Life update/Rant...a bit more ranty though.

Life....

Life is; busy, balancing work, social life, family obligations, paying bills, going to appointments. 

I hate being an adult.

I started blogging over five years ago. That's insane by the way! Not that I have EVER been consistent or anything. I wish I was. I know I tried to get myself on a schedule more than once but that four letter word gets in the way and all of this gets put to the back burner and sat there to simmer for god knows how long. 

When I started my blog, I had much more time on my hands. I worked a schedule where I was home most of the day so sitting on the computer or playing with nail polish was possible.I had much more energy five years ago, staying up till 2am swatching was totally awesome. I would put on Netflix and go to work.  I miss that. Now I work full time, and on my days off I’m running errands, going to doctor appointments and spending time with friends and family. Which is totally awesome too by the way, don’t get me wrong.  I also got to bed by 10pm every night and if I do stay up late I barely make it to midnight and if I happen to make it to 2am I am shattered the next day. 

When did I become an adult? I have managed to blog and YouTube in the last few months and that's great, I feel really accomplished when I manage to post something. I see my other blogging friend doing this as a regular thing and I think; “How do they manage everything?” 

I intended this post to be a life update, but theres not much to update, and now its become kind of rangy hasn't it? 

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m still going to blog and make videos, but I just may not post regularly. All of this started out as a hobby, a hobby that I still love and obsess over. I just don't get to post about it much. Maybe one day I will find a way to make blogging and Youtubing a regular thing. 

For now though, I hope you guys, the lovely people that still read here when I post, or like a photo on my Instagram, will stick with me and my irregular posting! Thank you all who have been here for the last five years and I here's to the next five! 

And since you have made it to the end of this post here is a cute picture of Kitkat, ( my kitty if you didn’t know that already :) ) I'll talk to you soon! <3 Nicole

Getting back into nail art: My Fourth of July Manicure!

Hello loves!! Happy 4th of July! I hope you are having a great holiday weekend if you are celebrating and if your not celebrating I hope you are having a lovely weekend!

So this past week I was in the mood to finally do some nail art, and had even more ambition to do a 4th of July manicure!

I have done any type of nail art in a very looonnnnggg time. So long that I have even forgot how to do a proper dotticure. Hopefully this manicure will inspire me to get back into doing some nail art in the future.

For this design all I knew was I wanted to have my thumb,fore finger, and middle finger, have red and white stripes and my ring and pinkie fingers to be blue with silver stars.

I suck at free hand striping, (even when I was doing nail art more frequently) so I instantly went for some chevron guides I had from a kit I bought at CVS a while back when I wanted to buy some guides for a french manicure I was doing.

So I painted the first three fingers with Wet 'n' Wild's Wild Shine polish in white. I used two coats to make it nice and opaque and even,  I don't think these have names just numbers, but I'm sure you all know the one I am talking about. I then used Julie G's polish in Cabana Boy, which is one of the best blue polishes I own, on my ring and pinkie fingers. It is literally a one coater, but I always go in for a second coat just out of habit.

After letting these colors dry for a good long while, I carefully placed my chevron guides and took China Glaze's Cranberry Splash to make the red stripes. Now Cranberry Splash is not the first red I would of picked, but I realized I actually don't have a red creme polish. If anyone has any recommendation's I would appreciate it greatly!

After successfully creating my chevrons and cleaning up I wanted to place some silver stars I had on my nails but they didn't sit right and looked bad ( at least to me), so I took them off and replaced it with some dots in Celeb City by Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear.

I'm not a huge fan on how the silver dots came out, I like I said I completely for got how to do placement for them!


I am really happy with it overall though. It was a lot of fun getting back into some nail art, and seeing the idea I had in my head actually translate to my nails!

And here is a complementary 'claw' hand photo so you can see all of the manicure.

I hope you guys enjoyed this post and finally seeing some nail art up in here!!
Have a great day guys! I'll talk to you soon!
<3 Nicole

My First Lipstick: Rimmel London's Airy Fairy.

Nothing to Disclose

Hello loves! 

Do you remember that one piece of makeup you bought and just fell in love with? For me it was Rimmel London”s Airy Fairy. I remember trying to decide which Rimmel Lipstick I wanted to have and  my mom help me decide. If my memory serves me correctly I was going out for a huge dinner with friends and wanted a nice nude lipstick and Airy Fairy was the winner. 

I still have that tube of Airy Fairy believe it or not, I probably should get rid of it seeing it is a few years old. I have bought a new tube of it, after looking high and low for it. 

Seriously its the hardest lipstick to find.Of course I could find it online, but who wants to pay for shipping for one stinkin’ lipstick?  I finally found it at Walgreens in a permanent display, where as places like Rite Aid and Walmart had gotten rid of any traces of it. 

If you are just starting out in experimenting with makeup, or trying to just find some classic lipstick shades for your kit, then Airy Fairy is one you should buy. Its affordable and beautiful. 

I would describe the color as a pinky/mauve nude with shimmer, but its definitely heavier on the pinky/mauve then nude, and the shimmer isn’t noticeable on the lips. It just helps gives it that sheen on your lips. 

The consistency is creamy and smooth, and a swipe or two across the lips gives you a nice coverage. Wear time is like all normal lipsticks, where if your eating and drinking throughout the day its more than likely you’ll need to reapply after a few hours. I have always found it comfortable on my lips and never drying. 

For a lipstick that runs anywhere from $4.97 on Walmart's website, to where I got mine at Walgreens at $5.79, its definitely one my wallet won’t cry over me buying when I need a new one! 

I hope you have a great day and I’ll talk to you all soon! 

