HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Omg.  My favorite day of the year, and I had to go to traffic court.  Ugh!!!  At least it was quick and relatively painless (other than taking a chunk of change outta my bank account).  Ahh well.  This year was no different than other years - we have had a grand total of 0 trick-or-treaters.  It's such a bummer!  I didn't get all dressed up this time because I feel like it's a bit of a waste of time.  Luckily, we did have our annual costume party a few weeks ago!  The hubs and I went as Harry and Hermione (he had the Potter jersey and I had the naturally huge hair).  It's not as elaborate as our Doctor Who costume from last year, but I'm still pleased.

We chose to do the 4th book/movie since the hubby's hair is so long.  So he's holding our version of the TriWizard Cup.

Oh, and I had time to carve a pumpkin, too!  This is my attempt at a free-hand TARDIS.  Yes.  I'm a dork, and I love it.

Here are a few of my Halloween manis that I haven't had a chance to show you guys yet!

Here are Elevation Sarychev and Nyamuragira.  Look at that succulent jelly!!!  I am normally not an orange fan, but this orange is one I could wear all the time.  It actually looked really good with my pale skin.  Nya is grey with gold, silver, and iridescent shimmer, black hexes, and purple flakies.  So pretty!  Oh, sorry about the super dry skin.  It looks so bad!  I didn't want to douse my cuticles in oil, though, because I was about to add my stamps.

You can't see flakies in my swatch pictures, so I caught some in the bottle shot.

I topped them off with stamps from my new Bundle Monster plates using Konad Special White and Black, China Glaze Passion, and Revlon Metallic.  I'm not really sure what the plate numbers are off the top of my head, but I can get them for you guys if you want them.

Next up is Dollish Polish Zombie Flesh.  It's a fetid green polish with gold shimmer and gold, green, and black glitters.  It applied so so well and built up nicely.  This is four coats.

Last up is what I have on right now!  China Glaze Grape Crush undies with Dollish Polish Deadly Nightshade and What's This? What's This? as an accent.  Grape Crush is a deep purple that leans more red than blue with holographic dust.  It's not a scattered holo, it's more like stars piercing the night sky.  Sadly, it's discontinued, so I had to snag my bottle at a salon nearby.  To avoid bubbling, I used two coats of What's This so that I could build it up a little more.  All of the glitters came out pretty well.  You can see my review of What's This here.  Nightshade is a pretty purple based polish with purple, fuchsia, and blue/teal glitters.  I plan to do a full review of it and the remaining Dollish This is Halloween Collection polishes that I haven't reviewed yet.  You can see the glitter top coats from the collection here.

Remember, Halloween isn't over on the blog yet, so stay tuned for a few more Halloween themed polishes!  As you can tell from my last swatch shot, my nails are shorter.  I took my SOGs off for a week or so, and my middle and pointer fingers decided they didn't want to stay long anymore.  My heart hurt when I filed them down.  I finally got them to a decent length and two broke.  Needless to say, I have on SOGs again now, which is why it looks so thick above.  Also, ignore the wonky pointer finger.  It's a super terrible patch job since I couldn't cut it down to the tear, which was waaaaaaaaaay deep and would probably bleed.

You can purchase Elevation here and Dollish at her store, Llarowe, and Overall Beauty.

What did you wear for your Halloween mani?  Did you wear a costume?

It's Almost Halloween!!!

HOOOOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!  I love Halloween more than I can truly express.  Unfortunately, the past few weeks have been very busy with work.  At my old job, I was able to wear pretty much anything on my nails.  Now, however, I have to be very conservative as I try to schmooze clients and networking contacts.  I have only had time to truly wear three of my Halloween polishes so far, so my plan is to just extend Halloween a little bit.  As of right now, I don't have any professional meetings the rest of this week after I go to court in the morning.  I'm really excited that I will finally get to test drive some of these gorgeous Halloween polishes I've been hording, lol!

Today, I'm going to show you China Glaze LOL, Crows Toes Cheshire, and Sonoma Nail Art Halloween in the Vines.

China Glaze LOL is from the OMG collection that was released in 2009.  Sadly, it has been discontinued.  It's a gorgeous purple linear holographic polish that was a bit of a pain in the butt to apply.  Some holographic polishes dry so quickly that they drag and clump while you're painting, and LOL was no exception.  You have to make sure your base coat is completely dry or you'll definitely get clumping.  The key is to work quickly.  I didn't get any shots of LOL by itself, which is a shame because it is seriously the most gorgeous polish from the OMG collection that I've worn so far.

