Happy Halloween ^_^

Happy Halloween!

I just love the whole month of October because to me it is basically a whole month centred around Halloween. I mean, who didn't love halloween as a child? Dress-up and free candy? I would be down for that every day of the year! 

It's funny though, ever since going vegan I have rethought a lot of my food choices and aside from the obvious (meat, dairy and eggs) I don't include white sugar or high fructose corn syrup in my life and if it's presented, I try to avoid it as much as possible. That being said I have still found so many fun ways to create delicious and healthy Halloween treats that I enjoy even more that my old favourites! So many things to love about Halloween, horror movies, PUMPKINS and of course, fun nails.

For Halloween I decided I wanted something classic, meaning black and orange. I used an unexpected favourite of mine from last year, China Glaze Bump in the Night. This is an opaque black textured polish. I love how it looks like dirt or asphalt. I applied this to my pinky and middle fingers. I did the reverse of this on my right hand.

To the rest of my fingers I applied 2-3 thin to medium coats of Maybelline Color Show in Dotty. Another unexpected favorite! My boyfriend talked me in to trying this one out. I told him I was going to leave it and he said, and I quote; " you can't leave it, it's so cool i'm going to get it for you". What a guy :)

In the bottle, Dotty looks like a rusty orange, but on the nail it is the perfect pumpkin orange. The orange jelly base is thin and the black and white matte glitter is dense. I had no issues with application, but I must warn you to be patient with application. I was getting impatient and decided to add thicker coats to a few nails, and although not very visible, it did cause some small bubbling to occur.

All and all I am super happy with this mani and my October. Lots of fun was had this month at haunted houses, watching scary movies, making awesome treats, hay rides and a pumpkin patch!

Create & Win Your Own Franken-Polish!

Halloween... so close I can taste it! Don't forget to enter my Halloween themed giveaway here, the contest ends in a few days.

Zoya has an awesome promo/contest for this last week of October (which I have dubbed Halloweek). See below for the details directly from Zoya:

This Halloween we're giving you a chance to bring your Zoya color creation to life!!! Create It, Name It and Potentially Win It! Click here for full instructions.

Take a look at their colour laboratory:

As you can see below, you can choose the exact shade, finish and opacity you would like for you polish along with a name an description.

Check out my creations below, in true Zoya fashion, I have given them all plausible "names":

I'm excited to see the winners, this is a super cool idea. Although you are not able to be super creative with actual glitters and textures, the description allows you to really tell the story of your polish.

Fave Halloween Polishes 2014

Halloween is quickly approaching, I just can't wait for Friday! Today I  have a short list of my all time favorite Halloween themed polishes... this year anyways! Every October I go through my stash and go through all the Halloween shades I have. Here are some of the polishes I cannot get enough of in the month of October. For previous swatches of these polishes, click on the polish name in the title.

China Glaze Its Alive

A deep green jelly base saturated with bright lime green glitter in various sizes. The deeper base makes the glitter appear to be darker. Such a great shade, China Glaze has amazing green polishes for Halloween.

Sally Hansen Pumpkin Spice

The perfect Halloween shade must include orange and black! Pumpkin spice is made up of a murky black jelly base and coper orange glitter. At first I didn't see the hype over this polish, but I was in love the first time I wore it. And yes, I have two bottles, it's that awesome! I needs about three thin coats for full opacity, but it is well worth it for the final outcome.

Orly, Monster Mash

A slimy green jelly base jam packed with green and holo glitter of various sizes. This polish is so awesome! My favorite of Orly's Halloween collection from 2012. I actually layered this over It's Alive for Halloween in 2012!

China Glaze Boo-gie Down
This is the newest favorite to my list, I purchase it last year at the end of the Halloween season.
I just recently wore this as an accent in a Halloween themed mani last week. There is a lot going on in the bottle, matte black (various sized hex and bar glitter) and white glitters with a sprinkling of gold and copper hex glitter. Such a great mix for Halloween. I love it over a sheer nude, super classy, and the formula is awesome! Super easy to apply with great coverage as a topper at one coat.

