Aggies Do It Better

Hey guys! Today I have the Lush Sparkly Pumpkin to review. This was part of my first ever Halloween Lush order a few weeks ago. I have lots and lots to say about it, let's dig in! I had a HECK of a time holding this time for a picture. And, really every time I had to move it around here or there. There's so much glitter on it I always got super annoyed!! I think its supposed to have a piece of cinnamon stick in there for a "stem", mine didn't, but it might have fell out during shipment and I didn't see it in the box. First up, I chose Zoya Dhara to match! It's a bright reddish orange pixie dust (texture) with a really strong gold shimmer-it went perfectly! The Halloween designs are made with OPI Black Onyx and my new (purchased also) Pueen Halloween Party 01 stamping plate. I'm still digging in and going right for the stuff I consider slightly advanced, like stamping on texture!  I was really nervous to use Sparkly Pumpki...

Hey guys! Happy Sunday! I'm still so excited about American Pharoah's win for the Triple crown yesterday!! For today I decided to re do my basketball nails from last year so I could film. These nails are my 2nd most pinned nails on Pinterest--Yall love some basketball! These couldn't be easier to do. You don't have to use a textured polish, you can use any orange or brown even polish....I just like the way it looks because basketballs are textured! You can see my original post here. I used Zoya Beatrix for the base, it's a bright orange textured Pixiedust and my fav for basketballs. When I first did these, I used a black striper which you can buy pretty much anywhere these days. But I have found that it's so pigmented it always smeared when I used it...ALWAYS. (Like when adding topcoat). So I ditched it and use a striping brush now and regular black polish, which is available in pretty much any nail art kit or at a craft store...just look for a long skinny th...

Hey guys! It's good to be back! If you follow me on Instagram you know about my drama this weekend. I won't go into it here but I might blog about it this week! (Phone drama, yall know.) Anyway, this is a look I came up with last week! It's hard to come up with new looks for Valentine's Day, even I just want to stick with hearts ;) And, I have lots of vinyls but the ones I have trouble using the most are the lightning bolt ones, because I feel like they can only really be used one way. So I forced myself to try to think out side of the box! I don't know, what do yall think?  I started with a nude base (this polish may or may not be blogged, that's all I'll say about that, wink face) and used Lightning bolt vinyls from Glam my Mani (sent to me, I've used them many times before!) and my fine red Zoya PixieDust in Chyna. Go super slow, if Chyna gets on your cuticles she will not come off! For my ring finger I used a heart vinyl stencil, also fro...

Hey Guys! Long time no blog! I'm coming back from another absence, I'm sorry! Mr. Aggies Do It Better has been traveling a lot so all of my time as been spent holding down the fort! Not much time for nails and no time for blogging. Hopefully I'll t back to my normal schedule this month! Happy October, my birthday month! I also got my birthday present  a litte early....I have been way overdue for an upgrad on my iPhone 4S so  I have a new baby...iPhone 6! yay! I use it to take almost all my pics so hopefully yall will notice a difference! Today I finally have my review of the new Zoya Pixiedusts! They are called "Ultra" Pixiedusts, they are not holographic like the magical ones, but they do have the chunkier texture, more so than the original Pixies.  One of my bottles was broken so by the time I waited to receive the replacement, the Mr. had started his travels so this blog is way over due! First up is Oswin, which is red glitter in a red jelly. Several peopl...

Hey guys! These were my final July 4th nails I wore the whole next week! Texture is the only way to go when traveling for me. They wear so well.  I just loved them so much-I was really sad to take them off. Polishes used: Zoya Sunshine (blue) OPI Magazine Cover Mouse (red) OPI Solitare (white) sun shade  pool

You guys know I love the Zoya Pixiedusts! Here I tried my hand at a gradient...I think it came out ok but I don't love it! Polishes used: red-Chyna Gold-Tomoko Blue-Liberty  sun  sun

Hey guys! It's Monday! Yay! not. Anyhoo, Today I dug in to more of my untried...I really need to get a post up about that!  This is Zoya Lola, a neon pink and Zoya London, a charcoal gray textured pixiedust. Oh man, I love those textures and they are so great for tape because they don't bleed! Yes! When I was rummaging through my Zoyas I thought these would look nice together.  shade For the single chevrons, I used nail vinyls again. I'm still on the fence about them...I LOVE the lightning bolt ones, but I haven't had much luck with the chevron and single chevron ones. Still practicing with those!  sun  shade This is Lola by herself. There's almost a fuchsia/purple duochrome going on there, and MAN is it bright!!  sun  shade  different shade

