HPB October Halloween Mani Link-Up!

Second post in a week? Am I sick?! Why, yes I am... But fear not, I seriously have a real post for you today!

So I recently joined a group on Facebook called Hobby Polish Bloggers. HBP is a fun and informative group of lovely ladies who are always there to give feedback, helpful tips, and answer questions. I'm so thankful to have found this group, and they've helped me so much! One of the fun things they do is a monthly mani linkup, and this month's theme is hardly surprising: Halloween!

My bestie, Whitney, is in looove with Nightmare Before Christmas. So I decided to a mani for her (I will also probably do this mani on her)! I found this pin, and decided to do something a little different.

This is what came of it:

What a happy Jack!

So happy!

Uh-oh. Someone pissed him off...

I'm pretty pleased with the way these turned out. I'm not in love with the ring finger, but everything else? Ooooooh yeeeeeah. LOOK AT THOSE JACKS, I AM SO FRIGGIN' PROUD OF THEM!!

To create this, I used two brushes, five polishes, and a some red striping tape. For the polishes, I used Sinful Colors' Tempest, Enchanted, and Black on Black, Sally Hansen's White On, and Pure Ice's Kiss Me Here. I topped with glow-in-the-dark and NYC's Turbo Dry Topcoat. I was planning on doing the stripes using striping tape, but after struggling with the tape on my ring finger, I decided to do it by hand. No regrets.

To explain what a linkup is, basically down below there's going to be some links and previews of other bloggers' manis, as well as mine. You can click the links to view the others' posts! Fun, right?

As always, please subscribe off to the right, share, and feel free to leave a comment!

An InLinkz Link-up

October Challenge: Week 4

Phew, it's been a long week! Hope yours went by better (and faster!) than mine! Both kiddo and I have been sick, which means 10-hour shifts on little to no sleep, AND my favorite cuticle nippers broke :(

But never fear, nothing like a little stomach bug and some insomnia will keep me from painting my nails! I have a challenge to complete!!

...And a challenge this week's theme has been, too! This week, I created something inspired by:

After a week of searching and trying to come up with ideas, I finally decided on this one. Using the tutorial over at The Nailasaurus, I wanted to create a foggy, misty look. For the accent nail, I didn't want to create a bedsheet-ghost, I wanted to create something kinda realistic and creepy so I decided to do a humanoid-ish ghost.

The things that look like glitter are from the glow-in-the-dark paint I used to give her a glowing aura. Looks pretty cool in the dark, but my camera simply can't capture it, and I cannot find a blacklight for the life of me.

It took me several tries to be happy with the colors for the Nimbus nails. I kept trying to throw black in there and it just wasn't working. Finally, I decided to dump the black and hoo-boy am I glad I did. 

The colors I ended up using were Sally Hansen's White-On, LAC's Lost Soul (appropriate, right?), Sinful Colors' Tokyo Pearl, and Pure Ice's Kiss Me Here. I watered them down with acetone and then used regular cotton swabs. To blot, I took my cleanup brush and mixed White-On with acetone and brushed it on in 1-2 strokes per nail, keeping it as thin as I could.

For the ghost girl, I just used White-On, Lost Soul, and Kiss Me Here, layering them on top of one another with my striping brush until I had her. I'm pretty thrilled with how she turned out!!

Next week: Monsters! There's a good chance I'm planning something big with that one... dunno ;)

Next time we see each other, it'll be time to Trick-Or-Treat! Have you gotten everything ready? What are you going to dress up as? As always, please subscribe off to the right in the Google Friend Connect widget, and leave your feedback in the comments :) Happy Halloween!

October Challenge: Week 3

Hello lovelies! This week you're getting TWO blog posts!! How awesome is that? Today's post is Week Three of the October Challenge! This week's theme is:

I realized after I did Week 1 that I'd already used spider webs, and felt like a dolt. But I've been wanting to do a mani like this for forever, so I just went with it. 

Turns out I had some bad karma or something going when I was doing this, because NOTHING was working with me. It was a very frustrating mani :( I had intended on having newspaper print going, the webs were supposed to be black glitter, and the spider on my thumbs were supposed to be stamped. But I couldn't find my spider stamping plate, my bundle monster binder for my plates broke (still usable), my rubbing alcohol is missing, and neither vodka nor water worked for the newspaper transfers, and the black glitter I have bleeds into the topcoat. Oh, and I tried to freehand a spider with no reference. My first attempt looked like a tick. ...You very nearly didn't get a Week 3. 

But I persevered and I survived, and I've already gotten a few comments on them!

