Back Away Slowly, He Looks HUNGRY!!!

Sometimes you get an idea for nail art and it goes better than you'd even imagined.  This is the first time that's ever happened to me.  Somehow over the summer I got the idea to turn 'sweater' nails into little monsters for Halloween...and...well...I giggled for hours!

I wish I could say I planned the faces...but I didn't.  This sorta happened 'on its own'.  Makes it even better, I think!

Oh no!  He's getting closer!!!

Nooooo!!!! That's my best nail! Don't eat it!!!


If you'd like to do this yourself sometime (a Cookiemonster nail would be awesome!), it's really easy!

Flocking powder can be found in the scrapbooking section of craft stores.  Find the best match among your polishes and paint normally.

I used Wet n Wild Disturbia, Sinful Colors Last Chance, Finger Paints Go van Gogh!, and Sally Hansen Grass Slipper.

I put a small dot of nail glue where I wanted each eye on one nail at a time, and quickly placed the eyes over the glue, pressing very gently.  I let the glue dry for about 10 minutes before the next step.

To apply the flocking, I poured some of it into the lid of each container, about 1/4" thick and broke up any clumps.  I coated one nail at a time with a thick coat of clear polish (carefully avoiding the eyes) and dipped it into the matching powder, pressing it gently into the edges with my cuticle pusher.  I lightly smoothed the flocking with a finger.

This is when I knew it was working!

I let it dry before adding mouths and teeth with my dotting tools.

It was VERY hard to get all of the loose flocking powder and clear polish off my skin, but I managed with my cuticle pusher and some lotion (keeping it away from the fuzz) and got it pretty clean.

These guys made me smile each time I looked at them!  They felt endlessly weird though!

They survived washing better than I expected, but not wonderfully.  They looked a bit rough, but I had to sleep and then shower for work.  I was *sure* there'd be an eye missing at least, but...they even survived the shower...kinda...

Way better than I'd expected!

....but they had to go, as much as I'd miss them.  I had almost as much fun removing them as I did wearing them!

Noooooo! Not the diiiiiiip!!!!

I'm melllllttiing...mellllting...oh what a world, what a world!

AAAAAAHHHH!!! His EYE!!! GET IT OFF MEEEEE!!

Oh no...we're next!!

These were just too much fun!!  Hope you got a laugh out of them too!  Happy Halloween!!

My first OPI: I have a Herring Problem

I finally picked up some full sized OPI. Finally. Talk about behind-the-times. I won't gush too much about it, because I know most of you have already used the hell out of OPI for years. But I really do love it! The polish, the brush, the handle! Oh my. I might have a serious problem now.

One of the colors I grabbed on my accidentally patriotic shopping spree was "I Have a Herring Problem". It's a really pretty denimy blue with gold shimmer. I generally stay away from blues, but I really like how this one looks on me.  But, as always, I couldn't do just one color. So I grabbed the gold texture coat from Nicole by OPI. (btw, it is really hard to intentionally spell my own name wrong.) My husband wasn't a big fan, but I think they went pretty nicely together.

freshly broken nails. Curse you laundry!

Essie Ladylike

I got this polish in my October Birchbox. It's a lovely purpley-neutral. For someone else. It's icky on my pasty skin. I think this would be killer on someone who didn't glow in the dark. But, it was interesting to try a color that I would NEVER, ever, ever, ever, ever have picked for myself.

I also had an issue with the formula. This is three coats, and I can still see streaks. The weather has been a little weird here (90F one week to 50F the next) and maybe it caused some trouble? I dunno. I was irritating. Like I said in the previous post, this will be available for swapsies come November.

Curse you, Sandy!

Hurricane Sandy is battering 'my' coast.  I've been at work since last night and might not get home until Wednesday morning.  I'm here...and the photos for my next few posts are at home. Once I do get home I'm not sure if we'll even have power.  My Halloween posts may go past Halloween at this rate. If you wanna check in on me, I'll be tweeting.  Good luck to everyone else in Sandy's path, and everyone affected by the recent earthquake and its aftermath.

*Update* I'm home and the power's back on! Still occasional gusts, but everything's fine here.  Hope everyone's ok!

....and MUA needs to get back online pronto!

October Birchbox

This month was the "goop" box, whatever that means. I was glad to be getting another bottle of nail polish to check out. The polish has been the only redeeming factor in the last couple of boxes. I am sorely tempted to cancel my birchbox in favor of a Julep Maven subscription...but I love getting random make-up samples.

