40 Nail Art Ideas – Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone! Today I've got a fun skittle look I've been rocking all week and boy do I just love how happy and fun this look is!



I went on Pinterest and picked my favorite of all the Halloween mani tutorials out there and combined them to create this look, with holo bases of course (holo ALL the things).



So I freehanded most of this, except for the witch stamp and jack-o-lantern face, both were from Winstonia W116 plate and stamped using my favorite black stamping polish B Polished Midnight in Death Valley. In fact all the black in this mani, including the freehand, is with this awesome polish. And an extra note for you, B Polished is having a sale right now, check out my last post for details.



So for the bases I used a bunch of fun holo polishes which I'll tell you about here. The thumb is a base of Smitten Polish Cauldron Bubble, with the moon freehanded with Literary Lacquers Curious Yellow*. The index finger base is Smitten Polish Oh the Hue-Manatee* and white stripes are freehand with KBShimmer Eyes White Open, the eyes are Octopus Party Nail Lacquer Universal Loner. The middle finger is a base of Smitten Polish Poach-Busters* (LE this month, so grab it while you can!). The ring finger is a base of Elevation Polish Aconcagua. The pinky finger is a base of ILNP Paper Route, a lovely almost white holo, perfect for the skull.

*denotes press samples





I really loved these nails, they were just different enough for me not to get bored and rock all week long! This is the most effort I put into Halloween this year for sure. We have a potluck at work today and I tried a Pinterest recipe that I think I kind of failed at but oh well. Oh and I had to show you the right hand attempt at this mani, just to keep it real and show you that not all nail art is easy. My freehand still has a long way to go!



So what are you doing for Halloween? We are headed to a coworker's house for the holiday, she lives in this wealthy enclave of town that is like THE place for Halloween. So we are going to bask in the fun, see the decorations and help pass out candy to 800 plus trick-or-treaters! Should be fun! Hope you all have a lovely holiday weekend!

Oh and don't forget to check out the other ladies of Crumpet's Nail Challenge, listed here in the inlinkz below. I'm sure they've come up with some truly creative and fun Halloween nails to browse!


   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

New Indie Alert: B Polished Review

Happy Wednesday everyone! Today I have a new-to-me and new-on-the-scene indie to share with you and let me just tell you now, I'm pretty impressed.



I may have only purchased two polishes from B Polished to start with, but I'm so glad I did. The black stamping polish – Midnight in Death Valley – I have already used for three manicures.

And another cool thing?! She's having a sale for Halloween and I promise this isn't something you want to miss out on!









The first polish I have to share with you is B Polished Ignite the Night, a beautiful multichrome polish that has a ton of depth. The shift in this polish goes from red to orange to gold and it reminds me of a sunset but also of the changing leaves. It is a gorgeous color shift that comes from not only the polish, but also the glass flecks, with give is dimension. The application went on smooth and was opaque in two coats.







The next polish I used is B Polished Midnight in Death Valley, which is an amazingly pigmented one-coat wonder of a black polish. Because of it's dense pigment it was perfect for stamping and worked both for thicker stamping images (ring finger) and more detailed images (middle finger). I also used this in my a previous nail art look I posted last week, and it was a wonderful one-coater that was the perfect base for nail art. It dries semi-matte and pretty quickly, which made it so wonderful to work with as a base.

I was super impressed with this first showing from this new-on-the-market indie. I think her first collection, Sunsets & Sandy Beaches, has a little something for everyone – textures and multichromes. She also has a great line of base and top coats I'm itching to try as well.

So you have all the sale details, though November 8, B Polished is offering 20 percent off with the code TREATYOURSELF.

And come join our new fan group on Facebook B Polished Sweethearts too for more of the latest news, swatches and just all around fun times!

So I know I've only shown you a small sampling of this new brand, but are there any of her polishes that you're thinking about? I'm definitely interested in picking up Sea You At Sunset, I'm just a sucker for green multichromes!