I chose Crows Toes Cheshire for four fingers on this hand and an accent on my righty.  Then, I decided to toss Sonoma Nail Art Halloween in the Vines as an accent on lefty and on four fingers on righty.  They worked really well together.  Like all Crows Toes, Cheshire was quite thick.  I definitely needed to add thinner to this guy!  It's best applied with the dab method.  Halloween in the Vines was a bit runny.  You can't really use the dab method or else it will pool at your cuticles and leave bubbles when it dries.  This is 3 coats over LOL before I was able to get the coverage I wanted.

Cheshire is made up of a clear base with fuchsia, gold, and purple glitters.  Look at that massive fuchsia hex!!  They were very easy to get out of the bottle, but I stored it upside down for a few minutes before applying.

Halloween in the Vines is a clear based polish with purple, fuchsia, and gunmetal hexes.  It takes quite a lot to get fuller coverage, which is why I chose to use three coats instead of attempting to dab.

As you can tell in this intentionally blurry shot, Halloween in the Vines is not as bright and in your face as Cheshire.  I think the gold in Cheshire adds that extra umph that is lacking in Halloween in the Vines.  Don't get me wrong, I love Halloween in the Vines!  It's just more subdued than Cheshire.

I really like the way this manicure turned out.  Although, I don't usually associate Halloween with purple, but it's still really pretty.  Sadly, LOL has been discontinued.  I found my bottle in a local nail salon.  You can purchase Crows Toes at Llarowe and Overall Beauty.  You can purchase Sonoma Nail Art at her Etsy store.  Sonoma's restocks are infrequent, and she usually only stocks a few bottles at a time.  If you want Sonoma polishes, you'll have to work fast when she restocks.  Although, right now there are a few polishes left from her restock earlier today, including Halloween in the Vines!  Act quickly if you want one of these!!  Check her Facebook page for news on restocks.

Do you have any of the OMG polishes?

Franken Friday: Halloween Edition

The last Friday of every month is Franken Friday on the blog!  Today, I'm going to show you what I came up with for Halloween!  As a child, my sisters and I LOVED to watch Hocus Pocus.  Hell, I still love to watch it.  In fact, we loved it so much that we actually went as the Sanderson Sisters for Halloween three years ago!

I'm Mary. This is well before I started my weight loss journey.

I took colors that reminded me of the main characters and put them into polishes!  Without further ado, here they are!

Black Flame Candle, Fur Black as Black, Hollywood, Shish-ka-Baby, Circle of Salt, Je veux mon livre, Just Lucky I Guess, I Smell Children!, Mother!

Black Flame candle is pretty obvious.  It is a black based polish with gold/red duochrome, gold squares, and red, yellow, and orange hexes.

Fur Black as Black is a  mix of black and blue glitter in a clear base.  You know how sometimes black can be so deep that it looks blue?  That's what I thought of when I made this guy.  It builds into pretty full coverage but only with five coats or something ridiculous like that.  I have one coat on my pointer finger.

Hollywood is a blue linear holographic polish with blue shimmer, white, black, and gunmetal hexes.  I chose these colors because they are the colors of Max's shoes that were stolen by Jay and Ice.

Shish-ka-Baby is based off of Danny's Halloween costume.  It's a black jelly based polish with orange shimmer and green and orange hexes.  Unfortunately, the large green hexes are curling.  Well, more like tacoing.  I just ordered a matte replacement, but it's not as large, which is sad.

A Circle of Salt will protect you from zombies, witches, and old boyfriends.  Allison used this handy trick to protect the gang from the sisters.  It's a clear based polish with silver shimmer and three different sizes of white hexes.  My ring finger is a jelly sandwich with Circle of Salt and Elevation Sarychev.

Je veux mon livre is a sage green based polish with gold and green shimmer and purple hexes, squares, and shreds.  This is based on the baddest bad witch of them all, Winifred Sanderson!

Just Lucky I Guess is a fuchsia polish with pink and blue shimmer and light pink hearts, hexes, and shreds.  Sarah was always the heart breaker who lured the men and children in to their doom.

I Smell Children! is a ruby based polish with red shimmer, black, fuchsia, and purple hexes and purple squares.  This polish comes from sister Mary's flannel dress.  She sniffs out the children so the sisters can live and stay young forever.

Mother!  Sadly, this particular polish is chock full of tacoing glitter.  I have replacements for the green and purple, but I haven't found a replacement for the fuchsia yet.  Mother! is a clear based polish with fine black hexes, medium orange hexes, and large green, red, purple, and fuchsia hexes.  I took the colors that I identified most with each sister and combined them all into this polish.  I hope I can find replacements soon because it looks pretty cool.

