Welcoming My Baby Nephew...

Yesterday evening my brother and his wife welcomed into this world a little baby boy. I am beyond excited to go meet him today so I can cover him in hugs and kisses. Of course I had to have a manicure for the occasion (even though in hindsight it probably would have been wiser not to be doing this at 3am). I would have preferred to create something a bit more colorful, but I opted to go with a subtle manicure since I'll be going to work later in the afternoon....

For the manicure I used a base of Zoya Blu topped with Zoya Mosheen for a little sparkle. I stamped all the nails except for the ring finger using Essence Stamp Me! White and Bundle Monster plate BM-H21. For the accent nail I created a decal using the blocks image from the same stamping plate. I colored the blocks using acrylic paints...

Zoya Mosheen (layered over Blu) 
A slightly tinted base with iridescent bar glitter and holographic micro glitter. Over the baby blue it adds a lovely subtle sparkle. To see how it looks over a darker shade (and read my full review), take a look at the Zenith collection swatches from yesterday. Since Mosheen has a slightly blue tint to it, it darkened the base color just a touch. I used one generous coat of Mosheen over Zoya Blu. Swatches are with a top coat....

These two make such a beautiful combination. I can picture a pretty winter manicure with snowflakes over this...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Zoya Collection: Zenith, Holiday/Winter 2013 Color Name/Number: Mosheen, ZP643 Number of coats: 1 (layered over Zoya Blu) Top Coat: Yes Big5Free - Free of Camphor, Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Zoya Blu
A pastel baby blue cream. It dries a bit brighter than the bottle color. The formula is very nice and smooth. It easily provides full coverage at two coats which makes it a great base for nail art. I just love this pastel blue and I think it works year round. It is so pretty. Swatches are with no top coat...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Zoya Collection: Lovely, Spring 2013 Color Name/Number: Blu, ZP653 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: No Big5Free - Free of Camphor, Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

I'd love to know what you think of this manicure and the polishes...

And now I'm off to meet my little nephew! Mwah!

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 **

The Graveyard After All This Time...

Today I would like to show you a fun Halloween themed manicure. I got this beautiful gray polish for review along with the 365 Days of Color Horcrux collection last month. I set it aside at the time because it was not part of the collection and it somehow managed to hide from me until now. I'm so glad that I finally saw this little one hiding among all the big polish bottles which clutter my table. It is appropriately named 'After All This Time?' as though to mock me in the fact that I took so long to play with it. It is absolutely perfect for a spooky graveyard manicure that even glows in the dark...

To create this manicure I used a base of 365 Days of Color After All This Time?. Swatches of this beauty are further down in this post. I stamped various images from Bundle Monster plates BM-413 and BM-H08 and Winstonia plate W116. For stamping I used Essence Stamp Me! Black stampy polish....

How fun is that skeleton peeking out from behind the gravestone?

Oh and did I mention that it GLOWS in the dark? That's right, it doesn't just glow in the dark! It GLOWS in the dark!...

After All This Time? is a dove gray jelly loaded with silver and holo glitter. There is definitely a lot more holo glitter than what my camera could capture. This beauty sparkles. It is fairly sheer and took four coats to build up to good coverage. I think next time I will try it over gray undies, but for my first swatches I wanted to show the color by itself. The formula is very nice, no streaking and great glitter distribution. Swatches are with a top coat...

Just look at this glow! It is the brightest glow in the dark polish that I have ever tried! Unlike others I've tried, this one is also most certainly not camera shy!

Swatch Details
	Brand: 365 Days of Color Collection: 12 Months of Color, October Color Name/Number: After All This Time? Number of coats: 4 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

What do you think of this polish? I'm most certainly in love with it. I love gray polish to begin with, but throw in some holo glitter and I start to swoon... make it glow in the dark and I fall head over heals in love!

Find out more about 365 Days of Color...
Shop | Facebook | Blog

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 **

Sunday Stamping Over Black Base

I've been in a bit of a nail art funk lately after burning out halfway through the 31 Day Nail Challenge. I'm still determined to finish it, but for today I decided to take part in a different challenge. It has been way too long since I participated in Sunday Stamping with the group Adventures in Stamping. Somehow these challenges always get my creative juices flowing and today's theme of stamping over black turned to this...

For this manicure I started out with a base of Wet 'n Wild Black Creme...

I then added three coats of Essence Fly Firefly Fly glow in the dark top coat. It does alter the base color a bit which is why it looks gray rather than black...

