Top 10 of 2010

Hey everyone! I had to work NYE so I'm sorry this post is a tad late (with that being said I'm still totally posting it as if it had been before midnight). I've decided to do a "Best in 2010" list of my favorite 10 polishes of 2010. These could be any polishes, not strictly made in 2010 *and no, these aren't my pictures*....I'm partaking in some thievery but don't worry I linked back to the originals!


Ok so starting with....Number 10! OPI Russian Navy 

Number 9 : China Glaze Coconut Kiss

Number 8 : Jordana Cabaret

(ok, so this actually is my picture)

Number 7 : China Glaze Shocking Pink

Number 6 : Orly Halley's Comet

(this one is mine too, lol)

Number 5 : China Glaze Tree Hugger

Number 4 : China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le

(mine)

Number 3 : OPI Teal The Cows Come Home

Number 2 : Essie Barbados Blue

And my absolute favorite polish of 2010....*drumroll please*

OPI Show It and Glow It

(mine)

Yodeling in the Pacific

In the words of Paula Deen: "Hey y'all!"

Today I was playing around with my polishes and decided to go with these:

The base coat is China Glaze Passion In the Pacific. I always forget how absolutely stunning this polish is. I promise I will swatch it soon! Then for the tips and diagonal I used OPI Yodel Me On My Cell, another stunning blue. Finished off with two coats of Seche Vite (since now I am no longer out of it!)

Toetally Tuesday #5 - Silver and Gold

Aw, it's always a little bittersweet when Christmas is over for the year. I feel like after Thanksgiving so much changes just because it's the "holiday season." Now the season is over and kids start the 365 countdown to next Christmas (which by the way is down to 362 by the way--so I guess not only kids countdown, lol). Anyway, today's Toetally Tuesday is inspired by a specific part of the Christmas movie favorite Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Burl Ives' "Silver and Gold". The movie clip can be seen here if you'd like. On to the nails!

For these I used one of my new Christmas polishes: China Glaze Midnight Kiss. 

I swatched it on my fingernails and will post that maybe tomorrow (unless I forget). I also used Kleancolor Silver Pearl and Color Club Art Club in white.

And some administrative duties:

Yesterday's post (featuring the LA Color Craze Metallic polishes) received a question from Rachel of Rachel's Nails asking how watery they were. Today i went back between manicures and did a layer by layer polish job for you all to see. The green and silver/gray were opaque as my original pictures were in one coat so those aren't included. The pink and purple do change coat by coat. Here are my new swatches:

The pink with one coat (index), two coats (middle) and three coats (ring).

 And the purple with one coat on the middle finger and two on the ring finger.

And one last thing! Rachel (of the linked above Rachel's Nails) is having a 50th follower giveaway! Make sure you go check out her blog for more info but here is a list of just a few of the great things she's giving away this time:

• nail polishes from Sinful Colors, Zoya, Sally Hansen, Eyeko, etc.
• nail files and other nail prep stuff (think OPI nail/cuticle oil)
• one of her awesome frankens

Her giveaway is open until January 15th so make sure you go sign up!

A CRAZE for LA Color

Today I have a couple swatches. I can't believe I'm actually working my way through my list of polishes like I said I would. It's going to take forever but it's worth it. Today's post features a set of four LA Colors polishes my sister bought me! They're unnamed so I have no idea what to call them but here are some swatches of each.


The pack is of four Metallic polishes and comes packaged like this:

It contains a pink, purple, blue/green, and silver/gray polish. 
The blue/green is my favorite (is that surprising? lol) Here's a look at it!

 Next is a pink!

 Then the purple!

 And the silver polish finally (also beautiful)!

 

 And the four polishes in the bottles and on my nails!

sWATCH OUT!

Hello everyone! I hope all your holidays went well and were at least a bit relaxing. A while ago (like September) I challenged myself to swatch every color my collection and use each for a base in a design. Well, to be honest it is slooooow going but I'm working on it and today I am excited to bring you a sWATCH OUT Sunday!  In today's sWATCH OUT I have OPI Curry Up Don't Be Late and OPI Holiday Glow coming your way. Prepare for pictures! :)

First, the design, a simple yet still holiday appropriate manicure using OPI Curry Up Don't Be Late, OPI Bogota Blackberry, and Kiss Brush-On Nail Art Paint in Silver. Bogota Blackberry really reminds me of cranberries instead (maybe because it's over the gold) so I named this mani "Cranberry Gold." 

Now, some swatches of OPI Curry Up Don't Be Late. It's a brushed yellow gold from the OPI India collection that, I have to admit, looks a little funny with my skintone. It is a beautiful color though and despite it's 4 coat application to get really opaque (I blame my application skills) I really like it.

