Halloween costume fun!

(I apologize- if you follow me on Facebook, you may have seen these photos already. If you have, then read along- maybe the story will make up for having seen the photos?)

I love Halloween. You may know this by now, but if you don't, it's my favorite holiday. So even though I haven't dressed up for the holiday in at least a decade, I still wander through Halloween stores and departments many times throughout the season. This brings me to today's post.

As we wandered the Halloween department of a local big box store, my husband and I were enjoying pointing out silly costumes, coming up with ideas for the various bits you can find. I'm halfway planning to make some hair padding from some of the costume wigs once they go on sale after Halloween, but that's a different post entirely! Suddenly, my husband stopped, picked up a costume, and held it out to me with a curious look on his face.

"Honey, do you see anything... odd... about this costume?"

I looked closely, and was overwhelmed by the cuteness of the baby in the photo. I couldn't see past how adorable the whole thing was. "Umm, cute baby?"

He shook his head. "Nope... look more closely."

I looked and looked... and nothing stood out to me. There were sweet googly eyes under a puff of sweet pink curly hair. Soft felt teeth framed the baby's face. A pink bow tie matched the giant yellow feet of the monster and the yellow horns on the monster's head. The effect was almost unbearably cute, and I couldn't get past that.

Finally, he gave up and pointed out what had made him stop and stare in confusion. When I saw it, I had to take a close-up picture, because I knew this was going on the blog.

 That's right: this costume is apparently part of the Noah's Ark collection. Did you miss the part of the story where pink fuzzy monsters were hanging out on the ark with the rest of the animals? I know I did, but hey, I was never the most diligent of students. Maybe I missed out on some of it... and judging by the other costumes we've found in the days following? I missed a LOT.

I don't even know what else to say, other than I've taken to carrying my tablet with me because I keep finding more and more amusing costumes in this line!

That's right- the ark held dragons, too!

Oh look- it's a BOY's monster costume, since boys can't wear PINK, and girls obviously can't wear blue!

Don't look now, it's the terrifying PUMPKIN monster. Because you know, pumpkins...

... so the ark had SHARKS on it? Why couldn't they just swim? Oh, whatever... my brain hurts now.

Yea. So that happened. I don't know who's coming up with the ideas for these costumes, but I think they need a new theme. But now you know the rest of the story, so that's good... right?

Halloween is my favorite holiday!

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Awesome Fan Submission!

I got the sweetest email last night. Earlier in October I got an email from a reader named Sara. She was having problems with the gradient/ombre tutorial I have up, and her sponge seemed to be melting into her polish, leaving little chunks of sponge in the polish on her nails. She wanted to know if I had any suggestions on how to remedy the situation.

I suggested she experiment with various sponges around the house. I also explained that if you test your sponges on paper, you don't have as much of a problem having to clean your nails over and over again til you find a sponge that works.

Last night I got another email from Sara, and this time she was successful! She was so sweet, and since she included a photo of her nails I wanted to share it with all of you. You guys are the reason I do what I d, after all!

Remember- if you use a technique or a design that's inspired by me, then snap a few photos or a video and share it with me. I'd love to see what you're doing!

Later!

If you use techniques or designs from my blog or videos, send me photos or a video. I love seeing what people do!

See my disclosure statement for more information.

One Last Halloween Nail Design

I know this is last minute, but I love this design so much I had to share it. I wanted to do sort of a take on candy corn but with a twist. This bright beauty is what I came up with, and I am absolutely in love with it!

This one isn't difficult to do, but it is fiddly. First I painted the nail with pink, orange, and yellow. I went with vibrant, almost neon colors because I wanted a strong, graphic look to them. I also didn't worry about a neat line, since I wanted that sort of candy corn feel to it.

Once that layer was dry, I very precisely laid out stripes using three pieces of striping tape next to each other, then skipping around that much space and adding another three pieces side-by-side. This gave me much thicker lines than I would have had just using the single pieces of striping tape. However, you could use whatever size tape you like.

