pure Ice Mint Dream over Essie Nice is Nice which is a lavender cream polish.  Mint Dream adds a green flash/duochrome/pearl look to any pale polish.  Mint Dream is great over pastel polishes, but not great over dark polishes.  In real life, the green flash is more prominent the in the picture.  In fact, it is a bit too prominent to make this the perfect polish.  It would be perfect if it looked like it does in the above pic.  My nails sort of have an icy teal look much of the time with the green and purple combining.  That is good too, but I'd prefer it if my nails always looked like the above pic.  That being said, it is a fantastic polish and I don't know of any other polish like it.  If you are interested, run, don't walk, to Walmart to pick up your own 2$ bottle.  It was discontinued the first of the year, but there is probably still a bottle or two to be found at your Walmart.  Mint Dream is also great over mint green polish.

Zoya Kristen

This is the last polish in my most recent Zoya order, Zoya Kristen.  I so wanted to like this pretty color.  I do like it, but not on me.  It is a bit too cool on me.  The actual color is the color of the polish on the thumb in the pic above.  I can still pull it off-ish, so I'll still wear it.  For regular humans, this would be a great blue nude color that should be work appropriate.  It is also a great blue polish for winter.  Unfortunately it just isn't great for me.  Why?  Ask Susan below.  It is because "Kristen is mean, mean, mean!"

Zoya Daul

This is Zoya Daul, the second of three polishes I ordered from the recent Zoya promo.  Frankly I'm kind of disappointed.  I was hoping Daul would look like it does in this pic:

Picture is from here:  http://killerlipgloss.com/zoya-diva-collection-for-fall-2012-swatches/zoya-daul/

But instead it looks like it does in this picture, which is color accurate:

Picture is from here:  http://www.theshadesofu.com/2012/07/zoya-nyfw-2012-diva-collection-swatches.html

The first picture is mine, the other two above are not.  Daul is a grape polish with tons of gold glass fleck shimmer.  Sounds great on paper, right?  Daul looks like a mauve-y bronze in real life.  At some angles the grape color is more prominent, but mostly it looks exactly like the picture directly above.  This color is not the best on my pale skin.  I'm hoping I'll like it better in the summer when I'm "tan".  (I'm pale and always wear sunscreen, so it hardly counts as tan.)  It is still pretty, just not what I wanted or expected.
EDIT:  I tried Daul again in the summer.  In direct sunlight Daul looks like the 2nd picture.  In fact it looks much better then the second picture.  The gold glass fleck shimmer positively glows in the sunlight.

On a whim, I thought I'd try to do a gradient with Zoya Rica.  The colors don't go together, but the finishes do.  It was kind of cool, despite the clashing colors.  Rica, an orange toned coral with gold glass fleck shimmer, did manage to make Daul actually look purple.   I had to brush Rica on for the gradient.  When I tried to sponge Rica on with a make-up sponge, all that showed up was the gold shimmers and not the color.  I did sponge where the two colors meet to blend them together.

 After a while, I had to admit that the colors really didn't go together.  I was going to remove it, but instead I tried stamping it with Wet 'n Wild Black Creme and Konad M60.  It helped disguise the clashing colors.

Zoya Roxy

Zoya Roxy is a plum jelly polish with plum glitter.  This polish would have been absolute perfection if it had been a plum version of Zoya Jade.  The glitter in Roxy is much bigger then the glitter in Jade.  That being said, Roxy is a beautiful polish.  It covered in 2 coats.  It is much prettier in person then in photos.  I wish some polish manufacturer would come out with a version of Zoya Jade/China Glaze Ruby Pumps (very similar colors) in every color.  A royal blue one, an orange one, a grape one....that is my dream. 

When I wear this polish, I have this song in my head all day.  Well, most of the "words" in my head are da, da, da-da, da, da, da-dum.... Roxy!

Dot Pyramid

This is Finger Paints Go Van Go with dots of Finger Paints A Tough Art to Follow, Wet 'n Wild Megalast Garden Hose, and Rimmel Rags to Riches.  I think the base color, Go Van Gogh, is pretty close to the Pantone color of the year, emerald.  Pantone predicts (and possibly causes) color trends.  I wouldn't be surprised if you see a lot of emerald polish this fall/winter, maybe even this summer since their emerald is a bright color.  Rags to Riches is the bottom center dot of my manicure.  I should have just used the dark green polish for that dot because Rags to Riches doesn't go with the other colors. Next time.

Essie Shine of the Times Gradient

This is Sinful Colors Let's Talk with an Essie Shine of the Times gradient.  Let's talk is true purple in real life.  In the second pic I added a coat of NYC Matte Me Crazy.  I'm not much of a glitter or flakie glitter person,  but I find I like glitters and flakies if I wear them in a gradient.  Until I saw it done on Pinterest, it never occurred to me to do a flakie gradient. 

Essie Trophy Wife

This is Essie Trophy Wife.  It was a Christmas gift from my preschool age niece.  I think I will love this color in the summer on my toes.  Left is one coat of Essie Trophy Wife on my niece. 

Christmas Candy Nails

So, I'm behind on posting and this is my Christmas manicure.  I started out on the pointer finger using striping tape to mask off the polish.  It turns out that striping tape is hard to put on with one hand.  I'll have to figure out how to use it.  I finished the other nails with a dotting tool.  I used Wet n Wild French White Creme, Revlon Emerald City, OPI Big Apple Red and a very old pink polish. 

Another Zoya Promo

Zoya is running another great promotion.  Get 3 free polishes when you pay 10$ shipping and handling.  Or you can get 3 free polishes, spend 25$ and get free shipping.  The code is ZOYA13.  The sale doesn't officially start until Monday, but the code is working now.  The sale runs the 7th to the 13th.  The newer polishes are excluded.  See this link for more info.
Be sure to sure to check out my posts using Zoya polishes for ideas.  You can search the Zoya site by nail polish color in the top right hand side.  Doing a google image search is very helpful for finding colors.  I especially love Harley, Rica, Jade, Venus, and Laney.  

I chose Kristen.

Roxy

And Daul.