Basket Weave

Hi Lovelies! Today I'm going to show you my feeble attempt at a free hand basket weave pattern. I was inspired by a seemingly simple tutorial by @yagala on Instagram. She made it look so easy that I thew my inhibitions to the wind and decided to try it out. Now although her manicure is gorgeous from any distance, mine is best viewed from far, far away. In other words, back away from your computer now or you might get scared. Yes, that means you too! Take your coffee cup and back away, then come back and tell me what you think of this...

Tutorial: Aged Bamboo

Hi Lovelies! It is time for a tutorial again. After I posted my art inspired bamboo manicure last month, I got a few comments from readers who said that this type of manicure is too complicated and not something that they can do for themselves. I wanted to show that if you already know how to stamp, this is actually a really simple manicure that only looks like it takes a lot of work, but is actually rather simple. So let's get started...

Supplies:

• 2-3 neutral shades for the background. I used Zoya Jacqueline, Taylor and Flynn
• Brown polish for stamping. I used Zoya Emilia
• Sea sponge
• Stamping plate (I used Bundle Monster plate BM-424) and stamping supplies

Steps:

Instructions:

1. Apply the lightest color for a base and allow it to dry completely. Shown here is Zoya Jacqueline.
2. Put a few drops of the beige lacquer(s) on your palate and dip the sponge into it. I used a little bit of Zoya Taylor and Flynn. Dab the sponge onto a clean area of the palate to work the polish into the sponge and remove excess. Finally gently dab the sponge onto random sections of the nail, leaving portions of the base still visible.
3. Apply stamping polish onto the stamping plate, scrape and pick up the image as usual
4. Stamp the image onto your nail
5. Seal with a top coat and enjoy!

See? That was easy, right? I even struggled to make a full tutorial out of this because there are so few steps when you really think about it.

Please don't hesitate to ask questions if you have any!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

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 **

31DC2013 Day 28 - Inspired by a Flag

Hi Lovelies! Today I'm forging ahead to Day 28 of the 31 Day Nail Challenge. The theme for today is a manicure inspired by a flag. I had a tough time deciding on a design for this one mainly because I was pretty set against recreating a country flag. I started racking my brain for other creative flag ideas and I was coming up blank. It wasn't until I saw the Messy Mansion stamping plate innocently hanging out on my table waving it's little pirate flag that inspiration hit!

31DC2013 Day 27 - Inspired by Artwork

Hi Lovelies! Up next in the 31 Day Nail Challenge is Day 27, Inspired by Artwork. I'm always drawn to Asian inspired art featuring bamboo so after a quick search online (this is literally the 3rd image that comes up in Google when I search for "bamboo art"), I knew what I wanted to do.

Zoya Naturel Deux (2) Collection Swatches and Review

Happy Friday Everyone! Today I am excited to finally share with you my swatches of the Zoya Nautrel Deux (2) collection. This collection is a follow-up to the popular Naturel collection which came out early this year. Although the Deux collection has been available for a few months now, the Fall colors just begged me to delay swatching until the weather started to turn. I think now is the perfect time to show these beauties off to you...

Barielle Velvets Collection Swatches and Review!

Hi! Today I have prepared for you swatches of the Barielle Velvets collection. The six Velvet shades make up the soft, romantic half of the Spring collection...

Zoya Naturel Collection

Hi Everyone! Today I would like to show you the Zoya Naturel collection! As the name suggests, the collection features some beautiful natural shades. Sometimes in a world filled with bright colors and glitter, it is so refreshing to see such wonderful soft creamy shades. I found these to be great on their own and also perfect bases for nail art, which I will show you in the coming weeks. For now let's take a look at these beauties...

Barielle Nude & Naughty Collection Swatches and Review

Today I would like to share with you the new Barielle Nude & Naughty collection released this Fall. The collection features five beautiful neutral shades...

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I can't believe it is already Day 15 of the 31 Day Nail Challenge. It seems to be flying by so quickly and we are about to get into the really challenging portion. Today's challenge calls for a delicate print manicure. I instantly thought of lace at the mention of delicate and decided to play around with stamping. As my latest obsession seems to be stamping over textured polish, I couldn't resist including this PixieDust in my manicure...

