Quality time!

I work a crazy schedule and don't often get to spend time with my cousin outside of family functions and friend gatherings. It was a real treat to get to spend some quality time, just the two of us on Tuesday. It also gave me the opportunity to finally give her the manicure I've been promising for way too long. She has been showing it off to everyone, so I thought I would show it off to you...

For the base polish we used Nicole by OPI Candid Cameron, which she had seen in my recent swatches and really liked. I think the teal looks gorgeous on her, so it was a perfect fit. To compliment the gold shimmer in Candid Cameron, we chose a gold stamping color of Essence A Piece of Forever. The stamping pattern is one she picked out and it is on the Cheeky Jumbo plate B.

We got really lucky and the sun came out just as we were done with the manicure so we snuck out and braved the cold for some photos...

She even humored me with a little photo shoot! :)

Coincidentally (or maybe not), I like this color combo so much that both of these polishes made an appearance in my peacock manicure from yesterday ;)

I had a wonderful time spending time with my cousin and I hope you enjoy seeing our manicure collaboration.

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

** Nicole by OPI polish was provided to me for review by the manufacturer or their PR. **

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

Sunday Stamping: Gold

For Sunday Stamping this week I want to show you a manicure I made a little while ago, but have not had the time to show until now. With this week's theme being to stamp with gold or over gold, I knew it would be a perfect fit. Lately I have not been able to find enough time in the day to swatch, make manicures and blog about it all. Matter of fact my nails have been bare for almost the entire past week as I try (and fail) to catch up on blogging. Just the other day I showed up to work with a quick swatch of polish on just two nails and the rest bare. Pretty soon my blogging will be limited to a caveman style grunt and the words "Look! Anutka make mani..."

For this manicure I started out with a base of Zoya Logan from the holiday Ornate collection. I was curious to see how the gold metallic Ziv, from the same collection would stamp and I wasn't disappointed with the result. The look is more subtle as the gold flecks in Logan seem to blend with those of Ziv. I used the Cheeky Jumbo plate B for the stamping image...

All that being said, I would probably not stamp with Ziv again. It contains lots of beautiful flecks which were just scraped off the plate leaving behind the base with just the metallic particles. Sad to waste all of that. If you look closely, the stamping pattern itself is very grainy which is not always desirable. It was definitely a fun experiment and what are manicures all about if not experimenting and playing with colors. As a random side note, it just reminded that way back when I started the blog I wanted to name it "Playing with Colors", but that was sadly already taken although not being used. Oh well, I'm kind of attached to Wacky Laki now ;)

I always welcome your comments and enjoy reading them so don't hesitate :)

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 Glitter

Kind of a late post today, but I'm getting a late start on the day in general and just taking it easy after having a wonderful time with friends at a Halloween party last night. It was so fun to see everyone's costumes this year. I went as a witch, if you are curious ;)

This week the theme for Sunday Stamping in Adventures in Stamping is "over glitter". It gives me the perfect opportunity to try a polish that has been in my untried stash for way too long. Plus, I got to play with some of my new plates and polishes that I showed you yesterday...

For the base of this manicure, I started out with Revlon Facets of Fuchsia (over black). I stamped using KleanColor Metallic Yellow and Cheeky Jumbo plate "B". A lovely reader yesterday warned me that the Metallic Yellow can really gunk up the stamping plate, so I made sure to clean out the image after every stamping. I tend to do that on detailed images regardless of the polish I'm stamping with, but really made sure to do it with this one and appreciate the tip! The Metallic Yellow stamped beautifully...

One of my co-workers was recently explaining Steampunk to me and last night I went to a Halloween party where a friend was dressed in a Steampunk costume. This kind of reminds me of the gears that are so popular it that. Although it also reminds me of beautiful Indian designs, which is in no way even close to Steampunk, so I'll let you decide what it looks like to you...

I would have called this one a gold, but technically it is a metallic yellow I guess the name does fit...

Revlon Facets of Fuchsia is a black jelly base with fuchsia glitter in two different sizes. I applied two coats over black (Wet 'n Wild Black Creme) since I didn't want to bother with a ton of coats to build to opacity. The formula is great, the glitter spreads evenly without much effort...

When it first came out, it was thought to be a dupe for Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance and from the comparison swatches I've seen, I can say they look pretty similar. I don't own Bad Romance to do a comparison of my own. I managed to get this last year when it was disappearing off the shelves as soon as stores managed to get new stock...

Even though I've had this polish for more than a year and chased all over the place to find it, this is the first time that I'm actually using it. Now, every time I think of chasing after limited edition or hard to find polishes I remember this little lady and suddenly regain sanity...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Revlon Collection: Limited Edition Color Name/Number: Facets of Fuchsia, 940 Number of coats: 2 (over black) Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Revlon has since renamed Facets of Fuchsia added it to their main line under the name of Scandalous (761). So if you didn't get it in the rush of when it first came out, you can now calmly go to a store and pick one up. Having tried it, I can say it really is a beauty that I'm happy to own it. Hopefully I'll wear it more often now :)

Have any of you spent time chasing down a polish that ended up sitting in your untried pile for a while?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)