Slayer Swatch: Zoya "La Mer"

Now that I see how much fun everyone has making up nail creations, I've started--slowly--trying more than just a manicure with polish and maybe a sparkle topcoat.

I knew in my head what I *wanted* to do but I agonized, holding up the polishes to the light, wondering if they'd work together or just look a mess. And then I stopped and told myself IT'S JUST NAILPOLISH!!! If I didn't like it, I could certainly take it off and start all over. Whew. Crisis averted.

I started out with 2-3 coats of Zoya's Mod Matte Phoebe--it's a bright cotton candy blue with just a tiny hint of shimmer. The shimmer makes more of a glow than a sparkle. Now, Zoya says no bottom coat but I always use something and it doesn't seem to affect the matte finish.

Once that was very dry--and mattes don't take long to dry--I added gorgeous tuquoise caribbean blue Charla glitter. I started about 1/3 of the way up from the tip and did sort of a reverse French Manicure. I didn't use any tape, just eyeballed it. I think I used 2-3 coats for good coverage.

And VOILA! La Mer!

For the life of me, I don't know how everyone gets such GORGEOUS photos of their nails on their blogs! We tried various lights and hubby took the pix and they came out nowhere near as awesome as they looked in real life!

Not to mention my cuticles *blush* Yes I have Qtica Gold cuticle oil now, TYVM.

From the bottom you can see how pretty Phoebe looks, but Charla...wow. I was blown away when I got it in the mail. It looked pretty on the Zoya website but is an absolute KNOCKOUT in real life. It doesn't have quite the variety of color glitter in it that Deborah Lippmann's Across the Universe does, and the glitter is uniform, but it is just so dazzling.

So, my first swatch. Please give me tips on how to show off my creations....The manicure I have now is sooo pretty I want to show it off!

Next time I try this, I may try using the Butter London matte over the matte first--for some reason, it chipped terribly which is VERY unusual for me for Zoya, even the mattes. Probably just a fluke.

Happy Manicures!