Who loves to PLAN? This girl does!

Ladies and gents, I may have momentarily lost my mind....but hear me out okay? After seeing a friend of mine post on facebook that she was looking at "Erin Condren Life Planners" I sort of laughed and thought to myself Life planner? What is this nonsense? Wow, I was so wrong! There is an entire following out there of ladies (and gents probably) who absolutely swear by the Erin Condren Life Planner. You all know I'm a law student and I'm a HUGE fan of everything organizationally focused. Yes, that includes agendas/planners. Color coordination? YES. Sticky notes? Heck yes! So I started looking at all the options for the Erin Condren life planner (I still chuckled that it was called a "life planner") and there were soooo many different types. The covers were all colorful and different. You could personalize it with your name (or whatever other words you want). And the space? Oh my gosh, the amount of space included in these things looked to be prime for 100% organizational bliss. The price of the Life Planner doesn't come cheap though, and I was really hesitant to believe that a planner, something to scribble down assignments, appointments, notes, etc, could cost such a price. At $50 it took a lot of convincing and I researched and researched the product. I watched youtube videos where people reviewed their Erin Condren Life Planners, checked blog posts reviewing the product, and even googled images for how you could use the showed you how you could use it. Eventually I broke down...and I bought one. More information on when it comes in! I might just review it? Or use it for a nail design? Who knows. If you want to see some of what the fuss is all about you can always watch this video:

And just a little hint: the cover of my Erin Condren Life Planner that I bought just might look like one these!

My BLOWN MIND by OPI Blue My Mind

It's very rare that I do something like this guys, but this is going to get serious right now. The last time I did this was when I was accused by an anonymous comment-er that I stole their nail design (seriously?!). Hard to figure it out when the person was anonymous and wouldn't give me a link to their design. Over-dramatic much? Anyway, my witty, joking demeanor has taken a step aside and I think my inner b**** might be on her way out. I know we're talking about nail polish here, but here's what happened:

I sat down at my computer today to paint my nails. Because it was going to be a swatch post, I googled the name of the color to try and get the original collection name and year to include in the post. Which polish did I choose? OPI Blue My Mind, a polish that I bought originally a LONG time ago (I couldn't remember the exact purchase date). I looked at the google image results and what did I find? A much lighter and more powdery blue than what my purpley blue OPI Blue My Mind polish looked like both in the bottle and on my nails. I tried to figure out if maybe my lighting was just off. Nope, the lighting was what the lighting was. It wasn't affecting my polish at all.

The swatch post I looked at was from Paint Those Piggies (an absolutely awesome blog that I didn't even know about until now -- you should check it). You can clearly see the light blue of the polish and the tag on the bottom of the bottle.

Looks good right? And there were so many others that looked exactly the same. So I checked my bottle. Could I possibly have a FAKE polish in my collection? No way. But here's what my photo looked like:

Does it look the same to you?? You can see the barcodes are identical. By the way, props to Paint Those Piggies for being able to balance the polish like that....I had to use my thumb for balance. Anyway, I panic, thinking DID I BUY A FAKE OPI? Seriously? and I google "fake OPI." Turns out fake or counterfeit OPIs are an issue in the nail community. For example, TransDesign (a website that sells polishes for cheap) was sued by OPI for selling allegedly fake OPIs (there is one lawsuit I enjoyed reading -- because I'm a law nerd you know). I have such a hard time thinking there are fake nail polishes out there. I mean, they are nail polishes. OPI retails for anywhere from $7 to $12 and people are counterfeiting them?? They are nail polishes, not the crown jewels here. Anyway, I found this post, this post, and this post saying that fake OPIs EXIST, and I found this post showing How to Spot a Fake OPI Their blog posts also included some tips and ways to tell if your bottle is a fraud so I grabbed my bottle and started looking for clues.

