Dance Legend Sonya with Nail Vinyl Accents

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all have had a lovely weekend! Mine was half dreary and rainy and half sunny and gorgeous. There was no in between as though the weather just couldn't make up it's mind. I took the opportunity during the gloomy times to sneak away into my polish cave and cheer myself up by playing around with nail art. I changed my manicure, not once, but gasp twice in those two days. Lately as you know that's unheard of for me. In any case, one of the manicures was this attempt at playing around with nail vinyls...

Red Velvet Damask

Hello Lovelies!

I'm back with one more post featuring a lacquer from the Glam Polish Coven collection. It was largely inspired by this manicure created by Debbie of @ladyandthe_stamp on Instagram. She mattified one of the beautiful Coven shades and I instantly knew I wanted to try to do that as well. To be honest, I would not have even thought to mattify these shades since the flakies loose all their holo goodness, but the gorgeous velvet look and feel really made up for it.

Lily Pads with Lili Anna and El Corazon...

Hi Everyone! Today I have a manicure to show you which I really enjoyed wearing for a few days last week. It was inspired by a couple of Lily Anna stamping plates which were sent to me by the lovely Julia of Messy Mansion. I really like this water lily design and it only seemed appropriate to introduce myself to Lily Anna plates with a water lily pattern ;)

InDecisive Snowstorm with Messy Mansion Icicles...

Hi Everyone! In 'honor' of the snow storm that is sweeping across a large part of the US, I've got some more winter-y nail art to show you today. This features a beautiful indie polish named Snowstorm, which inspired the manicure. The addition of chilly Messy Mansion icicles, makes me happy to be safe and warm right now at home...

Sunday Stamping: The Great Thanksgiving Heist...

Is seems like ages since the last time I participated in a Sunday Stamping challenge for the group Adventures in Stamping. With the holidays quickly approaching, this week's theme is Thanksgiving or Winter nails. I chose to go with the Thanksgiving theme and I'm happy to present my manicure to you. I have affectionately been referring to it as "The Great Thanksgiving Heist"...

Sunday Stamping: Glitzy Glam

Well since one challenge is not enough for me, I decided to take part in the Sunday Stamping challenge in Adventures in Stamping as well. Someone smack me next time I have the idea to schedule enough posts to last my entire vacation! This week the challenge is Glitzy Glam nails. Here is what I came up with...

Sunday Stamping: Inspired by Shoes...

Today's Sunday Stamping challenge in Adventures in Stamping is to create a manicure inspired by a favorite pair of shoes. None of the shoes that I own have stampable (let's pretend that's a word) patterns, so I resorted to finding a "favorite" pair online. Luckily, nowhere in the challenge did it mention that I had to own the pair of shoes that inspired me. Since my nails are long enough to flash their underside that could only mean one thing...

Sunday Stamping: Matte

It is time for another challenge in the group Adventures in Stamping. This week the theme is to create a manicure with some aspect of matte to it. That gave me the perfect excuse to pull out my Essie matte topcoat, but really, I love that stuff so much that I will take any excuse I get. It was also an excuse to try out the gold from the recently released Essence Twilight polishes. A number of you confirmed my suspicion that it would work well for stamping, so I was excited to try it out and share with you...

Sunday Stamping: Red & Black

It is Sunday Stamping again in the group Adventures in Stamping and this week the challenge is "red and black," which was the perfect opportunity to try this manicure. I've tried it once before, but the stamp didn't turn out well so I never posted about it. I'm excited that this time it turned out much better and I can show it to you. Also, before I go on with the post, I want address a question I had last week. The stamping group where these challenges come from welcomes all stamping enthusiasts regardless of your skill level so please don't hesitate to join if you are interested!

Essie BHG Beautiful Glitter Sandwich

A few weeks ago I received a package in the mail from Essie. You should have seen the confused look on my face as I opened it since I did not order anything from Essie and have not been contacted by them for any reviews. Inside the package was one Essie polish with the name of BHG Beautiful on the bottom. No other messages in the package to indicate why I was receiving this. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about getting free polish, just a bit baffled at the source. After some investigating it turns out that I won a Better Homes and Garden Essie Giveaway that I entered in September of last year. Better late than never I guess... :D

Black and White Challenge Day 8 - Sponging

It is day eight of the Black and White Challenge which means a sponged manicure. I had in mind a marble or granite look, so I turned to the internet for inspiration, as I often do. Somehow it helps to have a picture to stare at as I work. While searching for black and white stone, I stumbled upon a photo of Emma Stone in a black and white dress that I just couldn't resist...

