Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Happy Holo-ween!

A huge thanks to nailXchange, who let me know last week that the local supplier of Color Club nail polishes in the GTA, Designer Cosmetics, had the Halo Hue collex in stock. While the winds and rains associated with Hurricane Sandy were pelting down last night, I thought I'd turn one of them into another Halloween mani; here's what I came up with.


Started with a base of Color Club Harp On It.  The pix below is one coat.


Added a second coat.  The pix below is without top coat.


These next couple of pix were taken will my iphone so I could send pix to all my friends to tell them to run to the mall now and get them! And its nice that they are relatively easy to find in our area complared to Layla's, Jades, or nearly impossible to find like the HTF OPI DS's!


A bottle shot.  I seriously cannot believe how holo these are! 


For stamping, I wanted to add an image that didn't cover all the holo but still with a Halloween theme, so added spider webs from T23 using black Konad special polish.


I'm not sure if my nails had moisturizer on them or if the thin lines on the web dried particularly fast, but I had quite a few of the webs mis-stamp.  I really botched the thumb nail so decided to add a few random spiders from T23 for cover and for some creepy spider interest.


To finish, used Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Diamond Flash Fast Dry Top Coat (aka the one in the black bottle) to coat.  I didn't notice any fading of the holo even with topcoat which was awesome!


Color Club Halo Hues are available locally at Designer Cosmetics at Bramalea City Centre or their Bay/Bloor location for $8.99 or 2/$16.99.  They are also available online via Color Club directly here; however, they do not ship internationally.  I also seen a FB update that Nail Polish Canada will also have them in stock as of Thursday, November 1, 2012!  Edited on Nov 2 2012 to add that Harlow & Company is also carrying Halo Hues!

Happy Holo-ween! 


Friday, October 26, 2012

Yet Another Halloween Mani

Are you tired of Halloween mani's yet?  Hopefully not because here's yet another one I did not too long ago!


Started with a base of two coats of Revlon Alluring Amber and FingerPaints Black Expressionism.  Alluring Amber seems to be my go to orange polish the last couple years for Halloween mani's...I seem to think I picked it up at a bargain bin someplace but need to find a backup before I run out!


For some interest, added a coat of Lacquistry Pickin' Punkins' in the Patch to accent.


Another pix to see the Lacquistry at a different angle.


The mandatory bottle shot!


I really wasn't too keen on stamping the mani at this point because I was kinda digging my nails without any stamping...but then I remembered I had done some trial stamping of some images that I've never used before, so I decided to add them for fun. Used black Konad special polish using plates W234 (skull on ring, witch on middle, frankenstein on pinky), W215 (boo on index), OB26 (house on thumb and flying witch), T23 (bat above boo on index as well as small bats on thumb, middle and index, spider on ring and pinky and pumpkins placed on middle and thumb).  The green polish is Sally Hansen Insta-dri Lickety-Split Lime.


Added green dots in eyes of frankenstein, the witch and the pumpkins using Lickety-Split Lime and touched up the base of the house on thumb using a small brush with the Konad polish.  The witch was too freaky with green eyes so dotted black on top of the green so I wasn't all freaked out!


Topped with SV to finish.


Another pix to see the pumpkin at the base of the house.  It was suppose to mimic putting a carved pumpkin outside your door like on Halloween night...and then most of the pix, I cut it out of the frame!


Have a fantastic weekend...and thanks for looking!


Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Another Halloween Mani

I recently picked up Different Dimensions Smashing Pumpkins over at Missi Barry's Etsy shop and decided to do a Halloween mani using it....here's what I came up with!


Started with a base of two coats of OPI Guy Meets Gal Veston. 


Added Different Dimensions Smashing Pumpkins.  This is one coat.


While one coat had some interesting glitter, I decided to add a second coat for more glitter interest, then topped with SV.


Stamped using black Konad special polish using images from fauxnad XL K (spider on index), BM209 (hat on middle), T29 (pinky), T23 (web on thumb and cat on ring) and SdP 76 (bats randomly placed).  Please note that I may not have every single image of what I stamped or the exact polish over for this pix or others for the next little while....I kept all this information on the notepad on my iPhone but a resent mishap resulted in having to reset the phone one day last week...and I lost all my notes, contacts, pictures, etc.  So while I'll try to either remember what I used, or try to go back and find the images, I may simply not remember.  Unfortunately, this holds true for about the 30 manis I have in archives.  *sigh* 


Added a few random dots using CND yellow as well as added yellow accent to the hat, cat and ghost dude on the pinky, whatever his name may be. The Grim Reaper, maybe?


Added a few more dots using CND Eclectic Purple.


Topped with SV to finish.


Here's a bottle shot of DD Smashing Pumpkins.  As described on Etsy:

"Smashing Pumpkins is a glow in the dark glitter bomb! It glows orange in the dark (not as intense as some other colors, but still very bright!) It has black hexes in a couple different sizes, orange hexes and iridescent color shifting glitters."

 
After I discovered it glowed in the dark, I took a couple pix to share a day or so later. 
   


And another pix.  Unfortunately, no matter how much I tried, I wasn't able to get a clearer pix than this. 



Want to hear a funny story regarding these glow in the dark pix? When I went to take the pix, I thought, OK, pix for blog, better moisturize my cuticles for the camera so I did....only to think....why?!?...they are glow in the dark pix!! But I hope you can see my cuticles are well moisturized! lol!

