Mummy Madness

 I do so love Halloween! This time, I tried to paint a scary mummy, and it turned out better than expected! Unfortunately, it also proved to be hard to photograph. I'm glad I took pre-topcoat photos, because the post-topcoat photos were too shiny to see the details!

 On my right hand, I didn't go as detailed with the anatomy and instead just did bandages over embalmed skin. Heh! I left it very loose with brush strokes, to add to the weathered feel.

 I started on both hands with two coats of OPI A-Taupe the Space Needle. I loosely roughed in the idea for the mummy's face and hands using a marker. Then, I started filling in the shadows with Sally Hansen Grey Area, which is a cool grey-brown. I also outlined the borders of the bandages on both hands. Wherever I wanted to have 'flesh' visible, I loosely dappled on more Grey Area for a textured look. I darkened bandage creases and parts of the mummy's face and hands with diluted NYC Black Lace Creme.

 I then started working in some highlights with Spoiled Only in Creams, which is a nice cool light brown. I lightened the hands a bit, as well as the right side of the mummy's face. I diluted the polish a bit to only subtly lighten some areas, but used straight polish to highlight around his nose, jaw, and eye.

 I then used multiple layers of Sally Hansen Beige Blast to color the bandages. The fact that the polish was sheer allowed me to create a more aged look. Next, to add a little more color to the mummy's flesh, I put in touches of Wet n Wild Private Viewing, which is a warmer brown creme.

 The last touch was adding a small amount of China Glaze Sun Worshipper for his eyes. Yay for creepy!

 

My favorite thing is that I can totally make the mummy dance by moving my index and ring fingers, haha!

Colors Used:

OPI A-Taupe the Space Needle

 Sally Hansen Grey Area

 NYC Black Lace Creme

 Spoiled Only in Creams

Sally Hansen Beige Blast

 Wet n Wild Private Viewing

 China Glaze Sun Worshipper

Goosebumps

 I wanted to experiment a little more with crackle polish, but tried to do something to spice it up a bit. It turned out better than expected! The color combo reminds me of the Goosebumps book covers for some reason.

 I started with two coats of China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard. It's such a fun, bright green, and it pops out so much under the crackle! I next applied the crackle polish, Sephora by OPI Blasted Black. I love the consistency in how it crackled - I didn't have any mostly black fingers!

 After that dried, I painted my tips freehand with China Glaze Flying Dragon. I did two coats to help fill in the crackle texture a little better. Then, I outlined the border using KISS Nail Art in white. It needed a little more sparkle, so I dabbed on some purple and silver glitter from Wet n Wild It's All In the Cut.

Colors Used:

China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard

Sephora by OPI Blasted Black

China Glaze Flying Dragon

KISS Nail Art White

Wet n Wild It's All In the Cut

Witchy Wednesday

 Continuing with the challenges my friends and I set for ourselves, this week is all about witches! I wish I had time to do more nail art this month, but I think this turned out rather fun!

 I first put down a few coats of Sinful Colors Glow In the Dark. Yep, they glow! I could not get a good photo of the glow effect, but it's awesome in person. Next, I did my nail tips in alternating SpaRitual Shoot For the Stars and Spoiled Permission to Proceed.

 I then loosely drew on witch hats and the kitty using a Sally Hansen nail art pen in black. I filled in those sketches with a small brush and some Wet n Wild Black Creme. I added orange belts to the hats with Essie Fear or Desire. Belt buckles and the kitty's eyes were done with SpaRitual Enlightened Soul. I outlined the cat with Salon Perfect Nail Art Orange Flame. I love this nail art polish - the shorter detail brush is wonderful, and the lines are bright on the first application!

I used a dotting tool to add the bodies for the dangling spiders using Wet n Wild Black Creme, then drew their legs on with a toothpick and the same polish. I added dots of purple and green to each spider for some subtle matching. The spiderweb was added with KISS Nail Art Silver Glitter.

