Black and White Challenge Recap

It is a bit sad to see the black and white challenge end, but I have had a wonderful time creating these manicures. This is just a quick recap to put them all together in once place.

Click on any of the images to go to the original post for full details...

The Rules

Other lovely ladies who participated in the challenge...
Biba's beauty corner , Biberlee-Džumbus, Colores de Carol, Emerald sparkle, Hooked on polish, Lacquered Tips, Mateji ustvarjata, My Little Vanities, My Nail Grafiti, Nail crazy, Oje Gemisi Kalkiyor, Omgnoodles, Pink Polish Addict, Polish nail art, Purple Glitters, Taya, The Nail Buff, Welcome To Brianna's World!

I hope you enjoyed following this challenge with me!

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Black and White Challenge Day 10 - Manicure of Choice

Time really has flown by fast and today is the last day of the Black and White Challenge. I have had a lot of fun with this challenge and wanted to do something special for the last day, which happens to be a manicure of choice with black and white. The design is not my original design, I stumbled across it in an old Nail Max magazine. I have been wanting to try it for a while and since it contains black and white, I thought it was perfect for the last day of the challenge.

Black and White Challenge Day 9 - Water Marble

Day nine of the Black and White Challenge proved to be the most difficult yet. Difficult isn't even the right word, it really kicked my butt. Water marble is always a huge challenge for me and even though the results can be amazing the process of getting there sometimes doesn't seem worth it. I know you think I'm talking about the mess and the clean up, but no I'm talking about getting the colors to spread correctly and not bunch up when I try to marble. I just keep telling myself that practice makes perfect (and maybe someday I'll believe it). For now I'm just glad I didn't give up since I love how this manicure turned out.

Black and White Challenge Day 8 - Sponging

It is day eight of the Black and White Challenge which means a sponged manicure. I had in mind a marble or granite look, so I turned to the internet for inspiration, as I often do. Somehow it helps to have a picture to stare at as I work. While searching for black and white stone, I stumbled upon a photo of Emma Stone in a black and white dress that I just couldn't resist...

Emma Stone photo Source

Black and White Challenge Day 6 - Color Base with White

It is day 6 of the Black and White Challenge which means creating a manicure with a color base and something white. This fire engine red from Color Club's All About Color set really stood out to me, so I grabbed some white acrylic paint and a dotting tool and the pattern practically created itself. It somehow reminds me of traditional Belorussian/Ukrainian folk dresses and towels so must have come up from my subconsciousness. While the true folk patterns are much more beautiful, elaborate and complicated this one is just rows of dots layered. I have had dotting tools for a while, I'm just now starting to really play around with them and loving all the possibilities...

UPDATE: The Color Club polish is named Cadillac Red. See swatches here.  

I would love to know what you think of this! :)
What is your favorite manicure tool?

Check out all the other lovely ladies participating in the challenge...
Biba's beauty corner , Biberlee-Džumbus, Colores de Carol, Emerald sparkle, Hooked on polish, Lacquered Tips, Mateji ustvarjata, My Little Vanities, My Nail Grafiti, Nail crazy, Oje Gemisi Kalkiyor, Omgnoodles, Pink Polish Addict, Polish nail art, Purple Glitters, Taya, The Nail Buff, Welcome To Brianna's World!

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Black and White Challenge Day 5 - Color Base with Black

I'm back from vacation and trying to catch up with all that I missed, including your lovely comments to my scheduled posts. I'm sad to report that I did not see a sunset like the one I dreamed of here. Hawaii got hit with a major storm which lasted the entire week and included torrential rain, flooding, loudest thunder I have ever heard, lightening, high winds, hail the size of golf balls (luckily on the other side of the island) and more. The first few days we barely wanted to leave the hotel room, wearing rain ponchos whenever we went out. The last few days it started to clear up, but the tours around the island were still cancelled due to washed out roads. The storm is similar to one in 2006, which happens to be the last time I was there. Maybe I bring the bad weather with me? Oh well, it was still nice to get away from work for a week and spend quality time with my mom! :)

Now back to the matter at hand, Day 5 of the Black & White Challenge. The challenge was to create a manicure using a color base with black. I started out with a Color Club fuchsia polish that unfortunately does not have a name. It comes from an All About Color collection that I believe was released in 2010. I will post swatches of it soon. Using reinforcement labels, I blocked off random areas of the nails and applied one coat of Sinful Colors Secret Admirer, a pretty black with a silver shimmer. After removing the labels, I topped everything off with a top coat.

UPDATE: The Color Club polish is named Overboard. See swatches here.  

One thing that I learned is that not all reinforcement labels are made equal. I got cheap ones at the dollar store and while they do stick to paper, they refused to stick to my nails. I had to fight them to stay down the whole time, which resulted in a wobbly edge. I will definitely be trying this manicure with different labels next time...

