Dazzle Dry Oh to Be Royal Collection Swatches and Review

Hi Lovelies! Today I'm excited to show you the new Dazzle Dry collection named Oh to Be Royal for this Winter season. It consists of six beautiful shades in a variety of finishes including cream, shimmer and glitter...

Thermal Stripes

Hi Lovelies! Sometimes I get wonky or should I say wacky ideas for nail art that I must then try out or they give me no rest. This is one of those! While playing with the Polished by KPT Paris & Me collection a while back, I was fascinated by two thermals which are both a gorgeous charcoal gray in their warm state, but completely different when cold. The idea was to combine them into one manicure so that when the nails are warm it appears to be a solid color and then magically reveals a pattern as it gets cold. The result is subtle, but see what you think...

This is one of the transition stages...

Cascading Glitter

Hi Lovelies! Today I have another manicure to show you with a couple of polishes from the Dazzle Dry Global Beat Fall collection. I'm not sure if there is a name of this glitter gradient look, but cascading glitter sounded rather fancy to me so I'm sticking with it. The manicure itself is fairly simple to create, but gives such a fun sparkle accent.

Tutorial: Color Block with Striping Tape

Hi Everyone! As promised, today I have for you a simple tutorial for the manicure that showed you yesterday. This simple technique with striping tape can be used to create a lot of different looks. I will show another similar look that I created with this technique soon. It is fun to play around with arrangement, colors and style.

Supplies:

• 2 Polishes. I used Dazzle Dry Sultry Samba and Waltz with Me.
• Striping Tape. I purchased mine on Ebay, but it is available in many beauty supply stores and online on sites such as Amazon.com and BornPrettyStore.com

Steps:

Instructions:

1. Start by painting your nails a base color and allow it to dry completely. For this manicure I used Dazzle Dry Waltz with Me
2. Cut short segments of striping tape and arrange them on the nails as desired for your look. You can use any color of striping tape at this step since it is being used just for the color block and will not be a part of the final look.
3. Using the second nail polish fill in different areas of the design as desired. You can use either the brush from the nail polish or use a small nail art brush for precision. I used Dazzle Dry Sultry Samba for my second shade.
4. Quickly remove the striping tape before the polish has started to dry to ensure clean lines.
5. Apply new/clean pieces of striping tape in place of the original ones.
6. Using cuticle nippers, trim excess striping tape along the edges of the nails. Try to trim as closely to the nail as possible so that you will seal the edges of the striping tape with a top coat and help keep them from lifting up
7. Seal with a top coat and enjoy!

I hope you found this tutorial helpful. Please don't hesitate to ask questions if you have any!

Until next time...

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

** Polishes were provided to me for review by the manufacturer or their PR. **

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

Dazzle Dry Color Block

Hi Lovelies! Today I have a manicure to show you that I created not too long ago while playing around with the Dazzle Dry Global Beat collection. The two creamy shades complimented each other so beautifully that I wanted to combine them into one manicure. I've been having fun with striping tape recently and decided to continue that streak...

Dazzle Dry Global Beat Fall 2014 Collection Swatches and Review

It is Monday again, which sadly means time to head back to work, but it also means that I spent a wonderful weekend relaxing and playing with polish. I've got lots to show you in the coming days, but starting this week out with the new Dazzle Dry Global Beat collection for Fall. This collection features four lacquers ready to dance their way into your heart...

OPI Brazil Swatches and Review...

Hi Everyone! This post has been a long time in the making, but I finally got a chance to process all the photos and I'm excited to show you the beautiful OPI Brazil collection released for the Spring/Summer season. The collection includes both neutral and bright creams which are just perfect for the summer days ahead. The Brazil collection also includes a set of four bright and colorful mini liquid sand Beach Sandies shades. This post is long and photo heavy so consider yourselves warned :)...

OPI Gwen Stefani Collection Swatches and Review

Today I am very excited to show you the OPI Gwen Stefani collection. This collection has really blown me away with a great variety of not only colors, but also textures. It features everything from cream to chrome, glossy to satin plus glitter and studs to top it all off. This diverse collection encourages nail art like no other. You can certainly expect to see a few of my creations in the coming days, but for now the swatches...

Dazzle Dry Blogger's Mystery Collection

As promised I would like to show you the Dazzle Dry Blogger's Mystery Collection. Five of the shades are collaborations with bloggers/nail artists including Vanessa of Nail Stories, Rina of Simply Rins, Robin Moses, Jen of The Nail Polish Project and myself. One shade designed by Dazzle Dry...

