Happy Thanksgivukkah!

I would like to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgivukkah (Thanksgiving + Hanukkah). Did you know such a term exists? I didn't, but I like it. Another one to add to my vocabulary for today is menurkey (menorah that looks like a turkey). I'm looking forward to a relaxing day off and a yummy dinner with my family. Hopefully you are having a wonderful day too!

My manicure today was inspired by this very image that I found online. I had been trying to decide how to combine the two holidays in one manicure and thought it would be fun to either paint a menurkey or a turkey lighting a menorah. Once I saw this image, I knew it had to be the later...

For this manicure I used a base of KBShimmer You Autumn Know. I purchased this beauty on the day it was released, but have not gotten a chance to wear it yet. Now that Fall is almost over, I wanted to make sure I didn't miss my opportunity to wear it. Swatches of it by itself are further down in the post....

All of the drawing was done using acrylic paints except for the menorah for which I used Essie Good as Gold  over black acrylic paint. I 'lit' the candles on the menorah with gold holographic glitter. It blends a bit too much with the glitter already in the base, but it does sparkle beautifully in reality. I absolutely love how this manicure turned out. It definitely makes it to the top of my favorite manicures...

Oh and if you are wondering what is on my Cinderella (right) hand... well it's just You Autumn Know with no added art. There is no way I can get this detail onto both hands so I decided to just leave it as one 'accent' hand. I actually do that occasionally, especially when I'm doing detailed freehand. If I had more time, I would have created decals of these image to mirror on my left hand, but this took too long as it is :)

KBShimmer You Autumn Know
A white crelly filled with gold, orange and purple glitter in various shapes and sizes. It is so beautiful, I just can't get enough of it! What is it about glitter packed white crellies that I find so irresistible? The formula is great. Applies easily and is loaded with glitter in each brush stroke. I used three coats to get full coverage. Swatches are with a top coat to smooth out the glitter...

It even has bar glitter which I'm not usually a fan of, but it is so teeny tiny and works perfectly with this combination that I really like it...

Swatch Details
	Brand: KBShimmer Collection: Fall 2013 Color Name/Number: You Autumn Know Number of coats: 3 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Hope you are having a wonderful holiday if you celebrate either Thanksgiving or Hanukkah!

Let me know what you think of this polish and my manicure! :)

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Welcoming My Baby Nephew...

Yesterday evening my brother and his wife welcomed into this world a little baby boy. I am beyond excited to go meet him today so I can cover him in hugs and kisses. Of course I had to have a manicure for the occasion (even though in hindsight it probably would have been wiser not to be doing this at 3am). I would have preferred to create something a bit more colorful, but I opted to go with a subtle manicure since I'll be going to work later in the afternoon....

For the manicure I used a base of Zoya Blu topped with Zoya Mosheen for a little sparkle. I stamped all the nails except for the ring finger using Essence Stamp Me! White and Bundle Monster plate BM-H21. For the accent nail I created a decal using the blocks image from the same stamping plate. I colored the blocks using acrylic paints...

Zoya Mosheen (layered over Blu) 
A slightly tinted base with iridescent bar glitter and holographic micro glitter. Over the baby blue it adds a lovely subtle sparkle. To see how it looks over a darker shade (and read my full review), take a look at the Zenith collection swatches from yesterday. Since Mosheen has a slightly blue tint to it, it darkened the base color just a touch. I used one generous coat of Mosheen over Zoya Blu. Swatches are with a top coat....

These two make such a beautiful combination. I can picture a pretty winter manicure with snowflakes over this...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Zoya Collection: Zenith, Holiday/Winter 2013 Color Name/Number: Mosheen, ZP643 Number of coats: 1 (layered over Zoya Blu) Top Coat: Yes Big5Free - Free of Camphor, Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Zoya Blu
A pastel baby blue cream. It dries a bit brighter than the bottle color. The formula is very nice and smooth. It easily provides full coverage at two coats which makes it a great base for nail art. I just love this pastel blue and I think it works year round. It is so pretty. Swatches are with no top coat...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Zoya Collection: Lovely, Spring 2013 Color Name/Number: Blu, ZP653 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: No Big5Free - Free of Camphor, Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

I'd love to know what you think of this manicure and the polishes...

And now I'm off to meet my little nephew! Mwah!

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 **

Presenting Dazzle Dry Arctic Sunset by Wacky Laki!

I'm so excited today to present to you Arctic Sunset, my collaboration shade with Dazzle Dry. I was so thrilled when they offered me the chance to dream up a shade for the Blogger's Mystery Collection for this Winter. As you can imagine, I jumped up and down with excitement and gave a resounding 'yes!' at the chance to collaborate on this venture. I promise to show you the rest of the gorgeous shades in the collection in my next post, but for now a little bit about this beauty...

For me, a Winter collection had to include a snowy white. There is something about watching the snow falling that just makes me giddy with excitement. I feel like a little kid facing a fun a day of making snowmen, sledding and having snowball fights. Arctic Sunset is a snowy white with a touch of gold glass flecks that reminds me of the sun reflecting of the snow...

