31 Day Nail Challenge

Just a quick post to let you know that I have lost my mind and decided to join The 31 Day Challenge starting tomorrow. Why lost my mind might you ask? Well for one thing it means that I will be double posting on a lot of days to keep up with the challenge as well as polish/product reviews. If that isn't enough, I will be on vacation for a week next month, so yeah... lost my mind and I will probably fail miserably to keep up, but I'll give it my best and complete it (at some point)!

I did this challenge when I first started blogging back in 2011 and learned so much. I really credit that first challenge for getting me started on nail art. At the time I did it on my own and took about 3 months to complete. I have been wanting to do challenge again and see my progress. Following along with some super talented ladies is just icing on the cake and an opportunity that I cannot pass up...

This image is courtesy of Chalkboard Nails. Check out her blog for further details on the challenge and YAY I'm super excited!!!

Will you be joining this challenge??

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Wild Birds...

I recently had the pleasure of doing an impromptu nail polish swap with the lovely Mari of muxe.net. A few of the El Corazon Eggs of Wild Birds polishes were on my lemming/wish list and I had mentioned this to her. They are not readily available in her area so I didn't expect her to ever find them, but she happened to come across them and snatched them up for me. A huge thanks to Mari for squashing one of my big lemmings. If you have not visited Mari's her blog yet, you are missing out on gorgeous swatches and nail art, so go check her out!

For today's manicure, I thought these pretty little birds would feel right at home on a polish inspired by bird eggs...

Zoya PixieDust Fall 2013 Swatches and Review

In addition to the Cashmeres and Satins collections, this year Zoya release more Fall PixieDust shades. I don't know about you, but I'm over the top, can't stop staring, don't want to take them off, so thrilled about these. Zoya sure has that magic PixieDust formula down flat! Each one is more beautiful than the next and I'm having a hard time picking favorites, so take a look and which ones catch your eye...

Tips for Removing a Double Sided (Louboutin) Manicure

Ever since this OMG Viper Louboutin Manicure, I've gotten a lot of questions regarding the removal of it. I've done a tutorial on how to create a Louboutin manicure, but never realized so many of you would be worried about removing it. To save myself from having to explain, I thought it would be easier to just show you...

Supplies:

• Acetone or polish remover (I use my own remover which just happens to be in a pure acetone bottle that is in this photo)
• Cotton  or felt squares. Felt is a bit sturdier and what I always use for my polish removal. You can see how I make my felt pieces here...
• An orange stick or something sturdy and thin to wrap the felt around
• A cleanup brush. This is the same one I use for my manicure cleanup

Steps:

Instructions:

1. Remove the polish off the top of the nail as usual
2. Wrap a piece of felt around an orange stick and place underneath the nail. Hold it there for a few seconds to dissolve the polish and then gently rub back and forth to remove the polish. Re-position the orange stick to a clean area on the felt (or take a new piece) and repeat as necessary.
3. Optional: As you can see the nail is pretty much clean, but if there are some spots you can't get to with the orange stick, take a brush soaked in acetone and run along the underside of the nail.

All done! Nakie nails :)

Although there are a lot of photos here, it really is fairly easy to remove the polish under the nail. I might add it is much easier than removing glitter off the top of the nail ;)

When doing a Louboutin manicure, make sure to use a non-staining red polish. As you can imagine, it would be much trickier to remove if the polish stained the skin...

Okay, I think that about covers it, I hope you find this useful. Let me know if I missed something or you have questions!!

P.S. The green polish is Zoya Giovanna, the last thing I swatched last night. The red is OPI Danke-Shiny Red. Totally unintentional, but looks like a perfect Holiday Louboutin mani. I'll have to keep that in mind when December rolls around :)

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Zoya Satins Collection Swatches and Review

Today I would like to show you the Zoya Satins Collection which consists of five beautiful metallic shades and one flakie topper. This is the second half of Zoya's Fall collection. The first half named Cashmeres can be seen in yesterday's post and contains six gorgeous creams. These metallic shades remind me of brilliant gemstones such as topaz, amethyst, sapphire and emerald...

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...

OMG Viper Louboutin...

Whenever my nails reach a certain length, I start dreaming of Louboutin manis. Although this one was not inspired by a particular pair of shoes, but rather by the fact that I was unwilling to part with the Viper nail strips mani quite yet and was itching for a Louboutin look...