Zoya Zuza and Wednesday and a failed Nabi magnetic gradient

Hello my friends!
Today I did my first sponge manicure using two Zoyas: Wednesday and Zuza. These are beautiful seafoam greens (blues?) that I chose because hubby loves seafoam nail polish. At least I think he does since that's what he always suggests. Wednesday is a cream and Zuza is a shimmer that is gorgeous! It has more than just silver shimmer in it, there are tiny little rainbow particles too. Love! I need to wear this as a full mani soon. As usual with Zoya I had no application issues.

However, I tried an accent nail of a magnetic gradient. I've seen a few tutorials on how to do it and it seemed easy enough. I used two Nabi magnetics, for some reason none of my Nabi's have color names on them. One is a dark gray shimmer and the other a light silver. The silver has a few rainbow particles in it as well. So, I applied my magnetics, waited for them to dry then reactivated them with a top coat and put the magnet over. It only worked on the dark gray :( THEN, I put on my usual quick dry top coat and everything turned rust colored! What the fudge? I have not had this happen before so I'm at a loss. It's the strangest thing.




Here is the darker Nabi so you get an idea of what the actual color is:




Any ideas about what happened?
Love,
Tres

elf and Zoya Feifei

Hi my friends!
Today I continue on in the quest of polishes I haven't worn before and go with two I got recently. I saw these cute elf polishes in a basket at Target and couldn't resist this green glitter one. It doesn't seem to have a name :( Until I was taking pictures in the sun I thought it was black with green glitter but I'm more inclined to think it's blackened green with green glitter now. Regardless, on the nail it looks black. This was two coats, and I must say not only was the brush wonky and all splayed out the polish smells AWFUL! Exactly like the Nabi Magnetics smell, a strange plastic/metallic smell. It goes away once the polish is dry though.

My accent finger is Zoya FeiFei. Soooooo pretty! I don't even know how to describe this, it's got green, blue, gold, pink, silver and who knows what else. It leans blueish but all the colors are visible on close inspection. This was three coats because I had some cuticle drag (user error).








I also wanted to address the recent drama in the polish community with the group that is calling themselves the coalition for cuticle clean up. I'm a small fish in a huge pond and I am not the best nail painter. I don't do this for fame or fortune but to share my hobby with others. My pictures probably suck most of the time and often you'll find a bit of polish or shimmer on my cuticles. I do my best but I also have a job, a family, and go to school. I don't think it's up to bigger fish bloggers to determine who has messy cuticles and who doesn't. MOST of us do this because we love it, not for freebies or attention. If you don't like what you see please listen to what your mama said "if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all" and move along.

Love,
Tres

8 Spooky Nights day 6- Spiders

Well, I'm not sure where my last three blog posts went. Here's my pictures of my spider mani. I don't have pictures of the graveyard or orange and black anymore. It looks like my blog app is eating my posts.



Love,
Tres

8 Spooky Nights Day 5: Witches

Hello my pretties!
Please enjoy my entry for today!




You may notice I have one stiletto nail. That puppy broke off in my sleep last night so I filed it down to a point for today's challenge. As of the time of me writing this it's already broken off so expect some nubbin on that finger. For this I used some crystals I got at the dollar store, painted my nails with my base green, Revlon Street Wear in Drab, then Saran wrapped with Essie Mink Mittens and a Pure Ice I cannot remember the name of. It's similar to Essie Mojito Madness but with a shimmer. I topped my wart with Revlon Espresso. My hubby says they are creepy!






Please go visit my other witchy participants!
Peace Love Lacquer
XO, Noelle
College Polished
PishPosh & Polish
Beauty Dish
Nail By Katie
Jenerally Speaking 
Galactic Lacquer 
Tres' Chic Nails 
charlottes-nails 
Manic Manis
The Life, Time and Lacquers of Lilmoon
Makeup and Nails, Not War
Not Too Polished
Mimi Manicures
Seriously Swatched8 Spooky Nights
Jilltastic Nail Designs

Love,
Tres

8 Spooky Nights day 4: Ghosts

Hello all!

Welcome to my entry for day 4!




I used a base of CG Smoke & Ashes. This is so pretty in the bottle. Doesn't translate to the nail though :( I used Whirlwind White and Wet N Wild Black Crème for the eyes. This reminds me of Scooby Doo for some reason!







Please go visit the other participants in the challenge!

