Halloween Mani 2011 (and SNOW!?)

Thank you New England for merging together fall and winter. I had always wanted to enjoy my Halloween complete with snow covered... leaves. Well anyway, if you're not from New England and you hadn't heard, we got snow 2 days ago. Some places SIGNIFICANTLY more than others. We just got a few inches, but other parts of the state got like 10!? I was working in the northern part of the state when it was snowing on Saturday and there were a TON of car accidents. Nothing serious, just people getting adjusted to driving in the snow again. But it was non-stop!! My house had less snow, but I threw in a photo of my yard today (2 days after snowfall) anyway.

More importantly, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!! I did nothing due to packing and moving (which happens tomorrow!!) But I obviously had to do my nails! Wanna see 'em?











Black nails are 1 coat Sinful Black on Black (I'll stick to my Wet N Wild Black Creme from now on)
1 coat Poshe
Stamped with Pure Ice Silver Mercedes, both the spider and spiderweb came from Bundle Monster plate BM13 (ironially plate 13 lol)
1 coat Poshe

The candy corn ring finger is one coat China Glaze White On White then 1 coat Poshe, taped off to do the middle orange stripe with Petites Mango and another coat Poshe, and taped off again to add the yellow stripe with China Glaze Solar Power and finally 1 more coat Poshe. You may notice my shortened look. This is my nails shortened for the move tomorrow. I had mentioned in earlier posts that I wanted my nails to shorten on MY terms and not by snapping them off while moving.

I love this. I was almost going to tape off my nail to make a triangular shaped candy corn, then I decided I would like it better this way. The idea for the candy corn came after seeing LOTS of other people do it. I just thought it was so freakin' cute.

In my planning for my Halloween mani weeks in advance, I was flipping through my BM plates, I came across the spider web and spider on the old plates, despite the new plates having tons of Halloween-themed stamps. Then, after I knew what I wanted to do, I noticed Scrangie did a similar thing with the spider webs and spider. I was kinda bummed because I really thought at least a part of my mani wasn't going to look just like someone elses, but this someone else happens to be one of the most well known nail bloggers out there!! But I figured eh, it's what I had planned in my head and I really wanted to do it, so I did it anyway.

And my backyard on Halloween...

Nails Inc. Magnetic Polish Houses of Parliament

So I was at Sephora with my friend who is super familiar with my polish hunting excursions. She had actually dragged me into Sephora in NYC because they sell Illamasqua polishes. But I happened to wander into Sephora with her the other day and totally forgot that they started selling the magnetic Nails Inc. polishes!! So I picked up Houses of Parliament and skipped Trafalgar Square. And of course none of the Sephoras directly around me sell other non-magnetic Nails Inc. polishes. Eh, that's ok. I'm loving this one!!

**Just as a heads up, I decided to shorten my nails a week prior to my move due to packing. I'd rather my nails get shorter on MY terms than have them break in the moving process. The heads up part is because subsequent posts will show my nails longer than this. That's because I'm kinda backlogged with my photos I've been so insanely busy!! Anyway, onto the polish...

















1 base coat Houses of Parliament let dry
1 coat House of Parliament with use of magnet
1 coat Poshe

Some other photos really quick:

Bottle




Cap with Magnet




Directions




So. I tried doing this with just one coat because the polish is fairly thick. The problem I ran into was the design just didn't come out as vibrant and didn't have the depth I knew it could. I'm thinking you might be able to use a black base or a vampy, deep purple base so as not to waste the magnetic polish (it's 10mL instead of the 15mL most other polishes are). But I figured what the heck for this time around.

The polish is very awesome in real life. It almost seems to move when you bend your fingers. It's not dull by any means. It reminds me almost of those cards or toys where you move it back and forth and it has two different designs. No idea what they're called.

The biggest problem I had was I kept bumping my nails on the magnet!! My nails are not that flat, they're fairly convex as seen here in my Newspaper Nails Tutorial. This made it kind of a pain, even with the little lip they provide on the magnetic cap.

So how this works is the magnet pulls (in this case) black pieces away from the purple to create the design. The magnetic cap is a vanity cap, so it just pulls right off. When you apply your second coat (the wet coat), make sure you're coating the nail well. This polish is thicker and while it is definitely manageable, it's not super easy. If you miss a spot, it won't be a part of the magnetic design. As soon as you apply the second coat of polish, you put the magnet to your nail. Within seconds, literally, the design is formed. I left the magnetic to each nail for about 10-20 seconds (the directions state 10-15 seconds). I think even that was a little long because there was no different between the 10 second ones and the 20 second ones. You can watch from the side and see that the pattern being formed immediately. Also, once the pattern is done, you cannot change it, meaning you can't rehold the magnet to the polish and it will move the particles again.

I had no problems with the design not forming unless I didn't put wet polish in an area on my nail.

