A lil bit of nail art and a story.

Good morning! I hope you all are well!

So this new year isn't starting out the best for me. About two weeks ago I got sick, which you guys know took me out of commission for a week. Now something else happened that took me out of commission this past weekend.

I had my cat Binx  since I was about 11 years old, she had been my constant companion. Back in May she got sick and had to have emergency surgery which was an hysterectomy , we never had her fixed because she was an indoor cat, she survived the surgery and I thought all was ok. After her surgery she had a major personality change, she became mean and would attack your feet if you crossed her and she lost the part of her that showed any affection. This made me sad and I always played the 'what if ' game, (its not good to do that b/c you just make yourself crazy). Binx had always had some sort of neuroses about her since she was a kitten but now it had just gotten worse, she started to pace all the time walking from one end of our apartment to the other, or just sleeping.

 On Thursday I noticed she was different, she was pacing a lot more than normal, she wasn't sleeping at all and her walk was off. My mom could even pet her and pick her up and there would be no fight from Binx. She was also trying to hide throughout the day, which I know is a signal from a cat saying that its almost their 'time'. Thursday night I laid Binx in her cat bed and she didn't move for a couple of hours, when I got up in the middle of the night I saw she wasn't anywhere to be found. At that point I came to terms that if it was her time to go it was okay and I would accept it. Friday morning when she still didn't make an appearance we found her stuck behind some boxes just standing there, its like she didn't know how to get out. I thought maybe she was going blind but her eyes were fine. When we got her out from behind the boxes her equilibrium was way off she could barely walk. We took her to the vet imeditetly. The vet told us that there was definitely something bothering her nervous system, but her one ear was clogged with wax and it could be an inner ear infection that was causing it all. Upon further check of her eyes, that's where we saw the problem and that maybe this wasn't going to be an easy fix. When the vet brought his hands close to her face she had no reaction and when they shined a light in them her pupils didn't dilate like they should when a bright light is shined in them.

The vet told us to give it 24 hours and see what would happen, they gave her an injection of steroids and antibiotics and some ear drops. I think that the vet was trying to give me some ray of hope that Binx would get better, because if there was no change then it was something with her brain or the brain stem. At that point there wouldn't be anything that we could do. So as Friday went on we watched Binx deteriorate, she started walking through her food and water and just never stopped walking around. We had to keep her in carrier just to get her to calm down. Friday night my family and I decided to bring her back to the vet Saturday morning. In doing so the vet saw how much worse Binx had gotten, at this point Binx was shaking and panting and not even responding to touch anymore. The cat I had grown up with was gone, and as much as it tore my heart apart we had to do what was right for her and end her suffering her suffering was tearing my heart apart even more. Sadly we had to put her to sleep. It was the hardest most heart wrenching thing I have ever had to do in my entire life. As I write this I am fighting back tears.

*** I APOLOGIZE TO ANYONE I JUST MADE CRY BY READING THAT STORY***

So that explains my absence from twitter and here on the blog this weekend. But I am back and ready to continue on.

Today's manicure was inspired by an outfit I bought my niece, I purchased a onesie for her that had a cupcake on it and said "I take the cake" because my niece is a little chunky monkey I so desperately wanted to write on it with fabric paint, "and eat it too".

So my nail art was inspired by that cupcake on the outfit.

I started off by doing a gradient on each nail with L'Oreal Royalty Reinvented and Nicole By OPI Selena. The L'Oreal polish is really good for sponging, the NOPI not so much, it didn't stick to my white base well and I had to go over it many times, and if I dabbed too much with the make up sponge it took the polish off. It was so friggen frustrating. Once I got the gradient the way I wanted it I started on the cupcake on my accent nail.

I used:

Sally Hansen Celeb City for the cupcake 'tin'

Pure Ice Superstar for the frosting

Pure Ice Stunning for the sprinkles

Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby for the cherry on top

Sinful Colors Black Striper for outlining the tin.

Once I finished the cupcake I did add Sephora Chaotic to the rest of my nails to help the gradient look better.

So I hope you guys liked today's post except for the beginning part. I will talk to you all soon with a brand new post. I'm thinking also about doing a post on my nail care routine!

Talk to you all soon!
<3 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

Simple Holiday manicure number 2 Dots!

So I have a feeling this years holiday manicures theme is going to be simple for me. Last year I did all my nail art on fake nails so when it comes time to do my own nails its a huge fail!

Seriously though I wanted this post to be a super cool holiday manicure that was candy came themed. I had it all planned in my head like any nail blogger would and then trying to execute it was a no go.

My original idea was to have some awesomely striped nails in the traditional red and white and so I got out my supplies and went to work. I tested it out on my pinkie nail, then moved to the others and realized I can't do consistent stripes! It bugged me much. My mom of course who is half friend and half nemesis when it comes to the type of nails I wear said it was cute... Yeah no.

