"This Is Halloween" - Graveyard

We're geting close to the end of the "This Is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge!

As I post twice a week (on Tuesdays and Fridays), my Monday entries have gone live on Tuesdays throughout this Challenge. This means that today's post should've been "Trick or Treat!" (which I'll publish on Friday), but I'm still on yesterday's prompt "Graveyard". (Yeah, I'm anal like that... :-p)

This theme has a bit of sentimental value (polish days?), even though some people may find it weird. Little sis likes cemeteries. Patty likes strolling along the tombstones, reading the inscriptions, admiring the crypts. During family vacations, we've joined her in this sightseeing more than once. It's definitely interesting!

OK, I know there's a difference between cemeteries and graveyards. But Patty likes them both the same, so I couldn't do tombstones on my nails without thinking of her! ;-)

Base colour is two coats of Date in the Moonlight (Essence). It could be a one coater, but I preferred dealing with thinner coats and doing it twice. This polish dries SO quickly!! There's a nice blue shimmer to it, but hubby couldn't see it at all and kept saying it was just a dark grey... 

We didn't do a good job in capturing that shimmer, but I found a great picture by Lola in the Nail Polish Forum, and an awesome post by Les Ongles de Chamallow.

The tombstones were Carbonite (Revlon), which is a great one-coater, and black details were with my go-to black, Black Expressionism (Finger Paints). The sparkly round silver moon was Bring on the Snowflakes (Sephora by O.P.I), and the grass growing over the tombstones was High Line Green (New York Colors). 

The grass-like look was achieved mixing two different shades of green flocking powder I bought in a 4-pack at Michaels. I'd already attempted plush nails before, and failed miserably, but I thought that trying it small could work better. And it did!! :-D

The sparkly glittery addition was Glitter Goblin (China Glaze). I loved the colours on this one, such a Halloweenie combination!!

Have you seen the spooky graveyards the other ladies in the challenge came up with?

xoxo

PRIS

"This Is Halloween" - Witches

Onto the 8th day of the "This is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge!

I had this idea in mind, but it didn't turn out quite as I expected. Stickers made their appearance to reinforce the "Witches" theme...



Red polish is Sample Sale (Sephora by O.P.I.) the 'black widow' is Viúva Negra (Risqué). Striping tape helped with the straight lines. Lots of top coat to make it smooth, as Viúva Negra is kinda gritty...


Guess I wasn't that inspired for this one. Hopefully next post will be more interesting!


xoxo

PRIS

"This Is Halloween" - Gradient

Here I am, cheating once again... :p

For the 'Gradient' edition of Bec's "This Is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge, I'm showing a mani I made on Patty, my 'little' sister. She has really beautiful nails, by the way!

It all began when she posted an ombré nails tutorial on my facebook wall, saying I should make one of those. I'd already tried it before (twice!), and wasn't successful. But I said she could be my guinea pig this time around!



She asked for a blue gradient, but with the challenge in mind I said it had to be Halloween-ie colours. I wanted black and orange, but all she'd let me do was a purple-ish nail art. Coming from a person who doesn't like flashy, different, it was good enough!

I used the sponging technique, without any base colour, just the base coat. The lightest lilac, which barely shows on most nails, was a Milano with no name, only a number (007). Another of the Italian polishes my grandma sent me from Paris... The darker lilac was Audrey (Impala), followed by a grey-ish violet, Violeta Acinzentado (Risqué), and completed by a dark starry night Chão de Estrelas (Risqué).

When Patty accepted the purple gradient, she had an agenda! As an exchange student at Bishop's University, she was showing some school pride by wearing a purple mani! :-)

Purple and school pride have really made her dive deep into the bright and colourful world of nail polish. I'm dragging her to the dark side!! ;-)


As I'm posting a day late, I've already seen some of the other ladies' designs. Amazing!! :-)


xoxo

PRIS

"This Is Halloween" - Bats

The theme now is Bats, for the "This Is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge!

I didn't really think I could pull that off, so when I saw Halloween nail stickers at Dollarama, I picked up the package with the most little bats.

Then, ashamed of taking the easy way out, I started looking for tutorials online, and came across two good ones on youtube: Cute Bats from Dying 4 Chocolate and Spooky Bat Nails from Cute Polish.

Because it's Halloween, and I had just bought a new orange shade (and somewhat inspired by Cute Polish's design), the base colour was Gorgeous Bling Bling (Essence). One coat might've done it, but I ended up using two. For the bats, my usual suspects: Black Expressionism (Finger Paints) and Snow Me White (Sinful Colors). No nail art pen this time around, just dotting tools of mani different sizes.

I loved the cute little bats!! And I thought they were fairly easy to make, specially the Dying 4 Chocolate ones.

Are there gonna be more bats or batmans for this challenge? ;-)


xoxo

PRIS

"This Is Halloween" - Zombies

Onto the third week of the "This is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge, I wasn't that excited. Zombies are not my thing, and my mind was blank...

...suddenly, I had that lightbulb moment: Zombie Farm!! Hubby plays that on his iPhone, and I started looking for pictures to see if they were doable. Guess what? They were!!

Green was the base colour for my zombies. Not being a big fan of green, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try all my light greens!

Right hand was from an Italian brand, Milano, that my grandma bought for me in Paris, earlier this year. It seems to be a drugstore brand, and it has no name, only a number: 067. Application was easy, no problem with clean up, and it was a one-coater!! Looks like a good stamping polish. I can envision some interesting Christmas designs! :-)


For the left hand, I used High Line Green (New York Colour) and on the non-zombie nails I topped it off with Ivy League (Sally Hansen), which I had already used for the St. Paddy's mani. 

