Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Lovelies! You may have noticed a lack of Halloween designs from me this year. It is actually one of my favorite holidays for nail art, but since I was out of town this year, I missed out on the fun. Of course I couldn't miss the actual day itself and the opportunity to have some creepy crawlies glowing on my nails...

OPI Pink of Hearts Duo 2014

Once again this year OPI brings us a limited edition Pink of Hearts duo to raise awareness for breast cancer. This duo is always released in October to coincide with the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I do look forward to it every year. Just as the previous few years, the duo includes a creamy pink and a glitter shade...

Tutorial: Aged Bamboo

Hi Lovelies! It is time for a tutorial again. After I posted my art inspired bamboo manicure last month, I got a few comments from readers who said that this type of manicure is too complicated and not something that they can do for themselves. I wanted to show that if you already know how to stamp, this is actually a really simple manicure that only looks like it takes a lot of work, but is actually rather simple. So let's get started...

Supplies:

• 2-3 neutral shades for the background. I used Zoya Jacqueline, Taylor and Flynn
• Brown polish for stamping. I used Zoya Emilia
• Sea sponge
• Stamping plate (I used Bundle Monster plate BM-424) and stamping supplies

Steps:

Instructions:

1. Apply the lightest color for a base and allow it to dry completely. Shown here is Zoya Jacqueline.
2. Put a few drops of the beige lacquer(s) on your palate and dip the sponge into it. I used a little bit of Zoya Taylor and Flynn. Dab the sponge onto a clean area of the palate to work the polish into the sponge and remove excess. Finally gently dab the sponge onto random sections of the nail, leaving portions of the base still visible.
3. Apply stamping polish onto the stamping plate, scrape and pick up the image as usual
4. Stamp the image onto your nail
5. Seal with a top coat and enjoy!

See? That was easy, right? I even struggled to make a full tutorial out of this because there are so few steps when you really think about it.

Please don't hesitate to ask questions if you have any!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

** Polishes were provided to me for review by the manufacturer or their PR. **

** For more information please see the disclosure policy **

Falling Leaves

Hi Everyone! I can no longer deny that Fall is now in full swing so I've been pulling out all of my leafy stamping plates to ogle at and play with. Fall is actually my favorite time of the year for nail art and all the rich colors that it brings. This simple stamped manicure fits the mood perfectly.

Cascading Glitter

Hi Lovelies! Today I have another manicure to show you with a couple of polishes from the Dazzle Dry Global Beat Fall collection. I'm not sure if there is a name of this glitter gradient look, but cascading glitter sounded rather fancy to me so I'm sticking with it. The manicure itself is fairly simple to create, but gives such a fun sparkle accent.

Tutorial: Simple Stripes

Hi Lovelies! How about a throw back Thursday post for you today? This is a tutorial for a manicure that I showed you back in April of this year and somehow just never got around to posting the tutorial. I guess I need to dig deeper through my archives and see what else I've forgotten to post. Shame on me!

Supplies:

• 2 polishes. I used OPI 4 in the Morning and Over & Over A-Gwen
• Striping tape (any color). I purchased the striping tape that I use on Ebay.

Steps:

Instructions:

1. Apply desired base color and allow it to dry completely. Shown here is OPI 4 in the Morning.
2. Arrange 4-5 short segments of striping tape to each nail in a random crisscrossing pattern.
3. Apply the 2nd polish shade over the entire nail (making a mess as I did is optional!). I used OPI Over and Over A-Gwen for my red shade. 
4. Quickly remove the striping tape before the polish has started to dry to ensure clean lines
5. Clean up the cuticles if needed, seal with a top coat and enjoy!

I hope you find this simple tutorial helpful!

Don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions!

For a little bit of variation, you can also create this look with a gradient on top. Check out my tutorial here for full instructions!

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

** Polishes were provided to me for review by the manufacturer or their PR. **

** For more information please see the disclosure policy **

Arc de Triomphe!

Hi Lades and Gentlemen?! At times or fairly often for me all it takes is the polish name to get my imagination going in that direction. I guess one could say I'm rather easily influenced, but I like to think that I'm easily inspired. This manicure is one of those cases and although parts of it didn't turn out exactly as I had hoped, I still love the idea. I will try to give it another shot some day, but for now I'll show you this attempt...

Tutorial: Color Block with Striping Tape

Hi Everyone! As promised, today I have for you a simple tutorial for the manicure that showed you yesterday. This simple technique with striping tape can be used to create a lot of different looks. I will show another similar look that I created with this technique soon. It is fun to play around with arrangement, colors and style.

Supplies:

• 2 Polishes. I used Dazzle Dry Sultry Samba and Waltz with Me.
• Striping Tape. I purchased mine on Ebay, but it is available in many beauty supply stores and online on sites such as Amazon.com and BornPrettyStore.com

Steps:

Instructions:

1. Start by painting your nails a base color and allow it to dry completely. For this manicure I used Dazzle Dry Waltz with Me
2. Cut short segments of striping tape and arrange them on the nails as desired for your look. You can use any color of striping tape at this step since it is being used just for the color block and will not be a part of the final look.
3. Using the second nail polish fill in different areas of the design as desired. You can use either the brush from the nail polish or use a small nail art brush for precision. I used Dazzle Dry Sultry Samba for my second shade.
4. Quickly remove the striping tape before the polish has started to dry to ensure clean lines.
5. Apply new/clean pieces of striping tape in place of the original ones.
6. Using cuticle nippers, trim excess striping tape along the edges of the nails. Try to trim as closely to the nail as possible so that you will seal the edges of the striping tape with a top coat and help keep them from lifting up
7. Seal with a top coat and enjoy!

