This is Halloween: 31/10 Recreate Your Fave

Happy Halloween! :)
I've said it before but I don't celebrate Halloween (I think 90% of Aussies don't, really, but it's becoming more popular each year), though I am into all of the cute Halloween novelties and especially Halloween polishes!

For the last day of the This is Halloween challenge, we're supposed to recreate our favourite from another blogger (or just anyone) who participated in the challenge! :)

I decided to recreate Plisherrific's super cute Bat nail art! :D (She got her idea from Nail Craze with Dayze)
I thought it was SO cute so I had to recreate it. I'm so into cute designs like this rather than anything gory or spooky.

For my base colour I used Essie Fear or Desire (I used up about half of my mini bottle during this challenge!) and then added Essie Shine of the Times. For the bats I used my BYS Black striper, and my BYS White striper (which I really need to replace, it's very gummy and stringy). I also used Ulta3 Black Satin and Lily White for the eyes. :)

Damn the smudged pinky finger. :(

Hope you've enjoyed the This is Halloween Challenge! I had so much fun doing it! Thanks Bec for starting this challenge, I think everyone loved it just as much as me. :)

This is Halloween: 30/10 Trick or Treat

Hey hey!

So I have to admit that today I'm slacking off for the challenge again... >:) Hehe!
I chose to go with another polish because of the name! This is the second Halloween themed indie polish I bought this month! :D

This is Femme Fatale Cosmetics' Tricky Treat! So it's obvious why I chose this polish. ;)
Tricky Treat is a clear base, with a slight orange shimmer, small and medium orange glitters, red square glitter, purple square glitter, orange bar glitter, and some orange hearts too! I only managed to get one heart on a nail though.
I layered one quite thick coat of Tricky Treat over 2 coats of Essence Black is Back, a plain black creme. :)

Sorry about the awkward hand pose! I hate holding mini bottles! 

This glitter wasn't hard to apply whatsoever! It wasn't hard to get the glitter spread evenly over the nail or anything!

I also matte-ified this mani with my Rimmel matte top coat the next day...
Apparently I need to work on getting the top coat closer to the cuticle. ;)

I've got to stop wearing so much glitter! My cuticles are dying from using the foil method to remove my polish! I think I've worn ONLY glitter polish for the past 2 weeks! :O

Tomorrow's the last day of the Halloween challenge! :( How sad! Come back tomorrow to see my last mani for Halloween!

Elissa


TRICK OR TREAT

This is Halloween: 29/10 Graveyard

This is the second last day of the This is Halloween Challenge! :( How sad! Today's theme is Graveyard, and I did a pretty simple and predictable mani, hehe.

Tombstones, of course!

For the actual tombstone, I freehand-ed it with the regular polish brush and I used BYS Matte Grey (sorry about the messy bottle lol). Then Essie Mojito Madness for the grass. I wrote 'RIP' on each tombstone with a BYS Black striper. I topped it all off with Sally Hansen Insta Dri top coat.

SUPER simple and easy nail art! :)

Tomorrow is the LAST day of the Halloween challenge! :( I'm gonna be stuck for post ideas! Hahah, let me know if you have any requests!

Elissa

This is Halloween: 26/10 Witches

Hello ladies! TGIF! ;)

I kinda took the easy way out for today's This is Halloween challenge... >:)

This is Witches Britches, a limited edition for Halloween polish by Gloss n Sparkle! :) Now obviously, I chose it for today because of the name!

Witches Britches is a purple base with large and medium orange, large, medium and small green, and large, medium and small black hex glitters! I think some of the smaller glitters are squares too. :)
I have two cameras and they BOTH suck at photographing colours like this! :( It always makes them look too blue. I edited it to look more acurate as much as I could but it's not 100% accurate.

I've been SO into Halloween polishes like this lately so I just HAD to buy this when I ordered from Gloss n Sparkle! But even though I've been really into Halloween indies, I actually only bought two. I'd have loved more but since I'll only ever wear Halloween colours in October, I didn't think it was worth buying every Halloween polish I set my eyes on. ;)

Only three more days left of the This is Halloween Challenge! :( I won't know what to do with myself when it's over! I'll have to get my act together with some things to post next month! I've acquired a lot of polish lately so I'm sure I won't have a shortage of stuff to swatch for you. ;)

Elissa

This is Halloween: 22/10 Gradient

Hey guys! :)

I have not had a good day and I am sooo tired so this post will probably be kept short.

For the Gradient theme of the This is Halloween challenge, I knew from the start I'd want to do a 'candy corn' inspired gradient! :) I think the colours on candy corn look so fun and bright and festive. But I do not like candy corn. :| My sister bought a packet of them from Jelly Belly last year and I was NOT expecting them to taste the way they did. I thought they'd be like gummy lollies or something but they weren't! In Australia I've only ever seen candy corn in the shops once and then the time when my sister brought them home.

