Acetone Files Catching up ... Halloween skittle, Twilight Sparkle costume + mani
Acetone Files
Catching up ... Halloween skittle, Twilight Sparkle costume
Halloween skittle - 33DC: Art with your favorite brand
Nothing too special; I was going to do a crazy black-and-orange skittle sometimes around Halloween, and I decided to meld it with the (then) current 33DC theme, which was to use my favorite brand - I love me some Pure Ice, so I grabbed all my blacks and oranges, and filled it out with my brand new (and very first) Pretty Serious from the Halloween collection.
This one's a bit messy this time, mostly because I did the base coat a lot earlier than the details; my base black, which has fine silver sparkle in it that is rather obscured by the details, but it's one of my favorite simple staples, Electric! (Exclamation mark totally on the bottle.) I got Pretty Serious Haddonfield right before, so I just had to add it - here it is in its Halloween glory on my index nail, and over black (plus a gem) on my pinkie finger. On my thumb, we have the ruby-golden-orange crackle sparkle topcoat SOPI Opalescent Shattered, which just looks really cool over dark colors. Finally, the Pure Ice toppers are Iced Copper, with the cool little fang shape, and Meet Me in Monaco, one of those insidious LEs from winter last year, which is actually copper and rosy pink hex together in a slightly brown gelly base (but disappears over black here).
Exit review: I love Electric, Iced Copper is a little pinkish and a bit too intense for my taste in coppers, but it's great for frankening, I'm sad it's been discontinued; Meet Me in Monaco has an annoying base, and makes a better topcoat than allover polish, but I really like the copper and rosy pink combination. My first Pretty Serious is a hit - I absolutely love the texture, the combination of glitter, jelly, and touch of little black shards. It's definitely best by itself!
The Twilight Sparkle costume and mani, ft. Serum No 5 Pink Lantern
Another new polish that came in just in the nick of time (literally the day before Halloween) was my serious Halloween lemming, Serum No 5 Pink Lantern. I decided to be Twilight Sparkle, the studious My Little Pony unicorn who lives in a library (like me ... ha ha), and when I received Pink Lantern, I knew it would be perfect for my pink-and-purple Halloween costume manicure!
I started with a base of 3 coats of Pink Lantern - it's a little on the patchy side, cuz it's full of this glowy dust stuff that makes it feel almost like chalk, so you do need at least 3 if not 4 coats, but it's matte, so it dries fast. Then I sponged Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacy Lilac over the tips. Now I decided to try a new technique for gradient-ing the pink and purple, since I don't seem to be very good at the sponge method (see last Halloween); I soaked a cutip in NPR and dotted it on the blending space, which sort of liquifies the polish and blends it a little, as well as removes some of the top color. Then I wet the cutip with NPR again and dunked it in some more of the pink, and dotted some more - that blended the pink and purple a bit more thoroughly. So essentially: 1. Paint base, add 2nd color. 2. Dab with remover. 3. Dab with remover and base color. 4. Add topcoat - I brought the sparkle with Pure Ice Busted, a warm purply-pink glitter topcoat in a slightly purple base, which blended the colors even more.
You'll just have to trust me that it glows - this was the strongest and longest-lasting yet, but I still can't get my camera to pick it up. It even goes a little pink in just the right light! The best was at work where we have florescents - it charges Pink Lantern up instantly, and if I hit the shadow just right, I could see the Pink Lantern sandy glow next to the dull purple of the cream! Seriously, try this in florescent lighting if you can - I have none in my home, but my library's got tons!
Aaaand ... here's the costume! The cornerstone was this awesome wig from Hong Kong. It's a beautiful mix of many colors and feels like quality synthetic hair - it even came with a wig cap! I think my favorite thing about Halloween is the fun wigs ;P Another favorite part: the temporary tattoos. Went a little nuts - only time of year when you can really go nuts with the temp tats and not get weird looks ;)
I cobbled together the ears and horn myself - managed not to hit Hot Topic when the Pony ears and horns were around lol. The ears are made of folded felt on a cloth headband; the horn is a glowstick wrapped in tissue paper (to make it purple - didn't have purple, only pink) attached to a headband and then clipped aggressively into my hairline. You can see it glow a bit in this pic!
Da rest. I like costumes where I can wear "real" clothes. The only thing I had to buy special, not from my existing wardrobe, was the knee tights.