<3 Nicole 

Fitness Journey Update: Bye Bye Soda!!

Hi guys!!!

Today I'm here with a Fitness Journey Update! April and May were 'plateau months' as I like to call them. I wasn't seeing a lot of changes, but just kept working at it.

During the month of May I started a fitness challenge that Lucy had on her YouTube Channel. She had also done one in April but I didn't get into it. She also doing one this month called Tone Every Zone, where 6 days of the week you have new video to tone a different area on your body. I remember she put up a pole on Twitter asking what area's we liked to work on and after all was said and done she chose, Thighs, Abs, Butt, Arms, Bust, and Back. For myself I'm working on thighs, abs, and arms, those are my problem areas.

So far I really like it and after doing the first few days of the workouts my inner thighs hurt for days afterward. It was awesome, that's how I know it worked for me. On the other days for the Tone challenge that I don't need to work on, I just choose a different workout to do so I don't fall off the wagon.

Here's the current video I've been doing when I'm not doing the toning videos. All you need is a chair!


<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bTb6LoDn5uI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


So I'm sure many of you saw the title, bye bye soda. Yup, I have officially given up soda and its evil ways. Its actually something that I should have done many many moons ago. Sadly I wasn't really a coffee drinker so soda was my only form of caffeine.

I did some research about giving up soda and found that the best way is to ween yourself off because going cold turkey has negative side effects. I tried it once a long time ago, and the ginormous headache was just horrible. So I took the advice from the Internet and began weening myself. So whatever I was drinking I cut it down by half, telling myself I could only have a couple of sodas for the day, until I only allowed myself one soda at dinner for about two days and then that was it. No more soda.


I have officially been soda free for almost a whole week now! I feel awesome! I have also seen some weightloss too! Which I was informed by friends and family I would.

I have started drinking coffee in the mornings to give myself the caffeine my body was going to be lacking. I had some coupons for some K-Cups for our Kureig, so I bought my self some Starbucks coffee, and flavored creamer so I wouldn't have to add extra sugar,

I also got myself a new coffee mug to celebrate my new part of my adventure.

It was the only one left on the shelf at Walmart, and I absolutely love England, and London. Its on my bucket list of places I want to visit one day.

I have also gained some more confidence over the last couple of months, I tried on my bathing suit and I actually don't hate how I look, and I have more confidence in wearing shorts too. I was asked what I wanted for my birthday coming up July 3rd and I said I would really like to go shopping for some new clothes. Ive never been so excited for clothes before, I mean I love clothes but I guess having more confidence in myself makes it more fun!

 That's all I have for you guys today! If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!

Talk to you all soon! <3 Nicole.

Covergirl and Katy Perry: Katy Kat Matte Lipstick Swatches.

Nothing to disclose, purchased by me.

Well hello there! Its been a little bit since my last post! I hope you all are well! I've just been busy working tons of hours since we are once again short staffed at work and who knows when my boss will actually decide to hire someone.

But today I am back with a look at some new lippies that have hit the drugstore. I have two of the new Covergirl and Katy Perry Matte lipsticks to show you!

I found mine at Rite aid and they were buy one get one half off! I did some research on these lipsticks and there are 11 shades total in the collection, the display at my Rite Aid was quite small, and only had about four or five shades on it. Pretty much all nudes, and berry colors. When I looked at Covergirl's website I saw that there are quite a few nude to berry tones in the collection with some bright pinks, an orange shade and even a charcoal almost black shade!

I hope that either my Rite Aid gets a more permanent display or I find the whole collection somewhere else.

So lets get into the two shade I have for you!

Reading on Covergirl's website, these are not completely matte lipsticks, Covergirl describes them as being a demi-matte lipstick, which is definitely true to one of shades I purchased.

I quite like the packaging on these and how easily identifiable these lipsticks are!. The outer tube itself feels like it has a rubberized coating on the plastic  which feels nice in the hand. The bright white color also draws the eye right in and will also make it really easy to find these in my makeup collection. 

Its great you can see a preview of what the color is on the bottom of the lipstick, even though I know Covergirl does this to all their lipsticks. Even if the packaging wasn't a bright color it would still make these easy to find.

They also put little cat ears over the names on each lipstick which is really cute and once again I will easily be able to find them and identify what collection they are from! 

Time for swatches! 

My camera did make the colors a bit darker than they are in real life so I did add some more light to the photos to get it to the right color.

Lately I've been on the hunt for that perfect matte nude color, most of my lip collection is nudes in some form or another but Sphynx is the nude lip I've been looking for, where its my lip color but better. I know i have said that about other nude lipsticks in the past but this one quickly became my top favorite as soon as I put it on. 

 Catoure is like if I bit down on my lips for hours to make them look more flushed. it is slightly darker than what the little color block on the tube shows, but I love dark lip colors anyway. Its a nice color thats not too dark to wear during the summer.  

I haven't had a chance to wear Catoure out yet, but I have worn Sphynx quite a bit. Sphynx feels nice on the lips, its smooth and creamy and in just a couple of swipes I have full coverage. Also like it says on Covergirl's Website it did not dry out my lips at all! On a day where I wear it to work I can usually get a good four to five hour wear time in between munching on snacks and drinking my water all day. When I wore it out on Saturday I got a pretty good almost all day wear on it since my mom and I were busy shopping and I wasn't really eating or drinking anything. 

Overall I really love these lipsticks, and after seeing some swatches of the other colors I most likely will invest in more next paycheck! 

I hope you guys have an awesome day! I'll talk to you soon! 

