SWATCH SUNDAY — Wet N Wild Buffy the Violet Slayer

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! The first Sunday of October… aka the beginning of Spooky season, aka my favourite Month! Who else is excited?

Today I’m starting off with a fun polish that I’ve had for years, that I can’t believe I haven’t shared for a Swatch Sunday yet: Wet n Wild Buffy the Violet Slayer. I’ve been rewatching Buffy (yes, again) so it felt like an appropriate shade to share, especially at the beginning of Halloween month.

2 coats + Seche Vive top coat

For a bottle of polish that is 8 years old, the formula on this shade is pretty darn good. The polish itself has that shimmer that can sometimes be hard to apply without streaks, but applying top coat flattened everything beautifully.

As for the colour, it’s a lovely — the purple is vibrant, & the shimmer adds a little something extra that gives it a beautiful underlying glow. Without top coat, it dries down to a matte finish, but I think I prefer it with a glossy finish.

Check out that macro shot — you can really see the varied shimmers. Pink. Blue. Purple. They’re such a beautiful combination, & gives the shade that glow that I’m kind of obsessed with.

Sadly these shades are no longer in production, which makes me sad I didn’t at least pick up a back up bottle. I love purple, & I love Buffy, so this is the perfect combination for me! It also works great for a pre-Halloween polish pick.

What do you think about this Wet N Wild shade? Did you pick up any of these Fast Dry shades during their original release? Let me know down in the comments below!

#GlamNailsChallengeOct — Haunted House

Oh my gosh, we’ve made it! Today is the last prompt of GlamNailsChallengeOct & I can’t believe that October is almost over! It’s crazy.

The last prompt for this month’s challenge is Haunted House. I wasn’t 100% sure how I wanted to approach this prompt, but I decided a darkened sky haunted house landscape was the way to go. Just the right level of spooky, plus it gave me a chance to practice my freehand skills some more.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Hard As Nails
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Essie Go Ginza
  • Essie Bikini So Teeny
  • Essie All The Wave
  • Essie Under The Twilight
  • Essie Blank Page
  • Essie Check Your Baggage
  • Starrily Vantablack
  • NailStuff.ca 4mm Micro Detail Brush (COFFEE10)
  • Latex free make up sponge

This look was actually so much fun to paint! I started off by sponging on my colours one on top of each other, then topped everything with top coat. Next, I freehanded my design over top, one nail at a time. I was sort of inspired by this look, originally by @lieve91, but obviously I went with a blue background instead of the orange-y shades. I also added some ghosties flying around my haunted house, just cause I thought it would cement the whole haunted idea.

I’m actually really happy with how these turned out! They’re not perfect, but I’m definitely proud of hand painting these little details. & my spooky little tree might be my favourite part!

What are you pandemic Halloween plans. Because our province is doing pretty well, cases wise, our health authority has said that as long as we remain careful & distance, we can trick or treat. So we’re going to do some kind of trick or treating with the kids, & maybe settle in after bedtime for some scary movie watching!

What do you think about this manicure? Let me know in the comments below!

#GlamNailsChallengeOct — Bats

Hello lovelies & happy Monday! Can you believe we are so close to the end of October? Seriously… where did October even go? I can’t believe that it’s almost Halloween. I seriously want to petition to make Halloween a whole week instead of just one day. It’s just over too quickly!

We’re also down to our second last design for GlamNailsChallengeOct! Today’s prompt is Bats. While I would have loved to freehand some cute bats on my nails, after my first attempt, I knew it was going to end up being super frustrating & I decided to pull out some nail stickers to create my cute Halloween look.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Hard As Nails
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • NYC Color Frightening Fingers in Red
  • Essie Shine Of The Times
  • Dollarama Halloween Nail Stickers

Aren’t these super cute?

I was actually really impressed with these nail stickers. While I don’t wear them a lot, they’re great to grab for a quick nail art look. These particular stickers were bought at my local Dollarama, while picking up Halloween decorations, & they stick to the nail really well. I wore this look through a long day at work, & I didn’t have them peel off or stick off the nail at all. Granted, I applied two coats of top coat, but even still you can’t even feel the sticker on the nail. I love it! & I also love the little bit of glitter on the stickers. They’re actually some of the cuter stickers I’ve used.

What do you think about this nail art look? Do you ever use nail art stickers? Which brand are your favourites? Let me know in the comments below!

SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze Don’t Let The Dead Bite (Halloween 2014)

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! Today I thought I would pull out a Halloween oldie from my polish stash for this week’s Swatch Sunday! This is China Glaze Don’t Let The Dead Bite from the China Glaze Apocalypse Of Color 2014 Halloween collection.

Don’t Let The Dead Bite is a milky jelly pinky polish that is packed full of multi sized & shaped red glitters.

2 coats + top coat

I am a sucker for a good Halloween collection, so I remember being very excited about finding this shade on clearance a few years ago. If I remember correctly, I bought this shade for Valentine’s Day, because I thought the glitters would be perfect for that.

My bottle has definitely changed a bit over the years, with the glitters bleeding a bit & making the base darken. It’s still a beautiful shade, but not quite in its original form. The formula, however, remains just as easy to work with as when I first bought it, which I appreciate.

I really like this shade, & to be honest, I kind of forgot I owned it until I was looking for something Halloween-y to adorn my nails with! I can’t believe October is almost over! How crazy is that?!

Do you remember this China Glaze collection from 2014? Did you get your hands on any of the shades? What is your favourite Halloween polish collection? Let me know down in the comments below!

#GlamNailsChallengeOct — Witches

Hello lovelies & happy Wednesday.

Today I have another fun design I created for #GlamNailsChallengeOct, which are quite possibly my most favourite Halloween nail art of all time! The prompt for today was Witches, so I decided to go with a witchy hat & some witchy stripes. & I absolutely adore how everything came together! The combination of my accent nail with the witchy hat & the drippy stripes are just so much fun. & everything was totally freehanded.

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Hard As Nails
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Color Club Pucci-licious
  • Ardene Jungle Green
  • Starrily Vantablack
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Get Mod
  • NailStuff.ca 7mm detail brush(COFFEE10 to save 10%)

First off, Starrily VantaBlack is officially my favourite black nail polish for nail art. It freehands so well, & makes drawing so easily (almost as easy as using acrylic paint!) I even found it so easy to use for drawing my black stripes, which makes me so happy. Secondly, look how cute that little witch hat is! I love it so much. I actually didn’t want to take this manicure off at all, but it started to chip (& I have other Halloween manicures to plan!) so I did. But seriously, I am so in love with this look!

What do you think about this Halloween design? Do you love it as much as I do? Share all your thoughts down in the comments below!