100 Follower Giveaway Winner!

Well, the giveaway is closed, and a winner has been selected using Random.org.

The winner is...

BUNNY NAILS!

Congratulations! I've sent her an email, and she'll have until February 2nd at 5:00 PM (MST) to reply. If she does not, I'll go ahead and pick another winner.

You guys all rock for entering, spreading the word, and bumping up my blog's follower count to over 300!

Take the Load Off

Two days of skiing did a number to my limbs. All I wanted to do all day today was sit down and take a load off. Tired eyes and tired legs need the time off.

Bare all this in mind when reading these polishes names.

Elegant and simple, this manicure was inspired by my friend Tammy, who said she had seen something similar on Pintrest. I haven't been able to find the image she was talking about, nor do I know which colors they used, but I used Illamasqua Load and Sinful Colors Time Off.

I know, so clever. About as clever as I can get without overstimulating my tired brain into a state of malfunction.

A Happy, Provocative, Uninhibited Good Time

My title is describing a rave.

Have you ever been to a rave? It's full of bright colors, bright lights and bright music. Sure, you're surrounded by a lot of people who are probably on drugs, whether that be ecstacy, alcohol or some sort of psychadelic, but honestly, if you like the music, none of that matters. I've been to lots of raves, mostly when I lived in California, and I always had fun. If you hate electronic dance music, you would hate them, unless of course you went for the drugs, in which case you would love them...and everyone that goes to them. Either way, they're a pretty fun experience, and I'm glad I got the chance to go to some amazing ones.

One of the best I've ever been to was the Electric Daisy Carnival in Los Angeles. It has since been moved to Las Vegas due to safety issues at the Colosseum, but it was amazing the two years I went. It was by far the brightest rave I've ever been to, and rightly so, being in the middle of summer and selling some of the highest number of music tickets in history. To honor the awesome times I had there with some awesome people, and to honor the names of the polishes used for this manicure, here's Happy Go Lucky (China Glaze), Uninhibited, and Provocative (L.A. Girl).

Looking back, I should've stopped with Provocative on top of Happy Go Lucky, but it just didn't look like enough at the time, so Uninhibited joined. It's certainly not bad, but maybe too busy now. That's raves for ya though!

New Blog Design

Two updates today (again, no nails yet).

First, my giveaway ends in 5 days (the 31st). Make sure to follow all the rules, and enter before 5:00 PM (MST) on January 31st to win the Color Club Foiled collection.

If you're unsure about whether or not you followed the rules correctly, don't hesitate to ask, I'd be more than happy to help you out.

Second, I changed my blog's design. I love the header, but I'm still unsure about the rest of it. The colors looked much better in the palette I saw, but they don't quite come across that way in the blog itself. I may have to change it still. But in the meantime, what do you guys think? What do you like? What don't you like? I know the text appears small, but I prefer that over large text. Plus, it's easy enough for an individual user to zoom in on their monitor to blow up the font sizes.

Gifts from Polish Art Addiction

I don't have nails to post today, although I did paint them. You'll have to wait a few weeks to see them though, as they're for a guest post on someone else's blog.

In the meantime, I wanted to share the really generous and unsuspected gifts that Leslie from Polish Art Addiction gave me. I helped her make a graphic for her blog, and she was so thankful she sent me a manicure care package. I'll admit, I got a little teary when she reminded me how thoughtful and gracious people an be. Thank you Leslie, you really shouldn't have.

In the top row, starting on the left, is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Crushed, Leslie's own franken (my personal favorite of the lot), and an L.A. Colors purple fuchsia glitter.

In the bottom row, from left to right, is Love & Beauty (a Forever 21 brand) Baby Blue glow in the dark, Pure Ice Celestial, Oh Baby!, and Platinum. I'm really excited about the two lighter Pure Ice colors especially. Oh Baby! seems like it may be a dupe for CND's Sapphire, and the stunning Platinum next to it is so freakin' shiny! I hope it lays well.

She also included a very pretty nail file and a bottle of Seche Vite. I'm set for life now!

Seriously Leslie, you're so kind for sending these gifts! I can't wait to try them all, especially your franken. It'll be perfect for Valentine's Day just around the corner.

