Toetally Tuesday - Purple Flowers and new BM plates

Today's Toetally Tuesday is a pedicure using Zoya Robyn, Zoya Mira (a newbie to my collection), China Glaze High Hopes, Orly Blue Suede, and my new BundleMonster plates!

Zoya Robyn went first as my base coat. It was followed by a stamp of BundleMonster plate 212 in Orly Blue Suede. For the three flowers I went with Zoya Mira and China Glaze High Hopes.

What's the shatter--er,--matter?

Hey everyone, here's another nail post for your enjoyment. I love this black shatter I bought and I wanted to use it not just on my toes but also on my fingernails. It's painted over one of OPI's new Pirates of the Caribbean collection polishes (Mermaid's Tears).

Also, some news: GildedNails is having an AMAZING giveaway! Make sure you go and check out everything that might be yours (if you enter that is)! A little hint: the China Glaze OMG Collection. Yes, the complete collection might become yours if you enter! Go check it out, it's open until June 15th and it's open internationallly.

Nails so kreativ!

Hey everyone! A little while ago McDiaz714 (also known as Maria) of Nails Made Simple! gave me the Kreativ Blogger award! :D I'm so excited that she chose my blog to earn this award. Thank you so much McDiaz714 for your enthusiasm for nail blogging and your encouragement of my little nail blog Nikki's Nail Files.

So, as with most awards that circle the blogosphere, there are rules. These rules are simple: (1) Write 10 facts about yourself and (2) award 10 other bloggers!

Let's begin,

Fact 1: I started blogging last summer. It was my sister's idea. I would do my nails and then be sad when I wanted to redo them because it was like erasing something. Now I get to look back on any design I did.

Fact 2: I hate my cell phone. It drops almost every call it gets and I can't wait to replace it ASAP.

Fact 3: I looove movies. Seriously. A night of movie watching is my list of perfect dates.

Fact 4: My favorite polish brand is China Glaze. I just love all the color choices they have, their price tag, AND all the BLUE polishes they have for me to lust after. Not to mention they have DV8 (see fact 5).

Fact 5: I recently read a post by Shadow of Shadow's Nail Art about her recent purchase of her number one lemming: DV8. And I must say, DV8 is a polish I've lusted after since I saw it on a blog about a year and a half ago. I've found sooo many places that are selling it....for $13+. To date, the most I've spent on a single polish was $10 and I'd like to keep it that way. Then again, DV8 does look absolutely incredible. Seeing it in Shadow's post almost had me sliding my debit card out of my wallet and searching for it again.

Fact 6: I talk to other cars on the road when I'm driving. Literally. But not like I have conversations....I just make comments. I feel like everyone does that though.

Fact 7: I am currently on the prowl for an Ikea Helmer. Everyone seems to have one and stand by it as one of the best polish storage units available. I think I'm going tomorrow with Steph to pick one up. It's long overdue here in my house of polish.

Fact 8: I'm out of school and am looking for things to giveaway for my very first blog giveaway!! So keep your eyes peeled.

Fact 9: I loooove painting my nails (fingers and toes). My toes are polished 24/7 (except when switching polishes obviously) 365. I'm not joking. Literally, they are ALWAYS painted. I always say there's no excuse for unpolished piggies.

Fact 10: I'm always checking out people's nails. In fact, one time my boyfriend and I were out for dinner and my server was sporting a black/sparkle layered look that caught my eye. I decided to let her tip ride on her manicure. I decided she'd get a good tip for a Walgreen/target/wal-mart brand polish, a great tip for a polish from OPI, China Glaze, or Essie, and an awesome tip if it was rare (like DV8). It ended up being Sinful Colors with a Forever 21 polish over it. We chatted for a bit about polishes.

Ok, that's 10 semi-odd facts about me. Now for the 10 lucky ladies I've tagged with this award:

1. Nikki of Nikki's Nails

2. A Polish Problem

3. Irides of Lemming Monster

4. Chloe of Chloe's Nails

5.AmyGrace of The Polished Perfectionist

6. Gilded Nails

7. Elizabeth of Life and Polish

8. Kristen of Glitta Gloves

9. Andi of Viva Polish!

10. The Dutch Nail Blog

Toetally Tuesday - Jaded and Shattered

Back-dating a post again, Nikki?? This is getting out of hand! For today's Toetally Tuesday (which is really being posted on a Wednesday yet again) I have some news. I'm off looking for a new job because the old one only has late night hours available (which is is 9pm to 4am) and I applied to a bunch of places today. My late night work schedule is kind of my excuse why I've been absent and scatterbrained here on the blog lately. There's so much I have listed that I want to get to on this blog but I just haven't yet so I've decided no more with the excuses. I have a lot of things I've said I would do that I haven't gotten around to yet and it all stops now. Game on! :D Just kidding, this was sounding a lot like a pep talk. Anyway, the reason I'm bringing up this post is that while I went job hunting the weather was actually nice and when the weather is nice people sport flip flops. One of my favorite things to do is notice if people's toes are painted. If you know my opinion on toe polish you know I say "there's no excuse for unpolished piggies." I get that some people can't paint their finger nails but still, toe nails are easy and I think they should always have a color. So, consistent with that...here are today's Toetally Tuesday tootsies.

I used OPI Black Shatter (original name right?) over Love & Beauty Jade (which I just swatched last post). I really love that I finally got my hands on some black shatter. I have so many colorful polishes I am dying to use as bases under the black shatter. Anyone opposed to a month long homage to shattered nails? Ok, that might be overkill. Just consider yourself warned that it may or may not happen! Ha.

Swatch: Jade

Today's post is a quick one because I'm about to sit down and do a practice LSAT. I wanted to do a swatch post and this color popped out at me. It's Forever 21's "Love & Beauty" polish in Jade. It's so gorgeous, the absolute perfect color to pick me up after all the rain we've been having here. I can't wait for it to be nice out. Ok, well, enjoy the pictures!

Overall I'd say it's a great polish. The application was smooth and fast. It applied evenly and was perfect in 2 coats. Chips and other nail wear stayed away for three days (and that was with working as a server in a restaurant--which is saying something for polish wear). The color is GORGEOUS. It reminds me of mermaids. Konadability has yet to be checked but I have a plan for that. 

Birthday Trip to AC

I recently celebrated my 21st birthday!! At school, I had my midnight birthday shabang with my friends, then the next day I had a birthday dinner with my family, and then to finish out my birthday celebration, I spent the weekend with my boyfriend who took me to AC to celebrate in style! I've included some pictures of the hotel we stayed at, the Borgata hotel. This hotel is beautiful and included a casino (of course), delicious restaurants, bars, etc. I spent a good part of the night in front of the penny and nickel slots but I ended up walking away with$36 buckaroos! I had borrowed $5 from my boyfriend to get the slot machine going so I was pretty psyched to walk away with a profit of $31 in my pocket! 

The hotel itself glows purple at night so I thought this would be a perfect (and easy) nail design. I used Orly Liquid Vinyl with Color Club Art Club in Grape Escape.

Then, to celebrate that I walked in to a casino and actually manage to walk out with more $$ than I had to begin with: Dollar nails! I used Zoya Veruschka with Color Club Art Club in White.

Happy 21st Birthday to MEEE!

Alas, my 21st birthday is here! My family came to visit me at school and we went shopping, to dinner, and did the whole birthday present thing. It was so much fun. Steph and I ordered margaritas at dinner (my first one) and it was such a good day. These are the nails I had painted for my friends and my celebration at the bar last night and for my family celebration today. I used Zoya Robyn for the tips, OPI Absolutely Alice for the martini glass, and Color Club Art Club in black. I thought a martini glass was the easiest thing for me to try and it turned out pretty well.

Toetally Tuesday - Martini Toes

It's almost my 21st birthday! =) I did a martini glass pedicure to celebrate. A group of friends and I are heading out at midnight today to get our celebration on and I'm so excited. It's going to be so much fun! I used Zoya Robyn for the base and then used Essence Silver Surfer, and Color Club Art Club in black and white.

These are the bees knees!

First of four finals is now finished. What to do now? Pack, celebrate my 21st birthday (in 2 dayssss!), and study for the rest of my finals. I can't wait until I'm home and summer has officially begun! These nails aren't mine...they're my roommate's. It's a bumble bee on the ring finger with it's flying path on the others. Flowers were stamped on the pinkie but it was too light to see in this picture.

