Lacy Pink

Hello Lovelies!

I recently purchased a handful of beautiful Major Dijit stamping plates through a group buy on Facebook. As with all group buys, they took a while to finally arrive and I couldn't wait to play with them as soon as they were in my greedy little paws. The Major Dijit plates are chock full of lacy patterns and settling on which one to try first was the most taxing portion of creating the manicure. I chose to pair it with a bright pink by Dazzle Dry from their Summer 2015 Over the Rainbow collection. It is just slightly ironic that with Summer almost over, I'm finally digging into the Summer shades. Maybe a bit of wishful thinking, hoping that the sunshine lasts just a bit longer?

Lacy Damask...

Hi everyone! Today I want to show you a lovely damask manicure that I created last weekend. I've got a bit of a weak spot for the damask pattern itself and this delicate lacy one seemed to be a perfect fit for a nude base...

31DC2013 Day 23 - Inspired by a Movie

It has been nearly a month since I created my last manicure for the 31 Day Nail Challenge. I think it is about time I picked it back up and tried to finish it. Today I would like to show you my manicure for Day 23 of the challenge, inspired by a movie. Since it is so close to Halloween, I couldn't help but try my hand at the always popular The Nightmare Before Christmas manicure...

Sunday Stamping Over Black Base

I've been in a bit of a nail art funk lately after burning out halfway through the 31 Day Nail Challenge. I'm still determined to finish it, but for today I decided to take part in a different challenge. It has been way too long since I participated in Sunday Stamping with the group Adventures in Stamping. Somehow these challenges always get my creative juices flowing and today's theme of stamping over black turned to this...

31DC2013 Day 7 - Black and White

As this post goes live, I'm heading on vacation, but have no fear, I worked my little tushy off to keep up with the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge and have scheduled posts to entertain you. The theme for challenge Day 7 is Black & White. I have been wanting to try the water spotted technique for a while now and finally got an excuse to make time...

OMG Viper Louboutin...

Whenever my nails reach a certain length, I start dreaming of Louboutin manis. Although this one was not inspired by a particular pair of shoes, but rather by the fact that I was unwilling to part with the Viper nail strips mani quite yet and was itching for a Louboutin look...

Running Wild...

I'm not sure what has gotten into me, but something certainly has since this is my second tiger manicure this month. I got some fun neon nail studs for review from the Born Pretty Store and they really brought out my wild side. I wanted to pair them with an equally bright and matching color.

Sunday Stamping: Multiple Colors

I'm going to try to keep this post brief because it is starting to get light outside and I still have not gone to bed. I had four hours of sleep last night followed by a very long day and when I got home at 3 am today this is what I decided to do instead of going to bed. I've had this idea for today's Sunday Stamping challenge in my head all day and it had to be done. The challenge today is to stamp with multiple colors on one image...

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...

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 :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful moms out there!!!

I would love to say that I have prepared a special manicure for the occasion, but I simply ran out of time. Rather than spend this morning trying to create a manicure for myself, I am heading over to visit my wonderful mom and give her a much deserved manicure! To compensate for my lack preparedness, I would like to show you a manicure I wore a little bit ago....

Shimmer Maria Scalloped...

I've had a wonderful two days off work enjoying the sunshine and catching up on swatching. I'll even deny that at some point on Tuesday I was so frustrated with my cameras (yes, multiple cameras) that I was ready to toss them out the window. Luckily, we worked out our disagreement on Wednesday and I was able to get more swatching done. In the process of all that swatching, I got to play with the lovely Shimmer Maria and I couldn't help the urge to dress her up a bit with stamping...

Mardi Gras!

Between Chinese New Year, Mardi Gras and Valentines Day, this week is full of excuses to try some themed nail art. I took advantage of my extended weekend and went a bit crazy playing with my polishes. Mardi Gras gave me the chance to go a bit outside my comfort zone with bright colors and embellishments  It might not be my proudest manicure, but it sure was fun to make...

Nail-aween Challenge Day 10: Halloween Manicure

Happy Halloween Everyone!!

Today is the final day of the Nail-aween challege and gives the freedom to create any Halloween themed manicure. I want to show you a manicure that I actually created with the Bundle Monster contest in mind. The contest was held earlier this moth and is now over. Even though I made the manicure in time to enter, I changed my mind at the last minute and didn't actually submit it. I have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to show it to you and there can't be any better day than Halloween itself!...

Nail-aween Challenge Day 7: Spiders

In typical spider fashion, Day 7 of the Nail-aween challenge just snuck up on me. I'm not really ready to admit that Halloween is just a week away. For today's spider challenge I was really excited to play with the spiderweb pattern on the first Bundle Monster set. It may seem insignificant  but I'm pretty sure I bought the whole set just for that pattern. It is really one of those patterns I can picture a dozen or more different manicures with. Here is one that has actually made it onto the nails...

