Great Form-ica!

Every Monday night, I am part of a bowling league here in Vegas, I was talked into joining a bunch of my old co-workers for a 10-week league, which ending up REALLY being 17 weeks. I'm giving you the evil eye, Guererro. Anyway, the league has actually been a blast, and I've met a bunch of people that are NORMAL, which is exceptionally hard to find in Las Vegas. John, I PROMISE that I'll make your damn Snickerdoodles, maybe next week. :-P Anyway, today's nails are bowling themed, they actually match the formica tops at the bowling alley where the league is! :)

The formica top:

My nails on the table (don't mind the cry cuticles, they were screaming for lotion after an hour or so of bowling):

The nails:

I used American Apparel Cotton as a base, with American Apparel Factory Grey sponged over it to make the background texture. For the line art of the pins and balls, I used Orly Snowcone for the blue, Massini Power Pack for the pink, and Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Spring Green for the green. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

ALL MIXED UP

I recently attended a Young Nails Imagination Nail Art Class. It was amazing! The class was taught by owner Greg Salo. This is a picture of me with him. If you are a nail tech you have to find out how you can attend a Young Nails class. They are awesome and Greg is too much fun..... they are the shit!

These are some amazing nails done by Krizia. She is a Young Nails educator and she is amazing!

I actually had a dream about these nails before I did them. Sometimes I get little nail art ideas going in my head and it is so nice when I have a fabulous client that will let me just get it out of my system. It was actually a relief to finally do these nails so I could quit thinking about them. I'm crazy I know. The cool zebra confetti on the middle finger is from youngnails.com. I created the snake skin using into you netting from young nails also.

These may be the craziest nails I have ever done. I used a glitter from sparklesnailproducts.com in All Mixed Up.

These are last chance nails. Let me explain.... these are my sister-in-laws nails and she will be having a baby in two days. So I did her nails today and she did my hair. Who knows when she'll have time to get her nails done again with a newborn. Hopefully it will be a good baby and sleep lots so mom can still pamper herself. :)

These are my nails. I don't do my own nails because I like to spoil myself but I wanted to show off how cute they are!

This color is from young nails metallic collection. I added little silver diamonds as an accent.

This is gel polish on toes with some fun silver stars. I absolutely love the gel polish on toes. It doesn't chip! The gel polish lasts on toes for an average of 4-5 weeks. Love it!

Another simple design with silver circles as an accent. Sometimes simple is fabulous darling!

Nox Twilight Beauty - Disco Darling

Nox Twilight Nail Polish

Nox Twilight nail polish is the newest edition of products from Twilight Beauty. Inspired by the powerful Cullen coven, this line of professional quality nail polish prominently features the enduring Cullen crest on the center of each bottle.

Hi guys! Today I'll be showing you a nail polish from a brand new line by Nox: Twilight Beauty. How pretty are these bottles? You may or may not like Twilight, but even if you don't, don't exit on me yet, these are really worth a look! Nox - Twilight Beauty released 12 colors, and today I'm showing you Disco Darling.

Sparkle sparkle

How pretty is that? Sparkly as Edward himself! I really love the holographic glitter in this one, it's quite dense and noticeable in almost every light. Yep, definitely one of, if not the, prettiest silver polishes I own! I'm sorry for the huge close up below, eek! But it does show how pretty the sparklies are.

Application

Application was fine, this polish is made out of glitter in a clear base, but after 3 coats you're good to go.
It does dry a little bit gritty though, but after 2 thin layers of Nubar Diamont everything was as smooth as glass..

I've got some other colors from this Nox Twilight Beauty collection too and these are far from boring. And those bottles! Just too cute. The only thing that could have been better, are the names. Names like Sugar Plum, Sangria, Poseidon and Citrus for example, don't really make me think, 'hey, Twilight!' Other than that I think these are really awesome and I can't wait to show you more!

You can order these at www.twilightbeauty.com for $6.99 each (for 17ml/0.58oz woohoo!) or the entire collection for $65 (12 shades!). If you don't live in The States you can check their UK distributor www.simplebeauty.co.uk to see if they ship to your country!