For these nails I used OPI What's with the Cattitude? as a base. The design was made in Orly Liquid Vinyl, China Glaze Solar Power, and Orly White Out.

Swatch: For Audrey

Today's post is a swatch post of China Glaze For Audrey. It seemed to have been popping up pretty often in recent designs so I wanted to show the color by itself. It's a gorgeous blue, very Tiffany & Co. (which was its inspiration). There's a polish from my second AE color collection that might be pretty similar though so I'm thinking of doing a comparison post to see what's what. 


The polish was part of a limited edition Something Blue China Glaze tribute to Tiffany & Co. and Audrey Hepburn. The color isn't an exact match but it was definitely close and I love turquoise so it was a great color for me. As for application, it was not so great. The formula seemed gloopy and, even though I only had 2 coats on, the polish seemed thick and wonky on my nails. The color is beautiful though so maybe that made up for the application. Drying/Hardening and wear were all adequate. I only kept the polish on for 3 days though so maybe I'm a bit quick to say wear was decent. I didn't see anything worse that tip wear on day 3. Here are some pictures of For Audrey:

It's beautiful, no? I absolutely adore the color. I don't think there are many out there like it. 

An Early Birthday Present

Hello dear readers! I was so ecstatic when I checked my blog today and saw that I had hit 50 followers! What a great early birthday present for me! I've decided I'm going to be doing *drumroll please* my first blog giveaway, a 50 follower giveaway to celebrate me hitting the mark. However, hang tight because I've decided I'm going to postpone it until after this semester is over. All next week are finals (and my birthday--aren't I lucky right? Finals and my birthday in the same week, yay.) and then I pack up and ship out. Ok, maybe I just pack up and drive out but still. As soon as I get all settled back into my parents' house I will hop on the giveaway train. My only question is hmmm, what to give away!?


Also, of course, a quick and huge THANK YOU to all the people who have stopped by and read my blog at all. Thank you so much for keeping this fun! I have tons of fun painting my nails and having people who are as obsessed with polish as I am is really awesome. I appreciate every visit and every comment. Thanks everyone!

A French Fit For a Wedding

My friend Sarah's older sister is getting married in Jamaica this Friday. Sarah (a bridesmaid) asked me if I would do her nails for the wedding and I was so excited I said yes without thinking. The only problem was...I couldn't remember doing a real French manicure ever before. If I messed up and she just wanted a French manicure I wouldn't feel as bad as if I messed up a French manicure that she'd be wearing to a wedding. That being said, I think they really came out nicely! Check out my first real French mani:

She wanted a pedicure, too!

For this French manicure I used Brucci Bare Essentials and Orly White Out. 

Toetally Tuesday - TGIS Jungle Toes

Hey everyone! Finally I have a new Toetally Tuesday for today! I know I've missed the last two weeks. I was waiting for a cut/blister/infection thing to clear up on my big toe of my left foot. I kept irritating it when I'd go to the gym and it kept getting worse and worse so finally I just left it alone and let it heal. At that point it had a gross infection though (which I popped--ew that was probably too much information). Anyway, onto less gross topics: today's TGIS Jungle themed tootsies.

For these I used Icing Mint 2 Be and Kiss Brush-On Nail Art Paint in black with BM plate 16. I'm so excited for tomorrow's post because a friend from college asked me to paint her nails for an upcoming wedding!!

TGIS weekend

TGIS is this weekend here at college and this year's theme is "Rumble in the Jungle." Now, while most students take this weekend as an excuse to get drunk off their ass and make fools of themselves in public, my roomie and I much prefect actually chilling out and enjoying the yummy food, fun activities, and movie (which based on this year's theme ended up being Tarzan--a movie I hadn't seen since I was about 10 or whatever). I wanted to do a manicure that was Jungle-tastic so zebra print it was. My toes are similar but you'll see that next week! Speaking of next week...my birthday is only 11 days away!

For this look, I used OPI Teal the Cows Come Home as a base on all nails and then stamped the zebra pattern in Kiss Brush-On Nail Art Paint (in black) by using BundleMonster Plate 16.