The Contents:

Essie in Lady Like (swatches upcoming)

Jouer Lip Enhancer

Kiehl's Rosa Arctica Eye

Supergoop! City Sunscreen Serum

Luna bar in Lemon Zest

The lip enhancer tasted awful and artificial. The texture was really off-putting as well. I'll keep it as a back-up (unless someone wants it? Seriously, I will gladly trade anything for it) but I will certainly not be buying the full sized product. I haven't tried the eye cream. I'm a little skittish about eye stuff because I am super prone to millia, and I have finally found an eye cream that doesn't cause them. I might try it eventually...we'll see. I am in LOVE with the Supergoop! so far. I've been wanting to try it, but I didn't want to buy it and hate it like I do with so many sunscreens. It has very little scent. No perfumy shit OR tell-tale sunscreen smell. That makes me happy. It soaks into the skin wonderfully, and even five hours later, my face isn't shiny and gross. I also really liked the Luna bar. But it wasn't new to me at all. I used to buy those when I was knocked up for snacks. I had gestational diabetes the last time, and it was a fairly low carb snack that satisfied my insatiable sweet tooth. I forgot how much I liked them, I will definitely pick up a box next time I am out.

Next post will be swatches of the polish...which will also be available for swapsies come november. Not a good color for me AT ALL.

Breast Cancer Awareness Mammicure

I don't like pink.  I was thinking of skipping the whole Breast Cancer Awareness thing because I cringe at the thought of painting my nails pink (again)...and then I was struck by a terrible pun.  Mammicure!  It's like a manicure...with BOOBS!  I love boobs!!  Best part?  Almost no pink!  I grabbed every nude polish I had and went nuts with my dotting tool...

The base is OPI It's Totally Fort Worth It. I picked it because it's got little pink flecks...which you totally can't even see in these photos.  Phooey.  That was as pink as I was willing to go.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month is almost over, but if you're looking to make a difference, please consider donating to Planned Parenthood.  A certain big, pink non-profit organisation used to fund 170,000 clinical breast exams and 6,400 mammogram referrals through Planned Parenthood, but pulled that support for political reasons.  It's shamefull.  Not everyone agrees with all of the services provided by Planned Parenthood, but they do more for womens' health than a pink vaccuum cleaner ever will.  Please help them continue, if you can!

My October trip to Ulta

Once a month, I get to make a trip to Ulta. It's the highlight of my beauty schedule, and I spend an undue amount of time planning what I will buy. I try to keep it under $20 after coupons, and generally I'm pretty good. This month, I splurged a little. OPI was having a buy two, get one free sale...and can you believe I didn't own any full-sized OPI polish? Until the Ulta opened, there wasn't anywhere around here that sold it. 

The Haul:

Poshe fast dry top coat: I like it...sorta. It seems to get goopy faster than Seche Vite, and doesn't seem to last as long. But it's 3-free, and it doesn't stink up the whole house.

Wet'n'Wild Fantasy Makers in Once Upon a Time

Some whitening nail scrub: didn't work, I returned it.

OPI Malaga Wine

OPI Alpine White

OPI I Have a Herring Problem

I noticed some time after taking these photos that I was inadvertently patriotic with my color choices. Completely accidental.

I am not crazy about the Fantasy Makers. It's cool, but I loathe and detest jellies. There, I said it. I really don't like having to layer nail polish so thick that people ask if my nails are fake. I think if I were going to wear this, I'd layer it over a black cream just for the convenience. The glitter is pretty dense in one coat.

The whitening scrub didn't work for shit and it smelled like silver polish. I think, if I had a mild yellowing, it would have been fine. But my nails are a lovely shade of yellow ochre that would make Bob Ross jealous. I figured it'd be nice to wear some sheers every now and then, but this product isn't going to help me get there. I returned it a week later. I got equally "meh" results from using peroxide+baking soda.

Wet n Wild Pick Your Poison Collection

[note- I feel a little bad posting these so late.  Life got in the way a bit.  They're gone from Walgreens in this area, the only stores around here that even had them.  I hope I'm not creating any impossible lemmings.  Sorry!]

I'll admit it, I got Wet n Wild's Pick Your Poison collection because they're gorgeous in the bottles.  They defy any specific theme, being perfect for fall, Halloween, or xmas...everything I love most!  I knew I had something at least a little similar to most of them, but they needed to be mine.  All of them!


I have to lead off with Poison Ivy, I'm in love!

Poison Ivy is deceptive.  This polish isn't green.  Really.  It's a black jelly crampacked with more green shimmer than seems possible.  If OPI Every Month Is Oktoberfest had a green cousin, it would be Poison Ivy.  It has angles where it's almost black.