They glow in the dark! But my camera can't capture it and it is impossible to find a black light smaller than 2' in this teeny tiny town.

Ooooh spoooooky misty green!

Holy crap I didn't see how many stringies I have :(

For this mani I laid down a layer or two of Rue Beaute's Mint, and then dabbed on China Glaze's I'm With The Lifeguard, Finger Paints' Silkscreen Green, Sally Hansen's Limestone, and LAC's Limelife using a makeup sponge and some foam I cut up from some kind of packaging. I then did a thick layer of Seche Vite, because I just KNEW I was gonna mess up. Holy moly am I soooo very glad for that forethought! This is when things went... downhill. I'll spare you the gory details. I freehanded the spiders and the webs using a thinned Sinful Colors' Black on Black and a medium-length striping brush. Previously my arch-nemesis, it has become my favorite brush. Topped with a final coat of seche and I went to bed.

I really wish the newspaper transfer had worked out, but I'm still pretty satisfied with this mani. And I know it's messy, but I am damn proud of my spiders (not pictured, but the one on my left hand is actually much smaller). 

And just a reminder of what's coming up next:

Happy October!: Nail Art Challenge

I've decided to do my first challenge! And since I couldn't find any that I like, or that work with my schedule, I decided to make my own!

Please join me this week in a challenge! Don't have a blog of your own? Email it to me and I'll make a post involving everyone! Also post on twitter, tumblr and/or pinterest! My first post is tonight, and I can't wait to see yours!

More October Nails

I know, GREAT title right? lol have anything better, leave it in the comments ;)

These were fun :D I'm starting to perfect the striping technique.... The trick is to make sure everything underneath is 100% dry, and peel the tape off when the polish on top is still wet. I was not doing that before, and either whole chunks of the top color would peel off, or polish from under the tape would come up. It was a mess! Not this time, though!

Dem Bones, Dem Bones!

I decided to try and replicate a post from pinterest, instead of adding my own little twist, just to practice and to see where I really am. Lol okay that's a bunch of bullcrap. Sorry. I just REALLY liked this design!

Original post is here.

This actually turned out better than I expected it to! ... On my left hand, at least. My left hand still isn't down for the finesse it takes to make the tiny bones, but it didn't do too bad.

These took me a loooong time. I wish I had a more opaque orange, I had to do several coats on top of a white, and you can still kinda see where the white isn't even.

For these nails, I used Sinful Colors Black on Black, Pure Ice Kiss me Here, Revlon's Spirit, and Flower's Eye of the Tiger Lily. Top coat is Matte Me Crazy by NYC.

Halloween Finale prep

No nail art today, sorry! I just had a question for everyone :)

What monsters would you like to see on my nails? If I get enough participation, I'll pick the ten I think I can do best and wear them for the Halloween Finale nails.

Please leave your answer in the comments!!

Blood Drips

It's 46° here. It's the middle of October and it's like we've forgotten about Autumn already :( 

Oh. Right. I live in the midwest now.. 46° is Autumn. 46° is winter temps in Las Vegas...

Whatever, I'm cold.

ANYWAYS, nails! I did blood drips, they seemed simple enough... and they were, but they didn't turn out great. I need practice. 

You can sort of see the wear on my nails after a day. I'm NOT in love with Seche Vite!

Despite my misgivings, they were pretty popular. I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White, and an unnamed LAC red. Keep in mind that if you're going to do blood, that it has a blue base. You don't want it looking pink!

Minimalist Frankenstein

My best friend REALLY LIKES Frankenstein's Monster. So, in the spirit of the season, I give you: minimalism?

Hahaha wasn't expecting that, were you?

I REALLY wanted to do Watermarble Mummy nails tonight, but then I realized that I can't be spending that kind of time on them because tomorrow night I have to take them off and do something for a couple of weddings that the boyfriend-thingy (it's complicated in the most adult sense) and I are attending this weekend. So, I K.I.S.S.ed it tonight.

The smudging was intentional. Monsters!

To get the color I got (not pictured very well), I used my Rue Beaute Mint, and the did a coat of Sinful Colors Irish Green. I got the studs at The Dollar Tree! You can't really see, but I also have a layer of Pure Ice's Oh Baby! where my nail beds show through, and then on my tips, I have a Franken (apropos, right?) of Oh Baby!, Petite's Daze, and NYC's Matte Me Crazy. 

Pumpkins!

Ahhh I love fall! The colors (which is funny, I'm a cool-color person), the weather (the temperature! the rain! the lack of humidity!), the food (squash soup!), the clothes (finally can wear jeans without dying. also, sweaters.), the holidays (Halloween! Thanksgiving!) and my electric bill (seriously!)! I love EVERYTHING ABOUT FALL. Okay, the whole pumpkin spice obsession is a bit out of hand, but EVERYTHING ELSE I LOVE.

