October nail art challenge Day 22: Critters

This design ended up being quite hodge-podge, but those are sometimes the best kind, right?

The most Halloween-y critters I could think of are bats and spiders, so they're all over my nails today!  I even have cobwebs on some of my nails!  Ahh!

My darker bat nails that you can barely see in these pictures have a fun surprise - they're glow in the dark!  I found Sinful Colors' glow in the dark top coat from their Halloween collection at Target the other day and I'm super excited about it!  Some of the bats are shadows in a glowing sky, others glow in a dark sky - because there's nothing creepier than glowing animals.

The glowing photos didn't turn out super great, and I couldn't even have the bottle in the shot

 because it glowed so bright that it outshone my glowing nails!!

This was a fun design in which I used mostly indie polish.  The black glitter is Heather's Hues Witches & Werewolves & Ghosts, Oh My!, the purple is another Heather's Hues from the Monster Mash Mani of the Month box that I got last month, called Vampirette.  It's soooo pretty!  I kind of wish I hadn't covered it up with so many bats.  The green on my thumbs is Creative Cuticles Nail Polish Ooze on the Rocks, and the neon orange that I used is a commercial brand - ORLY Ablaze.

The bats also come from the Monster Mash box - they're vinyls by Nails Redesigned.  And once again, the decals I used are by Naildrobe.

Here's the challenge image for you once again!  The clock is ticking on this one, with only three designs left!

October nail art challenge Day 4: Candy Corn!

Oh boy!  I love candy corn!  And I have the absolute perfect colors for it.

Sally Hansen Orange Zest, China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, and Salon Perfect Sugar Cube paired up for a great candy corn gradient.  My nails look good enough to eat!  In fact, they smell good enough to eat, too.  The Mani of the Month box that I got for September is Monster themed, and Dream Polish put in a scented base and top coat.  The scent is called Zombie Food, and I can't quite place it, but it smells delicious!  Scented polish technology has certainly come a long way from the nasty grape stuff I had when I was a kid.

Here's the challenge for you!  It's not too late to start playing along, so start thinking about what pattern you'll do for the 7th if you'd like!

October nail art challenge day 28: Monsters

Well, here we are.  The second to last theme of this year's Halloween nail art challenge.  Today's theme is monsters, and I cooked up a lot of them on my nails!

 

Once again, I had to use the dreaded flash because the deep green of Frankenstein's monster wouldn't show up without it.

My nails house a mummy, Frankenstein's monster, a witch, and a vampire.

On the opposite hand, I painted something that abstractly represents each creature - except for the mummy, for which I couldn't think of anything else to represent.  So I painted the Bride of Frankenstein['s mosnter], some stitches to represent the monster himself, witch-y colored stripes, and dripping blood.  (Sadly, the purple that I used didn't show up very well at the top of my ring finger - nor did the drips show up very well on top of the purple metallic background.  Oh well!)

On my thumbs, I painted a werewolf on the left and a full moon (sort of) on the right.

I used a whole bunch of different polishes for this look, and once again it's much easier if I just list them rather than describe which polish I used where.

Salon Perfect: Sugar Cube, Oil Slick, Loopy Lime, Escape to Neverland, A Royal Affair, and Traffic Cone
Zoya: Ziv, Nyssa, and Ana
Finger Paints: Monet Money and Ch-art-coal Black
OPI My Dogsled is a Hybrid
China Glaze Intelligence, Integrity & Courage
Heather's Hues Vampirette
Creative Cuticles Nail Polish O Negative Please
Sally Hansen Big Smoky Topcoat

I want to point out the awesomeness that is the vampire's skin color.  I applied a coat of Vampirette, thinking that I would do a smaller vampire face on a purple background, but then decided against that.  And I didn't want to bother with removing the polish and starting over from basecoat, so I put a coat of Ana on top of the purple.  It turned out to be a sort of grayish-purple skin color, perfect for the skin of the undead!

Other than the witch-y stripes and the dripping blood, which I made using vinyls from KB Shimmer and Nails Redesigned, respectively, all of these monsters were made totally freehand.  It took forever but it was a lot of fun!

All that's left in this month's challenge is nails to match my costume.  My options are limited because of limited nail polish technology in the 1920s, but I'm pretty excited for my costume!  We're going to be having some relatives over for the weekend of Halloween, so I might not have that blog post ready until the Monday after Halloween, but you'll definitely get to see my design for my flapper costume!

