Cookin' Up Frankens: Nightlock

"Katniss & Peeta next to the Cornucopia, prepared to 'kill themselves' with a handful of nightlock berries after the gamemakers decided they wanted to change the recently changed rule that there could be 2 victors from the same District..."

"Nightlock berries are the poisonous berries that Katniss uses to allow both her and Peeta to win the 74th Games. The berries are infamous for the lethal poisonous juices that are inside. The Nightlock juice functions similarly to potassium cyanide and can kill anyone who eats it instantly. The only known sources for these deadly berries in the Hunger Games Series is in the arena at the 74th Games and around District 12 and District 13. Foxface died after accidentally consuming them during the Games when she followed Peeta Mellark going to get them, thinking that the berries were edible. Katniss's father taught her that the berries were poisonous when teaching her about edible plants and berries in the woods. Nightlock berries were also some type of rebellion from the capital. Without knowing it Katniss made a mockery of the Capitol, it started a spark of the rebellion.

Their name is derived from the toxic nightshade and hemlock, both extremely poisonous plants.

Nightlock is also the keyword for The Holo and when said three times in a row causes The Holo to explode as a safety precaution.

It is also the poison pills (also known as Nightlock) that were made by District 13 given to the soldiers in Mockingjay.

Near the end of the movie, Seneca Crane is locked in a room with nothing to eat except nightlock, a cruel twist likely ordered by President Snow for allowing both Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark to win."

- The Hunger Games Wiki

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After that little story refresher, I shall move on to my actual franken! And of course my 1st franken has to be inspired by and dedicated to my love for THE HUNGER GAMES!!! Last week, I wrote my favorite & best blog post of all time on Maria's, Nails Made Simple, blog for a guest post in honor of THG midnight premiere.  I just had to write another blog post for Hunger Games :D I've only been blogging for about 3 months now, and I've been seeing the explosive fad of "frankens" popping up everywhere, & turning into a phenomenon of bloggers going rogue & creating their own lines of indie brands.  Most of these indie brand polishes/glitters are selling out & are in high demand.  I wanted to feel like part of this big polish trend by making my own little polish creation!  Yesterday I saw a new Deborah Lippman polish called "Ray Of Light" swatched by Stephanie - Imperfectly Painted and thought to myself...instead of paying $18+ for a DL, why not just try to recreate it & make my own better cheaper version?! HELLS YES! Last night while taking a shower, my mind was suddenly flooded with ideas about what the name of this franken should be...what did it look like? what did it remind me of? what things am I interested in/excited about?? The. Hunger. Games. Once making the correlation of the potential polish's deep blue/indigo color & some aspect/item from THG, i thought...NIGHTLOCK.  Pretty & unassuming, but deadly. Those little lethal berries were evident throughout all 3 books, as you could see from the info at the top of the post.

The Recipe for My 'Nightlock' Franken:

a splash of Essie "No More Film"

a squirt of OPI "Russian Navy"

a dash of OPI "Play 'Til Midnight"

a smidgen of OPI "I Juggle Men"

a touch of NOPI "Count On Me"

a pinch of Essie "Shine Of The Times"

a hint of Finger Paints Flakies "Flashy"

So, I wrote up this post before applying & taking pics of my franken....sadly, it didn't exactly come out how I hoped. It seemed so promising in the bottle. Maybe the addition of colors like Russian Navy darkened more than I wanted it to be.  I wanted it to be a little lighter of an indigo/jelly.  And I think some of my flakies overpowered the gorgeous subtle iridescent shimmer that was mixed in.  Let me know what you think...maybe it's not so original.

 First, I dumped a bottle of Pure Ice out that I never cared for, rinsed it a few times with some acetone, let it air out, the started pouring in a little bit of each polish starting with the blue Essie. 

 The following are outside in direct afternoon sunlight. In the sun for some pics, it looks more dark than it really is

 Indigo Blue with subtle iridescent shimmer & copper/pink flakies

 really had a hard time capturing the polish in the bottle

In the pic below, you can kind of see the rose gold/sunset shimmer hidden in the indigo

 Here now in the following pics, you can see how blue/slightly purple-toned it is

Well, that's it for my 1st franken....what did you think of "Nightlock"??? Not original enough? It was a fun first try for me.  I was so excited to play with the polishes & make something just for The Hunger Games.  I'll keep honing my skills!  Thanks for stopping by & don't forget to check out 1 of the 2 Taylor Swift songs from The Hunger Games movie soundtrack!

Team Peeniss!!! Peeta + Katniss = the forever love <3

"Eyes Open", by Taylor Swift - The Hunger Games Soundtrack

Graffiti Splatter!!!

I've been really wanting to try a splatter polish effect for a while after seeing so many people doing it on their blogs and finding such amazing splatter results on Pinterest....some ladies like Sarah from @ChalkboardNails, had such an incredible turnout with her splatter. Her splatter blog post was my inspiration. So I wanted to give it a try.  

So first I collected my materials to start the splatter process: plate, tape, straws, polishes, cotton balls, Q-tips, acetone remover.  Here comes my first mistake, didn't have paper plates on hand, so I didn't think anything of it when I grabbed a styrofoam plate **MUST USE PAPER** or the polish will eat right through the plate & drip onto your floor!  When this happened my little 11 yr old brother had a brilliant idea to lay strips of tape down on the plate, and it worked! what a cute genius he is!  After the 1st hole that burned through the plate, I just poured my puddles of polish onto the strips of tape.  The process for this mani is a lot like doing water marbling...all fingers need to be taped up for easier cleanup & then I used my go-to white - OPI "Alpine Snow" for the base, 2 coats.  As for my color choices, used in order:

Essie "Turquoise & Caicos"

Essie "Haute As Hello"

OPI "Black Onyx"

Ulta "Blue Streak"

Essie "Play Date"

...forgive the fuzzy pics - used my iPhone in my room. at night. only lit by lamps.

fingers are all taped & have 2 coats of white!!!!