<3 Nicole 

Slow and steady wins the race. March Fitness Update.

Good morning!!

Do you have snow on the ground? I do, and I hate it. Four days ago it was 77 degrees and I could leave the house without a jacket. It was glorious. Ah well, I'm hopeful the warm weather will eventually make its way to the northeast. However the weather is not why we're here today.

Today I bring you March's Fitness Update.


 I finally starting settling into my workout routine. Some people workout everyday, or five days a week, and that is totally awesome, kudos to those people. For me with the way my work schedule falls working out every other day seemed to work. For the majority of my workouts, I was doing them in the evening after I would get home from work. Once or twice a week, ( besides days off) I wouldn't have to be in until 5 and I could workout in the morning. I prefer working out in the morning though, I get it out of the way and it sets me up with lots of energy during the day!

But since I work a mostly 9 to 5, sometimes a little later job, I don't really like the idea of getting up at the butt crack of dawn to get in a workout, and shower before I have to leave the house at 8:30.

One thing I have found that I love during March was making custom playlist through my YouTube account, so if one day I want to do an all over workout: I have a playlist for that. If I just want to work on abs and thighs, which is what I am focusing on right now: I have a playlist for that. Its awesome!

In my introduction post I mentioned that I wasn't loosing pounds, which I know now is because I'm not focusing on my diet very much. I think probably diet and food will be more of topic in April. Although I have lost inches and I was informed by my co-workers and family  that I was building muscle and toning, (which I already knew).

 But I will say I have lost about 10 inches all over my body since January!

Which is awesome! I have dropped down a shirt size, but haven't checked to see if I have dropped a pant size yet, but I do have to keep pulling my pants up all the time!! I don't want to buy any new clothes just yet, because if I am going to keep loosing weight I don't want to spend money on clothing I'm only going to wear once.

Overall March was not very big on changes for me, but as the title says slow and steady wins the race.

I am also sorry this update didn't have any photos and is kind of short, but there wasn't a lot to report on. Hopefully the coming months there will be.

Talk to you all soon! <3 Nicole

Sally Hansen Cuticle Rehab!

Nothing to Disclose

Good morning love bugs!!!

Let me ask you a couple questions. Do you have dry cuticles? Are they hard to manage? I do! Back when all I used to post about is polish, I know for a fact swatching multiple polishes can wreak havoc on ones cuticles. Acetone is drying and not good to have on your skin or nails for long periods of time. Over the years I have tried multiple cuticle creams and oils to help keep my cuticles at bay and while some worked okay, this one is by far my favorite.


Whats even worse is when you neglect your nails and don't paint them or take care of them. Hi I'm Nicole, guilty party of one here.

I don't paint my nails much anymore, which is sad because I can remember a time I painted my nails once to even twice a day!

 I should probably stop this post right now and paint my nails...

But before I do I want to share with you guys a product I found from Sally Hansen that has helped me moisturize my dry cuticles and keep my nails, with or without polish, looking good.

Let me introduce you to Sally Hansen's Cuticle Rehab.

If my memory serves me correctly, since I've had this cuticle oil for a little while now, I got it at Walmart and its was somewhere around the $7 mark.

It says on the packaging that its a cuticle oil, but its in a gel form. I'm glad its a gel cuticle oil, so that way if I accidentally squeeze out too much it doesn't go all over the place. When you take the cap off it has a brush applicator so all you have to do is squeeze the tube and you can brush it on easily. I find that it works well so I can spread the oil all over the before I rub it in.

This stuff does have a scent to it but its not strong at all. I can't pinpoint what it smells like though, it smells to me like a standard cuticle oil, so if your not big on scents then you won't have a problem with this.

Anytime that I have applied this product, which is pretty much ever I do my nails, and once in a blue moon when I see my cuticles looking rough, I have seen an immediate result. It soaks in to both my nails and cuticles quickly and softens them so I can push back my cuticles. I have had other products in the past that did not work as quick or as well as this has.

Overall I think Sally Hansen's Cuticle Rehab is pretty awesome, my number one love about this product is how fast it works as I mentioned above. If you have hard to manage cuticles, whatever the case may be I would give this product a shot!

Have a great day and I'll talk to you next time!

Welcome to my Fitness Journey!

Hey guys! Long time no blog, I know. I know. How is your 2016 going? For myself I have to say so far that mine is going fairly well. Much better than years past I will tell you that. Even though I haven't been writing out blog post I have been taking lots of photos and trying out product so I can review them properly for you! 

Today though, I am introducing you guys to a new (hope to be) series on the blog. 

Over the years I realized I’ve come to not only love nail polish, and makeup, but also fashion and life style things. So here is a little bit of lifestyle! Today’s post is going to be about fitness, well my the beginning of my fitness journey anyway.

One of my top goals for this year is to get healthy. I briefly mentioned it my Year In Review, if you want to read all about 2015 feel free to click the link. Since my teenage years I’ve been in the overweight/plus size category and have tried every which way to loose weight. Whether it was by dieting, (which never worked), or joining the gym on and off since I was 15. Honestly going to he gym makes me feel self conscious, I always felt like everyone stares at you and silently judges. Its definitely not the scene for me. 

I think my failures also had a lot to do with the fact I wasn’t putting my health as a priority. WHICH IS NOT A GOOD IDEA BY THE WAY!  I used to make it a priority that my family, and friends came first, I’ve always said I’m a people pleaser, if others are happy then I’m doing my job. 

But I since realized that I had to start taking care of me, which most people agreed, some didn’t. But if I’m not good health, how can I help others?