What are you dressing up as for Halloween this year?  Do you plan on painting your nails to match?  Let me know in the comments!

October nail art challenge Day 25: Blood

Warning: this one's a bit gory!  If you're grossed out by gore, you might want to skip this post.

I'll throw the challenge image up top this time, to buffer the gore and make it easier to avoid seeing:

I TORE UP MY THUMB NAILS CLAWING MY WAY OUT OF MY OWN GRAVE.

Just kidding.

Actually, I did decide at the last minute to cut my left thumb nail up to make it look torn.  I keep my right thumb nail super short because otherwise I scratch my eyeball when I take my contacts out, so inspired by YouTuber Klairdelys, I used a fake nail to give the appearance of a truly torn up nail.

The rest of my fingers are a bit less gory, though I did decide to pool the red polish at my cuticles rather than keep them clean.  And I kind of messed up when placing some of my vinyls (which are from Nails Redesigned), so the drips ended upside down on half of my nails.  Oh well!  It was an intentional design element.  Yeah.

The blood with the white background ended up upside down because of how I placed the vinyls. 

I actually used a different black polish than usual this time!  I recently won a polish giveaway from Nail It! magazine and received 8 different Salon Perfect shades for Halloween.  Their black polish is called Oil Slick, and that's the one I used for this design.  The white is Salon Perfect Sugar Cube.  My blood red colors are Nails Inc, London Kensington High Street (the darker red pooled at my cuticles) and Sally Hansen CSM Red My Lips (the brighter red all over my thumbs).

I usually hate using flash for nail photos, but it helped let the red-on-black nails show up a bit better.

What do you think about this rather gory nail art?  I hope it didn't gross you out too much!  Tell me what you think of this one!

There are only two designs left in this challenge - which is exciting because that means Halloween is fast approaching, but it's also sad because that means October is almost over.  How will you be doing your nails on the 31st?  Let me know in the comments!

October nail art challenge Day 19: Pumpkins

Oh boy, was I ever excited for this theme!  Partly because of the awesome water decals that I have, and partly because I finally found a good rusty orange, my pumpkin mani is totally en pointe.

OPI It's a Piazza Cake is my favorite orange nail polish ever.  It's such a realistic pumpkin orange!  For the white backgrounds, I turned to my favorite white, Salon Perfect Sugar Cube.  And the green stem and vines on my middle finger is Finger Paints Monet Money.

I originally wanted to use the pumpkin string decals as a French tip border, and I considered either doing orange nails with white tips or vice-versa, but I decided against that when I tested it out on a piece of paper.  A dual-layer string of pumpkins still looked great to me!

The only thing I wish I could have done differently about this design is to make it glow in the dark.  Just imagine how great it would be if the jack-o-lantern faces could glow out at you, just like a real jack-o-lantern!  But the only glow in the dark polish I have is Dr. Franken-sparkle, which you saw in my ghosts mani, and that wouldn't really work for a pumpkin face.  Maybe I need to find a clear glow in the dark top coat...

Anyway, here's the challenge image as always!  Which design are you most excited for?  I still need to research how to do my nails as a historically accurate flapper...

October nail art challenge Day 16: Graveyard

Today's theme was another decal-heavy design, thanks to the awesome decals I got from Naildrobe!  I don't know what I would have done with this design if I didn't have the decals.  It definitely would have taken several hours!

Apparently I have a small cut on my middle finger.  I can't even see it in person!  I wonder how that got there.

As I've done before, the background is Salon Perfect Sugar Cube topped with Sally Hansen Big Smoky Topcoat.  Somehow I love that look so much more than a gray polish - I think it looks so much creepier!  I topped everything off with a matte topcoat to give it a slightly spookier, more natural look.

That ding in the polish came from trying to pinch an air bubble out from under the decal when I laid it down. 

I decided to add some grass to some of my nails, for a little bit more depth.  I did that by painting on Finger Paints Monet Money using the dry brush technique.  (I applied my coat of Big Smoky after doing the green on these nails, to make the grass a bit darker.)  Sadly, the green made the gravestones pretty hard to see, but overall I really love this design!

As always, here's the challenge image!  I'm very much looking forward to pumpkins in a few days.  And I really, really need to research how to do my nails for my costume!  I'm going as a historically accurate flapper, and nail polish as an industry and a technology wasn't very advanced back then.  Which of the remaining themes are you most excited for?  Have you been participating in this challenge?  Let me know in the comments!

