Zoya Normani

Keep it classy

Do you have a favorite nail polish?  I have many polishes that I love for various reasons.. mostly hinging around the color and the formula.  I'm sure it's happened more than once where I will forgive a polish its lackluster formula because the color makes up for it.  When we come across the gems, though.. those really stick with us, don't they?

I don't remember if it was four or five years ago, but Pinterest came into my life.  I got lost in a sea of beautiful nail swatch pictures.  I saw brands I'd never even heard of!  butter London?  Zoya?  They sounded so classy and honestly... sounded like they were out of the price range I was willing to spend.  I continued to ponder the selections available in the beauty aisles at the grocery store, including many a Sally Hansen hue.  I felt satisfied with these for a time, but then one day I decided to see if I could find any at our Ulta shop, just to SEE if they really were as pretty in person as on the many photos I'd perused.  I don't remember the day, and I might have even been looking for a different color, but settled for this one: Zoya Normani.  I didn't expect to like it so much just from looking at it in the bottle, but I wanted to try it since I saw "great formula" so many times when reading blogger reviews.  As soon as I applied the first coat I knew this was something special.. and here we are many paint jobs later!

Zoya Normani is described by Zoya as a full-coverage sable mauve cream.  I'm not the best with colors, but to me this is a medium brown with a smoky/grey undertone to soften it up.  It. Is. INCREDIBLE.

OK, maybe incredible is a bit much.  But, will you agree that it is very sophisticated?  Will you agree that it more-than-likely looks fabulous on any skin tone?  Will you agree that this shade can probably be worn anywhere in any season?!  Gah.  I think Zoya absolutely nailed it (no pun intended) with this color.  It is very well-balanced... not too brown, and not too grey.  It sits happily right in the middle and needs no other embellishments to give you a classy feel.  Trust me.. if you don't already have a favorite neutral polish, try Normani.  It is probably the one polish I've used the most, even more than my cherished Sally Hansen Pacific Blue original formula.  In fact, I've used it so much (and a few friends have borrowed it as well) that I can validate getting myself a replacement bottle.  This one is a must-have for me... kind of like a shelf staple.  She's never let me down.  Oh, and my swatch shows two coats plus a top coat, though Normani is pretty shiny on its own.

What do you think?  Do you have Normani?  If not, do you think you'll give it a try?

XOXO,
Vanessa

General Update

Hi!  I'm not real sure that anyone is actually keeping up with my (lack of) writing!  If you are, please drop a comment down below.

Going forward: My intent when I started this was to share my thoughts on any polishes, and originally it was on new polishes that are still available for you to purchase if you so desired.  I've cut WAY BACK on my purchases so that will not be happening very much at all.  I do, however, still own quite a bit and may share a manicure or two here and there.

Destash sale:  There are lots of polishes in my collection that I've only managed to use once or twice, some not at all!  This could be for various reasons, but mostly it is because I found the color didn't work well (to my eye) on my skin tone.  I have listed several polishes on a destash page on Instagram and I may also post here.  It is painful to get rid of them, but I don't have much space and these are just not being used as often as they deserve to be!  I am confident some of you out there would love them!  Please leave a comment down below if you want the name of my IG destash page, or just find my main page on IG @ace_vanessa and my destash page is linked there.

Other life stuffs: If you've read any of my past posts you know that I'm also a runner.  I haven't actually been running all that long.  I mainly did it when I was younger (junior high/high school/college) as a means to try to maintain my weight.  That actually didn't work too well then!  ha ha!  I tried running again around 2011 when a group of fine folks brought a half-marathon and marathon event to this town.  I figured it's basically in my backyard, so why not give it a shot.  Since then I have run thousands of miles and this time it actually did help me maintain weight (but I had already lost a bunch before I started).  In the beginning I was also doing some strength training and so I actually enjoyed for a bit having some tone to my body, which was vastly different from my growing-up years.  I felt pretty strong and I felt so much better about myself then I had in the past.  Then I quit my gym because I found I wasn't going as often as the running became my priority and main mode.  Needless to say, the running didn't help me keep any kind of tone, save for my lower legs!  It's time to get back into a routine with strength training and I'm going to try to get back a bit of my former strength.  I'll still keep running, but I've let the cross-training lapse for far too long and as with anything else, balance is key.  I may share my running experiences here as well.

Another thing I am really trying to do these days is READ MORE.  Mostly I read fiction books, but now and then I will try a history book because I feel it is very important to understand or to see how things were before in order to make sense of today's events, or to try to make better decisions overall.  All of this is VAGUE, really, as each person has to come to their own happy place.  This is all as it pertains to me.  I expect both agreements and disagreements, and that is totally OK!  So, anyway, going forward I may write about a book a read now and then.

Sorry no fun pictures for you today, but if you want to see any of my manicures please visit my page on Instagram @ace_vanessa.  I post much more often there than here.

Hope to see you again soon!!

XOXO,
Vanessa