Fun and Mental Changes

Oh yah... it's been a while folks.  Ever since my niece went into the hospital, I relapsed into a nail biter.  Something I haven't done for MANY years.  Thankfully, a new friend was so wonderful enough to take me to get my nails done.  "Hi there nail art... I missed you old friend!"  And thank you Corrine, I appreciate you new friend!!! So, a while ago I discovered (on my beloved polish blogs) the AWESOME Shatter polish by OPI and immediately snagged me some.  But my nails were in such atrocious condition, I didn't really have the palette to show you how great this is.  NOW I do!  DRUMROLL PLEASE..... Is this AMAZING?!?!  I simply did a Color Club Laser Pink base and allowed to dry completely.  After it was dry, I did ONE COAT of the OPI Shatter about an hour before I went to bed.  It turned out GREAT!!!  I can't wait to do this one again with a yellow base!  I might have to just break down and buy me another...

Ok. So here's a quick mani featuring my ALL-TIME-FAVORITE black polish. Color Club's Black goes on SO smooth and dries perfectly. This is by far the best black nail polish to own. I mean, let's face it, black is hard to get on, but to have one that glides off the brush makes application a breeze. Honestly, I could go on and on about this polish.... but I won't! I'll get on to the fun Konad stuff!!! So I stamped the spider from Konad's image disc M28 using China Glaze's OMG holo nail polish. I love the holographic polishes, but this line is my favorite among them all. Unfortunately folks, I think this line is discontinued which really is unfortunate, because all of these holos work AMAZINGLY with the Konad system... and I'm not sure why! :) Anyway, I applied a mini red stone that photographed orange (weird), but it's red and makes this mani rock. I only stamped my ring finger on both hands, so with my Martha Stewart wound and the fact that ...

Have you ever been SUPER busy but didn't really get anything done? I feel like that's been my life for the past two weeks. So I figured I better get a shot of this mani up before I remove the polish. Typically my manis don't make it 5 days before I wanna change the color and with running 100 MPH while standing still... Well, I just better get it in! LOL! So I have gotten SOOOO much length from using the Ultra Rapid Growth from Nail Aid and this thumb nail is here to sing Nail Aid's praises. My nail looks like a false press on nail! HAHAHAHAHAHA! I assure you, it's real! So anyway, I used the Rapid Growth as a base coat followed by ONE coat of China Glaze Pink Chiffon (not lazy, just exhausted). I then put on a coat of Seche Vite for a quick dry before stamping the images from Konad image plates M79 and C01. The polka dots were done in Color Club's Laser Pink and the flowers and kitty were done with Konad's special black nail polish. I topped it all ...

I've done these tiger stripes before for some Halloween nails that I did last year, but in looking at the amazing Color Club neons that I love so much, I was overtaken by the idea of pink on pink... TURNED OUT FABULOUS!!! So the awesomely awesome base pink is Color Club's Pink Lust and the Konad stamp is from image plate M69 in Konad's pastel pink special polish. The butterflies were done with image plate M36 with Konad's black special polish and OF COURSE I used my trusty Seche Vite for the "quick dry". These nails are delicious!!! I just think it's amazing how Color Club just NAILED neons.... all of them.... perfect! PS. Please ignore my nasty cuticles... I didn't have time today for a full mani. Not that I don't need it! After a weekend of paper crafting a full mani with some TLC for those cuticles is NEEDED, but at least I got to a polish change. Maybe a wax treatment tomorrow?

I was going through old blog posts yesterday and discovered that a blog post GOT MISSED!!! I never posted it. It's been sitting as a "draft" all month! Geez! And this was an important post too! A while ago, Kathleen over at OC Nail Art (and one of my awesome and stupendous sponsors) sent me the Coraline Nail Art set. Being the freak that I am for Halloween I ripped that sucker open and started playing with it IMMEDIATELY! For those who do not know, Coraline is a Tim Burton movie and Tim Burton is a master of the macabre, so since the movie is animated (older children could enjoy, not so much for the younger ones).... OF COURSE there are the most fabulous Halloween images and OF COURSE they appear in BOTH Coraline nail art sets. Being a lover of Halloween, you can imagine my excitement to receive this Coraline set. Thank you so much Kathleen! And thank you for donating a set to give away. If anyone out there hasn't had a chance to enter My Favorite Things Birthday Give...

