Happy New Year!

Hiya polished friends!  Wowza, it's been a while since I've been here, but have no fear, I'm here and I'm ready to get back at er!

I've been enjoying my holidays - Christmas was fabulous, lots of good food (3 turkey dinners) and quality time with family and friends.  I'm a little sad it's over, I wish the let down from Christmas lasted as long as the build up TO Christmas.  Think about it, folks get into the Christmas spirit at least a month in advance, yet after you've done all your dinners and opened all your presents, it's just.....over.  Our big family gathering is on Boxing Day, so it prolongs the spirit for at least one more day and my family was still around until a couple of days after, so there was a little bit of a gradual let down.  I guess I'm feeling it more this year because I'm still on holidays for another week and wish it was filled with more turkey dinners and family!!

I've been holding on to this mani for a couple of weeks now, I'm really in love with how this turned out and wanted to save it for something special.  This was inspired by my buddy Becca's from Nail Narcotics!, beautiful mani dedicated to her favorite nail blogger - ME (lol) - done completely with her winnings from my EPIC 100 Follower Giveaway - you can see her gorgeous mani here.  I loved that she did a special mani for me and I loved the idea of the acronym NGN for my blog.

I started out with a neon saran wrap mani and once I was done I realized it totally reminded me of the background of my blog so I decided to add my acronym NGN in my best attempt at graffiti!!  I could never recreate this on paper, I've always wanted to be good at graffiti, but I just don't have the knack for it.  I had to do a little research for this, I used a ton of graffiti generators and font samples before I found something I could actually recreate.  I think this turned out pretty darn good for first attempt at graffiti!

Happy New Year everyone - wishing you all the very best for 2013!

Holla, N

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays polished peeps!

I can't believe tomorrow is Christmas eve, I've finally done all I need to do for Christmas - two potlucks down with no major casualties - with the exception of a burnt finger - ouch, only I would burn my finger making mashed potatoes!!

I haven't done a lot of holiday themed mani's that are worth posting, but this one was definitely one of my faves!

I actually used glittery polish again, I know, totally stepping outside the box!!  Here's some better shots to show the glittery goodness.

Wishing you and yours all the very best this holiday season - I hope everyone gets to enjoy time with their loved ones, with lots of laughter, love and of course good food!!  Mmmmm turkey dinner!!

Holla, N

Skittle it, Just a Little Bit

Hiya!!  I'm totally giggling at my post title right now - I was just thinking "uh, it's so hard to come up with clever post names all the time" and POP this just jumped on in to the ol' noggin.  I don't know if it's obvious or not, but I always try to come up with clever names for my posts - I want them to have a little to do with what I'm posting about, but they have to be some sort of pun or play on words.  I think that's my favorite part of the process, coming up with the title - oh the little things that make me happy :)  Thankfully blogger has a blog reader that shows the picture beside the post or I would get no traffic!!  LOL, I'm just thinking about Monday's title "Golden Nude."  Bring on the crazy search terms!!

This is the first time I've done leopard print with white, I like it, but I don't know if it screams leopard to me.  And, this is the second post in one week that I've used glitter - Gini, are you proud of me or what? LOL!!

Holla, N

Spreading the Word to End the Word

Hello polished friends!

When I saw Ooooo Shiny!'s call for entrants for her nail art contest, I was immediately intrigued - who doesn't want free stuff?  Then I read what the nail art had to entail:  design a socially engaged manicure that supports a cause and raises awareness about an issue that you care about.  I doubly in!

This isn't the original cause I wanted to blog about, but I had recently watched the Hollis Boys' video dedicated to their sister:

"We live in a small town in Central Illinois and woke one morning in April 2011 to find our home and cars had been spray painted," says Anne Hollis.

The family had been attacked because her two daughters have Down Syndrome: "RETARDS." "Get Outta here." And other unprintables. 
"That day changed my life forever." 

But her two sons said they wanted to make a video, to "Speak up for our sisters."