Disclaimer! I didn't realise until I was about to take photos of this mani that I realised I'd put the colours in the wrong order. :( BOOOO. If you're not familiar with candy corn, I should've put the orange and yellow the other way around. I have not done very many successful manis for this challenge have I. :( Oh well, my boyfriend said it still reminded me of it.
Please also excuse the oily cuticles. I really need to make sure the pictures are fine before I remove my mani...

I used a base of Sally Hansen Whirlwind White, and then did a gradient with a makeup sponge and Face of Australia Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy, and Essie Fear or Desire. :)

On the plus side, my nubbins don't look too bad here! Yay! :)

Thanks for looking! Have a great week!

Elissa

This is Halloween: 19/10 Bats

Hey guys! :D

I am excited about the nail art I'm showing you today for the This is Halloween challenge! This one wasn't a fail. Can you believe it!? ;)
I'm so happy I can finally show you a mani for this challenge that I'm really happy with! :)

This nail art was inspired by CutePolish on YouTube. I didn't watch the video, just looked at her picture but she does have a tutorial.

I sponged on China Glaze Peachy Keen with a normal kitchen sponge. I usually prefer to do sponging with cosmetic sponges but I ran out! I haven't worn Peachy Keen as a full mani yet but I really like it here! I will have to try it out as a full mani soon. :)
I then added Essence Space Queen, this was my first time using this polish too! And I've had it forever! It's a pretty small iridescent glitter in a clear base.
Then I used Ulta3 Black Satin, a very opaque black creme for the bats. I used a dotting tool and a striping brush.

I think this mani turned out really cute! Yay! :)
Hope you had a great week and enjoy your weekend!

Elissa

This is Halloween: 15/10 Zombies

Hey girlies!
Sorry I have to keep this post short and sweet! Kinda busy and don't have a lot to say anyway. :P

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I am not a fan of anything creepy, scary, gross, gore-y or anything of the sort. I can't stand it!
So of course, my zombie nails today are NOT scary or gross. Though I can appreciate some of the zombie nails I've been seeing. They're quite gross but very well done!

I have to apologise for the photo(s) I'm showing for today's post. I took them on my iPhone (and edited it there too... :/) because I was getting so frustrated with the mani that I just snapped a pic and removed my polish right away. I'm also only showing you three nails because I screwed up my pinky nail. :(

And to add to it, I can't even remember what polishes I used for this! :( Ugh I'm so sorry!

I thought I'd do a Plants vs Zombies mani because the game looks so cute. To be honest, I've never actually played it but maybe I will now!
My boyfriend said that the zombie head doesn't look like the one in the game. Psh whatever. :P
I followed a tutorial by IHaveACupcake on YouTube.

Please excuse the crappy photo. :(

Have a great week! :)

Elissa

This is Halloween: 12/10 Jack o Lanterns

Hey lovely ladies!

I want to apologise for my previous mani I put up for this challenge. It was far from my best work! I'm trying to do my manis for the challenge at least a few days in advance so that in case my idea doesn't work out, I have time to retry it. :)

Today's theme is Jack o Lanterns! I wish people carved/decorated pumpkins here. It looks like fun! Okay, I wish we celebrated Halloween properly here to begin with!

For this mani I used Essie - Fear or Desire (told you that you'd be seeing this polish a lot in the challenge! I reckon by the time it's over, I'll have used up the whole mini bottle!) and a black BYS striper, which I am in need of replacing because it's becoming a bit stringy and thick! They're great stripers but they're kinda pricey at $5 each from Gloss.

I chose to do my Jack o Lantern only on my ring finger, and I did black french tips on all other nails. :) I wanted to make my Jack o Lantern more of a cute/happy looking one. Didn't really work. LOL.

I tested out my mum's camera for these photos. Not sure if I like it better than my camera. My camera seems to make all of my photos look very dark, even when I take them outside (unless I'm in the sun - and there hasn't been any of that for the last few days!). I made a small light box the other day which is what I used to take these photos. Please bare with me while I try and figure out a good lighting/camera situation! I'm not a fan of the glare on these photos. :(

Hope you enjoyed! I have some exciting stuff coming up soon so stay tuned! I also have a lot of polish on its way to me in the next couple weeks. ;) Make sure to follow me via GFC, BlogLovin or email (whichever you prefer), so you can stay updated if you wish! :)

Elissa

This is Halloween: 8/10 Ghosts

Hey there ghoul-friends. ;) HAHA. So lame, sorry.
How are you all? Hope you had/are having a great weekend, depending on where you live! I'm basically all better from my sickness now! Still coughing a bit but I feel soooo much better!

Today's mani is the third for the This is Halloween challenge! :) The theme is "ghosts".
I have to tell you that this mani was a fail, again. :( Because I am so impatient I smudged EVERY nail with my top coat. I hope you can look past the smudges. x) Wish I'd had time to redo this mani but I didn't. :(
Please also excuse the messy cuticles. Since I was so unimpressed with the mani, I completely forgot to do cleanup. I promise my next manis will not be so much of a fail!

PACMAN! x)

Polishes used in this mani:
Funky Fingers - 220 Volts
Essie - Off the Shoulder
Essie - Fear or Desire
Butter London - Pillar Box Red

I also used white and black acrylic paints.

