Tutorial Tuesday: Argyle

At some point I will catch up with all the tutorial requests from the last few weeks months, but for now I'm starting with the argyle tutorial. You can see the original manicure here. I apologize in advance for my shaky lines, but I think it still does the job of showing how to make it :)

Let me know what you think of this style of tutorial... all images in one block...

Supplies: 
- Base polish (Barielle Cashmere or Loose Me)
- Acrylic paint in white and green
- Polish (or acrylic paint) in orange (used here Essie Braziliant)
- Top coat.
- Optional: Essie Pure Pearlfection for shimmer.

Steps:
1. Apply desired number of base color coats. Shown here 2 coats of Barielle Cashmere or Loose Me.
2. Using white acrylic paint, draw diagonal line from the base of the nail to one side
3. Draw a second diagonal line parallel to the first as shown above
4. Add two more lines perpendicular to the first two, creating a diamond shape
5. Using white acrylic paint fill in the diamond and triangles at each corner
6. When the acrylic paint is dry, apply a coat of Essie Braziliant over the white paint
7. Add a second coat of Essie Braziliant if needed
8. Using green acrylic paint (or nail polish) create an X across the nail
9. Add remaining green lines to complete the argyle pattern as shown above
10. Go over everything with a top coat and enjoy!
- Optional: You can add a shimmer such as Essie Pure Pearlfection prior to top coat if desired. See my original manicure for photos with and without the shimmer. 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Let me know what you think of it!
As always, if you give this a try, send me a link... I would love it see it :)

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Barielle End of the Rainbow with Starry Sky

Today I have two more Barielle polishes to show you. A teal named End of the Rainbow and a glitter named Starry Sky. Starry Sky consists of hex shaped silver glitter in a clear base. I applied one thick coat of Starry Sky to get all the glittery goodness. It was easiest to apply by first placing a drop of polish with glitter on the nail and then spreading it around with the brush. This seemed to give me better control of where the glitter went to avoid empty spots. It is nice to just add a touch of sparkle to a manicure. I can picture it looking like a true starry sky if layered over a dark blue or black.

Bunnies...

This manicures is not new. I actually created it for a nail art contest last year here, but I thought it would be fun to show again. Since I don't celebrate Easter, I chose not to participate in the Easter themed Sunday Stamping challenge for the Facebook group Adventures in Stamping, as I usually would. However I am enjoying seeing all their fun manicures and it reminded me of the bunnies that I see running around my neighborhood around this time of the year...

This was one my my first nail art attempts when I started this blog, so it is fun to look back. Unfortunately I don't remember what base I used for the manicure, but the art is acrylic paints...

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Barielle Eli's Magic with Shannon's Attitude

Today I have two lovely Barielle polishes, Eli's Magic and Shannon's Attitude to show you. For some reason the combination of the two names to form a title seems to amuse me at the moment. I'm blaming it on lack of sleep...

Funky French with OPI My Pointe Exactly and Zoya Kelly Tips

When I first saw My Pointe Exactly, the sheer gray from the OPI New York City Ballet collection I knew I had to pair it with Zoya Kelly. I was really curious if the two grays would play well together. I started out with three coats of My Pointe Exactly, which you can see from the original swatches remains fairly sheer with a visible nail line. Then I taped off the nail using Scotch tape and polished the tips using Zoya Kelly. Silver lines were added with an Essence Nail Art polish in Silver Surfer. I really love the brush that comes with Silver Surfer. It is very fine and easy to work with. The black rose is actually from a nail sticker set that I ordered from Ebay. It blended well to give the look of stamping.

Broken Computer and Other Randomness...

My computer did me a favor on Monday by breaking. Yup, you read it correctly, it did me a favor. I turned it off Monday afternoon before heading to work and when I got home at night it refused to turn on. Luckily I happen to have a computer wizard residing with me and he promptly disassembled the computer to figure out the problem. It was still in pieces on Tuesday, so instead of my original plan to catching up on blog stuff I did some much needed cleaning, IKEA visiting and dinner with friends. It is amazing what can be accomplished in a day when the computer is off. I know the blog might take a slight hit, but I plan on spending less time in front of the computer and more time in real life (for my sanity)...

Even though I managed to stay away from the computer, I couldn't stay away from nail polish. After dinner my cousin came over and asked if I would replicate my recent storks manicure for her. It is fun to create manicures like this, so I was happy to oblige. I am quite pleased with how it turned out and I think she was too. Here is the result...

OPI New York City Ballet

I may have mentioned once or twice (who am I kidding, at least a dozen times) how much I love sheer polishes. It will come as no surprise then to say how much I love the new OPI New York City Ballet collection. The collection contains five sheer jelly polishes and one glitter polish which can be layered over any of them. This may be the first collection where I can't pick favorites. I definitely foresee some french manicures in my future...