40 Great Nail Art Ideas: Halloween

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Easy Halloween Nails: Gradient with Stripes

I'm back with another Halloween Mani! I have to fess up on this one though. I was SO inspired that I did a ton of autumn and halloween manis. Seriously, I did so many I had extra that were no specific purpose other than nail art is fun! Some were challenges, theme weeks, etc. and so many "extras." So I was sure I had one saved back to post today for you know, ACTUAL Halloween?

Nope. I posted all of them. I even did a blog post with 24 Nail Art Ideas for Halloween! So what happens? You scramble, that's what happens. Scramble for something quick and easy. So that's exactly what I did. If it's stressing you out, you're doin' it wrong. So no stress!

So I grabbed the first orange and purple (Color Club with no name label and Sinful Colors Amethyst)  I could find and I knew Girly Bits Hooperchondriac was going to be the green. I did a quick gradient with the orange and purple and some quick freehand stripes with the green and BAM! Halloween by the seat of my pants.

Nail art has so many varying degrees. There are no rules and, as as Angie might say, no nail art police! (If you haven't seen Angie's videos on youtube you MUST check them out on Maria Cyza's channel.) You will laugh and fall in love with her. Calm down!

Yes, you can go all out but you don't always have to. Sometimes quick and easy is just as fun.

What's on YOUR nails this Halloween? If you feel like it, please go share them on my Pointless Cafe Facebook page - I'd love to see!

Also, for more inspiration, please check out the other Halloween manis in the links below!

                              

An InLinkz Link-up

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Contrary Polish: Coloring Outside the Lines Collection - Swatches and Review

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Hi everyone! Today I have a new collection from Contrary Polish to show you called the Coloring Outside the Lines Collection! This seems very timely indeed with all the adult coloring that's catching on like wildfire for stress relief. Yes I do it, too.

Contrary Polish

Coloring Outside the Lines Collection

So meet me after the jump and I'll show you these 6 new shades!

Get In My Mouth LE Collaboration Duo from Firecracker Lacquer and Darling Diva Polish - for Thanksgiving!

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Get In My Mouth Duo for Thanksgiving

From Firecracker Lacquer and Darling Diva Polish

First of all YAY MONDAY IS OVER! And secondly, there's a new Limited Edition Collaboration Duo from Firecracker Lacquer and Darling Diva Polish for Thanksgiving! It's called Get In My Mouth and the polishes work as a perfect duo: Stuff That Turkey and Cover It In Gravy.

Catch me after the jump for full swatches and review...

Crowstoes Nail Color: Halloween Trio 2015 - Swatches and Review

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Crowstoes Nail Color

Halloween Trio 2015

Howdy everyone - I'm back with (yay) more Halloween polishes for you! This is the Crowstoes Halloween Trio for 2015.

Catch me after the jump for full swatches and review but first, as usual, I had a bit of fun playing with them first.  Just my quick toothpick marble using all three...

KBShimmer Winter 2015 Collection - Swatches and Review

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KBShimmer Winter 2015 Collection

Today I have the much anticipated KBShimmer Winter Collection to show you! There are 14 new polishes, one is the yearly Toys for Tots charity polish, and 8 new Holiday Water Slide Decals. And you guys already know I usually provide lots of photos anyway, so this is a long post - consider yourself warned!

In addition to those 14 new polishes, I also have 4 of the 8 new watersides to show you...

So meet me after the jump and we will dive right in!

Toys for Tots - KBShimmer Press Release 2015

Press Release

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Press Release

KBShimmer Presents Its “Toys For Tots” Charity Polish: Toying Around

Four dollars from each bottle of “Toying Around” will be donated to Toys for Tots. 

KBShimmer is thrilled to announce the launch of its 4th annual edition charity polish, Toying Around! “We here at KBShimmer are very fortunate, and we want to pay forward that good fortune by helping our local community,” says KBShimmer owner Christy Rose. “Creating a special Christmas themed charity polish is something I look forward to each year, and this year’s polish is a celebration of the fun that every child should be able to experience – TOYS!” Last year, KBShimmer raised THREE THOUSAND dollars to help ensure that every child has something to open during the holidays and want to make this year an even bigger success! 

Toying Around is a toy inspired polish, filled with a rainbow of colorful matte glitters in stars, squares, circles, triangles and hexes. A bit of 

micro sparkle adds the perfect touch to this glitter topper. When  imagining Santa’s workshop, it’s hard to not think about an explosion  of colorful toy parts and wrapping paper and that is exactly what Toying 

Around looks like! It’s ideal for jazzing up any holiday manicure and  makes the perfect stocking stuffer! 

