Happy Halloween Everyone!!!

If you didn't know, my store is having a sale right now, and since I'm a dumb dumb that doesn't understand that technology stuff, the fixed code will be up until midnight tomorrow night.  All orders will receive 13% off with the promo code "Halloween" - so click here to order!  Also, there are only a few more hours to get your donations in to I Need a Lighthouse (or you can send them to me via paypal if you'd rather).  More information on that is located here, here, and here.

Ok, we won't be doing a Comparison Thursday today since it's Halloween, which is my FAVORITE holiday of the year.  Instead, I'm going to show you some of the Halloween looks I've been rocking this month.  Bear with me as these photos were taken with my iPhone and might not be the best quality coupled with the fact that my nails are a right mess. Without further ado, and in no particular order, my Halloween manis!

**All polishes were purchased by me.**

Lynnderella Are You a Good Witch over Rescue Beauty Lounge Piu Mosso.

Witch is a clear based polish with a blue shimmer and glitters in all sorts of shapes and sizes but that focus more on the darker side of the spectrum.  Part 1 of the Lynnderella Halloween inspired Twin Set.  Piu Mosso is a deep navy creme with a strong copper shimmer.  

Lynnderella Ghouls Just Want to Have Fun over Wet 'n Wild Fantasy Makers Darkest Hour, Once Upon a Time, and Ghouls Rush In.

Ghouls Just Want to Have Fun is a clear based polish with a pink to blue shimmer and multicolored glitters.  Part 2 of the Lynnderella Halloween inspired Twin Set.  Darkest Hour is a plain black creme.  Once Upon a Time is a silver foil.  Ghouls Rust In is a really nice bright orange jelly.  

Lynnderella Gotta Love Brains with Illamasqua Raindrops.

Raindrops is a grey based polish with silver-grey flakies.  Gotta Love Brains is a pale grey base with a pink shimmer and hexes and squares in silver, purple, pink, and blue.  This is two coats of Raindrops and three coats of GLB without undies.  I wasn't sure how I'd like either of these, but this may be my favorite non-art mani this year.

Lynnderella All Hallows Eve over Elevation Torres del Paine.

All Hallows Eve is a green polish with various shades and sizes of green and black glitters.  Torres del Paine is an amazingly luscious green creme that is opaque in one coat.  Flawless application!  I took it to the next level by using NYC Matte me Crazy.

Orange Gradient

I used 5 different polishes following this technique to get this look.  I was absolutely IN LOVE with this mani.  It's just sooo pretty.  I used (from cuticle to free-edge): Elevation Matsuda, Deborah Lippmann Footloose, China Glaze Riveting, Elevation Sarychev, and Elevation SBP Llulluillaco.

Candy Corn Holo Gradient

I used the same technique as the one above for the gradient (from cuticle to free-edge): Model City Polish Corn Maze, OPI Coral Reef, and Indigo Bananas Do You Have a Flag?  I then stamped on my accents with Konad Special Black using my new Bundle Monster Holiday plates (BM-H07, BM-H06).

So, if you celebrate it, what did you do for Halloween?  If not, what was your Thursday mani?  I'll be doing something a bit different next month, so check back tomorrow for that.  Also, please be aware that the Depression Awareness Giveaway will take time to verify as I will be awaiting the information from the charity, so please be patient as I get all of the verification information in.

**All polishes purchased by me.**

Model City Baby It's Cold Outside!

Ok, tonight's post is going to be hella packed with pictures and information, so get your reading glasses on and a good glass of something tasty.  It's going to be a long night!

Source

*I was not financially compensated for this post. I received a sample of Model City Polish Baby It's Cold Outside for review purposes.  All other polishes in this review were purchased by me for my own use.  The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.  For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy in the tab above.*

As always, when I receive a polish for review, I just have to ask the maker a few questions so that you, reader, and I can get to know our favorite makers a little better.  Here are a couple of Nina's answers to my silly questions, along with some interspersed photos of Baby It's Cold Outside.


1) Are all of the polishes you've created in one collection?  If not, what are your collection names?


I have tons of one offs and currently 2 collections. One collection is my Spring Collection which consists of 5 pastel colors with a hint of fine holographic glitter. The other is my Ramones Inspired Collection. Ramones was an amazing bands that helped produce a wonderful music scene and was inspiration to so many, this set was my thank you.

I was not financially compensated for this post. I received a sample of Model City Polish Baby It's Cold Outside for review purposes.

2) Of the polishes you've sent me, what collection(s) do they belong to?

All that I sent you are one offs (Baby, It's Cold Outside was part of my Christmas Collection that is no longer offered).

3) What was your inspiration for the polishes you've chosen?

