PolisHaus Swatches and Review

Hi Everyone! Today I would like to show you a new to me indie brand, PolisHaus. I must confess that I may have squealed a little as I unwrapped each one. They are so beautiful and sparkly it was hard to contain the excitement. In addition to being gorgeous in the light, three of these lovelies also glow in the dark!

These four beauties will be released tomorrow (Nov 26th) at 5pm PST.

Argentine
A dark gray jelly with glitter in various colors, shapes and sizes. There is lots of holographic glitter in there that the camera does not pick up. It has a great formula that is not too thick. It applies very easily and there is plenty of glitter in each brush stroke. I used three coats to get good coverage. Swatches are with a top coat...

Bottle shot to show all the amazing glitter goodness...

Swatch Details
	Brand: PolisHaus Collection: Winter 2013 Color Name/Number: Argentine Number of coats: 3 Top Coat: Yes Big3Free - Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Royal
A lavender jelly packed with glitter in various colors, shapes and sizes. This beauty glows in the dark! It starts out a bit sheer, but builds up nicely to full coverage at three coats. You can possibly get away with two thicker coats as well. The formula again is very nice and easy to apply. Great glitter distribution on the nail. Very pretty and girly. Swatches are with a top coat...

The glow of this is soft white. It has the weakest glow out of the three glowing polishes in this release...

Just look at that pretty glitter... ahh!

Swatch Details
	Brand: PolisHaus Collection: Winter 2013 Color Name/Number: Royal Number of coats: 3 Top Coat: Yes Big3Free - Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Spectrum
A periwinkle blue jelly loaded with glitter in various colors, shapes and sizes. It glows in the dark. Formula is similar to the two above. Very easy to apply and lots of glitter in each brush stroke. I used three thin coats for full coverage. I absolutely love this color and will show you some nail art with this beauty soon. Swatches are with a top coat...

In the dark, it glows a beautiful bright blue. I love that the glow matches the day color!...

Swatch Details
	Brand: PolisHaus Collection: Winter 2013 Color Name/Number: Spectrum Number of coats: 3 Top Coat: Yes Big3Free - Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Sprinkles
A sheer grayish nude base loaded with glitter in different colors, shapes and sizes. This also glows in the dark. It is the sheerest out of the four lacquers. I used four thin coats and the nail line is still visible. If seeing the nail line bothers you, it can easily be layered over a nude cream polish. Also using thicker coats might result in better coverage, but then I worry about dry time. With thin coats it has great dry time. Formula is very nice and easy to apply. Lots of glitter in each brush stroke. Swatches are with a top coat...

This is the brightest glowing lacquer and it glows a lovely greenish shade. I wonder if the glow is so strong due to the sheerness of the shade. In any case, it is amazing...

So many different colors in here that all work so perfectly together...

Swatch Details
	Brand: PolisHaus Collection: Winter 2013 Color Name/Number: Sprinkles Number of coats: 4 Top Coat: Yes Big3Free - Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

I'm so impressed with these four shades! They are absolutely gorgeous and the formula is perfection. The icing on the cake is that they glow in the dark. The cherry on top of that icing is that they glow different colors in the dark. So amazing!

You can find this and other PolisHaus lacquers in the online shop.
Be sure to follow @polishaus on Instagram too!

What do you think of these?

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 **

Tutorial: Chevron Skittles

I got a few requests to do a tutorial for my Chevron Skittles manicure from last month. Dutifully I added it to my 'to do' list, which is about a mile long these days. Then I got to thinking that I might be able to show you how I created this manicure using the photos that I already have if you are willing to use your imagination. This really isn't my proudest moment and I still hope create a proper tutorial one day, but to avoid further delay I hope this will help those who wanted to recreate this look...

Supplies:

• 3 polishes of your choice (OPI Miss Universe lacquers used here)
• Striping tape
• Small brush (optional, but helpful)

Steps:

Instructions:

1. Start out by painting the nails using one of the polishes. OPI I'm Feeling Sashy used here.
   - When the polish is dry, place striping tape in a desired pattern (placement of striping tape illustrated here with gray lines). 
2. Using either the polish brush or a different small brush, apply your second color in sections between the striping tape. Shown here using the silver OPI This Gown Needs a Crown.
3. Repeat step #2 using the third color to fill in other sections between striping tape. Shown here using OPI Miss You-niverse.
   - Note: I did remove two pieces of striping tape on the index finger before adding the dark purple at the tip.
4. Remove striping tape right away, while polish is still wet.
5. Add a top coat and you're done!