In July of last year I started working out and (sort of )  watching what I was eating. I got inspired when I saw Anna Saccone ( from the SacconeJolys) talk about how she hired a personal trainer to help her meet  her fitness goals. Anna put out a video with her trainer Lucy Wyndham Read and I fell in love with it. It was simple, and I could do it in the privacy of my own home whenever I wanted. 

So of course the next thing I did was buy some brightly colored workout clothes. I feel it makes me want to workout more if I have cute clothes to do it in.

I love picking out workout gear that has motivation sayings on them
even if they are kind of cheesy sometimes.

I then started doing the one video when I had a spare moment. I had yet to check out Lucy's YouTube channel and see all the awesome videos she posts! l I’m not gonna lie there were maybe one or two weeks that went by where I didn’t workout at all because I was lazy about it. I could name all the excuses, I was too tired, its too hot outside, I worked late, etc. However when I did finally do a workout I felt amazing!

If you are looking for new at home workouts to do then you should definitly checkout Lucy's Channel! I should go into what kind of workouts Lucy does, she does what is called a H-I-I-T workout or High-Intensity-Interval-Training Workouts. You may or may not have heard of them. In most of Lucy's videos she shows you a HIIT move then a toning move. Basically HIIT workouts get your heart rate up to burn calories,then brings it down a little to tone, then right back up again to burning calories. I hope I explained that right. I have never sweat so much after a workout in my life!

Heres a pretty sweaty selfie from after a workout last summer.

 But like any beginner you can’t push yourself too hard, your body has limits and if your not used to working out, you could injure yourself. At first I only did as much as my body could,I modified the workout to suit my range of motion and so on.  Now seven months later my stamina and range of motion have increased greatly and now I am doing four separate workouts in one shot!

Heres a link to Lucys Youtube Channel so you can check out her videos for yourself!


My current routine goes as so: 

1.Warm up routine

2. 4 minute thigh routine

3. Love HIIT Workout.

4: 180 Ab rep workout. 

In total its just shy of a half an hour. Sometimes I change up the videos so I don’t get bored or repetitive. Lucy has so many videos to choose from you could do a new work out routine every day! 

Over the last seven months I have definitely seen a change in my body. I haven’t lost as much weight as I would like to, but I’ve noticed I’m toning up my body which is nice. What I have to work on now is my diet. Cutting out sugar, and crap foods is hard, but I don’t want to cut them out completely I’m trying to find a balance. 

I know this is all going to take time and is not going to happen overnight. I’m not looking for that; “I dropped 100 pounds in a year”, I want to do this my way, and at my own pace. 

I plan on doing monthly updates to hold myself more accountable. If anyone out there has any tips or advice, please leave a comment below!! 

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday and a even more magnificent weekend! 

A year in review....

Well hello there, Happy New Years everyone!! I hope you all have had fantastic holidays, whatever you celebrate! 

This post may not be a happy, 'best of' anything. Its just me reflecting on the year and how I hope 2016 will be. 

Over the last month or so I've been reflecting on where I was a year ago. I was in a much different state of mind. As I have said many times in blog post throughout this year.

2015 was not my year, by any means. Although it is ending fairly well. Tonight I'll be ringing in 2016 with my friends as I have the night off for the first time in years. And better yet I have off New Years Day too! 

I look back at this year and say "good riddance"! 

Last year I remember writing down resolutions, and lets be honest who ever keeps theirs? Out of five I went through with one, but it was an important one. Find a new job. This year I left my job in grocery retail, where I spent 10 years of my life.  It was pertinent to my mental health that I find a new job, one where I wasn't going to bring home the stress. One where my phone wasn't ringing all night with questions from people I thought knew how to do their job. One where I was dreading going to, or having panic attacks because I didn't want to go.

When things get that bad, its time for a change. I remember breaking down in front of my mom and how she reassured me that she would support me no matter what I did, while my dad who now is supportive, wasn't on board at first. 

At my new job I became a certified pharmacy technician. I'm not certified for the state of New York or anything but certified for the pharmacy I work for. I won't ever tell you where I work, I gotta keep some stuff unknown to keep up the mystery. Even though there is not much mystery to me. 

In the latter half year I kind of fell out of love with blogging and Youtubing. I couldn't find the time. and when I did I never wanted to finish what I started. I'm a horrible procrastinator. 

One good thing about this year though was I started working on getting healthy, something I have failed at for most of my life. I started working out during the summer, and I have photographic proof that I made a change in myself. I don't know if I'll ever show that photo to you guys, but the fact that I can see the difference makes me more motivated to keep it up next year and really get my butt in gear.

This year my biggest achievement and yet something I am still working on, dealing with my depression. I know I've talked about it here multiple times so I'll keep it short. This holiday season, compared to the last couple was the best holidays I've ever had. For the first time I felt so happy and realized how unbelievably blessed I am. I still have bad days but for the most part I'm pretty good about keeping my head from swimming around in those bad thoughts. 

For 2016 I have made a list of four goals I would like to achieve. I'm not making resolutions, they don't work. 

My first goal: To be healthier. I want to crack down and make that lifestyle change. 

Second: To go to a Supernatural Convention so I can give Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki a hug and tell them Thank you for helping me though my depression this year. If you want a post on that, how a TV show and its actors can help depression, leave a comment. 

Third: Do what makes me HAPPY. I found out I do love blogging and Youtubing and it makes me happy when I put up a new post or video, so in 2016 I want to do more of that.  Also spending time with family and friends. And giving myself much needed 'me' time to de-stress and relax. 

Fourth: Don't lose hope. Know that things happen for a reason and even though they are many bumps in the road, things will work out and it will be okay. 

