Orly Orange Punch

I saw this Halloween design over on another blog - omgnoodles - and loved it so much I've recreated it here.   So head on over there and check Pauline's cute manis!

This is a base of 3 coats of Orly Orange Punch stamped with Bundlemonster plate 213 and Konad special polish in Black.  Then the whole thing is topped with a couple coats of China Glaze Magic Matte.  I wore this mani almost a whole week, which is simply unheard of for me!

Hope you like it, and thank you to Pauline for the cute idea!

Sally Hansen Salon Effects - Ghoulie Girl

Hi all. Today I am showing you the Sally Hansen Salon Effects strips in Ghoulie Girl.

I had never tried these strips until last night. I picked these up a few weeks ago at Walgreens and wanted to wait until closer to Halloween to use them. I have heard such good things about these strips -- unfortunately I can't agree with all the positive feedback.

The Ghoulie Girl strips are comprised of little orange and white ghosts on a black background. You get 16 strips in varying sizes in one pack. I've heard of people being able to get two nails done with one strip, but I am not so talented as to be able to do that.

Let's start with the positive -- the design is REALLY cute! And definitely not something I'd be able to recreate on my own, so the strips are good for that. They let people who aren't as good as nail art still have cute designs on their nails with minimal (kind of..) effort.

So what didn't I like about these? Well, first of all, I ripped one of them down the middle trying to get it off the backing. My nails are almost ALL between sizes so I got pieces of the strips on my skin and had no decent way to remove them besides scraping the excess off with an orange stick. Which made the sides all rough and jaggedy. Also, when I tried to file the excess off of the tip of my nail, it wouldn't make a clean cut. The tips of my nails are still all sharp and jaggedy and I feel like I messed up the shape of my nails trying to just get the extra strip off the ends.

They took FOREVER for me to put on (which I'll admit is probably because it was my first time using them) and I feel like I could've done three manis in the time it took me to apply ten nail decals.

I DO think these are cute, and they're a good alternative to doing your own nail art... I just don't think I'll be repurchasing. Especially for ten bucks a box. When I only got one mani out of it. And I don't think I'll be wearing these any longer than I would a normal mani. In fact, they probably won't stay on a day because I can't stand how there's little pieces of nail decal floating around on the tips of my nails and stuck to my skin.

At least they look cute?

What do you guys think of the Salon Effects strips? Do you like them? I think I'm probably the only person ever that has hated these :(

Simple Halloween Gravestones

Hi all! Today I have a Halloween design I've been wanting to do for a while -- little Halloween gravestones!

I started with a base of Ulta Little Black Dress to represent a spooky night sky. LBD is a black polish with small silver glitter in it. Here is a swatch:

Next I painted the gravestones with OPI French Quarter For Your Thoughts (the PERFECT gravestone color!). I just painted the gravestones straight with the polish brush. Paint like you would if you were doing a ruffian mani.

To make the gravestones look old and aged, I sponged a tiny bit of Sinful Colors Secret Admirer. I really like the way it made the gravestones look!

I used a small brush and black acrylic paint to draw on "RIP" on all of my nails.

Finish with some grass at the bottom (I used a green Sinful striper). Seal it with Seche Vite and voila! You're done :)

What do you ladies think of these simple gravestone nails? They were one of my most simple Halloween designs and they're at the top of my list! I guess intricate doesn't always mean better :)

Oh also, if you're arachnophobic, might want to turn away in 3...






2.......







1.....



I present to you, the rare Hoosier man-eating spider!

Happy almost weekend!

I always feel like... somebody's watching me..

Here is my attempt at jumping on the free hand Halloween nail art band wagon.  It's a simple mani done with China Glaze Liquid Leather and white, red and black acrylic paint.   Ooh very scary! ;-)

Happy Hump Day!

Creepy Halloween Skittles Nails

Hello all! Today I have some creepy skittles nails to show you!

I was trying to think of what I wanted to do for today's mani. I knew I wanted to do something festive for Halloween but I couldn't narrow down my choices. So what better way than to use ALL of my ideas in one mani!

I really like how this one turned out.

On my pinky, I did a creepy eye. The base color is Wet 'n' Wild Burgundy Frost and the eyeball is made with black, white and red acrylic paint. On my ring finger is a bloody handprint. The base color is Sinful Snow Me White and the bloody handprint is made with red acrylic paint. The middle finger is a Scream mask -- base color Sinful Black on Black and white acrylic paint. My pointer finger is a voodoo doll. Made with, you guessed it, acrylic paint. My thumb nail, a creepy clown, (my favorite!) was also made with a white base and all acrylic paint.

