Hallowe'en 2013 - Things that go BUMP in the Night...

What better to go bump in the night than...

Frankenstein's Monster!

Pink Wednesday

Welcome to yet another Pink Wednesday!

We've had glequins, stripes and a waterfall so far, this week is the turn of a fairly understated mani with one of my favourite techniques - dots.

Hallowe'en 2013 - Pumpkins & Jack O'Lanterns

I'm terrible at pumpkin carving, mainly because I hate the smell of pumpkin! Not the best at Hallowe'en, but I love looking at other people's carved pumpkins - some of them are absolute works of art!

Mine, however, are slightly childish. Like my actual pumpkins would be!

Hallowe'en 2013 - Scary Movies

This was a bad prompt to pick.

I'm terrible with scary movies - heck, I was terrified by The Little Mermaid as a child - so I went for the most Hallowe'en appropriate film I knew... Nightmare before Christmas.

Pokemon Challenge Gen II, Round 14 - Dragon

This round posed a small problem - there was only one new Dragon pokemon introduced in Gen II, which was the water/dragon type Kingdra. But its not cute or derpy looking, so it clearly wasn't going on my nails haha.

So back a generation I had to go, for Dratini!

Pink Wednesdays

Time for another Pink Wednesday!

This week we've got a design inspired by The Nailasaurus' Waterfall Manicures for Pink Wednesday, and I had so much fun raiding my inexplicably large stash of pink polishes for this one!

The base for this is OPI Step Right Up, a beautiful pale pink which is unfortunately super sheer. This is four fairly thick coats to get it opaque.

The waterfall itself is done in OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips, Orly Sterling Silver Rose, Orly Lola and Essie Big Spender.

I love the look of this mani and I've been wanting to try it for ages, so what better opportunity than a pink wednesday!

An InLinkz Link-up

BarryM Textured Glitters - Countess, Duchess and Majesty

When I saw the two halves of BarryM's Autumn/Winter releases I nearly had an excitement based fit - one half was brown, nude, red and black matte polishes and is super awesome, chic and a good staple for the coming seasons. The other half was textured glitter polishes that are similar to the OPI Liquid Sand polishes in finish, except with a big helping of sparkle thrown in for good measure.

I picked up three of the five glitters in the collection - clockwise from top left in that image above is Countess, Duchess and Majesty - and here they are in all their sparkly and shiny glory.

Warning, post below the jump will be image heavy.

Hallowe'en Challenge

I kinda thought about taking a break from challenges for a little while after the end of the Extra Relaxed 31 Day Challenge ended, but seemingly I just can't get enough.

Kitty's Painted Claws and Racho's Nail Love are proud to bring you.... Hallowe'en 2013!

A challenge running three days a week - tuesday, thursday and saturday - in the run up to Hallowe'en. If you fancy joining in, come join us at the Nail Art Challengez facebook group and join in!

Pokemon Challenge Gen II, Round 13 - Bug

Yet another pokemon type I don't use, or like.

Bug type are so annoying, with their paralysis and sleep and poison attacks!

There's one bug pokemon you just don't mess with though...

Shuckle.

Pink Wednesday for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is Breast Cancer awareness month, and what better way to combine a cause with a colour I love but to do Pink Wednesdays with my partner in nail-based crime, Rachael of Racho's Nail Love.

The base for this mani is Nails Inc Elizabeth Street, with the stripes on my ring finger being Nails Inc Walton Place for the middle colour and Catrice Raspberryfields Forever.

The glequins are from Born Pretty Store, from this set of 12 colours. They're great for adding a little extra sparkle to a mani, especially with so many colours in one kit! They are a little hard to manipulate if you don't have (or can't find, curse my poor organisational skills!) a wax pencil, which are totally fab for picking up glequins like this, rhinestones and studs.

An InLinkz Link-up

Pokemon Challenge Gen II, Round 12 - Ice

Ice is yet another pokemon type I don't use (unlness there's a dragon pokemon trainer in the elite four). I'm such a simple soul when it comes to pokemon, haha. So this week's pokemon is another in the "aww isn't it cute" category - Swinub.

I used swinub as an excuse to try out my new BarryM Matte in Mocha, which comes out as a beautiful milk chocolate colour with a great waxy finish. Two coats were used in the nails above, however I totally could have gotten away with one as its such a pigmented polish and it dries lightning fast.

The glitter used for the snow on my other nails is OPI Pirouette my Whistle which looks awesome matted, I love it.

An InLinkz Link-up

Swatched - Nails Inc Emerald Street

As you may or may not know, Pantone voted Emerald Green as 2013's Colour of the Year. I was over the moon at this because I love green, but I've been searching for the perfect green for months now.

I came across Emerald Street in a blog sale last week and I knew I had to have it.

Multi-Blogger Giveaway!

Today I'm proud to present, for all the Kitty's Painted Claws readers, the chance to win yourself some swag!

Together with the other members of the Nail Polish Blogger Connection Facebook group, we are giving away :

• $50 gift certificate
• $40 gift certificate
• $30 gift certificate
• $20 gift certificate
• 2 polishes of your choice - one from InDecisive Nail Lacquer and one from 6 Harts Craft company

The gift certificates can be redeemed at either Llarowe, Harlow & Co or Ninja Polish, so there's plenty of choice to be had there! 

Theres also plenty of time to take part, as the giveaway runs from midnight PDT (8am BST) October 2nd until midnight PDT on October 30th, so we can choose a winner on Hallowee'n.

All you have to do is make your entries through the rafflecopter widget below, and wait and see if you win! This giveaway is open internationally too, so everyone can join and and hopefully bag themselves something nice.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

ER31DC Week 31 - Redo!

Well, the last week of the Extra Relaxed 31 Day Challenge is upon us, and this one was quite difficult. I didn't quite know what to redo.

The other half suggested tribal, but to be honest I nearly wept tears of blood after how long it took to do the first one. Then I was thinking glitter or polka dots... until I remembered I'd not done a gradient mani in an absolute age. I love gradients. Not so massively fond of the cleanup afterwards, but I have a new bottle of pure acetone on my desk that says that isn't going to be a problem any more.