Totally Cool Nails's Zombie Tutorial taught me how to draw the zombies. I followed the same technique for the Zombie Farm zombie on my thumb. Hubby didn't recognize it at first, but he was all proud when I showed the picture that inspired me... ;-)

Black details were either with Black Expressionism (Finger Paints) or Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in Black. If you ever use the pen, careful with your skin. It stains and there's no polish remover that will get rid of it. It only goes away after a shower...  Roguish Red (China Glaze), Snow Me White (Sinful Colors), and Amarelo Pop Art (Colorama) were also used for the red, white, and yellow details.

As ugly as Zombies can be, it turned out to be a very cute design! :-)

What will we come up with next??


xoxo

PRIS

"This Is Halloween" - Jack-O-Lanterns

Another post, another day of our "This Is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge!

For Jack-O-Lanterns, no better way to start than with an orange polish, right? ;-)

To start, two easy coats of Fagulha (Colorama) - that translates from the Portuguese as Spark -, but I would've used a third had I worn it on its own. With a striping brush, I drew the darker lines using Roguish Red (China Glaze). Details in black - eyes, nose, mouth - were either with Black Expressionism (Finger Paints) and dotting tools of different sizes, or with Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in Black (liked it better this time around).

The theme was Jack-O-LanternS, and that was the excuse I needed to play around with many different pumpkin faces!!

Can't wait to see what else the other ladies in this challenge are gonna come up with!


xoxo

PRIS

Double Post: "This Is Halloween" - Ghosts & Polish Days: Sentimental

Going into the third day of Bec's "This Is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge, combining it with #SentimentalPolish edition of #PolishDays.

(OK, I know I'm cheating... I just couldn't miss tagging along with Polish Days when I had so many sentimental allusions on my nails!!)

I've been doing my nails (or having them done) on and off since I was 10. I started doing them myself since hubby and I moved to Canada, 3 years ago. Along the years, I always wore sheer polishes, either pink or white, with a few pearl finishes here and there. A little over a year ago, when I last went to Brazil to visit family, I brought some bold and colourful Brazilian shades. And I was hooked! My collection has grown a lot ever since, and my favourite colour is blue, because of Jeans (Colorama), the one that started it all.

All that babbling was to say that nothing more 'Sentimental' than using blue as the background! It was the perfect opportunity to try Tristam (a england), and see its gorgeous holographic, colourful sparkle under the sun. No pictures of that, though...

Going back to the 'Ghosts' theme, a glow-in-the-dark polish was a must. And this was the look I was going for, at first.

For a strong glow effect, Snow Me White (Sinful Colors) was used as the base. This is an amazing white polish for nail art, by the way. Black details were done with Black Expressionism (Finger Paints).  And the Ghoulish Glow (China Glaze) made it all spooky! To spook you all even more, I wrote 'boo' in both English and Portuguese (can we get sentimental again?).

Little sis, Patty, found Emerald Sparkled design of Boo and begged me to do it. This shy ghost from Super Mario was part of our childhood (anyone sensing sentimental once more?), and we still find these ghosts super cute! 

It was only after I had painted my nails with Tristam that I realized I had copied the inspiration to a 'T'. Deniz, if you ever read this, I promise I'm not plagiarizing you! Plus, I think your design is cuter than mine!

Same polishes were used for the Boos, with the addition of Shar Pei (Risqué - Risqué ♥ Dogs) and Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in Black (which I was not impressed with, by the way).

These little guys looked SUPER cute in the dark!!!

I had so much fun with the ghosts this long weekend!! Everybody was pitching in, giving their feedback, and helping with the pictures. Specially with the 'in the dark' ones. They were a combined effort (and challenge): hubby got the tripod, we turned all the lights off, and Patty was turning the lamp on and off following the photographers instructions. So happy everybody plays along with my craziness! ;-)
One last picture to wrap it up!

I'm already thinking about the next theme for the 'This Is Halloween' Nail Art Challenge. And pretty excited to see what Hannah (the lady behind Polly Polish) is coming up with for the next Polish Days!

xoxo

PRIS

"This Is Halloween" - Marblenails

Now we're on to the second day of the "This Is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge!!

After the complex and intricate design of the Horror Movie challenge, marble nails were a breeze! ;-)

I tried once again the dry marble technique that I used for St. Paddy's rainbow. Based on that experience, all polishes were from the same brand: Colorama. Colours were Rock (black), Eterno (aubergine), Fagulha (orange), and Violeta (violet).

I wasn't overly impressed with the results: a bit messy, clean-up wasn't very effective... But I loved the colours!!! They were very Halloween-y, in my opinion!

xoxo

PRIS

"This Is Halloween" - Horror Movies

First day of the This Is Halloween Nail Art Challenge created by Bec from Lacquer Dreams!!

I'm not a big fan of Horror Movies (an euphemism to saying I HATE them!), so there's no movie I actually like. However, Jason was the horror movie icon when I was a kid, and making a Friday the 13 themed nail made sense (hubby's suggestion, I must add).

After getting little sis' input in the design, and hubby's opinion about the first (failed) finished product, I finally reached a result I liked. As much as I can like a Jason mask and lots of blood splatter... :-p

Colours used were Black Expressionism (Finger Paints), Snow Me White (Sinful Colors), and Big Apple Red Creme (New York Color). Dotting tools of all sizes and a toothpick (for the splatter) were my best friends!


I'm happy I managed to do it! Even happier because this was the one I was not really thrilled about, and it turned out fine. Really excited about what's yet to come!

xoxo

PRIS




**UPDATE**