...and then in bright light...

It applies very smoothly, with almost no brush strokes and could be one coat...though I used two.  Wonderful polish, easily my favorite Wet n Wild and in my top 10 for the year...and the reason I've been checking stores.  I want a second bottle.  I want to own this FOREVER!!!  ...if I could only find it. *sigh*

I will admit, it's a little less dazzling in normal room lighting, but...still beautiful.

I stared at it all night...loooooove!!

...and then I mattified it with Butter London Matte Finish and fell in love all over again...it looks like it could be an OPI Suede!!

Deadly Dose is a slightly frosty gold shimmer.  It's on the thin side, but covers in 2-3 coats.

You can see I had some brush stroke issues and light bubbling.  No big deal...sponge it!  Wonderful things happen when it's sponged.

Lethal Injection is a deep red-violet shimmer.

It's almost opaque in one coat, but I had bubbling and streaking issues with it too.  Sponge again!

Sparkling in direct light, but almost satiny in lower light!

Root of All Evil is a vibrant, almost metallic, blue.  It's sooooo blue!!!  My camera spazzed out a bit on it.

I had a bit of bubbling with this too, sadly.  Still, it's so glowy, not just under my lamp...

Toxic Apple is a deep navy with lots of blue and purple shimmer.

The formula is great, very smooth.  It's also almost a one-coater.  No bubbling, almost no brush strokes.

It's a very close dupe for OPI Russian Navy.

Russian Navy is on my ring finger.  It's got a bit more shimmer, but they're very close.


Venomous Vixen is somewhere between dark silver/gunmetal and blue, with a lighter silvery blue shimmer.  In very bright light the shimmer goes crazy!

In average lighting it looks almost like granite...

Venomous Vixen applied with minimal brush strokes and was opaque in about two coats.


So the rundown....if you can find this collection, Poison Ivy is a must-have.  Venomous Vixen is my second pick.  If you wanted a drugstore dupe for OPI Russian Navy, get Toxic Apple.  My only real complaint is with the brush.  The neck of the bottle and the brush are almost the same width.  It's awkward.  The Megalast bottles themselves are some of the best looking of any drugstore line.


Even more Halloween-ness on the way!

At The Late Night Double Feature Picture Show

Everyone's got those days they wait for all year long...xmas, birthdays, black Friday, etc.  One of mine is the third Saturday in October.  The night of the Colonial Theater's Rocky Horror event!  The Colonial is one of the oldest operating theaters in the country and a gorgeous venue for an oddball good time.  It's also a part of my childhood.  I remember seeing The Little Mermaid there when I was maybe 5.  ...now I wear something trampy there once a year and mark the foreheads of strangers with red lipstick!

...without further ado...something trampy!

It wound up being a bit more Liza Minnelli than intended, but oh well.  (...this is the best photo...bleh)

...and now on to the relevant stuff!  I was originally going to do my nails to match the shirt, but I did just the pinkie and liked it so much that I asked the internets what they thought and they said "KEEP"....so I did.

Nicole by OPI Give Me The 1st Dance + Finger Paints Black Expressionism

Thank you, internets!

I started my eyes with L'Oreal HiP Color Chrome Eyeliner in Silver Lightning.  Mine is so soft that it's useless as a liner, but it works as a *bold* cream shadow.  I used it as a base for a variety of shades from two of this year's Fantasy Makers by Wet n Wild cream shadow palettes, Meteor Shower and Stars & Snipes.

They go on smoothly over another cream shadow.  On their own they tend to tug a bit.  They build nicely, but the glitter is really only on the surface.

As you can see, the Stars & Snipes palette has a better texture.  I used more of this than the Meteor Shower one.  I also used e.l.f. Essentials Shimmer Eyeliner in Black Bandit and Covergirl Perfect Blend in Basic Black.

On my lips it's Ulta Lip Crayon in Dynamite and Rimmel London Stay Glossy in Black Diva.  Black Diva does not behave itself for photos.  It's drastically blacker in person.

...the end result...

...best photo...bleh. That's the problem with being excited and having a good time...the photos usually suck.  Black Diva is doing its diva thing and not photographing true to color.  My lips were about five times darker.

I'll be posting videos of parts of the show....eventually....and not on here.  So...yeah.  If you want to see previous videos, click here.  ...someday there will be nail and maybe makeup tutorials on there too.  Someday.

