Wish Upon a Star

Hi Everyone! Today I would like to show you a manicure that I created shortly before my blogging break. I had been playing around with UberChic plates and preparing my review of them (which is still in the works) when I came up with this. One of the images that I really loved is this skyline with stars. I can see it used in may different ways and right now I imagine it over a sunset gradient with black stamping. At the time that I wore this, it was still winter and somehow the black night sky was more my mood than a warm spring/summer sunset...

Flakie Firebird!

Hi Lovelies! Today I have more flakie nail art for you. This is another manicure that I created and wore a while back because I simply couldn't swatch the flakies and not enjoy wearing each of them at least for a little bit.

Flakie Gradient!

Hi Lovlies! Are you as obsessed with all the gorgeous new flakie lacquers as I am? I had a lot of fun playing around with Glam Polish Fantasia Flakies last month. One manicure in particular that I was crazy about and will likely have to recreate soon is this gradient...

Dreamscape Ornaments!

Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate this holiday!

I loved my rhinestone/stud ornament mani from last year and so I decided that I need to create a new one this year. Lucky for me, I had some pretty new rhinestones to play with that arrived just in the nick of time..

Hanukkah Sparkles!

Hi Lovelies! Today I have another Hanukkah manicure to share with you. I don't usually get the chance to create multiple manicures for the occasion, but I got an idea that I just had to try out. Waiting until next year was not an option that I could live with, so time had to be made for the time consuming endeavor. I've been wearing this for the past couple of days and I hope it will last me at least through the weekend because I can't stop staring at them. I'm actually having a difficult time writing this post since I keep getting distracted by the nail...

Happy Hanukkah!

Hi Everyone! I want to wish a Happy Hanukkah to all of you lovelies who celebrate the holiday! This year I created two manicures to celebrate, the first of which I would like to show you today.

I'm always slightly jealous of the abundance of Christmas holiday stamping patterns available. Although I do make good use of those said patterns (so I won't complain too much), I wish more companies would create patterns to celebrate other cultures, traditions and beliefs. There is always a part of me that gets super excited when I see a pattern that I can use for a Hanukkah manicure. So queue the excitement and a dizzying game of dreidel...

Glam Polish Fantasia Flakies Swatches and Review

Hi Lovelies! Today I'm super excited to show you four gorgeous multichrome flakie top coats from the Glam Polish Fantasia Flakies series. These top coats can be worn over a wide variety of base polishes for some gorgeous combinations...

Aurelia Magnifique...

Say 'hello' to my shorties! No, these aren't quite nubs, but they are shorter than I've had in a while and it's kind of refreshing. I find that I like this length a lot in person, but for some reason I am usually not pleased with photos so I tend keep them longer. Anyone else keep their nails longer/shorter than they normally would for the blog or am I just strange?...

Today I would like to show you two Aurelia beauties that I got in a swap with the lovely Mari of muxe.net. I've actually worn these a few times, but the first two times I managed to smudge the manicure before getting any photos. Well third time is the charm...

This is Aurelia Magnifique Vanille 06. A grape purple crelly which gets good coverage at three coats. Application was nice, no streaking or pulling and easy to put down thin coats. It is fairly difficult to wrap the tips with this one since it is sheer. Swatches are with no top coat. It is very shiny in part due to the jelly like formula...

Color Club Evolution and Pearl-spective...

Hi everyone! Today I would like to show you swatches of two pretty shades from the Color Club Kaleidoscope collection for this summer...

St. Patrick's Day Manicure

Somewhere halfway through the day I decided to change my subtle St. Patricks's Day manicure to something a bit... greener. Since I didn't have much time to work on it, I opted for one that was quick and simple...

Nail-aween Challenge Day 8: Witch

I hope you are all having a bewitching Friday. I'm trying to keep up with the Nail-aween challenge with just a few days left until the big day. The witchy manicure kind of had me stumped, the only thing I knew for sure was the witch was going to be stamped. I first thought to put her over a moon background, then maybe some sort of orange gradient and finally settled on a night sky using a few of my piCture pOlish favorites...

Green with Envy over the Budda-Ful Silver Mercedes

Today I want to show you a manicure that I have been wearing all weekend long. I created it to match an emerald green taffeta dress which I wore to my cousin's birthday party. I tried quite a few of the dark green polishes in my stash, but none of them matched the iridescent look of taffeta. Instead of using as single polish, I ended up layering Barielle Budda-Ful* over Ulta Green With Envy. The combination of the two polishes was the perfect fit for what I wanted, mimicking the iridescent look.