If you haven't seen the video, click here, it's worth the watch.  When I first watched this video, I thought the boys were super cute and it was such an amazing thing for them to want to speak up for their sister in such a public way.  I didn't relate it back to myself, but as I thought about this challenge, my mind kept going back to that video and how badly I needed to listen (or read) to what their message was - or what their message meant to me.

Besides the fact that I am blown away that people actually had the audacity to spray paint someone's house, it was the words they used that really hit home for me.  I have to admit, I use the r-word, not just a little, but a lot.  When I think something is stupid, or hard, I use that word.  When I think someone is being stupid or annoying, I used that word.  I'm an educated woman, I work with professionals, yet, this is the word I used to describe almost everything bad - not good - not good at all.  I give my coworker a hard time for referring to a group of people the wrong way, I actually cringe, I get uncomfortable and look around to make sure no one heard - but yet I through out the r-word like it's nothing.  And it's not nothing, it hurts, it stings and it's in no way accurate of how I feel.

The R-word is the word 'retard(ed)'. Why does it hurt? The R-word hurts because it is exclusive. It’s offensive. It’s derogatory. The R-word is hate speech. See why supporters think the R-Word is hurtful when used in jokes or as part of everyday speech.

I found the r-word website while researching my design.  The website was launched in 2008 by the Special Olympics to combat the inappropriate use of the R-word in common usage.  The site focuses on the Spread the Word to End the Word campaign, there is a ton of resource material to help plan your own event and you can also take the pledge to support the elimination of the r-word.

I have taken the pledge and will be sporting that brand spanking new banner on your right until the end of my blogging days, not only to remind myself of the pledge I've taken, but also to spread the word to end the word!

I pledge and support the elimination of the derogatory use of the r-word from everyday speech and promote the acceptance and inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities.

For more information, please visit www.r-word.org.  The Hollis boys are encouraging everyone to watch, share and join www.everyonematters2012.com and www.facebook.com/everyonematters - to create a world where EVERYONE is free to be EXACTLY who they are, without shame, apology - or attack.

Holla, N

ps:  a HUGE THANK YOU to Moana from Ooooo Shiny!, not only for making me think about what is important to me, but also for extending the deadline for me - I read the due date wrong and was going to save this for another day, but she kindly opened up the link for me to add my post.  I know this isn't the most beautiful mani, and I totally don't expect to win, but I'm super proud of this post and myself for really looking at something about myself that I'm so not proud of and changing it.

Golden Nude

Happy Monday polished friends!

I can't believe Christmas is only a little over a week away! I'm so unprepared this year - we've picked up a couple of gifts, but we have so much more to do and next weekend will be a total write-off.  I have two potlucks to go to and cooking in my house is always an ordeal - at least both dishes I'm making are fairly foolproof, so I should have no issues - fingers crossed!

I've been seeing gold and nude everywhere lately and I love love love it.  I wish I had done this as a gradient, the gold glitter is a little overpowering in my opinion, but I'm still pretty happy with how this turned out.  I ended up adding a matte top coat and my friend at work asked "what's wrong with your nails?"  Not something a nail blogger wants to hear about their mani - I make myself feel better by thinking she doesn't know anything about style - lol!!

Base Coat:  Orly Bonder

Main Color:  Becca, recognize the color?  Why yes, it is my Essie Yogaga - soooo pretty!!!

I used the saran wrap method with Sally Hansen's Golden I and then layered the best gold glitter from Sally's over top.

Top Coat:  NYC - Matte Me Crazy

Holla, N

Teal You What

Hello polished pals!!  I feel like I've been slacking on the blogging lately, for some reason I'm having a bit of bloggers block.  I haven't given up doing my nails, and I don't view blogging as work (yet, thankfully), I'm just so focused on other things!  Not that I actually have to do anything for those other things, it's just that they're there.  Plus, because I've dropped all my challenges, I don't have that timeline to get posts up by a certain time.  When I first started blogging, I was doing it everyday and then had to keep up with challenges, so I was posting mostly everyday.  Now that I have no schedule to keep, it's been hard for me to stick to regular posts.  I think I'll try for Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting next week, that seems reasonable to me - agree?

