Halloween week continues with these dark and vampy spider nails. I did a similar look last year, and loved it so much I had to reinvent it again. This year I went darker and matte with new coffin shaped nails that I'm loving. I think it really completes the look.
Above I have a shot minus the spider which is really more accurate to how I'm wearing these nails because the spider came off less than three hours after I glued it. It was really cute for the photos, but the legs were catching on everything and it popped right off. I got the spider charm from Miss A (all the nail art supplies there are $1 each).
My base color is Sinful Colors, Black on Black. I sponged on a gradient of Wet n Wild, Under Your Spell and Sation, Sparkling Ruby. I topped it off with Wet n Wild Matte Top Coat and then painted the web using Color Club, Harp On It for contrast.
This is my favorite Halloween look so far this year. I'm always a sucker for something dark and spooky (but you can't go wrong with spoopy either).
I've had this song, I Am The Best by 2NE1, stuck in my head for days. It's used in a Microsoft Surface tablet commercial and I can't get it out. The rational thing to do was to look up who sings it and then watch the music video so many times that it burns out in my brain. Take that brain.
Seriously though, the video is cool. It reminds me of the olden days when I was a teenager and Spice Girls were a thing. KPOP is just a slightly less intelligible version of Brit-Pop, and so catchy. The video was also great inspiration for nails.
You know you want to watch it...
I grabbed screen shots from the video to show the parts that inspired these nails.
I started out with two coats of Sinful Colors, Black on Black. I hand painted the diamond using Orly, Mirrorball.
I used spikes that I got from Miss A to mimic the outfits the girls wear. And boy do they wear a lot of spikes. I attached these with super glue. They stayed stuck for a full three days until one popped off. If you're feeling adventurous try living three days with giant spikes on your index finger. I wonder how many spike-related injuries they had on set that day.
For my pyramid nail I used holographic glitters that I got from Born Pretty. I used a toothpick dipped in wax to place them in lines on the nail.
This one is my favorite. I started with a white base here- Sinful Colors, Snow Me White. The bright purple is Sinful Colors, Dream On and the dark purple is Orly, Saturated. I mixed blobs of the colors with blobs of clear polish to water them down a bit and then used a flat wide brush to paint them on, swirling the colors together on the nail. I also added a bit more white polish this way and the end effect was very soft like water colors. Last, I painted a black border to tie this nail together with the rest.
My last nail is the stud covered globe-chair thing. I attached mini studs with clear polish in staggered lines. No way was I going to be able fit a whole continent on my pinkie.
I love the way this manicure turned out. It was fun, if not a bit challenging, to wear and it definitely got some attention.
I'm kind of liking this whole KPOP thing too. I'm not really familiar with it yet, so if you have any favorites let me know so I can check them out.
It's month two of The Polished Bookworms book club already! This month we chose Maze Runner by James Dashner. I just finished reading it last night, but right from the beginning I knew what I wanted to paint: the Grievers.
It looked like an experiment gone terribly wrong- something from a nightmare. Part animal, part machine, the Griever rolled and clicked along the stone pathway. Its body resembled a giant slug, sparsely covered in hair and glistening with slime, grotesquely pulsating in and out as it breathed. It had no distinguishable head or tail, but front to end it was at least six feet long, four feet thick.
Every ten to fifteen seconds, sharp metal pikes popped through its bulbous flesh...
...But hair and spikes were not the only things protruding from the Griever's body. Several randomly placed mechanical arms stuck out here and there, each one with a different purpose. A few had bright lights attached to them. Others had long, menacing needles. One had a three-fingered claw that clasped and unclasped for no apparent reason...
...Thomas wondered what- or who- could create such frightening, disgusting creatures.
Of course I had to paint the most disgusting nails ever to capture the Grievers.
I added some blood to my "needles" for extra grossness.
I used quite a few things for this look. For the Griever's body I used my slug colored polish, China Glaze- Don't Get Derailed. I placed rhinestones on the wet polish and then painted another coat over them to create the bulbous flesh.
I painted toothpicks with OPI, Push and Shove to create the metallic appendages. I also placed some spike studs from Miss A and cut up bits of a paper clip to use as needles. All of these things stuck pretty easily into the wet polish. I had the most trouble with the tiny needles, but they worked out in the end.
Last, I drew in some veins using Spoiled- Pumping Gas, Finger Paints- Don't Make a Scene, and Zoya- Pepper. These weren't in the description, but I thought it would make my Grievers look even more disgusting.
I really enjoyed the book and had such a fun time painting these nails. I can't wait to read the other two books in this trilogy. They left Maze Runner with a bit of a cliff hanger, so I'm definitely going to have to see what happens next.
Find out what parts of the book inspired all the other ladies this month:
