Angling for a new year!

Hi all! In my family we like to use the phrase 'angling for' as in 'she was angling for some chocolate!' so I decided to name my blog post that way as it features an angler fish, I might be reaching a bit... So when deciding what to do for this nail art I suggested underwater theme and my partner suggested an angler fish. I didn't have any stamping plates for that but liked the idea so went ahead anyway! The nail art is extra new year nail art for the latest Holo Taco competition on Instagram which closes today.

I started with a peel off base followed by two generous coats of Holo Taco's Black Holo Wish from their latest Christmas collection. Got to have glitter for new year nails! Meanwhile, I created decals on my Uber Mat for the number and fish nails. I painted each one using a small brush onto some clear polish and then added more clear polish over the top, peeling off to stick on my nails once dry. Fiddly but easier than painting directly onto my nails! While creating them I had the idea to add some lights as well as I was already going for a glowing theme. I added light images from Uber Chic's Happy Christmas plate. I then added a quick dry topcoat, and once dry I added the colours using an assortment of Sharpies.

I do quite like these, they are so weird and random and sparkly! I like to think it's an angler fish in the darkest sparkly depths of the ocean hanging up some lights for new year - perhaps it can light them with it's own light? Pictures came out a bit mixed but I enjoyed a couple of new hand poses!

Colours used: Black Holo Wish - Holo Taco, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Sharpies

Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, had a very sparkly nose!

Today is the day of sparkly reindeer nails! I knew as soon as I ordered the Holo Taco Holodays 2021 collection that I had to to some sparkly reindeer nails, so the Glam Nails Challenge Reindeer prompt and the Holo Taco Holodays 2021 challenge seemed like the perfect time. The polishes are sooo sparkly and sparkly brown of course calls for reindeer nails!

I started with a base of mani mask from Barry M for a natural look, and then added a couple of layers of Choco Holo for the reindeer faces. You may have already noticed that I forgot to do their ears... I didn't notice till I looked back at some old reindeer nail art I did and now I can't un-see it! I used a dotting tool to add the eyes and noses (mostly black and then one red one for Rudolph of course!). I then used a small nail art brush for the antlers. I kept these simple as I knew painting with glitter would be hard and I'm not great at freehand as it is!

In summary, I'm pretty happy with these, they're cute and very sparkly. The nail tip element to the look is fun too. The catch my eye and I think they work with my nail shape. Could have been slightly better if I'd remembered their ears though!

Colours used: Birthday Suit - Barry M, Choco Holo - Holo Taco, Black Holo Wish - Holo Taco, Naughty List - Holo Taco, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Lady In Black - OPI

Zyler & Menchie on a Halloween Night!

Hello or should I say miaow! Got some Holoween cat nails to share today for Holo Taco's 'Holoween' competition. I had to get Zyler's lovely orange nail polish out for this one of course, and I'd forgotten how gorgeous it is. I love the different sizes of glitter and that lovely holo sparkle! This nail art was a bit of a make it up as I go along look but I love it!

I started with a base of pale pink on my middle two nails, black on my index and little fingernails and just base coat on my thumbnail (all with a peel off base underneath). I then added a few coats of Zyler the Cat holo glitter over the black nails and thumbnail. For the middle two nails I added one thick layer of thermal top coat over the top and then let it all dry. Next I used a star image from Mo You London's Noel 06 stamping plate in white over the black nails, and created a cat on the moon detail from their Animal 15 plate (you can see how here). I added the cat decal and another little kitty face image to the black/star nails - I love how much the kitty face disappeared among the stars!

I enjoyed the finished look and as ever enjoyed it even more once the colour change started to take effect - such fun! I'd say it's not a massively Halloween look but it kind of is, and I love it! Pictures are below of it in different temperature states and I'm hoping to get a decent video of it in action to add on my Instagram (Claws For Thought)..

Colours used: Lady In Black - OPI, Pink Lemonade - Barry M, Zyler - Holo Taco, Black Thermal Topcoat - Fancy Gloss, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Flakie Holo Taco - Holo Taco

Meowy Christmas Santa Claws!

Hi again! Back already as I have some more nail art to share from the weekend. This was done for the Holo Taco 'Holodays' prompt. The images are from Mo You London's Noel 10 plate and I just had to squeeze it in as one of my Christmas looks this year, they're so cute! A Simply Nailogical/ Holo Taco competition seemed like the perfect occasion!

I started with a base of dark green (colours listed below the pictures) and a couple of Holo Taco toppers to lighten it up a bit. I then used gold to add the wording on my ring fingernail, and made decals for the rest of the nails, you can see how here. I enjoyed getting some Christmassy colours out for the cat hats! I think the base colour was too dark really, which I should have known! I thought the toppers would lighten it up a bit more than they did. A couple of pictures are from outdoors again as I took them at the same time as the pictures from my last post!

Colours used: Stylenomics - Essie, Linear Holo Taco - Holo Taco, Gold Flakie Holo Taco - Holo Taco, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Foil Effects in Gold - Barry M, Say Love - INLP, Secret - Fun Lacquer, Playing Koi - Essie, Grey - Barry M, Floral Street - Barry M

Holo Taco: Kitties in the Rain

 Hi all! Some more Holo Taco polishes to share today though the polishes are somewhat hidden behind some cats! This look is for Holo Taco's latest nail art competition following the release of the Menchie and Zyler nail polishes (named after Cristine and Ben's cats). The theme is cats, and I just had to take part as not only is it a cute theme, but I had so much fun last time taking part in the nail art competitions during lock down.

