Liebster Award Nomination!!

Hey nail enthusiasts!

The lovely Tyeisha from the Lacquernerd has nominated me for the Liebster Award! Thank you so much Tyeisha!!

This award is to help others discover some awesome new blogs that people may not have seen before. And these are the rules:

1. You must link back to the blogger who nominated you. 
2. Answer the 11 questions given to you by the blogger who nominated you. 
3. Nominate 11 other bloggers with less than 200 followers.
4. Go to the blogs you nominated and notify them of your nomination.
5. Give your nominees 11 questions to answer

So, here are my answers to the questions Tyeisha asked me:

1. What made you want to start blogging?

 I started blogging because I wanted a way to share with others my love for everything nail polish, and be able to connect to other nail enthusiasts like me. :)

2. Who is your biggest inspiration and why?

For this one I would have to say my Mom. She's always been there for me, and supported everything I do.

3. If you could have one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Hmmmmm.....I would have to say Badger Blast ice cream (chocolate ice cream with caramel, and chocolate chunks). You can only get this ice cream at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and it is THE BEST.

4. What's your favorite color?

Violet purple.

5. What is your favorite design to do on your nails?

I would have to say Leopard print. It's easy to do, and it always looks pretty cool!

6. If you were to live the life of a celebrity, who would it be and why?

The actress Blake Lively...she is too perfect!

7. What are your pet peeves?

I'm kind of a neat freak, and love to have everything organized. So, when something is out of place or someone makes a mess without cleaning it up, it annoys me.

8. What is your favorite holiday?

Christmas! I love it when the whole family is together, and all the great food (of coures ;) )

9. What is your biggest fear?

Getting lost without anyone around in the middle of nowhere...I'm awful with directions.

10. What would you do for a Klondike Bar?

Go to work. Haha they have them for free where I work! (And no, I do not eat them all the time...I limit myself to only once in awhile)

11. What is your favorite saying/quote?

 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11

Being a Christian, this has always been one of my favorite bible quotes because even if the day isn't going my way, I know that God has a plan for me and everything is going to be okay.

Anyway, here are the blogs I nominate:

A Girl and Her Chicken Named Betty

HG Nail Design

The Nail Snail

The Sequined Nail

Nailuminium

Polish Luv

Splash Your Nails

Nailsss

Glitterazi

The Colorful Cupcake Cat

Polished 26

And Here are my 11 Questions for my nominees:

1. What made you start blogging?

2. How many nail polishes do you own?

3. Which nail polish is your absolute favorite?

4. Which one: Chocolate or Vanilla?

5. Which one: Pastel nail polish or Neon nail polish?

6. Do you have any pets? (if so, what kind/what are their names?)

7. If you could go on a vacation anywhere, where would you go?

8. Are you a fan of textured polish?

9. In one word, how would you describe yourself?

10. If you had to pick a color to describe you, which would it be?

11. If you were at the zoo and could only see one animal, which animal would you see?

Some of these questions are kind of random, but, hey, that's what makes it fun! Please check out these awesome blogs I nominated! They are all great, and all ones I follow!

 

As for my nominees, let me know if you accept the award or not, and send me a link to your blog post!

Thanks for reading!

-Colleen

 

Neon Flame Nails

Hey nail enthusiasts!

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days, I just started school this week and it's been so busy!!

Anyway, a few months ago I came across a tutorial video that shows you how to do a marble flame design and it looked pretty cool, so I decided to try it for you today! (You can see the really good tutorial video by midnightblue716 on how to do this mani here).

Here it is:

Pretty cool, huh? To me it looks like neon fire! :) I did a neon green and pink here, but I think I might try this design again sometime with other neon colors.

Polishes I used:
-Sinful Colors Black On Black
-China Glaze Pool Party
-China Glaze In The Lime Light

Thanks for readying, and have a great rest of the day!!

-Colleen

National Day Of...Challenge: National Waffle Day!

Hey guys! I hope you've had a great start to your weekend, and Happy National Waffle Day!

It's the second theme of the challenge, so today I've got waffle nails to show you! However, I really didn't get to creative on this one....I just did the checkered waffle pattern.

Here it is:

Sorry about the lack of good pictures, I had no idea the extreme shimmer of the gold polish would be so hard to capture!

To me, this mani sort of resembles whole wheat waffles...especially with the grayish base color! If you want to see some real authentic waffle nails with syrup, butter, whip cream, and the whole nine yards, check out Marianne's waffle mani on her blog the Nail Polish Sleuth! She did a great job!!

