Cinderella Nails

I saw the new Cinderella movie a couple of weeks ago when it came out in theatres, and I fell in love with it. The romance, the costumes, the magic… Although it’s a depart from my usual writing, I feel like I could put up a review of it, so enamoured was I with the film.

Ever since watching it, a color that I call “Cinderella blue” keeps popping up in my life. I finally found a beautiful dusky shade of blue that is almost perfect, and so I decided to use it for a Cinderella-inspired manicure.

I started with a basecoat. I’m currently using my new Essie Grow Stronger Base Coat. Then, I applied one coat of Revlon Dreamer. This was my first time using it and I wasn’t very careful, so the results were a little bubbly and not quite opaque. However, this didn’t matter because these mistakes were all covered up with the next step.

I finished with one coat of Revlon Diamond Texture. I tried to make this coat as thin as possible so that the blue base would show through, but this was hard to achieve because the glitter is so dense. Ideally, I would have used a sparser glitter; however, I also loved the edge that this textured polish lent my manicure!

I am just so in love with this manicure. In certain lights especially you can see the blue shining through.

My nails actually make me feel like Cinderella! Her dress in the movie is so stunning, and I feel like I managed to capture a little bit of that magic into my own daily life.

Link your own movie- or Disney-inspired manicure in the comments, or share an idea for a manicure with me!

Nail Update #3 & Questions for You!

Hi guys!

Today, I have questions for you about nail care and solutions.

Since starting to grow out my nails 2 months ago, I have been so happy with their progress. However, I can now detect a host of various problems with my nails that I can’t seem to find much help for online. I’m really hoping you’ll be able to help me solve some of them!

First Nail Art!

Inspired by #NAFW2015, which is the first Nail Art Fashion Week (started by the So Nailicious blog), I decided to play around with nail art today! A lot of what I’ve been seeing on Instagram has me feeling like I could try my hand at it, so today I finally did.

Because I wanted to experiment, I painted each of my nails a different style.

My Nail Odyssey: Update #2

It’s been quite a while since I posted an update to what I’ve been dubbing my “Nail Odyssey,” and I’ve made so much progress. The last one I did was 16 days in, and it is now Day 65. I actually had to count out the days, because it’s gotten to the point where I’m not going day by day anymore. Here are my thoughts from the last 6 weeks! Ending with a comparison photo of where I was then… to where I am now.

My Nail Odyssey: Manicure with Zoya Harley

This is the very first manicure I’ve done that I’ve been proud of. I’m proud of it mostly because it’s the neatest manicure I’ve ever done. This is due in part to my longer nails — it’s incredibly hard to keep the paint on your nails when they’re barely there. But also I think my painting skills have improved a bit, especially since I managed to keep my right hand as neat as my left! (I’m right-handed).

I used Zoya Harley, which is a lovely light grey with slight shimmer. When it arrived in the mail and I first swatched it, I thought I didn’t like it. But when I saw it on all of my nails it just looks so sophisticated that I couldn’t help but fall in love with it!

A Simple Spa Day

For me, a spa day is all-inclusive. It’s about taking care of myself fully — my hair, my skin, my mind. Sometimes, though, I don’t have time to touch every aspect of my being but need the touch of relaxation a spa day brings. Those are the days when I reach for this routine.

My Nail Odyssey: Update #1

It’s been one week since I posted this confession, and almost 4 weeks since I stopped biting my nails. I’ve been keeping a daily log of what my feelings have been throughout, as well as noting any nail upkeep I’ve been doing. Here are some excerpts from my log:

Zoya Mystery Trio Reveal!

Earlier today I showed you the “exclusive mystery trio” that Zoya shipped out as part of their “New Year, New Hue” promotion.

After a bit of research, I discovered that this trio was actually custom-created for Peter Som’s Autumn/Winter 2014 runway collection during New York Fashion Week. This collection is what inspired the color combination.

Charlotte – described only as a “warm nude”, this creme is sort of a pale camel shade.

Anais – although described as a warm black metallic with a vein of Severine running through it, this black looks more like it contains a sheen of silvery pewter. However, this sheen is not very obvious when swatched, and it’s a much more ethereal than “in-your-face” pewter.

Severine – described as a warm pewter metallic, to me this comes across as more gold. This is an absolutely gorgeous pale metallic.

Zoya Haul, Part 2: The Mystery Trio

As I stated in yesterday’s post, in January Zoya held a “New Year, New Hue” sale in which they offered 3 full-size polishes and a mini trio of three exclusive mystery colors for just the $15 shipping cost. These mystery colors were never-before-released, and exclusive to this sale. Despite it being a bit of a gamble, since for all I knew the polishes could have been lime green and orange, I thought it was pretty exciting to be receiving three special polish minis.

Zoya Haul, Part 1: Six Polishes

Earlier in January, Zoya held a “New Year, New Hue” sale in which they offered 3 full-size polishes and a mini trio of three exclusive mystery colors for just the $15 shipping cost. However, if you ordered $25 worth of other products, then shipping was free, too. I took advantage of this and was able to get 6 Zoya polishes, the mini mystery trio, and a 2 oz. bottle of their nail polish remover for just $33.

Since I have a pretty small nail polish collection, I had a lot of trouble deciding on which shades to get. Ever since getting my first manicure a few weeks ago, I’ve been thinking a lot about my nails. As you can read about here, I’ve been on a quest to stop biting my nails, and I think that the primary key is finding polish that is so interesting that I can’t bear to ruin it, and the secondary key is a textured polish that helps me be more aware of where my fingers are.