Gone Batty.

I'm one of those people for who the entire month 'October' is synonymous with 'Halloween'. And I finally managed to whip up some Halloween-themed nail art I'm proud to show off!

I mean, sure, I did do this stripey-gradienty style not too long ago.. I'm basically just a one trick pony, but the one trick looks good.
The orange is Herôme W.I.C.'s 'Zagora 150'. I wonder which Zagora it's supposed to refer to.. Morocco, Greece? Anyway. Black is YSL 'No56'.

Galaxy.

A lover of space since a young age, I got really excited when I saw galaxy nails for the first time. And then I also saw a lot of .. erm, less than great looking examples of the trend, and I became a little weary. However, I found it time to take the leap and simply try.

Some reference..

Polishes used (left to right):
Wild & More 109
Catrice - 840 - Genius in the Bottle
Catrice - 31 - Even More Heavy Metallilac
Essence - 43 - Where Is The Party?
Hema - French Manicure striper
Hema - 10
Koh - Midnight Blue
Koh - Black
YSL - No35

Left.

Right.

I was getting along relatively well, sponging away with my various colours and dotting the stars. And then I'd finished and.. put glitter on top. In retrospect, the glitter was a mistake. I had seen glitter work really well in galaxy nails by other people, but my glitter is FAR too green and there's just too much of it. So I wish I hadn't done that.
Will have to repeat sometime, with a less dense glitter, or going without altogether.

I'm with Genius.

When Catrice brought their new polishes on the market, I mostly looked forward to 'Genius in the Bottle'. I don't know whether it's the name or the polish itself or some combined factor, but there you have it. I bought it some time ago but hadn't worn it yet. I've since read some reviews and a lot of people seemed to be.. well, I won't say 'disappointed', but definitely a little let down. So I thought I'd try it with some nail art!

Older half rhombus manis to be found: here and here.

I'm really quite fond of this style of nail art. I've done it several times before and never quite had a good name for it, until a friend dubbed it a "half rhombus mani". I stuck with that. This half rhombus is, of course, Catrice '840 - Genius in the Bottle', and a metallic black YSL polish. Ah, the marvelous magic of tape-manis.
Enjoy my tacky vintage effect?

I really don't have very many complaints about this polish. I'll grant you that the duochrome effect seems a lot more impressive in the bottle, and I think that's where most people's disappointment will have come from. Well.. it is genius in the bottle, they don't guarantee it'll still be there when you take it out ;)...
The sheerness is also completely taken care of if you layer it like this, and the dark contrast really makes the gold and green stand out nicely.

I know I'll certainly be wearing this polish again, probably in combination with another style of nail art. I think it simply works best that way.

_{Titular reference and t-shirt, by the way, stem from Stargate Atlantis' resident genius and personal favourite character of mine, Rodney McKay.}