I'm Back! Floam by Nail-Venturous

Hello all. Sorry for the small hiatus. I went on a trip with my husband for our 6 year anniversary. We had a great time in New Orleans!! The beignets and Cafe Au Laits at Cafe Du Monde were grand, Jambalaya at Coop's Place was delicious, and The GIANT cheeseburger and drink,Neptune's Monsoon, were amazing at Port of Call! I did not take pic's of my anniversary manicure since it didn't turn out quite right, but I did take pic's of one of my newest polishes, Floam by Amy at I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous. I have gotten so many compliments in the past three days, it's just amazing. This is one of the coolest polishes I own. It is so different and unique that I am glad I grabbed this up while I had the chance. I have noticed a trend in the nail polish community that a certain color can be hyped up to the point of disappointment when you get it. This is not one of those colors. I have truly enjoyed this polish, and it wasn't even holographic!! This is a matte neon blue and yellow-green glitter in a clear base. This polish has depth, character, and a great name. I used two coats of Floam with one coat of Gelous and one coat of Seche Vite. It still feels a bit bumpy, but not gritty. So here are my pics of New Orleans and Floam. Enjoy!

First, Floam pictures. I figured you would want to see the nail polish first.

Isn't this polish stunning? 

Close up. You can click on the picture for more detail. You will see what I mean about depth.

It even looks cool in the bottle.

I purchased Floam at Ninja Polish for $9.00 with shipping.

 Now on to the New Orleans pictures! 

Yummy!! Beignets and Cafe Au Lait at Cafe Du Monde!

I told you the burger was huge at Port of Call!

Mmmmmm... chicken. We had a great time on the Swamp Tour at Cajun Pride.

This was at one of the cemeteries in New Orleans in the Garden District. It was amazing to see how old some of them were!

Zoya Remove Dupe

I came across a dupe "recipe" by the blogger  Loodie Loodie Loodie (I just love her nail care posts) for Zoya Remove. I am a big fan of Zoya's Remove, but just not the price. I decided to be brave and tried to make the nail polish remover. I followed her simple instructions and started brewing. OK, so there really wasn't anything to "brew" per se, but it sounds cooler than I poured some stuff into a bottle and shook. Am I right? So continuing on my little adventure... I am in the kitchen making my little nail polish remover concoction. My husband decides this is a good time to be funny. He starts asking what I am doing, because I am looking very serious mixing, measuring, and pouring. I am honest and say I found a recipe online and I am going to make my own nail polish remover. He looks a little concerned and asks for a list of the ingredients I am using. I tell him and then ask why. I just want to know what I should tell the paramedics after you blow our house up. Yeah, I got a real strong vote of confidence from him. I try to explain how awesome this is, and how it will help save money, yada, yada, yada, and still, the dirty/amused look continues. Fine, I let him have his moment and am thinking you keep you smug smile, because I kick ass and nothing will go wrong. Ha ha. Well, I did make one tiny mistake. I tried to use a plastic measuring cup to mix the ingredients in before putting it in the bottle. You see, it kind of ... well... it melted the container a little bit. Sure, it was my old one from the dollar store that had some surface cracks in it, but I figured if it got ruined who cares right? I quickly corrected my mistake and did what Miss Loodie said to do in the beginning, mix it in the empty nail polish remover bottle. Whatever, I know I should have listened to her, but I wanted to make sure I was mixing it right. Sorry, I digress. To finish up, I created her concoction and by golly it works. I felt like an evil scientist that just discovered a new chemical reaction!! MWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Sorry about that. It really worked. I compared it to a mini bottle of Zoya Remove that I have left and it worked identically!!!! I gave a comparison of the real Zoya Remove, the Dupe, and plain old 100% Pure Acetone. I am soo excited!!!!! No more $9.00+ dollars for my favorite polish remover! YIPEEEE!! So, to give you a basic cost estimate, I paid $5.79 for 6oz of liquid glycerin and $3.49 for 16oz of 100% Pure Acetone witch equals $9.28 before tax. I can make twice the amount remover for the same cost as one bottle of Remove. Oh, and I still have plenty of glycerin to make at least 6 more 8oz bottles. Take that hubby who thought you were so funny!! I am done ranting and rambling. I truly appreciate the time Loodie Loodie Loodie took to create and give her Zoya Remove dupe recipe on her blog. Click on the links above and go check her out. She does an amazing job at explaining the science behind nail care. She even has some great videos on nail shaping.

Here is good ole Zoya Remove.

Here are my ingredients. The 100% Pure Acetone and the liquid glycerin. I found the glycerin in the toothpaste isle at Rite Aid. You can get these ingredients at pretty much any grocery store/drug store, I just happened to be there and thought to get these products.

The lovely Zoya Kimmy. Yes, I bought a polish because it had my name in it, shoot me. Besides, I also liked the color.  Please ignore the tip wear and ragged skin, I had a rough week. 

In Order: Dupe, Zoya Remove, 100% Pure Acetone
Tadaa! You can see no real difference in the dupe and the real Zoya remove product. Both took the same amount of time in getting the nail polish off. The main thing to notice is both the Zoya Remove and the Dupe did not dry out the skin like the pure acetone did.

In conclusion, I will no longer be buying the uber expensive Zoya Remove, I will continue to do my experiments at home and create my own. Ha ha ha ha! Thanks again Miss Loodie!

The recipe is: Roughly 1-2tbsp of glycerin to every 200mL of pure acetone. Keep adding very small amounts of water, until the glycerin it completely combined. You can check out her post to see the video on how to make it.

Side note: House did not explode. :)

China Glaze Capitol Colors Part 3: Harvest Moon, Riveting, and Luxe and Lush

Here are my final three polishes from the Capitol Colors Collection for the Hunger Games. If you hadn't noticed, I was trying to group them by color family :) I left the "fiery" colors for last. To say I had a hard time capturing Luxe and Lush on my camera is like saying I had a hard time stopping the elephant from running me over. I did another attempt today and got much better results. (YEA!!!) Anyways, I love all of these colors. Harvest Moon would make a beautiful fall manicure, Riveting is a great, bright, fiery color, and Luxe and Lush adds glitz to just about anything! These colors just have no faults in my book. It was two coats to get full coverage for both Harvest Moon and Riveting, but no topcoat. I used one "dabbed" coat of Luxe and Lush over one coat Wet n Wild Black Creme. I also used one coat of Gelous over Luxe and Lush for a better looking finish. Enjoy the pictures.

Harvest Moon is a beautiful copper colored metallic. It is definitely on the warm side of the color scheme, beautiful finish.
District 9 - Grain

Riveting is a show stopping orange jelly with gold glitter suspended in it. This color literally GLOWS!!  If you don't want attention to your manicure, definitely do not wear this.
District 3 - Technology

Doesn't it look like Riveting?? 

Luxe and Lush is a great shredded looking flakie that flashes mainly orange, yellow, and green, but blue and pink can sometimes be seen.
District 1 - Luxury

This is what the actual shredded flakes look like. This polish will definitely need several topcoats to smooth out the finish.

If you are looking to make a manicure statement, these are the colors for you from the Capitol Colors collection. My favorite out of these three is Riveting, because it is a show stopper and I have absolutely nothing like it in my collection. Which do you like most?