CHINA GLAZE Wicked Collection

Happy Friday fellow bloggettes. As you know I'm hosting a giveaway of the Wicked Collection 4-pack by China Glaze. Between the sister and I, we have the entire collection except for Make a Spectacle. So, here are the swatches of everything but.

Bizarre Blurple is exactly what the name says, a "blurple". That is to say it's not quite blue and not quite purple. I loved this color so much. It is completely gorgeous and the formula was fantastic.

CG Bizarre Blurple

Roguish Red is an orangey-red creme that also applies amazingly and has a rich saturation to it. It's probably more orange than red. I used this color in my pumpkin nail art for Halloween.

CG Roguish Red

Immortal is a cool toned grey and my sister's favorite of the bunch. If you zoom the photo you can see it has blue and purple shimmer that adds some punch to it.

CG Immortal

Cast a Spell is an olive green and gold shimmer packed into a black base. It's easy to work with and I think it's a wicked green for Halloween.

CG Cast a Spell

Glitter Goblin on top of having an awesome name, amiright?, it is a color-packed glitter party in a bottle. It has orange, purple, green, blue, gold, & silver glitter and it SCREAMS Halloween in a superbly festive manner. I used 3 coats to achieve a mostly full opacity without a base color.

CG Glitter Goblin

I wish I had Make a Spectacle so I could have full collection swatches, but alas, I do not.

This collection really grabbed my attention this year and I really love it. It was spot on to me. My collection is still growing so these are all unique additions for me, but I know a lot of girls probably wouldn't think blurple the most unique.  To me, I think Bizarre Blurple is my favorite of the lot.

Thanks for popping in!

A Wicked Halloween Giveaway

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I have a special giveaway to celebrate my favorite holiday. I have dubbed it "A Wicked Halloween Giveaway" as per my post title.

Up for grabs will be 1 new 4 set China Glaze Wicked Collection! This set comes with Roguish Red, Glitter Goblin, Bizarre Blurple and Ghoulish Glow.

You must be 18 years or older to enter and this giveaway will not be open internationally. US residents only. The last day to enter is by 12:01am November 08, 2012.  The winner will be notified by email and will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is picked.

I'm not going to make y'all jump through hoops to enter. All that is required is that you follow my blog via GFC. Comment if you'd like, but at max you can only have 2 entries. :-)

Thank you all for following and I hope you have a fantastic Halloween. Good luck ladies! :-)

* I have since added swatches of the Wicked Collection you can view here.
 a Rafflecopter giveaway 

Go Pink Wednesday - Matte Ombre Gradient

Happy Wednesday! October is National Breast Cancer awareness month and to show support I am blogging pink for Go Pink Wednesday. Of course, this is the 4th installment of this so most of you already know. (:

I sort of mushed a bunch of different styles together for this manicure. I have a pink to red ombre sponged gradient style and topped with my BL Matte Top Coat.

pink ombre gradient featuring ZOYA Sooki

pink ombre gradient featuring CG Go Go Pink

pink ombre gradient featuring ZOYA Kimber

I started with CG Go Go Pink as my base color and then sponged on ZOYA Kimber in the middle then ZOYA Sooki on my tips. When my polish was dry I topped it with my Butter London Matte Finish Top Coat.

If you are wondering if there is anything you can do to help raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness then the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure might be just the thing for you. This race is an international success helping to raise money to battle breast cancer. You can participate in a race or simply pledge your support for someone who is. To find a race near you check out this Susan G. Komen website.

Thanks for popping in and help spread awareness.

"This is Halloween" Bats

Good evening! I am so late with this post, I know. My apologies! My sister, Jessica, is visiting me this weekend and we both did bat nails for the challenge (I coerced her) and I haven't had a chance to post them. So, better late than never.