Revlon Wicked Star

Revlon's Sweetly Sinister collection is a really cute idea.  There are four Top Speed shades and six stencil designs.  If you like the look of Konad stamping, but want it NOW without the learning process and tools, the stencils might be a good option.  Of the four shades, I only bought Wicked Star and I passed on the stencils.  Wicked Star is another polish that I held in the store a few times before buying...and like a lot of them, I'm so glad I did finally get it!

Wicked Star is a cool-toned medium green with an abrupt duochrome shift from green to peachy gold.

The shift is really sudden and only at just the right angle, but when it happens...it's stunning!

It was a little bit brush stroke-y and I had some minor bubbling, but nothing too bad.  It applied nicely and took two coats.

...I just had to try sponging it.  I almost always do when I have bubbling issues or brush strokes.  Sponging teaches Wicked Star to sing!  The shift turns into unstoppable sparkle.

When it's sponged, the peach shift never fully leaves.

Gorgeous.  I was surprised how much I love this, especially because I bought it on a whim.  I don't own anything else like it and I'd absolutely recommend it.

Fantasy Makers Nail in the Coffin and Rest in Pieces

Halloween is my favorite holiday.  Always has been, since the days of the little homemade leopard costume that I lived in until I outgrew it and my sister (click and go 'aww') claimed it.  Everything about Halloween is awesome.  Dark colors, costumes, scary movies, and candy.  Love it all!  I've been looking forward to the Halloween polishes since June and I'm so happy to finally have my hands on some!

Fantasy Makers polishes come in bottles with cute little coffin tops.  It makes them very slightly awkward to hold, for me anyway.  Worth it!  I bought three of this year's four shades, Go with the Glow, Nail in the Coffin, and Rest in Pieces.  Go with the Glow is a glow in the dark topcoat, too sheer to show on its own.  The glow is smooth and strong.  I'm impressed!  I passed on Once Upon A Time because it's a shade that Wet n Wild keeps releasing with different names in slightly different formulas.  More on that later.


Nail in the Coffin is a fairly sheer black base with a sprinkling of tiny pastel coppery-pink and sky blue glitter.

Halloween and pastel don't spring to mind right away, but the result is terrific!  The glitter is small enough to not be in-your-face but sets Nail in the Coffin apart from any other black polish I've seen.  I really love this!  It's opaque in about three coats, but probably sheer enough to layer.


Rest in Pieces is a very similar sheer-ish black base with generous purple microglitter.

It's essentially a rebottling of Wet n Wild Night Prowl, but not quite.  Rest in Pieces is less sheer and the glitter is less dense.  It's not a huge difference, but the bottle was too cute to resist.  It's also opaque in about three coats.

Once Upon A Time is a shade that Wet n Wild seems to really love because they keep releasing slightly different versions of it.  I can't blame them at all.  It's one of those drugstore dupes that get on Deborah Lippmann's nerves.  It's almost identical to her Ruby Red Slippers, but for 1/9th the price.  Yay for you, Wet n Wild!  They've released versions of it at least three times that I know of.  I have one, Ants in  My Pants from their CVS Spoiled line.  From what I've heard it's sheerer than Once Upon A Time.  It is *very* sheer, so I layered it over black.

They can rerelease this as many times as they want...it's gorgeous.  ...and I didn't pay $18 for it.  Awesome!


Final verdict time...  If you only buy one, it should be Nail in the Coffin.  It's unique in my collection.  If you like the look of Rest in Pieces on its own, get it.  If you'd rather use it for layering, get Night Prowl instead.  Once Upon A Time is gorgeous...but if you want a *slightly* better value, get Ants in My Pants.  Same price, but .5oz instead of Once Upon A Time's .33oz.  Once Upon A Time is supposed to be more opaque and Ants in My Pants has a VERY wide brush, so you may want to consider that too.  Go With The Glow is an ideal glow in the dark topcoat for a really great price.  The bottles are adorable too!

More Wet n Wild Halloween goodness coming soon!

Zombie Hand!

So apparently that Walking Dead show is back tonight and Nichole is superexcited.  I only watched the first season....but this happened last night and the timing made me giggle.

Completely accidental, but the zombie look was so perfect that I had to post it.  So...if you want a quick and easy zombie manicure, remove dozens of manicures worth of red, purple, gray, blue, black etc polish with a sponge tub and then get fed up one night with how dirty the sponge is and decide that your cheap ass is gonna clean it instead of just spending another few bucks.

This will happen first...

...and when you grab a paper towel to start removing it...bingo...zombie hand!  ...at least the sponge is kinda clean now.