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

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

New Year's Haul Post!!!!

Ladies...Ladies...Ladies....here are all my most recent purchases.  And I have to first take the time to thank you all for creating even more of a spending monster than already existed.  I maybe bought a new nail polish or 2 every few months.  No, now after reading all your fabulous blogs, creating my own blog, seeing all your fantastic polishes and creative nail art....I have been on a buying spree! It's terrible.  But I am so excited because as of today, I finally own my first flakies! Can't wait to swatch em for y'all :)

Today's Treasures!

Left to Right:

"Play Date" Essie

"Shine Of The Times" Essie Luxe Effects

"Flashy"  Finger Paints Special Effects

"Flecked" Finger Paints Special Effects