S is for Star

Hiya!  Still feeling the blogger blues and my creative juices are almost on empty.  I'm never without polish on my nails, but most of my mani's never see the inside of my light box, sad I know, but they're just meh.  What are somethings you do to get out of a funk?  I'm afraid that not even the brightest of mani's is keeping me inspired - I actually thought to myself, this is too bright!!  WHO AM I?  Too bright?  Now you know I'm in a serious funk :)

I'm off to check out what my ladies have come up with for R, I know I'll be seeing some fabulous mani's, join me by clicking on the links below!

Holla, N

Cut it Out!

Happy Friday!!  Who remembers Full House??  Who cried when Michelle gave Jessie the pink bunny rabbit wallpaper from his room??  ME!

Today, I have another vaulted ABC Challenge mani.  This one is inspired by Lexi Martone who I follow on Instagram, but does have a blog called Finger Painted.  This girl is AMAZABALLS, yes she is that good she gets ALL CAPS!  I can't find the inspiration mani on her blog, but it is on Instagram, fingers crossed that when you click on this link, you'll see what I see!

I'm not all that keen on how this turned out.  The base color was way more pink before I covered it up and the pinky is horrendous.  Oh well, I'm a HUGE fan of Lexi and I have another inspired mani that will make an appearance on Peace, Love and Polish soon!!

Holla, N

P is for Purple and Patterned

Hiya polished friends!

Welcome to "P" day - lol, and of course I giggled because I'm a 10 year old boy in real life!!  Do we seriously only have 10 more letters left for Kimber's Lacquer Korner's ABC Challenge?  WOWza time flies by, hey?  What's our next challenge?  The New 31 Day Challenge??  All in favor?

Originally I was going to do a mani inspired by Heather over at Peace, Love and Polish, but it didn't turn out as I had hoped - I may or may not show it, we'll see.....Doesn't it suck when you have the best idea and it doesn't turn out!!  GRRRR....

Anyhoodle, I went on a bit of a polish binge this weekend and bought 22 polishes - eeks!!  I went to my local Shopper's Drug Mart and found NOPI's for $3.99, I grabbed a couple of those and a pink Essie for $1.99 - there was 3 - I bought them all...I don't feel guilty.  Plus our Walmart's finally got Salon Perfect and Pure ICE, so I stocked up - I actually went to two Walmarts to find what I needed - which was a lot apparently.

I used new plates that I got a while ago and haven't really used until now.  I bought the 2012 Cheeky Plates, you get 3 XL Jumbo plates for 14.99.  I mistakenly thought Jumbo meant they would fit on my nails, but see that purple moon there, ya that wasn't my intention - the plates don't fit my extremely long nails(okay, they aren't extremely long, but they're long for me!!).  I still love how they turned out so, yay for new nail stuff!!

Some of you asked which color I used for my O is for Oscar De La Renta Inspired mani and I don't want to disappoint so here's what I used:  Two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mellow Yellow (thanks Gini) and then two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Sunny Side.  Sunny Side is super sheer and I couldn't get coverage even with multiple coats, so I used both.

Be sure to join me in checking out my fellow challengers and their "P" mani - giggle!!

Holla, N

N is for Nautically Neon

Hi all,  welcome to another installment of the ABC challenged hosted by the lovely Kimber's Lacquer Korner.  It's so funny that I was struggling a bit to come up with something I could do for the letter "N", not even cluing in that my favorite color of right now NEON starts with an N - derp.  Without further ado, here's my nautically neon mani - enjoy!

Join me in checking out the other lovelies and their N mani's - maybe I'll see some narwhals?

Holla, N

I is for Ikat

Happy Wednesday friends!!

Welcome to another installment of Kimber's Lacquer Korner's ABC Challenge.  Today's prompt is the letter I - I was originally thinking of doing ice cream nails, but just not feeling the cutesy right now - don't get me wrong, ice cream nails are super duper cute, I just wanted something a little more bold - you know me and the bold colors!!

I also wanted to support my buddy Becca over at Nail Narcotics!, some of you might remember her from Kimber's last challenge - the 31 Day Challenge - Becca will be posting her purple polished thumb all month in support of Epilepsy Awareness month, which is March here in Canada.  If you would like to show your support, you can email Becca your purple mani or purple thumb and she will include them in her posts.  If you don't have time to pull out your purple, take a second to head on over to Nail Narcotics! for tons of information on Epilepsy and Epilepsy Awareness.  I will be posting a purple mani every Wednesday - I would do all month, but I know I don't have enough purple polish to make it the whole way!!

I'm off to see some ice cream - well I hope one of the ladies did ice cream nails....

Holla, N

Neon Roses

Hello friends!  I'm a little behind this week - I usually have my posts written and scheduled the Sunday before I post, this Sunday, I had a horrible headache and didn't get a chance to get any posts queued up!  I really want to stick to my Monday, Wednesday and Friday posting schedule, so I'm getting this one up even though it's late!

