Have you lost your marbles?

Hey everyone, happy Friday to you all. I'm super excited to show you this design because, well, it's only the 3rd or 4th time I've done the water-marbling technique and....I think they turned out great! I went with these colors because I picked 4 polishes that I wanted to use in a design and then I decided to water-marble. How did they come out? Well, despite my thumb looking a little funky, they came out looking like this...

...of course that was after going through about 10 cotton balls to clean up the mess I made on my hands (no I don't use the tape method--I just let them get all gross and then acetone them to death) I used China Glaze First Mate (gift from my sister--thank you Steph!), China Glaze Paper Chasing, China Glaze Tree Hugger, Zoya Yummy, and...I think that's it :D

Swatch: I Pink I Can

Since I used this polish as the base for yesterday's design manicure I thought it would be decent to post swatches of it. I Pink I Can (IPIC) is a beautiful light pink shimmer polish. It was created as part of the fall 2010 Breast Awareness Collection. IPIC only needs 2 coats (seen in the pictures) and it dries super super super fast. 

 I really should apologize for the sad sorry shape of my cuticles in these pictures. 

I didn't realize...yikes!!

 

When was the last time you fingerpainted?

That's a valid question. I can't remember the last time I painted in general (well, other than my nails, haha) but I especially can't remember when I last fingerpainted. My guess would be somewhere around 1st grade or maybe even younger. Today's nails come after a swatch session that include Finger Paints "I Pink I Can" so that's where my fingerpainting idea comes into play. This pink turned out to be beautiful and I can't wait to post the swatch up for you guys to see. It's also my first Finger Paints polish so that could be why I'm so excited. Regardless, here are my fingers....painted. Ha, I think I'm so witty sometimes...

So, as I mentioned, Finger Paints I Pink I Can was the base for this manicure with Zoya Ki used for the stamp and tips. The pattern is from BundleMonster plate 16. Topped with Seche Vite, of course. Ah, time for dinner. Have a great night/day everybody!

Toetally Tuesday #11 - Patchwork Perfect

Following some inspiration through one of Chloe's patchwork manicures I decided to try the technique on my toesies. Feast your eyes of a perfectly patchworked pedicure:

I don't know why my phone kept taking blurry pictures but this was the best one I got. So frustrating. I really need a new digital camera. Anyway, I used China Glaze Awaken, OPI Ali's Big Break, and China Glaze White On White for the patchwork. Not too bad but not as perfect as Chloe's. I'll keep working!

Manic Monday

Hello everyone! This weekend is shaping up to be a breeze. I'm already finished all the work I need to have done for up to Thursday, I'll probably send a lot of time swatching hopefully. I also took a practice LSAT on Sunday, hooray. Here are my nails of today:

I used Zoya Robyn (which is absolutely gorgeous!) as the base for my thumb, index, middle, and pinkie fingers and Color Club Art Club in white for the design. On my ring finger I have Orly White Out with Zoya Robyn as the stamped design. The stamp is BundleMonster plate 21

Swatch: Shawn

This post is a swatch post of Zoya Shawn. I originally saw this polish on Rachel's (of Rachel's Nails) blog and I decided I just had to have it. I think it's the perfect shade of green and I didn't have one like it yet so, of course, when the 3Free promo happened with Zoya's Facebook Shawn was immediately topping of my list. Here's Zoya Shawn.


Shawn is from the Zoya Fall 2010 Wicked Collection. It's a dark olive/mossy green with a creme finish. I'm finding out that creme finish is my absolute favorite of all nail polish finish options. I love the way it dries, so shiny without a topcoat. These pictures are done sans top coat in fact. 

                                              

100 Cherries on my nails, 100 cherries indeed!

Thank god it’s Friday! Since I have no classes on Fridays I spent a good chunk of the last couple hours swatching like a fiend. I can’t wait to post everything for you guys! Oh and by the way, this post is the 100^th post here on NikkisNailFiles! J 1-0-0! Wow, that sounds like so many posts. I’d like to take a quick second just to thank everybody who has started reading, following, or just happened to land on my blog by chance. You guys are the reason I haven’t quit so here’s to many more posts here on NikkisNailFiles. Anyway, I meant to swatch more today but I had an idea during one of the swatches and when I was finished trying the design I thought they looked so good I had to post them up right now. I stopped swatching and left my nails like this:

Don’t they look awesome? Don’t tell me they look bad it’ll crush me. I was so excited when the gradient didn’t come out looking like poop and then I decided to stamp a little something to complete the design. The three polishes I used for the gradient are (1) Zoya Nikki, (2) Zoya Dawn, and (3) Zoya Quinn. Yep, three of my 12 new polishes! Then for the stamp I used China Glaze Let’s Groove and BM plate 21. Topped everything off with Seche Vite.