Barielle Elle's Spell over Falling Star

I spotted this Barielle layering combination on their Facebook page a few days ago posted by another fan. The swatch was a bit blurry, but in it's blurriness reminded me of a little polish named Fantasy Fire. I knew instantly that I had to try the combination. As soon as the previous manicure came off, this is what I put on.

Barielle - Elle's Spell

I do believe it has been way to long since I've had a flakie manicure, so it was time for a other one. This beauty is Barielle Elle's Spell. A red flakie that shifts to gold and then blue/green. The flakies are suspended in a burgundy jelly base. Since the base is sheer, I decided to layer the polish over black. It is kind of a prerequisite for me to test a flakie over black since in my opinion that is when it shines. I have, however, seen swatches of it layered over burgundy polishes and it is also gorgeous, so that is on my to try list...

piCture pOlish Festival with Aphrodisiac

What is it about flakies that is so magical? I can't seem to get enough. I have already worn the combination of piCture pOlish Aphrodisiac and Festival twice. Both times for at least three days. That must be some sort of record for me. I even went into Sally's Beauty with this and they had the nerve to ask me if it was one of their flakies. After a gentle hint that their flakies are impossible to hunt down, I told them about a lovely brand called piCture pOlish :D

Barielle Budda-Ful Flowers

I was really lucky to be sent some amazing polishes by Barielle to play with. One of those polishes is a lovely flakie named Budda-Ful. The name led me to dream of lotus flowers on the corners of each nail. As it often happens, what I think up doesn't quite come out as I pictured it. In this case, I'm not convinced that I ended up with lotus flowers, but whatever flower that is, I do love the manicure.

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 :)

Ulta Smoke Screen with Ludurana Relampago

I am loving the current flakie trend and I hope it sticks around for a while, although I have a feeling I will be a fan of it regardless if it is "in" or not. For this manicure I finally got into playing with the polishes from my Brazilian swap. I started out with two coats of Ulta Smoke Screen and then added two coats of Ludurana Relampago, which I got in the swap. According to my wonderful swap partner, Relampago means lightning. So pretty! Relampago is a dark gray jelly base with green, red and blue flakes. The flakies colorshift depending on the angle. I couldn't stop examining staring at them. Red shifts to orange and then yellow at the most extreme. Green shifts to blue. I wore this for three days and still did not want to take it off. These photos just don't do justice to the pretty flakes...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Ludurana Line: Flocado Color Name/Number: Relampago Number of coats: 1 Top Coat: Yes

The base of the manicure was Ulta Smoke Screen. It is smoky gray creme that is just perfection. Application and formula were great. Two coats for full opacity and coverage. It was not until I put it on that I realized this may be an exact dupe for Zoya's Kelly which is still one of my favorite polishes. That may have contributed to my reluctance to take it off. In the bottles Smoke Screen and Kelly look identical and I will compare them in a swatch at some point.

Swatch Details
	Brand: Ulta Line: Salon Formula Color Name/Number: Smoke Screen Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

What do you think of the new flakie trend? Love it? Hate it? Don't care either way?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Avon - Violetta Sparkle Stamped with Gleaming Gold

Yesterday I showed you Violetta Sparkle from Avon and based on all your sweet comments I think you liked it as much as I do. Today I have for you a continuation of that manicure. As I mentioned my cousin got me not one, but two polishes. The second one is a gold foil  is named Gleaming Gold because she knew how much I wanted a nice gold for stamping. So, I decided to do exactly that and stamp with it.

The polish itself consists of superfine gold foil particles which makes it perfect for stamping. The foil particles in this are finer than other foils I have tried so far. I intend to wear this polish on its own soon so I will post swatches when I do. I stamped using a pattern from Bundle Monster plate BM-210. Just for fun I rotated the pattern in different directions for each nail. Lucky for me, my nails are currently short enough to allow for that. I love how this turned out and hope you do to!

Detail of the stamping...

Look, I've got two hands ;)

Let me know what you think!
Do you have a favorite stamping gold?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Avon - Violetta Sparkle

I have one of the sweetest cousins ever. She was ordering stuff from Avon and got me two polishes plus some nail rhinestones for no reason at all (well, other than she knows how crazy I am about nail polish :D). One of the polishes is this one named Violetta Sparkle. It is a dark purple base with golden copper flakes. A really gorgeous polish and perfect for this time of year. This is the first Avon polish I tried and I can officially say that I'm impressed.

It applied well with full coverage in two coats...

A closeup shot to see the flakes...

Swatch Details
	Brand: AVON Collection: Nailwear Pro Color Name/Number: Violetta Sparkle, N241 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

A big thank you Allochka, I love it :)

Have you tried Avon polishes before?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)