Red Rage

Hiya, Oh man, today has been a comedy of errors, let me tell you!  First of all, I struggled all day yesterday with what to do for the first day of the 31 Day Challenge that Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner is hosting.  I've concluded that I'm not a big fan of red.  I'm so into bright summer colors right now, I just can't get into the red.  Secondly, I got a $600 ticket on my way home from work today because my car was not insured!!  WTF!  WORST DAY!  I'm thankful I was able to pull over somewhere where there was parking, I can't imagine having to pay for towing as well.  And the worst part?  I was literally a block away from home!!!  The way I've been able to make myself feel better about the whole situation is that I haven't had insurance on my car since June, so really it's only a $300  ticket because I'm actually paying for the insurance I didn't have to pay during the two months I didn't have insurance.  I can't believe I didn't have insurance, I didn't even realize, I so don't remember getting a notice in the mail.  And my birthday was like ages ago!!  ugh.

Thirdly is this disasticure - this is the third try for Day 1 of the 31 day challenge - if I'm having this hard of a time with a broad topic like red - I'm dreading the rest of the challenge!

Base Coat:  Orly Bonder

French Tips:  NYC - French White Tip

Polka Dots:  Essie - Russian Roulette

I used acrylic paint for the bows.

Top Coat:  Pro FX Quick Dry

Don't forget to check out the other lovely ladies participating in this challenge!

-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

Here's what we'll be doing for the 31 days, we'll be posting every 3 days!

Holla, N

Dotty French

Homework time!!  Who gets excited about homework?  This girl does!

It was my turn to assign the homework and I choose black and white.  I feel like these are two huge staples in my collection, plus it can be used for mostly anything so the possibilities are endless.  I'm excited to see what Becca from Nail Narcotics comes up with - something fabulous, I'm sure!!

I committed the sin of all sins for a nail addict, I didn't use a base coat.  I wasn't sure if I was going to like this mani, so just wanted to try it out first, I ended up liking it so....one mani without base coat isn't going to kill me - I hope!

White:  Barielle - Going to the Chapel

Black Lines:  Essie - Licorice

I used black and white acrylic paint for the dots.

Top Coat:  Pro FX Quick Dry

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

Favorite Color?

Hiya polish peeps - that's paw-lish, as in nail polish Shawna!!

I'm super excited about this post because I've managed to find a challenge that I can join right from the beginning!! I've been wanting to do a challenge for some time and found that arranging one myself was a little advanced for a newbie.  Kelly over at Ooh La La Polish! is hosting her very first challenge and what a challenge it is - My Favorite Things!  Can I just say how much I LOVE the Sound of Music, as a kid I could watch this over and over, mostly to sing a long - which I'm sure everyone enjoyed :)  So let's get down to it, here's my first challenge post:  My Favorite Color - PINK!!!

Be sure to check out all the other lovelies that are participating in this challenge, it's only day one and already we've got some amazing mani's!!!  Here's a list of all the fun stuff we will be doing!!

Base Coat:  Orly Bonder

Main Color:  Billie - Fuschia

I used acrylic paint for the dots

Top Coat:  Sally Hansen - Rock Candy and Seche Vite

Holla, N

Black and Blue

Sunday Homework is BACK!!!  The lovely Becca from Nail Narcotics took a break last week due to life (that darn life, getting in the way of nail polishing :), but she's back - YAY!!!  For today's homework, she's assigned us a gradient mani!!

I wanted to do something subtle because I have an interview tomorrow, so I attempted a black with pearly nude.  As you can tell by the title of this post, that attempt was not successful!  First of all, I didn't like the pearly nude I used and second I don't have a makeup sponge, I used a craft sponge that is way to porous and leaves way too many marks.  I've done this sucessfully with the same craft sponge once, on my Caribbean Calypso mani.  This time I did not have the same results.  SO, I decided to use BM (bundlemonster) plate 301.  This took a little fiddling....but not as much as using the craft sponge.  I haven't mastered stamping yet, so there were gaps in this that I had to fill in.  I used the polish brush to add color on the tip of my nail and then used a stiff bristled paint brush to make sure the texture matched.  I wish I could have used something brighter, but next time for sure, I'm just glad Becca didn't assign something that would really distract in my interview!!!

Don't forget to check out Nail Narcotics Sunday homework - Gradient Beginner!!  

Base Coat:  Orly Bonder

Main Color:  China Glaze - Man Hunt

Gradient:  Essie - Licorice

Top Coat:  Seche Vite

Holla, N

And it was Called Yellow

Hiya, that song has been in my head since I put this color on my nails.  I'm a little annoyed now - lol!

One more day of holidays for me then back to work.  I had to pack up my desk and have everything ready to move while I was gone, so I'll be doing a lot of unpacking when I get back to work, ugh.  I had all these grand plans for my holidays, I wanted to update my stash page and I did do some work on it, but man it's time consuming to record it all!  I also wanted to rearrange everything - remember when I took my stash camping?  Well my friend's sister organized it by color and I've tried it out for a couple of weeks, but I don't like it.  I would rather have it organized by brand, it just works for me.  So I accomplished none of this, but I did manage to get a couple of posts in, so I'm happy!

Base Coat:  Orly Bonder

Main Color:  Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Quick Canary

Accent Nails:  Essie - Licorice and Barielle - Going to the Chapel

I used acrylic paint to do the lines and dots

Top Coat:  Seche Vite

Holla, N