I stamped the spiderweb from Bundle Monster plate BM-H07 using Color Club Cherubic, a peachy holographic beauty. The spiders were stamped using Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and Bundle Monster plate BM13. Each spider accented with a red rhinestone...

And now for the glow in the dark shot. Is it OK to admit that it actually creeps me out in the dark? The spiders look too real for comfort... *shudder*. I'm debating entering these in the Bundle Monster nail art contest....

A few photos of Essence Fly Firefly Fly before all the stamping. This is three coats over black. I originally tried just two coats as suggested on the bottle, but it didn't glow quite bright enough. It glows really brightly in the bottle (see photo above), but this doesn't quite translate onto the nail. The effect seems to fade rather quickly after the lights are out. Swatches are with no top coat...

Over black, you can see the little fluorescent particles. More coats equals more particles, less visible base and brighter glow...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Essence Color Name/Number: 18 Fly Firefly Fly Number of coats: 3 (layered over black) Top Coat: No Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

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

P.S. Sorry if I freaked any of you out with spiders :)

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 5 - Blue

It is already day 5 of the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge. The theme for today is blue and I couldn't resit doing some nautical nails. This has been on my to do list for a while and like most things on that list, it is hard for me to find the time to do it. This challenge has been a great motivation so far to actually make time and attempt the ideas floating around in my head...

The base of this manicure is Zoya Sailor from the Cashmeres collection. With a name like Sailor, it just couldn't be more perfect as a base. I stamped the wheels from Cheeky plate CH49 using Maybelline Bold Gold. This is actually a full nail image, but I chose to use just sections of it in random areas of the nails. The ship is also from the CH49 plate and stamped using Essence Stamp Me! White. Using a small detail brush I painted the ship silver...

I'd love to know what you think of this manicure! Comment below :)

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 **

Messy Mansion Ladybugs...

Today I have a fun ladybug manicure to share with you. This design comes from another beautiful Messy Mansion stamping plate, the bugs plate. I decided to go with some tradition ladybug colors, but I would definitely love to recreate this with yellow or orange. I think it would look pretty cute with colorful ladybugs as well... hmm...

For this manicure, I used Zoya Livingston and stamped over it using Essence Stamp Me! Black and Messy Mansion plate MM17. The accent nail is stamped using a few individual ladybug images placed randomly on the nail, while the rest of the nails are stamped with one of the full patterns from the plate. Two little black studs completed the look for me...

As with the other Messy Mansion plates, this comes with a blue protective cover which must be removed prior to first use. The back of the plate has no cover. The plate itself is larger than the the 'standard' plate size. It measures 7cm in diameter. It is made of sturdy metal that does not easily bend...

The plate is packed full of fun images to use including the ladybugs that I used today, some gorgeous dragonflies and two images to make your nail look like a beetle or a lady bug. There is even little eyes at the bottom of the plate that you can use for your bugs. I really love that these plates use every little bit of available space....

My plastic scraper (old credit card) kept scraping too much off of the larger empty areas, if I pressed too hard, so I found that a really light scrape is much more effective at getting a good image with the full sized patterns. All the patterns stamp very well...

The full size images are large! They are 17 x 22.5mm. I don't have to worry about the images not being wide enough for my thumbs or too short for my nails. Great size overall!

You can find this and other Messy Mansion plates at http://www.messymansion.com.au/.
Shipping for plate only order is just $2.50
Also, check out Messy Mansion on Facebook...

What do you think? :)

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 **

Running Wild...

I'm not sure what has gotten into me, but something certainly has since this is my second tiger manicure this month. I got some fun neon nail studs for review from the Born Pretty Store and they really brought out my wild side. I wanted to pair them with an equally bright and matching color.

For my index, middle and ring fingers I started with a base of Nicole by OPI Sweet on Pete. I stamped the zebra pattern from Bundle Monster BM-223 using Essence Stamp Me! Black. I then sectioned off my nail using scotch tape and painted half of it black using Wet 'n Wild Black Creme. The pinkie finger is also Black Creme. While the polish was still wet, I added the nail studs and covered everything with a top coat...

I just get a fun 80s vibe from this manicure and it puts me in a good mood...

And as you might have expected, they do glow under black light. This photo doesn't do justice to just how bright they really glow!

These fun square neon nail studs (Item #6968) come in a variety of colors. The studs that I got are 2mm in diameter, but they are also available in a slightly larger 3mm size. Each bag of studs contains plenty for lots manicures...

What you think? Would I fit in back in the 80s with this mani?

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 **