Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween! One my my favourite holidays of the year, can't believe it is finally here!  As a kid one of my favourite thing about Halloween was trick or treating, free candy! To celebrate I have created some trick or treat nails with China Glaze Texture, Bump in the Night and Wet n'Wild Fantasy Makers, Creepy Pumpkin. I stamped a fun candy design from Bundle Monster Plate, BM-306. I have had the combo of Creepy Pumpkin and the graphic from plate BM-306 in black since the beginning of October, and I love it!

Anything fun planned for Halloween?

Fun Polish Picks for Halloween!

Halloween is almost here! Are you looking for that perfect polish to wear in celebration of tricks, treats and all that is spooky!? Today I have a short list of my some of my favorite Halloween polishes at the moment! Let's get started, in no particular order:

OPI, Zom-body to Love - Glow-in-the Dark
Out of the many glow in the dark polishes I own this one has a special place in my heart. I love the same, I love the shade, although sheer, and the glow effect is awesome! I layered this over Essie, Mojito Madness last Halloween and it matched perfectly and added a little sparkle from the glowy particles in the polish!

Del Sol, Trick or Treat - Solar Changing Glitter

This colour changing polish is so awesome whether in the sun or shade. Normally this is an orange jelly with orange and silver holo glitter. But once the UV ray's hit it, it changes to a deep blackened plum! Such a great colour combo and change, my favorite out of all the Del Sol's I have seen and own.

China Glaze, Zombie Zest  - Jelly Glass Fleck

Another great green. This one is an olive jelly with multi changing glass fleck pieces. The flakie particles shift from an olive green to gold and at some angles a teal blue! The name describes this polish perfectly.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear, Pumpkin Spice - Jelly Glitter

This was an unexpected beauty for me. All the blogs raved about it, but I didn't think it was special, I own so many similar polishes, so I thought. It's the merky darkened brown jelly and square copper orange glitter that really make it a stand out from the other black base orange glitter polishes available. I own a backup of this now hard to find polish. If I could I would wear it for all of October!

Wet n' Wild Fast Dry, Tangled In My Web -  Glitter
This black glitter is comprised of  medium black matte hex glitter in a clear base, this is a geat topper for any polish, but for Halloween I love it over orange or white. It's great over spiderweb nails too to act as little spiders in the web ;)

I wanted to include the new China Glaze Halloween polishes in this list but unfortunately they did not arrive in time to to wear or even photograph and swatch. Something to look forward to for next year :) I usually end up doing that, buying Halloween polishes after Halloween when they are on sale and wearing them the following year!

What are your favorite Halloween polishes? What polish will you be wearing for Halloween?

Glitter and Goodies

Today I have a polish I had coveted for so long, Sephora by OPI, If You've Got It, Haunt It! I finally found it last year on clearance for $6 at Sephora and am super glad I did since all of the $OPI polishes have now been discontinued. A tip for finding some polishes you may have missed out on is to check your local Marshalls. I took a trip across the boarder over the weekend and came across single polishes and a three pack, that was at a quick glance! I also found some singles and minis at a Marshalls in Canada too, so keep a look out.

If You've Got It, Haunt It is a silver grey based glitter with a sheer jelly grey base. The glitter is very dense in this one, mostly silver micro glitter sprinkled with matte black glitter and micro holo glitter/prismatic glitter that shifts between green blue and purple. So unique! The jelly built up well and only two coats were needed for full opacity.

On my ring finger I used Wet n' Wild Fantasy Makers, Creapy Pumpkin. This is a sheer jelly orange with orange/yellow shimmer. This polish is fairly sheer, but I only needed three coats for full opacity.

Loving this combo of glitter and shimmer, nail art to follow ;)

Franken-Nails

I have a quick and easy way to liven up any mani for Halloween today! All you need is Bundle Monster plate BM - 411, and two polishes for stamping/paining within the patch.

 

I stamped with BM-411 and Konad white special polish using the stitchy patch design. I placed one patch on each of my ring fingers and thumbs as an accent. I filled in each patch with China Glaze Ick-A-Body and placed the design in a slightly different location for each nail. I originally wanted to try this with creme polishes and add some texture (polka dots, stripes, etc. Inspiration, Sally Skellington) to each patch, but decided to try it out over my latest mani of Orly RIP. 

