Jack-O-Lanterns!!

Happy Halloween!!!!!!! Today, Alaina from The Little Canvas and I are doing TWINSIE posts on our blogs...we both did some jack-o-lantern nails for Halloween day. My homegirl Alaina proposed the idea to me this weekend & of course I wanted to join in with her. She motivated me to do one more Halloweeny mani & end the spooky month of October with a BOO!  So make sure you creep on over to her blog & check out her pumpkin patch nails! Do yall like my pumpkin carving pic (stole it from Google)?? Today being Halloween means it's October 31st, which means I am now just 14 more days away from seeing the last Twilight movie premiere...BREAKING DAWN PART 2!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOHOO! I am both excited & sad that this is the end, the last one. I am of course seeing it on the premiere night...got my tickets on October 1st! Yep, I'm a total twihard & you will be seeing a pretty vamptastic Twilight Saga mani from me & Amanda from Nail Polish Enthusiast when we do Twi-Twinsie posts in a couple weeks! So be on the lookout for those...and I don't wanna hear any negativity about Twilight. If you don't like it, just keep it to yourself and love me anyways ;)

Now on with the punkin jack-o-lantern nails!!!!! I used 2 coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Sun Kissed" on all the nails. Then I did one coat of Fantasy Makers Glow In the Dark "Go With The Glow".  I then did 5 different jack-o-lantern faces on each nail using a Sally Hansen nail art pen in black. I then topped all of my nails with 1 thin coat of China Glaze "Fairy Dust". I finished it all off with some Seche Vite. I'm on the hunt for a new fast-dry topcoat though because I'm tired of the shrinkage from SV.  Happy Punkin Carving!!!!!!!! Here we ghost..... (hehe get it?) 

Now that Halloween is coming to a close, I can focus my attentions on my Twilight obsession! Any other Twilight fans out there? Hope y'all enjoyed my jack-o-lantern nails! Have a very Happy Halloween! See you on Friday for Nicole & I's Friday Football nails!! 

Guest Post: Team Swap!

Hey There Polished People! This is Nicole from Polish Me, Please! :) 

I hope you all have been enjoying Ryan and my football nail posts every Friday. Personally, I think half the fun of watching football games is getting all dressed up in  team gear, doing your nails for the game and making snacks for everyone to enjoy. Oh, and I think you need some festive drinks, too, if you know what I mean. ;) For you youngins I recommend some fun punch and some pop, and for us not-so-youngins I'm a fan of long islands, jello shots, cheap wine and/or whatever else floats your boat. It's fun to have watch parties and get all your friends together, even if you're not a die hard fanatic. Speaking of die hard fanatics- Ryan's team, as you all know, is the Arkansas Razorbacks aka The Hogs. We all know how much she loves them hogs! Haha. I remember in the beginning of the football season she was posting pictures on Instagram of all her billions and billions of red nail polishes in order to do her nails in Arkansas Razorbacks colors. In fact, all those posts about red nail polish for her Hogs is what made me want to do these football nails together. Anyway, before I keep blabbing on- let's just see the nails that I did in honor of Ryan's beloved team. :)

Arkansas Razorbacks Nails

How To Get These Nails:

1. Use base coat on all your nails. I like to use Sally Hansen Hard As Nails.

2. Paint your thumb (not shown) and index finger with OPI Big Apple Red.

3. Paint your ring finger with ChG White on White and then a layer of OPI Red Shatter applied in a wavy pattern. Cover the shatter with Seche Vite once it's dry and shattered. 

4. Paint your middle finger and pinkie with alternating layers of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu and OPI Gettin Miss Piggy With It to create a white with red glitter jelly sandwich. Make sure to end with a thin coat of the white jelly. 

5. Use a small brush and ChG White on White to paint the hog's tusks on the index finger, then use FP Black Expressionism to add the rest of the details of the hog's face. Make sure to make him look mean! :) Add tiny dots of white for the whites of his eyes.

6. Use FP Black Expressionism to make an A for Arkansas on your ring finger. When the black is dry, use ChG White on White to paint a thinner A in the middle of the black A to complete the letterman jacket-style letter. 

7. Use Essie Jelly Apple to paint a medium width line down the center of your jelly sandwich nails (middle and pinkie fingers). Use black and white stripers to add the stripes in the middle and on either side of the thick red stripe like you see in the picture.

