Are you ready for some football??!

Hey y'all!!!!!! Ok so today is NICOLE and I's very last post for our little Friday Football Nail Series we've been doing together for the past 5 weeks! It went by so fast! I hope we inspired you to try some nails to support your personal favorite teams! This Friday for our last nails & posts we are doing 'General Football' nails...just something to represent football as a game & as a whole.  If you couldn't already gather, I love me some football. I didn't always watch it. I really started getting into football my freshman year of college in 2005. My parents arent sport watchers at all. They started watching pro tennis on tv when I started playing tennis. And once I started attending the University of Arkansas & was going to the games as a student, they just had no choice but to start watching & loving the Arkansas Razorbacks.  To end this series I will give yall an update on my 3 teams:

• My alum, the Bentonville HS Tigers are now 10-0 for the season & won their 6th straight Conference Championship.  They have bye for the first round of play-offs tonight. Their first play-off game will be next Friday. I hope they pull off another perfect season & win the State Championship again! Go Tigers!
• My Arkansas Razorbacks are making some slight improvements - We are 2-3 in SEC Conference & 4-5 overall.  Sadly we don't look like we'll be playing in any Bowl Games this season :( Tomorrow we take on the #8 South Carolina Gamecocks there. GO HOGS! Woo Pig Sooie! 
• The New Orleans Saints are 3-5 right now & play the Atlanta Falcons Sunday night. GEAUX SAINTS!!! 

To interpret my overall love of the game of football on my nails - 

•  I did 'football' laces on my thumbs by painting the whole nail with L'oreal "Downtown Chic"...really impressed with the formula on this polish! And then i used a Sally Hansen nail art pen in white to paint on the center laces
• On my ring nails, I wanted to do the '50 yard line'. So I painted the the whole nail with Essie "Mojito Madness" then used the SH pen to draw field lines & a number 50. 
• On the rest of the nails I painted them with 1 coat of Butter London "Tart With A Heart" then freehanded the tips with more of the L'oreal "Downtown Chic"
• I finished it all off with Out The Door Fast Dry Topcoat....im making a switch from Seche Vite to OTD because I'm tired of the shrinkage + chemical hazards of SV. Im loving it so far!

Head on over to Nicole's blog - Polish Me, Please! to see her interpretation of 'General Football' nails!!! 

We hope yall have enjoyed this little 5-week series Nicole & I did! It was so fun just like Nicole, and it helped keep me on my toes of trying to be creative & attempt new nail art. Maybe somewhere down the road we can come up with another nail series for yah! Stay tuned in for next week's BREAKING DAWN PART 2 'Twinsie' post that I'll be doing with Amanda from The Nail Polish Enthusiast!! We are doing our nails for this last Twilight Saga movie premiere! 

Friday Night Lights: Bentonville Football

Hey y'all! Ryan here again for my Friday Football series with Nicole from Polish Me, Please! This Friday's nails, as we promised, are our personal high school alma maters & their mascots! Get ready for my gloating & bragging on my team: The Bentonville High School Tigers Football Team!!!!! I live in the NW corner of Arkansas, home & capitol of Wal-Mart...where it all started & where the Wal-Mart Corporate Head Office is.  Everyone in this corner bubble of the state either works for the WM Office or for vendor/suppliers. And a lot of this big Wal-Mart CEO money is poured into my high school - BHS. Millions have been invested in the football team & our stadium & the team's endorsed by Nike.  The stadium has a glassed in press box, the largest opposing team bleacher section in the conference & a full 2-story indoor practice field - fully equipped with a gym & physical trainer room & offices for the Athletic Director and coaching staff. Our stadium also has the biggest megatron screen of any high school team in the state. The Head Coach Barry Lunney has been coaching since the Fall of 2005 which is right after I graduated. He has led the team to 5 consecutive Conference Championships & 2 State Championships in 5 years. The Tigers had a perfect season in 2010, the perfect 13-0 and State Champions. They had a near-perfect season in 2011, 12-0 until they got to State & lost by a 2-point conversion in the last few seconds of the game. And they are currently 9-0 right now, ranked #23 in the entire nation of high school football teams...tonight playing their last conference game & taking on the Fayetteville Bulldogs, one of their biggest 7A West Conference rivals...and hopefully continuing their winning streak. 