Spring Break 2010 and the girls get together for some play time and power mani's! And these Konadicures ROCKED! I'll show each of them and let you know how it was done. For more info on the konad images pictured, check out OC Nail Art and tell Kathleen that FitterTwit sent ya! :) Be sure to click on all the pics to enlarge. I'd also like to say a special thanx to Megan, Gabby, Delaney and Jordyn for being SUPER models for today's post! Ladies... Girl's Day was AWESOME!!! FLOWER POWER What could be MORE IN than neon pink with black beaded flowers? Jordyn says "Nothing!" as she's sportin these totally rad flowers on Color Club's Pink Lust. The image is from Konad image plate M69 done in Konad's black special polish and then topped with Northern Lights holo topcoat. Dazzling Dahling! :) ELECTRIC YOUTH Delaney diggs this green holo polish by China Glaze. L8R G8R was the perfect backdrop for those sweet flowers that seem to POP off those nails. Thi...

There's currently only three entries in this month's OPI Alice In Wonderland Polish Giveaway!!! Huge chance of winning here! And it's super easy to enter... simply leave a comment on the post at THIS link. The contest is open to my blog followers only (the coolest people in the world!!!), so if you're not a follower, be sure to become one before leaving a comment. So Easy! Click the link to get all the details! In the meantime, here's a little mani that helped me burn the midnight oil last night... yah , my sleep patterns are still a little off. But it was worth it, and I'll be back in line by next week. This Fauxnadicure was really hard to photograph!!! I can't seem to get a picture that shows how beautiful it turned out!!! So, all my pics were taken outside... and even then they aren't as magnificent as in real life. But they do kinda show how pretty they are, so here we go! :) I used Color Club's Stuck On You as a basecoat , 2 coats of OPI...

Whew! Ruffian is RIGHT! After a night of tossing and turning, I woke up feeling quite the "Ruffian", but that's not where this post comes from. But SINCE I brought it up.... Let me tell you about my night! A friend of mine has a daughter who is getting ready to deliver her first child. I am so emotionally invested in this delivery, I can't see straight! I WISH I could articulate exactly why. Love for my friend? Definitely... But this is also going A LOT deeper for me. And I am truly blessed to be allowed to share in this HUGE waiting game for this newborn to make his entrance into the world. So with all this waiting and excitement and NOT SLEEPING, a " Ruffian " manicure is JUST what the doctor (not the obstetrician) ordered. Not only did this little mani kill some time during this long wait, but it went a LONG way to making me feel pretty good and distracting my mind!!! I mean, a person can only cry so much (yah, I bawled like a baby when they hooked her u...

Here's a little sumin, sumin in honor of hump day (yay!)... here's a little nail candy for you! All I have to say about this is WOW! OBVIOUSLY this is Konad stamp. I used this very stamp here , but this color combination really, uh... pops? It was really fun, but I'm not convinced I can pull it off in public. I wore this to my gym and my Konadicure certainly drew attention. As soon as I got home, I took it off. It is soooo too bright for my taste. BUT if you are the type of person who LOVES bright polish, then this one is definitely for you! LOL! I used Color Club Yelloh with Konad special polish in green and Konad plate #M65. As always, you can get 20% off all Konad products at http://store.ocnailart.com/ using discount code "MENTAL" with free shipping on all orders over $20. I hope you have fun with this one... I did (very, very briefly! hahahaha)!

With all of the miracle nail treatments on the market today to help your nails grow long and strong, you might be surprised that there are some super cheap tips that will actually get you further. Apply these tips with your favorite miracle nail treatment and prepare for your nails to 'take off'! The first is, believe it or not, water. While the experts will tell you not to soak your nails, water is actually necessary for nail growth. Not soaking them of course, but drinking plenty of water every day. The more hydrated you are, the more chip resistant your nails will be. The next item in my arsenal is exercise. Yep, exercise will help those digits look amazing because good circulation stimulates nail growth. Finally, vitamins! I take a multi-vitamin every day... it's no secret that pregnant women taking prenatal vitamins have super long and super strong nails. Well, just some quick tips for today... hope they help everyone out there as much as they help me! ** Pictured: Kon...

