BUSY BUSY BUSY

I will be busy these next few days working on Halloween and finding a new car, so doing any new nail art and posting is my last priority. Hopefully things will be back to normal next week! Hope you all have a great Halloween!

I HAD A BAD DAY

That's all that is left of my car :(

Friday, after leaving work early to make it to the bank before 5, a guy ran a red light as I was attempting to turn left on a green arrow, needless to say I didn't make it to the bank before 5. Of course the guy that hit me jumped out of his car claiming it was my fault. Cops were in another part of the intersection and were there before I could even get out of the car. Unfortunately they were not in a position to see the lights and no witnesses stopped, so basically this is one for insurance to fight out. Cops didn't issue either one of us tickets.

I wasn't hurt minus a few bruises and being sore, and thank god I didn't have my son in the car with me. However I believe this will be the end of the road for my car. I am pretty sure it is totaled. I hope you all had a much better weekend than I.

Remember, your life can change in an instant, tell your family and friends that you love them!

DESIGN-HER GALS

I hope you guys take a minute and check out my cute Design-Her Gal on the right side of the screen. Not only is she totally cute, but she serves a really great purpose. By clicking on her you will be directed to the Design-her Gals website where not only can you make your very own, but you can help in the fight against breast cancer.

I am a recent member of the Design-Her Gal site and I was very shocked to learn that Dorit Shapiro, president of the Gal to Gal Foundation, passed away on Oct. 12th, 2008 of stage IV breast cancer. She was a mother of two and only 38 years old. I am 31, and to think if I only had a few more years with my son all while fighting breast cancer is a nightmare. Luckily I have had no one in my immediate family diagnosed with breast cancer.

I think early detection is the key to fighting this terrible killer. I know here in Oklahoma City this weekend, on Sat. the 25th, Integris Hospital is having FREE cancer screenings. They are screening for prostate, skin, oral, breast and colorectal cancer for females and males. Please check with your local hospitals, they might have free screenings available as well. And with it being free, how could you not?

There are all kinds of ways to help fight breast cancer, so please take a moment to look at the Design-Her Gals site and all they are doing in the fight against breast cancer.

CUTE LIL' DOTS

My nails I did today can only be described as CUTE. I had really big plans for these nails. I had some jewels and other little things I was going to add, but when I got them painted and put the dots on I thought they were just to cute to do anything else to, so I left them as is. However, maybe tomorrow I might do some playing around with them. This nail is maybe even one some of you non-lovers of nail art might like because it is so simplistic and could work on shorter nail lengths too.

WHAT I DID TO GET THIS LOOK:

I used Orly - Flirty Girl from their French Manicure line, a really girly shade of pink. I also used China Glaze - Moody Blue, baby blue creme. I alternated colors, painting only my tips. I did three coats of each because they were pretty sheer to start off with. For the last coat I painted the entire nail with one coat of it's corresponding color. I then applied little glitter holographic dots to each nail tip. I then topped everything off with one coat of Poshe.

OUTSIDE SHOTS:

You can't really tell from my pictures, but those little dots pack alot of bling to them. It looks like I have diamond studded nails, and like McDonalds - I'm Lovin' It!

So I now ask WHAT DO YOU THINK - something you would wear, or still too much "nail art" going on??

SATIN PURPLE ROYALTY

***UPDATE: When I got home and looked at my bottle of polish I saw that I got the name wrong! The name of the polish is Orly Satin Hues - Satin Royalty - Sorry for any confusion!

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Does anyone recall the "Satin" line that Orly had? Well last night I came across my Orly Satin and decided to use it. Of course, to use it right would be without a top coat, that is what gives the polish it's satin finish. However, since I added some jewels and nail art stickers I had to use a top coat. The color is still pretty though.

WHAT I DID TO GET THIS LOOK:

First I painted all my nails with one coat of Orly Bonder. Then I took some french manicure stickers in the "chevron" shape, and placed them on my nail. I painted three coats of Orly Satin - Purple Royalty on the bottom section, from the sticker down. I then pulled my stickers off and let the nails dry a little bit. Next I used my Strip Rite NAP - Silver and painted two lines following along the chevron shape left by the stickers. Then I placed one purple square shaped rhinestone and placed it in the diamond shape position. Then for my two thumb nails I added some nail art stickers that look like royal crowns. I topped all of my nails off with a thick coat of Poshe.

INSIDE PICS:

OUTSIDE PICS:

See how easy it is to look like Royalty???? :)

FEEDBACK

I have just started this blog, as most of you can tell, and I would love to get some feedback from visitors of this blog. I want to hear both good and bad. If it isn't for you tell me why. If you do like it, tell me why. I would just really like to see if there is any interest in a blog like this.