October nail art challenge Day 13: Ghosts

Last year's Halloween challenge also had a day of ghosts, and to be totally honest I didn't do much different this year.  But that's okay because ghosts!

I did use some new polishes this year, thanks to the Monster Mash-themed Mani of the Month box that I got last month.  Heather's Hues Witches & Werewolves & Ghosts, Oh My! is the embodiment of Halloween: a black background with purple, green, and orange glitters.  And Proper Polish Dr. Franken-sparkle is another awesome Halloween glitter polish with its assortment of different shaped glitters.

You might recognize the third ghostly background as Twisted Colors P.S. I Enjoy Acid Pops.  I used that one as a background on my entire left hand last year.  It's the perfect toxic-green for Halloween!  I guess its green pigmentation is extra strong, because the green shows through and turned my ghosts on those nails greenish themselves.

I did spice things up a little bit this year by using some water decals from Naildrobe.  I love all of the Halloween decals I got this year!  Don't worry, you'll definitely be seeing the rest of the designs throughout the rest of this challenge. ;)

The white and black that I used for the hand-painted ghosts are Salon Perfect Sugar Cube and Nina Ultra Pro Black, respectively.  This design was pretty simple but a lot of fun - especially since I got to use such awesome background colors for my ghosties!

As always, here's the giveaway image.  The month may be almost half over, but it's never too late to join in the fun!  Have you been participating in this challenge?  Let me know in the comments!

Update 10/14!

HOLD THE PHONE.  Dr. Frankensparkle GLOWS IN THE DARK.  Whaaaat!

I noticed this when I went to bed last night, and there was an odd glowing coming from some of my nails.  You can even almost make out the outline of the ghosts on two of my nails, since the ghost decals are on a clear background!  So cool!!!

(The ghost nails in question are the two at the bottom left.)

I even woke up in the middle of the night for whatever reason and found my nails still glowing.  How is that even possible?!  Thanks, Proper Polish, for giving me a super fun surprise! :D

October nail art challenge Day 7: Pattern

Today's nail art challenge was another pretty open-ended one.  There are tons of different patterns that one could apply to Halloween!  I opted to go for a witch sock-type pattern.

 

I love, love, love these chevron vinyls from KBShimmer.  They made this pattern so easy!  The purple I used is Sally Hansen CSM Trouble Maker, the green is Spoiled by Wet N' Wild Green To Be Heard, and the orange is the most absolutely perfect orange.  I've been searching high and low for a rusty orange creme for months, and all I've been able to find is either a metallic or far too bright/neon.  But FINALLY, OPI has come out with a lovely deep, rusty orange - It's A Piazza Cake, from their fall 2015 collection called Venice.  Finally, the black that I used is Nina Ultra Pro Black.

I've been making a point of watching Halloween-related things while doing these polish challenges.  While I did this design, I watched an episode of Psych called Shawn (and Gus) of the Dead - it's not strictly a Halloween-themed episode, but it's about a mummy, so that's close enough for me!

Here's the giveaway image for you.  Have you been participating in this challenge? or are you thinking about jumping in late?  Let me know in the comments!

October nail art challenge Day 1: Gold

This is probably going to be an annual thing for me.  Remember last year when I did the LPLGlamhouls Halloween nail art challenge?  Well, this year I found another challenge for Halloween!  I'm super excited for a reason to play with so many different nail art designs.  And I'm also glad that I found another challenge that doesn't have something different for all 31 days of October - I don't think I could keep that up for a whole month.

The theme for today was gold.  I've never really associated the color gold with Halloween, so I did a pretty eclectic manicure.

I used Sally Hansen Big Smoky Topcoat as a base (I'm such a rebel), and then painted Salon Perfect Gold Leaf on top.  The bats vinyls that I used are from last month's Mani of the Month box by a few different indie brands; the vinyls themselves are by Nails Redesigned.  The swirl and chevron vinyls that I used come from KBShimmer.  

This theme was definitely not the most exciting Halloween-wise for me, but it forced me to think outside the box just a little bit more than I usually do, so I enjoyed it!  I absolutely can't wait for the next theme, especially since I had to skip the candy corn design last year.

Here's the image for the challenge!  Does anybody want to participate in this with me?  Let me know in the comments, and if you share your manis on Instagram, be sure to use the hashtag #nailartoct!

