piCture pOlish Swatches...

For the sake of not overloading the Blog Fest post on Monday, I would like to show you my swatches of the piCture pOlish shades that I used for the manicure (and one more for the heck of it), today. I was going to show them to you yesterday, but I somehow got pulled into watching Ukraine Got Talent on YouTube all night instead of writing the post. I admit it, it's my guilty pleasure. Half the time they speak in Russian and I can understand it and the other half they speak Ukrainian and I'm looking at my bf for translation. His translation is always along the lines of "they didn't say anything interesting" so I gave up, but the acts on there are still pretty amazing to watch. Well that was pretty random, so let's get back to the swatches...

Citrus - "looks as good as it tastes!"
A bright orange cream that lives up to it's citrus name. I'm a bit confused by the tag line though since I would think it looks better than it tastes although honestly I have not tested that theory. The formula on this one is nice and smooth. It took just two coats to reach full opacity. No problems with application. These swatches are with no top coat...

piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013

I'm so honored to once again get the opportunity to participate in the annual piCture pOlish Blog Fest. This year, piCture pOlish is celebrating the Year of the Blogger by challenging the participants to create our ‘most amazing nail art manicure ever’ using 3 piCture pOlish which were sent to us. In addition we were asked to create a step by step tutorial for the look. No pressure, right?

Actually, if that wasn't pressure enough, there is the promise of an amazing Blog Fest Award. Three lucky bloggers who are participating in this year's Blog Fest will get the chance to collaborate with the gals at piCture pOlish and create their own shade. One winner will be chosen by all the lovely fans, one by the participating bloggers and one by the piCture pOlish gals themselves. Since I have already had the privilege of creating Sea Jewel, I'm not eligible for the Award, but I'm so excited to see all the manicures and vote for my favorite. I hope you'll be doing the same.

With the Award off the table for me, the pressure was lessened and I got to dreaming up my manicure using the 3 shades sent to me... Citrus, Flirt and Splash...

Pueen Love Elements Stamping Plates Review

Today I would like to show you the second set of stamping plates by Pueen. In case you missed it, you can check out my review of the first set here. As I mentioned yesterday, I received a few plates from this set for review and after falling in love with their quality, I purchased the full set for my growing stamping plate collection...

This is the Love Elements set...

Pueen Sumptuous Gallery Stamping Plates Review

I guess the one good thing about having a nail break and taking time away from swatching is that I finally have no excuse to delay my review of the Pueen stamping plates. I have already shown you a number of manicures with these plates, but today I would like to show you the plates themselves and my thoughts on them. I received a few plates from both this collection and the second one (which I will show you tomorrow). I quickly fell in love with the quality and bough both sets to add to my collection...

This is the first set named Sumptuous Gallery...

Nicole by OPI - Modern Family Sweepstakes!

Nicole by OPI is having a fantastic sweepstakes where three lucky winners will get the entire Modern Family collection just for sharing their most memorable family vacation story! Winners chosen at random so don't miss your chance to enter! You can see my swatches of the collection here and here...

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Nicole by OPI Modern Family Collection Sweepstakes

Nicole by OPI Modern Family Collection Sweepstakes

How to enter: Share your most memorable family vacation story on the sweepstakes tab on Nicole by OPI's Facebook page. This will unlock the sweepstakes entry form - fill it out and click submit!

Rules: One entry per person. Valid to residents of US & Canada, excluding Quebec.

Prize: entire range of Modern Family shades

Winners: 3 lucky winners will be chosen at random on August 5th, so get your entry in today!

Contest link: Enter Here

** Disclaimer: All information and images in this post provided by the manufacturer or their PR **

Ruby Wing Crowd Surf...

Anyone in Seattle will tell you that you have to enjoy the sunshine while it lasts because around here summer is short. I'm savoring every bit of sunshine that I can and what better way to enjoy it than with a Solar Active shade from Ruby Wing. Even if you are the type of person who doesn't like going outside, these will make you want to go out just to watch it change...

Subtle Geometry...

This is a manicure from way, way back in April when I was first swatching and playing with the China Glaze Hologlam collection. I really wanted to try out stamping with these holos because I expected some amazing results. Although it did stamp well, the result turned was a lot more subtle than I anticipated. Of course subtlety has it's charm as well so I still enjoyed the mani...

Mint Mani for TaliaJoy

I'm a day late with posting this, but I really wanted to take part in Nail Polish Wars' wonderful idea to create a mint manicure in honor of Talia Castellano aka TaliaJoy18. If you have not heard of Talia, she was a beautiful 13 year old girl, a talented make-up and nail artist, honorary Cover Girl and an all around sweetheart who never stopped smiling. Sadly, she lost her battle with cancer last Tuesday. Her last Instagram pic was a mint manicure, so to honor her here this is my mint mani...

JulieG Frosted Flames...

