Don't Let the Vampires Bite!

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Hello Loves!  I have my final Halloween mani to share today.  I'm really sad to see October go.  I had planned to do so many fun manicures this month but didn't have a chance to execute them.  Bummer.  But I have exciting news for November that I'll share at a later date.  Today, it's all about the spooky nails that are a must for Halloween. :)

This manicure popped in my head in the middle of the night.  Crazy, right?  I actually woke up, sat straight up in bed, and thought "Bite Marks!"  And I knew I had the perfect color base to go with it.  This beautiful black with red micro glitter is Garter Your Heart from the new IBD Neo Romantique collection.  We'll just call this a sneak peek.  I'll have swatches of the full collection for you next week.

I then paired Garter Your Heart with IBD Dockside Diva on my ring finger as the base for my bite marks.  The fangs, blood, lips and bite marks are Oumaxi acrylic paint from Bundle Monster (press sample).  I don't think I have mentioned the brushes I use for fine detail work, but they are part of this 20 piece pro brush set also from Bundle Monster (press sample).  I'm quite pleased with the quality of these brushes and find them very easy to work with.  I'll do a full review on them soon.

Want to see another shot of my Vampire mani?

 

  Here's one more at a slightly different angle.  This one shows the fangs a little better.  :)

I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween!  Don't let the vampires bite.  ;)

~Michelle

*This post uses Amazon Affiliate Links.  Purchases through these links generate commissions that help fund this site.  The acrylic paints and brushes used in this manicure were provided by Bundle Monster for my honest review.  The acrylic paints were reviewed previously here.  A full review has not yet been written on the brush set.

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Five Little Pumpkins with The Dalai Lama's Nails

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Hello Loves! I've teamed up with Hannah from The Dalai Lama's Nails for a Halloween nail art collaboration.  If you aren't familiar with Hannah, be sure to swing by The Dalai Lama's Nails and take a look around.  Her nail art is fabulous and her style is quite unique.

When Hannah and I were trying to decide on a theme for our collaboration, my youngest son thrust his favorite book into my lap for the hundredth time in one day.  I'm not exaggerating...I actually hide this book from time to time just so he won't cram it under my nose and scream until I give in and read it over and over and over.  But I digress.  William's favorite book is "Five Little Pumpkins". The illustrations by Dan Yaccarino are simply adorable, and William just can't get enough of them! You can see how beloved this book is by the worn edges.  Would you believe I bought it for him less than a month ago?  Anyway, it struck me as I was reading it to him that I was holding our inspiration in my hands. 

Text copyright (C) 1998 by HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
Illustrations copyright (c) 1998 by Dan Yaccarino

Hannah and I each selected a set of pages from the book to recreate as nail art.  Let's take a closer look, shall we?  These are the pages Hannah picked for her nail art piece.

Text copyright (C) 1998 by HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
Illustrations copyright (c) 1998 by Dan Yaccarino

Here's a closer look at Hannah's recreation.  She freaking nailed it!  I love how she adapted the illustration to better fit her nails and her style.  Simply genius.

Now for a closer look at mine.  I chose the pages immediately after Hannah's.  Adorable illustrations, right?

Text copyright (C) 1998 by HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
Illustrations copyright (c) 1998 by Dan Yaccarino

For my recreation, I started with a base of Red Carpet Manicure Country Club Chic.  The rest is done in Oumaxi acrylic paint from Bundle Monster.  I'm not sure what I was thinking with this one, to be honest.  After my Crackhead Sally mani last week, I should have known better than to attempt to recreate another scene...but I thought I was safe due to the simplicity of this illustration.  Nope.  It took two tries to even come close.  lol  My kitty is a little fluffy, but fluffy kitties need love too!

There you have it - my Halloween Collaboration with Hannah from The Dalai Lama's Nails.  Be sure to check out Hannah's post about our collaboration here.  And a major Thank You to Hannah for teaming up with me on this one.  :)

~Michelle

*This post uses Amazon Affiliate Links.  Purchases through these links generate commissions that help fund this site.

**This version of Five Little Pumpkins was published by HarperCollins Publishers Inc.  Text copyright (C) 1998 by HarperCollins Publishers Inc.  Illustrations copyright (c) 1998 by Dan Yaccarino.

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The Great Pumkin - Then and Now

Hello Loves!  There are few things more humbling than a nail art fail.  Today's nail art is certainly a fail.  Last year, I created a mani based on It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.  Ah, such a great Halloween special and one that we watch non stop during October. We're pretty big Peanuts fans around here.  So...I decided to try it again this year.  First, let's take a look at the mani from October 2013.  Not bad for my first real attempt with acrylic paints.  Pose is a little awkward, but the art is solid.

Now let's talk about this year's attempt.  Ok, I admit it...I was feeling pretty confident.  My skills have surely improved over the past year, right?  So instead of replicating the design from last year, I decided I would try and improve it.  Oh yeah, I'll do the entire scene this time.  All in acrylic paints over a black gel polish base.  It's going to be epic.  *Sigh*  It certainly is epic...an epic fail.  I know, it doesn't look too bad in the collage above.  Let me show it to you a little larger.

