funky halloween nails

I wanted to do something a little more abstract again so I thought- why not mix up a bunch of designs with halloween colors? They're all super easy to do and your imagination is the limit. I left the ring finger blank so you could see the gorgeous orange underneath.  It's Nicole by OPI "Fresh Squeezed". So pretty!

Sexy Gradient Nails

I wanted to do something a little more sophisticated for my next Halloween nail. Not everyone likes little pumpkins or spiders on their nails and I wanted to do something that could be worn to work (albeit not a super conservative workplace) and be festive but not so literal.

Thus, I give you- sexy blood red gradient nails!

Can you imagine how cool this would look with a vampire costume on Halloween? My nails are kinda short right now but it would look even better on long nails.  If you're wondering how many hours it took and that it must be a super difficult technique- fear not! It's so easy to do!  It took me maybe 15 minutes per hand and I got the tutorial here:

I'm so happy with the results. My nails look so cool, I hope you guys agree!  My skin and cuticles on the other hand... well combined with the dry Calgary weather and lots of attempts at figuring out something sexy and wearable have wrecked my hands. As soon as this is posted I'll be slathering on the moisturizer.

Here's a list of the polishes used:
Essie Lollipop (bright red creme)
Essie A-List (medium dark red creme)
China Glaze Midtown Magic (shimmery brown)
Essie Licorice (black creme)
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Red Carpet (red shimmer)

These nails. So hot right now. Hansel. I mean...These nails.

Sondra

Puppy Love and Halloween Nails!

I haven't been posting for a while and well- this cute little face is why!

Please excuse the not so nice background- we're in the middle of renovating!

That's right we got a puppy! He's just a furry bundle of cuteness... and energy!  So you'll understand why I haven't had much time on my hands to paint my nails. :)  However part of the reason why I wanted to start blogging was to get myself practicing some nail art.  I was especially looking forward to awesome Halloween nail art!  So now that the puppy is a little bit better trained and October is here I thought I should start doing a series of Halloween themed nail art!  This was the first attempt:

Not bad if I say so myself! I'm definitely looking forward to improving though!  The base color is a beautiful lilac creme called "How Do You Lilac It?".  I just love this color.  It is just the perfect shade of lilac and also makes for a gorgeous pedicure color.  Maybe not exactly what comes to mind for a Halloween color but I think it works! It also always reminds me of my wedding because it's almost the same exact color or my sister-in-law's bridesmaid dress! Happy times! :)

The black for the spiderweb and spider are LA Colors's Art Deco in black. It's just a run of the mill nail art polish.

Anyway, I hope there are still people out there reading and I hope you enjoyed this first part in a series of spoooky nails! :) If you have any requests or ideas please let me know what you'd like to see!

Sondra

My First Nail Polish Franken

For those not familiar with nail polish blog vernacular, here's a crash course.

VNL- visibile nail line (specifically in reference to a polish that is sheer enough you can see the white part of your nails)

Lemming- A term for a polish you've been wanting for a long time.

Franken- A mix of two or more polishes, glitters etc. Basically taking existing polish and mixing them together to come up with a different color.

Franken two nail polishes I was never a big fan of is exactly what I did.  Yodel Me On My Cell and William Tell Me About OPI are both from last years Swiss collection.  Yodel Me On My Cell is a shimmery medium blue with green undertones.  It's pretty but not really my cup of tea.  William Tell Me About OPI is a dark plummy creme color that looks black unless in direct sunlight. And.... not that it really matters but they both have pretty stupid names!

Sorry it's a bit messy, I was in a hurry. But holy cow! So pretty! Just a few drops of WTMAO made YMOMC (see how stupid these names are?) so much more intense and gorgeous!  I'm so glad that I'll finally be using up two polishes that would otherwise be gathering dust. What do you think? I'm tempted to name my creation but I'm not sure what. Any ideas? Certainly just about anything would be better than the names of its parents!

Sondra

Essie Private Bash

Essie Private Bash is a red berry creme polish I picked up several years ago.  I'm glad I rediscovered it because it is just oh so fall!  The application was nice enough, very opaque on the first coat. However I did notice a bubble or two.  I don't know if that was because of the formula, me or because the polish is 3 years old.

