The Hunger Games and China Glaze Capitol Colors: The Savagery featuring Luxe and Lush, Stone Cold, and Fast Track

First we talked about the Martyrs and Freedom Fighters, then we moved on to the Hopeful and the Obscure. To end this Hunger Games and China Glaze Capitol Colors series with a bang, we'll be zeroing in on the Savagery of the games. After all, when only one is to be declared victor (and sole survivor) among 24 others, you really have to step up your game. For this fourth and last part of the series, we'll look at the characters who are so driven to win that they let the killer instincts in them surface in this kill or be killed scenario. If you're thinking career tributes, then you're definitely on the right track. Without further adieu, here are the polishes that represent these savage few:

They say there's beauty in madness, isn't there?

The Hunger Games and China Glaze Capitol Colors: The Hopeful featuring Mahogany Magic, Dress Me Up, and Smoke and Ashes

Before I go all fangirl crazy and start flailing about in excitement because today is big movie day, we're continuing with the second installment of the China Glaze Capitol Colors collection. If you haven't caught on yet, I've grouped the polishes specifically based on the traits of the key characters I've chosen to represent each district. Last post was about the Martyrs and Freedom Fighters who gave up their lives and fought for a cause they strongly believed in. In this installment, we'll highlight the Hopeful among them, those who had a knack for finding the silver lining in every grey cloud.

Without further ado:

Earthy and grounded colors for the optimists.

Nail Art Wednesday: Shattered Hearts Nails

Not everyone is a fan of Valentine's Day. For some of my friends, they've long dubbed the day as S.A.D.: Singles Awareness Day. For others, it's just a highly commercialized holiday that brings enough money to florists and chocolatiers to last them the whole year long. (Have you seen how much prices of flowers and chocolate boxes are jacked up during February? It's ridiculous!) I wanted to do something other than the usual cheesy V-day mani, as well as use the black shatter polish I got from the China Glaze Haunting set. I was going for a "broken hearted" sort of theme but my optimistic streak ended up turning it into something edgy and fun instead:

"You shattered my heart(s) but I filled it with glitter!"

Nail Art Wednesday: Black and Pink Ombre Nails

When the Spring/Summer 2012 shows took over the runways last fall, a few of the nail art designs that graced the models caught my eye. Some were gorgeous, albeit unreproducible without using gel/acrylics, like the pretty lucite and lace manicure that CND came out with to complement Joy Cioci's show. Lucky for us DIY nail art mortals, there were a handful of designs that looked easy enough to try at home. I tried my hand (pun very much intended) on the nails featured on the Jen Kao runway:

(Image Credits)

Aren't they just gorgeous?

My (humble) attempt at high fashion nails.

Nail Art Wednesday: Calgary Flames Nails

After I did the Toronto Maple Leafs nail art in honor of Mr. J's birthday, I've had a nagging feeling that kept telling me that I needed to be fair and do one for the Calgary Flames, too. It could very well just have been Hammie with his subliminal messages, but wherever the thought came from, I knew it had to be done. See, I'm not originally from Toronto. I lived on the opposite end of the country, closer to the gorgeous Rockies in Calgary before moving here and that was where I first learned to appreciate hockey. I have a theory that wherever you first fall in love with the sport is where your loyalties will lie, no matter where you move in the future. So even if I now count Toronto as home, I still root for the Flames (Sorry, Leafs..). What better way to show your support even without a jersey or face paint on than to wear them proudly on your nails?

Go Flames!

Nail Art Wednesday: Rainbow Zebra Patterned Nails

Whenever I see these pretty colorful nail art, I can't help but rave about them. It looks like so much fun! But you wouldn't catch me sporting them on my own nails. I guess I'm more of a "subtle nail art" kinda girl where I prefer tone on tone color combinations as compared to high contrast ones. I recently had a hankering for some rainbow goodness to combat the grey, dreary fall days and decided to go with high shine instead of high color saturation. I was thinking of layering it with a black crackle to tie it all together but remembered I've been meaning to play a bit more with the makeshift black stamping polish I discovered (thanks to stamper extraordinaire, Marta!). This is what I came up with:

Subtle but with enough oomph to pack a punch.

Nail Art Wednesday: Halloween Nails! Ghost, Skull, Frankenstein's Monster, Jack o' Lantern and Mummy

The title is a mouthful, I know. But because I only do nail art posts once a week and with the October Birthdays series, I couldn't do Halloween themed nail art leading up to it. Oh no! There was so much I wanted to try! I wasn't going to make it for Halloween! The solution: cram them all in one post on the first Wednesday in November and call it Halloween Nails. *toothy grin*

Beware the Claw!!!

Color Club Revvvolution = Happy Holo-ween!

Happy Holoween (or Holowe'en, whichever you prefer)! (Yes, Spelling and Grammar Nazi, I spelled it wrong and it's for good reason. Bear with me for a bit.) While I'm not exactly a huge fan of the holiday, I'll still be joining in on the festivities and handing out candy tonight. I'm really excited to see the little trick or treat-ers and what costumes they'll have on! Last year, we even got a two year old boy dressed as a pumpkin who was trick or treat-ing with his father. His dad would ring the bell for him and move to the side so that when the homeowner opens the door, he'll see only the cutie pie. Funny how we had some decor at the door and the poor kid was too spooked, he didn't want to go up to the door alone! So we're laying off any spooky decor this time in hopes we'll see him again this year. Hammie says he's got the perfect costume for the party he's going to (he didn't even invite us along, boo!) and he can't wait to wear it. He said he'd show it off at the end of the post; the suspense is killing me! But before you think about jumping to the end of the post, let's take a look at how Halloween become Holoween.

That's what a dark rainbow looks like.

Revlon Facets of Fuschia

I'll be honest. I'm not a big fan of black nail polish. Sure, it's edgy and classic, like the LBD (that's "little black dress" if you've lived under a rock all this time) but it's just so...dark. I do like vampy colors that are dark, like navy or blood red, just not full on black. Call me biased but it could very well have been because my mom used to always say black nails reminded her of dead nails. Not a very flattering thought, really. Unless you're a zombie.

When I picked up Carbonite, I ended up getting one other polish that caught my eye. I think I might have found the one black polish that'll make me change my mind.

Very rock chic, no?