NYC and Sally Hansen (catch up posts!)

Hey Monkeys! Today I have some catch up posts for you from Halloween\Thanksgiving.. sorry it's so late, but you can still check out the colors :) NYC had some great colors for Halloween\Fall which included a top coat called Rock Muse that was a transparent black base mixed with some super shiny silver hex glitters throughout.I am not affRED and Animal Instinct are this great deep burgundy and opaque medium orange cremes, respectively. Application is always great on these and you can't beat the price point from NYC ($1.99)!

Sally Hansen also released some Fuzzy Coat polishes for Halloween but if you can still find them (or any other of their fuzzy coats), go for it! I layered Fur-ankenstein (bright lime green and black small bar glitter) and Witch-ful Thinking (pumpkin orange and black small bar glitter) over white polish and I love the small bar glitter. Normally with bar glitter your nails look like they are furry and need to have a haircut, but when the small bars are done right, it looks interesting rather than disturbing. The Fuzzy Coat line retails for $5.99 and you can leave it without a top coat if you want a bit of texture. 

*samples provided*

Sally Hansen: Salon Effects Nail Stickers Halloween edition!

JORD Wood Watch Giveaway!!!

Happy Halloween monkeys! I have a little something different for you today- Sally Hansen Salon Effects! These are all Halloween themed but they're different finishes. The haunted house scene is a great glow in the dark set (excited about this one!), the glitter set is really cute silver skulls on black glitter with a pink glitter bow (blurred for your glittery pleasure), and the foil set is super cute as well with lips and vampire fangs (love this!). The cool thing about the foil is that the black is super shiny too as a foil so it all shines and is eye catchy. The last set is the real lace and I didn't use those yet because they weren't strictly Halloween, so I'll post something fun with those soon. Overall very cute Halloween edition Salon effects and I had fun spreading the Halloween spirit with friends to try these out! 
They're super easy to do by the way: cleanse and dry your nail, peel the sticker off and apply, then trim down the decal and file off the excess. Add a top coat to seal it in if you'd like. They now come off with warm water and peel right up! Couldn't be easier!

Keep an eye out for Fall, Winter, Holiday themed ones as well! 

Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips ($9.99):  The no dry time nail polish strips now available in Skull and Crossbows, Hallowscene, Kiss my face and Little Black Lace

Skulls Halloween Mani BM413

JORD wood watches gift card giveaway HERE!

I have a cool black and white Halloween mani for you today. I started with two coats of Milani Black Swift (my go to black creme and it dries fast!). I used Bundle Monster 413 to stamp sugar skulls, a skeleton and a little monster guy. I used sequins to make the eyes sparkle a bit more and add color. I'm pretty surprised at how well the white stamped over the black; I used Konad white stamping polish.

Don't forget to enter my JORD wood watch giveaway!

Halloween Witch Art BM H07

JORD wood watches gift card giveaway HERE!

Gah! I love Halloween! This mani is more of the cheery side of Halloween with its colorful glitter and fun witch essentials. I started with 2 coats of a white creme and then stamped the witches hat and boots from the Bundle Monster H07 plate. I like that the glitter has multi colored shreds but also lays flat and is dense enough to separate and easy to apply. Digging this combo!

Halloween Kitties that Glow

JORD wood watches gift card giveaway HERE!

 Halloween time Monkeys! I'm not sure when purple became a standard Halloween color, but it's a bandwagon I was more than happy to jump on. I used two coats of Milani Imperial Purple then stamped black Halloween cats on 2 fingers only. I wanted to show off SinfulColors Splatter Spell because it has some shredded glitter mingled with hexes and all orange and black, really fun glitter! I did one coat on my index and little finger and dabbed glitter around the stamped cats. Whenever I do a single image stamp that doesn't take up my whole nail, I like to add glitter in to make it pop and be more interesting. I also used SinfulColors glow in the dark top coat under a black light to show you it's pigment (I did this mani during the day so photos in the dark was not an option). I had to restamp the ring finger cat and ended up taking off some of the glow in the dark so you can see the difference, but for this purpose, I'm ok with it, plus it kind of looks like a moon or spooky clouds.

