The joys of being a 5th year college student.

Okay guys, I didn't want to, but I have to resign from the 31 Day Challenge. I have midterms coming up I need to study for and I've got 3 research papers to write. And that's just this weekend. On top of my kickboxing classes and dedication to getting into shape, I'm never home and if I am, I'm doing homework. My boyfriend flies home from work Tuesday too, so I really just won't have any kind of spare time in the coming weeks. I'll still post, but I don't have time for nail art :(


Stay with me peoples! Love ya.

Rifle!

These are old photos, but it's so there isn't so much neglect of the "Firearms" part of my blog title during this 31 day nail art challenge.

That there is me shooting my boyfriend's SteyrAUG.

 

This is the necklace my boyfriend bought me. Can't you tell we love our guns? ;) I am a big fan of rifle shooting, but I pistol shoot also because it's a necessity. When I do pistol shooting, I prefer 45ACP but the 9mm necklace was much prettier. The lady we bought it from makes a LOT of different bullet casing jewelry, HERE. Truly amazing. And no, she doesn't know I'm advertising for her LOL that's just how much I love my necklace. That is a real aquamarine, she puts real gemstones in her jewelry. It's also real brass, so if you buy make sure to get some NEVR-DULL or Brasso! I use NEVR-DULL.

31 Day Challenge, Day 7: Black and White Nails

So for this mani I had it in my mind that I might really love to use my Sticks n' Stones polish. But I had a brain storm and had this brilliant idea instead:

  

For my tips I used Essie Blanc and Essie Pure Pearlfection Multi-Dimension Top Coat. To draw on the spiderwebs I used a Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in Black and added more of the LuxeEffect topcoat to imitate a glimmery spiderweb. I sealed it all in with my favorite Seche Vite. I thought of doing a photo tutorial for this as well, but by the time I realized it I was already finishing the web on my pinky finger (the last nail I do) so it was too late. Maybe one day I'll make one though :)

31 Day Challenge, Day 6: Violet Nails

I'm late! I know, I'm sorry! I have no excuses. But I chose to do a splatter mani of sorts. I included an attempt at a photo tutorial in the post. [Photo heavy post]

 

Paint your nails and set out a palette, your splatter color, and a small coffee stir straw.

 

Glob some of your desired splatter color on your palette.

 Stick one of the ends of the straw into the glob, be sure to get polish inside the tube.

 Hold above your nails about 4-6 inches and give a single blow through your straw. Continuing redipping the straw and blowing splatters onto your nails. I recommend Vaseline on your surrounding skin to make cleanup easier.

 

Closer image of the mess.

 

 After cleanup, before top coat.

 

 For a base color I used Rimmel London Wild Orchid, my accent nail and splatter were Nfu-Oh 51 and I topped it all off with Seche Vite. If you do a splatter manicure, I recommend cremes for the straw technique. The Nfu-Oh jelly wasn't very opaque, so the look I was going for wasn't quite accomplished, though I do love how they turned out! I hope my photo tutorial was helpful, when I get a better camera (Christmas?) it'll have a tripod and I can do videos instead. :)

31 Day Challenge, Day 5: Blue Nails!

I'm posting super early because I have stuff to do today (hah yea right, I just want to be lazy). Anywho, this was a really fun manicure because I decided to finally do the Saran Wrap Manicure. I absolutely love how it turned out so I'll be doing this after the challenge so I can wear it for a few days :)

For a base I used Sinful Colors Love Nails. After I let that completely dry, the top color that I smushed Saran Wrap on was Essie Aruba Blue and topped it all off with Seche Vite. These colors together are beautiful! I couldn't get the "perfect" picture to capture the design and color shades, but I hope you can tell how pretty it is by what I could capture.


Have a good Sunday guys, I kinda wished blue day was yesterday, because it was the Navy's birthday and I am all about the USN.