This list should also include pumpkins. I really, really like pumpkins, and finding the perfect pumpkin always stresses me out because when I find my "perfect" pumpkin, I psyche myself out because someone else could probably not destroy it like I am preparing my kitchen with newspaper to do.

So, I made my own pumpkins!

Cleanup was really hard for me with this orange because it's so sheer, I had a hard time seeing it (there are a few other reasons, like I have a hard time differentiating certain shades of oranges and pinks (which actually did not help while I was building up the orange... couldn't tell where I'd put the first layers...), and I was watching True Blood in really low lighting. Sorry!), so please excuse the mess.

I still love how these turned out! These just scream "Fall is HEERE!" to me.

Please meet Flower. Apparently it's a brand you can buy at Walmart now? I'd never heard of it before. The orange, Eye of the Tiger Lilly, really caught my eye, perfect for pumpkins, right?? ...Not so much. This polish is very sheer, and I'd actually like to call it a Jelly. I layered it with Sinful Colors Cloud 9  to get some opaque-ness and it gave it a very, very subtle glitter. 

Application is pretty good, not very streaky. It is a little thin, but not too bad! Even with two topcoats, there's shrinkage and wear happening after only two days :( 

You can see my cuticle butter in my cuticles... oops. Lush's Lemony Flutter, if anyone's asking.
You can also see where I couldn't figure out where the orange and the pink were lol

I really like these, despite all of my flaws (I'm still learning freehand...), and the issues I had with the polish.

October is Here!

...Someone wake up that guy from Green Day. (I know, overused joke...)

I'm so friggin' excited for October, but at the same time, I'm in total disbelief that it's actually October. 2012 was just last month, right??

I'd been so excited to do my nails tonight... All of my nails I had perfectly shaped and they were all even and the same great length... and then I broke my right middle. So frustrating! I'm sure I'll get over it... Nails do grow back, after all!

If you're arachnophobic, heads-up. I'm wearing spiders and their webs!

Step one: Sponge the tips of your nails with your base. I chose Orly's Charged Up.

I sponged Sinful Colors' Let Me Go on top and just under the Charged Up. In hindsight, this was a little too much, but had I just left the whole thing like this, it would've been perfect.

Next, I added the spider webs. Using a thin striping brush, start at the gathering point and draw out in black. Repeat a couple more times. Draw little U's between the lines. I went over mine with glitters. Born Pretty's Holographic #7 is shown here.

I stamped spiders onto my accent nails using Pure Ice Black Rage and Mash-38 stamping plate.

Little closer....

A couple of the spiders on my right hand got squished. 

I LOVE this mani, and I've only been wearing it all of five minutes now! This was inspired by this post that I found on Pinterest. I'm working on improving my freehanding, and drawing straight lines will probably improve with time. I'm still very impressed with myself on how these turned out though!

I Hate Orange!

...But the moment I saw this polish, I fell in love with it. I went back about four hours later and bought it. I honestly don't have any clue what I'm going to do with it, but it's sooooo pretty! I'm already really excited for Halloween, and this just added to it.

Now, if only we can get the exact same thing, but in red or blue....

This is the new Black Magic from Sinful Colors' Halloween 2013, and boy, it worked it's magic on me! It's got black and silver micro glitters and a larger orange.

I put this over Sinful Colors' Black on Black, and with that I only needed one coat. The tint is very transparent, and would have needed several layers to get opacity. The formula is wonderful, the glitters lay flat, and it's actually pretty easy to come off. I'm excited to get a good look at the other Halloween polishes!


Have you seen the new release? Which ones are you excited for?

Halloween Character Nails!

I apologize that I haven't posted in a while. I just started this new job and I'm still trying to get used to my schedule. Next week, I'm moving into my new apartment, and a couple weeks after that, I'm hoping to get my own internet. Posts will come more regularly after that.

These are my Halloween Character nails! I really hope you like them, they took me a while to do, and didn't last very long :(

From left to right: Zombie, Alien, Mummy

Vampire and Cthulhu

From left to right: Ghost, Werewolf, Witch, Frankenstein's Monster

I did Slenderman on my right pinkie, but I accidentally messed him up before I could get a picture :(

Closeup of the Witch. I cut down and painted a fake nail to make the cute hat!

Careful... Don't look at him too closely. You'll go insane!
I made the tentacles by coating some yarn in green polish and sticking them on with nail glue.

