Holo Taco Christmas 2021 - Lazy Swatches

Hello again! Got some lazy swatches to share today, showing off the new Christmas 2021 collection from Holo Taco. I was late to the party with their previous holographic Christmas collection but it was SO gorgeous that as soon as I saw this collection I knew I needed it! It comes out at a convenient time too as it was around the time of my Birthday! There are six colours in this collection, and as I only have five nails per hand I decided to put two of them on my thumbnail. I've included my thoughts on each colour below.

Naughty List - This is a beautiful deep read glitter in a sheer red base. Their previous pinky-red glitter was SO stunning so was super excited to see this one! Reminds me of jewels. Two coats for full coverage.

Everything Is Pine - I absolutely love the name for this one! Formula is just as above but with green, it's super sparkly too, I'm not sure I've ever seen such a sparkly green! Two coats for full coverage.

Plumb Luck - This is a stunning plum coloured polish with the same formula as the two above. Really dense glitter and great pay off. Two coats gave me full coverage. A really glamorous vampy shade!

Gold Play Button - This one is slightly different to the others in that it's in a clearer base, but the glitter pay off and formula are otherwise the same, and it is SO sparkly! Just what's needed to sit alongside their silver holo glitter, Rainbow Snow. I used two coats in the pictures here for consistency, but another would be needed for full coverage.

Choco Holo - A brown holo, sounds odd but it's lovely! A really unique shade and surprisingly sparkly. Really good coverage (same as the first few) and a gorgeous warm autumn/winter shade.

Black Holo Wish - This one is not the sort of thing I'd expect to find in a Christmas collection but it fits well and I know many people have been asking for it. It's in a black jelly/sheer base which is packed with holographic glitter. Glitter pay off is great and it covers in two coats, no need for sponges!

In conclusion - obviously I love them! I know they would be amazing and they didn't disappoint! It's hard to choose a favourite. The gold is of course super sparkly, and plumb luck is understandably popular, but I think Choco Holo and Everything Is Pine might be the stand out ones for me, it's such a gorgeous glittery green and the brown glitter is so unusual. Much like their last holographic Christmas glitter collection I really love the depth in these and the different sizes of glitter.

Colours used: Naughty List, Everything Is Pine, Plumb Luck, Gold Play Button, Choco Holo, Black Holo Wish - All Holo Taco

Some well timed 1st frost nails!

Hi everyone! Got some wintery nail art to share today and I'm excited about moving closer to Christmas nail art! This look was for the Glam Nails Challenge prompt of First Frost, which was very fitting as it's just started getting frosty here in the UK and we even had some snow yesterday which is quite unusual for us in December, in the south anyway! I was totally crazy and went for a lake swim yesterday morning! I love wild swimming and I have done so in the autumn and been fine, but during frosty weather was perhaps a little too far for me!

For the first frost prompt I knew I wanted to try a beautiful look I'd seen on Pretty_Pawlished on Instagram. Mine isn't exactly the same as we had different snowflake images, but I'm really glad to finally get round to it! I started with a base of two layers of blue glitter (colours listed below pictures). I was impressed that I only needed two coats as the glitter was so densely packed. Once dry I added a glitter grabber layer, and then a layer of magnetic polish for that gorgeous colour shift! Finally, I used Mo You London's Festive 02 stamping plate to add some snowflakes towards the edges of my nails - followed by a glossy top coat.

In conclusion - I am very happy with these!! The nail polishes are simply gorgeous and combined (particularly under bright lights) they have the most stunning sparkle and colour shift! I actually bought the blue glitter because of seeing the original look on Instagram. I shall have to see with my work situation but I'd like to keep these on as long as I can!

Colours used: Lifestyle - Fun Lacquer, Fascinating - Fun Lacquer, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection

Edwin Coffee Fangirl Nails!

Edwin Cawwfee! This is a somewhat obscure reference to a podcast I love listening to while I cook - the Off Menu podcast with Ed Gamble and James Acaster! Edwin Coffee is a coffee addict from New York who appeared when Ed was doing accents. For today's Glam Nails Challenge theme (coffee) I decided to do some Edwin Coffee fangirl nails!

I started with a base of cream, brown and sparkly taupe (colours listed below the pictures). I then created decals for my middle two fingers and thumbnail. The middle two decals were made using Mo You London's Cookbook 04 stamping plate - you can see how here. I don't even drink coffee but this plate was a hand me down from a friend who doesn't really do nail art anymore! The images were slightly short for my nails so I added a little frame which I really like on my ring fingernail. I used the same plate to add the pattern on my other two fingernails. As you can probably tell I free-handed the thumbnail!

In conclusion I actually rather like these! They are fun and strange and quite different to other things I've done. I'm really enjoying this nail length too. The ring fingernail is definitely my favourite.

Colours used: Cappuccino - Barry M, Cream Soda - Barry M, Taupe Temptation - Painted Polish, Red Hot Rio - OPI, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Cocoa - Barry M

Sweater Weather

Hello again! I'm back so soon with another Glam Nails Challenge prompt. This one is for yesterday and the theme was 'sweater weather'. I knew I had to get Mo You London's Fall In Love 08 involved for this one, it has a whole bunch of gorgeous cosy images including some jumpers and jumper prints.