Colors Used:

Sinful Colors Glow In the Dark

Wet n Wild Black Creme

SpaRitual Shoot For the Stars

 Spoiled Permission to Proceed

 Essie Fear or Desire

SpaRitual Enlightened Soul

Salon Perfect Nail Art Orange Flame

KISS Nail Art Silver Glitter

Triple Textures!

 This is a bit of a two-in-one post, because I decided to do a different experiment on each hand! Heh, days off when no one has to see your lack of coordination are good for experimentation.

 My idea here was to pair three different textures. It actually ended up looking better than I had anticipated! I suppose I was fearing a total train wreck, so success is always nice. I started out with a base of SpaRitual Undercurrent, which I then let dry completely. I marked off a triangle at the base of each nail, and a chevron at each tip.

 

I then added another coat of Undercurrent to the middle section of each nail, followed by dumping a generous amount of flocking powder. I then waited for that to dry. Next, I applied a fresh coat of Undercurrent to the base of each nail and pressed each nail into mixed magenta and teal-blue caviar beads. I was so glad that the beads behaved and didn't get trapped in the velvet section. The final touch was adding textured polish to my tips. I used Icing Tini Bikini, a magenta textured polish with blue glitter, and Zoya  Liberty, which is of course the most amazing blue .

 For my right hand, I wanted to mess around with a different sort of texture.

 I still used a base of SpaRitual Undercurrent for this hand. On my middle and ring fingers, I applied a second coat before sprinkling on a liberal amount of light blue 'Stampendous' glass glitter I found in the embossing/stamping section of Joann's. I  really love how this looks. I originally grabbed it with the intention of doing hand-placed glitters for a shattered look, but as it is it looks like a really cool crystal formation.

 I then brushed on Julie G Blueberry Fizz to add texture to my thumb, index, and ring fingers. I really like how this turned out!

Colors Used:

SpaRitual Undercurrent

Icing Tini Bikini

Zoya  Liberty

Julie G Blueberry Fizz 

Autumn Leaves

 

 So I decided I wanted to revisit one of the first nail designs I'd ever done: Leaves clumped around dark tips! Here's my attempt a year ago, taken with a bad camera phone:

 I started with a base of Sally Hansen Debut-tint, just enough to get a lovely gold shimmer over my nails. Next, I painted my tips with China Glaze Going My Way? to get a nice dark base for the leaves. Red leaves were painted in ORLY Red Flare, oranges leaves were done in Wet n Wild Sunny Side Up, and yellow leaves were SpaRitual Enlightened Soul. 

I added a few touches of OPI A Woman's Prague-ative to add a little more sparkle. On my ring and thumb nail, I painted small curving lines of Sinful Colors Nail Art Pot O Gold.

  Because this obviously wasn't sparkly enough, I added small gold and brown crystals to each nail. Is there ever a need to justify adding shiny crystals?

Colors Used:

Sally Hansen Debut-tint

China Glaze Going My Way?

ORLY Red Flare

Wet n Wild Sunny Side Up

 SpaRitual Enlightened Soul

OPI A Woman's Prague-ative

 Sinful Colors Nail Art Pot O Gold

Haunted Mansion

 

 So Garnet, a mutual friend, and I are doing fun weekly themes for nail art. This week's theme is ghosts! I was tied up for longer than expected painting a rock, so this was a bit rushed. It still turned out pretty cute!

 I started with a base of Color Club Sweet Pea, then created a smudgy gradient by sponging on SpaRitual Shoot for the Stars. Next, I used Wet n wild Black Lace Creme and a small brush to add the haunted house and a rickety fence and gate.

 I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White to draw in the ghosts and moon, and used a small brush to paint 'Boo!' on my index nail. I then dabbed on two coats of Sinful Colors Glow in the Dark to each ghost before adding eyes and mouths in more Black Lace Creme. I didn't have time to take glowing pictures, but they did glow!

Colors Used:

Color Club Sweet Pea

 SpaRitual Shoot for the Stars

 Wet n wild Black Lace Creme

 Sinful Colors Snow Me White

 Sinful Colors Glow in the Dark