8. Repeat steps 1-7 on other hand. 

9. When all your nails are completely dry (you do NOT wanna smudge these) apply a careful coat of Seche Vite making sure to never touch any part of any nail twice during this first careful coat. 

10. Apply another coat of Seche Vite when the first is dry. 

11. Show your friends and cheer on the Hogs with a "woo pig sooie!!" ;D

I chose to do a bit of a skittley look to capture all the fun and excitement Ryan has for her Hogs. :) I hope you all liked them!! Make sure to hop on over to my blog, Polish Me, Please! and check out the Oregon Ducks nails Ryan did for me! :) Let us know what you think in the comments below! Thanks for reading my guest post, I hope to see you over at Polish Me, Please! and till next time- Happy Polishing!! :D

Football Series: Fear The Tusk!

Hey y'all!! Ryan finally here again...I should be working on new Halloween manis BUT my sweet girl Nicole from Polish Me, Please! came to me with an idea that she wanted to do a series of football nails together because she knows how much I LOVE FOOTBALL!!!!! We both also discovered that our favorite NFL team is the same team, that will be revealed later!!! We have about 5 weeks of football themes coming your way! This Friday's is our favorite college team. I love college football the most, specifically my Arkansas Razorbacks! So last season my Razorbacks were having the most rocking season ever, finishing at #5 in the nation, with a 11-2 record - only losing to LSU & Alabama, the #1 & #2 teams in the country who played each other for the National Championship.  I would say that's pretty damn good! We also won our bowl game against Kansas State U. All that goes to say that the SEC (Southeastern Conference is the best in country!) This season is another story.  This past Spring we lost our Head Coach Bobby Petrino to a scandal. He was having an affair with a young female athletics assistant who he actually had been giving money to, had her chosen to be hired over other much more HIGHLY qualified applicants.  They were caught when he was taking her for a sexy joyride on his motorcycle and they crashed. He had someone come pick her up at the scene of the crash before police, media, & ambulances got there. He paid off an Arkansas State Trooper to keep his mouth shut. He lied about the accident, saying he was alone on his ride, to the media and to our school's Athletic Director. Everything came out and he was fired. Our team had to practice with our assistant coaches the rest of the Spring & this Summer.  We got a new Head Coach named John Smith...but he's horrible & nuttier than a damn fruitcake! And even with our QB Tyler Wilson and all of our top starters, we are having the worst season possible. Our 2nd game was against Louisiana-Monroe which we payed them $500,000 to play because it's usually an easy win. We lost & suffered 2 majorly devastating injuries.  The tragedy continued when we lost to Rutgers and got blown apart by Alabama 0-56.  We did finally snag a win last Saturday against Auburn who are 0-4. Woo. Tomorrow we play Kentucky & praying we win. We are now 2-4 & not looking too good. You can be sure that this coach John Smith will be fired for next season once his 10 month contract is up! Now if you go over to Nicole's blog, you will see her nail interpretation of her Oregon college team: The Oregon Ducks! I'm glad we don't play each other & arent rivals!!!

For my nails, I wanted to interpret our mascot saying "Fear The Tusk"!!!!! We are the only 'Razorback' in sports...unique! And our Hog has tusks, literally we have a real hog that rides around campus on game day and onto the field named 'Tusk'.  So for my nails I used Wet 'n' Wild "I Red A Good Book" on my thumb, pointer, & pinky nails. I used China Glaze "I'm Not Lion" on the ring nails. And I used Essie "Licorice" on the middle nails with a Sally Hansen nail art pen in white to draw tusks, then topped that nail with Essie "Matte About You" mattifying topcoat. Do you fear the tusks???

Now here's what you can expect to see from Nicole and I over the next 4 weeks:

October 12: Our College Football Nails

October 19: Our Favorite NFL Team Nails

October 26: Team Swap - Nicole does Hog nails here/I do Duck nails on her blog

November 2: Our High School Alma Mater Nails

November 9: General Football Nails

Go check out Nicole's Ducks nails here!!!

Hope yall liked our 1st nails, college nails, of this little football series we are starting!!! Check back each Friday to see what football inspired look we've brought you, and maybe you can do the same thing with your nails and just swap the colors for your favorite team!!!! GO HOGS! Woo Pig Sooie! 

