Skull Skittle

Greetings All!

I'm happy to say I now have a pretty decent selection of skull stamps. I do enjoy having skulls on my nails. My bat stamp collection is looking good too! Now I need Dragon stamps...

This particular skittle is all from MoYou plates. They're all I seem to use lately! They're very conveniently sized, both the image sizes and the plates themselves. I like to rifle through them like a deck of cards until I find what I want.

As Halloween is approaching, I decided to swap my usual W7 Black for this pumpkin themed polish. I bought these a couple of years ago, just because it was black polish with a pumpkin face on. This might be the first time I've used it!

The skulls are from MoYou - Biker 07 and 10, Roxy 01 and Gothic 05. I stamped with Mentality Dapper.

Halloween Butterfly?

Greeting All!

I'm not really sure what my nails look like today. In my head they were a sort of Halloween butterfly with jagged wings, but now I'm not sure if they look like butterfly wings, dragon wings, leaves, or something else entirely. I'll leave you to your own interpretation!

Look, I got so confused I didn't know what to do with my thumb - I just left it plain!

The base is Revlon Ignite, the black is W7 Black and there are some very subtle dots of Orly Star Spangled on the tips.

UK Indies - Dark Metal Lacquer Cuticle Oil Review (Plus Halloween Polishes)

*The cuticle oil pen was sent for review. I purchased the polishes myself*

Greetings All!

For the last two weeks I've been using this cuticle oil from Dark Metal Lacquer. I'm terrible at using handcare products - I have loads, but I can never seem to get in the routine of using them everyday. 3 or 4 times a week is about all I can manage!

I do have a couple of bottles of cuticle oil, but they tend to get lost in among my top and base coats. This one is in a pen, so I've found it much easier to keep it around where I can see it, so that I'll remember to use it! I've used it at least once a day for the last two weeks, and I can honestly say I've noticed a difference, especially as I've been polishing a lot lately. My cuticles aren't dry, or thick from all the acetone!

So here is the pen. The oil is grapefruit scented, and it smells really nice and really natural, like grapefruit zest. I also have a bottle of the coconut scented oil, which again smells like a real coconut rather than suntan lotion! They're also available in lemon, vanilla, rose and almond. The oil absorbs quickly, it doesn't leave your fingers too greasy, and I personally much prefer the pen brush to the polish brush you get in bottles.

Also worth noting, although this pen says you can buy it on Etsy, Dark Metal Lacquer has recently moved to Big Cartel!

Now for the scary bit - close ups shots of my nails! I normally avoid these, because after a manicure (and inevitably, cleanup), they tend to look a little dry and rough round the edges.

A hasty paint job - I did originally plan to have bare nails, but I just couldn't go through with it so I quickly popped on a coat of black! Also one of my nails from yesterday. Behold how inoffensive and unnoticeable my cuticles are! Sounds a little strange, but that is what you want!

I will definitely continue to use this pen, it's very easy and convenient and it leaves my cuticles soft and barely noticeable.

Now for the Halloween polishes! These are not part of the review, but I've decided to include them anyway to further tempt you!

Pumpkin Masharoo, two coats.

A fantastic pumpkin polish - the triangles are an inspired touch! On the first coat I worried it might be a little sheer, but it built perfectly on the second coat. This is probably the most 'Halloweeny' polish I've had this year, if that makes sense.

Choccy Orange, two coats.

A gorgeous chocolate brown base, filled with orange glitter. My only complaint is that it doesn't also smell like chocolate orange (I don't like the taste, but I love the smell of orange chocolate!). It did dry a little gritty and does need topcoat to get it properly smooth and sparkly, but it's beautiful. A perfect polish for Autumn.

Dark Metal Lacquer polishes and cuticle oils are available here. 

Graveyard

Greetings All!

So, yesterday I had gravestones, and where does one find gravestones? In a graveyard!

I've been having so much fun with these MoYou Gothic plates (what a surprise!). I'm currently waiting on the last three from the collection, and the two Halloween plates! I'm very excited about them, and specifically a nice new bat image! I know a lot of these images will get plenty of use all year round.

This is the last outing for this particular bottle of OPI The It Color. I recently got a shiny new bottle, and I'll decant the remains of this one in when there is room. I cannot believe that I've almost finished a whole bottle of yellow polish! I do use this quite a bit though - I'm aware I've written The It Color many times!

The gradient is also made up of Sally Hansen Evening Glow, and Barry M Bright Purple and Indigo. The sparkle is China Glaze Golden Enchantment. I stamped with Konad Black and MoYou Gothic 01 and 04

Halloween Nail Art - Gravestones

Greetings All!

I don't want to jinx anything, but I think I may have my nail mojo back. I've had a bit of a tough year and not even nail art was bringing me much pleasure. But if anything can make me happy, it's Halloween nail art! I have that rare combination of time, motivation and ideas, and I'm also really enjoying what I'm creating. I've had a really busy week or so, with lots of inspiration and lots of nail art that I'm really excited to share with you!

Today I have nails that look like gravestones.