Hello! Today I have yet another reason Cinderella is my soul-sister and favorite Princess....when I was scanning through my untried (as far as this blog is concerned) polishes I grabbed these 2, thinking they would go nicely together. As soon as I got done with the first coat on the first hand, I realized, these are totally Cinderella nails! And I'm totally ok with that. This is Zoya Nyx (the blue) and Cosmo (the gold). Nyx is Zoya's original finer Pixiedust Formula, and Cosmo is the newer, chunkier holographic formula. I'll say it again, I just love textured polish, it lasts forever on me and I feel like my nails are strong like ox when I have it on. These are both from my Zoya Earth Day shopping adventure :)  shade  sun  shade

Hey guys :) I have some simple nails today. I wore these for several days as a full mani! I am still trying to be good and get through wearing my new polishes before I buy any more :) This is one of my Zoya Earth Day purchases...Zuza is a gorgeous shimery teal and I LOVE it! On my ring finger is Zoya Godiva, a sparkly nude textured polish (PixieDust). I really love these together!   sun shade

Hey Guys! Things have been crazy for the past week since school has been out. I don't know how I'm going to keep up blogging during the summer but I'm sure gonna try! I've had these for a week and and am just now getting to swatch them and get them up here! Today I have the newest of the Zoya PixieDusts! They are continuing with the "Magical Pixie" formula that debuted earlier this year. I picked those up during the Zoya Earth Day Sale so I would have them to compare with these! :) I haven't swatched them officially here but I have used them in a few tape mani's! (you can see them here with Lux and here with Vega )  I did include them in the bottle shots at the end for comparison! The formulas on these are very consistent. There are larger chunks and fine pieces of the pixie dust in tinted jelly bases. They are definitely "chunkier" than the original Pixie Dusts, and really sparkly. For me they have more the consistency of a glitter top...

Hey guys! Here's a little Throwback Thursday! At the end of January I created some "pawprint" nails to commemorate the Puppy Bowl right around the Super Bowl! I submitted them to Nail It!, which is a publication for non-professional nail artists. And now I have a huge thanks to them for featuring my nails in the current May/June 2014 issue!  Nail It! May/June 2014 I was featured in an article about fun and different things to do with dots, and wow there is some amazing company in these pages!    look! Here is the original mani, which was posted here. I used all Zoya Pixiedusts to create this! I just love using colorful textures to create dimension!   original nails!

Hey guys!  Here are some non traditional Easter egg nails for you. They are juuuuust walking the line of being jewel-toned, which was not my intention but something I unintentionally gravitate toward! I used all Zoya PixieDusts for these :)  sun  shade I just wanted to say a quick note about doing nail art. Just like making cakes, the majority of it is smoke and mirrors. Make a dent, cover it up! I painted my white base in the morning and let it dry for several hours, knowing I wanted to use tape.During the course of the day I got huge dents on my first 2 fingers. All I did was move around the intended order of art to cover it up! That's another great thing about the textures, they are SO forgiving and really cover up dents and nicks ;) before  after

Hey guys! I hope everyone had a good weekend here. It was really sunny and beautiful, which is rare for this time of year here! Today it is supposed to get super rainy and cold and we have flurries in the forecast for later this week....BOO. Go home, spring, you are drunk. Anyway, here are some super cute Easter nails! I used a variety of Zoya Pixiedusts and OPI Liquid Sands to create these! I know I sound like a broken record but I just love using texture-it creates so  much dimension!  sun Guys, why did I make his nose orange? I have no idea. I didn't realize it should be pink until I was uploading my pictures. Ah well! For the green back ground I used my go-to combination for grass, which is Zoya Chita and Zoya Rina layered over top.  shade I'm starting to branch out and try different poses with out the bottle, what do you think? Meh, looks weird.  I just love that little bunny ;)  sun Here are some closeups of my nails. My eggs are a little wonk...

Hey guys! Happy Friday! This week has TOTALLY flown by for me, since I didn't get back till Monday and was sick until today pretty much! blech! Today's nail of the day is Zoya Edie, part of the Peter Som 2014 Collection that I will have swatches for tomorrow! I'm going a little out of order, sorry :) When I was done swatching I left Edie on as a full mani. I just love this blue! It started to shrink too soon from my topcoat, which is getting kind of old. My favorite way to spruce up/recycle/save a mani is to add texture and tape!!  shade I used my pinking shears (sewing scissors, you could use chevron or zig zag craft scissors) to cut thin strips out of blue painters tape. I taped off my sections and added accents of Zoya Liberty (the lighter pixiedust) and Zoya Sunshine (the darker pixiedust). Blue for all!  pardon the crappy pic, but this is how I do it! Tape, fill in with polish, and remove right away! Easy! Can you see the shrinkage around my cuticle? BOO...