I wish for everyone in 2016 to be happy and healthy. I hope that if 2015 treated you bad that you kick it to the curb and make 2016 your year. It will be my year! 

I love you all, thank you for sticking with me and my little blog for the last almost four years now! I will see you in 2016!!! <3

And for making it through this post, here is a photo of Kitkat my little fluffy orange kitty. 

Throwback Thursday: My First blog post!!

Oh man is this post going to be cringe worthy on so many levels!

Good morning lovelies! I hope you are all doing well and are gearing up for the weekend! As you read this post I will be at work patiently waiting for the clock to strike 5:30pm so I can get out and have a nice day off on Friday. Unfortunately with my job I have to work at least one weekend day but on occasions I get a whole weekend off and when I do its is GLORIOUS!

Today I thought I would take you back in time four years and show you my very first blog post. The whole reason I started my blog was that I enjoyed reading nail polish blogs at the time and my collection was steadily growing. I wasn't as heavily into makeup as I am now so that's where my blog name came from. They were my nails and my polish and there you go.

I remember the name of the first post and it was an introduction post about myself, so really I guess I'm taking you back to the second post on the blog but its the first one I showed of a manicure!

I called it Springtime Crackle. Crackle was huge four years, I remember desperately wanting to get my hands on it, thank goodness we had just had a Sally's Beauty open up in the next town over!

So... brace yourselves... if its too bad... look away...

Throwback Thursday: Memories from May and June.

Hi lovelies!

Today I thought I would do something completely new. As much as this is a beauty blog I also want to start injecting it with a bit of lifestyle and maybe some fashion in the future. By no means am I an expert on either but I thought it would give My Nails. My Polish a little variety.

So today I'm using Throwback Thursday to share with you some of my favorite photos from May and June, sine it now July 2nd and its the day before my birthday!!!

So lets start with some moments from May!

I'M BACK!!! Well hopefully!

Hello lovelies!!! I hope you all have been well. I myself have certainly had many ups and downs over the last year or so, more or less the most of of them happening towards the end of last year and beginning of this year. I believe I have posted about some of the things that were happening, if you want to know just take a look back at some of my old post before this one.

As of right now June 30th I can say I am much better than where I was six months ago, and that is a very good thing. I'm not 100% back but thats okay because its not all going to get better overnight.

I have always suffered with depression and anxiety, but I used to have a good control over it, a control where I wouldn't let it rule my life, this time around however it just over powered me and knocked me down to the way bottom. To anyone else out there suffering from depression, anxiety, any type of mental health issue I want you to know this, you are not alone in your struggles. Believe me when I say that, don't be afraid to reach out for help because it is there.

At the end of last year I wanted to get back into blogging and being a better blogger/Youtuber, and there is no point of making excuses, sometimes things just don't happen. HOWEVER lets get back on this horse and ride on!

I'm once again hoping to get myself on a schedule, blog posts on Tuesdays and Thursdays and video for the YouTube Channel on Sundays. Seems reasonable and now that I have pretty much set hours at work I think I can swing it!

So heres to hoping, and send words of encouragement if you can! Thank you to any of you who have stayed with me this long!

I love you guys! See you in the next post! <3
Nicole

DIY Galaxy Shoes!

Hi guys! You can't see but I am waiving frantically at the computer screen. Today I have an actual post for you to read!! How exciting!

This post however is not beauty related but I like to think that being a nail blogger for three years kind of helped in this effort.

A few weeks ago I had seen Bunny Meyer, or GraveyardGirl on YouTube (and yes I know that's now how she spells it.) doing a video series on her channel of ideas from Pinterest to see if they work and she was tie dying canvas sneakers with Sharpies. I thought that was a really cool idea. I quickly grabbed my phone and opened the Pinterest app and began browsing, I quickly found a tutorial on how to make galaxy shoes using the same techniques with Sharpies. At that moment I was determined I was going to try this, I practically live in canvas shoes in the summer so why not have my own decorated pair right?

After a little bit more research and watching some videos on YouTube I decided that I wanted to make my galaxy shoes with paint instead of sharpies, the cost would be less and I don't know I had this fear about using sharpies and rubbing alcohol and that the whole thing would get screw up.

I got all my supplies at the wonderful world of Walmart and here's how it broke down.

• White Canvas Shoes: $6.36 (that includes tax) 
• Four Bottles of Apple Barrel Acrylic Paint: $0.50 Each, Total. $2.17 (includes Tax)
• Set of four foam brushes: $1.02 (includes tax)
• Acrylic Sealant Matte (I didn't want Glossy Shoes) $6.14 (includes tax)
• A Cheap Toothbrush $1.08 (with tax) 

So the total cost to make these was: $16.78! Companies are selling them for $50 and up if you buy them from a store, why not save some dough and make your own, you can customize them to look however you want. 

Okay so here is a not a step by step but a brief overview of what I did in case anyone wanted to try this out for themselves! 

I wanted to do a complete tutorial but I got really into it and forgot to take photos at certain parts, I'll do my best to explain. 

The first thing I did before beginning my artistic journey was to tape up the rubber part that runs around the bottom of the shoe with tape. I used masking tape, but I would recommend painters tape instead of masking tape.  I found that the masking tape eventually pulled away from the rubber and also left the rubber sticky after removing it. Also you want to remove your laces as well unless you want galaxy laces too. 

I ALSO HIGHLY SUGGEST YOU WEAR A SHIRT THAT YOU DO NOT CARE ABOUT ANYMORE IN CASE YOU GET ANY PAINT ON YOURSELF!!! 

