HPB Presents: My Final Halloween Nails

Hey there!  Happy Halloween!  I thought I'd share the Halloween mani I wore all weekend.  In a pipe dream polish fan group I'm in, @mrsenj posted an amazing orange and black water marble.  It was so awesome that I couldn't let Halloween slip by without trying one myself.  Mine didn't turn out anywhere near as good as hers but this still made a fun design to wear this weekend.

26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Halloween In The Wrong Colors

Hey there!  It's time for the second instalment of 26 Great Nail Art Ideas.  I'm still getting used to this every second week thing but I think I like it.  It's much less demanding than the weekly prompt.  For this theme, we're doing Halloween in the wrong colors.  It's really hard to think of a color that isn't Halloween-related - it pretty much eliminated black, orange, green, purple and red to me.  So I went with pink and paired it with a plate I've been wanting to use for a long time.  I love the idea of having the different phases of the moon as a mani.  I hope pairing it with a bat makes it Halloween-y enough.

The Digit-al Dozen does Birthday - Unicorn Wood

Hey there!  For the last few months, the Digit-al Dozen ladies have informally celebrated each other's birthdays by doing a group mani inspired by a piece of art picked by the birthday girl(s).  Amber of Nails Like Lace is the only October birthday girl and she picked such a photo we are referring to as "unicorn wood".  Keep reading to see the inspiration and how I did my look.

Mrs. P's Potions Turning Tundra

Hey there!  So here's something I don't do often anymore - a single swatch post.  But the lovely Bree from Mrs. P's Potions asked if I could do one for a fan favourite, Turning Tundra, since it got featured in Nail It!.  This three-color thermal polish was so popular that she is going to re-release it this upcoming weekend...exciting!  I purchased this last year and wore it but never posted it to the blog so Bree's request was a good excuse to do it now.  It's

Color4Nails HaloChrome Powder Pigment Review

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Hey there!  Today I have a quick review for one of the new products on the market, holographic chrome powder.  The lovely Sisi from Color4Nails sent me their version, HaloChrome Powder Pigment, to test out and I had some fun with it this past weekend.  It definitely adds some rainbows to you nails.  I hope you can forgive any application issues I have.  I so rarely use gel polish that I ended up with some mistakes (that are really hard to get rid of so I lived with them).  The powder did have a little learning curve for me but, once I understood it, it applied super fast.

UberChic Beauty Texture-licious Stamping Plate Review

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Hey there!  Hooray, it's the weekend!  I'm kicking mine off by writing a quick blog post to show you the greatest new plate...UberChic Beauty's Texture-Licious mini plate.  As soon as I saw the preview for this plate, I was drooling.  It has such great patterns for layering images on top of each other that that's how I chose to test it out.  I've done three manis already with it, all with double or triple stamping, and I loved them all.  I'm going to sound like a rabid fan here but this is the most inspirational plate I've seen in ages.  I hope you like what I've done with it.

Powder Perfect Third Anniversary Duo - Elysium and Utopia

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Hey there!  Today I'm sharing two limited edition shades from the Australian 5-free indie, Powder Perfect.  These polishes were created to celebrate the brand's third anniversary.  That's a big accomplishment for a business so it definitely deserves recognition.  Elysium and Utopia, currently available from Color4Nails, are a great duo to celebrate with.  They have a rare combination of holo and tiny ultrachrome flakies so they're definitely worth a look.  After swatching them, I liked them so much that I combined them in an easy tape mani.

UberChic Beauty Collection 11 Review

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Hey there!  I already have the next collection in hand (though I haven't had a chance to use it yet) and I'm only now sharing the UberChic Beauty Collection 11 designs I've done.  I know, I know, I should really be more on the ball.  UberChic started by releasing collections of 3 plates at a time and they will always have a special place in my heart.  While I do like the more specific themed plates, I really love the collections that have a little of something for everybody.  Collection 11 is just that - a great mix of everything!

26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Blue and Silver

Hey there!  Guess what!  The Crumpet's Nail Tarts have come up with a new nail art challenge.  And just in time because I didn't like having to come up with my own ideas, haha!  Last time it was named "40 Great Nail Art Ideas" because there was supposed to be 40 ladies participating each week.  Unfortunately participation dropped off and we ended up with just 11.  This time it's named for the number of prompts we will have so this is the first 26 Great Nail Art Ideas post.  Instead of weekly, it will be a bit lighter at every 2 weeks.  We're starting with the prompt of Blue & Silver.  I tried to fit this in with the Digit-al Dozen's Vampy theme but no one that saw them thought they were vampy so I'm double posting today.  Hope you're not sick of me!

The Digit-al Dozen does Vampy: Red and Black Drip Marble

Hey there!  For the final day of Vampy week (my personal favourite Digit-al Dozen week in a long time though I know some of my cohorts have hated it), I have a decided I hemmed and hawed over including.  I love the idea of it but didn't fully love the outcome mostly because, as I said yesterday, dark colors and my cuticles are mortal enemies.  In the end, I'm including this red, black and gold drip marble because I love the polishes I used and it'd be a shame to have used all those beauties and not share the result.

