Nail-aween Nail Art Challenge!

Just a little post to let you know I will be starting a Halloween nail art challenge. I had a case of commitment issues, but decided to give it a chance at the last minute. I really loved doing themed nails last year. My challenge of choice is the Nail-aween Nail Art Challenge by datyorkLOVES.

It is a self paced challenge which is what sold me on it. There are 10 themes to complete during the month of October. My plan is to start on the 4th and post every 3rd day with the last challenge falling on the 31st! I might shift a few of them, however, if they fall on a Sunday so I can keep up with the stamping challenges. For more information on the challenge or to join head over to this Facebook event...

There are other Halloween challenges to consider and follow along...

From Glitter obsession. This one was really tempting, but I had already committed (at least in my head) to the other one...

From Lacquer Dreams...

From Crumpet's Nail Tarts...

If one was really motivated (and I'm not that motivated), one could really participate in all the challenges. They only overlap on a few day ;)

Will you be doing any challenges for Halloween this year?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Sunday Stamping: Using a French Tip Design

I'm back with a Sunday Stamping challenge for the group Adventures in Stamping after missing last week's challenge. By the way last weeks theme was to let someone else pick a plate and I love the idea, so it is now on my to do list for another time. This week the challenge is to use a french tip design. Now you have to understand, to me, french tip designs in a set of plates are wasted space. No matter how long I allow my nails to grow out, those things are always too big and cover at least half my nail. I generally figure that I will never use them when I decide to purchase a set. Really, I keep hoping for the day when the manufacturers hear our plea and stop wasting space on "french tip" patterns.

OK, so I might be a bit harsh since I've used the french tip patterns once or twice before, but never as they are designed to be used. That is why this week's challenge is so great. It forces me to try to look at those images in a different way. A way that would work for shorter nails and still hopefully look good...

For this manicure, I used the Bundle Monster plate BM-219. The idea was to use it closer to the base of the nail and create a half moon with the curve of the image. I started out with of Barielle Greenwich Village and stamped using Barielle Central Park. I had a suspicion that it would work well for stamping since it is a bit thicker and very pigmented. It did not disappoint....

It seemed a bit empty with just the stamp so I added a few rows of dots and edging along the tips using Central Park. I really like how the manicure turned out, but I'm wishing I had done a different color combo. It makes me think of a nice cozy sweater and I can definitely picture it in holiday colors such as a deep burgundy...

I wanted to make sure to show Barielle Greenwich Village in the sunlight since I didn't get to for my initial review. It has a really pretty green micro shimmer embedded in the nude cream. The weather was not exactly cooperating, but I got a few shots as the sun was peeking through the clouds...

Just a sweet little shimmer, best visible under direct light...

I'd love to know what you think of this!
Have you used the french tip images as intended or are you like me trying to find other ways to use them?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

** Polishes were provided to me for review by the manufacturer or their PR. **

** For more information please see the disclosure policy **

Barielle Soho at Night vs Zoya Monica

I mentioned yesterday that Barielle Soho at Night reminded me of Zoya Monica. The two are very similar dusty plum creams from this year's Fall collections. It is pretty clear from the bottle shots that they are not dupes, but just how different are they on the nail?...

Zoya Monica: 2 coats (no top coat) on index and ring fingers
Barielle Soho at Night: 2 coats (no top coat) on middle and pinkie fingers

Soho at night is slightly more muted and dusty compared to Monica. It also seems to have a touch more of a blue tint. Both have a great cream formula and are opaque in two coats. No top coat in the comparison swatches...

They are not dupes, but really close. I'm pretty sure without a close inspection, a lot of people wouldn't notice a difference even if worn in single manicure.

What do you think of them? Different enough to justify owning both?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

** Polishes were provided to me for review by the manufacturer or their PR. **

** For more information please see the disclosure policy **

Barielle New York Style Collection (Fall/Winter 2012)

It is officially Fall and while I'm not excited at the prospect of the weather starting to turn, it is my favorite when it comes to polish colors. Barielle does not disappoint with two new collections, New York Style and Runway Fever, released for the season. Today I'm going to show you swatches of the Barielle New York Style Collection which features six smooth creams...

