Hanging Spider

Thank goodness for Bundle Monster and Konad for making quick, fun Halloween manicures possible! I knew I wanted to do a spider this year and thought a dangling spider would be a fun concept. The photos aren't exactly true to color, but just know that it was a great neon orange: my flash pictures are more on the yellow side and my side photo isn't neon enough. Think somewhere in between!

I had to so some layering to make this color scheme possible and so I first painted two coats of China Glaze Peachy Keen for a good opaque base and then painted two coats of China Glaze Sun Worshiper on top, but still had a few spots I wasn't happy with, so an addition of one coat China Glaze White Cap brought everything together. I used Special Konad Polish in Black with Bundle Monster plate BM13 and Konad image disk m28. For the line dangling the spider, I free handed the line with Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Midnight in NY. Finally I used one coat of Seche Vite to seal the look and finish the manicure.

Halloween Sparkle

Since Halloween is just under three weeks away, I thought I had better start doing some holiday themed designs. This one is pretty tame for Halloween, but I thought it was good to start off slow.

I painted three coats of China Glaze Free Love and then added Light Purple Dots Nail Glitter Flakes from Esther's Nail Center and painted atop a coat of Sally Hansen Rockstar Pink and finished the look with one coat of Seche Vite

Leather Corsets

I love the result of this manicure. It was inspired by a celebrated third year anniversary with my girlfriends. The traditional gift for three years is leather and I thought this was an excellent way to represent it!

I painted three coats of Zoya Skye and then added the black corset sides and ties with Sally Hanson Complete Salon Manicure in Midnight in NY. I dotted China Glaze Millennium for the rivets and used one coat of CND Super Shiney to seal the manicure before applying Essie Matte About You (I know it seems contradictory to paint shiny then matte, but I've found that Matte About You causes some bleeding or running in manicures and a top coat protects from that...).

Blue Fish

I had no idea what to name this post.  This was a manicure that just evolved before my eyes and various glitters.  I really like the sparkle contrast and red/pink sparkle highlights.  You can tell, however, I painted these nails in pretty low light because I am WAY off of my cuticles on some nails.  Oh well!  Hopefully there is enough bling to distract the eyes.

I painted three coats of China Glaze Frostbite then added a layer of loose glitter from Yofi in Blue Angel and used clear polish and a thin brush to apply Cina Glitter Metallic Jewels .  I sealed with a clear coat of polish Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Flawless and a top coat of Seche Vite.

Double The Marble, Double The Pleasure!

I'm going out to a birthday party tonight and have had this manicure planned for weeks.  The party got postponed last Saturday due to tons and tons of snow here in Minnesota--which is now half melted, but now it finally gets to see the light.  I am so excited about this manicure and it's result!  It's a double water marble and it's super awesome, true?  I'll admit that water marbling is a lot of work, but the payoff can be very satisfying.  I really do hope to do more tutorials, but the reality is that although I have a live-in filmmaker, he is very busy.  This means I'll have to learn all the lighting, camera usage and video editing info myself and I'm not sure how much energy I have to do that.  But I really should figure it out!  If you haven't checked out my basic water marbling tutorial, you can watch it here.  I am also more than willing to answer any questions via email you might have about tips and techniques.

Right Hand:

Left Hand with holo effect:

Uber Flash:

For the manicure, I first painted two coats of Zoya Sarah on my nail.  I then marbled Sarah and Ulta Black Diamond.  After that marble dried and the water was dry off the nail bed, I marbled with China Glaze OMG (silver holo) and Sally Hansen Diamond Strength in Flawless (clear) over the previous marble.  I used one coat of Seche Vite to seal the manicure and add lots of shine!

Undecided

Titled as such because of several reasons:  

1) I started this manicure with a different idea in mind (it snowed here and I was thinking about doing a manicure regarding that, but my idea didn't quite pan out).  I even started the painting and designing of that manicure, but it was a fail I didn't want to live with so I started over.

2) Once the idea was put into motion (a striped-type water marble over black polish), I didn't really like the look, so I had to change it by double marbling over the initial spaced stripes for the look you see now.

3) I'm not sure I even really like the result.

I really do like the double marbling look/idea and I have had awesome results before as evidence here (the first pic). These polishes are also really pretty and the dark black that peeks through and gives these two bright chrome polishes a greater dimension is also nice. But since I'm still undecided, I guess you can cast your vote and I'll see if this is a winner or not....

The look was made by first painting each nail with three coats of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Midnight In NY.  I then made a striped marble (by not swirling the colors in the water) with China Glaze Cheers To You, Zoya Cyrstal and Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Flawless alternating between color and clear to make thin stripes--or so I hoped.  I then just used Crystal and Cheers To You in a traditional marble and dunked my nails again.  After I was all cleaned up from all the excess polish, I sealed the manicure with one coat of Seche Vite.

Evil Eye

I wanted something simple and fun since I always want something fun, but I have a manicure planned for Saturday when the Katy Kostume is coming out again and didn't want to spend a lot of time on something I was just going to take off in 36 hours!  I still have these sparkle polishes from China Glaze Halloween (Awakening) collection and wanted to showcase them a bit.  Plus I picked up a clearance Sally Hansen sparkle polish and decided to throw them all together.  The design is a cultural talisman that wards off the evil eye.  Don't know what the evil eye is?  Here's a link to Wikipedia for some background info.  And here is a look at some images of the talisman (as seen on my nail) to protect me or anyone from harm!  So I asked you last time if you believed in ghosts or the paranormal, now I want to know: Are you superstitious?  Do you have any rituals or beliefs that you feel protect you from harm (or those who want to do you harm)?

The Pink/Purple side of manicure:

The orange side of manicure:

For the manicure I first coated twice with China Glaze Mummy May I, then on one half of my nail I painted a coat of Ick-A-Bod-Y.  Over the whole nail I added Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Extreme Wear in Rockstar Pink.  The evil eye is made of the following colors Essie Midnight Cami, China Glaze Bahamian Escape, Ulta Angel Baby, and Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Midnight in NY and China Glaze Golden Enchantment as a sparkle over the eye.  I used one coat of Seche Vite to bring out the sparkle!