Assymetry with Zoya True

Today I have for you, Zoya Cho and Zoya Skylar from the Zoya Spring collection "True."

I'm no fan of neutrals, but I couldn't resist the soft shimmer of Cho when paired with the more obvious, glass-flecked shimmer of Skylar. Besides, don't they look pretty together?

 (click for detail)

I was inspired by April over at Concrete and Nail Polish where she used Bevin and Farah from the same collection. Another lovely, complimentary pair in this pretty collection.

One more look at them.

I used nothing but the brushes in the bottles of Zoya Polish. What do you think? I think it put the fun in funky!

(remember: simplesymmetry.blogspot.com is where you'll find these and other fun posts going forward.)

Zoya Introduces "FEEL" - The New Neutrals.

New Zoya Collection preview!

FEEL Beautiful!

Every season the color experts at Zoya create dozens of new color collection options. This
year, one of those “secret collections” just had to be seen now rather than later. FEEL by Zoya
Nail Polish delivers six new, highly pigmented, full coverge neutrals for right now!


Zoya FEEL Collection

• Kristen (ZP591): Full coverage, gull gray cream
• Carey (ZP592): Full coverage, periwinkle gray cream
• Megan (ZP593): Full coverage, taupe gray cream
• Kendal (ZP594): Full coverage, rose quartz beige cream
• Kennedy (ZP595): Full coverage, pale french beige cream
• Avery (ZP596): Full coverage, blonde beige cream

Zoya is the new color of fashion...

Ultra long-wearing, glossy nail lacquers by Zoya are free of harmful industrial chemicals
like toluene, camphor, formaldehyde, resin, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) that are known
to cause cancer and birth defects.

Find Zoya FEEL as well as over 300 other ultra high-fashion Zoya shades at
www.zoya.com

 

. As always, each and every Zoya color is made for women so we
name them after women.

FEEL by Zoya
Sug. Retail $8.00 per 0.5 fl.oz. bottle (US)

www.zoya.com

 

Available November 15, 2011. 

These are actually really pretty. I'm really loving Carey and Megan, Kristen and Kendal next and maybe Kennedy...not sure about Avery, but I think I need these! What do you think?

Look What I Made!

As I've mentioned before, my 22 year old son moved to Seattle almost a year ago. I haven't seen him since April and I'm really looking forward to spending some Christmas time with him. We celebrate the American Christmas...all the fodder without the religion.

He has expressed that he prefers gifts that were made for him rather than purchased and for that I love him even more. But still, I like to get him something unexpected and purchased when I can. Things that will help him accomplish the goals he's set for himself.

This year, for his handmade gift, I thought it would be kind of cool to give him ornaments that symbolized...well.. Me! That way, he could have his mom nearby even while we're apart, and when the time comes that I leave this life, he'll have these to put on his tree each Christmas and remember me by. What better way to give him something to remember me by than to use nail polish in the creation? Yep, I did! I got into my stash, picked some of my favorites and I made these: *click to make 'em BIG
The pictures aren't the best they can be, and I'll probably take better ones and post 'em up here again...these were taken with my cell phone at work today.

All colors are listed Clockwise from the top left.

OPI Merry Midnight, Sally Hansen Opulent Cloud (GORGEOUS), OPI Shim-Merry Chic and 

China Glaze Emerald Sparkled.

 Close up of the Shim-Merry Chic bulb.

 Essie Huckle Buckle, Sally Hansen Sea and Be Seen (Scene?), Milani 3D Holographic Gold, 

Diamond Cosmetics Canyon Sunrise, Borghese Stellar Notte and China Glaze Good Witch?

Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure, Orly Space Cadet, Zoya Delilah, My LOVE: China Glaze Atlantis (this photo doesn't do the bulb justice at ALL), Sally Hansen Prisms Diamond, My Sage Franken that I made HERE (because my son really like desaturated colors...I suspect this one will be his favorite.)

This last is a Franken I made. I call it "Lights on the Tree"

I mixed equal parts Orly Enchanted Forest and Clear, just a tad less of OPI Shim-Merry Chic and a few drops of China Glaze Atlantis (about 6 or 8). This added holographic sparkle and brought some of the blue back that was lost from adding the Shim-Merry Chic.

