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I just mentioned a few days ago that you could follow me via Bloglovin in addition to Google Friend Connect that most of you already follow me through. I've also made a Facebook page so you can follow me there.

You can also follow me on Pinterest here.

And once again you can follow me on Bloglovin here.

I also have all the buttons off in my right sidebar for easy access.

Thanks!!!

Zoya Vespa

Zoya Vespa is the last of the Pixie Polishes that I bought. The formula was just like the other Pixies. I used three coats for this mani since Vespa is a bit more sheer. Depending on how thick you put on your polish, you will need 2-4 coats of Vespa.

This first picture isn't quite as color accurate as the other two, but shows off the sparkle well.

What is your favorite Pixie Polish? (It doesn't have to be one I have!)

Monday Mani: Fishtail/Braided

This week's Monday Mani theme at PAA (Polish-aholics Anonymous) is Fishtail/Braided. (I'll show you the last Pixie Dust later this week as I wanted to show you the Monday Mani on time).

I started with a base of Zoya Storm. I use thinner coats so I needed two here. What you see is the mani without clean-up. That's right! No cleanup! No wonder the Zoya brush was voted the best :)

Many bloggers have reviewed Storm before so I'll be brief. It's a wonderful base scattered holo polish. Simple, chic, and beautiful.

I've seen several different tutorials for the fishtail/braided mani so I didn't need one for this. I chose to do just my ring finger as an accent so Storm could still stand out on the other nails.

I used Barry M Silver Foil (which I normally only use for stamping, but I wanted a super opaque silver to go over Storm) and Zoya Isla. I was able to do just one swipe of Silver Foil since it's nicely opaque. For Isla, I used 2 swipes for the first braid but only did 1 for the second. You can tell that it's not quite dark enough there, but it still looks really nice.

This was my first time doing a fishtail/braided mani, and it was SO easy! I can't believe I haven't done one before. I'll definitely be doing more in the future.

Have you done a fishtail/braided mani before? What color combinations would you like to see me do?

Zoya Godiva

Zoya Godiva is another Pixie Polish that I bought. Like London, it goes on beautifully! I needed 3 coats for this mani so dry time was a little longer. It reminds me a great deal of sand. I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves.

Godiva is such a beautiful nude that I think it could be worn by those will skin colors and still look great! It could also be worn when you need professional nails, but it's still has a bit of an edge!

The macro is blurry, but shows off the awesome glitter very well.

I plan to do some nail art using the Pixie. In what nail art applications would you like to see Godiva used?

How to follow me!

So as many of you know, Google Reader is going away. You can still follow Ruby's Nails with Google Friend Connect, but I thought I was expand other ways to follow me.

I'm working on Ruby's Nails Facebook page and creating a Pinterest account for this blog as well.

But right now you can follow me using Bloglovin! I transferred all my blogs over there for reading purposes, and I love the interface. Plus the app makes it super easy to read blogs on my iPhone.


Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Zoya London

This week has been a bit crazy since I'm catching up from being gone all weekend. Plus we're going out of town again on Saturday. This time it's just a day trip, but traveling with a little one is soooo much harder than when it was just the two of us! I haven't been able to do my nails since my Easter mani. Bad nail blogger!

Luckily for all of you, I ordered 3 of the Pixie Dust polishes from Zoya during their recent Valentine's Day promotion and never got around to posting them! I have London on for today's mani.

Can I just tell you how much I love this polish? Application was 2 coats and dry time was really nice. Despite the texture, the polish didn't catch on anything. I loved rubbing my fingers over the polish the whole time I wore it.

This last picture is blurry, but I still wanted to show you since it shows off the glitter very well.

What to you think of the Pixie Polishes (or other textured polishes)?

(This is a new thing I'm going to do and ask a question at the end of each blog post.)

Monday Mani: Easter

This week's Monday Mani theme at PAA (Polish-aholics Anonymous) is Easter. I decided to go super cutesy for today's mani, and I love how it turned out. It was super fast to do too!

On my ring finger I used a base of 2 coats of Sinful Colors Candy Coated. The formula is really nice on this, and the dry time is decent considering it's a pastel.

