Candy Corn mani + Halloween Challenge

These are not the best Candy Corn nails. I really should have used tape to do blocks rather than what I did. It's hard to see but there is yellow on the tips. I'm not over pleased with them but I don't hate them either so here they are. 

The colors also did not work very well for the braid. They really need to be pretty opaque colors and the yellow is not. So maybe if I try this again I'll use a different yellow. 

I used:

China Glaze White on White 

Sinful Colors Cloud 9

L'Oreal Tweet Me

Starting tonight I will be working on this challenge. I'm Super excited because this is the first challenge I've ever participated in!!  

If you are interested, check it out here.

Halloweenie Shatter

I love my OPI Black Shatter polish. I haven't used it in quite a long time but I figured it would work well for Halloween nails. I'm getting really excited for Halloween and since its -almost- October first, I'm going to say that's alright.

Love this for quick Halloween nails.

Orange - Cloud 9
Green - Happy Ending
Purple - Amethyst
All polishes are Sinful Colors. Except the OPI Black Shatter

Each nail has base coat, 2 coats of color, shatter, and top coat.

Sally's + Boo-gie Down

I went to Sally's today and got a whole bunch of fun new stuff. Lots of stuff on sale today too, which is always awesome. Sales are one of my favorite things. : )

So this is what I got:

Beauty secrets Pure Acetone nail polish remover. *SALE* This is the first time I've ever had pure acetone remover and I'm loving it. Cleaning up with a brush actually worked for me and my nails ended up looking a lot nicer than usual. 

Rush 60 Second Speed Dry top coat. So far I'm a fan but I've only had it on for a while so I'll see how I'm feeling about it in a few days and I'll update then. It was only either 5.99 or 6.99 for a full 1 oz bottle so even if it isn't great its not a huge let down. It did dry pretty quick and now I'm really just watching to see if it shrinks up like the Seche Vite fast try top coat does. 

Beauty Secrets base coat. * SALE* Dried super fast. So far I like this one a lot. I will probably buy one of the large bottles when I finish this one. 

Beauty Secrets nail polish thinner. I haven't had to use this but it was cheap and I have had polishes that I've tossed out in the past that something like this probably could have saved. I found it cheap so I figured I might as well grab a bottle.

Super Nail cuticle softener and remover. I loved this. This is the first time I'd ever used something like this other than at the salon. I think my hands look so much better already. It worked really well and super fast. I literally put it on all my fingers and then went back and pushed my cuticles back and that was it.  I think this one might have been on sale also. 

China Glaze Boo-gie Down. Boo-gie Down is loaded a clear base loaded with all kinds of glitter. It has micro-jumbo black hex glitter, Micro-small gold hex glitter, medium sized bronze hex glitter, small white hex, and black bar glitter. Because of the jumbo sized black hexes this one can be a pain to get a little of everything on each nail. I didn't even see the really big ones until I got to my thumb the first time and then on my second coat I dropped 2 on my ring finger. So, if you want to make sure you have a pretty even amount of the big stuff on each nail you might have to work a bit for it. That doesn't bother me much so it wasn't a huge issue. It does also seem to have a slight curl on the really big ones but not enough to really bother me and I'm sure an extra layer of top coat would help. 

I tried this one out over several different Halloweenie type colors to see how they looked layered. 

This is what I used: 

Orange - Sinful Colors - Cloud 9

Green - Sinful Colors - Happy Ending

Black - Sally Hanson - Black Heart

White - China Glaze - White on White

Purple - Sinful Colors - Amethyst

Along with the top and base coat previously mentioned and, obviously, Boo-gie Down. 

This is inside under a lamp. 

This is inside without direct light.

This is outside in the sun. 

Each nail has 2 coats of color along with 2 coats of Boo-gie Down except the thumb. The thumb only has 1 coat of Boo-gie Down because I ended up with a lot of glitter on that one with the first coat. 

I really think it looks great over all of them but it looks best over the purple, green, and orange. I think over the white and black a lot of the glitter ends up blending in so you don't see how much is really there, especially with the black because a large part of the glitter is black.