I hope you found this tutorial helpful. Please don't hesitate to ask questions if you have any!

Until next time...

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

** Polishes were provided to me for review by the manufacturer or their PR. **

** For more information please see the disclosure policy **

Dazzle Dry Color Block

Hi Lovelies! Today I have a manicure to show you that I created not too long ago while playing around with the Dazzle Dry Global Beat collection. The two creamy shades complimented each other so beautifully that I wanted to combine them into one manicure. I've been having fun with striping tape recently and decided to continue that streak...

Lilac Swirls

Happy Friday Lovelies! I'm on vacation this week so I'll be showing you a few of my manicures that I haven't gotten around to posting yet. I didn't have much time before I left to write them up, so the text will be brief and I'll just let you enjoy the photos. Starting today with a manicure that I created a little while ago when I was playing around with the beautiful Polished by KPT Paris & Me collection.

Mont Bleu Giveaway!

Hi Lovelies!

I've got an amazing giveaway for you today! The prize is generously sponsored by Mont Bleu who create the best Czech glass nail files decorated with beautiful Swarovski crystals. You can read my review of the nail files here, but long story short, I love them!

The prize is this set of 3 Mont Bleu Czech glass nail files:

The giveaway is open internationally! Must be 18 year and older or have parents permission to enter.

All you have to do is complete the Rafflecopter entry form!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway ends October 30th 2014!

Good Luck!!

Anutka :)

Plaid Print with SinfulShine Prosecco

Hi Lovelies! Sorry I've been a bit MIA this past week. A new shift at work is leaving me with little time and energy to spare for nail art. I finally got the motivation that I needed when my friend gave me a bottle of SinfulShine Prosecco. I have been trying to find this limited edition polish in vain for the past few weeks so you can imagine how excited I was when she got a hold of one for me. I'm still over the moon excited to finally have it in my little paws. I have no idea how a 2 dollar bottle of polish bring so much happiness, but it does. Of course I couldn't wait to use it and here is what it led to..

InDecisive Ichor Green

I should be sleeping right now, but I have been wanting to show you the latest addition to the InDecisive Lacquer Ichor line for quite some time and I refuse to delay it any further. Ichor is now available in 5 awesome colors including the original black plus the colors red, purple, blue and now green. You can see my swatches of the previous colors here! The Ichor thermal top coats are really fun to play around with an layer. They all transition from clear when warm to their color state as they get cold...

OPI Mustang Collection Swatches and Review!

Hi Lovelies! Today I would love to show you my swatches of the OPI Mustang collection. This lacquer collection celebrates the 50th anniversary of Ford Mustang with 6 gorgeous shades...

31DC2013 Challenge Recap!

Nothing is sweeter than finally completing a 31 Day Nail Challenge. Granted it took me more than 2 years to finally complete it and some people have completed two of these in that time, but I'm going to celebrate anyway! It is actually fun for me to go back and recall all the early manicures that I created in 2013 before loosing steam on the last third of the challenge. Let's take a look, shall we?

31DC2013 Day 31 - Honor Nails You Love

Today is the final day of the 31 Day Nail Challenge. The challenge for today is to honor nail you love. I chose to create a manicure inspired by Christina of Let Them Have Polish. It was a while back that she posted a photo of her thumb nail on Instagram with this design. It reminded me of bubble chocolate and I knew that I would have to recreate it some day...

31DC2013 Day 30 - Inspired by a Tutorial

Turns out today is 2 for 1 day because I'm really wanting to finish up the 31 Day Nail Challenge. Day 30 of the challenge calls to create a manicure inspired by a tutorial. I chose to try my hand at a quatrefoil print by Christabell Nails. I first saw her tutorial on Instagram, but she does have an extended version on YouTube as well which is what I would suggest you check out. It is so simple to create this look using just two shades of polish, a dotting tool and a small brush. Who could have imagined...

31DC2013 Day 29 - Inspired by the Supernatural

I've got only a few days left to complete in the 31 Day Nail Challenge and I couldn't be more excited. Day 29 of the challenge called for a manicure inspired by the supernatural. Since Halloween is just around the corner, all things ghost and goblin came to mind. I've been wanting to try this particular technique for creating sheer ghosts for a while. I'm not sure who originally came up with the idea, but I see it done a lot these days...

31DC2013 Day 28 - Inspired by a Flag

Hi Lovelies! Today I'm forging ahead to Day 28 of the 31 Day Nail Challenge. The theme for today is a manicure inspired by a flag. I had a tough time deciding on a design for this one mainly because I was pretty set against recreating a country flag. I started racking my brain for other creative flag ideas and I was coming up blank. It wasn't until I saw the Messy Mansion stamping plate innocently hanging out on my table waving it's little pirate flag that inspiration hit!

31DC2013 Day 27 - Inspired by Artwork

Hi Lovelies! Up next in the 31 Day Nail Challenge is Day 27, Inspired by Artwork. I'm always drawn to Asian inspired art featuring bamboo so after a quick search online (this is literally the 3rd image that comes up in Google when I search for "bamboo art"), I knew what I wanted to do.