If a button nose is cute, why are button eyes creepy?

I am not a fan of scary movies. When I say I "watched" a scary movie, it means I watched the first ten minutes, then hid under a blanket with my ears plugged the rest of the time. Coraline is probably bordering on the amount of creepy that I can handle without having to do that. So finally getting into the spirit of things, here are my creepy Halloween nails.

I painted the faces of the three ghost children and on my ring finger is the Other Mother (though she ended up looking quite Joker-ish).

Polishes:

Left to right: Sally Hansen "White On", "Black Out", China Glaze "Elephant Walk", American Apparel "Factory Grey", Gosh Matte Effect Top Coat, OPI "Color So Hot it Berns"

I decided to have some more fun and give myself some button eyes. Too bad I can't go out with these since they look pretty ridiculous with my eyes open. *Warning for awkwardly posed pictures*

Did Coraline creep you out as much as it did me, or do you watch actual scary movies? What are you doing tonight for Halloween? I'm looking forward to giving out candy - hope we get some trick-or-treaters despite the weather. Stay safe and have fun!

Alice in Wonderland: A Very Merry Unbirthday To You

"Now blow the candle out, my dear, and make your wish come true!"

Unbirthdays make a lot of sense. You've only got one birthday, but there are three hundred and sixty four unbirthdays! I just so happen to be wearing this unbirthday manicure on my birthday. Breakin' the rules today!

The unbirthday song in Disney's Alice was a lot of fun. When Alice blew the candle out, it sparked and flew up into the air into an explosion of colours. This is what I have on my first three fingers. My pinky shows the remaining embers that float down after the fireworks. 

I got to break out a couple new tools for this design, including a new striping brush and a small dotting tool (so excited these finally came in the mail)! The cake was painted with small brushes and a dotting tool, and the sparks and fireworks were done with a combination of a striping brush, small piece of sponge (for the middle finger when the fireworks shoot up), dotting tool, and a toothpick (for the really small dots).

Polishes:

 Base and Glitters

Left to right: MAC "Ming Blue", China Glaze "Fairy Dust", NYC "Starry Silver Glitter", Sally Hansen "Strobe Light"

 Cake

Left to right: American Apparel "Coney Island", "Berry", Sally Hansen "White On", "Mellow Yellow", "Green Tea", China Glaze "For Audrey", Zoya "Arizona"

 Firework

Left to right: American Apparel "Coney Island", Nature Republic PP402, China Glaze "Lemon Fizz", Revlon "Dreamer", Sally Hansen "Dorien Grey"

On my right hand is a crapload of glitter.

If today is your birthday as well, happy birthday fellow Scorpio! If it's your unbirthday...

Alice in Wonderland Nail Art Series

• Cheshire Cat
• Down the Rabbit Hole
• Big or Small

Fall is when the leaves change colour

I've recently noticed that the leaves are getting really gorgeous. I have no idea when the peak time is/was/when it will be, but I'm definitely seeing more intense reds and oranges now. I tried to capture this colour shift that the leaves undergo during this time of year - definitely one of the best things about fall! I actually tried several different background colours for this design, but gray won out in the end. 

The gray came out a little thick and the colour changes are subtle, but all in all, I think this looks quite pretty! A lot more work went into this  than meets the eye. I first sponged on a gradient for the colour shift using my regular sponge method (I've lined up the colours in the same order that I used them, in the picture below). Then I used the polish brush from my Factory Grey to outline the leaf shapes and fill in the negative space. This made it a bit difficult to make many leaves on each nail - if I were to do this again, I'd probably try with a smaller brush. If you think there's an easier and better way I could have pulled this off, let me know! Maybe if I had a really small leaf-shaped hole punch, I could have used tape?

Polishes:

Left to right: Orly "Meet Me Under The Mistletoe", China Glaze "Harvest Moon", "Riveting", "Ruby Pumps", American Apparel "Factory Grey"

Hoped you like these, and have a good one!