The paint I used is non-toxic and can come off of skin with warm water and soap. Hence the reason you need sealant when done with these shoes. 

Now I know in this photo there are five colors. I added the darker purple in after I did my first pair of shoes. This post is showing you my second pair I did for my best friend Stephanie. But still you only need four colors. For my personal pair of shoes which you can see here on my Instagram I only used the navy, white, lavender and pink colors. If I needed a darker version of the pink or lavender I mixed in the navy color or if I needed a lighter blue I mixed in the white paint. I only picked up the darker purple so I could try something different and personally I think it worked out well. 

I first started with the navy color. I blocked out spots on the shoe where I wanted it to be the darkest. I left open white spaces to blend and place a lighter blue and the purple colors so that it would look like space better. 

Once I had the navy parts blocked out I went to work on the light shades blending them in, kind of like doing and ombre on the shoe where you can see the fade. You don't want ANY harsh lines in this. Its supposed to magical and wispy. 

Here is what the shoes looked like after I blended in all the colors. I then took the bright pink and mixed it with the navy to get the medium purple color to make the 'nebulas' I used one foam brush to to do them, one corner of the brush I sponged on the paint and then used the dry side to blend them out and make them look cloud like. Once again I did this sporadically all over the shoe.

Once I had the 'nebulas' looking how I wanted I took some of the white paint and a small brush I already had and did some highlighting. My dad is artist and I did pick up some stuff from him when I was growing up. I added the white paint in places like under the arch of the nebula on the front of the shoe or to the high points as well. I also made some white nebula clouds in spots that looked too plain. 

Next comes the most fun yet most messy part of the project, so I hope you heeded my warning at the beginning about wearing a shirt you don't care about anymore. This is where the cheap toothbrush comes in! 

I dipped the tooth brush in the white pain and splattered it all over the shoe to make 'stars'. You can judge how much splatter you want in one spot, its completely up to you. 

My right hand was almost completely covered in paint when I was done, thank god this paint comes off with soap and warm water. Now I could of used fabric paint but I found the range of colors to not be what I wanted and or needed, that's why I chose acrylic paint. You can by a base to mix with it to make it fabric paint but like I said above you can just get a can of sealant and it works the same way. 

Here is what the shoes looked like after the splatter effect and a few hand drawn stars. 

I really think that the splatter makes ALL the difference, it gives the shoe dimension and really makes it look like outer space. I also used my dotting tool to help create a few other larger stars and painted on a few as well. 

Here is a photo of the shoes I took with my phone to shoe the finished product to Stephanie. 

I didn't even realize I made the hand drawn stars coordinate until I took this yesterday. Also if you couldn't really see the shoes on my Instagram page here are a couple shots of the shoes I made for myself. 

I love how these came out, both pairs! I couldn't have been happier with them and now all I want to do is to keep making them! Friends are saying that I should do this professionally but I know there are other people out there doing that. If someone wanted me to make a pair or something I probably wouldn't say no. I hope you guys enjoyed this post as much as I did making these shoes. 

I'm glad to be back in the blogging game and hopefully I'll have a new video up soon for you guys too! 

 I'll talk to you all very soon! <3 Nicole 

Did you know you can see more content on Youtube? Name Change?

Hello lovelies and Happy New Year to you all!! I hope 2015 is good to us. I was very glad to see 2014 go!


Yup you read the title right, I'm doing a little shameless self-promotion. With the New Year 4 days in already I am determined to make myself a better blogger and YouTuber this year.

If you didn't know by the one or two post I have posted here that I also make YouTube videos now and have been since around Easter back last year. It was stepping I had been looking to make for sometime and finally took the leap.


I'm trying to find a balance between here and YouTube and deciding on what content to put where. I feel YouTube is better for Tutorials, except nail art related ones for me. I don't think I'm anywhere good enough to do those so I'll leave those to the professionals. I also enjoy making favorites videos versus long ass blog post that have 100 photos. However I love writing blog posts where I can show you lovely readers amazing swatch photos, and usually video can never do a good picture justice.

So as 2015 marches on you will see me try to find my footing.


Now on to a different topic. When I created My Nails. My Polish almost four years ago, (its been four years? Holy crap!) I was mainly going to be a nail polish specific blog. For a time I was, and I enjoyed it greatly. I have made some awesomely beautiful friends along the way and many new ones too and I wouldn't trade any of that away.

But about a year to a year and a half ago I started branching out more into the whole realm of beauty and didn't focus too much on polish anymore. I was doing post like Free For All Beauty Fridays and reviews and then eventually I realized I was posting more beauty related topics than manicures.

Over that time I have come to find that I love EVERYTHING beauty related and don't want to focus on one thing. I enjoy doing my makeup and creating different looks and I can't stop reading about new products coming out. Don't even get me started on skin and hair care.

So with all of that being said, I was thinking about a name change. My Nails. My Polish could still work as a blog name, hell it has for almost four years but I feel it doesn't reflect what the blog has become.

Here is where I need my lovely readers to help me out. I need you to help me decide if I should go through the painstaking task of changing over my Blog Name, Social Media Accounts, and so on. I have an idea for a name ' Nic's Beauty Bits'. It incorporates my name and what the blog has become. I'm just on the fence of whether or not I should do it. So what do you think??

In the comments below Please, please let me know what you think, Your voice matters in what I do because if it wasn't for you guys I wouldn't even be here!

I love you guys! <3 Nicole

Halloween Nail Art! Blood Splatter!

