Happy Halloween Sally Hansen's Nail Strips

Happy Halloween! I hope you had a great day and a grand month. October is so fun!!

Here's my last Halloween manicure...

 This is Sally Hansen's 'Real Nail Polish Strips'. I got these as a gift from my dear Twitter friend, Somecrazedlady. She is a sweetie in many ways. I love these little ghosties!!

 I had been avoiding trying these strips because I just don't have a steady hand. However, I had to try these out, them being so durn cute and all. They were not as hard as I had anticipated, but it does take some skill. I got a few to turn out OK.

 My thumb seemed to turn out just right. I picked a size that was perfect. I seemed to have been between sizes (story of my fashion life!) for my ring and pinky fingers. But, unless someone looked really close, they wouldn't be able to notice that.

There were some wrinkles but I got all but a couple smoothed out. I had read enough reviews on these to be on the lookout for that and to not pull too tight and tear them.

It was fun to sports these today. I thought they were pretty 'ghoul'. ;P

Winner Of October Pink Giveaway

I counted up the valid entries and had my hubs pick a number. That entry is...

Amanda of Fashion Footing!!!!

Congratulations, Amanda. I've sent you an email and once I get your mailing address, you'll be getting a package of some sweet treats.

Everyone, thank you soooo much for hanging out at the vanity with me. Right on the heels of this giveaway is another one this month. I'm closing in on 1000 followers and want to have a GRAND giveaway for that event. Just stay tuned!

Shhh...look innocent...she'll not notice the scratched couch.

Halloween's Starry, Nocturnal Night

The giveaway ends tonight, don't forget! Click here.

Halloween is tomorrow and I don't feel I have gotten through all my holiday manicures. Bummer. Don't be mad at me if I start, like, Tuesday with my Christmas/New Year's Eve looks.

I wasn't able to get my grubby hands on Wet 'n Wild's On the Prowl collection. Boo! But I did find this polish from last year...

This is Wet 'n Wild's 'Nocturnal.' It is the loveliest, inky blue. With no top coat, it remained shiny through the next day but, I did get tip wear.

Before I removed 'Nocturnal', I wanted to test out a glitter top coat. I like dark base colors to accentuate the glitter so I thought I'd give it a shot...

I went with another Wet 'n Wild polish, 'Kaleidoscope.' If you click here, it will take you to a post by friend Gianna, Nouveau Cheap's, blog where she discusses a re-issue of some of Wet 'n Wild polishes. 'Kaleidoscope' is one of them. It is called 'Whose Lips Are These?' (Like someone 'lost' their lips? *scratches head*)

Here is a close up of 'Kaleidoscope'...

 

 A gabillion microscopic iridescent and silver glitters.

This makes me think of the photos from the Hubble. Nerdy, yes. But at least I'm consistently nerdy about what subjects I pick. ;)

What got me thinking about using 'Kaleidoscope' was a post on Kelly's Vampy Varnish blog. If you haven't seen her blog, that's another one you should follow. So, what Kelly was reviewing was Nails Inc. Special Effects 'Electric Lane.' This isn't a dupe, but it remains me of 'Kaleidoscope.' Take a look and see if you know what I mean.

A whispery, starry, nocturnal Halloween night. Perfect for the night when the veil between the physical world and the spiritual world is lifted. :)

I Spy....Target and Walgreens 10/28/11

Time is about up for the October giveaway. Click here if you want to get in on it. Chances are pretty good as there are not over 100 entries as of right now.

This really pains me. And, I am VERY vocal about this subject. I feel like a traitor to my own standards putting this up on my blob. However, I am going to put my feelings aside this one time. I want to be fair to my followers who might care.

So, I'll be as brief as I can...

Pseudo-celebrities. Media whores. Pointless.

By now, you probably have seen the cute, round lip balms from EOS. If not check out my friend, Mary's, Swatch and Learn blog. She reviewed one right here.

So, this is a new item by EOS, to me. EOS shaving cream...

I saw this at Walgreens and man, is that not a good deal?

Probably tomorrow, 10/30/11, Halloween stuff is going to be dirt cheap in order for the stores to clear it out. (Gain-way for Christmas items!!) So, be on the lookout if you want to stock up on Halloween decorations and candy.

You might buy this, but I bet you don't save it...

 I LOVE this! It's hot chocolate that you mix right up in the cauldron/cup. However, I'm not too keen on the idea of orange hot chocolate. Maybe that's just the color? If you check my klout influence, it would probably be beer in my cauldron!!!

I buy a lot of my clothes at Penneys. I stop in about once a month because I'd blow my entire 'just for me' budget for the month in about 2 hours.

These two young ladies, at the register, had just been given a lot of grief and rudeness by a woman over her 'not yet valid' discount coupon. I wanted to make them laugh right when I got up here. So, what can I talk about? Nails!

One of the young ladies was sporting this darling nail art. She told me that her mother is a nail tech. I, of course, encouraged her to talk her mom into starting her own blog.

Are you looking forward to purchasing Halloween items on clearance?

A Dirty Little Orange Number

How in the world did this month get over with in a snap? I'm drawing tonight for my October giveaway. Olly Olly In Free!!  Right here.

A top color for Fall is orange. And orange can be a tricky color to wear; clothing, makeup or otherwise.

This orange by Ulta isn't one of those oranges that worked for me...

I like that it is shimmery and, almost a shimmery frost.

This little baby was part of a collection that I didn't keep track of.

I have on 3 coats and no top coat. I wasn't going to spend any time keeping this polish on. I felt the polish made my nails look dirty.

Now that I look at the photos, it doesn't appear that it was THAT horrible. But in real life, it did not suit me.

One point that is a saving grace for this polish is that it comes in a tiny bottle so I don't feel I spent a lot of money on a ho-hum shade. Another is that it did apply somewhat nicely. It is soupy but it was very good at leveling out on the third coat.

I wish I would have thought about this before I took it off but, a black shatter would have given it more hope. If you want to see a similar look of that, my friend, Lisa of Shades of Magick, did, click here and check out her work.

When I lamented that orange polishes make my fingers look dirty, I got a few responses back on Twitter that other polish fanatics have that issue too. Some with oranges and a few with pinks.

Is there a shade that you feel makes your nails/fingers look dirty?

It Was a Cold, Rainy Night...For Pumpkin Polishes

Pleasant surprises are one of the top things I love about life. I love to get/find them and I love to give them.

A twin twitter friend, Somecrazedlady, sent me a delightful, pleasant surprise package in the mail. (Ask her why we are 'twins'.) She sent me Julep's Hand Brightening Creme and some hand/nail softening gloves. She also sent me the ghostie design from the Sally Hansen sticker nails and a sample of CND foot creme....hmmm...fresh and smells like cucumbers.

Then, if those wonderful items were not enough (and they were!), she included these...

Pumpkin polishes!!!!! And the top two glitters EVER!!!  On the left is the one that has iridescent quarter moon shaped glitter and regular size glitter. Then in the middle is my own Finger Paints in 'Stunning Stilettos', which I used as a base color. The pumpkin on the right is iridescent bar glitter. I'm in the camp that loves bar glitter, some say they feel it's too hairy. But, I think it's adorable.

I swatched these the day after I received them...

I alternated fingernails with both as I couldn't do just one. Plus, I loved the look and actually got some compliments on it when I was out and about working.

I picked 'Stunning Stilettos' as the base color as I wanted to emulate a sense of a dark, cloudy night with the moon flitting in and out of wispy clouds. When I was a kid, we called that 'spooky moon.' It is a total set up for a movie with a werewolf howl. :)

Twin sister, Somecrazedlady, you are the BEST!!! Thank you, again, for your sweetness.  Great Big Hugs!!!

I posted that my brother, his wife and daughter came to Orlando to do the touristy thing and to see me. My niece and sister-in-law have never been to the Atlantic Ocean. So we took a day trip to Daytona Beach.

Here is a photo of mom and daughter enjoying the shore line...

My October Pink Giveaway ends this Sunday. If you haven't entered yet, this is where the post is located at....HERE.

Phantom Fright's Last Night

First, I love glitter polishes. I'm a human magpie. However, I am going to draw the line with the Halloween shape glitter from Phantom Frights. These cute but evil polishes are a pain.

This one is totally high maintenance...