Such a Pansy

Pansies have always been one of my favorite flowers. The contrast between the purple and the yellow and the white is so yummy! I've been wanting to do a manicure featuring pansies for a while, and this is the first attempt. I think I should've picked a different background color, but I also blame the camera for silly contrast problems. (I haven't mastered manual mode yet.)

The base is OPI, Stranger Tides. The purple petals are Kieko from Zoya, the white petals are Load from Illamasqua, and the stamens are Savina's Grape. Finally, the center yellow pollen is Color Madric's Design Yellow.

Not bad for a first attempt, but not the best.

UPDATE: 2/3/12

I've created a tutorial for this manicure. Enjoy! (I'm also trying a new layout for my tutorials, and I must say, I love it.

Secret Agent Lila

Sometimes a manicure can completely flop. The vision in your head is cool and will surely produce some cool results, but then you finish one whole nail and ask yourself what the heck you were thinking. You try and try to come up with a clever solution to salvage the disaster while still remaining close to your fantasy, but no matter which way you shake the 8-ball, it's an inevitable failure.

That is not the case for this manicure.

It was almost the case, but I salvaged it.

Originally, I wanted to use Lila (Savina) and Secret Peri-Wink-Le (China Glaze) to create a cool gradient under a white stamp that would cover my whole nail. However, the obviously visible line created by the two polishes was absolutely visible under the white polish. It looked terrible.

I wanted to scrap everything and start over, but I had already painted on both Lila and Secret Peri-Wink-Le and felt bad ripping up the foundations. I searched through my stamping plates, and BM 11 saved the day. Using black (Black on Black, Sinful Colors) instead of white, I created "Secret Agent Lila".

It appears more purple than periwinkle, but that's expected since there's a few layers of that hot pink living underneath.

Saved the day today, but I'm sure I won't be able to avoid a complete disaster for too long.

Dotted Flowers tutorial now available!

I just posted the tutorial for this manicure:

You can always find the permanent link for this in my Tutorials tab at the top of my blog.

Beta Nails

The title does not refer to testing nails. Denver houses one of the country's best night clubs, Beta. Andy, Bree, Chloe and I went to see Gabriel & Dresden last night. Before we left, I had to paint some sexy club nails, so I decided to use some stamps to get that look.

The base is Black on Black (Sinful Colors), and the stamp (BM-222) was done using China Glaze's Devotion. We were in a hurry to catch the bus to Denver (safety first as we all planned on having at least a few drinks), so the pictures I snapped weren't the best. Sorry about that.

Holo Glitter & Flakie Extraordinaire!

Last night I had only one piece of this manicure in mind...the flakies. I collected all five of the Finger Paints Effects polishes, and hadn't used them yet. I could've put them over black, but who hasn't seen that? (If you haven't, you need to look at blogs more.) So, inspired by my good friend Jen who I got to see today, I chose purple. Originally, all I wanted to add to the purple (Grape Pop, China Glaze) was one of the flakies, Twisted. As I was pulling Twisted out of the drawer, I grabbed Asylum instead, and thought that too belonged on the purple. One thing led to another, and after an hour of polishing, I created this agglomeration of glitter, holographics and sweeping joy. 

Heh...overboard? I just couldn't stop myself! So the final tally for polish usage came out to be five (not including my base and top coats). The holographic stripe is Hologram Glitter by Color Madric, and the black is Bad Chick from Sinful Colors. Both are striping polishes with the itty bitty skinny brushes. I can't get enough of those and dotting tools lately. My poor stamps are feeling a little neglected I'm sure. Don't worry guys, I'll get back to you.

New tutorial available: Mermaid Slippers

In December, I posted this manicure, called Mermaid Slippers:

I've just created a tutorial for it, per one of my Tumblr follower's request. You can find it on my tutorial page here!

Simple French

C'est une manucure simple. Is that close? Does that say "this is a simple manicure"? If not, that's what it's supposed to say, but since I've never spoken a lick of French, I relied on my Mac's dashboard widget to translate for me.

Why is it in French? No, not because I'm trying to broaden my horizons or plan on traveling to France (or Canada) anytime soon. It's in French because today's manicure is a simple French manicure. Oh Katy, you're so clever!

