Halloween Scene

Boo!

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend, I sure did. Fun, friends & Halloween planning. This is definitely one of my favorite holidays. The chance to dress up as whatever you want to be & have fun being someone else for a night or two. I already have my 2 costumes planned out & I am super excited to wear them. One of the costumes will be a little bit different but recycled from last year because it was wasted on failed plans & the other is a completely new one. Can't wait! So last night I finally did my Halloween nails. They have been naked for a while & I usually have Halloween nails halfway into October but I slacked this year. I am very excited to share my design with you because I used a product in a way I have yet to see anyone use it in & I am very happy with the result. Its very boo-tiful!

Ok so I got these Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips as a gift [I guess I can do my own little review while I'm at it] & I usually don't use these things because its not really nail art, its kind of like cheating. I mean they are beautiful & simple & I get the appeal. But for my own nails I like to use my own skills [& lack of skills], let it be my creation, my style, my imperfect mess. So I am not against the strips or girls who use or prefer them, I just don't like to use them for myself. BUT since they were given as a gift I won't let them go to waste so I used them for this design. I had some sort of an idea of what I wanted to do, but not really so I just took out a bunch of supplies I could possibly use & let my mind run from there. Here are all the pics I took during my process.

This is all the stuff I took out to get to work. My base, white, black & orange polishes. A glittery black, glittery grey, silver & black glitter striper polishes, a white & a black striper. Then an extra cuticle stick & nail file [the cupcake thing]. Then of course the Salon Effects & a snickers for energy! =)

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 This is what comes in the box.

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The instruction sheet.

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Opposite side in French. Surprised for a second because instructions second languages are usually Spanish, but then I remembered Sally Hansen is a French company. Duh!

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 The first one I did. I knew off the bat I wouldn't use the strips on my whole nail, or at least not for all my fingers. So I decided to do it like this. I put the strip first [on NAKED nails, no base] then carefully painted the other side with black. Then to cover the border of the two I used the white striper polish.

 I decided I didn't like the solid white & went over it in this glitter striper polish.

Then I did the second nail. I wanted to switch it up a bit so I tried it a different way than the first. Same thing I did on my thumb, strip first, then orange polish, then the white stripe. [Forgot the glitter when I took this pic]. Then I painted the middle finger whole glitter black. I always make my middle finger a different design from the rest of my hand someway so I didn't want the polish strips on there.

 Tried to show the glitter in this black polish. So pretty but my camera sucks.

Last Halloween I used these googly eyes too. So I thought why not use them again since its Halloween! They got such great comments last year I had to use em again. Writing out BOO is the first thing that came to mind so I tired it & really liked it.

The finished design! I just alternated locations for the polish strips, & polish colors. Same thing on my other hand.

When I got to my ring finger I decided to cut the polish strip to not waste any. I messed that one up a bit because the one I chose was a bit smaller than my nail so the edges weren't covered but only a tiny bit. Learned for the rest of my nails to measure properly. I used the other half of the strip on my other hand. I continued to cut the strips when possible & split the halves between nails to not waste any. I have PLENTY of strips left. The box comes with 16 & I have 10 and a half left! Even with the messed up parts I wasted, &  half that lost its stick before I could use it that is a lot to have remaining. Pat myself on the back for that one. =)

What I Used

-Sally Hansen Salon Effects -- Ghoulie Girl

-Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure -- Midnight in NY [#670]

-Brucci -- Camille's A "Blast" [432]

-White Nail Art Pen & Brush

-Silver Glitter Nail Art Polish

Overall Review

Basically I loved the Sally Hansen Nail Polish Strips, despite them not really being my cup of tea. The design is super cute, the application is really simple, the instructions are clear & easy to understand, & they include everything you need in the box. Its only been 24 hours so I can't say how they will hold up but I will be sure to report back. I noticed in the instructions it doesn't say to use a top coat, but since I had other polishes in the design I put some on today. It didn't effect the look of the strips on my nail at all so I guess it doesn't require it, but it wouldn't hurt either? Not sure. Final thought: I liked the product, BUT I recently learned [after getting this as a gift, & after I have been buying Sally Hansen products =(.] that Sally Hansen isn't on PETA's list of companies that DO NOT test on animals SO I will not be buying ANYTHING from them until they sign PETA's Statement of Assurance. Please do the same, and even better, urge them to sign the statement & stop animal testing.

Before using the product I searched on Google to see what other girls have done. The only things I seen were using the strips alone for the whole nail. I didn't see anyone use it for only French tips or anything [which will be my next use for them!]. I was really surprised. Maybe its been done & just not shared or I haven't found it but if anyone finds pics of other untypical ways to use the strips please share them with me! I love to see other people's creativity & art.

OK this post got long so I will share my Halloween cravings in another post.

Until next time,

Lovely Shopdict♥