For this look I started with a base of blue (colours listed below the pictures) and then added the three anniversary collection flakie polishes from Holo Taco in a random selection on my nails. They are so pretty and the glitter is a little smaller than I expected from the videos, which in my opinion is a good thing. I'm tempted to try a gradient with them. I applied my 'glitter grabber' nail polish next to smooth out the glitter and make stamping easier. On my thumb I used a raindrop image, and for all the other images I made decals which you can see how to do here. For the cats I used the Crazy Cat Lady 02 plate from Mo You London, and for the rain clouds I used Uber Chic's Forecasting Glam plate.

It feels strange having darker colours on again but I do like it! You haven't seen the end of my more summery nails yet though! I felt a bit mean putting these cats in the rain but they seem to like it so it's all good!

Colours used: My Car has Navygation - OPI, Blue Flakie Holo Taco - Holo Taco, Purple Flakie Holo Taco - Holo Taco, Gold Flakie Holo Taco - Holo Taco, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection,  Moonfish - Barry M, Cappuccino - Barry M, White Horse Street - Nails Inc

Day vs Night Nails

Hey everyone, back again with another entry to the Holo Taco nail art challenge. This weeks theme is Day vs Night. I was not expecting this one, they are getting quite creative with the themes, after the first few themes of Unicorn, Spring and Easter I was expecting something more generic like Mermaids (not dissing the mermaid theme though - I would enjoy that one too!). I decided to do one hand for the Day theme and the other for the Night, details below.

Day - For this I started with a blue base, medium blue on three of my nails (colours listed below the pictures) and a darker blue on my thumb and ring finger nails. Over the darker blue I used an untried polish, a beautiful flakie topper from Cuticula called Candy Crush. I really love the way it looks over navy! The navy polish also holds special memories for me as it was a gift from my boyfriend. On my other fingernails I tried to theme them around things we've seen on our daily walks, so we've got a cat, some bees, and a rainbow. The bees were added using the advanced stamping technique to create decals, for the cat face I used regular stamping, and the rainbow was freehand as you can probably tell!

Night - For the night time nails I used a similar lay out, with a purple metallic base and darker accent nails. You can't really tell very well in the pictures but the black actually has a green/purple/blue metallic shift to it under the silver glitter which I added over the top. I think this base gives the glitter some extra depth, and enjoyed the layering effect. It feels relevant to the theme too as I know Cristine from Simply Nailogical has gone for a layering effect with many of the Holo Taco polishes. I used advanced stamping for the stars and cat on the moon, and regular stamping for the cat face. The cat face showed up better than I expected over the purple, but the stars didn't come out very well, I think I went over the lines too much!
Colours used: Can't Find My Czechbook - OPI, My Car Has Navygation - OPI, No FOMO - Wikkid Polish, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Casablanca - Jessica Nail Polish, Diamond Glitter - Barry M, My Mate Illuminate - Wikkid Polish, Bikini Bombshell - Wikkid Polish, Joyful L'il Jellybean - Wikkid Polish, Candy Crush - Cuticula

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

Unicorns & Rainbows for Key Workers & Holo Taco Challenge!

Hello again - I'm back already! I need to get this blog post out in good time as I am entering it in the Holo Taco challenge this week, the first theme being Unicorns. I have a whole list of nail art ideas to do but I put it aside when this challenge prompt came up on my Instagram feed, and I'm so glad I did! I used the Bundle Monster X Nailedthepolish stamping plate for the unicorns, and the rainbows as you can probably tell are freehand. Here in the UK people have been putting rainbows in their windows as a sign of support for key workers during this challenging time. I think it's mostly a thing people have been getting their children to do but I fully intend to do one myself! Some of our neighbors have put a whole rainbow arch of balloons on the front of their caravan which is awesome! So I wanted to add my own little rainbow nails, though obviously no one is seeing them in person, so I need to get a move on with my window rainbow!

I started this look with a peel off base coat, due to the glitter, and then a thick layer of silver glitter, followed by a couple of coats of another glitter to add some depth (colours listed below the pictures). For the unicorns I used the advanced stamping technique (see how here) and my Uber Mat. I coloured them in with white polish, silver horns, and some of Cirque Colors Vice 2019 collection. For the rainbows I used a small nail art brush to paint each of the Cirque Colors Vice 2019 collection polishes over the glitter in a rainbow shape. It's a tad wobbly as freehand isn't my strength, but I think it came out reasonably well. Absolutely loving having the vice colours out again, they are so so bright!

So overall as you can probably tell I am really pleased with these! I'm also finally up to date with my blogging again, this look is actually still on my nails for once (did them on Sunday). I've generally been fine with not being able to show people my nail art in person, as I share it all online anyway, but I love these so much I would have quite enjoyed sharing them, they're pretty hard to miss too being so bright! Anyway, I hope you like them :) Stay well!
Colours used: Cosmic Girl - Danglefoot Polish, Diamond Glitter - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, A Mantis Shrimps Favourite Colour - Bees Knees, Silver Lining - Barry M, Game Over - Cirque Colors, Vitamin D - Cirque Colors, Electric Daisy - Cirque Colors, High Roller - Cirque Colors, Miami-Dade - Cirque Colors, Rehab - Cirque Colors