R is for Roses

Hi polished (and non-polished) friends!

Welcome to another installment of Kimber's Lacquer Korner ABC Challenge post, today is the letter R.  After, what I thought, was a pretty decent Q, I'm feeling less than enthusiastic about this mani.  Roses seem to be my go to lately and I really wanted to do something different.  I had a bit of a brain fart on Monday, I thought it was Tuesday and hadn't done my R mani on the weekend, so I was rushing to get it done and get the post up for Wednesday.  It was only after I had rushed and spent way more than an acceptable amount of time on this, that I realized, derp, it's Monday.  Hence the go to roses.

And wouldn't you know that I have two rose mani's in the vault (see I told you it was my go to).  They didn't turn out how I wanted, so I thought I would do something new and I'm not feeling it.  I should have just stuck with my vault mani's!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful week.  Join me in checking out my lovelies and their "R" mani's, I'm sure they are just as glad as I am to be past the dreaded letter Q - oh wait, we still have V, X, Y, Z......

Holla, N

D is for Decades of Dysfunction

Happy Hump Day my polished lovelies!

Yay, finally time for "D" day!!  Why is it that every time I look in my stash for polish that starts with the letter of the day, I can't find ANYTHING?!?!  Seriously, I have a LOT of polish - it may be time for me to get the Nail Book app to sort my stash.  Normally I pick what I want to do based on the colors that catch my eye that specific day or I pick something I haven't tried yet. I can't imagine picking something using an app!

Here's my Decades of Dysfunction dotticure inspired by Rachel at Top Coat It! - Polka Dot Waves.

I will now be checking out what my fellow bloggers did for "D" day, be sure to check back next Wednesday for "E" - eeks!

Holla, N

B is for Black Expressionism

Hiya!!  Welcome to the second day of Kimber's ABC Challenge - B!

I was searching through my stash for a polish that starts with a "B" and was getting really worried when I had pulled out 20 or so polishes and none started with a "B".  I finally managed to find one and of course it had to be something boring like Finger Paints Black Expressionism!!  Oh well, I have found a tone of polishes that start with "C" so I'm off to a good start for next week!

The second photo makes me giggle, I was trying to hid the HUGE chip on my pointer finger and had to pose really funny - the first photo isn't the best either, I wasn't planning on using this mani for today, but I haven't had any time to create anything else, so there you have it!

Join me in checking out my buddies and their "B's"!!

Holla, N

Enviously Green

Happy Friday friends!

So glad it's Friday, I've had a full week this week, and after coming back from two weeks vacation it's hard to put in a full week.  I work an extra 47 minutes each day so that I can take every second Friday off - it's called flex time and I swear, it's my sanity!  Although sometimes my four day weeks feel longer than my five day ones.

Last week I went to Sally Beauty because they were having a bogo on Orly and I wanted to pick up some wishlist items for my pal Gini of Sassy Paints.  One of her wishlist items that I managed to find (damn you Miss Conduct, which I keep calling Miss Conception....) was Green With Envy.  Side note:  when I'm in front of a beautiful display of 100's of polishes, I find it very hard to pick out what I like - crazy I know.  Anyhoodle, after much hemming and hawing, I decided to pick up a Green With Envy for myself.  You may remember that I'm not a huge fan of green, but Green with Envy leans toward teal, so I thought I would give it a go.  Ya, it's more green, and ya, I'm not a fan of green.  I just think it looks horrible on me and I can never think of any nail art to do besides four leaf clovers and Frankenstein - not very appropriate for everyday wear!  So lesson learned, pick stuff I like and stop letting Gini influence me - LOL - kidding, she got me hooked on Sally Hansen Pacific Blue and it's become one of my fave colors!  Plus she's been trying her darndest to get me hooked on indies - not gonna happen girl, my nails are nubbins, won't look good, I promise!

It was hard to capture the glossy polka dots on the matte nails, so I had to try a couple of different angles.

Sad little nubbins, GROW, I beg you!

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

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

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

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

Polish Days - Sentimental

Hello polish peeps!!

My third go at the lovely Hannah over at Polly Polish's Polish Days.  Today's theme is all about sentimentality - this theme is open to interpretation, whether it's the polish that got you hooked, some nail art in dedication to someone special or that polish that you went through hell and high water to get your hands on.

I had a tough time with this one, it was so broad, I had like 10 ideas and it was hard to settle on just one.  So, I went with the easiest thing I could think of polka dots.  I did these dots with the polish that started my obsession - the 6 mini neon bottles of polish that I got from my cousin after my buddy had waved her perfectly painted digits in my face.  These little mini's are the best neon polishes I own, and it will be a sad day when they bite the dust.  To read more about how I started my polish journey, click here.

Base Coat:  Finger Paints - Paper Mache

Polka Dots:  Kleancolor - Neons

Top Coat:  Pro FX Quick Dry

Want to see some more amazing sentimental mani's - click on the links below and show some love!

Don't forget to click here to enter my giveaway - it closes October 31st and there's SO much great stuff up for grabs!!

Holla, N

Count Dot-cula

Hellooooooooo - that's my spooky greeting...Welcome to my second post for datyorkLOVES Nail-Aween Nail Art Challenge - a matte dotticure!!

I love any polish that's been mattified, it makes everything look so amazing, especially glitters - so cool.  I wanted to do something simple, but that had impact and what's more simple than a straight up black mani?!? Hope you enjoy!!

Base Coat:  Orly Bonder

Base Color and Dots:  Wet n Wild - Black Creme

Top Coat:  NYC - Matte me Crazy

Want to see some more spooktacular dotticures?  Click on the links below!!

Did you hear about my giveaway?  Have you entered?  Click here, entry is as easy as 1, 2, 3!!