I'm not a huge fan of this mani, I wish I had used gold instead of silver, but I don't have any gold glequins, so I settled on silver.  I love this teal, but it stains so bad, there's no room to get this on your cuticles or you'll have it there for a while.

Holla, N

Tipped Review

Hello friends!!

Today, I have a review of Born Pretty Store's french tip stickers.  I've been dreading writing this review because I wasn't a huge fan of this product, but I've promised myself that I will always be honest with my reviews, so here it goes.

I received these with my glequins, the review can be found here, so the shipping was fantastic.  I'm always surprised how fast items from the Born Pretty Store ship, plus it's free shipping - double plus.  I know french tips are a little passe, but I thought these would alleviate my complete inability to do a french mani with two colors. The package comes with stickers to do chevron tips and also a swirly one, which is kinda neat.  The main issue I had with these was that the stickers are so thick it's hard for them to stick flat against your nail without some gaps, which of course leads to bleeding lines.  Plus, the stickers were too sticky and ripped off part of my mani - mind you, it could have been because I didn't let the base color dry enough, but it was still sort of a bummer.  I tried the "stick to your skin a couple of times before applying" trick and then they didn't stick!!  It was a bit of a balancing act to say the least.  The neat swirly stickers were so long, you loose the cool swirl and only end up picking up a slight swoop.  I also found that the stickers for the french tips were a little too straight for my nail, I think this is also due to the length.  Out of the three types of tips, I preferred the chevron ones, although I did have to maneuver my fingers so that I was holding down the sticker to prevent bleeding.

Despite the negative experience with this product, I would totally continue to buy products from them even if they choose not to ask me to review products for them again.  The value for what you get is just too good to write them off for one bad experience.  Plus, the total cost for this was $1.58 for three sheets with enough to do your all of your nails twice, which is so worth it.  If you think this product would work for you, you can order it here, or search the Born Pretty Store with item ID 4093 or 3pcs French Circle/Arrow/Fancy Manicure Tip Guides Strip Nail Art Toes.

Bonus right hand shot!!

Here's what I did with the regular french tip stickers, you can create some cool cut-outs , but again it was hard for the stickers to stick.

Until Jan 31, 2013 you can use the special code found in the banner below to get a 10% discount on anything you order from the Born Pretty Store - the selection is huge and it's not just nail products, they also sell phone cases, make-up and wigs.  There is so much to choose from, I promise it will totally be worth your while!

It's too bad these weren't thinner stickers with a little more stick, because then they would be fabulous for those of us newbs who can't do two toned french tips!!

Holla, N

Stamped Ring

Hello Polished Pals!!  I'm here, I'm here!!  I'm feeling so guilty for leaving you all for the last couple of days.  I've missed two 12 Days of Christmas posts (or one, I can't even remember...) and I had the same mani on for two whole days - who does that - lol!!

It's been a hectic couple of days - I bought my very first brand new car on the weekend and finally got it on Tuesday night.  It's sooooo nice, no more grinding noises when I turn left or right!!  The hubby was very concerned the car would break down and cause an accident, so I think I replaced it just in time!!  Our 7 year anniversary was yesterday and the hubby surprised me with my engagement ring all fixed and fitted.  Long story short, had to take it off because of eczema, when I put it on again, it no longer fit - it got stuck, I had to go to Emerg to have it cut off and it's been broken ever since (about 4 years).  I totally cried like a baby and it felt like he had proposed all over again, it was super sweet!  Something to know about the hubby, is that he is the absolute WORST at keeping secrets or surprising me, so he totally hit the ball out of the park this year with this gift, I had NO idea.  He got me again when we went to pick up the new car, he had gone there earlier in the day and got them to put my brand spankin new laptop in the trunk so when the sales guy opened the trunk, it was there - I was totally surprised!!  No easy feat, but he did it twice in one week.  I'm super duper lucky, he's pretty much the greatest man ever!