SinfulColors Pumpkin Spice and BM H06

JORD wood watches gift card giveaway HERE!

 Halloween is so soon you guys! I thought I'd do a fun but simple mani for the occasion! I started with two coats of a white creme, one coat of Pumpkin Spice for that orange glitter factor. I then used stamped various scary pumpkins using the Bundle Monster  H06 plate. I love the way Pumpkin Spice adds to the theme without it being a solid orange. Pretty simple but still festive!

SinfulColors- Wicked Halloween 2014- the top coats!

Hi Monkeys! Today I have swatches from the new SinfulColors Wicked Color collection for Halloween. There are many polishes in this set but I have 5 for you today, including a glow in the dark top coat!

From left to right: Pumpkin Spice, Splatter Spell, Mystery Moonshine, Cauldron Couture and Ghoulishly Fluorescent (glow in the dark, not shown yet).
Pumpkin Spice: (over white) medium orange hex, small round orange and small square gold glitters in a clear base.
Splatter Spell: shredded gold, black hex in large, medium and small, medium orange hex.
Mystery Moonshine: multi colored shredded confetti in a clear base.
Cauldron Couture: large and small black hex, medium and small green hex, mixed in with green shredded glitter with a clear base.

This is a preview of the ones I received, I have them with Halloween nail art over the next few days so stay tuned!

Sinfulcolors: Wicked Color- Halloween 2014, top coats

Wicked Color to Trick Out Your Tips Conjure up something sinfully spooky with the SinfulColors 2014 Halloween collection.Whether you paint your tips or toes, you're guaranteed to feel wickedly gorgeous. The range of fourteen boo-tiful colors features a mix of Halloween glitters, sinfully tricked out topcoats, and a glow in the dark polish that's perfect for any spooky soirée. Along with devilish darks and autumnal orange hues, there are plenty of treats in store, no matter what kind of mischievous mani you crave. Take your pick from these fourteen SinfulColors spooktacular shades:   Tricked Out Top Coats Cauldron Couture: Wickedly glittery emerald         Glow In The Dark: Ghoulishly fluorescent Mystery Moonshine: Multi-colored confetti             Splatter Spell: Gilded black flecks                           Halloween Favorites Black on Black: Dark-as-night black                       Clear Top Coat: Scarily shiny topcoat Cloud 9: Pumpkin perfect orange                            Courtney Orange: Opalescent tangerine GoGo Girl: Sleek & sexy candy-apple red               Let's Talk: A royal purple hue Pine Away: Glittering metallic green                        Pumpkin Spice: Twinkling fall orange Snow Me White: Bright white                                  Starry Night: A sprinkle of midnight stardust

PRICE/AVAILABILITY:

$1.99 exclusively at Walgreens & Target stores in October 2014

OPI: Peanuts Collection for Halloween 2014!

A few months ago, OPI released images of the Peanuts collection for Halloween this year. I was stoked about the glitters, they looked so different from any glitters OPI has done recently or ever! I managed to do a cute Charlie Brown themed mani and even got a few compliments on it while out and about :)

I did the signature yellow (Good Grief) then an accent and chevron stripes in black (Who Are You Calling Bossy?!?). I alternated the glitters on Good Grief: little finger has To Be Or Not To Beagle (LOVE this one!) and that's on the top of my middle and index fingers along with all on my accent, Where's My Blanket is on the accent finger as well (mixed in with TBONTB) and on the bottom of the chevrons. 

Good Grief has your usual yellow problems and would benefit from a base of white underneath to make it brighter and smoother. Beagle is awesome though with red, yellow, blue, green, orange, light blue, light green glitters mingled in a light black base with small black round glitter and small black bar glitters. The small glitters are the same in Where's My Blanket but the large glitters are only a peach and subtle lime green. 

This collection is available now!

