GLAM NAILS CHALLENGE OCTOBER 2025 — Sugar Skull 💀🌸

Hello lovelies — Happy Monday! Today is a beautiful start to the week, because it’s time for the second prompt of Glam Nails Challenge October! & the next prompt we have is Sugar Skull! I attempted Sugar Skull nails only once before, but wasn’t exactly super happy with how they turned out. So I had an idea to redeem myself, & I’m actually obsessed with the end result!

The polishes I used for this manicure are: 

  • Top Coat: Sally Hansen InstaDri Top Coat (red bottle) 
  • Base Coat: Essie Hard to Resist (purple)
  • Icing Store Black
  • Claires Cosmic Babe Nail polish Cosmic Blue
  • Madam Glam Nail Art Pen Orange *pr
  • Madam Glam Nail Art Pen Yellow *pr
  • Madam Glam Nail Art Pen Blue *pr
  • Madam Glam Nail Art Pen White *pr
  • Sally Hansen I ❤️ Nail Polish pen in Purple
  • Dollarama Spooky Halloween Nail Stickers (skulls)

So my original plan was I was going to hand paint skulls on my nails, but that wasn’t really working — & then I was going to stamp on a skull, but I didn’t really like the images that I had. But I remembered I recently purchased some new nail art stickers at Dollarama so I decided to use those are my base for my sugar skull design!

After I applied my skull stickers to the fingers I wanted them on, I then went in with my nail art pens one colour by one colour, & created a fun pattern on each skull face. I tried to do something bright, & eye catching, plus some fun little flowers. Then, on the two fingers I didn’t do skulls, I just added a few colourful dots in a half moon to keep them all looking fluid & cohesive.

What do you think about my Sugar Skull nails? Do you think I did the prompt justice?

Don’t forget that you can follow along with all the designs this month by checking out #glamnailschallengeoct25 on Instagram. There are so many beautiful designs to see, I definitely recommend taking a peek!

Happy Monday

🖤

SWATCH SUNDAY — Claire’s Venomous

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday. It’s an especially beautiful Sunday because it’s my birthday! Okay, so I’ve never really been a birthday person — even before I hit my 30s — but I do love a free Starbucks drink so I’l celebrate it slightly.

Today though, we have another Swatch Sunday & I dug & dug through my nail polish stash to find an Halloween-esque nail polish shade, & I found this very special shade circa 2010/2011. This is Claire’s Venomous.

2 coats over OPI Black Cherry Chutney + top coat

So a little back story on this shade. I purchased this during the beginnings of my nail polish addict stages. I remembered reading this Claire’s (which I worked at during this time) had released some nail polishes that were dupes for the MAC Venomous Villian’s collection, so naturally I knew I needed them. I only have 2/3 shades (I believe) but they are prized treasures in my nail polish stash.

Now, for my swatches I did two coats over a one coat of Black Cherry Chutney. The formula is very, very thin — requiring 3-4 coats — so I always prefer to add some undies. (If you want to see swatches on this shade layered, check out Deez Nailz post. ) I love the foiled finish of this shade, & how the polish shifts depending on how you move your hand. Depending on the undies you choose, you can bring out more of the green shift you see in the bottle.

As above, you can see a good example of how the shade shifts on the nails. I wrote in a previous post about Quo by ORLY Wrong so Right that they were dupes, but looking at the close up above I feel like you get a lot more of the gold/green flash with this shade which I quite like. This was actually the colour I chose for my nails for a wedding I attended this weekend, & I thought it was the perfect colour for Autumn. & the nail is very Halloween-y, obviously.

What do you think about Claire’s Venomous? What is your oldest/most prized nail polish in your nail polish collection? Do you think this is a great Halloween-y polish? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below!

Happy Sunday Everyone. ♥︎

SWATCH SUNDAY — Hard Candy Zombie (2015 20th Anniversary collection)

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday. & Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians celebrating this weekend. I hope it’s a wonderful weekend for you, full of Turkey & pumpkin pie.

Today I’m keeping the Halloween polish vibes going. Technically this isn’t a Halloween shade, per se, but it does have a very spooky name so I thought it would be perfect. This is Hard Candy Zombie.

1 coat + top coat

Even after 8 years, formula on this vintage shade is still very very good. I only needed one coat on most nails, although there were a couple spots where I touched up with a little extra. But it was a very good full coverage shade. The colour itself is a beautiful dark vampy purple, with burgundy shimmer. I do wish more of the shimmer had shown on my nails, though. In the bottle, it has such a stunning glow that sadly doesn’t fully translate to the nail fully.

This shade was originally released as part of the 2015 20th Anniversary collection that Hard Candy released as a tribute to the 90s. My assumption is that naming the shade Zombie is a tribute to the Cranberries song, although with it’s dark colour I feel like it’s also very perfect for Halloween.

Sadly, Hard Candy no longer appears to be in the nail polish game, which is a shame because all of the shades I own from them remain stunners, even after all this time.

What do you think about Hard Candy Zombie? Do you remember this release? What do you think — should Hard Candy get back into the polish game again? Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below!

Have a great Sunday loves! 🖤