Are you excited for Fall? What's your favorite part about Autumn? I love hot apple cider and beautiful scarves but most of all the changing of the leaves.  Unfortunately we don't get the amazing display here like back home in Upstate NY.  Fall is gold and brown which is quickly followed up by snow here. ;)

Sondra

Zoya Charisma + China Glaze White Cap (and mountains!)

Did you see this combination coming a mile away?  I just had to see what Charisma and White Cap are like together.  Yup, I'm kinda obsessed.

It looks great in the pictures, but honestly, I wasn't blown away.  I felt it wasn't super flattering against my skin tone.  The gold glitter was pretty but I felt like the milky-ness of White Cap didn't look nice over top Charisma.  Meh, or maybe I just wasn't feeling it that day.  I don't know.  I ended up taking it off and trading it for Midtown Magic.

In non-nail polish news, today was especially clear and crisp so I decided to take a walk.  Ten minutes later, I snapped this spectacular view of the Rocky Mountains!

Click to Embiggen

I just love love love my city so much!  I can't imagine ever getting tired of seeing the Rockies.  To my husband and his friends (lifetime residents of Calgary) it's just kinda old hat.  To me... well you'd think I had just seen each mountain individually flown in via helicopter and strategically placed right in front of me.  It's just magical!    I've had to fortune to live in three vastly different locations in the last 2 years. They all have their own beauty and have a special place in my heart that won't be replaced.  Yet it sure is hard to compete with snow capped mountains outside your door!

Sondra

Zoya Charisma

Summer doesn't last long when you live in Canada and a chilly morning prompted me to break out fall clothes.  The warm purple of my sweater inspired me to reach for Zoya's Charisma.  Charisma was one of the very first nail polishes I ever picked up.  It's a beautiful neon pink-y purple (or purple-y pink depending on what light you're standing in).  Like most neons it dries matte.  This took me off guard at first but once a glossy top coat was added it found its way into regular use.

Zoya Charisma

matte finish

with top coat in direct sunlight

Like I mentioned before, Charisma changes quite a bit depending on  the light. It's quite a chameleon!  In direct sunlight it's a watermelon pink.  Indoors its a raspberry color.  In low light it looks like a medium warm purple.  I enjoy colors that shift and change so much! It almost feels like it changes with your mood.

raspberry color indoors

in low light against my sweater

 I hope you liked Charisma!  As for me, I'm going to cuddle up in a warm blanket! Brrr!


Sondra

Essie Turquoise & Caicos + China Glaze White Cap

China Glaze White Cap is a milky gold color that looks amazing layered.  Today it's layered over Turquoise and Caicos from last post.  The result is beautiful mermaid-esque nails! I'm so excited to try White Cap over lots more colors.  I'm not feeling super verbose today (I'm still recovering from my really fun and really busy 1st wedding anniversary yesterday!) so I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

s

Sondra

Essie Turquoise & Caicos

Essie Turquoise & Caicos has been my pedicure color of choice for 90% of the summer. It's a gorgeous feminine little turquoise color that verges on Tiffany blue. Maybe a little greener but hey- I actually prefer the greener shade and it's a much more affordable option than what comes in Tiffany boxes!  I've always been a sucker for turquoise.  When I was 14 I painted my childhood bedroom a robins egg blue color very similar to this.  Turquoise has a long history of impressing. The French were so taken with the blue color that adorned Turkish tiles that it became named after the Turks.

*sigh* This color never fails to lift my spirits. So pretty! Oh and it applies oh so beautifully. Posted here is just two thin coats.  This is just the icing on the cake but I'd still wear the color tons even it the application was terrible.

Sondra

Essie Lollipop

Essie Lollipop is a bright red creme that has a vintage-y vibe to it.  It's glossy and beautiful!  While it was part of a Christmas collection I think it's perfect for any time. Classic and beautiful.  The application was nice, I needed two coats for a full opaque finish.

