Halloween Ruffian

Hello lovlies!

Today I just have a quick manicure for you. I write my last midterm today so I haven't had a ton of time to do my nails, in fact I've been wearing this manicure for 4 days now and it's just showing tip wear now, phewf! I'm so happy it's lasted this long so I can concentrate on studying.

Keeping with the Halloween theme I have a sorta-ruffian manicure. I say sort of because the bottom color continues up the sides of my nails but in a true ruffian it wouldn't.

I used two coats of Sinful Colors Citrine for the orange and one coat of Sinful Colors Black on Black for the top color. Next time I would make the black as smooth as possible with a small paintbrush, but I just didn't have time this weekend to let my perfectionism get in the way!

I'm very excited for this evening, no more studying! Which means I can squeeze in one more Halloween manicure for tomorrow :)

Thanks for reading!

China Glaze Howl You Doin' (2013 Halloween Monsters Ball Collection)

Hi everyone!

Just a simple polish post today. Don't despair, the polish is amazing! And it's Halloweeny! Which is what I'm going for from now up to Halloween. I'm embracing the holiday on my nails!!

It's China Glaze Howl You Doin' form the 2013 Monsters Ball Halloween Collection. It's a deep purple crelly with copper and blue flecks in it. I love this polish it reminds me of some sort of magical liquid bubbling away in a witchs' cauldron!

Doesn't it look all mystical and spell casting?! I wore it for a day shiny and then I mattified it.

I think I liked it better matte, it looked dark in most lights, but then a little sparkle would peek through. It was really interesting. Which do you like better?

Thanks for reading!!

Random Nail Plate - Halloween Themed!

Wow...I don't know how I got so lucky. My very first random plate draw and it's holiday appropriate! Hurray for randomness! Note: I will not be so fond of randomness when say a Christmas plate comes up in January, but for now I'm happy with it!

So the plate that came up on the very first draw was BM-222. Which is this little guy here:

I quite like the full nail designs on this one, the scrolly one in the bottom is so nice. And the right side is so intricate too, either would make a very classy manicure. I've actually been itching to try out the top image to make Dalmatian nails. The butterfly would be cute for some springy nails, but since it's fall here I figured I would pass on that one. The left hand full nail image was out because, well, it's not Christmas yet. But as I'm sure you got from the title of the post, I decided to use the little pumpkin to design my manicure around. This is definitely not the sort of image I'd usually gravitate towards (I really like the full nail images on this plate), but I figured I should embrace the Halloween spirit!

So today I have a Halloween manicure for you featuring the little pumpkin from BM-222. Since it's a skittles manicure I'll list them out finger by finger, it's just easier that way! All the stamping is done with Wet N Wild Black Creme.

• Pinky - 2 coats of Essie Chinchilly with a glitter gradient of Sinful Colors Black Magic (sidenote: I LOVE this glitter gradient! It looks even better in real life. I think it would look really awesome to do a black to white ombre with this glitter over it in a gradient)
• Ring - 3 coats of Sinful Colors Cloud 9 stamped with the pick of the day BM-222!
• Middle - 2 coats of Essie Chinchilly stamped with BM-H08
• Pointer - 3 coats of Sinful Colors Cloud 9 stamped with BM-H06
• Thumb - 2 coats of Essie Chinchilly stamped with BM-213

Look at that gradient, yummy! It worked way better than I ever imagined.

And now a picture of the claw pose as awkward as it is to show some thumb love!

A close up of the glitter gradient in all it's yummy shimmery goodness! Black Magic is from Sinful Colors' 2013 Halloween collection - run out and get it now if you don't already have it! It's amazing, I love it!

Thanks for reading!!!

I'm back and I'm sorry!

Hi everyone,

If you're still following me I would like to say thanks for your patience and I'm very very sorry that I haven't been around. I've been thinking about the blog a lot and feeling really guilty about neglecting it.  In September I started pursuing a masters degree, and moved to another country to pursue it. I didn't expect it to be so much work to move and get set up and make new friends and go back to school so I really underestimated my time commitments. But I'm back, I've got my time management under control and set some time aside for blogging! And I'd like to use this post to set a few goals for myself for the blog. I figure if I put everything in my head out there into the world I might actually start to do it!!

I find goals easier to read in list format so here we go:

• Post 3 times per week - I always have polish on my nails so all I have to do is just snap some photos and put them up here! I'm not going to stress over putting up only nail art, whatever is on my nails can go up, even it's just a boring old plain color. I like to look at swatches so why not post one if that's what I'm wearing.
• Work my way through my stamping plates - I set up a spreadsheet so I can randomly chose one of my plates when I'm lacking inspiration or just can't decide what to do. Whatever plate gets chosen gets used in the next manicure. I'm hoping to start this tomorrow! I have a lot of plates though so this will take a long time. Also, it will make me use the plates I'm not that fond of...ahem...Gals and french tips!
• Try out one new technique per month - there's lots of things out there I want to try out but have been putting off, what better time than now?!
• Improve my cuticle care - with life getting in the way so much lately I've still had polish on my nails, but my cuticles have gone waaay down on the list. I'm hoping to get them back to good shape instead of the slightly overgrown dry mess they are now.

If you made your way all the way through that thanks and congratulations! It was a lot I know.

I hope I can stick to these goals and be around these parts much more frequently. 

See you soon :)

OMD 31 Day Challenge - Day 22 - Animal Themed

Hi everyone! I'm back today...I've been wearing plain chipped red polish for over a week since everything's been so busy. It feels really awesome to be back in 'fancy nails'!

So today I have the very late Animal Themed Day 22 of the OMD Challenge. Rawr! Animal Themed!!

My pointer and ring finger are two coats of OPI I'm Suzi & I'm A Chocoholic. My ring and pinky fingers are three coats of an unnamed Color Club pale nude with grey/pink undertones. It's then stamped with the leopard print design from Bundle Monster plate 221 and Wet n Wild Black Creme. Then to jazz it up a bit I filled in the spots with Nubar Fire Sparkle and a dotting tool.

RAWR! Red hot leopard! Lol.

Thanks for reading!!

Check out the other animal inspired manicures here

A Quick Update

Hey everyone!!

Sorry I've been MIA for so many days now. Life has gotten way busier than I expected it to and unfortunately right when the challenge got the most exciting!

I'm back now though and I'll have an actual nail post for you tomorrow. I'm determined to finish up the challenge even though it will be late. It has a silver lining though...for the last day (recreate your favourite by someone else) I will have the pick of the litter since everyone else will be done lol!

I also have some exciting personal news that I can't wait to share but I'm saving that for the end of the challenge so you'll have to be a bit patient!!

See you tomorrow...with nails!!! :)

OMD 31 Day Challenge - Day 21 - Stamping

Stamping!! Yay! I like stamping!! So many possibilities for one mani!

I was really inspired by my day 17 gradient. It really reminded me of the color of the sky at dusk. So I recreated the colors in another gradient using China Glaze Urban-Night and China Glaze Traffic Jam and then I used Bundle Monster 205's butterfly image to have the butterflies fluttering into the night. I didn't topcoat after the stamping because I liked the way the butterflies looked matte against the shininess of the sky.

Thanks for reading!

Don't forget to check out the other challenger's manis here