On my index finger, I used a base of 3 coats of Sinful Colors Unicorn. Since it's a yellow and a pastel, dry time was pretty slow though the formula was decent.

I used 2 coats of Candeo Colors Jellybean on my other fingers. I knew I had to use Jellybean for this mani, because well the name is jellybean! Plus the yellow base matched Unicorn and the purple glitter matched Candy Coated.

I painted on the bunny and the chick shell using Rimmel French White Nail Tip Liner and just the brush from the bottle. The black details on both are done with Wet n Wild Black Creme and a nail art brush.

The chick's beak is Zoya Arizona, and I just used the brush that came with Arizona. The pink details on the bunny are Ulta Encore Pink, and I again just used the bottle brush to add in those.

I topped everything off with top coat after I let it dry for a while (to prevent dragging of the colors), and tada!

I love how this turned out!

Bright Skittles

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get my other Easter post up and ready because we headed out of town to visit family. In fact this post is scheduled and posting while we're on the road! I'll get my that other post up on Monday (which coincides with Monday Mani anyway!).

Luckily for all of you, I did this mani not long ago that I think is still very appropriate for Easter. Since this is an old post, I still have long nails.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this mani! The super bright colors are fun and make me wish soooo hard for spring! But it's coming! We're scheduled to have a high of 54 today!

For this mani I used (from left to right) 2 coats of Sinful Colors Why Not, 2 coats of Sinful Colors Rise and Shine, 3 coats of OPI The "It" Color, 3 coats of NYC Spring Street, and 2 coats of NYC MoMa.

Next, I topped each nail with 1 coat of L.A. Girl Uninhibited and added my topcoat.

I attempted to make these look like Whoppers Mini Robin Eggs, but it didn't work out so well. I'm glad I took these pictures before I attempted it though because otherwise you would have missed out!

Orange Cream Easter Skittles

I recently picked up a few new Sinful Colors and thought they would be perfect for Easter themed manis! Today, I used just Sinful Colors Orange Cream.

I used one thin coat and one thick coat for this mani. Orange Cream isn't very orange, in my opinion! It's a peachy orange that leans heavily toward pink. I don't have any colors like this. While I don't usually wear pink, I decided to step out of my comfort zone, and I'm glad I did! I think Orange Cream looks great on me!

You may also notice my super short nails. Well, I had a deep side break on my middle finger that I patched. A few hours later, I got one on my index finger! So I decided to chop off all my nails! I also chopped off all my hair yesterday (went from almost mid-back to chin length). It's spring (or almost here in Wisconsin) so it's time for fresh starts all around.

Orange Cream also had a beautiful micro shimmer that is hard to see from far away, but you can see it in this macro shot.

I added some random designs on my nails using Rimmel French White Nail Tip Liner. The pinkie is sort of like a flower or sun design. Make sure you wait long enough to add top coat! I didn't on my pinkie, and the color dragged a bit.

On my other two fingers I added two coats of Lynnderella Connect the Dots. I love Connect the Dots over brighter colors. It really pops!

I hope you all enjoyed today's mani! I'll have another Easter themed one later this week that features a bit more nail art.

Monday Mani: Creative Layering

This week's Monday Mani theme at PAA (Polish-aholics Anonymous) is creative layering. I used 3 layers for this mani, not including base coat or top coat.

I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do going into this, but I ended up with this color blocked mani loosely based on this design by Nails 4 Dummies!

I started with a base coat of Rimmel Grey Matter. I only did one coat because I knew I was going to layer something on top of it.

On top, I layered two coats of KBShimmer Elle. The polish description says: "The circus, full of fun, color, and a wonder for people of all ages. Lions, tigers, and elephants! Elle is our nail polish elephant. A pale grey jelly color, we added several pink glitters, white and grey glitters for a polish that soft and beautiful."

Because it's a jelly, I chose to layer it. You can see some issues on my middle finger. Elle took a bit to dry so I ended up smudging it. But....I just covered it up later on! This mani is great for covering up imperfections!

To do the blocking, I just taped off random sections and painted using Sinful Colors Black on Black and NYC MoMa. Finally I added topcoat to smooth everything out.