Sinful Colors - Cinderella

Let me just start by saying, I LOVE Sinful Colors' polishes. Love them. They're super cheap, at less than $2 a bottle in my area and I have yet to buy one I didn't like. I have a lot of them, like more than any other brand. I use them alone and I use them for nail art. I have also used Nirvana (medium brown) for stamping and it worked well for that. They have a huge range of colors and they also have some different textures. I know I have at least 1 matte, though that was purchased by accident. I haven't really gotten into the mattes yet mostly because I ALWAYS use a top coat and I don't have any matte top coats yet.

This weekend I will be ordering a whole set of 18 new polishes from a brand I haven't used before and they are all mattes. It includes a matte top cost. Super excited for that. I love new polishes. I really hope I like this brand because they have lots of great colors and they are super cheap. I'll be posting about those as soon as I get them. : )

Anyway, I tried out Cinderella today which is a gorgeous pale blue packed with iridescent shimmer.

This photo shows three coats of Cinderella outside in direct sunlight. Its a super pretty color but very sheer. 

This photo is to show the difference between two and three coats. The thumb and pointer finger both have only two coats; the rest have three. This polish definitely needs that third coat.

This is three coats inside, under a light. I can't wait to try this color out for winter nail art. I think will look great with snowflakes!

I love this nail polish. Its really easy to put on and it is so pretty. Its gorgeous all by itself but I think it would be really great also as a base for nail art. The only thing I dislike about this polish is that it is pretty sheer and with less than three coats it can look streaky. 

Peacock Portrait Layering

After posting last night about Finger Paints Peacock Portrait I decided I should try it over some other colors. I wanted to get quite a few different ones so I did a different color on each nail. I was really pleased with all of them.

                                          Inside under a light

I used:

(Thumb) OPI - You're a Pisa Work

(Pointer) China Glaze - Lemon Fizz

(Middle) Sinful Colors - Happy Ending

(Ring) OPI - Can't Find My Czechbook

(Pinky) OPI - Do You Lilac it?

                                          Inside with no direct light

I really like it over the purple, blue, and yellow. My favorite is the purple. It looks okay over the green and pink but I would probably not do a whole manicure with those. 

My son also loves Peacock Portrait. Oops : /

Finger Paints - Peacock Portrait

Peacock Portrait is a gorgeous glitter in a clear base. The photo shows 1 coat layered over 2 coats of Essie Bobbing for Baubles. 

There are a few different types and colors of glitter in this one. You get A LOT of the tiny silver glitter which is what throws out the rainbow sparkles. Then there's also quite a bit of the tiny purple and green hex glitter. And finally there are small teal hex glitters. 

This polish is so easy to work with. I had no trouble at all getting glitter. Without even trying I got all types of glitter on each nail.Probably helps that there is nothing really huge in this one. Sometimes that can be a pain. 

I love this polish. It's super pretty and so easy to work with. Only trouble, as with all glitters, is removal. But it's worth it. This is only the second time I've used this polish and both times I've paired it with Bobbing for Baubles. I love these two together. Eventually I'll try it with some other colors. : )

Halloween Water Nails

This is my first attempt at the water spotted nails. It didn't work well for that but I think it actually came out ok. It takes a few tries to figure out just like water marble nails do. 

These where my tools. 

Start with a base coat and two coats of orange. I used Sinful Colors Cloud 9. It's a really pretty shimmery orange. 

Use a q tip to spread petroleum jelly on the skin around the nails. You want to coat both sides, above, and under your nail. This helps with clean up. 

Try not to get it on your nails.

Using a disposable cup (this is important because there will be nail polish all over the cup when you are done.) filled most of the way with water, drop 1 drop of black nail polish in and wait for it to spread. ( I used Sally Hanson Black Heart for this step) 

Spray with your rubbing alcohol. You want to hold the bottle back quite a bit especially if it has a strong spray. I used about 12 inches of space. Wait for holes to appear. This takes a few seconds sometimes. Other times it just shreds and pulls totally apart but that can look pretty neat too. 

Place your nail over the area you want on your nail. 

Dip your nail. You want the whole nail in the water but not super deep; just enough that the whole nail is picking up color. 

