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Ok, so you are going to see quite a few nail of the day pictures and posts because I was fortunate to stock up on quite a bit of Zoya polish through a few of the flash promos that Zoya was holding on twitter during the month of December.  Zoya currently has another promo for get two nail polishes free and just pay shipping that will run until January 9, 2012 using the promo code ZOYA2012.

Neutrals and pinks have always been my “go to” colors while I was working in corporate america due to the conservative nature of the work I did.  More recently I had gotten back into more trendy and dark nail polishes but somehow found my way back to the pink colors again, hence my interest in the color Erika.  Now admittedly I typically gravitate towards pale pinks such as OPI Sweetheart or OPI Bubble Bath.  The color Erika is a true baby pink brighter than the pink colors mentioned above.  It also boasts a beautiful subtle gold shimmer that you can see in the picture more towards the top of the bottle.  I used two gracious coats of polish to really get a vibrant color, however, I may try to tone the pink down next time by using a softer pink or white coat followed by a coat of the Erika color.

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I have been obsessed with Zoya nail polish lately.  I love the fact that Zoya is a 4 Free nail polish-free of  toluene, formaldehyde, DBP and Camphor.  I was fortunate enough to participate in a few of the Flash Promos that Zoya was having through Twitter.  One of the deals that I was able to snag was a free mini Color Lock System.  The Color Lock System is a 5 step system that is supposed to “Put perfect nail color on lock down.” The five steps include the Zoya Remover, Anchor Basecoat, Zoya Nail Polish, Armor Topcoat & UV Block and the Hurry Up Speed Dry Drops.  This is my first time using the system and I wish I could say that I love it, however, just as a first impression I have to say that I am not too impressed.  It is so rare that I get bubbles in in my nail polish, however, I noticed that the consistency of the Jules nail polish was thin and with my nail beds being so long I made sure I grabbed a healthy amount on nail polish on my brush to avoid having to dip twice into the bottle to polish each nail.  I am assuming this is what may have caused some of the bubbling.  Well, I ended up getting bubbles on my nails 🙁  The speed drops are supposed to eliminate bubbles-didn’t live up to this claim.

You can’t see the bubbles from the photo, however, they are there.  As well, I love the high gloss that Seche Vite top coat left, however, I had to give that top coat up because it was a not a 3Free polish.  I have since then replaced it with Deborah Lippman’s Addicted to Speed Top Coat and have found that it leaves that similar high gloss coat that Seche Vite does.  I wish I could say that Zoya’s top coat performed the same, however, it didn’t.  I was a little disappointed and may try the base and top coat separately to see if my opinion changes by using them individually.

Now the color Jules was highly impressive.  I absolutely love this color more than I thought I would.  It boasts a soft gold/taupe color with a subtle shimmer.  It really looks luxurious on my nails I just wish I could speak more highly of the Color Lock System.  Here are some pictures below.  What is your favorite Zoya color?

Zoya-Jules
 Zoya Mini Color Lock System
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Ahh…I love beauty events! I can’t help but to check Nordstrom’s event schedule on a regular basis to see what kind of spectacular events are coming up.  In fact, because I went out to the Smashbox event last weekend I had to keep myself from going to the Nars event they had this past weekend featuring their celeb makeup artist Uzo…sob…

In any event, Smashbox periodically has these wonderful events where for a $75 reservation fee applicable to your product purchase, you are able to attend the event have your full makeup done (45 minute session), and be whizzed off to a mini photo session with Smashbox’s own fashion and editoral photographer Steven Khan.  In addition, you are given ALL of the photos on a CD for your own personal use.  Now that’s a super deal! For those of you familiar with professional photography, obtaining the actual digital copies of your photos can get pretty pricey.

I actually planned far in advance for this event when I realized that I missed this amazing opportunity to have my photos done by Steven at the Birchbox and Smashbox event back in September.  After the Birchbox party, photos that Steven took at the event were floating around on twitter and blogs and I sulked around sad that I missed this opportunity.  I took it upon myself to contact the Smashbox counter and asked when he’d be shooting again and when I found out I booked immediately. What was even better was my best friend and I were able to have a nice photo taken of us together.

As well, with the holidays around Smashbox had discounted their holiday sets for this event so there were some pretty amazing deals going on that day.

I walked away with over 100 images, however, there were only a handful that came out really well.  Here are the photos from the event. Enjoy!

Posing for the camera 🙂
This one was probably my favorite shot
My best friend and I
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I know my blog has been severly neglected.  Admittedly I have spent the bulk of my spare time working on growing my YouTube beauty channel.  I feel like I am so behind on everything going on in my life.  Oh well, such is life.  Please check out my channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/pixiemama5000?feature=mhee

I had the wonderful opportunity to go to a Smashbox Master Class at Nordstrom the first weekend of November.  My best friend and I trekked over to Nordstrom super excited.  The purpose of this class was to teach the basics of applying makeup correctly.  Although I believe I am pretty well versed in that, I receieved a lot of benefit in learning more about the Smashbox products specfically.  The class was in a closed off location at Nordstrom and we had a small class of about 8 or so people.  There was 1 makeup artist to two students.  We had a gorgeous and fabulously funny Smashbox artist/trainer Laura that guided us through a step by step process of creating a look.  We were supplied a full set of Smashbox brushes, which I have to admit were simply amazing, to help create our look.  In addition, the dedicated Smashbox artist custom picked products for us to use based on our skin type and skin tone.  This was a  hands on event where you really had the opportunity to ask as many questions as you’d like and get as much help as you need.  I would highly recommend this to anyone who is learning the basics of makeup or who’d like to learn more about the Smashbox line.  To a reserve a spot in the class a $50 deposit was required, however, the $50 will be applied to your product purchase-not a bad deal at all.  In fact, I took that credit and purchased a super awesome holiday value set that I have been extremely excited about.  Check out the pictures below:

The fabulous spread of beauty tools and products!
 Yay! We’re done! Photo Op with the wonderful Smashbox artist/trainer Laura
 Awesome value set that I HIGHLY recommend-enough products to give you a good flavor of the Smashbox line
 My friend Clare – the finished look 🙂
 My seat
 Bare faced and waiting for the fun to start
Laura in action showing us how to shape brows-her reference to brows: “They are not twins, more like sisters…” lol..
Thanks so much for reading! Anyone get any good holiday sets? Would love to hear what your favorite holiday finds are!
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A couple of months ago a friend of mine Mayra who is a makeup artist connected me with a close friend of hers, Kevianno Guerrero, an amazing Dior National Celebrity Makeup artist.  We had a few conversations on the phone about makeup and he peaked my interest in trying out Dior. I had the pleasure of spending a couple of hours chatting it up with him while he meticulously did my makeup.  It was an amazing experience and for those of you who love makeup, I can’t begin to tell you how awesome it is to be around someone who talks about makeup in ways that I haven’t even thought of before.  He is a true artist who understands color theory in depth and being able to mix colors to come up with beautiful looks.  To give you an idea of Kevianno’s experience with makeup, he did tell me that he launched the MAC Cosmetics line in the US back in the early nineties-I was crazy impressed with this as I am a HUGE MAC fan.  I don’t recall exactly how many years he spent working with MAC but I know it’s well over ten.  He does editoral and countless red carpet events and to say that I know him and I am friends with him is quite an honor.

Check out his Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/Kevianno

Here are a few pictures from the evening.

Kevianno and I – The finished look very natural
Close up of eyes – No flash
Close up of eyes – Flash
One thing I definitely noticed about his work is simply the handling of the brushes, the feathery strokes and the attention to detail on blending and marrying different colors together.
  The palette he used on my eyes – Dior Night Dusk 790