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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

ECOPOLO Summer Mani Challenge: Summer Floral

See?  I told you I'd be quicker about getting this week's challenge mani up!  Here's the weekly breakdown:



Well, these didn't turn out as nice as I was hoping.  Don't you hate it when you get an idea in your head but you simply just cannot execute it?  I was attempting to do hibiscus flowers using this tutorial from thatleanne. But yeah, it totally didn't work out.  At all.  I don't know how many times I redid this stupid mani, but I finally decided that what I came up with would just have to do.


I did a mini skittle mani on my thumb, index, and pinkie nails using China Glaze Hawaiian Punch, Zoya Yana, and Zoya Myrta.  Then, I painted two accent nails with Cult Nails Tempest and added my dotted on flowers using Hawaiian Punch and Yana. I used Zoya Myrta to create the pistil, but, as you can see, they were way too thick.





I'm sure I'll eventually get to a review of the three polishes I haven't reviewed yet, but I'll give a quick and dirty blurb about each polish just in case you're curious.


Hawaiian Punch is a gorgeous vibrant red with flashes of pink making it lean more towards a hot pink.  Application was easy, no clumping, pooling, streaking, or dragging.  I used three coats.


Yana is a gorgeous corally pink that actually WORKED on me!  I don't typically do well with Zoya cremes. They either streak like mad or refuse to dry, but Yana was perfect.  Application was super simple and required almost no cleanup.  This is three coats.


Tempest is a gorgeous white that achieves opacity in one thick coat or two coats if you're striving to keep bubbles and shrinkage to a minimum.  Application is a little more tricky than the other two.  If you want opacity with one coat, you have to do three quick swipes without going over parts that have already been painted, otherwise you'll get bald spots.  This is one thick coat and one thin coat.


You can read my review of Myrta here.  It's the old format, but I think you get the idea.  I used two coats because I nicked it a little and wanted to make sure I covered that bit up.


Lastly, I tried out a new quick dry topcoat last night, and it left me with mixed feelings...  Nubar Diamont isn't as thick as Seche Vite or HKGirl, and it doesn't have the same strong smell, either.  It dries super fast and really hard like SV but without the shrinkage and bubbles SV is known for, which is what I've been looking for.  However, it didn't dry shiny.  Take a look up there at my macros of Hawaiian Punch and Yana.  Go ahead.  I'll wait.  Yeah, those would be brush strokes.  Ugh.  I'm not sure if it's just that Diamont doesn't play well with Zoya and China Glaze, or if maybe I allowed the brush to touch the paint, which was mostly dry at that point, and it mixed the paint with the topper?  I'm not sure.  It also smeared the art a little even though I waited  a good 10-15 minutes after painting them to add the topcoat.  So yeah, I'm still going to experiment with Diamont, but I'm a little disappointed with the outcome as of right now.  I received this little baby from a friend who has a huge refill bottle.  I've always wanted to try it out, but I didn't want to commit to a full size bottle in case I hated it.

You can purchase Zoyas at salons or beauty supply shops like Ulta.  You can purchase Cult Nails at their online store here.



What's your favorite summer flower?

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