H is for Haus of Lacquer Inspired

Hello my polished peeps!  Hope you are having a super week!!  It's a short one for me - flex day on Friday - woot woot!!

For today's prompt, H, I'm doing a mani inspired by Haus of Lacquer - I posted about this crazy talented chica yesterday - actually this whole week will be inspired by her and her amazingly amazing vintage roses.  I got the idea for an instagram inspired week from Heather over at Peace, Love and Polish - there is sooo much talent out there, it's crazy - Heather has done an amazing job of some of my favorites, I hope you have some time to check it out!!  Steph from Haus of Lacquer is definitely one of my faves and I love that she's from the same province as me - maybe one day I'll take the ferry over for a Haus of Lacquer mani - oh to dream the dream, hey?  Anyhoodle, hope you enjoy!

I'm off to check out my buddies and what they've come up with for "H" day - I'm bound to be blown away, that's for sure!!

Holla, N

Friday Review

Happy Friday - the best day of the week!!  As promised, I have a review of the Born Pretty Store's black flocking powder for you today!

I've been dying to get on the flocking powder band wagon for a while now but have had serious trouble tracking the stuff down that 1. wasn't the price of my first born and 2. that didn't have glitter in it.  You can get Martha Stewart flocking powder, but it's super pricey and has glitter in it.  The Michael's in my city used to carry flocking powder as part of it's recollection line, but they have stopped carrying it - they have every size of glitter and even some micro beads, but no flocking powder!!  So you can imagine my excitement at getting the opportunity to review some flocking powder for the Born Pretty Store!!

This flocking powder comes in clear plastic resealable container - you get quite a bit too!  Application was a breeze, I just slavered on the polish, used my trusty tweezers to grab some powder and dumped it on my nail.  You have to press it down once you have some on your nail - you also need to make sure the polish is still wet - I learned this the hard way.  That ring finger was cheetah once upon a time, but I let it dry too much and the flocking powder did not stick. Once I pressed the powder down, I knocked my nail over the container and the blew the remaining off - I did use a paint brush to get some more of the excess off, but I didn't want to ruin my design because I did use a good dose of polish.  You can get a kit from the Born Pretty Store that comes with a special set of scooped tweezers and a soft brush or you can order those separately  but if you have some regular tweezers and a clean dry paint brush, you're set!

I wanted to do something different than coating my whole nail with powder so I pulled out my trusty tape and  binder reinforcements and went to work!

If you're interested in picking up some flocking powder of your own, visit the Born Pretty Store and look up Item ID: 4507 or click here.  You get a HUGE container for $5.80 - total deal!!  Plus, here's a 10% off coupon code - double the deal!!

I can't wait to try out more designs with this fabulous stuff - have you tried flocking powder?  Do you love it?!?

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

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 

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

Chasing Chevy

Hiya!  It is muckin hot out today, it has been for the past couple of days.  We're lucky where we live that we get the morning sun, so when I get home it's relatively cool compared to the rest of our building!  But as soon as the sun goes down, it gets incredibly hot in our place - ugh I hate the heat!

I'm a huge fan of the chevron mani, and I've always loved when there's three separate chevrons - if that makes sense.  I found a new relatively new blogger Nail Art is Tacky who does the most amazing tape mani's with the most amazing color combos.  Click here to see what inspired today's mani!

This was super fiddly, I wanted to minimize the layers of polish I used, and for some reason I couldn't wrap my head around how to do this.  I tried a couple of different things to get the sharp lines and as you can see, the lines on my pinky and ring finger are different. I ended up using an exacto knife to cut the tape so the natural straight edges of the tape were at the ends.  Then I lined the ends up so it formed a  point.  I painted my nails in color first, put the tape on and then painted the nude over top.  Pulling the tape off carefully was a little tricky, but I managed to get better once I made it to my right hand!

Base Coat:  Orly Bonder

Colors From Thumb to Pinky:  NYC - MoMa, Kleancolor - Neon Aqua, NYC - High Line Green, NYC - Some Orange that I pealed the label off - ooops!, Essie - Russian Roulette

Nude:  Essie - Case Study

Top Coat:  Seche Vite

Holla, N

My Favorite Nail Polish?

Day 2 of Ooh La La Polish's My Favorite Things challenge!!  This one is a toughy - a mani with your favorite nail polish - I don't think I have a favorite polish.  At this stage in my addiction (can you tell I've watched the new season of Intervention?), I'm all about the price, if it's more than a couple of bucks, I'm out!  I refuse to pay more than $5 for a bottle of polish.  Because of this, I decided to look at this challenge a little differently.  Lately, I've been all about the neons - and you nail addicts know that in order to get the color to show up, you have to use a white base coat.  So, my favorite nail polish today is Barielle's Going to the Chapel, which is on it's last legs because I've been using it so much!!

Apparently using different bright colors on your nails is referred to as a skittle mani!  I first saw this done by The Little Canvas, here but it's not on her blog, but there are a bunch of other great things on her blog, including some amazing freehand nail art, so check it out here!!

Don't forget to check out the other lovelies that are doing this challenge by clicking on the links below!!

Base Coat:  Orly Bonder

Main Color:  Barielle - Going to the Chapel

Colors:  Kleancolor - Neons

I used black acrylic paint for the leopard spots.

Top Coat:  Seche Vite

Holla, N