Tutorial Tuesday: Silver Tips

I had a few questions about how I did the tips for my Chanukah manicure back in December, so I promised a tutorial. Just to set the record straight, I did not freehand the lines, although I wish I was good enough to do that :D. I hope this tutorial helps those of you who wanted to try it.

	Supplies: - Base and accent polishes of choice. I used Ulta Wild Night for the base and Sally Hansen Celeb City for the tips - Striping tape in any color (I bought mine on ebay, just search "striping tape" if interested) - Scotch tape or painter's tape - Scissors
	Step 1: - Apply desired number of coats of your base color - Allow polish to dry completely!
	Step 2: - Once the polish is dry, apply a piece of striping tape a desired distance from the tip.
	Step 3: - Place a piece of scotch or painter's tape a desired distance from the striping tape.
	Step 4: - Paint the tip of the nail with the accent polish, making sure to cover all tape free areas of the nail
	Step 5: - Carefully remove the scotch tape NOTE: Do not wait for the polish to dry, remove the tape right away.
	Step 6: - Remove the striping tape to reveal the double lines - Add a top coat and you are done! NOTE: when doing a full manicure, paint and un-tape one nail at a time. Doing multiple nails at a time will increase the chance that the polish starts to set and the tape will not come off cleanly.

I hope you enjoyed this quick tutorial. I would love to hear your thoughts or questions about it or if you try it! Also, let me know what you like/don't like about the tutorial so I can improve for next time :D

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

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 :)

Ulta Green with Envy Stamped with LA Colors Current

I joined a stamping group on Facebook and thought it would be fun participate in the Sunday Stamping challenge there. Today the challenge is green, so guess what... a green manicure it is. I started out with two coats of Ulta's Green with Envy and stamped with LA Colors Current. I'm pretty sure that I broke every stamping rule in the book with this, but that's just the rebel that I am. Not only did I stamp with a lighter color, but I also stamped a shimmer over a shimmer. Good thing there is no such thing as the stamping police :). I really like the subtle stamping effect of this combination.

For the stamping I used the Red Angel stamp RA-104. You might remember that I had trouble using the RA plates and even thought that mine were defective and warped. Thanks to everyone's comments and support on this issue, I believe that most people have slightly warped plates and it should not interfere with the stamping quality. So, I took a deep breath, watched a quick video on getting a good image (shared by Carolina on Facebook), and tried again. Luckily something clicked for me and the image transferred perfectly. I'm so excited!

And here it is...

On it's own, Ulta's Green with Envy is a blacked forest green with a green shimmer. Application with this was okay, but not perfect. It took two coats for full coverage, but did have a tendency to leave bare spots, so it really needed a light touch to avoid dragging. Also, no matter how hard I tried, I could not get this polish to warp around my tips. I love the color, but the formula left something to be desired.

Swatch Details
	Brand: Ulta Line: Professional Color Name/Number: Green with Envy Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the color and the stamping. Do you have stamping rules you follow/break?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Ulta - Love My Blackberry

My boyfriend said this is the best purple polish that I own. Yes, he said purple! No, he is not color blind, my camera is. If you cross your eyes and squint a little (I'm just kidding, please don't) you can see some of the purple in the bottle. The camera refused to capture the purple, but it does show just how slick and shiny this polish is. In the bottle and on the nails it appears as a purple base with a blue/purple shimmer. A truly stunning color that I chose to wear by itself with no stamping, sponging, or nail art. This is two coats plus a top coat...

Any tips on caputring purple with the camera? I don't think I'm the only one with this problem :D

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

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 :)

Ulta Casual Mauve

Leaving the fun and bright New Years flames behind is this back to work safe brown. For the manicure I started out with two coats of Ulta Casual Mauve. For a little sparkle, I sponged with Ulta After Party. To be completely honest this was mostly because it was still on my desk from last year's week's manicure. The red glitter in After Party completely disappeared against the brown and all that was visible was the silver. A bit disappointing, but now I know. Also, the sponging left my cuticles covered in glitter which was extremely frustrating to try to remove. Remind me to be more careful next time...

Below is Casual Mauve by itself. I don't see to much mauve in it, more of an earthy brown. The formula on this creme is great. No problems with application. I used two coats plus a top coat here....

I definitely liked this one more in person than I do on the photos. It is nice to try something different occasionally...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Ulta Line: Salon Formula Color Name/Number: Casual Mauve 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 :)