What are your favorite colours and polishes to wear during the month of October?

Boo-gie Bats

Happy Friday! Halloween countdown: 1 week left! There is also only 1 week left to enter my Halloween giveaway here.

I finally pulled out my Bundle Monster holiday plates and created a simple but fun mani with a full nail bat design and Halloween themed glitter!

For this mani I used the following:

Base - Revlon Peach Nectar

Ring and thumb fingers - China Glaze Boo-gie Down

Bundle Monster plate - BM-H08

I applied two coats of Revlon, Peach Nectar over my base coat. Once that was dry I stamped some bats in black polish using Bundle Monster plate BM-H06 on three of my nails. For my ring finger and thumb nails I applied  a generous coat of China Glaze Boo-gie Down, a gorgeous mix of black, white, copper and gold glitters.

Boo-gie down is such an awesome glitter, I love it over the nude base. The colours remind me of sophisticated candy corn with yellow and orange replaced with shiny gold and copper. This is such a subtle and easy mani. I really love bold stamping over a nude base, especially when most nails are stamped, it's not so in your face or tacky.

DONT FORGET TO ENTER MY GIVEAWAY! It runs until the end of the month! You get to pick which set of nails files you like should you prefer a different colour

Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble

These two polishes were pretty much made for each other. I got them at different times and happened to swatch them right beside each other and they looked to me a good layering combo. The names even match slightly! I used Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Style maker as my base and layered Sinful Colors Cauldron Couture over top. Although the initial tie in is fashion, this is a Halloween themed mani. Cauldron Couture is apart of Sinful Color's Halloween collection this year. I am heading across the boarder this weekend and am hoping to pick up a few more shades from this collection, wish me luck! 

Cauldron Couture is a glitter polish in a clear base made up of various sized and shaped matte black and shiny green glitter. I mostly see hex and random shaped shards of each colour of glitter. I originally thought this polish was a black base with green glitter. I didn't figure this out until I got home! I do love it though. I only needed one good coat and some dabs to get a good coat on top of the green base.

It wore fantastically too, I only took it off because I wanted to chop my nails down a bit, I got some minor breaks. I blame it on the cooler, drying weather. I kind of want to try this over something bold like a bright orange, maybe even a neutral. Mixing it with other Halloween glitters is another fun idea! I'll have to keep these in mind for next year.

The green glitter matches Style maker almost exactly which can look pretty cool in certain lighting. This was a fun mani to wear, I got a lot of compliments :)

Ghoulish Green

Today I have a "ghoulish"shade of green polish to share with you today. It is not a Halloween polish like the others I have shared this month, however, in an upcoming post I have used it as a base for a more Halloween themed mani.

This is Sally Hansen Miracle Gel, Style Maker. My awesome boyfriend surprised me with this polish one day. He loved the colour, it's a bright green shimmer with blue undertones. In the bottle it appears to have a slight blue duotone, however on the nail it is not visible.

Application was okay, I used two coats, but three would have probably been better for full opacity. The formula was thin and sheer, but built up well. The reflection of the shimmer really makes it pop. I do not own the topcoat that it marketed to be used in combination with this line (Miracle Gel) of polish and it dried just fine and worked like any other polish. In the photos I actually have no top coat, just the polish and basecoat. 

I am curious about the top coat, does anyone own it? If so, do you find it is necessary to use with the Miracle Gel line?

Pumpkin Spice!!

Love this polish, love the name, just love it!! This is one of my all time favorite Halloween polishes! I wore it around Thanksgiving which was also appropriate due to the pumpkin reference.

I will keep this post short since I have posted about this polish in the past. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear, Pumpkin Spice is a murky black jelly polish with copper glitter scattered throughout. At first glance from afar it appears to be black. The lovely copper glitter reflects beautifully throughout, they almost look like hot embers.