I got the idea while looking at Ambefrski's Franken she made with Shim-Merry Chic and some red.

My kiddo doesn't even look at this blog so I'm not concerned I'll spoil the surprise. I am loving the way these are turning out and have 6 more I can make...the fumes though... WOW. My husband came home yesterday, and our little house was so gaseous he asked me if I was feeling ok.  I was getting a headache and so we left the house for a while so I could breathe fresh air. Small house + fumes = not good. We slept with all the windows wide open last night and that helped a ton. They are sitting in my office at work tonight...should be interesting tomorrow. :) 

Any suggestions for other colors I might use? I was thinking De-Luxe-ious from Color Club might be good. I think I need a few more reds though...ideas? I also think the Delilah bulb could use another coat. Amazingly this isn't using much of my pretties. There is some waste, but it's not unbearable and I'm happy to share it with the ones I love, even the ones who don't wear polish. 

I sure hope he doesn't think it's a silly thing to give him...he is, afterall, a young MAN. Something tells me he'll love it though. I think they'll be good for next year...then they won't be flammable anymore. LOL

Please comment your suggestions! I have trouble when I open up my stash and try to decide, it's almost as hard as doing a mani!

My Stash, My Heart, My Passion for Polish!

I know I've told most of you, and it's no big deal (I thought it was when I first got the news but I've adjusted since) but I will be going into the hospital on Wednesday, November 10 at 6:30 am local time for a procedure in my heart at 8:30 am. It's called Cardiac Ablation. It's not a "surgery" per se but a "procedure" LOL... they'll go up thru my artery (from my groin) to the heart with three skinny wires: one to stimulate the suspect problem and cause the problem reliably...one to see what they're doing, and one to do the freeze burn of the offending cells. Takes a minimum of 1.5 hours, maximum of 2. Then I'll be in the hospital for the rest of the day under observation to make sure they didn't break anything. They say I should be able to return to work the next day and I won't have to take medication for this problem EVER AGAIN!!! I am soooo looking forward to that, the meds make me retain unhealthy amounts of water and I have fat lower legs, ankles and feet. I'll probably lose 20 lbs the first couple weeks just from water retention. :)

No more meds, no more worries about SVT, hiking and biking can resume without worry, (just attention to injury prevention) and that will be a very very good thing.

So that is what I'm focusing on, but once in a while...the scary stuff creeps in and I just remember that there are good people out there thinking happy thoughts for me and it helps calm me down. Odds are in my favor, not fantastic, but not bad. So keep a happy thought for me tomorrow, okay?

After the Nail Polish Party with my co-workers, I had to reorganize my stash. So I dumped it out, sorted it and took some photos. I have not yet taken photos of my organizational choice, I guess I need to get to that next.

I do sort by color family, I find it easiest for me in my super tiny space. I have no need to sort by brand then color, just put the color families together and I know where to go for a purple, red, pink, blue or whatever thank-you-very-much.

Here begins the spam...bail now if your computer is slow. :) Remember: all of my pictures are clickable for your viewing pleasure. :)



So here's the stash in all it's not so organized glory: I sorted them by brand first but here's the whole shebang!

 Then we have all the China Glaze

 Followed by the lovely Zoya

 The nail polish pile of a price I swore I would never pay for a bottle of polish...and a stray bottle of Poshe?

 My beloved Essie collection.

 The "not found in drugstores but maybe sometimes in other lands" pile

 The Diamond Cosmetics pile...oh so small

 The "what I can get at my local drugstores" pile (lots of Orly in there)

The pathetically small OPI collection. (Told you, I am NOT a fan.)

 My Del Sols. I love these...I live where it's more sunny than anything else...except for the odd 10th year or so. These polishes belong here. It's just too bad that so many of them just turn the same shade of purple.

 Ahhhh, Nubar, my loves

 Sweet Color Clubs, such a great formula, such great pigments, so affordable!

