Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween!

Good evening and happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a great time, whether it was out begging for candy with the kids, or partying down :) Me, I didn't do a thing and that's fine with me lol.

I did do a mani for today, though. Originally, I had planned a "blood" splatter mani, but I expanded on it a little. One of my favorite shows on TV right now is The Mentalist. The biggest villian on the show is a psychopath called Red John. Sooooooo, here goes lol.

My base started off with 2 coats of Zoya Purity. Then, using the Saran Wrap method, I "sponged" on OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls. That gave it a kind of dirty wall look. I used Vivid Lacquer plate VL 011 to create the blood spot look. Sadly, the old "blood" turned out too red violet, looking almost purple on the white. The new "blood" turned out better, in my opinion. The colors I used for the "blood" were Zoya Sooki and OPI Lincoln Park After Dark. Everything was topped with Seche.







Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Halloween roses

Good evening!

I wanted to do something a little non traditional for my Halloween nails today. I had yet to see anyone do black roses, so that made up my mind.

My base color was 2 coats of OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls topped with Seche. My stamped images came from Messy Mansion MM07, stamped in Sally Hansen Inst-Dri Jumping Jade and Sinful Colors Black on Black, topped again with Seche. I really love how this turned out <3 Quite possibly my favorite Halloween mani this year.







Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Eyes and a ...... fail?

Good evening!

I have a couple of Halloween manis to show you, since I just wasn't able to post last night. I absolutely love how today's turned out..... yesterday's not so much =\

Today's mani was pretty simple, but pretty cool I think :) I can't believe I hadn't done it before now! All the colors I used for it are Zoya colors. The base was two coats of Raven. The eyes were created using dotting tools and Purity, Darcy, and Sooki. Sooki and Darcy were dotted over Purity so they would show up over Raven. Topped off with Seche.








Now, yesterday's mani was, in my opinion, one of those I should have stopped and left alone. I water marbled for the first time in months, and had better success with it than the last time. My base was one coat of Milani's White on the Spot. The colors I used to marble were Sinful Colors Amethyst, Wet 'N Wild's Black Creme, Sinful Colors Exotic Green, and Sally Hansen's Sun Kissed. Topped with Seche, and this is where I should have stopped.

But no, I had to stamp over it. I had the bright idea of trying to make it appear bubbly. So, I pulled out my Messy Mansion MM02 plate and stamped the bubbles in CND's Vinylux Cream Puff. Topped again with Seche. I don't hate the final result, but yeah, not what I was shooting for.





Sunday, October 27, 2013

Halloween nails!

Good evening!

Today's Stamping Sunday challenge was Halloween nails. If I had followed my set up, it would have instead been pink nails, but since this is the week of Halloween, I decided that I would do some kind of 'weeny nails the rest of the week. So here goes!

My base for this mani is comprised of all OPI colors and all one of each: Flit a Bit, Serving Up Sparkle, and Y'all Come Back, Ya Hear?. Yes, the base was a jelly sammich :) I actually really like how the base alone came out, but since it was for the stamping challenge, it wasn't meant to stay that way lol.

My stamped images came from Bundle Monster BM13, Mash-38, and Shany SH25 (just on the pinkies). Stamping colors were Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and Sinful Colors Black on Black. All topped with Seche.





Saturday, October 26, 2013

Random Zoya swatches

Good evening!

I don't have any cool manis to share with you tonight, so I'm gonna share instead some Zoya swatches that I haven't gotten around to posting :P
Enjoy!

The first are from the Candy collection, Tart and Yummy. Tart is, like, Tallulah's older sister, being a bit darker, but still maintaining that glowy shimmer that we've come to expect from Zoya. Yummy is a lighter, true blue creme that applied sooo nicely.

Tart's swatch is three coats, Yummy is two.









Next, is Danni from the Intimates collection. Danni is Malia's wild, foil cousin. They're pretty the same red toned purple, Danni's a foil where Malia is a creme. Danni's swatch is two coat, even though done right, you could do just one.