I love the name "Lollipop" too, it's cute and fitting for the color. It also make me think of this-

Essie Lollipop also makes for one of my favorite pedicure polishes. It reminds me of 1950's pinup girls.  It's so fun to wear!  However while Lollipop finds its way to my toes, it hasn't been there for most of the summer. What has? You'll have to wait for my all time favorite pedicure color next post. :)

Until Then,
Sondra

OPI Bubble Bath

If I didn't love color so much, I'd wear OPI Bubble Bath all the time.  For me it's the perfect polished, everyday, ladylike baby pink polish.  I think of it as 'Tea with the Queen' nails. The name is adorable too, nothing girly-er like a bubble bath!

You may not be able to tell from the picture, but that is one loved bottle. It's about half full (or half empty, whatever you like).

One coat gives you a glossy finish (perfect base for a french manicure), three gives you the opaque finish I have here.  I do find it's best to finish with a quick drying top coat though while nails are tacky because for some reason Bubble Bath is prone to forming tiny little bubbles halfway before drying.  Bizarre that Bubble Bath bubbles right? Try saying that 10 times fast!

If you want a real low maintenance nail polish, light ones like these are the best.  Bright and dark colors show chipping immediately.  Love!!!

China Glaze Metro Urban-Night and CG in the City

China Glaze's Urban-Night is a creamy eggplant color.  While the color is nice, it's not particularly special and I didn't feel like the application was very easy.  I had to really work with the polish to not end up with patchy bits.  It turned out fine as you can see with the picture but it was a pain.

The color dries about a shade darker than it look in the bottle.  It still reads dark purple most of the time but in low light it definitely looks black.  Personally, purple is one of my favorite colors but with this I feel like it's just boring.  Maybe it's after wearing all those glitters the cream finish just seems flat.  Nothing to seek out on its own, I'm sure there are plenty of others that are similar and probably with better application.

However, I can see WHY they added Urban-Night to the collection. It looks super pretty with CG in the City!

Folks, it's like its enchanted with fairy dust!  China Glaze CG in the City is a clear based dusty purple/little bit of taupey gold.  It's very pretty layered but doesn't really work by itself.  I'm excited to try it on over Essie's Merino Cool which is a taupe with a  purple tinge to it!  In fact, I'm sure this glitter would look great over a lot of things!  If you're someone that can get bored with a manicure quickly it's nice to have a pretty glitter to coat over it and make you appreciate it for a few more days! :)

So that's my review of the mini pack of China Glaze Metro Fall 2011 collection!  Overall it's a really great collection and I love the minis because honestly- unless you LOVE a color you're not going to finish a whole big bottle of polish so it's great to be able to try out a bunch of colors with less mL's.  Midtown Magic was my surprise favorite, Skyscraper and CG in the City was love at first sight.  Urban-Night was the only 'meh' color but goes great under CG in the City.

China Glaze Skyscraper

China Glaze Skyscraper is a gorgeous glittery royal blue color.  It was made to resemble the night sky in a city and boy does it deliver!

The silver glitter is just packed in!  I was a little worried the blue base would be very sheer from the first coat, but after two it was opaque and stunning!  The application was great and as with all the glitters in the Metro collection it dried super fast.

Generally I'm not drawn to full on blues.  I feel like it makes my hands too ruddy and red.  However this color is beautiful and something I wouldn't mind wearing... a lot!

China Glaze Midtown Magic

Midtown Magic is described as a burgundy base but to my eye it's black/dark brown with bronze-y glitter.

I wasn't sure about this polish at first.   It thought I'd swatch it for the blog and take it off immediately after.  However I found myself really enjoying it and plan to keep it on for a few more days.  In the bottle I thought it just looked like the kind of polish that belongs in a Halloween collection. However now that it's on my nails I think its complex enough that you don't need to be wearing a witch hat to pull it off.  You still have to be comfortable with black nails because from a distance it reads as a simple black. However when you look closely the bronze and gold glitter make it a special color.

Pretty Glitter

Sorry for the messy thumb swatch!

That's all for now!  I'll be back later with more review of the China Glaze Metro Fall 2011 collection!