Pure Ice: Five Shades of Grey

Friday, June 29, 2012
I may be the only one who has not heard of the novel Fifty Shades of Grey. It was not until seeing a press release from Pure Ice offering us their five shades of grey that I looked it up. Since I prefer for my blog to be nail polish related, I will leave the topic of the book for another day and instead show you the five shades of gray from Pure Ice...

Beware
A densely packed silver glitter in a clear base. It has almost full nail coverage in three coats and any missed spots are hardly seen with all that sparkle. The photos don't accurately convey just how shiny and glittery this really is. A gorgeous polish that can be worn either alone or used in small doses for nail art. This is three coats with a top coat, originally swatched here...





Swatch Details
Brand: Pure Ice
Collection: main line
Color Name/Number: Beware, 537CP
Number of coats: 3
Top Coat: Yes

Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Kiss Me Here
A medium gray jelly cream. The formula on this great, two coats for full coverage and that little bit of jelly in the polish gives it a nice squishy look. It dries slightly darker than bottle color. You might already know of my love for gray polish, so I will leave it at that. Nothing bad to say about it, just happy to have it in my collection...




Swatch Details
Brand: Pure Ice
Collection: main line
Color Name/Number: Kiss Me Here, 541CP
Number of coats: 2
Top Coat: Top

Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Lightning Strikes (over Kiss Me Here)
A silver foil crackle. I originally showed it in a St. Patrick's day manicure here, but thought it would be fun to try over a gray (as though I didn't already have enough excuses to wear gray). The formula cracks very well and consistently. The trick is to not apply too thick...




Swatch Details
Brand: Pure Ice
Collection: Crackle
Color Name/Number: Lightning Strikes, 568CP
Number of coats: 1 (over Pure Ice Kiss Me Here)
Top Coat: Yes

Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Risk Taker
A metallic taupe shimmer. I wouldn't necessarily call it gray, but have no objections to it being one of the five shades of gray. Nearly full coverage in two coats. As with most shimmers it can get streaky, but nothing that careful application can't take care of. This is two coats with a top coat...




Swatch Details
Brand: Pure Ice
Collection: main line
Color Name/Number: Risk Taker, 305CP
Number of coats: 2
Top Coat: Yes

Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Silver Mercedes
A bright silver shimmer. I'm tempted to call this one a chrome finish, but resort to calling it a shimmer because of the shimmer like streakiness. This also needs careful application to avoid the streaks. It is opaque in one coat, but I used two to even out the color and correct streaks. Because it is so opaque, this polish is absolutely perfect for stamping. Most recently, I used it for the goth manicure and the emerald manicure. How many backup bottles would you think is too much? I'm still debating the issue...




Swatch Details
Brand: Pure Ice
Collection: main line
Color Name/Number: Silver Mercedes, 988CP
Number of coats: 2
Top Coat: No

Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

I'd love to know what you think of these!
Hope you are all having a wonderful Friday...

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)


** Polishes marked with an asterisk (*) were provided to me for review by the manufacturer or their PR. **
** For more information please see the disclosure policy **

Spoiled - Are Mermaids Real Stamped

Tuesday, June 26, 2012
About a month ago I won a giveaway from DaschiaBeautyShop's Facebook page. The prize included a Big SdP-O plate, an XL big stamper and two plastic scrapers. I'm so excited about the prize and have been dreaming up manicures to create while wishing for more time to play with them. This is the first (sort of) manicure that I created with the plate...


The plate contains 42 full nail large stamps. There are seven pairs of images that are mirrored and can be stamped for a matching left/right hand. The stamps are large enough that I was able to stamp the image width-wise and cover the whole nail...

The stamper is the perfect size for these large images and works beautifully. I really like this white silicone. It is softer and picks up the images extremely well. However, along with picking up the images well it also seems to attract and pick up all random nearby lint.

Thank you so much to DashicaBeautyShop for the wonder prize. Make sure to check out the shop for all the amazing plates and supplies :)


Just in case you still don't think these images are large... this is the second image from the left in the bottom row... the red rectangle below outlines the area of the stamp that actually made it onto my nail...


This is my second attempt at this manicure and I'm glad that I didn't give up. My first attempt was a mess because I was stamping the middle of the image and did not have an edge to properly align against. I won't even mention the amount that stamped outside the nail making clean up a major pain in the behind and leaving my fingers black. After 30 minutes or so, I gave up trying to clean up and removed the whole thing.

It took a few days before I was brave enough to try it again. In an attempt to prevent a mess, I taped my fingers off as one might do for a water marble. That way anything that stamped outside the nail was easily removed. The technique worked beautifully and only minimal clean up was required...



