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:

October Challenge: Week 1

Good morning! Sorry this is a wee bit late, I have some company. In this week's challenge, I'm doing "nude." And I decided to keep it simple and go for a purple gradient French tip. Which felt too simple, so I added some webs, just 'cause I need the practice and also because they're totes adorbs (sorry. I don't know what happened there). 

I am very proud of what my left hand achieved on those spiderwebs.

Please ignore my pinkie nubbins. I lost them both on the same day after weeks of superglue and coffee filters.
It was very sad. 

For the gradient, I used NYC's Strawberry Cream, Sally Hansen's Pronto Purple. Strawberry Cream is a lovely translucent soft pink, with barely a hint of shimmer. It's absolutely perfect for this type of nude gradient.

For the spiderwebs, I used Revlon's Spirit and Kleancolor's Metallic Fuchsia and a medium-length line brush. All fairly simple, really :)

I topped this with a mix of Seche Vite (which has already caused some shrinking, booo) and Pure Ice's Glow In The Dark.

I can't wait to see what you guys come up with for the challenges! You can email me your submissions at pinkies4apenny@gmail.com if you don't have your own blog, and you can always post to instagram, twitter, tumblr, or any other social media using the hashtag #OctoberChallengeP4AP. Hope to wake up to some gorgeous nails :) 

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!

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!

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!