Golden Roses

Hi Lovelies!

Believe it or not, but my nails have been nakie since the last time I managed to write a post a couple of weeks ago. I know, I know, it is my never ending sob story which I'm sure you're all sick of by now. I just have no clue where the time goes as usual. To compensate for lack of anything new, I do have a manicure out of the archives to show you. This was a mani that I wore last Fall and absolutely loved. I hope you'll enjoy it as well...

Subtle Stamping

Hi Everyone!

It has been a crazy week for me and although it is the weekend and time to relax for a lot of people, it is my weekend to work because I guess 'there ain't no rest for the wicked'. Ha! To make up for lack of time to paint my nails, I thought I'd show you another mani out of the archive. I've only got a few more to show you and then I will be all caught up. Gasp!

This mani is one that I wore last year for Hanukkah. The stamping turned out more subtle than I had anticipated and I remember being indecisive about whether I liked it or not. I'm still a bit torn, but definitely leaning toward liking it. Is there such a thing as too subtle?

Black Raffian Inspired...

Way back when my blog was just a baby and I was getting my feet wet in the world of nail art, I came across this manicure by Lacquerized and instantly fell in love. It has been on my must try list ever since. When I sat down to play around with the OPI Gwen Stefani collection, one look at the chrome silver and matte black and I knew exactly what I had to do!...

Nicole by OPI Nautical Doodle

Hi Everyone! I must confess that I'm a pretty bad swatcher. Whenever I swatch a collection, I get sidetracked and start dreaming up nail art ideas. I make no apologies though since I love bringing such spur of the moment ideas to life. This is one of the manicures that I created while swatching the new Nicole by OPI 2014 shades which I showed you yesterday...

Wish Nail Art Challenge!

A little while ago I received and invitation to participate in a nail art contest for Wish. It is a clothing boutique that asked nail bloggers to create a manicure inspired by their collection. Although I didn't intend to participate because I don't particularly like popularity style contests, I still thought it would be fun to try my hand at interpreting one of their looks from the Butterfly Effect collection...

Sunday Stamping: Inspired by Shoes...

Today's Sunday Stamping challenge in Adventures in Stamping is to create a manicure inspired by a favorite pair of shoes. None of the shoes that I own have stampable (let's pretend that's a word) patterns, so I resorted to finding a "favorite" pair online. Luckily, nowhere in the challenge did it mention that I had to own the pair of shoes that inspired me. Since my nails are long enough to flash their underside that could only mean one thing...

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...

Sunday Stamping: Red & Black

It is Sunday Stamping again in the group Adventures in Stamping and this week the challenge is "red and black," which was the perfect opportunity to try this manicure. I've tried it once before, but the stamp didn't turn out well so I never posted about it. I'm excited that this time it turned out much better and I can show it to you. Also, before I go on with the post, I want address a question I had last week. The stamping group where these challenges come from welcomes all stamping enthusiasts regardless of your skill level so please don't hesitate to join if you are interested!

Black and White Challenge Day 8 - Sponging

It is day eight of the Black and White Challenge which means a sponged manicure. I had in mind a marble or granite look, so I turned to the internet for inspiration, as I often do. Somehow it helps to have a picture to stare at as I work. While searching for black and white stone, I stumbled upon a photo of Emma Stone in a black and white dress that I just couldn't resist...

Emma Stone photo Source

Accidentally in Matte...

I saw this tutorial from from Confessions of a Polishaholic. For some reason I just had to try it. The tutorial recommends using a light color as a base, but I already had the Wet n Wild Caught Red Handed on... Plus, I thought that black print on a red polish would actually look good. So I gave it a try.

Sadly none of the print actually transferred, but what I end up with was a matte nail. I tried it on a few other nails with the same result. I choose to blame my flop on the topcoat. I will definitely have to try this technique without the top coat on and see if the text actually transfers. :)

Left hand - ring and pinky fingers matted, index and middle finger original w/topcoat...

Right Hand - middle finger is matte, ring finger original w/topcoat...

This is by no means the most obvious matte effect. It just caught me by surprise, so I thought I'd share. I have yet to try the matte topcoats that are available, but from swatches I have seen they produce a much stronger effect.

If you want a slight matte effect and want to try this, here is what I did:
1. Cut out squares out of the newspaper that are slightly bigger than the nail.
2. Fill a small container with rubbing alcohol (the tutorial recommends vodka or spirit, but who wants to waste that???)
3. Soak nails for a few minutes in rubbing alcohol until they are nice and wet. Apply the newspaper squares to the nail and hold for at least 30 seconds
5. Remove the newspaper and there you have it... matte nails
6. If you were lucky enough to get some of the print to stick, but didn't want it, you can just rub it off.

Some questions to ponder and things to try... if one was to use colorful tissue paper, would the color transfer? Could one crinkle it and make some cool effects? Could one print images from the computer and transfer them to the nail? Hmmm...

Thanks for reading :)
Anutka