Swiper No Swiping!

Any Dora the Explorer fans out there? I wish I could say I had a little sister who watched the show but...nope, I had a little brother who--I guess--watched the show. I know I've seen it and I feel like I'm too old that it wouldn't have been a show I watched as a kid. I was of the Sailor Moon and Barney variety. Oh yes! But no Sesame Street. I know, I know, everyone tells me I missed out. Anyway, swipe these nails:

These nails are Sally Hansen HD Resolution and China Glaze Liquid Leather.

Don't Be Cross

Today's manicure is inspired by...I have no idea. I just painted them last night while doing my toes and then decided not to make today a swatch post but another design post (if you're not new to this blog you know I usually do designs rather than swatches--but I'm working on the swatches so they do come up, too). Today is a debate in one of my courses: Intelligence and Creativity. So yeah, we're all going to be listening to is IQ fixed or malleable? I'm kind of interested really :) This design kind of fits because it's two crossing lines--like the two teams of the debate. Yeah, yeah, that! ...or not.

I used China Glaze Coconut Kiss as the base and Essence Silver Surfer for the design.

Toetally Tuesday #11 - No Spring Yet

Was anyone else teased by the weather yesterday? It was so nice out. I'm talking sunny, comfortable temperature...I even took of my jacket walking back from class midday. It was wonderful. Then today, ugh, no such luck. It was back to being cold. For today's Toetally Tuesday post I wanted to do something that kind of hinted toward spring but then remained in winter-land. I saw my line of new Zoyas and decided Shawn would be absolutely perfect. It's green so I immediately think of spring's flowers and the green grass my friends and I lounge on in the Dell on nice days but it's just dark enough to keep the whole I'm-freezing-cold-winter-esque type feeling. I added white polka dots across the top because, well, because I could?

I used Zoya Shawn for the base and Orly White Out for the dots :) I really like how simple it is.

What is more dandy than hearts and candy?

Happy Valentine's day everyone! My manicure isn't all that spectacular since I've been busy studying for upcoming exams and what not but I hope you enjoy it anyway and I promise promise promise just as soon as I have time I'll do something special for my nails or a boatload of swatches or something to make up for all my five second posts. Today's is a stamped mani with a simple heart because what is more valentines-like than hearts? Well, I guess candy and flowers could be listed too. Oh don't worry, they aren't completely left out...I'm sitting here snacking on some truffles (yummmmmm!) my bf got me for Vday :D There just isn't any flowers or candy on the nails today. Here's a picture of my Valentine's day manicure:

I had to take a picture with my fingers straight because I stamped it facing me by accident. Oops! I used one of my new Zoyas (Dawn) as the base. It's a beautiful pink with perfect and easy application. I used Color Club Art Club in white and BundleMonster plate 09 for the heart design on my ring finger. 

Swatch: Resolution

Hey everyone! I hope you all had great weekends. I'm spending the rest of my Sunday watching the Grammys, studying some more, and painting my nails (hopefully using my Zoyas since I still haven't swatched them yet). Tonight I'm posting a swatch of Sally Hansen HD Resolution. This is a green shimmer. I should say I think it's amazing but....I'm pretty sure it's not anything special. Who hasn't seen a green shimmer?

How do you like it? Oh yes, and before I close this up I have some news. Rachel of Rachel Marie's Nails is having another fabulous giveaway because she can (and for hitting 300 followers, too)! Make sure you visit her blog for a list of all the amazing goodies one fabulous person will get!

Welcome friends!

As promised, here is a post about my twelve 13 new Zoyas. Yes, it was a 3free promo so technically it should have worked out to be 12 but my superfantabulous boyfriend heard me when I said I liked the polish Nikki but how it was 13th on my list and so he got it for meeee! Aww, so cute :) Anyway, here are the new troops!