For quite some time I've been using various nail art paints for my nail stamper. They were cheap and worked pretty well for my nail art, but I just found a brand that I LOVE!!! While Color Club (we all know and love them!) has an amazing line of nail polishes that are full of pigment and opacity, they also have a line of nail art paints that are just as wonderful and has brought the fun of nail stamping to a whole new level for me! So, what you see in the pic is OPI's Chapel of Love which is a GORGEOUS orangy-pink... almost a salmon and a little shimmery; two coats covered perfectly (you can click on the pic to enlarge). I then took Color Club's Art Club nail art paint in satin silver and painted random lines and squiggles. The brush is super, pin-stripe thin so it was really easy to do. I let it set up for about a minute and then stamped a beautiful asian symbol from Konad's image plate S4 with the Konad special polish in black. I added three little dots using the co...

Well, just a quick post tonight gang! For some reason I am on a black polish kick lately! I can honestly say, black is one of my favorite colors! And look how pretty (and even understated) black is! But then, of course, black is also dramatic! I was inspired to play with the black after reading Mary's "Dark Romance" at Etsy.com . She writes: Lately I've found myself gravitating toward the idea of a Gothic love story. I've fallen prey to the hit vampire series True Blood , and I'm looking forward to the upcoming sequel to Twilight , a movie series depicting the notion of a forbidden dark love. There's just something mysterious about an unattainable, slightly supernatural romance: am I right, ladies? If you're drawn to a darker aesthetic, I think you might like our Steampunk and Noir style guide. Without further ado, I bring you my Etsyfied interpretation of a dark romance. Wow... she's quite the writer, and we all know how much I LOVE Twilight ! A...

Wow! These look like a million bucks! I have four gold polishes (more than enough for anyone.... or maybe not! LOL) that are my favies... and here's why! From L to R: Color Club Golden Girl, Zoya Richelle, Essie The Cove Copper, and OPI Golden Rules. My all time favorite gold is the OPI Golden Rules. It goes on silky smooth and two coats is PERFECT. It dries silky as well. Next is Color Club's Golden Girl. Again, it goes on very smooth, but is just a tad bit richer in color than the OPI. My next favorite is Essie The Cove Copper... yah, it's not copper... it's gold. It goes on a little streaky and required three coats to cover completely, but when it dries, it's beautiful. It does have a hint of a copper undertone, but that just makes it an even prettier gold! And last is my new Zoya Richelle. It is a great gold, don't get me wrong. The only reason I listed it as my dead last favorite gold is because it looks like a heavy texture gold that I find very distractin...

Ooooo ... purple!!!! As I was brushing this AMAZING color on my nails this morning, it hit me that there just could be more to this polish addiction than meets the eye. Now, some may think that I'm just trying to dream up a justification to run out and buy the new summer Color Club colors, but that just simply is not the case. I am trying to get a message out to possibly save a life; maybe even my own! hahahahaha ! On a serious note, I think I DO know what the sudden new attraction is to nail polish. For starters, it is a very cheap way to feel beautiful! Instead of spa treatments or new outfits, I buy a new nail polish (usually in the $2-$4 range). Nothing makes you feel more put together, for less, than freshly polished nails. Second, I think there is quite a bit of merit to the idea that color affects your mood. I tend to gravitate toward bright cheerful colors. But recently, I've been choosing deeper, richer colors. More calming maybe? Anyhow, color therapy is certainly no...

Birthdays are the best, and mine's not even here yet! I received this amazing pink watch yesterday as an early birthday present. I'm so spoiled (as it should be)! But this isn't just ANY watch, it's a Mio Motiva Pink Petite watch. Why is THIS watch so special? Because a portion of the proceeds go to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation ! It gets even better! This watch also monitors heart rate, tracks calories burned and has a count-down/count-up timer among other functions. I haven't had time to sit down and read through the entire user manual yet, but so far, this is the PERFECT sports watch and exactly what I wanted. The package included the wrist band you see in the pic as well as a solid pink band. I also got a light blue/orange combo band and a gray/black combo band. Hello ladies! Now you can coordinate your watch with all your gym clothes. Just kidding... I don't own anything that's blue and orange. Hahahaha! This is definately a birthday gi...