Easy Nail Patterns for Halloween

I love Halloween, and it's a good time of year to use colors or nail designs you would otherwise avoid. I wanted to do something that looked good from afar and not over the top. It started off a perfect project, but I think I took it too far. I guess I was really bored. This is really easy to do, since you stamp the nail on on and none of it was freehand.

Simple Halloween nail design
Konad M70

For the above pattern I used O.P.I. You Don't Know Jacques! for the base then did some Konad stamping art with image plate M70 and O.P.I. Take the Stage. This could easily be replicated with a very skinny nail art brush too, but I used stamps since I have trouble using brushes with my left hand. I need to practice my freehand art more for sure.

Embellished even more with Spiderwebs and Moon

For the moon pattern I used GCOCL plate M10 and Konad special white polish. The moon was way too white for my tastes, so I used a nail art brush and went over it with E.L.F. Moonlight nail polish. The GCOCL and other knock off Konad plates are NOT as nice as Konad by far, and you can see that it didn't transfer well. Even toned down it was too much.

The Spiderwebs were done with GCOCL plate m93, which stamped far better than the moon. I used Konad special polish in black. Overall if I sport this again I think I'll just stick with the orange and maybe the spiderwebs. The moon took it too far over the top for nail designs, in my opinion. Then again, Halloween is about being over the top.

What are you sporting on your nails for the Halloween season?

OPI Review You Don't Know Jacques!

So far, I've been using O.P.I. a lot lately for my nails. Honestly, I haven't used O.P.I. much since I was pregnant, which, at the time most O.P.I. polishes contained formaldehyde.Thing's have changed. 

To sum it up formaldehyde essentially causes polish to last longer. I've noticed that my new O.P.I. polishes actually last longer than previous versions (but dry slower).

So I wanted to sum up my O.P.I. Review with some swatches of You Don't Know Jacques!

O.P.I. You Don't Know Jacques!

Review: O.P.I. Polishes now have a wider brush on most of their bottles. I personally, love this. I'm good at application with any size brush but the Pro Wide brush makes my life much easier. Some may not like this, as you can easily pick up too much nail polish. (note, I still sometimes find bottles with the skinny brush, but usually it's part of the other lines like O.P.I. Feet)

OPI Nail Polish You Don't Know Jacques!
in creme colors is also slightly thicker than most of my other brands. However, sometimes it still takes 3 coats for good coverage depending on the color (tip: lighter colors usually mean more polish coats).

O.P.I. polishes take FOREVER to dry. At least it seems that way to me. I use a hair dryer set on "cold" to speed up the process. You really have to make sure the first coat is dry before applying the second coat, otherwise it will NEVER dry.

However, once fully dry, they don't chip as bad as other polishes. With a good top-coat I can keep my polish on for 3 or more days. Without a top coat its 1-2 days.

The price is the one thing I'm not fond of in most retail settings. I can get O.P.I. for $2.75-$4.25 a bottle at a local beauty supply store. However, I've seen the price go easily to $9 or more in consumer settings (Salons and even grocery stores).

O.P.I. You Don't Know Jacques! Is a beautiful deep rich grey-taupe tone. I don't really know how to describe it. Sometimes it seems it has hints of purple(it doesn't, I think cooler lights have this effect), other times it just seems deep taupe or a warm grey. I guess it depends on how you describe colors. Regardless, it's a beautiful color that's totally in this season.

You Don't Know Jacques! in cooler light

It's also super shiny, even without a top coat. I couldn't stop staring at my nails. The shine was so much that my camera had a rough time focusing (check photo above). This color in particular is also more durable than my other O.P.I. lacquers, I have been wearing it since Tuesday with nail art on top and have not had a single chip. I'm very rough with my nails.

You Don't Know Jacques Under warmer light

The potential for this particular color is amazing. Even plain it's gorgeous and sophisticated. However, with nail art on top it's perfect too. The only thing I might not suggest is using it for a french tip as it'll probably just look like dirty nails. I did a Halloween theme for the past week on my nails that I'll post up Monday.

So what do you think of the current O.P.I. polish vs their old polish from a few years back? Do you like it more or less? Do you think it's important nail polish is more "green" and safer?