Halloween Challenge! Day 10: Recreate Your Favorite Manicure

Hello all! It's the last day of the Halloween Challenge since today is Halloween! I am so excited! I get to dress up for work and it's going to be a blast. I will make sure to post my costume manicure tomorrow so make sure to come back to see it! Anyways today's challenge was to recreate your favorite manicure from the challenge. I choose to recreate The Manicured Monkey's Bump in the Night nails. She made an adorable Frankenstein manicure and I couldn't help but love it! Mine varies a little but I hope you like it!

So like the Manicure Monkey, I did a Frankenstein face and then some stitching for the rest of the nails. She used two different greens but I decided to just use one. I think he came out so cute but I wasn't too happy with him so shiny so...

I threw a matte top coat over him! I think it is so much better! Sometimes matte is the way to go. What do you guys think?

Here's a comparison of the two top coats. The shiny normal top coat came be seen on the left and the dull matted top coat is on the right. Which do you like better?

What I used:

• Base color: Sinful Colors Happy Ending
• Black and white acrylic
• Fine tipped nail art brush
• Dotting tools
• Warpaint Beauty Mattify (matte top coat)

I had just a blast with this challenge! My favorite nails that I did where my Monster nails from Things That Go Bump In the Night. I hope you all loved my manicures and my recreation of The Manicured Monkey's adorable Frankenstein nails. Hope you visit my blog again soon!

Until next time,
Erin

Halloween Challenge! Day 9: Influenced By a Scary Movie

Hello all! Another late post...This post was suppose to be influenced by a scary movie. Well I am not a scary movie fan so I choose to do a spider mani. Why? Because spiders terrify me and I figured there are scary movies about spiders like Arachnophobia, so it works right? I found this awesome pin on pinterest, so I decided I wanted to replicate it. Over the darker orange, I used a regular orange color using a fan brush. So the orange over the dark orange is in small strokes. Sadly, it doesn't really show up on the photos but I figured I would mention it.

I think this mani came out pretty creepy and cool. What do you guys think? I used masking tape to create the black section of the nails. I then stamped silver spiders over the dividing lines of the two colors. 

What I used:

• Base color: Ulta Sun of a Gun
• Fan brush used with Sally Hansen Sun Kissed over Sun of a Gun
• Sinful colors Black on Black
• Stamp: BM 13
• Sally Hansen Silver Sweep

Only one challenge left! It's going to be hard to choose a manicure to recreate! I think it's more fun to recreate another challenger's mani but there are so many good ones! Everyone did such a cool job! Decisions, decisions!

Until next time,
Erin

Halloween Challenge! Day 8: Blood/Gore/Splatter

Hello all! Today's challenge was to create bloody gore nails. I'm not really into gore or anything like that, so this was a challenge for me. I decided to try and make bloody claw marks with some splatter. I just can't splatter to save my life though...This is what it came out as:

I used white nails polish as my base color, then took a deep burgundy polish to create the claw marks. After that I took some red acrylic paint and failed at making splatter. Does anyone have any tips or tricks on how to create splatter? I would appreciate any info, since I am not good at it. 

Only two days left of this challenge! It's going to be hard to choose which mani I will recreate. When there is a recreate day in a challenge, I like to choose another challengers work to recreate. That's why it will be so hard to decide, because there has been some really awesome manicures!

Until next time,
Erin

Halloween Challenge! Day 7: Pumpkins

Hello all! Today's challenge is pumpkins. Pumpkins are heavily involved in fall, especially for carving or baking with. I love pumpkin rolls and certain pumpkin things and Jack-o-lanterns are pretty fun too. I just did a jack-o-lantern mani not too long ago so for today's challenge I wanted to think outside of the box and I came up with Linus in the pumpkin patch waiting for the arrival of the Great Pumpkin. If you have no idea what I am talking about, I am referring to one of the Halloween Peanut's specials that comes on TV.

What I used:

• Base color: Essie Really Edgy
• Sponge on Wet n' wild Teal of Fortune
• Red, yellow, peach, and black acrylic paint

I just adore the Peanuts and Linus is by far my favorite! I just think he is the cutest thing, for the most part I think he came out pretty good. I think my pumpkins need some work though.

So what do you guys think? I hope you like Linus in the pumpkin patch! Up next is blood/gore/splatter. Since I am incapable of doing splatter, expect some bloody nails. 

Until next time,

Erin

Halloween Challenge! Day 6: Things That Go Bump in the Night

Hello all! When I think of things that go bump in the night, I think of the monsters. To be more specific, I think of the monsters living in your closet or under your bed! I decided to do cute monsters instead of creepy/ scary ones! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

So what do you guys think? Cute right? I just love how they came out. I have gotten so many compliments on them so far. I keep getting asked if they are stickers and when I say that I did them by hand, people are shocked. I feel very proud of this! I really think they came out so cute!

To create this design, I painted my nails two coats of a lighter color; lime green, light blue, light orange, lavender, and a lighter hot pink. Next I took a darker color (that matched the base color, ex. dark green with the lime green) and painted small lines for the monsters fur. I then added the eyes and mouth. I tried to create a different look for each monster. On my left hand I tried to copy the same nails from the right but my index fingers ended up looking different. I think the blue nails totally look like cookie monster, is that just me?

