"This is Halloween" Recap

Good afternoon everyone. As you know, last night wrapped up the "This is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge hosted by Bec from Lacquer Dreams. I am just posting a recap of the designs I did for each challenge throughout October.

Thanks for popping in!

"This is Halloween" Recreate

Happy Halloween!!! Look how happy my huskies are for Halloween! Momma made them some Halloween bandanas from fabric I picked up at Walmart.

Dpow and Amoki excited that it's Halloween!

It's the final challenge in the "This is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge. The last theme is recreating your favorite manicure from another participant.

I absolutely loved what Overpolished did for the Jack-o-lantern challenge. The colors were amazing and the idea was great. Moonlight spilling over a jack-o-lantern, love.

Here is my recreation.

moonlight Jack-o-lanterns

I wish my nails were a bit longer so I could fit more pumpkin into them like Overpolished.

Colors used:
   • ZOYA Noel - base color
   • COLOR CLUB Worth the Risque - moons
   • WETnWILD Black Creme - pumpkins
   • CHINA GLAZE Ride the Waves - moonlight detail on pumpkins
   • ZOYA Arizona - light orange highlights
   • CHINA GLAZE Roguish Red - dark orange highlights

I had a lot of fun participating in this challenge. Boy it is a lot of work though kicking out so much nail art! I hope you all enjoyed what I had to share with you and I hope you all had a safe and fun Halloween. Oh, and of course a HUGE shout out to Lacquer Dreams for hosting this fun challenge. (:

Make sure you check out my Wicked Halloween Giveaway! Thanks for popping in!

"This is Halloween" Trick or Treat

Hey guys! Happy Devil's Night. (: I remember when I was little my Mom used to make us bring our Jack-o-lanterns inside this night each year in case hooligans came to smash them and make trouble! Oooh good memories.

The husband and I made a Jack Skellington pumpkin this year. I decided to match my trick-or-treat nails to our pumpkin. I feel that it's a broad enough theme that I could take artistic license and say this fits because all of the trick-or-treaters will pass our Jack Skellington pumpkin to come to our house. :-) Here are my nails and our pumpkin. I am super happy with both.

Jack Skellington nails

Jack Skellington

our Jack Skellington jack-o-lantern and some eyes in the bushes

:-D I used WETnWILD Black Creme and French White Creme and free-handed the design. I used this photo as my inspiration.

I hope you all have a great Devil's Night and protect your pumpkins from rowdy hooligans!

Tomorrow is the last night of the "This is Halloween Nail Art Challenge." I also have a special surprise planned so make sure to come back!

Thanks for popping in.

"This is Halloween" Graveyard

Hey all. I hope all my east coast followers are staying dry and safe indoors, riding out Sandy. I'm happy to report that my power seems to have held out through the wind gusts although it has been raining since Friday.

Today's Halloween theme is graveyard.

I went with a blue silhouette of a graveyard at night.

graveyard silhouette at night

I used ZOYA Cynthia as my base color and CG Ride the Waves for the cemetery. The moon and stars are white acrylic.

Thanks for popping in!

"This is Halloween" Witches

Friday is almost over and I'm squeezing in my Witch post for the "This is Halloween" nail art challenge!

I decided to do a Wicked inspired manicure using the Elphaba image from the playbill. I saw Wicked earlier this year with Jessica and my husband and it was a fantastic show. I highly recommend seeing it if you have not.

Elphaba nails

Wicked nails

Wicked Playbill inspired Elphaba nails

Colors used:
   • ZOYA Midori - Elphaba's face
   • ZOYA Ivanka - green triangles
   • ZOYA Sooki - Elphaba's lips
   • WETnWILD Black Creme - black triangles
   • Black Acrylic - Elphaba's hair and hat
   • CHINA GLAZE Fairy Dust - Glitter on Elphaba's hat

I think Ivanka looks great against the black. I used tape to get the clean edge on the triangle halves. I free handed Elphaba with a small art brush.

Oh yes, these photos were taken in my snazzy new light box! I just picked up a CFL Daylight bulb from Home Depot for it today. The sister and I both made ourselves one while she was visiting. More on this later. For now, I hope you all have a wonderful night.

Thanks for popping in! Thursday at 5:04pm · Like

"This is Halloween" Gradient

Hey, all. I'm back with the Gradient theme in the "This is Halloween" nail art challenge. Jessica did a gradient for it as well. It's always fun to have someone painting their nails with you. We did them on the couch watching Burn Notice.

I did a gold and white gradient using BARRY M Gold Foil sponged over WETnWild White Creme. I then freehanded black stripes on to make a mummy effect and then used a dotting tool to add eyes.

