Swatch & Review

   This was meant to be a base for nail art that never happened.  Well, it did happen, but this manicure didn't last until the time I was ready to do it, and I used a different base color for the art, haha.  So I ended up just swatching Raven, basically!

   Raven is one of my first Zoya polishes, and I realized that I don't remember ever wearing it.  It's a really pretty black with a super-fine shimmer.  However my bottle seems to have some issues, like it wasn't capped tightly.  The formula was off compared my other Zoya pretties, namely in that it did not want to level itself out and didn't wear as well.  I also has some odd bubbles when I added topcoat.  I don't know if that should be attributed to Raven or not.

Swatch & Review

   In writing up my last post I realized there was a ton of photo content to cover with just the galaxy manicure.  I had these swatch photos of my gorgeous base color, and while I didn't want to leave them out I also didn't want them to be ignored because of the more "exciting" pictures.  So here is my separate review post for Payton and MEGA! 

   First off, Payton.  It's gorgeous.  It's deep, it's glittery, it's luxurious, and it's extremely hard to capture on film SD card.  This has a sort of deep purple/burgundy/wine color that makes cameras go "Huh, wonder what if that should be more red or more blue.  Dunno.  I'll just keep going back and forth with every other photo."  It's a purple thing.  To my eyes it's a beautiful berry-toned purple.  Definitely a cool-toned color but it has a red quality, too.  It's hard to describe, but I love it.

Nail Art

   Hello!  This is a big post for me, and I don't just say that because it's image heavy!  This is my first-ever "galaxy nails" attempt!  Which turned out quite nicely... for a first attempt, at least!  I've been inspired by all the beautiful galaxy and nebula manicures, in particular the ones that play around with colors beyond the typical spacey black, blue and green.  Thus my choice of a deep burgundy and pink scheme!

   Read on if you'd like to see a bunch more pictures (including glowing ones!) and hear about what I used.  I was surprised by how easy this ended up being, though I didn't take a picture of what  used, it was a combination of dotting tools, make-up sponges and a thin nail art brush.

Nail Art

   Oh, readers, this post is a fun one for me to share!  You may think that with all the pastel colors around here that I am simply a girly-girl.  Not true!  Beneath my frilly, lacy outer layer you will find a cold, hard nerdy comic book geek.  Hey, sometimes your knight in shining armor is actually a knight in really tight spandex.  Don't complain, fellow princesses, you know a spandex spidey-suit is easier to clean than a full suit of armor.  Yay for wash-and-wear!  ...Moving on!


   See what I did here, channeling the vintage comic book cover style?  I'm pretty proud of it... not nearly as proud as I am of these nails, though!!  I painted them on May 3rd, in preparation of my my 2nd wedding anniversary day-early dinner & movie celebration.  (What a mouthful.)  See, I really am a geek - I totally felt this was a sufficient romantic date for an important occasion.

   So yes, this was nail art for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie - wait 'til you see the other hand! - but  promise that I will reveal no spoilers.  I hate spoilers!

Swatch & Nail Art

   My could manicure obsession continues!  This time I switched the color layering up by offsetting the "bumps" of the clouds.  It's a subtle difference but I like it!

  For this manicure I used a base of ILNP Dreaming in Violet, my one Pantone orchid-inspired polish... as of yet!  This is a really nice pinky-purple holographic polish.  It is linear, and stronger than what my photos show, of course.  While Dreaming in Violet's formula is very good (I only needed 2 coats!) there was just one thing I was let down about...

Swatch & Review Manicure

And says her prayers
In awe of what she sees
I could never see the things she sees

And she's always far away
In some other place
She likes to make believe
I can't stand to see her in such pain

Even when the world is pushing down
She stands so tall she can almost touch the clouds

Layering Nail Art / Swatch

Nail Art / Swatch & Review

   These weren't supposed to look like snowy, winter nails, I promise!  If you're having flashbacks to negative temperatures I give you my whole-hearted apology.  After wearing Color Club Over the Moon for a day and enjoying it's sunny-sky hue I thought puffy cloud tips would be pretty cute.  So I free-handed cloud tips using Zoya Purity.

Swatch & Review / Nail Art

   I can't resist a good minty aqua polish.  I have so many creme hues in this family that when I saw Music Box it only seemed right to branch out into the holographic end of things.  I'm wearing 3 coats of this pretty polish, and I found the formula to be agreeable.  This isn't a super-strong holo polish, but the effect is more prominent in person than it shows in photographs.  And out in the sunshine it really does serve up a dollop of rainbowy goodness.

