I can’t seem to post these on time! Today’s post features day 22’s theme, studs. I really wanted to do a cool design but I realized my little store of studs is almost out, so I stuck with something fairly simple. I did get to play with my new PixieDust polishes, though!
Zoya’s Godiva and Stevie.
When I was younger, my friends and I would always do a bunch of weird stuff to our nails (shock, right?) and I remember at one sleepover we put some glue on our nails and poured colored craft sand over them to get a cool finish. I’m not saying my friends and I invented the texture trend, or anything, but…okay, we basically invented PixieDusts at like, age nine. #nailgeniuses Before these I’ve only ever tried OPI’s texture polishes, but I like how PixieDusts are so sparkly! Godiva looks like actual sand on the nail, due to its sparkly nude color, and Stevie is a beautiful pinky-lavender. Godiva would be a really great color for a a conservative work place, actually, because it’s a fun take on a nude.
I found the texture of Godiva to be way rougher than I thought it would be – it literally felt like pieces of sand on my nails. Weirdly, Stevie felt a little more smooth, and after a day both of them had gotten significantly smoother, which makes sense because of the normal wear and tear from things like showering, cleaning, etc. Godiva was super sheer, but I knew that going in from reviews I’ve read. I still have a bit of visible nail line after three thin coats on every finger except my thumb, which I painted with two coats of Stevie. Both dried fairly fast, but I waited a few minutes between coats to be safe.
After I was sure each nail was totally dry, I took a some pieces of tape, stuck them to my palms a few times to make them less sticky, and placed them on my nails leaving a triangle shape coming up from my cuticles. Then I painted two fast coats of Godiva over my thumbs and one or two of Stevie over the other nails, and quickly peeled off the tape. I always have a hard time making each shape uniform when I use tape, but I think these came out pretty well. After these had dried, I put a little blob of Seche Vite and placed a stud on top with tweezers, pressing it in gently to make sure it adhered.
Even over the textured polish, these studs lasted the normal amount of time – I lost one the first day, and three more the next, but that was because of washing my hair, doing dishes, cleaning…so basically these will last 2-3 days if you sit perfectly still and don’t do anything involving your hands for a few days ha. I still love them, though, and I really want to get some neon ones or maybe some circular ones to play with in the future.
I can’t wait to play with my other PixieDust, Dahlia, which looks really badass since it’s black, but that’s going to wait because there’s still three challenges left in January! Because I’m terribly late posting this, I just completed my next challenge so that’ll be up tomorrow. I hope you liked this look, and thank you for reading! – A x
Fancy Finger Guns 
I *LOVE* this! I just got my Zoya order on Saturday, and I can’t wait to play with it. :) PixieDusts ftw!
They’re so weird but so cool! I really want more colors.