Review and Swatches of Select Glam Polish Cast A Spell Part 3: The White Witch Collection Shades

Hi Everyone! Remember me? It has been nearly two months since I last sat down to write a post. First, let me start out by apologizing for my sudden disappearance. Someone very close to me passed away leaving me feeling empty and wanting to spend time surrounded by family and friends. Something as simple as cuddling on the couch with my bf to watch TV suddenly became a bigger priority than making one more swatch or writing one more post. I realized just how much time I had been sacrificing for this hobby instead of making time for people in my life. I couldn't even bring myself to go into my polish room and simply paint my nails. They were 'naked' for more than a month and believe it or not, that somehow feels like an accomplishment. Each day I kept telling myself that tomorrow I would get back to swatching/blogging, but the days came and went and my nails remained bare. I finally started going back into the polish room a few weeks ago, first to file/reshape and recondition by then broken and dry nails. Then I would go in, look at some gorgeous polish and walk out. The next day I went just to look through the stamping plates. Baby steps! Finally I had the guts to not only polish, but also photograph my shaky hand. Today I sit here writing this post and trying to decide if I've said too much, but hoping it will explain my disappearance. Does this mean I'm back to full time blogging? No, and I don't think I ever will be, but hopefully some blogging is better than none!

To say that this review is overdue is quite an understatement. The beautiful Glam Polish Cast a Spell Part 3: The White Witch collection launched in early March with perfect glittery pastel shades. Rachel, the mastermind behind Glam Polish, has been incredibly understanding about the delay although my feeling of guilt remain. Hopefully you will also forgive the delay and enjoy these swatches as much as I've been enjoying wearing these lacquers and making them my foray back into the world of polish...

Lilac Swirls

Happy Friday Lovelies! I'm on vacation this week so I'll be showing you a few of my manicures that I haven't gotten around to posting yet. I didn't have much time before I left to write them up, so the text will be brief and I'll just let you enjoy the photos. Starting today with a manicure that I created a little while ago when I was playing around with the beautiful Polished by KPT Paris & Me collection.

Cloudy Days Go Away!

Fall weather in Seattle is such a fickle thing. Although the sun is peeking out now, it has been pouring buckets on and off for days now. Polished by KPT Cloudy Days Go Away couldn't capture my mood or sentiments any better. I decided to create some playful nail art to go along with this beautiful polish and my cloudy days state of mind...

Nicole by OPI Roughles Swatches and Review!

Every time I think that I've seen it all when it comes to texture, I'm happily surprised with new colors and effects. Such is the case with the Nicole by OPI Roughles (pronounced "ruffles") which I would like to show you today. These pastel matte textured shades are a refreshing change from the usual sparkle loaded or solid color textures lacquers. These are so sweet for spring. They make me think of yummy berry yogurt...

365 Days of Color In Full Bloom Spring Collection

Hi Everone! Today I have for you swatches of the Spring collection by 365 Days of Color named In Full Bloom. The collection features sweet pastels with a subtle holographic shimmer and a glitter topper that looks fantastic over any of them! I always love the lighter colors of spring as they are the perfect break between dark winter shades and bright summer ones. This collection really just nails that spring feeling for me and the soft pastels are perfection...

Drops of Chocolate with Messy Mansion...

Hi Everyone! Today I would like to show you a manicure that I created using one of the Nicole by OPI shades from the collaboration with Dove Chocolate. I paired it with a stamping pattern that reminds me of drops or splashes. While I would normally think to do this in bluish tones resembling water, for some reason drops of chocolate sounded rather delicious...

PolisHaus Swatches and Review

Hi Everyone! Today I would like to show you a new to me indie brand, PolisHaus. I must confess that I may have squealed a little as I unwrapped each one. They are so beautiful and sparkly it was hard to contain the excitement. In addition to being gorgeous in the light, three of these lovelies also glow in the dark!

These four beauties will be released tomorrow (Nov 26th) at 5pm PST.

Tutorial: Chevron Skittles

I got a few requests to do a tutorial for my Chevron Skittles manicure from last month. Dutifully I added it to my 'to do' list, which is about a mile long these days. Then I got to thinking that I might be able to show you how I created this manicure using the photos that I already have if you are willing to use your imagination. This really isn't my proudest moment and I still hope create a proper tutorial one day, but to avoid further delay I hope this will help those who wanted to recreate this look...

Supplies:

• 3 polishes of your choice (OPI Miss Universe lacquers used here)
• Striping tape
• Small brush (optional, but helpful)

Steps:

Instructions:

1. Start out by painting the nails using one of the polishes. OPI I'm Feeling Sashy used here.
   - When the polish is dry, place striping tape in a desired pattern (placement of striping tape illustrated here with gray lines). 
2. Using either the polish brush or a different small brush, apply your second color in sections between the striping tape. Shown here using the silver OPI This Gown Needs a Crown.
3. Repeat step #2 using the third color to fill in other sections between striping tape. Shown here using OPI Miss You-niverse.
   - Note: I did remove two pieces of striping tape on the index finger before adding the dark purple at the tip.
4. Remove striping tape right away, while polish is still wet.
5. Add a top coat and you're done!

For best results work one nail at a time rather than a full manicure as shown here. In other words, you can do step #1 to all the nails, but repeat steps #2-4 on each nail individually. It is best to remove the striping tape while the polish is still wet to get clean lines.

Please let me know what you think of this tutorial! Don't hesitate to ask questions if you have any!

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 **

OPI Miss Universe Chevron Skittles...