I then painted the entire nail with a black creme polish. I pulled the tape pieces off while the polish was still wet, being careful not to smear the still-wet black. I let this dry for several minutes before adding a coat of quick-dry topcoat. That sealed the colors together and let them look glassy and seamless.

Can I just say how much this design makes me smile?? Seriously, I want to do all my nails like this! The bright colors look all the more bright next to the black, and I think thinner lines of color contrasted with thicker lines of black could be a fun spin on this idea. Clearly, I have some experimenting to do!

Speaking of, I may have some nail sets up for sale soon, so if you're looking for some sparkly nails for the holidays I just might be able to help you out! Keep an eye on this space... :D

Some polishes were provided by the brand for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects - Halloween!

Hi there! Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated! I've been sick for entirely too long this time, but after lots of antibiotics and incredible amounts of rest, I'm finally feeling like a human being! Thanks to this, I can show you a couple of items that I want you to see before Halloween is over with!

If you're like me, you want to do fun Halloween nails to go with your costume, even if your costume is simple. Sally Hansen has just the solution for you! The ones I'm wearing in this image are called Numbskull, and they're just the cutest little skulls and crossbones!

There's one thing that I really dislike about these, although it's a small thing. The pattern is unidirectional, meaning it only goes in one direction. This means that if you happen to use both ends of the strips, you're left with skulls facing in two directions! I'm neurotic enough that this does bother me, although at a glance they look perfectly fine.

I also learned something else about these strips. When I applied them last night, I had sections of the strips that weren't actually sticking to my nails worth a darn, and I was sure they'd be peeling by morning. However, I pressed everything down as best I could and went on to bed. Once I woke up, I found that they'd settled down and are now solidly adhered to all my nails!

So don't worry if they aren't perfectly adhered right at first. They will settle down! Just press them down as well as you can and leave them alone for a few hours.

Overall, I really like this design. I also think it would be lots of fun as accent nails, or trimmed down to use as french tips. The little skulls are so cute!

Also, have I mentioned these strips tend to wear like iron? If you haven't read it, you can see my wear test for these starting here, where I rave about how amazing they are. I wound up finally removing the strips after 15 days of wear, and the only problem with them was a chip at the tip of one nail where I'd broken it!

This year's Halloween collection includes five designs- Numbskulls (shown here), How Corny (a silver-white background with repeating candy corn that looks the same whether it's upside down or not), Batty For You (black bats on a purple background that can be worn either way), Patch-O-Lanterns (orange jack o'lantern faces that can be worn either way),  and Spun For You (black spiderwebs on a silver background that can be worn either way). These can be found in drugstores near you for $9.99 a box. Go get some, before they're gone!

Sally Hansen Salon Effects in Numbskull was provided by the brand for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Celebrate Halloween With Us At Mazeparty!

If you've been following me for very long, you probably have noticed that I love to color. I don't know why, but I find watching the color evenly fill the page bringing an image to life. I enjoy adding shading and highlights to my coloring pages so that they look vibrant and fun.

I couldn't resist coloring this guy in Photoshop!

If you have little ones who love to color (and most kids enjoy it) you may want to visit MazeParty.com, my husband's website. It's got lots of mazes and coloring pages for kids, and even for their parents if they like. I've even drawn a few of the coloring pages there!

Since Halloween is coming up, we've added some great new spooky pages to color. I'm pretty fond of the jelly monster shown to the right. He looks like he'd be a fun guy to hang out with once you fill that empty tummy with some yummy cupcakes or something!

So be sure to stop by the Halloween coloring pages at Maze Party and print out some pages for your kids. They're totally free, and we update all the time!

Coloring is fun!

See my disclosure statement for more information.

I'm Seeing Stars

I've got another Halloween nail design for you! I wanted to do something with a bit sparkle to it for this design, but at the same time I didn't want it to be too complex. I think I hit just the right balance with this one!

Instead of trying to paint stars and keep the glitter in the spots I want it, I went the opposite direction. I started this nail out with a bright, deep orange. Once that was opaque I topped it with a golden-coppery glitter and added a coat of quick-dry topcoat.

