Bats in a Pastel Storm

Hey space turtles! More Glam Nails Challenge nail art to share today. This time the theme is bats. I was inspired by salad.dressed on Instagram who was inspired by someone else for these so it's a popular look for recreation! I liked the idea of the swirly background for the bats as it's a bit different to other Halloween looks. The look I saw had more of a smokey effect but I wasn't sure how to do that so did fluid nail art instead.

I started with two regular polishes and a 'spot it' effect nail polish and added blobs on my Uber Mat before squishing them together with a stamper. Once dry I added a clear coat and once that was dry I peeled them off and applied them to my nails, trimming round the edges with a metal tool. I used a layer of Soft Focus from Polished for Days underneath to give it a base for any gaps in the colour. Next I used black stamping polish and Mo You London's Halloween 17 to add bats and stars, and then a dotting tool to add some extra details.

These look a little messy round the edges in the pictures(not as noticeable in real life!) but I like them a lot. They look like bats in a pastel storm - spooky!

Colours used: Soft Focus - Polished For Days, Take the Cake - Painted Polish, Counting Candles - Painted Polish, Spot It White - Dance Legend, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend

Pastel Ice Cream Nails

Hey everyone! Something Spring like today to share on this lovely sunny day!

For a while I've wanted to try some pastel fluid nail art with a Holo Taco topper, and for this I decided to use a few Barry M shades I've had for ages. The blue is nearly finished which is a shame but as I'm scraping it out of the bottle this sort of look is a good one to do where I'm not worried about running out part way through! I added blobs of each colour on my Uber Mat for five decals, finishing with the white Spot It polish. I tapped each one a couple of times with a stamper to make them merge together and get the bubbly effect. Once dry I added a clear topper and once that was dry I applied them to my nails and trimmed the edges.

I did spend some time trying to clean up the edges of these and didn't quite get the effect I wanted, especially on my little finger where there was a gap I probably should have tried to patch up. Still, overall I think these were fun and very Spring appropriate for this sunny weather we're having!

Colours used: Berry Ice Cream - Barry M, Strawberry Ice Cream - Barry M, Blue Moon - Barry M, Spot It White - Dance Legend, Flakie Holo Taco - Holo Taco

A Smoosh of Blue

Hey everyone! Slightly messy nail art to share today and I'm noticing now that the pictures are a bit blurry but I don't really have the energy to do anything about that! I'm feeling quite run down and it's been a busy few days.

I decided to try two of my Spot It polishes together with some Unicorn Skin nail polish to create some fluid nail art. I started by applying some blobs of blue nail polish and flakie polish on my Uber Mat, followed by the two Spot It polishes. I then used a stamper, and in some cases a smaller mat to 'smoosh' the polish together. This involved tapping it reasonably fast and then watching the polishes swirl together. I let it dry and then added a layer of clear polish. Once that was dry I peeled them off the mat, stuck them to my nails and trimmed them with a metal tool & scissors. Finished off the look with a quick dry topcoat.

In conclusion, I like these, though I'm not sure the Spot It effect comes across as well as it could. I love having the flakie effect included though - really makes it glow!

Colours used: Spot It Blue - Dance Legend, Spot It White - Dance Legend, Blueberry - Barry M, Cosmic Unicorn Skin - Holo Taco

Seahorses in a pastel sea

Hey everyone, I'm back with the final prompt for the Dimension Nails Challenge August, this time it's seahorses. I have a couple of stamping plates with seahorse images and decided to go for Mo You London's Doodles 07 plate which has a whole host of pretty sea themed patterns and creatures. You'll see a few other creatures managed to sneak into this look!

For this look I started with a fluid nail art background. I went for pale pastel shades in order to make the images stand out as much as possible. Three Barry M shades and Dance Legend's white Spot It polish were used for the fluid nail art which was created on my Uber Mat (colours listed below the pictures). One of the Barry M's was kind of pearlescent but that didn't really show up that well in the end. Once the base pattern was applied and dry I stamped the images over the top in gold. It didn't show up that well to be honest, even though the background was pale I think there was too much going on, so I stamped over it in black which was much better. I can still see some gold shining through which I like.

Overall I'm happy with these though they are less subtle than what I was originally going for. I do think the fluid nail art came out quite well and it's good to get some practise.
Colours used: Strawberry Ice Cream - Barry M, Berry Ice Cream - Barry M, Butterflyfish - Barry M, Spot It White - Dance Legend, Foil Effect in Gold - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection

Sailing Boat Sailor Nails

Hey everyone! Running late with this as we've had some internet issues but getting it in just in time as my nail art for today's Glam Nails Challenge July prompt, which is Sailing Boat. This nail art was very much a see how it goes sort of look, where I kept changing my mind and picking things to do as I went along. On this occasion that worked well for me as I love these!