I used a technique found around the web of paining in your stamp before applying it to the nail for this look. This makes the lines in the design nice and crisp. Let me know if you are interested in a quick walk though/tutorial in the comments section below if you haven't seen this before and I can put together a post!

Rest In Peace

Woohoo! Another Halloween polish today for the second last week in October, pretty much a full week now until Halloween! Today I chose an Orly polish from Spellbound, their 2012 Halloween collection, RIP. This polish has a murky dark brown/black base with copper orange regular sized and medium hex glitter.

The formula was good to work with, but I'd like to provide you with a tip for application; stand the bottle upside down the night before application to ensure you get a good amount of glitter on the brush. I applied three coats in my photos. Two thick coats would probably be fine, but I used three thin ones to allow for more depth and saturation of glitter and to allow for even application.

Now for a small rant regarding Orly's Halloween collection for 2013, what were you thinking!? After such a great collection of glitters from last year you raise our expectations for this year and you give us standard orange and black polishes that aren't even new? Repromotes!? Really!!! Why?? Such a disappointment. I hope they bring back some better polishes for next Halloween.

This is my final request, today is the LAST DAY to vote for your fave Halloween nail art submitted for the Bundle Monster Cirque Du Freak contest. 

I am so close to being in the top 13, I'm only missing it my just a few votes so I really need your help to move on to the next round.

Below is my entry! 

If you'd like to vote for my entry and the rest of your favorites, click here! Thanks a bunch for those who have been voting :) I really appreciate it.

Feeling Webby

Today I have a short mani refresh that took no time at all. I simply stamped a spider web design from Bundle Monster plate BM-1XX over my previous mani. This design is a Halloween staple for me, I use it every October! This year I stamped the design in black over the glitter tips from my previous mani.

I added a thin layer of top coat and my mani was complete!

There are only two days left to vote for your fave Halloween nail art submitted for the Bundle Monster Cirque Du Freak contest. Below is my entry!

If you'd like to vote for my entry and the rest of your favorites, click here! Thanks a bunch for those who have been voting :) I really appreciate it.

Festivly Fall French

I have been glitter crazy a bit lately had the great idea to do a fall inspired glitter gradient :) As a base I used my go to sheer nude, OPI Bubble Bath. I applied two thin coats for a clean, natural look and sponged OPI Extra-va-vaganza on the tips of each nail.

Extra-va-vaganza is a heavily saturated glitter comprised of mostly orange and silver glitter, it also has hints of magenta, green and blue. It's the orange and silver that remind me of fall and Halloween and the other colours that add a little something special to the glitter.

I will definitely be doing some nail art with this as the base for a more Halloween inspired look :)

There are only 3 more days left to vote for your fave Halloween nail art submitted for the Bundle Monster Cirque Du Freak contest. Below is my entry!

If you'd like to vote for my entry and the rest of your favorites, click here! Thanks a bunch for those who have been voting :) I really appreciate it.

Enchanted Forest on All Howls Eve - My Bundle Monster Cirque Du Freak Contest Submission!

I entered a Halloween nail design this week in to Bundle Monsters latest contest, Cirque du Freak. The theme for my nail art is enchanted forest on Halloween night. I used OPI My Private Jet  from my last post as the base for this design. I sponged a gradient of red, orange and yellow shimmer, the polishes I used are:

Red - Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear, Poppy

Orange - Nicole by OPI, Fresh Squeezed

Yellow - China Glaze, White Cap  

I applied two coats of the gradient and waited for it to fully dry before moving on to the stamping. I used Sally Hansen 10 Day No Chip in Blackberry to stamp Bundle Monster plate BM-407 for the enchanted forest trees and BM-213 for the bats in the sky. I sealed the design with a thin coat of topcoat and I was done!

I was kind of scrambling to get these up in time to submit to the contest, I got lost in the days since Monday I was off work for Thanksgiving here in Canada. I didn't get the greatest photo up in time for the submission, but was able to capture some slightly better photos for this post. It really does look a lot more vibrant in person though, the gradient looks so cool! This look was definitely a challenge to photograph.

If you like my design I'd love it if you'd support me by voting for my design. There are a lot of other fun designs so have a look and vote for your favourites! You can vote once a day until October 28th for your faves. Best of luck to all participants!