My labbits of course got in on the fun as well. Look, a punk rocker labbit! More here.
Catching up ... Halloween skittle, Twilight Sparkle costume
Halloween skittle - 33DC: Art with your favorite brand
Nothing too special; I was going to do a crazy black-and-orange skittle sometimes around Halloween, and I decided to meld it with the (then) current 33DC theme, which was to use my favorite brand - I love me some Pure Ice, so I grabbed all my blacks and oranges, and filled it out with my brand new (and very first) Pretty Serious from the Halloween collection.
This one's a bit messy this time, mostly because I did the base coat a lot earlier than the details; my base black, which has fine silver sparkle in it that is rather obscured by the details, but it's one of my favorite simple staples, Electric! (Exclamation mark totally on the bottle.) I got Pretty Serious Haddonfield right before, so I just had to add it - here it is in its Halloween glory on my index nail, and over black (plus a gem) on my pinkie finger. On my thumb, we have the ruby-golden-orange crackle sparkle topcoat SOPI Opalescent Shattered, which just looks really cool over dark colors. Finally, the Pure Ice toppers are Iced Copper, with the cool little fang shape, and Meet Me in Monaco, one of those insidious LEs from winter last year, which is actually copper and rosy pink hex together in a slightly brown gelly base (but disappears over black here).
Exit review: I love Electric, Iced Copper is a little pinkish and a bit too intense for my taste in coppers, but it's great for frankening, I'm sad it's been discontinued; Meet Me in Monaco has an annoying base, and makes a better topcoat than allover polish, but I really like the copper and rosy pink combination. My first Pretty Serious is a hit - I absolutely love the texture, the combination of glitter, jelly, and touch of little black shards. It's definitely best by itself!
The Twilight Sparkle costume and mani, ft. Serum No 5 Pink Lantern
Another new polish that came in just in the nick of time (literally the day before Halloween) was my serious Halloween lemming, Serum No 5 Pink Lantern. I decided to be Twilight Sparkle, the studious My Little Pony unicorn who lives in a library (like me ... ha ha), and when I received Pink Lantern, I knew it would be perfect for my pink-and-purple Halloween costume manicure!
I started with a base of 3 coats of Pink Lantern - it's a little on the patchy side, cuz it's full of this glowy dust stuff that makes it feel almost like chalk, so you do need at least 3 if not 4 coats, but it's matte, so it dries fast. Then I sponged Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacy Lilac over the tips. Now I decided to try a new technique for gradient-ing the pink and purple, since I don't seem to be very good at the sponge method (see last Halloween); I soaked a cutip in NPR and dotted it on the blending space, which sort of liquifies the polish and blends it a little, as well as removes some of the top color. Then I wet the cutip with NPR again and dunked it in some more of the pink, and dotted some more - that blended the pink and purple a bit more thoroughly. So essentially: 1. Paint base, add 2nd color. 2. Dab with remover. 3. Dab with remover and base color. 4. Add topcoat - I brought the sparkle with Pure Ice Busted, a warm purply-pink glitter topcoat in a slightly purple base, which blended the colors even more.
You'll just have to trust me that it glows - this was the strongest and longest-lasting yet, but I still can't get my camera to pick it up. It even goes a little pink in just the right light! The best was at work where we have florescents - it charges Pink Lantern up instantly, and if I hit the shadow just right, I could see the Pink Lantern sandy glow next to the dull purple of the cream! Seriously, try this in florescent lighting if you can - I have none in my home, but my library's got tons!
Aaaand ... here's the costume! The cornerstone was this awesome wig from Hong Kong. It's a beautiful mix of many colors and feels like quality synthetic hair - it even came with a wig cap! I think my favorite thing about Halloween is the fun wigs ;P Another favorite part: the temporary tattoos. Went a little nuts - only time of year when you can really go nuts with the temp tats and not get weird looks ;)
I cobbled together the ears and horn myself - managed not to hit Hot Topic when the Pony ears and horns were around lol. The ears are made of folded felt on a cloth headband; the horn is a glowstick wrapped in tissue paper (to make it purple - didn't have purple, only pink) attached to a headband and then clipped aggressively into my hairline. You can see it glow a bit in this pic!
Da rest. I like costumes where I can wear "real" clothes. The only thing I had to buy special, not from my existing wardrobe, was the knee tights.
My labbits of course got in on the fun as well. Look, a punk rocker labbit! More here.