“As a mother, I know how important Christmas is for a child, and therefore choosing Toys For Tots as our charity was a perfect fit. This is the fourth year that we have donated to our local Toys for Tots group, a tradition I hope is in place for many years to come,” says Rose. From November 2nd through December 15th, four dollars from the sale of each bottle of “Toying Around” sold on www.kbshimmer.com will be donated to the Terre Haute (the KBShimmer headquarters) chapter of Toys for Tots. Each bottle retails for $8.75

For more information about Toys for Tots, visit www.toysfortots.org. Toying Around will be available November 2, 2015 at www.kbshimmer.com. For sales outside of the U.S., visit www.harlowandco.org.

KBShimmer was founded in 2008 by the husband and wife team of Jason and Christy Rose.

KBShimmer offers unique and colorful nail glitter nail polishes that are Big 3 Free, with all glitter formulas being completely free of chemicals such as toluene, form aldehyde, form aldehyde resin and dibutyl phthalate (DBP). KBShimmer glitter polishes feature a flat glitter- grabbing brush for easy application. KBShimmer also offers a 2-free quick dry polish topcoat, olive oil lotion, sugar scrubs, mani shots, cold process soaps, and other skin care products. If you would like more information about KBShimmer, contact Christy Rose by emailing sales@kbshimmer.com or visiting http://www.KBShimmer.com

© 2014 KBShimmer. All rights reserved.

Stay tuned! I will have swatches of this polish later today here on Pointless Cafe!





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Indie InLinkz: Halloween Nail Art

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Halloween Nail Art!

It's time for another Indie InLinkz post. Indie InLinkz is a group of bloggers who do an indie-themed mani every month. This month's prompt was Halloween! I don't have too awfully many indies that are straight grey cremes so I used a couple of Girly Bits polishes in the nail art.

I used Nails Inc. The Thames as a base, Girly Bits Thump Your Melons mixed with a few other random polishes in the pumpkin for the right color and Elephant Shoe as the lighter grey in the tombstone. The rest was done with acrylic paints.


Check out the other Halloween manis below from the Indie InLinkz Gang in the links below!!

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An InLinkz Link-up

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Nail of the Day- Four Seasons Nail Art

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Four Seasons Nail Art

You know how sometimes you have something you HAVE to do but don't want to so you do random things as an avoidance tactic? Yeah that's how this mani happened.

It was 30 degrees the other morning - like winter, then mid-morning a perfect 58 - like fall. By noon it was 68 and sunny - like spring and along came 3 pm and nearly 80 degrees and the sun was glaring - like summer. So I had a little fun on my nails. And it's no secret that I've missed having 4 seasons for the last 32 years. I'm embracing every single nuance of each season now. And for the rest of my life!

I did mix up the order a bit though LOL! I honestly wish I could remember which polishes I used for this but in another extreme avoidance tactic, I put all the polishes that were sitting out back in the helmer where they belong. I call that one an extreme tactic because it involved "tidying up" and that's nearly as bad as laundry, which I also did.

I'll be back soon with more swatches, reviews and nail art but I just wanted to pop in and drop this off for you.

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The Digit-al Dozen Does Autumn: Day 5 and Another Easy Drybrush

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The Digital Dozen Does Autumn

Day 5 Drybrush and a Bonus Toothpick Marble

It's FRIDAY! So happy to see my old friend Friday, except that it means another Digital Dozen week is coming to an end - and one of my favorite themes - Autumn. So I'm happy and sad.

I have another quick and easy drybrush for you for day 5 and, as usual, I have an extra. Not sure it's necessarily a "fail" this time but it doesn't get its own blog post either.

For this mani I used Elevation Polish The Arches 2 as a base and Zhenjin and a plain black creme for the drybrush. Followed with a coat of Zoya Matte Velvet top coat.

And a full sun shot with top coat...

And here is the toothpick marble I did with Elevation Polish The Arches 2 and a green Zoya. I don't hate it because it sort of reminds me of caramel apples in an abstract sort of way.

What do you think?

Please check out all the other day 5 Autumn manis from the rest of the Digital Dozen crew below! See you back here next month when our manis will all be inspired by Pinterest!