Peace Love Lacquer
XO, Noelle
College Polished
PishPosh & Polish
Beauty Dish
Nail By Katie
Jenerally Speaking 
Galactic Lacquer 
Tres' Chic Nails 
charlottes-nails 
Manic Manis
The Life, Time and Lacquers of Lilmoon
Makeup and Nails, Not War
Not Too Polished
Mimi Manicures
Seriously Swatched8 Spooky Nights
Jilltastic Nail Designs
Love,
Tres

8 Spooky Nights day 3: Candy

Hello all!
Welcome to my challenge entry for today.



I had a ton of fun doing this mani and even made my hubby say "What the eff are you doing?"
For my pointer I used a BM stamp and two random pink and red polishes, middle finger is candy corn (I swapped the colors though, oops!) using OPI Need Sunglasses? and Atomic Orange. My chocolate nail was done with Nubar Milk Chocolate Crème and Essie Mink Muffs using the cling wrap method of blotting. Finally, some real candy sprinkles!






Please check out everyone else doing the challenge as well!
Peace Love Lacquer
XO, Noelle
College Polished
PishPosh & Polish
Beauty Dish
Nail By Katie
Jenerally Speaking 
Galactic Lacquer 
Tres' Chic Nails 
charlottes-nails 
Manic Manis
The Life, Time and Lacquers of Lilmoon
Makeup and Nails, Not War
Not Too Polished
Mimi Manicures
Seriously Swatched8 Spooky Nights
Jilltastic Nail Designs Lilmoon
Makeup and Nails, Not War
Not Too Polished
Mimi Manicures
Seriously Swatched8 Spooky Nights
Jilltastic Nail Designs
Love,
Tres

8 Spooky Nights Nails challenge day 2: Vampire

Boo!
Today is day two of the challenge and it's vampire day!



I tried something that didn't quite work out. I think I need a smaller brush. For my base I used Sally Hansen InstaDry In A Flurry. This was everything I wish CG Smoke and Ashes was. Except it's a bit runny, but not unbearable. Again OPI OPI Red and Whilrwind White for the red and white.







Check out everyone else's entries!
Peace Love Lacquer
XO, Noelle
College Polished
PishPosh & Polish
Beauty Dish
Nail By Katie
Jenerally Speaking 
Galactic Lacquer 
Tres' Chic Nails 
charlottes-nails 
Manic Manis
The Life, Time and Lacquers of Lilmoon
Makeup and Nails, Not War
Not Too Polished
Mimi Manicures
Seriously Swatched8 Spooky Nights
Jilltastic Nail Designs
Love,
Tres

8 Spooky Nights nail art challenge day 1: SKULLS

Hi there!
I have joined a nail art challenge for Halloween and today is the first day.




Today's challenge: skulls! Fun! I'm actually wearing my skull hoodie today too. I think my skulls are self-explanatory. My stamped skull came out icky though, not sure why but I think I need to practice stamping more.


I used Sally Hansen InstaDry Whirlwind White, Kiss black striping polish and OPI OPI Red.

Please go visit my nail polish sisters who are also participating!

Peace Love Lacquer
XO, Noelle
College Polished
PishPosh & Polish
Beauty Dish
Nail By Katie
Jenerally Speaking 
Galactic Lacquer 
Tres' Chic Nails 
charlottes-nails 
Manic Manis
The Life, Time and Lacquers of Lilmoon
Makeup and Nails, Not War
Not Too Polished
Mimi Manicures
Seriously Swatched8 Spooky Nights

Jilltastic Nail Designs


Love,
Tres

My Zoya link

Some of my favorite polishes are made by Zoya. I know some of you don't polish your nails much or just read this blog for entertainment and I think if you want to start polishing your nails Zoya is the place to start. Some of my favorites are Ivanka, Charla, Wednesday, and Arizona. Go check them out! They often send out email specials and have EXCELLENT customer service.
Let me know if you buy anything from them, or if you need help deciding which colors to get!



Love,
Tres

This link is my personal referral link and gives me points towards the Share The Love referral program

Tackling the Untrieds-Black

Howdy,
How is everyone today? It's the first day that feels like fall here, kinda overcast with beautiful swooshy clouds. Of course it's also Balloon Fiesta, wind means no balloons. Happens every year. I want to show you a picture I took the other day of the mass ascension from the west side of the city. I am so lucky to live here, what an amazing sight.



All those dots are hot air balloons! It's incredible when you think about it. I've lived here my whole life so I tend to take it for granted, or complain about all the tourists, but really it is something unlike anything I've ever seen.