Thanks for taking the time to give me a little feedback!

HALLOWEEN DOT - 2- DOT

Here is some Halloween inspired nails.

WHAT I DID TO GET THIS LOOK:

First I applied 1 coat of Orly Bonder to my nails. Then I used Color Club - Orange Revenge and painted only the tips of my nails. I did 2 coats of the orange. Then I used Nubar NAP 129 Black and my new dotting tool and made little dots. I just used the brush end of my NAP and coated the dotting tool with it. I then used the same Nubar NAP and drew a black line along the smile line of my nails. Lastly, I topped it off with a coat of Poshe. That's it! Easy as 1-2-3.

TODAY WAS A GOOD DAY

To quote Ice Cube "Today was a good day" for sure. I ran to a couple of my beauty supply stores at lunch and grabbed a few items and I was right by a Dollar Tree so I thought what the hay, let me run in and see if they have any of the Maybelline Colorama Top Coats. Guess what??? They did!! After my NYC Molten Metal hunt down resulted in nothing but a huge waste of gas and time, I really had no hopes of finding any of these. So imagine my surprise when I indeed did. So I promptly snapped up all they had. I also picked up a Jordana - Angelique out of the 99 cent tub at one of my beauty supply stores, I just didn't picture it below.


I wanted to share with you guys what all I got today. First up the Colorama Top Coats. The end two are not top coats, but they come three to a package for $1.00.

(4) Sonic Sunset, Ruby Rays, Gold Wash, Gives Me The Chills, Raspberry Sorbet, & Lilac Freeze

I also got some new nail art stickers.

Cala Nail Arts Halloween 3D Nail Sticker Item # 86-174 $3.99

Cina Nail Jewelry Decals in Tiara Item # 133058 $3.49

A new nail art brush. I am hoping I am able to do some amazing things with this. The brush end is at a curve, so maybe this will make things easier. It also has a dotting tool on the other end. My next nail design I am waiting to maybe do some sort of a Halloween french and use the little dotting tool to make dots.

It's So Easy Double Sided Nail Art Brush Item # 698250 $3.99

I also got another NAP (nail art pen). I wanted to show you guys the cool thing with the Nubar pens. They have a little dotting tool built right into the top of the pen, and you also get the brush tool too.

Nubar NAP 123 Basic White $4.99

When you untwist the whole lid you get the brush. This can be used for "drawing' or making stripes.

I hope you can see in the picture the "dotting" end. To get this you pull the top part off. There is a little metal tip and you can make little dots with this end.

IT WAS A GOOD DAY!!

DEAR ABBY TALKS NAIL POLISH

While reading Dear Abby today, I was catching up on a few past day's articles that I missed and I came across this one, where a girl writes in about shaking the nail polish bottle.

DEAR ABBY: I'm 15 and live with my mom. We often paint our nails. The problem is, my mom shakes the nail polish worse than anyone. I heard recently that shaking a bottle of nail polish creates air bubbles and makes the polish thinner. (This came from a professional manicurist.) But my mom won't believe me. She thinks this professional is crazy. Can you please tell everyone that there is a reason why you never see manicurists shake their bottles? It's a horrible habit, and it drives me nuts. -- PEEVED IN GREENVILLE, N.C.
DEAR PEEVED: Before judging your mother so harshly, you might be wise to talk to more than one professional manicurist about what causes bubbles. I have seen many professional manicurists shake the bottles of polish before applying it to their clients. And I have been told that applying polish that is not fresh, or applying it too thickly can cause it to bubble.

What do you guys think, was Dear Abby right in her response?

KNOCKOFF - PART 2

Ok, I just wasn't satisfied at all with the sunlight pics I took of my nails, so I just took some more and I think these show a more correct view of what my nails look like in "real life". Enjoy!

{PSA} Public Service Announcement:

The cut on my middle finger is proof that you shouldn't attempt to dig chili out of a can to make chili fries at midnight after you have been tipping the beers back.

KNOCKOFF

LOL! Ok, I finally got some time for me to put some tips on. The first thing I needed to do was try to duplicate a look I posted on here earlier. However I do not own any NFU OH nail polish :(. So I did my best with what I had and I really think that it turned out quite nice! I would love to hear what you all think about it.

This look was quite a bit harder to achieve than I first thought. Getting those little black swirl lines to look right took several attempts. After I got done I realized that the original nails had their swirls a little further down on the nail than what I did on my "knockoffs".