Thanks for looking!




Thursday, October 18, 2012

Halloween Nails

With Halloween less than two weeks away, I thought I had better start to do some Halloween mani's.  Here's the mani I'm wearing today.


Did a sponge gradient for some mock candy corn over a base of two coats of OPI Bride's Bouquet (no pix of plain white as I've shown it many times before...and my posts are pix heavy enough!)  The colours used were Revlon Alluring Amber (orange), China Glaze Go Lucky (yellow) and OPI Bride's Bouquet (white).  My sponging technique still needs work... I'm sponging more of my skin than my nails which happened the last time I did this too!


After cleanup.  Sort of judging by this pix.


For a little accent glitter accent, added LA Colors Sparkling Apricot on index and ring fingers. 


Topped with Girly Bits Candy Corn, then SV.


Stamped using T23 (pumpkin on index, cat on ring and web on thumb), T29 (witch on middle), Dash 17 (skeleton on pinky) with Konad black special polish.


Filled in some bare spots by adding images from D04 (Boo on index) T29 and T43 (bat above cat on ring and random spiders on middle, pinky and thumb).


Topped with SV. 


Here's a rare glimpse of my right hand.  I used a base of two coats of OPI Bride's Bouquet, topped with layer of Girly Bits Candy Corn, then added stamping.  I didn't jot down the plate numbers as I didn't think I was going to share but some of the same images were used as other hand.


Hope you're having a great week....thanks for looking!


Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Baking Themed Mani f. Oopsie Daisies Tiramisu

Do you bake?  I love to bake....I made an Apple Crumble Pie on Sunday; last night, I made Banana Chocolate Chip Bread....if this trend continues, I think the next thing I'm going to have to make is an appointment at the local gym! 

Anyway, when it came time to do my nails last night, I still had baking on the brain so decided to do a dessert/sweets/baking themed mani...here's what I came up with.


Started with a base of OPI Berlin Done That from the OPI Germany collex.  This is two coats, no topcoat.


Added a coat of Oopsie Daisies Tiramisu and topped with SV.  I can see Tiramisu reflected in this unique polish... so I thought it was an appropriate choice for my baking themed mani!





Stamped sweets are BM 307 (ring finger), SdP C-18 (cupcake on middle), LLC 3 (pie on thumb), BM308 (cupcake on pinky and donut on middle), CH41 (pie on thumb) and DRK-B (index finger) using white Konad special polish.


Looking at my nails, the cupcake on the pinky and the cake on the thumb were just screaming to me...add a cherry on top!  So added some rhinestone 'cherries'.


Topped with SV to finish. 


I seen Fingers Polish Mania is absolutely loving Oopsie Daisies Tiramisu. Her post shows how different Tiramisu looks when layered using different base polishes...if you'd like to see what I'm talking about, please go here. Oopsie Daisies Tiramisu** is available via Oopsie Daisies Etsy store here

Oh, and in case you thought I was joking about making banana chocolate chip loaf last night.....I texted this pix to my friend last night right after I had taken them out of the pans....she responded she could smell them over at her place...then wanted to know how soon I'd be over with some for her!  And no, she's not a baker!


Thanks for looking!

**Polish sent for review. Please refer to disclosure policy.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Invasion Of......Bugs!

Warning!  Do not click if bugs and creepy crawlies give you the hebegebees!!

This weeks FB Adventures in Stamping challenge was Invasion Of.....and we could pick anything we thought was invading us.  So I came up with an Invasion of Bugs...because I thought it may be kinda cool to have some creepy crawlies and bugs as its so close to Halloween.  Here's what I came up with.


Regular lighting.



Started with a base of two coats of Essence #138, L.O.L.  This is one of the shades in their new style bottles available at Shoppers Drug Mart or Ulta.


Added two coats of Sally Hansen New Lengths Glow in the Dark. 


A GITD shot.


And another...I fine this pix very creepy!


Added a coat of Nina Ultra Pro Electric Slide and topped with SV.


Even though I've added another two coats of coatings on my nails since I applied the GITD, it still glows.  This old Sally Hansen is the best GITD polish that I've found.  I've sampled a bunch of them and this one works the best by far. At this point, I had 8 layers of polishes and base coats on, so I waited about half an hour before stamping to give the base a good chance to dry.


Stamped using W201 (bugs on middle finger and just below the worm on thumb is a partial stamp using same bug image), SdP 41 (fly on middle finger and thumb), Mash48 (worm on thumb), W230 (ant on index), T44 (bee on thumb), D23 (beetle on pinky), A05 (wasp on index), fauxnad m41 (centipede on ring) W207 (fly above worm on thumb) using black Konad stamping polish.


GITD pix.


To really make it a little bit more creepy and more along Halloween, I added random spiders from an image on T23 and stamped throughout.


Added a few random dots using CND polishes using CND Orange and Eclectic Purple.


Topped with SV.


Something that I was quite surprised with is how many images there are of bugs and creepy crawlies of some sort...even though I used 9 different plates here, I had several more picked out to use but ran out of space on my fingers.  And is it odd that I want that fly image in about 3 more different sizes?  Of all the images, and even though it freaks me out the most, I can think of so many times when I would use it! 

Thanks for looking!