I then let things dry for half an hour or so. Once things were dry, I took a piece of masking tape and punched little star holes from it. Those stars are the key to this manicure!

A quick tip: Make sure the sticky side of the tape is facing the opening of the punch instead of toward the die-cutting part. This way you can use tweezers or a dotting tool to remove the star cutouts.

While I was punching my stars, I stuck them to the edge of an Altoids tin to keep them organized and sticky. Once I had them punched, I applied them to the nail in a simple pattern. I tried to leave enough space between them to make sure they would show up as stars in a black background. It also helps with removal to have a piece of the star hanging off your nail.

Once my stars were in place, I topped things with a coat of black nail polish. I used an opaque black so I would only need one coat. Before the polish dried, I peeled the stars off leaving the bright orange sparkly stars behind. I let this dry for a minute or two, but I should have waited longer because I did smear the edges of my stars on one side.

Once your top coat is on, you're done! You could do this with any shapes you want- even round dots from a traditional hole punch would look adorable!

Leave me a comment if you like this one. I'm really enjoying it right now!

Some polishes were provided by the brands for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Another Halloween Nail Art Design

Today's halloween look is super simple and super easy. Again, instead of being an obvious nod to the holiday, this design uses halloween colors to get you in the holiday mood.

I started with a bright orange polish. You can use whatever orange you have, which means you can go with a pumpkin tone or a neon orange, a pastel orange or anything else that makes you smile. I went with a very saturated orange, but not quite neon.

Once that was totally dry I added a beautiful water transfer from the WDBLE981 set that's available at KKCenterHK. I absolutely love these decals! I love that there are many choices in one style, so that your nails don't look so obviously done with decals.

I'm also very glad to share that these decals acted much more like the decals I'm familiar with than the last set I used. Thankfully, these slid right off the backing once it was wet. Then I was able to slide them onto my nail and position it the way I wanted.

Keep in mind that these water decals will continue to slide around whenever they get wet, so you definitely need to top them with topcoat. The clear topcoat helps meld them with your nail polish so that they aren't going anywhere.

Once again, after I got the decal in place I wanted to add a rhinestone to give it a bit of flair. What can I say, I love shiny things! This stone came from the Fing'rs Nail & Body Jewels kit. I really like this kit because the stones are tiny and you get such a great selection of shapes and colors.

Once everything's on and mostly dry I added a coat of ProFX to protect everything. I really like the end result. This could be a beautiful accent nail or you could do all your nails with these decals. Whatever you do, they'll be pretty.

So go ahead, play with your nail art stuff. You may end up with a design you love!

Some polishes were provided by the brands for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Jordana Halloween Nail Art Contest

Hey! Do you love nail art? (Of course you do, that's probably why you read this blog!) If you do, then do I have a contest for you!

The lovely people at Jordana are hosting a halloween nail art contest, and it's open to YOU (as long as you live in the United States or Canada)! All you need to do is show them your best halloween nails, and you could win one of several prizes!

Eleven people will win prizes, which I think is pretty fantastic! So what are you waiting for? Go enter your favorite halloween nail art!

Image was provided by the brand.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Halloween Nail Art

Halloween is coming, and I wanted to share some nail art designs with everyone! I've been experimenting with some nail tips, and I've come up with a variety of designs. I'll be sharing these designs over the next couple of weeks. Hopefully these will give people some more ideas for Halloween.

This more traditional design uses black, orange, and gold in a nod toward the holiday. It's simple to do: paint the nail with a shimmery orange, then add stripes in black and gold. I finished with some black hexagon glitter pieces as an accent.

I've got a doctor's appointment today, so I'm going to cut this short and try and sleep a bit. Wheee!

Halloween is my favorite holiday!

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Halloween Goodies from Sally Hansen and NYC

Halloween is coming up fast, and I'm noticing some fun things for nails showing up on the shelves. For example, NYC has the creepy Demon Glow, a black-light reactive top coat you can wear alone of on top of any polish you like.

