Happy Halloween!

It's here! It's here! That magical day is finally here! It's the day that our kids go out and beg for free candy that they then bring home for us parents to pig out on after they go to bed. And being that it's a "holiday" all those calories just don't count, right? At least that's what I was always told. I'll choose to just go on believing that. And that is why a large portion of my kids' chocolate will be eaten tonight while I try to catch up on some DVR goodies.

Now, moving on from my chocoholism to my crack addiction. I went back and forth for what seemed like forever about what to put on my nails for Halloween. I thought about a candy corn mani, and even tried a couple, but I just couldn't get it to look as nice as I wanted it. And I've seen a few combos this year of green and purple and I really liked that. My twin girls were wearing costumes to school today so they were also trying to decide what they wanted on their nails last night. This was a serious ordeal!

See if you can spot the boy child that I didn't realize was there. :)

 I finally got their nails done and got them off to bed last night. It took quite some time to get the 4-year-old boy child and the 7-year-old Aspie girl child to calm down enough to go to sleep. They were SO excited about Halloween! But I was finally able to focus on my own nails and this is what I finally ended up with:

Without flash

I'm not completely sure how happy I am with how this turned out. I liked it more before I topped it with glitter, but I went ahead with it because there were a couple of little imperfections from the taping that I was too tired to re-do. Glitter is a great cover-up for things like that!

With flash

I also topped it with China Glaze's Ghoulish Glow, a glow-in-the-dark top coat, which kind of dulled the purple. I was disappointed by that because I love purple, but hopefully it will pay off when we go trick-or-treating tonight.

The colors I used here are China Glaze* I'm With the Lifeguard (I was SO psyched to get to use one of my summer neons again!), Zoya* Suri (one of my favorite purples), topped with China Glaze Make a Spectacle, then Ghoulish Glow, and as always, Seche Vite*.

I hope you all have a Happy Halloween! Stay safe, stay warm, and don't get sick from all that candy! :)

*China Glaze and Seche Vite can be purchased at your local Sally's Beauty Supply and Zoya can be purchased from zoya.com or your local Ulta store.

Mani Monday - Halloween

It's October! Y'all know what that means...temperatures are dropping, leaves are changing colors, creating beautiful views of the mountains from here in the Tennessee valley, and we're gearing up for Halloween. So today's manicure is a Halloween inspired one.

I started with two coats of Zoya's Arizona - a creamy orange that is perfect for autumn nails - and topped it with a coat of Seche Vite.

With flash

Without flash (please ignore my sad, torn cuticles)

After that, I taped off each nail at a diagonal for a sort of funky french mani, then used a good, thick coat of Sinful Color's Black on Black to do the tips. After that was dry, I finished it off with a coat of China Glaze's Make a Spectacle and another coat of Seche Vite.

Finished mani - with flash

Without flash

I have to add that I have a lot of glitter polishes and Make a Spectacle is by far my favorite now. It's from CG's "Wicked" 2012 Halloween collection and it is gorgeous! It completely transforms its look depending on the color it's topping. I am in LOVE! My autoimmune issues have been giving me a hard time lately, but as soon as I can get a break from them, I plan to swatch it on top of several different colors and share the pics here.

*Zoya can be found at zoya.com or your local Ulta store, Sinful Color can be found at Walgreens, China Glaze and Seche Vite can be found at Sally's Beauty Supply

Everyone Has Their Crack

I have a saying - "Everyone has their crack." You know, that thing that you just have to have or do. For my mom, it's shoes. For my dad, it's fishing. For my daughters, it's music. For some, it's running or tennis. Sadly, for some it's, well, actual crack.

I have lots of obsessions, but my "crack" is nail polish.

Exhibit "A" ~ My current collection

And not just nail polish. Stamping plates, rhinestones, striping brushes...anything nail art oriented. Now, I can't do a lot of the freestyle drawing that some of the other uber-talented nail bloggers do. RA has made my hands far too shaky for that. And, let's face it, I'm not as young as I used to be and I can't pull some of that stuff off anymore.

Exhibit "B" ~ Swatching set-up after a China Glaze haul

But something about keeping my nails looking pretty keeps me sane. There's something soothing about getting the kids to bed at night, turning on the TV, and sitting down to do my nails. It's not an every night thing, but almost. And I started this blog so I can share some of my experiments as well as swatches of my collection. Eventually I hope to have a page with links to pictures of each color in my collection so folks can see before they buy, so to speak. That could take a while, though, because there are a, ahem, few.

My boyfriend calls me an addict. I don't deny it. Besides, if I admit I have a problem, it's not really a problem, right? Right? Hello? I mean, I can quit any time I want.

Oooh! Is that a new Zoya collection?!