I'm Actually Posting Finally (And It's A Long One)

Hey everyone (and hello to all of our new followers; thanks for following our blog!.).

I have not been motivated to post in a while just because work has pretty much drained all of my life force out of my body. I've been working overtime since I last posted, and I've filled the time I have left in my day when I'm not working 10-11 hours with eating, sleeping, showering, and doing a wicked quick nail polish change. Last week I worked almost 50 HOURS. I wanted to hurt someone so bad when I had to get up for work last Friday;  I actually cried because I didn't want to go in because I was so tired and I had a pounding headache. Lets just say I spent a good portion of Saturday and Sunday sleeping to make up for getting up at 5:45am everyday last week. Don't get me wrong, I do really like my job and I have fun with my co-workers (I work with my dad so I get to spend time with him which is pretty cool); it's just I hate getting up that early during the summer. But Thursday always make it worth the early hours when I get my paycheck and I have money in my pocket : ) Sorry, complaining portion of this post is over now. On to better things!

For anyone who is reading this outside of the U.S., this weekend is Fourth of July Weekend for us Americans. I decided to go out on my nails last night and get a little fancy with them (I've only been painting them in shades I've already worn for work since I work with acetone quite a bit, and it still manages to seep into the latex gloves and ruin my polish). I went with Zoya Isla (an absolutely GORGEOUS ruby red polish that is a must have for people who have cool skin tones. Trust me, it's amazing!!!) and Zoya Tart for an accent finger on my ring finger. To top it off, I pulled out my OPI Silver Shatter and put it on over Isla and Tart. The results were pretty patriotic, at least that's what I thought:

(had to cut my nails last Friday; I had screws getting lodged underneath my long nails and they wouldn't come out! How sad and pathetic is that?)

And since Transformers: Dark of the Moon was released today (seeing it Friday and I'm pretty pumped for it!), this can also double as a Transformers mani idea as well since Optimums Prime (head good transformer for those who haven't seen the movies or hear of Transformers at all) is painted red, silver, and blue. So it's a dual purpose mani then? You guys can tell me if it's stupid or not in the comments.

Also I got my Zoya Charla/Ivanka promo two weeks ago (see how behind I am on posting, I got that package two weeks ago and I'm finally talking about it now!). Here are a few pics on what I got:

Armor and Anchor

Emme, Rica, Sooki, Faye, Julieanne

And Charla and Ivanka

I immediately tried out my new bottle of Anchor that I got. I love this base coat by Zoya. I've tried a base coat from Sally Hansen and it was horrible. It never wanted to dry, and when I would put it on, go to class, and then come back more than an hour later and start to paint my nails, it would prevent the first coat from going on smooth. This base coat however, dries very quickly and does what it says it's supposed to do which is bond the color to the nail. And it also has proteins in it that help to strengthen nails and I've felt that my nails are stronger in the two weeks that I've been using it. It's also helped to keep my nail color on longer which with my job and the high mortality rate of my manis since coming back from school is amazing since instead of lasting a day and a half, now my nails are lasting 3+ days in the last week! The reason the polish comes off now is because I don't want to be wearing that color anymore!

I then did my toes in Charla because well, it's Charla man! Warning, a pic of my toes is right below this!

And on my fingers I did Faye (my new exam taking nail polish color since I wore it during my three finals last semester and I did really well on them) with a coat of my new top coat Zoya Armor. The corner of my thumb got a little weird some how, I forget how now, but I wore Faye for five days with Anchor and Armor on and it didn't chip once (and three of those days were spent working)!

I have to say that I like Armor much better than Seche Vite now. I've been having major cuticle shrinkage problems with Seche Vite; it made it look like my nails had been painted for a week when it had only been about a day. Also, the smell with Seche Vite is qutie strong. My parents don't even want to be in the same room as me as soon as I open the bottle and then they avoid me for the next hour after I put it on my nails. So I tried Armor to see if I'd like it better. And I do! I have to say it smells a million times better then SV does and it actually smells a little fruity to me. It's also glossy when it dries. Sure it takes a little longer then SV to dry, but the durability, smell, and non-cuticle shrinkage makes up for it big time. So yes, I've become a Zoya addict and I've got no shame in admitting it.

Sorry for not posting half of this post last week, and that it was really long, but I am really sorry and I feel bad for neglecting my posting duties. I am going to post this weekend about the nail polish I'm going to actually wear for the Fourth so I hope you check in then to see what it is! And thanks for reading this really long post!

-Amanda