Spoiled Are Mermaids Real is a beautiful lilac purple jelly with a strong gold fleck shimmer. I'm absolutely in love wit this polish. Two to three coats for full coverage. The fleck shimmer is just stunning and it sparkles and shines a lot. The swatches here are two coats with a top coat...




Closeup of the gorgeous shimmer!


Swatch Details
Brand: Spoiled by Wet 'n Wild
Collection: main line
Color Name/Number: Are Mermaids Real?, S063
Number of coats: 2
Top Coat: Yes

Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

I would love to know what you think of this!

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Sunday Stamping: Goth with Zoya Dovima

Sunday, June 24, 2012
It is hard to believe that today is once again time for the Sunday Stamping challenge in the group Adventures in Stamping. This week the challenge is a goth manicure in honor of a fellow group member. I really couldn't pass up the chance to do something outside of my comfort zone and I quite like the result. Hope I'm not insulting anyone :)


I started out with a matte black base of Zoya Dovima and stamped over it using Wet 'n Wild Black Creme and Bundle Monster plate BM10 to give it some background texture. The pattern reminded me of crosses.  Next I stamped the ring finger using Bundle Monster plate BM-225 and Pure Ice Silver Mercedes. Two red rhinestones were added for glowing eyes. The rest of the nails were stamped with just the scull from Bundle Monster plate BM-211 and bits of bones from BM-225 using Sally Hansen Ista Dri in Presto Pewter.



The accent nail...


Zoya Dovima is a matte black cream. It does have a shimmer to it which comes out if a top coat is used, however I chose to wear it with no top coat. The formula and application were great. Two coats for full coverage using thicker layers, otherwise it might take three thin ones. It has very good dry time and the matte effect develops as it dries. The matte effect takes longer to show up compared to using just a matte top coat, but is worth the wait. And it doesn't hurt that I absolutely love the stain feel of a matte polish...




Swatch Details
Brand: Zoya
Collection:
Color Name/Number: Dovima, ZP499
Number of coats: 2
Top Coat: No

Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Guest Post on Refined and Polished

Friday, June 22, 2012
Today I'm so excited to be guest posting on Refined and Polished! I may not be refined, but I'm certainly polished, so head on over to Refined and Polished to check out the details on this jelly glitter sandwich :)


Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Layering Experiment: Sally Hansen Resolution with Sinful Colors Cinderella

Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Often when I am trying to find the right color for a manicure, I layer potential candidates over an existing manicure just to see the color. It is not often that I find a combination that I choose to wear as a full manicure. Such was the case when I was trying to find a color to match my dress last week. I ended up using a different green for my emerald manicure, but thought I would show you this pretty combo today.


The combination is Sally Hansen Hi-Definition nail color in Resolution layered over Sinful Colors Cinderella. For some reason I had expected Resolution to be more opaque so I was excited to see how the green polish turned teal with a golden green shimmer upon being layered. It also has such a pretty dusty look to it...



On it's own Sinful Colors Cinderella is a bright baby blue with a strong pink to silver fleck shimmer. The pink shimmer is quite pronounced even though it didn't come across well in the photos.  The formula on this is rather sheer with the nail line still visible even after three coats as seen below. Also it is a bit on the thick side, but application is still manageable. Next time I intend to layer this polish over a similar, but more opaque baby blue. I think the color definitely makes up for any formula flaws...





Swatch Details
Brand: Sinful Colors
Collection: main line
Color Name/Number: Cinderella, 1106
Number of coats: 3
Top Coat: Yes

Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Let me know what you think of this combo!
Do you have a favorite combo that you accidentally stumbled upon?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Anyone else find this cute/funny?

Tuesday, June 19, 2012
I just thought this was too funny not to buy and share with you. I was a Big Lots a few days ago and they had a ton of Revlon Polishes in stock... something strange though. Anyone else catch it? A whole bunch of the bottles in the packages have Rite Aid price and yellow clearance stickers on them... Good to know they didn't even care enough to remove them ;)


My next cute purchase came from the Dollar Tree. I was lucky enough to snag some Sally Hansen Insta-Dri while I was there, but what really caught my eye were these packages with tiny bottles with nail art accessories. Different glitters, bullion beads, and other decorations...


Just to show you how tiny the bottles really are, here is one of them next to a quarter. Sure, I could have gotten a better deal buying these accessories on Ebay or other nail art store and get much more of them, but how freaking cute are these little glass vials? :D


Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)