Zoya Nail Polish Earth Day Exchange

I have nothing to disclose.

Every year, Zoya does a special promo - twice a year, once for Earth Day and again sometime around December - where you can get 50% off your purchase of their polishes, with a minimum order of 6 bottles. That's $5 a piece - and you get a free bottle of their nail polish remover as well! In return, you agree to send your old unwanted polishes to them - but you don't have to do this! You can donate them or whatever - you can also send Zoya your old polishes without making a purchase.

This is my first time participating in the promo - and I've been waiting over half a year to do so! I've been busy reorganizing my polishes and sorting through to look for bad ones. I will get around to blogging about that at another time. It hasn't really been a fun process at all. I've found jelly polishes and many of the cheaper polishes dry out the fastest so I'm no longer wasting my money on those. Zoya has honestly held up the best from what I found. The glitter polishes also seem to be the worst unfortunately - but that also kind of goes hand in hand with jellies and cheap. So....

Use promo code EARTHLUV at checkout to receive 50% off your order. Valid through May 10, 2017.

Before I get to what I bought, what I'm returning let me take a moment to show you how I'm now keeping track of my Zoyas. I recently purchased Cosmos only to discover I had already purchased it (almost exactly a year apart - OOPS) SOOOOOOO I took one of their old catalogs and started crossing out all the polishes I have already and wrote in the names of any I couldn't find.

I'm pretty certain I'll just be buying Zoyas from now on - not that I buy nail polish often anymore - but I would rather buy high quality! So I imagine my little catalog is going to fill up with Xs :)

I still can't believe I got my order already. That shipped so FAST! I placed my order on April 10 and received it on April 14.

So first let me show you what I'm sending to Zoya in exchange. Just a note that I did try to restore this using thinner and even acetone in some cases but these babies were too far gone. RIP 😢

First is a generic brand called Simply Pleasures but I called this one Peace because that's what it says on the bottle :P
This was an iridescent jelly glitter and really turned glumpy. This one I won in a giveaway.

Second is LA Colors Sassy Sparkle which was pretty similar to the first one. Same issues. I bought this one.

Next is China Glaze Marry a Millionaire. I'm so sad this one dried up because it was one of my special Christmas time polishes I won. Iridescent bar glitter and little purple glitters.

I'm sending in Mentality Sexy for obvious reasons. I don't know for certain if this one was one of the bad batches (I won this one in a giveaway also). I think I only used it once before I found out about the Mentality issue. Too bad because it looks so pretty! But I'm not risking using this and I've already held on to it for way too long.

Next is Pop Culture Cosmetics in Pink Christmas. I noticed minis do not hold up well, either. Won't be buying them again. It looks like Pop Culture Cosmetics closed or at least I can no longer find them on Facebook - I'm not surprised. Pink Christmas was one polish I really wanted so I splurged for a Christmas present to myself and bought it several years ago. The formula was awful to begin with. I contacted the owner about this issue and never heard anything back.

Shany Magnetic in 05 I bought years ago. It was dried out when I received it. Both Amazon and Shany refused to give me my money back for this one. Obviously I'm not purchasing from Shany again and I try not to ever buy nail polish from Amazon because their policy for damaged nail polish is to just toss it and you're out your money. Amazon - I hate your policy. I had kept the polish because I thought maybe I could restore it with some thinner, but no luck. The brush was broken off when I received it, also. Not good.

Next is Hard Candy Fireworks. I believe my husband picked out this one several years ago when we went looking for some birthday polishes. I should have known better after getting Julep's 4th of July polish which is similar - the formula for both of these was not good but at least with the Julep it's still somewhat usable. Red and blue multiglitter.

I also have a mostly used up bottle of Sally Hansen base coat. I learned the hard way this week not to try to use basecoat when it gets to the end of the bottle and gets all weird. Now I have a couple of lumpy nails. Why did it take me so long to figure that out? I don't know, but now I know!

So now let's check out my new pretties.

I couldn't really find a good replacement for the Mentality so I just got Zoya Teigen which is a really pretty red with gold glitters. I got Lacey because I've been eyeballing it for months. Harper has been on my wishlist for awhile.

I probably already have enough polishes similar to Leia and not sure I really need Alicia but they're both gorgeous! Monet I felt was a good replacement for those glitters.

I feel like this is a good selection for spring :) Also just a tad bit Christmasy but that's ok.

I decided to do an Easter manicure with Lacey, Harper and Monet. I loved how they turned out - although I did it on a day I had barely gotten any sleep so that wasn't the brightest idea. I also used some color change decal stickers from Del Sol which I finally got around to using after having them for.... too long. They change color really well in the sun but I hate how they look on my nails. The stickers are just way too thick. I'm probably going to donate these.

Monet looks so pretty over Lacey though and I love how Harper compliments the combo.

Maybe I'll try this manicure again some day - but without these particular decals :p

Are you doing the exchange? Let me know what you think of my picks. Thanks for reading!

Winslow inspired nail art

I already posted this manicure on my social networks, but today I'm sharing my Winslow inspired nail art with you. For those who may not know who Winslow is:

My little loveable ball of fluff.

