Day 29 - Inspired by the Supernatural

Quite honestly I wasn't feeling very inspired by the supernatural for today's challenge. There are lots of ways this could have gone, but I was not in the mood for anything loud and crazy so I decided to keep it simple. Plus, I wanted something that I would be able to wear in public :). I chose to do another take on galaxy nails and throw in a few UFOs for the supernatural effect. Yes, those little silver blips at the top of the nails and one that landed on the tip of my index finger are supposed to be UFOs.

It may not be the best take on the challenge, but I do like the manicure and I hope you do to...

The polishes used for this manicure:
- Borghese - Mezzanotte Blue (base)
- LA Colors - No name metallic blue
- Rimmel - Violet Metal
- Essie - Braziliant
- Wet 'n Wild - Silvivor

I'd love to know what you think. Are you sick of galaxy nails yet or still loving them?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Day 28 - Inspired by a Flag

For the flag challenge I had to pay tribute to my birthplace of Belorussia which is a big part of my childhood memories. Even though I moved to the US as a kid and have now lived here twice as long as I ever lived there, it is still near and dear to my heart.

For the manicure I used two coats of Sinful Colors Sugar Sugar for the red (both the base and the stamping). The green is three coats of Wet 'n Wild SaGreena the Teenage Witch. The white is French White Creme also from Wet 'n Wild. Sadly the red seeped through the white and discolored it. I even tried covering it with white acrylic paint, but the red still seeped through. This happened before in my 4th of July manicure, but I completely forgot until seeing it turn pink right in front of my eyes again.

For the border pattern I used Bundle Monster plate BM-213 which I thought was an excellent match for the flag pattern. Slightly less detailed, but who am I to complain :)

Here is the flag of Belorussia that was my inspiration today...

Image from Flags.net

Let me know what you think! :D

Thanks for looking,
Anutka :)

Day 27 - Insipired by Artwork

This challenge was inspired by a piece of art work that I stumbled upon on another blog. I have never heard of the artist before, but there was something about the painting that caught my eye. It is from a California based Swalla Stuido. As far as I can tell, this painting, which is no longer for sale, is called "Hope & Dreams".

I went with slightly bluer tones for the background than the original painting (you can see the original at the end of this post). For my base, I used an unnamed Cosmetic Arts polish. I really dislike that it has no name, but the polish is gorgeous. I'll post swatch photos of it eventually. All the other colors are hand mixed acrylic paints. I have been having a lot of fun with acrylics lately. So here is my interpretation of "Hope & Dreams"...

Here is the original painting from Swalla Stuio. As you can see it has a lot more green than I chose to use.

What do you think? Did I do it justice? :)

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Day 26 - Inspired by a Pattern

I have wanted to try the plaid pattern on my nails for quite some time, but have been too intimidated by the fine lines. I knew I couldn't avoid it any longer when today's challenge finally rolled around. The fine detail in the pattern took me so long to paint that I gave up after these four nails and this sadly never made it to a full manicure. I do love how it turned out and hopefully after I get more practice drawing tiny lines, I can recreate this on a full manicure. The whole time I couldn't help but think that it looked as though I had a cozy flannel shirt on my nails :D

I started out with two coats of Wet 'n Wild Red Red. It is a bright, classic red with a touch of raspberry thrown in. I forgot to take swatch photos of it by itself. Must have been too excited to start. For the pattern I used black, white, and red acrylic paint. I mixed the three colors to create the two shades of gray for the wide stripes. Then I accented them with pure black, white and red stripes.

Here is the result...

I definitely need more practice with the lines and keeping a steady hand, but I think it is not bad overall.

I'd love to know what you think, so don't be shy :)

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving. I decided I would take the time to list a few things that I'm thankful for. I'm only listing things that pertain to this blog because lets face it, you wouldn't want to read my whole sappy list :D

Here they are in no particular order...

