The Graveyard After All This Time...

Today I would like to show you a fun Halloween themed manicure. I got this beautiful gray polish for review along with the 365 Days of Color Horcrux collection last month. I set it aside at the time because it was not part of the collection and it somehow managed to hide from me until now. I'm so glad that I finally saw this little one hiding among all the big polish bottles which clutter my table. It is appropriately named 'After All This Time?' as though to mock me in the fact that I took so long to play with it. It is absolutely perfect for a spooky graveyard manicure that even glows in the dark...

To create this manicure I used a base of 365 Days of Color After All This Time?. Swatches of this beauty are further down in this post. I stamped various images from Bundle Monster plates BM-413 and BM-H08 and Winstonia plate W116. For stamping I used Essence Stamp Me! Black stampy polish....

How fun is that skeleton peeking out from behind the gravestone?

Oh and did I mention that it GLOWS in the dark? That's right, it doesn't just glow in the dark! It GLOWS in the dark!...

After All This Time? is a dove gray jelly loaded with silver and holo glitter. There is definitely a lot more holo glitter than what my camera could capture. This beauty sparkles. It is fairly sheer and took four coats to build up to good coverage. I think next time I will try it over gray undies, but for my first swatches I wanted to show the color by itself. The formula is very nice, no streaking and great glitter distribution. Swatches are with a top coat...

Just look at this glow! It is the brightest glow in the dark polish that I have ever tried! Unlike others I've tried, this one is also most certainly not camera shy!

Swatch Details
	Brand: 365 Days of Color Collection: 12 Months of Color, October Color Name/Number: After All This Time? Number of coats: 4 Top Coat: Yes Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

What do you think of this polish? I'm most certainly in love with it. I love gray polish to begin with, but throw in some holo glitter and I start to swoon... make it glow in the dark and I fall head over heals in love!

Find out more about 365 Days of Color...
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Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

** Polishes were provided to me for review by the manufacturer or their PR. **

** For more information please see the disclosure policy **

Sunday Stamping Over Black Base

I've been in a bit of a nail art funk lately after burning out halfway through the 31 Day Nail Challenge. I'm still determined to finish it, but for today I decided to take part in a different challenge. It has been way too long since I participated in Sunday Stamping with the group Adventures in Stamping. Somehow these challenges always get my creative juices flowing and today's theme of stamping over black turned to this...

For this manicure I started out with a base of Wet 'n Wild Black Creme...

I then added three coats of Essence Fly Firefly Fly glow in the dark top coat. It does alter the base color a bit which is why it looks gray rather than black...

I stamped the spiderweb from Bundle Monster plate BM-H07 using Color Club Cherubic, a peachy holographic beauty. The spiders were stamped using Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and Bundle Monster plate BM13. Each spider accented with a red rhinestone...

And now for the glow in the dark shot. Is it OK to admit that it actually creeps me out in the dark? The spiders look too real for comfort... *shudder*. I'm debating entering these in the Bundle Monster nail art contest....

A few photos of Essence Fly Firefly Fly before all the stamping. This is three coats over black. I originally tried just two coats as suggested on the bottle, but it didn't glow quite bright enough. It glows really brightly in the bottle (see photo above), but this doesn't quite translate onto the nail. The effect seems to fade rather quickly after the lights are out. Swatches are with no top coat...

Over black, you can see the little fluorescent particles. More coats equals more particles, less visible base and brighter glow...

Swatch Details
	Brand: Essence Color Name/Number: 18 Fly Firefly Fly Number of coats: 3 (layered over black) Top Coat: No Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

I'd love to know what you think of this manicure!

P.S. Sorry if I freaked any of you out with spiders :)

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

** Polishes were provided to me for review by the manufacturer or their PR. **

** For more information please see the disclosure policy **

Halloween Week: OPI Pair'em Scare'em

This is my second time around swatching the OPI Pair'em Scare'em set that I received from the girls at Glambo. Earlier this week I could not get a photo of the glow in the dark effect no matter how hard I tried. I finally found a nice tutorial that is meant for photographing glow in the dark polymer clay, but it worked perfectly for me.

This is three coats of Zom-Body to Love with no top coat. It is very sheer with visible tiny glow in the dark particles. It would probably work well layered over a nice lime color, but since I was planning to cover it with a shatter, I didn't bother. Application was very nice with this one.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that to get a good glow you have to "charge" it by holding it under direct light otherwise the glow is pretty faint...

Lights out time... fun!

Topped with Black Shatter, which cracked very well even with my rather thick coat on the middle finger...
(Oops, looking at these photos I just realized that I forgot to apply a top coat. Oh well, I'm too lazy now :P)

Lights out time again... look at it glow! I must be getting better at photographing it :D

What do you think? Are you a fan of glow in the dark polishes?

Brand: OPI Collection: Pair'em Scare'm Set 2011 Color Name/Number: Zom-Body To Love Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

Brand: OPI Collection: available alone or in sets Color Name/Number: Black Shatter Free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)

This concludes Halloween Week, I hope you enjoyed it. I know I had lots of fun! Now all that's left is the mani for Halloween itself. Can't wait :D

Thanks for Looking!
Anutka :)

OPI Pair'em Scare'em...

The sweet girls over at Glambo had a Halloween Giveaway. I was so lucky to have won! I received the OPI Pair'em Scare'm set in the mail a few days ago. These are my very first OPI polishes, can you believe it? Make sure you visit their lovely blog :)

Thank you so much for this fun set!!

Stay tuned for swatches...

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)