In the photos, I had knocked my index finger on the side of my other hand when I was putting on the top coat. I was almost complete with all my nails, so I just left it. I found that when this happens, the black particles are what lifts of the nail before the purple base. Just in case you were curious. Lol.

Gorgeous Orly Enchanted Forest

Welcome To My 100th Post!!
Was gonna do something special for it, but couldn't think of something. Lol, so bad I know. But instead...
Continuing on with my Once Upon A Time polishes, here is Enchanted Forest. One of my FAVORITE greens, creme or otherwise. It's just beautiful. Have a look...











Direct Sunlight








2 coats Orly Enchanted Forest
1 coat Poshe

The color of this green is beautiful. It's an obvious blue-based dark green creme, which I think is a nice change from yellow-based greens (which I love too!). I've seen some photos that make this polish look yellow-based. No idea how that was managed, but let me assure you it is definitely blue. In some lights, it almost looks like a deep green teal. Those "some lights" is the lighting as I sit in front of my computer typing this. Anyway, I think the name Enchanted Forest fits it perfectly. I imagined Orly choosing the name Enchanted Forest for an unknown color, and this is what they came up with.

The formula was lovely. Not as thick as some of Orly's newer cremes, but beautifully and easily opaque in 2 thin coats. First coat seemed a little uneven, but it was perfectly evened out with the second coat.

Stampin' Some Pumpkin Halloween Nails!!

My first Halloween mani of 2011!! Taking a brief break from the Once Upon A Time collection, this new set of Bundle Monster plates has a TON of holiday designs including a BUNCH of Halloween ones. This is the time of year to use 'em so I'm gonna take advantage!!











On my right hand






2 coats Orly Enchanted Forest
2 coats Illamasqua Load on ring finger
Stamping with Bundle Monster plate BM-224
Orange Pumpkin with Petites Mango
Black Vines with Konad Black Pearl
1 coat Poshe

Kinda bummed the vines smudged after adding the Poshe. I waited a while before putting it on, too, but I think that the Konad polish was just so thick and took so long to dry. The orange pumpkin didn't smudge at all, luckily. And even though it looks very smudged in the photos, it's DEFINITELY not that bad in real life. The macro photos just accentuate it.

I love Load in this mani. It is just a fun bone white color that it totally fits the Halloween theme. And this nail straight up looked like white chocolate. So cool.

I'm not counting this Enchanted Forest as a part of my Once Upon A Time posts because I have other ideas for this polish. I'll post about it again later :) But I wanted to use something besides black because I know I'll be using black for other Halloween nails. I think this fits great!

Prince Charming

I'm so sorry I keep disappearing :( This is the second polish I'm showing from Orly's Once Upon A Time collection. Again, I'm going over this entire collection because I think it's one of the best collections ever, especially for fall. Orly captured everything about the fall season with the collection. It's amazing.













2 coats Orly Prince Charming
1 coat brand new, super thin/runny Poshe

First off, this polish was like painting with chocolate. Does it look like chocolate? Eh, not totally. But you know how when you melt chocolate, it looks lighter and darkens as it hardens? This polish darkens enough so that the second coat going on is lighter, so it legit reminds me of painting my nails with melted chocolate... and now I want a s'more with the yummy melted chocolate and my delicious vegan marshmallows!! lol

So more about the actual color since it isn't identical to chocolate. It's definitely in the taupe family. I spent half the day thinking it was warm toned and the other half thinking it was cool toned, so I'm going to say it ends up being fairly neutral. It almost has yellow-ish undertones, but there is such a purity to the taupe color itself that I find it hard to pull out true undertones. At one point I swear I saw grey undertones and another time I definitely saw violet undertones. Regardless, it's beautiful.

The application was great! It was actually unlike Orly's more recent cremes. Orly's newer cremes seem to be opaque in 1 coat and on the thicker/highly pigmented side, while still being perfectly manageable. NOT the think/pigmented/dries on the brush in like two seconds and is goopy and pulls and is difficult to work with. But this polish is thinner but still well pigmented. The first coat was kind of uneven and is where I saw more yellow-ish undertones. If you thickened the first coat, it wasn't uneven. But either way, it went to perfectly opaque and perfectly even with the second coat. A very easy to work with polish.

Side Note
I feel awful about these big gaps in not posting. As I said, I'm moving on November 1st, and as a result, I've been OUTRAGEOUSLY busy. There are tons of things I need to get, and I've been picking up tons of hours at work on top of going to school (where I've had two exams in this past week). And I've been sick for the past week as I sit here with my left ear completely blocked and coughing like whoa (no stuffy nose, though! And I've still got energy). Ugh. So anyway, I haven't photographed too many of my nail designs. I'm going to have to go back and redo things as I've already worn another one of the Once Upon A Time colors but never took any photos. I'll try my best to get on it!! The other crappy thing is I have two silk wraps on my photographing hand (my index finger and ring finger), so I'm avoiding glitters and it stinks because I have so many new glitters!! Gahhh!!!!