Dipping Chocolate was a request by a co worker. She suggested I make a chocolate colored polish with glitter. I immediately knew what I had to do, a chocolate holo. I have been selling this one since Dec and it has been a great seller.

Baby, It's Cold Outside was originally created for my holiday line up but I just loved it too much to retire it afterwards. This polish gives a chilly but soothing feel just by looking at it. That's why I decided to name it after one of my favorite wintry songs.

4) What was your inspiration for your brand name?

I live in Anniston, AL and our town motto is The Model City. My town was completely planned out and organized before the first road was ever laid. Due to the extreme planning and organization it seemed appropriate to use as my company name. All of my polish is carefully planned, tested, and bottled for perfection. Then with my extreme organization I have everything ready to go so my turn around time of shipping is 1 day, even with big release days.

Ok, let's get down to business!  Because I'm wicked lazy tonight, and we have a lot of material to get through, I'm going to shorten the name to just Baby.  I tried Baby over 3 different undies, OPI Glacier Bay Blues, Illamasqua Baptiste, and Color Club Blue Heaven, so photos of each combo will be interspersed throughout the post.  As always, click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Color: Clear base with baby blue and silver holo hexes in various sizes.

Finish: Glitter Top Coat – glitter in a clear base to be worn as a top coat.

Bottle / Brush: Round mini bottle – wand and brush are just long enough to reach the bottom of the bottle.  Normally, the fact that it’s a mini makes application a little tricky, but Baby is such a smooth polish that I was able to do gradients and full nail coverage without any problems at all.  The mini brush was actually kind of helpful this time around.

Opacity: Glitter topcoat – not designed for full opacity.

Glitter Application: Easy – Spreads evenly without much manipulation.  For the gradients, I used the dab method, but it spread easily and I didn't have to dig to get the glitter out.  

Consistency: Medium – applies easily and doesn’t flood the cuticles.  

Overall Ease of Application: Easy – applies well without pooling, dragging, streaking, or balding.  Spreads evenly and smoothly.

Stampability: Not designed for stamping.

Dry Time: Medium – dry to the touch with minimal smudging in 3-8 minutes.

Overall Thoughts:  Holy crap you guys.  I'm not normally a fan of glitter toppers, but Baby is one of the most versatile and easy to use toppers I've ever had the pleasure of owning.  As I've said above, application is super easy, and the effects you can make are stunning.  I wish I had tried a jelly sandwich, but I didn't have the time.  I'll probably do one soon and post it on my Facebook or Instagram pages, so keep an eye out there for another way to wear Baby.  I chose to do a gradient, a ruffian gradient, and full coverage to really showcase this polish.  It looks fantastic over dark and light colors, making it extremely versatile.  The pale color evokes wintry coolness, just as Nina intended.  I have a feeling I'm going to get a lot of use out of this beauty!

You can purchase Model City Polishes at her Etsy store.  Also, follow Nina on Facebook and Instagram for news and updates on new collections.

What's your favorite glitter topper?

I was not financially compensated for this post. I received a sample of Model City Polish Baby It's Cold Outside for review purposes.

What a Load of Chat

A trip to Marshalls the other day revealed that Sation polishes are indeed in stock. You may remember a post about that earlier. It's not a complete stock, with only a few polishes here and there, but I couldn't help picking up a beautiful neon pink for just $2.99.

Mimicking a shirt I also picked up during that same trip, these stripes were created using Chatty Catty (Sation) and Load (Illamasqua). I love the way the accent nail looks. It's so subtle and difficult to tell there's a party nail in the mix.

Happy Plants

You've seen a few ColourLover-inspired designs here before. If you're new, or don't recall, ColourLovers is a fantastic site to browse color palettes and patterns. It's my go-to for inspiration.

Every Tuesday, an email to members is distributed, which they call Happy Huesday. They feature six or so popular patterns in the emails.

Yesterday, I liked one so much I decided to make it into a manicure.

Here's the manicure:

 And here's the pattern it was based on:

Image source: http://www.colourlovers.com/pattern/2958888/happy_plants

It's pretty obvious which part of the pattern is being shown on the manicure, but if I hadn't told you, would you think they were tiny mustaches?

Here are the colors I used: Ancient Jade (ORLY), Load (Illamasqua), Get in the Expresso Lane (OPI), Pull Over (Sinful Colors), and Front Row Flasher (Sation).

Bleeding Blue

Tonight's nail art comes straight off of ColourLovers. It's a gorgeous gradient, but it's called melting. It actually looks like it is melting, and so do my nails.

The colors used were Load (Illamasqua), Rock-a-Guy Blue and Blue Sky's the Limit (Sation).