Not pictured (both hands were busy) use the wooden cuticle stick to pick up all color around your nail BEFORE you pull the nail out of the water. 

After the nail is out of the water use the cuticle stick to get the nail polish that's on your skin. Carefully though, you don't want to pull color off your nail. 

My ring finger turned out really bad. And I kind of missed with my thumb. But for my first time, I'm pretty happy with them.

Add a coat of glitter. I used China Glaze Fairy Dust. 

Add top coat and clean up. Let dry and wash petroleum jelly off. 

Fall Tree nails

Moderately simple fall trees.

These were my tools. I used Finger Paints Art Nouv-Yellow, L'oreal Boozy Brunch, China Glaze White on White, and Essie Little Brown Dress. Other tools used were: fine nail art brush, torn make up sponge.

Start with a base coat and two coats of a white polish. ( mine was China Glaze- White in White)

I tore off the thinner end of the makeup sponge and then tore the wide part in two. 

I used a sheet if paper to put a bit of polish on and then dipped the torn side of the make up sponge in it. I used yellow first because the orange I used is very thick and the yellow would have been wasted if I used it second.

I used Finger Paints - Art Nouv-Yellow for this. 

Next, I did the exact same thing with the orange. 

I used L'Oreal- Boozy Brunch for this. 

Can't really see it but after the orange I went back and did a bit more yellow. 

For the last step I used my fine nail art brush and a dark brown polish. 

I used the dark brown ( Essie- Little Brown Dress ) to draw in trees. This was most difficult for me. My brush is not the best and doing this on my right hand was seriously a pain. But they turned out pretty good. 

Add a top coat and clean up and it's done!

Sally Hanson - White Tip

So, I sat down to do my fall nails today; I had everything out and ready to go. I got my nails cleaned up, filed, and put on my base coat and was ready to start. I pulled out the only bottle of white nail polish I owned, which happens to be this one:

I started painting my nails and instantly remembered that I needed to buy a new white polish because this one is TERRIBLE. It's thick and gunky and difficult to get one decent coat of it on. On top of the horrible nail polish the brush is also awful. It's super thick and wide with all different length bristles. 

I finished putting one coat of polish on both hands and started into my second coat when I decided to remove the polish and just run out and get a new white polish. That takes a lot. I literally stopped in the middle of doing my nails and drove 15 minutes to Sally's rather than fight with this polish. 

To be fair, I don't remember it being quite so thick when I bought it but the horrible brush alone is reason enough to skip on this one. 

Essie Bobbing for Baubles

I love this color! It's not quite black but almost too dark to be grey. Sometimes it can look almost like a super dark navy blue. 

All of the Essie polishes I've tried have been easy to work with; this one is no different. Not too thick or streaky. It could almost be put on in just one coat. 

Beach nails

Pretty simple beach nails. Lots of layering colors though. 

You'll need one of the nail transfer sets with a plate that includes a palm tree and nail art brushes. 

Start with a base coat. I used Finger Paints base coat. 

Apply 2 coats of a blue. I used Essie in the Cab-Ana. 

This is the brush I used for the next step.

Use a white to make a line across your nails. You don't really want it straight. This is for the line of the sand. So waves and stuff are good. I used Sally Hanson White Tip for this step. 

Next, you want to add "sand". I used Essie Topless and Barefoot.

Add your palm trees. I used one of the nail transfer sets with the metal plates.

Start with a clean plate. Add your polish colors. I used Chine Glaze Watermelon Rind for the green and Sinful Colors Nirvana for the brown. 

* note: keep remover and a cotton ball ready to clean up your plate. This needs to be done every 2 to 3 transfers. 

Scrape excess paint from your plate. I do not use the metal scraper provided with the set because it scratches up the plates. I just used an old store rewards card. You'll also want to use your remover and cotton ball to wipe the edge of the card off every so often. 

Roll the stamper over the plate to pick up the image and then roll slowly over the nail. You really have to watch placement. Pay attention to where on the stamp the image is and then slowly put it where you want it on your nail. 

I finished with a coat of glitter. I used Chine Glaze Fairy Dust. This helps cover any small imperfections.   

Finish with a top coat, clean up around the nails, and it's finished!!