Nightmare Before Christmas

Hi again!  I had to schedule this post since I'll be working in the morning.  I'm excited to have landed a job at a gorgeous spa, getting to pamper women and do what I love.  I started last week, and everyone there has been very nice so far.  I joke that the only drawback is that I have to wear color (black is what I wear 99% of the time). 

I did these nails for a Halloween nail art contest on Facebook.  If you'll recall, a few months ago I did Jack Skellington nails for a challenge I was in, for "Inspired by a tuturial".  This time, however, I chose to go with two more characters and a jack o' lantern. 

I mixed different polishes to come up with the colors for Sally's patchwork dress, used China Glaze In The Limelight for Oogie Boogie, and Sally Hansen Sun Kissed for the jack o' lantern, as well as China Glaze Liquid Leather for the thumbnail, and China Glaze White on White for Jack Skellington's face.  I put a coat of Pure Ice Free Spirit (a beautiful glow-in-the-dark light green polish with blue shimmer) over In The Limelight, used China Glaze Celtic Sun for the jack o' lantern's eyes, nose, and teeth as well as on the moon behind Jack, and then used China Glaze Ghoulish Glow over Celtic Sun.  The entire manicure took me three hours and some change, mostly to wait for the polish to completely dry before painting on it.  I'm actually a bit pleased with how this came out, so on with the photo!

I had to angle the camera a bit to make sure Zero was included (he's on the thumb).  I used a detail brush that I had flattened, and used the tip to create Jack's outline.  Orly Skinny Dip was used over white acrylic paint for the sides of the hill, and then a dotting tool plus Sun Kissed created the pumpkins on the hill.

I hope you enjoyed this!  It was fun to create and time flew by as I was doing it.  I'll begin posting my manicures for the weekly Rainbow Challenge soon, and will be keeping a spooky theme since it's October.  Have a great day!

Almost four months later, I'm back!

I've had a VERY long absence from this blog, and I want to apologize for that.  In between dealing with a chronic illness, finishing requirements for school, starting classes on becoming an Advanced Nail Technician, AND GETTING A NEW JOB (yay!), things have been hectic.  I've also been sick with strep throat and bronchitis, and now am dealing with pain that's possibly from my gallbladder.  All in all, things have been going well, even with all the ups and downs.
I finished the ABC Challenge sponsored by Erica of Erica's Nails and More, won a nail art contest (woo hoo!), and now am participating in another nail art challenge.  I want to push myself and exceed myself regarding nail art, especially since I've gotten a bit of a reputation at school for being good at what I do.  Please forgive me if that sounds like bragging; I'm not.  To be completely honest, I view my nail art as simplistic and not really that good.  I do love what I do and want to exceed myself every time I do a manicure with nail art.
That said, I want to say a heartfelt THANK YOU for following me.  I'm going to do my best to keep this blog up and running.

Now...I want to share my contest-winning manicure with you.  I did this for Week X of the ABC challenge.  I love comic books and The Uncanny X-Men have always been a big favorite.  I especially love Gambit; who WOULDN'T love a charming, charismatic character with the ability to kinetically charge inanimate objects, throw them, and blow things up?  With this in mind, I had to do X-Men themed nails.  It was an absolute blast!

I used China Glaze Celtic Sun, OPI Animal-istic, an unnamed brown, and an unnamed purple L.A. Colors polish, as well as China Glaze Liquid Leather, a mini red polish, and a gold Nina Pro polish.  Detail brushes and a dotting tool were used to add details to the characters' costumes.  This was quite fun to do, and I wore it for about a week.  Stay tuned; I'll be showing my Nightmare Before Christmas nails tomorrow!