A Month of Halloween Manis

I have so many nail polish strips stockpiled in my basement that it's a bit ridiculous, so I decided I would make an effort in October to wear some of the many Halloween-themed designs, since I sure wasn't going to bust them out any other time of year. I found I had enough just in the Sally Hansen Salon Effects section to fill the whole month, putting on a new set every week.

First up was the Patch-o-Lanterns design from 2012, which is black and orange with overlapping jack o'lantern faces. I didn't remember when I put these on that I'd worn this design before, two years ago when they were new. Which means I probably have half a box of leftover strips from back then lurking somewhere. Maybe I'll come across it before next Halloween and combine it with the half a box of leftovers from this year.





The next set of strips to grace my nails were the black bats on purple Batty for You, also from 2012's limited edition Halloween collection.





Here they are after three full days of wear (in daylight, where the purple looks brighter):



How Corny, with its white, orange, and yellow candy corns scattered on a white background, followed the bats. This, too, is from that 2012 collection.





Before I took off How Corny after six full days of wear, I attempted an accent nail with one freehand candy corn, using Sally Hansen Insta Dri in OMGhost as the base, Milani Yellow Mark and Sally Hansen Sugar Coat Candy Corn (of course) and Sugar Fix for the candy, and Maybelline Salon Finish in Cinnamon for the outline.



The outline leaves much to be desired but I'm pretty happy with the corn itself.





I'm finishing up the month with Ghoulie Girl, orange and white ghosts on a black background from the 2011 Halloween collection. I had a bit of trouble with these, in that for some of the strips, the clear plastic topsheet didn't peel off cleanly. I don't know if that's due to these being a year older than the others or operator error or what. That's why there's a split on my pinky finger—I could have busted open the other half of the box to get a full strip but decided the pattern was busy enough that no one would notice if I just stuck the ripped piece on as close as I could. In a macro photo, the split is obvious, but in real life, it's not. (Same with the uncovered bit at the tip of my middle finger.)





Last night, I tore the tip of one of my nails (grabbing for a handhold as I was slipping off a stair trying) so filed them all down to match (I like it when they match), which had the happy side effect of removing all my tipwear on the strips, leaving me with cute shorties for the actual holiday.



I've gotten a lot of compliments on my nails this month, and a lot of "how did you do that?" and "who did your nails?". I've been entertained myself looking at my tips and seeing grinning faces and bats and candy and ghosties. It's been fun. I want to share the fun (and also trim down the amount of space in my house devoted to storing nail strips), so if you'd like to be in a draw for a random set of Salon Effects strips, leave a comment to that effect. In about a week, I'll pick about 10 names. Happy Halloween!

*****
EDITED 14-Nov-2014: I drew the winner in the Mont Bleu giveaway, but she did not respond to my email or followup email, so I have contacted the runner up. Congratulations, Vicki S.! Congratulations, Ilaria! Please check your e-mail and let me know your address so I can pass it along to Mont Bleu.

Congratulations also to Charlotte of Lipglossiping, who won the design contest.

Pahlish Halloween Selections

In keeping with the Halloween theme this week, today I have three shades from the Pahlish Happy Holo-ween collection. When I saw the bottles had special labels with a ghost on them, I was powerless to resist.

I wore two of these holos together, giving Trick or Mint, a spring green with gold shimmer/microflakies, an accent nail of Pop Rock Panic, a lilac with silver shimmer/purple microflakies. I used three coats of each and added topcoat for extra shine. In the lightbox, the holo was shy, giving the shimmer and microflakies a chance to take center stage.





In the sun, it was Hello, Holo! There were so many rainbows, I didn't want to go back inside.





Sugar Plum Marshmallow is the stand out of the collection as far as I'm concerned. It's a greyed purple holo with scattered silver flakies.



In indirect light, the holo is very subdued but the larger silver flakes show up to make it interesting to look at. I used three coats plus topcoat for my swatch.





In direct room light, the holo starts to peek out more:



In the sun, the holo is the star of the show—so many rainbows!





In order to put off the time I'd have to remove Sugar Plum Marshmallow, I attempted to paint the ghost from the label on an accent nail. I used Sally Hansen Insta Dri OMGhost (white), Wet Paint Prepare for Takeoff (grey; this is a review sample I'll have more of in a future post), and Sally Hansen Insta Dri Scaredy Matte (black). I didn't realize until I was reviewing photos for this post that I'd failed to give my ghost a mouth.



The final restock of this collection is tomorrow, October 31st. See the Pahlish Facebook page for more information. Though they're sold out until the restock, you can look at swatches of the whole collection now at the Pahlish storefront.

Wheels E8 and F8: Yellow and Orange Cremes

Halloween week seems like a perfect time to share orange cremes, so that's what I've got for this Nail Wheel Wednesdsay, along with some yellows, because at the point I painted that wheel, I didn't have 20 untried yellow cremes so filled out the wheel with oranges and ochres.




(all three coats except as noted)

1. Finger Paints Lemon Sour
2. Ulta Cream of the Crop
3. Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Buttercup
4. Revlon Nail Art Neon Neon Light [white base that came with it taken off and stored with the white cremes; love the satin finish from the neon pigments]
5. Studio M Neon Caution [not so neon as all that]
6. CND Bicycle Yellow
7. Cult Nails Feel Me Up
8. Studio M Psychedelic Scene [more yummy satin finish]
9. Nails Inc. Westbourne Grove [ditto]
10. Essie Action [also ditto]
11. Essence Marble Mania Peaches
12. Zoya Arizona
13. Sinful Clementine
14. Essie Fear or Desire (2 coats)
15. Jessica Only in Venice (2)
16. Orly Glowstick
17. Wet 'n' Wild Pin 'em Slater
18. China Glaze Kalahari Kiss (2) [I learned in junior high art class that adding black to yellow makes ochre, so that's how these last three got on this wheel]
19. L'Oreal The Perfect Trench (2)
20. Nails Inc. Hampstead Gardens (2)

Bottles 1 through 6:


7 through 11:


12 through 15:


16 through 20:


The first half of this next wheel is a festival of dupes. Good gracious, I need to weed these out at some point.



