Swatch and Review of Zoya: Giovanna and Ruffian: Delirium

We have had quite a bit of blustery, stormy weather here in Oregon lately and that makes me want to embrace fall finally. I've been wanting to hold on to summer, but I think now I am ready for the season change. Today I have two lovely fall colors to share with you! I picked up Zoya Giovanna on a whim, because it looked like a nice color that I didn't already own- which is saying something. I'll get to the Ruffian polish further in this post.

Isn't Giovanna stunning? I love how this polish glows. It was a little more teal leaning than it looks in the bottle, but gorgeous nonetheless. I applied three coats to get full opacity. Zoya is a brand that actually is free of 5 harmful chemicals rather than the usual 3, commonly called 3 free. I'm somewhat concerned about harsh chemicals in my nail polish, so when I can, I try to at least get 3 free polishes which most brands are doing now. Let's move on, shall we?

Introducing Ruffian Nail Lacquer:

Ruffian is actually a high fashion brand and this is their first dabble into the polish market. I received this product in my monthly Birchbox, but probably wouldn't have heard of it since it is exclusive to Birchbox right now. Apparently a few years back at one of their runway shows their models sported a new style of manicure which I have mimicked below. and have posted about previously.

The color is called Delirium and I would say it is more of a royal purple and less blue in real life. I love this polish! I only used one coat for the layer over Giovanna. It is so smooth and lovely and with the bottle design, the application is a breeze. Delirium is from their Crowd Sourced collection, which is the more vibrant and daring of the two collections. I have already ordered their Classics collection. I just have to have more! I am really impressed with this new line of polish. It is pricey at $10 for only 0.17 fl oz. That is usually a sample size or mini container size. I really enjoy the ergonomic and interesting design of the brush handle, it makes a difference in ways I never knew I needed a change! What do you think of these two colors? I enjoyed these colors together. It reminds me of peacock colors, which is always rich and fun. Hope you like them too. Happy Sunday!

Nail Art: Daisies

Summer isn't my favorite season of the year, but I do love it and wasn't quite ready to let it go. This is my last hurrah for summer! The look was inspired by another instagram user: @AMKUCH15, her looks are amazing and she always has perfect nails. She did this design with a sky blue background, which I loved, but I decided to do it over a melon color instead, since that is what I had on. I like to call these, upgraded manicures.

 

I had planned on doing three flowers on each finger, but I made them too big! I just used a small nail art brush and a dotting tool to create the flowers over butter LONDON Trout Pout. Really simple and cute design. I don't think I made it quite as perfectly as @AMKUCH15, but I think it looks nice. Now, that I got my last summer design out of the way, I think I can fully welcome the fall season!

Swatch and Review of butter LONDON: Trout Pout

Trout Pout is a color from butter LONDON that I have been eying for quite some time. It is a pinky coral color with a smooth creamy finish. It is one of those interesting colors that could swat either more pink or more coral. I think I hesitated buying this because I wasn't sure how it would look on my skin tone. Turns out, it looks great! The website claims that it looks great on everyone and describes the color as a cantaloupe. I'm not sure it looks like a cantaloupe color, but I do think this color would look great on all skin types!

 

In these photos the color does lean a little more pink than it looks in real life. It really depends on the lighting, but I found it to be mostly pink, most of the time, while in some lights it definitely had more of an orangy hue to it. The polish was a little thin, I had to use three coats. It doesn't usually bother me when I have to use three coats, but for some reason I expect butter LONDON to do better since the price is so much more expensive. Great quality polish, there was no tackiness or balding. I just wish I had used this more in the summer! Of course I discover a great summer color just as fall is kicking in. Oh well, such is life. Hope you enjoy this!

Nail Art: Ruffian Nails

Ruffian manicures are becoming more and more popular these days. Ruffian manicures are an interesting trend. You paint a base color and add an accent color over top in the same shape as the nail, but farther down, which creates a crescent moon shape at the base of the nail. I tried this out with Essie: No More Film and butter LONDON: Brown Sugar. I love these two colors together!