This was a really easy design to do. Just paint your base color, add messy stripes of your second color about half way down your nail, and then add some more on top of that near the top of the nail. Easy and effortless.

EDIT: 8/26/12 You can easily try this yourself. Follow this new tutorial for the exact steps and tools you'll need.

Native American Rug

Native American culture is amazing. From the wall art to the baskets and blankets, Native Americans really seemed to have some serious artistic ability. Southwest U.S. states still flourish with the styles portrayed by our predecessors, and tonight's nails reminded me a little bit of this kind of art.

This simple yet striking design was really easy to create too! I coated my nails with Load (Illamasqua) first, then a small diamond shape of alternating January (Julep) and Cote D' Azur (Icing). Then it was just a matter of painting some small vertical lines outlining the diamonds and a little blob in the middle. It was easy because it's imperfect and uneven, which makes it more interesting.

I'm betting we'll be seeing a lot of these skinny little imperfect lines here at Nailed It.

EDIT: Ok...this is too hilarious not to add. After I posted this manicure, I got a comment from my mom, who reminded me of this song we used to listen to in our Plymouth Voyager mini van when I was a little girl living in Utah. Here's the lyrics to the song that must've somehow brought some emotional memory to my mind's forefront:

Ay yi yi Katy. 

Shades of red and blue.

Ay yi yi Katy.

Whatever became of that Navajo rug and you?

The lyrics aren't as innocent as the song's memory in my mind, but it's obvious it had some serious impact on me. Thanks Mom!

Show Your True Colors

I owe every bit of inspiration for tonight's manicure to an unlikely, but highly inspiring source: PixelgirlPresents. I found this site when I first got a laptop for college in 2006. That was six years ago, but now outdated Dell I was given as an awesome present from my Dad makes it seem like much longer. PixelgirlPresents offers graphic artists a chance to get their work on peoples' desktops, phones and electronic screens of other sorts. It's all run by one girl, and the submissions are always unique and colorful. I'm a fan of bold patterns and designs, so I've had this bookmarked for a long time.

Browsing it the other day for an updated background, I stumbled upon something I looked at and thought to myself, "Katy...you need to put that on your nails." I give myself great advice sometimes, so thanks past-me for that great thought (and for quickly saving the picture to your phone to reference later). 

The design I used as my guide was by the artist Plumeology, who, judging by their PixelgirlPresents bio page, has only submitted one design to the site. They do link to a company webpage though, and it seems they're a design company offering services like logo design, advertising, and business name consultation. See? Unlikely source for inspiration! If you're in San Diego, I bet they offer some pretty designs if their work is anything like their logo. 

So, without further ado, here's my interpretation of their beautiful logo!

I used Load (Illamasqua) as the base. The plumes were done with Electric Pineapple (China Glaze), Sea Breeze (Sally Hansen Insta-Dri) and Dream (Savina). Yes I know, I'm reusing colors, but I keep getting drawn to the same bottles. The decorative swirls beside the plumes were done with Pelican Gray (China Glaze), and it was all freehand. Maybe that's why only two nails got the treatment.

Take the Load Off

Two days of skiing did a number to my limbs. All I wanted to do all day today was sit down and take a load off. Tired eyes and tired legs need the time off.

Bare all this in mind when reading these polishes names.

Elegant and simple, this manicure was inspired by my friend Tammy, who said she had seen something similar on Pintrest. I haven't been able to find the image she was talking about, nor do I know which colors they used, but I used Illamasqua Load and Sinful Colors Time Off.

I know, so clever. About as clever as I can get without overstimulating my tired brain into a state of malfunction.

Such a Pansy

Pansies have always been one of my favorite flowers. The contrast between the purple and the yellow and the white is so yummy! I've been wanting to do a manicure featuring pansies for a while, and this is the first attempt. I think I should've picked a different background color, but I also blame the camera for silly contrast problems. (I haven't mastered manual mode yet.)

The base is OPI, Stranger Tides. The purple petals are Kieko from Zoya, the white petals are Load from Illamasqua, and the stamens are Savina's Grape. Finally, the center yellow pollen is Color Madric's Design Yellow.

Not bad for a first attempt, but not the best.

UPDATE: 2/3/12

I've created a tutorial for this manicure. Enjoy! (I'm also trying a new layout for my tutorials, and I must say, I love it.

Dainty Asian Flowers

Is grey work-appropriate? Where I work, there is no dress code. One of my friends had purple hair for a while! So when I show up everyday with a new, usually bright manicure, no one blinks an eye. I mean, we can bring our pets into the office, no biggie. However, tomorrow we are having some potential clients come in, and I'll be organizing the lunch, so the potential for them to see my nails is large. With that in mind, I wanted a manicure that was appropriate, but I also really wanted to do this manicure, so I risked it. What do you guys think...appropriate? Would a stickler boss strike down these colors?