Apparently, it's really hard to tell if a bottle is fake and, although you used to be able to look at things like the bottle shape and smoothness, the barcode at the bottom, whether there are two labels on the bottle or one, the stamp of a black or white number sequence on the bottle, the spelling and warning labels, and a little dot on the P in "OPI" written on the top of the cap, now the fakes are getting so good as to include all these things. As you can see, my bottle had everything a real bottle should: there's the little dot on the P in the cap, the ridges on the inside of the cap, the stamped "OPI" on the brush (although it might be hard to see on camera, in real life it's clear as day), the stamped number sequence on the bottle, proper warnings and labels, and an appropriate two label bottom tag.

Now I throw this out to you guys. Thoughts about this? Am I seeing things and my polish DOES look like the correct color? Are my nails faking it today? Or do I have the real deal on my digits? Suffice it to say that if I bought a fake OPI I'm going to be really really angry. It's just nail polish at the end of the day but nobody likes feeling ripped off or betrayed. Needless to say, OPI Blue My Mind did in fact end up BLOWING MY MIND today.

Don't worry OPI Blue My Mind, I'll love you either way. Jk. Seriously though, is that not absolutely gorgeous?

And the crown goes to...

Hello lovelies, today's post relates to a certain very exciting TV program that was on last night. Do you know what I'm talking about? If you guessed Miss America 2015 then yes! You're right! The Miss America pageant was on last night and, despite it derailing me from doing schoolwork like I had anticipated on doing, I enjoyed every second of watching the girls strut their stuff, show off their talents, and dazzle the audience in their evening gowns. I recently went to TJ Maxx with one of my best college friends who was in from Maine and while we were there I picked up a polish that NEEDED to be swatched during Miss America: OPI Miss You-niverse.

OPI Miss You-niverse is from the Miss Universe collection that came out in...2013 I think? It's this absolutely gorgeous deep plum purple color that was pretty much the easiest nail polish to apply ever. I'm pretty sure you could get away with only doing one coat if you were in a rush but I always do at least two coats to make sure I didn't miss anywhere. The color is true-to-bottle which is always good. It was so hard to capture the actual purple of this color on camera because as you can see it kept coming up really dark but I did my best! OPI Miss You-niverse is a perfect winter polish and I'll probably wear it quite a few times this season.

I love how you can barely read the label on the bottle. Black lettering on this dark of a polish....nope, I can't see that.

 In case you didn't watch Miss America....*spoiler alert* New York won (for the third time in a row) and no one fell!

Thanks for looking!

Am I the only one that thought where did I put my ice cream? while watching the bikini competition?

30 Week Nail Art Challenge - Week 4: Green

Today's post is Week 4 (Green) in the 30 Week Nail Art Challenge and I'm excited to post it because it gave me a chance to use a polish I've never used before. I started with Jordana Key Lime for a base and then followed with a coat of Orly Lush to add a little pizzazz to the top. I added an accent of zebra because I love animal print. Orly Lush has intrigued me a little because I couldn't decide if it was yellow or green or what exactly was going on with the sparkles and little stringy things. Even after seeing it on my nail I'm not sure what to think of it. Thoughts?

 Just in case you're looking forward to what's coming next.....it's Blue!

30 Week Nail Art Challenge: Week 3 - Yellow

Hello everybody, oh my gosh I have so much to blog about right now! As you know, I got to visit my sweets (Andrew) in Colorado at the end of August. It was SO much fun and we kept ourselves sooo busy. I'm not sure if I want to do non-manicure posts focusing on the trip or if I want to just throw the trip in along with some manicures. I have sooo many photos though and I hope to share a few with you guys. Anyway, that's all stuff for another day. For today, I have my manicure for Week 3 of the 30 Week Nail Art Challenge. This week's challenge was...yellow nails.

I'm not sure why the yellow base is showing up so orangey-ish but it's definitely bright (like SUN) yellow. I used Sinful Colors Pull Over and China Glaze Broken Hearted.

Next week is - GREEN!

31 Week Nail Art Challenge: Week 2 - Orange

I started the 31 Week Nail Art Challenge on Sunday, August 24th which means that today is officially the start of Week 2! As some of you may know from my previous posts, I am not at my home base right now! Instead I am visiting my boyfriend and probably collecting mucho inspiration for nail designs to do upon my return. In any event, I still really wanted to post on Sunday (no promises I will post my challenge mani EVERY Sunday) and I absolutely LOVED this nail design I did last week. It coincided perfectly with Week 2 of the challenge(and Week 13 as it turns out) so I didn't want to post it last week when I actually painted them. For Week 2 of the 31 Week Nail Art Challenge - Orange, I have some yellow orange gradient tiger print! How much do you love these?