I started with a base of OPI Suzi Takes The Wheel. I'll confess this slightly putty tinged grey isn't the sort of polish I'd wear on its own, but obviously it has its place and use in my collection!

I made decals for the stamps, in an effort to get them placed just right. I've previously used SV for decals, but it's a bit too thick. I was recommended to use basecoat instead. In this case I've used Essie Grow Richer, and it was way too thin! Handling the decals was a bit like handling gold leaf, and they were so thin they stuck onto dry polish! I haven't given up experimenting though, and I can confirm that a thicker basecoat does work very well.

The stamps are from MoYou Gothic 01 and 06, and I stamped with Boots Seventeen in Smoke Signal. I then  added some grass with Sally Hansen Grass Slipper, and Color Club Wild Cactus and Artsy Craftsy. I've also used Asda Matte Topcoat.

UK Indies - TarasTalons Halloween Polish Swatch Spectacular!

Greetings All!

I've put all my remaining TarasTalons Halloween polishes into one big swatch post. Tara did really well with her Halloween collections this year, and there are some real gems in here! Plus you have still have enough time to grab some and have them on your nails in time for the 31st!

At the time of going to press, nearly all of these polishes are available from TarasTalons, including the Halloween themed box, individual polishes from that collection, and the Scream collection. Remember, you can use the code SpecialGirlNails to get 15% off your order!

Nine polishes in total means a picture heavy post, so I'm going to get straight on with it.

Flaming Skull

Greetings All!

Two red and black, not quite Halloween manicures in a row! Thankfully the time of year has given me lots of inspiration, and this week I did loads of Halloween nail art. I also have more Halloween polishes to show you, so stay tuned next week!

Today's nails are quite simple. You can't really go wrong with skulls and flames though.

I used Barry M Gelly in Blood Orange (kind of Halloween themed!), Konad Black, Moyou Roxy 01 and Punk 04, and TarasTalons matte topcoat.

Red-Black Gradient

Greetings All!

So, this manicure isn't really Halloween nail art, but red and black are fairly Halloweenish colours so I'm going with it. I just really like red and black, in case you hadn't noticed!

The gradient is Sally Hansen Right Said Red, Barry M Red Black and W7 Black. I topped it off with two coats of China Glaze Golden Enchantment, because everything is better with a bit of glitter on it!

Spooky Swatch - OPI Peanuts Glitters

Greetings All!

Today I have swatches of the two glitter polishes from the OPI Peanuts collection. Black glitter and matte glitter meant I wasn't able to resist them! I also got the yellow from this collection (I justified it because I have very few yellow polishes), but I managed to resist the black, as I probably already have enough black polish to last a lifetime. For me, that's progress!

First is Where's My Blanket? 2 coats over OPI A Grape Fit.

I love the combination of black and pastel. Orange and yellow are very Halloween colours, and I like the twist of pastels instead of brights. It's very cute!


Next is To Be Or Not To Beagle, again 2 coats, over OPI A-Piers To Be Tan.

This has a combination of pastel and brighter matte glitters, and it just reminds me of sweets. Hence the toffee coloured base. Another really cute combination. I almost love this one. It's just the bar glitter. They're quite small and inoffensive, but they also kind of look like stubble! I would much prefer it without.


I bought these polishes from TNBL.

Halloween Nail Art - Stitches

Greetings All!

Today's manicure is the first stamp/nail art idea that came to me when I received the first half of the MoYou Gothic collection. I was actually hoping that the second half would arrive today, but no such luck. Fingers crossed for tomorrow!

This stamp would make a great base for patchwork nails, but I went in a slightly different direction with it.

I started with a base of OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons. This is my very favourite nude polish at the moment, and my current bottle is nearly finished. I've been trying to find a replacement bottle (cheap, of course!), and a friend reminded me I hadn't been on Fragrance Direct in a while. Where they had it for £3.99! So now I finally have a new bottle (and a backup!). I actually wore this plain for work with a Nails Inc matte topcoat, but after 24 hours you can see in the pictures my nails have quite a shine to them. I'm not very impressed.

I stamped with Konad Red and MoYou Gothic 04, then I went over the stitches with W7 Black. I left it without topcoat so they would look a little more 3D. Here it is before adding the black.

Spooky!

UK Indies - Freckles Polish I'm Spooked Collection

*These polishes were purchased by me*

Greetings All!

More Halloween polishes! They're currently taking priority over the other polishes in my untried drawer (of which there are many!), I can't help myself.

These two are from Freckles Polish, and are both currently available in 5ml and 10ml sizes.

First up is Toil And Trouble, two coats.

I love this blue jelly base. It has a hint of purple to it, and built perfectly in two coats. These pictures don't show just how sparkly this was! Super pretty.

Next up is Fallen Star, again two coats.

This is also a blue base, but with a slight hint of green to it (different enough to justify getting both!). Again, it built perfectly in two coats. I did have to fish a little bit for the stars, but nothing too strenuous.

You can buy Freckles Polish on Etsy.