This polish is quite sheer, but the build up is worth it to get that squishy, jelly, glossy finish. I used three regular coats, not too think, not too thin, with some time in-between to build up this polish to an opacity I was comfortable with. You could always layer a coat or two over a black or darker base polish.

fun with my halloween "props"

Perfect for October! I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

September Favorites

This is an ongoing monthly post I will be incorporating in to the blog which mentions some of my favorite things. 

Today I have my favorite things from last month. Woohoo, on schedule this time! Check it out below:

Favourite Facial Care Product: Aztec Secret Indian Healing Clay

My skin is having an identity crisis, it thinks I am 15 again! Wth the help of regular facials I am getting my skin issues under control, so I was happy to find an all natural product that I can use on my own at home. This healing clay mask is awesome, simply mix with equal parts apple cidar vinegar, apply to the face and wash off after 10/15/20 mins depending on your skin. It really draws up all the dirt from your pores, bringing it to the surface for easy removal. 

Favourite Food: Apple Chips

My sister picked these out at Costco in early September and I have been hooked at first taste! These, raw, dehydrated apple chips are such a great snack and pack a satiffying crunch. When I headed to Costco again last week I picked up two big bags, I am sooooo addicted!

Favourite Natural: Coconut Oil

I have been a fan of coconut oil for a while now, you may even see this as favorite in upcoming months for other uses. I primarily use it for cooking and I have been using it lately for cooking stove-top popcorn. One tablespoon melted with about a quarter to one third cup of kernels, topped with some pink Himalayan salt tastes even better than theater popcorn! I haven't discussed this much on the blog, but I became vegan earlier this year, and although I no longer care for the smell or taste or butter, the coconut oil really adds that creamy, buttery flavour I crave in popcorn. The best part is that it is a healthy, natural oil and you don't even need a lot of it, a little bit gives big flavour.

Favourite Fashion Accessory: Scull Scarf

The weather has been up and down all year, Mother Nature must have some hormonal issues going on as well ;) This past "summer", if that's what you'd like to call it, here in Toronto was quite mild compared to previous years. Luckily the fall weather this year has really been beautiful, 20+ during the day, but cooler before the sun comes out and sets. Enter my favorite scarf in the whole wide world! It's huge, soft and light AND it has rainbow skulls, love at first sight! Thai is the best because depending on how I fold and shape it, it can be heavier to lighter depending on the weather. During the morning commute it keeps me nice and warm with ought having other heavy layers to carry with me on the way home. And skulls :)

Muir Muir On the Wall

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I have a lovely fall shade I have been longing for the last little while. It was one of those polishes I kept picking up and putting back down every time I saw it. Finally I own this polish, OPI, Muir Muir on the Wall. 

I want to describe this shade as a deep wine, but the base is actually quite dark like a taupey brown/grey. It has a subtle duochrome with the most prominent colour dependant on the lighting. For the most part I would say you see more of the purple and wine tones. It is a great shade for fall and I love that I chose it to wear for thanksgiving!

The formula was excellent, nice and smooth not being too thick or thin. Only two light coats were needed for full opacity. 

Halloween Giveaway!

I have a great giveaway this month sponsored by Mont Bleu in anticipation of new products to be released through their site shortly.

For those of you unfamiliar with Mont Bleu, they are a manufacturer of Czech made glass nail files and accessories made with Swarovski Elements. I have reviewed their products on my blog before and love their nail files. I own many of them ranging from compact to large and now I am happy to say I am offering a gift set of three to be won through this giveaway!

One winner will be chosen at random October 30th through the rafflecopter (enter below), the winner will be announced on Halloween! I picked out this lovely Halloween themed set of nail files which reminds me of candy corn.

Some rules for entering the contest:

You must be a follower of my blog

You must like Mont Bleu on Facebook

You must provide me with Contact info

More information on the product to be won:

Glass nail files set with “Waterfall” design. Large, medium and small nail files: one for your purse, one for home manicure and one for pedicures.

All nail files are made from Czech tempered glass in Bohemia and have a lifetime warranty on the filling surface. Files are hand decorated with Swarovski crystals and presented in black velvet sleeves.

