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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Halloween Candy Corn Nails

  Today I have for you my version of candy corn nails - a classic Halloween candy made into a fun french-inspired mani!

Indoors, Artificial lighting
  This is an idea I have had since I first really started my polish obsession a few months ago, although I have to say I was a little afraid to try it since I have historically been somewhat bad at free-painting tips.  I think it turned out fairly well though!  This is actually my second attempt at this mani.. more to come on that story a bit later though, haha.

Indoors, natural lighting lamp
  For these nails, I used NailTek as a base coat and then added two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On for the white.  I then added a coat of Seche Vite over the white (something I decided to try after the first attempt; more to come) and over that used two coats of OPI Brights Power, the orange (and it is indeed very bright).  After another coat of Seche, I finished off with two coats of Nicole by OPI One Voice for the yellow tips, and topped it all off with a final coat of Seche!  I think these nails are fun and festive, and I got a lot of great compliments on them!


Mmm, candy corn!
  Overall I was very pleased with this (second attempt) manicure.  My lines were fairly decent and it really looks like candy corn on the nails!  There were a couple of faint streaks of color that got on the white, which I was a bit unhappy with, but nothing very noticeable in person, I think.  After a couple of days wearing these, I decided that a coat of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure would look pretty awesome on top, and it turns out I was totally right - in my opinion!  :)


Outdoors, partial shade - look at that shine!
  You can see that there was some tip wear, almost like the polish shrank up a bit.  I wonder if some of that is because by this point I had something like thirteen (!!) coats of polish on my tips... yikes!  But it was a really fun mani and I enjoyed it a lot.


First attempt - looks okay, but really thick
  As for the first attempt, which you can see above... I added colors in the opposite direction, starting with yellow and ending with white - since white tips are classic I thought I would try that first.  This caused some problems for me, since the yellow took three coats to be opaque, and the white was a bit thick.  By the end I had a totally gross thick goopy mess on my tips.  Also, the white tips yellowed quite a bit and there was more significant color streaking (neither of which is quite as obvious in this particular photo), which is why I decided to add the top coat in between colors.  I was debating whether to leave it a bit or try it again when I got a HUGE smudge in what I thought were fairly dry nails, and then wet polish started oozing out.. yuck.  So I took it off and switched the order and it looked great!  Much less gloopy build-up and actually, with my nail shape, I think looked a bit more like real candy corn with yellow at the tips.


  Have you ever tried a candy corn mani?  Do you even like candy corn?  I have noticed that it is one of those love it or hate it things.  My dad and I love it, and I think everybody else in my family is not such a fan.  Maybe I should take some over to my parent's house and share some of my bag with Dad, since I doubt they will buy any over there... :)  

  To see another great candy corn mani, and to see a tutorial, you can head on over to BABBLING BROOKE.


  Also just a reminder to ENTER MY GIVEAWAY if you have not yet!

9 comments:

  1. I tried something close to the candy corn mani once. Didn't work out. I cannot free-hand to save my life, but I really like yours. And I do agree that the yellow at the tips looked more like the candy corn.

    By the way, I don't like how blogger doesn't give you a "respond to comment" option. . . I wanna say thanks for following me!

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  2. Thanks, glad you guys like it! I am trying to get better at free-hand nail art, it is one of my new goals. :)

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  3. i want hidden treasure so bad!

    I love this it looks so cute! how was your left hand?

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  4. Toes - HT is amazing, I am so glad I got it on evilBay even if it was insanely expensive, haha. The left hand looked fine as well, I have just been taking pictures of my right hand lately because I had a nail that was broken down and super short on my left. Those nails are finally starting to grow out thought so I will start including pictures of it as well!

    Susie - Thanks so much! :D

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  5. FABULOUS Candy Corn mani!!! What great yellows and oranges and very well done :)

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  6. Such a cute mani! I wanna eat your nails now :)

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  7. Thanks so much Brooke, I am glad you like it!

    Haha Lois, it is bad to want to nibble on your nails when you are trying to stop biting them in the first place! :)

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