• I'm thankful for... this blog itself because it gives me a great creative outlet for my artistic side. I'm always wanting to discover new things, try new techniques, improve my photo skills and share it all here on this little piece of the web. The blog also forces me to take better care of my nails for which I'm very thankful :)
• I'm thankful for... every comment from those who take the time to read my blog and let me know what you think about it. The comments truly keep me going especially on days when I want to just give up blogging or am feeling to lazy to photograph, edit, or write about the manicures. I saw a sidebar button on someone's blog that said "your comments feed by blog" and I have to say that is 100% true. I know not everyone who reads this or glances at it has time to comment and I completely understand since I often do that myself, but for those who take the time I'm extremely thankful!
• I'm thankful for... all the followers. I don't say this enough because I don't want to concentrate on just numbers. What I'm really thankful for is just the fact that there are those of you who take the time to follow and read my blog. I'm not too concerned if you choose to follow publicly, privately, via Google Reader, Facebook, or just bookmark the blog and stop by sometime... :)
• I'm thankful for... all the other wonderful blogs out there. It is through these blogs that I have discovered the true art of the manicure. I have learned how to file my nails, care for my cuticles and clean up after polishing. I have learned what B3F means and what the safe polishes are so that I'm more conscious of what I purchase and what I put on my nails. It is thanks to these ladies and their gorgeous manicures that I have been inspired to try stamping, sponging, water marbling, and so much more. There are still so many things that I want to try... I can't express my gratitude enough for all their knowledge and inspiration! Although it is also thanks to these ladies that I have discovered what a lemming is and that is something I would rather not know ;)
• I'm thankful for... the girl time that I have gotten to spend with my friends while playing with polishes. I hope there will be many more gatherings of this nature in our near future! :)
• I'm thankful for... those in my life who support this endeavor. One such supporter has always been and still is my boyfriend. He is always willing to comment on my manicures when I stick them in front of his face, whether it is with a shrug, a "cool", a "meh", or some other brief statement of acknowledgment. There have been plenty of times when I'm so wrapped up in working on the manicure, the photos, or the blog post that I have ignored him completely and he still somehow manages to be patient with me. So I'm extremely thankful for that!
• I'm thankful for... the 31 day challenge. I look back on where I started and see a huge difference in my manicures, my photos and my skills. Even though this challenge is taking me soooo much longer to complete than it really should, I'm glad I did it. I'm also thankful that I'm almost done with it and will soon be able to move on to new things :D

Yikes, I can't believe I had that much to be thankful for in this little blog. I'm sure I could think of more things, but I think I'll stop here. If any of you read even a small part of this you deserve a gold star! :)

I tag all the other blogger reading this post to think about or write about what you are thankful for in your blog!

Thanks for reading!
Anutka :)

Day 25 - Inspired by Fashion

Fashion is not and never was something that I chase, obsess over or even follow much, but I think hearing about the Missoni collection for Target was something that even I couldn't avoid. This by no means implies that I made any attempts to purchase things from that collection. Honestly, the thought never even crossed my mind. I did however admire a few of the pieces online, particularly their color combinations and patterns.

In the end, it was a photo of luggage that inspired my manicure for today's challenge. I started out with two coats of Color Club Nomadic in Nude as my base. Then, using Bundle Monster plate BM-201, I stamped the zigzag pattern, which in my opinion is a great match for the Missoni pattern. The colors used include Color Club Chelsea Girl (blue), Color Club Wham! Pow! (orange) and Barielle Tight Knit (brown)...

Below is a photo of the luggage that inspired me. As you can see, I wasn't able to get all of the colors from the inspiration piece into my manicure. A little dash of black would have been nice to really make it pop, but the stamp method does not allow for such precision (or maybe I'm just not good enough?). I still love how it turned out and no one said it had to be an exact copy... :D

I'd love to know what you think! :)

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Day 24 - Inspired by a Book

Whoever said "don't judge a book by it's cover" certainly didn't have this challenge in mind. I chose to head straight for my bookshelf and see if any cover would stand out to me. As soon as I saw this aromatherapy book with a sweet peach speckled cover, I knew I had to try it.

I started out with two coats of Sally Hansen Sweet Pea, which is the closest color that I have to match the cover. A pretty peach with a very subtle pink shimmer. You can see swatches of it in the sun here (taken back in May when there was actually sun around here). Then, using Zoya Kelly I added some very, very light sponging followed by stamping. For the stamping I chose random floral patterns from the plates M88, M72, M75 and M69 that I ordered on Ebay. Topped the whole thing of with a topcoat and voila...

And just in case you are curious, the book is called Aromatherapy, written by Anna Selby. You can see parts of the cover in my photos, but I was too lazy to photograph the whole thing since I knew I could find an image online... so below is an image of the cover taken from Amazon.com. It is not as pink in real life as it is in this picture. The colors in my photos are truer to life.

So so what do you think of the manicure? Is it OK to use the cover for inspiration or did I cheat ;)

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)