Desert Sunset Manicure (Zoya)

Desert Sunset using Zoya Destiny, Zoya Miranda, Zoya Arabella, and Zoya Carter. Full sunlight outside.

This post is a departure for me, my friends, but I hope you still approve. I recently decided to branch out and play with some of my Zoya PixieDusts. I used Zoya Carter, Zoya Arabella, Zoya Miranda, and Zoya Destiny.

I've done plenty of posts on Zoya Pixie Dust nail polishes in the past, including all of those listed above, but here is a refresher: They're textured, sparkling, metallic, and matte polishes. They have a very fine texture, and the base of the polish is matte, with glitter for a really pretty shine.

Desert sunset manicure, outdoors, shaded

My parents recently took a trip to Sedona, Arizona. While there, they saw a number of sunsets in the desert, and took pictures to show me. I loved the way the sky went from orange, to pink, to purple. Then I decided that might make a really pretty and different manicure.

Desert Sunset, indoors, natural light

I chose Destiny because it is a coral-y orange, and would hold up to the purples well. Miranda is a nice, soft pink, that blends well with both Destiny and Arabella. Arabella added the fuchsia element that would work well with Carter. Carter is the dark purple that makes desert sunsets so striking in real life.

Desert Sunset, indoors, artificial light

Desert Sunset, indoors, artificial light

The trick to this manicure was blending and layering. I started out by putting the polish on in stripes. That really was pretty stark. A lot of people create ombres using sponges. I probably should have gone that route, but I wasn't sure how it would work, so I just layered polish. I found that using Miranda to soften Carter was fairly crucial, otherwise it was too stark leading into Arabella. Miranda, in general, was useful to blend between the colors. I simply did so by using very thin layers of it.

I'm happy with the end result. It probably could have a bit more finesse, but I really like it for a first effort. I'm working on day 5 with this. I used more layers of polish than usual, so I ended up getting some chips. The chipping was isolated to the Carter part of the mani, and I've found that simply dotting on a bit of Carter on top works really well, and looks like a fresh manicure. Yay!

Desert Sunset, flash

Desert Sunset, indoors, artificial light.

I hope I inspired someone to play with their polish out there! It's easy to do, and a really cool effect! I think I'll be dipping into my stash for the next post, kids, just to warn you all.

Until next time,
Emily, the Manic Paintress