Next is OPI Holiday Glow from OPI's Holiday Wishes collection. I wasn't sure about this color in the bottle but when I put it on my nails I decided I had been too harsh. The deep cocoa base and gold flecks really popped on my nails. Brown may not be my favorite polish color but...this is definitely a keeper in my book!

See how pretty are the gold flecks?

And while we're on the topic of OPI polishes, do you absolutely love their names? I do! I'm a fan of whoever it is who names these so creatively. What is your favorite OPI nail polish name?

And on a last note: This Christmas was the Christmas of nail polishes! I can't wait to show you guys all the great colors my family got me!

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone's holidays are filled with happiness and, of course, polish too! :) Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Nikki's Nail Files to you!

Wrap It Up

I finished wrapping everyone's presents on Monday and thought "Hey, presents as nails could be a cute design." I know, I know, not overly creative but still. And how fitting seeing as the big guy (Santa) will be delivering presents to all the good girls and boys in 2 DAYS!!!! Here they are!

I used Ulta Professionals The Devil Wears Red and Orly White Out. I'm thinking of adding a little rhinestone in the center of the bow to make the design pop a little. 

What is your favorite thing about Christmas (if you celebrate it)?

Light 'em up!

My family My Dad always decorates our yard outside for Christmas every year. He goes a bit crazy sometimes with icicle lights on the house, red, green, blue lights in the trees, multi-colored lights in the bushes, Christmas blow-ups and all that jazz. One of my favorite things about Christmastime is being able to drive through neighborhoods and check out all the lights the people have put up. Some look really nice and others--eh, let's just say it's very festive! Anyway, for today's manicure I tweaked a French manicure by adding a string of lights. Check them out!

Shockingly, I didn't use anything as a base for these nails. I only put Orly White Out as a tip, Color Club Art Club in black for the cord. For the lights I used Color Club Art Club Red, Color Club Art Club Green, Color Club Art Club Light Blue, and Color Club Art Club Yellow. Topped it off with Orly Won't Chip. I really really really liked how these turned out!

And, before I forget, check out this tutorial for how to get these nails. I have to admit I rarely follow tutorials (I usually just give it a go and hope for the best) but JulieG makes some of my favorites, not to mention some of the most awesome designs! 

Also, I have some treats for you guys: our Christmas tree and a very festive house I passed on one of my Light Tours!

☮ Peace ☮

"Peace out" may be one of the oddest phrases but peace signs are another story. For today's Toetally Tuesday (which I almost forgot *gasp!*) I decided a rainbow peace sign pedi was just what the doctor ordered. It made me smile as I was decorating the Christmas tree with my sister and brother. 

I used Ulta Professionals The Devil Wears Red as a base and then Color Club in Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Grape Escape for the different rainbow layers. The half peace sign on the top left of the nail is in Kiss Brush-On Nail Art Silver Glitter. Finally, a layer of Orly Won't Chip finished off the pedicure. The rest of the nails are The Devil Wears Red.

You're a coco-NUT!

What do I do when I'm on break from college? I go to work. Nothing special or anything though, I'm just a waitress at a local diner but there is one extraordinary things about my job: I work 9-4. Yes, that's 9 pm to 4 am. I'm a night owl and I work "when the freaks come out" and boy do they. Then again last night was a great first night back where no whack jobs came in. Also, I did well tip wise! Cha-ching!! Here are my nails for you to enjoy :) I used a beautiful Jordana polish as a base that, though it doesn't look it in the picture too much, is iridescent and gorgeousssss. I'd never used it before and this is beautiful. I'll swatch it soon hopefully! The title to this post is appropriate only because I'm using China Glaze's Coconut Kiss. What an odd name. What a beautiful color!

So, Jordana Lilly Light as a base with China Glaze Coconut Kiss as the tips. Then Color Club Art Club in Black and White for the dotted divider and the flower. I think these may be one of my favorites so far! Top coat is Orly Won't Chip. Actually make that like 3 coats (my hands now have to withstand the force of a diner for 7 hours so...yeah) Ok, that's it for today. Steph and I are finally off for some sushi around 2:30 today and I'm getting read. I'm so excited, I've been dreaming about Mt. Fuji's sushi since before Thanksgiving when we tried to go and they were closed. Sushi may be my favorite food!

Happy Monday everyone!

Want to know a SECRET?