An InLinkz Link-up

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40 Great Nail Art Ideas: Geeks! - Caffeine

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40 Great Nail Art Ideas

Geeks! - Caffeine Molecule

Hi everyone! We are continuing with a nail art challenge with Crumpet's Nail Tarts. Every other week I'll have a mani for you with a specific theme and so will AT LEAST 40 other nail artists! You will be able to check them all out in the links at the bottom. Need inspiration? We've gotcha covered!

So here are 40 more Great Nail Art Ideas, this time all centering around GEEKS! A few years ago I painted this on a denim tote I had and loved it. So I decided to recycle it on my nails. Mainly because I'm not smart enough to be a TRUE geek and beyond geeing out over Doctor Who, or  maybe bacon, coffee is my thing.

For this mani I used OPI My Vampire is Buff for the base and just acrylic paints for the rest. Now that I see it, the lines look a bit like I may have been over caffeinated when I did it. But, erm...I totally meant to do that for effect, yeah, that's it, totally on purpose. *grin*


And of course it's nail art so I had to see it matte...

I think I prefer this one shiny though.

What do you think?

Please check the links below for (over) 40 Nail art Ideas for GEEKY manis! You can also search these hashtags across all social media: #40greatnailartideas #40gnai #40nailart

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An InLinkz Link-up

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Girly Bits Hocus Pocus Collection for Fall 2015: Swatches and Review

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First, SQUEE!!! Yeah, I said squee. Not my typical thing to say but it SO fits here because...Hocus Pocus!!!

Girly Bits Fall 2015

Hocus Pocus Collection

Join me after the jump for full swatches and review!

The Digit-al Dozen Does Autumn Day 4: Falling Leaves

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The Digital Dozen Does Autumn

Falling Leaves

Hi guys! Day 4 already? We just started! Today I have a sort of "abstracted" version of falling leaves done with simple dots.

I started with a simple gradient and as has been the issue all week, I really don't remember what I used. "Oh I don't need to write this down, I'll remember!" Um...yeah maybe when I was in my 20s. The base for sure is Elevation Polish Mount Ventoux and the tips are Zoya. Then I used acrylic paints to create the rest - just simple dots for the falling "leaves."

Be sure to check the links below for the other great Autumn manis!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Colors by Llarowe: Coming Back Around Collection - Swatches

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Hi everyone! Tomorrow (Oct. 15th 2015) is the preorder for the Colors by Llarowe Coming Back Around Collection so I thought I'd quickly post all my swatches here for easy reference.

I haven't done a full review on these,  just swatches but I can tell you that I didn't have any issues with formula or application on any of them. There are 5 and all but one are 2 coats with one coat of top coat. Billy Jean (formerly Billie Jean) took 3 coats and you may like it with 2 or feel you need 4. This one is a jelly and it builds up nicely.

Full swatches after the jump...

The Digit-al Dozen Does Autumn: Autumnal Drybrush

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The Digital Dozen

Autumnal Drybrush

Happy Wednesday! It's day three of the Digit-al Dozen Autumn week and I have a really easy dry brush anyone can do!

Just pic 3 shades that say AUTUMN to you and have fun!

I honestly wish I hadn't gotten suddenly all cleany and organizy and stuff and, you know, put things back where they belonged. *faint* I'm not sure what got into me. But I honestly have no idea which polishes I used for this mani. I know the base and the green were both Zoyas and the black was Wet n Wild Wildshine Black Creme. Really though, this technique is so easy and will work with any shades you pick out.



A better look...

And you know I had to matte it. Because MATTE!

Be sure to check out what the other Digital Dozen members have for you today in the links below!

An InLinkz Link-up

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The Digit-al Dozen Does Autumn: Autumn Pine Cone

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The Digit-al Dozen Does Autumn

Autumn Pine Cone

Good morning! Back for Day 2 of Autumn Week and I'm loving it...today I have a simple autumn look with a pine cone. I missed TREES so much for the last 32 years in South Texas - not many pine trees around. Not much except palms and scrub oaks actually. So I thought I'd give a pine cone a shot since I'm HOME and practically IN Hoosier National Forest.

I have it shiny and matte...

For this mani, I started with a base of OPI My Vampire is Buff and did a quick gradient with one of the Zoyas from last year I believe, but I've put away all the polishes since then - without writing anything down, of course.  The rest is done with acrylic paints.

Check out the other Autumn manis from the rest of the Digit-al Dozen gang in the links below!