 My favorite treatments, base and top coats (the rest were in the drugstore pile)

Then I sorted thru some of the piles, starting with the "I will never pay that much for nail polish" pile

Here are my Lippmann's, but one of them (the one beside the box) isn't really mine. I just took it out of the box to get a bottle shot. That's "Don't Tell Mama" and it belongs to someone else..yeah, you know who you are! The rest, left to right: Hit Me With Your Best Shot (I had to, I am a HUGE Benatar Fan), Wicked Game, Across the Universe (LOVE), Bad Romance (meh)

 My Rescue Beauties. 3 I won, 1 I got in a swap. I'll have a few more soon! Not many though...just um...6 I think?

 Who doesn't love Nfu Oh?

 Models Own...purchased during the 50% off sale. So far, from the ones I've tried, I like them. I think Peacock Green is my favorite. It's the exact color of that 'eye' of the peacock feather. 

 Assorted others that I only have ONE bottle from the makers. I think it's pretty funny that the one color I did bring home from my trip to Seattle last April out of all the polish I bought up there, I brought home the SH LE dupe. I didn't even know it, just really liked it and hadn't worn it yet. :) 

After I pulled out the Models Own, Miss Marion (you've seen that entire collection already) The 3 Misa's I own, the Gosh and the Finger paints, this is what was left. (I thought I took pics of those too, but apparently not.) Many of these were attained through swaps with some really great new friends. I wish I knew where my H&M Bella's Choice went off to...I'm sure it's around here somewhere.

There you have it, my stash. So far. I don't need a Helmer...don't have the space for one. As it is, this is too much for my little home, but I love them and so I let them crowd me a little...for now. But who knows? Maybe there will be an amazing blog sale at some point. I have to say, probably 50% (or more) of these are untried!  Do you see one I should try soon? Which one?

Nail Party with co-workers and PICTURES this time!

We had so much fun the first time around, we decided to do it again. This time with some from the last party, and some couldn't make it, but new faces joined in this time. Everyone who was at the first gathering was in awe of the increase in the size of my collection.
We had good eats:

Good drinks and a fabulous bartender

and lots of fun learning how to Konad.

We even had a professional but didn't try to get her to do all our nails...though she couldn't stand some of our sloppy applications...Her nails are here: (she had the BM plates within the week.)

and some close ups:

 Pretty sure this was Zoya Anaka with China Glaze Millenium

 Hrm...don't remember this combo...Will update if/when I do.

 Zoya Mimi

 All together now...the Bad Fairy nails are mine

Have you shared your passion for polish with any non-lacquerphiles?

Culling Continues with Corals

These are, according to my notes, the Light Corals. The players are, in order of appearance from left to right: Zoya Calypso, Essie Shindig and Zoya Cassi.

In natural light, no flash pic this time. and below on my nails in the same order, left to right in shade...a little too much shade for Cassi, but still you can see her color.

One more shady pic to try to let Cassi show her shady side...(I really dislike the uneven length of my nails here.)

And below in the sun: Ka-POW says Calypso!

All were 3 coats to this coverage.

The Zoyas were both a bit thin and watery but easy to control while the Essie formula was buttery and it also had a fuller brush.

Zoya Calypso is a very pretty orange/coral base with multi colored shimmer. This one is VERY pretty and I am fond of Orange so it's a favorite. Lizard Rating: Toasty!
Essie Shindig is soooo pretty in the bottle. I love just looking at the bottle and swirling it around. It also has a multi colored shimmer but the base has more pink (truer coral) and not as much shimmer as Calypso. Lizard rating: Balmy
Zoya Cassi is a soft coral with a gold shimmer, nice but it loses to Calypso for me. Lizard rating: Tepid

I think all three are still in my stash, but after taking a second look and doing this comparison, I'm thinking I can let go of Cassi.
What do you think? Which one or two would you keep...or would you keep all three? And if so, why?

Charla Pedi and Painting a Friend's Nails

A couple weeks ago (the weekend before knee surgery) I did a little shopping, a little visiting, treated myself to a mani-pedi done by someone I know at a very clean, high end salon, shipped out a bunch of packages (finally got my giveaway packages shipped as well as the box to Trincess and a friend in Canada who swapped me some ChG for some Gosh. Yep, Gosh is available in Canada. (Swatches of the Gosh' coming soon)

I know I mentioned Charla for my pedi so here she is and she is <3 <3 <3 to me, right up there with Atlantis. I need multiple backups of this lovely lady, she's amazing.  This is the color the people at the surgery center were wowed with when they saw my feet. Hehehe, after the surgery, one of the assistants stopped by when I was recovering and said, "I took a look at your toes while you were out, and you were right, those are  pretty!" he was funny.  Here are my tootsies, fair warning!

