Pink Nails

It's almost autumn! Well technically it'll only be tomorrow 23'th of september but woosh, time is rocket flying, seriously. Still, how good is it for the soul to leave summer behind, and I so love spring also. To celebrate its return, here is a very delicate and fresh polish that is currently on my nails as I'm typing Zoya "Skye". Zoya might be my favorite brand, I have not been much into their new releases lately and have more felt like digging into their less popular shades instead. Honestly, there are some gems for me here. Of course, it's sometimes a dice game to order online (no spoon for European girls, so lots of doubt between almost similar swatchless polishes) but more often than never, I have been positively surprised. I love to be surprised anyway. So then, here is "Skye" from the Spa Essential collection. On their website, Zoya describe it as a warm toned dusty pale pink. The description is pretty accurate. It's indeed a muted pink leading toward peach. Despite its being a little bit on the "warm" pink side, Skye turned out on me as a perfect mannequin hand polish for my skin. 

Concerning the formula, I have read that some girls had bad trouble applying this one. Well, I didn't have too much problems on my side. I for sure found the formula not as superb as most of the Zoya I own (it is a bit uneven and relatively drying much too fast for the small brush) but the application was nothing terrible either and what you see on my nails is just 2 (neither thick neither thin) coats and no top coat. Perfectly opaque, smooth. No streak, no bump, no mess. I have it for 2 days and no chip or anything. Let's see how long I can keep it. I'll let you know. In all, it's a great neutral for cool toned fair skinned girls and I will definitely wear this one a lot on my toes this autumn as I love to go neutral with my feet. I know, we're barely at autumn doorstep that I'm already talking about autumn, I think I just live for this season. I can't help it!

Mystical Practice

In ancient times Taoist Masters in tune with their body, would mentally watch, map and trace out effects of herbs and other healing practices. This style of observation formed the foundation to practices such as QiGong, Acupuncture, Chinese Herbs and how it all connected within the body. If we learn how to live in Harmony with our own body. We can self heal. We can explore ourselves freely. It becomes possible to discover more than just our surface nature. In using, what others would label, my third eye, I have learned over the past years how to see similarly hidden truths. Truths not hidden but rather obscured by our lifestyle. So while it would seem to be a mystical practice, it's more accurate to say that I am merely seeing things clearly, within acceptance and awareness of oneself. This is far from being a mysterious process. It's just being in a place to be able to view and be patient enough to observe. Of course, getting to that spot of being able to see clearly, isn't very easy in an modern environment. It's a place very few people manage to find. I could instruct you exactly how to achieve this state. Yet many people wouldn't want to experience the initial discomfort or have the patience of many years it usually takes to climb to that spot. What do you think about this practice!?

Leather Nails

I am pretty sure you have seen this all over the nail blog world already but here is a manicure made with the Barry M cracking polish! Cracking is seemingly the big Spring craze as OPI and China Glaze have jumped on the bandwagon but Barry M was already proposing this last fall. I have owned this polish since that time but have been unable to post, as you might already know. Better late than never! Today I am showing you a manicure I love a lot. I will of course make a proper review of the Barry M nail effect polish (with advices and little experiences I've had with it) but I can already tell that it is drying matte. I must confess that the first time I tried it, it caught me off guard and although I am a huge matte black polish fan I still can't decide if I like that or not. 

I know I could reproach this polish its lack of glossiness (by adding a glossy top coat!) but instead of doing so, I thought I could take advantage of it combining it to a shiny black base (I used e.l.f. "Black"). Black is so beautiful and can be so visually rich when textured. The result is very much for my liking as it in some ways reminds me of grained leather. In fact, it goes very well with the grainy matte and black leather of the new pair of shoes I've bought lately (the gorgeous motor boots Ash Storm). I absolutely adore those shoes, they are so feminine/masculine and the manicure is really pairing well with them. Great combination to me. Actually, it's quite a sexy combo with a pair of black slim jeans.

Rebecca Maizel at Books on the Square

Well, me and the sibs went. We had fun. I felt like an oldie, "This is the most fun I've had in years!". I even cracked out my walker for the occasion. Me and the sibs were probably the babes of the bunch. Not a lot of youngsters. Shame on them for not coming. Probably should have spread the word on FB too. It was a happy party time, with some food, dancing and music (okay I lie about the last two). But there were some awesome cupcakes, I think each cuppycake looks like Strawberry Shortcake and had a whole sticks worth of butter in the icing. Okay back to the stuff you wanna hear. Rebecca Maizel, well I guess you never know what to expect. When I first saw her I was all like, "Celebrity!". Maybe I should have gone all paparazzo and started clicking away, "Over here Ms. Maizel! Over here!". I bob and weave as I say this. My fingers frantically pressing the capture button (?) on my camera. Rebecca Maizel was very nice and funny, very approachable, too bad I am shy. But she did come over to quiz us, "What are you babies doing up past you beddy bye time?". I kid, she was nice to us chicken heads. Ms. Maizel sister talked to us too, telling us not to be scared of her sister (or something to that effect).

Zoya Ornate Collection

Hey everyone. I've been extremely busy in the last weeks. Sometimes I wonder if I'm even able to keep up with this blog. And I can honestly tell you, work sucks. If I really could make a living off blogging I so would. Moving on, today I have Zoya's Ornate collection to share with you guys. When I saw swatches of this collection, I must have them and I went ahead to order it. A lot of holos! Electra is a holographic bar glitters in a clear base. 3 coats This is obviously used as a top coat. This polish would be perfect to a glitter gradient affect. Ziv is a gold foil with large specks of gold over it. 2 coats. Very interesting polish, you'd think it's a typical boring gold foil polish, but the golden specks added to it makes it very unique. Storm is a black base with holo shimmers. 2 coats. Something about holo over black is just so stunning. Aurora is a raspberry purple base with holo shimmer. 2 coats. The holo in this one definitely stands out. It's such a gorgeous combination. Logan is a vibrant green with golden shimmers. 2 coats. This is a beautiful green polish, the flash of gold just adds the attention it needs.

Blaze is a red holo. 2 coats. Ok I am speechless. This has to be the most gorgeous and best red holo polish out there. It is not a typical red holo, where its a red base with those rainbow holographic flashes. The holo in this one blends with the red base which makes very, very interesting. This one is by far my favorite holo ever. The formula for these were amazing. I had no problems with application. When it comes to holo polishes, we know that they don't really last on your nails (at least for me); the three holos from this collection lasted more than 3 days for me without chipping and only minor tip wear. I no longer have time to do my nails every day, so having chip-free nails is awesome for me right now. Overall, I am super satisfied with the collection and felt it was well worth the money. The whole collection is gorgeous, and the colors are just amazing. If you're debating on which polish to get, Blaze is the answer!