Halloween Fizz

Happy Halloween! After all the stamping I've done for my Halloween themed manicures, I decided to go relatively simple for my mani on the actual holiday. Go figure.

Here's what I chose.

L-R: Revlon Grape Fizz, American Apparel Hassid, Revlon Orange Fizz

I started with one coat of American Apparel. (I'm going to have to get a backup of this, because this is a really great black one-coater that has quickly become staple in my stash.) To that I added one coat of Revlon's Orange Fizz. It's an orange scented gem with lots of small flake particles. Over black you can see orange, green, and some pink.

Here's a closer look.

 

And just for fun I decided to layer Revlon's Grape Fizz on top. It added purple, blue, and pink sparkly flakes and a grape scent.

This is one sexy mani! 

Bonus: my nails smell like skittles. MMMMMM.

Also starting tomorrow, I'll be doing a 31-day manicure challenge with L of Bright Lights, Big Color and Kisten of Polish Pauper. The challenge is broken down into three-ten day segments: colors, patterns and inspiration--with the 31st day dedicated to re-creating your favorite challenge mani.

Here's the schedule.

 

Feel free to join in! Visit me over on Facebook. I'd love to see what you guys come up with.

Halloween Candy Mani

I've seen a lot of candy corn Halloween manicures but I wanted to pay homage to its lesser celebrated brethren, candy pumpkin! 

 Here's what I came up with.

The ingredients:

L-R: China Glaze Papaya Punch, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver Sweep, Orly Here Comes Trouble.

Over my base coat I did one coat of Sally Hansen Silver Sweep. I love how you get full coverage at one coat with this baby! At first I tried free handing the candy shape but that was an epic FAIL, so I turned to my trusty friends over at Bundle Monster.

Enter plate BM-223.

The images on this plate are so random, a holiday bell, a ghost, a full zebra and full geometric print and two other swirly patterns.

The top of the bell image turned out to be perfect for the base of the candy shape. I stamped it a bunch of times on each nail using China Glaze Papaya Punch and dotted Orly's Here Comes Trouble for the top with a nail art brush and voila!

Not too shabby eh?

I'm diggin' it.

Revlon Spice It Up, Part 2

I had no intentions of getting the any more of Revlon's Spice It Up holiday collection but CVS is running a Revlon special this week (buy $15 get $6 Extrabucks). The display even has coupons! Of course with coupons and Extrabucks (from earlier CVS purchases) burning a whole in my pocket, they ended up in my basket. Le sigh. I'm really glad to have them though.

I was most excited to try Snow Bunny, the white glittery shade. I did three coats here, but you could probably get away with two if you're more careful.

It has a really nice hint of pink and green shimmer that my camera just refused to let me show you properly, but here's a hint of it.

At first I though it was going to be a dupe for Finger Paint's Private Collection, but the pink shimmer in that one is way stronger. Zoya's Ginessa actually ended up being much closer.

L-R: Private Collection, Snow Bunny, Private Collection, Ginessa.

Next up: Cheers. This dusty rose pink is not something I really expected to see in a holiday collection, but it's rather refreshing. 

Varnished is a pewter shade. Three coats and it was a bit brush-strokey on me, but it works well as a stamping polish so she'll stay in my stash.

And last but not least Ignite.

This is a nice red y'all and I'm not even into reds like that! It's orangey and jewel toned and has a golden shimmer that really warms it up. Nice! Perfect for the holidays.

If you want these holiday-themed polishes, this week is a great time to grab them! You can see the first four shades I swatched here.

Pink Wednesday: Pretty in the City

It's that time again! Yep. Pink Wednesday! 

 Feast your eyes on this glittery goodness.

Lately I've been obsessed with layering glitters under sheer or jelly polishes a.k.a. "the glitter sandwich mani." Not only does it help smooth out any rough glitters that you may use, but the layering polish gives you this translucence feel. I recommend you try it if you haven't already!

