Halloween 2013: Liquid Sky Lacquer Candy Corn Inspired Nail Art

Polished Prisoners,

It's that time of year again.  Yay for Halloween because it means I can go all out in my nail art!  I'm also looking forward to showing you all the awesome halloween inspired polish collections I got!  I don't know if a month is long enough!  I have so many amazing plates too.  It's really gonna be a push but let's try to do a lot shall we?  Today I have one of my favorite new brands to show you to kick things off Liquid Sky Lacquer which I spoke about in my floral appeal post.  I have a LOT of Carolyn's polishes.  I ended up going for the whole Halloween collection as well as it was seriously gorgeous.  To start things off I thought I show you some simple candy corn inspired nail art.

Mani-log

Base/Topcoat:  Glitter Removal Base (testing) & Poshe Fast Drying Topcoat

Base Color: Essie Bouncier It's Me

Glitter Topper:  Liquid Sky Lacquer Candy Corn

Accent:  Wet in Wild A Blank Canvas, China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, OPI A Good Mandarin Is Hard To Find

Candy Corn (the polish) is pretty much exactly what it sounds like matte white, yellow and orange hexes of varying sizes with yellow microglitter in a clear base.  It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to wear this and ultimately I found myself reaching for my tried and true brand - Essie.  Lol hardly surprising, but I chose one of the jellies from the summer collection, Bouncier It's Me because it provided a nice contrast for the glitter.

Bouncier It's Me! Perfect blue jelly.

I created a simple candy corn image across one nail as the accent and there you have it!  My first Halloween mani of the season.  I am not sure if Carolyn will be restocking the Halloween set again but the store reopens on October 8th so you can check it out to see if they will be available my guess is likely yes since she's very good about keeping her shop stocked.  I hope you enjoyed this simple mani cause it's only going to rev up from here!  Thanks for reading and see you next post!

Chameleon Abstract feat Sonoma Nail Art My Three Glitters

Hey polished prisoners,

There's nothing I love more than finding an amazing drug store polish on the cheap except for when it's a HTF lemming.  When I was in Rite Aid some time ago I discovered Chameleon Polish by Scherr - a line of super pretty shifing duochromes that retail for about $3.99.  I picked up one on a whim and now I'm so glad I did! I bought Calypso a purple to gray/blue shifting color.   In a word it's gorgeous!  I wanted to do a simple gradient with Calypso so I sponged it over Essie's Turquoise & Caicos - one of my favorite blue polishes of all time, and added some simple stamping to turn up the flavor.  Here's how it turned out...

Mani-louge

Base coat: Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat

Top Coat: Out The Door (boo)

Base Color: Essie's Turquoise & Caicos

Gradient (dry sponge method):  Chameleon Polish Calypso

Glitter Accent Nails: Sonoma Nail Art My Three Glitters & CND Effects Gold Sparkle

Stamping polish:  Konad Special Polish in Black Pearl

Stamping Plate: SH23

Insert angry face her-  Out the Door smeared my perfect stamp! I'm all out of poshe and I've never felt more desperate!

I chose to add glitter accent nails because honestly I'm always slightly unnerved when all of my nails match.  It's okay every once in a while, but I prefer a little variety within a mani.  SNA's MTG's provided the perfect touch without overwhelming the gradient. 

The gradient before stamping.  I think this is super pretty too!

Honestly there probably isn't a black and while matte polish that I've met that I don't like. However I will say MTG's is toward my top picks when it comes to these types of polishes.  It's funky and unique and I love that the glitters are squares. I added CND's Gold Sparkle just for a touch of sheen without going too overboard.

 

So this is pretty.  Yup - just plain ole pretty.  When I finished this mani I felt like I'd had a return to girly without the bling or gleam. I need to do more mani's like this one.  Do you like it? Am I the only one in the NP sphere still totally obsessed with gradient nail art? I hope not lol! Thanks for reading and see you next post! Toodles...

Trigger Happy: Nostalgic Lacquer + Essie's Yogaga

Hey polished prisoners,

I decided to do another trigger mani.  They are super easy and super cute IMO so what's not to love?  I picked up Essie's Yogaga last week which is a very neutral taupe/beige creme ONE COATER.  I wanted to pair it with something bright and simple that would still give Yogaga the limelight.  Enter Nostalgic Lacquer's As If!  As If is a one of those endless streams of white/black glitter + something elese combo's that almost every indie brand has made. When I write that I don't mean it as a bad thing since I own a lot of these combos and I love them all.  In the case of As If it's white and black bar glitter with medium white and black hexes and small hot pink hexes with tiny white glitter in a clear base. I used this color combo to create not only the trigger accents but the water marble color palette as well and here's how it translated...

Mani-louge

Triggers: Essie Yogaga + Nostalgic Lacquer As If!

