January 2024 – Adventures in Polishland

Month: January 2024

Purple Party Nails featuring Zoya Soraya and Holo Taco Everything Taco

Posted on January 30, 2024 by Adventures in Polishland

Whenever I have time off from work, I like to paint my nails with the brightest colors and sparkliest glitters. That almost always means I’m grabbing for Holo Taco Everything Taco, which has easily become my favorite special effects top coat. I do mix up the base color, and this week I reached for Zoya Nail Polish Soraya from the Summer 2023 Beachy Brights Collection. As expected, I am absolutely loving this nail polish combination!

Some of the products in this post were provided for my unbiased review. This post includes a referral link. All opinions are my own. See my Disclosure Policy for more information.

Zoya Soraya is a bright fuchsia cream polish. It has a great formula that is opaque in two coats, and it dries to a matte finish. Soraya looks much more purple in real life than it does in the photos. The swatches are photographed in natural light, but for some reason the camera did not capture the beautiful purple shade. Please keep that in mind if you are interested in purchasing Soraya.

I then completed the look by adding one coat of Everything Taco, and two coats of the Zoya Naked Seal Glossy Top Coat. I just love how Everything Taco is so easy to apply, and really transforms any manicure! It contains six Unicorn Skin iridescent flakies, and three holographic toppers. I definitely think it is worth the $13.00 price tag on the Holo Taco website! I could easily use this polish on a weekly basis!

Zoya Soraya and Holo Taco Everything Taco

Overall, I’m loving my bright purple and sparkly nails! I definitely look and feel ready for a vacation. You can purchase Soraya from Zoya’s website for $8.00. Use my referral link to save $5.00 off your first Zoya purchase. Also, let me know in the comments what your go to manicure is when you go on vacation!

Random Number Generator Picks My Manicure | Pink Valentine’s Day Nails

Posted on January 21, 2024 by Adventures in Polishland

This week I did not have a pre-planned manicure, so I thought it would be fun to use a random number generator to pick my nail polish look. I first saw Cristine of SimplyNailogical do something similar on her channel, and other nail polish creators have done this as well. It’s a fun way to pick your polish when you don’t know what to wear. Luckily, I ended up with two pink shades that make a perfect Valentine’s Day manicure!

The products in this post were originally provided for my unbiased review. This post includes an affiliate link. All opinions are my own. See my Disclosure Policy for more information.

I used Random.org for my random number generator. I narrowed down the polish by having the website pick which box of nail polish to use, then which row in the box, and finally which polish in the row. I was super excited when I landed on Zoya Monroe from the Thrive Collection! This is a beautiful mauve pink shade with a cream formula. It applies like a dream, and is opaque in two coats. Monroe is not available on Zoya’s website currently, but it is on Amazon.

I then decided to choose a random polish from my special effects toppers and glitters since I got a cream formula as the base. I let Random.org choose the row and then the polish in the row. I couldn’t believe my luck when I got another pink-toned polish, Zoya Bisoux! Bisoux is from the Magical Collection for Holiday 2023. It has a light pink base and is filled with rose gold, yellow gold, and holographic glitters. I did a very thin coat on my ring finger as an accent nail. It adds the perfect amount of sparkle to my manicure! I’ll have to try Bisoux on its own at some point, too.

I had so much fun letting a random number generator pick my manicure this week. It was kismet this time around to get complimentary shades that just so happen to work perfectly for upcoming Valentine’s Day. It certainly won’t always turn out this well, so I’ll have to do this every so often to see what interesting combinations I get. Let me know in the comments if you’d like to see more blog posts like this!

Zoya Nail Polish Metora | Review and Swatches

Posted on January 15, 2024 by Adventures in Polishland

When I created my nail polish “to be worn” pile for January, I thought it would be fun to wear a garnet red shade to go with January’s birthstone. I immediately gravitated towards Zoya Nail Polish Metora from the Hypnotic Collection released for the Winter/Holiday 2022 season. After wearing a glitter combination for the last several weeks, Metora is a nail polish that can truly stand on its own.

The product in this post was provided to me for my unbiased review. All opinions are my own. See my Disclosure Policy for more information.

Metora is a metallic nail polish in a deep red shade. The formula is fantastic and applies easily in two coats. I really love the beautiful dimension in the subtle shimmer. I don’t normally reach for metallic polishes, but Metora is an exception! It looks stunning on the nails, and this red shade is a good compliment to my skin tone.

