Color Fever Angel

A lot of boggers are part of the "On Wednesday We Wear Pink" club. I'm not officially a member (I don't own that many pink polishes), but I thought I'd join in the fun this week. Angel from the Color Fever line by Petites is a very pale pink. In some light it almost borders on white with a hint of pink. Very pretty :) I decided to accent it with with an Essence sticker I got on my trip to Ulta. The black just pops against the crisp clean pink.

Here it is outside, it was overcast and drizzling a bit...

This took 3 coats to get it opaque. I had to apply it veeeeerrrry carefully because it tended to drag the color from the previous layers leaving bald spots. In the end it did come out looking smooth :)

I also applied a top coat to get it nice and shiny. The ring finger got two layers of top coat, but this may have done more harm than good. I was hoping that it would smooth out the sticker and make it flush with the nail, but instead the sticker seemed to warp and sink into the polish. Since I have never used these stickers before I don't know who to blame, the sticker or the extra topcoat. I have a sneaky suspicion that it was the extra topcoat, but I will have to play around with the stickers some more to know for sure!

Has this happened to you before?

Brand: Collection: Color Name/Number:

Thanks for reading! :)
Anutka

Kreativ Blogger Award

I want to thank The Nail Buff for tagging me for the Kreativ Blogger Award. I don't even know what to say. Certainly was not expecting this after blogging for less than a month! :D

The rules when tagged: the recipient needs to pass the award on to 10 other blogs and write 10 facts about themselves.

Here are my blog picks in alphabetical order :)
(tag, you are it... please forgive me if you have already been tagged :)
Live. Love. Laugh. Lacquer: http://love4lacquer.blogspot.com/
The Manicured Monkey: http://manicuredmonkey.blogspot.com/
Milan & Vanaily: http://milanandvanaily.blogspot.com/
The Nail Goddess: http://thenail-goddess.blogspot.com/
Nail Polish Art Addiction: http://polishartaddiction.blogspot.com/
Polish This!: http://polishthis.blogspot.com/
Prim and Polished: http://primandpolished.blogspot.com/
Sweet Sugar: http://ayuumi.blogspot.com/
Une Ruxi a Paris: http://ruxietjulien.blogspot.com/
Witoxicity: http://www.witoxicity.com/

And ten facts about me...
1. I was born in Belorussia, hence the name of my blog... Laki means polish in Russian
2. I am a reformed nail bitter. When I was about 12 years old, I made a bet with a couple of good friends to see who could hold off biting their nails the longest. That summer we all quit biting them :D
3. I have the first bottle of polish that started my addiction (about 25 years old and direct from Belorussia). There is not enough in the bottle to even swatch, but I just can't let it go...
4. I love getting a good deal on things (as witnessed by my excitement over my first Ulta trip...).
5. I love country music for which I get teased by my non-country music loving friends.
6. At one point I wanted to have my own business carving candles and even took a class to learn how. My mom talked me out of it (thanks Mommy!!!) and I became a pharmacist instead. Now I just carve for fun :)

7. Other hobbies include making jewelry (you can see a few at the bottom of this post) and decorating cakes

8. I suck at painting other peoples nails. As much as I love to paint my own, when I try with someone else, it always comes out sloppy. I don't have good coordination polishing toward me...
9. I really dislike when other people do my nails, which I why I very seldom get a professional manicure. They just never come out the right size or shape. I'm also very particular that they all have to match... and that never happens when someone else does it, so it is easier to just do it myself.
10. I don't like feet/toes. I can tolerate my own and even give them pedicures, but other people... just please keep your toes away from me and we will remain friends. This is another constant source of amusement for some friends... :)

Well now you know way too much about me... scared yet?

Thanks again to The Nail Buff for tagging me for this award!!!

Anutka :)

Sinful Colors Hazard

This is a polish named Hazard from Sinful Colors. It is a bright orange with a hint of peach in the right light. The camera had a hard time capturing the peach tones. On the nail it looks darker and brighter than in the bottle. I was not expecting such a bright color, but maybe that is because I was also looking at their new bright neon collection and this looked pale in comparison. You would think that the name Hazard would have tipped me off, but it didn't... While I was driving to work I kept thinking that the color reminds me of something... but what could it be?... then I saw the construction signs and traffic cones and it hit me... ahhh hazard! :)

So is it just me or does anyone else think that nails look great in the shower when little drops of water collect on them? I know I do! I may have to start photographing them all like this :D

And here it is outside, still overcast as spring just refuses to start this year. You can see a bit of the peach tones in the outdoor pictures.

