Valentines inspired polish options!

Good Morning guys!! Guess what? Its snowing...AGAIN!! I swear we loose the snow then it comes back ten fold.

Did you know that Valentines Day is only 9 days away? I don't particularly like Valentines day, I just never have, maybe its because I haven't had a proper valentine, but you know, I am my own darn valentine! Plus who can pass up 75% off candy the next day?

But what I don't mind is  sporting a Valentines day manicure on the day. So in case you needed to know of some polishes that were V-day inspired, or just looking for new color to wear, or even in need of some inspiration, I have complied some options.

Lets take a look!!

The first polish I have to show you is OPI Charged Up Cherry, its a bright pink/fuchsia polish that isn't that sickly sweet light pink everyone associates with Valentines Day, its kind of on the darker spectrum.

Next up we have my absolute favorite red polish of all time, China Glaze Cranberry Splash. I know this came out in a Christmas Collection but it does scream love and romance to me! 

How about a polish that's name is as sweet as the polish looks, here is Queen Cupcake from Funky Fingers. I don't believe that you can get this polish anymore, but I would say use it as inspiration to find a color just like maybe?

If you want a polish that is the big 3 free and from a company that is pretty awesome, check out Zoya's Flora!

In this photo from 2012 I have it paired with a glitter that is also great for Valentines Day! Its called You Glitter Be Good To Me, from OPI! If you don't have this glitter or can't get to then OPI's Excuse Moi from the Muppet's Collection is another pink glitter that is awesome.

Here is another winner from OPI; Love is a Racket from the Serena Williams Collection.

Here I used it in a french manicure design from two years ago. Its a amazingly beautiful glass fleck polish. You can't tell here which is also when you can tell that my camera sucked. Anyhow this makes me want to wear it for this Valentines Day... We'll see! I also love the little white hearts I stamped on! (That was one of my first attempts at stamping ever!)

Lastly we have one last red polish. This one you know from one of my recent post. Its Wet 'n' Wild's Heatwave.

Now that we have normal polish choices covered, I also chose two texture polishes that are very much appropriate for the big love holiday!

From the Julie G. Frosted Gumdrop Collection we have Hot Cinnamon and Crushed Candy!

These will add just a bit more sparkle to your holiday! Plus the names I think are just adorable for this time of the year!!


Wow! That was a mouthful! I hope you guys enjoyed this post and maybe it did give you some inspiration for colors or polishes to use if you own them! I will talk to you all soon!
<3 Nicole

OPI Charged Up Cherry!

Hi guys!!

Today I have for you a polish from OPI called Charged Up Cherry. I bought this at the grocery store I work at. We have a small section of OPI, Orly, and China Glaze that doesn't always get updated but sometimes new polishes appear and I make it a thing to check it out once in a while.

Charged Up Cherry is a bright cherry pink creme polish. Its from the OPI Brights Collection.

I adore this color! I think it is going to be great for upcoming spring and summer! I'm pretty positive that I will be wearing this as a pedicure majority of the summer. Sadly I'm one of those people that puts on one color on their toes and don't take it off until it looks crappy.

If you didn't know already, ( I think I mention it every time I show a creme polish) that they are my absolute favorite finishes. They just look so clean and smooth and top coat just makes them look gorgeous.

I used two coats to get perfect opacity but honestly if I was more careful I could of gotten it one this polish is that pigmented!

I'm also really glad that my DSLR picked up the color well and didn't freak out. Sometimes with such bright colors it goes all hay wire and I have no idea how to fix it when I edit photos. I don't even think that Picasa has that option!

I don't own a lot of OPI nail polish but I'm so glad when I find one that I can add to my collection that I know I'll go back to!  If you want to get your hands on OPI polish I would check out Ulta or even now Sally Beauty Supply!

Do you own Charged Up Cherry? Whats your favorite OPI Polish? I wanna know! 

<3 Nicole

New Years Eve Manicure: OPI: Muir Muir On The Wall.

Hi guys!! Happy New Years Eve!!

I cannot believe that 2013 is coming to a close but on the other hand I am very glad that it is. Looking back on 2013 it wasn't my best year personal wise. I went through a lot of family problems which I have more else blogged about on here. I really have struggled with depression and anxiety in the latter half of this year. I mean I know a lot of people struggle with it and I'm not saying that mine trumps over anyone else but this was the first year it really physically effected me and my well being. There were days that I was just so sad or angry that I didn't want to deal with anything going on in my life. I think that is why my grades suffered so much this fall, and fell into a Netflix coma some days.