The products in this post were provided to me by Nox Twilight Beauty for consideration - for more information please read my disclaimer

We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat

IT'S SHARK WEEK!!

In honor of Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, I decided to do shark nails!! I think my friend Mike is gonna LOVE these...he is a HUGE shark nerd. For his birthday one year, my friend Jacquie and I made him a Shark Attack scene Jell-O Shot. In a 5 gallon fish tank. With 30 boxes of Jell-O...and LOTS and LOTS of booze. We had sharks in it, and gummy fish torn in half with streams of Kool-aid 'blood' seeping up through a crack we tore in the Jell-O after it set. (which took about 9,000 years) The shark on my middle finger is tearing a chunk out of my flesh, hence the blood. :-D

I used Milani Truth or Bare as a base, American Apparel Factory Grey for the grey part of the shark, Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the white part and the teeth, American Apparel Hassid for the eye and gills, then American Apparel Rose Bowl for the gums. For the blood, I used A Beautiful Life Poison. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

DUH-DUH. DUH-DUH DUH-DUH. DUH-DUH DUH-DUH DUH-DUH DUH-DUH DUH-DUH DUH-DUH. :-D

The Jell-O Shot. :-D  The boys claimed that they had it for breakfast, and ate it for a week. :-D (we used a mix of blue jell-o and island pineapple jell-o to make the water color, then mixed with vodka, rum, and triple sec. :-D

Raggae Manicure

Hello Sweet Nail-Art Lovers.
Thus weekend we attended a 6th annual reggae festival at the heart of the rocky mountains, here in colorado. I could not pass on the opportunity to make a theme inspired manicure for this special ocasion. I as in a hurry so it came out a bit sloppy in my opinion, but i am still blown with the look and the whole idea, and i hope that you ll like it too.

Camel Whoa

Today, I managed to snag my major nail polish lemmings- China Glaze Classic Camel and China Glaze Ingrid! :) (I decided to grab Swing Baby as well. I love the Vintage Vixen collection!! Today in Vegas it feels disgusting. I know that I shouldn't complain, but after living in the desert for 2.5 years, 41% humidity is HELL. (on top of the 100°+ temperatures. It makes me think of the days in Michigan where you step out of the shower, and then feel like you have to shower all over again. Humidity is the devil, and the devil is in Las Vegas. I did another relatively simple design today, since a few people expressed that they dug the simpler stuff. I think it sort of has a vintage feel to it as well, so I think it fits with the color collection I used. :) BTW Class Camel was so totally worth the wait. I am in love with this polish, even though it looks horrid with my skin. :-P

I used China Glaze Classic Camel as a base, China Glaze Ingrid for the scrolls, China Glaze Swing Baby for the dots. Topped it off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

There's No Place Like Home!

It's GIVEAWAY time!!! To thank all my lovely readers, (new and old) I decided to do a giveaway!!!

The theme? HOME.

The challenge? I want to see a nail design that reminds you of home, whether it's a place you love to go when you're home, what you think of when you think of home, or what home means to you.

The rules:

You MUST be a follower. When you send your entry, please put your Google ID in the Subject. Also, I ask that after you send the entry, please comment on this post. :) All entries should be sent to thedailynailcontest@gmail.com by August 8, 2010. One entry per person please! Depending on the number of entries, I will post all of them in one post for you all to vote on, or I will whittle them down to a reasonable number if there are a lot. YAY!

Now the important part: THE PRIZES!!

A special thank you to reader Patti, who donated some fun (and a tad naughty- sorry dad) chapstick holder keyrings, and to the First Place winner, an eyeshadow quad palette with choice of colors! Check out her sites Etsy (chapstick holder) and Bella Sugar Cosmetics.