I'm not sure if I like this style yet, but I'd love to know what you think! It is an interesting new look and I love how the solid colors and metallic colors look great together. This look requires no tools and only two colors, so it is great for the starter nail artists! I think this may be my September tutorial, so stay tuned. Thanks!

Nail Art: Polka Dot Chevron Tips

A few friends and I got together last night for one of our almost monthly nail polish parties! We all try to create something new and exciting. I feel like every time, I try something overly ambitious and I end up doing something easy! This time was no different. I created a simple chevron tip manicure with some polka dots to tie it together. I created the chevron tips freehand and used a dotting tool for the dots. 

The base color is two coats of L'Oreal Club Prive (dots are the same color) and the tips are painted with Zoya Giovanna from the new fall collection. I love Zoya, this one deserves its own post! I find myself loving the L'Oreal colors but I have never loved the formula. Something about it aggravates me. Balding, tackiness, and patchy are three words I would use to describe every L'Oreal polish I have. The colors just lure me in! Anyway, this was the product of a fun night with some girl friends! Can't beat good food, wine and nail polish!

Swatch and Review of OPI: Peace & Love & OPI

I have an awesome polish to share! OPI recently released their San Francisco Fall 2013 collection. This color is called Peace & Love & OPI. It is a duochrome polish that shifts from grey to purple to green to gold. There are probably a few other colors in there, but believe me, it is gorgeous! I couldn't get over how pretty this is! All day today I kept exclaiming "I LOVE THIS POLISH!". I think my husband got tired of it pretty quickly. Check out this beauty!

You can really see the duochrome in the bottle shot here. I used two coats for the pictures. Before you add a top coat it looks a little streakier than afterwards. The top coat here really evened it out. I don't know if you all follow the new collections as much as I do, but Essie has a color that seemed very similar to this called For the Twill of It, which is also the name of the whole fall collection. According to The Polishaholic OPI's formula was better and the color ended up being very similar. OPI only needed two coats whereas Essie needed three. I'm all for great formulas! She helped me decide which one to get which was awesome because I had been debating for a while. I highly recommend this polish! It is $9/bottle and I got mine at Ulta. I'm thinking I should do a favorite Fall polishes post, if I do, this one is definitely a contender!

How to follow me!

Many of you have asked how to follow my blog to ensure that you see all of my posts. This special entry is dedicated to just that. If you haven't heard of Bloglovin' and you enjoy reading lots of blogs, I suggest you go there now! Below is a screen shot of my homepage on Bloglovin', you can click on the picture and it will take you to the homepage where you can sign up. If you haven't heard of the site, it is a one stop shop to view all the blogs you love. It is a great tool for bloggers and readers alike. All you need to do is search for your favorite blog (Handtastic Intentions!) and follow. You can group all of your favorite blog types into the same category and view them that way if you like. For example, I have Fashion blogs grouped together, Nail Polish blogs grouped together etc. So, when I want to read my fashion blogs at once I only need to go to my Fashion blog group.

Below is the landing page for my blog within the Bloglovin' site. This is what it will look like after you search for my blog and click on it, but lucky for you I embedded the link in this image, so all you have to do is click on the picture. As you can see, I don't have that many "followers", but I would like to change that! I would appreciate it if you followed me! I have decided it is high time I start promoting my blog.

Another way to make sure you see all of my posts is to follow my Nailspiration board on Pinterest! I post all of my blog entries as well as other nail art that inspires me to this board. Below is a shot of what it looks like. I think most people know how Pinterest works, so I won't explain it. So if you don't like Bloglovin', but want to see all my posts, this is another way to do it.

 

If you enjoy reading my blog, I'm going to ask two things of you:

1. Please follow me!

2. Tell someone about my blog! Share the love! If you know someone who you think would like reading everything about nails and nail polish, let them know about my blog!

Thank you for indulging in my shameless self promotion. I will return to my regularly scheduled manicures shortly!

