Broncos Super Bowl Nails

I grew up with a dad who loved baseball, and a sister and mom who could care less about sports other than Nascar. It's no surprise I knew very little about football.

This year, it's all started to make a lot more sense, and I've started to enjoy watching it more.

And now that my state's team is going to the Super Bowl, of course I'm excited!

I did these Broncos nails on my friend Bethany tonight, hoping it'll send good vibes to the team out in NY/NJ. It's all freehand, but obviously I looked at pictures when I did them.

I used:

• My Boyfriend Scales Walls (OPI, white)
• OPI...Eurso Euro (OPI, blue)
• Skater Dater (Sation, orange)
• Louise (Zoya, brown)
• Jostle (L.A. Girl, blue glitter)
• Black Onyx (OPI, black details)

Who're you rooting for on Sunday? 

Ampersand Nail Art

This past weekend I did a manicure on my good friend and reoccuring client. She asked for a variety of ampersand symbols on her nails in different fonts. This is the end result, and I'm thrilled with it!

Every one of them was done freehand using a small brush and Black Onyx (OPI). The base is the beautiful 3 Free-dom from Sation.

It's probably the crowning jewel of my nail school career, so it's fitting it's one of my last!

Which ampersand is your favorite?

Ikat Stop Loving You: Valentine's Day Nail Art Tutorial for Divine Caroline

It's with great excitement that I share a new collaboration with you here at Nailed It.

I'm now a contributing blogger for Divine Caroline! Divine Caroline is an online women's magazine with posts about all things fashion, beauty, entertainment, and lifestyle related. You might recognize it from some of your other favorite bloggers, including Sammy and Alice! Well now I'm on board too, and today is my first post with them!

I love this tutorial and look I created for Divine Caroline! It really gets my heart racing. Ikat get enough of it.

If you love it, you can do it too! The full tutorial is available right now at DivineCaroline.com! Pin it too with a great, easy-to-follow pinnable version!

I'd also love to hear what you think of the new, lighter look of the photos. Do you like them more or less than my traditional, black background photos?

I'm thrilled to be the newest contributing beauty blogger for Divine Caroline, and I'm looking forward to sharing more looks soon! Next week's will be one I know you'll love!

#NailTechNailedIt - The Darker Side of Nail Tech School

As promised in my last post, this post is going to be about the less than glamorous experiences I've had in nail tech school. I'm finishing up quite quickly, and I've learned a lot, through the good and the bad.

Disclaimer: No one's experience in nail school will be the same as their friend's or the same as mine. Experiences are what you make of them, as an individual. But no matter who you are, you can always learn and grow from them. I certainly have.

Here are some of those experiences.

Weight gain

Our school is surrounded by delicious and easy fast food restaurants, including McDonald's, Little Cesear's Pizza, an assortment of Mexican food joints, and a stand that sells unbelievably tasty bacon-wrapped hot dogs.

It's really no surprise then, that I've packed on some unwanted pounds. Couple that with the lack of time to set aside for exercise, and I've begun to feel like a real tub o' lard.

While it's easy enough to say that I'll pack a lunch, or grab a healthier option instead, it's too easy to fall for these temptations when you're so busy running around, performing services, taking tests, and rushing through lunch time to start on a new client. Sometimes, with the chaos of the salon, girls don't even see food until it's time to go home.

But on those days that I do take the time to blend up a smoothy or fix a chicken salad, I feel more energized and enthusiastic. I know that working in a real salon will only bring bigger challenges, but feeling this way isn't worth it.

#NailTechNailedIt - When Clients Let Me Do Nail Art

It's rare that clients at the school's salon want nail art. Usually just single colors are requested. So I thought I'd celebrate the clients this past Saturday who let me do some fun nail art for them and share it with you all. Both are friends, but hey! I'll take it where I can get it!

 The first is a manicure for my regularly pampered pal, Shayna. She's big into CrossFit and starts a 30-day paleo challenge tomorrow. In honor of this, she asked for a paleo mani, which includes weights, bacon, eggs, avocado and almonds.

The other was a pedicure for a fellow student. She'd been admiring the diamond designs I've done before. You can see examples of my previous diamonds here and here. She picked out two awesome colors and we paired them together with diamonds on her toes.

Toes are definitely harder for nail art than fingernails!

In other #nailtechnailedit news, I'll be finishing up school by the end of this month. If you recall, my original graduation date was expected to be late March.  However, I've been kicking butt and taking services whenever possible, so I could graduate sooner. With only a few more services remaining (mainly pedicures), I'll be done in no time.

I can hardly believe it's almost done, but I'm ready to move on to the real world, and begin learning new things. Even though school's ending, the learning is only just beginning.

The next #NailTechNailedIt post will be one detailing some of the bad parts of nail tech school. I feel it's important to share the good and the bad, so if that's something you're waiting for, it's coming!

Question: What kind of nail art do you like on your big toes? Have you tried anything besides a French manicure on your toes before?

MoYou London Stamping Plate - Tourist Collection 07 Review

Tonight's review is for a stamping company that's making a huge name for itself in the blogging community. MoYou London.

This UK-based company has outdone itself, and creates unique and truly amazing stamping plates. Their patterns are intricate, but so well carved out into the plate, that stamping is a cinch.

