BHB Spooktober Mani Challenge: Day 6 - Skeletons/Ghosts

Halloween is all about the blues, I mean, boos, right?!?

So I have my Day 6 challenge for #BHBSpooktober: Skeletons and Ghosts

More info and pics (warning: pic heavy post!) after the jump!

I went into this mani with an idea in mind.  Unfortunately that mani was not what happened.  That's okay, I improvised.  =)

OPI Nail Envy, Butter London Scouse, Essie Marshmallow, Zoya Dove,
Essie Nothing Else Metals, Essie No Place Like Chrome

My original idea was to do drag art for my ghosts.  I had the perfect plan in mind, including the transparent drag effect the ghosts would have using Essie Marshmallow (white crelly) and Zoya Dove (grey creme).

I started with a coat of OPI Nail Envy and Butter London Scouse.  Then since I was only going to do the ghosts on two of my nails, I put another coat on all my nails and a third coat on my thumb, index, and pinky fingers.

Butter London Scouse

I tried to catch the purple shimmer tones in Butter London Scouse.  It's such a pretty, subtle purple shift when it catches the light.  It was, however, much lighter than I originally thought.  Meh, it's okay, just not what I envisioned for this mani.

Butter London Scouse - three coats no topcoat

Butter London Scouse purple shift in artificial light

So, attempt #1 for my drag art: FAIL.  That ghost on my ring finger...  *sigh*  I'm sure my drag method would work with a needle, but I thought for a bigger ghost that I would use a fine (very fine) tipped dotting tool.  Nope.  Oh well.  Plan #2: pebble effect!

You can see the effect on my middle finger above, and my middle and ring fingers below.  Basically, I painted a final, thick coat of Scouse, then while it was still wet I dabbed drops of Essie Marshmallow on top, which spread out.  I actually really like how they turned out!   I used that fine tipped dotting tool to dot the eyes.

I used my MoYou London Punk plate 04 for stamping the skulls with Essie No Place Like Chrome and Nothing Else Metals.  Did you expect anything else?!?  ;-)

Sadly, my skull outline was giving me trouble.  It was really being a pain in the ass.  The top part of the head would not transfer to my nail, or it would smudge when I was picking it up (I don't typically use the small rubber end of my BPS XL squishy stamper so it was all user error).  You can see above how many stamps I threw away.

I really like how my pebble ghosts came out!  They're my favorite.

Pebble Nail Art Effect

I stamped my thumbs with the ribcage stamp on my MoYou London Punk plate using Essie No Place Like Chrome and then filled in the heart on my left hand with W&W Black Creme.  I also topped it with Sinful Colors Glow in the Dark polish.

I topped it all off with (what's left of my) Seche Vite.  Thankfully I had no shrinkage.  I really thinned that bitch out beforehand, to the point where I was afraid I used too much thinner.  Nope.  It was just right.

And here is some different lighting for you.  I tried to take a pic of my thumbs glowing, but my camera would not pick it up.  How do you photograph glow in the dark polish?!?  Tips, please, ladies!!

Brace yourselves.... Halloween is coming!  ;-)