Swatch and Review of Color Club: Angel Kiss

I have an amazing holographic polish to share with you today! Color Club had a collection of holographic polishes called Halo Hues for Spring 2013. My friend loaned this polish to me after she bought it online. I am so lucky to have nail polish addicted friends who understand me! Anyway, she loved it so much she wanted me to try it out, and I've got to say, I love this too! Check out this holo goodness:

 

Below I tried to capture the holographic shifting:

Holy Holo Macro!

This polish was amazing! I used two coats and the formula was fantastic! Great coverage and the finish ended up nice and even. The thing I hate about shimmery glittery polishes is that sometimes it turns out streaky. I like how this polish is a nice minty color with a fantastical rainbow holo shine. My friend bought this online through Amazon, but you can find it anywhere you can regularly buy Color Club. Hope you like it!

Nail Art: Red and Gold Half Moon Nails

Nail art challenges can be tough. That's probably why they call them challenges. It is funny how once you are told to create something with a specific theme, you suddenly can't think of anything to create. This is what what happened to me with day 7-"school" nails. All along, I had planned to do my school colors from college: cardinal and gold. When I sat down to paint my nails, I simply couldn't think of what to do! I ended up trying a different style on each nail, which resulted in completely starting over. In the end, I must shamefully admit that I couldn't think of anything and just copied another blogger I love. The Nailasaurus, interestingly enough, did her nails for a challenge as well.

I thought these to be a bit too Christmas themed, but they would be great for the holiday season. I really love the red, such a classic shade. The red I used was OPI: I'm Not Really a Waitress, the gold was Maybelline Color Show: Bold Gold and as a base, I just used Nail Envy. I did a regular half moon mani but added a gold stripe with a small brush. I'm not that great with my nail art brushes, but I'm trying! Hope you like it, and definitely check out the original design by The Nailasaurus!

Swatch and Review of A England: Tristam

I think you could tell by this post, that I instantly fell in love with the brand A England. I had my eyes on the beautiful emerald green called St. George for quite some time. When it arrived, it didn't disappoint one bit. I knew then and there, I had to get more A England. Tristam comes from The Mythicals collection. I don't know the story of Tristam, but A England's website has this description:

Tristam- the courteous knight 

The symbol of the knightly virtue, and romantic love. When Tristam and Iseult accidentally consume a love potion, fall helplessly in love. Despite facing numerous trials to test their secret affair their love was never known to fade.

I love how every name of polish from A England comes from something in English folklore or history. Tristam is a gorgeous deep blue with the same holographic effect as St. George. I love blue polish, so this was necessary. 

 

 

This is such a rich color full of depth. The formula was fantastic. It applies like butter and coats really well. I could have gotten away with only one coat, but I did two for good measure. I love the way this polish applies. It makes me happy. It is so gorgeous and shiny on its own, it looks like it already has a top coat! I again purchased it from Llarowe. I really love that site for buying polish. They have great service and good prices on shipping. I have my eyes on Lady of the Lake next!

Nail Art: Golden French Tip

I have a little nail art for you today! I liked my last manicure so much I decided to recycle it and add a little extra. The base was OPI: Yodel Me on My Cell, which is a teal leaning blue with some beautiful, subtle blue specks of glitter. For the nail art challenge I am participating in on Instagram (#nailartsep, Host: @Californails, Me: @HandtasticIntentions),day 4 is teal and gold. She chose to include these colors because apparently September is both Childhood and Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and each of those colors corresponds with their cause. I decided to incorporate both into my mani for the nail art challenge. 

All I did was stamp one of the tip designs from Konad plate M57 in Maybelline Color Show: Bold Gold and then add a freehand french tip over that. So simple, but it has a strong effect! Someone told me today my nails look like Cleopatra nails, I definitely took that as a compliment! Do you all want me to do an entry on nail stamping tips? I feel like I haven't done a ton of stamping lately. Let me know what you think! Thanks!