Halloween - Trick or Treat!

it's Halloween - time to go Trick or Treating!

I painted my nails with Ulta3's Sour Grape, then stamped on the skeleton (Winstonia 116) and the Trick or Treat text (Moyou Festive 16). I had made some stamping decals for the candy corn (UberChic Beauty Halloween), using Mundo de Unas orange for the stamping, Face of Australia Miss Congeniality for the white, and OPI I Just Can't Cope-acabana for the yellow. I used the same yellow to light up the haunted house (Bundle a Monster 315).

I used two new sticky stamping heads which I got from UberChic Beauty to make the candy corn decals and I was quite impressed by them! They're a bit flatter than my other stamping heads, and their softness made the decals easy to remove. I also made a decal using their stamping mat, which didn't go as well - I couldn't stamp directly onto the mat very easily, although it's possible it just needs a proper wash first.

I posed with a little plastic jack-o-lantern filled with Halloween treats for trick or treaters - so cute!

Halloween week - It was a graveyard smash

For today I made a graveyard scene design. Really pleased with it!

I painted my nails with two coats of Ciate's Chinchilla, a light grey, and then sponged the ground on using Ulta3's Midnight. Midnight is a very dark navy and I really enjoy using it.

I then stamped on the graveyard images. The owl on the branch, the ghost, the gravestone with "RIP" underlined, and the haunted house on my thumb are all from UberChic Beauty's Halloween plate. The gravestone next to the ghost is from Winstonia 116, and the gravestone and the cross and bats is from MoYou Festive 16.

More dot than polka dot - I attempted a dot-and-negative space mani but it didn't work out, so I went to an old favourite.

I painted my nails white using OPI's Alpine White, after Buff & Polish suggested it on my mani for the Black and WhiteBlack and White challenge - I realised I already had it in my collection. It definitely worked better, at two coats instead of three. I'm also going to check out some of the other suggestions; both Gelic and Buff and Polish suggested Essence polishes so I'm going to head over to Priceline tomorrow and try to snag a bottle.

I then used my dotting tools to dot on orange (Face of Australia's Some Like It Hot), grey (OPI's Embrace the Grey) and black (Ulta3's midnight). Done! 

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31 Day Challenge - gradient stamped with MoYou Illusion

I made a gradient using Ulta3's fairy floss, OPI's Houston We Have A Purple and Ulta3's mulberry. At first I tried to do a scaled gradient buuut it really didn't work. So I did a straight-up gradient and then stamped over it with MoYou's Illusion 01. I'm a big fan of illusion stamping over gradients.

I used a different pattern on my right hand.

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Lit-up jack o' lanterns

I'm a bit behind on my nail blogging because I've been busy making a cosplay costume for Pax, a video game convention. It was heaps of fun but it took a lot of time!

I did make a quick post to my Instagram with the Halloween nails. I painted my nails with Ulta3's midnight and then reverse stamped using Mundo de Uñas polishes, and finally a Chi Chi glow in the dark polish (unnamed yellow) for the eyes of the jack o' lanterns.

DIY water nail decals for the Pittsburgh Penguins - the NHL season begins!

The National Hockey League (which is made up of Canadian and American teams... just go with it) starts up again this week, so I did my nails to celebrate the return of my NHL team, the Pittsburgh Penguins. I painted my nails white and then applied some nail decals which I made myself by printing onto special water decal paper. I bought the paper off eBay but you may be able to find some in craft or hobby shops.

Even being careful with the application of my topcoat, they still smeared a little. Still, they're a great way of doing small intricate designs, like sports team logos, that you don't have a stamp for and can't freehand that detailed.

31 Day Challenge, Day 28 - Inspired By A Flag

This challenge is a bit what? for me... inspired by a flag? I decided to do some freehand bunting, because bunting is nice and festive, and again, freehand practice.

I painted my nails white with Ulta3's Lily White, then used Butter London's Pillar Box Red, Essie's Butler Please (blue), and Face of Australia's Some Like It Hot (orange) for the flags. Ulta3's Midnight for the black rope.

I finished things off with OPI's Matte top coat - omg! So much better than my previous matte topcoat! One coat and done. I like the illustrated look matte coat gives.

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31 Day Challenge, Day 20 - Water marble

Water marble! So pretty when it works, so muddy when it doesn't. I managed to get some decent nails on my left hand by waiting to do them last, so you don't see my not-so-great attempts. #bloggersecrets For this marble, I used Ulta3's Lily White, OPI's Houston We Have A Purple, and Essie's Bobbing For Baubles.

I have not been looking forward to marbling, because it's so time-consuming and prone to failure. I also find that, because you need room temperature water for it to work, you really need your weather to be... room temperature weather... (I hope you know what I mean there.) Anyway, my house is pretty cold, so I microwaved my bottle of water in the hopes that it would help. It sort of did? And sort of didn't.

I also taped off my nails, because I've heard cuticle oil can protect your skin but I'm a bit sceptical. Anyone out there use cuticle oil? I'm curious.

