Coffee Time!

I would like to show you this yummy coffee manicure that I wore a while ago, but didn't get a chance to post about until now. I'm hoping this coffee manicure will perk me up since I've been really tired lately...

This manicure started out with the OPI Liquid Sand It's All San Andreas's Fault. I stamped over it using Maybelline Bold Gold (70) and Pueen plates Pueen30 and Pueen32. The cup is stamped from plate 30 and the rest of the nails are stamped using plate 32. The pattern reminds me of cafe curtains and the dots just coordinate so perfectly with the dots on the cup. I added a bit of "steam" above the cup using that pattern as well.

I added a few gold stud accents to fit into the stamping pattern...

I really need to hide this gold polish from myself because I'm tempted to stamp EVERYTHING with it! I keep reaching for it every time and that's bad. OK, maybe not bad, but I do need to diversify. I just can't help it, gold looks great with everything... ;)

On a serious note... does this manicure make my fingers look fat? Maybe I put too much sugar in my coffee? ;)

Let me know what you think of this manicure! I love reading your comments! :)

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

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

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

31DC2013 Day 6 - Violet

It is time for Day 6 of the 31 Day Nail Art Challege and the theme today is a violet manicure. I just had to play with my most recent favorite PixieDust violet, Zoya Carter. It seemed to be just the type of color that pretty little gold dragonflies would be drawn too...

The base of this manicure is Zoya Carter from The PixieDust Fall collection. I stamped it using Maybelline Bold Gold and Messy Mansion plate MM17. This is from the same 'bugs' plate as the ladybug manicure a few days ago. This particular image is double wide allowing you to pick different sections of it for a continuous or slightly different design on each nail. So much fun!

I added a some baby blue rhinestones to the dragonfly bodies on my ring finger. I'm not quite sure what I think of this, but they seemed to want rhinestone accents. Maybe a different color would have been better. In any case, there are three different sizes of rhinestones there to correspond to the different sized dragonflies, all purchased on ebay...

Let me 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 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 **

Gone Hexy...

I'm not sure what it is that compels me to incorporate studs into stamping, but I've attempted to do it again. While I have already shown you some of the round studs from the Winstonia nail stud wheel, today I would like to show you the larger hex pieces which I have been eyeing since I first got these studs. Of course I paired them with a matching hex stamping pattern...

For this manicure I started out with a base of Zoya Louise from the new Fall collection. It is a beautiful rich chocolate cream shade. I stamped the hex pattern from Winstonia plate W113 using my favorite new stamping gold, Maybelline Bold Gold. I then placed a couple of gold hex nail studs over the filled in areas of the pattern. Although I usually don't like to top coat over studs, since these are larger pieces that I wanted to lock in place, I did apply a top coat over the whole manicure...

These hex studs are 4.5mm in diameter (between two points). The set contains both gold and silver hex studs in addition to lots of other fun shapes such as teardrops, hearts, squares, triangles and more...

I wish the stamping gold and the gold of the studs was the same shade so it would be even further incorporated, but maybe that's just crazy talk...

Here is the photo of what the Winstonia nail wheel, Design #3 looks like. It comes with a fun mix of different shaped metal rhinestones...

If you are interested in purchasing these, Winstonia was kind enough to create a discount code for me to share with you. You can use the code WACKYLAKI for 10% off. The code applies only to the following items: tweezers, studs set design 2, studs set design 3 and is valid until August 31st, 2013.


I liked this mani a lot more in person than I do in photos, but that's just how it goes sometimes.
In any case, what do you think... can I pull of the larger studs? I generally tend shy away from 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 **

Bold Gold Stamping...

If you follow me on instagram, then you may have already seen a sneak peak of this manicure. I'm not in the habit of giving sneak peaks, but I'm just a bit a lot hooked on instagram right now and it makes it so easy to share even when I don't have time to process all the photos or do a full write up. Now I'm not even sure why I resisted for so long. Sidetrack aside though, I got the most perfect stamping gold polish as an unexpected gift from a friend and I was so excited to try it out...

The base for this manicure is Ulta Devious which is a dark eggplant purple cream. I just love the combo of purple and gold. Actually gold with just about anything really appeals to me which is why I was so excited to finally have a gold that I could stamp with! This perfect gold is Maybelline Bold Gold from the Color Show Metallics line. I decided to test it out on a rather detailed pattern from DashicaBeautyShop plate SdP-O. I just love this pattern so much and the Bold Gold captured every detail....

For the accent nail, I used one generous coat of Shimmer Tracy. It is a gorgeous gold glitter mix that had me staring at my nail all day...

It is difficult to capture the full beauty of Tracy because while it might appear as just a gold mix, it is so much more. If you look closely, you can see reds and greens and blues and even holo in the mix. While different shaped gold is the primary component of this mix, in the sun the other colors sparkle and come to life...

Let me know what you think of this manicure!

