Brazilian Nail Mail...

I am beyond giddy right now because of what I got in the mail yesterday! A few months ago Fran from Francirocks contacted me to see if I would be interested in swapping nail polishes. I had never done a swap before, but it sounded like fun. It took us a few months of emailing back and forth to choose and find what we each wanted. In the process I not only gained some gorgeous nail polishes, but also a wonderful friend. I couldn't have asked for a better experience...


Here is what she sent me...

Flakies...

Aurora Boreal holo...

And beauties of her own choice, plus some cute pencils and a magnet...

Almost forgot to mention, those little yellow tabs behind the bottles are her handwritten translations of the polish names! She is the sweetest! :)

I am so nervous now hoping that what I sent her arrives safe and sound and she likes everything as much as I love these!

Have you swapped before? I'd love to hear about your experience...

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Ulta Devious Stamped with Ulta High Roller

Way back when I posted about one of my hauls, some of you requested to see polishes from the Ulta brand first. Here is my effort to do just that. :)

I started out with Ulta's Devous, a dark purple creme and stamped it with Ulta's High Roller using Bundle Monster plate BM-203. Stamping was a bit lopsided on the ring and pinkie fingers, but it is hardly noticeable if I just stop starring at it.

High Roller is a champagne gold foil. It appears to be a combination of gold and silver particles and is just perfect for stamping. I will try to post swatches of it alone as well. I seem to be digging the purple/gold combo lately :)

Here is Devious all by itself. It is a deep purple plum color in a cream finish. You can almost get full coverage in one careful coat, but I ended up using two. The formula and slightly flattened/widened brush are great. What else can I say? It is a definite keeper for me!

Swatch Details
	Brand: Ulta Collection: Salon Formula Color Name/Number: Devious Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Have you tried Ulta polishes before? Which is your favorite?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Mail Time...

I think I love my mail man. Ok, not really. He is a middle aged man and I have only seen him a few times, but he brought me the most wonderful gifts on Monday. I didn't get a chance to post about them that day, but better late than never.

First up is the the amazing Fall Giveaway that I won from Carolina of Colores de Carol. I assume you have all seen her blog by now, but if you have not make sure to check it out. She posts wonderful swatches and stamped manicures that I'm always drooling over!

Here is what she sent me... I couldn't believe all this stuff! She also threw in some candy and Mary Kay color cards to sweeten up the box.

Thank you sooo much Carolina I cannot wait to try all of this!!!

Next up is another giveaway that I won. This one is from Jennifer at Fab Fatale. I love her Manicure Mondays series. Make sure to check it out as well!

Thank you Jennifer! You have fulfilled a big lemming for me!

P.S. My bf swears these are all the same color... :D

Ok, now to the stuff that I bought....
For this one I blame Marta from ChitChat Nails and her Mind Control manicure. I think the mind control must have worked because I ordered these 10 minutes after I saw her manicure. :)

I left this photo in original size so you can click to zoom in for detail...

Lastly are some nail art brushes I ordered from Ebay. These came as two sets of three. Maybe these will make my nail art better? What was that you say? Real talent isn't in the tools... Darn, I was really hopeful! :P

Thanks so much for looking! I hope you have fabulous mail days every once in a while too! :)

Anutka :)

Sinful Colors - Wish Collection Swatches & Review

I got the chance to review the new Wish holiday collection from Sinful Colors. It consists of five base colors and two nail art polishes. The collection has a nice variety of colors to play around with. Since there are lots and lots of photos, I'll try to make the text sweet and to the point :)

Out of this World is a nice pearly silver color. Application was great with surprisingly good coverage after two coats. I'll admit I was worried this one would never be fully opaque, but I was proven wrong. I hesitate to call this a full foil, but it did apply like one. I think it would look perfect sponged over blue, but that is for another day.

Swatch Details
	Brand: Sinful Colors Collection: Wish (Holiday 2011) Color Name/Number: Out of this Wold, 842 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Midnight Blue is a bright metallic blue. It is a gorgeous color although a bit too much for my skin tone. It came out slightly lighter than bottle color. Application was good with full coverage in two coats. Removal was a pain and resulted in a major case of smurf hands. Make sure to use a good base coat with this to protect your nails and remove very carefully to avoid staining.