Ruby Wing Crowd Surf...

Anyone in Seattle will tell you that you have to enjoy the sunshine while it lasts because around here summer is short. I'm savoring every bit of sunshine that I can and what better way to enjoy it than with a Solar Active shade from Ruby Wing. Even if you are the type of person who doesn't like going outside, these will make you want to go out just to watch it change...

Ruby Wing Poppy and Sunflower...

I got a chance to play with some fun Ruby Wing color changing polish over the sunny weekend and I'm excited to show you my swatches. Ruby Wing is a line of color changing polish from the same manufacturer that brings us Color Club. This is my first experience with the brand and I was hooked after reading the tag line, "if nothing ever changed there'd be no butterflies". How sweet is that?

Nicole by OPI CVS Exclusive

Today I would like to show you some recently released CVS Exclusive Nicole by OPI beauties. The moto here is to "think neutral, not boring!" and I would have to agree. I have been showing you manicures featuring these polishes over the last few weeks and I hope you'll agree that they have not been boring. There is a nice range of polishes with colors from light to dark and finishes including metallic, cream and jelly...

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...

Barielle Runway Fever Collection (Fall/Winter 20...

Runway Fever is the second collection released for the Fall/Winter season by Barielle. If you missed the first collection, New York Style, make sure to check it out as well. The two collection offer a nice variety of colors with something for everyone. They include some classics as well as some edgier shades...

Zoya Gloss Collection NYFW Fall 2012

Today I have for you the third and final collection in Zoya's fall lineup, Zoya Gloss collection. It contains three very sheer gloss shades that can be built up and worn on their own or layered over other polishes to create interesting effects...

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

piCture pOlish Voodoo - See the Darkness, Feel the Magic!

I'm finally getting around to playing with the piCture pOlish polishes that I won in giveaways from Sawan and Mirannie's Nails. I guess I'm failing at my New Year's resolution to try polishes with 30 days of getting them. It is crazy how quickly time flies. Did someone accidentally set it on fast forward?

Color Club All About Color Collection

I recently bought this Color Club collection at Ross and wanted to post swatches while it is still available. The collection is not new, I assume it is from 2010 based on the copyright date on the back. No names are listed on the bottles or the packaging and my attempts to contact Color Club resulted in no response. I was about to give up on finding names when Kirsten from Geeky Owl posted her Ross Haul which included this collection. Much to my amazement she had names listed! Long story short, Color Club provided the names in response to a question on their Facebook page. Yay! Thank you Kirsten :)

Borghese Sonata Berry C with Pure Ice Oh Baby!

I'm not feeling well today, so I will keep it short and show you a manicure from a while back. This is Borghese Sonata Berry C topped with Pure Ice Oh Baby!. Oh Baby! is a sheer base with a color shifting shimmer. The shimmer changes from green to blue to purple/magenta depending on the angle that it is viewed at. It is a fun and quick way to spice up a solid color. I'm loving all the "effect" polishes lately...

In it's own Borghese Sonata Berry C is a deep berry red polish with a jelly finish. I used three coats to get nice even coverage. It is not original in my collection, but I do tend to like these colors so I end up with lots of them. Application was good, I love the wide brush in these polishes. This is with a top coat...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Borghese Collection: main line Color Name/Number: Sonata Berry C, B255 Number of coats: 3 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

What do you think of the "effect" polishes that are so popular lately?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Avon Wicked Malice + Sunday Stamping Challenge

I can't believe it is time for another Sunday Stamping Challenge in the facebook group Adventures in Stamping. This week the challenge was to create a Valentines Day mani. Since I have been wearing lots of pastels lately, I chose a dark, vampy base of Avon Wicked Malice. I stamped using Color Club Hot Like Lava from the Foiled collection and Red Angel stamping plate RA-114. I like that it is subtle, simple and not overly girly...

On it's own Avon Wicked Malice was a bit of a disappointment. The color in the bottle has an incredible dark red shimmer in a nearly black base. You can clearly see it in the bottle on any of the photos. The sad part is that it didn't transfer to the nail. Yes, the polish is still a beautiful dark, vampy color, but without this red shimmer, it lacked that special something for me. For the most part the polish looked dark berry to nearly black. Only in direct sunlight or under the lamp was the shimmer visible on the nail. Otherwise application was very good. Two coats for full coverage. With a top coat in these photos...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Avon Collection: Main line Color Name/Number: Wicked Malice, N409 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

I would love to know what you think!

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)