{Mad About Nails} Halloween-Inspired Nails

I've had quite a few people comment on my nails in the past ask what I was using or wish I'd done a close-up so they could see better, etc., etc., and had a realization: Why not do a feature on nail polish? It's not book-related (Unless you're wearing the new HUNGER GAMES-inspired line from China Glaze, but I'm not even going into how wrong that is...), but it's fun. Plus, if I do this feature, I'll be more likely to re-paint my nails this week and less likely to let them chip their way to the bare bones (which would mean that I could see my nails...and if I see them, I want to bite them!).

Welcome back to another edition of Mad About Nails! 

This is almost two weeks of nail polish! 

I decided to post two looks together, since they both feature the same nail polish.

I've been storing up the fun orange nail polish I purchased earlier this year for October, and have had so much fun trying it all out!

Here's a video of the materials used

(Or keep reading below!):

YouTube Link

I started off with a basecoat of ORLY "Bonder."  Many of the professional nail studios use this as a basecoat when doing nails for their clients.  It's a rubberized coat that helps polish adhere to the nail.  It stinks, but it's great!

I used various top coats this week, which I'll talk about below. I decided to break free of the ordinary! ^.~

FIRST LOOK:

I started out with two coats of Zoya "Coraline" from the limited edition Blogger Collection from Birch Box (Back in stock and available to buy!).

All three polishes in the collection are sheer buildable jellies. I decided to use a sheer jelly as my basecoat because the glitter polish I planned to use was NOT opaque, and I didn't want bursts of naked nail peeking through here and there!

Next, I used Salon Perfect "Jolt" from the 2013 Neon Collisions Collection. It was one of my least favorite polishes EVER, formula-wise. It looks good on the nail, sure, but it's a beast.

It's more of a matte glitter, so it's gritty...but it EATS top coat. I put on one layer of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat, and followed it up with not one but TWO layers of OPI Rai Dry Top Coat...and the sucker ate it all up! My nails were STILL gritty and rough.

It was also monstrous to remove, like cement (Maybe in part due to all the top coat, though...?) I tried soaking. I tried scrubbing. Nothing! I  had to pick at it until it finally pulled up...which damages your nails when you do this, so not recommended. Yeah...I won't be playing with this one a lot!

Anyway! The accent nail is Maybelline Color Show Polka Dots "Dotty." It plays much nicer! I'll detail "Dotty" below, since she made up most of my second look!

SECOND LOOK:

I had heard that Maybelline Color Show Polka Dots wasn't the greatest polish in the world, but it looked so cute that I wanted to try it anyway! I chose "Dotty." I like it a lot, actually! It layers really nicely!

It's a sheer, buildable jelly polish, but I used it on top of opaque colors, so there's no jelly texture on the nails. See my accent nail in the previous post for a hint at the jelly-like qualities of this polish! I'll have to do it again someday as just a jelly...

I layered "Dotty" over ULTA's bright-orange "Sun of a Gun" and Wet n Wild Wild Shine "Black Crème" as base colors.

The fun thing about "Dotty?" Because she's a buildable jelly, she looks amazing in a whole-new way when layered with black! This polish has an orange base with black and white glitter shapes. When you do more than one layer of "Dotty," some of the white glitters turn orange! They don't' look orange against an orange polish because they're whiter than the polish, but they look orange against the black! When the orange base layers over the white glitter, it looks like orange glitter! SO MUCH FUN!

I really enjoyed this polish and have had quite a few compliments this week. I want to wear it FOREVER...but I have too much else to do in October! It's a holiday month, after all!

I topped everything off with OPI "Rapi Dry Top Coat" because it's a little thicker than the top coat I normally use. Sometimes glitter needs a thicker top coat to create a smooth nail, and after the disastrous "Jolt," I wanted a clean design!

If you do a Halloween-inspired look, shoot me a link or tweet me a pic! I want to see what everyone else is doing this month!!

 Is anyone else obsessed with nail polish? What are you wearing right now?