Well that last paragraph was really sad....anyhow I am slowly starting to feel like I am getting out of that slump and look to brighter things.

Today I am going to show you what I am wearing on my nails to ring in the new year! Back over the fall I bought a fair few polishes and one of them was Muir Muir On The Wall from OPI's San Francisco Collection.

It is this vampy burgundy shimmer in a black base. I try not to categorize polishes by season, if I want to wear a winter colored polish in the summer so be it! But this polish is what I would say I love about the fall, it reminds me of when the leaves change here in New York, and it still slightly warm about but you still need a light coat, and its hot coffee drinking weather.

This polish is good to go in two coats  but I did three just to even it out because my clumsy fingers kept either hitting each other or something else.

My base coat was OPI Nail Envy Matte and top coat used is Seche Vite.

These photos were taken indoors since when I decided to change my polish it was about midnight.

So how do you guys plan to spend your New Years Eve?? I will be spending mine at home with my family, since I have to work in the morning and eating some good food.

I hope you all have a happy and safe New Years, and if you plan to drink remember to drink responsibly and don't drive, get a DD or a taxi!!

Talk to you guys in 2014!!
<3 Nicole

Back in Business!!!

Hi guys!!!

Sooo.... the semester is officially OVER!!!! WOO HOO! You have no idea how relieved I am. Technically I do have to go into school on Monday for one last class and to return a rental book but I don't have anymore test or anything like until the spring semester in January!

Since Christmas is about 11 days away I thought I would share my current winter/Christmas/Holiday manicure with you!

I feel like this year is coming to an end so fast, but I'm kind of glad it is. I have had a roller coaster of a year, with loss and family health problems. I've also been suffering really bad lately from depression, and anxiety. Its not fun but one thing that has kept me going over the last three months or so has been staying in touch with the nail community and how many of you amazing people out there are so supportive and encouraging!  I can't say thank you enough for that!

Today's manicure started off with one of my absolute favorite Christmas reds, China Glaze Cranberry Splash. I talked about this red a lot last year from what I can remember . Its shiny and shimmery, and every time I use it or see it, it makes me think Christmas!

I also have to give a shout out to OPI Nail Envy Matte for being my base coat to protect my nails, I got a twin pack of the original formula and the matte formula back in February. I finished the bottle of original formula and now working my way with the matte. It definitely keeps my nail polish on longer and I haven't seen any yellowing in my nails, compared to other base coats I have used.

To make this manicure more holdiay-ish I broke out my stamping plates. Originally I saw Nicole from Polish Me Please, post a snowflake manicure on her Instagram. I got inspired that day and did something similar and posted a photo on my Instagram. I used the same stamps from Bundle Monster for this manicure, and I think it makes my nails look like wrapping paper.

I used my mini star tree topper to pose my hand on. I have a mini tree in my bedroom this year and it just makes it so much cozy-ier. I will say this once I was done taking photos with it my hand was full of glitter, but there is nothing wrong with that.

For the snowflake stamp I used Fresh Paint's Coconut. I got it from Five Below, but I don't think they have it anymore. Five below goes through series of different polishes every so often and Coconut was released over the summer.

And to make my manicure shiny and protected I used Seche Vite. I was using Sally Hansen Insta Dry Top Coat but my nails chipped quickly after using it, which is a problem I have never really had with it so I decided to go back to Seche Vite one day after seeing they sold it in Wal-Mart. Seche Vite was the first quick drying top coat I ever used and I loved it, but then it started shrinking my manicures so I stopped. It seems though that this bottle isn't doing that so I guess I must be doing something right.

For the photos I did take them inside since it is snowing outside right now and the hours of daylight are limited. A couple of the photos did come out dark so I had to adjust the light on a couple of them.

So this is my launch back into blogging!!1 I am so excited to be back you guys!! I hope you like this manicure!

I will talk to you all very soon!
<3 Nicole

Valentines Day Balloons!

Good Morning! How is everyone today? If your in the northeast then you know we are being slammed by a winter storm called Nemo! To think I was just getting used to the whole brown grass thing and now this!

