Zoya Tess

Hello, everyone! :)

Today I have for you Zoya's Tess. In the bottle, Tess is a bronzed rose metallic with a silver shimmer. The color of this polish calls to mind the color of the seasons, both blooming in the summer and changing in the fall.

Once on the nail, its finish is extremely foil-like. The pictures above are taken under natural lighting, which highlights Tess's pink and red undertones and silver shimmer. Under artificial lighting, the silver shimmer goes into hiding and you will see more of the polish's bronzed and antique colorings.

The formula for this polish is exactly what we have come to expect from Zoya. The polish flows onto the nail at just the right consistency, so it's easy get thin coats onto the nail. It gives full opaque coverage in two coats. The brush is short and flexible, making it a breeze to get clean lines along the cuticles.

You can find Tess on Zoya.com for $8 for 0.5oz.

Zoya's Valentines Promo Mail

Oooh look what came in the mail today:

It's my order from Zoya's Valentines promo: Kimmy and Renew drops. Kimmy looks gorgeous in the bottle with all those lovely sparkles, and I desperately need some polish thinner. Can't wait to try both! :)

Did you take advantage of the same promo? What did you get?

Julep Marisa

Today I have for you Julep's Marisa, a striking cobalt blue shimmer. I got Marisa from my February ONE CENT introductory Julep Maven box, and I have been really excited to try it out because it is my first rich, deep-blue polish.

Marisa's formula is on the thicker side and quite opaque, so what you see is just one coat of the polish. Julep's brush is thinner, denser, and less malleable than other brushes I have used in the past, which means it's easy to deposit polish onto the nail. However, it also means that it was harder for me to be precise with the polish along the cuticles, which you can see quite clearly thanks to my new camera. ;-) The last picture also shows how well the blue shimmer from the bottle translates onto the nail (please click to enlarge picture). What you see in the pictures includes top coat; without it, Marisa dries to a less shiny texture, so I would highly recommend top coat with this polish.

If you are interested in trying out the Julep Maven program, it is a subscription program that normally retails for $19.99 monthly with free shipping. Over at Julep.com, you can take a style quiz to determine your personal style. Every month, you will receive a Maven box that best fits your style filled with over $40 worth of Julep goodness. The one advantage of the Julep Maven subscription program is its flexibility. It allows you to skip any month free of charge, to send a box to someone else, or to switch your box to a different style. And of course, you can cancel anytime.

Currently, you can get your introductory Julep Maven box for only ONE CENT, too! To get started, just click HERE and use code COLOR2012 at checkout. The code is available for a limited time.

** This post contains my referral link. If you click on the link and sign up, I will earn credit towards free Maven boxes.

MyGlam February 2012

Hope everyone is having a relaxing and fun-filled weekend! :)

Today, I thought I'd share a non-polish related blurb with you. I recently signed up for a monthly beauty subscription service called MyGlam, and I just received my very first bag. If you have not heard of MyGlam, it is a monthly $10 subscription service that delivers 4 or 5 full-size or deluxe-sized beauty items to your door. What you will get every month is a surprise, and the idea is that it allows you to try beauty items that you may not otherwise have thought to try. It is quite similar to a few other beauty subscription services out there, such as Birchbox.

My beauty items this month arrived in a bright pink bubble wrap envelope, with the following items inside:

• Pink with black hearts makeup bag 
• NYX Roll On Shimmer in color Sea Foam (0.052oz) 
• X Out Shine Control (0.75 fl oz) 
• Freeman Hydration Mask in Goji Berry (.5 fl oz packet) 
• Dead Sea Premier Eye Cream and Revitalizing Mask samples 
• Ghirardelli chocolates (2 pieces) 
• NuMe $100 gift certificate (for use towards styling tools & hair extensions only) 

I think the makeup bag is super cute, and I am excited to try out the NYX shimmer and the Freeman mask. The X Out Shine Control's second listed ingredient (after water) is alcohol, and I think putting alcohol on oily skin only dries out your skin and then makes your skin produce more oil in the long run to compensate. As for the $100 NuMe gift certificate, it looks great at first glance, but unfortunately all the items you can buy on the NuMe website with this gift certificate is way over $100.

Overall, I do feel pretty disappointed with this month's bag. I originally signed up for MyGlam because their first bag--the December bag--was filled with mostly full sized makeup items from the likes of Urban Decay, Tarte, and Mai Couture. This bag only had one makeup item, and most of the other items feel quite cheap and gimmicky to me. For me personally, I think MyGlam and I are not a good fit at the moment, and I have cancelled my subscription. However, I will continue to follow MyGlam and I may re-sign up in the future if they shift their focus to makeup again.

Are you subscribed to MyGlam? What did you think of this month's items? What other beauty subscriptions do you subscribe to? Do you feel they are worth the price and the surprise?

Zoya's Valentines Promo

Happy Valentine's Day, dear readers! <3

It looks like Zoya is running another one of their awesome promos. You can get a FREE red nail polish + FREE shipping with any purchase. Just use code WELUVU. That pretty much means you can get 2 nail polishes for $8 with no shipping! It runs until tomorrow night. You can find all the details are HERE. :)

It took me a while to decide, but I finally settled on Renew and Kimmy for $8.