Here's my beautiful ring, so pretty....

Here's the mani I wore for two days, at least it was pretty!!

Base Coat:  Orly Bonder
Main Color:  Orly - Shockwave
I used the special Born Pretty Store white stamping polish for the stamps
Top Coat:  Seche Vite

I think I'm going to have to bow out of the 12 Days of Christmas challenge, I will still be checking out all the lovely mani's, but I think I might have challenged myself out.....

Holla, N

Happy Dirty 30 Shawna!

Happy Monday friends!!  First things first,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAWNA!!

Please join me in wishing my friend Shawna a Happy 30th Birthday!!  I've talked about Shawna a couple of times here, she's the one responsible for my nail polish obsession and has gotten me into super nerdy games like Munchkin and Settlers of Catan.  Shawna and I met when we worked in the same office and now that we've both moved on to new jobs, we get to do more fun things outside of work, like camp, play games and have all around fun times!!  I do miss seeing her everyday and sharing my nail art, but I'm super glad we still keep in touch because she really is a wonderful friend who makes me laugh and is sure to know the answer to any question I may have - she also kicks my ass in any game we play, I've been practicing though, so watch out sister!!

We celebrated Shawna's birthday this weekend at a local pub's music bingo.  It was super fun and judging by the photos below, I'm pretty sure she had a good time!!

I love how she had a variety of hats for the evening - a tiara, a crocheted party hat and goofy ears!  Shawna painted her nails all pretty for the evening - now I'm rubbing off on her!

Here's the special nails I did for Shawna's birthday party!!

Happy Happy Birthday Shawna, wishing you one of the best years ever!!

Holla, N

Oh! Christmas Tree?

Hiya friends, I feel like I haven't posted in forever...the days just keep running away from me!

Anyhoodle, onto the good stuff.  I've joined another challenge - does that surprise you?  Ya, me neither!  I've joined the 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge hosted by the lovely Pink & Polished and Overpolished!  I'm super late getting this up, so I'll end my ramblings now and get to the pictures!

As you can see, I used totally non-traditional Christmas colors, I'm going to see how far I can get in this challenge with using non-traditional colors, may be hard, but GO BRIGHT OR GO HOME baby!!

Please show some love to my fellow challengers by clicking the links below!

Here's what we'll be doing!

Holla, N

Skull-rific!

Happy Hump Day!!  This week has been going by so slowly, I think it's because I was off on Monday and I usually take days off on Friday, so my weeks all messed up!  Will Friday ever come?

I've got a long overdue review of some cute skull water decals I received from KKCenterhk for review.  You may remember from my EPIC 100 Follower Giveaway, that KKCenterhk was kind enough to provide some cool stuff for my giveaway - the alphabet stamping set, won by Becca from Nail Narcotics and the cute gold peacock water decals, won by Maggy from the Daily Lacquer.  Becca did this fabulous mani, dedicated to her favorite nail artist - moi, lol, you can take a peek, here.

Anyhoodle, onto the review - I picked the Rock Skull Water Decals, because they are so darn cute.  I was a little intimidated to use these, one, because they are so cute, I didn't think I could do them justice and two, because I was worried they would be SUPER difficult to apply.  Totally not the case - I have to say, I'm super surprised at how easy these were to use.  All you do is cut out the decal you want to use, soak it in a bit of water and carefully slide the decal from the paper.  You have to make sure your nail is dry and not super soaked like I did on my first try.  The decal won't stay on a wet nail so I had to take it off and make sure my nail was dry.   I just held the decal in my other hand and dried off my nail, super easy.  Once it was dry, I placed the decal and fiddled a bit to get rid of wrinkles and VOILA!  I didn't use tweezers and I don't think I would when I use these again.  I think these are sturdy enough if you are gentle to withstand the handling.