Today I bring you the first of my Valentines Day inspired manicures. I'm usually not a proponent of Valentines Day, the whole holiday just always seems so hyped up more than it is. I guess that's what working in retail does to you, it makes you bitter. My store had Valentines candy and stuff out in January, like literally the week after New Years. Its sort of sickening, I apologize to those of you whole love the holiday, its just my take on it.

But alas I still like doing holiday themed manicures and Valentines day doesn't get an exception. Today I have some balloons to show you. I initially wanted to do something along the line of the conversation hearts that we see all the time, sadly my nails are too small to do them on and be able to write all the little sayings on them. Taking the colorful heart part of the idea I made some balloons. There kind of cartoonish but that's the whole point of it really.

I started off with three coats of OPI I Think In Pink from the 2012 BCA duo. Its kind of a perfect pale pastel pink. The only thing I have a problem with is how any coats you need to make it opaque, the polish is a crème/jelly so its a little tricky.

Once my three coats were dry I grabbed China Glaze Wicked Style, Hard Candy Sky, and Hard Candy Splendid. Basically a darker pink, a sky blue and a yellow. I drew hearts free hand with my nail art brush; alternating colors on each fingers. Once they were dry I went around with a smaller nail art brush and my black nail polish (Wet 'n' Wild Black Crème) and outlined the hearts and drew on their strings.

I let it all dry and finished it off with my top coat.

The lighting is a bit different with these photos. My dad had purchased a mini fluorescent lamp to help replace the one that stopped working in the kitchen above our sink, but it didn't work so I took it and now it helps me do manicures in the living room when I want to sit and used the coffee table.

So these photos have the fluorescent light shining at them and I have to say it helped make the photos come out nicely on my iPhone camera. I only have one other complaint about this manicure, hearts are super hard to do on the opposite hand! I didn't have this manicure on for long since my left hand looked so bad.

If you are more adventurous in nail art and are more skilled at recreating it on your opposite hand then by all means rock this manicure!

I hope you enjoyed this and I'll talk to you guys on Sunday with another Valentines manicure!
<3 Nicole.

My Top 10 Polishes of 2012! Part 2!

Good Morning and welcome to part 2 of My Top 10 Polishes of 2012!

Today I am going to show case my last five favorite polishes of 2012.

Lets get started!

First on the list in the second half is from Cover Girl! This fall Cover Girl released a nail polish collection with all different colors. I'm sure Cover Girl has had polishes in the past but this is the first I have seen them since I started blogging. Out of the collection that Cover Girl has to offer I chose a polish that I definitely don't own already or have anything close to. It is called Wine Stain. It is an dark blood red jelly finish polish that is super saturated with color and is right up there with my favorite reds.  I used this polish also in a Halloween manicure this year, it looked pretty really for fake blood drippings.

Next is a polish I never thought I would get my hands on. OPI is not commonly sold where I live but the grocery store that I work at sells it and sometimes we get in one or two of the new collections. Like right now there is a polish from the James Bond Collection hiding in the back waiting for me to purchase it this weekend!

Anyway my favorite OPI from this year is I Have A Herring Problem. Its from the Holland Collection that was released in the spring. It is a blue-grey polish that is just beautiful. It has this most amazing silver shimmer running through it as well.  Its the one polish out of the collection that if I was going to buy one it would be this one.

 Back in September my sister from another mister had a beautiful baby girl and when we had her baby shower one month before her due date I wore this next favorite. I got it when I ordered half the Summer Neon Collection from Head2Toe Beauty. It is Pink Plumeria. It is a lovely light corally pink neon. This collection of neon's is special, because they are not just BAM in your face neon's, they have a shimmer to them that even if you left them without a top coat they would still look amazing.

When I wore this polish for the baby shower I stamped butterflies over it and I think it was very appropriate for her shower. Take a look.

Second to last on my list was a glitter polish. What nail polish addict doesn't love a good glitter polish. I know I do. As much as they can be a pain in the you know where, I can't resist. China Glaze released a collection during the summer called On Safari. I was attracted to only the glitters. I'm Not Lion is a gold micro fine holographic glitter polish. In the sunlight it is super sparkly and would be appropriate I think in the work place. Its not loud its just right.

Last but certainly not least is a polish that I think a lot of nail polish lovers liked. I know I had a few conversations with people about it. China Glaze's Wicked Halloween Collection had a couple amazing polishes in it this year, as you saw by my choice for Immortal. This last one is just amazing. Its called Bizarre Blurple. You know how here in the nail polish world we sometimes combine words to make a new that describes a polish? Well China Glaze caught on and gave us this beauty. When I took these pictures my camera didn't want to pick up the purple, as it never does it just got the blue of the polish. Doesn't matter though it still amazeballs!


   
                               

 

 

So that's it! My Top 10 for 2012! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and if you wore any of these polishes this year leave a comment below!!

 

 

I believe my final post for the year will be a new years eve manicure so keep a look out for that!

 

Nicole 

Christmas Mani Round up!

Hello!!!

Hope all of you lovely readers had an amazing Christmas! I know that I did! I am currently typing up this post from brand new desktop computer!!! I asked for one from Santa because I knew that I needed one. I had been using my mom's netbook for a while since she doesn't use it all that often but then it would get frustrating with the tiny mouse pad and very small screen. I would use my dad's computer but he would get mad about the pictures I had to upload to for the blog and how much space it took up even though I keep most of them on a USB drive.

So in todays post I am going to show you the two Christmas manicures that I wore the week of Christmas and on Christmas itself.

This holiday season I got back into nail art and had even purchased a new small set of brushes from Wal-Mart. They are the ones that one can use to paint on miniatures and dolls. My sister saw this and asked if I had a professional brush set and I told her no, so for Christmas she got me the Cheeky Beauty 26 piece professional brush set! I am absolutely in love with it! It even comes with two teeny tiny dotting tools.

Anyway these manicures were not made with those brushes, future ones will. The ones I bought at Wal-Mart. Ok so the first manicure is one that I wish I could of kept on all week long but it chipped way too much and I had to take it off.

The first design was  inspired by the YouTuber CutePolish. I watched several of her Christmas tutorials from this year and last year and went at it. I did a mix of nail art, I had Santa's coat on one finger, elves on other and six reindeer, including Rudolph!

If you want to see her tutorials for all these awesome designs for next Christmas then go to her YouTube page and check them out!

The polishes that I used to create these fun designs:

Santa's Coat: China Glaze Cranberry Splash, Sinful Colors Black Striper, Pure Ice Superstar, and Sally Hansen Golden-I.

The Elves: China Glaze Jolly Holly, Sinful Colors Black Striper and Sally Hansen Golden-I.

The Reindeer: China Glaze Foie Gras, OPI Crepe Susizette, Pure Ice Superstar and Sinful Black Striper. (For Rudolph's nose I dotted Cranberry Splash instead of black. )

Please excuse the chip wear and the horrid cuticles!! I took these photos a day or so after work.

I really enjoyed this manicure I think it got the most attention out of the two! A lot of people liked the reindeer especially.

For my second manicure that I wore and actually wore on Christmas was inspired by an organza bag that we had with all the Christmas stuff. It was gold with gold paisley. There was no way I could recreate it so I decided to take a red base and recreate the gold swirls.

Using once again Cranberry Splash as my base color I waited for it to dry and proceeded to paint on my swirls. Using my tiniest brush from the Wal-Mart pack I got I gently drew the swirls with a very light hand. I definitely thought that less is more with this so I didn't take the swirls to far.

Now that I have my new brush set I think I will be trying these nails again in different color combos!

I hope you all enjoyed this Christmas post! Next up will be my picks from the Top 10 polishes of 2012! I have had that list running in my head since about October! I can't wait to share it with you guys soon!!

Talk to you all very soon!
Nicole

Breast Cancer Manicure!

Hello! How are you all? I'm doing okay on my end, lots of stuff going on as this fall season gets going, parties, visiting with my new niece and my work load at my job has picked up more since we are a man down in the office until further notice. I have been pulling six to seven day shifts in a row. Sadly they are not in the same pay period so no extra money to be had in my wallet :(

These six-seven day stretches really wear me out and by the time I have a spare minute blogging is not the first thing that comes to mind, although I have been taking pictures of manicures that I've done and some swatches, so now that I actually have a spare minute I'm trying to get a few post pre-published to help me out. I feel like I've been in a slump lately with blogging since work is killing me, but with the Holiday seasons creeping up on us I want to get back in the game.

And the way to get back into the game is to post my Breast Cancer Awareness manicure that I did back a couple weeks ago for a fundraiser my supervisor started two years ago!

I don't personally have anyone in my family who suffers from Breast Cancer or any Cancer for that matter, thank god but I do know people at my job outside my job that includes customers and even friends of fellow bloggers who have had to battle this awful disease.

So for this manicure I used the most appropriate polishes I could find/owned and that was the OPI Breast Cancer Duo, and last years Essie Breast Cancer polishes.

I started out with two coats of Zoya Flora, a nice dusty pink color that would help contrast the nail art I wanted to create. Flora is a lovely pink polish that like with most pastel pinks is a little streaky on first coat but by the second coat its pretty opaque. It has this almost jelly like finish two it but its more on the creme side. It dries kind of dull so a top coat is needed to wake it up.

Then on my left hand I created a pink ribbon using Essie's Raise Awareness, with the small end of a dotting tool. On my right hand I couldn't re-create the pink ribbon so I took the Glitter from the OPI Duo and covered my ring finger in about three coats of it over flora!

Essie Raise Awareness is probably my favorite pastel pink that I own, its not streaky at all and its just a fun girly pink color. The Glitter from the OPI Duo, (which the name escapes me) but I think its You Glitter Be Good To Me, is pale pink round glitter with darker pink small hex glitter mixed in. You can wear this glitter by itself with about three coats for full coverage, but just remember how much a pain in the butt glitter is to remove! Unless you use the foil method of course!

With Flash

In The Natural sunlight, this was taken in the early am.

My right hand with flash

Now these pictures were taken after a day of wear so please forgive me for the slight tip wear. My coat has been a mix of Orly Sec n Dry and Sally Hansen Insta Dry. My Base is Orly Bonder. I Hope you enjoyed this post and stay tuned for more.

<3 Nicole

OPI Pink Friday, With a bit of stamping and some explaining.

Hello! Happy Friday! I hope that your weekend will be sunnier than mine! The forecast is for it to rain all day today and into tomorrow morning. Sunday will be a nice day but I have to work that night so I won't be doing to much :(

So I feel like a Starburst, you know how in the Starburst candy commercials they call them a contradiction... yeah that's how I feel lately. I know I said I was going to do the Summer Challenge... I don't think that its going to pan out :( and I know I said I would continue with the Sprinkles collection from Nails Inc, I have two more of those to swatch still. So I feel like a contradiction saying one thing then doing another...

I don't like contradictions or people who present them... but I guess I could say its being  hypocritical right? I hate that too. Anyway I'm sorry and I thank all of you for who take time to read my blog and dealing with my randomness. I think that's just how it might go for a little while until I get myself organized better.

Okay so enough of the pity party for one in the paragraphs above, I DO have some exciting news to announce! My Nails. My Polish has hit 100 followers on Twitter!!! When I saw that last night I got super excited! I told my mom about my little blogs land mark and she just went.."ohhh". Its okay she doesn't follow the whole social media thing and how important it is to bloggers like us! Anyway though a HUGE thank you to everyone who follows!

Now if I could get 100 likes on my Facebook Page??? Could we see that happen? Maybe even 10 likes as a more realistic goal right now. My little page only has two likes :(

Okay okay so on to the polish, that's why you all came here for right?

So today I am going to show you a fun bright manicure that I hope will melt away the rainy blues.

I started with 3 coats of OPI Pink Friday from the Nicki Minaj Collection. I have the mini version of this polish but I might have to get the Nicole by OPI version from the Kardashian collection.

I then stamped some pretty flowers  using Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme And Pure Ice Superstar from the Salon Express Stamping Kit. I seriously need to get either the Shany 2012 plates on Amazon or The Bundle Monster 2012 plates or the Cheeky ones, Which do you prefer??

Pink Friday is such a pretty baby pink color. The first coat was a little streaky and if your not careful you definitely get brush drag, but that could also be from the tiny little OPI brush. Upon Second coat I had opacity but it was still a little streaky so I went for a third. I am definitely going to say that Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme and Superstar from Pure Ice are my go to drug store stamping polishes. I have never had a problem with Black Creme and this was the first time using Superstar for a white stamp.

So that's it for this Friday post. I hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to hit the BECOME A FAN button at the top of the blog to like my Facebook page!

Thanks so much and talk to you soon!
Nicole

OPI I Have A Herring Problem.

Hello! Happy Sunday!