I've been trying really hard to improve my photos, I finally built my light box and got appropriate light bulbs, but I'm still trying to figure out best poses, best backgrounds etc.  I really want the whole set up, the fabric tent with fabric back drops and the right lights, I'm just so cheap.....I will keep trying this set up out, maybe someone will get me a better set up for my birthday - hint hint mom!!

Holla, N

Color Changing Leopard

Happy Monday!  Don't you just cringe reading that?  I cringe typing it!!

I've been eyeballing some really pretty polish at Winners the last couple of times I went in and I couldn't justify the $7.99 price tag so always put them back.  Last week I was lucky enough to find them on sale for $5 - score!!  The brand is Butterfly Wing, something I've never heard of and it's color changing polish - not really my thing, but the color and the price sold me.

Here's a bottle shot, I really couldn't capture how bright yellow the orange-y color is on camera and the pink-y red is more coral than pink, but IRL they are really lovely and bright.  You can't really tell from any of the photos, but the yellow was iridescent - something I don't normally go for, but it didn't bug me that much in this polish.  What did bug me was the formula - it was runny and streaky and one of the brushes had a huge chunk out of it, which made application even more difficult.  I had to wear the yellow with white undies and it still took 3 or 4 coats to make the yellow not look streaky.

I'm so glad I didn't pay full price for these; however, I wouldn't buy this brand again.  I would rather continue my search for the perfect yellow than struggle with application!!  Have you tried this branch or another type of color changing polish?  How was the formula?

Holla, N

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 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

At Long Last

Hello friends!

Welcome to my final post for the 31 Day Challenge!!  A sad and happy day all in one - sad that I won't be connecting with my fellow challengers every three days and happy (and also a little proud) that I've completed the 31 Day Challenge!  I've met so many amazing artists and seen some really great mani's, it's hard to believe it's over.  I'm looking forward to continuing to follow your blogs and eager to see what new and amazing art you come up with!!  A big honkin THANK YOU to Kimber from Kimber's Lacquer Korner for pulling us all together, you have been an awesome host and I'm so glad to have met you and to call you ma girl!  What are we doing next?!?  LOL!

I wasn't sure whether the prompt for this day called for a recreation of one of the mani's I did or one of my fellow participants.  I decided to play it safe and recreate one of my own favorite mani - Day 3 - Yellow - mostly because of the neon yellow, gotta love me them neons!!

Oh, look at my long beautiful square nails - it really hits home how short my nails are comparing my nubbins now to my long beauties then :)

Dark Grey:  Essie - Over the Edge

Yellow:  Nina Ultra Pro - Solar Flare
I used arcylic paint for the lighter grey stripes.
Top Coat:  Seche Vite, which shrinked the poop out of this mani as you can see from the first photo.

Here's a slide show of all the mani's I created for the 31 Day Challenge - this was super fun to put together, it was neat looking back on what I created and what I liked and didn't like - also my nails have changed shapes so many times - oh to have strong long nails!!




Please show some love to my fellow artists by clicking the links below.

Holla, N


-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful 
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista
 -Greta at How Was Your Day?
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish
-Robin Sparkles 

Lazy Dotticure

Hiya polished peeps!  Welcome to day 3 of The Lazy 15 challenge - dots!

Did I mention that I participated in a secret santa nail polish swap?  I think I might have, anyhoodle, I got this gorgeous Mint Green and we all know I'm not a huge fan of green, but this minty green is so pretty and it has been calling my name for a while now.  Super thankful to Amanda over at the Nail Polish Enthusiast for including me in the Halloween/Autumn swap and for drawing my name - our next one is coming up around Christmas and I'm super duper excited!!

I found this really pretty vintage rose with dots mani over at CDesigns 92 and vintage roses look so pretty with minty green, so I decided to try and recreate it!  I wasn't happy with my first try - I covered my black nails with glitter and it totally didn't go with the pink vintage roses, so I had to try again.  This time, I did all my fingers, not just accent ones and it totally turned out how I wanted it!!  Up first is my successful attempt!

Here's the first attempt - it wasn't horrible, I just wish I didn't add the glitter!

What I used for attempt #2

Base Coat:  Orly Bonder

Base Color:  Finger Paints - Papier Mache

Roses:  Urban Outfitters - No Name Neon Pink and Wet n Wild - Tickled Pink

I used acrylic paint for the dots.

Top Coat:  Seche Vite and Pro FX Quick Dry

What I used for attempt #1

Base Coat:  Orly Bonder

Base Colors:  Wet n Wild - Black Creme and Sally Hansen - Mint Sorbet

Roses:  Revlon - Flirt and Nyx - Nyx - Dolly Pink

Glitter:  Sally Girl - No Name Pink Glitter

I used acrylic paint for the dots.

Top Coat:  Seche Vite and Pro FX Quick Dry

Please show some love to the other bloggers participating in this challenge by clicking on the links below.  Come back Friday for water marble!

Holla, N

Grading the Neon

Hiya!  Another weekend bites the dust - welcome Monday.....It's a short week for me and then I'm off for a week - woot woot!!