Tutorial: Geometric Confetti Decals

I'm not sure why, but I'm in a crazy tutorial making mood. I don't even have the patience to wait until a Tuesday and post it as a "Tutorial Tuesday" feature. Honestly, I was actually debating if I should post this since I've already done a nail decal tutorial, but I figure if I took the time to take photos, I better put it together and post it. Maybe it will be useful for someone. I've got a couple more planned and then I'll try to knock it off for a while :)

This tutorial is for the geometric decals manicure that I posted for Polish Days yesterday...

Supplies:

• Nail polishes of choice. Used here Sally Hansen Celeb City (silver base), Wet 'n Wild Red Red, Color Club What a Shock! (green), Barielle Sunshine* (yellow) and Surf's Up* (blue)
• Ziplock bag or sheet protector (my personal preference)
• Scissors, hole punch
• Tweezers
• Cuticle nippers

Steps:

Instructions:

1. Paint small strips of polish in multiple colors on a ziplock bag or sheet protector. Add a second coat if needed for sheer colors.
2. Allow the polish to dry completely or overnight. Using tweezers, pick up an edge of the polish strip and peel off the plastic
3. Using scissors cut out desired shapes (such as squares and triangles) from the nail polish
4. The cut pieces will look something like this
5. Using a hole punch, punch out circles in different colors. You can be the large office variety hole punch, it does not have to be a small craft one as I am showing here
6. Optional: sketch out your nail shape and arrange pieces to get a pattern you are happy with. You can skip this step if you are not the type to plan (or over-think things as I do) :)
7. Apply a base coat and your desired base color. Allow to dry. Sally Hansen Celeb City is shown here.
8. Apply a coat of clear polish and when it is still tacky, but not wet, apply the decals in your desired pattern
9. Using cuticle nippers, trim off excess polish around the cuticles, being careful not to cut yourself!
10. Add a topcoat to seal in the decals and you are done! (I did add a few more confetti pieces after trimming, sorry if that confuses anyone...)

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If nothing else, it is colorful and fun to look at (at least in my opinion)!

I'd love to know what you think :)

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

** Polishes marked with an asterisk (*) were provided to me for review by the manufacturer or their PR. **

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

Polish Days: Geometry

I'm pretty excited today as it is my first time participating in Polish Days. I've seen it popping up on blogs over the past few months, but only recently figured out how to join in on the fun! The challenge this time is geometry which really made me think of school days, cutting out shapes and basic colors. This is my attempt to recreate that feeling. I think it looks like geometric confetti... or better yet pinata guts...

Tutorial Tuesday: Olympic Rings Nail Decal

I have been glued to the TV every chance I get watching the Olympic Games, especially the swimming and gymnastics. It is incredible to see the athletes perform. I have also been so impressed with some of the manicures sported by the ladies. My own Olympic inspired nails featured a little Olympic rings decal on one of the nails. I thought I would put together a tutorial on how I made it. Hope you enjoy...

Supplies:

• Base color polish (I'm using Cosmetic Arts gold foil (no name))
• Clear polish
• Olympic ring corresponding colors: 
• Blue (Barielle Surf's Up), Black (Wet 'n Wild Black Creme), Red (China Glaze Adventure Red-y), Yellow (Barielle Sunshine), Green (Sinful Colors Envy)
• Ziplock bag or sheet protector
• Ballpoint pen refill (ink cartridge)
• Tweezers, Cuticle nippers

Steps:

Instructions:

1. Using clear polish paint a small rectangle on the plastic bag. Allow it to dry completely for a few hours.
2. Make a small puddle of nail polish on a disposable surface. Dip the end of the pen refill into the polish.
3. Press the pen refill onto the clear nail polish square to create a circle
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 to create the first row of circles
5. Repeat the steps again to create the second row. Go back over the first row with any colors you might wish to overlap.
6. Allow the polish to dry then using tweezers peel the decal off the plastic
7. Apply desired number of basecoats of polish. Allow the polish to dry until it is sticky (not fully dry)
8. Place the decal in desired position on the nail
9. Using cuticle nippers, trim off the excess polish along the cuticles. Alternatively you can trim off excess clear polish prior to applying the decal to the nail
10. Apply top coat and you are done!

I'd love to know what you think of this and don't hesitate to ask questions if something is not clear :)

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Sunday Stamping: Goth with Zoya Dovima

It is hard to believe that today is once again time for the Sunday Stamping challenge in the group Adventures in Stamping. This week the challenge is a goth manicure in honor of a fellow group member. I really couldn't pass up the chance to do something outside of my comfort zone and I quite like the result. Hope I'm not insulting anyone :)