Each of the four shades is also available in the Little Peanuts mini pack, which is sold with ten nail decals ranging from popular Peanuts phrases like “Good Grief!” and “Pow!” to sketches of Snoopy and the signature squiggle of Charlie Brown’s shirt.

“These stickers offer a playful, kitschy way to add instant art to nails,” adds Weiss-Fischmann. “My favorite decal pays tribute to Snoopy’s many kisses – ‘Smak!’”

 Peanuts by OPI and Little Peanuts mini pack will be available beginning September 2014 at Professional Salons, including Chatters, Planet Beauty and ULTA. Peanuts nail lacquers will retail for $9.50 ($11.50 CAN) each; Little Peanuts mini pack will retail for $13.95 ($17.50 CAN).

For more information, please call 800-341-9999 or visit www.opi.com. Follow OPI on Twitter and Instagram@OPI_PRODUCTS and become a Facebook fan! For more information on Peanuts, follow @snoopy on Twitter, @snoopygrams on Instagram, and like the characters at www.facebook.com/snoopy.

*press sample*

OPI: Peanuts, Pinnk of Hearts and 2 new DS- press releases

All info including when, where and how much after the jump... 

Essie: Cashmere Bathrobe + BM-H08-- updated

Happy post Halloween everyone! Hopefully you are recovered from all the sugar consumption by now.  This was my mani that I wore for a whopping 3 days before it started chipping. Pretty par for course. I started with two coats of Essie's Cashmere Bathrobe. Love. This. Polish. It's dark gray but has these wonderful little specks in it and almost looks like a dark granite. The formula was excellent. 

Then I gave it the Halloween touch. I used Bundle Monster's H08 plate in bats and the creepy cauldron, then added these great little studs I found to highlight the brew bubbles. I did a top coat of China Glaze Ghoulish Glow over the Essie and I must say, I want to use glow in the dark polishes year round.. why not?! Love seeing it glow.I used Milani Black Swift to stamp with (my go to black to stamp with). Overall, a cute mani and I'd actually stamp a less creepy themed image over Cashmere Bathrobe because the effect is pretty great. 

Halloween: Sugar Skulls!

If you follow me on Tumblr or Pinterest, you have already seen this mani, but... if you haven't, take a look. I was watching Cute Polish on You Tube and she did a sugar skull mani so this was inspired by her tutorial. She is so great with a dotting tool and makes it look easy. This was a bi of a challenge. I used OPI Alpine snow as the base for the skulls and a blue Essie for the base to my stamping with the Fun2 and Cheeky CH50 for the flower images. I used black polish but also black acrylic paint and it got a bit messy at that point. Overall though, it's cute enough and unique enough to draw attention when out and about.

Halloween Mani: BM-H06

Not sure what it is about this mani but I really love it. May be it's the SinfulColors navy from the Leather and Luxe line.. or maybe the contrast of only two colors that both seem bold in different ways. Whatever it may be, I love this mani. I used Bundle Monster BM-H11 and BM-H06 and the large scary face barely fit on my nails.. it actually doesn't fit and is too large so I had to be careful with where I centered it. Anyone else have these problems? Final result was great though, nice and bold yet not so traditional Halloween look to it.

Halloween Mani: BM-H06 and BM-H11

 For this mani I did a matte and top coat version for you. I started out with a base of SinfulColors Whipped, a matte black, and stamped using an orange Milani polish. While I like the full Jack-o-lantern heads with the candies on the bottom (cut off because the images are HUGE!), I really enjoyed the simple pumpkins more. I like the way the orange outline of the pumpkin looks against the matte black background. Even though the pumpkin images are still quite large, they look fine and still identifiable even when part of the image is off the nail. I like this mani better with a top coat as well but if it were just the pumpkins, I'd keep it matte.