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31 Day Challenge, Day 19 - Galaxies

Apparently I've been living under a rock, because I had never heard of galaxy nails before. A short google later though and I was all across it. It's a pretty easy, fun manicure, although you do need a fair number of polishes.

I painted my nails with Revlon's Black Magic, then used a damp sponge (it does work better than a dry sponge!) to apply OPI's Alpine Snow, Maybelline's Green Park, Kleancolor's Metallic Fuchsia, Kleancolor's Boogie Nights (the orange), Crows Toes' Indian Summer (multichrome pink/purple), and Ulta3's Blue Marlin, plus a topper of Sephora X's Shifty (holographic glitter). Whew! More Alpine Snow was applied with a toothpick for the stars.

It was so colourful! So astronomical! And yet... I couldn't help but do a cheeky little bit of stamping with Cheeky plates CH45 and CH46. Rocket ships, planets, and some alien spaceships, oh yeah. They white means you miss them on a casual look, which I love - it's like a little Easter Egg.

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31 Day Challenge, Day 18 - Half moon (literal interpretation)

So, I took the challenge a little literally today...

I was looking through my stamping plates earlier in the challenge, and I saw these crescent moons on Cheeky plate CH46. A quick stamp over my previous manicure and voila! Half moon nails! :D

I did however want to do an actual half moon manicure, so my "standard" half moon manicure can be found here.

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31 Day Challenge, Day 17 - Glitter

GLITTER! I have such a love/hate relationship with glitter - it's so sparkly, but so time-consuming, whether you're putting it on or taking it off. Accordingly I only did glitter on my accent nail, because I didn't want to spend hours on a mani I'm going to take off tomorrow.

I painted my nails with Ulta3's Wild Berry, a dark grey polish - bit of an odd name! I can't think of any grey berries? Anyway, it's a nice colour but it was a bit runny and had a tendency to flood my cuticles to the extent that I can't get it off.

I then used some orange and yellow hexagonal glitter which I got from Born Pretty Store a while back, in a pack of 12 different colours. The glitters were pretty cheap and you get a lot of them in each little jar, which is great. I used a toothpick and some clear nail polish to stick them on, and sealed it with topcoat. You need to keep an eye on which hexagon you're picking up, because occasionally they can be a little smaller than usual or a bit unsymmetrical, but it's not a problem if you're paying attention.

With hexagonal glitter, I find that you get the best results if you don't tap the glitters too deeply into the polish - just gently place them on. I got impatient towards the end and tapped one of the hexes near the tip too hard, and it's embedded slightly - d'oh! Patience is the key, and giving yourself plenty of time.

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31 Day Challenge, Day 13 - Animal Print cow nail art

I was originally going to do some straight-up animal print for today - a classic leopard or snake print, maybe even a giraffe print. But then I saw Holy Manicure's Cow Nails - holy cow they looked good! I knew it had it be cow print nails.

I painted my nails with Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri White Whirlwind, then used Ulta3's Midnight for the black and Fairy Floss for the pink nose. I used a brush to freehand the pink nose on (two coats), and used a dotting tool for the black spots. I drew the eyes on with a brush.

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31 Day Nail Challenge, Day 12 - Stripes

I did this manicure to match a dress which I'll be wearing tomorrow morning - a nautical 50s style dress. So today's nail art features stripes and anchors. Ahoy!

I painted my nails with Ulta3's Blue Marlin, except for the ring fingers, which I painted with Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri Whirlwind White. I used the same polishes to stamp the blue and white with, and Rimmel's Rapid Ruby for the red anchors. Stamping was okay but not great. Happily my mundo de unas stamping polishes shipped today so fingers crossed they get here soon!

This is the first time I've done multicoloured stamping and I am pleased at the effect. I'll definitely have to try out some more multicolour stamping in the future.

And here's a picture of the dress, which I handily got from the internet - check out the white anchor on the pocket:

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31 Day Nail Challenge, Day 11 - Polka Dots

A simple and easy manicure today - dotting tools make it so easy to get a great look!

I painted my nails black with Revlon's Black Magic, then used Revlon' White on White and Ulta3's Sour Grape and Fairy Floss to make the dots. I finished it with Face of Australia's Platinum matte topcoat from their Screen Siren collection.

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Day 31 Challenge - Rainbow nails

A quick manicure tonight - a skittle manicure with black frames (can't remember the proper name!). I freehanded the black outline, and it turned out fairly well for a first attempt but it's still pretty wobbly! I think more time would have helped but I want to go to bed, so a quick lining it was.

Polishes used:
Ulta3's Sour Grape (purple)
Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri Brisk Blue
Butter London's Pillar Box Red
Face of Australia's Some Like It Hot
OPI's The "IT" Color

Some Like It Hot photographed a lot yellower than it is in person - in person it's a much more vibrant orange. The perils of photographing at night under my desk lamp...

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31 Day Challenge Day 6 - Violet - Violet flower nail art

Although flowers are an upcoming theme, I wanted to do some nail art of the violet flower.

I painted my nails with Ciate's Chincilla, then used Ulta3's Sour Grape for the petals and Rimmel's Sunny Days for the stamens.

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