On to the polish for today. I decided to start going through my untried polishes in color order. I can't remember what is an old polish and have some one off brands so color it is. I've used OPI Metallic 4 Life from the Nicki Minaj collection. Cool black base with silver glitter. This is three coats. It's a little gloopy honestly. Probably needs some thinner. Not too hard to work with though. For my accent nail I have a franken I made to imitate Butter London's The Black Knight. This is also three coats, and it's not opaque. I'll wear this over black in the future so I don't get tired of painting and leave VNL.

I must say, this was hard to capture. My camera doesn't like to focus on glitter I guess. Here's your shots!









And with flash. You can see the blue glitter in my franken best on this shot.

So, what do you think? Have you frankened before? Are black nails too goth or just another color?

Love,
Tres

I have the blues

This is a mani from last week. I wore Sinful Colors Grecian Sun topped with OPI Can't You Sea? It was a nice combo, very pretty blue and sparkly. Grecian Sun is a sky blue cream, easy formula. Can't You Sea? is a sheer blue with pink, silver, ad blue shimmer. I don't think you could build this to opaqueness if you wanted. It's definitely meant to be a topper. I also did an accent nail of Orly Mermaid Tale. This is a lovely green glitter with some holo glitter mixed in. I wasn't able to make this opaque either, I gave up at four coats and a quarter inch of polish on my nails.



This is Grecian Sun by itself. I need to find a better spot to take pictures at my parents house, I swear I'm not jaundiced.




With the accent of Mermaids Tale and Can't You See topping the blue.




Bottle shot of Cant You Sea? You can see the shimmer here.



The brown spot on my pointer? Meatloaf. I painted everything, ate dinner then put top coat on. Apparently I didn't wash my hands as well as I thought. This is a more color accurate picture.




And finally, shade. I like all these colors but I'd definitely wear Mermaids Tale over something. And also avoid meatloaf.

I was going to post pictures of Sally Hansen Lava but I broke a nail the night I painted them, then another nail a couple days later. I dropped and broke the container of water for our humidifier and spilled a gallon of water all over the carpet in the process as well as losing a corner of my index finger. Pinky nail just snapped off one day. Such is my life. So, be prepared for some wonky nails for a few days. Till then!

Love,
Tres

Brown Ombré Mani

This is my third attempt at an ombre mani. I've done teal and black before and when I saw brown on Pinterest I knew I had to try it. Unfortunately I don't think it turned out as well as it could've, my middle three colors are not quite right. So my quest for better browns shall continue.













For this mani I used:
Revlon Top Speed Espresso Nubar Milk Chocolate Crème
China Glaze Mahogany
Natural Glow Super Shine Cool Cameo Crème
SHCSM Café Au Lait

And just for comparison here are my previous two ombres.






Have you done an ombre mani before? What's your favorite color to do them in?

Love,
Tres

Sally Hansen Lustre Shine Copperhead

Hello lovelies!
Today I have a brand new polish to show you! This is from Sally Hansen's newest collection called Lustre Shine. I have most of the collection except for the white pearly one and I'll probably get that one soon enough. I'm a bit of a collector, what can I say?

This polish has a beautiful bluish pewter shimmer in the bottle but I didn't find that it translated to the nail much, if at all. You can see a band of this in this bottle shot. The only time I saw this actually was when I was cleaning up. I imagine when I take this off that the copper will come off first and leave a bit of the blue behind.




Sadly this is not so duochrome. It's beautiful and easy to work with. My brush had a wonky bristle that hopefully my other bottles don't have. The formula was fine, two coats and no dragging. My swatch below is with no top coat, and seems to be a bit bubbled (which I couldn't see IRL).



No flash. I can't figure out why this picture is so yellow. Terrible lighting at my parents house probably.



With flash. This is brighter than it usually looks. Imagine this slightly more dusty.

And a bonus picture, my daughters pink mani. She had to be on this blog post. She thinks cats are better to hold than nail polish bottles.



Love,
Tres

Nubar Forest and reclaim

Next up in my untried stash is the Go Green set from Nubar. I bought this set specifically for these two polishes and have let them sit for almost 2 years now. Shame on me!

I started with two coats of Forest, it is lovely and dried quickly. It's a darkened kelly green cream, I don't know why I haven't used this before! I made sure to wrap my tips to prevent chipping but after my shower the next day I had a couple chips. I have no idea how to prevent chipping, so I suppose I'll just change my polish every couple days. Here's the shot of Forest.



