Halloween Mani #1 - Ick-a-bod-y + spiders!

After visiting Sally's and finally picking up all of the Awakening Collection, I had to do a Halloween inspired mani.  This month, I'm not sure how many I can manage, but I'm going to try to do several Halloween mani's, maybe one BCA! (:

Drumroll please... (all images are clickable!)

Sunlight

Shade - you can kind of see the spider web I tried to put on my ringer finger! It does not show up at all in person!

artificial light

What I used:
[Orly] French tip guides (because I couldn't have done it without them!)
China Glaze - Ick-a-bod-y (3 coats)
Image plate: BM13
Konad Special Polish in Black Pearl
Seche Vite and China Glaze fast forward (see why below)
Nail Tek F.III
Seche Clear

I've been noticing shrinkage with Seche Vite causing annoying and fast tip wear. I read that someone tried CGFFTC and didn't have any "shrinkage" so I'm going to try using that for a while and see if I notice a difference. Also, for my 'usual' base coat, I use two coats of Nail Tek Foundation III and one coat of Seche Clear. I'm not sure if it makes a different but that's just how I do it!

How I achieved this!:
First I did my "usual" basecoat and let that completely dry before aligning my french tip guides. (obviously, skipping my ring finger..not necessary) After about 5-8 minutes I aligned my guides and secured the edges so they wouldn't snag any of my work. I then paitiently painted three coats of Ick-a-bod-y on my visible tips. I gave that a good 10-15 minutes to dry as to not ruin them! (There was a little bit of sticky residue from the guides so I put one coat of Seche Vite as to not have issues when stamping.) Note: when I slowly removed the guides, the polished lifted a little bit, but when I completely removed each guide, I simply pressed down on the polished and painted another coat of Seche Vite. Perfection. I then used KWP Black Pearl to due the little spiders at a slight angle, slapped on some more top coat, and done! (I originally left the ring finger for a full design of a spider web, but later decided I didn't want to put white polish over this gorgeous color.)
(I only added this little how-to to talk about the drying time of the polish and the tip guides)

I think this is by far my favorite mani so far. It's so fun and OMG this polish is soo sparkly. I can't wait to see it glitter in the sunlight! (as I step outside to take pictures above....) So you can sort of see my attempted spider web on my ring finger! I guess the silver I used (CG Platinum silver?) wasn't quite bright enough to overcome ick-a-bod-y, and I thought white would have overwhelmed it. Anyway, I'm SUPER happy with the outcome!

I'm off to do my homework now! Leave comments, suggestions, and show me your halloween manicures!
xo,
-B

2 KOTD's: leopard and anchors

I'm obviously not to swift on catchy names at the moment, ha.

I sported this one last week:

Do me a solid and pretend my tip-wear isn't absolutely horrendous? I took this ONE day into my mani, what can I do to avoid so much tip-wear? /:

What I used:
OPI Glitzerland as a base
China Glaze Swing my Way sponged with cosmetic wedge
Image plate m57 using Konad special polish in black pearl
Nailtek foundation III, seche clear, topped with seche vite top coat

I love this one and got lots of compliments on it. It was fun to wear until I broke..I was so upset! But it'll grow out soon enough.

And todays KOTD:

again, pretend I wasn't being lazy and rushing through it. I know they're upside down, but when I flipped the picture it was just really awkward looking, ha.

What I used:
China Glaze Calypso Blue
Image plate bm08 w/ Sally Hansen Insta Dri Whirlwind White (so great for stamping, and multi purpose!)
and I used some scotch tape to get straight lines for the tips.
I didn't really want to go all frenchy, I just like the look of the tips like this.

This one is for my boyfriend..he's in the Navy on deployment. I miss him loads..I think even he could appreciate this one :P
After this, it will be all Halloween mani's until October is over! I'll try to post new ones as much as possible, but school takes up all of my time! So inconvenient! I can't wait to do some Halloween ones though, I've seen some other nail bloggers and wow, so cute. Here are a few of my favs:

"Halloween Witch Mani" by Polish & Konad - my all-time second follower and one of my favorite nail bloggers!

"Halloween Spider Web Mani" by Polish & Konad - another one by her, I can't wait to get the China Glaze Awakening Collection...my local Sally's is supposed to get this in and have it on the shelves tonight or tomorrow...guess where I'll be going very soon? That green...to die for. I've raved about this collection enough...hahah.

"Spider Web Halloween Mani" by Enamal Girl - another favorite blogger.. so cute! I wish I had a little of your creativity...


That's all for now, until next time, muah!
xo,
B