Closeup of the mummy and the Zombie
For the Mummy, I watermarbled browns and whites and added pearls with black dots.
For the Zombie, I slapped on shades of green and brown and then drew the mouth and stuck on some pearls, to which I added green and black and brown polish.

I really, really loved these nails, but they fell apart REALLY fast. The eyes popped off in the shower (Looked like a bad remake of Hostel in there!) and the Witch's hat came off that night at Walmart, and was lost forever :(

I had a lot of fun making these, though they took a while to make. I watched League of Extraordinary Gentlemen TWICE through these nails lol

So what is your favorite Halloween character? Would you have done someone different?

These nails were relatively cheap. I got the pearls for the eyes at Walmart when they were on clearance for about $.50, and the yarn had been laying around the house for a while.no new polishes were needed for these nails.

It's Finally October!

October is my favorite month. I absolutely love the beginning of Autumn, I love the pumpkin spice everything, I love Halloween, I just love everything about October!! I spent most of September anxiously waiting for October to arrive and it's finally here!!!!

We're only 3 days in, but I've already had a couple dreams come true! I found a job that pays enough for me to have my own apartment, a babysitter, and enough left over to eat and have a hobby! YAY!!!! October is my miracle month :)

Okay enough about my personal life, on to the nails!

For the first of October, I HAD to do Halloween-y type nails. I took the classic colors, black and orange (both by Sinful Colors (Cloud Nine, Black on Black), how appropriate!), and added purple (Let's Talk by Sinful Colors). I liked the striped look, so I just threw a matte on the top.

And then I looked through my glitter. I have black glitter (Target sells it in a pack for about $2.50 with a purple, an orange and a green)!!!!  I did a fresh stripe of black paint, and then sprinkled the glitter over it, gently pressing down with my finger to make sure it was nice and in the paint.


On my accent finger, I did a gradient of the three colors and then stamped a skull and bones using BM-225 :) He's so cute!

On to the pics!

So friggin' cute!! And messy... That glitter was HARD to get off!! :(

A macro shot of the orange base, Cloud Nine. Very glittery, I love it, and I usually am NOT a fan of warm colors. :)
This is a VERY thin color, and needs at least three coats. This is three, and I can see some places that could use another layer.

This is my accent nail. No matter what I do, I just cannot get white to stamp on purple without the white turning to  purple. I'll even put a topcoat in between, and it STILL CHANGES COLOR! GRRRRR! Still turned out pretty cute, though.

The finished base nail. I LOVE the effect the glitter has, since the rest of the nail is matte. It's totally cute! Maybe I'll do something like this with just blacks at some point...

I wore these for a couple of days and then I had a job fair to go to, and didn't think it would be appropriate to wear crazy nails, so took them off... To find my nails had stained orange. -_- I bought a new Nails base, and it's not very good :/ Every time I've used it as a base I've gotten stained. So lame.

So that's today's update, hope you enjoyed!

Mani Math Mistake

Tonight's mani makes me think of witches and Halloween, for some reason. I think it's the purple and black. Always kinda reminds me of the spider web my mom had in her classroom for Halloween, I guess. I have 2 coats of Wet'n'Wild's Wild Shine "Midnight Prowl" topped with a coat of Pure Ice Crackle in "Strobe Light". It's a very dark mani, which is unusual for me. It was an experiment in color and contrast. I thought the glitter in Midnight Prowl would show up more between the cracks of Strobe Light, but... Eh. You'll see.

Swatch of Midnight Prowl

Midnight prowl is a black with tiny purple glitter (I will someday learn about the different types of glitter and then I'll be able to tell you what kind of glitter this is, though I think this is a glass glitter. I honestly don't know, though). It's a definite 2-coater (possible 3-coater even, it's a very thin formula), a sheer black at first, needing some buildup. It's extremely pretty and very distracting. A bit hard to clean up, though.

This is the best pic I could get to show how dense the glitter is.
I didn't know I had a freckle there O.o

I thought that the glitter would sparkle very prettily through the crackle topcoat, and experimented thusly.

Well, I was kinda right...

With such an extreme light as the LED flash/flashlight from my phone, the glitter shows up really well, and you can TOTALLY see it through the cracks. But in the dim light from the "energy saving" bulbs we have in my home, my nails just look black :(

I did my usual final step- a top coat. 

This was a mistake. 

With a topcoat in the light of my house, you can no longer even see the glitter because the shine from the topcoat is hiding it. The black of the crackle is just kinda overpowering the glitter. 

So, now I've learned: dark nail polish + black crackle = nails I'm not proud of.