Apparently I was in the mood to try every technique on my nails last night, water decals, gradient, stamping, leopard, polka dots and glitter - it's a little much, but how CUTE is that decal?  There's 25 nail decals in a set and they're super reasonable, at only $2.82 USD.  If you're interested in getting some of these babies for yourself visit http://www.kkcenterhk.com/ and search "skull water" or just click here, the item # is WDSY558.  Want something a little more serious, how about trying the gold peacock water decals, you can find them here.  Is stamping more your style?  You can pick up the alphabet here and here.

Thankfully, I've done this post in time for you guys to use my 10% off coupon to get your own goodies from KKCentrehk, the coupon code is:  nearlynailed and expires Jan 31, 2013!! 

Holla, N

Baby, You're a Firework

Hi polished peeps!

Quick post today, I'm a day late (again) posting for the Lazy 15 Challenge - bonfire/fireworks.  I chose to do fireworks, my friend brought me back a beautiful glittery glitter from Munich and I knew it was perfect for this mani, hope you enjoy!

And another special bonus - my right hand, making a rare appearance!

Base Coat:  Orly Bonder

Base Color:  Flormar - 393 (no name, but still pretty cool!)

Top Coat:  Finger Paints - Black Expressionism

Seche Vite

Holla, N

Lazy Oceanic Review

Hello Friends!  I'm a little late with this post, it was supposed to be up on Friday, but I had plans on Friday and then headed up island bright and early Saturday morning for my auntie's 50th birthday bash.  It was a fun time, but no internet access so I felt a little cut off from the world!!

Friday's prompt for the Lazy 15 Challenge was underwater creatures/water mythical creatures.  I was having major polish block and couldn't think of what to do, so I went with more of an ocean theme.  This mani also gave me the opportunity to finally review my glequins I got from the Born Pretty Store!!  I've been holding off on using these because my nails are SO short, but they've grown a bit and turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself!

This is my second set of products from Born Pretty Store for review, you can see my previous review on the 3 Star/Round/Heart Rhinestones Acrylic UV Nail Glue Clamp Kit here.  This time around I was so excited to try the hexagon loose glitter, most widely known as glequins.  You get a set of 12 different colors in individual containers for a total price of $5.35 USD.  Everything ordered from the Born Pretty Store is free shipping, so these are a steal.  You get a TON glitter and I'm not even exaggerating - it would take a while to use up this supply.  As usual, this came within a week of ordering, which I think is very reasonable coming from China.  They package items in a bubble envelope so everything arrives secure.

Application of these are a little tricky for someone as anal as me, I need to have everything uniform and in the right order, so it sometimes was a little difficult getting everything lined up.  I wasn't quite sure how to adhere these beauties, so I tried a couple of different things.  First, I used white glue and put a little on my nail, not my whole nail as that dries way too fast, but just the area I was working in.  I then used an orange stick with a little of natures glue (read spit) to pick up the glitter and placed it on my nail.  Using white glue gets a little glooby, you have to be really careful and put a very thin layer of glue on the area you are working in.  Next, I used the same method to pick up the glitter and placed them in tacky nail polish.  This wasn't my preferred method because if you accidentally drop a glitter where you don't want it, it's harder to correct without ruining the polish underneath.  I'm wondering if I used a coat of Seche Vite and once that was dry, use a layer of clear nailpolish to place the glitter - this will be what I try next as I think this will be the best method. I also had some issues with the glitter falling off the the tips of my nails - I had to put the ones on the end back on a couple of times and as you can see from my daylight picture, one of the glequins fell off before I could photograph them.  I'm thinking if I change up how I adhere them to my nails, they will stay better, but don't let that discourage you from getting these pretties, because they are SOOOO worth it!  I will be using these again, though if anyone has any tips on how to get these puppies to stay put, I'm all ears!!

