Jewli's 31 Day Halloween Nail Art Challenge: Day 12 - Red

Okay, so the red day is usually day 1 in the regular nail art challenge and day 12 is supposed to be stripes. As you saw, I did my stripes mani on day 9 (which was supposed to be rainbows). I thought this would be a good opportunity to go back and do one of the manis I missed during week 1.

I'm sure you've seen a similar mani before, but this is my take on it. I quite like them. :) Normally red isn't my "thing." However, the base on this mani is the red jelly from Sinful Colors and I think it'll be my go to red for full nails from now on.

 Have you done a similar mani to this one? I'd love to see it!

Jewli's 31 Day Halloween Nail Art Challenge: Day 11 - Polka Dots

For Day 11, the Polka Dot theme, I went with the idea of witches' warts. I googled for some inspiration pictures, but I was a little afraid what images I would see when I put "warts" in my search criteria. lol. 

I went with a simple dark green base (the same green from my fall gradient mani, believe it or not) and topped it with 2 lighter shades of green dots in 2 sizes. I tried to put them on a bit thick so they would form a bit of a lump. For that reason, these pictures are without topcoat.

I bet these could even go for pickle nails, if that's what you're after. ;)

Even though the base green is dark, it took FOUR coats for it to be opaque! I don't use it often, so I had forgotten this fact, but it IS  lovely shade.

I know yesterday was Day 11, but life happened, so the post didn't make it up. Don't worry though, Day 12 will be up right after this one. :)

Jewli's 31 Day Halloween Nail Art Challenge: Day 10 - Gradient

 These are my aforementioned fall gradient nails and I love them. Mostly it looks like I only used 3 colors, but I actually used a red (Essence), orange (Color Club), yellow (Color club), and green (Finger Paints) to create this look. I didn't do as good of a job mixing the colors on the foil before sponging them onto my left hand, but I did better on my right. That is why the colors are more vibrant on the bottom picture.

These colors also remind me a bit of Jamaica (red, green, and yellow), but these are also the colors of fall leaves. Either way, I find them beautiful. :)

Which look do you prefer? The more vivid colors or the more muted ones?

Jewli's 31 Day Halloween Nail Art Challenge: Day 9 - Stripes

Day 9 is supposed to be rainbows, but instead, I switched it out with Day 12 - Stripes. Last Halloween (before this blog was in existence), I did a beetle juice striped mani with owl accent nails and I LOVED it. So for the stripe challenge I thought I'd do something similar. For this mani, I did one thick stripe in the middle and a thin stripe on each side for my left hand. I had a devil of a time getting a picture of these nails glowing, so I'm sorry, but I don't have any good pictures of that.

These are the best I could do to sort of show the glow-in-the-dark effect.

For my right hand, I did horizontal stripes, one thick, one thin. These really didn't show up in the dark pictures. I have a devil of a time with my Wet n Wild black polish being thick and stringy when I peel off the tape. I've tried thinning it out, but it hasn't seemed to help. I also need a new clean up brush. Black is tricky!

I just finished these nails about an hour ago and I'm already taking them off. Ha, ha. Oh well. Tomorrow's post is already done, so it's on to day 12! :)

Jewli's 31 Day Halloween Nail Art Challenge: Day 8 - Metallic

I've been wanting to do the 31 day challenge for a few months now, but I never really felt inspired by the original prompt. It's like it was too open to interpretation for me, so I decided to put a Halloween twist on it. I just made this decision last night though, which means I am 8 days in already. Luckily, I cranked out two manis last night while my husband played Resident Evil 6 with his cousin. Blech. lol. I like the happy, fun video games, but these more "realistic" shooter games aren't my cup of tea. 

I hope to get 31 manis in between now and Halloween, but I am a week late to the game and some of the themes just don't seem to lend themselves to Halloween (ex. Day 9 - rainbow) and I have already blogged about my issues trying to water marble here (Day 20 - water marble). My game plan is to start with day 8 since that is today and move forward. I will substitute out the ones I don't feel are Halloween-related and try to slip in Days 1-7 along the way. If you'd like to join in, please do! :)

Day 8 - Metallic
For the metallic theme with a Halloween spin, I went with broken mirrors. They use mirrors in fun houses and some haunted houses to make mazes that you have to find your way out of and broken mirrors are unlucky, so I thought it would fit.