Mummy Nails over gold/white gradient

BARRY M Gold Foil sponged over white

Jessica used ZOYA Arizona and sponged SH Lustre Shine Lava for her gradient.

ZOYA Arizona & SH Lustre Shine Lava

I greatly enjoyed my sister's visit and she gave me some more polishes to borrow! (:  Even though I had to hand over Creepy Pumpkin.

Thanks for popping in!

"This is Halloween" Jack-o-Lanterns

It's the 4th challenge in the "This is Halloween" nail art challenge. Today's theme: Jack-o-lanterns!

Last year I remember seeing these completely unique and awesome Jack-o-lantern nails over at Nails by Kayla Shevonne. I went to her blog searching because I remember she had a tutorial for them. Well, I found said tutorial and decked my nails out.

Jack-o-Lanterns

I added CHINA GLAZE Ghoulish Glow to the cut out parts of the jack-o-lanterns, but I had one heck of a time capturing the glow. Here is the "best" (and I use that term loosely) photo of it.

Colors used:
   • base color - CHINA GLAZE Liquid Leather
   • base color glitter - CHINA GLAZE Skyscraper
   • Jack-o-lantern cut-out color - SALLY HANSEN XTREME WEAR Sun Kissed
   • Jack-o-lantern cut-out color - CHINA GLAZE Roguish Red
   • glowing top coat - CHINA GLAZE Ghoulish Glow
   • I used white and black acrylic paints as well to make the orange pop on top of the black and then to cover up any mistakes and add detail to the shapes

Kayla is extremely talented and artistic and this design and tutorial are both fantastic. I absolutely love how it turned out. This is the epitome of Halloween nails.

Thanks for popping in!

"This is Halloween" Ghosts

It's the 3rd day of the This is Halloween Nail Art Challenge! Today's theme is ghosts, spooOOky.

I created my ghosts using this awesome video tutorial.

I used CHINA GLAZE Crimson from the Haunting Collection (2011) as my base color. I created the white ghosts using a dotting tool to manipulate small pools of white polish. These ghosts are super fun and festive and worth the time to make if you're going for an awesome Halloween look.

Thanks for popping in!

"This is Halloween" Water Marble Challenge

Today is the 2nd day of the "This Is Halloween" nail art challenge and it's water marbling.

This technique is not one I have perfected by any means. I have 2 designs to share today, one is from last year and one is from today. I hope you enjoy!

Orange Water Marble

Colors used:
   • FANTASY MAKERS Creepy Pumpkin
   • ZOYA Arizona (base color)
   • SALLY HANSESN XTREME WEAR Sun Kissed
   • FINGER PAINTS Orange-Cordur

I had other plans for this manicure when I started out, but if you've done water marbling before than you know not all polishes work. I ended up going all orange because these colors worked the best in the water.

I also wanted to share with you the water marbling I did last year for Halloween when I wasn't actively blogging.

I added a cute skull decal I picked up from Sallys as an accent. The black certainly pops more and I was trying to use it in this years, but the polish refused to spread in the water.

Water marbling takes a lot of patience to be sure. I love how the end result is always unique and pretty. I do feel that I still need more practice with this technique.

Thanks for popping in!
I wish the inlinkz where different for each challenge, sorry the links are cluttered between two of the challenge days!

Horror Movie - Nightmare on Elm Street

Happy October, all. I am squeezing this in under the wire but I have decided to partake in my first Nail Art Challenge. I am going to be doing the "This is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge from Lacquer Dreams.

Day 1 is Horror Movies. My husband suggested Freddy Krueger so I went with Nightmare on Elm Street although I have never actually seen this film. I don't do too well with horror flicks!

Nightmare on Elm Street Inspired Nail Art

Freddy Kruger's nail slash marks

 Photo Inspiration:

Hopefully you get the look I was going for and this is unnecessary, but a quick explanation of my goal look: Thumb is inspired by Freddy Krueger's shirt, pointer and pinky are mimicking the hazy red and black background for the title and, of course, middle and ring are slashes left by his wicked claws.

Colors used:
   • CHINA GLAZE Stone Cold
   • CHINA GLAZE Velvet Bow
   • CHINA GLAZE Liquid Leather
   • ESSIE No Place Like Chrome

I achieved this look by using tape for the stripes on my thumb, dragging a safety pin dipped in No Place Like Chrome for the slashes on my middle and ring fingers and for the red and black look I had one coat of Velvet Bow topped in one coat Liquid Leather topped with a top coat then I did an "acid wash" effect by dragging an acetone soaked clean-up brush over it to reveal the base coat of Velvet Bow.

Here is what is upcoming in the rest of the challenge: