Mom's Pumpkin Nails and Giveaway Winner

Today's post is actually a manicure I did for my mom when she was here for a visit at the beginning of October. I followed a design by Robin Moses for this simple fall themed manicure. My mom really liked it and she said it lasted for almost two weeks! Wow!

I started with a base of butter LONDON All Hail The Queen. Mom picked out this color, and it is soooo pretty! It has a holographic sheen to it, really nice!

I painted the pumpkin and pumpkin vines using acrylic paint. Robin Moses's video on this technique is really helpful, I encourage you to click on the link above to see how she does it. 

Here are mom's finished nails in the sunlight. Dang, I should send mom some Lemony Flutter cuticle cream! Moisturize those cuticles, mom!

Here's her left hand. I didn't get too crazy with the design because we were headed to a gourd festival and needed to get her manicure done quickly. 

HI MOM!!

Polishes I used in this manicure: Essie All In One Basecoat, butter LONDON All Hail The Queen, and Revlon Quick Dry Topcoat. 

Ok, on to the part you quickly scrolled down to, skipping the manicure to find out if you had won my giveaway, LOL! I had a great response to the giveaway, thank you all for entering and showing such interest in my nail art. It is fun to do, and even more fun to share. I had 326 entries! And the winner is....

Congrats to rachlovespenguins! I have sent you an email Rachel. 

Cinderelly Cinderelly

I wanted to try out a few of the mini polishes from my Wet n Wild Color Icon set that I am giving away here, so you could see some of the things you can do with them if you are the winner (deadline for entry is November 14th!). The polish I used was from my OWN set, not from the one you could win. That is brand new and safe in its little box waiting to be shipped to YOU! Here I used one of the clear sparkle top coats to make a Cinderella manicure!

"Cinderelly Cinderelly Night and Day it's Cinderelly! Make the fire! Fix the breakfast! Wash the dishes! Do the moppin'!"

I started with a gorgeous pink sheer shade from butter LONDON, then added two coats of this unnamed sparkle top coat from Wet n Wild. It is very sparkly and could work as a pretty main just like this. 

Then I painted Cinderella using acrylic paints. Her eyes and mouth were particularly hard to do. 

Here is Cinderella before I topcoated. And you can see the mega sparkle of the nails in the background. So pretty!!

Polishes used in this manicure: butter LONDON Pink Ribbon, Wet n Wild Mini Color Icon unnamed sparkle topcoat, Essie All In One basecoat and Revlon Quick Dry Topcoat. 

Here is the song I was singing while I painted these nails. :-)

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Inspired by a Pattern

Today's nails are inspired by the pattern on Sally's dress from Nightmare Before Christmas! I thought this was a perfect way to do a Halloween pattern mani. I first saw the patchwork-style on the whole nail manicure done by Kayla Shevonne. You can see her amazing patchwork manicure by clicking here. I did not do my patchwork in the same way she did hers, by starting with the black, but I like both styles and they are really fun! Also, check out Robin Moses for more patchwork ideas. Her videos are incredibly helpful for learning new techniques.

I studied Sally's dress closely to match the fabric styles of her dress. I did all of this freehand, but you could totally stamp on the swirls on the purple instead.

I started with this lavender polish from Sally Hansen, and then added random patches of green polish. The green polish is from Claire's and it is actually a color changing polish from bright green to light green depending on your  mood. I wonder what mood I was in when I took this pic?

Then I randomly added the other colors, with a dusky blue, an orange, and a burnt umber kind of color. Saying burnt umber always reminds me of Bob Ross, and thinking of Bob Ross makes me smile. You will see that I did not include every color on every nail. I think that makes the manicure more interesting. 

Then I added details to some of the fabric using acrylic paints. Again, you could totally stamp the swirly pattern on the purple at the beginning, to save yourself some time. I tried to make the patterns match Sally's dress as well as I could. 

Here's the mani with all of the black lines and stitches added. This part is really easy. Just outline the areas and add a few stitches here and there. It doesn't have to be perfect, in fact it looks better if it isn't. Add topcoat and you are done!

Polishes used in this manicure: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Delphinium, butter LONDON Minger, China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, Essie Very Structured, Cult Nails Awakening, Claire's Mood Nail Polish in Happy/Earthy. (Apparently I was feeling Earthy!)

