31DC2013 Day 15 - Delicate Print

I can't believe it is already Day 15 of the 31 Day Nail Challenge. It seems to be flying by so quickly and we are about to get into the really challenging portion. Today's challenge calls for a delicate print manicure. I instantly thought of lace at the mention of delicate and decided to play around with stamping. As my latest obsession seems to be stamping over textured polish, I couldn't resist including this PixieDust in my manicure...

I started out with a base of Zoya Tomoko from the Fall collection. When it was all dry, I stamped the lace and rose patterns from Bundle Monster plate BM-323 using Essence Stamp Me! Black. I can't help but go to this rose pattern time and time again! It is definitely one of my favorites from the 3rd Bundle Monster set. I accented the ring finger with a few black studs that I purchased on Ebay...

Let me know what you think of this manicure in the comments section 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 **

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 4 - Green

Today is day 4 of the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge which means a green manicure. I initially envisioned this manicure with black lines instead of gold, but when I finally created the manicure I quickly realized it was too dark so I started over and tried it with gold instead. I'm glad I didn't scrap the whole manicure idea entirely because I love how it turned out in the end. It's a lesson I keep learning with nail art time and time again. Just because it doesn't turn out perfectly the first time around, doesn't mean we should give up...

The gold base of this manicure is Zoya Kerry from the Irresistible collection. When it was completely dry, I added striping tape and then using Zoya Hunter and Chita filled in different sections of the nails and quickly removed the tape. Since I wanted Chita to maintain it's beautiful PixieDust texture, I did not use a top coat...

When I first took the tape off, I instantly though that I've inadvertently created a Jamaican flag manicure. Have no fear though, the Jamaican flag has black and not just green, so I'm not quite there! Guess I'll still have to think of something for the 'inspired by a flag' challenge later on...

What do you think of this manicure? Do you give up if something doesn't work out or try it again?

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 2 - Orange

Day 2 of the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge calls for an orange manicure and I couldn't help but use some of the Zoya beauties I was swatching last week. You'll definitely be seeing more of them this week...

For this manicure I started out with the beautiful orange PixieDust Dhara. I stamped the deign from Gals plate GA34 using Essence Stamp Me! White. As you can see it is really an amazing stamping white that I reach for time and time again. I just wish it came in a bigger bottle (as with most things from Essence)...

I added a square stud to each nail with superglue, since I don't want to use a topcoat over the PixieDust. The studs I used are 2mm gold studs from The Born Pretty store. They didn't provide quite the accent I was looking for so I painted them green using Zoya Giovanna. The brilliant idea to paint rhinestones with nail polish comes from Drama Queen Nails...

Since we are on the topic of orange polishes, this is a quick comparison of textured orange lacquers that I posted on Instagram recently and thought I would share it here as well. On a side note, come say 'hi' to me on Instagram... @WackyLaki! I'm having so much fun getting to know everyone, seeing their beautiful manicures and interacting in real time!

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 **

Zoya PixieDust Fall 2013 Swatches and Review

In addition to the Cashmeres and Satins collections, this year Zoya release more Fall PixieDust shades. I don't know about you, but I'm over the top, can't stop staring, don't want to take them off, so thrilled about these. Zoya sure has that magic PixieDust formula down flat! Each one is more beautiful than the next and I'm having a hard time picking favorites, so take a look and which ones catch your eye...

Tomoko
A textured champagne cold. This is all sorts of wonderful and all I could think of when I put this on was that I'd be wearing it for New Year's. The photos can't capture it well, but it is so sparkly and just gorgeous. The formula is very nice and applies easily. It is a bit sheer so I used three coats for these swatches, but for everyday wear, I would probably leave it at two...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Zoya Collection: PixieDust, Fall 2013 Color Name/Number: Tomoko, ZP698 Number of coats: 3 Top Coat: No Free of Toluene, Camphor, Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin and DBP

Chita
A textured deep green with a champagne gold micro glitter. This is one of my favorites, absolutely sparkly and stunning. It is very pigmented and you can most likely get away with one coat. I used two coats for my swatches. My camera fell in love with this shade. I have never seen such good macro shots coming out of this thing...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Zoya Collection: PixieDust, Fall 2013 Color Name/Number: Chita, ZP699 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: No Free of Toluene, Camphor, Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin and DBP

Sunshine
A textured dark navy blue with a silver micro glitter. This is another favorite of mine. It has a similar formula to Chita, very rich an pigmented. Can get away with just one coat, but I did use two for swatches. The photos just can't capture the sparkle of these. They are mesmerizing to me...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Zoya Collection: PixieDust, Fall 2013 Color Name/Number: Sunshine, ZP700 Number of coats:2 Top Coat: No Free of Toluene, Camphor, Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin and DBP

Carter
A blackened purple jelly base loaded with bright purple glitter. The formula is fairy sheer so it does need three coats for full opacity. The beauty of this being in a jelly base is that this has incredible depth to it. It is my absolute favorite, I refused to take this off after swatching. Application is good and aside from the sheerness, it applied easily...

Ok, just take a moment to pause and stare at the richness of this...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Zoya Collection: PixieDust, Fall 2013 Color Name/Number: Carter, ZP701 Number of coats: 3 Top Coat: No Free of Toluene, Camphor, Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin and DBP

Arabella
A textured berry mauve. This has a great formula and is opaque in two coats. I'm starting to sound a bit like a broken record, this again is sparkly perfection...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Zoya Collection: PixieDust, Fall 2013 Color Name/Number: Arabella, ZP702 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: No Free of Toluene, Camphor, Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin and DBP

Dhara
A deep orange with gold shimmer. The formula is very nice, easy to apply and work with. It leaves a slightly visible nail line at two coats, so I ended up using three. Similarly to Tomoko, for daily wear I would use just two coats because the sparkle of this hardly gives you a chance to look for the nail line. Seeing this initially I was worried it was too similar to Zoya Destiny, but comparing them side by side, I can say they are not at all alike. This is a much deeper orange where as Destiny is more sheer and has a coral undertone to it. Both are beautiful, but not the same...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Zoya Collection: PixieDust, Fall 2013 Color Name/Number: Dhara, ZP703 Number of coats: 3 Top Coat: No Free of Toluene, Camphor, Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin and DBP

I gave each of these a minimum of one hour to dry before photographing. They are dry to the touch much quicker than that, but I like to give them extra time to really dry and reach their final state.

Which ones stand out to you? Will you be getting any of 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 **

Textured Stars and Stripes...

I have another attempt at a 4th of July manicure to show you today. This one features some sparkly Zoya PixieDust and striping tape. I will let the photos do most of the talking today...

To create this manicure, I started out with a base of Ulta Snow White. After applying striping tape in a desired pattern to create stripes and stars, I applied the PixieDust one nail at a time so I could remove the tape as while the polish was still wet. For the stripes I used the red Zoya Chyna and for the stars I used the blue Zoya Liberty...

I'm not quite sure how I feel about the result, but it could just be my mood at the moment so I'd love to know what you think of it. Does it make you think of Independence Day... or maybe as it does for me, Dr. Seuss?

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 **