It's nothin' fancy or schmancy, but it makes my nails feel longer.

I used only two colors for today. China Glaze's Good Witch and Sinful Color's Bad Chick. I freehanded the French tips, but maybe I should've taped for more consistent, straight lines.

Simple, to the point, and easy to take off later to make way for a better manicure.

Shredded Gold

You've already seen me try out the black Shredded from Lacquistry when I posted my Shred the Pool manicure. I wanted to use them again, and I was dying to try the gold Shredded over a teal. Then, an idea hit me! I could use them ALL...AT THE SAME TIME! So I did.

Listing off the polishes is a bit confusing to say the least, but here's what I used.

• Index Finger
• Base: Black Creme (Wet n' Wild)
• Glitter: Aqua Shredded (Lacquistry)
• Middle Finger
• Base: French White Creme (Wet n' Wild)
• Glitter: Aqua, Black and Gold Shredded (Lacquistry)
• Ring Finger
• Base: Flyin' High (China Glaze)
• Glitter: Gold Shredded (Lacquistry)
• Pinky Finger
• Base: Passion (China Glaze)
• Glitter: Black Shredded (Lacquistry)

They're all pretty different looks, but when you pair them all together like this, I think it works.

Which finger's your favorite?

Tutorial requests?

With my new tutorials page, I'm curious...

• Are there any past manicures I've done you'd like to see a tutorial for? 
• Any techniques you'd like to see demonstrated? 

I could create videos if that would be helpful too!

Almost 200 already?

I posted about my giveaway less than two weeks ago, and I've already gained a followship of almost 100% more?

I'm stunned! Thrilled! Full of jubilation and glee!

But does this mean I have to add another giveaway? Maybe I'll wait until 250 for that, just so I don't spoil you all rotten with freebies. I'd poll everyone, but something tells me the vote will be skewed dramatically in one direction.

We'll see though...

Popcorn

I'm so beyond wiped from this long weekend of skiing, about all I can do is sit. My legs are killing me, but luckily I never crashed hard enough on any body parts to warrant sitting impossible. Just walking. It was a blast though. We hit up Keystone (which is becoming our regular spot more and more) and Breckenridge. We never made it to any of the Ullr festivites, but lazing around in the hot tub, drinking beer and eating delicious food wasn't anything to give up for some chili. Besides, home cooked Snickerdoodle cookies and blondies always beat chili (thanks again for those Chloe and Bethany)!

The skiing was awesome. The snow, sadly, has still not hit our mountains enough to call the snow "good", but there wasn't too much ice. Just the end of the day on Saturday and certain spots in the shade on Sunday. We all definitely left happy, but totally exhausted. Amazing weekend.

So, with little energy and zero leg muscle strength, painting my nails seemed ideal. I had about a million ideas swirling in my head, so to finally put one down on paper, or rather, polish, was difficult. I'm pleased with the results.

Here are my popcorn nails!

Done using dotting tools, nail art brushes and patience, I used Wet n' Wild's French White Creme as the base. I striped the red lines on using Sinful Color's Be My Valentine (a nail art brush). Using my largest dot on my dotting tool, I randomly placed some circles of China Glaze's Lemon Fizz, then flipped that tool over to dot smaller Pull Over (Sinful Colors) dots on top of the larger ones. It was relatively easy, especially the popcorn kernels themselves. The only trying part of this manicure is creating straight red lines, and cleaning up the mess left afterward. 

I've been filling new follower requests recently, so I was in a Photoshop mood. The result is my first tutorial, inspired by Lacquerized's tutorial technique. Enjoy!

Short Ski Break

I'll be taking a short ski break from blogging. And by short, I mean two or three days, so yes, short. It didn't feel right at least leaving you guys a note letting you know where I'm going though.

I'll be in Breckenridge with a bunch of friends. Skiing, snowboarding, and hot-tubbing in the snow. There's also a small winter festival happening throughout the week, and it'll be topped off Saturday night with a chili cook off. It's in honor of Ullr, the Norse god of winter. He was Thor's stepson. I'm generally expecting drunk festivities and good times. Like a mini Oktoberfest with viking hats and snow. Damn I wish I had a viking hat. I'm not the best skier (yet), but anyone looks good going down a mountain in a viking helmet.