I am surprisingly pleased with how this turned out! I think I'm most excited about the creepy clown nail and it was the hardest to do!

Here is another picture where you can see all the nails more clearly. I should've made the design on my thumb nail upside down because when I took pictures they weren't all facing the same way so you'll just have to cock your head to see them. Haha

What do you think of these creeptastic skittles nails? Hope you all have a fabulous Wednesday!

Frankenstein & His Bride nails

Good morning all! Today I have some fun Frankenstein Halloween nails for you.

This design is one I've seen all over the place. I did these last year based on a tutorial I saw on YouTube. If anyone knows who originated this design, let me know! I want to give credit where credit is due.

I used a base of Sally Hansen Grass Slipper as Frankenstein's skin. This is a great green....but it stains like nobody's business! I made little patches on my pinky and pointer fingers. For Frankenstein's bride I just used a good nude polish for her skin tone. I finished up all the details (hair, eyes, etc) with acrylic paint and little paintbrushes/dotting tools. I think it turned out pretty well! I've never seen anyone else do Frankenstein's BRIDE.. ;)

That's all! Have a wonderful day :)

Mexican Sugar Skulls

I was perusing through Halloween pictures on ShutterStock (a website I use to look for ideas a lot) and found some sugar skull images. I thought it would be a fun nail art project to do that was a little out of the ordinary!

I used a base of Zoya Purity and several different colors to decorate the skulls. In retrospect, I should've placed the eyes of the skulls up higher because I think it's a little hard to tell they're skulls since you can't see the teeth. I'm not sure if people would know what they were if I hadn't mentioned it, but I thought I'd post it anyway! And my cuticles have taken a beating lately so nothing I've been doing has been looking too good... poor cuticles :( I'm trying to nurse them back to health after our swatch-a-thon this week.

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! It's Homecoming weekend at my alma mater so I'll be shenanigating there for the weekend! :)

Adorable Ghost Nails

Hello ladies! I have another Halloween mani for you girls today. This one was super simple -- two coats of Zoya Codie then I used white acrylic paint and a tiny paintbrush to draw on the little ghosties!

Really happy with the way the first three turned out -- the last one didn't end up as well as the others because my pinky is so small! I could hardly fit anything on that sucker! Don't they just look so happy and carefree! And friendly! Like Casper :)

Here's a swatch of Zoya Codie. It's a dark dark, almost black brown. Really good for autumn! I actually had this on alone before I decided to add the little ghosts on top.

I'm having trouble coming up with any original ideas for Halloween. Are there any designs you all would like to see? If you have any, please leave them below! You can also send requests by clicking the tab at the top of our page. :)

Hope you all have a fabulous day! Don't forget! Our Halloween giveaway ends TOMORROW!! Go Enter if you haven't already!

Spooky Halloween Nails

Hello ladies! Today I want to show you this fun Halloween mani I did last week. The inspiration for this mani came from this picture:

I thought it would be fun to try to recreate a spooky, Halloween night scene on my nails. The base color is Sinful Cloud 9 then I sponged over it with China Glaze Papaya Punch and Solar Power. The black is just regular acrylic paint.

Spooktacular!

Don't forget! Our Halloween giveaway ends this Friday!

OPI - Zom-body To Love

Hello ladies! Today I want to show you a super fun polish for Halloween -- OPI's Zom-body To Love! If you don't know what it is (which I'm sure you do), it's a glow in the dark polish!

This is what it looks like in the light. This is three coats of ZTL over one coat of Orly Pure Porcelain. The polish is super sheer on its own, so I'd definitely suggest layering it.

I originally only had this on one hand because I was just planning on swatching it. But after I took pictures of it in the dark, I HAD to make a full mani out of it!!

PS: It's very difficult to photograph glow in the dark things. I had to adjust so many settings on my camera to even get anything to show up, THEN I had to edit a bit in Photoshop! *wipes brow* PHEW!

It actually glows pretty brightly (? is that a word?) in the dark. I'm not sure if it's just uber powerful glowiness or if it's because I put on three coats of it, but either way, I'm pleased! On the second day I added a little bat silhouette before I took it off... just a little something extra to spruce it up :)

One thing worth noting -- this polish was a bit difficult for me to remove using normal measures. I try to avoid pure acetone if I can help it because it dries my cuticles out like none other. I usually use strengthening polish remover, and I had to really SCRUB to get this off. Maybe it's bad remover, but I think it's because this polish has a bit of a weird, gritty kind of texture. Probably from the glowy particles. :)

I wasn't expecting too much out of this because I thought it would just be a silly little novelty, but I'm pleasantly surprised! I was like a little kid in a candy shop. You would've laughed -- I was laying in bed Wednesday night just staring at my hands and wiggling my fingers because I was so amused by it. Definitely fun for Halloween.