I really loved what I came up with and it really reminds me of the ocean.  If you are interested in getting this product, you can click here or go to the Born Pretty Store website and search Item ID: 3103.  Until Jan 31, 2013 you can use the special code found in the banner below to get a 10% discount!!  That's not a huge discount, but any discount is SUPER!

And to finish off this post, here's a shot of both hands together, I ended up doing 'bubble's' on my right hand because I had run out of time to finish the pretty stripes!

For the gradient I used:  Sally Hansen:  Pacific Blue and Finger Paints:  Tiffany Impostor.  For the stripes, I used Finger Paints, Papier Mache and the bubbles were done with acrylic paint.

Hope this review was helpful and that you enjoyed my blinged out mani!!

Holla, N

Vote for Pedro

Hello Polished Lovelies!!

Welcome to day 9 of the Lazy 15 Challenge - Disney movies/characters.  I wanted to do something out of the box for this one, I realize now this isn't "out of the box," but it is an obscure Disney character I found using good ol' google!  Pedro the Chilean airplane - according to wiki Disney, Pedro appeared in one of Disney's collection of shorts called Saludos Amigos.  As you can see, Pedro is a small airplane that takes his first flight to pick up the mail in Medoza.  Wiki says that cartoonist, Rene Rios Boettiger (Pepo) was disappointed that Pedro was the image that the outside world had of Chile, so he created one of the most famous Latin American comic magazines, Condorito. (paraphrased from wikipedia)

I used a combination of photos as the inspiration for this one, mainly this one here and this one here.  Yay, you can watch the short on YouTube, click here if you have a mo to check it out - so cute!

Ugh, I wish the top coat I used didn't bubble, this is extreme macro though, so it's forgiven :)

Holla, N

International Transgender Day of Remembrance

Hello friends,

Today is the International Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), a day to memorialize those who have been killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice.  The lovely Lacquer Lad wrote a very heartfelt post here and has linked in a couple of bloggers to participate in this day of remembrance. TDOR was started by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, a transgender advocate to honour the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in 1998.  A web project “Remembering Our Dead” and a San Francisco candlelight vigil was held for the first time in early 1999, these two things led to an annual memorial.

"The Transgender Day of Remembrance seeks to highlight the losses we face due to anti-transgender bigotry and violence. I am no stranger to the need to fight for our rights, and the right to simply exist is first and foremost. With so many seeking to erase transgender people -- sometimes in the most brutal ways possible -- it is vitally important that those we lose are remembered, and that we continue to fight for justice."  Transgender Day of Remembrance founder Gwendolyn Ann Smith

I have to say that researching TDOR for this post has certainly opened my eyes to a world I knew nothing about.  Yes, on the peripheral, I knew that violence, hatred and prejudice towards people that are different exists.  But, the magnitude of this hate is so hard for me to grasp.  When you live in your own little bubble day to day, it’s hard to comprehend that a world beyond yourself exists, especially when it’s so ugly.  It’s way easier to bury your head in the sand than face the fact that the human race is slowly killing that which should make our world a better place – our differences.  My heart hurts not just for these men and woman who have been brutally murdered, but for their friends and families.  Whether the lives they were meant to lead were supported or not, no one should have to lose someone to such ugly violent hatred.

Please take a moment to look over this list from the TDOR website. This is the list of names of people who are being remembered this year on November 20th. Please note that the list is incomplete and is constantly being updated.

Transgender Day of Remembrance Memorial List 2012

I’m not the most eloquent and there is so much information I have missed, but if you have the time, please check out these links for more information about the Transgender Day of Remembrance:

-          International Transgender Day of Remembrance

-          There is really great information on GLAAD’s website, click here for more.

-          Transgender Visibility Timeline

-          A great article written by Gwendolyn Ann Smith can be found here.

-          Click here for a list of links on the “Remembering Our Dead” website.

Please join me in visiting the other bloggers participating in this day of remembrance by clicking on the links below.

Holla, N