Like all Dazzle Dry lacquers, Arctic Sunset is best when used with the Dazzle Dry system of nail prep, base and top coat. You can get more info on this system in my previous post. When used with this system it dries rock hard in 5 minutes and lasts up to 4 weeks. It is vegan, non-yellowing and non-toxic (contains no Formaldehyde, Toluene, DBP or Camphor)...

Much to my frustration the gold flecks were really camera shy. They are most prominent in direct light and give the white a bit of warmth. The formula is a little on the thick side so I used three thin coats for full even coverage...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Dazzle Dry Collection: Blogger's Mystery Color Name/Number: Arctic Sunset, 471 Number of coats: 3 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Camphor

I know I'm a bit biased, but I would love to know what you think of this polish!!

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 **

Pipe Dream Polish Eternal Summer Slacking

Hi Everyone! Today I would like to show you my manicure with the beautiful Pipe Dream Polish Eternal Summer Slacking. It is another wonderful handmade creation by April, the mastermind behind the lacquer. The fun mix of colors in this polish quickly perked up my mood and gave me a bit of a summer flash back. Forget the gray and rainy weather outside, I'm going to be doing some Eternal Summer Slacking...

For this manicure I used three coats of Pipe Dream Polish Eternal Summer Slacking. A beautiful milky white base packed with yellow, teal and gray glitter. I can't get over how pretty it is! It applies easily with great glitter distribution in each brush stroke. No fishing for glitter. I used two coats of top coat since it dries a bit bumpy with all that glitter. I just love this happy color combination...

On the accent nail, I willed the glitter to arrange itself in pretty floral patterns, but when that didn't work, I went to plan B. I used a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls which is a creamy white with the slightest hint of gray, but it matches Eternal Summer Slacking (ESS) perfectly. I then picked out glitter from ESS and arranged it in the flower patterns. It looked kind of empty with just flowers on a white background, so I filled in the space around the flowers with a bit of ESS, giving it that speckled look. I used a small brush to pick up just the base of ESS with micro glitter, leaving the larger glitter behind...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Pipe Dream Polish Collection: core Color Name/Number: Eternal Summer Slacking Number of coats: 3 Top Coat: Yes Big3Free - Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Find out more about Pipe Dream Polish:
Etsy shop | Facebook | Instagram

I would love to 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 7 - Black and White

As this post goes live, I'm heading on vacation, but have no fear, I worked my little tushy off to keep up with the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge and have scheduled posts to entertain you. The theme for challenge Day 7 is Black & White. I have been wanting to try the water spotted technique for a while now and finally got an excuse to make time...

For this manicure I started out with a base of Sinful Colors Snow Me White. To create the dotted pattern, I put a drop of black nail polish into a cup with water and sprayed with a bit of hairspray. When the pattern had formed on the water, I dipped my nail into it. I then repeated that for each nail. Check out youtube for great tutorials on how to do this...

I tried putting Elmer's Glue around my nails for easy clean up and it completely melted when I dunked the finger into the water. Can we all just say a collective "duh Anutka, the glue is water soluble. What were you thinking?" Ok, so second attempt was with Liquid Palisade around the nails and it worked perfectly. Lesson learned...

This water spotted technique really sounds easy in theory, but came time to reality it was somewhat frustrating. The polish didn't always react as I would have liked. At times it either ended up with either no dots, tiny dots, or most often one large hole as the polish ran away from the hair spray. Then I found that after I had sprayed the water a few times, the polish no longer wanted to spread at all and I had to switch out the water. Quite a lengthy process to say the least, but I would definitely do it again. Love the look of it...

Are you seeing lobster hands here? I don't know what blogger is doing with my images since they are NOT red to begin with. Anyone else have this happening to their images?...

Sinful Colors Snow Me White is a pure white cream. The application is actually quite good for a white polish. I only needed two coats for complete coverage and it wasn't streaky. My brush was quite wonky, but that's a whole other story. These swatches are with no top coat...

Swatch Details
	Brand: SinfulColors Collection: core Color Name/Number: Snow Me White, 101 Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: No Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

As always, I'd love to know what you think of this!

P.S. This post is pre-scheduled while I'm on vacation. I may not be able to respond to comments until I return, but I greatly appreciate them and will respond as soon as I return!

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Happy 4th of July!!!

Water marble continues to be one of my biggest challenges so I rarely take the time to do it, although the outcome is often worth the frustration. I decided to take on the water marble for this Independence Day manicure since I'm heading out for a long weekend and wanted something special to celebrate...

For this water marble, I used Barielle Big Apple Red and Blue Capri along with Wet 'n Wild French White Creme. They worked really well together and I was excited to find a combination where the red didn't bleed into the white...

The little white dots filled in some of the blue space and really completed the look for me...

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe 4th of July! :)

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 **