Rainbow Nails for Porto

Hi Space Turtles! I'm back after a week away in the beautiful city of Porto in Portugal. These where my holiday nails (along with the Aperol Spritz ones I shared before). I took inspiration from me.time.manis on Instagram who created a gorgeous rainbow look with the Bubbly Collection from Cirque Colors. I decided to attempt a recreation as a fun holiday look and I love it! It's a great collection and the colours are so fun together.

I started by unscrewing the gaps on the ones I wanted to use on the nail I was working on, then applied a line of colour of each polish gently, trying to blend or overlap them slightly without the brushes getting contaminated with other colours. I then held a magnet over the top for 30 seconds. Once all nails were dry I repeated the process with a second coat. I probably didn't need to magnetise the first coat in the end but thought it might help.

I wish I'd managed to blend the colours a little better and perhaps managed to get a better magnetic effect but I did know that would be tricky with the multiple colours as they dry so fast. Despite this I do love these. They are such a fun and bright colour combination and perfect for holiday nails!

Colours used: Aperol Spritz, Sparkling Yuzu, Soda Shoppe, La Dolce Vita, Helter Seltzer, Fizzing Lifting Drink - All Cirque Colors

Ode to Aperol Spritz

Hi everyone! Today I'm sharing some nail art which is not for an Instagram challenge for once! I've had the idea of doing some Aperol Spritz nails since I got Cirque Colors Bubbly Collection. It's my favourite drink - it's so yummy, a great colour and reminds me of holidays (we first tried it in Venice). I have also had a bit of a thing for orange nail polish for a year or so, so I'm really loving this polish!

I started with two coats of cream on my middle and thumb nails and Aperol Spritz on the other two. I used a bar magnet to get the magnetic effect and did this on both layers. I love the way the layers of holo shine through when I move them in the light. I stamped the multiple cocktail image directly onto my nails in black and created decals for the two glasses and the wording. The cocktail and glass images are from Uber Chic's Bottoms Up plate and the wording is letters put together from Mo You London's Typography 04 plate. I added oranges from the UC plate using Aperol Spritz which worked surprisingly well as a fun background image colour.

I'm pleased with how these came out, They are fairly simple to look at but the process was a little different for me in terms of adding images together to make decals etc and I like the simple colour scheme. Love the orange polish too - both the style and the name! I suppose this look isn't really an ode to Aperol Spritz as I think that would be a song or poem... but it's certainly a tribute!

Colours used: Aperol Spritz - Cirque Colors, Cream Soda - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend

Cirque Colors Bubbly Collection

Hello from a very sunny England! Preparing for possible record breaking temperatures over the next few days! These nail pictures are from a weekend away we had in the Cotswolds last weekend which was delightful! I sat out in the garden and tried out Cirque Colors new Bubbly Collection while we were there. It's a six piece collection of linear holo magnetic polish in some gorgeous shades which are on the sheer side with a holo streak running through once magnets are applied.

I'm not going to talk through each shade here (though I've listed them below the pictures) but just give a bit of an overview of my thoughts in general. I adore the colour palette here. The colours are somehow perfect summery even though they're not bright or pastel, I think they made my nails look like coloured glass beads! I started with one coat of polish on all nails then added a second coat and only applied the magnets to that coat. I didn't get that much of a magnetic effect on most of them which I think was down to user error. I wonder if the effect would have been better magnetising both layers given the sheer element to the polish.

On one of my thumbnails I tried a gradient effect which I really like, would definitely like to do more gradients with these polishes. The magnetic effect definitely came out better on my thumbnails though I don't think the pictures do it justice. I would definitely recommend these! I think Aperol Spritz is my favourite. I have a bit of a thing for orange nail polish at the moment and it's my favourite drink too! (Aperol Spritz that is, not orange nail polish :D)

Colours used: La Dolce Vita, Helter Seltzer, Soda Shoppe, Sparkling Yuzu, Aperol Spritz, Fizzy Lifting Drink - All Cirque Colors

Camping into the Autumn Nails

Hey everyone! More advanced stamping nail art to share today - surprise surprise! I'm also wearing the third of the autumn ILNP shades I bought recently - Skyline. I've decided not to do all of the Halloween Glam Nails Challenge prompts this year as I wanted to squeeze  in a couple of autumn designs first, this being the first one. 

I started off with a base of Skyline on my thumbnail and two of my finger nails, and cream on my other two fingernails. I them used my Uber Mat to make details for the two cream nails and thumbnails, you can see how here. For the thumbnail I used Uber Chic's Who Gives A Hoot stamping plate and for the other two nails I used images from Mo You London's Fall In Love 10 stamping plate. I thought the little woodland camping images would be quite fiddly but they were easier than I thought!

In conclusion I really like these, they're good summer into autumn images and I'm enjoying the sparkle! I've included images with and without flash below but unfortunately none of them bring out how sparkly the sunflowers are in real life!

Colours used: Skyline - ILNP, Cream Soda - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Taupe Temptation - Painted Polish, Tickled Taupe - Painted Polish, Yo-Ho Holo - Painted Polish, Princes Lolly - Cupcake Polish