Final Halloween Nails of the Year: Disco Nails! (plus some updates)

Yesterday was October 31, and you know what that means!  I spent quite a bit of time on my nails for my Halloween look, even though they're actually quite simple.

I like my hair, nails, and makeup to all match my costume.  So when I decided to be a disco dancer for Halloween (again? yeah, well, I'm too broke for a new costume and this one still fits), I spent a decent amount of time researching what people wore on their nails in the 1970s.  Apparently, the French manicure was popularized in the 70s, so that was a good option for me.  People also started wearing bright, vibrant colors in the 70s.  Just check out this vintage nail polish ad:

And, of course, I have Nails Inc, London "Knightsbridge," which is basically a shattered disco ball turned into nail polish.  But they didn't really have glitter polish in the 70s, so at first I couldn't decide what to do.  I tried asking my followers, but unfortunately my following is still pretty small and, sadly, silent.  So that was a bust.  Eventually I decided to do a classic French mani and give it some POW using Knightsbridge.  And I was SO happy with the look!

The pink totally looks like it could be my naked nail, but it's China Glaze Innocence - my perfect French manicure pink!  I used some French tip guides and China Glaze White on White for the tips.

 

Stupidly, I tried to put pantyhose on too soon after painting my nails.  Yeah.  So they pretty much got ruined about 5 minutes after I took these pictures.  I was able to smoosh them around into an acceptable appearance, good enough for handing out candy and taking pictures on my phone, but not good enough to take more pictures using my camera.

 

So that's my Halloween look!  I wish I'd gotten this post done when it was still Halloween, but ah well.  I was pretty tired after handing out candy, as I'm still fighting off a cold, so I just wanted to veg out with my leftover candy and watch Hocus Pocus.

This nail art counts as the last day of the LPLGlamghouls Halloween challenge.  Sadly, I missed the last two or three designs due to a death in the family.  I'm working on a tribute post, which should be ready to be posted in the next few days.  Between the funeral and my not-quite-sickness immediately after, I haven't been very active on my nails or blog for the past week or so, but don't worry, I have some great things planned for the month of November!  (Including another hiatus as I'll be back in Michigan for Thanksgiving - more details on that later.)  Be sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram to stay updated on the little things!

What was your favorite nail art design of Halloween? (By me or by anybody else!)  What are your favorite Halloween traditions?  Let me know in the comments!

LPL Glamghouls Day 20: Spiders and Spiderwebs

Today's challenge theme isn't one I was super excited about, but it ended up being a lot of fun!

I decided to be a bit simpler than with previous challenges, and do roughly the same thing on every nail.  Five different styles of pattern just takes way too long, even for this out-of-work blogger.  But I spiced it up by using a few different colors for my background.  I considered doing a gradient background, but decided that I was too lazy even for that.

So, I used my three favorite Halloweeny colors: PS I Enjoy Acid Pops by Twisted Colors, Ablaze by ORLY, and Hot Tropics by ORLY.  I've used these three in several of the Glamghouls challenges now.  They're all just so bright and fun!

I got a little bit confused on my first three spiderwebs, but definitely didn't feel like starting over, so I just went with it.  Then I watched a few different YouTubers paint on their spiderwebs and realized that I was drawing my curved lines backwards!  I started out using my white Sally Hansen striping poilsh, but it was a bit too gloppy for the small curved lines, so I switched to my white Sally Hansen nail art pen.

Obligatory "my thumbs look cute but don't photograph well with my other fingers" shot

My spiders are also a bit sloppy... I think their bodies are too small for their eight legs.  I started out using my black Sally Hansen nail art pen on my left thumb, but sadly the ink inside just doesn't stay thick - it all ends up pooling somewhere and it gets way too sheer.  So I switched to using my black striping polish, which is a little harder to control in such small detail.  So don't mind my wibbly, lopsided, chunky-legged spiders!

 

There are only four challenges left this month!  Which one are you most looking forward to?  Let me know in the comments!  I'm excited for candy corn and matching my costume!

LPL Glamghouls Day 16: Witches

All right, I missed day 13, which was bats.  I had some business things to attend to during the day, and I also had an important networking event in the evening.  And I didn't think to paint the designs the day before - I was busy swatching the We'll Take the Lot collection that day.  Anyway, nevermind all that, because today is...

 

Witches day!  Holy crap, these designs took forEVER.  At least three hours.  There's just so much going on here!

At first I thought I'd do the same designs on both hands, like I have previously during this challenge.  But when my left hand started taking for-freaking-ever, I decided to just do plain socks on my right hand.

