Swatch! O.P.I. - funky dunky!

This is my very first swatch! I always have a really hard time being satisfied with solid colored nails, especially with my embellishment addiction :) However I am working to properly catalogue all my polishes since it seems to me amassing quite rapidly!

Starting NOW you will be able to view swatches of my nail polish by clicking on the polish title on my swatch page! i.e. scroll to the PURPLE section and then click O.P.I. - funky dunky which will redirect you to this post! Now as i said this is my very first swatch so it stands alone in the list, but SOON i will have more!

O.P.I. - funky dunky is from the Shrek Forever After collection! It is a beautiful purple that is very appropriate for the "toon" theme, because it looks so playful and... well, cartoon-like. After the first coat it appears sort of sheer, but as it dries and spreads it become more opaque. This manicure was done with 2-3 applications topped with Seche Vite - fast dry top coat to seal that beautiful O.P.I. shine in! (I used the usual O.P.I. bases, as always.)

This is my first time using this polish because my sister just got it for me as christmas polish haul, and i have to say, thank you! and I love it!

24 days of XMAS Challenge : Day 24

❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉
Merry Christmas Eve and Happy Holidays! For my final day of the 24 day nail challenge, the theme was to recreate your favorite nail design. Now, I decided that Jack Skellington was very appropriate for the theme, it being the night before christmas and all, and I wasn't ready to part with dear old Jack, so instead of doing a new set of nails I added on and did ZERO his dog! His colors work with both Jack and the holiday color palette, only more white is involved... he's a ghost. For those of you who aren't familiar with this movie... go watch it NOW!...but basically this is how it goes:


Jack is tired of being the Pumpkin King and stumbles across Christmas Town. He decides that he will relieve SANDY CLAWS and remake Christmas, only the monsters of halloween town don't understand what Christmas is all about, and so he gives them what they want... a terrifying holiday. His friend Sally thinks he is making a mistake, and in her attempt to stop him she creates fog so that he can not see, and will hopefully give up. (sound familiar... Rudolph?) However Jack's ghost dog Zero has a glowing red nose and stands in as the lead reindeer lighting the way to what becomes a twisted christmas and Jack's, almost, ruin. Jack's "presents" create a frenzy causing him to be shot out of the sky, leading him to his realization of what he has done. Trying to redeem himself and save the holiday, Jack rescues Santa from the Boogeyman just in time to save christmas. THE END
This is one of my all time FAVORITE movies... obviously :)
Now that you have the background, here are my nails! enjoy!

To see more of the Jack Skellington nails click HERE

Just like the JACK SKELLINGTON nails i did for day 23 of the challenge, I used Sally Hansen - shell we dance? (#160) 3 coats, Sinful colors - out of this world (#842), 1 coat, for the base.
I then used Nail Star - red for the collar, O.P.I. - designer de better for shading and black and white acrylic paint. I then added a red rhinestone cabochon for Zero's nose and topped it off with seche VITE - quick dry top coat.




be sure to check out these ladies to see their holiday best!

❅ nails and stuff ❃ obsessed with glitter ❇ paint that nail ❄ red hair and black nail polish ✺ Ruby's Nails ❅ finger painted ❃ My Polish Stash ❉ Me, Myself and Nail Polish ❇  KK Nails ✺ Life with Salpi ❅

Thanx for tuning in, and i hope everyone had a great holiday!

❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉

24 days of XMAS Challenge : Day 23

❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉

Here is the final theme, before recreating my favorite manicure (tomorrow), It's SANTA!

well... not exactly santa.... more like my favorite impostor, JACK SKELLINGTON dressing up as SANTA.

I drew my inspiration from an illustration by Tim Burton (my favorite!)

I liked the patterning in the outfit and the gangly body posture that is very much Jack and wanted to capture those aspects per nail. I call them my night before christmas EVE nails. :)

For the base color I used 3 coats of Sally Hansen - shell we dance? (#160)  and 1 coat of Sinful Colors - out of this world (#842).

