Megatuce.com | Monthly Archives: October 2014

Glow-in-the-Dark Pumpkin Nails

Posted on October 31, 2014 by megatuce

So, Halloween is tomorrow and so is the last day of #BHBSpooktober! The theme is pumpkins or masks, and I decided to go with pumpkins. Glow-in-the-dark pumpkins to be exact!

If I am being honest, I was totally going to phone it in on this mani. I wanted to go play with my Lucky Lacquer polishes some more. So, I originally did this:

Yeah. Pretty bad. The stamping is terrible. And then I was all “Hey! I’ll matte it and it will look as cool as that glitter polish Jeninthemorning just matted!” No. No it won’t. So, after photographing, this came off and I was still going to do something different. Then I remembered that there were still a ton of things I had wanted to try for Halloween, including an orange and black gradient and glow-in-the-dark. So, I buckled down and got to work.

Tangent Time! I know Halloween is tomorrow, but if you need some inspiration, check out Jeninthemorning’s work at her blog or on IG. She has absolutely killed the Halloween mani game this year!

Back on topic: Here is what I used to create a mani that does not look like a hot mess:

From left to right: Zoya Willa, Julie G Old San Juan, China Glaze Ghoulish Glow, Moyou London Festive 15 (the Halloween plate), Konad white, HK Girl, Essie Grow Stronger, and NYC In a New York Minute.

Tangent Time (again!): I was late to the China Glaze Ghoulish Glow party, which was super dumb on my part. Generally, China Glaze and I do not get along, so I opted earlier this month to get Sinful Colors’ glow-in-the-dark polish. Big mistake. Or, at least, $0.99 mistake. Technically, it glows. But not well, and not long. I had seen a few reviews of China Glaze’s version, and finally gave in. I wish I would have done so earlier! It worked well. It did have a matte finish, but top it with your top coat, and you get a shiny finish and the glow.

Back on topic: I started with Grow Stronger, then put down one coat of Old San Juan:

This is just one coat, so there are definitely some noticeable issues, but it gets the job done. As soon as it was dry, I started in on the gradient:

I kept the make-up sponge wet and applied Old San Juan and Willa. Keeping polish on the sponge, I dabbed the colors over my nail. After the first pass over each nail, I did a second. This was topped with one coat of NYC In a New York Minute to help it dry before I started stamping.

And once it was dry, I used Konad white to stamp my pumpkins:

In this pic, they were also topped in one coat of HK Girl.

Once all of that was dry, I topped it with a coat of Ghoulish Glow.

Ghoulish Glow gave the nails a matte effect, which I was totally digging, except they were not drying fast enough and I had to get ready to pick up my kiddos. So I added a coat of HK Girl on top. I did not get a pic of that, though.

I had to wait for it to get dark so I could get a good picture of the effect:

I have no idea how some of the amazing nail artists I see can get such wonderful glow-in-the-dark pictures. After several tries, this was the best I got. Not terrible, but I definitely need some practice!

My son was super excited to see my glow-in-the-dark nails, too. He loved them, but I suspect he will be very disappointed when they don’t like his way down the sidewalk tomorrow for trick-or-treat!

Thanks for stopping by!

Swatches and Review: Lucky Lacquer

Posted on October 30, 2014 by megatuce

Today I have swatches of Lucky Lacquer’s polishes! They are five-free and come in a variety of really fun colors:

They arrived super fast, and in adorable little boxes:

Cute, right? It was like opening ten little presents!

And here is my rainbow lined up! Really pretty, but let’s see how they look out of the bottle!

First up, Spring Charm:

I was pleasantly surprised by this color. Based on the bottle, I thought it would be a standard, bright pink color, but this has a pop of berry to it. It was really vibrant in two coats, with no undie needed.

Here is Dahlia:

This color was another easy two coats and vibrant without an undie.

Here is Sweet Pea:

Two coats again here. This is more neon that my camera would capture, and was bright without an undie. The formula was better than most of the other neons I have tried. It was a touch streaky, but evened out well with the second coat.

Here is Forget Me Not:

This is another color that surprised me with how bright and beautiful it was! Two coats and no undie. Not unusual with such a bright color, the formula was a touch streaky. But, again, better than most I’ve worked with and evened out with a generous second coat.

Here is Fleur Rose:

Similar to the other bright ones, a touch of streak that evened out in two coats. And, again, a super vibrant color that did not need an undie.

