I’ve been doing a lot of painting, staining, cleaning and other nonsense here in Kauai that’s been detrimental to my manicure. This means my nails have been naked, jaggedy, and basically a hot mess for the last several weeks.

The good news is that 1) our new restaurant is slated to open in less than a month (THANK THE HEAVENS ABOVE!) and 2) my sister and daughters have continued to happily paint their nails in my absence.

This week, Bree and my sister Monica dug into the new Zoya Sparkle Collection and came out like champs with Monica wearing Zoya Charla (tropical blue sparkling metallic) and Bree wearing Zoya Ivanka (mermaid green sparkling metallic):

Zoya Charla (worn by Monica)

Zoya Ivanka (worn by Bree)

Sadly these pictures are super blurry, but hopefully you get the idea. My Nikon camera is here in Hawaii with me so they’re trying to make it work with a point and shoot.

The other colors in this collection are:

• Mimi (Royal purple sparkling metallic)
• Alegra (Fuchsia pink sparkling metallic)
• Nidhi (Rich red sparkling metallic)
• Gilda (Fashion pink sparkling metallic)

Zoya Summer 2010 Sparkle Collection is available online at zoya.com for $7 each.

Last weekend my friend Julia came to visit from Washington, D.C.

We had a fun, girls-only weekend of shopping, nail painting, baking and wine drinking. Julia even brought her Anthropologie holiday ring along so we could stage a little photo shoot with matching rings!

This week I have my nails painted Zoya Ciara while Julia opted for CHANEL Rouge Noir, one of the many polish changes she made throughout the weekend (she wasn’t going to let the Valente girls show her up!)

I have an adorable video of Janey and Julia baking brownies that I’ll be uploading later today.

What’s on YOUR nails this week?

This week I painted my nails with Zoya Vanessa, a rich blue-red cream from their Fall 2009 Truth or Dare Collection.

Zoya Vanessa is available online at Zoya.com.

The incredible Zoya MATTEVELVET shade collection has been expanded with three new LIMITED EDITION beauties. Get all of the color, none of shine with MATTEVELVET, Zoya’s exclusive blend of matte base and subtle shimmer resulting in utterly wearable and truly stylish nail polish.

The new colors we’ll see this month are:

• Savita (ZP504) – plum gray matte shimmer
  
• Harlow (ZP505) – rose matte shimmer
  
• Veruschuka (ZP506) – evergreen matte shimmer

It must be noted that matte polishes are extremely susceptible to chipping. Follow these tips for best results:

MATTEVELVET nail color by Zoya is not intended to be worn with a base coat, top coat or speed dryer of any kind. Due to the unique matte formulation, color is not as long-wearing as traditional nail color. A completely clean, dry nail surface yields the best results for matte nail color wear. For best results make sure to always prepare nail with Zoya Remove + (3-in-1 nail polish remover, nail plate cleaner and new color prep.) prior to applying color.

Zoya MATTEVELVET Winter is available beginning September 15, or you can pre-order NOW online at Zoya.com.