I guess I was in the mood to play with striping tape while swatching the OPI Miss Universe lacquers. I wanted to try out different chevron designs so I ended up with a skittle manicure using the three shades in the collection. I'm pretty excited about these since I usually tend to shy away from skittle and skittlette manicures myself, but am always admiring ones created by everyone else...

Scatter...

I would like to show you a manicure that I have been wearing for the past few days. I finally got around to trying one of the Ozotic shades that I purchased from piCture pOlish a few months ago and I'm in love...

Wild Birds...

I recently had the pleasure of doing an impromptu nail polish swap with the lovely Mari of muxe.net. A few of the El Corazon Eggs of Wild Birds polishes were on my lemming/wish list and I had mentioned this to her. They are not readily available in her area so I didn't expect her to ever find them, but she happened to come across them and snatched them up for me. A huge thanks to Mari for squashing one of my big lemmings. If you have not visited Mari's her blog yet, you are missing out on gorgeous swatches and nail art, so go check her out!

For today's manicure, I thought these pretty little birds would feel right at home on a polish inspired by bird eggs...

Nicole by OPI Gumdrops Swatches & Review...

The textured trend has hit me hard and I can't help but love each new shade that I have the pleasure of trying. These beautiful Nicole by OPI Gumdrops are certainly no exception. In fact they more firmly establish my fascination with these textured, matted sparkly beauties. I find it amusing to think that for years polish makers tried so hard to make the shiniest, smoothest lacquers around, not realizing that we would go so crazy over the complete opposite...

Sunday Stamping: Over a Lilac Base

Happy Cinco de Mayo to those who celebrate it!

This week the Sunday Stamping challenge for Adventures in Stamping is to create a manicure with a lilac colored base. I'm a little late in posting this today, but at least I still got it done on Sunday so I can't complain. I chose a ruffly pattern for stamping as it reminded me of the beautiful dresses worn during the Cinco de Mayo celebration. Only thing missing are the bright colors of those dresses. This is my first attempt at stamping over a textured polish and it worked very well. Now I'm curious to see if it lasts through the rest of the day...

China Glaze Hologlam! Part 1...

Today I have part one of the China Glaze Hologlam collection to share with you. This is the warmer half of the collection with a peach, two pinks, lilac and purple shades plus a green tossed in to keep things interesting. I can't help but get distracted as I try to catch the light and see the rainbow..

Delicate Flowers...

As bad luck would have it, I broke a nail yesterday before I finished swatching the Color Club Halo Hues collection, which I was hoping to show you today. I'm putting that on the back burner for a few days and instead would like to show you a manicure that I created last weekend. It uses one of the holographic beauties form that collection for stamping. I originally intended this mani for the flower themed Sunday Stamping challenge last week. I ended up posting a different flowery manicure and this sweet lilac one has been waiting for it's moment in the spotlight...

Tutorial Tuesday: Striping Tape and Gradient

Today I would like to share with you a tutorial for the technique used to create the striping tape and gradient manicure yesterday. If you read my spoiler alert at the bottom of that post, then you were probably already expecting this. It is a manicure that I think looks complicated, but is actually pretty easy to make. The fun part is experimenting with colors and tape placement for endless manicure possibilities. If you have not tried this technique yet, I hope this will encourage you to try it...

Supplies:

• 3 polishes of your choice (Barielle Banana Drop, Lilac Jelly Bean, and Green Apple Chew used for this manicure)
• Striping tape in any color 
• Makeup wedge or other sponge

Steps:

Instructions:

1. Apply desired number of coats of base color and allow to completely dry
2. Cut and apply pieces of striping tape in a desired pattern
3. Paint a stripe of each gradient color directly onto makeup wedge or sponge
4. Gently tap the sponge over the nail moving it slightly back and forth to blend the gradient
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 by applying more polish to the sponge and gently tapping on the nail  for a second coat of gradient. This helps build color opacity for the gradient
6. While the polish is still wet, carefully remove the striping tape one piece at a time
7. Using a Q-tip clean the cuticles of excess polish.
   Tip: clean up any fine details with a brush as demonstrated here
8. Add a layer of top coat (or two if the sponging is bumpy) and enjoy! 

As always, please let me know what you think of this or if you have questions!

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 **

Barielle Sweet Treats, Striping Tape and Matte-inee

I had quite a bit of fun playing with striping tape and a few of the beauties from the Barielle Sweet Treats collection. The resulting manicure is something that I have been wanting to try for a while and I am loving the result. It feels a bit like the cold gray winter transitioning to spring...

Barielle Sweet Treats for Spring 2013

Barielle Sweet Treats collection offers some beautiful creamy shades for Spring. With names like Green Apple Chew, Banana Drop, Lilac Jelly Bean, Blue Cotton Candy and Orange Parfait my mouth was watering before I even tried them. The collection is set to release on March 1st so here are some swatches to hopefully wet your appetite in the mean time...

Shimmer Tammy and e.l.f. Lilac Glitter Jelly Sandwich

Playing with all the pretty e.l.f. jellies from the Summer Ready collection, I couldn't fight the urge to create a glitter jelly sandwich. It really is such a wonderful way to play up their strength. I chose to pair Lilac with the gorgeous Shimmer Tammy* which is a purple, gold, holo, hex, bar glitter bomb just waiting to explode...

Sunday Stamping Challenge - Large Flowers

For today's stamping challenge for the group Adventures in Stamping, I decided to try something I have not done before... a ruffian manicure. I started out with two coats of Sally Hansen Deep Purple followed by two coats of Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac. I can't say that I love it the ruffian look on me. This could be because all the layers make it look thick or because it visually shortens the already short nails. I might have to try it again on longer nails and with one coat polishes.