I hope you enjoyed this manicure and I would love to know what you think of it!

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Black and White Challenge Day 4 - White Base with Color

It is time of another Black & White Challenge. For day 4, the challenge is to create a manicure with a white base and some color accent. Inspiration for this was in the form a bracelet given to me a while ago by a friend. I really like the symbols and flowers on it as well as how beautiful the blue looks against the white. I started out with Wet 'n Wild French White Creme and stamped the round symbols using Sinful Colors Midnight Blue and Bundle Monster plate BM-224. When stamped the blue is lighter than I would have liked, but not too bad. I then added the flowers using Midnight Blue, white acrylic paint, and a dotting tool...

I would love to know what you think of this manicure and where do you get your inspiration?

NOTE: This is a scheduled post. I appreciate all your comments and will respond as soon as I return from my trip! Thank you in advance for commenting :D

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Black and White Challenge Day 3 - Black Base with Color

Day three of the Black & White Challenge is a manicure with a black base and some color. I once again started with Wet 'n Wild Black Creme, but instead of adding the color on top, I added it underneath the nail.  For this I used two coats of Sinful Colors Sugar Sugar. This type of manicure is becoming know as Louboutin Nails due to the original inspiration being Louboutin shoes with a red sole. I think this is such a great way to add something special to the manicure. It will probably go unnoticed by others, but you know it is there, so it is kind of like sexy lingerie for your nails... :D

This seems to be a popular pose to show off the manicure, so I thought I'd give it a try as well... :)

And here are the shoes that inspired it all. I got this photo from here. Interestingly enough, according to that website it says that Mr. Louboutin originally painted the bottom of a shoe using red nail polish while he was bored. I guess it has come back full circle now...

source

Have you tried Louboutin Nails before?
I love it, just need to have long enough nails and remember that clean up and removal requires some extra effort...

NOTE: This is a scheduled post. I appreciate all your comments and will respond as soon as I return from my trip! Thank you in advance for commenting :D

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Black and White Challenge Day 2 - White on Black

Today is day two of the Black and White Challenge, which means a white on black manicure. I started out with two coats of Wet 'n Wild Black Creme. Then I painted the white sloped tip with white acrylic paint and added the leaves in black and white acrylic paint as well. I meant for it to be more black than white, but it looks almost 50/50. It reminds me of a skirt I used to have that had the same curved angle (without the leaves)...

A new swatch of Wet 'n Wild Black Creme. This is my favorite black that I have used so far. It is opaque in one coat, cheap, and works well for stamping. What more could you ask? However, even though it is opaque in one coat, I used two here because I find it covers the nail ridges better...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Wet 'n Wild Collection: main line Color Name/Number: Black Creme, 424A Number of coats: 2 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

I would love to know what you think of this manicure!

NOTE: This is a scheduled post. I appreciate all your comments and will respond as soon as I return from my trip! Thank you in advance for commenting :D

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Black and White Challenge Day 1 - Black on White

The first challenge in the Black and White Challenge is to create a black on white manicure. I started out with three coats of Wet 'n Wild French White Creme for the white. It is the only white polish that I own (and use all the time). It makes me think of when I first started this blog almost a year ago, since French White Creme was the first polish I ever blogged about.

For the black, I used black acrylic paint and added dots using different sized dotting tool. I started with a small flower at the base of the nail and added dots in two semicircles around it and continued from there. I really like how this manicured turned out. I'm starting to appreciate the dotting tool more and more...

I thought I would throw in swatches of Wet 'n Wild French White Creme just for fun, since it has been almost a year since the last swatch. French White Creme is a pure white. The formula is good, two coats for opacity, although I always add a third coat to even out the coverage. Does anyone else remember the days when a solid white manicure like this was popular or is it just me? :)

Swatch Details
	Brand: Wet 'n Wild Collection: Main Line Color Name/Number: French White Creme, 449C Number of coats: 3 Top Coat: No Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

I hope you like my black on white manicure! I would love to know what you think about it. :)

If this looks fun and you would like to join the challenge, take a look on Mateja's blog Purple Glitters for more information.

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Black and White Challenge

I will be participating in a Black & White Challenge that was created by two fellow bloggers, Dolores of Colorful Bottle and Mateja of Purple Glitters. Dolores sent me a sweet invitation to join and I just couldn't resist. There are 10 challenges which are described in the image below and a challenge manicure is posted every 3 days starting March 1st.

I'm really excited to start the challenge tomorrow and see who else is participating. If this looks interesting to you, don't hesitate to join! Check out Colorful Bottle and Purple Glitters for more information.

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)