An InLinkz Link-up

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The Digit-al-Dozen Does Autumn! Cider Season

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The Digit-al Dozen Does Autumn

Apple Cider Season!

It's time again for another Digital Dozen theme week! This week we are all doing AUTUMN! So you know I did lots of these - so many that I've already posted other autumnal manis here on the blog, but I saved a few back for The Digit-al Dozen, of course!

This one is inspired by Apple Cider. I'm not opposed to yummy homemade pumpkin bread but I am NOT a "pumpkin all the things" person at all. I generally don't like many pumpkin things except pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread.

But I do love a lovely mug of hot mulled apple cider. I could post a fancy, involved recipe for you but truth be told? I don't like cloves. So I take store-bought apple cider (about 10 cups) and simmer it on the stove (in a large pot) with 3 to 4 cinnamon sticks, the peel of a large orange (or 2 if they're small) and about 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg. Simmer at least 30 to 40 minutes. If I have company, I garnish with cinnamon stick and orange slice, otherwise I don't. Sometimes, if creative friends are making sachets of the mulled spices, I will have them make me some without cloves and use those.

For this, I used a base of Elevation Polish Mount Ventoux with Zoya Rocha dry brushed on top. The accent nail is OPI My Vampire if Buff with acrylic paints for the freehanded apple.

Check out the other Autumn manis from the rest of the Digit-al Dozen gang in the links below!

An InLinkz Link-up

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KBShimmer Halloween Water Slide Decals

*Purchased by Me

Hi everyone! Just a quick Friday post because HALLOWEEN!

Today I have a mani with the KBShimmer Haunted House w/Owl Water Slide decals for you. I grabbed these and the new hounds tooth ones as soon as I saw them. I am RUBBISH with nail stickers and wraps and such but I just love water slides because they're so quick and easy and so super thin it's like just another coat of polish.

I first put down a coat of OPI My Vampire is Buff (because I avoid stark white when I can with my pale skin) and just trimmed them so they would fit on my nails.

If you've never tried water slides before they're super thin and easy to work with. Grab your tweezers and hold the piece you've cut out in water for about 10 seconds, then slide the backing off with your finger and place on the dry nail. You have as much time you need to slide it around where you want it. Then top coat and clean up any excess by snipping it off or with acetone and a clean-up brush. I never clip - acetone does the trick just fine.

Boo!

You can purchase KBShimmer polishes, mani shots, nail vinyls, water slides and many other nail and hand products on their site here, at Harlow & Company and on Amazon. Shipping is super fast, too. I got mine two days after ordering!

Other KBShimmer sites:
Facebook 
Twitter 
Instagram 
Pinterest





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Colors by Llarowe Halloween Duo 2015

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Colors by Llarowe

Halloween Duo 2015

Boo!

Are you ready for a Halloween Duo? Colors by Llarowe has a Duo launching Saturday, October 10th for pre-order from noon to 8 PM MDT: Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun and All Jack'd Up.

Catch me after the jump...

40 Great Nail Art Ideas: Hobbies - Art

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Happy Friday!

Today begins a new nail art challenge for me with Crumpet's Nail Tarts. Every other week I'll have a mani for you with a specific theme and so will AT LEAST 40 other nail artists! You will be able to check them all out in the links at the bottom. Need inspiration? We've gotcha covered!

Today's theme is Hobbies. I have a lot of hobbies but none has been more of a life-saver or sanity-saver than painting has been for me so that's the direction I took.

I used a base of Elevation Polish Mount Ventoux. Typically yellow hates me, but this is the best one I've found for my skin tone (it still doesn't love me but it doesn't give me zombie hands like most) and I've actually used it so much for nail art and various things that I've had to order my second bottle of it. The rest was done with acrylic paints. It's really not as bright as it's reading here - it's a soft, buttery yellow.

After I lost my husband to cancer I started painting to keep from losing my mind and it's done the job for me. A relaxing, creative outlet.

One of my favorite quotes is: "Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." - Pablo Picasso

So I added it over one of my paintings as my everyday FB cover photo:

It's one of the few paintings I've done that's not more abstract. And Now that I have it uploaded here, I'm seeing that it's a really bad photo of it with all the glare.

Next hobby if I ever get the time? Photography because it's SO not my forté and I am quite interested. It just seems so complicated and overwhelming.

What are your hobbies? What keeps you sane?

Be sure to check out all the other manis in the links below - more will be added all throughout the day!

Happy Painting!

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An InLinkz Link-up

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