I used a kajillion different polishes to do all of this, and as before I gathered inspiration from a plethora of different YouTubers.

 

Those darned thumbs are just too hard to photograph with my other fingers! 

My left thumb was inspired by PackAPunchPolish, and I used Nina Ultra Pro "Black," Zoya "Malia," Zoya "Mitzi," and Sally Girl "Crazy."

The cauldron on my pointer finger was inspired by part of HotPinkZebraPolish's video.  I used Sally Hansen CSM "Trouble Maker" for the background, Finger Paints "Ch-Art-Coal Black" for the cauldron, ORLY "Ablaze" for the fire, and a combination of Sally Hansen "Peace" and Spoiled by Wet n' Wild "Show Me the Money" for the potion bubbles.

The witch face on my middle finger comes from IHaveaCupcake's Halloween monsters video.  Her face is Sephora "Caipi Freeze," her hair is Finger Paints "Monet Money," the buckle on her hat is Zoya "Ziv," the hat stripe is Ch-Art-Coal Black, and her hat is ORLY "Hot Tropics."

I LOVE the bubbly potion on my ring finger, which I borrowed from ArcadiaNailArt.  The background is a mix of Malia, Trouble Maker, and Zoya "Nyssa" - I wanted a murky purple like in the video, but I think I just ended up with a slightly lighter version of Trouble Maker.  The potion bubbles are Twisted Colors "PS I Enjoy Acid Pops" with a thin coat of Show Me The Money on top.

My pinky is pretty simple - a broom, inspired by the same HotPinkZebraPolish video - though I think she did a much better job of it.  By the time I got to my pinky, I was beginning to get impatient with this nail art and I just wanted to be done.  The background is Ablaze, while the broom is made up of Nyssa, OPI "How Great Is Your Dane," and a few stripes of Ch-Art-Coal Black.

My right hand is a lot more simple - just some solid-colored witch socks and shoes.  I still really like them!  From thumb to pinky, I used Spoiled by Wet n'Wild "Green to be Heard," Malia, Mitzi, Crazy, and China Glaze "Happy Go Lucky."  I actually painted all of these colors on top of Black, because originally I thought I'd do striped socks on my right hand - but then I decided that it'd still take way too long.  The shoes are all Ch-Art-Coal Black, and the buckles are all Ziv.

What do you think?  What's your favorite design that I used?  Let me know in the comments!

And as usual, here's the challenge image for you!

LPL Glamghouls Day 10: Frankenstein's Monster

Many people know him as "Frankenstein," but they are wrong!  Frankenstein is the doctor/scientist who created  the stitched-up monster that we all know and love.  And what better way to get in the Halloween spirit than to paint him all over my nails?

 

As with the previous challenges this month, I gathered my inspiration from multiple YouTube videos.  The stitched-up tips on my middle and pinky fingers was inspired by Elleandish/Janelle's video, as was the Bride of Frankenstein nail - though I decided to do a face instead of just one stripe of her hair.  The design for my Frankenstein monster nails were inspired by I Have A Cupcake's monster nail art video.  Well, I guess less inspired by than sort of copied from - but that's okay in the nail art community!

 

And on my thumbs, I wanted to do another symbol of Frankenstein's monster, so I went with the pegs in his neck.  I'm not sure they turned out very... good... but what the hey, right?  (Why didn't I take a picture of both hands this time?  I dunno.  I did the same pattern on both hands, as I did with the blood nails, but I just didn't feel like taking a picture of both hands.  Rest assured that I did, in fact, paint this challenge on both hands!)

The lighter green is "Green to be Heard" by Wet n' Wild, and the darker green used in the French tips is Finger Paints "Monet Money."  I used my Finger Paints "Ch-art-coal Black" striping polish for all of the black (though I dipped my dotting tool in it for the eyes), and the whites of their eyes is China Glaze "White on White."  Bride's face is China Glaze "Innocence," and the grey for the pegs is China Glaze "Intelligence, Integrity, and Courage" from The Giver collection.  (There's one polish that I definitely did NOT buy for the name - I can never remember it!  I needed a grey creme and that one was there.)

The best part about this manicure is that I watched the Frankenstein-y episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer while I painted it! :)

As always, here's the challenge image for you in case you don't have it saved or if you're just now hearing about it:

What are you looking forward to next?  Let me know in the comments!  I can't wait for candy corn on the 22nd!!