In-between Xmas and NYE = chill mani

I did super bling for Christmas.  I'm doing super bling for NYE.  So instead of any nail art or blingage this time around, you get one of my favorite polishes.  I had actually never tried this color before, but I *have* tried 7 of its sisters and we got along great :)

The shimmer looks multicolored in the bottle, flashes mostly white with a tiny bit of pink and green on the nail, and photographs as mostly green and white.  What a trickster.  Also, this color is named "Jet Black," even though it is clearly dark grey and wasn't fooling anyone in the bottle either.

ALERT: new nail art challenge for 2012!

Some of the girls on NB and I decided to kick off the new year by starting the next nail art challenge.  The 31-day challenge was a blast (props to whoever started it!), but most everyone who decided to participate has finished the whole thing by now.  So we have decided to brainstorm ideas over instant messenger (most likely Gmail's) and write it all down, possibly in Google Docs so everyone can have access.

If you would like to participate in making the nail polish community's next nail art challenge, we would love to have you join in!  Send me an email stating when the best time is for you to get on IM so I can see what works the best for the most people (use the LAX time zone please!).  And don't forget to add me to your instant messenger, or else there's no point! :P

My email address is: rubypumped@gmail.com

Yay, I'm excited!

Christmas blingage!

To redeem the fact that I'm reading Pretty Little Liars, I'd like to point out that I'm also studying for the bar.  So....don't judge me, okay? :)

Actually, go ahead and judge. I don't care :)

P.S. I am so excited for my New Year's Eve mani!  I randomly stumbled upon a VERY holo/dense/bright/blingy polish last night, and then realized it would be perfect for that very night. Still trying to figure out exactly how to use it, but I've got a couple ideas.  See you then :)

Super Mario...ish?

This mani kind of reminds me of Super Mario, even though I can't think of a blue character.  I plan to do several actually Super Mario-related manis in the future, so stay tuned!

EDIT: figured it out! A lovely lady at NB pointed out that it looks like the sky in Super Mario.  I looked at it again and realized that 1) she's right, and 2) the dots are exactly where Mario would be on the screen. Holy random brain associations!! THAT'S why it was reminding me of it! Weird, right?

first water marble EVAR!

I think it turned out fairly well for a first time.  It's also my first time doing the acetone cleanup around the cuticles.  I'll have to keep working on that :)

Other bloggers were right, this does waste polish.  It took a coat of medium pink, then 4 drops of hot pink and 1-2 drops of white per nail.  I was incredulous when others said it took them 1.5 hours, but it's true, it took me 2.  Also, it created a TOTAL mess.  It was okay though, I watched The Office and Modern Family while I did it.  Hooray for doing your nails at 3am on a Saturday morning :)

dots and lines; or, mathematical

I was originally going to do lines and tiny shapes, like triangles and circles.  I chose these colors (red, blue and green) because they reminded me of making graphs in math class.  Then I thought I should make some lines to represent the graphs.  It didn't end up looking like math to other people, but I know what it represents.  Abstract art, right? :)  (Oh, I just realized that you use dots on graphs...that wasn't on purpose. Happy coincidence!)

On my right hand I just did dotted french tips.  I like the ring finger the best.

the stash

My stash may be small compared to other bloggers, but it's just the right size for me.  I only choose colors that I particularly like, instead of whole collections (it just seems like a waste otherwise).  I also buy 95% of my polishes on sale.  My master list is kind of different too :) 

first post!

Hello!  This is my first post on my brand new nail blog.  I've been lurking for a long time but finally decided to join in on the fun and make a blog myself.    Here are some NOTDs I've done this past week.  I'm still working on my photography and clean-up skills so please forgive the less-than-perfection as I improve!  After all, that's what this blog is all about :)

I welcome you to post your own NOTDs in the comments section whenever you feel like it!

And now, without further ado...