Great Lakes Lacquer November LE Duo

Good morning everyone, today I have a lovely duo for you that pair so well together!

*Press Samples*

I have been swatching for Great Lakes Lacquer for some time now and I have to day I really am in love with this pair, might be my most favorite from Great Lakes Lacquer yet! These polishes have a nice personal inspiration behind them, but pair so well together and remind me of the sea in the winter months.

So you aren't wondering through my entire post, these lovelies will be available in the Great Lakes Lacquer Etsy Shop at 3 p.m. EST Oct. 31 and will be on sale until Nov. 1 2 p.m. EST. Don't forget the lovely duo (see review here) from from Oct. will be expiring around the time of this launch and those too are definite must-haves!









First up we have Great Lakes Lacquer Thanksgiving Bay. This is a gorgeous green-leaning blue with beautiful green sparkles that shine in direct light and are a hidden treasure in the blue base of the polish. The formula on this was perfection – two coats for opacity.

Now as always, Mariah, the maker behind Great Lakes Lacquer, always has such wonderful things to say about the inspiration behind her polishes:

November signals the coming of the Holidays for many.  It’s a time to remember, a time to give thanks, and time to spend with family.  It also marks my wedding anniversary.  To the man who has stuck by me, supported me, and pushed me to be my best, thank you.  We spent our honeymoon over on the west coast of Michigan, driving along the lake.









Second we have a gorgeous sparkler, perfect as we transition toward holiday parties, Great Lakes Lacquer Freer Sand. This is a gorgeous champagne leaning golden microglitter, that packs a punch in the sparkle department. This polish was opaque in two coats and amazing for a microglitter, not topcoat hungry! The formula was on the thick side, but Mariah said she plans to thin it a little before release, and I didn't really find it difficult to apply.

And now for Mariah's inspiration:

As we were traveling up and down the coast, following the lake, we noticed that the cabins and houses on the other side of the road really didn’t have lawns of grass so to speak.  The blowing winds had created sandboxes of the yards across the way.  One owner had stuck a sign in a particularly large pile stating “Freer Sand”.  A humorous jab at a frustrating situation, perhaps?  It will always be a part of our marriage vocabulary.





My favorite part about this duo is how well they go together, then minute I saw them I just knew I had to pair them together in a look! For this I just did a simple waterfall mani using Freer Sand over Thanksgiving Bay, I thought the look turned out great!

I'll repeat the details again for y'all so you don't have to scroll up, both of these beauties  will be available at the Great Lakes Lacquers Etsy site at 3:00 p.m. EST Saturday Oct. 31. And don't forget to keep up on the latest and greatest things Great Lakes Lacquers on Facebook and Instagram. We even have a Facebook Fan Group too, come join in on the fun!

Hope you guys all had a terrific weekend, I was up in the country enjoying apple and pumpkin season with another couple friend of mine. It's an annual trip we take every year, we apple pick, get pumpkins for Halloween and grab pies to freeze for the holidays!

40 Nail Art Ideas – Orange, Purple & Green

Happy Friday everyone, time for my weekly Crumpet's Nail Tart's challenge. This week we bring you Orange, Purple & Green nails, perfect for the upcoming Halloween season.



In addition to this color prompt I had the challenge of geometric nails, so let's see the results shall we?



This look was pretty involved and time consuming, but I'm super pleased with the final result. The glitters are all Smitten Polish microglitters – Orange You Glad It's Pun-kin Season?*, Poach Busters* (green) and Out of the Darkness (purple).

* press samples



Now the base of this look is an amazing new one-coat-perfect-for-nail-stamping black B Polished Midnight in Death Valley. This polish applied perfectly in one coat, no streaks and dried super quickly!

Now on to how I created this look.



First step was to take the microglitters and paint the non-sticky side of scotch tape. Then I cut up tiny triangles and stuck them to the back of my hand (see below).



