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

Sparkle Like A Unicorn!

Hello unicorns! Hello also to anyone else whose stumbled across my blog today. Today I'm sharing my review of Nails Inc's 'Sparkle Like A Unicorn' duo, which I am very glad to finally have my hands on! It's a set of two gloriously shimmery full sized polishes for £15, which is half the price of one of their normal newer polishes - I think they missed a trick there! It sold out pretty quickly the first time round so I was glad to be able to get some from the second batch.

I tested them out together on both hands so I could see how well they worked as a pair. My thoughts on the individual polishes are below:

Rainbow Wishes - I started with the lovely pearlescent purple, Rainbow Wishes. This is definitely the most unicorn-esque (that's a thing now) of the two shades, and of most nail polish shades to be honest. It was quite sheer to start with but built up well. I'd recommend two to three coats, probably three if you want it opaque.

Dream Dust - Next up is dream dust, a shimmering rose gold. The roseyness depends on  the lighting, in some pictures it looks really quite pink. You can see a bit of bronze/pink shift in the pictures below. I'd say it;s a bit like a pinker version of Cirque Color's ever popular polish, Halcyon. I used two coats for this one.
Colours used: Rainbow Wishes - Nails Inc, Dream Dust - Nails Inc

So in conclusion I of course love them! I look forward to trying some unicorn nail art with them in the future.

Unicorn of the Sea, Narwhal of the Land!

Hi everyone! Got something a bit quirky on my blog, featuring the ever popular unicorn, and the increasingly popular narwhal! I have some adorable socks with narwhals on and the words 'unicorn of the sea', so I used them as inspiration and added unicorns. I've never heard them described as narwhals of the land before but there's a first time for everything!

For the base glitter I used Illyrians Charming on one hand and Nimbus on the other, you can see my review of them here. For all four fingers on my unicorn hand and the index finger on my narwhal hand (definitely going to refer to my hands that way from now on!) I used the advanced stamping technique with my Uber Mat to create decals. You can see a picture tutorial for that process here.

For the remaining three fingers on my narwhal hand and the words on my thumb I created my own decals on my Uber Mat. This was the first time I'd done so and it was surprisingly easy! I used a nail art pen from Barry M to draw the narwhals and write the words on my Uber Mat and went over them a second time to strengthen the opacity of the 'ink'. I then used a dotting tool to colour in the images with nail polish, and once dry. painted a layer of clear polish over the top. Once that was dry I peeled them off my mat and applied them to my nails, covering with a topcoat to blend the image in.

Colours used: Charming - Illyrian, Nimbus - Illyrian, Nail Art Pen in Black - Barry M, White Horse Street - Nails Inc, Alpine Snow - OPI, Soho Silver - Nails Inc, Aria - ILNP, Black Knight - Mo You London I really liked how these turned out, the glitter was lovely, I liked the words and the quirkiness was a good talking point! Let me know what you think :)

Stamping Sunday: Unicorn Island

Hi everyone! Hope you're not dreading Monday morning too much! Can't say I'm particularly looking forward to it myself. On the plus side however I do have purple nails with a sprinkle of rainbow sparkles and unicorns! And for once I'm actually posting a design while I am still wearing it.

So I had a Fun Lacquer haul from Rainbow Connection in January and am still working through them all. For the lovely sparkly Unicorn Island I was keen to stick with the theme and do a unicorn design. Fortunately I was saved from attempting to freehand when I stumbled across the unicorn plate on www.nailart.co.uk while purchasing the Twi Star mermaid blogger collaboration plate (pictures of the plates I bought at the bottom of this post).

I used the advanced stamping technique design for the unicorns on my thumbs, while the stars and clouds are stamped normally. You can see my picture tutorials on advances stamping here and here. Unicorn Island is beautiful and it's a shame my pictures don't capture the rainbows a bit more. I think stamping in silver didn't quite work as it blended to well with the purple foil effect polish on the unicorns mane, and the eyes didn't show up too well either. So next time I used these images I think I'll try them in black.
Colours used: Unicorn Island - Fun Lacquer, Silver Foil Effect - Barry M, Purple Foil Effect - Barry M, White Knight - Mo You London, Cosmic Girl - Danglefoot Polish

Above is my haul from nailart.co.uk. I was delighted to find somewhere in the UK I could by the twi start mermaid plate! As a result of this I ended up with two more blogger collaboration plates (Kelli Marissa and Nailed The Polish), an Uberchic owl plate and some lizard stencils. Postage was free over £20 and it arrived quickly, so I'm impressed :)