My favorite Halloween Polishes, part 2

...You ready for part 2? (if you missed part one, you can find it here. )

Last time I showed you some basic building blocks, plus a couple that were a little extra-special. I'm going to continue on with the extra-specials--and by coincidence, all of today's offerings are indies, too. :)

Let's have at it!!

Best all-in-one Halloween polish: No Worries Polish Truffula Tree

No Worries Polish Truffula Tree, artificial light

If you want a fun, special Halloween manicure that will catch they eye, but don't have time for nail art and the like, this polish is for you. Beautiful formula, and very festive. Your one-stop Halloween polish experience. :)

Most versatile Halloween accent polish: The Nail Junkie Tiger

The Nail Junkie Tiger

I realized as I was putting this together that I don't have a full swatch of this polish, because I tend to use it as an accent rather than a full mani. So I'm showing you a Halloween mani I did with it instead of a swatch. This is a great polish to use as an accent nail, a background glitter to stamp over, a stand-out skittle nail. The basic orange-and-black color scheme make it perfect for almost any sort of theme--spiders, witches, pumpkins/jack-o-lanterns, haunted houses, bats. Yes yes yes, I realize it has bar glitter. I love bar glitter myself, but even if you don't love it for daily wear, I think it still has a place in theme manicures. :)


Darkest, most goth-type Halloween polish: A Study In Polish Consulting Criminal

A Stud In Polish Consulting Criminal, direct sunlight

Perfect for deadly vampires, serious sorcerers and goth fairies, this red, white and silver in black jelly polish will take care of all of your dark, shadow-filled Halloween-style desires.


Polish that looks most like body part and blood splatter: 6 Harts Ninja Bat

6 Harts Ninja Bat, over medium gray franken, indirect sunlight

Let's say you're stuck in a horror movie, and some serial killer is coming after you, trying to kill you. Let's further say that you pull out a grenade, and blow him to bits. Let's still further say you take a look over at the wall that his body splattered all over. That's what this polish reminds me of, when I'm in a Halloween state of mind.

On that note: Spaghetti and meatballs, anyone?

Most night-sky and alien-esque Halloween polish: Nail'd It Purp...Excuse Me.

Nail'd It Purp...Excuse Me!, no undies, direct sunlight

Looking for a night sky polish that comes with its own moons? Want something that captures a whimsical, alien-creature type of look? Going to the party as Dr. Who, and want to take the galaxy with you? Want nails that the sauciest of sorceresses would wear, polish that will make your nails look like they can cast spells all on their own? This is the polish for you. You could get a slightly more subtle look than the one I put together here by putting undies under it and using one coat. But who wants subtle for Halloween??? :)


Most self-explanatory: Pretty & Polished Blood Clot

Pretty & Polished Blood Clot, no undies, two coats, artificial light

Yeah, it's probably pretty obvious why this one made the list--this is so creepily, horrendously like a microscope view of blood cells clotting up, it makes the Halloween freak inside me dance with joy. This is also one of those frustrating polishes to photograph--it looks so much better (and creepier!) in person. I believe this was also released for a while under the name 'Bloody Mary'; whichever way you find it, your evil nurse/doctor/serial killer costume would not be complete without some of this dripped, er, painted onto your nails.


Most non-horrific Halloween polish: SoFlaJo Frankie's Lab Dance

SoFlaJo Frankie's Lab Dance, 2 coats, indirect sunlight

 

The only thing horrific here is my swatching ability--these were taken a year ago, I apparently didn't realize the bottle was in focus rather than the nails, and they make me shudder! But they still get the basic idea across, including the duochrome aspect of the polish, and the glitters. This is a wonderful polish for princesses, faeries, elves of various sorts, and other sweet, ethereal costumes. It's also just a fun, quick Halloween polish that will help you capture the general spirit of the holiday in one bottle.


And to end, an absolutely quintessential Halloween polish: Leesha's Lacquer Monster Mash

Leesha's Lacquer Monster Mash over Zoya Keiko, artificial light

I have undies here, but you can build this polish up on its own to get more glitter and nearly the exact same base color (as you can see in the bottle). This is another polish that I love for capturing the spirit of the holiday just as it is, with no nail art and no costume to pair with it. It's full of energy and fun, just the way Halloween should be.