I can't wait to get my fingers on this one, and then to get it on my fingers! Hopefully I'll be able to take some photos for you guys with a black light. This should be fun! This retails for $2.49, and seems like it's totally worth it!

Then there's the Sally Hansen offerings this season. Once again, Sally Hansen has come out with some adorable Salon Effects nail polish strips. Have I mentioned that I absolutely adore these? These are $9.99 for the box, and if you have short nails like I do you may be able to get two manicures out of the box. The prints are cute as can be, too!

Again, I'm hoping to show these to you soon, because my nails can't wait! Go check out your local beauty departments, because these might just sell out before you get yours!

Information and images were provided by the brands.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

My Halloween 2011 Nails

Sometimes I think it's weird to make graphics like this.
Then I think about the rest of my life and think this
is about as normal as I get. :D

A VIDEO!! OMG, I cannot even begin to explain how far I've come in video editing-land, and how far I have yet to go. Still, I'm so happy to have this finished and ready to move on! I'm hoping to keep moving forward with this, because I do like being able to have video with my posts. Let's be honest, I'm a total ham and I love being able to talk to you!

This process, though? So confusing. Who knew it'd be so hard to do a voiceover for video? (Ok, I know... I've done it, so I know, but still!) I ended up having to script half of it, play the soundless video while I recorded my audio into my video camera, then move that video to the computer, download the latest version of Audacity so I could strip the sound from the video, then cut it up into chunks I could then place in the video timeline. Oh, and I had to download FFsomething or other libraries too, and install them.

Sound confusing? Yea, that's because it was! But it's DONE, and now I sort of understand what I'm doing, so I'm going to start editing the next video tomorrow! Maybe it won't take me three years to get finished... :D

So, on to the pretty stuff... the nails! Oddly enough, I wasn't interested in doing anything too flashy or anything, partly because I was running out of time and partly because I was really wanting to try the gorgeous polishes Melissa from the Daily Nail surprised me with. She'd noticed I've been down and not posting as much lately, so once day I checked the mail to find the cutest package all bundled up in orange paper waiting for me!

I'd be lying if I said I kept my cool. I alternated between squealing in joy and wiping tears away because it was such a touching gift. She filled it with all sorts of goodies, and I've kept them all in their box for now, to decide what to do with them. But Halloween was the perfect time to try two of them... Sally Hanson Salon Black Orchid and NYX Pink Avenue.

Black Orchid is a fairly basic polish, a deep charcoal grey shimmer that is lovely on its own. It's not totally black because the shimmer plays with the light a bit, but I like this. I also like that it's a cool-toned charcoal without any warmth to it. It's a typical Sally Hansen Salon polish- good coverage, good wear.

Pink Avenue was the star of this show, though. NYX definitely made a winner with this one, a mix of glitters in a clear base. It's a combination of lime green and orange flake glitters paired with microglitter in the same colors. I think some of the glitter changed colors in the light, depending on the angle, but it was hard to tell.

Regardless, this was a stunning polish, and I couldn't resist adding three coats of it, just to build the sparkle to insane levels. What can I say, subtlety is not one of my strengths!

The end result was almost impossible to photograph! Even the video didn't quite capture the way the light played with the glitter. It was hypnotic, and I was in absolute love! My niece loved it too, and wanted me to do her nails... shame I didn't have it with me, or I would have!

Since it's 5:30am and I haven't been to sleep yet, I'll let the rest of the photos speak for themselves. Click' em for larger pics. They're worth it!

So... thoughts? Too glittery? Not enough? Let me know what you think in the comments.

Polishes were provided by Melissa at The Daily Nail because she's AWESOME!

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Sally Hansen Salon Efects- Halloween 2011

OMG, I am SO EXCITED!! Halloween is my favorite holiday, and the new Halloween collections are starting to come out. I have to admit, this one has me giggling out loud in anticipation...