Breast Cancer Awareness

Hey y'all! Ryan here with a new mani for you! It's that time of the year again...the month of October is National Breast Cancer Awareness.  Fortunately, I have been blessed to not have breast cancer in my family history and have never personally known anyone with breast cancer. I am most thankful I have never lost anyone to breast cancer. But that doesn't mean I should ignore the possibilities or think I'm too young to get it.  Actress Christina Applegate was only 36 years old when she found out she had breast cancer.  It seems to be a very ignored topic with women not thinking they need to get yearly checkups.  I thought I would contribute to the awareness by doing some NBCA nails!

I created the breast cancer awareness nails by painting all nails with China Glaze "Go Go Girl" from last year's China Glaze NBCA packaging. It's a really nice pastel baby pink. It would've been evenly opaque with 3 coats but I used 4 coats. Next I put 2 coats of Essie "A Cut Above" pink hex glitter on my ring nails.  Last I used OPI "Charged Up Cherry" to create a pink ribbon on the tip of my middle finger nails. Then topped it all off with some Seche Vite!

People who go through cancer always seem to be the strongest bravest people...and I also think it helps that they have great support systems, family & friends who love them unconditionally.  I hope if I ever have to go through something as trying as cancer that I have someone who will 'love me through it'.  I for sure know my family will be there for me no matter what.  I have never been 'in love' before but I hope if I find someone to be my partner in life that they love me more if I were to go through something as difficult as that.  Alright ladies, check yourself today!  SAVE THE TATAS!!!!!! 

Woo Pig Sooie!

The University of Arkansas Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium and the fans 'Calling the Hogs'. Below- me & my very best friend Jessica Ryan in the stadium for a Hog football game!!! 

Hey y'all! I am sad that summer is over but I am not at all sad about Fall & COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!!  I graduated from the University of Arkansas with my undergrad in 2011 & did some graduate work there last fall. Going to the Razorback football games & sitting in the student section has pretty much been the highlight of my fall semesters the past years. And I am so depressed that I am not a student anymore & can no longer get nice student athletic passes for the games. Then I have my brother who is currently a Sophomore at the UofA & could care less about going to a game...blasphemy. As for me, I live for it. No greater thrill than watching my Razorbacks plow down the field & 'calling my hogs'.  Here in Arkansas we dont have any pro football teams, so the entire state loves & cheers for the Razorbacks. I kind of love it & it makes us unique. A whole state behind one college team, diehard devoted fans with THE MOST UNIQUE mascot & cheer in the country. And let me also add that we are not just any college team. We are a Top 3 SEC team (Southeastern Conference aka best conference in the USA). Last year we finished in the top 5 in the nation, only losing to the #1 & #2 teams, Alabama & LSU - also SEC teams. This year we are ranked #10 for pre-season. I am pretty excited about our chances this season with our Senior-led team & our QB Tyler Wilson. We have our first game of the season this Saturday against Jacksonville State (who?) haha! GO HOGS! 

So this entire fall will be riddled with red/white/black manis because of my Arkansas Razorback football games. From not until November, you will see lots of red! I am not super happy with the way these turned out & will be doing another round of red nails in a couple days. I painted all nails, except ring nails, with 4 coats of OPI "Don't Touch My TuTu!" from the NYC Ballet Collection - a sheer white jelly. Next I sponged China Glaze "Salsa" on the tips, followed by some China Glaze "Ruby Pumps" on the tips. I painted the entire accent nail with "Salsa" and then put some Milani 'Red' glitters on all the nails. Let me just say that China Glaze 'Salsa' is the most perfect red...perfect shade & such great formula. Again, not in love with this mani but will be trying something else this weekend...

my lovely Arkansas Razorback license plate! I love my HOGS!

Top Starters: #43 Tenarius Wright, #8 QB Tyler Wilson, #7 Knile Davis, #11 Cobi Hamilton

Everyone should know how to "CALL THOSE HOGS"!!!!!!!

Wooooooooooooooooooooo PIG SOOIE!!!!

also gotta have a badass song to accompany my team starting the 2012 season...

Who Gon Stop Me "...I cant stop!"

Music to my ears...nothing better than hearing 76,000 Razorback fans 'calling those HOGS'!!!!!! Hope yall enjoyed my first enstallment of red Razorback nails for this fall! More red to come!! Do I have fellow college football fans out there? Do you root for your alma mater? What team will you be pulling for this fall? Cant wait to hear from everybody! 

"For it's A-R-K-A-N-S-A-S for Arkansas...FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!"