Here is Bells of Ireland:

Fun and vibrant again! For this one, I tried three very thin coats. I really want to pair it with Essie’s Penny Talk — they would look gorgeous together!

Here is Teal We Meet Again:

As soon as I put this on, it became my favorite of the collection. Two super easy coats and a fabulous formula. I really loved this color and can’t wait to use it again!

Here is Mint Daisy:

I painted this right after Teal We Meet Again, and it immediately tied for my favorite. Two coats and seriously easy application. So pretty, right?

Here is Lavender:

Another gorgeous shade in two easy coats. It is different than anything I have. It is sort of a dusky purple, but the color is still super vibrant.

And finally, Alpine Phlox:

After all of the bright shades, this color was a surprise. It is very different, but really beautiful. As a pinky neutral, it is subtle but lovely.

Overall, I was really happy with all of the polishes. The brighter, neon colors were a touch streaky, but a streaky formula is common with those colors. And, I found Lucky Lacquer’s much easier to use than the typical formula and they all evened out nicely after the first coat. The deeper colors had super easy, two coat formulas.

I was pleasantly surprised by how vibrant all of the colors were. They looked pretty in the bottles, but really came to life on my nails. And they dried quickly, which made using them a breeze, especially since I was swatching on a night when my baby decided to wake up several times!

Like what you see? Check out her out on Storenvy: Lucky Lacquer Polishes. And, since she is awesome, she is offering 10% off to all of my followers! Just use the code Megan at checkout and get a jump start of holiday shopping (or pick yourself up some new pretties!)

Thanks for stopping by!

Fall Advanced Stamping

Posted on October 28, 2014 by megatuce

I’ve been itching to use OPI’s Germanicure for awhile, and I finally made it happen. Here is what I came up with:

Something a little different with the blue, but I like the way it came out.

Here is what I used:

From left to right: Zoya Kym, OPI Germanicure, Moyou London Pro 06, Mundo de Unas Iris, KB Shimmer How You Dune?, and HK Girl. For whatever reason, I forgot to grab my base, which was, as usual, Essie Grow Stronger. I also used two stampers: my Wistonia XL and my Messy Mansion marshmallow.

The first thing I did was stamp the image I wanted to work with, so that it could dry before I filled in the image. Here’s how that looked:

While those dried, I painted Grow Stronger followed by How You Dune? on my ring finger and Germanicure on the other fingers:

While my nails dried, I carefully filled in the image on my stamper, which was dry by now:

You can see that on the white stamper, I tried a few different colors before I settled on Kym. I wanted something that was similar to Germanicure, but lighter. Kym worked for that.

I waited for the images to dry completely, then I added a coat of Oh So Wet on my ring finger (I clearly dropped the ball on my “what I used picture” because I forgot that polish too!). I let that dry a little, but while it was still tacky, I placed the stamp on my nail. When you do that, you must be very gentle so that you don’t make the image smoosh, slide, or do any other number of super obnoxious things.

Once the stamp was placed, I topped each nail with a healthy coat of HK Girl.

It looked a little different with the blue, but I wanted a contrast to the dark polishes, and I think that worked.

Thanks for stopping by!

Simple Spider Web

Posted on October 27, 2014 by megatuce

I’m a day early again, but I was feeling uninspired, so decided to go for a simple spider web. I tossed around the idea of a more complex design with glow in the dark spiders webs and such, but then decided that sometimes, less is more. Here is what I ended up with:

Super simple! Only three polishes tonight:

From left to right: OPI 4 in the Morning, Mundo de Unas Metallic Purple, Moyou London Festive 15 (The Halloween Plate), and Essie Grow Stronger.

I started with Grow Stronger, followed by two coats of 4 in the Morning:

I love this polish. I love dark polish in general, but this polish has such a softness to it. It doesn’t cut hard like a standard black, but isn’t quite grey, either. I really love the look of this polish. What I hate is that I can never make it last. I dinged this mani up terribly in less than an hour, because I did not top coat, because I was too busy gazing at the prettiness. Sigh.

Once this was dry, I stamped with Metallic Purple:

I originally had two plates out and was going to go crazy, but I loved how it looked just like this. The metallic on the satin looked perfect. I am really happy with how this turned out! Sometimes, less really is more!

Thanks for stopping by!