I really like cats

I also really like drawing little kitties whenever I get the chance. It's become a common thing while looking through notes and papers, to find a kitty peeking out at me from the corner of a page.

I put my kitty related drawings together and found there is somewhat of a theme going on here. Either I really like gray/black cats, or I'm just lazy to give them any other colour. Actually, why don't we chalk it up to artistic choice.

Me petting a kitty, Kiki and Jiji from Kiki's Delivery Service, birthday cat

Polishes:

Left to right: Sally Hansen "White On", "Dorien Grey", American Apparel "Factory Grey", "7th and Alameda", Sally Hansen "Black Out"

I've always wanted to do a proper ombre manicure, and I recently realized that I had enough grays to finally do one. I guess it was only natural to connect my penchant for gray kitties with a gray ombre.

Where are my fellow cat and kitty lovers? UNITE!

King of the Forest with China Glaze Harvest Moon

Hello everyone! The last couple posts for my Alice series have been short and to the point, but I miss interacting with you guys. I also really wanted to do a tutorial, since I haven't done one in a long while. Hope you like this!

I have been dying to do a fall manicure ever since the weather started getting cooler. While I'll miss the sunshine and pastels of summer, I am super excited for the rich colours and fashion of fall. Bring on the scarves and fuzzy sweaters! Today, I recreated a deer pattern from a sweater that I recently purchased.

sweater from Forever 21

China Glaze Harvest Moon is a shiny, metallic copper filled with tiny red and gold shimmer. If this doesn't scream fall, I don't know what does. And I love the name! I painted two smooth coats here.

Polishes:

Left to right: China Glaze "Harvest Moon", Sally Hansen "Black Out", L.A. Colors striper in black

Directions:
Base: start off with two coats of Harvest Moon

For the stripes on my thumb and pinky, I used the bottle brush to make a stripe at the tip, and then a black striper for the stripe a little further up.

Finished!

What are you excited about for fall? Which colours will you be wearing? I still have a couple untried fall colours that I'm excited to use. Have a great weekend!

Alice in Wonderland: Big or Small?

"One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter."

Only in Wonderland will eating two different sides of a mushroom make you grow bigger or smaller. 

The base I used is two coats of China Glaze "Fast Track" topped with one coat of butter London "Tart With a Heart". Most of the other colours I used were custom mixed, so I won't bother listing them all out here.

Painting the mushroom was interesting - it looks like some kind of alien fungus that I wouldn't even touch, let alone eat haha! At least the cookies came out cute. I used the same method for the "EAT ME" cookie as for my milk & cookies design, only with smaller dots.

Alice in Wonderland Nail Art Series

• Cheshire Cat
• Down the Rabbit Hole 
• Unbirthday

   

Alice in Wonderland: Down the Rabbit Hole

"Well after this, I should think nothing of falling down stairs."

Let's all follow Alice down the rabbit hole! I chose to show a couple random things that Alice would have seen while falling that long way down. In hindsight, I would have painted some different patterns, like a patterned wallpaper maybe, but I'm pretty happy with how my stone backgrounds turned out.

Polishes:

Left to right: Sally Hansen "White On", "Dorien Grey", American Apparel "Factory Grey", "7th and Alameda", Sally Hansen "Black Out"

Left to right: Essie "Penny Talk", American Apparel "Rose Bowl", "Berry", "Malibu Green", Nubar "Swiss Chocolate"

I made the gradient on my thumb by painting 2-3 coats of my lightest grey, Dorien Grey (the spelling bothers me, but I still bought this for the name), and then sponging on the medium grey, Factory Grey. The stone details were made with 7th and Alameda and Factory Grey for different shades. Everything else is small detail brush work.

I'll leave links to other parts of the series at the end of my posts. I also have them all tagged under "Alice in Wonderland".

Alice in Wonderland Nail Art Series

• Cheshire Cat
• Big or Small
• Unbirthday