Lessons learned from this whole mess, the stickum gets lost being stuck on my hand and the tiny triangles start to lift. When applying them to the black layer, I should have put a top coat on top to give the triangles a sticky base (might have helped with the lifting edges as you can see better in the next shot).



So overall, I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out, but I'm sad the triangles started to lift and the look was as textured as it was. But oh well, you live you learn, and hopefully all you will learn from my mistakes. I think this is definitely a look I will try for again!

I'm off to go apple picking and pumpkin picking this week at Apple Hill, can't wait! It's so very fall! Hope you all have fun adventures ahead and don't forget to check out all the other awesome orange, purple and green looks at the inlinkz below!

    An InLinkz Link-up
 

Simple But Creepy Halloween Nails

Hey everyone, today I've got my first Halloween look to share with you. Super simple, I just stamped some fun designs on my three center nails.



For the base of this mani I broke out Fair Maiden Polish Pretty People Taste Better, which was a part of the limited Halloween release. Good news is this polish is still available if you find it tickles your fancy!



This polish is a lovely sage green holo with a bright green shimmer. When out in the sun, I swear at some angles I saw an almost pink or nude colored glows as well.



This polish was a tad thicker in consistency than what I'm used to with Fair Maiden Polish. It applied opaque in two coats, but I found the polish did not self level too well. Top coat hides all that, but just thought I'd mention it. Thin coats with a minute or two between coats is probably the best method of application for this polish.



Now on to the art. For this look I broke out my new go-to black stamping polish. I've found a 5-Free black stamping polish that works AMAZINGLY (but more on that in an upcoming post I promise). So what is this amazing polish? It is B Polished Midnight in Death Valley – it's not too thick or thin and stamps super opaque with no nasty smell!



All the images for this nail look are from the Bundle Monster BM H-08 plate, and I thought they all went well together. Sort of like a creepy things that go bump in the night type of images!

Hope you guys are all having a great week, I'm suffering through a migraine at the moment, but I'm hoping things look up soon!

Brown Lightning for Fall

Happy Fall everyone, the weather has finally turned just a tad cooler here in California and I finally feel like I just might be able to break out a sweater or two! Or who am I kidding, probably just a light cardigan, either way, I feel like autumn has finally arrived.



This mani was partly inspired by my friend Andrea of Indigo Bananas, and though it doesn't actually use any Indigo Bananas polishes, she helped me come up with the idea.



This fall brown holo polishes have been popping up all over the place and I wanted to create a mani that put that on display. So for the base I did two coats of ILNP Shoreline and then I used lightening vinyls to put two of my favorite browns this season on display.



For this look I used Elevation Polish Saif al Jabbar (which is really more of a vampy brown-red holo) on the tips and Pahlish Hundred Eyes on the bottom. Both of these polishes were from the joint Adventures of Marco Polo collection Elevation Polish and Pahlish put out together. The whole collection is just lovely.



I really like how these all paired together. I wouldn't have exactly thought of lightening bolts with this look, but I think it pulled all the colors together perfectly! Thanks Andrea for the fun idea!



The whole look was stunning in the sunshine.

How was your weekend? Mine was pretty great, was at a friend's house just watching Netflix and movies and shows all weekend. She is recovering from wrist surgery so I was just there for company, and for an excuse to escape the chaos that is my condo bathroom project.

I don't even know what is happening with that (it's Sunday night and I'm about to re-enter that hell), but everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong. :(

Hope you all had great weekends, I'll update about my bathroom once it's no longer chaos! Wish me luck!

40 Nail Art Ideas – Geek

Happy Friday everyone! I'm back with another Crumpet's Nail Art Challenge and this week's theme is Geek!

So I took this theme to be something that we geek out on. Recently, I met Amy of Literary Lacquers and she introduced me to this crazy match 'em Disney game called Tsum Tsum. Well ever since I downloaded it to my phone I've been playing it non-stop and I feel like I'm sort geeking out over it.



