Petites Vintage Gray Stamped with Zoya Adina

This was originally meant to be for the fashion inspired day 25 of the 31 day challenge, but I ended up posting the Missoni inspired manicure instead. I didn't (and still don't) feel that these photos capture the manicure properly, but I decided to share it with you anyways. I hope you will trust me when I say that the manicure looked better in real life than in these photos :)

For the manicure I used two coats of Petites Color Fever Vintage Gray for the base. I stamped this using Bundle Monster plate BM-225 with Zoya Adina which is a gorgeous purple/green duochrome. The manicure flashed purple and green depending on how the light hit it. The camera for some reason refused to capture any of the green. So in these photos when you see silver in the stamping... think green :D

Do you see the pretty green in the bottle? I swear that was on my nails too... just not in the photos :(

Here was my fashion inspiration. I don't recall exactly where I found this photo, but I'm sure google was involved. Aren't they gorgeous? I need a pair of these in my closet...

Have you ever fought with a camera and lost? I get so frustrated when the photos don't come out right...

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Halloween Week: Brewing Cauldrons

As promised, my first installment in Halloween manicures and what became of my Tapping Nails mani. It did not come out quite as I pictured it in my head, but it is still fun. Each nail has a little black cauldron with a different "brew" in it. Not much to say about it, hope you like it :)

For the manicure I used:
- Sinful Colors - Tapping Nails
- Black & white acrylic paint
- Petites Color Fever - Black Diamond
- Color Club Foiled - Perfect Mol-ten, Cold Metal, Foil Me Once, Lumin-icecent

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Day 18 - Half Moon Spiders...

I decided to combine today's challenge of half moons with some fun Halloween inspired creepy crawlies after seeing a manicure done by Simply Rins. This was a good compromise for me since I'm not the biggest fan of half moon manicures. The little guys just make me smile unlike the ones in real life that make me shudder...

I hope you like them... Sorry for the dent in my ring finger (I didn't have time to redo the whole thing...)

For the manicure I used:
- Petites Color Fever Vintage Gray for the base
- Wet n Wild Black Cream for the spiders
- Sinful Colors Sugar Sugar for the eyes

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Tutorial - Gradient

Here it is, the long overdue tutorial for the gradient nails from challenge day 10. A reminder what what the manicure looked like...

	Supplies: - Nail polishes - Black, dark gray, gray, white, and glittery silver (I used Wet n Wild Black Cream, Zoya Kelly, Petites Color Fever Vintage Gray, Wet n Wild French White Cream, Sinful Colors Out of This World) - Sponge - different types will work for this, but I used an artificial sea foam sponge - Q-tip for clean up - Tweezers for holding the sponge (if you use a small piece)
	Step 1: - Cut off a few pieces of the sponge
	Step 2: - Apply a base coat and - Apply desired number of base color coats - Shown here is 1 coat of WnW Black Cream
	Step 3: - Put a few drops of the dark gray on a piece of paper (or other work surface) and work the color into the sponge by dabbing it.
	Step 4: - Lightly tap the sponge on the nail from tip towards the base, leaving about 1/4 of the base unsponged. - Add in small amounts until satisfied with the look
	Step 5: - Work the lighter gray color into another side of the sponge (or a clean sponge piece)
	Step 6: - Lightly tap on the nail starting from tip and going about half way down. - Add a little bit at a time to get the desired effect
	Step 7: - Work the white polish into the sponge as before
	Step 8: - Tap the white on the tip of the nail
	Step 9: - This step is optional, but to give the gradient some glitter and sparkle, work a silvery color into the sponge.
	Step 10: - VERY LIGHTLY tap on the nail. - I put a little bit too much and ended up muting the black and the dark gray out (compare to to original manicure to see what it should have looked like :))
	Step 11: - With a Q-tip or a brush dipped in nail polish remover/acetone, clean up the cuticles
	All Done! - Add a top coat and you are done!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! As always I would love comments and feedback so that I can improve :)

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Day 15 - Delicate Print - Zoya Casey Stamped with Petites Fairy Pink

For me, delicate print equals subtle print and I just love subtle stamping. I've done it quite a few times before and have always been happy with the result. It is fun to see people do a double take to get a closer look at the detail on the manicure. The challenge of delicate print was therefore a fun one for me. I started out with two coats of Zoya Casey, a gorgeous deep plum color. In my excitement to stamp, I forgot to take pre-stamping photos, so I will have to re-swatch it another day. For the stamping I used Petites Color Fever in Fairy Pink. It is a pink base with micro shimmer in pink, gold, copper, green, and just about everything else. A very pretty and unique color in my collection. The stamping was done using Bundle Monster plate  BM-214.

