Nailthins

I have never used decals on my nails before, but I saw a picture someplace of some Halloween decals, and I got it in my head that I wanted some. I poked around in several different stores and didn't find any, so I started looking online. Sara Lyons has some adorable Halloween ones up now, but I didn't see those at the time, so I poked around and ended up at NailThins - I bought mine on Etsy but they also sell from their own website so you might check both if you're wanting to buy, and see if they have any specials running. There was a package deal on Etsy so I just went with that. (Added: note that there's a difference between Sara Lyons' decals, which are water decals, and NailThins, which are just straight-up sticker-type decals. But the name is because they are extremely thin compared to most stickers.)

As you can see, I took the picture below after I'd already used most of the first set. I ordered "pumpkin faces" and then I also got sugar skulls and snowflakes. I started with pumpkin faces and I will probably do the sugar skulls later in the week. (As you might guess, I'm saving the snowflakes til winter.) The pumpkin faces had 4 different designs in staggered sizes, and the snowflakes are also various sizes, but the skulls are all one size. Maybe that's just because they're tall and thin - thin enough to fit on my pinky just fine, it looks like - so there was no need to stagger the sizes.

There is a tutorial on YouTube for these and it was very helpful - it's a pretty simple process but still it was good to watch the owner doing it! I still messed up a couple but I got the hang of it pretty fast. On the pumpkin faces, I tried to stagger the various designs so that like ones weren't next to each other. (I'm still trying to decide on a plan with the skulls as far as what color to put under them. I was thinking of doing fiesta-colored skittles, but I also want to make sure they're a light enough color for the skulls to show up. And I don't have much in the way of light-colored nail polishes, so that's an issue.)

Anyway, I experimented around a lot, but this is what I ended up with. (The pictures look much redder than the actual manicure does. It is on the red-orange side, but it definitely looks more orange in real life.)

I ended up doing a lot of layers - the picture below is just part of what I used. I started with Orly Retro Red (which despite the name is more orange than red, and matte) and then I used NYC Times Square Tangerine, which is a really similar color but is a creme. I wasn't actually intending to do faces on every nail, originally, so I put a coat of Honey, You Should See Me In A Crown (one of the Dollish Fandom polishes) on some nails - one coat of it is quite sheer - although come to think of it, its base is reddish so that might be one reason these look a bit more red. But then I didn't think that showed up well enough, so I started playing with Jade VIP. It shows up clearly in these pictures - it's the wash of shimmer on top of the faces. (Actually, in some cases it's under the decal and in some cases it's on top - I was not being at all methodical. It was late.)

I put a coat of HK Girl on top of the decals immediately, because that's what the video says to do, and put topcoat on to seal it. Then this morning I added the coat of Gelous.

I was impressed with how easily these went on and also with the way the edge-lines of the decals just disappear on your nail once you get a topcoat on. I guess that's where the "thin" part comes in!