I didn't have time to segregate the polishes into groups of three (I'll do that tomorrow after the exam I've been studying for) but I wanted to get them up and all. For those of you who, like me, cannot read those teeny tiny little labels in the pictures here's the list: Dawn, Kristi, Ki, Savita, Yummy, Tallulah, Akyra, Nikki, Veruschka, Ivanka, Shawn, Robyn and Quinn. Can't wait to get swatching but ughh school is getting in the way with a few upcoming exams! GRR!

Toetally Tuesday #10 - Say hello to Kristi!

Hey everyone! For today's Toetally Tuesday I'm being boring and only showing a plain color with no design BUT here's why...it is one of my 13 new Zoya polishes! Thank you 3Free Zoya promo! :D I can't wait to show all you guys the new bunch. Tomorrow's post will be about them I think and then maybe Thursday I'll have a swatch up or something. Ohhh there's so many beautiful colors to choose from how will I decide on which to go with? Anyway, today you are looking at Zoya Kristi, a beautiful red that seriously dries in a second and is so shiny even without a top coat. I'm loving Zoyas formula. I only had Zoya Nicole before and I never used it by itself so I never got to see just how amazing the coverage was in only one coat. Feast your eyes on Kristi:

I don't really know what happened with the flash....you guys know I don't have crazy white feet. But anyway, if you excuse the clean-up (or lack of), how do you like Zoya Kristi? I think it's one of my favorite reds now :)

Flowers for February

I was feeling a bit blah today...especially since I was so tired from making the drive back to etown in the wee hours of the morning this morning (ok, I shouldn't make it sound like it was such a long journey--it was only 2 hours). My nails are not technically from today but they are unposted from last week and I figured I should share them. They seemed to fit my overall mood so I'm using them for today's post:

I used China Glaze Recycle as a base coat. Then for the design I

used Color Club Grape Escape, White, and Black. I finished a bit

of the design with Kiss Brush-On Nail Art Paint in silver glitter.

No more street racing...

Last night on a very spur of the moment trip to Giant, I realized my car's headlights weren't on. Go figure. I stop, get out, check the lights, start playing with all the knobs and gadgets on my dash and...nothing. Fogs were fine. Running lights were fine. Headlights....nada. Very weird and very annoying so I called my family, the only one to pick up was my sister. It looks like I have some weekend plans after all. I am heading home to see what happened to my little lady car. I guess I should warn you that I have a very abnormal love for my car, my little Mitsubishi eclipse named Sylvia (because she's silver--ohhh aren't I witty?). Either way, to go back to the title of the post: I guess it's not really "no more street racing." It should be "no more street racing...in the dark" instead. ;)

I used Kleancolor Silver Pearl as the base with Color Club Art Club in red. 

But, I have found a silver lining to this colossal cloud of suckitude! By going home I can finally pick up my Zoyas that I have been dreaming of since I ordered them for the 3free promo. Win! Expect a post soon with the new troops for my Zoya Army :D

And a photo of my Mitsubishi baby:

Toetally Tuesday #9 - Happy February!

Hey everyone, phew the last two days were ridiculous. Between getting stuck up in the library for debate preparation until 2 in the morning and classes were canceled today...I have had quite the couple of days. Ok, maybe I'm being a bit dramatic--especially with having today off. Oh no, but not as in I-woke-up-and-checked-my-email-and-it-told-me-that. More of an I-woke-up-to-the-power-being-out-had-to-check-email-on-my-phone-and-classes-were-supposed-to-resume-at-10. Ok, so number 1: There are no 10am classes. There are either 9:30 or 11. So sure. 2: debate=canceled (which I was very pleased to hear). Then we got alerts saying the power would take longer and it wouldn't be until noon that the college would reopen and then finally, at 12:27, we got the final alert saying the college would remain closed for today. Yay! But anyway, toetally Tuesday is yes technically late--I'm sorry! But I hope you like them anyway, despite my brief bending of time (if you notice it still has a Tuesday publish date despite me writing this at...10 pm on Wed night. Here are my toetally February toesies: a little nod to the upcoming Valentine's Day which, debate the fact that I have a boyfriend, I do not like. Seriously, Valentine's Day can take a hike. Onto the toes!

I could not get the glare to go away. Grr! I used BM plate 09 for the "LOVE" stamp. For polishes I used China Glaze High Hopes, Orly White Out, and Essence Silver Surfer.


Anybody have suggestions on a good camera to buy? I need to replace my old one and so I welcome any opinions or comments! :) I hope all my readers have wonderful Februaries :)