Here's the lineup:

L-R: unnamed City Color, L.A. Girl Disco Ball, unnamed Sally Girl

I started with two coats of Disco Ball. It's not such a stark white, but it does give you full coverage in two coats. This is ideal for me because I don't really like the look of visible nail line. Next I added two coats of the Sally Girl. It's a multi-size pink hex glitter that I bought at Sally Beauty Supply ages ago. Next I added two coats of the City Color. This is where the real magic happened. I picked this up on a whim at Rite Aid and I'm glad I did, because it added so much pizazz to this mani. 

 That shimmer flash is subtle but to die for.

 

I feel like I say this all the time but I loooove the way this turned out. My boyfriend said it looked like an Easter egg. I'm going to have to revisit this then, maybe with multicolored pastel glitters...hmmm...

So, are you guys rocking your pink today? Have you tried the 'jelly sandwich look?'

Do you like it? Gonna try it out? Dish! 

A Holo Halloween with Nfu-Oh 61

After swatching those Hedy's from yesterday's post, I had holo on the brain so I decided to pull out Nfu-Oh 61 for this Halloween themed manicure.

Nfu-Oh is a Korean brand, but I got 61 a couple months ago from their U.S distributor. The Nfu-Oh holos can be a bit try to work with, but with one coat of Nfu-Oh Aqua Base and two coats of 61 I was all good. Here you can see some of her linear goodness come to life.

 I stamped the web and spider from plate BM 13 from the 21-piece Bundle Monster set  with American Apparel's Hassid.

Then I decided that it was a bit too plain so I added a couple of glitters from this random holographic hex  glitter polish from Forever 21. I glopped a bit of the polish on the image plate I had out and used a toothpick to place them on the spider's body.

I love this!

And a close up:

Also fellow beauty/fashion bloggers if you have a Halloween themed manicure, send it on over to the polish insomniac. She's hosting a Halloween link party, but you gotta hurry because it closes tonight at 11:59 CST.

Hedy's ma.nish.ma "Holographic": Review and Comparisons

I found the Hedy ma.nish.ma Holographic collection at Rite Aid. They retail for $3.99 which is pricey considering the bottles are only 0.22 fl ounces.

The collection is more of a duochrome lot than holographic, save the silver shade called Space Silver.

And here she is, a silver with chunky holographic shimmery bits.

The closest thing I have in my stash to this is Milani's HD.

Both are considered scattered holographic polishes, but the Milani has smaller particles so it gives off a more prismatic effect.

L-R: Milani HD ,Space Silver, Milani HD, Space Silver.

Next up is Blaster--a lilac almost periwinkle duochrome shade. It took four coats to get to bottle color.

Oh look. I knew this looked familiar. Blaster seen here with Jesse's Girl Confetti and Sally Hansen DVD. They're all close but I wouldn't exactly call them dupes.

From left-to-right is DVD on pointer and ring nails and Blaster on the middle and pinky nails. Both are four coats. DVD is a touch more blue whereas Baster reads as more of an icy lilac.

Here's a comparison photo with all three polishes.

L-R: Confetti, Blaster, DVD, Blaster

You don't need all three.

Next we have Way Out Fuscia, a very pretty pink with a blue shift. I used three coats here.

Found a dupe in my stash. Sally Hansen Byte.

Byte has a touch more blue shimmer, but for all intents and purposes, Way Out Fuscia and Byte are twins.

L-R: Byte, WOF, Byte, WOF

Finally we have Beyond Opal. Three coats here and I still have some visible nail line.

But look at her shift! She's green, she's blue, she's a beauty!

But alas, I have something similar in my stash: Jesse's Girl Firefly.

 Let's see how they match up.

L-R: Firefly, Beyond Opal, Firefly, Beyond Opal

The shimmer particles in Firefly are larger leaving it looking more sparse on the nail than Beyond Opal.

So in summary, Hedy's ma.nish.ma "Holographic" collection is nice, but if you have any of the others I've featured in this post then you can skip this collection. 

Blog Interrupted

So I had this great Halloween manicure all planned out in my head to post for you guys today, but I didn't get off work until the wee hours of the morning. So I had to put that plan aside. However, I can share with you what's coming down the pipeline.

 Hedy's ma.nish.ma

Stay tuned! Hope you have a great weekend!