Sally Hansen has come out with a line of Salon Effects specifically for Halloween, and I am SO looking forward to them! I also love that they aren't all the traditional black and orange some companies go for. Just LOOK at the designs!!

Ghoulie Girl: Google-eyed
ghosts in orange and white

Hot Wired: Bad-girl barbed wire
over lime green backdrop

Numbskull: Spooky skull
and crossbones print

Spun For You: A scary
black spider’s web

Wishnets: Witchy black fishnet
print over bright fuchsia

The press release for them has all the details... just look:

INTRODUCING

SALON EFFECTS REAL NAIL POLISH STRIPS

IN HALLOWEEN PRINTS

FROM SALLY HANSEN

THINK: Spooky style at your fingertips—just peel, apply, file, and go.

WHAT IT IS: No dry-time, nail polish strips for instant Halloween hands. This fall, make a chic seasonal statement with Sally Hansen Nail Polish Strips in new Halloween-inspired prints. Sally Hansen Nail Polish Strips offer DBP, Toluene and Formaldehyde Free, no dry-time nail looks for style that lasts up to ten days. This easy and affordable at-home nail technology takes your Halloween costume to the next level.

Each Salon Effect Real Nail Polish Strips kit includes 16 nail polish strips, a cuticle stick, mini file/ buffer and instructions for easy at-home application. When you’re ready to change your nail strips, simply swipe nails with your favorite Sally Hansen polish remover for an instantly clean slate. Choose from five Halloween-inspired styles.

WHAT THEY COST: $9.99 each.

WHERE TO FIND THEM: Sally Hansen products are available at chain drug stores, food stores and mass merchandisers nationally.

Are you excited about these? Leave me a comment telling me which one you like most!!

Til next time!

Images were provided by the manufacturer.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Hard Candy: Mischief- Another Clearance Find!

I'm so excited! I don't know if you happened to hear me talking last Halloween, but I was absolutely in LOVE with one particular color that came out in various forms. If I remember correctly, China Glaze came out with Ick-A-Bod-Y first, and then Hard Candy's Halloween collection hit the shelves with their very similar dupe Mischief.

I absolutely loved this color, and wanted it very much. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it in my area. That's one of the problems that comes with living in an area where people love nail polish! By the time I saw the Hard Candy Halloween colors, Mischief was gone.

However, several weeks ago I was out for my evening walk and found this one lone bottle hiding in a clearance bin. My local WalMart has been renovating their store, so lots of items that apparently got lost in the back have come out into the clearance area! I didn't know what this would cost, but since money's so tight I was going to price it.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this was $1! Honey, I grabbed my change purse and started counting my pennies!! Unfortunately, once I got it home it went into my box of untrieds, where it stayed because I've been sick. No FUN!

However, I was able to swatch it finally, and decided I wanted to see it both with topcoat and without. I didn't realize topcoat would make such a difference! It really does, though, as you can see in the photos!

I also decided to swatch these on false nails because my own have been broken so badly. Seriously, my swatching hand looks pathetic. But falsies look good, yes?

Without topcoat, Mischief is bumpy and somewhat gritty, and it's got a strange, matte-ish texture. That doesn't mean it's not gorgeous, it's just not the average for polish. I kinda like that about it, honestly!

However, adding topcoat to it changes the feel of it. Instead of a somewhat flat, gritty look with subdued sparkle, the topcoat fills in all the bumps and gaps, causing this baby to glow like crazy. It is absolutely stunning with topcoat, and I chose to use Seche Vite for it's amazing ability to smooth out the bumpiest of polishes.

I love this polish so much. It really does say fall to me in a way many polishes just can't do. The deep olive green jelly base is another reason I love it- without seeming slimy or gross, the green base somehow gives the orange glitter an earthier tone. I don't quite understand it, but I absolutely love it!

Do you have this polish, or its dupe? What do you think of it? Leave me a comment letting me know if this is a polish you'd love to find hiding in a clearance bin!

Til next time!

Oh, how I love a good sale!

See my disclosure statement for more information.