Day 2 for The Lazy 15 challenge is gradient - not my favorite technique, but I decided to give it a go with my lovely neons!!  I'm continuously defying the rain by painting my nails in super duper bright neons - it's not really working, but it does make me smile!!

Can you see that I tried to do some white stamping over the gradient?!  Yah, me neither, so I pulled out the black stamping polish!

White:  Finger Paints - Papier Mache

Neon Yellow - Nina Ultra Pro - Solar Flare

Top Coat: Seche Vite

Show some love to the other gradients by clicking on the links below.  Check back Wednesday for Dots - my fave!!

Holla, N

Lazy Tape

Happy Friday everyone!!  So glad the week is OVA!

Guess who's joined another challenge?!?  That's right, this girl!  I've joined the Lazy 15 put together by  Lindsay at Nails 4 Dummies, Danielle at Totally Nailed, Amanda at The Nail polish Enthusiast, Roisin at Cuti-CLUE-Les & Kate at Laquer Care Factor.  We will be posting 3 days a week: Monday, Wednesday & Friday and I'm super excited!  Have you heard about my love of challenges?!?!  Yeah, I love em'

Day 1 is a taped mani - I'm lucky that I finally broke down and bought some striping tape because it came in super duper handy for this mani!!  Hope you enjoy :)

And for poops and giggles, here's a shot of both hands - I did a dotticure on my right hand - it was late and I needed something quick and easy!

Base Coat:  Orly Bonder

Main Color:  Finger Paints - Pink Perspective

Dots and Strips:  One coat of Finger Paints - Papier Mache and then Sinful Nail Art - Me First

Top Coat:  Seche Vite and Pro FX Quick Dry

Please show some love to a whole new group of lovelies doing this challenge by clicking on the links below.  

Holla, N

Flashback!

Hiya folks!!  I'm on the mend from my cold, still feeling stuffy, but I went to work today, so all is good!  I'm pulling this mani from the vault, even though I should be posting some Nail-aween challenge mani's - I'm having brain block on something creative to do for spiders - any suggestions?!?!

This is a recycled mani - I wore the gradient first and then decided to stamp it when I got home and I think I mattified it - it looks mattified, don't you think?  This was also when my nails were so pretty and long - I miss them!!

Base Coat:  Orly Bonder

Gradient:  Finger Paints - Pink Perspective and I think Tangerine Tint

For the stamp, I used Sally Hansen Insta Dry - Quick Canary

Have you entered my giveaway?  The countdown is on, a little over a week to enter!!

Holla, N

S#*! on the Radio

Hi friends!!  I'm siiiiiick, that's me whinging - you know that commercial when the husband is in bed and calls in his wife and asks her to call his mom - that's me today......I actually did this mani yesterday in between naps and kleenex, but couldn't get it up until now.

Without further ado, here is my mani inspired by a song - which song you ask?  S#*! on the Radio by Nelly Furtado - I love this song and I love the video even more.  Click here to watch it and see what inspired this one!

The pointer and middle finger is the shirt she's wearing at the tail end of the video, the ring finger is the pants she's wearing.  My pinky is supposed to be her eye makeup but it didn't turn out how I wanted and my thumb is her bright neon lipstick!

Show some love to the links below - there are some fabulous song inspired mani's - definitely worth the clicks!!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway - to be considered, you have to leave a comment on the giveaway post, I've noticed some folks enter but don't leave a comment!!

Holla, N

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful 
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista
 -Greta at How Was Your Day?
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish
-Robin Sparkles 

Neon Inspired

Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday - I hope that song is in your head now - bahahahahaha!!

Day 21 of the 31 Day Challenge - I can't believe there's only 10 days left, this has been so fun and I've met some great blogging buddies doing this challenge and I'm sad it's almost coming to an end!!  Today's mani is inspired by a color and technically neon is not a color - but it should be - who wants to join the NSBCC (Neon Should Be a Color Club)?  or the NSBWAYC (Neon Should be Worn All Year Club?  I would like to nominate myself as the President - lol!!  I'm still digging the neon, I know summer is over, but I'm still wearing my sandals, so I should still be able to wear my neon polish, right???  This mani took me soooo long last night, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do and I ended up with like 10 layers of polish, but I love it so much - so bright and happy and fun - perfect for the rainy days we've been having lately!!

I used 11 different polishes for this (not including base and top coat) and they've all been put away so Gini and Bex, you are poop outta luck - this girl ain't gonna list all 11 of them this time - even if you ask nicely - lol!!

Please show some love to my new blogging friends by clicking on the links below and checking out what colors inspired them!

My giveaway closes in two weeks!!  I've gotten so many wonderful comments and entrants it's going to be so exciting to see who wins - I haven't even moderated rafflecopter yet - I wonder how many cheaters I'll find :O)

Holla, N

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful 
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista
 -Greta at How Was Your Day?
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish
-Robin Sparkles