Zoya Gilty Pleasures Box Set - $45 at Zoya.com

The much-talked-about Zoya Gilty Pleasures Box Set and, in a new development, open stock Gilty real 18k Gold topcoat is once again available at Zoya.com after the original run of pre-sales sold out. I had originally planned to wait and see what the OPI Skyfall gold topcoat was like before making my choice and then not only did I hear that the OPI was going to be very hard to get, I also was hearing that others who had purchased both the Zoya and OPI ones favored Zoya Gilty in the end. Once I decided on Gilty, I then realized it was sold out. I was kicking myself until I saw Zoya announce they were re-releasing another run of it. And as I said you can also get Gilty in open stock now. The set comes in a really nice sturdy black box with a molded faux-velvet inner part to hold the polishes securely and since it's a pretty precious item, I like to keep mine inside. 

Personally, I feel the box set is a better deal because for $10 more you get Gilty as well as bottles of Raven (Chanel Black Satin dupe) and Purity which is a wonderful opaqe white polish. If you'd like to see Gilty over Raven and Purity, you can see them here on my Instagram Profile! Whether you opt for Gilty alone or with Raven and Purity in the pretty display box, you'll get FREE SHIPPING included with your order! 

Zoya Gilty over Zoya Song 

Recently, in addition to the six new Shellac Fall shades that are being released, CND has also released a duo of limited edition Holiday glitter Shellac shades; Ruby Ritz and Tinsel Toast. Above you see two cured coats of Tinsel Toast, and then again Tinsel Toast covered with a design in Black Pool. The two shades are both gorgeous and contain extremely fine glitter that couldn't be recreated even with the finest of craft glitters, so I feel like it's worth having. Plus it's a lot easier to deal with that applying loose glitter because there are less steps. You also don't have to worry that you missed coating an area with topcoat and risk removing it along with the tacky layer. I also think it looks awesome with other shades of Shellac. 

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At the salon, I've been playing around with some Shellac designs that will appeal to clients. Some people would like to try something a little more jazzy than plain Shellac, but are hesitant to jump right into crazy nail art, so I wanted to find some Autumn looks that would appeal to a wider range of people. So I started messing around with various mineral eye shadows and MAC Pigments I had lying around and came up with a few stone, granite, and marble looks that are really cool looking and also with the glossy finish of Shellac, look like actual stones. The photo above is supposed to resemble granite, and I used CND Shellac in Black Pool as the base, then created the design with silver, olive and burgundy pigments and some alcohol. The final result was pretty neat, and my client was super happy with it. I'm kind of considering doing this on my own nails this week!

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This is a week old Shellac manicure, so forgive me that it's a little grown out, but it has lasted beautifully except for the fact that I did lose one little metal stud, which you might not even notice. I've been pretty much wearing CND Shellac exclusively as opposed to regular polish for work, so I've been trying to experiment more and more with art using Shellac so I can keep it crazy yet still have it last. For this manicure I went for a Rock motif, using Union Jacks, edgy darker shades and weird eyeballs. The concept wasn't very sharp, but what it lacks in cohesiveness, I think it makes up for in coolness and color. I used several Shellac shades along with CND Additives (pure color pigments), plus some metal studs. 

Products used: 

• CND Shellac in Cream Puff, Black Pool, Wildfire, Purple Purple, Hotski to Tchotchke
• CND Additives in Cerulean Blue and Haute Pink
• Metal studs from Born Pretty Store

Last week I had the outrageous honor of giving a first-time manicure to a friend and co-worker of mine, Theresa. Since she's a hair stylist, we definitely wanted to use Shellac so it lasted more than a few hours on her. I used Cityscape (light dove grey) and Silver Chrome to colorblock the nails randomly, then after curing, I added Rubble (stone taupe) in places and before curing, I engraved and dotted a little to make the above design. I finished it up with a nice coat of Shellac top coat and this is the end result. Very cool for the beginning of Autumn. 

I wanted to wear two of my favorite shades from the new OPI Germany collection at the same time, and a Ruffian-style reverse French seemed like a good idea. The blue is a really pretty teal-toned blue with some pearly shimmer, and the green is a dusty chartreuse with some silver ribbon-candy shimmer. Both are gorgeous in the bottle and on the nail. 

Products used:

• OPI Unfor-Greta-bly Blue
• OPI Don't Talk Bach to Me