Black and White Challenge Day 10 - Manicure of Choice

Time really has flown by fast and today is the last day of the Black and White Challenge. I have had a lot of fun with this challenge and wanted to do something special for the last day, which happens to be a manicure of choice with black and white. The design is not my original design, I stumbled across it in an old Nail Max magazine. I have been wanting to try it for a while and since it contains black and white, I thought it was perfect for the last day of the challenge.

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 :)

My Entry into the Be My Valentine Nail Art Contest

Valentine's Day is quickly approaching and while my boyfriend and I have chosen to mostly ignore it for the past 12 years, I do enjoy all the pink, the hearts, and the flowers. I decided it would be fun to enter the "Be My Valentine Nail Art Contest" held by Lacquered Me on Facebook. This is my entry into the contest. Please check out all the entries and if you like like mine, take a minute to vote for it!!! :D

For the manicure I started out with two coats of Zoya Stephanie and sponged over it using Korres Watermelon. A polish I got quite a while ago in a giveaway from Cel's Deconails. It has been on my "to try" list for quite a while and I thought it would be perfect for the occasion. The hearts I free handed using Wet 'n Wild French White Creme and a dotting tool. It makes me think of Minnie Mouse :)

Korres Watermelon on it's own is a pink raspberry jelly. It has a bit more raspberry or watermelon (for the lack of a better term) tint to it than what comes across in the photos. It starts out sheer, but does build up opacity. I used three coats plus a top coat in these swatches. You can still slightly see the nail line. I think this polish would be perfect for a glitter sandwich...

This was taken with the flash and turned out to be the most color accurate image. The color in the bottle here is closest to true to life...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Korres Color Name/Number: Watermelon, 19 Number of coats: 3 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Camphor, Silicone, Xylene, Acetone

I'd love to know what you think of this manicure or the polish!
If you like it and you can, then please vote for it... or vote for whoever you like. :)

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Peackock inspired by OPI Nicki Minaj Collection

As I was playing with the fun polishes of the Nicki Minaj collection, I couldn't help but think they would be perfect for a peacock manicure. Somehow I managed to use every single color from the collection. I started out with Metallic 4 Life as a base and added a little pink heart using Pink Friday. Then, alternating Fly and Did It On 'Em I added the "barbs". Next followed the Supper Bass Shatter in the middle of the pink heart and down the center of the feather. I topped the whole thing off with a few touches of Save Me using a detail brush and covered the whole thing with two layers of top coat.

I think the colors are perfect for a peacock manicure, I'm just not sure I'm pleased with my execution of it. It looks better from a distance and I definitely need more practice. Here is what I ended up with...

I'd love to know what you think!

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Ulta - Chic Peek Polar Bears

Hopefully it is not too late in the season for a polar bear manicure. As soon as I saw the Coca-Cola cap featuring their signature polar bear, I knew it had to be a mani. How adorable is that polar bear peeking out on the cap? For the base I used a beautiful color named Chic Peek from Ulta and then "attempted" to stamp it with silver snowflakes. Most of the snowflake pattern did not transfer, so to cover up the bald spots/mess that I made, I painted the polar bears using white and black acrylic paint. I think they turned out pretty cute. What do you think?

Ulta's Chic Peek is one of those complex colors that I just can't figure out how to categorize. It is a dense micro glitter composed of silver and brown metallic particles. I hesitate to call it a foil as the glitter is not fine enough to be classified as such. Regardless of how you classify it, it is a gorgeous color even when worn alone. This is two coats plus a top coat. Application was great as I've come to expect from Ulta polishes...

How do you classify these polishes?

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

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

A Fiery New Year!

Happy New Year!!! I hope everyone had a great celebration. I had a busy one, which is why despite all my great intentions, I'm posting my New Years manicure today. The theme for the party I attended was fire, so I took that as a challenge. My inspiration for the manicure was one done by Jane from Nailside. The moment I saw her manicure, I knew I would someday try and this was the perfect opportunity. I even used the same polishes: Color Club Almost Famous and Warhol. The only thing I changed was to reverse the direction of the flames. I chose to have mine going up toward the tips. This was so fun for the weekend! :)

Here is what the gradient looked like before the black was added. I started out with two coats of Color Club Almost Famous (yellow) and sponged on top with Color Club Warhol (hot pink). This combo looks so great together...

I hope you had a fun New Year's celebration!
What kind of manicure did you wear?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Ulta Wild Night with Sally Hansen Celeb City

I wanted to show you my fun Chanukah manicure that I have been wearing over the weekend. I just love the combination of dark blue with silver. I do wish the blue was a bit lighter, but on the other hand it did make quite a pop.

