Dark Metal Lacquer Cuticle Oil Review, & Halloween Nail Art

*Cuticle Oil was provided in exchange for an honest review.

Hiya lovelies!  Today I have a 2 for 1 post to share with you; a review of the Dark Metal Lacquer Cuticle Oil Pen, plus some Halloween nail art that I did a couple of days ago.....

So, the oil I was sent was in a convenient refillable pen, and grapefruit scented.  The smell is amazing, even before I'd dispensed any oil onto the brush, I could smell it, and the scent doesn't smell at all artificial, which is nice.  I've been using the oil for about 2 weeks, in place of my lemony flutter at bedtime.  I did intend to try and use it at least once during the daytime, but I failed miserably at that, so once a day it was. :D  At night I used 2 clicks per finger, gave it a few minutes to sink in, and them massaged it in before I actually fell asleep.

So, these were my cuticles around the time I started using the pen.  They're pretty tame already, but usually they get a bit scraggy if I don't use my lemony flutter for a week or so.  I'm pretty rubbish at applying my hand cream throughout the day, so I need something that can just work while I'm sleeping.  You can actually tell, as the skin around my cuticles is a little dry and tight in this picture.  On the rare occasion that I did use it during the day, I only used 1 click per finger, in the hopes that it didn't take too long to sink in.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that it didn't leave my fingers feeling too greasy. Obviously, it's still an oil, but it was nowhere near as greasy as a lot of the oils I've tried.   I guess that's the difference with jojoba based oils, which is what this one is.

And this is how my cuticles were looking a few days ago.....

I should point out that I missed one or 2 nights near the end of the 2 weeks, but I don't think it really mattered that much.  In this photo, it'd been at least a week since I pushed them back, and they still look nice and tame to me.  They could probably do with a little push back again, but they're definitely under control.  The area around the cuticles definitely looks a bit healthier too, although I still need to do a little work there.

So, overall, I'm really impressed with this oil.  It smells lush, sinks in nicely for an oil, and has kept my cuticles in check well.  I also found the little brush applicator pen really useful, it does make for a quick job, which is handy since I'm normally knackered by the time I go to bed, and can't be bothered faffing about too much.
You can buy the cuticle oil from the Dark Metal Lacquer store, for £2.50.  Kamila also has a pretty big sale going on at the moment, as she will be closing the store temporarily, so if there's something you've been after, you might want to go and have a look if it's on sale.  I'll confess, I *may* have ordered the October mystery box, along with Sky Is Over, and back-ups for Flashy Sparklies, Whisper, and The Siren.  Whoopsie!

So, onto the nail art. This was a mani I've wanted to try for ages.  I didn't really get to do a lot of Halloween nail art last year, so I'm going to try and make up for that this year.  The haunted house/graveyard mani is a classic, and something I really needed to try....

To try and keep things interesting, I decided to use a red-pink gradient as my skyline, so I used Revlon - Cupid, Rimmel 60 Seconds - Don't Be Shy, and Barry M - Pomegranate.  Then when the gradient was dry, I painted the silhouettes of the houses and gravestones with black acrylic paint.  Then for the windows, I filled the front of the houses in with Sinful Colors - Snow me White, and then went over it with Rimmel I <3 Lasting Finish - Sunshine, a bright, slightly sheer and shimmery yellow.  Then I painted in the window frames over them to form separate windows.

For the moon, I dabbed bits of Rimmel - Sunshine, Barry M - Coconut, and Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure - Bandage, to add a bit of texture to it.  Then I added a few birds to the empty bits of sky, and top coated it when it had dried.

I was SO happy with how this turned out.  Sure, it's not perfect, and I found painting the houses a bit of a challenge, but I think it looks awesome.  I can actually see this being one of my favourite mani's of this whole year.

What do you guys think?

I'll be back in a day or 2, hopefully with some more Halloween nail art, but I'm not 100% sure what I'll be posting at the moment haha. :D