So then I thought why not do dots but in stripes and maybe it will be a new type of candy cane nail. So repainting my nails for the umpteenth time I went to work with my dotting tool and came up with what you will see below.

I used China Glaze Cranberry Splash as my base color, it is by far my go to red this year. Then I used Pure Ice Superstar for my dots.

I only did the dots on the opposite corners of my nails so they kind of are candy cane-esque maybe not your decision but they are very sweet for a holiday party. It kind of reminds me of a few snowflakes on a holly berry or even cranberrys? Who knows take a look at the photos below and tell me what you think!

Until next time!

Ghostly Nails

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Hope you all are having a safe and awesome Halloween!

So as you know the east coast got devastated by Hurricane Sandy, up here in the Hudson Valley we were spared, not a lot of rain but it was pretty windy. My dad however who is on Long Island where my grandfather is was in the brunt of the storm. As of Monday night he had texted to say he was without power and would call us in the morning. Sadly there is very limited cell service right now as it went out with the power, we have had a few calls from him since then and he is fine. It worries me because he is my dad and I miss him. He has no way to get home right now since the train service is suspended until the fix everything which could take some time, and he maybe without power for 7-10 days. I know he wants to come home soon so I'm praying that the train service gets restored soon and he can come home.

Anyway on to today's post! Ghosties for Halloween!

If you have a last minute party to go to and have no idea what to do with your nails here is a quick little idea.

First off you want to paint your nails with a black polish.After you base coat your nails of course!  I used a little mini black polish from L.A. Girls. Let that dry completely!

Then with your dotting tool and a white polish make your ghosties! Let them dry. Then if you want as an optional step, you can go over the white polish with a glow in the dark polish and then let that dry as well.

Finally dot on black eyes and a mouth and once your design is completely dry, seal it in with your favorite top coat!

So here are my ghouls! And the last photo  is of them in the dark! I love how they glow! I was so surprised that my camera actually picked it up and I didn't need a special light or something!

Okay so I hope you enjoyed that! Can't wait until December to do Christmas Nail art! Hope you all have a safe and Happy Halloween!

<3 Nicole

Frankenstien Nails!

Happy Sunday!

Hello guys! Today I bring you another nail art post for the Halloween!

This post is inspired by yet another amazing beauty guru who does amazing YouTube videos. Every year I look forward to her Halloween tutorials. Not that I could ever recreate the perfection she does, but she does have some nail art tutorials that are super easy and fun to recreate!

Back in 2010 Youtuber GoldieStarling put out a tutorial on Frankenstein nails, this tutorial in particular made me want to do more nail art. Now at the time I didn't have a blog in 2010 but I still practiced it and attempted this tutorial and it was a big hit amongst my co-workers and friends. So in thinking of what to do for some Halloween post I thought I would re-do these amazing nails and show them to you.  Below is Goldiestarlings original video on how to do these amazing nails!

For my Frankie nails I used Orly Green Apple for his skin, my Sinful Colors Black Striper to create his hair, mouth and eyes and eye brows, and Pure Ice Superstar to make the whites of his eyes.

Here are my pictures of my Frankie Nails!

I think they came out pretty good! They are super simple, I think it took me about a half hour to do these nails and then about 10 mins to dry!

I hope you try out Goldiestarling's designs!
Until next time <3 Nicole

Halloween Nail Art! Spooky Googley Eyes!

Happy Friday! Hope you all are well today!

In this blog post I am going to give you step by step instructions on how to get these nails!


Spooky googley eyes, we always see them around this time of year, whether it be as awesome Halloween decorations in lights or on pumpkins, or even in the dark of the night when you see that pair of creepy eyes staring at you in the dark.

I have seen a few people on instagram do these types of nails mixed with other nail art, and I wanted to take a stab at it!

I have not been able to stop looking at my nails since I did this nail art! They remind me of these light that my aunt ( god rest her soul)  used to put in her trees at Halloween time. I remember helping her put them in the bushes and trees. I always loved decorating her house for Halloween, she had one of those big houses that you could go all out and do elaborate scenes with. She did this especially at Christmas time!

I debated on doing different color eyes, like red, pink, bright green, or neon yellow, but kept it original just using white. I did dab over the white with glow in the dark polish but I guess I didn't use enough because my eyes don't glow :(

 

 

 

Here is how to get these nifty nails!

 

Step 1: Apply base coat and let dry.

 

Step 2: Apply two coats of your favorite black polish. Mine is Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme. Let dry completely.

 

Step 3: Taking the bigger end of a dotting tool or a tooth pick you snipped the end off of and dip it in to your favorite white polish. I used Pure Ice Superstar, then dot two dots close together to create the whites of your eyes. Let Dry.

 

** Optional Step**  Once the white polish is dry taking the same end of the dotting tool you used for the white dip it into glow in the dark polish and go back over the white so you eyes glow!