Swatch Details
	Brand: Sinful Colors Collection: Wish (Holiday 2011) Color Name/Number: Midnight Blue, 13 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Sugar Sugar is a bright metallic red with a slight shimmer. This one is not new to my collection, but it is one of my favorites. I have swatched it here before. I also used it for a 4th of July manicure and the inspired by a flag challenge from the 31 day challenge. I didn't see the harm in swatching it again though, so here it is :D Application for this is good with two coats for full coverage.

Swatch Details
	Brand: Sinful Colors Collection: Wish (Holiday 2011) Color Name/Number: Sugar Sugar, 839 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Daddy's Girl is a purple jelly with multichrome specks. This is such a gorgeous polish in the bottle. The specks flashed everything from purple to magenta to gold and at the right angle I could see green and blue. Sadly, it came out very sheer and none of those colors showed up on the nail. I applied three coats and a top coat. Otherwise, no bald spots or pulling with this jelly so application was good.

Swatch Details
	Brand: Sinful Colors Collection: Wish (Holiday 2011) Color Name/Number: Daddy's Girl, 841 Number of coats: 3 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Daddy's Girl over Black on Black:
Since Daddy's Girl was so sheer, I decided to try it over Sinful Colors Black on Black. This is one coat of Black on Black with two coats of Daddy's Girl. Ahhh, just look at those flecks. I love it. It did loose some of it's beautiful purple in the process so next time I will try it over a deep purple as a base and see if I can still capture those flakies. :)

You can click to zoom in for more detail...

Last Chance is a deep forest green creme. It came out darker than bottle color for me and in some light looked almost black. I have no complaints though, since I love dark colors. Application was good and it covered completely in two coats. This did stain my nails a bit upon removal, so again I recommend using a nice base coat with this.

Swatch Details
	Brand: Sinful Colors Collection: Wish (Holiday 2011) Color Name/Number: Last Chance, 948 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Now on to the the Nail Art polishes in the collection...

Flower Girl is a gold foil with a nice, easy to work with striping brush. I chose to just draw a few lines and dots over Daddy's Girl (over Black on Black). I didn't want to take this one off. Came out so cute :)
The only problem I had with this is the smell. It is much stronger than any Sinful Colors polish I have tried. I'm not sure the reason behind this as it is also Formaldehyde, Toluene, and DBP free. :(

Fashionista is a silver glitter in a clear base. I tried it over Last Chance for my manicure. This one does not make sense to me in a nail art form as it does not allow for precise drawing. The glitter just goes where it wants, as most glitters do. Just like Flower Girl, this one also had a nasty smell. 

What do you think of this collection? Have you tried any of these colors or nail art polishes?

** These polishes were provided to me for review by the manufacturer or their PR. For more information please see the disclosure policy **

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Avon - Violetta Sparkle Stamped with Gleaming Gold

Yesterday I showed you Violetta Sparkle from Avon and based on all your sweet comments I think you liked it as much as I do. Today I have for you a continuation of that manicure. As I mentioned my cousin got me not one, but two polishes. The second one is a gold foil  is named Gleaming Gold because she knew how much I wanted a nice gold for stamping. So, I decided to do exactly that and stamp with it.

The polish itself consists of superfine gold foil particles which makes it perfect for stamping. The foil particles in this are finer than other foils I have tried so far. I intend to wear this polish on its own soon so I will post swatches when I do. I stamped using a pattern from Bundle Monster plate BM-210. Just for fun I rotated the pattern in different directions for each nail. Lucky for me, my nails are currently short enough to allow for that. I love how this turned out and hope you do to!

Detail of the stamping...

Look, I've got two hands ;)

Let me know what you think!
Do you have a favorite stamping gold?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Avon - Violetta Sparkle

I have one of the sweetest cousins ever. She was ordering stuff from Avon and got me two polishes plus some nail rhinestones for no reason at all (well, other than she knows how crazy I am about nail polish :D). One of the polishes is this one named Violetta Sparkle. It is a dark purple base with golden copper flakes. A really gorgeous polish and perfect for this time of year. This is the first Avon polish I tried and I can officially say that I'm impressed.