No name but I could come up with a few not so nice ones. Grrr... How about 'Star Blight!'

I dumped a spot of this polish onto a sheet of paper and fished out the glitter, then applied with a dotting tool. I'd rather just get loose glitter and use that because it was gloppy the way I did it.

 I knew it would need a base color, so I used Color Club's 'Sheer Disguise.' I think it was a good choice. And, I'll get back to that thumb in just a moment.

Here's my right hand which I use for experiments. If I haven't done a particular look before, I'll test it out on the right hand. Sheesh, this is a fail!

On the middle finger, I used 'Sheer Disguise' as the base color. Then I used China Glaze Crackle 'Lightning Bolt.' On top of that I used that damned glitter. N.O.P.E. On the ring finger, that's a base color of Color Club's 'Who Are You Wearing?' Hmph...good question. Want to know more about the pinky? Read on.

I wasn't privy to get Wet 'n Wild's On The Prowl. I still have hard feelings about that. *weeps softly* But, love & beauty came in to soothe my distraught mind...

I'm likening it to Wet 'n Wild's 'Tangled in My Web.' Click here to check out my gal pal, Nouveau Cheap's blog, where she swatched it.

Do you think it is sort of like 'Tangled in My Web'? I think the black glitter in a clear base is more dense, here, with love & beauty's 'Black'...

And here is it swatched over 'Sheer Disguise.' Oh, and I'm renaming 'Black.' First, let me yaawwwwn, there...now I can tell you that is should be called 'Black Dot.' Well, just a wee bit better, no? If you go back up to the photo of my left pinky, that is 'Black Dot' over my naked nail: no bottom coat.

Let me say, I liked 'Black Dot' a LOT more than 'Star Blight.' And, 'Black Dot' applied down flat so it was barely gritty. After a top coat of Lumos, the grit was gone. Oh, and it came off very easily. I can't say that for 'Star Blight'; I had to use the foil method to remove it.

These are my lovely assistance in this performance...

Color Club's 'Sheer Disguise' and 'Who Are You Wearing?'

'Star Blight' is going, unceremoniously, into the trash.

Do you have any shape glitter that gives you grief? What do you do with it?

An Intoxicating Grog: Witch's Brew

There's a pink giveaway going on at the Pink Vanity. Click here and enter.

Halloween is coming up so fast, I'm going to run out of days before I can do all my Halloween looks.

Here's one that is my favorite for this season...

 

 Check out Icing's 'Witch's Brew.' That is some concoction!!

'Witch's Brew' is Icing's 2011 Halloween collection. Out of an jelly orange glitter and a jelly purple with purple glitter, this one out of the bunch is my total, total favorite.

I'm intoxicated by 'Witch's Brew.' If I were not a nail blogger, I would wear this shade all month. It's a black jelly and has dark turquoise micro glitter in it.

I used Seche Vite as the top coat and you'd swear that you are looking up into a midnight sky. I used three coats of polish then one coat of Seche for this mani.

Have you seen this shade before? You probably have. 'Witch's Brew' is a near dupe to a couple of other polishes available...

On the left is Icing's 'Witch's Brew', in the middle Sinful Color's 'What's Your Name?, and last is Cult Nails' 'Living Water.' Can you see how 'What's Your Name' is more of a blue glitter?

And take a closer look at Cult Nails' 'Living Water.' This polish has something the other two do not: luminosity. 'Living Water' has turquoise glitter that looks like it is lit up. Hands down, the best looking of the three. I did a post on 'Living Water.'

It probably goes without saying that I'm a total sucker for clever names and 'Witch's Brew' is one of them.

Next is a couple of random sharings.

Every time I am at a mall that has a Forever 21, I stop by. I'm compelled to! This is what I scored last week...

When I was in high school, there was this saying 'I wouldn't kick that out of bed for eating crackers in it.' How horrible, blech! But that stupid saying came to mind when I photo'd these at the sunny window. I'm saving these for Christmas manis.

And lastly, last week my brother, sister-in-law and niece vacationed at the happiest place on earth, Disney World. I got to hang out with them a few days. I, too, am 12 years old when I'm with my 12 year old niece. It's grand to have someone to play with. :)

This is Karlie...