First post!

Hello to any future readers!

My name is Maria and I am a 21-year-old college student, studying Nutrition and Italian. I have a big addiction to nail polish, as does pretty much everybody who reads nail blogs, I think ;) I particularly love creative hand-painted nail art, and rarely wear my nails in a solid color.

Anyway, I've been thinking about starting a nail blog since the beginning of the summer now, but I kept putting it off, scared and not thinking I would have enough to write or that anybody would read it. However, three things all together convinced me recently to start one:

1) I sorted and inventoried my polish and found that I have 215 polishes. To me personally, that is a staggering number. I always assumed I had 50 or so!

2) I bought my first dupe. Accidentally. I'm not quite sure why this convinced me to start a blog, but I guess in some way, having so many polishes that you can buy two of the same color accidentally seems like I have enough to write about, hah.

3) I came across the 31 day nail art challenge and thought it would be great fun and a great motivator to post for the first 31 days of having a blog.

Without further ado, I shall show you what I've had on my nails for the last four days, and then what I've done for the first day of the challenge.

I'm not a huge fan of pink, actually, but when I decided to wear pink I thought I might as well go all out!

I used a base of Nailtek II, Seche Clear, three coats of NYC Uptown, stripes with a white striper, and then two coats of OPI I Lily Love You. I really liked the end effect!

PS I apologize in advance for my bad pictures! I'm going to practice and get better as fast as possible!  My fingers look fat and greasy from bad angles and cuticle oil :(



Taken in sunlight:















Blurry to show all the colors in the amazing flakies!!




I think the flakies really added something to the plain stripes! And a friend told me I had unwittingly copied the Victoria's Secret bags, which was funny.

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And the 31 day challenge is:



RULES:

- Reblog this post if you're gonna accept this challenge
- One post per day
- If you miss one, pick it up the next day
- Post a picture of each mani
- It would be nice if you listed/linked to what polishes you used
- For the inspiration prompts, SHOW US YOUR INSPIRATION/SHARE LINKS
- BE CREATIVE
- TRY NEW THINGS
- HAVE FUN!!!

So, for day one, I have red nails. Orly Rock It, from the new Mineral FX collection. It is a gorgeous color with a lot of depth, that actually does have a shimmery mineral effect. I want to love it, but I'm just not a huge fan of it on my skin tone. I have the same issue with any red or purple that leans toward being "berry colored." It was opaque and applied flawlessly, though. I used two coats, and the second coat looked exactly the same as if I'd left it with one! No top coat, since I plan on taking this off tomorrow anyway, and it is plenty shiny.








Taken in (dusk) sunlight:





Taken in (dusk) sunlight:



Taken in (dusk) sunlight:





Taken in (dusk) sunlight:





Taken in (dusk) sunlight:





I snapped this one spontaneously this evening. Note the nail polish on my car key! :P

Taken in artificial light. Less color accurate, but it shows the sparkle nicely.