The school's also developed a cool tradition with the student section, which is called "The Jungle".  In all honesty the organized student section is louder & better than our cheerleaders.  BHS Football has a very loyal & dedicated student body.  'The Jungle' is known for being the loudest and largest student section in the 7A West Conference, winning the "Best Student Section" title awarded by SportsTalk.  They created a tradition of "The Smokescreen".  When the side door of the practice field opens, releasing fog/smoke & the Tiger Team runs out, the entire student section has handfuls of baby powder they release into the air at once creating this huge explosive cloud of white into the air. It's a fun dramatic effect. The Jungle leads organized cheers & chants & has designated males that run flags up & down the field during the games. You can't deny we have the best student body support for high school football games....Welcome to Tiger Stadium, Welcome To The Jungle!

You may be wondering why I still care so much about my high school.  I played varsity volleyball & tennis for BHS.  I still live in the town where I graduated.  During my MAT, I had the privilege of being a Student-Teacher Intern for Spanish at BHS. And during my undergrad, I was the Assistant Coach of the BHS Tiger Tennis Team for 3 years, winning 2 State Championship titles & rings during my time as Coach Brandt! I take alot of pride in my high school & our town loves the Tigers.

For my nails, I wanted to portray the 'Tiger' and add an accent flare specific to our team & 'The Jungle' student section's tradition: The Smokescreen.  

• On the main nails, the base is 2 coats of NOPI "The Next CEO"  
• Then I dabbed Wet n Wild Fergie "Glamorous" gold glitter down the center of the nails, clumping the glitter right in the middle. 
• I then followed that with a Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in black, freehanding Tiger stripe print.  
• On the ring/accent nails, the base is 2 coats of Essie "Licorice" & then sponged with Essie "Marshmallow" to represent the baby powder 'smokescreen' effect against a night sky. 
• This was my first attempt ever at doing my own animal print. So i hope you like my tiger stripes! GO TIGERS!

Bentonville Football

I can't believe I graduated in 2005 & in just 3 more years I'll be having a 10 year reunion!! Time really flies...it seems like just yesterday I graduated. I'm getting so old! Yet I'm one of the very few left in my graduating class who isn't married & having babies. I'm ok with that though. After coaching & teaching for BHS, I will always love & support my Tigers! They are one talented football team! Do any of you still keep up with your HS alma mater? What's your team's mascot/colors? And don't forget to CLICK HERE!!! to check out Nicole's high school football mascot nails!!! See yall next Friday for the last mani in this Friday Football Nail Series....we will be doing general football manis! 

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

Just a lil HOCUS POCUS...

BOOoooooo yall! Ryan finally here again to kick off the spookiest creepiest month of the year, October. And who doesn't know the Sanderson sisters??? Sarah, Winifred 'Winnie', and Mary...the most hilarious witches from one of my very favorite Halloween movies - HOCUS POCUS!!!! I can't believe this movie is almost 10 years old. It came out in 1993 when I was just 7 years old. And one can never see this movie too many times in their life. Now I grew up in a household that didn't celebrate Halloween. My mom doesn't like anything about it, the dressing up, the darkness & evil and everything that goes along with it. I'm sure it bothers her that I have always been very fascinated with Halloween & all things supernatural. Ever since I can remember I've loved scary movies and been watching them since I was a little girl. I remember watching Scream by myself at night when I was 10 years old.  I love em all in the horror department....exorcisms/paranormal activity, witches, vampires, monsters, ghosts, slashers (Michael Myers, Jason, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I Know What You Did Last Summer, etc.)  If it's suspenseful and terrifying then I am a fan. So I'm hoping to do an installment of of different Halloween-inspired nails all month long! And I'm so excited for these 1st nails inspired by the fabulous film Hocus Pocus...and a little brujajajajajaja!!! 

So on Hocus Pocus, they are whipping up potions & brews & Sarah is always eating crunchy 'pretty spiders'.  So for my Hocus Pocus nails, I painted all my left hand nails with Sinful Colors "Innocent" - a witchy pea green cream. It applied nicely & smooth. On the left hand accent nail I used Sinful Colors "Amethyst".  I also used Amethyst on my right hand nails & used Innocent again on my right hand accent nail.  I put a coat of Seche Vite on all nails so I could apply some tape to the tips.  I cut scotch tape into triangles & placed them at different angles near the tips.  I didn't tape my accent nails. After the tape was applied, I painted Essie "Licorice" on the tips. On the accent nails I used Sally Hansen Nail Art pens in black & white.  On the right green accent nail, I used the black pen to paint a spider web & a little spider. The left purple accent nail just got a white spider web. I pulled off the triangles of tape and topped all the nails with SV again! The tips are left with black jagged edges, its an abstract french mani. Hope y'all liked this 1st attempt at creepy Halloween nails! 

AMUCK! AMUCK! AMUCK! AMUCK! AMUCK!