I've had this manicure in mind for awhile but I've just gotten around to doing it. For this one I used:

Dreamy Lacquer Company Bombardier's Eyes as the accent color - it seemed fitting to match the cool light blue of Winslow's eyes. I used a total of 3 coats and it's still fairly sheer.

I drew on the cat shape on these nails using one of my Shany nail art polishes. I tried! It's been months since I've drawn anything at all and even longer since I've done any freehand nail art - and this time while nursing torticollis so I did my best :)

I did two nails with Zoya Jules and two with Trust Fund Beauty $12 Latte.  I've never been much a fan of brown colors but I got $12 Latte in my Ipsy bag awhile ago so I had to try it out. As you can see, the polish in the bottle is a bit... odd. Like it separated with our cold weather. It seemed to apply fine though! I feel like this partially inspired my manicure as well, giving me the idea to do a marble effect. Anyway - Zoya Jules I highly recommend because although I'm not normally a fan of tan colors, this one is gorgeous! It has a beautiful gold shimmer which I love.

I used the dry brush method to achieve this look, using Essie Miss Fancy Pants along with $12 Latte over Jules, and Miss Fancy Pants and Jules over $12 Latte for a really interesting effect. I topped it with Ciate Gelology top coat which smoothed out the colors of the dry brush effect. I absolutely love how this turned out. Notice how it almost looks like I used Bombardier's Eyes on the brown nails? I didn't at all!

This is so much prettier in real life. I wish I could get a better capture of it. Oh well, take my word for it - it looks awesome :P

I love the little hint of gold in this every now and then from dry brushing Jules. That was an unintentional bonus.

I have two coats of the top coat on this in total since I didn't do this manicure all at once - I did the base coats then the dry brushing and nail art a different day. So far it's holding up very nicely. Fingers crossed it doesn't start to crack.

Hopefully I'll be back to doing more nail art soon. Thanks for reading!

April Ipsy Sneak peek

I bought this. Referral link included.

One of the things I'm loving about being on second shift is I don't have to wait for my Ipsy sneak peek - as soon as it hits midnight, I'm there checking on it. Yes, I hate waiting as you may be able to tell.

Reading the feedback on the bag and theme this month has been kind of interesting - so many people seem to think it's so childish and just hate the bag. I've been more reflective on Carol Tuttle's Dressing Your Truth information lately, so I feel like this bag is pretty perfect for those Type 1s out there - and color wise I feel it's pretty perfect for my Type 4/1 energy. (Check out Carol's Web site if you're absolutely clueless about what I'm talking about - there's plenty of free information there to get you interested - unless you're type 4 - haha)

So I don't mind the bag. I feel like it's a fun, creative look for those of us who don't like the norm.

Let's check out what I'm getting this month:

Meg Twin Nail Polish in Lovey Dovey - I'm super pumped to be getting this. Seriously excited. I always love 2 for one products and of course new nail polish. This is a brand I have never tried so I'm excited about that. The colors aren't my first choice but that's actually a good thing - I've found I have so many reds, blues, etc. but so very few neutral colors. This will give me a couple more colors to play with. OHHH and I see it's an Ipsy limited edition combo - even better. These seem to be mini size which kind of sucks - those always dry up first for me so I will definitely try to make use of these before they turn goofy! (I've been working on restoring my old polishes for the past week, bleh.)


 Ciate London mini bronzer - I kind of thought I might get this. My current bronzer is getting pretty thin, so I won't complain. I'm curious about this as I see it's made with sunflower (LOVE) and amaranth - I can't recall ever seeing amaranth in a beauty product before so that will be different. I've been pretty happy with Ciate London products so far.

Jesse's Girl Liquid Eyeliner.... in black. This is the only product I'm disappointed to be getting. Seriously, another black eyeliner? I don't want black! I want weird different colors! I have plenty of black already and honestly I have found I don't really care how black looks on me. I almost always end up putting some other color eyeshadow over it just to tone it down a bit. But - I will have 2 black eyeliners expiring next month so I suppose this will replace those 2.

TonyMoly Liptone Lipcare - I'm anxious to see which one I get. I was kind of hoping for this actually. My current lip balm is almost all used up. These seem to have interesting scents (? scents not flavors? you're confusing me, Ipsy) like honey, mint and rose blossom. I feel like I'll be happy with this no matter which one I get. Hopefully if I do get the honey one it won't be sticky - that's my only concern.

Eau Thermale Avene Rich Compensating Cream - moisturizers are kind of like a little bonus item to me, nothing exciting but a daily use item. So I will definitely make use of this, I'm sure.

Nothing too exciting, bold or major exciting or different here - but I'm happy with the preview, aside from the eyeliner. I guess I'm boring in that sometimes I'm happier just getting products I will use every day opposed to new and different things at times.

What are you getting this month? What do you think of this month's bag? Getting something you're especially excited about? Let me know in the comments! :)

If you're not familiar with Ipsy, they are a subscription service where you get 5 beauty items a month delivered to your door. Sometimes you get full sized items, sometimes travel or sample sized. But they're fun just if you like to try new things. For me, it's been a great experience to try new products and types of products as I learn more about makeup. Additionally, they have a cool rewards program where if you review items on their Web site, share your bag, etc. you get points which can be used to exchange for free products. Score! (Referral link follows.) You can sign up for your custom monthly Ipsy bag here.