Halloween

The One With the Pumpkin Nail Art that I Really Don't Like

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose

Good morning polished world! How are you all doing on this wonderful Monday?  I apologize for not posting but I got distracted and thought I had posted.  Actually I'm even behind on Instagram too.  Not quite sure how that happened since I feel I have been diligent, but who knows.

Today's nail art is something that looked MUCH better in my head than it did on my nails.  Remember the other day when I posted the graveyard coming from the cuticle and I said pumpkins by my cuticle would be a cute idea.  Yeah, they would probably be cute if they weren't jack o'lanterns.  I ran out of room, so I just did the eyes, and well I really did not like them.  But since I'm all about the blog again, I figured I would post them.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • OPI - I Can Never Hut Up
  • OPI - No Tan Lines
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
  • Acrylics
The thing I really liked about this manicure was the base.  I used two coats of I Can Never Hut Up, which is one of my all time favorite grey polishes by OPI.  When that was dry, I went through with a black polish and created the dry brush look.  I then added the pumpkins first by outlining them with a black acrylic.  I then filled in the orange and green and added some darker orange shading.



Then came time for the jack o'lantern faces.  This is where the manicure took a turn for the disaster-cure.  I didn't plan the spacing out enough and had no room for the little mouths, therefore I had tiny triangle eyes, at first.  I tried to fix my mess, and made the triangles larger, which I wasn't happy with.

Even though I wasn't happy with the design, other people thought they were cute.  They said they were peek-a-boo jack o'lanterns.

What do you think?  Hate them, love them?

Until next time, <3.

Halloween

The One With the Mani Swap With Coffee and Nail Polish - Graveyard Nails!

9:00:00 AM


Good morning, polished world!  How are you doing on this fine, fine Tuesday?  We are finally getting some Fall weather right in time for Halloween.  Life has slowed down for me during my favorite season and I actually am getting to enjoy the changing colors and crisp air.  I'm hoping the weather holds this weekend so I can carve my pumpkins.  I need ideas, so if you have any, let me know!

Today's post is a Mani Swap with Coffee and Nail Polish, you know, since two of my last three Halloween manicures have been inspired by her.  How could I not recreate her ghosts and candy corn dots??  When I saw her graveyard nails, I knew I had to re-create them as well.  After chatting about Halloween nail art, we decided to do today's swap!!

Let's take a look at my re-creation of her graveyard nails!


Colors Used:
  • OPI - I Can Never Hut Up
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
  • ORLY - White Tips
  • Zoya - Troy
Aren't these graveyard nails neat?!  Just like her other designs, I never would have thought of this manicure.  Especially doing the little graves at the cuticle.  Why don't I think of doing more cuticle nail art?  It's so versatile and there are so many designs you can do from there.  I think I might do some Thanksgiving cuticle pumpkins.  That sounds weird, but trust me, I think it's going to be cute.



I really loved the base for this manicure.  To get the look, I started with a base coat of Zoya Troy.  It's a dark grey pewter polish from I believe the Urban Grunge collection.  During my blogging hiatus, it was a polish I discovered in my collection and wore a lot with a variety of holographic top coats.  You can get away with one coat of this beauty, but I typically use two.

When that was dried, I went through with ORLY White Tips and did a vertical dry brush unlike the normal random abstract dry brush that I typically do.  I then did a dry brush with I Can Not Hut Up by OPI.  One of my favorite light grey polishes with a subtle blue shimmer.  Then to make it a little more spooky, I added a bit of a dry brush using ORLY Liquid Vinyl.


Once my dry brush was completed, I added the cuticle nail art using acrylics.  Honestly, it was so much easier to create the nail art at the cuticle instead of at the tip of the nail.  Maybe because of the angle when painting.  Who knows.  Regardless, I really need to create more cuticle nail art.

I didn't plan the photo at the actual graveyard, it just was an interesting coincidence.  On a beautiful day this weekend, I went to visit some family plots before the winter to make sure they were in good condition when I realized I had the graveyards painted on my nails.  I had to take the opportunity for the photo.  I'm not going to lie, I find graveyards to be extremely peaceful and not so much haunting.  Just walking around and reading different graves you can learn so much.  At this particular graveyard, some of the graves are from the 1800s.  I just find it interesting.

What do you think?  Fan of this manicure? Do you get creeped out by graveyards?

Don't forget to check out Shannon's swap!!!

Until next time, <3.



Dot Mani

The One With the Candy Corn Dotticure

9:00:00 AM

Good morning polished world!  How are you doing on this fine Sunday?  I meant to have this post up yesterday, but I decided to go to bed instead of editing photos and writing.  Actually, I took a look at the photos and they were in bad shape that I just kind of gave up and went to sleep.  I need to invest in a new camera.  I've been using the same one for the past five years and I think it's time.

Until then, the old camera is getting the job done and captured this fun candy corn dotticure inspired by Coffee and Nail Polish.  Pretty sure I should change my blog name for this month to "Inspired by Coffee and Nail Polish" because the mani I'm posting after this one will be the third one inspired by her.  She's just hitting home runs this Halloween season, so how can I not re-create her designs??

Let's take a look! 


Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Taylor
  • Serendipity Polish - Orange County Girl
  • Serendipity Polish - Bottomless Mimosas
  • Serendipity Polish - #GoalDigger
Despite the fact that the coloring is horrid on these photos, the manicure was beyond amazing.  I absolutely loved the use of a nude base for the nail art.  I probably would have created this look with a negative space manicure, and then hated it.  I always forget to use my nude polishes, like Taylor from Zoya.  I got this polish years ago and it's such a great shade which really does match my skin.  We will ignore the fact that my skin looks beyond lobster'ed in these photos, truly it does match.



I miss Serendipity Polish.  That's one Indie that I wish was still around.  One coat creams which worked wonderfully for nail art.  

I'm sad that my top coat is getting old because it bubbled around the dots.  Oh well.  New camera, new top coat.....I need to get to the store.

What do you think?  Fan of this manicure? Recommendations for new cameras?

Until next time, <3.

Halloween

The One With the Ghoulish Ghosts

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing on this Wednesday?  The weather is finally like Fall here with temperatures in the 50s and 60s.  We are due for a frost and the leaves are finally changing.  Ahhh, it's truly my favorite time of year.  Now, I just need to get some apples and start making some pies!

Before the pie making, there's some blogging to do.  Today's Halloween design was inspired by Coffee & Nail Polish.  She created the most unique ghost design for #GlamNailsChallengeOct.  In all my years of blogging I had never seen anything like it, and I for sure never thought of doing it!

Let's take a look!



Colors Used:
  • Sally Hansen - Stilletos & Studs
  • INM - Northern Lights
  • Acrylics
Isn't this so amazing?!  Shannon came up with the idea of see through little ghosts.  I always hate doing ghost designs because the opaque white always didn't look right to me.  While this looks like an unbelievably complicated design, it was so easy to do!  I took white acrylic paint and watered it down.  I painted the design on the nail, then let it sit for about 30 seconds.  I then wiped off the access and was left with the outline of the ghost.  I brushed around some excess acrylics to fill in some really naked areas and was left with little ghosts!



Stilettos & Studs was a great base color for this manicure.  I debated on going with a straight black base with a scattered holo topper, but when I saw this polish in my drawer I had to use it.  It gives it that cloudy, spooky, night sky feel.  Two coats and I had full coverage of this Miracle Gel.  It wore like a beast, it took a little scrubbing to remove it.

What do you think?  Like these little ghosts?  Think they're spooky or cute?

Until next time, <3.