Jack Skellington was done using Nail Star - white (#108), O.P.I. - designer... de better for shading on the face, Nail Star - red and black acrylic paint.

Finished it off with 1 coat of Seche VITE - quick dry top coat.  For some reason this read is not as vibrant in this picture when uploaded, disappointing.
From thumb to pinky the images go as such. thumb - bottom part of beard, index - hat, middle - head/top part of beard, ring - neck/body/shoulder, pinky - arm.

To see more SANTA themed nails check out these ladies blogs:

❅ nails and stuff ❃ obsessed with glitter ❇ paint that nail ❄ red hair and black nail polish ✺ Ruby's Nails ❅ finger painted ❃ My Polish Stash ❉ Me, Myself and Nail Polish ❇  KK Nails ✺ Life with Salpi ❅

Thanx for stopping by :)

❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉

24 days of XMAS Challenge : Day 11

❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉
Christmas movies are one of the best parts of waiting for the big holiday day. Now one of my favorite holiday movies is Nightmare Before Christmas. Its so silly and imaginative, and one of the best parts, i can watch from halloween to christmas and its still so fitting. 
So how does this relate to my theme today? Well, if you've seen this movie before you'll probably recognize the scene i am depicting. When Jack Skelington takes on christmas he makes several stops on his route, one of them is at an old women's house. He opens the door an places what seems at first to be a harmless wreath... until like all of the haunted holiday toys it comes alive and starts to attack!. This scene is so ridiculous and playful and well depicts how twisted this holiday can be when not even an old women nor a wreath are safe from the handy work and fantastical minds of Henry Selick and Tim Burton.

I didn't want to white for the background because i thought it would make it more graphic looking and as your know its stop motion which means its built scenes using puppets and props. SO...

I used two coats of Sally Hansen - shell we dance (#160) which allows my natural nail to be scene so the design really stands off my nail. 

To make the wreath i started with my middle finger so i could determine where the arms of the wreath were going to move. So first i used L.A. Girl FLARE - hunter green, I sort of stippled a leafy wreath pattern i a circle then moving towards opposite edges of my nails... and then continued this in a line across the rest of my nails. 

Next to get a little tonality i used Sinful Colors -HD nails (#926),  spaced out to  add to the leafy feeling.

Now to do the actual leaves I used Nail Star - medium metallic green in differently sized dots all on top of the green already down, but spaced enough where the individual leaves aren't touching, so that it looks like individual leaves. Then to add even further to the leaves I used Kiss - green striper. To accentuate the leaves EVEN MORE I used Kiss - black striper and made little squiggles on the wreath to separate the leaves, then did a little choppy outline under the top section to give the wreath looking like it has a mouth. 

The eyes were done with Nail Star - white and Nail Star - black.

 For the last touch of the wreath i used Kiss - bronze striper to create the little berries on the wreath. I used bronze so that they would recede into the wreath more when I added the bow.

The Bow was done using Kiss  - red striper, for the base color. Then for highlights I used Nail Star- red on the outside edge of each flap of the bow, a line or two down the center and on the hanging ribbon. Again, not completely covering up the back ground color and not touching other red sections so that it looks more 3D. 

Then Seche VITE - quick dry top coat.. DUH! :)

PHEW! Stay tunes because tomorrows theme is HOLLY

More holiday WREATH inspired nails can be seen HERE:

❅ nails and stuff ❃ obsessed with glitter ❉ Polish, Oh My! ❇ paint that nail ❄ red hair and black nail polish ✺ Ruby's Nails ❅ finger painted ❃ My Polish Stash ❉ Me, Myself and Nail Polish ❇  KK Nails ❄ My Wet Nails ✺ Life with Salpi ❅ The only way is Nails! ❃

Thanx for stopping by :)

❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉

24 days of XMAS Challenge : Day 4

❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉

It's day 4 of the 24 day x-mas challenge, and todays theme is SNOWMAN (men) :)

I'm posting this on the early side because otherwise I wont be able to do my snowmen nails till late late tomorrow night, and I might as well make use of my night owl habits! As you will see, I was inspired by a still from Frosty The Snowman, although i kept to the traditional lump of coal and carrot face, the color background and framing are similar. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to use a base color other than blue, red and green, the typical December holiday palette, which so happen to be the three colors I were least often. I thought the thistle color was really pretty, but i wanted more contrast to make my snowmen POP! I also thought my snowmen should wear bow ties instead of scarves because i thought it would be cuter!

still from Frosty The Snowman (1969)

                                                 1                    2                   3                 4              5

Okay, first off (post B.C.) i used Love & Beauty - lavendar, the amazing thing about this, was, it was a one coater! unvelievable! I mean i know there are better nail polishes out there, but L&B seriously is one of my favorite brands, so cheap, nice colors, and not too thin! 

ANYWAYS... Next, for the snowmen: Ruby Kisses - french white, coal and hat Ruby Kisses - black eutopia,  carrot Love & Beauty - orange, shading on the carrot I mixed L&B- orange with Orly - bus stop crimson (weird name), and the highlights for the eyes, carrot and hat I mixed Ruby Kisses - french white with Ruby Kisses - black eutopia for various grey tones.

For each of the bow ties i wanted something different (it took every ounce of me to not just bedazzle the crap out of these little guys, can't over do it!) 

[1] Sally Hansen - cardinal, Love & Beauty - Mint (green glimmer), Ruby Kisses - french white, Ruby Kisses - black eutopia.

[2] Kiss - blue striper, Kiss - gold glitter striper, Ruby Kisses - black eutopia

[3] Orly - bus stop crimson,  Ruby Kisses - french white, NYC - starry silver glitter (#105)

[4] Ruby Kisses - french white, Ruby Kisses - black eutopia, L.A. Girls Flare - hunter green

last but not least...

[5] Sally Hansen - cardinal, Kiss - blue striper

All topped off with a nice HEALTHY coat of Seche VITE - quick dry top coat!  (the best!!!)

phew! well, i look froward to seeing the rest of the snowman challenge designs from the other ladies participating, and I hope you enjoyed mine too! :)

For more SNOWMAN themed nails be sure to check out:

❅ nails and stuff ❃ obsessed with glitter ❉ Polish, Oh My! ❇ paint that nail ❄ red hair and black nail polish ✺ Ruby's Nails ❅ finger painted ❃ My Polish Stash ❉ Me, Myself and Nail Polish ❇  KK Nails ❄ My Wet Nails ✺ Life with Salpi ❅ The only way is Nails! ❃

Thanx for stopping by :)

❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉❄❇❅❆✺❃❉

Monster Mash

Halloween is the best holiday, no questions about it. what's not to like? costumes, candy, plenty of seasonal activities, and so much more. I get pretty obsessed for halloween, like start decorating first day of october kind of obsessed, and one way i like to begin is with seasonal nails.

starting with the top picture on the left we have Chucky from Child's play (after he came back all messed up looking) a a blue eyed vampire, a zombie patch, a jack-o-lantern, and some dripping blood.
The bottom picture starting on the left we have candy corn, a wound with stitches, IT, a bat and frankenstein's monster.
All of these nails were done using only nail polish, no acrylic (although it probably would have made my life easier)
some of these designs are a lot more difficult than others, and if you would like step-by-step instructions regarding any of these fingers please e-mail me!

represent'n

it was that time of year again.. yep, you guessed it! time for the final installment to Harry Potter.
i couldn't go to the midnight showing without some form of fan-attire and i'm not one to wear the Hogwarts scarf or the full on witch garb, so this was my last minute costume.
Theme: the 4 houses of Hogwarts and Crest