I started with base colours of pale grey, off-white and navy blue. I then created decals on my Uber Mat for the thumb and ring fingernails. The multi-jumper image was a a bit big for my newly filed nails but I did manage to get enough of the image on that you can tell what they are! For the leaves I added them all together from separate images into one decal, so had to guess a little bit how the placement would work on my nails - it came out pretty well I think! You can see how to make decals here. For the other nails I used white stamping polish to add jumper patterns.

I'm pleased with how these came out, I'd been meaning to do something like this in blue and grey for some time so I'm glad to have finally got round to it! I think it's very fitting for autumn and blue/grey and jumpers are very me!

Colours used: Cream Soda - Barry M, The Serpentine - Nails Inc, White Horse Street - Nails Inc, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Key Lime - Barry M, Playing Koi - Essie, Living Your Best Life - Nails Inc

Woodland Wonderland

Hey nail people! Going to keep this one short and sweet as I'm a little behind and also so ready for an early night! I did this for Glam Nails Challenge's 'Lanscape' prompt. I had quite a few ideas for this and could have done something rather more adventurous, but I didn't have loads of time. I was going to stamp the images over a gradient but then remembered I had some thermal polishes that should work just as well!

I started with three coats of thermal polish (colours listed below the pictures). I've had this thermal shade a few years so although it does have a colour change still it's not a strong one. It wasn't the most stark difference anyway, changing from a pearlescent green to blue. The pictures are closer to the warm shade which is pale green. Sometimes my nail tips have had a darker blue-ish tint to them. The images I added are from Maniology's Clairestelle8 stamping plate.

In conclusion, I'm enjoying the shape of my nails though they feel weirdly short after filing them down a bit (I know they're not really - just an adjustment!). I'm not 100% sure on this look though. The images are gorgeous but it feels a bit to simplistic, which may be purely because I knew it was less effort to create than other nail looks I do!

Colours used: Jasmine - Femme Fatale Cosmetics, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend

Raindrops Keep Falling on my Nails

Hello nail people! I hope it's good weather where you are - it's raining on my nails! This nail art is for another Glam Nail Challenge prompt with an autumnal theme of rain. I went straight to by UberChic Forecasting Glam stamping plate for this look and decided to use a variety of iridescent shades for the raindrops. I kept most nails the same in the end as I liked the multi coloured raindrops idea so much.

I started with a base colour of dark blue on all my nails (colours listed below the pictures) and then made some decals on my Uber mat, you can see how here. I used a variety of different iridescent shimmers for the raindrops, I thought the sheer consistency of some of them would work well for magical rain. I did want to add a bit more though so decided to do an umbrella accent nail. Simplest one but I think it adds something! Overall pleased with these :) I think they're fun and I could never get bored of this gorgeous shade of blue!

Colours used: My Car Has Navy-gation - OPI, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Pinktail - Barry M, Butterflyfish - Barry M, Jellyfish - Barry M, Angelfish - Barry M, Seahorse - Barry M, Electric Eel - Barry M

Leafy Autumnal Nailies

Hey everyone! Doing things the other way round and have shared this look on my Instagram already, however I've now realised the picture I chose was a little blurry and not as good as these ones, sooo annoying! Can't delete it now as people have already reacted to it! SO - This look is one I had in a mind for a little while as an autumn look, I was really keen to use ILNP Bloodline again as it's so pretty, and it tied in with one of the Glam Nails Challenge themes for this month too (autumn leaves).

I started with a base of Bloodline on three of my nails and off white on the other two (colours listed below the pictures. Then used a variety of polishes and Mo You London's Fall In Love 05 stamping plate to layer up some leaf images. I started with the paler colours first and built up to black stamping polish for the detail. I was really impressed with how well the orangey polish stamped!

I'm really pleased with this look :) I've gone back and forth a bit on whether I think the leafy nails look weird next to Bloodline, but I've included that I like it and it's a fun autumn look! Would definitely wear again.

Colours used: Bloodline - ILNP, Cream Soda - Barry M, Yellow - Barry M, Spring Green - Barry M, Playing Koi - Essie, Watermelon - Barry M, Cappuccino - Barry M, Cocoa  - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection

Birthday Fireworks and Aquatics!

Hey everyone! Hope you are doing well :) It's just been my Birthday and I've been enjoying a few days off. I wanted to create some Birthday nail art and try something super sparkly but also firework related. I find firework nails really hard to do well so didn't do just fireworks, but tried an abstract aquatic theme as I love ocean themed things! It was very much a make it up as I go along sort of look! Also tried the flakie version of Fun Lacquers reflective polish which was good fun!

I started with a peel off base coat, followed by three layers of silver reflective glitter and a couple of coats of glitter grabber top coat. I couldn't bring myself to file my nails down a bit and all these layers should help keep them strong! I then used black stamping polish and Mo You London's Aquatic 04 and Festive 05 stamping plates to add the images. I particularly love the way the thumb nails came out. Next I used a couple of sheer polishes in purple and blue and a small nail art brush to add some colour.

I quite often don't do that well with my Birthday nails but I'm really pleased with these! I'm really pleased with how the fireworks came out and they were so simple to do. I'm also loving the serious sparkle going on with the base polish! I've included loads of pictures below as I created this look over both hands. I'm looking forward to wearing them for the rest of my Birthday celebrations!

Keep scrolling for thumb nail pictures and polishes used underneath! Colours used: Flash Diamond Flake - Fun Lacquer, Royal Jelly, Lilac Jelly, Thistle Sheer, Cobalt Jelly, Indigo Jelly, French Blue Sheer - All Cirque Colors, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend