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 :)

Sunday Stamping: Precious Gemstones

I was really stumped this week by the Sunday Stamping challenge in the group Adventures in Stamping. The theme seemed simple enough, to create a manicure using precious gemstone colors. I have been agonizing over it all week trying to decide on the color/stone. I really wanted to stay away from the "typical" colors such as emerald (been there, done that). My first attempt was opal, but even though I loved the manicure (will show you soon), it didn't really look like opal, so back to square one...

Finally it dawned on me that today is my grandmother's 95th birthday and I wanted something inspired by her when I visit later today. She loves garnet and amber and since amber is not really a stone, the choice was clear. I guess sometimes all it takes is a personal connection to what you are doing to get inspired...

I started out with a base of Zoya Mikka and stamped using Dashica Beauty plate SdP-O. The images on this plate are large enough that I can stamp either length or width-wise which makes it easy to rotate the image and each nail comes out looking slightly different. I'm absolutely crazy about this plate. The quality and clarity of images is amazing...

For the stamping polish I used Revlon Princess, a baby blue foil. It worked perfectly for stamping...

For the flower centers, I used amber colored rhinestones. Love the bit of contrasting color plus I got to use my grandmother's other favorite "stone" color...

Just for fun, this is a pair of earrings I made a while ago using the garnet chips that I'm holding in the photos above. I just might have to wear them today to match :)

Zoya Mikka is a shimmery garnet :) color. It has a great formula with full coverage in two easy coats. No problems with application. This has been sitting in my untried pile for way too long. Happy to finally be wearing it today. Swatches here are with a top coat...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Zoya Collection: Pulse (now main line) Color Name/Number: Mikka, ZP457 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Camphor

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

2 Month Haul...

I have had a really bad migraine for the past two mornings and just the thought of the smell of nail polish is making me queasy, so instead of doing my nails this morning I thought I would show you the reason why I should not be allowed anywhere near Ross or nail polish for that matter with a credit card...

In addition to the 50 polishes from the Wet n Wild haul, over just two short months, I got...

Cosmetic ARTS polishes. These are from the Forsythe Cosmetic Group, the same brand that makes Color Club. Unfortunately none of them have names, but most are from the Fall & Winter Collections that you can get more info on here.

Color Cub Back to Boho sets 1 & 2 and Foiled

LA Colors - Modern Metallics

Prisma - Fresh & Fabulous and Pastel... has anyone heard of this brand before? They look identical to LA Colors in packaging and bottle shape...

Elf sets -
Top set (l-r): Twinkle, Golden Goddess, Cranberry
Bottom (l-r): Mod Mauve, Sunset, Plum

That's it from Ross for now... they had lots of other LA Color and Prisma sets, but believe it or not I had to stop somewhere...

At Ulta I got...
Ulta Salon Formula (I just love the new bottle shape)
Top (l-r): Ruby Slipper, Army of 1, Chic Peek, Wild Night, Femme Fatale
Bottom (l-r): Chocolate Kiss, Devious, High Roller, Love my Blackberry, Smoke Screen

Essence Colour & Go (l-r): Irreplaceable, Choose Me!, Walk of Fame, Movie Star, Where is the Party?, Date with the Night

From Apothica, I got..
Sparitual minis:
Top (l-r): Epicurean, I Feel the Earth Move, Howl, Delight, Sacred Ground, Running with Wolves
Bottom (l-r): Spellbound, Emerald City, Idyllic, Smoke 'n Mirrors, Surreal 

Drugstore finds...
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear (l-r)- Plum Power, Red Carpet, Lacey Lilac, Flirt, Midnight Sky, Deep Purple, Grey Area

Sinful Colors (clockwise starting from the polish with "http://" on the cap :D)
Tokyo Pearl, Envy, Gogo Girl, HipHip, What's Your Name, Out of This World, Rise and Shine, Nirvana, This is It, Seaweed, Rich in Heart, Under 18, Easy Going, Daddys Girl, Amethyst, Hot Spot, Mercury Rising, Mint Apple

Wet n Wild Fast Dry -
Top (l-r): Gray's Anatomy, Buffy the Violet Slayer, Blue Wants To Be A Millionaire, Silvivor, Hannah Pinktana, FuchsiaRama
Middle (l-r): Teal of Fortune, Everybody Loves Redmond, The Gold & the Beautiful, SaGreena the Teenage Witch, 9.0.2.1.Orange
Bottom (l-r): How I Met Your Magenta, Cougar Attack, Behind Closed Doors, Buy Me a Drink, Ready to Pounce, Jungle Fever

Other (l-r): Wet n Wild Diving for Pearls, Revlon Facets of Fuchsia, Rimmel Rags to Riches, Oke.doke in Camo Loco, Goldilocks, and Pink This

Well that should last me a life time...

I'm putting myself on a self imposed no more hauling until I swatch at least half of my untrieds... although even as I type this I have a feeling it won't stick... :(

My mission after I finish the 31 day challenge, is to swatch like crazy!
If you would like to see any of these sooner rather than later, please let me know, because I have no idea where to even start!

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)