Okay, I admit it. This isn't my first flames manicure, but I'm also sure it won't be my last. Maybe I'm a bit of a pyromaniac at heart when it comes to my nail art. At least it doesn't actually burn! When I get a hold of reds and oranges, my mind instantly goes to flames and sunsets. I guess we know which way it went this time...

JulieG Frosted Gum Drops

When I first saw these pretty JulieG Frosted Gum Drops on Groupon, I hesitated ordering them. The hesitation was based on nothing more than my self-imposed no buy and my desperate need to avoid adding to the untried pile. Luckily, after mentioning the deal on my facebook page, I was persuaded to break my no buy and I'm so glad that I did because these are awesome! I swatched and wore these months ago, but I'm just now getting around to posting them. Perfect way to stall some time as my nails recover and grow out after multiple breaks...

Born Pretty Store Nail Foils

Today I would like to show you my very first attempt at using nail foils. A while ago, I received three different foils for review from the Born Pretty Store. I delayed trying them out because I assumed these needed special foil glue and frankly I was a bit intimidated. I finally realized that nail glue is optional and got over my fear to try them all. Sadly, I lost the photos for two of the manicures when my computer crashed so I will have to play with those again. At least my first one survived and I can share it with you today...

Lint Roller Stamping Cleanup

We all pick up little tips and tricks along the way and I've been wanting to share some of mine with you. I wasn't sure of the best way to do it, so this is a trial run to see how it goes...

This trick involves cleaning your stamper with a lint roller instead of acetone. It isn't my original idea and I honestly have no idea who I picked it up from, but I'm pretty sure it was from someone over in Adventures in Stamping. I credit them for the brilliance of this.

The trick is very simple, once you have stamped your image onto the nail, simply press the remainder of the image that is left on the stamper onto a lint roller. Instantly clean stamper as easy as that and no mess...

If you are using acetone & cotton to clean your stamper then you know it can get a bit messy. Aside from the mess and the risk of smudging the manicure, my biggest frustration was always the darn cotton fibers all over the place. Not only does this work well by leaving the stamper perfectly clean, but no more cotton fibers! I have not used acetone on my stamper in months and have no intentions of ever having the two meet again...

Now my routine is... pick up the image, stamp on the nail, stamp on the roller, move onto the next nail...

If a lint roller is not already part of your stamping arsenal, I suggest you try this out :)

P.S. Let me know if you want to see more tips in the future...

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Going Dotty with Winstonia...

A little bit ago I received a wheel of nail studs and pointy tweezers from Winstonia for review. Today I would like to show you both of these items. I decided to incorporate the nail studs into my stamping as I usually like to do. Of course it goes without saying that I paired the studs up with a stamping pattern from a Winstonia plate. The plates I purchased and reviewed back in March. Being very impressed with the quality, I was excited to try more Winstonia products...

Challenge Red-y!

I'm back from a fun 4th of July getaway with friends and starting to get back into the swing of things. Unfortunately, my nails have taken a beating over the said weekend and I had to file them down twice after some major breaks. I'm going to try to pamper them a bit and let them grow out, so in the mean time I'll be sharing swatches and manicures that I managed to prepare before the trip plus a few older manicures sprinkled in. I'll start out today by showing you one from the archives, a matted damask manicure that I really loved...

Happy 4th of July!!!

Water marble continues to be one of my biggest challenges so I rarely take the time to do it, although the outcome is often worth the frustration. I decided to take on the water marble for this Independence Day manicure since I'm heading out for a long weekend and wanted something special to celebrate...

Textured Stars and Stripes...

I have another attempt at a 4th of July manicure to show you today. This one features some sparkly Zoya PixieDust and striping tape. I will let the photos do most of the talking today...

Tutorial: Faded Glitter Flag

I am pretty pathetic when it comes to following through on creating tutorials. This is one was requested a year ago, after this 4th of July manicure. I actually made the tutorial a few months later, but it seemed out of place to post it with the holiday so far behind. Now with 4th of July just a couple of days away, it is the perfect opportunity to share this with you...

Supplies:

• White base polished (Wet 'n Wild French White Cream used here)
• Red glitter (OPI Gettin' Miss Piggy With It)
• Blue glitter (OPI Gone Gonzo!)
• White nail art polish or striping brush to use with any white polish

Steps:

Instructions:

1. Apply desired number of coats of white polish
2. As shown above, cover approximately two thirds of the nail at a diagonal with red glitter
3. Apply the blue glitter to the remainder of the nail, toward the base
4. Using a striping brush and white polish paint a stripe where the two glitters meet
5. Paint additional lines over the red glitter, parallel to the first line
6. Add a top coat and you are done!

That's all there is to it! Hopefully you can see how easy it can be and will give this a try yourself!

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Shimmer Nichole for 4th of July!

The count down to 4th of July has begun and I hope to fill the next few days with themed posts, assuming my brain doesn't melt from the heat wave that has hit Seattle. Today's post featured the gorgeous Shimmer Nichole which is truly a 4th of July glitter bomb in a bottle. It was sent to me for review quite a while ago, but I was saving it just for this special occasion...