Zoya Cashmeres Collection Swatches and Review

I am so not ready, but it is time to show you some beautiful Fall collections. Starting today with the Zoya Cashmeres collection. It contains six cream shades that are perfect for the upcoming season. Did I mention I'm not ready for Fall yet? I've already showed you my nail art with a few of these and trust me, you'll be seeing more of them...

Matzah Nail for Passover!

Happy Passover!

Happy Passover to those of you who celebrate it! This weekend, I got a gentle reminder from my friends that I should do a manicure for the occasion and matzah nails was strongly suggested. I got the hint and knew exactly who to turn to for inspiration. Last year 10 Blank Canvases created her matzah nails for Passover and I knew that I wanted to try and recreate the look. Luckily, she created an easy matzah nails tutorial which I followed (for the most part)...

Zoya PixieDust Collection for Spring 2013

Have you joined the textured polish bandwagon yet? I sure have! That is why I'm so excited to show you my swatches of six Zoya PixieDust shades for the Spring collection. I find the texture so fascinating and different that when I wear them, I can't stop looking at or touching the nails. It seems to have that effect on others as well since I've had people both stare and touch my nails as I was wearing these...

Sunday Stamping: Plate Ending in Six

Well it is once again time for a Sunday Stamping challenge. They seem to sneak up on me faster and faster each week. This week the challenge is to use a plate with a number ending in six. I decided to try out my recently purchased Winstonia plates. As soon as I saw the beach themed images, I though of this manicure by Casey of No Nude Nails. I resisted the urge to look at it until I was finished with my manicure, just so they wouldn't be identical, but I had it in the back of my mind for sure! The beach scene was also the perfect opportunity to infuse a bit of Zoya PixieDust into my nail art...

OPI Mariah Carey Butterfly

I showed you swatches of the Mariah Carey by OPI polishes a few days ago and today i want to show you the nail art that I created using a few of them. After swatching, I ended up wearing A Butterfly Moment solo for a few days and then spruced it up with glitter and stamping  Since Mariah is such a huge fan of butterflies (and really who can blame her, they are gorgeous), I had no choice but to add butterflies...

Nail-aween Challenge Day 3: Bloody Nails Attempt #2

I really couldn't resist doing another bloody manicure for Day 3 of the Nail-aween challenge. I have been wanting to try a splatter manicure for a while and this was the perfect opportunity to do it. I was about the clean up the mess, but what is the likelihood of true blood splatter just falling neatly on the finger nails? Therefore, you get to see all the whole bloody mess...

Nail-aween Challenge Day 3: Bloody Nails

Day three of the Nail-aween challenge brings us to bloody nails. My attempt at bloody nails last year resulted in something that looked more like they were dipped in strawberry syrup, so this year I was determined to make them look bloody. I used my boyfriend as a deciding factor on whether I succeeded or not and since his one word response upon seeing this was "bloody", so I think I've well. Hope you agree...

Polish Days: Sentimental

It is time again for the Polish Days monthly challenge. This month's theme is 'sentimental' with the challenge to create a manicure featuring a special polish that makes you sentimental or something that tugs at your heart strings. I had to go with something from the heart. Many of you know and I've mentioned it before on this blog, that I was born in Russia. My family left more than 20 years ago to move to the US and I actually have not gone back since. I often get sentimental when it comes to traditional Russian objects. One such thing is a traditional doll Matryoshka. I hope you'll enjoy this manicure which represents something very dear to me...

Fashion Friday: Fall Into Red...

I've got a fashion inspired manicure for you today. This is inspired by a Jenny Packham dress right of the Fall/Winter 2012 runway. Please don't be fooled, I have no idea what I'm talking about. I am really not someone who keeps up with current fashion or what's hot on the runways. This dress just caught my eye on Pinterest and I turned to trusty Google to clue me in on the designer. I figured it was perfect to go along with a shade from Zoya's runway Diva collection...

dress image source

OPI Germany Collection for Fall 2012: Part 2

As promised, I have for you today swatches of the second half of the OPI Germany Collection for Fall. You can see the first part of the collection here. This half gives us more gorgeous creams and shimmers making the game of favorites nearly impossible...

OPI Germany Collection for Fall 2012: Part 1

Although I not excited for actual fall to come, I am always excited for fall colors. When it comes to nail polish, I will take a dark, vampy fall color over a bright neon one any day. Today I have fore you the first half of a beautiful fall OPI Germany Collection. Hopefully you are as excited about these as I am...