Did you take advantage of this promo? What did you get?

Essie Pink Diamond

The weekends always go by so quickly and this weekend was no exception. It's already Sunday night! As usual, I haven't gotten as much done as I'd like. :) But the one good piece of news from this weekend is that my husband is getting me a new camera for Valentine's Day! My current camera is from six years ago, and as a result, it has a really hard time capturing all the details on those macro shots. I am so excited that soon I will be able to share more accurate and detailed pictures with you, my lovely readers! <3

Speaking of Valentine's Day, I have an appropriate pick for you today: Essie's Pink Diamond. It is a frosty baby pink pearl, and wearing it definitely brings out the girly girl in me.

While this is a relatively generic pink shade (Zoya Emme and Orly Seashell are just a few of many similar shades), I am putting this at the top of my girly pinks list due to its great application. The polish was not too thick, not too thin. There was no pooling on the side of the nail, nor was there pulling near the free edge. It just went on smooth and buttery.

The one question that always comes up with frosts is how streaky is this? With steady hands, two thin coats, and thanks to Essie's great formula, this was not much of a problem. If I look closely, I can still see the streaks, but they appear uniformly vertical on my nails, so they do not look bad at all. In fact, I think the vertical streaks give the slight illusion of elongating my nails and fingers.

What are some of your favorite generic pink shades? Do you like frosty polishes or are they a big no-no?

You can find Pink Diamond on Essie.com, at your local nail salons and drug stores, and at big name retailers like Target and Macy's.

Julep Valentine's Mystery Box

Ooooh I am so excited that my Julep mystery box has arrived in the mail. I got Valentine's Day Mystery Box #6:

• Nail Color in Blake - .27 fl oz, retail for $14
• Nail Color in Zoe - .27 fl oz, retail for $14
• Nail Color in Gwen - .27 fl oz, retail for $14
• Nail Therapy - .27 fl oz, retail for $16
• Essential Cuticle Oil - 1/3 fl oz, retail for $18
• Pomegranate Scrub - 4 oz, retail for $18
• Facial for Hands Glycolic Hand Scrub - 3 fl oz, retail for $32
• Glow On Age Defying Hand Brightener - 1 fl oz, retail for about $10.67
• Glitter pot
• Chocolate heart

The total retail price for all the lovely items in my box comes to approximately $136. Since I only paid $19.99 plus tax for the mystery box, I am super happy with what I got. Everything in this box is new for me with the exception of the cuticle oil, which I received in my February Maven box (please see my earlier blog post). I am especially excited to try the nail colors Zoe and Gwen, and will definitely post about them when I do. I am also looking forward to trying out the pomegranate and hand scrubs. As for the chocolate heart, I had to fend off my husband from eating it before I had a chance to photograph everything, so now that that is done, it will be his. :D

Let me know what you got in your mystery box. Did you get the same box as me or a different one? I am looking forward to seeing everyone's boxes! :)

Julep Maven February 2012

I am so excited to share with you that I am finally a Julep Maven! I joined Julep Maven a few days ago when I saw that I could get my introductory box for only ONE CENT! I could not pass up a deal like that, and today I received my first box.

My intro box was the Boho Glam February box, and it comes nicely wrapped in a black Julep box. The nail polishes in this box are Oscar (a gold sparkly glitter) and Marisa (a rich cobalt blue shimmer). There is also a bottle of cuticle oil, perfect for my dry winter cuticles. Since this month's theme is the Oscars, my box also contains a chocolate Oscar, which my husband has already claimed as his treat. :)

Julep Maven is a subscription program that normally retails for $19.99 monthly with free shipping. Over at Julep.com, you can take a style quiz to determine your personal style. Every month, you will receive a Maven box that best fits your style filled with over $40 worth of Julep goodness. The one advantage of the Julep Maven subscription program is its flexibility. It allows you to skip any month free of charge, to send a box to someone else, or to switch your box to a different style. And of course, you can cancel anytime.

You can get your introductory Julep Maven box for only ONE CENT, too! To get started, just click HERE and use code COLOR2012 at checkout. The code is available for a limited time.

** This post contains my referral link. If you click on the link and sign up, I will earn credit towards free Maven boxes.

Zoya Tanzy

During the long and dreary winter months, I find myself continually reaching for bright happy colors as I paint my nails. Tanzy is one of those lovely colors, and it is from Zoya's Sunshine Summer 2011 Collection. It's a tangerine orange loaded with super shiny gold sparkles in a glass fleck finish.

With the first coat, Tanzy looks quite sheer to me, but the second coat (shown in the pictures) brings it to a good level of opacity. If I look carefully after two coats, I can still see faint visible nail line, but it would not be noticeable to anyone else. Wearing Tanzy gives me hope that summer is coming soon, and it was an appropriate choice for today because we got a rare burst of winter sunshine in the pacific northwest.

What colors do you wear to chase away the winter blues?

You can find Tanzy on Zoya.com for $8 for 0.5oz.