FIRST PRIZE:

The Daily Nail cosmetic bag (hand screen-printed and sewn by yours truly!)
Color Club Rebel Debutante Set
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Nail Color Collection mini set
essie Berry Hard
Claire's Mood Polish in Calm/Wild
Piggy Polish Free Toes
Piggy Polish Teeny Pink-ini
Eyeshadow quad with choice of colors from Bella Sugar Cosmetics!
Naughty Chapstick Holder- ADULT WINNERS ONLY

SECOND PRIZE:

The Daily Nail cosmetic bag (hand screen-printed and sewn by yours truly!)
Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine Nail Color Collection mini set
Orly La Playa
Orly Top 2 Bottom
Dare To Wear Inspiring Surrounding
Rimmel Tequila Sunrise
Revlon Lavender Light
LA Colors Live
Naughty Chapstick Holder- ADULT WINNERS ONLY

THIRD PRIZE:

The Daily Nail cosmetic bag (hand screen-printed and sewn by yours truly!)
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Nail Color Collection mini set
Orly Bailamos
Orly Top 2 Bottom
Rimmel Night Before
LA Colors Phenomena
Naughty Chapstick Holder- ADULT WINNERS ONLY

Who else is excited?! I love giveaways!!

Retro Zig Zaggin'

Today's nail design was quick, I'll admit it, I'm in a rush today- lots to do- Colin Hay concert tonight! woo! The design was inspired by the paint job I saw on the side of a building in southern California, I just thought that it had a really retro vibe to it, which, of course, I love. I also got to use a new polish I picked up from Milani- they have a new collection of nudes out now!! :)

I used Milani Teddy Bare (which is pretty close to Essie Mink Muffs) as a base, with American Apparel Cotton for the ivory line, and Zoya Jancyn for the orange line.

Sorry for the lack of complexity today, I feel kinda guilty when I don't do crazy stuff. :-P

Les Contrastes de Chanel: Paradoxal

Crush Maybe you remember my review on Chanel's previous hit: Nouvelle Vague? I was a bit disappointed to be honest... and then this beauty strolled along. Trust me, I was reluctant. But then the swatches started to haunt me and I knew I just needed to have it. I think I now know what it's like to have a nail polish crush. It won't be out here for a while, but a big sweetheart CP'ed it for me, thank you so much Brittni!!

Secret shimmer

And you know what? I'm happy to have it! This polish belongs to the Les Contrastes de Chanel fall 2010 collection. Paradoxal is a deep purple-y taupe, I really love this color. In brighter or sun light there's this pretty pink/blue-ish shimmer, it's stunning. The shimmer is barely noticeable in normal lighting though, but sometimes the purple sheen will catch your eye. I'm pretty sure I will be wearing this color a lot this fall!

Application

I normally don't use the phrase "it applies like butter", I save it for very very special occasions, and this is one of them. I've used two coats and they just glided on. A lot of people experienced major chip city within a few days, but for me it stayed on for five days with only one chip at my thumb (and that was on the 5th day AFTER I cleaned the house). I used Orly Bonder and Nubar Diamont and it held up really well!

Dupes?

If you're looking for a less expensive alternative you can look into Purple Grey by Models Own, it doesn't have shimmer but the base color is really close!

You can get Chanel Paradoxal online at www.chanel.com for $23.00 or at your local Chanel counter. It probably won't be for sale in The Netherlands until appr. October.

Grease is the Word

Lately, Paramount decided to re-release the movie GREASE in select theaters, but this time with a little twist- it's a SING-A-LONG! They added graphics throughout the movie when there were songs to be sung, and how they handled some of the lyrics was pretty damn amusing. The graphics were amusing, but some were distracting and too much. All in all it was a fun experience. In honor of the re-release, I did GREASE nails!! :-D

I used:

Thumb:

American Apparel Hassid as a base, with Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud as a base for the red, and for the letters in 'GREASE', with Nubar Sexy Red for the red of the car.

Index:

Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud as a base with Nubar Sexy Red for the Rydell High logo.

Middle:

American Apparel Hassid as a base, with Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the T Birds logo.

Ring:

Yachty Yachty Yadda as a base, with American Apparel Hassid for the words.

Pinky:

Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud as a base, with Nubar Sexy Red for the lightning outline, and China Glaze OMG for the silver.

Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

We go together like rama lama lama ke ding a de dinga a dong, just thought you should know.