So, stay tuned, but don't expect anything for a few days. In the meantime, enter my giveaway if you haven't already! I'm giving away the Color Club Foiled collection (swatched by me here).

Dainty Asian Flowers

Is grey work-appropriate? Where I work, there is no dress code. One of my friends had purple hair for a while! So when I show up everyday with a new, usually bright manicure, no one blinks an eye. I mean, we can bring our pets into the office, no biggie. However, tomorrow we are having some potential clients come in, and I'll be organizing the lunch, so the potential for them to see my nails is large. With that in mind, I wanted a manicure that was appropriate, but I also really wanted to do this manicure, so I risked it. What do you guys think...appropriate? Would a stickler boss strike down these colors?

I used I Vant to be A-Lone Star (OPI) as the grey base, Be My Valentine (Sinful Colors nail art brush) for the stems, and Illamasqua's Load for the flowers. Subtle?

Shred the Pool

After a long day of trudging through snow, work and a post-holiday grocery shopping trip, I didn't have much motivation to do some intricate designs or stamping on my nails. Luckily, my Lacquistry was waiting for me to open it at lunch!

I first saw polishes created by Jenna at Lacquistry at Amy's blog, and in particular, this post. Still striking out in getting any Lynderlla polishes, I fell in love with Jenna's Shredded collection. I snagged the black, gold, and aqua versions of the shredded polishes and holy spicoli am I pleased with them! Not only for their reasonable price ($7.50 a bottle), but also for their...well let's just let the pictures speak for themselves.

I needed the black because it's dying to get some serious contrast (which you'll see in a moment). I also grabbed the gold, mostly because I was upset when I applied Essie's As Gold as it Gets only to find out that the gold flakes didn't actually remain gold once they were layered. And of course, the aqua was too unique to pass up. I also picked up a polish she aptly named Potting Soil. You'll see that in the future though.

So, a quick mani later, I got these neon results. I reiterate...holy spicoli!

Slapping the black Shredded on top of China Glaze's Pool Party is probably too much to handle for some, and definitely a driving hazard if nothing else, but it's so beyond effortless-awesome that I think even those of you who don't favor pinks and neons will give it its due credit.

Vintage Flowers

Beautiful nail art comes from beautiful talent, and beautiful colors. The colors I used for today's manicure are really beautiful, especially when paired together. So thanks to Tzadkiel for her inspirational colors.

I don't have much else to say about it, other than I love it and dotting tools are clearly the best! The base color is Unicorn from Sinful Colors, and the dots are from For Audrey (China Glaze), Get in the Expresso Lane (OPI), Life Preserver (China Glaze), and Pull Over (Sinful Colors).

Dotting Tools...Nailed It.

I'm not sure if you're aware or not, but apparently, I am utterly unoriginal in naming my blog. I really should've done my research before deciding to use "Nailed It." as my blog's title. Let's take a look at the other blogs, also called Nailed It in some form or another. Interestingly, none of us were lucky enough to snag the URL "nailedit.blogspot.com". That goes to someone with a nerdy grudge. Instead, we nail bloggers were forced to choose a less obvious username to accompany our URLs. Here's just a few I've found:

• NAILED IT! - A woman from Washington
• Nailed It - Lisa in Florida
• You nailed it! - Renee in the Netherlands
• Totally NAILed It! - Sayra

Not to mention the countless other Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr accounts using this popular meme phrase as their own nail tag line.

So, to those of you who happened to weed through everyone and at least find me, congrats! Though my blog's title may actually be slightly uninspired, I try not to let my nails and designs be.

Luckily, the internet is chock-full of inspiration, which I'm happy to draw from. Using my spiffy new dotting tools, I made this beautiful pattern my muse.

Gorgeous right? And just dying to be dotted out. This being my first time using the dotting tool, I was unsure how big the dots would wind up being, so in the end, adding the stitching would've made the art a little too busy. I also swapped out the burnt orange color for a hot pink. This is the final result.