Here are my nails inspired by this pinterest post:

Bats on a glitter backdrop

bat nails

Colors used:
   ● CHINA GLAZE Bizarre Blurple - base color
   ● CHINA GLAZE Fairy Dust - glitter over base color
   ● ZOYA Arizona mixed with White & CHINA GLAZE Lemon Fizz - moon
   ● Black and White acrylic for the bats

Jessica's nails:

Colors used:
   ● OPI Deutsche You Want Me Baby - base color
   ● CHINA GLAZE Fairy Dust - glitter over base color
   ● Black acrylic - bats

We both freehanded our bats. Jessica used a toothpick while I used a dotting tool. Isn't Deutsche You Want Me Baby gorgeous?!

I will have some posts to come of some of the crafts we did while she was here. (: Have a great evening! I will be back on schedule tomorrow with the next Halloween Challenge!

Thanks for popping in!

Go Pink Wednesday - Kimber Starburst

Hey guys! It's the third installment of Go Pink Wednesday to show support for National Breast Cancer Awareness month. I was talking with my sister about what I should do and she sent me this link. I went with an all pink starburst pattern using CHINA GLAZE Go Go Pink and ZOYA Kimber.

CG Go Go Pink & ZOYA Kimber starburst pattern

ZOYA Kimber starburst pattern

CG Go Go Pink starburst pattern

I haven't done many tape manicures before but it's fairly simple to do. I'm sure with more practice my lines will get more cleaner. Here is a picture of my nails with the tape.

starburst tape mani

I will definitely do more tape manis in the future.

Remember, early detection can save a life. If you're wondering where you can get screening done here is a website you can use to locate a screening center.

Thanks for popping in and help spread awareness.

"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!

Go Pink Wednesday - Pink Stripes with Pink Ribbon Accents

Today is another Go Pink Wednesday. Today's design sort of evolved as I was doing it. I originally was going to go with a table cloth sort of striping, but then decided I didn't want horizontal stripes. Then I decided to add the pink ribbon accents. I have lots of pictures so get ready!

pink stripes w/ pink ribbon accents

I'm actually quite pleased with this. :)

Colors used:
   • base color - SALLY HANSEN XTREME WEAR White On
   • stripes - ZOYA Kate
   • pink ribbons - CHINA GLAZE Go Go Pink

I absolutely love ZOYA Kate. It's one of my favorite polishes I own.

I free handed the stripes with an art brush and added the pink ribbon accents with the same brush. I had to do a few coats of Go Go Pink because it's so light to make sure it popped against Kate. I topped it all with Seche Vite.

Don't forget that October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month. Make sure to regularly check yourself and encourage the women in your life to do the same. If you are not sure what to do here is website that may help. Take care because early detection can save your life. SAVE THE TA♥TAS

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!

October Polish Haul from Sallys

I have a quick haul post to share today. I printed out a Sallys coupon last night and picked up some goodies for my sister and myself.

Their big bottles of acetone are on sale for $4.99 this week, GREAT deal. I grabbed us each a 4pack of the Wicked collection, picked up some cotton rounds and then got a new base and top coat. I actually went to the dollar store and bought 2 packages of their cotton rounds for only a dollar, but I'm going to use these more expensive ones for my face. The dollar store one are a bit rough, but great for polish removal. Sometimes my dollar store has these awful cheap ones, but this time they had a new stock of better quality ones so yay.

The 4-pack was only $8.99 and comes with Roguish Red, Glitter Goblin, Bizzare Blurple and Ghoulish Glow.

In random news, that's my new table runner! It just arrived today from Kohls. I am obsessed with all things holiday related and this spider web runner is totally awesome.

Spider Web table runner from Kohls

I just need to iron out the folds and then congratulate myself on an awesome purchase. :-P

Don't go anywhere just yet because I will have polish post up in a few! I am doing BUTTER LONDON Bluey swatches in both normal and matte finishes.

Thanks for popping in!

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:

Autumn Trees Gradient

Today is the Autumnal Equinox which means fall is officially upon us. Fall is hands-down my favorite holiday. I love when the trees change colors and lose their leaves. I love wearing tall boots and scarves and drinking warm beverages. It means it's time to snuggle by the fire pit with my husband. Also, one of the BEST parts of fall is that Halloween is coming!