Today I have a polish that I am so glad made its way into my collection. I know I've said it before but the grocery store I work for has a small selection of OPI Polishes. We only get new ones in once in a blue moon and its usually one or two new shades. On Friday while working I was going around the store having to put stuff back on the shelves and had to pass the OPI rack several times. Eyeing a few shades that were different I knew I had to check it out when I got off.

Checking out the rack I immediately saw a slate blue grey polish with shimmer and had to have it. I had pulled out I Have A Herring Problem from the Holland Collection! This and Kiss Me On My Tulips have been on my wish list from this collection. So 1 of 2 complete!

I Have A Herring Problem is a gorgeous medium slate blue grey polish with tons of sliver shimmer that has gold undertones. I noticed it slightly when looking at the polish in the sun,.

This photo was taken with my IPhone with the flash on. My other camera wouldn't pick up the amazing shimmer!

 Application was a pretty good. The first coat is rather sheer but the second coat takes care of that. You can definitely wear this polish with just two coats. In my photos I used three for good measure. I also do not have a top coat on either.

I purchased I Have A Herring Problem for $8.99 at my local grocery store. I am pretty sure you can get OPI at salons and beauty supply stores  for about the same. But prices may vary due to location!

Until next time!
Nicole

OPI Pros and Bronze

Happy Friday!!

Today I have a gorgeous polish from a Serena Williams Glam Slam Duo. I'm not sure if this was one of the first Glam Slam Duo's that was released but I'm glad I got it.

I found it at TJMaxx, my new mecca for spotting OPI polishes. Sometimes you can get really lucky and find some great deals! I think I'll stalk mine more often! In this duo pack you got Love Is a Racket, which I used in a Valentines Day inspired manicure and ( and obviously by the title.) Pros and Bronze.

I was unsure about how a copper polish would look on me and how it would mesh with my skin tone. I applied it first to my pinkie, to full opacity to see how it would look, and that way if I didn't like it I would just be able to take it off. As blogger though I thought I have to be thorough and wether I like it or not I had to wear it. I need to take myself out of comfort zone and try new ideas and colors.

Applying this polish is nice, 2-3 coats reaches full opacity and gives you tons of shimmer. Its easy to control, not runny like its compainon was for me.

This polish reminds me of a new pennies when you get them from the bank . The shimmer in this polish is what makes it interesting to me. Its not just the bronze in it, I detected gold shimmer and the occasion flash of lime green? Not going to lie here I really saw it!

The next few photos are with a flash and without. You kind of get a different look to it when you aren't shining light directly on this polish. Depending on the angle you hold your nails at, this polish almost looks a golden yellow. My camera didn't want to capture it though.

Flash

No Flash

No flash. Plus this is my favorite picture!



In the first photo of the three you can see the somewhat golden tones this polish gives off and in the pictures without the flash (I just noticed as I am typing this) looks like the cooper pots that have those little divets in them.

All in all I'm still unsure how much I really like this.  I'm going to say its a love/hate relationship. I think if I was paler it might be better.. but then if I was tanner I think it would look good too. I don't know!  I feel it doesn't mesh well with my skin tone but its workable. Does that even make sense? That whole paragraph was probably redundant.

Anyway, thats all for this post today! I think I'm going to start to work on some St. Patricks Day nail art even though I don't celebrate it, (not irish) :(.

Talk to you all soon!
Nicole.

Valentines Day Manicure!

Happy Valentines Day everyone!!!!

I hope you all are getting to spend it with the one you love even if its your cat!

I came up with this design after posting my Simple Valentines Day French Manicure, I loved having a french manicure but the red was too bright for me, so to tone it down I started with Aquadellic as my tips. I was fairly pleased with it too, most of them are all the same length and I didn't mess it up. So to make it Valentines Day-esque, I stamped two different heart designs from the Salon Express Kit. For the stamps I used Love is a Racket! I do love this color for stamping and my toes, it has such pretty red glitter flakies throughout that just give it that right sparkle!

At this point I thought I was done, topping it off with a coat of SH Insta Dry Top Coat and SV to even it out.

Here is what I came up with!

Okay I love this design the way it was... but I couldn't help myself so I added one coat of Finger Paints Twisted, from the Special Effects Collection. I did take pictures but you can't see the flakies since they are not on a dark background. Which is fine but trust me its so pretty in person.

Now that I have practice my french manicure skills I think wearing one every so often will become a regular thing! French Friday's perhaps? Who knows.

