Boil Boil Toil and Trouble Ultra Purple Witch Nails

October 22, 2013happyjoylove Glitter/Holographic, Holiday/Theme Leave a comment

I don’t want to type much today. Here are my purple witch nails. I put loose glitter on the non-accent nails that make me think of mermaids. Usually I match my right and left hand, but in this case I only did a witch on my right. I love the purple color by Ulta, but I was having some trouble with the brush and also this color responds strangely to topcoats. Enjoy!

Polishes Used:

Seche Vite Base Coat
Ulta Ultra Violet Femme for the purple background
Sally Hansen Xtremewear Black Out for the black witch’s hat and eye dots
Sally Hansen Xtremewear Perfect Pear-ing for the witch’s face
Sinful Color’s Summer Peach for the witch’s hair
Ulta High Roller for the gold buckle
Sally Hansen Xtremewear Wet Cement for hat accent
Loose glitter that I got from the Dollar Tree, woot!
Poshe Top Coat

I Vant to Suck Your Blooood! Vampire Nails

October 15, 2013happyjoylove Dotting, Holiday/Theme 2 Comments

After a lovely weekend of camping on the California Coast at Costanoa KOA my nails were tore up (literally I tore a couple nails) so I decided to just chop them all off. Even though they’re nubbins right now that doesn’t mean they can’t be cute! Vampire Nails I have to say there is something strangely comforting about wearing black and blood red nails. I think because it harkens back to my childhood days when my sister was goth and Elvira was on late night. Black nails were in 20 years ago and 20 years ago was a good time for me!

I used a fine paint brush and my homemade dotting tools to accomplish the designs and I think this design has a lot of versatility; you could just do the face and paint the rest of your nails black or red for a simpler version.

Polishes Used:

Seche Vite Base Coat
Sally Hansen Xtremewear Black Out for the black base
Sally Hansen Xtremewear White On for the spider web stamping
LA Colors Blood Red for the red pinky and blood drips
Poshe Top Coat

Rainbow Fuzzy Nails – Contest Winnings Arrived!

October 9, 2013happyjoylove Brand/Product Reviews and Comparisons, Glitter/Holographic Leave a comment

So, I’m a little back-logged on posts, but better late than never! A while back I did a small post about winning a contest from Janella at boldnbeautifulmakeup.blogspot.com. She did follow through on sending the prizes (all the way from Canada!) and I was so excited that I wanted to use most of the colors all in one mani.

What does that mean? Rainbows of course! This was my last summer manicure before my Fall/Halloween transition (also look for a massive post coming up about Fall nails).

Fuzzy Rainbow Nails 3 For this manicure I used Color Club’s Take Wing as the base, two coats each, then coordinated the fuzzy coat colors on each finger.

Polishes Used:

Seche Vite Base Coat
Pink – Color Club Wing Fling with Wool Lite
Orange – Sparkle and Soar with Peach Fuzz
Yellow – Daisy Does It with Fuzzy Fantasy
Green – Fly With Me with Fuzz-Sea
Blue-Green – Metamorphosis with Tight Knit
Purple – Milani Totally Cool with Tweedy
Poshe Top Coat

So long summer nails, welcome Fall!

Spooky Spiders and Wicked Webs – Halloween Nails

October 7, 2013happyjoylove Dotting, Glitter/Holographic, Holiday/Theme, Stamping 2 Comments

All weekend I was thinking about doing some kind of witch theme on my nails, but come Sunday evening I flip-flopped into designing a black widow spider and webs.

The spider is hand painted – first I made two dots to form the body and head, then used a fine paintbrush to do the legs and the distinctive red mark. The web design is from my stamping Cheeky Jumbo Plate A – it was initially a pattern I didn’t think I would use, but it is actually one that I gravitate towards the most and it was perfect to give the spider web vibe. I think a cute alternative to doing webs on each nail would be to do black and white stripes; still very Halloweeny.

This was my first time using a mint Nailite polish that I got on clearance for a whopping 42 cents (directly from their website). It took two coats to be opaque, and although it seemed a little streaky when applying, the color became even after drying. The brush is pretty thin so you can’t cover your whole nail in one swipe, but nonetheless it turned out well.

Now all I need is a Spider WOman costume :).

Polishes Used:

Seche Vite Base Coat
Sally Hansen Xtremewear Black Out for the black base
Nailite Polish Mint Green for the accent finger green base
Sally Hansen Xtremewear White On for the spider web stamping
Sinful Colors Under 18 for the red marking on the spider
China Glaze Fairy Dust over spider web nails
Poshe Top Coat

Welcome October! Early Halloween Inspiration Black and Orange Mani

October 2, 2013happyjoylove Brand/Product Reviews and Comparisons, Holiday/Theme Leave a comment

I couldn’t wait! October 1st and I had to usher in Autumn and the month of Halloween with a neon orange and black crackle mani. I just wish the photo could show how neon the orange is, my fingers are almost glowing.

I decorated my desk at work last week and my coworkers started asking if Halloween was my favorite holiday. It’s hard not to ~~scream~~ say YES! It’s a holiday where you get FREE candy, you get to dress up and not be considered crazy, and you get to worship Satan all in one…okay maybe not that last part.

Anyway, this set didn’t actually take that long to do. The orange Sinful Colors Summer Peach color dries very fast and is actually a matte polish. I put a fast dry top coat on the orange before applying the crackle; I don’t know if it allows the crackle spread better, but my theory is that it helps. The crackle coat also dries super quick and is in between glossy and matte. I did not apply a topcoat over the crackle.

On the accent finger I just used a small paint brush to apply the design. Yes, the face is inspired by one of my favorite movie protagonists, Jack Skellington (even though it’s on orange and not white). It is a cross between a jack-o-lantern and Jack Skellington and I’m quite pleased. I can’t wait to do more themed nails this month!!