All Wrapped Up

PurchasedPress Sample

So good news for Dexter fans without Showtime...Season 8 is on NETFLIX! :D I'm surper stoked, and trying to pace myself so I don't devour the entire season in a single day. (I watched seasons 1-4 in a week, all while working full time, I have a problem.)

Aaaaaanyway. I actually did this nail design back in July when the show was on TV, but never posted it. I know, I suck. I based this off of a Season 8 promo image I saw, where Dexter's image is made up of blood spatter. On the remaining nails, I did blood splatters over a white background. Red is the worst color to do splatter nail art with, it's so hard to remove all the pink residue that remains from the pigments. I'm fairly pleased with how this turned out, the face isn't super obvious at first glance, which I like. :)

I used:

White: Chrome Girl Between the Sheets
Red: China Glaze Adventure Red-y
Dark Red: China Glaze Adventure Red-y mixed with American Apparel Hassid

One of more of the items used in this post were provided by the manufacturer for review, the remainder of the items used were purchased by the author.

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Moonicure Monday — It's Got Bite!

Hey there, and welcome to Moonicure Monday, where I take the half-moon manicure and add my twist! This week is Halloween-inspired—zombie bite marks with the VIRUS creeping up the veins and the infection spreading. It's a bruised and bloody mess! Hope you like it–if not, you're the first I'm coming after when this virus spreads from my nails to my brrrraaaaaaaaaaiiiiiinnnnnnnnsssssssss! (so beware!)

I used:

Zoya Avery
Zoya Avery + CND Bloodline
American Apparel Manila
American Apparel Imperial Purple
American Apparel Downtown LA + Barielle Unravelled Rust
American Apparel Downtown LA + American Apparel Imperial Purple
Basecoat: Cult Nails Get it On
Topcoat:  Seche Vite

Mmmmm... Braaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnsssssssssss!!!!

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HalloWEDNESDAY Tutorial - I'm Going to Let it Slide.

Wow! I am shocked (and flattered!!) by all the awesome comments on this design!! (and to think I even debated posting it, thinking you guys wouldn't like it!) I'm really glad to be able to offer you a tutorial for the look! OK, I'll ease off the exclamation points, lest I come off like a crazy person. :-P 

I hope that your friends and family recoil in terror when they see these gruesome nails on you!! (apparently my promise to lay off the exclamation points didn't last long)  I'd love to see what you all come up with. :D If you email me pictures to thedailynail@gmail.com, I'll include them at the end of this post. :)


Happy painting. :D

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Hallo-WEDNESDAY! - I'm Going to Let it Slide

Welcome to the spooky, the creepy, the gory and terrifying Hallo-Wednesday!

Every Wednesday from now until Halloween (which is on a Wednesday!!) I'll be posting a Halloween-themed nail design. A tutorial will follow the design, but will generally be on Thursday or Friday of the same week. :D

First up is EVERY nail maven's horror- smudged nails!?  Ok, so these are 'smudged' on purpose!

The inspiration for this design actually happened by accident! I hastily painted my nails (neglecting to allow proper drying time between coats) and then slapping on fast-drying top coat. This made my top coat of polish dry fast, but the others underneath were still wet, and thus very smudgeable! Well, I went to touch one lightly to test it for dryness, it smudged, and the sliding/melting skin technique was born. :D

Hope you guys like it! :D

I used:

Blood:

American Apparel Downtown LA
Barielle Unravelled Rust
American Apparel Hassid

Flesh:

Zoya Avery
Zoya Flowie


Basecoat: Cult Nails Get it On
Topcoat:  Seche Vite

It puts the lotion on the skin...

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It's All on the Table

Two syllables. DEX-TER. Yep. Last season's cliffhanger was absolutely torture, and the 2 minute sneak peek at the season premiere that was released a month or so ago did very little to alleviate the OMG feeling. The funny thing to me about Deb finding him over his prey is that in the books, she is aware of his hobby, and even solicits his insight into the mind of possible murderers on her cases. Nevertheless, the books and show are VERY different, and this is one of those rare instances where the show is loads better than the books.

I actually had it in my mind that the Dexter premiere was next Sunday, but Judy (of Beautyjudy.com) posted her Dexter nails on her Instagram, and I had a panic moment. After all, it was 1:30 am when I saw it (it's 2:45 now), and my Sunday is now Monday, because India is in the future. ;D This manicure was a bit of a rush, but I'm actually fairly proud of how my Dexter turned out.

Sidenote: I had to mix two colors to get an acceptable BLOOD color. When is someone going to come out with a true blood red? This means that it won't have pink undertones to it!

So what do you think? Would Dexter be proud?

I used:

White: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On
Flesh: Zoya Avery
Flesh Shading: Zoya Flowie, Zoya Codie
Flesh Highlighting: Zoya Avery + Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On
Burgundy: CND Bloodline
Blood: American Apparel Downtown LA + Barielle Unravelled Rust
Basecoat: Cult Nails Get it On
Topcoat: Cult Nails Wicked Fast + Seche Vite

OK, you guys have fun watching Dexter, I'm goin' to bed.

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