Halloween Zombie Hands Manicure

As I mentioned yesterday, I decided to stamp over my grungy gradient for a full on Halloween look.  I had to go with something vaguely zombie themed, so I used a Halloween design from the new Bundle Monster Holidays collection and added some grabbing zombie arms over my gradient.

 

I'm pretty delighted with how they turned out, they're just the right amount of spooky for Halloween.

 

I was also pretty chuffed because 4 separate people asked me if I'd had them done professionally or if they were stick on nails which I always think is a bit of a compliment when they aren't. :D

 

What spooky themes have you got planned for the Halloween weekend?

Grungy Gradient

I decided that for Halloween I wanted to stamp over a gradient, so these next two posts are really two halves of the same manicure.

 

First up I chose some grungy Halloween-esque colours to stamp with, for some reason I decided to go with green and purple, maybe not the first colours that spring to mind for Halloween but quite successful I think...  They are Kiko 331, 333 and Models Own Grace Green.

 

 

I like how they all merged together and the effect that they gave.  I liked it so much that I wore my nails for a day just like this before I stamped over them.

 

It's definitely made me determined to try out other gradients with more unusual colours as I really liked the way this one turned out.

 

Check back tomorrow to see how I added an extra Halloween twist on the gradient which made me love it even more...

 

 



Tequila Sunrise Nails

That's what these nails remind me of, a tequila sunrise cocktail.  I used two of the new Gelly Hi Shines from Barry M, Mango and Passion Fruit, over yesterday's Kiko 359 to create this peach through red subtle ombre effect.  I sponged on the two darker colours.

 

Unfortunately it doesn't show up nearly as well in photographs as it did in person, probably due to it being a fairly subtle gradient.  There was a little bit of colour drag when I added the top coat but it barely showed in person, sadly it's fairly obvious in the photos though

 

 

I think the colours work well together, in person they really did seem to flow into one another.  That's the one annoying thing about using macro shots for the blog pictures, it's hard to get an idea of what the nails look like in context of a whole body or from a distance.

 

The new Gellys sponged really nicely so I think I might have a go with some other colour combinations from the range soon.

 

Twin Post with Nuthin' but a Nail Thing!

Today's post is twined with the lovely Claire from Nuthin' but a Nail Thing.  Claire and I have known each other for a few years now and she's the one person I can always rely on to make me feel better about my massive polish stash and obsessive nail painting habit, she's at least as guilt as I am, if not more! :)

 

Before we get on to the twin post pictures head over and see some of Claire's fabulous creations, some of my personal favourites are her Colour Block Nails, these super cute Cupcakes and her Polka Dot Gradient, honestly, the girl has more patience and steadier hands than anyone else I know, serious nails skillz.

 

Now, on to the twin post.  We decided to do a post using the same polish but since we both have rather large collections we struggled to come up with just one polish to use, so to conquer that problem we decided to showcase 3 Kiko polishes which we both have and love, here's how my effort turned out:

 

 

The polishes we used were 336, 279 and 343, all from Kiko:

 

I decided to do a gradient using the three polishes and then stamp over the top.  For the stamping I used the polish from a cheap white nail art pen that I picked up on my travels and a plate from Cheeky's Summer Collection; Ch46, it features Space related designs and I chose what I think look like little molecules as my image.

 

 

I'm pleased with the finished result, the stamp turned out pretty well and I like the contrast of the white over the bold colours of the gradient underneath.

 

 

It's definitely not my neatest ever manicure and I am not really feeling my super short nails but all in all it turned out how I had hoped and I think it was a pretty successful attempt.

 

Head over and see what Claire decided to do with the polishes here: Nuthin but a Nail Thing!

Stamped Purple Gradient

I can't leave anything alone for too long so yesterday's gradient was given a stamping overhaul using Cheeky plate CH2, you can't beat a little bit of animal print. ;)

 

 

I love stamping over gradients, it's such an effective combination of techniques which are both easy to do yet when combine to make a fairly complicated looking design, I also find that stamping over the gradient can bring it together really well whereas I'm often not 100% happy with how they look alone.

 

I stamped with Barry M Gelly High Shine in Blackberry.

 

Purple Gradient

It's been a while since I did a gradient so I decided to try one out with a selection of Kiko purples, I used 379, 378 and 330.

 

 

Usually I do my gradients over a white base but this time I decided to just start with the lightest colour all over the nail and it's worked equally well as using white with the added benefit of not having to do extra coats. 

 

 

I'm relatively happy with how this turned out although I did find that due to the dark tips my nails sometimes looked a bit dirty when I caught a glimpse of them out of the corner of my eye.

Rainbow Nails!

I decided to have another go at sponging a gradient manicure, this time I thought I'd go all out colour wise and try to create a rainbow look, here are the results, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.