Killer Clown!

Halloween is one of my all time favourite holidays of the year! I've always enjoyed it and though I'm not going to be able to partake in any festivities this year, I'm certainly gonna rock out some cool nail art!

I decided to start with one of the creepiest things I could think of...clowns!! There's something so sinister about them that I just had to do some nail art around it.

I'm "dead" impressed with how these turned out, lol! I actually had a different concept when I started but had to scrap it as it didn't come to fruition as I hoped but I love what actually happened.

I started off with Sally Hansen White On as a base on all of my nails. My index finger has Hard Candy Teeny Greeny on it and my ring finger has Hard Candy A Pinch of Spice on it and then they both have a top coat of LA Colors Color Craze Confettti.

I then went to work with my nail pens and some acrylic paints to do all the detail work on the middle, pinkie and thumb.

The thumb is possibly my favourite. I thinned the paint right down with water to get the splatter effects.

My mom found these so super creepy and I tend to agree with her (in a good way :). What do you think? Did I capture some good Halloween nail art?

Happy painting friends!

Show 'em You're a Tiger

My mom wanted me to use this extremely bright orange I got called Traffic Cone by Salon Perfect and I thought it would make a great tiger stripe.

They are so crazily bright in person; they're fantastic!! I think my dog can even see the colour. And how amazingly appropriate are they for the countdown to Halloween?

Tiger stripes are surprisingly easy to do. You paint on your base coat and then either use a nail pen or the corner of a nail polish brush to draw on the stripes. The great thing about this look too is that you can use any colours you want. Don't feel restricted to the classics; let your imagination run wild!

Here's the look with a matte top coat.

I don't think that the matte shows very well in the photo but it looked good in person.

Do you think it's something you'll try? Happy painting friends!

This One's for Becky

My sister-in-law got married this summer and it was a veritable pink fiesta! She loves pink, glitter and bling and I thought I would do some nails in honour of her. These are a bit more purple than she would choose (because she would go for a hot pink!) but I think they are absolutely beautiful. In fact my dad looked at them and said, "Becky would like those!"

I started off with a base of a purple/pink jelly (just one coat) from LA Colors. I then sponged on small patches of Sally Hansen White On and China Glaze That's Shore Bright. I repeated these steps three times (thin coat of the jelly then sponging) until I had built up a good depth of colours on my nail.

I then went crazy sauce with the rhinestones and did a frame of them on each nail. This step took FOREVER! But the results are amazing, so beautiful.

I don't know that this is a "long lasting" design because the rhinestones have a tendency to pop off but even if I only wore it for one night it would be worth it.

I hope you like it Bec :)

Happy painting friends!

How Deep is Your Love? (Pond Manicure)

There has been a lot of this type of manicure floating around the interwebs these days and I knew I had to try it out because it's just so darn pretty!

This is all about layering your polish and your nail art.

You need to choose a polish that is a "jelly" meaning that it is rather sheer when you apply it. This will allow you to do the layering necessary to get the effect.

I started with one coat of a teal jelly from LA Colors Color Craze and then I drew in a few hearts (just 2 or 3). Then, once that is dry, you apply another layer of the polish and then draw on more hearts. Keep doing this until you've built 3 or 4 layers of hearts.

And just because I love me a good shimmer, I added on a topcoat of an LA Colors white shimmer.

There is an amazing tutorial for this over at Adventures in Acetone (one of the fabulous blogs that I follow), so check it out if you want to try this nail art.

Happy painting friends!

Minions!

I've had a few people suggest Minion nail art to me so I thought I would get to it. Along with the regular cute yellow minions I thought I would do an accent of an evil purple one from the 2nd movie. I love love love the purple one! I think he turned out really well.

I started off with a base coat of Kleancolor Neon Yellow for the yellow minions and a base of China Glaze That's Shore Bright for the purple minion. Most of the details are with my nail pens but for the overalls I used Essie Cashmere Bathrobe on the purple minion and Color Club Bright Night for the yellow minions.

My favourite part is the hair on the purple minion. It is definitely not ideal for everyday use but I love the effect of going onto the skin to do his hair; it just makes it so much crazier!

If you haven't had a chance to see the Despicable Me movies, I highly recommend them. I saw the first one with my nephew and thought it was so good I went to see the second with my hubby. The part where the minions sing "I Swear" almost made me die laughing!

Happy painting friends :)

Crazy Paisley Print

Not the most original title but I couldn't think of anything else! My mom bought a new shirt and she wanted me to replicate the pattern on my nails. I'm not sure that it turned out exactly as she was expecting but she seemed to like it.

I changed up the colour palette from the one on the actual shirt because I wanted to add in some orange to it and make it a bit warmer. Here is what the actual shirt looks like.

I tried to replicate certain parts of it on different nails.

And because I love a good matte finish, I decided to add a matte top coat.

What do you think? Did I capture the essence of the shirt?

The base colour I used was Orly  Coffee Break and then I went mad with some nail pens. The one that looks black is actually a dark mahogany with a shimmer and I'm a little sad that it didn't hold truer to the colour when I was on the nail.

Happy painting friends :)

All Blinged Out and Nowhere to Go

Hello friends! It's finally a sunny day after the incessant rain we've had lately. Maybe I should have done something a bit brighter to celebrate that but I'd already started these last night so I went with it.

I started off with 3 coats of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Black Platinum. It looked opaque last night but it probably could have done with a fourth coat as I can see some lighter spots in the sunlight.

I then added an accent nail of a Color Club glitter. Unfortunately there is no name attached but c'est la vie when you buy from Winners!

I added some rhinestones I bought from eBay, gave it a topcoat and called it a day. Unfortunately the rhinestones look a little dull in the photos. They are much sparklier in person.

Maybe I'll do something with a lighter palette tomorrow; we'll have to see.

Happy painting friends :)