Cruise Recap: Our Haitian Adventure

Today's post is a follow up to my Cruise Recap post about my post-bar, anniversary, and birthday celebration cruise vacation. We cruised for seven days and visited Labadee, Haiti, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, Falmouth, Jamaica, and Cozumel, Mexico. The islands were AMAZING and I got so many incredible photos that I can't even share them all (but I want to!). This post is just for the time we spent in Labadee, Haiti.
On Labadee we decided to disembark and go to a Haitian beach and then try kayaking. It was the first time I ever kayaked and I seriously thought I was going to tip us over the entire time. I was lucky though and the sea was calm so we did not in fact end up in the water. We kayaked from the beach on Royal Caribeean's private island part of Haiti to the real Haiti. I'm glad we didn't stay on the private beach because the whole point of going to Haiti was to actually see Haiti. I met some Haitians who were so sweet and showed me a kind of life that was so different from mine. It was pretty eye opening.
The tour guide for the kayak was Alber (notice, no "T" on the end...don't call him Albert!). He had a great sense of humor and kept us entertained with a ton of info on Haitian life, food, fun, etc. He was super cool and I really enjoyed the kayaking trip.

After we got back from "the real Haiti", we took a dip in the ocean and walked around. The cruise line had lunch for us that day so there was a beach side barbecue for us to enjoy. It was delicious!

Then we finished up the day with some souvenir shopping so we could pick some things up for our families and of course buy a Haiti magnet for our travel magnet wall!

Next up is Grand Cayman!

Wedding Nails

Just another quick post today because oh my gosh, Steph's wedding is in TWO DAYS!! It's on Friday!! Tomorrow all the girls are getting our nails done before the rehearsal dinner...I know, I know....I should just do my own nails. But hey, it'll be nice to get pampered for once! I was thinking of a French Manicure because it's timeless and classic and I think will look stunning with the bridesmaid gown. So all the options are pretty much variations on a French Manicure. 

Must choose a wedding nail design for Steph's wedding:

Cruise Recap: The Ship and Stuff

As you may remember, after the bar exam in July, my boyfriend and I went on a cruise to the Western Caribbean (Mexico, Haiti, Jamaica, and Cayman Islands) for 7 days to celebrate us turning 25 years old, our 5 year anniversary, my law school graduation, and of course the bar exam being over. I wanted to just do a couple of posts talking about how the cruise was and show off some photos we took throughout the week! If you're interested in cruising or just want to see how the trip was, stay tuned!

We chose the Royal Caribbean ship Freedom of the Seas for our voyage and I have to say the ship was incredible! There was so much to do, the ship was incredibly clean, and the staff was so nice! Overall it had 15 levels (the highest being a chapel where a couple got married before we set sail on Sunday!) and then the other levels included staterooms, dining rooms, arcades, pool decks, a rock climbing wall,casino, art gallery, ice skating rink (no joke!), shops, and more food! There were also really pretty murals and artwork everywhere on the ship, including this really colorful parrot and wildlife one on of the pool decks. It was too colorful and fun not to selfie in front of it!


This was the three floor dining room. We were on the third floor and every time I walked in I was reminded of the Titanic (which was kind of scary). The entire ship was just opulent and extravagant and made me feel sort of like royalty. The formal nights were seriously something out of London high society. To dine you had your choice every night of going to the formal dining room or eating in the more casual buffet "Windjammer Cafe." For dinner we chose the formal dining room but for lunch we usually just went to the cafe. Breakfast was room service in our room because most days we ate while getting ready for the day on an island.

No joke, this ship had an ice rink! It was cold in there and kind of crazy to go from "hey let's go swimming and sunning on the pool deck" to "hey let's put on long pants and ice skate." A couple of the days they had a ice skating show for entertainment and the ice skaters included some former Olympians! They also let you skate throughout the week yourself so we made sure to do that.

There was also a pretty intense rock wall on the highest deck. It had been a really long time since I had ever tried to rock climb so we wanted to give it a shot. No, I didn't make it all the way to the top (I blame my short little legs!) but I didn't give up either...I literally fell off the wall while I was trying to jump to the next level since my arms couldn't reach! Andrew did make it all the way to the top though and rang the bell and everything. He's just so good at everything...lol. Mr. Perfect. Anyway, I did look around a little on my way down and it was scary to be fourteen floors up, surrounded by sea, AND hanging off a cliff all at the same time. Really pretty view though and I wish I had a GoPro to capture it!