After the couple chips I decided to do a tape mani/thick tipped french with Reclaim. Hello Holo! Such a pretty color, and an amazing linear holo. I'm in need of more holos, especially dark colors. Here's a flash shot to show the pretty rainbows.




I'm sure you'll see a new post in a day or two as this mani is now chipped so time to change it.

Do you have this set? What about tips for preventing chips?

Love,
Tres

Rimmel 60 Seconds Extreme: Mania

First up in my stats of untrieds is Rimmel 60 Seconds Extreme Nail Polish in Mania. What an amazing darkened teal duochrome with a golden shimmer. It flips between teal and emerald green, not a big difference but so pretty! I honestly have no idea how long this has been in my stash of untrieds, probably close to 15 years, maybe less though. All I know is it sat in a box through two moves, which covers at least 7 years. Being that old it's not 3 free or organic or vegan, but it's beautiful.







I'm not sure if you can buy this anywhere any longer but ebay is always worth a shot. Thanks for stopping by today!
Love,
Tres

More Milani One Coat Glitters

Today was the wedding of one of my friends I've known since 8th grade! I'll spill my age here and admit that's since 1993! Back then he was dating my best friend but obviously he wasn't marrying her today. His new wife is so sweet and they are a perfect couple!

Since I got off work at 6:30 this morning and the wedding was at 11:00 I went home and changed my mani. Last night at work I peeled off the previous Silver Dazzle. It actually ended up being quite easy to peel. I will continue to use glue as a base coat. In fact, I used it as a base for this mani.

Here's my outfit for the wedding. The dress is by H&R London and the shoes are by Pleaser.








And here's the nails:


I again used Milani One Coat Glitter in Purple Gleam and the accent nail is Lavender Fizz. Purple Gleam is a purple glitter in a black base and Lavender Fizz is different sized lavender glitter in a clear base. Once again I had to use three coats. I also used two coats of glue which I think may have been a mistake, you can see how it's sort of messy near my cuticles, that's the glue lifting up. Again I finished with Gelous and ProFX Quick Dry top coat. I still had some grit with that combo.

So now my lovely readers, I pose a question to you. I have quite a stash of untried polishes that I'd like to get through. Shall I do them by brand, by color, by how long it's been sitting in my untried stash? Your input is appreciated.

I leave you with a picture of my daughter dancing with the ring bearer. The cuteness of this was overwhelming! He was telling her where to put her hands and where his would go. So stinking adorable! (Notice where his hand is. Little Casanova!)





Love,
Tres

It's been a while

I'm back! Did you miss me? I got married, moved, and started back to college. I haven't gone more than 12 hours without polish on my nails but haven't documented them on here. I want to get back into it, show some nail art and review polishes.

Without further ado! My current mani is Milani One Coat Glitter in Silver Dazzle. It's a beautiful gunmetal gray glitter but it took 3 coats to get full coverage. It also dries matte so unless that's the look you're going for (and it's a good look) then you'll need a couple coats of topcoat. I used Gelous followed by ProFX Rapid Dry top coat (from Walmart, it's my go to top coat) and there's still a little bit of texture. Also, I already have a chip. 4 hours later it has chipped :(

I should also mention I used the new fad of using Elmer's glue as base coat for easy glitter removal. I'll let you know how that works out. If you don't know what that is google it. It's also known as PVA glue. It sounds like a cool idea, only removal will tell.

Here's the "traditional" shot:



And blurred to show the pretty:



Have you tried these One Coat Glitters? Were you able to get full coverage in one coat?

Love,
Tres

Rescue Beauty Lounge IKB: 2012

I was so excited for this color, I squeed when it arrived in the mail. This is the most I've ever spent on a single polish and the color is lovely. However, I've never seen application like this. It's thick, stringy, and it balls up on the nail. It took nine nails to get the application down. This is three coats with two coats of top coat. You can see the bumps on my nails, and the bubbles that ensued from my application issues. I think I might try some thinner but according to Ji, the owner of RBL, this color is just this way. My recommendation: Revlon Royal or Orly Royal Navy. They're not exact dupes but they should satisfy your craving for deep blue without the application issues (word of caution, there are some bad batches of Revlon Royal out there, if you have issues go get another bottle from a different store). If you must get this color (and it's a great color) use minimal brush strokes and apply a thicker coat than you would of other polishes. For $20 though you could get both the Revlon and Orly and a couple other colors. Also, I wish my nails had spikes like my rocking shoes. Enjoy!