And there they are!  What do you think?

Comparison Thursday: Blue, Yellow, & Green Matte Glitters

Today's Comparison Thursday will be short and sweet.  Stupidly, I sat around my house all day long without actually working on this post...  Instead, I swatched my Frankens for tomorrow!  Either way, I should've done this post earlier when I had the time instead of so late.  Ahh, well.  There's not really much to say about these polishes.  All three applied well with the dab method and looked great over Girly Bits Glo Worm.  I present to you for comparison: Nail-Venturous Lacquer Floam, Pretty & Polished Sand Art, and Lac Attack Jewel of the Nile.

All three of these polishes have blue, yellow, and green matte glitters, but Sand Art and Jewel of the Nile both have some pink and purple.  You can't see the pink and purple as well in Jewel of the Nile as you can in Sand Art, though.

Here they are up close and personal.

Floam

Sand Art

Jewel of the Nile

And there you have it!  I adore Floam and am very thankful to the Polish Monster for having it as a prize in a giveaway!  I made the decision to sell Sand Art, but I do really like the way it looks.  Sadly, I just can't justify keeping so many similar polishes.  For that reason, I'm probably going to sell Jewel of the Nile as well.  It'll pop up on my sales page probably Sunday.

You can purchase Girly Bits at her store, Llarowe, Overall Beauty, and Mei Mei's Signatures.  You can purchase Floam at Ninja Polish.  You can purchase Pretty & Polished at her store and Llarowe.  Lastly, you can purchase Lac Attack at her store.

Which of these three do you like best?

Depression Awareness Part 3: Dollish Polish and Northern Star

Let's chat about depression medications.  There are different types of meds for different types of people with different types of symptoms and different types of disorders.  If your doctor places you on medicine that you don't feel is working for you, tell him or her why you think it doesn't work.  It's important that you communicate with your doctors or therapists so that you can get back on track to healing.  Not everyone will need medication, either, so don't worry if you aren't prescribed something.  Also, many people can stop taking medications once their depression symptoms subside, so you may not have to be medicated for long periods of time!  **Note, however, that you should never stop meds cold turkey and without medical supervision!** It all depends on what your symptoms are and how long it takes the chemicals in your brain to regulate themselves.  I know that many people find meditation and exercise crucial in helping their body wean off of medication.  It can't hurt to try!  I know that I am in love with my personal training twice a week.  It makes me feel better both mentally and physically, so I try to make it a priority in my life.

Anyway, tonight, my green mani is made up of Dollish Master Chief, Northern Star Undersea Garden, and Dollish Hero of Time.

Here are the bottle shots.

Master Chief

Undersea Garden

Hero of Time

Master Chief is a green duochrome linear holographic polish.  That's a mouthful!  This is three coats simply because I was putting it over my french SOGs.  Although, I'm pretty sure you can use just two coats and be fine.  The gold and red flashes are just gorgeous.  The holo isn't as strong as the duo, though.  It's still very pretty, and I'm glad I snagged one before they were discontinued.

Here is Master Chief with Hero of Time and Undersea Garden toppers.

Hero of Time has brown, grass green, and light green hexes and squares.  There are apparently larger light green hexes, but they were shy and wouldn't come out.

Undersea Garden has brown, copper, green, and gold hexes with brown bar glitters.  They all came out beautifully!  Above you can see that I applied it a bit thicker on my pointer finger than on my ring finger.  

Both polishes applied very well without pooling or bubbling.  I topped it all off with Hong Kong Girl quick dry top coat, which I just received in a swap.  I'm constantly on the lookout for new quick dry top coats, so any recommendations are welcome.  I love Seche Vite, but I seriously hate the shrinking.  I've tried and vetoed the following top coats: Out the Door, Poshe, Seche Ultra V, NailTek Quick Dry Top Coat, and Sally Hansen Diamond Strength.  So far, I'm really digging the Hong Kong Girl.  We'll see how it holds up over a mani not applied over SOGs.  I'll definitely keep you guys posted.

You can purchase Dollish Polish at her store, Llarowe, and Overall Beauty.   You can follow her on Facebook for news and updates.  You can purchase Northern Star Polish here and can follow Kristin on Facebook and her blog for news and updates!  Send Kristin some love!  Her polishes are GORGEOUS, so you need them in your life stat!

What's your favorite fast dry top coat?