And so, my favorites are at an end...but I'm sure this is only the beginning of the possibilities. So I leave you with this very important question: what amazing Halloween polishes am I missing from this list? What are your favorites? Point me to them!!! :)

Hugs and Halloween thrills,
M.

Before & After: Spooky Jack-O-Lanterns

Hello!!!

Today's prompt in my 'This Is Halloween' challenge is: Jack-O-Lanterns! One of my favorite things about Halloween night are the cool pumpkins that people carve, especially the really intricate ones that look like haunted houses and things. And yet, there is something deeply satisfying about a simple, basic, spooky jack-o-lantern with crooked, fang-y smiles and triangle eyes. So I set out to capture that spirit, but to also make it spooky and horror-film-ish...

First I started with a base of SoFlaJo's The True Death, one of her Halloween 2012 polishes. It is a subtle duochrome from vampy purple-red to zombie green-black, and it has tons of fleckies in it:

Base color: SoFlaJo The True Death

I added a light layer of Rainbow Polish Pumpkin Smashing glitter on top to add pretty orange Halloween bling to it (btw, I LOVE that name, lol):

SoFlaJo The True Death + Rainbow Polish Pumpkin Smashing

And then, to finalize the look, I stamped little jack-o-lantern faces on each nail using China Glaze Passion and QA Plate QA 26:

OoooOOoooo...SpoooOOOooooky...

And there you have it! My spooky-licious jack-o-lanterns. :)

Thanks for taking a look! Please stop by and check out how the other bloggers in the challenge interpreted this theme, linked below. :)

Xoxox,
M.

Indie-Licious Review: SoFlaJo The True Death and Frankie's Lab Dance

Hello!!

Halloween is soooo close I can almost taste it...and I've been branching into some awesome Indie polishes to help me design my upcoming Halloween manicures. I've joined not one but two Halloween challenges, since I've been waiting to sink my teeth into some awesome Halloween nail art anyway. Don't worry, I won't be posting Halloween stuff every day, because I know Halloween isn't everybody's thing. But I'm not gonna lie, there will be a fair number of ghastly, ghostly, ghoully manis. :)

A great place to start any Halloween manicure is with the polishes from SoFlaJo's Halloween collection, and I snapped up two of them, Frankie's Lab Dance and The True Death. When the package arrived, I was very happily surprised at the thoughtful touches that she put into the package:

Contents of package from SoFlaJo

In addition to the polishes, she invluded a fortune teller fish, a little Halloween get-the-balls-in-the-right-spots game, an orange spider ring, a black balloon, cool confetti and paper shreds, and cute Halloween stickers on the packaging! Honestly, I haven't had such kid-like joy upon opening anything for a long time. It felt like I'd just gotten back from trick-or-treating. :)

And then there were the polishes...first up, Frankie's Lab dance:

SoFlaJo's Frankie's Lab Dance in the bottle--check out that glitter

SoFlaJo's Frankie's Lab Dance--look at that color shift

Check out that glitter...

Better shot of the color shift...

Frankie's Lab Dance is a stunning sea blue/ sea green polish that has a liberal amount of tiny orange, green and purple glitter and a gorgeous duochrome shift. This polish is beautiful at any angle in my opinion, and while the glitter is clearly in Halloween colors, I think it's subtle enough that this polish would definitely work at other times of year. I don't know about Frankie, but this polish definitely makes me want to dance. :) The only issue I had with it is that it does take several coats to even and become opaque--but for a polish this gorgeous, who cares?

Next up is The True Death...(love that name so flipping much)...:

SoFlaJo's The True Death in the bottle

Look at that color shift!

SoFlaJo's The True Death on the nail

SoFlaJo's The True Death showing color shift

The True Death is a very dark vampy purple-red that has tiny flecks of red-orange and green in it, and a subtle duochrome shift from sexy-vampire purple-red to deep zombie green. This is a very subtle shift--you won't see it often or strong, but you will see it now and again. It's more versatile than it looks at first glance; I've used it for some Halloween nail polish and when I put orange over it, the orange flecks come out more strongly; it seems to shift a bit depending on what you put it with. The formula on this was okay; I had a little unevenness, but it cleared up after that second coat. :)

I love both of these polishes in very different ways, and can't wait to show you some nail art using them. You can find the Terrified Collection by clicking here;  at the current time, her full-sized bottles sell for $10 and her minis go for $5. :)

Thanks for looking,


M. xoxo

(the polishes in this review were purchased with my own money.)