On my index and ring fingernails I used bronze nail polish (colours listed below the pictures) and stamped sailor tattoo style images from Mo You London's Sailor 16 plate which has been sitting in my collection untried for probably about 2 years! So I am glad I've finally used it! On my other nails I used the fluid nail art technique, where the polishes are spotted onto a stamping mat, and squished down with a stamper to blend them and let the special effect Spot It polishes do their thing. I love how these came out and have included some bonus pictures at the bottom of this blog post showing them before stamping over the top.

The sailing boat image is from the Sailor 01 plate and the fish on my thumb nail are from the Sailor 18 plate (both Mo You London). I had been wondering whether to have the boat coloured in but I'm glad I didn't as I think it works better plain against the pattered background. I finished off the look with a shiny top coat (Nails Inc Kensington Caviar) as I think this adds nicely to the fluid nail art effect. I'm so pleased with the colour combination :) Hope you like them too!
Colours used: Bronze Bae - Barry M, Bruton Place - Nails Inc, Spot It White - Dance Legend, Spot It Blue - Dance Legend, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection

Staying At Home And Painting My Nails

Hello everyone! Thank you for visiting my blog today. Since lock down I have got much better at keeping up with my blogging so today's look is one I am actually still wearing, and did yesterday morning. It was a very relaxing morning with the sun shining, windows wide open and the nail polish flowing! (fortunately not literally). This look is another one for the Holo Taco nail art challenge, with this weeks prompt being Stay At Home. As soon as I saw the theme I thought this is the perfect opportunity to use these cute little house images on my Mo You London Mother Nature 06 plate.

On my little finger, middle finger and thumb nails I used a blue background and the advanced stamping technique to create little house decals, you can see how here. I used quite a lot of colours for this, you can see them listed below the pictures. On my other finger nails I decided to put nail art tools to make my theme 'stay at home and paint your nails!'. To add some interest in the background I decided to create some more decals using some Dance Legend Spot It polish for a fluid nail art effect. Lot's of decals going on with this one! I finished with a matte top coat to make the colours pop.

Overall I like the way these turned out, I really like the little houses, especially the ones on my thumb nails. They remind me of some paintings we were considering buying for the house. There are a couple of bubbles on the house nails and some slightly rough edges on the nail tool nails as the fluid nail art decals can be hard to place, but they're not too obvious unless I look closely. Hope you are all doing well, and apologies to those who can't stay at home, and are reading their millionth stay at home message - thank you for all that you do!
Colours used: Laguna - Barry M, Surfboard - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Spot It White - Dance Legend, Floral Street - Nails Inc, Playing Koi - Essie, Red Hot Rio - OPI, Can't Find My Czechbook - OPI, Cappuccino - Barry M, Yellow - Barry M, Plum - Barry M

Fluid Neons - I've finally cracked it!

Happy Sunday everyone! I'm actually up to date with my nail blogging for the second post in a row - it's a miracle! The pictures I'm sharing today are of what's still on my nails, and will be till at least tomorrow evening. As you will have gathered from the title I'm sharing fluid nail art today, and I think I've finally cracked it! This is actually the second time I've cracked it, I did a cool grey, black and sparkly one with bright red triangles a couple of months ago, but unfortunately I dropped my phone and lost the pictures. I'm hoping that I can get them back still though so will share if I do. I've learnt that the trick is to press the stamper down quite quickly on the polish for the best effect, though it's a bit hit and miss so I create more decals than I need and pick the best ones.

To create this effect I made decals on my mini Uber Mat, by blobbing two or three nail polish colours in a nail outline, adding one Spot It polish and then quickly pressing it with a stamper. I love watching the bubbles appear and move around a bit after I've moved the stamper! I created 12 decals and chose the best ones from the selection, this meant less of the red polish in the end.

I've gone for quite a wacky range of colours, the whole Cirque Colors Vice 2019 collection and a couple of Dance Legend Spot It polishes for the fluid effect. I decided to go for something different on most nails colour wise, and am pleased I did but could also see the merit in keeping them the same, or sticking to the more pastely ones for a consistent look, as the fluid effect gives some variation anyway.

My favourites were the pastely ring and little finger nails on the top pictures and the index finger one with red on the bottom pictures. I know I've got lots of possible combinations here I could try again which is good as I love the fluid nail art look, I think it works particularly well with neons, it often reminds me of those marbling things we used to so at infant school with plastic trays. Must try that again some time!
Colours used: Vitamin D - Cirque Colors, Electric Daisy - Cirque Colors, Game Over - Cirque Colors, High Roller - Cirque Colors, Miami Dade - Cirque Colors, Rehab - Cirque Colors, Spot It Blue - Dance Legend, Spot It White - Dance Legend