Thursday's mani: Nails inspired by Artwork. Ooo, this will be fun. :)

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Inspired by a Song

Another quick post today, so busy! I chose the song "I Put A Spell On You" for my inspiration. Specifically, the version performed by Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Screamin' Jay was crazy! He used to come out on stage in a coffin, and emerge from the coffin to perform for the audience. He also had a lot of voodoo props including a smoking skull on a stick called Henry. Crazy! And he was prolific, er, productive, um, maybe procreative? After his death a website was set up called Jay's Kids to find out how many children might have claims on his estate, or be the offspring of the performer. He had at least 55 kids, perhaps as many as 75 or more. Therefore, I give you my tribute to "I Put A Spell On You" a la Screamin' Jay Hawkins...

Little voodoo babies with voodoo pins! I started with one coat of the butter LONDON polish, sponged on some Sally Hansen in a brownish coat, then topped with more butter LONDON. The butter LONDON is more opaque than I had anticipated, but there is a bit of interesting depth to the polish. 

My right had with a voodoo baby. He's got a pin right through his little heart. Someone definitely is putting a spell on him. 

Both hands together. I just love how this mani turned out. The voodoo baby dolls remind me a bit of the freaky character from the movie Trick-or-Treat. 

Polishes used in this mani: butter LONDON All Hail the Queen, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Expresso, Cult Nails Get It On basecoat, and Seche Vite topcoat.

Here's Screamin' Jay's version of the song. Totally awesome!

Tomorrow: nails inspired by a movie. I can't wait!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Tribal Nails

Let me start this post by saying I am not a fan of tribal nails. I think that they are too busy, and really, what tribe are you referring to? The Sioux? The Quileute? The Pomo? It is kind of insulting to call a random set of lines, dots and triangles a "tribal" design, without trying to make the design specific to a particular tribe, or honoring the beautiful art history of a particular tribe. Sorry, but I had to put that out there. That's just my opinion, and I do love nail art, but I would prefer to see tribal nails that celebrate a particular tribe.

Moving on... in order to do this challenge, I created my own tribe: The Trick-or-Treaters Tribe! We value candy above all else. And therefore, our tribal art features lots of sweets.

Yummy! Give us candy or we will egg your house! And we hate people who give us toothbrushes. We will egg your house if you give us toothbrushes!

I started with a base of my favorite orange polish: Minger from butter LONDON. Oh it is so pretty! This is two coats, another reason I love this polish. 

I began the design on my thumb. Paint your candy corn with white acrylic paint first, so that the orange and yellow layers will really stand out. Also, paint the middle candy corn first, so it will be balanced on your nail. 

I added lollipops to my index finger, and little wrapped hard candies to my middle finger. Feel free to make whatever kind of candies appeal to you on your Trick-or-Treaters Tribal nails. 

You can see how the candy corn looks better with a white base to support the other colors. I really like how this nail turned out. 

My right hand does not have a full tribal mani, just two nails with out tribal war-cry: YUM! YUM!

Here is my right hand with topcoat. I like the ring finger a lot, it's so cute. 

Here are the nails together. On accident (a happy accident) the triangles I painted around the wrapped candies on my middle finger look like teeth! Nom, nom! The ring finger is two caramel apples crossed together, and the pinkie finger is smarties (love smarties!) with a line of Junior Mints between the two rolls of smarties. I thought for a minute about turning those brown dots into M&Ms but then I was like, "What are you smoking? Are you going to paint with a needle?!!" So I abandoned that idea. Junior Mints it is.

The polishes I used in this manicure: Cult Nails Get It On basecoat, butter LONDON Minger, and Seche Vite topcoat. 

Tomorrow is Day 17: Glitter! Halfway through the challenge and I am still loving it! I have to start covering for vacationing coworkers on Monday, so I may be a bit cranky in my posts for the next two weeks. It's me, it's not you. :)

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Blue Nails

Today's design is inspired by one of my favorite artists (I have lots of favorite artists, which is fun): Kipling West. Kipling is so in love with Halloween. She is more in love with Halloween than you and I will ever be. I think the only person on the planet who may love Halloween more than Kipling West, is maybe Tim Burton. Maybe. Kipling made the most amazing Tarot Deck on the planet: The Halloween Tarot. Trust me, it is quite an undertaking to do a complete Tarot Deck. I tried one year to do my own, and only made it through the major arcana (22 cards). To do an entire deck of 78 cards is incredible, and to do them around the Halloween theme is even awesomer. And yes, I know that awesomer is not a word, but it is totally appropriate in this case. So without further ado, today's design is based on The Devil card from The Halloween Tarot by Kipling West... tadaaaa!