If you are looking for a dark and vampy nail polish, I definitely recommend Zoya Metora. I’m impressed with the formula, and surprised with how much I enjoy the metallic finish. I will be keeping this nail polish in my collection as I curate it this year. I’m also inspired to try more of the metallic shades in my stash to see how they compare!

Snow Day Manicure featuring Zoya Abigail

Posted on January 8, 2024 by Adventures in Polishland

This weekend we got our first big snowstorm of the winter season, and I decided my manicure would match the weather. At the end of December, I chose a few polishes from my collection to wear this month in January. I posted more about my nail polish “to be worn” pile on Instagram, but my plan is to share my manicures here on the blog weekly. While I wore a bright and fun look last week with Nail-Venturous Floam, this week my inspiration was a neutral shade from my nail polish stash in Zoya Abigail. I took this gray polish and added a bit of sparkle to create a snow day manicure!

Zoya Abigail is a cool-toned gray cream polish. The formula applies very nicely, and is opaque in two coats. I normally photograph all of my swatches in natural light, but this week I had to use artificial lighting due to the storm. Abigail is from the Toasty Collection released this time last year. I wouldn’t normally reach for a gray nail polish, but this one actually compliments my complexion nicely.

Different Dimension Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock

I then reached into my stash for a glitter topper from the indie nail polish brand Different Dimension. This shade is Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock from the Big Bang Theory Collection. The polish has a slightly blue tinted base, and is full of silver hexagonal glitters and white microglitters. I think this shade really mimics the snow that was falling outside!

I completed the look by adding two coats of the Zoya Naked Manicure Glossy Seal Top Coat. The result is quite beautiful! I like how the glitter topper really elevates what would otherwise be a neutral cream polish. I really enjoy putting different nail polish combinations together!

Abigail is available on the Zoya website for $12.00. You can use my referral link to save $5.00 off your first Zoya purchase. While you can no longer buy Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock, the brand Different Dimension is still in business on their website. Different Dimension was one of my favorite indie brands back in the day, and I’m glad the polishes I still own apply beautifully even years down the road. I’ll have to see what is currently available the next time I’m in the market for some new polish!

Blue Glitter Nails featuring Nail-Venturous Floam

Posted on January 4, 2024 by Adventures in Polishland

When I first discovered the nail polish community in 2012, Pinterest was all the rage. One of the earliest nail polish Pins that I saved was this one featuring Floam from the indie brand Nail-Venturous. At the time, I had no idea that indie nail polish brands were a thing, and I was just finding out about nail polish bloggers. I soon realized Floam was one of the most coveted polishes in the community, and it was not easy to purchase! At some point, I was part of a nail polish Secret Santa, and received a bottle of Floam as a gift. I was so excited, but for some reason, I was afraid to use it. I finally decided 2024 was the year I would wear Floam.

This post includes affiliate links. All opinions are my own. See my Disclosure Policy for more information.

I began my manicure with a base color of Zoya Ling. This is a bright blue shade that is opaque in two coats. I wanted to use a cream polish as a base so that my natural nail did not show through the glitters in Floam. Ling is very similar to the blue glitters in Floam, so I knew it would combine really well. This is one of my favorite nail polishes in general, so I always like using it!

It was then time to add Floam! This polish has a clear base filled with blue and yellow glitters, just like the slime product many of us loved as kids! I applied two coats, and am impressed with how nice the formula is even though this polish is over a decade old at this point. The glitters spread out evenly, but I’m definitely glad I had Ling as a base, because a lot of it does show beneath Floam.

Floam itself dries to a matte finish, so I completed my manicure by adding two coats of Zoya Naked Glossy Seal Top Coat. The first layer evens out the glitters, and the second adds a high gloss shine. I am so thrilled with the completed result! I feel like I’ve finally achieved the Floam manicure of my dreams that I first saw on Pinterest twelve years ago.

I hope that you enjoyed this story time and little adventure back to my early days in the nail blogging world. It’s a bit sad to think that the blog I’m Feeling Nail-Venturous no longer exists, and if its creator Amy ever reads this, I hope she knows I’m still loving the polish she created to this day. While Floam is no longer sold, someone does have a bottle for sale on eBay right now for $42.50 (I told you it’s hard to find!).

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