 Polishes used:
 -a shimmery gold by Charlotte Russe (no name)
-a shimmery gray by Sephora by OPI   (no name)

Have a great rest of your day, and thanks for reading!

Don't forget, even if you didn't start on the first day of the challenge, you can still participate!!!

-Colleen

Blog Your Heart Out Award Nomination!

 Happy Thursday everyone!

I have been nominated for the Blog Your Heart Out Award by Katherine from the blog ProcrastiNails! Thank you so much Katherine!

 I guess the way the award works is that you are given 5 questions to answer and then you are to nominate 5 other blogs you like that have under 100 followers. This award is designed to showcase amazing blogs that people might not know about yet, and help them gain more followers.

Here are the questions:
1. What/who encouraged you to start blogging?
 What has encouraged me to start blogging in the first place is my love for everything nail polish! I really only started getting into nails about four months ago, and that was when I started trying to do nail designs. That last month of school this past year, I had many people start coming up to me to compliment my nails from my friends, to teachers, to random people at the store. Then, on Pinterest and Tumblr, I discovered that there were so many other people out there who liked nail polish as much as me, and I began reading/following many nail blogs (that I never knew existed before). I wanted to be part of that nail-blogging community, so that is why I started my blog! :)
2. How did you chose what topic(s) to blog about?
 Well, I have always been taught to think outside the box and to always let your creativity run wild. At first though, I would search for nail designs for inspiration, but now I try to think up my own, original ideas. I do this by looking at everyday things and thinking that they'd make cool nail designs, or even looking at the clothes in my closet or window shopping at the mall and making them into nail designs as well.

3. What is something that most people don't know about you?
I was a competitive swimmer for eight years, and swam on the National Team at my club swim team for 3 of those years. While on the National Team, I had the joy of going to double swim practices (which add up to 5 hours of training a day), plus additional weight-lifting and dryland. Swimming used to be my life until I had to quit because I just couldn't fit it in my schedule because it was an hour away, and I just didn't have the time to commit to it any more because high school is hard enough with classes and other activities without all the extra swimming pressure. The plus side though, is now I can paint my nails! When I was swimming, no matter if I got my nails done at a salon or did them myself, they ALWAYS chipped. So at least I can now enjoy my nails a little longer! :)

4. What three words describe your style?
Creative, simple, and unique.

4. What do you like to do when you are not blogging?
I like hanging out with my friends, teaching swim lessons in the summer, reading, shopping, and cheering on my favorite sports teams: the Chicago White Sox, Chicago Bears, the Chicago Blackhawks, and the Chicago Bulls (I guess you can say I'm a Chicago fan, lol).

So, thanks again to Katherine who nominated me! Here are my five nominees:

HG Nail Design
Polish Luv
Nailista
Nails. N. Details
Colorful Cupcake Cat
 

 Congrats ladies!

Tonight I hope to post a swatch on a Sinful Colors polish, so talk to you a little later!

By the way, it's not to late to join the National Day Of...Challenge! The 24th is National Waffle Day!!

-Colleen

National Day Of...CHALLENGE: National Day Of Cupcakes (#1)

Well, Happy National Day of Cupcakes everyone!

I don't think I'll be having a cupcake today, but why not celebrate?! The first day of the National Day of...CHALLENGE is the National Day of Cupcakes, so I have a cupcake mani to show you!

I painted this cupcake mani on my little sister's nails the other day, which was actually pretty hard to do. Her hands definitely aren't full size yet, and are still really small, so I didn't have a lot of room for the cupcakes. I really wanted to add sprinkles, but I didn't have a lot of canvas room :(
And sorry for the lack of good hand positioning in the pictures...we had quite a struggle...

Anyway, here it is:

Polishes Used:
Love & Beauty Pink/Gold (pink)
Sinful Colors Tempest (purple)
Nail-Licious Holly Berry (red)
Nicole by OPI Hit The Lights (darker yellow)
Delia's Lemon Chiffon (lighter yellow

If anyone else wants to participate, that would be super awesome! Have a great rest of the day! If you have any questions about the challenge, let me know via a comment or email!

-Colleen

An InLinkz Link-up

National Day Of...CHALLENGE intro

National Day Of...CHALLENGE (Aug. 19th-Oct. 31st)

Dream It Up Nails By COLLEEN

Hey all,

When I started blogging in late June, I was sort of disappointed to see that I had already missed the startup of most of the summer nail blogging challenges. So, for this fall, I have decided to start up my own challenge.

