Recreate "This is Halloween Nail Art Challenge"

Today I recreated a design from another challenger.  There were so many ideas to choose some, but I ended up choosing a design from one of my new favourite nail art blogs, Polish Rainbow.  She only just started blogging but she has already created some awesome manis, plus she loves cats!

I didn't have all the same polishes, so I just recreated the idea using orange and purple polishes that I did have.  The vertical gradient was created using Kleancolor metallic purple and metallic orange, I then did the dots using Nubar Violet Sparkle and Fire Sparkle.  I feel my gradient didn't bring the purple up the sides enough, but I was still happy with the result.

Wow, so the challenge is over.  Is it too early to start thinking about doing a Christmas themed nail art challenge?

Trick or Treat "This is Halloween Nail Art Challenge"

Ohh look, I did a gradient again, are you getting sick of seeing gradients?  I hope not cause I have another one tomorrow.

Here are my trick or treat candy nails.  I created the gradient using all Picture Polish shades. From the cuticle to the tip is Twinkle, Honey Dew, Mellow Yellow and Tango, all such perfect spring pastel shades and perfect for sweet lollies.  I only just got these polishes so I will show individual swatches soon.

Stamping was done using BM306 on the index finger and DRK-B plate for the cupcakes and lollies.  I wrote trick or treat using a sharpie permanent pen. When I applied top coat it dragged the ink a little, but I actually like the look of the dragged bleeding ink because it kind of goes with the whole Halloween theme.

Graveyard "This is Halloween Nail Art Challenge"

We are in the home stretch now with the nail art challenge, only two more days to go.

I did a very simple graveyard look that really relies on the gradient background to provide the ambiance.  I struggled a bit thinking of something for this design, and when that happens I just jump onto google images and do so searches to see if anything catches my fancy.  That is exactly what happened with this image.

I created the gradient using Kleancolor Metallic Black, Picture Polish Kryptonite, Layla Ceramic Effects 61 and Kleancolor Metallic Green.  And finally, following quite a few requests over the last few months from you guys, I created a how-to video of how I create my gradients.  In fact I just filmed it while I was doing this exact manicure.

For the graveyard I hand painted a few tomb stones and stamped some curly trees from the pumpkin design on Bundle Monster plate BM224. This one is another easy peasy design.

Here is my how to create a gradient video.

I'm wearing my Trick or Treat mani today, so I will by changing my mani tonight and selecting my favourite design from another challenger. 

FNUG Fantastica and a GIVEAWAY!

I was recently contacted by the very generous Annette from Shoppe Eclecticco in Singapore, asking if I would like to try a few of the polishes she stocked in her store.  To tell you the truth, I didn't actually know about her store, so when I checked it out I was super impressed with all the different brands that she carries. 

She carries lots of international brands, such as Layla, Barry M, HITS, Jade, Nfu Oh, Man Glaze and FNUG as well a big selection of Indie, or as they are called on their site 'Artisanal' polishes.  I love sites like this because you can get a great variety of polishes from different brands, and not have to pay separate shipping costs from various different suppliers.

One of the polishes that I was sent to try was FNUG Fantastica. Anyone that is a holo whore *hands up* is going to know about the amazingness that are the FNUG holographic polishes.

Fantastica is a very pale green linear holographic.  It has excellent coverage and can nearly be worn just at one coat.  For these photos I have two coats with no top coat.   I'll let the pictures do the talking on this one!

I did a comparison with my other pale green linear holographic polishes, Nfu Oh 66 and Layla Jade Groove.  My bottle of Nfu Oh 66 is several years old and from the 'original' batch which was the most holographic.  The base colour of all these polishes is almost identical, but the linear effect is slightly different.  Each of these shows two coats with no top coat.

Now for the giveaway part.  As I said at the top of my post, the very generous Annette from Shoppe Eclecticco is sponsoring three prizes in this giveaway, as such we are asking you to follow Shoppe Eclecticco on Facebook to enter.  You can also get additional entries for following Shoppe Eclecticco on Twitter, Instagram or signing up to their newsletter.