I used I Vant to be A-Lone Star (OPI) as the grey base, Be My Valentine (Sinful Colors nail art brush) for the stems, and Illamasqua's Load for the flowers. Subtle?

Birthday, Christmas and New Year Haul

The end of the year is always full of some serious celebration for me. With a birthday right before Christmas, Christmas itself, and all the celebration and hangovers that accompany New Year's Eve, there's a lot to be happy about. In addition, I have gifts and presents to celebrate over that I know you all will also appreciate. Of course, I recieved some lovely non-nail gifts and love from my family and friends that are also reason to celebrate, but since this is a nail blog, I'll just share those with you today.

Get ready...it's picture heavy!

First up, these are the gifts my sister gave me. She understands nail polish more than anyone I personally know, so you can only imagine my joy opening her gifts. She gave me tools:

...dotting tools

...striping brushes

...and a glass nail file.

She gave me the Butter London Dressing Table duo, Black Knight and Tart with a Heart. Unfortunately, the dressing table suffered a fatility during the 17-hour car ride, so it won't be making an appearance in today's shots.

She gave me some amazing nail art brushes I've never heard of, but definitely want more of. The formula on all of these is great, and only requires one coat. That's practically unheard of with brighter striping shades. All of these are from a company called Color Madric. They're all sort of metallic, not matte as their bottles seem to indicate.

Shown here is Design Yellow, Green, Ocean Blue, and Hologram Glitter.

Hologram Glitter really is holographic, as I tried to capture here.

Shown here are the metallics from the Metal-licious collection of Color Madric brushes. These colors are Am-Ore, Platinum Rush, Lead to Riches, Metal-Licious, Iron I Lovely, and Gold Digger.

These all appear metallic, as their collection's name suggests.

She gave me part of L.A. Girl Glitter Addict collection, including the elusive Uninhibited I've been craving since I saw Rie from Nails and Noms use it.

Shown here are Uninhibited, Jostle, Animate, and Celebrate.

A few days after getting these, we stopped by a random Rite Aid to get Andy some contact solution, and I saw a glittering display of five more colors from the collection!

I added Eutopia, Nostalgic, Purge (a new nail polish name favorite in my book), Synergy, and Provocative to my infant collection.

Now it's a glittering grand collection!

She gave me some polishes we had talked about over the phone. These are randoms I mentioned liking that she had cheap access to out there in So-Cal.

Shown here is Sea Gurl from ORLY, Good Witch? from China Glaze, Cleopatra also from China Glaze, Glass Slipper from Sally Hansen Diamond Strength (one I actually snagged for myself), Lady Luck from Sally Hansen Gem Crush and January from Julep. She didn't like that color on her, so I took it off her hands. To top this load of polishes off is the amazing Load from Illamasqua. Look at it back there. Beautifully raunchy.

Rounding out my sister's amazing gifts is my first bottle...or bottles rather...of Seche Vite.

Look at this monstrosity! It's so much top coat, I don't even know what to do with it! 4 ounces!

So that's it from her...but fear not, my haul has not ended! She did an unbelievable job of making my Christmas gifts a thrill to open. Thanks Sisser, I love you!

I mentioned in Sapphire that Andy's mom's trainer, Robbie really hooked me up with some amazing CND products. Here they are!

She included in my bag of goodies some nail care items including some tasty CND Solar Oil (a cuticle conditioner), Scentsations lotion minis in Sparkling Champagne and Clementine & Mistletoe. They smell awesome! There are also several samples of CND's Spamanicure hand lotions, in Citrus Soothing Creme and Almond Hydrating Lotion. I absolutely love the smell of the almond lotion. Finally, there are a few nail buffers, showing their support for breast cancer research with the words "Nail Community Cares" written on them.

She also included some amazing colors, including Smoochie (#518), Sapphire Sparkle (#561), Plum Truffle Sparkle Effect (#586), and Plum Truffle Colour (#585).  You've seen Sapphire Sparkle already in Sapphire.

Thank you again Robbie, I love everything!

Last but not least! We have the polishes I bought myself.

You've already seen the Urban Outfitters collection I picked up here, but here's a few more shots of those beautiful bottles.

I also snagged the entire Finger Paints Special Effects collection today at Sally's!

 Not much to look at when they're in the bottles, but I'm sure you've seen them used by other ladies. My favorite shots are from Jen at The PolishAholic, from this post showing each on its own, and this post showing them all layered together. Oh many these are going to be fun to play with!

So that's it. Can you feel my excitement through the screen? It's radiating!