31 Day Challenge, Day 4: Green Nails

Catch up post! I had the hardest time with this mani. Not with ideas, but with execution. I haven't had this hard a time painting my nails in years, I kept smearing it or hitting my nails on stuff. So you'll probably notice these a bit off looking, too bad. LOL. I just got fed up with the mani and said screw it, it's presentable. So here it is:

The base color is Wet n' Wild Fastdry SaGreena the Teenage Witch and the dots are Wet n' Wild Craze Jade. I love the way this mani came out! I'll definitely be doing this style more often, it's incredibly elegant and beautiful.

Tomorrow is blue nails! I'm excited. Here's the prompt for a refresh in memory:

Yes, this is what I'm doing on my Saturday night. J is away at work for another week and a couple days, I have a nonexistent social life when he's gone unless it involves my kickboxing or school classes. Have a good night you guys.

31 Day Challenge, Day 3: Yellow Nails!

This one I didn't plan at all, I winged it the whole way and I actually really love what I ended up with! :)

I started with a base color of Pure Ice Unzip Me and drew on sunflower petals with the smallest dotting tool in my arsenal and Sephora by OPI Caffeine Fix:

I kept them choppy on purpose, because I really loved the funky look it gave the design.
After that I decided to add many more details to the design for fun. It didn't feel complete yet, so I added the centers of the sunflowers, and accenting dots. For the other colors I used Mash Banana, Essie Blanc and Wet n' Wild Fastdry SaGreena the Teenage Witch.

And that's it! Hope you like :) if I have time today I might actually post another mani since I'm a day behind. Have an awesome weekend you guys!

31 Day Challenge, Day 2: Orange Nails

I'm so late posting this! BUT it isn't midnight yet so technically I posted it a day late, but when I said I would :P First a quick rant, Angel is a very unhappy camper. I don't know if it's because of my base coat, or the formula for the Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Red Velvet I used for my red mani the other day, but LOOK!

So upsetting! How gross! Buffing took forever and I couldn't even get all the staining off. :(
Anyway, despite my devastation I was excited for Day 2 because I got to use my new Nfu-Oh polish!

Here's the prompt for a refresh in memory:

Nfu-Oh JS23, Nfu-Oh 51, Nfu-Oh 44

I began with a base coat of an ancient bottle of Bon-Bons polish I had in the very bottom of my stash. I'm actually in love with the color, but the bottle has absolutely nothing on it to let me know what it was called. I swatched it here:

The formula for the Bon-Bons was actually REALLY amazing. No streaking and easy application. Shown here is 3 coats.

I then took Nfu-Oh 44 and layered 2 coats over that:

As most of you know, Nfu-Oh has amazing flakies! It is incredible. So easy to apply and settled very well with Seche Vite. I'll definitely need to buy more! Anyway, this girl has to run because I have to be up super early again for more kickboxing action ;)

Good night awesome people!

Make it Snappy!

So, I'll make this quick.. cause boy am I feeling the burn! I did an extra hour at the dojo tonight in a striking class in addition to my cardio kickboxing and my ass is feeling it! I'm not going to post a mani tonight, I'm too sore to sit still for that long and I have to be up at 08 for my class tomorrow. But I'll post tomorrow evening for sure! So this 31 Day Challenge will be completed short of 31 days, I'm realizing with my school schedule to try to take this on right now wasn't the best idea, but I'm not abandoning you guys! Look for my post tomorrow <3

31 Day Challenge: Day I: Red Nails

Let me start off by saying I was planning on just plain red, no designs or anything, then I just kept going and got my favorite type of mani to do. I'm kind of annoyed with how the burgundy color came off brown, but oh well. Technically everything is red.

 

This photo was taken in natural light. 

This photo was taken in artificial light.

The base is Sally Hansen Diamond Strength in Red Velvet. The leopard print was made using Hard Candy Lava and the (supposed to be) burgundy color is Pure Ice Siren, darkened with Pure Ice Electric! I swear on my palette it was burgundy. Blahhh.

First Ever 31 Day Challenge!

Okay, so I'm starting out with my best efforts to do this challenge. I can't promise I'll be able to pump out a manicure a day considering my full time school schedule and workout routines. But I'll try my best! :) These are the prompts:

 

I can do this! I think. We'll see, I'm very excited, so I'll be posting the first one sometime later today, keep your eyes peeled :)

I know there has been an annoying amount of these "Keep Calm" photos everywhere, but come on.. This one is AWESOME.

Tiger Slippers and Kicking Butt

I like to wear my boyfriend's way-too-large-for-my-feet Tiger slippers because my toes get cold. Excellent news! The weather is finally getting cold here in Virginia :) now, if only the rain would stop! As I type this post I'm noming on pretzel sticks and contemplating what to make for dinner that won't make me feel sick tonight at kickboxing.

Does that not look absolutely scrumptious? I didn't cook it though, hah yea right. But man it looks so yummy! Now, I haven't always been a healthy eater, that's a very recent thing. So don't groan about "another health nut ew" cause I still crave my favorite fast food ever, Wendy's, on a daily basis. I haven't had it in a few weeks though :( way too many fat calories.

Anyway, I just finished my pretzels so it's time to put something on the stove so I'm early to the dojo this evening. I'll leave this for laughs:

Pitbulls are some of the sweetest dogs on the face of the earth. Blame the owners people, not the canine! Just sayin'.

Rainy Days and Politics

Now before I scare you off with the "p" word, lemme clarify. I HATE politics. I keep my opinion to myself for the most part. All I'm saying is there are more than 2 parties running with eligible candidates.... people tend to forget that.

As for the rainy day part, good god it's pouring outside! It's crazy! I had to walk home from my college in the downpour because I forgot my umbrella and NO WAY was I staying there any longer after my first 3 hour class and then my last 4 hour class! YUK!

Also, it's been one of these kind of days:

And yes, yes I am one of those people eagerly awaiting the Zombie Apocalypse with my shiny firearms and ammunition ;) No classes tomorrow, so this girl is being lazy and not touching any homework tonight! See you guys tomorrow :P

Spun Sugar Manicure

I was very excited to try this manicure, though I did continue to put it off for a while. This post is a recent one. I JUST did this manicure. I'm not sure how willing to do it again I will be, seeing as it was super messy lol but fun!

 I began with a base color of Rimmel London Lasting Finish Pro in Wild Orchid.

 

For the "sugar" I used Sephora by OPI Caffeine Fix. I've included the in between photos so you can see how messy!

 After cleanup, using Q-tips and a makeup brush dipped in 100% acetone.

 

Then here after I used Seche Vite to seal it all in! :)

To accomplish this manicure, I used the tutorial video here. I loved the idea of this manicure and hers turned out really nice so I had to try it! I kept procrastinating but finally I just sat down and did it. It's surprisingly long lasting and chip resistant. Yay! Now this girl is hitting the sheets for her 0900, 3 hour class and then another after that for 4 hours! Yikes x_x

Told you you'd see it again...

I tried a mock up of Chalkboard Nails' "Denim Leopard" and failed. But I still loved it! That's what is so brilliant about this mani, you seriously can't mess it up. It's so fun to play with.

In case you missed it, her tutorial is here. I used Essie Bikini so Teeny as a base, Essie Blue Rhapsody as the middle dots and Essie Aruba Blue for the dark surrounding accents. And of course, trusty and faithful Seche Vite to seal it all in! Can. Not. Get. Enough. Of. This. Mani!

Okay, done being annoying with that lol. It's getting late, but I'm determined to finish these posts before I go to bed! 0900 class be damned!

Leopard Print!

If I had to pick a favorite nail blogger, it would be Chalkboard Nails! Just LOVE her! I've been haunting her blog the longest and here's a mega reason why she's a superstar in my book:

Dotting tool Leopard Print!! Her tutorial is here and amazing. I can't get enough of this manicure! This was my first try at the method and I think it turned out super! The base color was Sally Hansen Diamond Strength 3k or More! with the middle marks being Revlon Colorstay in French Roast and surrounding dark marks were Sephora by OPI Caffeine Fix. I let it dry so it wouldn't smear and then topped it off with Seche Vite. I've never had so much FUN with a manicure. Thanks Chalkboard Nails!