Reminded me of the time Andrew and I went to a zoo and saw this little kitty. He looked so adorable...but I wouldn't want him as a pet! I think I did his stripes justice though!

And in case you forgot the challenge or want to see what's coming next:

Happy (belated) 4th Birthday/Anniversary to the Files!

On August 10, 2010, I decided to click "Publish" on my very first NikkisNailFiles post. The design was this one (still a favorite of mine and one that I will wear every now and then). Since then I have enjoyed all the fantastic readers and people who have stopped by the Files to say hello or to simply check out a specific design. I can't wait to see where this blog goes from here and what designs are in store. For all the photos of over 4 years of nail designs, check out my "The Real Files" tab under the header. I can't believe it's been 4 years. Other Blogversary posts are this and this (no clue why I didn't do nails for it!)

For today's post I have a gorgeous Pinterest-inspired chevron and teal aquamarine blue/green-ish color design. Unfortunately I cannot remember the original source! If you know it/find it/etc please comment with the link below so I can give credit!

For this look: China Glaze Highlighter of My Summer, KleanColor 

Silver Pearl, Orly White Out, and Kiss Brush On Nail Art Paint in Black.

31 Week Nail Art Challenge courtesy of Nail Art Novice

I found this challenge over on Nail Art Novice while perusing my nail blogs back in March. I knew I wanted to give it a try so I saved it away on my computer. Because I'm severely lacking in creativity and motivation at the moment I figured this would be a semi-easy way to make sure I update my blog at least once a week, regardless of how busy I get. You guys all know how lax I get with my blog sometimes (yes I only posted twice in both June AND July -- I was busy??). 

So, to start this thing off, we have Week 1: Red Nails. I wanted to do something more festive than just look-at-my-nails-that-are-red so I decided to opt for an adorable design done by my blogger pal Ghila! She posted these on "Kisses Day" in Italy and ever since then I thought they were so cute and wanted to recreate them.

Here are my nails for Week 1 of the 31 Week Nail Art Challenge: Red

A Tad Tribal

We're off and running. Half a week of classes down and I think this semester is right on par with being extremely busy and fast-paced like all the other semesters of law school. In any event, I wanted to upload this photo of nails I did earlier in the week (yes this is NOT how my nails are done right this second) because I absolutely loved them. They were a recreation a design that I originally found on Pinterest. I don't know the name or website or any of that jazz to link back to the original (so if you know it please pass it along to me so I can add it!), but these nails were super fun and colorful and a little bit tribal. I really enjoyed the summer yellow that brightened up my nails and made the sunny day even more sunny!

 

Thanks for looking!

For this look, I used: Orly Snow White (as a base to make the yellow pop), China Glaze Shower Together, Finger Paints I Pink I Can, Orly Hook Up, and Orly Liquid Vinyl.

My Last "First Day": Back to School!

Well, here it is again folks. You know that thing that releases its clutches on students between the months of June and August?? Yeah, I'm talking about school. I start my last (as in final!!) year of school TOMORROW and I can't even believe my educational journey is only 9 months from its conclusion. I've attended five different schools, studied four different major courses of study (chemistry, psychology, Spanish, and law), been awarded thousands in student loans and scholarships, and it's all coming down to this one single degree: a Juris Doctor. That's right, this time next year I will hopefully have a law degree on my wall, a license to practice law in the states I choose, and a nicely paying job that will make all of the effort worth it. Keep your fingers crossed, I think this year will be a difficult one with the job search and the impending Bar Exam next July. Because this is my last Back to School post I will (hopefully) ever do...I decided to go with my favorite blue polishes and then have a different design on each finger:

And in case you love 80s movies as much as I do...enjoy this little tidbit of Grease 2 which is perfectly on point for the occasion (minus the fact that they are talking about high school and I'm past that and then some):

"Whoa whoa, I've gotta go back to school"