Sharon is a special one. She was released as part of a limited edition set created for Peter Som's Spring 2013 fashion show. Unlike many of the other colors that Zoya has created for fashion show, this one wasn't renamed and released in a seasonal collection. I managed to get mine in a sales group on Face Book :)

Sharon is an orange that is noticeably darker than Arizona. Do you need both? Not in my opinion, no, unless you are a sucker for orange cremes :) My swatch was done with 3 coats of Sharon.






Last of all, is Madison. Madison is one of those colors I picked up because I have next to none of them, and there's a good reason why. I. Hate. NUDES!! Why? Because they're streaky as shit and take so many coats to get evenness. Madison is great for doing Frenches of any kind, I would just recommend some kind of milky base or something for the streakiness. My swatch took 5 coats for evenness x.x





Friday, October 25, 2013

Super shiny and smooth meets super sparkly and textured!

Good evening!

So, today is my Texture Friday feature. I chose to do a mix of texture for today's mani: the shininess and sleekness of a jelly and the sparklyness and matte-ness of Pixie Dust.

Both my colors are from Zoya, Paloma and Arabella. Paloma is from last fall's Gloss collection, and is a bright, glowy berry pink. I had forgotten just how bright and glowy it is, I totally had it confused with Katharine from the Gloss collection. Arabella is described by Zoya as a fuschia pink, but I think it's more berry pink, or at least it has sparkles that are.

I used Arabella as accents on my thimbs and ring finger, only needing two coats for it. Paloma went on the remaining fingers, needing 3 coats. I think I could have done a fourth, but I was worried about it being too thick after I used Seche.







As much as I love the colors of the textured polishes I have, I really wish someone would make a teal color :) Not blue, not green, but teal. I would love that.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

The only good spider.....

Good evening!

If there is one thing I hate more than anything in the world, it's spiders x.x I've had too many bad close encounters for it to be otherwise. So, in my opinion, the only good spider is a dead one.......... or on my nails lol!

I know I mentioned earlier this week about a secret Halloween swap I took part in. I've shown you one of the polishes I received already; tonight I'm showing you another.

My wonderful secret pumpkin also happens to make and sell her own line of polish. You can check out her shop here. Miss Jody sent me two of her awesome polishes, one I'll be showing at a later time. For now, I'm going to gush about Spider Funk.

Spider Funk is pretty awesome. It's a slightly orange base packed with matte square glitters, fine red/orange and gold glitters and larger holo glitter. The base itself is a matte drying formula, which is just cool for me. I wore one of Spider Funk over 2 coats of Zoya Sharon. Instead of leaving it matte, I topped it with Seche.

Now, I'm pretty sure this good be worn alone, it just may take a few coats for opacity. I will tell that it's not as rough as I expected it to be. All I can say is that I love this :)






  

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Warning! Crackle ahead!

Good evening!

Just a fair warning, this post features crackle polish. I know many people don't like, so you can skip it if you want :P

Today called for a pink mani, but I didn't have a lot time to do any nail art. I chose instead to use one of my China Glaze Crackles. My base was 2 coats of China Glaze's Dandy Lyin' Around followed by a coat of Seche. After giving it a good shake, I applied Haute Metal a little thick so it would crackle in big pieces. Topped it off with Seche.








I keep forgetting I have a bunch of China Glaze Crackles :P I need to see about them more lol.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Howl You Doin'?

Good evening!

I wanted to share with you tonight a polish that I received just last week as part of a secret Halloween swap I was in this year. It's kind of funny; when I was out shopping for my secret pumpkin, I picked up this very same polish for her, and almost kept it for myself. That's how much I liked it :P

It was really hard to resist buying one for me as the weeks went, but resist I did. There hasn't ever really been a color from a Halloween collection that I've wanted as badly as I had with China Glaze's Howl You?, since Halloween isn't really anything more than a kids' holiday (to me). I like Halloween, don't get me wrong, but I'm not as into it as many people I know are. The same can be said for the Halloween collections of late. Howl You Doin'? is pretty much the only one that called to me.

