Nail Art. Swatches and Reviews. Honest love of nail polish and all things beauty.
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I will say that Zoya actually shipped this polish out April 30th. But then it took a cross-state tour of New Jersey for almost 2 weeks! UGH! Then life got in the way and I did not get a chance to post this but good news is that I checked and it is still available on Zoya’s website. Since it’s already June, I noticed that they did not release a June color of the month which they didn’t do last year either. I want a June color for my birthday month. But anywho, here we go.
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Hello everyone! I am indeed still here but with a new title! So let me introduce, Dr. Ehmkay Nails. That’s right, during the first week of June I successfully defended my doctoral dissertation and it has been a whirlwind. After my defense, I totally shut down all work and went into play mode. But I am here now and back to share!
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Hi everybody. I took an unexpected break mostly because my nails have been bumming me out. I don’t know what’s going on, but despite moisturizing and using cuticle oil, my nails simply do not grow. I’ve been trying various treatments so they haven’t been polished, but nothing is working. Mr. MK suggested that I do some red, white, and blue nails for Memorial Day so I figured let me just do it and share my super shorty and messy nails.
In my quest to catch up with the Zoya colors of the month, I put the first four months this month. LOL. And just when I thought I would get this to you in time (hey, it's still April), this color was so popular, that it sold out twice. Sooooo....let's just look at the color for fun!
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Hello all! Polish Pickup resumes in one week so I thought I would actually post a polish ON TIME haha. Actually, I am usually good about Polish Pickup because it has such limited availability. This is a fun one, so let's check it out!
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Despite my 700 nail breaks (aren’t you sick of hearing them lol?), I decided to start doing some nail art that was on my Pinterest. Like so many nail arts on Pinterest, I could not locate the origin of this nail art. And of course, as you know, I always have to do my own spin so I changed it up quite a bit, but not so much that I do not appreciate the original. So as always, if you know who created this look, let me know so I can give them a tag. Anyway, let's get to it!
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I am back with the February quad from Zoya. I hope to post March soon so I am all caught up and then hopefully for April (which I just got an email about)...I will actually post it in April. LOL. Enough chit chat, since like Yuki, Kismet is no longer available but the other quad colors are!
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So I am backtracking and finally posting manicures I did quite a bit ago. I did this art and then swatched and then my nails broke...again. EXHAUSTED. Whyyyyy? But let's get to the art, because yay for doing art. I missed doing art and I am finally getting back into it.
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Hello all! I'm switching things up a bit! When I started this blog, I used to add in bath and beauty posts. Of course, things evolve and I focus mostly on nail art but not because I don't enjoy bath and beauty products. After a hiatus, Bumblesoaps is back! I actually reviewed this brand back in 2014 (not a press sample, but a personal purchase). This post is wayyyyy overdue (like rudely overdue, I’m sorry). So let's get to it!
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Polish Pickup for April is Celebrate! Let's celebrate all the things! Let's celebrate that as of this week, I am no longer a doctoral student but a doctoral candidate! Yay! You become that once you finished coursework. I took a full time course load since August 2023, including summer, so I was able to focus all my energy on that, and now I am focusing on my dissertation! YAY. Waiting for confirmation of my defense date, but it is sooner than I want to believe! Anyway, back to PPU, I have a celebration on my nails!
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Hello from the girl whose nails just will not grow. No matter what I do, my nails continue to break and so I finally gave up and started some swatch of some older polishes, despite my nails being short. But I decided to share some festive golden green nail art for St. Patrick’s Day before sharing the other ones. I completely missed Valentine’s Day, nail art, and Mardi Gras nail art which really bummed me out so I decided to do something for St. Patrick’s Day. So let’s check this out.
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True life: I am tired. I had the worst nail break and it left me completely unmotivated to do my nails. I wore a bunch of plain colors as it grew out and these photos were taken 28 days after my break and my nails are still so short! Then you guessed it, I got the flu. One of my students came in with "just a cold"...it wasn't a cold. I have since sent out very curt emails to students about them not poisoning me. So I barely had the energy to do my nails for like 10 days. I am so late on posting these, so let's get to it!
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It has been forever since I have done a dotticure. What inspired the initial manicure is that I wanted a dark base. My nails have been so uneven and breaking that I have some shorter nails (and read until the end 😭) and this is when I love to wear dark colors. Then I asked myself, "When will I do Valentine’s Day art?" and that’s when I decided on a deep red for this manicure.
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KBShimmer is here as the Fables and Folklore Polish Pickup arrives on February 7th. This polish is magnetic, multichrome, and shimmery, so let's check it out.
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Stella Chroma is back at Polish Pickup for 2025! She took a little break but she is coming back with a stunning color that is that wish for spring and warmer weather. So let's get to the details!
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I feel like there isn’t much time to do winter nail art because I usually do holiday nail art in December and really people move onto Valentine’s Day right away. I wanted to squeeze in one wintry look. We had a nice snowfall last night so this look was appropriate. I am actually still wearing these and would have taken some fun shots with snow but they are chipped now. Oh well!
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I am making my way through my swatch pile and although I swatched these, I never shared them. I also just realized that Zoya did not actually release a holiday collection, which is so unusual. As I was swatching this collection, I realized this collection is actually pretty festive and holiday like so no harm no foul that I did not end up swatching it until way later. Also it’s pretty transitional between winter and spring. Lastly, starting today, Zoya has a deal of 10 polishes for $25, so time to stock up. So let’s get to it!
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So I’ll shock you (or not). I went into 2025 with nothing on my nails! Right before new years, I got sick again. Ugh I was sick five times in 2024 so my 2025 goal is to somehow boost my immune system. I had actually mapped out what I was going to do for my nails as I wanted something sparkly. I pulled out some older sparkly nail polishes and then I started thinning sparkly old nail polishes. Maybe one of my 2025 goals will also be to pull out old nail polishes and thin what needs to be thinned and toss what can’t be fixed. Anyway, I finally did my nails, so although they were not my New Year's Eve nails, they were my new year nails!
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Happy 2025! As I enter into the new year, I want to reflect back on 2024! I knew this year would be intense for me with my doctorate. It has definitely taken over my life. You can do all the research on these programs, take notes on expectations, but until you really live it, you do not realize how consuming it is. In 2023, I really got back into leisure reading. Well, in 2024 I only read 15 leisure books (and not kidding, probably 1,000+ pages of research, and I wrote hundreds of pages--maybe I should add up how much I wrote in 2024 and cry hahah!). My nail art definitely was not a priority but as I looked back at the year, I was shocked that I usually still did 2-3 nail arts a month. Yay! So I have highlighted some favorites here!
