31DC2013 Day 23 - Inspired by a Movie

It has been nearly a month since I created my last manicure for the 31 Day Nail Challenge. I think it is about time I picked it back up and tried to finish it. Today I would like to show you my manicure for Day 23 of the challenge, inspired by a movie. Since it is so close to Halloween, I couldn't help but try my hand at the always popular The Nightmare Before Christmas manicure...

Besides a black base of Wet 'n Wild Black Creme, the rest of the manicure is done using acrylic paints. I find it much easier to work with paint for any detail work. I cut one of my brushes down to just a few hairs for some of the really fine lines. I'm quite proud of how this turned out...

Here is the movie poster that I used for inspiration. It looked a lot more blue on my tablet which is why I went with more of a blue tone for my manicure...

What do you think of this manicure?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

31DC2013 Day 22 - Inspired by a Song

Today I would like to show you my manicure for Day 22 of the 31 Day Nail Challenge. The challenge today is to be inspired by a song. I decided to go with one of my current favorites, Merry Go 'Round by Kacey Musgraves. If you have not heard this song before, you can listen to it on YouTube. The lyrics of the song really resonate with me. I was so excited that I got the chance to see her in concert this summer...

"Mary Mary quite contrary,

We get bored so we get married

And just like dust we settle in this town.

On this broken merry go 'round and 'round and 'round we go,

Where it stops nobody knows...

And it ain't slowin' down, this merry go 'round..."

We are all on this crazy merry go round of life and it really doesn't slow down. A simple fact of life that truly freaks me out...

For this manicure I started out with a base of Pipe Dream Polish Pink Elephants and Lemonade. I then added self made decals, painted the tips using Maybelline Bold Gold (70) and added dots of acrylic paint to match each unicorn.

For the decals I first stamped the horse from Mash plate Mash-42 using Essence Stamp Me! White. I then added the details using Maybelline Bold Gold and acrylic paints...

I am so excited for how this manicure turned out. It is just as I pictured it in my head...

Pink Elephants and Lemonade is a teal crelly base with pink and yellow glitter. This polish is just so gorgeous. I love the combination of colors. It applies easily with nice distribution of glitter. A lot of the larger hex glitter seems to have settled on one side of the bottle so I will be storing it upside down for a while to bring that back up for next time. I used three coats for these swatches although it was opaque at just two coats. Swatches are with a top coat...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Pipe Dream Polish Collection: core Color Name/Number: Pink Elephants and Lemonade Number of coats: 3 Top Coat: Yes Big3Free - Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

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P.S. I'd love to know what you think of this manicure! :)

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 **

31DC2013 Day 20 - Water Marble

Today I would like to show you my water marble manicure for Day 20 of the 31 Day Nail Challenge. I watched and re-watched a bunch of videos by My Simple Little Pleasures in preparation for this since marbling is not my forte. I love all her marbles with Color Club Halo Hues so I decided to try it for myself. Countless hours and wasted polish later, I would like to present you with my manicure...

For this water marble I used Color Club Beyond (black) and Over the Moon (blue) over a white base. This is my first almost successful flower pattern water marble. I say almost successful because I'm not entirely pleased with the way the middle finger turned out, but I got a massive migraine while working on this due to the polish fumes (did I choose the perfect hobby for myself or what?) and had to call it quits. In any case, I wish the flower was more stretched out to match the rest of the nails...

I'm so in love with the Halo Hues... now if I could just convince the folks at Color Club to keep making more colors...

My favorite marble is on the pinkie...

I'd love to know what you think of this!

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 **

31DC2013 Day 19 - Galaxies

I have fallen far behind in the 31 Day Nail Challenge and I'm not sure I can catch up, but I will try. Today I have my galaxy manicure for Day 19 to share with you. I looked at many images of galaxies for inspiration and was set to try and replicate one of them, but once I started actually applying the polish all that was thrown out the window and I just went with it...

For this manicure I used a base of Zoya Storm. I then starred at it for a while since it is just so gorgeous and truly a galaxy in itself. I really shouldn't have used such a beautiful base since none of it is left visible. Every time I tell myself that I will start out with just a cream black, I reach for the pretty blacks instead. I sponged a bunch of Zoya polishes (Megan, Julie, Yara, Noot and Noel) to create the galaxy. I then sponged on a holographic top coat to give it some shimmer and followed all that with white splatter stars using acrylic paint.

I have not been happy with the last few galaxy manicures that I have made. In fact I made a different one for this challenge and disliked it so much that I took it off without even taking a single photo of it. I'm really pleased with the way this one finally turned out especially since I was starting to think my galaxy manis are cursed...