I hope you all enjoyed this manicure. I can't wait to show you stuff from my shopping haul on Thursday! Talk to you all very soon!

Nicole

Simple V-day French manicure design!

As Valentines Day nears I am starting to hate it more and more. I have never been a huge fan of the holiday. Being diabetic, there is not much choice when it comes to a box of chocolates. Walk though Walmart the other day not a single box of sugar free chocolates, so I'm left craving chocolate but come home empty handed. :(

So to get me out of my mood, painting my nails always helps! I have had this idea in my head for sometime now, at least the last week. It turned out nice but I would like my nails to be a tad bit longer when I decide to fully wear a french manicure. Last night I broke a nail and I am now back to semi-nubs. I had to file them down quite a bit. :( but now they are all the same shape and size so I guess that's the upside!

I recently got a Serena Glam Slam Duo from TJMaxx for...wait for it... $6.00!! We have these wear I work ( well the most recent ones anyway) and they run $14.99. This was one of the first ones that Serena Williams released I believe and it came with Love is a Racket, which is a bright red shimmer that is just stunning in the bottle, and Pros and Bronze and goldish bronze color with tons of shimmer, I swear I saw lime green shimmer and that just made love it even more!

Love is a Racket is a little to bright for my finger tips after using it in this manicure, but I plan on using it for stamping and for my toes for the summer! It is however one of the perfect Valentines Day reds out there!

Here is what I came up with! Click the read more to see the pictures!

31 Day Challenge! Day 19 Galaxy Nails!

OMG I cannot believe this challenge only has like 12 days left! I am sooo sad this will be over but I want to continue posting everyday! Maybe not a new manicure everyday because trying to do that now with this challenge is just too much!

Day 19 is Galaxy Nails! How exciting! I get to practice my sponging techniques yet again and this time I think I passed with flying colors!

For the polishes I used is OPI Linkin' Park After Dark as my base color...

31 Day Challenge. Day 18 Half moon Nails.

Hey guys!

Okay so first off I'm glad to say I'm back today with two post! I'm sorry I had to miss a day but we had a death in my family. :( My two younger cousins lost their dad in a terrible accident at his job at a ski resort. I'll spare you the horrible details but he was a life taken way to young from this world, we will miss him dearly! I'm more worried about his son and daughter then myself. I have never dealt well with death ever since the first death I experienced when I was 9. I don't get emotional and I get nervous and have no idea what to say. The only time I ever got that emotional was when my grandmother passed February of last year, I still get emotional from that time to time. I guess we just all deal differently.

BUT

NYE Manicure

Okay so the day before NYE I had to work till 10 and usually when I get off at 10 I like sometimes like to wander the store and see if there are any nifty new things to see. About six months ago I found that my grocery store carries OPI nail polish, It used to be just like 10 colors or so all individually packed and hanging on a clip rack. About two months ago I saw they had gotten in a small rack that was from OPI and had four designated spots for blues, reds,brights,and purple.

Fall and Pumpkin Coffee? I think YES!!!

Hello!!!

Okay so its like eight days in to September and I am soooooo excited for fall. Fall to me is my favorite season, I love to see all the colors on the leaves change and the air gets crisp and its still flip flop weather. :) It is also the time where Dunkin' Donuts comes out with their Pumpkin Spice Coffee. When that comes out I know that Fall is upon us. So to me that also me fall nail polish as well.

Now I don't have many fall colors, that means that I am to be 'inspired' to go on an adventure and buy some! I'm looking forward to the new Jesse Girl Polishes coming out. That would be the Collaboration with Julie G from YouTube! I am also on the look out for the Halloween China Glaze Polishes. They are already on some the E-retailer sights like Head2toe Beauty. I'm not sure if they are going to be at Sally's, but I hope they will be otherwise I will have to take the leap of ordering polish off the Internet.

So on to this weeks manicure. I feel this a fall appropriate color. I have had this color since last year but never wore it because for an OPI polish its a bit hard to control. One really has to wipe the brush off to get just the right amount. This is Crepes Suzi-ette, it is from the France collection according to my OPI app on my iPhone. It's a wonderful mid tone brown that reminds me of Chocolate. Although there is another polish I saw by OPI which is aptly named Chocolate Mouse.  Crepes Suzi-ette is a great beginning of fall color and I am sort of glad to be getting out of bright colors.

So here she is .

Oh and of course I finished off with China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat.

That's all for now!
Nicole