Zoya Polish Promo

It's all nails and shoes around here, isn't it!  I know I've been skewing a bit polish/nails heavy around here but I wanted to make sure you saw this offer.  Zoya is giving 2 free polishes for just the cost of shipping.  Shipping is $6.95, so I think it's a pretty good deal!

Details are:

So from now through 1/9/2012 11:59 PM ET we are going to let you try any* 2 bottles of Zoya Nail Polish for FREE on ZOYA.COM. All you pay is the standard shipping charges.

As a bonus, you can purchase an additional $25 or more of Zoya or Qtica products and get FREE Shipping Too!..Bonus!

Use Code: ZOYA2012

*Promotion Excludes True & Fleck Effect Collection Colors

The two I got are Cynthia (part of the Smoke Collection) -
A smoky, blackened peacock teal with soft warm undertones. A very uncommon shade of blue for a subtle but funky look.  
    

And Barbie - Soft, warm medium baby pink with very subtle hot pink shimmer. An adorable girly shade to accent any outfit.       

I can't wait to try out these polishes!  What ones will you buy?
Disclaimer: Nail swatch images not my own.

Bubblegum Plastic: Sally Hansen Nail Pens

I am not a big make-up or nail polish aficionado. I do like to have a nice pedicure but I tend to be pretty boring with my color choices: reds, pinks, whites. And my manicure is usually non-existent. I have the weakest nails in the universe. They split when you look at them.

But lately my nails have been doing pretty well and are to the point where I can actually paint them without looking like I just blobbed some polish on the ends of my fingers accidentally.

I had a coupon for CVS the other day and decided to try out a few new colors. I saw these Sally Hansen nail polish pens and thought that maybe I wouldn't knock them over and spill polish every where as I may or may not have done in the past.. just saying.

I bought two colors - black and chrome silver. Right now I have on the black. I was hoping this would be a true black but it's more like a really really dark navy with a bit of sparkle. I put on a base coat and two coats of polish topped with a clear top coat. It's been lasting pretty well even with all the typing I do.

I only swiped on the chrome silver over a previous nail color because I was eager to see how chrome it came out. I would say that this does a good job of looking metallic. Not shimmery but a good shiny silver. For a polish it does a pretty good approximation of the Minx silver manicures. This could be a great solution if you need to touch up or just don't have easy access to a Minx location, like me.

All in all, good stuff. I recommend. Lots of colors, easy to use. I think I may have to go back and grab the gold chrome too.

Color coding

For a very long time (actually until just a few years ago), I never wore open toe shoes. For all that I love shoes I limited myself to mules and pumps and sneakers but never sandals, peep-toes or slides. The main reason is because I didn't feel comfortable with my tootsies.

I have very weak and brittle nails that tend to split really low. So I never felt "sandal-worthy" and I certainly didn't feel that I could have as pretty of a pedicure as what you see in magazine ads. But I made a concerted effort (and was very careful not to bump my toes into things, like I often do) and a little while later I was able get my first cute little slides.

But, I don't get to have professional pedicures all that often. Not as much as I would like anyway. Why is that? It's the same thing with massages. I love them and every time I go, I vow I'm going to get at least one a month, but then I never do. Anyway, I also don't have a lot of time to give myself pedicures more than once a week (okay, every other week), so I struggle with what nail polish color to pick that won't clash with the potential shoes I am going to wear. I'm not organized enough to plan out my outfits and nail polish. I can't even do that with purses much less the amount of effort it would take to match up my nails. I tend to pick a few colors that will be neutral enough to go with most of the shoes I would wear (with the season taken into account).

I'm currently pining for Fall but it's still pretty warm out, so I went with Chanel's Shanghai Red. It's not a true red, more like a very sheer rose-burgundy. It's got metallic flecks in it too so it looks great in the light.



Chanel did 3 limited edition colors this past season and the Shanghai Red was one of them. The others were Noir Ceramic (a metallic charcoal) and Blanc Ceramic (a sheer metallic white). I was inspired by the nails on the Summer Sephora catalog that did a black and white take on a French manicure. The Blanc was actually a perfect pedicure color. It was neutral but had something "more" than using a pink or neutral taupe. I used this a lot.



In the Winter I tend to go with a deeper burgundy that has some metallic to it. I do like to wear a true red, like Revlon Red, but find that it is hard to do a good job on my own. Plus, I don't find red to be as neutral as a darker version. If I want a red I save that for when I do go for a professional pedicure.

The nails on my hands are just as weak. I've been trying really hard to take care of my hands and get my nails to grow. The only thing that I've found that works is Nailtiques. When I use that stuff, it's amazing! My nails actually grow and don't break constantly.

I do love the look of painted nails. But on me they tend to look kind of lame. I see girls with shorter nails that are painted dark (like black or Vamp), but on me it looks hideous. So, I end up wearing a really sheer polish. And for some reason, my nail chips off of my nails really easily too. A light polish minimized how bad they look when 2 hours into the day half of my polish is chipped off. One polish I like is Essie's Ballet Slippers.

I've also heard good things about Essie's Mademoiselle and Opi's Bubble Bath. I think I am going to get those next.

Any other suggesstions for good colors to wear or good brands?