Witch's Nails

Ello everyone! I planned to have this post out yesterday, but a surprise visit from the allergy monster meant I ended up feeling too awful to write through the sniffles and itchy throat. Ick. But annyywayy, who's ready for Halloween nails: post #2? Today I decided to re-attempt a post from last year, but more of an upgraded version. I wanted something even more disgusting. More disturbing. More... Halloween. So here's a tutorial for nails any self-respecting witch would die to have. Enjoy!

You'll need: 

- Base coat

- rhinestones (2 different sizes) 

- white polish

- a darker red polish and a lighter one

- top coat

Start off with a base coat, of course!

Time to place the rhinestones on your nails! I use around four per nail, but depending on your nail size you might need to use more or less.I applied them by placing a small drop of base coat on my nail and pressing the rhinestone into it.

Once all the rhinestones are firmly stuck onto your nails, go over with another layer of base coat to seal them in.

Create a solid base for the color later by laying down a coat of white polish. This doesn't have to look perfect.

China Glaze - White on White

Now sponge on a layer of the darker red. Make sure to leave some white showing, and make it splotchy, to add to the yucky-factor!

Pure Ice - All Nighter

Go over this with a thin coat of a red jelly polish.
*Note: If you don't have a red jelly polish, paint on your lighter red FIRST, and sponge the darker red on top of it.

Sinful Colors: Gogo Girl

Do some cuticle cleanup + a top coat and you're good to go!

Thanks for reading! What do you think about this design? Would you wear it for Halloween? Let me know in the comments! As usual, if you enjoyed this post, don't forget to follow on any of the social networking sites on the right-hand side of my blog.

See you all next week!

Nail Art Challenge Day One: Favorite Color

So today is the first day of Erica's Nails and More's ten-day nail art challenge. The prompt for today is *dun dun dun dun* favorite color!

Here's the list of the prompts for each day. Pretty fun, huh?

So without further ado, here's my design for day one:

My favorite color is actually orange, but for some reason I have almost no orange polish. I decided to go with my favorite polish color, which is my beautiful OPI Cajun Shrimp. I picked out a bunch of other reds and pinks and used them together in my design.

A while back I was planning to do a pencil design tutorial, but CutePolish beat me to it. I decided to change it up a bit today to incorporate my favorite color by turning them into colored pencils!

This morning I was all nice and set to paint my nails, when all of a sudden the patch on my middle finger decides to start tearing (see this album to look at the terrible tear beforehand). I had to spend more than fifteen minutes soaking off the nail glue with acetone (which really made me grimace - I never use real acetone unless I have to) and then another 15-30 minutes applying another tea bag patch.

Finally everything dried and I was all set to go. The painting didn't take too long (it was much easier than I expected) but at the end I realized that my cuticles were a dry and crusty mess. This meant another half hour or so waiting for the polish to dry, and then the time it takes to apply some cuticle cream. The edges of my patch really looks like crusty cuticles, which is going to drive me crazy, but there's nothing I can do to fix it.

I grabbed my handy dandy oh-so-wonderful Burt's Bees lemon butter cuticle cream and went to work. Have I ever mentioned how much I love the smell of this stuff? It's like heaven in a little tin.

Finally, I was FINISHED! *cue applause* and then it was time for pictures!

I think this went pretty well. My colored pencils look a bit like cupcakes, which kind of annoys me, but when  I decide to paint cupcakes on my nails I'll already know what to do. The color on my pinkie didn't show up as well as I wanted to, but you know, you live and learn, right?

Here are some more pictures:

Close-up time!

I really think I'm improving at taking pictures of my
manis without holding a bottle of polish in them!

These weren't supposed to be upside down.
Woops.

Sideways-ish picture. Just because I felt like it.

Both left and right hands. I'm glad you can't see the right
hand too well, because it just turned out... bad.

Heh. Get it? I'm holding a pencil. With pencil nails.
This idea sounded so much cooler in my head.

Here are all of the polishes I used:
Base coat: Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler
Pencil Base: Essie - Sand Tropez
Thumb: Sinful Colors - Gogo Girl
First finger: OPI - Sparrow Me the Drama
Middle finger: Sinful Colors - Boom Boom
Ring finger - OPI - Cajun Shrimp
Pinkie: OPI - Steady as she Rose

If you liked this post, stay tuned for the rest of the challenge! Don't forget to follow me here, on Facebook, and on Twitter. And please head on over and follow the most talented Erica on her blog and on Facebook.

Thanks for reading!

-Muffin

(A Sort of) Splatter Nails

Hello all! I feel so bad about forgetting to post yesterday, so I will try to make this one as wonderful as possible! I really enjoyed this design, not just because it was easy and quick but because it was just... cool. I hope you all like it as much as I did!

I wasn't quite sure what to call these, so  I settled on splattered nails. They're not quite spun-sugar but not fully splatter. Oh well.

You will need:
- Base coat
- white polish
- three other colors of polish (here I'll call them polish A, B, and C)
- an index card
- a toothpick
- Chapstick (optional)
- a top coat (optional)

Start of with a base coat. Next, paint your nails two solid coats of white.
If you'd like to experiment with this technique, you could try a black background, or go totally crazy and choose neon green or something!

Sally Hansen - Hard to Get

This step isn't necessary, but is extremely helpful. Rub a little chapstick into your cuticles and the skin around each nail to make cleanup loads easier at the end. Make sure not to get any on your actual nails.

Place a small dot of color A on an index card. Use the toothpick to mix it around until it gets nice and stringy.

Using the toothpick, drag the polish across the nail. It should form little strings and you'll be able to pull it across. If it's not working, try putting a tiny dot on your nail with the toothpick and just drag from there. Do this for the first one-third of the nail. 

OPI - Sparrow Me the Drama

Repeat with Color B on the second third of your nail.

Sinful Colors - Boom Boom

Finish up with color C on the last empty portion of each nail.

Sally Hansen - Perfect Plum

You can finish up with a top coat, but I really loved the texture on this one, so I skipped that step. If you would like to use a top coat, start with one going horizontally across the nail to prevent smearing and then complete with a second one going the normal direction. When everything is dry, you can wipe off the chapstick with a tissue and almost all of the polish you got on  your skin will rub off!

I hope you liked this tutorial! This design is great for that day that you don't have time to do something intricate, but really want your nails to stand out. If you enjoyed reading this, please follow my blog on the right, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Thanks!