Halloween Challenge Oct 31 Your Halloween Nails

I wanted something simple so I just did some Halloween colors over a white nail. Quick and easy. : ) 

This is the final day of the Halloween Challenge. I was a bit late with a couple posts but I did get all the days done. I really enjoyed this. Ended up with quite a few designs I was really happy with. : )

Halloween Challenge Oct 29 Recreate Someone Else's Challenge

I chose to recreate this Zombie nail mani by Look What the Bats Dragged in. This was a fun mani to do. Like she mentions in her post, you do exactly the opposite of what you are "supposed" to do when you paint your nails.

I used 3 coats of Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby and then 2 coats of Essie Topless and Barefoot. After I had those on, I put on a coat of a quick dry top coat and let it sit about a minute before using a finger to push and pull until I had some rips and dents and my polish was all messy.

After I got my polish all messed up, I went in and filled in the rips and tears with a fine nail art brush and some more of the Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby.

To check out some other Halloween challenge posts, click here.

Halloween Challenge Oct 26- Graveyard

I'm running a bit late getting this post up. I just didn't have time to do the post yesterday. I'm not very happy with these nails but I totally forgot until yesterday morning about them and I was thinking today was the 26 instead of yesterday so I ended up having to do my nails in about 20 minutes before running out the door to help my friend dress shop. There are lots of things I would change about these but I got them done. 

I wanted to do day/night nails so I could do writing on the stones and do creepy outlines. I really could have done the gradient from day I night much better. That's what bothers me most about this mani. 

For the day nails I used:

Essie- In the Cab-Ana

Sinful Colors- Innocent

Pure Ice- Kiss Me Here

Sally Girl- Skull

The base on the gradient nail is China Glaze White on White and I sponged the colors for the background on. 

For the night nails I used:

Pure Ice- Kiss Me Here

Sally Girl- Skull

I did sponging for the ground and the background on the middle nail and I used a fine nail art brush for the gravestones and writing.

I dislike these enough that I don't really want to post them -but- nobody does perfect nails all the time and I think it's important to show things like this, especially if we learned something from it. So even though I hate these and they only lasted a few hours, it's a (couple) lesson learned for me. : )

Fuzzy Coat- Peach Fuzz

A few weeks ago I got one of the Sally Hanson  Fuzzy Coat polishes on sale at Target. I'd never tried them so I decided to grab it while it was cheap to test it out. 

This is 2 coats of Peach Fuzz over 2 coats of Salky Girl Skull. 

Peach Fuzz is a clear base with lots of tiny yellow and orange bar glitter. 

I'm not loving this one but I still might try out some of the other Fuzzy Coats. I might like this one a little better over a different color. I'm not sure what exactly it is about this that I don't like. : /

Halloween Challenge Oct 22 - Bats

For these nails I used a small scrapbook punch and craft tape to make a stencil. 

There's the tape and punch I used. You can get both at craft stores like A.C. Moore. 

I saved both parts. The cut out part I used on my accent.

I started with 2 coats of China Glaze White on White. And let them dry. <--very important. 

For all but the accent I just put the tape on my nail and filled it in with Sally Hanson Black Heart. 

As soon as I filled it in I peeled the tape off. I also only did 1 on each nail at a time so I gave the bats a bit of time to dry before adding more. I didn't want to mess up the bats I had already done by sticking tape on them.

For the ring finger I used the cutout piece and just painted over it with the black polish. Then I carefully peeled it off using rhinestone tweezers. 

Pretty simple. Just took a little while to do. : )

To check out the challenge, click here.

Halloween Challenge oct 19

Favorite Horror Movie Monster

I don't really know what my favorite monster would be but I do enjoy vampires.  

I wanted something simple. The vampire teeth were done free hand with my new super fine nail art brush. 

I did 1 coat of Sally Hanson Black Heart on the nails with glitter and 2 coats on the one with the teeth. 

The red glitter is Spoiled Ants in my Pants. It is a blackish base with tiny red glitter and small red hex glitter. The black base is very sheer and would take forever to build it up so I just put it over the one coat of black. I used 2 coats of the glitter because glitter payoff wasn't very good. 

For the teeth I used China Glaze White on White and used Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby for the blood. 

To check out the challenge, click here.

I also got nail mail this morning! I got my 3 new nail art brushes. They aren't fantastic quality but including shipping I paid like $2 for all 3. And the smallest is much finer than the smallest one I already owned. Totally worth the money so far.  

Pearls

I wanted to try something out with my new pearls today but I didn't have a whole lot of time. So I just painted all my fingers with 2 coats of China Glaze White on White and for my ring finger I added 1 coat of Finger Paints Pink Imagination. Then I just added rows of the smallest size pearls. 

It's a bit blurry but there is a close up. 

Simple but I really love these . Only problem is that the pearls were so tiny that they were a bit of a pain to work with. 

*UPDATE Oct 22* During removal I found that these do dissolve with pure acetone nail polish remover. It made them much easier to remove than having to pop them off so I liked that. I will probably order some more of these when I get low. I really love this.

Halloween Challenge Oct 15 Trick or Treat

These were done free hand using a fine nail art brush. 

Polishes used were: 

Sally Hanson- Black Heart

Sinful Colors- Innocent

Sinful Colors- Why Not

Sinful Colors- Daredevil

Sinful Colors- Cloud 9

China Glaze- White on White

Finger Paints- Art Nouv-Yellow

These were really simple but I like them because I love the bright colors! 

To check out the challenge, click here.

Nail mail from Singapore today! I ordered these ages ago and they're finally here. I still have 5 packages that should come in soon. I paid less than $3 for these pearls including shipping!

Nail Polish Rack

I have seen loads of different DIY Nail Polish Rack tutorials and I have been complaining for ages about not having a good space for my nail polish. So I made my own rack today! I spent less than $7.

I bought 3 20x30 inch foam boards from the Dollar Tree for $1 each. Then I got a roll of Duct Tape from AC Moore on sale. I already had the ruler, slicer, pencil and hot glue gun with extra glue sticks. 

I took a full board and marked every 5 inches going short ways. And the second board I marked 7 lines at every 2 inches and then another 7 lines every 1 inch. Then I used my cutter and cut the 2 and 1 inch pieces. Then long ways I used the third board to mark 2 2.5 inch strips and cut them. 

I wraped each of my 1 inch strips in Duct Tape. 

I used my hot glue gun to glue my 2 inch strips on each of my 5 in marks on the full board and then I put one strip across the top and one on the bottom. 

Next, I glued the 2.5 inch strips to the sides. 

Last step is to glue the 1 inch Duct Tape covered strips to the front of the shelves to keep the polish from falling off. 

Here's my nail polish ready to go on the shelf!

All my nail polish fit but barely. I had to put some on top and kind of squeeze them into the shelves. So next week I'll probably build a second one. 

This has 124 bottles plus my top and base coats and cuticle remover and nail polish thinner. I would guess to keep them off the top it would probably be better to hold about 100-110 bottles. 

Sinful Colors Nova

This is one of the polishes I got yesterday at Big Lots for $1.

It is gorgeous. This is one of my favorites. It is a super pretty blue base with green micro glitter and I think there might also be some blue micro glitter in there. 

These were taken inside under a lamp. 

These were taken outside in the sun. 

So pretty. I love it!