Barielle Big Apple Red
A classic bright red which is a staple of most nail polish collections. It has a very nice and smooth formula. While I would classify this as a cream, it does have a hint of jelly-like quality to the formula. It took two coats to reach my desired opacity. Has a slightly satin finish as it dries, so I used a top coat...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Barielle Collection: New York Style, Fall/Winter 2012 Color Name/Number: Big Apple Red, 5262 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Barielle Central Park
Medium dusty forest green cream. Formula is nice, maybe slightly thicker than I prefer. It is very pigmented and can provide full coverage in one thick or two average coats. I used two coats with no top coat for the swatches here. I'm actually excited to try this as a stamping polish since it is a bit thicker and very pigmented. I'll report on that later...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Barielle Collection: New York Style, Fall/Winter 2012 Color Name/Number: Central Park, 5263 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: No Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Barielle Soho at Night
A dusky plum purple cream with a bit of a squishy jelly feel. I love, love, love this color. The photos just don't do it justice. It reminds me a bit of Zoya Monica from the Designer collection. I'll try to do a comparison of the two. Two coats for full coverage. Swatches are with no top coat...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Barielle Collection: New York Style, Fall/Winter 2012 Color Name/Number: Soho at Night, 5264 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: No Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Barielle Fifth Avenue Boutique
A pink coral cream. This also has some jelly to the formula. Unlike the rest of the polishes in this collection, it took three coats to build up to full coverage. It is a bit more pink in real life than what shows on my monitor. The camera tends to give me "carrot" hands with these shades. The formula is very nice, dries slightly darker than bottle color. No top coat in the swatches...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Barielle Collection: New York Style, Fall/Winter 2012 Color Name/Number: Fifth Avenue Boutique Number of coats: 3 Top Coat: No Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Barielle Greenwich Village
A nude cream with a green shimmer. Yup! Green shimmer and I absolutely love it. This might be my favorite from the collection, although Soho at Night is a strong contender. I couldn't get the light just right for the shimmer to show well in the swatches. I will have to catch the sunshine and show this beauty in a better light. This surprised me needing only two coats for full coverage. No top coat used...

The pretty shimmer shows well in the bottle and does show up similarly on the nail. It needs direct light to be seen best...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Barielle Collection: New York Style, Fall/Winter 2012 Color Name/Number: Greenwich Village, 5266 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: No Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

I hope you enjoyed the swatches! What are you favorites?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

** These polishes were provided to me for review by the manufacturer or their PR. **

** For more information please see the disclosure policy **

Progress!

I just want to say thank you so much for all your kind words and support in restoring the blog! They really mean so much to me and were truly my driving force as I was reloading the photos. It took the majority of my day off yesterday plus the day before to finish, but was completely worth it just too see all the photos back up in their place. I still need to restore the press release page, but the swatches page, tutorials page, and all the posts are done!!

It has been amazing watching the snapshot page go from all black...
...to this...

...to this...

...to this...

...to completely filled in and done!

I'm pretty sure I restored them all, but if you ever spot the nasty black box instead of a photo on my blog, please, please, please let me know so I can fix it!!

Thank you again! I'm truly touched by you encouraging comments!

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Complete and Utter Defeat...

Some of you noticed the rather nasty looking black squares all over my blog yesterday where pretty photos should have been. I'm sorry to say that they will be there for a while longer. You see, Google and I got into a bit of a battle and it won. I might be a sore looser in this case, but it is not at all a graceful winner. Not only did it defeat me, but it jumped up and down, sang a victory song and quite possibly even did a body slam...

The result is the loss of six months worth of photos. If you look at the snapshot view of my blog you can see each post represented as a square. The squares with actual photos are ones I have gone through one by one and re-uploaded the photos. That took about three hours yesterday. The black squares are all the ones still left to redo...

If all the photos were not watermarked with my .blogspot URL, I would move the blog to a different provider without so much as a second though, but sadly that it is not that easy.

Looking at this image right here, I feel quite defeated and wondering if it wouldn't be easier to just shut this blog down...

Anutka :(

Essence Grey-t To Be Here

Last weekend was my cousin's masquerade ball birthday party. I made a lacy black mask and of course my nails had to match with a swirly pattern. It was great to be back in a crafty mood. Now if I could just keep the momentum going. Although that would probably dig into my manicure time so for let's just look at this....

I recently added a few of the new Essence Colour & Go polishes to my collection. Even though I have more than enough gray, I couldn't resist the pretty Essence Grey-t To Be Here with it's pretty shimmer. I stamped using Wet 'n Wild Black Cream and Bundle Monster plate BM-314...

Since I'm sure you are really wanting to know how my mask turned out, here is a peek. I made it using a really easy tutorial from Sprinkles and Springs. Absolutely love how it turned out. I'm sure I'll wear it again some day...

Essence Grey-t To Be Here is a lovely dove gray with a subtle pink shimmer. The pink shimmer is what sets it apart from all the other similar grays in my collection. I do love gray probably more than I should, but this one somehow felt cold and sadly didn't go well with my skin tone. I'm crazy about the shimmer in it though. Formula on this was a bit on the thick side, I added a few drops of thinner before using. Two coats to reach full opacity, but I used three to even out the coverage. Swatches are with a top coat...

I'm very happy that Essence chose to make their polish bottles a bit bigger, now 8mL vs the old 5mL bottles, but they doubled the price as a result. They have a nice wide brush which works really well for application. Just wish these bottles were a bit easier to photograph, but I suppose that's just a blogger's issue ;)

Very pretty little shimmer. Pink and gray go so well together...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Essence Collection: main Color Name/Number: Grey-t to be Here, 142 Number of coats: 3 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)