Emma Stone photo Source

Essie Luxeffects Collection

I hope you have been enjoying the Sinful Colors swatches throughout the past week while I was away, but now I want to show you what I paired them up with. Each of them was topped with a different Essie Luxeffect polish, which I won in a giveaway from Kristen of The Manicured Monkey. Thank you again Kristen, I love them :)

Barielle Cashmere or Loose Me with Essie Braziliant in Argyle

I mentioned yesterday that in addition to swatching the Barielle Style in Argyle collection I also messed around with some nail art that I will show you over the next few days. For this manicure, I was inspired by the collection's name and decided to try the argyle pattern on my nails.

I started out with Barielle Cashmere or Loose Me which I paired up with Essie Braziliant in an argyle pattern. Green lines were added using acrylic paint. It looked a bit bland so I topped the whole thing off with Essie Pure Pearlfection. I can't quite decide which version I like best, so I will show you both and hopefully you can tell me what you think. This is topped with the luxeffects polish...

UPDATE: Tutorial for this manicure available here.

This is what it looked like before I added Essie Pure Pearlfection...

I would love to know what you think. Which version do you like better (if at all)...

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Day 29 - Inspired by the Supernatural

Quite honestly I wasn't feeling very inspired by the supernatural for today's challenge. There are lots of ways this could have gone, but I was not in the mood for anything loud and crazy so I decided to keep it simple. Plus, I wanted something that I would be able to wear in public :). I chose to do another take on galaxy nails and throw in a few UFOs for the supernatural effect. Yes, those little silver blips at the top of the nails and one that landed on the tip of my index finger are supposed to be UFOs.

It may not be the best take on the challenge, but I do like the manicure and I hope you do to...

The polishes used for this manicure:
- Borghese - Mezzanotte Blue (base)
- LA Colors - No name metallic blue
- Rimmel - Violet Metal
- Essie - Braziliant
- Wet 'n Wild - Silvivor

I'd love to know what you think. Are you sick of galaxy nails yet or still loving them?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Day 21 - Inspired by Color

Happy 11-11-11 everyone! I really wanted to post this at 11:11am, but my camera battery died at the worst time and I didn't make it. :D

Today's challenge was to be inspired by color. Not being one that can settle on just one color, I was inspired by all the colors of fall. I love seeing the red, pink, orange, gold and green (just to name a few) on the trees this time of year. Plus all the leaves on the ground making gorgeous mosaics. Who could resist that?

I sponged different color polishes over my base and then stamped it with a leaf pattern from Bundle Monster plate BM-205. The technique is the same as used to create galaxy manicures, so here is my galaxy of fall colors...

For the manicure I used:
- Barielle - Cashmere or Loose Me (base)
- Zoya - Isla
- Essie - Braziliant
- Color Club - Almost Famous
- Rimmel - Rags to Riches
- Cosmetic Arts - (no name gold foil)
- Bundle Monster plate BM-205

And just a little fun corner snapshot of 11-11-11 at 11:11am as I was working on the images for this post :D

I'd love to know what you think! Have you made a manicure inspired by the colors of fall?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Essie Braziliant Stamped...

So maybe I'm just dreaming of warm weather, the sun, the beach... looking at my nails all day yesterday made me wish I was in Hawaii instead of home. It seemed fitting to stamp with a Hawaiian hibiscus flower pattern. Since I don't have any stamps with the traditional hibiscus flower, I settled for the closest one...

For the stamping I used Bundle Monster plate BM-221...

I was kind of disappointed in the pattern. If you click on the above photo you can zoom in to see the pattern. The flowers are aligned around the outside of the pattern and in the middle is just little leaves. When I stamped with it, most of the flowers were off my nail and I had tiny leaves front and center. Not quite what I had in mind. For the manicure I went back and filled in some of the spaces with additional leaves just so it wouldn't be bare. Next time I will try stamping individual flowers so I can place them where I want them.

Here was my inspiration and more of what I wish the pattern would look like...

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Essie Braziliant...

I was recently told by a good friend that I can't pull off orange. So I dedicate this post to her ;). This is my first Essie polish. I won it in a Facebook giveaway from Essie which was even sweeter. Braziliant is a gorgeous orange with a hint of shimmer. I can see the shimmer in the bottle, but it didn't translate well onto the nail. It might be visible in direct sunshine, however, that is sadly lacking around here. It was opaque in two coats and applied great. I have two coats plus a topcoat in these photos.

Outside, overcast as usual...

I might have to agree that orange is not my color, but I still refuse to admit it :D

Brand: Essie Collection: Summer 2011 Color Name/Number: Braziliant, 857 Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP) free

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)