Monday Mani- Nude Half Moon Nails

It's Monday Mani time! Half moon, nude nails with Color Club Sugar Rays and Apollo Star from the Harlem Nights Collection.. It's another combo, nude nails for the PAA Mani Monday Challenge and Half Moons or variations for the BHB Nails Club challenge. You can check out all the looks for both of these challenges by searching #paamanimondays and #bhbnails #threadlynails in Instagram.

Pink and Coral Mani

Today I have a simple mani with Essie's Sunday Funday and Pretty & Polished's It's A Girl Thing.  (Sunday Funday looks really red on my nails, even though it's actually closer to the color on the bottle. That's my disclaimer for today).

Breaking the Biting Habit- June 26

I'm revamping the "State of my Nails" posts into a whole new feature called "Breaking the Biting Habit". (Thank you Kirby from The Mercurial Magpie for the name.) Since the point of this blog is to chronicle my efforts at breaking the nail biting habit, I'll be posting updates of my natural nails every few weeks, along with the products I'm using. But first, a little history...

Blue Jelly Butterfly Nails

Hello readers! Today is Monday so that means a new Polishaholics Anonymous Monday Challenge. The theme is Jelly and Jelly Sandwiches. This week's BHB Nails thread challenge is butterfly nails, so I combined the two! It's Jelly Sandwich Butterfly Nails! (The BHB nail thread is part of Babycenter's BHB community board).

In case you don't know, a jelly sandwich is when you layer a translucent polish or "jelly" over a glitter polish. You start with a base coat, which can be your jelly or a creme of the same color, then you add a glitter, then your jelly. You can layer glitter and jelly as often as you want. I have about 5 layers in these pics, plus base and top coat.

China Glaze -  Blue Year's Eve

Distressed Nails with China Glaze Off Shore Collection

Distressed Nails Collage

Today I have some more nail art. Distressed or dry-brush nails using 3 colors from the China Glaze Off Shore collection. This was for the BHB Nail Club's weekly challenges. It's super easy to do and requires no extra tools. This is the tutorial I used: Chalkboard Nails Distressed Nail Tutorial. It's got pictures and a video for the nail art newbies like me. I softened it up a little with a top coat of Essie's Pure Pearlfection and then I Fairy Dusted it.

Neon Gradient with Orly Baked Collection

Neon Gradient Collage

Today I have the 1st nail art mani to show on the blog. It's neon gradient nails using Orly's Baked Collection and topped with China Glaze's Fairy Dust. It's my 1st time doing a gradient and I think it came out very well. I used The Nailasaurus Video Tutorial (here's the original picture tutorial).

CrowsToes - Maia Swatch & Review

CrowsToes - Maia

Hello lovely readers! This awesome color is Maia from the Pleiades Collection by CrowsToes Nail Color <- That there is a link to their Facebook Page. You can also check out their Blog here but I recommend FB for the latest. This was my first ever indie purchase and I'm very excited about it. I can honestly say I am in love.

Sally Hansen - Lively Lilac & Twinkled Pink

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Lively Lilac

Today I have swatches of Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri in Lively Lilac and Triple Shine in Twinkled Pink. Wow, two posts in one week, that's an achievement for this momma. I wore the Lovely Lilac 1st for a day or two and then topped it with the Twinkled Pink. I don't love how the Twinkled Pink pictures came out enough to make a separate post for them, mostly since I had some nail biting relapses. But...alas that is the point of this blog and I'm committed to showing you the pretty and the ugly side of recovering from a decades long nasty habit.

Essie - I'm Addicted Swatch

A collage of my shots of Essie - I'm Addicted

Today I have swatches of Essie's I'm Addicted, a blue neon from their 2014 Neon Collection. Essie calls this a neon aquamarine blue. Now I'm gonna be honest with you, I wouldn't say it's a true neon at all. It is however a very bright blue and I absolutely love it. I have a bunch of pictures to show you.