I stumbled upon this website one day that lists all these crazy appreciation days and National/International holidays, and thought that a lot of them would inspire some pretty cool nail designs.

If enough people are interested in taking part, I will start up an Inlinkz for the challenge. If not, I can always do it by my lonesome :)

I tried to make this challenge so that it’s not everyday, and you can have a lot of freedom with it. Even if you don’t want to take part in all of the days and only want to do a few, that’s cool too.

Here are the days:

August 19th, 2013: National Cupcake Day

August 24th, 2013: National Waffle Day

September 3rd, 2013: National Skyscraper Day

September 10th, 2013: International Makeup Day

September 21st, 2013: International Day of Peace

September 22, 2013: National Elephant Appreciation Day/National Ice Cream Cone Day (your choice)

September 23rd, 2013: International Checkers Day

September 25th, 2013: World Tourism Day

September 28th, 2013: National Fish Tank Day

September 29th, 2013: National Coffee Day

October 2nd, 2013: Guardian Angel Day

October 7th, 2013: World Smile Day

October 19th, 2013: Rainforest Day

October 29th, 2013: National Cat Day

October 30th, 2013: National Candy Corn Day

October 31st, 2013: HALLOWEEN!!!!

So, the challenge will start Aug. 19th and end on Halloween, Oct. 31st. How does this sound? Do you know of any other cool days I could add?

If you’re interested in taking part, send me an email, tell me on twitter, or leave a blog post comment and I will add your blog’s link to the Challenge page on my blog. If you have any other questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions, let me know! I’d love to hear from you!

-Colleen

An InLinkz Link-up

N.A.I.L. Challenge: Sea

Hey guys!

I hope you've been having a great day so far! Today I have for you  a 'Sea' themed mani for the NAIL linkup challenge. When I thought of 'Sea' somehow this is what came to my head: seaweed and Jelly fish. lol.
Here it is:

I wasn't sure which one I liked better, the Jelly fish with or without polka dots, so I decided to show you both... :)

The blue background is L.A. Colors In A Flash; the two greens used for the seaweed were Essie The More The Merrier and China Glaze In The Lime Light;  the light purple of the jelly fish is Sinful Colors Tempest; and the polka dots is L.A. Girl Hustle.

I hope you like it! ;) And by the way, I got a little bored today, so earlier I made a little blog collage that I wanted to show you!

Have a great rest of the weekend!!

-Colleen

Mint & Gold Bracelet Inspired Nails Round 2

Happy Friday everyone!

I'm so glad the weekend is finally here! Today I am continuing on with the accessory-inspired nail trend of mine, with a mint colored bracelet with gold curves and silver studs. Here it is:

I'm sorry there's a really bad glare on the pictures. It was really hard to capture the gold, since it is so shiny. Also, it's kind of hard to see, but like the silver studs on the bracelet, I tried to add dabs of silver glitter on top of the gold, but it's really hard to see in the pictures.

For this mani I used Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet, a sparkly gold color from Sephora by OPI, and a silver microglitter from Charlotte Russe.

I hope you all have a great weekend, and thanks for reading!

-Colleen

By the way, check out the Whale's Nails Blog for an awesome giveaway here.

Saran Wrap Infinity Nails (Bracelet Inspired)

Hey all!

I just went shopping the other day at Charming Charlie and bought myself some cool accessories that also gave me some inspiration for nail designs. Yeah!! So the next couple of days I will be doing designs off of some of the accessories I bought.

For today, I have a bracelet that has cloudy purple beads (that's where the saran wrap fits in) and a studded infinity sign. Here's the mani I did off of it:

I did this mani using Sinful Colors Tempest, L.A. Girl Hustle, and a silver microglitter from Charlotte Russe (no name).

I hope to do a few more accessory-inspired manicures for you within the next few days!!

Thanks for reading!

-Colleen

P.S. Don't forget to check out the awesome giveaway on the Lacquer or Leaver Her blog here.

Lily Pad Nails

Hey all!

Today I have for you another nail design that has been on my summer bucket list: Lily Pad Nails. Although it didn't really turn out like I had in mind, it looks okay nonetheless. Here it is:

For this mani I used a pastel blue color from California Colors, China Glaze In The Lime Light and Sinful Colors Black on Black for the lily pads, a gold/pink color by Love & Beauty for the flowers, and a dark blue color and grainy silver glitter by Charlotte Russe. It's pretty cute...but I might have overdone it a little bit with all the polka dots...