Holla, N

datyorkLOVES

Erica's Nails and More

DreamyMM Nails & Make Up

 Tes Did It Nails

Sassy Paints

Nicole gets Nailed

glitznglammer

Finger Food

Wicked Tips

Fancy Schmancy Nails

Delight In Nails

Polish Groupie

My Nail Journey

Get Polished Up!

Just A Girl and Her Polish

Spellbound Nails

Le nail's corner d'Alex

Hello.Lacquer

 Countess Nails

Color the world with polish

Nail Crime Nail Art

Coat of Mani Colors

Cutie Cuticles (nail art by Laraib)

Wacky Laki

Nail-Aween Nail Art Challenge October 1-31st, 2012

GLAMOROUS NAILS

Over The Topcoat

Polish Gone Crazy

tragedystipsandtreats

(List includes blogs and FB pages)

Skittles, Take 2

Hiya!!  Lately I've been so consumed with challenges, I haven't really had to think of what to put on my nails - which has been fabulous to be honest.  Last week, I had done most of my mani's on the weekend and had them all scheduled to go - I change my polish daily, usually because it's chipped or I can tell it will chip, so I had to come up with ideas to keep my nails pretty during the week.

I had originally thought skittles mani's were brightly colored nails, in varying colors on each nails - I think these still qualify as skittle mani's - but skittle mani's also refer to nails with different designs on each nail, in any colors.  I wish I could find the mani that inspired this again, but I can't for the life of me remember where I saw it - so frustrating!  Anyhoodle, here's my second skittles mani, hope you enjoy!!

Here's another skittle mani I did last week, I only managed to get a indoor photos, so am just showing you the collaged version!!

For the pink skittle mani, I used:

Base Coat:  Orly Bonder

Light Pink:  Wet n Wild - Tickled Pink

Darker Pink:  Nyx - Salsa

White:  NYC - French White Tip

Flower Petals:  China Glaze - Four Leaf Clover

Glitter:  Wet n Wild - I ripped off the name sticker - oopie...

For the black and gray skittle mani, I used:

Base Coat:  Orly Bonder

Black:  Essie - Licorice

White:  NYC - White French Tip

Gray:  Sally Hansen - Wet Cement

Silver:  Sally Hansen - Celeb City

Glitter:  Revlon - Stunning

Want another hint for my 100 follower giveaway???  Here it is.....

Holla, N

Lights, Camera, Action!

Hiya!!  Day 4 of Let's Do The Time Warp Challenge - lights, camera, action!  Nails inspired by a nostalgic movie, song or piece of literature.  Warning, this is going to be a long post - I ended up doing two looks for this day PLUS, it's Polka Dot Day for the 31 Day Challenge - so scroll down if you've got some time!!

My original idea was to do a mani inspired by the dress Cha Cha in Grease wore to the dance.  I LOVE that dress and I love that character even though she had such a small part.  My favorite scene is at the end of the dance with Danny, she's waving the trophy in the air and lifting up her skirt in time with her dance moves.  Grease is one of my all time favorite movies, I can watch it over and over and not get sick of it.  I even loved Grease II - the scene in the bomb shelter - LOVE!  To see what inspired this mani, click here or here.

On to look number two.  As you may know, I love doing nail art - it's so small and fiddly and I thrive on doing small fiddly things!  So, I was bummed that my original idea didn't have heavy nail art.  Another of my all time fave movies is Ferris Bueller's Day Off - Bueller?  Bueller?  Bueller?  My fave scene is when Cameron is lying in bed and sings "when Cameron was in Eygpt's land, let my Cameron go."

Pointer finger is Ferris' classic sweater vest, the middle finger was supposed to be Sloane's glasses she wears , but the pink is more like Ferris' sister, the ring finger is Cameron's shirt (I chose not to tempt Detroit Red Wings logo, too detailed!), the pinky is self-explanatory and the thumb is Ed Rooney's suit.

Did you come here for Polka Dot Day for the 31 Day Challenge?  I can't disappoint y'all, so here's the one shot I managed to get of my dotticure.  This was inspired by Diana over at  Nails By Diana  - she did the most fabulous mani for Day 7 of the 31 Day Challenge - Black and White - check it out here!!  This girl has the most AMAZING nails - I love the shape and if I could, I would pull this off NOW!  She's also super duper talented, so please give her some LOVE!!

I used way too many polishes to list them all (I've been saying that a lot lately....), give me a shout, happy to track it down!!

As always, please show some love to the other lovelies doing the LDTTWC by clicking on the pictures below and don't forget about the lovely folks doing the 31 Day Challenge, scroll down to click on the links!! Check back Monday for Day 5 of the LDTTWC - We Can Do It!! and Saturday for stripes for the 31 Day Challenge!!

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 

Early Violet

Hiya folks!!  September is going to be a busy busy blogging month for me, I'm doing 4 challenges - I even did a pretty color coded calendar with checklists for all the posts I'm doing!!  The schedule for some of the challenges I'm doing is going to be a little off, but I'll get them all done, I promise!!

Up first, is Day 6 of the 31 Day Challenge  - Violet.  I did this mani a while ago, something I'm just starting to get into.  I usually do my nails when I get home from work and then post, but because of the many challenges I'm doing, I'm trying to get ahead of the game!  I think I wanted to originally use this for my polka dot day for My Favorite Things challenge, but decided on something else.  Wow, I'm really into the gradient dots right now, hey?

I would love to tell you what colors I used for this, but I used all of my Color Club polishes that don't have names - which really bugs me by the way!!  I used the usual base coat, Orly Bonder and top coat, Seche Vite.

Don't forget to check out the other ladies doing the 31 Day Challenge - also, check back Friday for BLACK AND WHITE - woot woot!!

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