You don't have to be a follower of More Nail Polish to enter the giveaway, but I will be giving away a bottle of Picture Polish Kryptonite to one lucky follower, so starting following (if you don't already) if you want to win that prize.

It is open internationally and closes in two weeks time (11 November 2012)

There are three prizes available from Shoppe Eclecticco for this giveaway.

• One for my Australia/New Zealand readers,
• One for my Asian readers and
• One for my readers elsewhere in the world.

Following the drawing of the first three winners, a final draw will be held to determine the winner of the bottle of Picture Polish Kryptonite.  

Thanks to Annette from Shoppe Eclecticco for providing these prizes.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Polish provided for review.

Ozotic Scatter Chromes 910, 912, 914 & 915

Ladies - hide your wallet, freeze your credit card and forget your paypal password, cause I have four of the brand new Ozotic Scatter Chromes to share with you today, and you are going to want to buy them :)

Ozotic 910 Scattered Chrome.  If you saw the bottle shots for these polishes, you probably recognized the colours and finishes. I instantly saw this polish as the Chanel Peridot/OPI Just Spotted the Lizard/China Glaze Rare & Radiant/Jessica Iridescent Eye etc etc dupe - but it has one HUGE difference.  These polishes contain the same large particle scattered holographic effect that is in the Ozotic 600 series and Picture Polish Kryptonite.

Two coats with top coats in full sun.

In the shade.

Under water, to bring out the full duochrome effect.

Ozotic 912 Scattered Chrome.  This one is the same colourings as China Glaze No Plain Jane (and a few others that I don't own) Its light duochrome shifts from purple to pink to coppery brown and again it has a very healthy serving of scattered holographic particles.

Two coats with top coats in full sun.

In the shade.

Under water.

Ozotic 914 Scattered Chrome. This one is the same colourings as China Glaze Want my Bawdy.

There is a very subtle colour shift in this, just like in the China Glaze polish, it goes from vibrant royal blue to a cool toned purple.  Once again, plenty of holo particles to sparkle though.

Two coats with top coats in full sun.

In the shade.

Under water.

Ozotic 915 Scattered Chrome. This one has the same colourings as China Glaze Unpredictable/Missha HGR001/Peripera Metallic Green and quite a few others. The subtle duochrome shifts from light green to light turquoise blue.  Plenty of scattered holographic goodness.

In the shade.

Under water.

The formula on all these was good, quite thick but nicely workable.  The opacity was excellent too - far more opaque than the China Glaze polishes. If you were in a rush to get out the door you could get away with just one coat, but really two coats was perfect for all of these.

For those not familiar with the Ozotic 600 series polishes or the holographic Picture Polish shades, then you need to know that these holographic particles are not glitter.  They are ultra thin and irregular shaped.  They don't make the polish feel rough or bumpy and you don't actually need to wear a top coat, as they all dry very smooth and quite shiny. 

Generally I didn't find these polishes too brush strokey.  You can certainly see brush marks in some of these zoomed in macro photos in the sun, but in real life it was not something that I noticed at all. Again to compare to the China Glaze Bohemian polishes, these were not as brush strokey as those. They also dried very fast and the holo finish was not dulled by Seche Vite top coat.

Another thing I noticed is that this collect of four polishes is missing polish numbers 911 and 913.  I'm hoping this means there are two more colours in this effect to be released.  The two colors from the China Glaze Bohemian range that aren't represented in these Ozotic Scatter Chromes are Swanky Silk and Deviantly Daring - Oooohhh I really hope they make those to shades in a Scatter Chrome.

Overall, I think these Ozotic polishes do offer something new and different to the very competitive nail polish market and I like them quite a lot!

The new Ozotic 900 series polishes will be available from Picture Polish next week.  They are also available through all the Picture Polish Network members.

Polishes provided for review.