I'm pleased as punch with this cute design, and beyond excited to use more dotting tools. It also feels really good to have a complete manicure that matches on all 10 fingers again. With vacation, busy weekends and swatching, my nails haven't matched since...well I think since New Year's Eve! The glimpses you've caught in swatching wasn't consistent across both hands. Take it from a Capricorn...it feels good to have everything in its place.

I used China Glaze's Electric Pineapple and Flip Flop Fantasy for some of the dots, and OPI's Mermaid's Tears for the rest. The base is Movie Star from Essence. I really love Movie Star, but I wish the bottle I had were bigger. It's a shrimpy little 0.16 fluid ounce bottle. Is this how all Essence polishes are?

Everything's topped off with my new Seche Vite, which I honestly don't understand the rage about. It dries quickly, but not too much quicker than China Glaze's Fast Forward top coat, and it smells downright toxic. Fast Forward doesn't give me the same "If I inhale much more of this I'll wind up on A&E's Intervention" feeling that Seche Vite did. It did dry in record time though, so maybe I'll have to do a side-by-side of the two to really get the full benefit of it.

Either way, the nails are dry, protected, and shiny. Not bad for a first timer eh?

UPDATE (1/22/12):

Allie-Bee asked for this tutorial. Enjoy!

100 Blogger Follower Giveaway

After four months of blogging, I've reached 100 followers. It's a small milestone to some, but coming in with little experience and few connections, it's major to me. And it can be major to you too if you win! The prize is the Color Club Foiled collection (including a shiny top coat).

I've swatched the collection here.

There are a few rules, so please take the time to read them all so your entry will be counted correctly.

Rules

1. Due to postal rules and regulations, I can only open this giveaway to U.S. addresses. I tried to find a way around this that wouldn't put me in jeopardy with the law, but I haven't had any luck. I'm so sorry to my international followers and friends.
2. All entries are due by January 31, 2012 5:00 PM (MST-Colorado time).
3. Everyone who follows my blog publicly is welcome to enter, including new followers! 
4. Extra entries can be obtained by:
• Having already commented on one of the past 5 entries I've made. This is a special thank you to my existing followers who have shown interest in what I've had to say recently! For this, any comments made after January 6th will not be counted as an extra entry (but are always welcome!)
• Posting about the giveaway on your own blog, Tumblr account, or Twitter account! Feel free to use the graphic below for posting on your blog or Tumblr, and the Tweet below for Twitter.
• 
• Tweet: @blognailedit is having a giveaway! Visit http://blognailedit.blogspot.com for a chance to win the Color Club Foiled collection!
5. The winner must respond to an email I send them informing them of their win within 48 hours of the email being sent. A new winner will be chosen if a response is not sent.
6. I will not choose the winner; random.org will select the winner based on the number of entries.
7. Enter by using the form below. Comment entries will not be counted.  
8. Feel free to email me with any questions you have! blognailedit@gmail.com 

Thank you so much for following and sharing your thoughts! I've enjoyed growing from everything, and will continue to do so! This blog is special to me, and you guys are the reason I continue to post in it!

Color Club Foiled Collection Swatches

Today's a little unusual for me. Today is just swatches of the Color Club Foiled collection, including a comparison of using the included top coat and not using the top coat with these colors.

You've probably seen it around on other blogs and in stores, so I won't drag out any descriptions. This post is for color comparison, and a bit of stamping testing. Enjoy!

Hot Like Lava

Foil Me Once

Antiquated

Lumin-Icent

Perfect Mol-Ten

Cold Metal

This is Hot Like Lava, with and without a top coat. My pinky and middle finger have the included top coat, and the ring finger does not.

As you can see, not too much of a difference. These colors do fine without top coats, but for protection of the manicure, I recommend it.

Finally, here's Foiled stamped.

From thumb to pinky, using Konad plate m65:

• Lumin-Icent on Black Creme (Wet n' Wild)
• Hot Like Lava on Heavenly (Savina)
• Cold Metal on Light Mist (Savina)
• Perfect Mol-Ten on Neon Yellow (Savina)
• Antiquated on Get in the Expresso Lane (OPI)

Birthday, Christmas and New Year Haul

The end of the year is always full of some serious celebration for me. With a birthday right before Christmas, Christmas itself, and all the celebration and hangovers that accompany New Year's Eve, there's a lot to be happy about. In addition, I have gifts and presents to celebrate over that I know you all will also appreciate. Of course, I recieved some lovely non-nail gifts and love from my family and friends that are also reason to celebrate, but since this is a nail blog, I'll just share those with you today.