Hey everyone! Winter break has begun! Here are my nails of today. They have two coats of China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le for a base and I cannot wait to put up the swatches of the polish. It's thick formula is so easy to apply and I love how it looks when it dries! Here you go:

As I mentioned, China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le is the base 

color and then OPI Holiday Glow is the tip.

Toetally Tuesday #4 - Piano Keys

So, I'm sad to report that I have killed my phone. Some how and I have no idea how I managed to push two of the pins that *should* connect to the charger all the way back into the phone. I blame the charger of course since it's always been finicky. Sometimes I'd get it hooked up nice and easy and other times it was such a fight. Eh, those fight times were probably why the pins got pushed. Ugh, I went to verizon and they couldn't do anything for me since I don't have insurance on my phone because I'm stupid. So anyway, until Thursday I'm without a phone and without a phone I can't send pictures to my email :( Well, I'll just have to break out the really old digital camera I'm dying to replace and see if I can get a good shot with that. It's not like my pictures are super quality anyway (they don't need to be really). Poor Toetally Tuesday. I'll see if I can get a good picture with the current ones but until then here's one I did a couple weeks ago. You recognize it? I used it for a manicure before for when my boyfriend took me to see Paul McCartney in concert. :D Ah, I still love to think about how awesome that concert was so here it is as a pedicure. 

And yes I know this isn't Paul McCartney but I find it appropriate: "Sing us a song you're the piano man"

Santa Baby

Hey everyone, today I felt like doing another Christmas-y manicure since I seemed to have hopped off the bandwagon and I've been doing other things. I had never used Orly Ole so I was excited to give it a shot.

For these simple beauties I used Icing Mint 2 Be, Orly Ole, and Orly White Out.

Also for some reason this manicure (or the colors) reminded me of this funny Santa Claus I saw while shopping. Who wouldn't love a jolly Santa Claus cookie jar?

F-I-N-A-L-S week!

It's the Sunday before finals week! Yay!! I don't have any finals until Thursday (which are Research methods and then Developmental Psych). My Spanish turned into a final composition instead of an exam and that's due on Tuesday and my Short Story class' final is a critique on a short story she gave us due tomorrow. So of course I feel like I have nothing to do and hence....nail design!!

For these I used Milani Pool Party and China Glaze First Class Ticket (I think)

Let me see you smile!

"Smile...they're all happy to see you." *Quote from The Princess Diaries*

And I'm happy to see YOU! Yes you, everyone that stops by and checks out my little nail blog here. It's so exciting to see new followers, comments, or people from new places have stopped by to check out the Nail Files. A quick hello to those awesome blog readers who hail from Russia, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, the US, Germany, Turkey, the Bahamas, Poland, Japan, the UK, and every other country that has stopped by/will stop by to give NikkisNailFiles a look see. (I think look see is a phrase. Yeah.) Anyway all you people are fantastic and I love seeing others interested in the same hobby I have (painting nails of course!) Hope to see you all stopping by frequently and--dare I say--posting a comment a two? Cheers! Enough gabbing, on to the nails!

I used Wet n Wild 423B as a base with China Glaze Liquid Leather as the faces.

How do you "like"?

Hey guys! I'm sure most of you know this already (I just got off the phone with my sister who totally took the wind of out my sails when I went to tell her--eh that's what I get for taking my time to get the word out I guess ;) ) but here's some ZOYA news! 

If you have a facebook, you may get 3 bottles of Zoya polish for only the shipping and handling fee. ($6.95 I think) If you "like" the facebook page (for your convenience I put a link here) and click "like". That's all you have to do. Then wait until the fans are 20,000. Right now there's like 18,900 so not too many more to go!! Heck yes I want three bottles of Zoya! Awesome!

Burlesque

How many amazing movies are out in theaters right now? Ever since trailers showed up on my TV screen I counted down the days until Burlesque would come out. It's a movie musical that I promptly dragged my boyfriend along to see (on November 24th--the opening day and him and my 7 months). I'm sure he was thrilled. Ok, maybe I don't really know how he felt about it but...I loved it. It's definitely one of my new favorites and I will certainly run out and buy it as soon as it comes to DVD. I'm not sure if he noticed or not but at one point I was totally tapping a foot to the tunes, lol :D I l loved the costumes, music, dancing, and everything. Christina Aguilera and Cher did a wonderful job! 

(and since I'm studying Spanish, lol....)

So when I was thinking of how to do my nails today (and listening to the Burlesque soundtrack) I decided Burlesque inspired nails were exactly what I wanted to do. So here you go: the OPI Burlesque collection nail color Show It and Glow It as a design.

Oh yeah, and staring at him throughout the movie wasn't so bad either ;) 
All these goodies were posters found on this site here.