Illyrian Polish Every Witch Way Collection

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Hey there!  I'm interrupting this week's Digit-al Dozen posts to bring you a fun collection from Illyrian Polish that I got to swatch thanks to Color4Nails.  The Every Witch Way collection was originally released this past summer but I honestly find this collection could work with all seasons.  There's a real mix of finishes and colors here but the sparkly shimmers are the standouts to me.  Keep reading to see a few swatch photos of the Every Witch Way shades and hear all my thoughts.

The Digit-al Dozen does Vampy - Vampy Hearts

Hey there!  Today's post is a simple nail art look that I absolutely obsessed over forever.  If I googled "vampy" online or on Instagram, I kept seeing this image and knew I wanted to put that on my nails.  And I tried...twice, but neither look at good as that lip look.  Then I tried to do a reverse image search to find the original creator of the look and found this amazing lip artist.  I didn't even know lip art was a thing and it seems to have a lot in common with nail art.  Like I said yesterday, I'm just becoming brave enough to wear light glitter on my lips so I doubt I'll be rocking galaxy lips anytime soon but some of her looks sure are cool!  Unfortunately I can't find the original photo on her IG page so I can't link to the original photo (lesson: always credit the original artist when you repost something so the rest of us can discover awesome new people to follow).

The Digit-al Dozen does Vampy: Red Glittery Stripes

Hey there!  I've been a bit obsessed with glitter lately.  I like to think that most girls have a love of sparkly things, glitter included, which might explain why I spent a small fortune (shipping to Canada is way too expensive) on one of the new Pat McGrath Lust 004 lip kits and I don't even wear makeup.    But twice this weekend, I went out wearing glitter on my lips.  I'm trying to talk myself out of buying one of the red ones (the one I originally bought was the Flesh color) and instead I've been playing around with putting regular red glitter over red lipstick.  I haven't gotten brave enough to wear red glitter lips out yet but, since I had the glitter out anyway, I decided to also try it out on my nails.  It's not a secret that I love red glitter nails so I definitely had no complaints about these.

The Digit-al Dozen does Vampy: Drip Nail Art

Hey there!  For the second Digit-al Dozen Vampy day, I had an idea that a lot of us seem to have shared - blood drips.  It's pretty hard to not think of vampires with this theme so it's not surprising that some of us have red drip manicures to go with the theme.  I made mine a bit textured which was fun to wear but not fun to let dry.

The Digit-al Dozen does Vampy: Marilyn Monroe Nail Art

Hey there!  First off, Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians!  I wish I could've done some turkey nails but it's a new Digit-al Dozen week and I'm not sure how I could've combined Thanksgiving with our Vampy theme.  I love this theme and yet had massive conflicts with.  I love dark vampy colors but had problems thinking of art to go with it.  Seriously, my sister has said that she never want to hear the word vampy again after how many times I've said "I need one more vampy idea..." in the last month.  I ended up doing way more than 5 designs for this theme before coming up with 5 I like (one of which I just did this morning).  I'm starting with some Marilyn Monroe stamping because when I think of sexy, vampy ladies, she comes to mind.

UberChic Beauty Halloween-02 Review

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Hey there!  Well it's October so I'm allowing myself some Halloween nails, starting with this review of UberChic Beauty's second Halloween stamping plate.  Her first Halloween plate was a hit and I think this one will be too.  I've never had issues with UberChic's plates so I always jump at the opportunity to review them.  This plate was easy to work with, as always.  I've done four manis to kick off Halloween season which you can read about below.  

Lilypad Lacquer Review

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Hey there!  I have a swatches of three polishes from the Australian indie brand, Lilypad Lacquer.  I've done reviews of this brand before through an U.S. stockist but, this time, the lovely Nicole herself contacted me to ask if I'd be willing to review a few of her polishes.  Since I've loved the other ones I've been able to try, of course I said yes!  Lilypad Lacquer is a 5-free, hand-mixed, cruelty-free polish with a wide variety of finishes.  I've tried flakies and holos personally and they've been wonderful.  The ones I've tried for today's posts are all holographics that are also gorgeous.  Keep reading to see all kinds of photos.

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Earth Tones

Hey there!  Sadly, it's the end of the 40 Great Nail Art Ideas challenge and I'm proud to say that I did every single week.  Some were a struggle but I did it!  We're hoping to do another challenge soon which makes me so happy.  I love having to come up with ideas to fit specific themes.  The final color prompt for the current challenge was earth tones which goes great with the autumn weather.  I had the prompt of water color which I thought would turn out awesome.  These didn't turn out like I expected but I suppose they are a blurry representation of Edmonton's lovely river valley so I'm trying not to think they're all bad.