Anyway, I hope you have a great rest of the day!

-Colleen

Swatch Time: China Glaze Flying South (from On the Horizon Collection)

Happy Monday everyone!

After being gone on college visits the past few days, the first thing I wanted to do when I got home earlier today was to paint my nails! So, today I have for you a polish from the China Glaze On The Horizon Collection, Flying South. I have never been to into the texture-like polish, so when I saw it in the store, I wasn't quite sure if it was really up my alley. I decided to try it anyway, and bought Flying South to give this feathery kind of polish a try.

Flying South was definitely one of the hardest polishes to photograph, because it seemed no matter what angle or position I took a picture in, I felt like I couldn't quite capture it quite right. Here are some pictures of 2 coats of Flying South over 2 coats of a maroon colored base from Sephora by OPI (it didn't have a name):

I wasn't sure I would like in the beginning, but I actually really like it! Flying South is a clear polish with orange and white bar glitter, and copper-colored microglitter. It was easy to paint on, and although the formula was a tad on the thick side, it was really nice to work with. When using this polish on top of another color, I would use it on darker colors. I've seen some people use this polish on top of white, and I didn't think it looked as good as it does on darker colors, where the darker base color brings out the orange bar glitter and copper microglitter much better.

 

Flying South and the other On The Horizon polishes from China Glaze are perfect colors for the fall, so if you're looking to try some textured polish or feather-like polish, this China Glaze collection would be a great thing to start with! 

-Colleen

N.A.I.L. Challenge: Sun

Hey guys!

Brigits Digits, eeeeknailpolish, and Crafty Nail are doing another challenge, this time a mini August challenge called N.A.I.L. (Which stands for Nail Art Ideas Linkup). You can see the post on the Brigits Digits blog here. And, the theme for Aug. 7th-11th is Sun.

So, here's my mani....it's definitely NOT my best mani, but it's all I could do tonight...I'm insanely tired from walking around all day at the college visit I went to and I'll leaving at 5 am tomorrow to attend another one (yeahhhhh). But with out further ado, here it is:

I didn't really know what to do after I finished the sun, so I decided to do chevron for the rest of the nails. The polishes I used were:

-Nicole by OPI Hit The Lights

-Delia's Coral Cascade

-a grainy glitter polish by Charlotte Russe

-a sky blue color by California Colors

I have to say though, do you remember the Mr. Sun song from like preschool? Because this mani reminds me of it lol :)

I also bought a few new polishes at Sally's the other day, and unfortunately I probably won't be able to get around to it until Monday Night, because I'll be doing some more college road trippin' and visiting family out of town and won't get around to it. 

Thanks for reading!! I'm off to bed....Good Night!!

-Colleen

NOTE: I don't think the link up is open yet, so I'll have to add my link tomorrow morning when it is

Zebra Dress-inspired Mani

Hey all! Happy Manicure Monday!

I have another object-inspired mani for you! Today I started cleaning/unpacking things from this past school year (yes, I never got around to doing that all summer lol), and I started going through my closet. After cleaning things up off the floor of the closet (where I tend to stash stuff when I "clean my room") I found my old Christmas dress from two years ago, one with zebra print on top and a purple stripe in the middle. I didn't even think I still had it. Anyway, I thought it might be a cool thing to model my mani after!

Here it is (by the way, the L.A girl polish is Violet purple, not the indigo color it looks like in the picture):

Oh, and here is the dress it was modeled after. I'm sorry the picture is so awful (I had no good natural light since it has been cloudy out all day today), but just know that the stripe/ribbon right below the zebra print top part of the dress is a Violet color, not the indigo it looks like in the picture.

Overall, I think the mani turned out okay....I think next time if I were to ever repeat this mani, I would use a lighter color (maybe red or coral?) that wouldn't blend in with the black as much. Anyway, the polishes I used were Sinful Colors Black on Black, L.A. Girl Hustle (purple), and L.A. Girl Disco Ball (white).

Hope you like it! Have a great rest of the evening!

-Colleen

Purse-Inspired Mani

Hey everyone!

Today I have for you a mani inspired by one of my purses! It's a Betsy Johnson purse, with a mix of leopard print and roses. Here's a pic of the pattern:

I thought it was really cute when I got it, so I thought doing a manicure off of it would be pretty cool!

