One Direction

I don't even know how to begin this post because I never know how to begin when it comes to One Direction. It was barely more than a month ago that I had virtually no feelings about One Direction, but then my best friend convinced me to go see their movie with her, and now I have so many feelings about One Direction. Anyway, we don't really need to get into it here, except that I needed to explain why I bought nail polish from Office Depot.

Summer megapost

Okay so, summer camp is a hard place for manicures, and this summer was kind of a hard time for me in general. I think I managed to have painted nails (though sometimes heavily chipped nails...) nearly every day at work, and I even managed to do some fun things with them! But obviously I did not manage to update this blog at all, so, here is a round up of five of my more interesting summer manicures.

Salon Perfect's Kaboom (Neon Collision Collection) over Zoya's Snow White

Confetti on snow

I've been doing a lot of plain, one-color-only manicures lately. That's how this one started, too. I was wearing just white for a few days -- which at first I was dubious about, but I ended up really liking; it was like my nails were a blank slate and every time I looked at them I saw potential and ~ideas~ and other great things.

But then I had to go to training for my summer camp job, and I was going to see some of my coworker friends -- including my former-coworker-turned-boss who always has impressive nails -- for the first time since the end of last summer. I wanted to do something fancier, so why not just add glitter? (In case you hadn't noticed, we like glitter here at Nailfighteria.)

Shellac manicure (part 2)

Sooo, sorry it's been quiet around here lately, but I'm finally sharing updates on my shellac manicure! I got lots of compliments on it and it lasted beautifully. Here's how it looked on day 11. (These photos were taken in the middle of a camping trip, so please excuse the super dry -- and probably salty, since I'd just been sticking my hands in the ocean to pick up hermit crabs -- cuticles.)

right hand  -- you can see a tiny bit of peeling on the edge of my index finger

Shellac manicure (part 1)

Tonight I'm flying to Seattle for two weeks, and I've been stressing out about what to do with my nails during this trip. I didn't really want to bring polish and do nail things during boyfriend time, but two weeks is too long for one manicure to last. I had pretty much decided to just do my nails before I go and to bring nail polish remover pads for when they get too chipped.

But then I went and made an appointment for a shellac manicure instead. I've never gotten a shellac manicure -- I never even go to nail salons, so I had to rely on Yelp to find a place. I was super nervous, but it ended up being a good experience. The nail technician was super attentive to detail and didn't rush at all, but the whole thing still took just under an hour. And it was so nice having my nails completely dry as soon as I was done!

Green & gold gradient

One week until I visit my boyfriend in Seattle! To celebrate, I wanted to do a manicure with Washington's state colors -- only, it doesn't actually have official state colors. (The only other states that don't have official colors are Virginia and Hawaii, but each Hawaiian island has an official color, so I feel like that doesn't even count.) But Wikipedia says that "some sources list dark green and gold/yellow, the two colors specified for the flag by law since 1925," and that's good enough for me.

Confetti Fun with Selena Gomez

Today my best friend and I had a conversation about whether at age 22 we feel old or young. Well, it was a kind of one-sided conversation; I'm pretty sure my most insightful contribution was, "I bought Selena Gomez nail polish today. That makes me feel young." But it's okay. I am at peace with my affection for Disney starlets. And this polish looks good no matter who the collection is associated with.

Nicole by OPI Confetti Fun

Cagedbird Nail Lacquer Faerie Carnival & Zoya Julie

After taking off my brightly colored birthday nails, I wanted to stick with happy, springlike colors (although it is anything but springlike in my part of New England). Check out the results!

Springtime perfection with Cagedbird and Zoya

More Rainbow Nails!

Yep, as the wonderful Katie told you yesterday, I am another year older. Here is something she didn't tell you: I really like my birthday. A lot. I usually start counting down to my next birthday around, oh, the day after my most recent one (for example: there are currently 364 days until my birthday). So I am always looking for fun ways to celebrate the day. When I started painting my nails, birthday manis seemed like a foregone conclusion!

Since I like bright colors, rainbows are always involved in my birthday manicures somehow (last year it was each nail a different color with, of course, Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday on top). This year, I decided to do something a bit more adventurous. Read on for my first experience with sponge gradients!

Rainbow Birthday Nails posing with my current top coat of choice, Butter London Hardwear!

Happy birthday, Becca!

Today is the lovely Becca's birthday, which means: rainbow nail day!

L'Oreal Jet Set Activate creme, Milani Neon Awesome Orange, China Glaze Happy Go Lucky,
China Glaze Four Leaf Clover, Orly Blue Collar, Orly Charged Up

Margo Roth Spiegelman

I broke my camera right after taking this photo, so I hope you enjoy it.

Recently I've been thinking about the nail polish colors mentioned in John Green books. There are a lot of them (well, if four counts as a lot...), but today I'm focusing on Margo's. Margo's nail polish is arguably the most interesting of any John Green character's because it's actually somewhat relevant to the story. We first see the polish when Margo paints her nails.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Hey, so, Becca here with a holiday post! Apologies in advance for the shoddy quality of the photos. I'm away from home this week and don't have my proper camera, but my shamrock manicure came out pretty well and I wanted to share!

I put this together using OPI Goldeneye (from this winter's James Bond collection), Zoya Holly (Holiday 2011), and a variety of different sized dotting tools. I am pretty damn proud of that shamrock, Nailfighters. (Although, I understand from my Irish pal that a proper shamrock has three leaves not four, whoops.)

Shamrockin', right? (Don't pretend you don't love a bad pun.)

China Glaze: Smoke and Ashes

So, I realize that I am literally a year late to the Hunger Games nail polish party, but the collection came out during the 16 months that I was avoiding nail polish due to allergy concerns. The silver lining is that since I waited so long, I ended up only buying one of the polishes instead of, like, the whole collection, which I probably would've done when the polishes were new and exciting.

Nonetheless, I am excited about Smoke and Ashes! It came highly recommended by Becca. It's blacker than I expected (somehow? I don't... know what I expected), so I'm glad I cut my nails shorter before painting them. I don't really go for the shimmer look these days, but I really like the glass flecks in Smoke and Ashes -- they make the polish a lot more interesting! I also love how in some lights it looks like a dark blue or green instead of a pure black. I just can't stop looking at my nails.