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I discovered Seche Vite a little over ten years ago.  I had my nails done at the salon next to when I lived and the manicurist used Seche Vite and I was in love ever since.  I am a nail polish junkie and through all my findings I had never experienced a top coat that was quite as glossy that left your nails feeling glass-like.  Just simply luxurious.  And your nails feel dry unbelievably quick.  Until I tried Deborah Lippman’s Addcited To Speed….

Let me backtrack a little here, earlier last year I started becoming increasingly concerned about this whole 3 Free nail polish thing.  For those of you who are not sure what that means it means the polish is free of Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Formaldehyde and Toluene-chemicals that are known to be harmful.  Now to what extent of damage they can do is a little unknown still, but for me I wanted to be a little “greener” in general.  AND to top it off, I guess I haven’t been reading labels like I should but Seche Vite clearly marks on the bottle, “WARNING! This product contains a chemical known in the State of California to cause birth defects or other reproductive harm.”  Admittedly I had used Seche Vite throughout both of my pregnancies and both of my little girls appear to be completely healthy but going forward I wanted to eliminate chemicals and toxins as much as I can.  I didn’t think I could give up Seche Vite until I found Deborah Lippman’s Addicted to Speed….

Now, you can argue with me that it is twice as expensive as Seche Vite at $20 a bottle.  But….for those of you who are loyal users of Seche Vite, you know as well as I do how hard it is to finish a bottle of Seche Vite without it getting unbelieveably thick and goopy to the point that you just toss it out.  I know that Seche Vite sells some type of thinner you can add to the bottle but I found it ridiculous that you have to purchase an additional product to make your current one last longer.  Plus I am sure the thinner works fine but I have this mental block that makes me think when you add something to polish you are somehow messing with the integrity and performance of the polish itself.  I know wierd, but that’s just me.  I have the bottles to prove it, here are my bottles that I accumulated that are unfinished because they got too thick.  I threw them away as soon as I found Deborah Lippman.

In addition, I tried a few of the Sally Hansen top coats and didn’t feel like they performed quite as well as Seche Vite did.

Deborah Lippman is definitely on the pricier side of nail polishes, however, so many of the colors are unique and I am all for healthier nail polish.  I started using the Deborah Lippman topcoat in October so I can’t say yet if i am going to have the thickness problem that I had with Seche Vite.

It’s worth a try, if you purchase it at Nordstrom you can always take it back no questions asked just keep the box with the return sticker on it.  Hope this helps!

Also for those who are curious about what polishes are 3 Free here is a post I found, I am sure there is something more updated but this answered most of my concerns/questions.

http://www.alllacqueredup.com/2008/04/go-green-healthier-polish.html

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So yet again I have another Zoya NOTD.  Wow, I just ordered 6 more Zoya polishes a few days ago and I am so tempted to order 2 of their Mylar fleck effect polishes.  I have my eye on Maisie and Chloe.  I have seen swatches on other blogs so google the collection to find a blog swatch because I thnk it’ll help a lot making your decision.  Check out the colletion on Zoya’s site:

Zoya Fleck Effect Mylar Hollographic Spring 2012 Collection

Here is a picture of the color Marley I had on today.  I really didn’t have good lighting today and my first picture doesn’t do the color any justice as it’s a little brighter lilac than the picture below shows.

So I threw a filter on Instagram and it brightened the color up, however, in true life the actual color is probably something in the middle of the two pictures.

Hope you are having a great Wednesday! Has anyone else found any great Zoya colors that they’ve fallen in love with?

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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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So as I have begun purchasing nail polishes that are 3Free I felt the need to check out the Zoya line. Recently Zoya had a buy one get one free sale on their website and I dragged my feet in ordering that I missed the sale.  The day after the sale ended I went to Ulta and it just so happened that the Zoya polishes were buy two get one free.  Not as great as the buy one get one but at least I didn’t have to pay shipping so it may have balanced out some.  In any event, one of the Zoya colors I picked up was a beautiful mauve pink called Pandora.  The color stands beautifully on it’s own, however, that same trip to Ulta I swung by the Essence set up and saw this adorable color called Space Queen that I picked up.  I decided to pair the two colors up, Pandora as a base and Space Queen on top and voila! A gorgeous and fun combination.  It’s a shame, the picture does the nail look no justice.  It doesn’t capture the rainbow flecks of glitter that sparkle everywhere.  I did notice that the essence polish went on a little thick.  I didn’t mind too much, since it was a glitter top I figured the overall final texture would probably be hidden by the glitter.  And at $.99 for an essence polish you can’t complain-and they are 3Free!

I love this look! It’s a neutral but fun look!
FYI-I applied the color on Wednesday night and it’s Sunday and is not showing much sign of wear 🙂 yay!  What are your favorite polishes of the moment?