What I used:

• Thumb:
• Sinful Colors Happy Ending
• OPI Jade is the New Black
• Index
• Piggy Polish Blue-ing Romance
• essence Let's get Lost
• Middle
• Sally Hansen Fashionista Orange
• Ulta Sun of a Gun
• Ring finger:
• OPI Planks-a-lot
• L.A. Colors Fun in the Sun
• Pinky
• Sally Hansen Coral Reef
• OPI Too Hot Pink to Hold 'em

I think I will do this design again in the future, it came out so cute!

Until next time,
Erin

Halloween Challenge! Day 4: Witches

Hello all! Sorry for the late post. My first week of work as been rather stressful. I've been so sore and so tired that I just haven't had the energy to blog, which makes me very sad. I was able to create witch nails for you, they aren't the best but here we go. I choose to do the Sanderson sisters from the movie Hocus Pocus; Winnie, Mary and Sarah.

Hocus Pocus is one of my favorite movies, I try to watch it every year for Halloween but sadly I no longer own it and it's not like I can go to a video store and rent it now... Anyways, I still need to work on my faces but for the most part I think my nails look like the Sisters and their cauldron of potion for the children!

I used polish for Winnie's hair and for the cauldron but everything else was acrylic paint. So what do you guys think? Don't be too harsh! I really like how my cauldron came out. The thumb looks crappy but I didn't know what to do for it. In hindsight, I should have done "the book." Oh well, I would like to do more Hocus Pocus nails in the future. 

Next week is freestyle and things that go bump in the night...Should be interesting. I feel like this topics are vary vague which leaves a lot of room but I'm so indecisive that sometimes it's hard for me to decided haha. I can't wait to see what everyone came up with today!

Until next time,
Erin

Halloween Challenge! Day 3: Zombies

Hello all! Today was a real challenge! I am not a zombie lover... My idea of a zombie movie is Zombieland and Shaun of the Dead. Those movies are hilarious and as zombie as I'll go. I'm just not a fan. So these nails were pretty hard for me. I needed inspiration and I found it through The Daily Nail. She is an amazing nail artist and I just really love her blog. After watching a great tutorial for zombie-esque nails, I decided to try to mimic the look with my own twist. You can watch the tutorial here.

So I tried to create the creases with blood, just like the Daily Nail. It is much harder to do then you would think! For my own twist, I added in a brain and zombie face. What do you guys think? I find these nails creepy but then again Zombies are suppose to be creepy. 

What I used:

• 1 coat of Orly Grave Mistake
• 2 thick coats of Orly Decades of Dysfunction
• More Orly Grave Mistake for the blood
• OPI Schnapps Out of It for the crease
• Sally Hansen Coral Reef for the brain
• White, black and yellow acrylic paint
• Fine tipped nail art brush

Next for this challenge is witches! I adore witches, so this should be fun! I have been a witch for Halloween many many times.

Until next time,
Erin

Halloween Challenge! Day 2: Black Cats

Hello all! Today is the second day of the Halloween Challenge. The objective was to create black cat nails. I  wasn't sure what to do for today's mani so I just did some stamping of a black cat and some cat eyes, nothing too exciting. Also I broke a nail on my right hand, so I was trimming all the others and ended up trimming them far to short! I cannot wait for them to grow back!

What I used:

• OPI Jade is the New Black
• Sinful Colors Black on Black
• Ulta Sun of a Gun
• LA Colors Fun in the Sun
• BM04

 I'm a little disappointed in myself on this challenge so far! I know I can do better. Up next is Zombies! I have no clue how to do zombies! Haha definitely going to be a challenge!

Until next time,
Erin

The Halloween Challenge! Day 1: Trick or Treats

Hello! I know this is my third post for the day but I'm feeling rather ambitious...I have some fun news to share! So last night I was on the amazing blog Samariums Swatches and I read that Sarah was joining a nail art challenge....a Halloween nail art challenge. It sounded like so much fun that I wanted to join in the fun too! It's being hosted by the Facebook group Crumpet's Nail Tarts. This group was created by Debbie, who has an amazing blog called the Crumpet. Her blog really is amazing, you should check it out. Anyways, I was just accepted in the group this morning! I am so excited to do another challenge. I just completed the 31 Day Challenge and I'm not ready to stop cold turkey. I need to do more nail art! Now this isn't an everyday thing. Which is good because that was a little bit ridiculous. Here is the layout of the challenge:

I think this is going to be so fun! Halloween is my favorite holiday! The first day of the challenge is Trick or Treats. I choose to do one of my favorite Halloween candies, candy corn! I choose to do not only original candy corn but chocolate too! I love the variety bags that have the original, chocolate and pumpkin kinds.

What is your favorite Halloween candy? I am really looking forward to this month. There are some fun contests and challenges going on. I'm really looking forward to getting to know the other challengers.

Also, fun news for the day! I was also featured on the iFabbo blog as a favorite for the week. You can check it out here.

Until next time,
Erin