I found a beautiful nail art picture via Pinterest that I tried to recreate today. I tried searching to find where this photo originated from, but I could not locate the source. It's frustrating when people link their images back to their Pinterest Home Page just to get traffic instead of linking back to it's originating website.

Autumn Trees Gradient

Here is my inspiration picture. (if you recognize where this image is from, please let me know so I can properly cite the talented artist and turn this image into a link to their website)

Found on Pinterest - source unknown

It's beautiful, isn't it? I tried to make my trees as organically flowing as she did but needless to say I struggled with that a bit. Also, about 2 nails in I realized I was doing my art upside down, oops. This made it a bit more difficult to capture a good picture hence the upside down photos. Perfect capture of the trees changing during fall. I would LOVE to know where this is from!

Colors used in my photos:
   • FINGER PAINTS Cordur-Orange
   • CHINA GLAZE Lemon Fizz
   • JULEP Cameron
   • KONAD Special Polish in Black
   • Mixture of ZOYA Melanie & SALLY HANSEN Xtreme Wear White On

Well, HAPPY FALL to all of my lovely followers. Thanks for popping in!

CHINA GLAZE Flirty Tankini

Hello! I'm back with the swatches of Flirty Tankini. This one is part of CG's Summer Neons Collection. It's a beautiful pink, shimmery, bright (but not in-your-face bright) smooth applying polish. Yes, this one is a keeper. I actually put it on my toes first and I loved it so much I wanted it on my nails too! I don't often match my toes and my nails which brings me to my question of the day; Do you match your mani to your pedi or vise versa? OR do you just change them up as inspiration hits you? Now, on to the polish!

These photos were taken outside in direct sunlight with no top coat.

Flirty Tankini

The shimmer really REALLY brings this polish to life for me. This entire collection was spot-on. I only have 3 polishes from it, but ohmygosh they are all gorgeous. Pink is always such a fun color to wear on my nails. Every woman needs pink in her life.

Thanks for popping in, girls!

Flirty Tankini w/ Gold Half Diamonds

Hello fellow polish fanatics! I hope you are all doing peachy today. I'm about to mow the lawn and then maybe head down to the pool for a bit. I also have a girly chick flick I'm looking forward to watching tonight.

So, I just finished doing my nails and I love them! I used 2 colors, CHINA GLAZE Flirty Tankini and COLOR CLUB Disco Nap. To make the half diamonds, I cut out triangles in some scotch tap and stuck the outlines, not the cut out pieces, on my COMPLETELY DRY base color, Flirty Tankini. Then, I removed the tape right after applying Disco Nap while it was still wet. I topped the whole look off with Julep's Fast Dry Top Coat.

taken outside in direct sunlight

Flirty Tankini & Disco Nap

taken indoors

I think the pink and the gold look fantastic together! I think the shine of the gold polish plays well with the shimmer in the pink. I love when I'm proud of my nails!

To keep this post from having an overflow of pictures, I'm going to post the swatches of Flirty Tankini separately. However, I want to do some stuff first so I might have to put it off until tomorrow. I just wanted to share this manicure with you before the plain swatches.

Thanks for popping in!

4th of July Mani

Happy Independence Day! I know my post is late. I was having a polish block. I didn't know what I wanted to do! I have seen so many great 4th of July manicures all over the place. I tried to do something cute to my toes and it ended up a horrible mess. So, I took a break and just recently finished up my manicure.

Of course my colors are red, white and blue. I went for an abstract star look. I started with a base coat of White On and then, using a small art brush, I did a rough freehand star-ish outlines.

4th of July abstract stars

Colors used:
   ● CHINA GLAZE Frostbite
   ● SINFUL COLORS Ruby Ruby
   ● SALLY HANSEN xTREME WEAR White On (300)

Very rough star-ish (emphasis on the "ish") outlines, indeed. Regardless, I think it's fun and patriotic!

I hope you all have a safe and fun holiday! HAPPY 4th OF JULY!

Thanks for popping in!