There was also a silent disco....just like out of show The Royals! It was basically a club but in order to hear the music you had to wear headphones! Everyone was dancing and singing along, which was hysterical when you took off your headphones and couldn't hear the actual music....just a bunch of out of tone party-ers.
If you've been on a cruise, you know that the stateroom attendants leave adorable towel creations on your bed every day. The first day was an adorable little puppy. Then was a monkey, stingray, snail, and an elephant. It was such a cute little touch.

So that's basically the ship and whatnot. Next post will be more about our adventures and photos from the islands! Have you been cruising? If so I want to hear about it! Where did you go and what did you do??

Nikki's Nail Files got a face lift!!

In case you have not been here in a while, you may not recognize us here at Nikki's Nail Files because we've undergone some drastic color and background changes! Do you like??

Bachelorette Party Nails

Today's post is a photo of my "Bachelorette Bash" manicure that I wore to the bachelorette party I and the bridesmaids planned for my older sister. It's been a couple weeks but I liked these nails too much to not post. The night was relatively low key -- just a night out for dinner and then some drinks and dancing. It ended up being a lot of fun and my manicure was perfect for the occasion:

The inspiration for most of the manicure was the Bachelorette Corset cake we had made for Steph. Luckily, Steph's soon to be sister-in-law had a connection with a cake decorator (her mother-in-law) so it was perfect. And her mother-in-law was sweet enough to agree to do a cake for us for free! The cake was pink velvet (delicious!) and the icing was buttercream (of course!) I think it turned out spectacularly and Steph was blown away by it. It even said "Congrats Steph! Last fling before the ring." And just in case you are wondering like I was, the boobs are in fact cake instead of just mounds of icing. Then the other manicure inspirations were the countdown until the wedding (20 days!) and of course an engagement ring because, you know, it's a wedding and rings will be exchanged and all! 
Then came favors and such. I decided since it was a relatively small group of people to go all out on the favors and I purchased mini champagne bottles for everyone. To the bottles I attached a customized label and I tied a paper straw with either polka dots or stripes to the bottle with white tulle. The large champagne bottle in the middle was a bottle I bedazzled for Steph and had all the girls sign. The custom label just said "Pop the Bubbly before Steph gets her hubby" on the front and had a little poem on the back telling everyone who has twitter or instagram to hashtag "SingleToTingle" (Steph's soon to be last name)


I also made buttons for the "Bride's Entourage", "Maid of Honor", and "Bridesmaid." Everyone wore them as we went to dinner, drinks, and then out dancing and they were basically just overall awesome.

Lastly, the paper behind the buttons is the scavenger hunt I had everyone do. It included some crazy things like "take a photo of the bride kissing a bald guy's head"....which she did three times!

Of course we had to have wearable stuff for the bride so I also had a mini-veil and a BACHELORETTE sash for Steph to wear all night long. All in all it was a pretty fun night!

 If anyone would like a tutorial on how I made my nails, the customized mini-champagne labels, the bridal buttons, or the scavenger hunt just leave me a comment below or send me an email!

Shimmer of Blue Among All the Black

Today's post is an easy manicure to do when you're strapped for time, as I usually am. I do a couple quick layers of black and then add a bit of pizzazz by adding a swipe diagonally down the center in a shimmery color. For this manicure I chose Orly's Lunar Eclipse because it's just so gorgeous and definitely adds the sparkle I was looking for. The base was Orly Liquid Vinyl.


Friday Favorites: TV Shows

For today's post I wanted to do a Friday Favorites post discussing my favorite TV shows at the moment:

1. The Royals
The Royals is a scripted drama that airs on E! Network and is in its second season starting November 15th. It follows the story of the "British Royal Family"...which in this case has a slew of royal and non-royal characters, including a badass Princess and a handsoem Prince. The story follows their opulent, luxe, and privileged lives...which breeds drama, scandal, and comedy. 
I mean really, who would mind checking out these actors for an hour?? #GorgeousCast
If you need me I'll be over here watching my DVR episodes.

2. American Ninja Warrior
This show is on my list because I would love to compete on it. It has its contestants take on a series of obstacles in order to reach the end, hit the buzzer, and continue on to the next stage. The final level is called Mt. Midoriyama and no one has ever made it all the way to complete that! Maybe it's meant to be me!

3. Mistresses
This follows four women through drama and finding themselves and even scandal. The last season ended with one of the girls being accused of murder!

4. Ladies of London
This show kind of goes to my love of aristocracy, high society, and royalty. It follows six women's lives and some of them are in line for the throne. Of course this show is more like "Real Housewives" than royalty but still I like it because it shows a glimpse into a life I don't have. AND it's in London....so that's good too!

