NOTD x 3: Going out with a bang!

Hello!!

Yes, you read that title right. There will be three manicures in today's post for you. The reason is this. Both of my Halloween challenges end today, and Wednesday is the Llama Nails alphabet challenge day, and this week just happens to be 'H'--I'm pretty sure there is a law that states I MUST do a Halloween manicure for the alphabet challenge if the letter that falls on actual Halloween day is 'H'. And I don't wanna go to jail before Christmas, too much stuff to do. So yep...that makes three manis scheduled for the same day.

First up: To end my CNT Halloween challenge, the last prompt is to recreate someone else's mani from previous prompts that you liked. One of my favorite manicures of the whole challenge was this one. I'm not really great with free-hand art, as you may have noticed, but I really wanted to try to make a version of it. Here's how it came out:

I don't remember planting zombie hands in that part of the garden...

That one on the middle finger is a zombie skeleton. Not at all a zombie hand that looks like a skeleton. Nope, not at all.

I was so happy with how this came out, I almost couldn't bring myself to take it off. It's not perfect, and I'm sure there are many others out there that are better. but I managed to do it, make it recognizeable, and even used gray polish to shade the black polish. It just goes to show that it's always worth giving something a try, even if you aren't sure you can do it. :)

To make it, I started with a base of China Glaze Elephant Walk, my go-to grey. I free-handed a moon with Pure Ice Silver Mercedes, and then free-handed the zombie hands with Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris. Then I tried to highlight/shade appropriately with Silver Mercedes and Elephant Walk. I used The Nail Junkie Black Cat to make the ground at the bottom of the nail.

The last prompt in my 'This Is Halloween' challenge was also to recreate someone else's mani from the earlier prompts. I chose this one from Lissa's Polish Addiction, because it was sleek but spooky. Yes, it's another free-hand manicure--let it never be said that I'm not willing to push myself, lol! Sadly, my results were not quite as good this time:

In my mind I decided that it would be cool to have a spooky night sky instead of her beautiful purple, and a blood-red house because...honestly, I don't know what the heck I was thinking, I really don't. I mean, it's not *horrible*, but it's not good. Nope...not good. The only good thing about this mani is that you'll never have to see it again. I tried to rescue it by turning it into an Amityville Horror manicure, and it did work better for that. But it still wasn't my favorite.

And last but not least...My Llama Nails 'H' is for Halloween manicure. This is the actual manicure I'm wearing for Halloween. I've done so much nail art with these challenges that I wanted to just chill out and layer some pretty polishes in Halloween colors. Here is what I ended up with:

Yes, I know crackle is not in fashion at the moment. Don't care. I love it, especially for Halloween, and I think it goes beautifully with shard glitter (also not a favorite of most polish fanatics...fine, more for me!!). To make this, I started with a base of China Glaze Code Orange, a beautiful pumpkin orange that manages to be just the right amount of bright. Over it I put Sally Hansen Vintage Violet crackle, and over that, I put a coat of Sation's Ego-Friendly, a very pretty polish that has small green hex glitter, lime green shards, black shards, and white pearlesent shards in a clear base. Not to harp on it, but I really do love how well the shard glitter and the crackle go together. And this combination of colors is fun, but not crazy bright.

Phew! That's a lot of manicures for one post! But it just seemed silly to do a separate post for each manicure. So, this way, I hope there is something here for everyone, to end the month with a big Halloween bang. :)

And don't worry, I've learned my lesson--only one Christmas/Holiday challenge for me come December. Well, probably. I mean, most likely. Okay, we'll see. :P

Thanks for looking! Please take a look at (1) the other CNT challenge manis, (2) the other 'This Is Halloween' manis and (3) the other Llama Nails 'H' manis, all linked below. :)

Xoxox,
M.