Halloween Mani: BM H07 H08

My first Halloween mani of the season is here! I ordered the Bundle Monster holiday plates and was eager to use them.. more on those in a minute. I started with a base of SinfulColors Treasure Chest, a textured polish. I used Milani's to stamp a black cat, witches hat with spider and witches boots with stockings in orange.  My little finger is not stamped because the plate images are HUGE! I have wide nail beds and longish nails at the moment and I still had a very hard time squeezing the images onto my nails. Even if my nails were longer, many of the images would still not fit because they are wider than my nail and wouldn't fit turned 90 degrees or wouldn't look right sideways. So that all aside, I like this mani, it's not traditional in base color and stamping over the textured polish was easy and nice because the stamper had something to grip to. Overall a great win.

Halloween Challenge: Re-Created Favorite Halloween Mani

My Pedi-Sox Giveaway!!

Hi Monkeys so this year for Halloween I really loved my Frankenstein mani but I wanted to recreate it in a way that wasn't to complicated and was a bit more cheerful.  I did french tips and Frankie as my accent finger.. I call it a Frankie French Mani. For my tips I used Le Metier de Beaute Orange, Color Club Pucchilicious and Milani Black Swift. It's a simple mani that lasted me 5 days, count it... 5 days and that's 5 days of travelling and doing activities in Hawaii. Overall a super cute mani and was really simple but I was rushed and had trouble getting the stitches straight even using the black acrylic paint. Don't forget to enter my pedi-sox giveaway so you can pamper your feet this winter- open internationally!

Halloween Challenge: Inspired by A Scary Movie

My Pedi-Sox giveaway!

Today's theme is Influenced by a Scary Movie well... Scary movies are.... scary.. and I tend not to watch them so... here you go BOO! In every cheesy movie there's always a villain that tries to scare another character and usually it's as simple as jumping out and yelling "boo!" so that's what I ran with... I used Sally Hansen Wet Cement to do gray tips then used black acrylic paint to write the letters and draw a black line above the gray, took a neon orange striper and drew a random fun line and a glitter striper that has holo glitter in it for the tips, then .... *takes a breath* topped it all off with Nubar White Polka Dots. It's not a horrid mani but for sure not my best.. but since I don't watch the scary movies, I'll take it!
Check out our pinterest board and everyone else's manicures!

Halloween Challenge: Bloodly Inspired

My Pedi-Sox giveaway!

Hey Monkeys! Another day of the Halloween Challenge and today's theme is Blood/gore/splatter... I attempted blood. Turns out the blood mani was alot harder than I thought it would be. I started with a base of Zoya Cho (nude with a shimmer to it) then added a coat of China Glaze Ghoulish Glow, then did blood in my red acrylic paint. I wanted the black marks to look like fang bites but that sort of failed. I added glitter to the blood because vampires sparkle ;)  I tried to get a shot in the dark of it glowing and that's the best picture I came up with. I think next time I'd make the blood glow. In my head I envisioned the blood oozing down the glow but.. not so much. still, who doesn't love glow in the dark :)
Check out everyone else and our pinterest board for the challenge!

Halloween Challenge: Pumpkins!

Hey Monkeys! Today I for the Halloween Challenge I have pumpkins for you! I freehanded these beasts. I started with a base of Le Metier De Beaute's orange then did subtle stripes of Zoya Arizona to add some texture looking interest. I then took black, yellow and green acrylic paint to draw eyes, mouths little green hair (hehe) and a little yellow to highlight the face. They're for sure not as great as some freehand pumpkins (see links below, I'm sure there are some), but I like it none the less :) I can't believe the Halloween challenge is almost over, which Monkey mani have you enjoyed the most?

Halloween Challenge: Frankie Goes Bump In the Night!

Today's Halloween Challenge theme was Things that go  Bump in the Night (Monsters etc), so I freehanded a Frankenstein looking creature for you :) I used Bettina Mojito as my base then on my ring finger I did one coat of China glaze Cha Cha Cha to add some interest (love it!). I then took acrylic black paint and Milani White on the Spot to finish off the art then added a top coat. Super simple mani especially using acrylic paints, hope you enjoy!
You can see the gallery of participants below and also check out our pinterest board!