5. Rookie Blue
Loved this show since the first season and I'm so glad it's lasted this long. Cop Dramas have always had a special place in my heart but this one is the best.

6. Murder in the First

This one is hit or miss. I loved the first seasons but the second season kind of lost it for me. The first season followed a murder and concentrated more on the legal side which was perfect for me because I was in law school. The second season is kind of all over with murders, police corruption, etc and I'm sort of lost.

7. Masters of Sex
This one I'm actually new to and had to go back and binge watch about 3 seasons. It's about revolutionary sex researchers William Masters and Virginia. 

Product Review: Brush Set from LadyQueen

Today's post is my second product review for the selection of products sent to me from LadyQueen.com. After reviewing the extensive products on their website I decided to go with a brush set because, as everyone knows, nail art is only as good as the tools one has to use. With the right set of tools, the nail art possibilities are endless!

The brush set I chose was a 15 piece Nail Art Design Brush Set that includes so many nail art must-haves: fan brushes, flat brushes, dotting tools, liners, and a couple detail brushes too. Every brush (except for the fan brushes) comes protected in a clear sleeve so the bristles do not get damaged or bent in transit. Having this set enables you to get some really neat effects on the nail.

For example, the fan brushes allow you to stripe your nails in a matter of seconds. You can also use any of the lining brushes to draw really quick and perfectly straight lines for geometric shapes or zebra stripes or even a Burberry inspired design.

A close up of the brushes included are:

The brushes are all really good quality and are super easy to clean (all you need is to run some nail polish remover over it with a cotton ball). If you are interested in this brush set, it retails for less than $6! I plan on using these brushes all the time but for today, I chose to use the fan brushes to create a multicolored wave pattern on my nails:


Also, as I mentioned in my last post, LadyQueen agreed to give me and my readers a coupon code! For 15% off your total order, use the coupon code "GLLC15."

If you have any questions about these brushes, just ask me and I'll do my best to figure out the answer for you.

Product Review: Flower Studs from Lady Queen

One of the main goals of Nikki's Nail Files has always been to try out new products and share them with my readers. A couple months ago I was contacted by LadyQueen, an online shopping mall, and asked if I would be interested in using a couple of their available products and offering my reviews on my blog here. Of course I said yes! So what is LadyQueen? It is an online shopping outlet that provides not only nail polish and nail art products but also a wide variety of other products including jewelry, apparel, makeup, and even wedding items. If you have time to do a bit of online shopping you should really just peruse their website because I'm sure you will find many things you love!
As for my first product review, you all know I love to bedazzle my nails with studs, decals, stamps, and other products so naturally I selected this set of Daisy Flower Studs in the most adorable pink color. Other color options included various pinks, blues, orange, white, black, and purple. The flowers are 8 mm each so they are a little on the large size and can be overwhelming if you are not used to having a stud on your nails. Because of their size they are a bit clunky on the nail so I would wear them more for a special occasion rather than an everyday nail look. However, despite the size of the flowers they are very sturdy and did last on my nails for a couple of days. I only used clear nail polish as the adhesive to attach the flowers so if you use nail glue to apply the flowers they would last an even longer time. Also, they are safe to use on natural nails (like mine) as well as any acrylic, stick-on, or fake nails. Here is how I used these adorable little flowers: 
These flowers retail for $2.28 for a pack of 10 flowers. I think they ended up being a wonderful addition as the focal point to this manicure. I kept the rest of the nails subtle so that the flower could take center stage. Like I said, the flower itself was very large and actually sat very high on the nail because it was thick but I got used to it in no time. How gorgeous is the color? I think they looked so great in this manicure! A benefit is that you can even re-use these little flowers if you are careful when you take them off. 

An added bonus to these flowers is that you don't just have to use them on your nails! You can even use them to add some pizzazz to homemade cards, cell phones, iPods, etc.

If you're interested in trying these flower studs LadyQueen agreed to give me and my readers a coupon code. For 15% your purchase, use the coupon code "GLLC15."

Looking Back and Looking Forward

Hello again to all my interested readers,

I hope that everyone who checks this blog will see this post and be as ecstatic as I am! I have something exciting in store for the next couple of posts and I am so thrilled to be able to get back my blog after a couple months of traveling (internationally!), graduating law school, preparing for the bar exam, undergoing what is no doubt the most difficult test that I have ever had to take in my entire life (which included over 20 years of schooling), getting through some of the most stressful months of my life, and some pretty heavy personal life stuff. Anyway, let's get back to the fun!

Check back later tonight and tomorrow for some exciting posts!
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