 

Step 4: Taking the small end of the dotting too or the opposite end of the toothpick that isn't snipped off, and dip it into black polish then do the inside of the whites to create pupils for your eyes. Let dry.

 

Step 5: Once your design is dry use your favorite top coat to seal it all in!

 

okay so I hope that this design is something that you guys will try, especially if you are new to nail art. It is so simple, you can also do it as a last minute design for Halloween!

 

Okay guys till next time! <3 Nicole  

 



 

 

Pure Ice Superstar. My go-to white polish!

Hello! Happy Thursday! I hope you all are well!

Today I am going to show you my go-to white polish! This is the polish I use as my base for all my gradients, attempts at watermarbles, some stamping and just to have as a good clean canvas!

I have tried many white polishes since becoming addicted to nail polish, my very first white polish I tried was Sally Hansen Insta Dry Polish in Whirlwind White. I had purchased it based on a YouTuber that I religiously watch and she had said it was her favorite white so I decided to give it a try. For the most part it is a great white polish. I'm not a fan of the brushes, but that's another debate or blog post in its entirety. By the time I got down to the last 1/3 of the bottle the polish began to get goopy and thick and just not usable anymore. Plus at that time I had no idea to go out and purchase polish thinner and make it like brand new.

The second white polish that I have tried is Sally Hansen Extreme Wear Polish in White on. White on is another great white creme polish but is a tad streaky, especially if you didn't have enough on the brush to cover your whole nail in a couple of swipes. I don't know if it was maybe the batch of polishes or if they were just really old sitting on the shelf but I felt White on got more goopy even when the bottle was almost full .

The third white polish I purchased was yet another Sally Hansen polish that was from the Hard As Nails Collection, and I can't remember the name of. This was the worst white polish by far that I ever purchased. To talk about streaky was an understatement, it took like four coats to be opaque and even then it wasn't really even and dry time was horrendous. Once again I was in search of a new white polish.

Now I could of purchased Sinful Colors Snow Me White, but no one around me had it in stock at the time, but then I saw that Pure Ice, which is typically sold at Walmart had a creme white polish called Superstar. I decided to try it, for a little over a dollar it was totally worth to give it a shot, Sometimes the cheapest polishes can be the best.

Boy did I find a winner with Superstar! If you are careful you can make this a one coater, other wise two coats is perfect. I have actually purchased two bottles of this so far, and my first bottle isn't even gone yet! My first bottle is down to the last third and its not even goopy or thick!

Here are a few swatch photos of Superstar!

Clean up with Superstar can be either good or bad. Usually I can get my cuticles clean and nice, sometimes it just doesn't happen. For my pick for favorite white polish Pure Ice Superstar is the winner!

Have a great Thursday guys!
<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

Neon Flowers!

Hello! How are all of you lovely readers doing today?

Can't really complain to much on my end, just the same old stuff that's worth complaining, work and the weather. Customers at work lately have been down right mean. If you follow me on Twitter you may have heard me rant about it. The weather has been so hot! It has been in the 90s for the last week and the humidity just makes it all the more worse.

So today I decided to do some happy nails, well at least ones that will make me happy! I had in mind to do a tutorial for baby shower nails since my BFF/sister is having her shower in less than a month. I just haven't decided what exactly I want to actually do. The first thing I KNOW I needed to do was to practice my nail art. I haven't done any real nail art since Easter. I was inspired by Alaina from The Little Canvas and her Under The Sea Nail art, which you can see if you click her blog name. Alaina is AMAZING at nail art, and I can only hope to get as good as she is! While your at her blog you should see these awesome Gnome Nails she did too!

I wanted to do something simple and easy, so I began with two coats of Pure Ice's Superstar. Superstar is a fantastic creme white polish, I actually bought a back up of it yesterday at Walmart. It is super smooth and two coats creates the perfect starting point. I highly recommend it if you have access to the Pure Ice brand.

This is two coats and no top coat, also taken with the flash on my camera.

So hunting around for my box of toothpicks, which have mysteriously disappeared. I finally found a bobby pin that wasn't useful anymore and bent it to make a duel ended dotting tool. First I took China Glaze's Hang Ten Toes, and created the flower petals on all five nails, in random areas. Then I took Foie Gras from the Hunger Games Collection and dotted that in the center. Finally I took Orange You Hot and made a second set of flowers in the space left over and then again creating the center with Foie Gras.

All of the photos below were taken in natural sunlight.

Hopefully this manicure will jump start my brain into doing more nail art! If my lovely readers have any idea what I should do for my baby shower manicure please leave a comment below! Hope you enjoyed this!

By the way My Nails. My Polish has a Facebook Page now! It would mean so much to me if you would click the "Become a Fan" Button up at the top right hand corner of my blog! And if your not following me on twitter there is a button for that too!

Until next time!
Nicole.