For best results work one nail at a time rather than a full manicure as shown here. In other words, you can do step #1 to all the nails, but repeat steps #2-4 on each nail individually. It is best to remove the striping tape while the polish is still wet to get clean lines.

Please let me know what you think of this tutorial! Don't hesitate to ask questions if you have any!

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 **

OPI Miss Universe Chevron Skittles...

I guess I was in the mood to play with striping tape while swatching the OPI Miss Universe lacquers. I wanted to try out different chevron designs so I ended up with a skittle manicure using the three shades in the collection. I'm pretty excited about these since I usually tend to shy away from skittle and skittlette manicures myself, but am always admiring ones created by everyone else...

For this manicure I used a base of OPI I'm Feeling Sashy (dusty lilac purple). Once it was dry, I sectioned off areas of the nail using striping tape and painted them using OPI Miss Uni-verse (dark purple) and This Gown Needs a Crown (silver). I finished the manicure off with a top coat to smooth everything out...

I really love how these all coordinate together. Makes the skittle mani a bit less intimidating for me :)

What do 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 **

Scatter...

I would like to show you a manicure that I have been wearing for the past few days. I finally got around to trying one of the Ozotic shades that I purchased from piCture pOlish a few months ago and I'm in love...

For this manicure, I used a base of Ozotic 912. Full swatches of this beautiful lilac shade are below. I stamped using Sally Hansen Color Quick pen in Pink Chrome and Bundle Monster plate BM-404. I still can't believe that I can stamp an image that I designed. OK, I promise that is the last time I bring it up, but so freaking exciting for me...

Ozotic 912 is a beautiful lilac duochrome with scattered holo glass fleck shimmer. It is absolutely gorgeous. I wasn't too excited when I first saw it in the bottle, but holy smokes I changed my mind with the first brush stroke! It applies perfectly and provides good coverage at just two coats. The color shifts from a metallic lilac to brown. The holo flecks are most noticeable over the brown. Love it! Swatches are with no top coat...

A bit of the color shift shown here. At the more extreme angles it shifts to brown with more prominent holo flakies!...

Ahh, just look at it...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Ozotic Collection: 900 Series Color Name/Number: 912 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: No Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

I really need to make more of an effort to play with my untried pile. So many beauties just waiting for their moment to shine... :)

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Wild Birds...

I recently had the pleasure of doing an impromptu nail polish swap with the lovely Mari of muxe.net. A few of the El Corazon Eggs of Wild Birds polishes were on my lemming/wish list and I had mentioned this to her. They are not readily available in her area so I didn't expect her to ever find them, but she happened to come across them and snatched them up for me. A huge thanks to Mari for squashing one of my big lemmings. If you have not visited Mari's her blog yet, you are missing out on gorgeous swatches and nail art, so go check her out!

For today's manicure, I thought these pretty little birds would feel right at home on a polish inspired by bird eggs...

To create this manicure, I started out with the base of El Corazon N423/95. I then stamped the birdcages using Messy Mansion plate MM14 and Essence Stamp Me! Black stampy polish. To complete the look I added bird decals which I made a day ahead using the same MM14 plate, Stamp Me! Black and acrylic paint....

I just love how soft and delicate this manicure turned out. I had envisioned these two pretty birds escaping their cages and flying to be together. You can't cage love...

Messy Mansion plates have incredible detail in every image and they pick up and stamp so well! Please pardon the tear in my stamper, it is my favorite one despite the tear. I've tried buying many other stampers and have not found one that works as well, so I use this torn one that is long overdue for retirement...

El Corazon N423/95 is a milky lilac base with black hex and micro glitter. It is part of the Eggs of Wild Birds collection. The application is good, although I did have to chase a few of the hex glitters around to keep them from following the brush right off the nail. It is fully opaque in three coats. The only thing that I'm sad about is that it contains formaldehyde which I personally try to avoid. I hadn't realized that until sitting down to write this post and trying to read the teeny print on the back of the bottle. I am so bummed because I absolutely love this color!...

Swatch Details
	Brand: El Corazon Collection: Eggs of Wild Birds Color Name/Number: N423/95 Number of coats: 3 Top Coat: Yes Contains Formaldehyde; Free from Camphor, Toluene, DBP

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

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)