Holiday Snowmen

Just a quick post today with some holiday nail art I did recently. I was thinking about families spending time together this holiday season and that somehow manifested itself as little snowmen on my nails. Maybe it is a sign that I have not been spending enough time with my family recently. On the other hand, maybe it just means I'm ready to head to the mountains and play in the snow. Whatever the reason behind it, I really enjoyed this manicure...

For the manicure I used NYC Pier 17 as the base. All of the drawing was done using acrylic paint and a small nail art brush. I really like the pop of white against the dark blue background...

On a completely whiny side note, I wish my nails were at least a little bit longer than they are now. I don't like doing nail art when my nails are this short, but they are not liking the cold and keep breaking so I have to settle for nail art on these shorties...

NYC Pier 17 is a dark navy blue shimmer. It has just the slightest hint of purple which my camera did not pick up. The shimmer itself is perfect and seems to glow from within. Application was good and it only needed two coats for full coverage. The first coat went on patchy, but it all evened out by the second coat. I'm really impressed with the color and I really like the flattened brush. I don't have very many NYC polishes, but I might have to change that if they are all like this one...

Swatch Details
	Brand: NYC New York Color Collection: In a New York Color Minute Color Name/Number: Pier 17, 208 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: No Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

NYC Lincoln Square Lavender with Borghese Bella Berry

This manicure was inspired by a dress that my cousin wore last weekend. It is a soft mauve color with a large floral pattern. The best polish to match it in my collection was Lincoln Square Lavender. To match the pattern we chose a reverse floral stamp so the top color would be dominant and only outlines of the base color to show. She painted her nails dark and tried stamping with Lincoln Square Lavender which turned out to be too light and a bit of a mess.

The polishes still were still sitting out on my table so I decided to try to reverse them. Lincoln Square Lavender was used for the base. It is a pretty soft mauve color. Application was less than ideal. The polish was pretty thick and even though it did not pull it was difficult to get a thin even coat. I applied three coats to get a nice and even opaque color.

Outside still overcast even though it is supposedly summer...

I stamped it using Borghese Bella Berry which was also still in my table from the last post. See how lazy I am? :D The contrast of this combination turned out great. I had a few people ask me if this was the crackling polish effect and I had to explain it was a stamp. Wouldn't it be great if the crackle would split into a floral pattern? Although I will admit from a distance it is hard to tell the pattern :)

Here is the pattern on the dress which was the inspiration for this manicure. It would have been nice if the dark base/light stamping worked, but I like the reverse combination as well.

Stamping was done using Bundle Monster plate BM-225...

Brand: NYC Collection: In a New York Color Minute Color Name/Number: 264 Lincoln Square Lavender Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP) Free

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

NYC Flat Iron Green with LA Colors Current

This is a manicure I have been wearing since Sunday. I know, that's just crazy, but I love it and I have been busy this past week so I have not had time to do my nails. Last Sunday my cousin, Lana, came over to check out the stamps she has seen me blog about. While she was raiding my stash, she let me play with the NYC Flat Iron Green that she had in her purse.

It is a deep, blackened moss green. It can tend to look black without direct light, but as usual I'm a sucker for the dark ones! This was two coats plus a top coat. Application could have been better, it was somewhat runny, but at the same time tended to pull away from the cuticles.

I stamped it with the LA Colors Current, which is the actual name for the "lime" color I showed you last week. It brought out the green from NYC and just gave it a nice velvety look. I'm loving this manicure right now! It is hanging on perfectly for the 4th day of wear now... :D

I used Bundle Monster Plate BM-205 for the stamping...

Brand: NYC New York Color Collection: In a New York Color Minute Color Name/Number: 214 Flat Iron Green Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP) Free

So while I was playing with that, Lana, chose a manicure in LA Colors Blue (still not sure what the official name for this one is). She stamped it with some cute flowers using WnW French White Creme. She really wanted to do them in yellow, but turns out I don't have a one coat yellow that would work. Time to go shopping?

My sister-in-law also stopped by in the evening and joined in the manicure fun. She painted hers in Zoya Isla, a gorgeous red I have yet to try. Hers were stamped with WnW Black Creme and a silver butterfly on the ring fingers (which decided it did not want to be photographed... shy?).

Both of them stamped with flowers from the Bundle Monster BM-224 plate...

Thanks for reading!
Anutka :)