Swatch & Review

   I'm currently getting over a cold (which is why I missed posting on Wednesday), while also dealing with a really cute baby that has decided not to stay asleep at night for the past two weeks.  My husband and I have been in a perpetual state of running-on-empty.  I've been depressed about my inability to get things done, but looking on the bright side (literally, since the sun is out and our snow is melting!) I do have a lot to be thankful for.  My very supportive husband, a generally healthy family, and getting to watch all the amazing accomplishments of our baby girl.  Little Freya will turn 6 months old tomorrow, is getting used to being spoon-fed, loves to sit up on her own, and yesterday she said her first word: "mama".

   The manicure I'm sharing today is one that came from poking halfheartedly through my untrieds, and then being surprised with how much I enjoyed wearing it.  The nail polish from I♥NP is called Absolute Zero, and it was an exclusive color only available with pre-orders some time back.  In all honesty I wasn't too enthused about it, navy blue isn't my thing, but I did pre-order some polishes, thus it ended up in my collection anyway.

   My swatches show 1 coat plus topcoat; I'm especially impressed that I only had to use 1 coat for a nice rich finish.  Absolute Zero has a slightly metallic and holo-infused finish.  It ended up being quite pretty in person and had a lot of life on the nail.    Sadly it doesn't come across very well in my pictures, and it also didn't seem to get along with my Poshe fast-drying topcoat, which was causing the polish to pull up around my cuticles.  I also found I had tipwear much faster with this manicure than I normally do with any other ILNP color.

Swatch & Review / Nail Art

Arizona, take off your rainbow shades...

   I grew up listening to the oldies.  So when it comes to a girl named Arizona, the song is all my brain can come up with.  I wonder who is the real inspiration behind Zoya's Arizona?  Anyway, this is a manicure that seemed so much better in my head.

Swatch & Review

   I've been so busy lately that I have fallen into a 1-mani-per-week routine.  Fortunately when I'm wearing polishes this gorgeous I'm happy to have them on my nails for a week!  Let's take a look at ILNP Washing Ashore and Zoya Bobbi, shall we?

Swatch & Review

   12 pictures.  I have a dozen photos to share of these polishes, and I still don't feel like it's enough to show off their pretty color shifting.  I tried a few different types of lighting to show the range of colors, but believe me when I say these two polishes are much more flashy in person.  These nails all started with a black base.

Swatch & Review

   So, in my last post I said that I was looking forward to the weekend...  Well, my husband and I ended up coming down with "the stomach flu" (that's a misnomer, did you know?), and we're still not back to 100%.  Out of the two of us I ended up being the really, really sick one, so my weekend was pretty much a loss and so far this week has been a yucky blur of missed work and trying to nap.  At least I'm finally coherent enough to write about some manicures I did awhile ago!

Win a $100 Amazon Gift Card!  Princessly Polished is on Facebook!

   Is it any surprise that things didn't go as expected for me this month?  I ended going back to work 2 weeks earlier than we were planning on, and now I'm just starting to get into a new routine.  Again.  As I said a couple posts ago, I'm trying for blog updates on Wednesdays and Fridays for now!

January Checklist

   One of these things got checked off, but I already need to update my social media buttons again.  The media buttons I'm using currently seem a bit off with my new layout, anyway.  (Does this mean I should have left this item un-crossed off?)  As for my other projects, my Storenvy shop is close to being completely stocked (and I've already made sales!  So I'm not too upset about that - I'll have the rest of my destash polish listed soon.  The light box hasn't been built because I couldn't find a box that I was 100% happy with.  I refuse to buy a square box...  I know I will get one to recycle eventually.

Swatch & Review

   How awesome is this combination of polishes?  ILNP Animal Cookie is one of the first polishes I saw from the brand, and it immediately landed on my wishlist.  It took awhile for me to get it it, but it was worth waiting for!  I used one coat for my swatch, and the glitter spread nicely.  I dabbed a little extra into a few bare spots and then it was perfect.  The mix of white and pink glitters pops over my base of Zoya Rocky.  Rocky is a semi-dusty turquoise blue creme, and I only needed two coats.

Nail Art / Swatch & Review

   Have you ever had a manicure stuck in your head?  The only known cure is to sit down and paint that manicure!  I've had this one stuck in my head for weeks, and while it isn't quite as great as my brain imagined it to be, I still really enjoyed it!  First off, this is my first time doing an ombre manicure where each nail is painted a different color.  I couldn't find anything that talks about names for the different types of ombre manis - and there are many!  What is up with that?