It is a pretty thick color, but the application was easy. It did not drag as some thicker polishes tend to do. I did two coats to get it fully opaque. Actually, with careful application you can probably get away with one.
I may have to save this one for summer as right now I got quite a few funny looks at work (in hindsight, it may not have been the most appropriate for working in a hospital, but oh well) :)

Brand: Sinful Colors Collection: main line Color Name/Number: Hazard 952 Toluene, Formaldehyde, and Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP) Free

What do you think of such bright colors? Work appropriate or not?

Thanks for looking! :)
Anutka

Liebster Blog Award

Ruxandra from Une Ruxi à Paris was incredibly sweet and tagged me with the Liebster Blog Award. Thank you so much!

It is an award for blogs with less than 300 followers that the giver thinks deserve to have more. The receiver of the award is then supposed to pass it on to 3 other deserving blogs.

My three picks are:
The Nail Buff: http://thenailbuff.blogspot.com/
Once Bitten: http://oncebittenblog.blogspot.com/
The Polish Drop: http://polishdrop.blogspot.com/

As a new blogger I have learned a lot from these tree blogs, so they are a must for me! Hopefully they have not already received one, but I didn't see it on their blogs :D

Thanks again to Ruxandra from Une Ruxi à Paris for tagging me!

Anutka

Zoya Grace

This weekend ended up being a bit of a hectic one trying to host a mother's day brunch. Everything went as planned and my house is even a little cleaner than when we started. We had mimosas, ate great food (I was in a food coma for the rest of the day), and had a great time... at least as far as I know :)

My manicure was Zoya Grace. It survived all the cleaning, cooking, dish washing, and still managed to look great. It is a sheer creamy peach/pink. It would work well for a classic french manicure, but I love these colors on their own as well.

This is outside in the shade...

With the sun peaking through (not full sun...)

This cute little birdie decided to watch and see why this crazy lady is photographing her nails...
As you can see it was cloudy and overcast, so the sunshine pictures are not full sun by any means...

Besides the really dark colors, these sheers are another big weakness of mine. I have a few more Zoyas coming in my Earth Day exchange order :)
I applied three coats and it was just right for me. Truly lives up to it's name, so graceful!

Brand: Zoya Collection: Spa Essentials Color Name/Number: Grace Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP) and Camphor free Vegan friendly

That's all for now :)
Anutka

First Ulta Trip...

Yesterday I went to Ulta for the first time. Yes, you read it right. My very first time. Don't know why I have not gone before, but the fact remains. And truly I had not been all that tempted to go, until now. The only reason I even went yesterday was because I saw a few blog posts about Essence polishes... turns out they have some at Ulta. So off I went. I even came prepared with a pre-printed coupon.

I was not all that impressed with the Essence selection (doesn't even compare to what I have seen people blog about, but that's besides the point)...

So here is what I got...

Left to right: Essence Nail Art in Silver Surfer, Essence Underwater, China Glaze: Bogie, Midnight Mission, and Foxy. Essence nail art stickers in front.

For all of this (plus a lip gloss not shown) I paid $8.23. Still in shock myself... felt like I was stealing something as I was walking out of there, but no, they rang everything up... I checked!

The essence items were inexpensive to begin with, but were 50% off on top of that... hopefully this is because they'll be adding some fun new stuff soon! The China Glaze were on clearance for $2.99 each. Combine all of this with a $5 off on a $10 purchase coupon... and you start to feel like a thief, only legal :)

Needless to say, I will be making more trips to Ulta in the near future :D

Thanks for looking :)
Anutka

Sally Hansen Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea is a peachy pink color with a pink shimmer. The shimmer is very subtle on the nail, mostly seen in the sun. I could not capture the color indoors, it kept coming out just solid peach and not true to the color at all. So the only shots I'm posting are the ones taken outside. I tried to catch the sun to show the shimmer. Click on the images to zoom in for a better view :D

Please excuse my little paper cut... I will try to be more careful next time ;)

This was three coats + a top coat. The application was very nice.
I like this color, but not on my nails. It is too close to my skin color and looks awkward. I suspect it would just pop and look amazing on someone with a darker skin tone.

Brand: Sally Hansen Collection: Hard as Nails Color Name/Number: Sweet Pea

Thanks for reading :)
Anutka