Well my favorite Tsum to use is the Chip Tsum, so I freehanded him on my middle finger. In the game you exchange hearts - or lives so to speak - and when you give hearts you get coins, which I have on my ring finger. Then for the thumb and the pinky I tried to dot together to show you the match 'em game. You can see some screen shots of the game in my collage! Let me know if you play it too, we can be friend and exchange hearts/coins!!!



Since Amy introduced me to the game, I thought it is only appropriate to use one of her polishes in this look. For the base, I used the lovely Literary Lacquers Heathcliff (can I get a woot woot for polishes inspired by fictional characters) as the base. The brown in this is also a Literary Lacquers Sherlock (it also stamps!). The gold is Elevation Polish Zhenjin and the rest are various Zoyas.



So I hope this fits in well enough to to the geek theme, but I guess I totally feel like a geek/nerd when I play it!

This weekend I'm getting the heck away from my condo because it is a construction zone. My husband, his dad and a contractor are moving in to redo the bathrooms! So I'm headed to a friend's house, where I'm planning to catch up on blogging and relaxing. Hope you all have fun plans this weekend too!

Don't forget to check out the other wonderful ladies taking part in this challenge at the inlinkz below!

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Indigo Bananas Gravity Falls Collection

Hey everyone! Today I'm coming at ya with a review of a partial new collection coming out Thursday (tomorrow)!

*Press Samples*

This is half of the Indigo Bananas new Gravity Falls Halloween Collection. Gravity Falls is an animated Disney show that chronicles the adventures of twin siblings Mabel and Dipper in the mysterious town of Gravity Falls, Oregon. I've never watched it but it sound super cute!

Today I have three of the six piece collection to share with you. The whole collection is scheduled for release Thursday October 15 at 3 p.m. EST at the Indigo Bananas website.









First up we have Indigo Bananas Call Me Mabel and this is a gorgeous bright, slightly lavender leaning pink. This has an intense linear holo finish with a bright blue flash and it also has different sized holo pieces in it, giving it a scattered holo finish at the same time! This is two coats with top coat and the formula was great – not too thick or thin.









Next up we have Indigo Bananas Land Before Swine. This is a gorgeous red-brown shimmer polish, super vampy, with multicolored flakies. This is a great polish, looks super vampy in direct light, but when you look closer, you capture bits and pieces of the fun flakies. In indirect light, the flakies are on display, creating a party over the vamp! This is both sophisticated and fun at the same time! :) The formula was more jelly on this one, so the consistency was a bit thicker. I painted three coats for opacity, but most could probably get away with two coats.









And finally, we have my absolute favorite polish of these three, Indigo Bananas When are We? This is a gorgeous black jelly polish packed with hidden shimmer and sparkle. To the naked eye it just looks black, but get up close and boy are you in for a world of color. Inside the black jelly is shimmers of the whole rainbow, but captures a lot of green and blue. The sparkle on this looks different all the time, and maker Andrea said the pigment used is similar to the clarins 230 pigment, so basically this is vampy unicorn pee! The coats on this are thin, so it takes three coats to make opaque. Formula was easy to work with, not too thick or thin.

The rest of the collection includes Little Big Dipper (blue holographic with violet iridescent and and holo glitters), Holy Matrignomey (a silver holographic with holo glitters) and Carpet Diem (a nude polish with crystal flakies and holo glitter).

Once again, this collection releases Thursday October 15 at 3 p.m. EST on the Indigo Bananas website!

You can look for Indigo Bananas news on their Facebook page and Instagram account, and if you are an Indigo Bananas lover, you should totally join us in the We're Bananas for Indigo Bananas Facebook fan group, the more the merrier!

So which of these amazing pretties are your favorite?! I loved When are We? so much I did a full mani with it when I was finished swatching for this post! I can't wait to take it out in the sun tomorrow!