(all two coats except as noted)

1. OPI Y'all Come Back Ya Hear (3 coats)
2. Zoya Coraline (3)
3. Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Fired Up
4. Sally Hansen Insta Dri Orange Impulse
5. Leighton Denny Do Me a Flavour
6. L'Oreal Boozy Brunch
7. Sally Hansen Insta Dri Heat Flash
8. Ulta Professional Bing
9. SinfulColors Citrine
10. Sephora Pantone Universe Tangerine Tango
11. Sephora Pantone Universe Tangerine Tango Matte [it's a nice matte, to be sure; I wish they'd just included a matte topper in the set, though]
12. Nails Inc. Portobello (3)
13. Essie Bazooka
14. Butter London Jaffa
15. Sally Hansen New Lengths Orange Pumpkin
16. L'Oreal Bonfire
17. Orly Melt Your Popsicle (3)
18. Studio M Orange Hot (3)
19. Finger Paints Iconic Orange
20. Wet 'n' Wild Wild Shine Straight A Jesse

Bottles 1 through 6:


7 through 11:


12 through 16:


17 through 20:

Shortest Display Post Ever

In the three weeks since my last display post, I saw some additional Halloween displays and figured I'd best get them up here on the blog now since there are only a few days to go before the ghouls and goblins and sexy ghosts/librarians/super heroes/etc. show up.

My Sally Beauty store (and maybe yours, too), tucked the Halloween makeup displays, including the polish, on an endcap in the middle of the store, which doesn't really cater to folks like me who are in the habit of just hitting the nail polish displays near the front and pretty much ignoring all the hair stuff that takes up most of the rest of the space. Which is my long winded way of saying these next displays might have been in the store for weeks before I stumbled across them. I'm guessing I'm not the only one who didn't know they were there, as when I saw the China Glaze Apocalypse of Colour display, it was full. This has the perennial classic Ghoulish Glow glow in the dark polish along with five limited edition colors: I Love Your Guts (pink/black), Getting to Gnaw You (black/copper), But of Corpse (green/black), Rest in Pieces (black/bronze/holo), and Don't Let the Dead Bite (pink/red). I'd expected to see these at Ulta, too, but my store only ever got a small display which had just Ghoulish Glow in it.



I'd expected to see the China Glaze collection at Ulta, too, but my store only ever got a small display which had just Ghoulish Glow in it.



The Orly Halloween display is all repromotes: Liquid Vinyl, Charged Up, and Melt Your Popsicle.



The Orly Rebel Chic nail art kit was also tucked into the Halloween section; it's got a mini of Iron Butterfly along with various studs and some skull and crossbones charms.



Sally Girl Ghoul's Night Out has a glow in the dark polish; there were also pumpkin bottles with black and orange cremes, called Black Pumpkin and Orange Pumpkin, respectively.



One thing I'd expected to see by now and haven't is the OPI Peanuts collection, which I understood was a Halloween release. Guess I'll have to shop online if I wan those glitters, and you know I want those glitters.

I'll have a full display post before too long, but wanted to get these time sensitive ones posted now in case you want to go looking for them before Halloween.

*****
Reminder: my Mont Bleu Glass Nail Files Giveaway closes tomorrow at midnight Eastern US time.

Smitten Polish Current Limited Editions

Over the weekend, I experienced the entirely too rare overlap of sunshine and swatching time, so I took advantage of that to try some Smitten Polish limited edition shades while they're still current.

The Halloween Duo has Fire Burn, an orange jelly packed with sparkly microglitter, and Cauldron Bubble, a black jelly just as packed with super fine holo microglitter. These are available separately, but you are a stronger person than me if you can get just one (and also if you can read the names without hearing the Frog Choir singing in your head). I alternated the colors on my nails, using two coats of each, then added topcoat to speed dry time so I could get to taping off narrow triangles to be filled in with the opposite color (I used regular Scotch transparent tape, putting it on the back of my hand first to make it less sticky and thus less likely to mess with the base layer). As noted in the shop listings, these polishes like topcoat; I put on one layer, let it dry, then put on a second to ensure smooth shininess.





Both of these turned up the sparkle in direct indoor light:



Outside in the sun, there was even more sparkle plus pops of rainbow colors from the holo glitter:





Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble was one of those manis that I wish I'd done as the last look in a swatching session, as I really didn't want to take it off, but remove it I did so I could sample Out of the Darkness, a color Smitten Polish created for Suicide Prevention Month; $6 of the purchase price of each bottle sold until the end of October is being donated to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. This is a purple jelly with teal and purple holo, and color shifting glitter.



I used two coats of color plus two layers of topcoat for my swatch. Of course I loved this, what with the purple and the glitter and the pretty.





Here's Out of the Darkness in direct indoor light:



In the sunshine, even more colors showed up to play:







As of the time I'm typing this, all three of these shades are still available in the Smitten Polish shop. You can follow the Smitten Polish Facebook page for swatches and information about restocks and such.