Gosh its been forever and a day since I have done nail art! Honestly I still love nail polish very much. I'm always looking at the newest colors and collections, but my love for nail art kind of fell out. I remember last doing nail art I believe for my birthday. Sadly between work and not being home much really squashed any time I had to sit to do nail art. It hurts my heart because its all I used to do back in the day! 

Did you know I haven't painted my nails in the last two weeks. I've been bare nail all this time. 

So the other night after seeing all the lovely Halloween nail art that all the other amazing Nail Bloggers were creating this season, it made me want get back into it. I decided on a blood splatter mani. I remember doing one I believe the first Halloween my little blog celebrated. It was Dexter inspired as well, white base with red blood splatter. I think even at that point I didn't know you could use a straw to get the splatter effect. 

This time around I wanted to make it more gruesome. I love horror movies and special effects makeup so it was only obvious. 

I started with a nude base color. I chose Cover Girl Forever Fawn which is fairly close to my skin tone. Without something on top of it, it definitely gives me mannequin hands! 

Once two coats of that was dry, I grabbed some plastic straws and cut them in half. Then I took Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby a nice blood red jelly and created a small puddle on a piece of paper. 

Now splatter manicures can be messy so I made sure that I had a few sheets of paper towels, or newspaper covering my work surface. I also had on hand some nail polish remover and Q-tips for clean up. You will get this all over your hands, especially if you miss your nail when doing the splatter part. 

Then I dipped one end of the straw into Ruby Ruby held it not super close over my nail but far enough away that it would create an awesome look. I then blew a short burst of air into the straw and prayed it hit my nail! 

Lets take a look at how I did! 

Here is my left hand. I absolutely love how this manicure turned out. It really looks like I messed up my nails in some sort of accident or that I brutally murdered someone! As you can see by my middle finger I was way too close to my nail when I blew into the straw and almost covered the whole nail. I think my index and pinkie fingers are my favorite because the splatter effects looks just right! 

Now here is my right hand. Trying to do any nail art with my non-dominant hand is insanely hard. I give major props to those who can do nail art on both hands and have it turn out amazing! The splatter effect is less but still looks pretty gruesome. 

And here we have an awkward thumb shot, out of both my thumbs my right one looked better and I was very happy with it. 

After the splatter was dry I used my all time favorite top coat Julie G Jet Set to seal everything in. 

If you liked this manicure, let me know in the comments below and also tell me what your favorite thing about Halloween is! Was it a costume? All the scary shows on TV? Let me know! 

I'll talk to you all tomorrow! <3 Nicole 

Maybelline Color Sensational Creamy Matte Lipsticks. My Picks For Fall!

Well hello there lovelies! I hope you all are well! I'm back with a swatch and review for you amazing readers today!

Over the last I guess you could say almost year I have fallen in love with matte lip products.

And of course this meme jumped in my head when I wrote that above sentence.  Today I am going to bringing you my views on the new Maybelline Color Sensational Creamy Matte Lipsticks. That is a mouthful.

I first heard about these through Nouveau Cheap which if you haven't heard of G. and her amazing beauty on budget blog. I seriously check her blog pretty much everyday to see whats about to hit the drugstores beauty wise.

When I read that Maybelline was going to be launching a matte lipstick line I was super excited since at the time my favorite matte lippies were made by Revlon. I am a huge fan of the Color Burst Matte Balms. Number 250 Standout is my go-to red lippie.

So I waited patiently for them to arrive at my local drugstore. The first one I wanted to pick up was Touch Of Spice, which reminds me quite a bit of the Gerard Cosmetics Lipstick 1995 which was created by Jaclyn Hill. Photos I have seen online pretty much show Touch Of Spice is an exact dupe for it.

The second one I got but didn't necessarily plan on getting, because god knows I need more lipsticks,  but I couldn't pass up Divine Wine, which is a red but its more of a vampy dark red. Its darker than Revlon's Standout. I was inspired to buy this because of the lovely YouTuber Zoella. I have always seen her rocking a dark red lip and I wanted to try too.

The texture of these lipsticks are amazing, they are super creamy and smooth. They don't dry out your lips like some mattes can do. I will say these lipsticks have a scent to them, but I don't find it unpleasant. To me it smells kind of vanilla-y. Plus I don't smell it at all after applying it. 

Lets take a look at some swatches. 

 These swatches are done with one swipe of the lipstick. In the photo you can see Touch of Spice is a brown toned nude and has that classic '90s look to it. Divine Wine is just that a nice blue toned dark red. On my lips its looks a little darker than shown here.

The staying power is not very long lasting, after eating and drinking you will have to reapply.

I paid $4.97 for these lovely lippies at Walmart which is great because other places they are about $7.99!

If you want to get your hands on these I would check out your local drugstore or Walmart now because I think everyone should have access to them!

I hope you enjoyed this post! If you love matte lippies like I do comment below and tell me whats your favorite!

I'll see you guys on Thursday with a Halloween mani!!
<3 Nicole

*All the above products mentioned by me were purchased by myself with my own money. I am not being compensated for this review.*

10 Things That Make Me Happy. Inspired by Vampy Varnish!

Hello lovelies! Sorry its been sooooooo long between post but you know life gets in the way and stuff happens. We've all been there so I won't bore you with crappy details!

This week I saw a post on the lovely Kelly's blog Vampy Varnish where she talked about 10 things that make her happy. At the end of the post she asked what made her readers happy, so I decided to follow in her foot steps and make a post myself!

I know everyone at some point in their life has been down and depressed and I know I have certainly been there and some days I still am but to help me get through it I try to go and do some of the things on my list to make me feel better.

