NYC Flat Iron Green with LA Colors Current

This is a manicure I have been wearing since Sunday. I know, that's just crazy, but I love it and I have been busy this past week so I have not had time to do my nails. Last Sunday my cousin, Lana, came over to check out the stamps she has seen me blog about. While she was raiding my stash, she let me play with the NYC Flat Iron Green that she had in her purse.

It is a deep, blackened moss green. It can tend to look black without direct light, but as usual I'm a sucker for the dark ones! This was two coats plus a top coat. Application could have been better, it was somewhat runny, but at the same time tended to pull away from the cuticles.

I stamped it with the LA Colors Current, which is the actual name for the "lime" color I showed you last week. It brought out the green from NYC and just gave it a nice velvety look. I'm loving this manicure right now! It is hanging on perfectly for the 4th day of wear now... :D

I used Bundle Monster Plate BM-205 for the stamping...

Brand: NYC New York Color Collection: In a New York Color Minute Color Name/Number: 214 Flat Iron Green Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP) Free

So while I was playing with that, Lana, chose a manicure in LA Colors Blue (still not sure what the official name for this one is). She stamped it with some cute flowers using WnW French White Creme. She really wanted to do them in yellow, but turns out I don't have a one coat yellow that would work. Time to go shopping?

My sister-in-law also stopped by in the evening and joined in the manicure fun. She painted hers in Zoya Isla, a gorgeous red I have yet to try. Hers were stamped with WnW Black Creme and a silver butterfly on the ring fingers (which decided it did not want to be photographed... shy?).

Both of them stamped with flowers from the Bundle Monster BM-224 plate...

Thanks for reading!
Anutka :)

Sinful Colors Unicorn with Essence Just In Case

I first got introduced to nail polish blogs when I stumbled upon lacquerized. Sadly, she is no longer blogging, but that is a whole other story. I fell in love with the yellow that is on her profile picture and this Sinful Colors Unicorn reminded me of that. I just had to try it! It is a light pastel yellow that kind of looks "dirty." It is not as bright and in your face as some yellows can be.

It required three coats to get an even color as application was less than perfect with streaking and dragging. Also, even with a base coat my nails were badly stained yellow after taking this off :(

It looked like sunshine whenever I looked at my hands. Outside, it was overcast and hard to photograph the color accurately. It is not quite this bright in real life...

It did lend itself perfectly to being stamped with a giraffe pattern using Essence Just In Case. My bf kept saying "turtle" and I kept saying "giraffe" back and forth, but in either case, isn't it adorable?

I used Bundle Monster plate BM-215 for the stamping!

Brand: Sinful Colors Collection: Polka Dots! Color Name/Number: Unicorn 953 Formaldehyde, Toluene and Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP) free

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Formaldehyde in the News!

If you have not already, it may be time to purge your polish collection. Formaldehyde has officially been added to the list of known carcinogens (as opposed to just suspecting) by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. You can read more about it in this article or just search current news!

I have started going through mine and stumbled on some that claim to be B3F, but list Tosylamide/Formaldehyde Resin as an ingredient. This got me a bit confused, but after a quick search I learned that the resin is formed by a reaction between toluenesulfonamide and formaldehyde. The resin product that is commonly used in nail polish is considered safe and approved by both the FDA and the European Union for use in cosmetics. You can read more information about it here!


So will you be getting rid of any favorites?

Thanks for reading!
Anutka

You Snoose... You Loose... :P

I wanted to enter Spooky Nails Animalistic Nail Art Contest, but did not have much time to really play with my nails and paint what I wanted until my day off on Sunday. I didn't notice that the entries needed to be in by midnight her timezone, so with our 9 hour difference, by the time I sent it in, she replied that I was 16 minutes too late... Oh, well, you snooze, you loose... In any case, check out the contest and vote for your favorite!!! There are lots of cute entries :)

My inspiration for this was a cute little bunny that runs around in my neighborhood. Someone must have gotten it for Easter and then either let the bunny go or it ran away. First time I saw it was the day after Easter and I have seen it a few times since then! It is a little brown bunny. The gray one I added to keep the 1st one company because I always think it must be lonely in my neighborhood with no other bunnies to play with :D

I had a blast painting these and cannot wait to try more nail art next time! Plus, now I get to show it to all of you... :P

These were fun to draw, but I wouldn't actually wear them out to work or anywhere serious... what about you? Would you wear something like this out?

