My Frankenstein Water Marble Halloween Mani

Okay, just a real quick post to show you my last Halloween mani, what I'm wearing today. Frankenstein & water marble nails!

 Sally Hansen Limestone with Tic Tac Green Litter, Wet n Wild Black Creme, French White & LA Colors Art Decco Black Liner

I've seen a bunch of Frankenstein manis this month, so I decided to try my hand at it. Again, I wasn't so sure I could pull it off on all 10 nails, so I opted for accent nails, with water marble on the rest. He didn't turn out quite as good as I hoped, or as good as my practice nail. So I must show you my nail wheel of practice Halloween nail art!

 Here's a closeup of my practice Frank, he turned out so good!



I'll come back later and give more info on each one, inpspirations and polishes used, but for now, enjoy the pics!

Thanks for reading and Happy Halloween!

Crystal

My Blood Spatter Halloween Mani

I remembered that I had Konad plate m21 with the paint splatter image (that I loved, but hadn't even used yet!), and I wondered if I used it with red polish if it would look like blood spatter... for Halloween of course... and it does!

Orly Dazzle stamped with Konad Red & Black and m21 & m28

I've seen quite a few "bloody" Halloween manis this month, and most of them have either a white, off white, or nude background, but I wanted to try something different. So I started with a silver foil background of Orly Dazzle, which I really love. 

I tested a couple of different reds, thinking that a darker red would look more like blood, or at least fake blood. I even picked up Sally Hansen Cinna-snap at the grocery store thinking it might be more perfect than anything I already had. But when I tested it on paper, it looked more purple stamped over the silver. Then I tried Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby, but it looked more like hot pink. So I actually tried my Konad Red Special Polish as a last result, and it turned out the best. I think because it is thicker and obviously made for stamping, so it actually stamped the truest red than my previous two attempts with regular polish. The other two polishes still stamped well, just not the color that I wanted. 

Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby, Konad Red Special Polish & Sally Hansen Cinna-snap

I wanted more than just blood spatter, and I wanted to use the other stamping images I had bought specifically for Halloween just one more time. So I stamped the skull and crossbones on my middle fingers, and the spider on my thumbs, both with Konad Black Special Polish, and both from Konad plate m28. I tried purposely stamping the spiders at an angle this time rather than perfectly centered. I got the angle part right, but they both ended up further to the side of the nail than I wanted. And my top coat smeared it just a little bit. But it still looks good though. I love these little spiders in black! So fun for Halloween!

Thanks for reading & Happy Halloween!

Crystal

My Second Halloween Mani

Glow in the dark ghosties! I got this idea from Sarah at Chalkboard Nails. She did a whole mani of these cuter-than-scary ghosts. But I wasn't so confident in my abilities, so I decided to just do an accent on my ring finger. 

First I painted a base of Sally Hansen Wet Cement on all nails. Then I used a dotting tool and Sally Hansen French White to draw the ghosts freehand on my ring fingers. I had just picked up a mini Sally Girl Glow In The Dark polish at Sally's, so I dabbed it on top of the white ghosts. I also painted it over the Wet Cement on the rest of my nails, hoping it would show through the crackle, but to the naked eye it didn't glow. Then I painted the eyes and mouth on the ghosts with a dotting tool and Sally Hansen Black Creme. Sadly, they got smeared by my top coat (Damn you Seche Vite!), but since it's a Halloween mani, it kinda works, right? : ) Since I didn't want to paint ghosts on all nails, I wanted to try out Sinful Colors Black Crackle I had just bought at Walgreens, and even though I am a little over the crackle phase, I actually like it with this mani. And I think Halloween is probably the most appropriate time of the year to use black crackle, don't you? Oh, and I did try one more coat of Glow In The Dark over the black crackled nails, just to see if it would work. It didn't glow in the dark, but it did add the slightest sparkle to the black crackle. You can see it more in the pictures than in real life. 

 With the Camera Flash you can see more of the Glow In The Dark sparkle over the Black Crackle.

In the Sunlight it looks a little like fresh asphalt.

 Here it is glowing in the dark! And with the Twilight setting on my camera, you can actually see it glowing under the Black Crackle!

One more glowing shot where you can actually read the Sally Girl bottle.

These are so cute and so much fun! I'm loving Wet Cement so far this fall, more than I thought I would. And the fact that I can use it for Halloween makes it even better!

Thanks for reading!

Crystal

My First Halloween Mani

In past years, the most I've done on my nails for Halloween was either press on some fake nails I bought at the drug store, or just paint my own a dark blood red. I was never confident enough to even try black polish on my short nubbins, I was always afraid it would look too goth on me. I only recently purchased my first bottle of black polish for nail art purposes. I actually like the look of it on my healthy nails! : )  So I used it for underwear with my first Halloween nail art.

1 coat of Wet 'n Wild Black Creme, topped with 1 coat of Revlon Facets of Fuchsia, stamped with Orly Dazzle and Konad m28

I absolutely love this combination! I was able to wear it for 4 days, with some touchups on the tips and extra coats of top coat every day to freshen it up. Otherwise it wore extremely well. One thing I noticed after I stamped my very last spider just a little crooked, is that I think they would look even better if I purposely stamped them all a little crooked rather than trying to center them perfectly on each nail, which is near impossible anyway! Stamping them a little crooked would be much easier to do, and it makes them look more like they are crawling on my nails rather than dead specimens from science class or something. So I still love this mani, but I'll definitely try to improve on it the next time I stamp my little spiders.

I bought Orly Dazzle specifically to stamp with, since the last silver I tried stamping with (Sally Hansen Celeb City) wasn't thick enough and turned out barely noticeable. Dazzle worked better than Celeb City, but I've seen other bloggers stamp with silver polishes that just pop, and I'm having trouble finding the perfect one for me in stores. Maybe if I leave the bottle open on Dazzle for a little while it will thicken up a bit and will have the consistency I'm looking for in a silver stamping polish. Otherwise I might be forced to buy the silver Konad Special Nail Polish. What do you guys think? Do you have a go-to silver polish that you love to stamp with? And is it still available in stores? I would love to hear your suggestions in the comments below, so let me know.

Oh, I almost forgot! When I first bought Facets of Fuchsia about a month ago now, I wore it by itself for a few days. I took pictures of it then and planned to post them as soon as I had the chance. But when I finally got back to posting last weekend, I couldn't find those pictures to save my life! I thought I had somehow lost them forever. Then I finally found them, just in time to add them to this post. So, if you haven't already seen enough pictures of this beautiful polish in all of its glory, here you go:

2 coats of Revlon Facets of Fuchsia and 1 coat of Seche Vite top coat

Thanks for reading!

Crystal