Ok, so I was off to a pretty good start.  The base looks good.  Moon is nice and round-ish.  Pumpkins and grass were shaping up ok.  Even the general shape of Linus and Sally are pretty close.  Then things turned south.  Poor Snoopy.  Someone clearly stepped on his nose, turning his pretty round head into a football.

But it fell apart even worse from there.  How?  Fine detailing.  Yep.  That pumpkin patch went from being the "most sincere" to rotting.  And Linus...apparently he has gout in his left arm.  But the real kicker is Sally.  Poor little Sally.  She clearly picked up a heavy drug habit somewhere along the way.  Don't believe me?  Let's take an even closer look.

See, sweet little Sally turned into Crackhead Sally with the stroke of a brush.  Charles Schulz would surely turn over in his if he saw how bad I butchered his beloved characters.  lol

So, there you have it.  The Great Pumpkin Mani for 2014.  To be forever known as the Crackhead Sally mani.  ;)

~Michelle

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Skulls and Roses with Cici & Sisi and Revel

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Hello Loves!  It's officially October, which means I can start breaking out the Halloween nail art without feeling guilty.  :)  Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.  Haunted houses, pumpkin patches, costumes, tons of candy...what's not to love?

Ready to see my first Halloween nail art of the season?  I decided to ease into this year with a pairing of skulls and roses.  Because, well, other than the black and orange base, skulls and roses can be worn any time of the year.

For this mani, I started with a base of Revel Nail Rebel and Revel Nail Dawn.  Both of these polishes are from the Revel 2014 Spring Collection.  Funny thing about that Spring Collection - it has a great selection of fall polishes!  I'll swatch some of them for you soon.  But in the mean time, how about a few swatches of Rebel and Dawn?

Rebel really surprised me.  This is a deep, true black cream.  That's not the surprising part.  Ladies and Gentlemen, Rebel is a true two-coat black.  Keeping in mind that I apply my layers thin, that's almost unheard of!  Application was nice.  No shrinking as blacks are prone to do and it leveled nicely.

Dawn is a medium orange cream with slightly yellow undertones.  While it isn't what I would call my perfect Halloween orange, it's pretty danged close.  It doesn't hurt that this particular shade works fairly well with my skin tone.  Application was typical for Revel - it applied nicely and leveled beautifully.  I did end up with three coats on this one to hide my stubborn VNL, but two average coats would be plenty.

I then added a little stamping in Mundo de Unas Black and Mundo de Unas White.  The roses are from Cici and Sisi 07 and those awesome skulls are from Cisi and Sisi 11 (the 2nd Cici and Sisi plate set).  I know I promised a full review of the Cici and Sisi plates, but I haven't gotten to it yet.  I will say that these plates continue to impress me each time I use them.  The image sizes are perfect for my longer nails and I don't have to stretch them even on my thumbs.  :)  Not to mention there are a variety of image types in each set.  Here's another shot of the finish mani.

What do you think of those adorable skulls?  Is it just me, or do they almost look like they are wearing sunglasses? lol

I realized recently that I don't really share much about myself, so I'll leave you with a fun fact.  My second date with my husband was to a Halloween Party.  See, he was my neighbor and we had a few mutual friends.  I knew he was interested from talking to them and I knew he had my number, but he was too shy to call.  So I might have asked if he wanted to carpool to a Halloween Party we both were planning to attend.  That was the nudge he needed to finally ask me on a date.  What?  A girl doesn't have forever to sit around waiting on a man to make a move!  ;)  We went to dinner the night before the party, went to the party together, and the rest is history.  That was 8 years ago this month.  :)  Oh, and I went dressed as a playboy bunny in light up stripper shoes.  What was I thinking?!?!?

~Michelle

*The gel polishes featured in this post were provided by Revel Nail for my honest review.  This post uses Amazon Affiliate Links.  Purchases through these links generate commissions that help fund this site.  All other links are not affiliate links and are provided for your convenience. 

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Glam Polish Halloween 2014!

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Hello Loves!  I'm super excited about these two incredible polishes from Glam Polish!  Why?  Because they're Halloween and drop dead gorgeous!  I'm a huge fan of Halloween.  I look forward to breaking out the Halloween polish and nail art every year.  Heck, we've been watching Its the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown for months already! 

Want a closer look at what Glam Polish has in store for us?  Of course you do.  But before we get to the swatches, I should point out that these babies are available for preorder today at www.GlamPolish.com.au. 

First up is FrankenSlime 2014.  This is a slimy green holographic crelly base with purple and neon green glitter scattered throughout.  There's so much going on in this relatively simple polish that it is pretty mind blowing.  I also adore the Glam Polish formula.  This is an easy two coats, which is really saying something for an RNP challenged gel user like me.  ;)

I left my pinkie and index nails a little out of focus in this next shot in an attempt to capture the holographic effect a bit better.  See that fuzzy green rainbow?  It's much stronger in daylight.  Of course, I never get the chance to swatch during daylight hours thanks to my boys, but I think I captured it ok here.

