Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Better Late Than Never: Halloween Nailpolish

So yeah, I missed the train when it comes to timely Halloween posts, but since I effectively lost 2+ weeks of my life, I'm giving myself a little leeway when it comes to late-October goodies. One topic I was meaning to post about before my appendix tried to kill me is Halloween nailpolish.

Little-known fact: I have a weird obsession with nailpolish. My nails aren't particularly long (I play bass, after all) and I don't really care about my cuticles or whatever, but dude...I love crazy nailpolish. I will drive all over town looking for a specific color - like, that kind of crazy. So of course I was super stoked on all of the cool Halloweenie polish that came out this year.

First, we have Del Sol's amazing Color-Changing Nail Polish in Trick-or-Treat. This polish is a super glittery pale orange indoors, but when you go outside and expose it to the sun's UV rays, it morphs into a super glittery dark purple (almost black). The change is dramatic and mesmerizing.
Trick-or-Treat indoors (light orange)

Trick-or-Treat outdoors (blackened purple)

These pictures don't really do it justice, but you can get a good idea of how magically amazing it is to watch your nail polish change colors before your very eyes. I got my bottle at Walgreen's for like $6, but they may have already taken them off the shelves. (If so, I'm sure you can order online.)
China Glaze offered 3 new colors for Halloween this year, as part of their Awakening (as in, from the dead) collection. From left to right: Mummy May I is a chunky purple glitter in a blackened purple base; Zombie Zest is a fine greenish gold glitter in a murky green base and Ick-A-Body is a stunning orange glitter in a blackened green base. I absolutely love Zombie Zest and Ick-A-Body - they're outrageously Halloweenie and easily have the best names of any nail polishes ever.
Finally, OPI offered four mini bottles of Halloween-appropriate shades with their Go Goth! gift set. The set includes Unripened (black with green glitter), Nevermore (black with blue/purple glitter), Sanguine (shimmering blood red) and Obscurity (matte black).

Anyone else grab any limited edition Halloween beauty items this year?

(Real Life) Hospital Horror

In case you're wondering where I've been, I'm sorry to report that I spent my favorite time of the year - the last two weeks of October - in the hospital. (Well, technically it was one week in the hospital, and one week recuperating in bed as a nasty tube continued to drain pus from my body. Fun!) What was the source of my ailment? None other than a ruptured appendix - the same medical emergency that killed Houdini more than 80 years ago. Fortunately, I didn't die (which means I'm tougher than Houdini, right?), and I have the disgusting pictures to prove it! If you would like to see what a ruptured appendix looks like up close and personal, click here. (Warning: Gross.)

Unfortunately, my unplanned absence means the following: I have no idea who won the last Queen Mary Dark Harbor ticket giveaway. I wasn't able to give away tickets to the Reign of Terror in Thousand Oaks. I never wrote my review for the Heritage Haunt in Newhall, which I attended (and enjoyed) mere days before I was stricken with appendicitis. And I never made it out to the Forbidden Haunt in Sherman Oaks, the Theatre 68 Haunted House or the Dia de los Muertos celebration at Hollywood Forever, all of which I had planned to cover. And I didn't even get to dress up on the big day! OH WELL. On the flipside, I didn't die shivering from pain and clutching my abdomen on a hospital bed, so hurray for that!

After leaving the hospital, I consoled myself (read: tortured my already addled mind) while recuperating at home with viewings of Halloween II and The Exorcist III, both of which are set largely in hospitals.

I had seen Halloween II before, but never all in one sitting. (I'm kind of a purist/snob when it comes to Halloween sequels, my affinity for the Rob Zombie reimaginings notwithstanding.) While it doesn't approach the perfection of the original, and a lot of stupid people make a lot of stupid choices, it's decent...especially compared to later atrocities like, you know, Halloween 6 or Resurrection.


Jamie Lee's wig is pretty distracting, but I could relate to the panic of being stalked by a killer while still dazed, drugged and disoriented in the hospital. The Halloween decorations at the hospital where I was staying called this movie vividly to mind, especially in my Dilaudid haze.

Let's not forget about the particularly brutal hospital scenes in the 2009 version of H2. Seriously, Michael Myers, why do you have to be such a dick?


As for the third Exorcist film, I had actually never seen it before, although I knew it was supposed to be good. Two very kind friends lent it to me in the spirit of torturing myself psychologically with even more hospital-set horror.

I have to say I dug this movie, and it definitely has its share of disturbing scares. It felt a little long, and the ending was semi-preposterous, but it is, after all, a movie about demonic possession, so I can't get too uppity. They're allowed to go over the top.

There were 3 scenes in this movie that will stay with me for a very long time, and I was able to find images of all three online - enjoy!

OMG WTF MY HEART RATE IS UP NOW!

OH SHIT WHAT SHE'S ON THE CEILING!?!

CATATONICS ARE SO EASY TO POSSESS!!!

In conclusion, try to avoid rupturing your appendix. And if you must, wait until the Halloween season has passed! Learn from my mistakes, friends.

Oh, and Happy (belated) Halloween!

P.S. This was my 100th post.

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