Zombies eat candy corn (Happy Halloween!)

Given my current nail obsession, how could I not post some Halloween manicures today, right?

The first one I'd like to show you is the limited edition Halloween shade by Hard Candy called Zombie. When I purchased this, I had no idea that there was a bit of a stir about it (according to Steph at Steph's Closet, it seems that Hard Candy may have had a labeling mishap with a shipment of Zombie. Some people were discovering that instead of the true Zombie shade, they were getting Hot Pants mislabeled as Zombie. Apparently they got this error fixed, because the bottle I purchased is indeed Zombie and not Hot Pants, but just beware and check your bottle closely if you come across this shade at Walmart).

So here is the real Zombie,with bottle shots first, followed by my mani (this was after three coats and it's surprisingly smooth to the touch after a layer of top coat!):

 Hard Candy Zombie 

(from the 2010 limited edition Halloween collection)

I tried to show you a variety of shots to help you better understand the crazy sparkle and vividness of this shade. But please know that no amount of pictures can truly represent how insane this color is in real life. It's a combination of purple, teal and magenta glitter in a clear base, and it's one of those colors that actually hurts my eyes a little bit, it's so bright. It's like a purple, pink and teal disco ball! 

The thing I'm the most bummed about is that my camera cannot capture the intensity of the magenta glitter. To me, the addition of magenta glitter is what truly makes this color dance on the nails. It gives it an almost neon intensity that you really have to experience in person. Definitely not for the timid (or for the office) I think Zombie will be reserved for toes only for me. But boy, if you're a sparkly purple kind of gal, you neeeeed this one. I can't even imagine what this will look like layered over, say, a metallic shade. I think it would stop traffic!

So, a few of you asked me what I'd be rocking on my nails this Halloween.  Well, I knew I wanted to do a candy corn manicure, and now that I've got a few experiences with scotch tape under my belt (see this weekend's patchwork manicures) I felt confident enough to give the candy corn mani a shot! I've seen lots and lots of candy corn manicures over the years, and even though this isn't the best (not be a long shot since I don't own a true yellow creme, which is pretty essential), I think it's a decent effort.

I'm mad that I didn't get the layers in uniform sizes (the orange layer on my index finger is way too thin) but overall, I think that if someone looks at my nails, they'll know what I was going for, and that's what matters the most to me.

Oh, and I think this manicure works SO much better if you have almond-shaped nails, because they'll actually look like real candy corns, but hey, work with watcha got, I say!

For this mani, I used L.A. Colors Color Craze polish in Energy Source (white) which I got from Dollar Tree a while back, NYC Orange Creamsicle (limited edition from the Shock Value collection) and Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Sunflower (from the Spring 2010 Tracy Reese collection).

So, if you celebrate Halloween, are you rocking a special Halloween manicure today/tonight? I'd love to hear all about it, so leave a comment and share it with us!