Day of the Dead Mani

I was scheduling appointments in my daytimer yesterday and seen that November 2nd had a notation that it is Day of the Dead. I don't know much about Day of the Dead to be honest....all I really know is that I've seen some really cool tattoos and makeup with this theme! So I do apologize in advance if I've offended anyone if I've done something taboo by doing this mani as its not really a holiday/tradition I'm familiar with! Anyway, I thought, why not try out a Day of the Dead themed mani?...this is what I came up with.



Here's mani in progress. Colours used are OPI Bride's Bouquet (white), Misa Hanging with the Girls (yellow) and WetnWild Black Creme (black). Two coats each.

Stamped using black and white Konad special polishes using Big SdP B (middle finger; full image plate of flowers), D03 (skulls on ring and index fingers), S8 (tombstone on thumb) and H12 (skull on pinkie).

Then just added a series of dots to make flowers and dots.

Polishes used were Konad special polishes in yellow, apple green, black, blue and CND Raspberry Parfait.

Until this morning, I only had one implement to use for dotting...the end of a brush I use for cleanup. I usually make small and large dots just by adjusting the pressure when I'm applying them...well, this mani proved I have no dotting skills (!) when I needed to do more than one or a few so I went out and bought a dotting set so hopefully will have more uniform dots when and if needed! (or it could be just that I was getting tired as I started this around midnight!)



This mani took me about an hour and a half. Looking back, I have no idea why it took so long...I mean, its just a couple of stamps and a few dots!

Lastly, added a coat of SV after about 10 minutes of applying my last dot....wanted to make sure they were all dry so I had no SV drag!



Thanks for looking!

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Unknown Big SdP B, Fauxnad, fauxnad D03, fauxnad S8, H12, Konad, misa, OPI, SdP, skittles, Wet N Wild

Happy Halloween!!!

The matte version of this mani is the one I'll be sporting for Halloween tonight while handing out candy to all the trick or treaters who come to my door.



Started with two coats of Misa Green with Envy.

Added one coat of Color Zone glitter (unnamed).

Decided to add french tips using Icing The Golden Age of Glitter. The last time I did them free hand, I wasn't that happy with the results (its a mani I never posted..yet!) so I decided to try taping them.



This is how they turned out. On the index finger, I crinkled the tape (and left it, not realizing it would matter) and a little bit of the glitter oozed under so its not a sharp line...I'll have to keep this in mind for the next time that the tape has be flat on the whole surface.



I didn't SV my tips at this point; just used the small end of the double stamper to place the stamping images. Used Konad black special polish. This is my left hand.



This is the right (this pix already has SV topcoat on).



After waiting a few minutes, added a coat of SV to the left hand. A great example of how black stamping polish *pops* with topcoat if you check it against the pix of the same hand above.



Used IP's D03 (skull, frankenstein face, large spider), BM209 (witches hat), T28 (ghost, cat, pumpkin) and A37 (fang lips).

I did this mani Saturday night; last night, I added a coat of Essie Matte About You.


Have a great Halloween...be safe if you're out with the Trick or Treaters...and don't eat too much candy if you're at home like me handing it out!

Thanks for looking!

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Unknown A37, bm209, Color Zone, Fauxnad, fauxnad D03, glitter, green, Halloween, Icing, Konad, misa, T28

Jack-o'-Lantern Nails

Another Halloween mani I came up with recently.



Started with two coats of OPI Osaka To Me Orange.



To add a little shimmer interest, topped with one coat of Nicole by OPI Fresh Squeezed.



Added the pumpkin faces using image plates S8, D03, and A37 as well as the scary shark face (well, looks like shark to me!) from A37 on the thumb nail. This image only has one eye and I transferred the eye from the mirror image on the same plate to give the thumb image two eyes (hopefully this makes sense!!); stamped using Konad black special polish.



Added a little greenery using the leaves on IP T41 with Konad special polishes in Green and Apple Green.




Lastly, added some eyeballs for the faces using Konad special polishes in white, yellow and red (these work well for dotting as they are so heavily pigmented).



My DD thought this was the bomb and I ended up doing this mani on her nails as well.

What do you think....do you think its the bomb...or did it bomb? lol! I wore this mani last weekend and while it's probably more age appropriate for my DD, I had a lot of fun wearing it! I think I may do something along these lines for Halloween night when handing out candy as I'm sure the kids trick or treating can relate!

Thanks for looking!

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Unknown A37, Beautiful Scratchers, Fauxnad, fauxnad D03, fauxnad S8, Halloween, Konad, Nicole by OPI, OPI, orange, T41

Fall Leaf Nails

Have the leaves started turning in your area yet? Just this past week or so, they started to turn where I live. So fall was the inspiration for this mani.



A little different eh?

Started with a base of Orly Iron Butterfly, which was from their Matte Metallic collex. This is one coat....I was just too tired to do a second as it was 1 am when I was doing this mani, which is around my usual time for finally getting time in my day (or night?) to do them lately.


Stamped using CND chrome polishes in Copper, Silver and Gold. All of these chromes work really well for stamping.



I really liked this combination of using a matte base with the chrome polishes and have already thought of a few different manis that I could recycle this look, using other plates and themes.



Used fauxnad image plates T41, D03 (not chez d plates, another D series), fauxnad m56 (Canada flag image but just used the maple leaf portion) and SdP D-14.


Unfortunately, matte polishes tend to chip. By 10 am the next morning, I already had chips and lots of tip wear so this mani was short lived.


Hope you have a fantastic weekend. Thanks for looking!

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Unknown CND, fall, Fauxnad, fauxnad D03, fauxnad m56, Grey, matte, orly, SdP D-14, T41