Zoya "French Twist" Manicure with Caitlin and Dove

I'm not huge into nail art, but I do love to save my "fun" manicures for the weekends.  Unfortunately my complete lack of creativity typically means my "fun" manicures are just my "not-quite-work-appropriate" colors like brights and glitters.  Thankfully my dearly beloved polish brand Zoya gave us this little piece of genius last weekend:

You can find much more information about the story behind this style here at All Lacquered Up, but basically this was a look created by Zoya for Fashion Week.  Zoya did a quickie promo for a free bottle of each polish, Caitlin and Dove (and I'm a terrible blogger for not letting you guys know about it while it was still relavent - forgive me!!), and since I already had both, the French Twist was a done deal for me.

For this look, the base color is Zoya Caitlin - a medium dusty periwinkle purpley-blue creme.  This color is right up my alley.  It's gorgeous and applies beautifully in two coats.  

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Swoon.  I love these colors.  If I had to identify my weakness in terms of polishes, dusty blues would be it.  I wore Caitlin as a full manicure for a day, just to admire beauty all by itself (it also helps once you get to the next step).  :-)  

The next day, I added the tips.  I used Scotch tape to block off everything but the tips (You can find a tutorial from here from Erika at Chloe's Nails - she's a pro at the Scotch tape thing!), and then did one layer of Dove across the tips.  Scotch tape is a little difficult for me to use, because my nails are so curvy that it doesn't really lay completely flat, but my cleanup brush and a little non-acetone remover fixed any wiggly lines.  I added one coat of Barielle Manicure Extender top coat to finish it all up!

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Ok, so not perfect, but I think it turned out pretty well!  I love how these two colors look together.  They make for a kind of subtle "funky french."  Unexpected and lovely!  I got several compliments on this manicure!  :-)

These two colors are total winners for me.  I already raved about Caitlin, but even Dove gets a thumbs-up from me.  It's a standard dove grey, but it seems to flatter most skin tones, and it applies just as nicely as Caitlin.  The two colors compliment each other well, but are both nice enough for a stand-alone manicure.  Well done, Zoya!

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On a completely different note, I finally convinced my swapper-turned-real-life-friend-and-dusty-hunting-partner-in-crime Jessie to do some guest posts for my blog!  I'm so excited to see what she has in store!  Give her a warm welcome for her first post, which should arrive soon!  I know you'll all love her! :-)

Courtney