Nail Art / Mini Tutorial

   I was swatching Zoya Kristen a few days ago when inspiration struck.  Actually, a piece of fuzz struck.  Necessity is the mother of invention, right?  As soon as I was adding topcoat I noticed a very fine piece of red fuzz glossed into my index nail, like so:

Nail Art / Swatch & Review

   Good day, Princesses!  Last month when my Laquerlicous polishes arrived in the mail I was immediately inspired by this one.  It was calling out to me from the bottle and I knew I needed to use it in a melon-y manicure ASAP.  I wanted to make the glitters pop, so I couldn't do just a regular pink/red watermelon design.  I thought of trying a nice cantaloupe color, but there is a funny thing about watermelon...


   It's a fruit, it's a vegetable.  It's not technically a melon.  And when it grows without the red pigment-giving antioxidant lycopene... it comes in the most lovely shades of yellow!

Photo source: whataboutwatermelon.com

   I must admit to feeling quite clever about remembering that yellow watermelons are indeed "a thing".  You see, I've never actually found one in person.  They just aren't common in our area.  I'd love to try a slice, though!  They sound like they taste fantastic...  Anyway, nail polish, yes.


   Laquerlicious Melon Sorbet is such a fantastic glitter topper.  I mean, just look at this macro!  It is full of satin and matte shapes in happy shades of pink and green, along with a dash of black and white.  It's the perfect blend of color variety and glitter sizes, easy to work with, and has perfect topper coverage at one coat.  Each nail ends up looking totally unique (without looking chaotic) and there is no need to do glitter fishing.  Though I did fish out the pastel pink circle for my index nail - I saw it in the bottle and I wanted it!  I could go on, but that would probably be cruel.  Right now this polish is on clearance, and there aren't many bottles left.  I'll just say that if you missed this one, I feel very sorry for you.


Details on the nail art:
   Pastel yellow glitter nails: 3 coats China Glaze Lemon Fizz and 1 coat Laquerlicious Melon Sorbet.  Topped with 1 coat of Gelous and 1 coat of Poshe.  (Only used Poshe for the other nails.)
   Melon slice accent nail: Lemon Fizz base with China Glaze Happy Go Lucky sponged at the cuticle for a riper, sweeter-looking melon, black seeds using a nail art striper (L.A. Colors Black), and Zoya Purity sponged at the tip for a realistic fade into the rind..
   Melon rinds:  Base color is Zoya Hunter with squiggly lines done with a bright green nail art striper (L.A. Colors Mint Green).

   I'm a nail-art novice, so I am really happy with how these turned out!  I actually wore these nails at the end of last month; editing the pictures now and seeing them again made me happy all over again!  It's only summer for another week, so it was a perfect time to get my melon on.  Haha.


   If you'd like to see more about yellow watermelon, check out this article on wiseGEEK and this recipe for, what else?  Yellow watermelon sorbet!  Also, if you've ever had the chance to eat yellow watermelon please leave a comment telling me about your experience!  Until I find it myself I'll have to live vicariously through others.  =)


   This might be my last blog post for a little while.  My previous OB appointment revealed that I can basically go into labor at any time (Yay!  ...I think?), and if I don't by this weekend I'll probably be induced (having issues with low fluids again, thus the constant monitoring).  In fact, as this post is going live I'm heading off to one more appointment, where I guess they could say "we're keeping you now".  But I'm hoping that doesn't happen...  Either way, I don't know that I will have much of a brain for blogging.  Most of my time off this week has been spent cleaning, packing, and napping.  ^-^  Until we see you again, hugs and kicks-es from the baby and I! ♥

   Things are looking up!  My last doctor visit went well and my fluid levels are where they are supposed to be.  So long as this continues I should be able to safely carry this baby to term!  As of today that only makes 3 weeks to go, anyhow...  I'm fine with her waiting until then to come out, haha.  =)

   So, this month... kind of made up for buying so little earlier in the year...  Some things were gifts though, too!  And pretty much everything else in this picture was on sale.

   Usually I would have a bunch of pictures and list off everything that I accumulated, but I'm not doing that this time.  (Combine a busy week & weekend with the exhaustion of pregnancy...)  Instead I'll leave links to what I've already shown on my blog!

   I've already tested more of what you see here... tune in next week for Nyx swatches and more Laquerlicious eye candy!  I think I want to try out the nail decals or foil sheets I found next...