It applied well with full coverage in two coats...

A closeup shot to see the flakes...

Swatch Details
	Brand: AVON Collection: Nailwear Pro Color Name/Number: Violetta Sparkle, N241 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

A big thank you Allochka, I love it :)

Have you tried Avon polishes before?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Ulta - Glitterati Mini Set

Glitterati is the second of the two mini lacquer sets from Ulta. You can see swatches of the first one from yesterday here. This set should have been called Dupe Town because every polish looks like a Deborah Lippmann dupe. Now I don't own any of the originals to truly compare them, but I have seen many swatches and have dupes for two of them that I will compare. We'll see if these are true dupes of the dupes :D

Left to right (index to pinkie finger): Hide and Go Sequins, Fashionably Late, Black Tie Affair, Glamoflauge

Hide and Go Sequins: A deep blue jelly base with small blue glitter and large blue and green hex glitter. This is three coats plus a top coat. From swatches I've seen it looks like a dupe for Deborah Lippman’s Across The Universe. I don't plan on getting the original since I hear that Essence Blue Addicted is a dupe for it as well. When/if I get the Essence polish I will compare this dupe to the other dupe. :)

Fashionably Late: A black jelly base with small square and large hex glitter. Application was decent. I'm not the biggest fan of working with glitter though. This one is a Deborah Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers wannabe. I do have Wet 'n Wild Behind Closed doors which is also a Lippmann dupe so I will compare this one to the WnW. This is three coats plus a top coat.

Black Tie Affair: This was my favorite of the set. Application was perfect. This is two coats plus a top coat. It is a gray base with micro silver and larger hex glitter. The hex glitter in this is smaller than the other polishes. I think this was meant to be a Deborah Lippmann’s Today Was A Fairytale dupe, but even from swatches I can see the hex glitter is smaller and the whole polish is darker than the Lippmann. Or maybe it is a dupe for something else? Anyone know?

Glamoflauge: A black jelly with small dot and large hex purple glitter. This is two coats plus a top coat. A Deborah Lippmann's Bad Romance wannabe. I will compare this to Revlon's Facets of Fuchisa which is claimed to be a true Lippmann dupe.

Below are some comparisons to the two Lippmann dupes that I do own. I already mentioned that I don't own Essence Blue Addicted to compare Ulta's Hide and Go Sequins to. Also, I'm not sure if there are any other dupes for Lippmann's Today Was A Fairytale.

Left to Right: Wet 'n Wild Behind Closed Doors, Ulta Fashionably Late, Revlon Facets of Fuchsia, Ulta Glamoflauge

Index to pinkie finger: Wet 'n Wild Behind Closed Doors, Ulta Fashionably Late, Revlon Facets of Fuchsia, Ulta Glamoflauge

Wet 'n Wild Behind Closed Doors vs. Ulta Fashionably Late: Three coats + a top coat for each.
WnW was much much thinner and harder to apply. I found it to be more frustrating than the Ulta version. Both took three coats to build up to full opacity. The hex glitter in the Ulta polish seem to have a bit of a curl to them where the WnW one does not. Also the small glitter in the Ulta polish appears to be square vs the WnW it is round and a bit finer. Otherwise glitter density is about the same. I would say it is a good dupe of the dupe, but not exact for sure. I will let you judge how it compares to the original.

Revlon Facets of Fuchsia vs. Ulta Glamoflauge: Two coats + a top coat for each.
I can see a definite difference between the two. The Ulta polish has a darker base and less glitter. Enough said I think. Not a true dupe. Maybe if Ulta crammed more glitter into their polish it would be a closer match.

The other difference I noticed between the polishes was when I was removing them, the Ulta hex glitters in all the polishes turned silver. It was as though it was silver glitter painted red, purple, blue, etc and the acetone just stripped all the color off leaving them silver. The glitter in the WnW and Revlon polishes stayed red and purple even after removing them. I guess it is not a big deal as long as it doesn't lose the color on the nail, but was still a bit of a surprise to me.

Here is what the set looks like... I got this one for around $2 as after Thankgsiving since it was on sale for $2.99 and I added a coupon for $3.50 off $10 purchase.

What do you think? Are these worth getting or not?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)