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!

What did I do on vacation?

I spent the last two weeks of July in Michigan with my family and friends.  It was an amazingly fun time!  But, of course, I can't go two weeks without redoing my nails.  And, since my loved ones universally recognize me as The Nail Girl of the Family, I got several requests to do peoples' nails.  Let's have a look at what I spent my vacation downtime doing!

My first few days in Michigan were spent at my oldest sister's house.  Unfortunately, she couldn't take much time off of work.  But it was kind of okay, because I got to spend one entire day with my two year old nephew, and I had another whole day to myself - in which I spent most of the day painting my nails.  I wanted to match my new bathing suit and my new dress, a feat that would admittedly have been easier in high school when 80% of my wardrobe was the same shade of blue.  But I accepted the challenge with my intermediate nail art skills!

 

the clothes in question.

I used Jamberry Arcade on my thumb and pinky - a wrap that I bought specifically to match my dress.  Zoya Ryan was another easy choice for my middle and ring fingers to match both the dress and my bathing suit.  And to help match my bathing suit, I threw in one nail of CDB Lacquer Passionate.   

(side note: I used a blow dryer to heat up my Jamberry wraps this time, and 

they went on SO smoothly!  never using my space heater for wraps again!!!)

I painted my toes to match my bathing suit a bit more exclusively, but I was silly and didn't take a picture of it!  I used the dry brush technique and ORLY Saturated, Zoya Oceane, Sephora Papaya Daiquiri, and Passionate and Ryan again.  I'm so bummed that I didn't take a good picture of it!  Maybe I'll just have to recreate the pedi soon.  I am, after all, going on an end of summer vacation to Ocean City, Maryland this weekend, where I will be wearing my bathing suit a lot!

The same night that I did my nails, I painted my sister's nails.  Purple is her favorite color, so I definitely wanted to use Saturated on her.  Still on a dry brush kick, I did two accent nails using Zoya Tallulah and Sinful Colors Bikini.  The white background is Salon Perfect Sugar Cube.  

She loved her nails so much!  Steph has never much bothered with makeup or nail polish, and now that she's a mom she bothers even less.  I painted her nails in her basement hunched over an end table, but we might as well have been at a high-class spa for how excited she was about her manicure!  Then, when she woke up her son in the morning and was trying to put his clothes on, he grabbed at her nails and said, "what's that?!"  <3

At a girls' night with my best friends from high school, my friend Melanie wanted a simple grey manicure.  I used China Glaze Intelligence, Integrity, and Courage on most of her nails with an accent of CDB Lacquer He Sees All.

I painted a few other peoples' nails, but I was having too much fun with them to really think about taking pictures for the blog.  All of the other manis that I did were simple colors with an accent color, though, so you're not missing out on any super-special nail art!

What's your favorite look from this post?  Have you ever painted your nails to match a vacation or trip?  Let me know in the comments!

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!!