For the manicure I started out with two coats of Ulta Wild Night. Another polish from Ulta's Salon Formula line which I have been really impressed with so far. Then using scotch and striping tape I blocked off most of the nail and painted the tips with Sally Hansen Celeb City, which is a dense silver polish. For an accent, I used Celeb City to add a free-hand Menorah on the ring finger. Isn't it cute? :D

UPDATE: Tutorial for this manicure available here!

Below are swatches of Wild Night on its own. I used two coats plus a top coat in these photos. The formula is a bit on the thicker side, but I didn't have any problems with application. Two coats for full coverage. A gorgeous navy blue with a blue shimmer. The shimmer does hide with no direct light and after a few days of wear the polish seemed to get darker. Maybe that was just my imagination, but after 3 days of wear I could barely see the shimmer and it looked almost black.

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

I hope you enjoyed my Chanukah manicure. I'd love to know your thoughts about it! :)

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Sinful Colors - Wish Collection Swatches & Review

I got the chance to review the new Wish holiday collection from Sinful Colors. It consists of five base colors and two nail art polishes. The collection has a nice variety of colors to play around with. Since there are lots and lots of photos, I'll try to make the text sweet and to the point :)

Out of this World is a nice pearly silver color. Application was great with surprisingly good coverage after two coats. I'll admit I was worried this one would never be fully opaque, but I was proven wrong. I hesitate to call this a full foil, but it did apply like one. I think it would look perfect sponged over blue, but that is for another day.

Swatch Details
	Brand: Sinful Colors Collection: Wish (Holiday 2011) Color Name/Number: Out of this Wold, 842 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Midnight Blue is a bright metallic blue. It is a gorgeous color although a bit too much for my skin tone. It came out slightly lighter than bottle color. Application was good with full coverage in two coats. Removal was a pain and resulted in a major case of smurf hands. Make sure to use a good base coat with this to protect your nails and remove very carefully to avoid staining.

Swatch Details
	Brand: Sinful Colors Collection: Wish (Holiday 2011) Color Name/Number: Midnight Blue, 13 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Sugar Sugar is a bright metallic red with a slight shimmer. This one is not new to my collection, but it is one of my favorites. I have swatched it here before. I also used it for a 4th of July manicure and the inspired by a flag challenge from the 31 day challenge. I didn't see the harm in swatching it again though, so here it is :D Application for this is good with two coats for full coverage.

Swatch Details
	Brand: Sinful Colors Collection: Wish (Holiday 2011) Color Name/Number: Sugar Sugar, 839 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Daddy's Girl is a purple jelly with multichrome specks. This is such a gorgeous polish in the bottle. The specks flashed everything from purple to magenta to gold and at the right angle I could see green and blue. Sadly, it came out very sheer and none of those colors showed up on the nail. I applied three coats and a top coat. Otherwise, no bald spots or pulling with this jelly so application was good.

Swatch Details
	Brand: Sinful Colors Collection: Wish (Holiday 2011) Color Name/Number: Daddy's Girl, 841 Number of coats: 3 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Daddy's Girl over Black on Black:
Since Daddy's Girl was so sheer, I decided to try it over Sinful Colors Black on Black. This is one coat of Black on Black with two coats of Daddy's Girl. Ahhh, just look at those flecks. I love it. It did loose some of it's beautiful purple in the process so next time I will try it over a deep purple as a base and see if I can still capture those flakies. :)

You can click to zoom in for more detail...

Last Chance is a deep forest green creme. It came out darker than bottle color for me and in some light looked almost black. I have no complaints though, since I love dark colors. Application was good and it covered completely in two coats. This did stain my nails a bit upon removal, so again I recommend using a nice base coat with this.

Swatch Details
	Brand: Sinful Colors Collection: Wish (Holiday 2011) Color Name/Number: Last Chance, 948 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Now on to the the Nail Art polishes in the collection...

Flower Girl is a gold foil with a nice, easy to work with striping brush. I chose to just draw a few lines and dots over Daddy's Girl (over Black on Black). I didn't want to take this one off. Came out so cute :)
The only problem I had with this is the smell. It is much stronger than any Sinful Colors polish I have tried. I'm not sure the reason behind this as it is also Formaldehyde, Toluene, and DBP free. :(

Fashionista is a silver glitter in a clear base. I tried it over Last Chance for my manicure. This one does not make sense to me in a nail art form as it does not allow for precise drawing. The glitter just goes where it wants, as most glitters do. Just like Flower Girl, this one also had a nasty smell. 

What do you think of this collection? Have you tried any of these colors or nail art polishes?

** These polishes were provided to me for review by the manufacturer or their PR. For more information please see the disclosure policy **

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)