piCture pOlish White Wedding Stamped with Dorothy

After I was done swatching the beautiful piCture pOlish White Wedding and Dorothy for yesterday's Blog Fest post, I couldn't help but play around with the two. They were perfect a perfect combination for a sweet romantic manicure. I could definitely wear something like this for Valentine's day or maybe a wedding? See what you think...

piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2012: Dorothy and White Wedding

I cannot even tell you how excited I am to get to participate on piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2012 this year. I was sent two brand new shades which are being released today to try out. Since piCture pOlish is all about creating a scene with their polishes, I decided to take a break from my usual swatch background and do something fun. I hope you enjoy...

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!

Zoya Gloss Collection NYFW Fall 2012

Today I have for you the third and final collection in Zoya's fall lineup, Zoya Gloss collection. It contains three very sheer gloss shades that can be built up and worn on their own or layered over other polishes to create interesting effects...

Zoya Diva Collection NYFW Fall 2012

Today I have for you the second of Zoya's three Fall collections. This is the Diva collection inspired by New York Fashion Week. It contains four shimmery metallic colors and two sparkle filled metallic colors. I'm really having a hard time picking favorites here. Take a look at the swatches below and let me know which ones you like the best!

Zoya Designer Collection NYFW Fall 2012

I'm so excited to have gotten my little paws on Zoya's new Fall 2012 collections to be able to show them to you. Zoya has released three collections inspired by New York Fashion Week and they include Designer, Diva and Gloss. Three of the shades in these combined collections were originally custom creation for fashion designers.

I will start by showing you the Designer collection today which consists of six creams perfect for fall. Since there are lots of photos to show you, I'll get right to it...

Tutorial Tuesday: Mirror Image Stamping Trick

I promised this tutorial more than a month ago and I'm really ashamed that it took this long, but I'll spare you the excuses. You can actually thank my boyfriend for motivating me to finally find the time to put this together. He started bugging me and asking me why I have not done something I promised to all my lovely readers. He even insinuated that I would never hit 1000 followers unless I got this done. Sheesh! Well I'm really, really, really thrilled to have reached 1000 followers last night and I got this done to boot! I can't even tell you how excited I am right now. Thank you everyone who reads my babble, follows this blog and takes the time to comment. You are certainly my motivation to keep this going. :D

Before I get to the tutorial, I want to point out that this assumes you already know how to stamp. If you do not, there are a lot of wonderful tutorials online. One I always like to recommend is the Getting a Good Stamp Image tutorial from soguesswhat11.

This tutorial is based on the emerald manicure which had one hand mirroring the other. I'm going to show you the trick I use to do that without having mirror image stamps available. Now on to the tutorial... 

Supplies

• Zip-lock (or any plastic) bag
• Polishes: Clear polish, base color and stamping polish
• Stamping supplies (Stamp/stamper/scraper)
• Cuticle nippers
• Cleanup brush & nail polish remover

Steps
Click on the image to zoom in...

Instructions

1. Using clear nail polish, paint rectangles slightly larger than the nail.
   - Allow the strips to dry for a few hours.
   - I make make these ahead of time and allow them to dry overnight so they are dry enough to peel off easily
2. Stamp the desired image on to the clear polish strip
   - I'm using Mash plate Mash-46
3. Using tweezers, gently peel the strips off the plastic bag
4. Apply desired number of base color coats.
   - I'm using two coats of Ulta Green with Envy followed by one coat of Barielle Budda-Ful
5. Stamp directly onto the nail for the nails you want to have the image as it appears on the stamping plate.
   - For example, I stamp the nails on my left hand directly from the plate onto the nail (as shown above on my index finger)
6. For the nails you want the mirror image, apply a coat of clear polish and allow it to get sticky, but not completely dry. Flip the stamped nail polish strip with the stamped side down and apply it to the sticky nail, as shown above on my middle finger. Smooth out any bubbles.
7. Using cuticle nippers, trim off the excess nail polish around the nail.
8. If there is any nail polish remaining that needs to be removed, you can clean it further using a brush and acetone/nail polish remover. For detailed information on how to do this, you can take a look at my clean-up tutorial.
9. Add a topcoat and you are done! 

I hope I have succeeded in making a clear tutorial on the technique I use. If something does not make sense, please don't hesitate to ask questions.

I'd love to know what you think of this!

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)