SJP 'Sarah Sanderson' sings "Come Little Children"

....kind of sexual the way she strokes the broom ;)

Bette Midler 'Winnie' sings "I Put A Spell On You"

Now I really want to watch this right now! Have yall seen Hocus Pocus?? I will be shocked to find someone who hasn't seen it and/or doesnt like it! This is a great fun movie with humor in the midst of slight darkness...plus it has musical style singing! I LOVE IT! Hope yall like my interpretation on my nails & will come back to check out my other Halloween-inspired manis throughout the month!

OCTOBER.....31 days of spooktacularness! 

Swatchalicious Mania!!!!

 Ok, so I had all these polishes just waiting to be tried out.  I spent all of Sunday swatching these cheapies....all kinds of random brands needing to be tested.  Pretty much every color got a quick 3 coats, no base & no top coat for these. Only problem with "swatching", you can't actually test the polish's wear time, so who knows how long the lacquer formula lasts. But without further adieu, lets get on with it :)

 Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear: "Mint Sorbet"

(natural sunset lighting, indoors) This is a great milky pastel with a touch of light green. It is applies opaque easily with just 2 coats. I liked the quality of the polish, especially for $2.  Good brush & good application. Great Spring color & affordable.

new Wet n Wild Fastdry: "Teal Of Fortune"

(natural sunset lighting, indoors) another polish available at Wal-Mart for less than $1.50 per bottle...these pics don't do it justice because the teal-green & gold shimmery flecks weren't really picked up by the camera.  Its surprisingly AWESOME! good formula, nice wide brush & fantastic glitter!

Revlon: #089 "Sunshine Sparkle"

This is a lovely pastel yellow that has super-fine silver shimmer mixed in.  It is a fun color to get you ready for Spring...this picture makes it look more 'yellow' than it really is. It is a more pale milky on.

Revlon ColorStay: #220 "Rain Forest"

(left, artificial warm lighting. right, fluorescent lighting) Here's one of the 2 polishes from this swatch that I won't be able to stop raving about.  First of all, Revlon's new ColorStay polishes have a phenomenal formula..the brush is wide & full.  You just can't beat this deal, this quality for less than $5!!!! I am now in love with this color.  An intense emerald green jelly mixed with fine gold flecks that reflect the deep green. I HIGHLY recommend this polish, any color from this ColorStay line really.  Incredible!  

Sally Hansen Diamond Strength: "Black Tie"

I've seen this color swatched before & decided I had to have it.  It's an almost-black cream base but get a duo-chrome effect with some blue-teal-pink iridescent shimmer blended in.  It's a truly fabulous polish...great quality lacquer...good brush...great contoured handle...more than worth the $3

Revlon: #230 "Popular"

A soft pink milky base filled with small round pieces of glitter & larger hexagonal silver glitter.  It layers really nicely.  This is a very feminine glitzy pink & of course worth the $4

Revlon: #441 "Radiant"

Another fabulous glitter by Revlon! (I'm still waiting to own 'Facets of Fuchsia' & 'Whimsical'.  This is a clear jelly base, completely packed with small round blue-turquoise glitter pieces, mixed with larger blue-turquoise & silver hexagonal pieces.  The silver pieces give this glitter a nice extra pop!

Pure ICE: "Purple Reign"

(Natural sunset lighting, indoors) Ok I am going to just RAVE about this bottle of polish!!!! You don't even know. Of course the photos don't do it justice & display its total beauty.  I had no expectations for this $1.97 bottle of polish from Wal-Mart.  The brush was a little thin, but what a diamond in the rough...a total treasure.  This gem is a beautiful earth-toned purple mixed with the finest rose-gold shimmer.  It was opaque after 2 coats.  Its truly gorgeous...my new favorite polish as of now! What a MUST-BUY! :)

Nicōle by OPI: "Count On Me"

This is an EXTREMELY sheer polish...more meant for layering than for wear on its own.  In the bottle, it looks like it would maybe apply after opaque.  But below on the left is 4 coats & its still very sheer.  Don't be discouraged tho, it may be sheer but its densely packed with a complex iridescent shimmer that gives a duo chrome effect.  In some light/angles, it shines a sunset pink...sometimes gives off a brilliant blue-teal hue...and other times an extraordinary blue-purple.  I wanted to try to make the most of this chromatic shimmer by layering it over something opaque.  Below right, I layered "Count On Me" over my new favorite Pure Ice "Purple Reign"...given, this covers up 'Purple Reign's' glamorous rose-gold shimmer.  Anyways, I think every polish blogging girl needs "Count On Me"($7) as an essential layering piece in her repertoire! I bet it would look good over any purple or a black creme! :)