The beautiful base was Zoya Storm which is a black jelly with holographic glass fleck particles. These photos don't capture it's true beauty since all the holographic flecks look white here, but are very colorful in real live. It applies very easily and provides good coverage at two coats although I did use three for these swatches. This is definitely one of my favorite blacks in my collection!

Swatch Details
	Brand: Zoya Collection: Ornate, Holiday 2012 Color Name/Number: Storm, ZP645 Number of coats: 3 Top Coat: No Big5Free - Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Camphor

I would love to know what you think of this manicure!

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 **

31DC2013 Day 18 - Half-Moons

Today I would like to show you the half-moons manicure for Day 18 of the 31 Day Challenge. I was initially playing around with Shimmer Candace for the glitter challenge yesterday, but Candace seemed to be too sophisticated to just be a glitter accent and demanded to be the center of attention...

For this manicure I started out with the beautiful Shimmer Candace over a base of OPI Peace & Love & OPI. Using black acrylic paint, I free handed the half-moons and added bullion beads along the edge of the half-moons...

Somehow this makes me think of jewelry and all things expensive. My boyfriend called it 'fancy' and even said the photos 'don't do it justice' while I was photographing this. Where does he come up with this stuff? ;) But truly, photos don't do Candace justice since it is packed with holo glitter that sparkles nonstop!...

Shimmer Candace is a clear base packed with gold, holo and black glitter. It also has a touch of red and other glitter peppered in. This is probably one of my favorite Shimmer glitter bombs now, although I think I say that with each one that I try. They are just so unique and it really depends on what you layer them over for a different look each time. I used one generous coat of Candace plus top coat over OPI Peace & Love & OPI...

Look at all that holo...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Shimmer Collection: core Color Name/Number: Candace Number of coats: 1 (layered) Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

I'd love to know what you think of this manicure!

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 **

31DC2013 Day 17 - Glitter

For day 17 of the 31 Day Nail Challenge, a glitter manicure, I knew I wanted to play with some of my loose glitter. I got this hex glitter a while ago and thought it would be fun for nail art when I wanted something different from the standard hex glitter. For some reason it has stood unused... until now that is...

For this manicure I started out with a base of Dazzle Dry Glam'matazz, a gorgeous shimmery blue that I'll show you swatches of very soon! When it was dry, I taped off the sides and painted the center strip using Dazzle Dry Mythic Teal. Working as quickly as I could, I added diamond shaped glitter. This is seriously the one time that I wish a top coat would dry just a little bit slower, but the Dazzle Dry top coat is super fast drying!...

I got this holographic diamond glitter from The Born Pretty Store. For some reason it was very clumpy and difficult to separate. I had to struggle to isolate individual pieces of glitter, which really drove me nuts, but in the end it was worth the effort...

This shows the gorgeous holographic effect a bit better. Still doesn't quite capture how sparkly and bling-y this manicure really is...

I'd love to know what you think of this manicure!

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 **

31DC2013 Day 16 - Tribal Print

I am now a day behind  in the 31 Day Nail Challenge so today I would like to show you day 16 of the challenge which is 'tribal print'. I must confess that I always admire those who attempt tribal print nails. I happen to be unreasonably scared of trying them for myself, probably because I need lots of practice with freehand. I was tempted to do this challenge with stamping, but decided to be brave and try it freehand, so be nice to me :)

For my tribal print nails, I started out with a base of Zoya Neely (swatches below) and used acrylic paint to add the print. I cut one of my detail brushes down to practically nothing so that I could attempt the tiny detail. Unfortunately, I didn't give myself enough time to do a full manicure with the print, so I settled with just two accent nails. The rest of the nails are Zoya Bobbi to coordinate with the cranberry red of the print...

I actually really liked these on my nails, but looking at the photos I now see all the imperfections. Must stop looking so close... back away from your screens people, I promise it looks better ;)

My design was inspired by this image, although I decided to go with different colors, mostly because my acrylic paint supply is limited. I got through about the top half of the pattern before I ran out of nail space ;)

(source)

Some fresh swatches of Zoya Neely, because I looked at my previous ones and they were waaay to green. It is more of this soft mint green cream. Very pretty. The formula is very creamy, maybe a bit too thick, but I didn't have any problems with application. It provides full coverage in two coats. Swatches are with no top coat...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Zoya Collection: Lovely, Spring 2013 Color Name/Number: Neely, ZP655 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: No Free of Camphor, Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Let me know what you think of this! Have you attempted tribal print nails before?

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 **