So imagine how happy I was to find it was gifted to me! I had to get it on my nails as soon as I could, which was today. HYD is dark purple jelly base with what appears to me purple and orange glitters with maybe some flakies in there. At least, that's how it appears on the nail to me.

For my mani, I layered one coat of HYD over OPI's Lincoln Park After Dark, and added a coat of Seche. Simple and sooooo gorgeous. I know two of my pics are a bit blurry, but they do show off the glitters and what I think are flakies pretty well.






Monday, October 21, 2013

Pink wings!

Good evening!

I finally broke down and did up a stamped pink mani for today :)

My base was pink gradient, created using Zoya Shelby and OPI's Kiss me on my Tulips. My stamped wings came from Nailz Craze plate NC 01. I'm still having some trouble with these wings, I just can't seem to scrape it right -.- This mani turned out better than my last try though, so I guess that's something. Stamping color used was Sinful Colors Black on Black.




Sunday, October 20, 2013

Oh, my stars!

Good evening!

This is gonna be a bit of a quickie post, since I've got to be up early tomorrow and need to be getting to bed here pretty quick :P

Today is, of course, Stamping Sunday, and today's theme was over a holo base. I immediately reached for Color Club's Beyond, since I had yet to use it for a full manicure. Two coats with a coat of Seche and dry.

My stamped image came from Vivd Lacquer plate VL 002, stamped in Pure Ice Silver Mercedes, followed by another coat of Seche. I know a lot people think, and say, topcoat dulls out holos, but I can honestly say that's not the case with Beyond, or really any of the holos I own :P







Friday, October 18, 2013

Attack of the dots!

Good evening!

Tonight I'm breaking away from my Textured Friday thing, mainly because it happened to fall on a pink themed mani, and, well, I have just one pink textured polish and I've already used it. Instead, I'm going to share something a little different.

So, as I said, today was to be a pink themed mani. I wanted to use my Pretty in Polka from Maybelline, but after one coat, those glitters they had are a pure bitch to apply. Yesterday, though, a Face Book friend of mine came across a different way of applying glitters that I wish I had thought of. Take a look:

Glitter sponging!

Let me tell you, it makes a hell of a difference. This mani started with a base of 2 coats of OPI's Kiss me on my Tulips followed by a coat of Seche. I topped in between so I didn't ruin my base. Following the tut, I sponged on Pretty in Polka. I only needed one go over with it. In retrospect, I prolly should have used a coat of Gelous before Seche to finish, because it was still a bit rough.

Sadly, even this way of doing glitters didn't keep the craptastic formula from chipping while I was at work -.-







Thursday, October 17, 2013

Busy, busy, so dizzy!

Good afternoon!

Another busy week for me! I can't even tell you what day it is, to be honest, I'm so jacked up from actually working normal days again. I just haven't had time at night to post like I usually do, between catching up on my shows and getting my nails ready for the next day lol. Because of that, I've got three manis to share with you :)

First is what I had on my nails Tuesday. Very easy and Halloween appropriate. Both are Zoya colors, Sharon and Storm. Three coats of Sharon, two of Storm, coat of Seche over it all, done!








Yesterday's mani was a pink jelly sammich, something I haven't done in I don't know how long. For first time, I feel like really nailed it. Other times, I can tell I didn't apply the jelly color evenly, but this time I did. I'm so proud :D

This was one coat of China Glaze Fuschia Fanatic, one coat OPI More Than a Glimmer, and one coat OPI Do You Think I'm Tex-y? followed by one coat Seche.








And today's mani! One of my favorite Halloween candies is candy corn. I can eat myself sick on it (not that that takes much lol). Not sure if I've done this before, but I figured what the hell, let's do it anyways!

Base color is 2 coats of Zoya Purity, topped with Seche. Then I sponged on Purity, Pippa, and Sharon, in that order, to create the look of candy corn. I topped again with Seche, then made it matte with OPI's Matte Coat, to really give it the look.