Sweet Baby Octopolish!

 Femme Fatale's September color of the month was named Pumpkin Patch, and if that's not demanding to be used in a Halloween mani, I don't know what is.  indoor, CF lighting I've recently seen a couple of utterly adorable layered plates for Halloween that included jack-o-lantern images, and the one I ended up with is Born Pretty Halloween L004.   The central row of images on this "spoopy cute" plate are various jack-o-lantern faces that could be used easily by themselves in black over an orange mani.  The image on the far left of this row is a perfectly sized pumpkin - my nails are by no means huge, but this fits great - and the far right is an outline for the same pumpkin.  The base image is large and unidirectional enough that I had no major struggles lining things up to place them, even more so considering that the orange polish I used isn't opaque enough solo, so needed 2 layers stamped. indoor, CF lighting My other hand had 2 totally different jack...

 A recent arrival to my stash was sitting on the desk ready to be filed away, but was so obviously perfect for Halloween that instead it got used right away. indoor, CF lighting Spiders and spiderwebs are one of my most favorite halloween designs.  Spooky + anything from the animal kingdom = winning, and all that layered over what's clearly the perfect Halloween season color for me just can't be beat.  Lina Spooklicious 01 was still out after providing images for my last mani, and the spiderwebs and spiders on it meant round 2 with this plate was an easy pick.  Webs are in MoYou London Mercury (chrome polishes are such a PITA but so worth it), and the spiders in El Corazon True Red. indoor, bright CF lighting The base for this look is 2 smooth coats of  OPI Black to Reality - I am clearly a sucker for exactly this shade of black-red, since it's about identical to China Glaze X, Trust Fund Just Call My Lawyer , and Vapid Ruffian - they're each close enough t...

 Zombies aren't my usual jam, but looking around the pile of plates here, I noticed a whole bunch of really fun images of brains... indoor, CF lighting for both pics These brain images called for a base of grey matter, so I've started with a grey crelly flakie.  My zombie and all his hoped for snacks are from Lina Spooklicious 01 in Emily de Molly pink and trusty NanaCoco Love Black. ~Michelle

 I'm on a Baroness X roll here, so the next Halloween look just kept it coming. indoor, CF lighting My base here is Baroness X Gargantua, another stunner from the 2017 Shift in Space-Time collection.  Originally, I'd stamped this image in orange, but that polish was far too sheer and these skulls from XXL-3 just didn't pop.  I re-did the same look with Esmaltes da Kelly Carmelo and perfecto. indoor, bright CF lighting Gargantua is a deep amethyst purple jelly with a light scattering of very fine holo dust and a generous helping of opaque metallic copper shimmer. indoor, bright CF lighting The formula is very sheer to allow the sparkling elements to shine through effortlessly, so it takes a good 3 coats to deepen the color to what's seen in the bottle.  The copper is heavy enough in the jelly formula to completely settle out on the bottom of the bottle; serious shaking is necessary to get it re-suspended and ready to go.  The final look is so worth it, though. in...

Halloween is obviously going to be as non-standard as everything else this year, but one thing that absolutely does not need to change is All Halloween All Month On My Nails! indoor, CF lighting First up, one gorgeous Baroness X certainly deserved another, and wow does her glow in the dark topper Bio-exorcist glow .  I've started with 2 coats of Bees Knees A Mantis Shrimp's Favorite Color topped by a single medium thickness layer of Bio-exorcist.  The Ouija board designs in black are from MoYou London Typography 10 and Halloween 01. This stuff glowed for a solid 7 hours with only a brief charge from regular CFL bulbs - no crazy UV light or really intense charging needed to be awesome any time I woke up in the middle of the night, a real 5 star topper. Hope your Halloween month is as fun as you can make it, ~Michelle

 Last weekend, the man and I went on a lovely road trip - New Jersey is beautiful and peaceful in the off-season, y'all - and when we got back I decided I was done with Star Trek nails and ready to ponder a new theme.  In the meantime, one good Baroness X polish deserved another, so I pulled this beauty out of mount untried. indoor, bright CF lighting YASSSSSSSSSS! outdoor, cloudy daylight Baroness X released Event Horizon as part of a LE outer-space themed collection in 2017 that was all-around gorgeous, all dark inky stellar beauties.  This one is a smoky black jelly base filled with a gold-to-green "sister UP" shimmer and a light scattering of iridescent flakies. indoor, CF lighting The formula was smooth and of a flawless consistency that was very easy to work with.  It's sheer enough to let the shimmer sparkle forth without being masked, so I'm showing 3 coats here. outdoor, cloudy daylight Most of my pics show emerald green over charcoal, and while that look...

Closing out my Star Trek series, I have to make a nod to all the boys wearing command red.  Q is of course my fave, especially in his completely over-the-top judge's robes from the very first episode, so this design has as much black in it as red. indoor, bright CF lighting Baroness X has been releasing some amazingly pretty fluid art polishes - instead of simple crème finishes, she's adding shimmer or flakies, and for X Marks the Spot she's added a handful of holo dust. outdoor, overcast daylight To get this look, I started with a layer of Julep Karmen, a fiery red foil that's been used several times in nail art experiments, painted thickly across a silicone mat.  I then added drips of OPI Glamour Game, a somewhat sheer champagne gold shimmer, and drips of X Marks the Spot.  When I had a big enough pool to work with, I folded the mat in half a couple of times, and tilted the mat on it's side to get the paint to flow and spread out. outdoor, overcast/shady daylight ...