Thanks for looking :)
Anutka

LA Colors Color Craze Recap...

I have to admit that I am relieved to be done swatching the collection. Don't get me wrong, I had a blast playing with all these colors and I like them a lot, but I didn't like knowing that my choice in the morning was so limited... all the other colors were screaming "pick me, pick me" and I had to resist :P

So here they all are one more time...

Black - A very shimmery black that didn't seem to quite fit in with the other bright colors, but aside from that was gorgeous. I was hoping that by the time I was done with the collection it would be sunny and hot and I wouldn't want to wear black, but it is still overcast and looking at these swatches I want to wear a dark color again :)

Blue - A shimmery metallic blue that was opaque in 2 coats. I tried my hand at some gold stamping, but my gold was not gold enough.

Sea Siren - My favorite color in the collection is this turquoise. It doesn't have the glitter or shimmer that the other colors have, but it is gorgeous on it's own and does have a hidden shimmer when it is in the sun. P.S Thanks to lovely follower ABOP for the name of this polish :D

Current - This one required four coats and still didn't cover up the nail line. Other than that this is a fun shimmery lime green. I stamped it with the Turquoise from this collection and it turned out to be a nice color combo.

Orange - Another one that required 4 coats to cover up the nail line. It is very shimmery and looked great out in the sun. I'm not a big fan of orange on me, but it was fun with Zoya Kelly stamping and would be great for a Halloween mani...

Raspberry - This one also required 4 coats which is sad because the color was a win for me. Adding Zoya Sam stamping helped cover up the nail line more and gave it a nice subtle pattern and a slightly deeper color.

Purple - My second favorite was this shimmery purple. It only needed 2 coats and was packed with glitter for a for a wonderful shimmer. I almost ruined with with white angled tips, but it turned out OK in the end :)

Here are the little swatches of this collection that are up on the swatches page. You can always quickly access any of the posts from there simply by clicking on the swatch! :D

If you know any of the actual names for these please let me know!!!

UPDATE:
"Lime" = Current NP414
"Turquoise" = Sea Siren

LA Colors Color Craze - Shimmer Brights

So, which was your favorite?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

LA Colors Color Craze - Purple

The final polish in the Shimmer Brights collection from LA Colors turned out to be one of my favorites. It is a bright shimmery purple that applied like a dream. Unlike the lime, rasberry, and orange before it, it took only 2 coats to be fully opaque! It is packed full of fine glitter. I wore it just by itself all day and did not want to take this one off...

Here it is with just two coats and a top coat.

I did catch a little sun break in between all the clouds, but not enough to fully appreciate the gorgeous shimmer...

I tried to do some nail art in the evening and was not really pleased with the result, which made it easier to want to take it off. First I painted a slanted white tip using Wet n Wild French White Creme and scotch tape. The picture in my head looked great, but sadly on the nail the white was just way to loud and distracting. I covered it with another coat of the purple to tone down the white and ended with a half dark/half light purple nail. Way better than the white, but really boring. I accented it with a few silver strokes using Essence Nail Art Silver Surfer to give it some interest. Not bad, kind of like it, but need more practice with the strokes... way to fat :D

I'll be wearing this purple again for sure... Any suggestions of better ways to accent it?

Brand: LA Colors Line: Color Craze Collection: Simmer Brights Color Name/Number: ??? (calling it Purple) Toluene, Formaldehyde & DBP free!

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)