Hope you enjoyed and are looking forward to seeing the rest of this challenge! Visit Bec @ Lacquer Dreams' blog if you're interested in joining in.

Elissa

This is Halloween: Oct. 5 - Water Marble

Hi girls! :)
I'm so excited for today's post. And you may be thinking how can she be excited about water marble after her last attempt!? Well, I'm excited because...

IT WORKED THIS TIME.

Yep, that's right! ;) It worked for me! I had NO problems whatsoever this time! How very exciting. :)
I have a few suspicions as to why it worked well this time.
1. I used a bottle of (filtered) water that I'd had sitting in my room for about a day so it was definitely room temperature this time.
2. I used a larger cup than last time, where I used a disposable shot glass.


I think those things helped me to get a better water marble. Last time I tried this (you can see that HERE - but believe me, it's not pretty :P) the polish wouldn't spread and I think this was because I used non-room-temperature water. :P
A larger cup than I used last time definitely helped too. I'd say to use just a regular cup size. I thought a shot glass would be good because it was small, and since it was disposable I could just chuck it out instead of ruining a cup. But that didn't work because it made it extremely hard to clean up the extra polish in the water before bringing my finger out.

I would definitely recommend watching SimpleLittlePleasures on YouTube because she has AMAZING tutorials. Also, my friend Aubrey from Instagram has an awesome tutorial on her blog here which is also super helpful! Her water marbles are gorgeous! :D

So anyway, onto my water marble. :)

I used Essie - Fear or Desire, which you'll be seeing this a LOT during this month, it's my only true orange in my collection! I really should pick up some more... Let me know if you have any affordable recommendations! I'd like to buy some more oranges but since I will only probably wear them in October around Halloween, I don't want to spend a lot on them. :P and I also used NYC - Night which is my go-to black (other than Ulta3 - Black Satin, which is a bit too fast drying for a water marble!).

I'm so proud of the way this turned out! :) Even though the black didn't turn out very dark on my ring and pinkie, and my middle finger turned out a little funny, that doesn't bother me because it worked much better than my last attempt. :D

The This is Halloween Challenge is super fun so far! :)

Elissa

This is Halloween: Oct. 1 - Horror Movies

Hello lovelies! So unfortunately I have had to skip the last two days of the 31 Day Challenge. :( My sickness just keeps getting worse and worse and I have very little energy. But I didn't want to miss out on the first day of the This is Halloween challenge! I had something else planned but I went with something simple instead. I should be fine by the next day of the challenge, which is Friday. :)

So I'm not a fan of Horror Movies. I hate them actually. I refuse to watch them. I'll do anything to get out of watching them! So obviously I wasn't going to put something yucky and scary on my nails. :P
I saw a tutorial by Missjenfabulous this morning on YouTube for a haunted house mani. Very simple and not scary. :D Some horror movies have haunted houses in them, right? :P

For the base I used a Rubi (Cotton On) polish called Violets are Blue. I imagine this colour is probably similar to Essie - Play Date but a little less bright. I've gotta say, the formula on this polish wasn't great.. I can't expect much from a polish made by a clothing store and that costs $3 though. It wasn't overly thick, but once applied on the nail it didn't self level and looked very lumpy and bumpy. :/ Seche Vite top coat helped to level it out a bit though.
I also used BYS stripers in White & Black (I really need a new white one, its super goopy!) and NYC - Lemon.

Here's hoping I feel better soon so I can have a bunch more posts for you. :) I'm thinking of doing some swatch comparisons of some cheap Aussie brands vs. more expensive brands. Let me know if you'd be interested.

Sorry for the crappy quality of my photos by the way. I only had my bedside lamp to use for lighting. :(

Elissa

"This is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge!

I am so excited for this! :D That's right, I'm participating in another challenge!

Bec @ Lacquer Dreams, an awesome fellow Aussie blogger, has started a Halloween nail challenge for October! :D (I may shorten it to '"TIH"NAC', like I did for the 31 Day Challenge (31DC) though "TIH"NAC kinda looks stupid. LOL. I'll come up with something).

In Aus, Halloween isn't really a 'holiday' or anything big. Some kids go Trick or Treating and dress up but not a lot. We do get some novelty stuff in stores around Halloween time though. My siblings like to go Trick or Treating but they don't really come back with a whole lot of stuff because it's not very big here so people aren't prepared with food to give out to the kids. :P It would be cool to experience Halloween in the US though!

Anyway, even though we don't celebrate it, it's a super fun opportunity for a challenge! :D
I loved the 31 Day Challenge because it got me thinking of mani ideas and got me in a routine of blogging every day! This challenge is only twice a week (except for in the last few days of the challenge) so it should be much less demanding. :)

I believe the challenge is open to anyone, in any country so feel free to join in with us! :) You can go HERE to read Bec's post about the challenge and HERE to see her other post, and you can comment there if you'd like to join us in the challenge and Bec can email you the Inlinkz code.

I think this is going to be really fun! Not sure if I'll be sick of Halloween manis by the end of the month though. :P

Elissa