Quantity of files in set: 3 - large (195mm/7.68 in), medium (135mm/5.32 in) and small (90mm/3.54 in)

Cross boarder haul

What a little road trip I had last month. It was short and super sweet, I purchased ALL the Halloween/Fall themed items lol. Okay, maybe not everything, but enough! Is it crazy to anyone else that Christmas stuff is in stores before October!? I'm not taking about one thing here and there, like full on, set up displayed Christmas trees, lights and whatever else have yous, nuts! I picked up some fantastic scores polish-wise, however no Halloween themed polish really caught my eye.

I found this gem, OPI, Muir Muir on the Wall at Ulta, only $2.49, I could not believe it! That has got to be the cheapest I have ever purchased an OPI for! Muir Muir on the Wall is a vampy duochrome from OPI's 2013 fall collection. It shines mostly pink/red, however, the base appears to be a deep, dusty purple. two coats shown in the swatch below.

Moving along to Big Lots. The last time I was there I stocked up on a bunh of Seohora by OPI polishes that had been marked down to $1.80! To my surprise when I returned this time I found full sized Sephora Formula X polishes! I had been wanting to try these, I have heard so many good things (my sister even got a few mini samples and kept them for herself), but the price tag deterred me. But for $2.50 a bottle I coulnt leave them, the ones that caught my eye anyways! This includes from left to right, In Love, Whimsical.

In Love is a baby pink glitter with an unexpected scattered holo shimmer. Whimsical is a frosty silver glitter with silver shimmer throughout. Two coats are shown for each polish in the swatch below. 

Left to right, Chaotic and Explosive.

Chaotic is your standard black and white matte glitter, one coat is shown in the swatch below. Explosive is a black jelly with holo gold hex glitters of various sizes, two coats are shown in the swatch below. This was a weird one, and I am still note sure how I feel about it. The base is not a true, squishy jelly. If it dried to a high gloss finish I would like it more, but it looks almost matte and gritty. I must say, the gold holo glitter is beautiful.

I also picked up a few Sephora by OPI shades because, ya know, they were under $2. I got Caught With My Khakis Down And Shiny Dancer.

Caught With My Khakis Down is a khaki green neutral creme, two coats are shown in the swatch below.

Shiny Dancer is a gunmetal grey micro glitter with a hint of blue sparkle, two coats are shown in the swatch below.

Bonus - My sister is a makeup consultant at Sephora, did the whole beauty school thing on the side for fun, so it's cool she gets to do that part time. What's even cooler? She gets samples galore from the brands sold at Sephora. She scored this awesome mini glitter from Ciate called Fancy Pants and passed it along to me. Woohoo!

This awesome glitter is made up of pink, periwinkle and white hex glitter of various sizes and black hex glitter. Two coats are shown in the swatch below.

Until the next haul..

Friday I will return to regular scheduled, Halloween programming :)

Tis' the Season for Tombstone Polish!

I have some more festive Halloween polish today, I think they will get more festive as the month goes on ;)

This is a Wet N' Wild Tombstone polish from a few years back, Black Magic, although I am pretty sure they brought this one back last year along with a few others. This is one of the two versions I own of Black Magic (the other is a multicoloured bar glitter). This version is a black creme base with teeny, tiny silver and orange glitters.

The glitter is very subtle, from afar it looks as though I am wearing just a regular black polish. The formula was excellent, smooth and even coverage in two coats. I'm sure if I applied a thicker coat at first I could have gotten away with just one coat, but I always prefer two thinner ones.

I am super impressed with the formula and wear of this polish. It got me excited for the Wet n' Wild 2014 tombstone polishes, unfortunately, I saw the display for the new collection last weekend and I am not really all that impressed, check it out below:

Standard creme brights/neons, black and glow in the dark. I'm also not a huge fan of the logo redesign and change to the fun tombstone caps. Although they are still shaped the same, they appear to be cheaper and not as eye catching.

I actually thought this was a rip off display from another brand! What do you think?