 One color at a time, pour a little puddle of polish on the plate, dip the straw into the polish, hold the straw 2-3 inches from the nail, then give one big fast puff of air to spray the polish onto the nail.  I did all 10 nails, then repeated all this for the next 3-4 colors.

Seriously, when the tape was still on and I finished, I was terrified. It looked so hideous, and i was just pissed off because I spent the same amount of time & energy on this as I do on water marbling (which I actually love doing & always has an incredible look).

 the finished product of splattering

 right after doing clean-up with Q-tips & polish remover...the 2nd huge ass mistake on my part.  I ran of pure acetone on my last mani & have not picked up another bottle since then.  So I had to try to do cuticle clean-up with generic polish remover (that did not work & cleaning up was a b*tch!)

I tried my best then put 2 coats of Seche Vite on top....

 OPI "Black Onyx"

 Ulta "Blue Streak" 

 Essie "Play Date"

 Essie "Haute As Hello"

 ...it's been growing on me

 OPI "Alpine Snow" in direct sunlight.....ugh sorry for my cuticle mess :(

 outside in direct sunlight

Bailey the Bulldog 

....so this is def a very different, kinda messy funky mani. Have y'all tried a splatter before??

Monochromatic Teal-icious Marbling!

Hey y'all! So this week was Spring Break (SB12) here in Arkansas...i didn't go anywhere for vacation. But i did get to have a 'Girls Day' with my bestie girlfriend. We just hung out... read magazines, drank sweet tea, swapped iTunes music, braided hair, AND painted nails.  I gave her a water marbling mani because she wanted to me do that on her & i was excited because it was my 2nd attempt!  Its seriously just a crazy cool way to use nail polish...cant get enough!  For this mani, I picked a fun assortment of monochromatic mints & teals.  I used 4 colors: China Glaze "Refresh-Mint", Essie "Turquoise & Caicos", OPI "Fly", & Nicole by OPI "Khloe Had A Little LamLam".  I'm jealous that I wasn't doing this on my own nails ;)

 Red Solo Cup...i fill you up...with lacquer!!!!! ;) as usual, have a cup filled with room temp water, toothpicks, polishes with all lids unscrewed, & a paper towel for the messy fallout & dirty toothpicks

 fingers all taped & dipped with such amazeballs unique patterns!

 this was def a dramatic improvement on my 1st water marbling mani...just in the way I pulled the toothpick through the rings of polish

 THUMBS!!!! ....so different

 LOVE! LOVE! LOVE! love everything...colors & patterns!

So my very first water marble was for a guest post on Miss Madrigal's blog...I love the way these colors turned out together & can't wait to do it again! What do y'all think?? More of a fan of totally random colors or this monochromatic theme?

Guest Post: Hunger Games Nails

Hello there!

Ryan allowed me to do a guest post for her and im supper excited! We both met a few months back in the wonderful world of twitter and we discovered the love we both share for The Hunger Games , so why not do guest post following the theme!  .

I needed to keep my nails a little bit on the conservative side for work so ,I went with something simple . I tried to recreate fire on the tips of my nails using Deborah Lippman- Boom Boom Pow ,Kleancolor-Gold Shimmer & loose red glitter that i sprinkled on . The base color is OPI-Designer De Better and i used Orly-Jet Black to write "The Hunger Games" on my middle finger. Im definitely keeping these nails until the day of the premiere,Im so excited for this movie and hearing Ryan gush about the movie makes me even more anxious to watch it! .. are you into The Hunger Games like we are? let me know :)

I hope you all like my simple design & thank you thank you Ryan for being such a sweet gal and letting me take over for a day ;D

xoxo
Maria 

ps.
Ryan also did a guest post on my blog make sure to check it out HERE i cant wait to see what she came up with! :)

Spice Up Your Life!

¡Hola! I am staying on my bright streak with this spicy hotttttt color by Essie "Olé Caliente".....inspired by a look I saw Jennifer Lopez wear on both her fingers and toes with an an outfit she wore on her new Latin culture show on Fox: "Q'VIVA: The Chosen".  It's a unique beautiful red-orange with coral/pink/watermelon undertones.  Its def more orange than Essie's "Watermelon".  It's gorgeous & bright & classy.  It's part of Essie's Spring 2012 Collection.  It was definitely a little streaky with the 1st coat...it was best after 3 thin coats.  I put this on my fingers & toes to match the always fabulous JLO ;D  Below is the outfit she was wearing with this nail color...and if you haven't watched her new show 'Q'Viva...then you are missing out.  Entertaining, vibrant, inspirational...about traditional talents from over 20 Spanish-speaking countries collected to compete in a Las Vegas show with JLO & Marc Anthony.  Check it out on Saturday nights on FOX at 8/7c.  

 she is so damn hott!!!! its not even fair. below you can sorta see her nails 

now on with the nail show.....

 fluorescent lighting seems to highlight the orange tones in it

 now in direct sunlight, you can see more pink tones in it.

pues... ¿les gustan las uñas? :D How did you like this caliente polish???