SensatioNAIL At-Home Gels Review

Not everyone is as eager about nails as I am. The thought of doing your nails every day may be absolutely terrifying and frankly, unimaginable.

If you're that kind of person, you've probably tried gel polish or shellac. This type of mani lasts upwards of two weeks on your nails, and keeps them happily hardened while its on.

The problem with them is that they can be very pricey. Even though you only have to go every two weeks, you still have to fork over a wad of cash you may not have. Luckily, there's at least one product available that I can personally vouche for as an alternative to pricey salon gels!

Today, I'm reviewing an at-home gel system from SensatioNAIL. I was provided with the Pink Chiffon Starter Kit ($59.99) and an additional color of my choosing. I chose White Lily ($11.99), with the intention of creating a French Manicure to test with.

I've listed the prices already so you won't encounter any sticker shock. Gel polishes are always more expensive than their lacquer counterparts, usually about 50% more. So don't be alarmed at $11.99 per color...it's actually a great price!

The Starter Kit comes with literally everything you need to get started and complete the manicure properly, including an LED lamp! Their LED lamp is the cutest, most portable lamp I've used. It still requires an outlet, but beyond that, it's amazing. The longest cure time for an individual layer is 60 seconds, at which point the light shuts off automatically. For other layers, you only need 30 seconds, and for those times, there's also a little beeping indicator that you hear after 30 seconds. The instructions are also incredibly clear, and if followed properly, will lead you to amazing results.

After following the instructions and applying the look, I chose to test this over my break in Southern California. I was plenty busy with cooking, days at the beach, wrapping and ripping open presents, so my hands took about an average beating. The pictures below are ten days apart.

Day One

Read more to see day ten...

#NailTechNailedIt - Changes in Nail Boards

When nail tech school is complete (which is looking like it won't be April, but rather more like February), in order to get your license to begin working in salons, you must pass the boards.

Dun dun duuuuuuunnnnnnnn!

These boards consist of a two-fold test, taken at separate times.

First, you must pass your practical test. That's the test that puts your skills into practice, and you must perform certain tasks to pass.

The second part of the boards is the written exam, which is a good old fashioned written test.

This year, in at least Colorado (and I'm unsure of other states/countries), the provider for the test has changed. In previous years, it was Pearson Vue. Now, there's a new vendor, PSI, which means the test is slightly different.

One big change is who the services for manicurists is performed on. In December, hopeful nail techs were to have several faux fingers, which we so lovingly call Freddy Fingers.

Image source - Amazon

This hard plastic finger has a well that's not only terrifying, but useful. You can practice applying acrylic nails easily, without needing to soak off each set you do. Just rip out the fake nail from Freddy, and you can start over.

Image source - Amazon

With the new vendor however, we'll only be working on one fake hand, which a few of us have named Hannah the Hand.

This hand still has wells to shove tips in. The new vendor requires you to have all five fingers already set up with 5 tips, to imitate the hand's natural nail. Oddly, you're also required to have one fingernail painted, so you can show them you know how to remove polish. (Yep...we're tested on that!)

The range of services a nail tech must perform isn't very big, but it is bigger than what a cosmetologist is asked to do. The services include:

• Sanitaion
• Manicure
• Tip application
• Acrylic overlay on a tip
• Acrylic overlay on a natural nail
• Acrylic overlay using a form

What's most exciting about the new vendor is how clearly they tell you what you'll be doing. Each nail tech will be given a their test from one of 3 forms, which just shuffles the order of services a bit. They lay everything out clearly and easily, which eases a little of the pressure off of test day.

It's still intimidating, but with test day fast approaching, I'm eager to get the practice in so I can be ready for it all.

Catch up with all the rest of the #NailTechNailedIt posts here!

NCLA Swatches and Review

In my personal life, you may or may not know that I just spent a week in glorious, Southern California weather. I basked in the sun on the beach, sweating just because of its rays and not because of layers of snow gear. I ate frozen yogurt topped with fresh toppings to cool me down. Then I hiked near the ocean in just a light jacket.

Now, in Boulder, like much of the rest of the country, I'm enjoying a brief cold spell, complete with frosted windows and snow covered landscapes.

They're both beautiful in their own right, but as a tribute to the Southern California sun, I'm showing off swatches of NCLA lacquers from two collections, Life's a Beach and North of Sunset, and simple roses combining the two.

Read more about these colors below after the jump.

Guest Post at Work Play Polish

I'm back! I enjoyed a brief vacation away from the winter cold of Colorado, and traveled to sunny Southern California to visit my family as well as Andy's family. I'm now about 20 pounds heavier after indulging in the luxuries of real Mexican food, and I'm eager to get back to blogging!

I'll start things off slow, with a sneak peek of a guest post I did for Leslie at Work Play Polish!

She asked some of her (and my) favorite bloggers to participate in a series of guest posts geared around the holidays.

Additionally, and more importantly, she had us do these for a good cause, Polished Girlz. This organization travels to hospitals around the country, where girls of all ages and various levels of health are treated to a manicure in their hospital rooms. The importance of hygienic manicures is taught to these girls, by other girls, and I'm thrilled to have been a small part of it!

Visit Work Play Polish for the full guest post and mani, but here's a blurry sneak peek to tantalize you.