I like the color combo, just wish my stamping was not slanted. On the plus side though, it is equally slanted on all the nails ;)

A few closer looks... (you can also click on the photos to zoom in)...

What do you think of subtle stamping?

Thanks for looking,
Anutka :)

Day 10 - Gradient Nails

Gradients for some reason sound easier than they are (for me)... just sponge on the next colors and you are done. Lets just say it took a few attempts to come out with something I like. My original idea was white transitioning to black at the tips. That turned out to be a bit too messy for my taste. The second attempt was black transitioning to white tips. Not as messy, but the gradient was too rough, similar to my very first attempt. I tried it one more time using a different sponge that worked much better, so third time was the charm. I finally got a gradient that I actually like and can wear...

UPDATE: Tutorial for this manicure available here!

My boyfriend said it looks like a night sky... a way better response than to my first two attempts which were met with shoulder shrugs and a look that means "OK, but I don't get it..."

The colors I used for this manicure were:
- Wet n Wild Black Cream for the base
- Zoya Kelly
- Petites Color Fever Vintage Gray
- Wet n Wild French White Cream
- Sinful Colors Out of This World (sponged lightly on top for sparkle)

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Color Fever Angel

A lot of boggers are part of the "On Wednesday We Wear Pink" club. I'm not officially a member (I don't own that many pink polishes), but I thought I'd join in the fun this week. Angel from the Color Fever line by Petites is a very pale pink. In some light it almost borders on white with a hint of pink. Very pretty :) I decided to accent it with with an Essence sticker I got on my trip to Ulta. The black just pops against the crisp clean pink.

Here it is outside, it was overcast and drizzling a bit...

This took 3 coats to get it opaque. I had to apply it veeeeerrrry carefully because it tended to drag the color from the previous layers leaving bald spots. In the end it did come out looking smooth :)

I also applied a top coat to get it nice and shiny. The ring finger got two layers of top coat, but this may have done more harm than good. I was hoping that it would smooth out the sticker and make it flush with the nail, but instead the sticker seemed to warp and sink into the polish. Since I have never used these stickers before I don't know who to blame, the sticker or the extra topcoat. I have a sneaky suspicion that it was the extra topcoat, but I will have to play around with the stickers some more to know for sure!

Has this happened to you before?

Brand: Collection: Color Name/Number:

Thanks for reading! :)
Anutka

Color Fever Black Diamond

A few days ago, the Manicured Monkey had a posted a swatch of Wet n Wild Blackmail. She mentioned that she has been looking for a black color with flecks of interesting things in it. It reminded me of this Black Diamond from the Petites Color Fever Collection that I have been meaning to try. When I bought it, it looked like a black with white/silver glitter in it. When putting it on, it looked like a night sky with stars in it... so pretty :)

It is more of a dark gray rather than black, as the name suggests. Indoors it looks mostly as I expected... dark gray with white/silver flecks... but when I took it outside. YIKES!

Here it is outside. Hopefully you can see the full beauty of this polish. Click on the pictures to zoom in for the full effect... I think it has every color of the rainbow in it! I did not see the full potential of it when I was buying, but just love what I ended up getting! It just sparkles up when the light hits it...  :)

Brand: Petites
Collection: Color Fever
Color Name/Number: Black Diamond 517

What do you think of this polish?

That's all for now :)
Anutka

Color Fever: Vintage Gray

I would like to make a toast to second chances! I bought this polish a few months ago and when I first swatched it, I was not a fan. Don't know why, but I decided to reswatch it for this blog. Well let me tell you, I changed my mind. I ended up wearing this as a full manicure. It is a soft milky gray. So pretty! The color actually came out a bit darker than the bottle color. This is three coats + a top coat.

 

What do you think?
I just wish there was more than 0.25 oz of it :)
I'm assuming because of small bottles size, but there are no ingredients listed on it. I'm confused as I thought this was required to be listed at least on the outer packaging (which it had none)... anyone know if these are B3F?

Brand: Petites
Collection: Color Fever
Color Name/Number: Vintage Gray 519

Thanks for reading!
Anutka