Thanksgiving Mani

Today I have a very belated thanks giving mani. Nothing over the top, just a nice neutral fall shade, OPI's My Private Jet. I actually own two of the multiple versions out there, far I have counted at least 4 variations on this shade. The shade I am wearing today is a grey/brown with a scattered holo shimmer and a light blue/purple duochrome.

direct sunlight, outdoors

I wish I could capture the colour/finish more acutely, it is so much preittier in person. Photos do not do this polish justice. 

direct sunlight, outdoors

indirect lighting outdoors

This is so pretty even though it is not the super duper amazing one everyone always lusts over. Application was perfect, two thin coats were required for full opacity. I added a top coat, but wonder if it dulled the holo effect at all. Either way I love it, such a great neutral shade.

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I am planning an upcoming post comparing the two versions I own, they are actually quite different, a lot more than I thought! Do you own My Private Jet? Do you know how many variations there are?

Halloween Skittles!

Happy Friday!! And happy long weekend to my fellow Candaians, this week is our Thanksgiving :) I cannot wait to fill up on turkey this weekend!

Moving on to my mani, I loved Lightmare so much that I didn't want to remove it entirely just because a few nails were chipping. What I decided on doing was keeping it on the nails that were not chippy and doing some Halloween skittle nails as a mani refresh.

With lightmare on my ring and pinky fingers I applied the following to my nails:

Fright Night Claw Polish, Sinister - Middle finger. This is THE perfect black creme polish, plus it comes in a cute coffin bottle :)

China Glaze, Papaya Punch - Pointer finger. A bright yellow based orange creme.

Ulta Salon Formula, Concrete Evidence - Thumb. A medium grey creme.

On op of each nail I added either some stamping or glitter:

Pinky - Bundle Monster plate BM-201with white polish over Lightmare.

Middle - Bundle Monster plate BM-201with white polish over Sinister.

Pointer - Unnamed pumpkin polish from Rite Aid (label reads "Chunky Nail", however I have another polish purchased this year with the same label).

Thumb - Nabi, Black Flake over Concrete Evidence

I am loving skittle nails, perfect for when you cant decide on one particular colour, design, glitter, etc!

Lightmare!

Today I have a gorgeous Halloween glitter to share with you, Lightmare from Piggy Polish, I think it is actually the only Piggy Polish I own! I picked it up last year in October, such a great Halloween polish. It is made up of gun metal grey glitter and small copper orange hex glitter, it looks great in the bottle but so amazing on the nail.

I only needed two coats to reach opacity, however the formula on this polish was not the greatest, gooey and thick. To make things worse there were two stray hairs sticking out on the brush that I ended up cutting off because I couldn't stand them any more! I added some thinner to help with application and it helped a little, the final look didn't have any imperfections or a lumpy finish so I was happy with that.

I added two layers of topcoat to smooth the glitter out and add some extra shine. Unfortunately this polish started chipping hours after application, I was so disappointed. One reason this may have been was due to me wrapping my tips with the glitter. This was a little gritty so it would chip easier and take the rest of the polish with it. Next time I would definitely wear a base colour before applying the glitter to help with wear time.

Once it started to get chippy on a few nails I just started picking it off, it came off a little too easily. I will show you what I did to refresh this polish tomorrow.

Grungy Glitter

Today I hae a quick and easy refresh of China Glaze Cast a Spell. I literally did this while on the phone lol.

I took out my new Nicole by OPI glitter, Brilliant Idea and blended in a gradient with the base polish. To do this I simply applied Brilliant Idea to the top of a cosmetic sponge ad Cast a Spell directly under and dabbed on the nail. Brilliant Idea applied extremely well, all the glitter transformed perfectly, Cast a Spell on the other hand I had an issue with. The cosmetic sponge soaked up most of the base in the polish leaving me with mostly shimmer. Had I of known this was going to happen I would have just used the glitter.

After I finished sponging the glitter in the nail, I took out Bundle Monster plate BM-201 and black stamping polish and stamped a chrvron pattern on top of the gradient. It adds to the gradient andhelps to break it up a bit which I like :)

Overall I am really happy with how this turned out, it has a grungy spray paint effect.

Cast a Spell!

Today I have my first Halloween polish of te season, this China Glaze polish is from the Halloween collection from 2012. It is a black-like green with green/golden shimmer. The pigmentation of this polish is polish is amazing, I inly needed one coat for opacity! All my photos are one coat, no top coat.

The wear was fantastic too, very minor tip wear after a few days with one coat and no topcoat! I love this shade. It is a great base for some Halloween nail art :)