Happy Halloween!!!

Today's mani is all from Illamasqua polishes! I LOVE Illamasqua. I've never been disappointed with any of their polishes. Today I have for you Insanity (orange and discontinued) and Creator (yes, again) over Boosh (black 1 coat creme) and polka dots because I couldn't think of anything else to do!

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I had to take pictures with a flash because it was VERY dull again today. I do love the color combination of orange and black, even if it is over done at Halloween.

And here are some pumpkins that my husband carved last night. He doesn't like Halloween at all (being a crabby British man) but he does love carving pumpkins.

I hope you have a great Halloween! Please link me your Halloween mani!

Faux Bloody Cuticles

I've been wanting to do a bloody mani for a while but I've always been put off doing a bloody splatter mani because it looks like it'd be way too much clean up than I want to deal with. I had a thought the other night that maybe I'd thin some dark red polish out and drop it from a height onto my nails to make it look like splatter patterns but again, that seemed like it'd be a lot of clean up so I gave up on that idea. then I thought that maybe doing a half moon and then using a straight pin to make it appear like blood was running down my nails might be easier. It was pretty easy but I don't know how convincing it looks. I used Nails Inc Basil Street as a base (which is very close to my skin tone and one that I just got in a box set and thought I'd NEVER use!) and Illamasqua Scarab (which is the only brown red I have!)

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When I showed my husband last night, he had no idea what I was attempting. He thinks it just looks like it's chipped or unfinished. My mother in law and my father in law didn't know what I was trying to do either. Muggles. I do like the way this has come out, although I wish the dots were more tear drop shaped but I had  no idea how to do that so I just tried some random dots that don't look very random to me. Let me know what you think or send me some links if you have any Halloween manicures!

Ice Truck Killer Nails!

First Halloween theme post! If you've been watching the show Dexter from the beginning, you'll remember that in the first season, the Ice Truck Killer (ITK) painted the nails on his victims because his mother had randomly painted nails when she was murdered. I had a real hard time trying to find a picture from the show to see what the actual colors were and it what order they went. There are lots and lots of swatches from blogs claiming that they're ITK nails but they're all different colors and never in the same order. This was the only one I could find from the actual show:

I had to take pictures with a flash because I couldn't get a picture that was actually close to color. These are all Illamasqua colors. The red is Alarm, the yellow is Self, the purple is Jo'Mina, the orange is Gamma and the green is Radium.

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 And with a knife to make it more Dexter like.

Letter of the Day.

Today's Letter of the Day is F! And it's not for the word that you think it's for. It's for FOG! We've been covered in fog since yesterday, so I have not been able to get any good pictures of pretty nail polish for you. But here are some pictures of the fog.

Taken up the top of a hill near my in-law's house.

There's cars in that fog that you can't see because the 

idiots didn't have their lights on.

 

 Taken out of my bedroom window this morning at 9.

Taken out of my guest bedroom at 9AM as well.

It's been like this all day. I'm hoping it'll clear up tomorrow so I can get some pictures taken! Hope the weather near you isn't as miserable!

Warwick Way Dotticure

Wow, 2 days in a row with a post. I'm on a roll!

This is Nails Inc Warwick Way with Illamasqua Creator dots! This is my first dotticure with actual polish as the dots. I've used eyeliner in the past, which works okay but still somehow rubs off even with a top coat. Weird.

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I started off thinking I might do random dots but I thought I'd just to a pattern instead because it'd be easier for my first attempt. That's why my index finger isn't spaced the same as the rest of my fingers. I also did my right hand which wasn't nearly as disastrous as I thought it'd be. They're just not spaced properly. But I don't have a picture of that for you because it's embarrassing :)

Halloween in the Vines

Today I have for you Sonoma Nail Art Halloween in the Vines (HITV) over Sinful Colors Winterberry. When I got HITV a few weeks ago, I was trying  to figure out what to layer it over and I couldn't decide, so I left it. I put on Winterberry (that my friend Ana sent over to me!) and after I'd had it on for a day, I realized it'd be awesome with HITV and I was completely right. FYI, this was after 4 days. The wear on Sonoma polishes are amazing. They last AGES on me. I probably could have gotten away with a couple more days but I banged my thumb somehow and ended up with a break :(

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Winterberry is amazing and I'm really upset I didn't get a picture of it but the sun wasn't out the couple of days I had it on without HITV, so no picture for you :( HITV was a little difficult to work with but not as bad as other indies. I had to use the "dab" method. That's what I call it, not sure what it's really called. It's basically just laying the whole brush of glitter down on your nail, instead of just the end of the brush, and then moving the glitter around. This way you end up with more glitter at once and you don't have to use 123397 layers. I topped it with 2 coats of Seche Vite.

My Most Expensive and Least Expensive Polishes.

For this group collaboration we're featuring our most expensive and least expensive polishes. I knew right away what my most expensive polish was. That was Dior Shadow that I purchased from my friend, Bénédicte, over at I'm Anaa. She lives in France and was able to get it for a few of us when it first came out there in February or March instead of having to wait until July in the states (some ladies might have waited until July but there was no sign/news from Dior as to when or if it'd be available in the states). Not sure if even came out here in the UK or not. On to the pictures!

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Not sure what's going on with my ring finger. Oops.

For my cheapest polish, I went for Sinful Colors (as I think most people will since they have a fantastic formula and a HUGE range of colors). But then I remembered Pure Ice Heart Breaker. And then I thought I'd use both because I'm a cheater like that! :) So here is Sinful Colors Amethyst and Pure Ice Heart Breaker. I had a really hard time with this. I think it was the top coat. Almost all my nails had bubbles on them and looked absolutely horrible. I only got one good picture and I HAD to take it off ASAP because I just couldn't stand the bubbles. I used the NYC Grand Central Station top coat and I've heard wonderful things about it but it was nice the first couple of times I used it but I'm not sure I'll use it again. It's back to Seche Vite for me because that's what I have at the moment! 

Dior Shadow was a LE polish, I really don't think you can get it anywhere online anymore unless you want to pay a crazy price on ebay. Sinful Colors can be purchased at a few different drug stores in the US for anywhere between $.99-1.99 (or $6 on Copius, if you're dumb). I know you can definitely get Pure Ice (for $1.97) at WalMart in the states, I'm really not sure where else you can get it though.