Halloween 2013: Starfire Nail Art

Happy Halloween! I was going to post a Halloween-themed manicure today, but my Macbook's SD card drive has decided not to work and thus the pictures are now trapped in a weird limbo. I'll show that to you as soon as I solve that problem, but in the meantime, I have the nail art I'm wearing to go with my costume for this year! So it's still Halloween themed. Sorta.

Anyway, this year, I'm being Starfire! She's an alien princess superhero from the DC universe. She appears in the comics, but my costume is based on the popular cartoon, Teen Titans (not her comic book counterparts - those costumes show WAY too much skin for me!). I was/am obsessed with that show, and this year, my friend and I decided to dress up as characters from the cartoon. She's being Raven. We made our costumes by hand, which in retrospect was an insane idea. I can hardly sew, but I managed to create Starfire's entire outfit by hand! I haven't had a chance to take a lot of pictures yet (which is why I wanted to post this manicure later), but you can get the gist of the costume from the picture I've included at the end of the post.

Okay, so after that long introduction, here's the nail art! Starfire's powers include shooting bright green starbolts from her hands, so I did a manicure that was mostly a bright green. I also wanted to give a nod to her alien heritage by adding some futuristic detailing.

I started with a base of China Glaze in White on White so the neon would really pop. I layered China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard over that, which is a great, shimmery neon green. Then I added a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust for some tiny holographic sparkles. I let all of that dry, and then used a striper brush and Sephora by OPI Queen of Everything to freehand the striped pattern. I added purple rhinestones for a pop of contrast (and to match the purple of her outfit).

I'm pretty pleased with how these came out. They're super bright, and my freehanding skills are definitely improving. Even my right hand doesn't look bad!

Here's my costume! Starfire has really bright green eyes, so I used makeup to show that. I really wanted to use colored contacts, but sadly, my eyesight is absolutely awful so buying a pair of green contacts in my prescription would have been too expensive to justify. But I'm really proud of myself! I think the costume came out really well (especially since this is the first time I've attempted to make any sort of clothing). I also have really long boot covers on my legs, but you can't see those here. But trust me, the whole effect is really great.

I hope you all have a really awesome Halloween!

Enchanted Polish: Hey Jude

Let me preface this post by saying that I am a huge Beatles fan. My dad passed his love for the Beatles onto me, and I've been pretty obsessed ever since. When I decided to study abroad in England, I knew I had to take a trip to Liverpool, the birthplace of the Beatles. Luckily, Liverpool isn't too far from Sheffield! We took a two day trip. Since I knew I was going to the home of the Beatles, I chose a polish appropriate for the occasion: Hey Jude by Enchanted Polish.

Hey Jude, named for the very famous Beatles song, is a beautiful duochrome with scattered holo. Most of the time, the polish appears green, but it shifts to pink, purple, and gold.

I miss my light box! These photos don't do it justice.

To conserve this beautiful polish, I layered one coat of it over China Glaze Liquid Leather. Then I added purple rhinestones from the Born Pretty store for a pop of contrast.

Trying to capture the holo!

I love all of the Beatles polishes by Enchanted Polish :) Hey Jude is no exception.

Here are two bonus pictures from our trip to Liverpool! If you're ever in Liverpool, I totally recommend going on the Fab Four Taxi Tour. We got to see so many cool Beatles sights, and our tour guide was absolutely fabulous. It was one of the best parts of my whole England trip so far.

The Penny Lane Barbershop!

The grave of Eleanor Rigby

The plaque on the church where Paul and John first met. 

Okay, hope you enjoyed the polish and the pictures! And remember, all you need is love :)

HARE Holiday Hoopla: Christmas Trees

Merry (belated) Christmas to all of my readers who celebrate! I'm so sad that Christmas is over already, but I'm still going to my grandparents' house on Sunday for some more holiday celebrations :) My Christmas was actually rather quiet, but still nice.

I have some holiday nails to show to you today, featuring one of HARE's limited edition holiday polishes. I did these the Saturday before Christmas; I had hoped that they would last until Tuesday, but they wound up chipping the very next day! No bueno.

Even though I only wound up wearing them for two days, I love how these nails came out! I started out with a base of China Glaze Holly-Day, a forest green creme that covered in one coat. Then I added just one coat of HARE's Holiday Hoopla, a limited edition holiday polish and their first glitter topcoat.

Holiday Hoopla is a mix of red, pink, and gold glitters in a clear base. There are various sizes of hexes and squares, and some nice shimmer in there as well. As usual for HARE, it's a very complex, dense glitter. It's really lovely; I think the edition of pink really helps make this a unique holiday glitter.

For the accent nail, I started with two coats of OPI Goldeneye. I waited for that to dry, then I used tape to section off a triangle section. I painted the triangle first with Holly-Day, then a coat of Lynnderella New Year's Eve Eve for "ornaments". Then I added a silver star-shaped rhinestone that I got from the Born Pretty online store to top the tree. And voila: Christmas trees! I think the tree is super cute.

I really loved how these nails came out! Christmas nails are so fun. I'm excited about this new HARE polish as well, since it's their first glitter topper. Holiday Hoopla is limited edition, but it's still available on Llarowe at the time of writing! Get it while you can.

Happy holidays, everyone :)

Halloween Nails: Gypsy/Pirate

I didn't actually dress up on Halloween this year, but I did dress up for Halloweekend, aka the weekend closest to Halloween where college students dress up and throw parties. I hate spending money on costumes, so I came up with ideas that were relatively easy to dress up as. I was a gypsy the first night, and the second night my friends and I dressed up as the characters from Peter Pan. I was Captain Hook :) I decided to do nails that could work for both costumes. They needed to be glittery and over the top. So I came up with these!

These (sadly) are iPhone pictures as well, so I apologize for any lack in quality! Anyway, I started out with a base of Midtown Magic by China Glaze, an almost black brown with lots of different color shimmer. Then I used a makeup sponge to add a few layers of a glitter gradient. I started with Another Heart Breaks by Dandy Nails, then I added Divebomb by Candeo Colors, and finally topped those off with Batman by Daring Digits. I loved how it looked just like that, but I decided to go bigger.

I pulled out some rhinestones that I purchased from the Born Pretty store online and added them to every nail. I picked colors that complimented the colors of the glitter, too. I think the rhinestones gave this mani the extra drama it needed for Halloween!

I'm a big fan of dramatic Halloween makeup, so these nails were a lot of fun for me to do! My friends and I had a great time, and we took lots of great pictures :)

Here's me as Captain Hook:

Hope you all had a great Halloween as well - even if this is a bit late!