Do you all have any glow in the dark polishes? What do you think? Halloween appropriate?

MaD Manis' Halloween Giveaway! (CLOSED)

It's HALLOWEEN!!! One of our most favorite holidays of all! To celebrate, we put together a small Halloween giveaway for you all....because we love you. :)

What are the prizes you ask? See for yourself!

Wet 'n' Wild Fantasy Makers Nail Polish in Night Glow
Wet 'n' Wild Fantasy Makers Nail Polish in Creepy Pumpkin
Wet 'n' Wild Fantasy Makers Glitter Palette in Show Stopper
3 Glitter Pumpkin Polishes (silver & black glitter, silver glitter & crescent moons, and multicolor micro glitter)

The Rules:

1. Must be a public GFC follower. New followers welcome!
2. Only open to U.S. residents. As much as we'd love to include our international followers in this giveaway, we simply cannot afford to ship overseas right now. Sorry! Hopefully soon. 
3. This giveaway ends Friday, October 7th at 7:00 p.m. EST. Winners will be announced here and emailed directly on Saturday, October 8th.
   
   

Butter London - HRH Review + Spoooooky Spiderwebs!

I picked up two Butter London's in their BOGO 1/2 off sale at Ulta this past week. I got HRH for me and Wallis for Mama.

I was really really excited to try this. It's the only Butter London I have and one of the most expensive polishes in my collection.

HRH is a beautiful medium purple. The color is lovely, but that's about the only pro I have for this polish. The application on this was less than satisfactory - for a $14 polish, I expect a flawless application and this one just seemed sub-par to me. I have $4 polishes in my collection that apply better than this one did (China Glaze, I'm looking at you!).

First off, it was SUPER streaky on the first coat. The color evened out a tiny bit more on the second and third, but if I went over the same spot more than once it got streaky again.

Also, I let this polish dry for the same amount of time as any other polish that I use and it bubbled up. I rarely have problems with bubbles, but perhaps it was because I had to use such thick coats to avoid the streakiness that comes with this polish.

I also noticed a funky smell with this one? It smelled like polish... just a stronger scent than most of the polishes in my collection. Nothing I can't deal with, just unusual.

And the last thing, the dealbreaker for me on this polish is that it gave me an ALLERGIC REACTION. After I had this on for a bit, I noticed swelling and tenderness at my fingertips. It hurt to type and if I put any pressure on my nails, they hurt. That has never happened to me before! Needless to say, I took this off after about two hours. I'm not sure if it was an ingredient in this polish or a particular dye or what, but these polishes are 3-Free so I know it's not that.

I really REALLY wanted to like this brand. I've heard some good things about them. But the unsatisfactory formula, high price point and the fact that it gave me a reaction is grounds enough for me to pass on this brand in the future. I had such high hopes for it, but I probably will not be repurchasing. Luckily I got this on sale so I'm not feeling as much buyer's remorse as I would've had I paid full price for it. Maybe I will try the one I picked up for Mama and see if I have the same reaction to it.

Alright, now that I got that out of my system, I will show you some nail art I did on top of this before I realized that it was the swollen finger culprit. I thought this purple could be a nice Halloween purple, so I used white acrylic paint and drew little spiderwebs on my nails. And a little grey spider! Topped it with a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust.

Candy Corn Nails!

This is something I've talked about doing for a while now. Maybe it's a little early... but I don't care :)

I started with three...THREE coats of China Glaze's Solar Power. I wish there was such a thing as an opaque yellow because that's what caused this to not look exactly like I wanted! The orange is China Glaze Papaya Punch, the most perfect candy corn orange. And the tips are just a basic Sinful white.

Overall I DO like the way this turned out, but there were just TOO many layers of polish on my nails. Theoretically I probably should've used tape for guidelines since I just winged it, but I didn't have the time or patience for tape. It was difficult to only paint half way down the nail though. I guess it still works though because the lines where colors meet on real candy corn aren't perfectly straight!

What do you think of this fall look? Something you'd wear? I want to chew my nails! Om nom nom. I always forget how much I love fall :)