Middle-Pinkie Fingers: base of Yogaga + water marble using OPI Alpine Snow and Elephantastic Pink, Essie Yogaga, and Wet N' Wild Black Creme

The water marbles for the last three digits that mirrored the combination of As If over Yogaga were tricky.  Here are a few things I learned from my second attempt at marbling:

1. If you go too deep into the water you ruin the pattern

2. Not taping off your nails is a BAD idea.

3. Creating an attractive pattern is easier said than done

4. Patience is a virtue which needs to be exercised heavily in order to create a good water marble.

 

As you can see from that little list the process of creating my marbles here was not easy. I made a lot of mistakes and had a lot of do-overs.  I'm still not satisfied with the crispness of my patterns, but I'm slowly improving.  More tips are always appreciated!

So what do you ladies think? Pretty and looking oddly simple too right? That's why I love nail art there is always something new to learn or technique to improve on.  If you want to check out As If! or any other Nostalgic Lacquers you can find them here on Bigcartel or Overallbeauty.  Thanks so much for reading and I'll see you next post!  Toodles...

Panda Love feat. Dandy Nails Colorblind Squared

Hey polished prisoners,

What's black, white, and yellow all over? Girl, today my nails! Hmm we are keeping it pretty simple over here these days plus I'm a little mad that I had to chop off my nails (but this isn't that hand).  Honestly, if it hadn't been the middle and such a bad break I would have left them because in general I don't worry too much about all of my nails being the same length. Alas I needed something to soothe my ravaged soul so I brought out my feel good animal - the panda. They are so darn cute how could anyone be unhappy looking down at those all day?

OMG do you see that the panda's nose is a freaking heart?!! Adorable adorable....

Mani-louge 

Base color: China Glaze Happy Go-Lucky & OPI Alpine Snow

Accents: Dandy Nails Colorblind Squared

Stamping polish: Konad Special Polish in Black Pearl and White

Image plates: RA120 and MJ Med Plate

The panda is totally smug - he knows he's in charge lol!

I wanted to keep my color palette very simple on this one so I chose three complementing colors and just replayed them over and over within the design.  I chose Colorblind Squared, a matte black and white square glitter polish in a clear base since it fit the palette perfectly.  What I love about polishes like Colorblind Squared is that they literally go with everything and have the ability to add a little extra to my manicure without overwhelming the art which sometimes happens with heavier glitterbombs and wilder matte glitters.

It's a jungle full of panda love ;) I am so loving how bright and fun this is!

Isn't this such a happy looking manicure? This is my second time playing with panda's in my nail art.  If you look at my avatar you'll see a freeahand version with bamboo etc that I did a while ago that was also extremely cute.  I really really love the final effect of this one though - just a whole lot of super cuteness with a very monochrome theme.  I hope you enjoyed this one too and please let me know what you thought in the comments below.  Thanks for reading and see you next post! Toodles...

Down The Dotty Trail

Hey polished prisoners, 

It's easy and breezy in today's post.  I don't know if I ever said it on my blog before, but my hands never match.  It's a game I've been playing for the last 3 or 4 years.  Sometimes the girls coordinate, but they don't call each other up to dish on which polishes they're taking out for the day.  When they do coordinate or dare to wear the same undies it's a minor miracle.  While I was doing my monarch mani the other day I inadvertently I painted both hands with China Glaze Custom Kicks.  I blame the color because I looked down and bam! Matching claws.  What's a girl to do?  I didn't want to waste it so I decided to add some cute details to spice things up a bit.

I like the effect of the matte glitter underneath the dots. Featured drink was a Passionfruit iced tea, yum!

I used Pixels by Nail Potions/Kunimitsu to sponge on a glitter gradient.  Pixels is a polish composed of small yellow, white, and light green matte glitter that applies like a dream.

You can see all the soft little matte glitters floating around inside Pixels. This is a really beautiful polish!

It took about two passes of the sponge to cover my tips entirely along with a thick coat of Poshe to smooth it out.  Then I used a dotting tool and Sally Hansen's Pat On Black to create a series of dots creeping up the nail.

Heaven preserve me from photographing my dominant hand.  It is SO much harder than I would have thought! The gradient you see is the same one I did in the monarch look using Custom Kicks, Grape Going, and Number One Nemesis.

Pixels is popping here!

What do you think? I have to say I'm really liking matte glitters more and more these days.  Do you ladies have any favorites to recommend?  I don't have any of the highly coveted Nailadventurous ones, but I'd surely love too! If your interested in Pixels or any other pretties by Nail Potions check out her store on Etsy.  Jessica is a doll face and has amazing polishes so you won't be disappointed.

Song Stuck In My Head: Is It The Way You Love Me by Jill Scott.  This song is my jam! First of all Jill Scott is my homegirl - I love her voice and her smokey jazzy style.  You can't NOT groove to anything she sings qnd this one is just so funky.  Every time I hear it I want to dance and sing. It's an instant mood lift.  Thanks for reading and I'll see you next post!