Here's my mani:

I thought it tuned out pretty cool! Actually, I think it's my best mani yet :)

For the gray base color, I used a sparkly gray from Sephora by OPI, which was from the 2012 Holiday Collection. For the light maroon color used for the leopard print, I used another Sephora by OPI polish, again from the 2012 Holiday Collection. For the black, I used Sinful Colors Black On Black. The two pink colors used in the roses were Sally Hansen Ruby Sequin and a hot pink by Delia's; and the green used was Essie The More The Merrier.

I hope you guys like the mani! If anyone would like a tutorial posted, please let me know via the comments or by email (see the contact me tab)!

Have a fabulous rest of the day,

-Colleen

Turtle Shell Nails

Well, Happy Saturday everyone!

It's finally a gorgeous day in the Chicagoland area today. 75 degrees and not a cloud in the sky :)

Anyway, today I have for you a design that has been at the top of my Nail Design Bucket List: Turtle Shell Nails! Overall, I think it turned out pretty good. Here it is:

I love the pear-green color with the coral!! For something a little different, here's a picture of it with a ring (which looks almost like a turtle shell to me):

 For this mani, I started out with 2 coats of Essie The More The Merrier (the pear-green color) on all fingers except my ring finger. For the coral base color on my ring finger, I used 2 coats of Delia's Coral Cascade. Then, to get the turtle shell pattern, I used a gray color with shiny silver undertones from Sephora by OPI Holiday 2012 Mini Collection (I threw out the box which had the names on it, sorry) for the turtle shell print on the nails that had green on them, and used another glittery gold polish from Sephora by OPI Holiday 2012 Collection (Which again I don't know the name for) for the turtle shell print on the coral-colored nail. To make the turtle shell print, all I did was take a tooth pick and draw a small hexagon on the nail, and continue drawing hexagons connecting to the first hexagon. For a better turtle shell print, make sure to draw that first hexagon in a different place on each of the nails. I hope that all made sense....

That's all for today....hope you have a great rest of the weekend!!

-Colleen

Attack of the Minions Nails

Hey all!

I have seen many, many, many minion-themed nails recently. In fact, I really liked the minion-themed nails on the blog Eeeek! Nail polish! which you can see here. But I have to say, mine definitely doesn't look as good as hers. My little sister was the one who really wanted to have Minion Nails, which made it hard because she has such tiny fingernails. So, I tried my best.

It didn't really turn out like I had hoped, but here it is:

I have to say though, the one minion on my sister's middle finger almost looks like it has fangs lol (it was supposed to be teeth, but her nail was so small)

Anyway, the yellow I used was Nicole by OPI Hit The Lights, the dark blue was from Charlotte Russe (it didn't have a name), the black was Sinful Colors Black On Black, and the white for the eyes was L.A. Girl Disco Ball. 

I hope you have a great rest of the day! Thanks for reading!

By the way, check out the blog Wishes of a Blue-Eyed Girl for an awesome giveaway celebrating her 1 year blogaversery!! You can check it out here.

-Colleen

ROY G BIV Polka Dot Mani

Hey all!

I hope you're all having a great week so far. Today I'm showing you a mani I did modeled off of Jen's Rainbow Polka Dot Nails on her blog Polish and Pearls. You can see hers here, where she also has a tutorial. I thought this mani was amazing for summer, and the bright colors really cheered me up since it the weather was so gloomy in Chicago for most of the day yesterday.

Anyway, here it is:

And then here is the line of rainbow colors I used (Sorry about the window being in the pic...I couldn't crop it very well and I wanted to be able to use the ledge):

For the white I used L.A. Girl Disco Ball, for the blue I used a pastel blue color from California Colors (it didn't have a name), for the green I used Essie The More The Merrier, for the yellow I used Nicole by OPI Hit The Lights  from the Selena Gomez Collection, the orange and pink were two neons from Delia's (they didn't have a name either), and for the purple I used Sinful Colors Tempest.

To do this design all I did was start out with 2 coats of white. Then on half of each of the nails I tried to do 3-4 big dots of the colors with the end of a bobby pin. Then, I used a small-pointed dotting tool to add smaller dots of the same colors. You can see a regular tutorial of this mani from Polish and Pearls linked above.

I hope you like this mani! The little kids I teach for swim lessons loved it lol.

Have a great rest of the day!

-Colleen