Yup, it's a Devil in a Blue Dress (blue dress, blue dress, Devil with the blue dress on!)

The base color for this manicure is Big Smoke by butter LONDON. This is one of the colors I picked up at Ulta's Buy One Get One sale last month. I really love it! This photo was the best at capturing the shade correctly, even though my hands look a bit pink in the shot.

I started by using red acrylic paint for her body and tail. I mixed the red paint with some white paint to add highlights to her features. I learned this technique from Robin Moses, who you should totally check out on YouTube. 

Next came more shading as well as her lovely hairdo. I tried to be careful about not getting too close to her face, as Kipling's drawings have a black outline around all of the characters.

I added her arm (gloved in a lovely blue shade) holding her pitchfork, and also her blue dress and highlights to her hair. She's starting to come together in this pic.

Nearly finished! I outlined with black to make most features stand out, and also added facial features and eyes. I really like how she turned out!

Here is the design with topcoat applied. She's just so sexy and fierce. I love it! A very fun mani for blue nails. 

On my right hand I decided to give the Devil with the Blue dress a little sidekick, so I made this Blue Devil Duckie. I love devil rubber duckies. This one turned out really well. And I placed him on my middle finger on purpose. Why would I do that, you ask?

So I can flip you the bird, of course!!!!! Ha ha ha! Get it? It's a duck, which is a bird, and it's on my middle finger... ha ha! Ok, maybe that is really silly, but I loved showing this manicure off at work, and then flipping all of my coworkers off. I even gave my boss the bird! LOL

You can see the model of Kipling West's Devil Card from The Halloween Tarot in the background of this shot. If you want to see more of The Halloween Tarot, check it out on Amazon here: The Halloween Tarot Deck & Book Set: 78-Card Deck [With Book]. If you want to see more of Kipling's work (which I recommend), follow her blog: Four Eyed Bat.

Polishes I used in this mani: butter LONDON Big Smoke, Essie All in One Basecoat, and Seche Vite topcoat.

Tomorrow will be violet nails. I'll bet you are wondering what I will do for violet Halloween nails, huh? Come back tomorrow to find out!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Orange Nails

Day 2! Nope, it's not Evil Carrots, although that would be an epic mani. I recently attended a great Halloween Art Show called Halloween and Vine. One of the art pieces I purchased was from the great papier mache artist, Jack Roads. I like to call him Jack the Pumpkin King! He's super famous when it comes to folk art and papier mache. I am so excited that I was able to get a piece of his. And I based today's nails on this piece of artwork.

A spooky halloween kitty with fun cobwebs!

The base polish is Minger from butter LONDON. This was my first butter LONDON polish and I about cried when I paid $14 for 1 bottle of nail polish. But I love it so! It's a gorgeous shade and is easy to apply. This was two coats.

I started by using black acrylic paint to make the cat face.

Next I added the cobweb on my middle finger and started to add facial features on the cat, again using acrylic paints. I also use a very small nail art brush that I picked up at Sally's.

Finally I added the other cobweb and finished up the rest of the facial features. The whiskers were tough as were the tiny pupils. I had to touch up both of them with more acrylic paint to get them the way I wanted.

I was tired by the time I finished these, so I did not make a lot of effort on my right hand. I just added a little "Meow" to my ring finger.

Polished used in this manicure: butter LONDON Minger, Essie All in one Basecoat, and Seche Vite Topcoat.

Here is the Jack Roads piece I got. I love it so much! The orange background is fairly muted, making the piece seem much older and folksie than it is. Jack has such talent!

Here's the man himself. Find out more about Jack Roads by clicking here. He lives in California and doesn't really do any shows besides Halloween and Vine. Another reason for you to visit Sonoma County in late September!

Tomorrow's nail challenge is Yellow Nails! I can't wait!