The Vampire Bat

Here's another Halloween manicure for you - although I still don't celebrate halloween. Maybe I should start some year...

With this one I got a polish out from my box-o-untrieds again: China Glaze Lubu Heels featured here on ring&index fingers. The other fingers are sporting ChG Mummy May I. Two coats of polish in all of them, I think.

These differed a lot on the nail, although when I first picked them up they seemed almost like twins in red and purple. They have different shapes of glitters, for starters (round in Lubu, square in Mummy). Well, it was dark when I planned this mani...

I painted on some drips with alessandro Virgin Temptation and Astor Pop color 139, both based with Mavala White. The stamping is from BM-301 (isn't that the cutest vampire bat ever?), stamped with my best silver stamping polish Gosh Silver. Geez, it was hard to get a near decent picture of the stamp. It's just in the part of the nail where reflection always inevitably sets. Grrrr.

That's the bottle pic - the official 'That's all, folks' of this blog. Please stay safe, no matter under which storm you're under!

Sorbet Spider

A few Halloween manis coming up! Personally, I don't even celebrate Halloween, and it's not very big where I'm living now. But there have been sooo many fun and ingenious halloween nails around in the blogs I read, I simply had to give them a go. And besides, what are all the cobweb stamping patterns for if not this...

This mani is three coats of OPI Y'all Come Back Ya Hear, and some sponging on the tips with OPI Big Hair... Big Nails. The spider web stamping pattern came from DRK-A -plate. 

On the pinky I tried to paint something resembling a spider (well, at least it's got eight legs..) using a large dotting tool and Konad black special polish. Konad black is NOT my first choice for freehand nail art polish -it gets all stretchy and dries super fast -but I didn't have anything else at hand. If you do, please use something else and have prettier results.

 Apparently adding the red rhinestone and some squishy topcoat made the spider seem a real treat for those after fresh blood... Not bad for a Halloween manicure, eh? And YES, that is a real mosquito, YES, it voluteered to do the photo shoot on its own initiative and YES, it was seriously harmed afterwards -for going after my wrist veins. [evil grin]

Pink Studded

After all I've tried, sponging is still my favourite nail art technique. It's simple, endlessly variable and still not your regular straight-from-the-bottle -look.

This is one of the simplest and fastest manis I've made for a long time. I definitely wouldn't do water marbling every day (as I suck in it to the extent that it takes me five hours to get it right..), but sponging... You can't fail at sponging...

The base is two coats of an old Crisnail polish, and the gradient made with with China Glaze 108 Degrees. To make the mani stand out, I added some studs (from eBay) going along the gradient.

I actually liked this one, especially the "wrong" coloured stud in my left hand. Heck, there has to be at least one "catch" in every manicure/outfit, says me! Maybe that's why I so often feel I stand out from the crowd...

Next time something completely different...

Holo Stripes

Just some simple stripes today, BUT TAKE A LOOK AT THAT HOLO!!!!

 .. Sorry about shouting, but I couldn't keep it inside me. The colour scheme is a bit US patriotic, but I don't mind. For me, that country has been full of surprises, awesome experiences and magical moments. I'm so happy to be going there soon again!

 All pics are in sunlight, with topcoat (Seche Vite).

 The base here is Hits Speciallita No Olimpo Artemis. Stamping was done with A England Tristam (which is GREAT for stamping!!) and China Glaze Ahoy!, using a Bundle Monster plate.

A "mythical" mani :) - combining the old Greek mythology with a polish from modern mythical nail polish collection. And, erm, China Glaze Ahoy...

Spun Sugar Skittle

 'tis the season...
I mean not THE season yet, but the time to stop longing for the last summer and start longing for the Holidays and all the fun preceeding them. But who cares! I've got a bunch of nail photos from the summer and I'm going to show you the best picks, like it or not!

This mani is the result of another I-can't-decide-which-polish-to-try-first -moments..
For the base I used four Manhattan polishes from the Lotus Effect line:
from pinky to pointer (left hand)
61V
51K
9
67N
**Targeted message to you guys who make Manhattan polishes: Get your act together and make up some names to your polishes!! Arg!!!**

 Other than the persistent name issue, I can't complain about the polishes. All of these were two effortless coats, complete opacity, butter-like texture. What more could a girl want - from nail polish that cost 4 euros, that is...

To decorate, I added a bit of "spun sugar" (my first) with Essence Fruity yellow polish (no name on the bottle) and Manhattan 51K. I'm quite happy with the result, even if it took a bit more effort than I thought. The time window when the polish is stringy enough to "be spun" and not yet too hard and clumpy was quite narrow, at least with these polishes.

 And last but NOT AT ALL least:
A huge thank you for all my followers who have stayed with me through all the summer with virtually no posts!!! Just knowing you are there has been a great comfort in the changes I've been through recently. You're definitely up for a treat! At least a whole summers worth of sunny nail pics, plus maybe something even more fun... :)