Number 10 

Driving around with really loud music playing! When I'm feeling angry or down and I know I have to go out, putting on my favorite mix,turning it up and singing at the top of my lungs definitely helps me get rid of any blues I might have started the ride out with!

Number 9

Watching YouTube videos.

I know this may sound odd, but after a long day where maybe things didn't go well or as planned, sitting down at the computer and watching my favorite Youtubers, Like Louise from Sprinkle of Glitter, or Zoe from Zoella or even a random cat video I know that I am guaranteed to laugh and start to feel better.


Number 8. 

Sleep. You can never get enough sleep. Seriously its one of my favorite things!


Number 7. 

Playing video games. Betcha didn't know that did you? I have been an avid gamer since I could walk. I grew up with the first Nintendo Entertainment System and now play my Xbox 360, not as much as I'd like to these days but I'll tell you something, there is just something satisfying about getting a headshot on a zombie in Resident Evil.

Number 6.

Good food. It makes me happy when I can provide my family with a nice home cooked meal. I've been testing recipes lately because my hours at my job have changed so I'm home more in the evening now. Its great because for years I work mostly nights, I'm still getting used to the schedule change.

Number 5.

Snuggling with my cat Scooter. You may have seen her cute mug on Instagram mostly. She's the only baby I have left since I lost Binx last January. She doesn't always like to snuggle but that doesn't mean I cant try to sneak in a few snuggles here and there.

One of my favorite photos of Scooter. 

My absolute favorite photo of Binx. RIP baby girl. 

Number 4. 

My work family. Even though the job might piss me off beyond belief I think I have stayed at this job for almost 10 years now because of the people I work with (okay the money is a factor too.) My co-workers are the craziest most amazing people you will ever meet. Most of us keep an eye out for each other and even hangout with each other outside of work. How do you think I met my best friend of the last decade?

Number 3. 

Supernatural. Okay if you follow me on Twitter you know that from my bio and ever so often retweets that I love this show. I discovered it last summer and it changed my life for the better. I found myself relating to a story of amazing characters and a storyline that keeps me coming back almost everyday. I could write a whole blog post on how this show changed my life but just know this, it was a huge factor in helping me deal with my depression. It was one of things that took me away for 40 mins and made me forget the bad for a while.

Number 2.

Okay this is also goes with number three but its not about the show its about the actors on it. I'm talking about Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, and Misha Collins. These three men I have so much admiration for, and its not just because they are gorgeously handsome, (okay that's part of it.) but in all seriousness, watching these three men in interviews and at in their convention videos on YouTube have shown me they are not the typical over hyped celebrity. They honestly truly care about the impact they have on their fans and what kind of impact the content they create has. I could also go on a whole blog post about how amazing these men are but I will point out one specific moment for me. Jared specifically has help me in my dark times. In a convention video a few months ago he was asked by a fan on how he deals with going through dark times. (Supernatural in general has helped pull a lot of people out of dark times.) Jared went on to say that he has one saying that he says to help him realize when something bad is going it's not the end of the world and that is the phrase "This too shall pass." I know its such a general saying and I'm sure I've heard others say it, but when I heard Jared say it, it struck a cord with me and now when ever I hit a bump in the road I always repeat that phrase over and over.

I mean come on look at how adorable they are! 

NUMBER 1. 

My family, friends and this blog.

Without my mom or my dad I wouldn't be here and even though we get on each others nerves more often than not they have always supported my silly ideas and this blog. Every time I reach a milestone with it they get just as excited as I do.

My friends. Where do I even begin. My best friend Stephanie has been my BFF for the last 9 years. Thats the longest I have ever been close friends with someone. Its like we were seperated at birth even though she is older. She is the one person out of everyone that I can count on to be there for me, and I will always be there for her. She has let me into her life and her into mine. Are families are even similar its creepy! In September of 2012 she gave birth to my beautiful niece Gianna and has allowed me to be an Aunt to her and I love that child as if she was my own. I love being able to watch her grow up every day . I have lots of other close friends, there are too many to name them but they know who they are. They are just as crazy as me and have introduced me to so many new experiences in life I wouldn't of had it any other way.

Me and Stephanie

Me and my peanut.

And finally this blog. I have been blogging for three years now and have made so many awesome friends along the way.  I can't even begin to imagine what I would be doing if I didn't have this blog. I owe a lot to you my lovely readers who stop by when I finally post something new or follow me on to new adventures like my YouTube channel. So thank you to you guys out there so much!


What are 10 things that make YOU happy??? Comment below!!!

I'll talk to you all in the next blog post! <3
Nicole

I'm on Youtube!

Good morning lovelies! I hope you all are doing well!

I first off want to apologize for the lack of posts here over the last week or so. I've been busy with life things and something really really exciting!

You may have already seen this on my Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, but I'm gonna share it here too!

I made a YouTube video!! I have been wanted to make a YouTube video for a long time and every time I would start something would go wrong, the camera would be out of focus, whatever it was I kind of gave up on it for a little bit.

But I took the leap of faith over Easter weekend and filmed my first video, ( now that I knew how to focus the camera properly and the weather was cooperating!).

Its titled Whats In My Bag where I show you the contents of whats in my big ole' purse. I was inspired to do it after seeing Missglamorazzi's video.

So below you will find the video I hope you guys enjoy it. If you like what you see please please subscribe and comment, I want as much feedback as I can to improve my videos.




That being said the same goes here on the blog. I will still post a ton here too, so please don't be afraid to comment on a post! I want to know what you think! I value my readers opinion a lot! 

Stay tuned to the blog for so much more coming up and of course any videos I post to Youtube I'll try to post here too!

I'll talk to you guys soon! <3 Nicole