olympics – Adventures in Polishland

Happy Thursday! I can’t believe it is the first day of September, and time to share my August favorites with all of you. I didn’t discover too many new products this month, but I do have a few beauty, haircare, and miscellaneous things to shout out today. Without further ado, let me jump into my August favorites!

NAIL POLISH

Zoya Mallory [REVIEW] [BUY]

I feel like every time Zoya puts out a new blue nail polish I end up falling in love with it! Mallory is just a stunning blue from the new Urban Grunge collection. It does stain the nails, so make sure to double up on your base coat to prevent that from happening. I think my next manicure will be with Mallory!

HAIR CARE

LUSH Brazilliant Shampoo Bar [BUY]

I was in the market for a new shampoo, so I decided to head to LUSH for the first time in quite a while. I purchased the Brazilliant, as it helps to moisturize the hair but not weigh it down. I absolutely love the scent of this shampoo, and I find that it works really well. My hair is very clean after using it, but not dried out at all. It’s definitely worth paying a bit more for it!

FOOD

Gardein Chipotle Black Bean Burger

I was in the mood for a black bean burger, and luckily spotted these at my local grocery store. I couldn’t believe how amazing these taste! I’ve tried a lot of frozen black bean burgers before, and none have measured up to these ones. They are almost as good as the black bean burgers I get at restaurants. Plus, they are pretty affordable, too!

BOOK

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child [BUY]

There have been a lot of mixed opinions on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child since its release on July 31, but I really enjoyed it. I went into the script not knowing anything about the plot, and I think that helped me have a positive experience because I had zero expectations. The thing to remember is that this is not a new Harry Potter book – it is a script of a stage play. I can only imagine how amazing this looks performed live!

Rio 2016 Olympics

Leading up to this year’s Olympics, I wasn’t too excited. There was so much bad press about the various issues going on in Rio that I didn’t expect to watch many of the events. However, I got really into the Olympics when they began, and stayed up late every night cheering on Team USA. My favorite sports to watch are always Women’s Gymnastics and Swimming, but I enjoyed whatever was on the TV each night.

That wraps up my August favorites! I know this post was pretty short, but I spent the majority of the month watching the Olympics and not discovering too many new things. Please be sure to let me know in the comments what you loved during August. I would also like to know which Olympic events are your favorite!

Some of the products in this post were provided for my unbiased review. This post contains affiliate links. All opinions are my own. See my Disclosure Policy for more information.

On the Fourth of July, Zoya had a promotion where if you spent $10 you could get a free bottle of their America polish. Well, shortly after midnight, a photo began circulating on the Internet explaining how you could get a bottle of America completely free without having to spend anything. I was extremely excited about this, as I had not tried Zoya before. I jumped on the chance to get my free bottle, and even shared the news with my Facebook followers. When I woke up the next day, I discovered that Zoya had cancelled my order, along with 14,000 others that had been placed. It turns out Zoya had a glitch in their system, and I would not be getting the polish for free.

This situation caused a lot of drama on the Zoya Facebook page, and throughout the nail blog community. Some believed that since the glitch was Zoya’s responsibility, they should have compensated everyone who ordered the free bottle. Others, however, felt that customers should not have abused the promo code, since it was made public originally that there was a $10 minimum to be spent. As for me, I was quite disappointed. I was unaware of the original promotion. I decided to go ahead and search for a $10 item on the Zoya website. Believe it or not, all of their polishes are $8, so in reality Zoya wanted you to buy two items at $16 to get the free polish. I was about to give up on the promotion, until a few of my Facebook followers informed me of another glitch in the system– only buy one polish and you can get Zoya America for free. Even though this was a glitch too, I received two polishes for only $8!

So after all that trouble, I finally got the chance to try Zoya America for today’s Try it on Tuesday. Not only have I been wanting to test out this brand, but we are the midst of the Olympics– go Team USA! This bright red cream is not usually my typical color, but I am always up for trying out new things. Zoya has a great reputation, and is a vegan nail polish brand, so I had high expectations. In the end I am not “wowed” by it, but it is definitely a nice polish.

Above is two coats of America. I could have gotten away with one coat, but I added a second one to be safe. This polish was a little hard to work with texture wise. I think it was a bit thicker than I was expecting. It did apply evenly, but next time I will know to do thin coats. America dried quickly, but was impressionable for a few hours after application. This red is not my favorite color, but if you do like red you will love this polish. It was quite hard to photograph accurately, so please visit the Zoya website HERE to view and purchase America.

In the end, I do think Zoya America was worth all the hoopla. Though it is not my favorite color, I got to try a new brand at a great price. I look forward to using the other Zoya polish that I purchased in the future!

What do you think of Zoya polishes? Were you included in the Fourth of July upset?

Adventures in Polishland

Vegan Lifestyle + Beauty Blog on a Budget

Tag: olympics

August Lifestyle Favorites!

Try it on Tuesday: Zoya America (Was it Worth the Hoopla?)