Naturally, I couldn't take this one off without turning it into a slime mani.  It IS called FrankenSlime, after all.  Can you believe this is my very first slime mani?  Crazy, right?  I paired FrankenSlime 2014 with That Old Black Magic (swatched on it's own here) and I'm in love with the final result.  :)  I think the double holos give it a toxic effect, but I admit I may be off my rocker.  The neon glitter in FrankenSlime shows up a bit better in this photo too.

Ready for the next polish?  Snoopy the Witch is a super fun glitter topper with holographic shimmer, black and white stars, and a mix of orange, purple and white hexes, squares and circles of various sizes.  I have swatched it below as one coat over Couture Private Jet.  I found this topper to be fairly easy to apply.  The glitters come off the brush easily, though I did have to do a little bit of placement on some of the larger pieces.  I should note that this one requires a good shake before application or those stars will hide from you.  But after a few good whacks, they started popping up on the brush without issue.

Did I mention we are HUGE peanuts fans in my house?  I think I did, right?  So naturally I had to do a little nail art with this one too.  I mean, Snoopy and all.  Sadly, I didn't think this one through very well.  Don't get me wrong, I love my little Witchy Snoopy, but I should have put him on my middle nail.  I didn't account for the curve of my ring fingernail making him look a little like Brian's clone on Family Guy when photographed in my standard nail art pose.  (If you're not familiar with the episode, here's a video clip.  Warning, NSFW due to language).

To prove my sweet little Snoopy doesn't REALLY look like Brian's clone, I took a closeup from a better angle.  See, much better.  lol

Yeah, yeah, yeah...I went for the low hanging fruit on the nail art.  Slime for FrankenSlime and Snoopy for Snoopy the Witch, but can you blame me?  These polish names are adorable!


What do you think?  Do you need these awesome Halloween polishes from Glam Polish in your stash?  If so, preorder yours today at www.glampolish.com.au with shipping to Australia and the USA.  USA Shipping rates are $7.95 for the first polish and an extra $1.00 for each additional polish.  If you're outside of Australia or the US, no worries.  There are several international distributors to choose from.  Check them out here to find a distributor near you.  Oh, and don't forget to follow Glam Polish on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest to see swatches and announcements about new collections.

~Michelle

*The Polishes featured in this blog post were provided by Glam Polish for my honest review.

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Weekly Mani: Happy Halloween!

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It's officially the week of Halloween, and with all the preparations for trick or treating with the kids, I'm feeling uninspired.  So this week's mani is a bit on the simple side, unlike those from prior weeks.  Though simple, there's a lot going on in this one.  Details below.

Base Color:  Ink Demure
Topper:  Gel II Rave
Stamping Polish:  Color Club Halo Hues Harp on It for the web and Konad Black for the Spiders
Stamping Images:  MoYou London XL Pro 05 for the webs, SA-10 for the spiders.  
Crystals: Czech SS3 in Siam

For tips on how to use crystals with SOG without nail glue, Kim from Ten Little Canvases is the expert.  She recently did a tutorial on how she does her crystal designs, which you can find here.  While you're on her site, be sure to take a peek at some of her creations.  Mind blowing. 

I tried my best to get a good shot of Gel II Rave in all it's glowing glory, but apparently I'm incapable of holding my hand completely still.  So please excuse the blurry picture.  Rave is a really fun topper.  My nails glow all night, and it honestly freaked me out a little when I woke up at 5:30 this morning to feed the baby and they were still glowing. 

Finally, here's a shot of Ink Demure on it's own.  As you can see, the Gel II Rave did lighten the color just a bit.  I used two coats of the Rave to be sure I had even coverage.  However, one coat would have been sufficient and wouldn't have altered the base color.  Demure is a great orange coral with a slight pink shimmer. 

That's all for today.  Check back later in the week for some Sally Hansen gel swatches and my poor attempt at swatching RNP.  ;)

~Michelle

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Weekly Mani: Hubby Designed Halloween

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My current mani is, well, interesting.  I have to admit, it's completely outside of my comfort zone and isn't what I would usually wear.  You see, my husband hates my nail obsession.  I know he hates it.  Yet for some crazy reason, I find myself asking his opinion on colors or designs.  Today, I should have known better than to ask his opinion.  He's a total Halloween fanatic.  When I told him I wanted to do something Halloween and started showing him my Halloween stamping images, he actually took interest.  And that is how this mani design was born.

With that said, there's a lot going on in this one.  Details are below.

Base Color:  Ink Black Out + Red Carpet Manicure Evening to Remember + Spectraflair top coat
Stamping Polishes: Mundo de Unas Black, Mundo de Unas Orange, Pure Ice Silver Star
Stamping Images: XL M plate (from Ali Express), Bundle Monster BM-305 and BM-413

Check back later this week for a few nude swatches and a new tips and tricks post. :)

~Michelle

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