Halloween Week Part 7: Halloween!

Happy Halloween!! This is my favorite holiday so I'm pretty stoked for today. I am handing out candy at my boyfriend's house so I'm fairly excited for that. Enjoy trick-or-treating! (Fun fact: there are no documented cases of strangers poisoning or putting razor blades in candy, only by parents... oddly enough.)

So the holiday called for something special: My first gradient! Megan sent me some cosmetic sponges in a swap, so I decided to use those and make something epic. And, um, I was close? Here's the colors I picked (the wand is my Migi pens, which unscrew to be normal, one coater polish!):

OPI Atomic Orange, OPI Funky Dunkey, and Migi nail art pens.

My base was plain white and I made a gradient going from white, orange, purple, to black, and I was mostly successful except the black didn't come out very much, and where it did... it stained my cuticles omg. I really liked the subtle effect though, it was really cool and I wish I had a good up-close shot to show you how it came out! (Although, if you're really curious, you could just enlarge the photos...)

And there you have it! Happy Haunting, Ghouls!

xoxo,
Amanda

Halloween Week Part 6

Hi all! Today's post is vampire themed nails. And, if you need reasons why (I bet you don't, but you're getting them anyway dagnabbit!), here are my best three:

1. I wanted to use Candy Lacquer Vampire Kiss.
2. I am a Twilight fan (keep your mouth shut if you don't like it. ;) You still love me, suck it up.)
3. An excuse to use some fimo canes, FINALLY.

So, for vampire nails, I started with Sally Hansen Sun Kissed on all my nails except my ring, which I added red from one of my Migi pens (hey, they were out, it was a one coater...). On the orange nails, I added Vampire Kiss which OMG IT'S BEAUTIFUL AND REQUIRES INTERNET YELLING DON'T JUDGE ME. I even got a red heart on my pinky which is <3 <3 <3. Then on the red nail, I added a fimo stick with vampire fangs! How cute is that?! Unfortunately, I cut this one a bit thick so it sticks up a little but it served the purpose.

Public Service Announcement: Sometimes, you're doing a manicure. Sometimes, your adorable kitty will walk by you, directly INTO your lightbox. And you will gently pet her and, um, forcibly push her out of it. And you'll look at your nails and think, "wow! I didn't get any hairs from her on my nails". And you will be proved wrong when you see the pictures on your computer. (So let's ignore those, mmmkay?)

So, anyway, in case you didn't catch on... I love this.

xoxo,
Amanda

Halloween Week Part 5

Hi girls! Quickie post as I'm trying to type and schedule as many posts as possible in case I lose power for an extended time. Please read my last post for some safety tips if you are in the area of Frankenstorm and stay safe!

Today's Halloween journey begins with Orly Decades of Dysfunction, which actually I wore alone for a day. This is almost mannequin hands on me, but a little pinker in real life. I compare it to the color of a piglet. This was two coats with Wicked Fast top coat and application was really easy.

Then I added Hit Polish Witches Brew on top. This is lime green, navy blue, and orange glitter in a clear base. It applied really easily! I'm also happy it had navy blue glitter and not the typical purple for Halloween.

What do you think? Sorry this post is quick and my pictures aren't 100% what they usually are. A bit stressed lately.

xoxo,
Amanda

Halloween Week Part 4

Hey all! Getting closer and closer to Halloween and since it's Sunday, it's officially Halloween week! What are you and/or your kids dressing up as? I was a zebra for my friend's party last weekend and I was going to be a dinosaur last night, but I got sick and had to cancel my party :(

Lazy Sunday is accurate in depicting this mani. I was SUPER lazy at this. Basically, I did a base of white (this is Sinful Colors, whatever their white is called) and added Pumpkin bar glitter.

Then, because I loved Tangled in my Web from Wet n Wild on day 1, I added that. Voila!

Here's a close-up of my favorite finger. I don't know why, my ring is ALWAYS my favorite and always comes out perfect. Do you have a favorite finger?

xoxo,
Amanda

Halloween Week Part 3

Hello out there my pretties! Whoa, that sounded in my head like the witch from Wizard of Oz. Weeeeirdddd. Halloween is really getting into my brain.Anyway... Today's post is another quickie because (shhhhh!) I'm writing this at work. Don't get too huffy and puffy, I'm currently not being paid for this time at work so it's fine. :P I'm hosting a Halloween party this evening so I knew I wouldn't have time to write this post otherwise (no, this isn't my party mani, but maybe I'll show that belatedly!).