What I did to get the look: I used my Nubar NAP - 129 Black to follow along my smile line and make my swirls. I then painted the white tip area of my nails with two coats of Sally Hansen - Black Orchid. Next I used Zoya - Delilah, a red glitter polish, and painted on two coats of it. I did not cover the whole black tip area, I did leave a small line of black along the smile line. I finished it off with a top coat of Seche.

ORIGINAL LOOK:

INDOOR LIGHTING:

OUTSIDE, FULL SUNLIGHT:

My sunlight pictures don't do my nails justice, but until I can get a better camera we will just have to use a little imagination. IF/WHEN I do finally get me some Nfu Oh nail polish, I will have to try this look again. It really looks pretty good in person.

**SIDE NOTE: You may notice the crack line going across my index finger. I went to open the dishwasher last night and some how bent my nail and broke it. I actually broke my real nail because there was blood and everything, but I wasn't about to attempt to fix it until I got some pictures of my nail art taken.

NOTD

After last nights nail art-ing, I polished my nails with N.Y.C. - Saffire. I also used Seche base and top coat on this. This is a pretty unique color. It really does remind me of sapphires. It can look green at times. Very pretty color.

This first shot was taken inside. It just kind of looks dark in the picture, but in real life it has more color than shown here. It kind of shows a little of that dark green tint I was telling you it can take on sometimes.

This was taken outside in the bright sun shine. Here the blue color is more dominant.

CATHERINE WONG

Catherine Wong (Nail Queen) is one of the most amazing nail artisans I have ever seen. I just love her work so much. I was checking out her blog today and I came across some pictures of hers that I just had to share with you. These were the ones that stuck out the most to me.

Also, those sharp, pointy nails - those look so fun to wear, for about a day anyway.

Please take a look at the amazing things she can do:

These last two were my favorites of the slide show she has on her blog. And that crown ring I would kill for! Like McDonald's - I'm lovin' it!

**PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL PHOTO'S ARE PROPERTY OF CATHERINE WONG.

ARTSY FARTSY INDEED...

Well I did get down and dirty in the polish and n.a.p.'s (nail art pens). However, I am not too pleased with how my pictures turned out. My camera did not take very good pictures last night. I think it was in part due to it was 10 pm and the lights in the house were not the sort of bulb or watt that I needed. Anyway - on to the pics!

I tried to change the brightness contrast on the camera, so take your pick of the snaps above that you like best and just ignore the other ;).

Below I have up close pics of each nail and the details of each pic.

THUMB

The base was painted with two coats of NYC - Saffire. I then used my So Easy Stripe Rite - White n.a.p. and painted a ghost outline and painted the inside completely with white. Next I used Nubar NAP - 129 Black and made two little dots for the eyes and an oval shape for the mouth. Top coat was Poshe.

INDEX

The base was painted with Finger Paints - Shades of Dark. You can see in the pic that there was some cuticle drag with this color. I then topped it off with Black Radiance - Hot Steppa. This is such a gorgeous color!! It is clear with gold and copper colored glitter in different sizes. The colors remind me of fall leaves. Final coat was Poshe.

MIDDLE

This is a cat, I know the picture is b-a-d. It turned out so cute though! Disappointing to say the least. Anywho, the base was done in China Glaze - Cat's Eye (that's where I got the idea to do a cat face). Then I painted on a face, ears and whiskers using different n.a.p.s - So Easy Stripe Rite - Gold Glitter & Silver Shimmer and Nubar NAP - 129 Black. I did two dots of the gold glitter for the eyes and it reminded me of those old pins that had the cat face and rhinestone eyes. Top coat is Poshe.

RING

This is a leaf. Once again the picture does not do all my hard work justice :( For the base I used Black Radiance - Tease. This is such a pretty shade of gold, and it looks orange in the picture - just so wrong. I used Nubar NAP - 151 Emeraldes to outline the shape of the leaf. This is a green color with green glitter. I then went over the green with So Easy Stripe Rite - Gold Glitter, but leaving some of the green to show through. Topped off with Poshe.

PINKY

A witch's hat. The base was 3 coats of Color Club - Yell-Oh!, a very neon yellow color. Some cuticle drag with this, but not too bad. I used Nubar NAP - 129 Black to draw a hat shape, and then I filled it in. I used So Easy Stripe Rite - Silver Shimmer to make the band on the hat. Top coat of Poshe. This was super shiny. The base neon yellow color just made this look pop, and once again disappointing results with the camera.

Anyway, tell me what y'all think! Only 13 more days until Halloween.........