 Unfortunately, I think this idea was better in my head than how I executed it, but I loved how my left thumb turned out. I think that one wasn't overworked like many of the others and still looked pretty when I was done with it. These came off as soon as the pictures were taken and I moved on to Day 10 - Gradient. I rather loved how they turned out, so I'm excited to post them. :)

I know there are plenty of other Halloween challenges going on, but if you'd like to join mine, please leave your blog link in the comments so I can include it at the end of my posts. :)

What do you think? Do these looks like broken mirrors?

Eye Am Watching You!

It's officially October and my favorite month! I love Halloween and the fall weather that settles into the air this time of year. Unfortunately, Halloween has just recently begun to trickle through Germany, so dressing up, decorating houses, or having parties pretty much doesn't happen here. Nevertheless I am going to put Halloween on my nails.

For my first Halloween mani, I went with the simple look of eyes watching you in the darkness. Last year I did the simple round, curious/friendly looking eyes. This time I wanted to switch it up a bit. On my left hand, we have evil, glaring eyes. These were really fun to do, but I could certainly use a new white striper. I would have used a dotting tool, but I really wanted to get the outside corners pointy. 

With flash

 Without flash

On my right hand, I went with the curious/friendly/a bit goofy looking eyes, but in neon colors. I painted the black base and then used a dotting tool to make white bases for the neon eyes so the colors would really pop.

 With flash

Without flash

What's your favorite thing about this time of year? What would you like to see as a Halloween mani? Would you like to see what graced my nails for last Halloween?

Hope everyone is doing well!!! :D

Oktoberfest Nail Art Contest Entry

Over at Angelina's Nails & More, Angelina is hosting an Oktoberfest nail art contest! This is the first nail art contest I was really excited about! As you probably know already, I moved to Germany to be with my then-boyfriend of 7.5 years and end our long distance relationship. In 16 days, it will be my 1 year anniversary of moving here. :) I have been here for two other Octobers, but this is the first year that we will actually be partaking in Oktoberfest festivities! A couple friends of ours have invited us to the local Oktoberfest (not the original in Munich), so my husband and I are shopping for a dirndl and lederhosen. 

For this nail art contest, I decided to do each nail as a tribute to something iconic related to Oktoberfest. 

From left to right, we have a piece of Lebkuchen with "ICH LIEBE DICH" written on it (That means "I love you." Lebkuchen is a traditional gingerbread heart cookie, typically the size of a dinner plate and hung by ribbons. They are sold at most festivals and markets in Germany.), a purple dirndl (complete with a bit of cleavage), men's lederhosen with a red and white plaid shirt, and the signature colors/pattern of Bavaria (where Oktoberfest is held).

For my other hand, I had this vision of a banner with "OKTOBERFEST" written on it, so I drew a banner across three of my nails. I was really happy with how the banner itself came out! After doing my thumb on my left hand, I envisioned the design for my right pinky: a bunch of soft pretzels. Bretzeln (or pretzels in German) are a popular on-the-hand food at festivals and markets, more so than Lebkuchen. The Germans know how to celebrate and drink their wine/beer! But as anyone who has had a few drinks can attest to, you need something in your stomach to soak up some of that booze. :) The brown, grays, and blue text colors were hand-mixed.

Because my nails are so curved, it's a bit difficult to see every letter on the banner, but I promise they are there. :)

For my right thumb, I drew one of the popular hats worn at Oktoberfest. They're made of a rather stiff, thick gray felt with a wool ribbon for detail. It's not the only popular hat related to Oktoberfest, but I just love the look of this type. I mixed up a gray for the main shape of the hat before remembering that I own a gray polish that looks like cement with the little light and dark gray specks in it (Essence Vampire's Love - The Dawn is Broken). I went over the base with this polish to give it some texture. The base yellow is CC Almost Famous with a hand-mixed lighter yellow polka dot background. The blue on the wool ribbon is also a hand-mixed color that I created using a white polish and Catrice's Blues Brother Vol. II. It's the same color I used on the Oktoberfest banner.

On my left thumb, I used the traditional Bavarian white and blue for a sort of star burst background. In the foreground, I painted a pretzel and a frothy mug of beer. The brown and gray of the pretzel and the yellow and gray of the beer mug were also hand-mixed colors. I really like how they turned out.

The contest ends on October 7th and then the photos of each entry will be posted on Angelina's blog for voting. I'll be sure to post here when the voting begins (I'd love for anyone who truly thinks my art should win to vote. Also, just vote for your favorite, even if it's not mine. ;) ) in case you'd like to vote. The winner will receive the new summer Cheeky stamping plates. The only plates I have are from Essence and Born Pretty and I've really been lusting over these plates.

What do you think? Have you ever been to Oktoberfest? Would you like to see pictures after our local Oktoberfest in a couple of weeks?