Thanks for looking and commenting!
Anutka :)

Mint Mani for TaliaJoy

I'm a day late with posting this, but I really wanted to take part in Nail Polish Wars' wonderful idea to create a mint manicure in honor of Talia Castellano aka TaliaJoy18. If you have not heard of Talia, she was a beautiful 13 year old girl, a talented make-up and nail artist, honorary Cover Girl and an all around sweetheart who never stopped smiling. Sadly, she lost her battle with cancer last Tuesday. Her last Instagram pic was a mint manicure, so to honor her here this is my mint mani...

I remember watching Ellen DeGeneres' interview with Talia and when Ellen asked her how she stays so positive despite what she is going through, Talia replied with a smile on her face "a little fishy told me 'just keep swimming, just keep swimming...'" A great lesson for all of us.

Although my little fishy does not look like Dori from Nemo who originally spoke those encouraging words, I at least tried to get the coloring right...

For the manicure I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mint Sorbet followed by a coat of Maybelline Express Finish Sunlight for a bit of gold shimmer. I stamped the seaweed pattern from Bundle Monster plate BM-225 using Barielle Sweet Addiction.

I stamped the fishy from Shany plate SH19 using Essence Stamp Me! Black and colored it in using acrylic paint...

Rest in peace Talia Joy!

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Maybelline Sunshine with Zoya Dovima and Born Pretty Dried Flowers

Sometime you just need a little sunshine in your life and while Seattle has had some wonderful days, they have not all been sunny. To compensate, I used Maybelline Sunshine and little yellow flowers from The Born Pretty Store. I think this was just what I needed on an overcast day...

For this manicure, I started out with a base of Maybelline Sunshine and stamped with Bundle Monster plate BM-316 using Zoya Dovima. Dovima is a black matte polish and generally matte polishes tend to dry quickly which made me nervous to stamp with it, but it turned out well. Unfortunately, even though it stamped well, it did not turn out as as dark as had hoped it would...

To accent the manicure, I used a small yellow flower which I got from the Born Pretty Store. Again, I was hoping that the stamping would turn out darker, so the flower would pop better against the dark, but I guess that just gives me an excuse to try and create the mani I have in my head again...

The dried flowers from The Born Pretty Store come in a set of 12 little jars. Six jars with small single flowers and six jars with larger cluster flowers. I've used the cluster flowers already here and thought it would be fun to try out the single flowers...

Each jar of colorful single flower jars contains 5 little flowers. I somehow got lucky and ended up with six yellow ones. They are such a cute little accent to a manicure...

Maybelline Sunshine is a bright yellow cream. It starts out a bit streaky and thin, but builds up and evens out nicely with three coats. It dries slightly darker than the bottle color. This is three coats with a top coat...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Maybelline Express Finish Collection: Limited Edition Color Name/Number: Sunshine, 656 Number of coats: 3 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

As a final note, I would like to say how amazing Bundle Monster customer service is. When I purchased my 3rd set, a few of the plates had issues, one of them being the BM-316 with the pattern used today. It is lightly warped and makes a clicking sound like a bottle cap. I was not able to get a clean image with it and upon emailing Bundle Monster they sent out a replacement right away with no questions asked. This is quite a refreshing change from a certain other manufacturer that insisted their plates "should" stamp well despite the fact that I was having issues with them. It is something I will consider very strongly when making future purchases. I'm really impressed with Bundle Monster!

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

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

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

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

Day 4 - Green - Maybelline La La Lime

See how fast my nails grow? It is like magic... ok, so maybe more like slightly cheating because this is a manicure I wore a few weekends ago (pre nail break). When my bf and I went out of town for his birthday I asked him if he had any color requests and much to my surprise it was "lime"... I was happy to oblige, it was his birthday after all, but have not gotten a chance to post about it since we came back. I figured it would be perfect for the 4th day of the challenge which is green.

The color is La La Lime from Maybelline. The formula is nice although needs a pretty quick hand as it starts to dry and get stringy. I applied three coats + a topcoat for full even coverage. It has a gorgeous micro-shimmer when the sunshine hits it...

In the shade...

Brand: Maybelline Collection: Express Finish Color Name/Number: La La Lime, 634

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Day 2 - Orange - Maybelline Sweet Clementine

I'm back to shorty short nails for the 2nd day of the challenge. This time it was not at all intentional as I discovered that shopping can be dangerous to the nails (although fun!). I broke three of them in one day :(. One in actually twice, so they had to go...

For the orange I chose Maybelline Sweet Clementine. It took two coats to be opaque, but I applied three to even it out. Also, when applying the formula kept getting a bit stringy, similar to the way fast drying topcoats get stringy.

Just for fun I thought the orange needed little dizzy tiger foot prints which I really like :)

UPDATE: Tutorial for this manicure available here!

Then I added some tiger stripes to finish it off. I really can't decide if I like it better with or without the stripes. What do you think?

This is in full sunshine...

In the shade...

Brand: Maybelline Collection: Express Finish Color Name/Number: Sweet Clementine, 620

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)