It’s the Little Things

Lovely Touches of Bling

Why do we do it? In this whole world of being our natural and authentic self, why do we (OK, I) continue to paint, polish and primp?

Seriously, am I concerned about nail shaming? While that might be a tongue in check poke at who we are, the truth of the matter is that it makes me happy. There’s nothing more simple than that. It’s why I have a comfort level revisiting a colour like OPI’s Nail Lacquer Pedal Faster Suzi.

On this lazy breezy day, I can enjoy the subtle shimmer of the lacquer as I work. Is that enough? It might be, but for me, the little touches of bling make me smile the most.

I am simply enamoured of the delicate line of small rhinestones laid over a strip of white – aren’t you?

Choice Matters – Undercover Colors Nail Polish

Nail Polish that Changes Color in the Presence of Date Rape Drugs from the First Fashion Company Working to Prevent Sexual Assault

In the U.S., 18% of women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. That’s almost one out of every five women in our country. We may not know who they are, but these women are not faceless. They are our daughters, they are our girlfriends, and they are our friends. 

While date rape drugs are often used to facilitate sexual assault, very little science exists for their detection. Our goal is to invent technologies that empower women to protect themselves from this heinous and quietly pervasive crime.

For our first product, we are developing a nail polish that changes color when it comes in contact with date rape drugs such as Rohypnol, Xanax, and GHB. With our nail polish, any woman will be empowered to discreetly ensure her safety by simply stirring her drink with her finger. If her nail polish changes color, she’ll know that something is wrong.

Materials Science & Engineering undergraduate students Ankesh Madan, Tasso Von Windheim, Tyler Confrey-Maloney, and Stephan Gray are the founders and creators of Undercover Colors

The creators state on their website “Through this nail polish and similar technologies, we hope to make potential perpetrators afraid to spike a woman’s drink because there’s now a risk that they can get caught. In effect, we want to shift the fear from the victims to the perpetrators. We are Undercover Colors and we are the first fashion company empowering women to prevent sexual assault. ”

Donate to our Research and Development efforts: https://undercovercolors.cloverdonations.com/uc-donations-page/

Spring Bling is Here

OPI I love Applause

I’m totally digging these OPI minis – yes, I did just use digging in a sentence – they allow me to go back and use different combinations and try things without worrying about the large amount of leftover polish you know I must have.

This week I pulled out an oldie but a goodie, OPI’s Muppet Collection from 2013.

The collection’s I Love Applause seemed perfect for the start of Spring. It goes on a little sheer so I used my preferred 3 coats to achieve a colour closer to what you see in the bottle. OPI makes such a smooth product that you don’t get any glumping (it could be a real word!) with the extra coat.

Of course it wouldn’t be Spring if I didn’t add some bling. My sparkly version of a French Tip manicure came by adding a bit of glitter polish to the tip of each nail.

• Miss Piggy’s Big Number – ” Stand Back …. Miss Piggy’s On Sapphire!”
• I Love Applause – ” This Sheer, Sweet Pink Deserves A Standing Ovation.”
• Kermit Me To Speak – ” Listen Up …. I’ve Got Lot’s To Say About This Rosy Mauve.”
• Chillin’ Like A Villain – ” My Evil Plan … To Get Away With This Precious Sheer Nude.”

What are you wearing this Spring?

Good Girl, Good Design

Subtle stone completes this polished look

After wearing my flashy 50 Shades of Grey combo for almost 2 weeks I wasn’t ready to wear another bold design. I knew it was too soon to revert to a basic look with my signature flower, since I was still feeling a little playful. But what to do?

Enter bargain shopping. Sinful Colors makes a pretty decent array of hues for your pretty peddies and they hold up too, without formaldehyde, toluene and DBP. All of that at $1.99!

We started with a base of their Good Girl polish. On first coat, it had quite a pink visible in the red. Looking at the bottle you can see how that surprised me. The color deepened with the second coat until we arrived at the final color on coat three. Lovely, isn’t it?

The high gloss red reminded me of a classic car’s Candy Apple Red paint job. It just deserved a little more. That’s when I decided to add the small rhinestone to the base cuticle area. BAM! A powerful, yet subtle design was born. One I was comfortable wearing to all my upcoming business meetings. I’m a Good Girl.

What color/design makes you feel best?

These Beauties Aren’t For Nail Biters, But They’re Good Enough to Eat

How To Decorate Nail Polish Cookies!

OPI Fifty Shades of Grey Collection!

Call Me 50 Shades of Play

With a collection of lacquers inspired by 50 Shades of Grey OPI has really hit their mark.

They’ve not only brought down the house with a terrific selection of color choice and silky smoothness to the polish but OPI’s marketing team did not hold back on bringing us the best they had to offer. Visit the site, it’s chock full of tempting, tantalizing treats and tutorials.

With something this well done, I couldn’t have just any polish job. It was time for Lucy to bring her talents to the table and give me some kind of Valentine’s day wonderful.

50 Shades of Grey – Can You Handle It?

We started with a base coat of OPI’s Romantically Involved on all but one nail – that one had Dark Side of the Mood 0.5 oz, a deep charcoal that backed Shine for Me 0.5 oz to give it some depth.

I can see myself mixing and matching the limited edition’s 6 colours in so many ways, but if you’re a little concerned about having 5 delectable shades of grey and one deep red you might want to pick up the Mini 6pk instead. Easy on the wallet and your imagination!

Don’t hold back this Valentine’s Day.

The Clueless Dad’s Guide To Painting Your Daughter’s Nails

Important dad information ahead. Sometimes, being a dad gives you the opportunity to be more like your daughter. If you think that’s amazing, wait until you see what Convos With My 2-Year-Old and Nissan did #withdad.

Read the full story with adorable pics

abbybatchelder / (CC BY http://2.0) / Via Flickr: abbybatchelder

Legendary Nails

Legendary Nails with OPI Coca Cola Collection

What becomes a Legendary Bingo Charity Night most? Legendary Nails of course!

OPI did a great job with their Coca Cola collection (Summer 2014), but I didn’t get my set until my eldest daughter played Santa.

The fabulous shades in this collection seemed to hot to me to let them sit idle until summer months. In fact, they seemed just perfect to bring the bling to a charity event we host annually.

Step one was 2 coats of Coca-Cola Red.

I had planned to add an overlay of gold but it just didn’t sing to me. Lucy suggested that we do two coats of the collection’s Orange You Fantastic!.  The combination of orange and gold with some flecks of a metallic coca cola red was just the right touch to bring it home. The final step was a clear top coat and I was ready for a fab-u-lous night!

What festive and fun polish choices do you make when you have a big night out?

Embedding Dried Flowers Under Acrylic

latinnailz4u has struck a chord with me again. The blog continues to have amazingly personal ideas and reminds me just how lovely embellishments can be.

I do have an amazing amount of allergies – even aloe! – so I’ll see how I do with the dried flowers around my skin first. But you can bet that I’ll be avoiding the winter chills with this beautiful spring time feel.

Welcoming 2015 Nail Trends

I’ve noticed that fashion trends seem to follow a bit of an arc from one extreme to another. Remember our love of cigarette leg jeans to widely flowing palazzo pants then years later, back again? It’s because pants can only taper in so much before they have to go wide again. And so it goes with our nails.

Not too long ago, we were wearing our nails short and natural – yours truly was even told by a salon owner that nails past finger tips had gone out of style (gasp!). As we welcome 2015 nail length is not only lovingly embraced but in some fashion circles getting sharply pointy. To each his or her own, I’m not quite the fan of Twilight nails.

Design wise, the art is becoming stark and strong, with negative space designs trending.

Want to learn how? Check out these stunning tutorials:

They make it look pretty easy and fabulous. Bring on 2015