Why yes, those ARE my King Neptune Deep Sea Diving Flippers! :)

Love my new Sandals and I Love this gorgeous color!

After that, we had lunch, then I went and grabbed a few Zoya's to add to Trincess' box so she didn't have to wait for the next box and then we went to Macy's so that my friend could pick up Estee Lauder's Ultra Violet. She loves purple and we'd swatched it the night before, then Sunday we added Zoya Mimi and NARS Purple Rain to her fingers so she could choose one. She picked the most expensive one, but it truly is a gorgeous color. She offered to let me do my laundry at her house so I went home, picked that up along with nail polishing supplies, and then it was off to her house where we had some wine, I painted her nails and we had some fun.

My friend has the cutest Beagles. I call 'em Bagels just because it's fun. Maggie is the gorgeous older gal and Jack is the handsome young pup.

This is Magg-pie. :) She's 12 or 13 or something like that.

This Jack, isn't he purdy?

Jack up close and personal. :)

And I usually take my doggy over there, as they all get along well together and Ally has spent sometime at my friend's house while I travel to faraway places. 

Ally Keeping a sharp eye on the door to make sure I don't leave her there. 

We had some wine and I got to painting and this "Ultra Violet" is so pretty, I'm going to have to borrow it sometime.

Ok, I suck at painting OTHER people's nails. But she learned a lot about nail care and she LOVED the color so I was happy for her. 

I know you've all see this one, but I like showing my friends nails with color because it shows how the color might look on a different skin tone from where you've seen it before, and I like to share the fun I have sharing my passion for polish with my friends. Do you share yours with your friends that don't share your penchant for polish? Look at me, I'm being witty!

Have a great night, more to come...

Lacquered Lizard

I Feel Good, dununununununuh!

Thanks for the well wishes, I'm better now, not completely, but on the upswing most definitely.

Goodness! I have so much catching up to do!!! Where to start???
I know, Hauls!
I won the Zoya haul giveaway from Scandalously Polished and when it arrived, in my excitement of checking out the colors and finding room in my stash box, I neglected to take a photo so click HERE to see what I won there. Unfortunately, a couple of the bottles broke prior to shipping so I got some other polishes instead...and since I didn't photograph it on arrival...I don't remember. I am so sorry Ange-Marie, but I thank you so much for increasing my Zoya supply! I don't know if you've read some of the tips for Zoya lately, but after searching madly for the last 40 mins to link to them here, I cannot find them. *sigh*

Shortly after that win, I won April and Ashley's first follower giveaway over at Concrete and Nail Polish and you can see their photo of it here or just looky here:

I haven't used anything but the eyeshadows so far, but they'll get used in due time. I've got so much to go thru before I get to my winnings! Thank you April and Ashley and Ange-Marie! I'm on a bit of a contest/giveaway hiatus while I go through what I have and reduce my collection...I have way too many right now. (I am aware that many of you consider that blasphemy, but I have a very limited space and have completely outgrown the small, then expanded and expanded again space I gave myself...time to rein it in!)

I had some fun at a friends a couple weekends ago, I took my entire stash to her place and after she went through about 20+ polishes she finally decided on Zoya Anaka for her toes. I did my best, which wasn't too great, and then I did a little nail art, at her request...and I must say, I need PRACTICE!!! (You can click the pics to make them bigger.)

 

I don't know how many of you remember a while back I was having a polishing party with my co-workers and the lady who's toes you see above... After the party, one of the ladies had to head back to South Carolina (she works for us remotely, VERY remotely), but before she left, I took her to the Del Sol Store where we purchased some polish for her and her daughter to play with when she arrived home. A few days later, I received these:

That's one happy little girl. :) And I'm happy to have been a small part of that. :) Look at that smile!

Well, that's all I have for now, stay tuned, so much more to come!