Mani of the Week: Halloween Style!

It's Halloween week! If you're in Saint Louis, you'll know that our city likes to celebrate this holiday. Especially with our practice of requiring jokes from our trick-or-treaters! Did you know that? When door-to-door guests in costumes arrive at our porches in Saint Louis, we expect them to tell us a joke. There's the classic "Why didn't the skeleton go to the dance?" ... "Because he had nobody to go with!" as well as the popular "What is a ghost's favorite breakfast food?" ... "Boo-berry pancakes!" Those were two of my favorite jokes to tell as a kiddo.

Now that I'm "an adult," I don't go trick-or-treating anymore, but I do like to get into the holiday spirit! I didn't much decorate my apartment this year, but I did at least put out a couple witches' brooms and a big ol' fake rat on my doorstep. To celebrate the holiday, I'll be dressing up while DJing at Layla in the Grove on Friday, and then joining my boyfriend and his pals while they DJ at the Moonrise Hotel's Halloween party in the New Moon Room. I still haven't *quite* decided what I'm going to dress as, so I know I need to get a move on. I did, however, paint my nails accordingly last night!

All of the photos were taken indoor, but with direct sunlight from a nearby window. Now, these crackly top coats are not technically considered nail art, but they are a very easy way to add some interest to your nails. I understand not everyone is a fan of them, but I think for an occasion like Halloween, they look great! And yes, I was totally drinking pumpkin spice flavored coffee in my mug this morning.

With the base color polish, I used two regularly applied coats. This Sinful Colors hue is a few years old, and I typically only use it during the fall. It's called "Courtney Orange" and is a true orange shimmer. If I were to wear it alone, it would require three full coats to eliminate visible nail line, or VNL as it is called in the polish world. The crackly top coat is from Maybelline, and is from their Shredded top coat line. This is the color "Carbon Frost." These self-separating top coats can be tricky to use if you haven't tried them before. If you look closely in the mug photo, you can tell on my left hand that I applied the black with a lighter hand. See how the pieces are slightly smaller? I realized that it didn't look 100% right, so when I applied the black to my right hand, I moved quickly and slapped it on in thicker strokes. It separated more uniformly that way. After letting both colors dry for a bit, I topped them off with my favorite Seche Vite top coat, and cleaned up the cuticle edges with my handy eyeliner brush dipped in non-acetone polish remover. Wah-lah!

Happy Halloween! Are you celebrating the holiday in any beauty-oriented way?

Polish Details:

Base Coat: Seche Vite

Color: SinfulColors in "Courtney Orange" (buy here) and Maybelline Shredded Top Coat in "Carbon Frost" (buy here)

Top Coat: Seche Vite