Get ready...it's picture heavy!

First up, these are the gifts my sister gave me. She understands nail polish more than anyone I personally know, so you can only imagine my joy opening her gifts. She gave me tools:

...dotting tools

...striping brushes

...and a glass nail file.

She gave me the Butter London Dressing Table duo, Black Knight and Tart with a Heart. Unfortunately, the dressing table suffered a fatility during the 17-hour car ride, so it won't be making an appearance in today's shots.

She gave me some amazing nail art brushes I've never heard of, but definitely want more of. The formula on all of these is great, and only requires one coat. That's practically unheard of with brighter striping shades. All of these are from a company called Color Madric. They're all sort of metallic, not matte as their bottles seem to indicate.

Shown here is Design Yellow, Green, Ocean Blue, and Hologram Glitter.

Hologram Glitter really is holographic, as I tried to capture here.

Shown here are the metallics from the Metal-licious collection of Color Madric brushes. These colors are Am-Ore, Platinum Rush, Lead to Riches, Metal-Licious, Iron I Lovely, and Gold Digger.

These all appear metallic, as their collection's name suggests.

She gave me part of L.A. Girl Glitter Addict collection, including the elusive Uninhibited I've been craving since I saw Rie from Nails and Noms use it.

Shown here are Uninhibited, Jostle, Animate, and Celebrate.

A few days after getting these, we stopped by a random Rite Aid to get Andy some contact solution, and I saw a glittering display of five more colors from the collection!

I added Eutopia, Nostalgic, Purge (a new nail polish name favorite in my book), Synergy, and Provocative to my infant collection.

Now it's a glittering grand collection!

She gave me some polishes we had talked about over the phone. These are randoms I mentioned liking that she had cheap access to out there in So-Cal.

Shown here is Sea Gurl from ORLY, Good Witch? from China Glaze, Cleopatra also from China Glaze, Glass Slipper from Sally Hansen Diamond Strength (one I actually snagged for myself), Lady Luck from Sally Hansen Gem Crush and January from Julep. She didn't like that color on her, so I took it off her hands. To top this load of polishes off is the amazing Load from Illamasqua. Look at it back there. Beautifully raunchy.

Rounding out my sister's amazing gifts is my first bottle...or bottles rather...of Seche Vite.

Look at this monstrosity! It's so much top coat, I don't even know what to do with it! 4 ounces!

So that's it from her...but fear not, my haul has not ended! She did an unbelievable job of making my Christmas gifts a thrill to open. Thanks Sisser, I love you!

I mentioned in Sapphire that Andy's mom's trainer, Robbie really hooked me up with some amazing CND products. Here they are!

She included in my bag of goodies some nail care items including some tasty CND Solar Oil (a cuticle conditioner), Scentsations lotion minis in Sparkling Champagne and Clementine & Mistletoe. They smell awesome! There are also several samples of CND's Spamanicure hand lotions, in Citrus Soothing Creme and Almond Hydrating Lotion. I absolutely love the smell of the almond lotion. Finally, there are a few nail buffers, showing their support for breast cancer research with the words "Nail Community Cares" written on them.

She also included some amazing colors, including Smoochie (#518), Sapphire Sparkle (#561), Plum Truffle Sparkle Effect (#586), and Plum Truffle Colour (#585).  You've seen Sapphire Sparkle already in Sapphire.

Thank you again Robbie, I love everything!

Last but not least! We have the polishes I bought myself.

You've already seen the Urban Outfitters collection I picked up here, but here's a few more shots of those beautiful bottles.

I also snagged the entire Finger Paints Special Effects collection today at Sally's!

 Not much to look at when they're in the bottles, but I'm sure you've seen them used by other ladies. My favorite shots are from Jen at The PolishAholic, from this post showing each on its own, and this post showing them all layered together. Oh many these are going to be fun to play with!

So that's it. Can you feel my excitement through the screen? It's radiating!