Today's mani was made using Orly RIP which came out this year. I actually whined about not finding this enough that TWO people sent me bottles haha! Glad to have backups ;) It's your quintessential black base with orange glitter. I did two layers over Wet n Wild Ink Well. On my ring finger I skipped RIP and put orange crackle (because, sadly, I didn't do ENOUGH crackle when it was popular so I sneak it in now and then...). Unfortunately, this crackle didn't crack too much. Humph. Stupid crackle making me look crazy!

Then, because I can never leave well enough alone, I matteified (matted? added matte? mattied?) the glitter and it's BEAUTIFUL. For some reason it still looks glossy on all but my middle finger, which I'm guessing is from a) the top coat not being 110% dry when I took this or b) the lighting reflecting. Either way, pretty cool!

xoxo,
Amanda

Halloween Week Part 2

Hey guys and gals, quick post today. Not feeling too chatty! (For once...)

Today's post is a polish from China Glaze's 2010 Awakening collection for Halloween that somehow I didn't wear until this mani: China Glaze Mummy May I?. I layered two coats of it over Wet n Wild Ink Well (a magnificent one coat black creme, fyi - probably a dupe for their normal black creme with a different name for the On The Prowl collection). MMI is small fuchsia glitter in a blackened base (I think it's dark dark purple), a perfect combination for Halloween without being black and orange.

I loved this! Not sure how it sat untried for so long, but a great mani nonetheless.

xoxo,
Amanda

Halloween Week Part 1

Hi there ladies and gents! My post title MIGHT be a lie... the 7 manis I had for a week of Halloween were good, except for one. That one mani (which would have been yesterday's post) was all sorts of a hot mess once I saw the pictures and I couldn't bear to post it. Does that ever happen to you, a perfectly good mani until you see it photographed? Humph. Anyway, six days until Halloween, and it'll be seven if I do one more! Weeeeeeeeee!

For this mani, I started off with three coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed, which is a beautiful orange creme, although it has some jelly tendencies so we're going to call it's a crelly. Then I put Wet n Wild Tangled in my Web from the elusive On The Prowl collection on my index and ring fingers and the pumpkin purple glitter on the other fingers. 

I LOVED the way TIMW looked, but not so sure about the shiny purple. I think my brain just doesn't seem to recognize shiny glitter anymore since I buy so many mattes now. (Side story: the other day I bought a shiny glitter and when I was trying to look at swatch pictures, I was literally thinking, "oh my god, this is TOO BRIGHT" because the light was reflecting off it.)

So there you have it, a VERY simple Halloween mani (hey, don't judge me because I can't freehand whatsoever!). Happy early Halloween!

xoxo,
Amanda

Kesha Makeup!

Hi all! A few of you requested to see my makeup from my Ke$ha costume, and that's what I will show you today! I actually really liked the way this came out, it was my favorite part of my whole costume!

To get this look, I followed the tutorial below, but changed the colors and such. I did mine in all black and put purple glitter over it, outlined in dark purple. I used mostly makeup from Hot Topic: an angled sparkly winged eyeliner, Nyx purple glitter pallette, and a purple eyeliner. I also wore fake eyelashes because, duh, it's Halloween! I should have taken a picture where I wasn't smiling so the stuff on my cheek wouldn't look warped but, trust me, it was good!




Bonus pictures: here are some shots of the ridiculousness that took place during and after my party that left me and 650,000 others without power for three or more days (reminder: this is October 29th, which, until now, had a record of 1" snowfall in past years).

Me shoveling the 8 inches of snow



A shot of my backyard and all the trees and branches down. Multiply this by my neighborhood and my half of the state and you can understand why we had no power!

 Hope you all had a safe Halloween: what did you and/or your children dress up as? We didn't get any trick-or-treaters because of the aforementioned insanity and because no power + downed power lines = not a good time for children to wander at night. :(

xoxo,
Amanda