Spiced Wine In Spring

Hello World! I am currently recovering from Covid and as a result have been ordering quite a lot of nail polish! In fairness the first order was before I came down with it, but I've since ordered more! I've had my eye on a couple of lovely sheer polishes from Picture Polish for a while but was waiting for something else to come back in stock to order them. As a result they are a bit out of season now as they're quite wintery colours but I wanted to give them a Spring twist, which is what my next two nail art looks will be attempting.

I started with a base of sheer nude polish, followed by two coats of Spiced Wine on most nails and a coat of pale pink on the ring fingernail. While this dried I created a decal on my Uber Mat, you can see how here. The image is from Mo You London's Botanical 13 stamping plate which I hadn't used yet. I tried to choose colours in keeping with it's sort of vintage look though they're a little bright.

I like these, I like that shiny squishy effect of the sheer polish and look forward to creating some layered looks with it too.

Colours used: Soft Focus - Polished For Days Spiced Wine - Picture Polish, Strawberry Ice Cream - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Yellow - Barry M, Key Lime - Barry M, Papaya - Barry M, Angelfish - Barry M

Distinguished Fancy Pants Nails (Moustache Edition)

Hey hey! Or should I say how do you do? Fancied wearing Holo Taco's Mint Money again as it's my favourite from the metallic collection and I felt it needed some appreciation! I decided to pair it with some moustaches from a stamping plate I have had in my untried pile for absolutely ages. I went for a variety of moustaches but stuck with fairly classic styles to make sure it was clear what they were. Looking at it now I'm thinking I should have added some eyes!

Not much to say on how I created it as it was a pretty simple one! I started with two coats of Mint Money and once dry used Mo You London's Rebel 01 to add the moustaches with a squishy stamper. I finished the look with a quick dry top coat. I'm glad I finally used this stamping plate and am thinking of other ideas I could use it for - little googly eyes would be a good addition and I like the idea of adding moustaches to other images like little animals or a cactus. Had these on for my Dad's Birthday gin tasting tour so they have fond memories attached :)

Colours used: Mint Money - Holo Taco, 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

Flakies in Space

Hellooo! I hope you're having an enjoyable weekend. I was at a wedding yesterday and had a wonderful time! Today I am sleepy but still need to do some DIY this afternoon. Wish I had another day of weekend! I will share my wedding guest nails at some point but today I'm sharing some previous nail art which was inspired by Alina's Nail Place on Instagram. She made this gorgeous space flakies look and I was please to have the same stamping plate and Unicorn Skins so I could re-create the look!

I started with two coats of black nail polish (colours listed below pictures). I then chose four of Holo Taco's Unicorn Skin polishes and dabbed them onto each nail for the below effect. Really straightforward - no sponging required.  Once dry I used white stamping polish to add space themed images from Mo You London's Sci-Fi 10 stamping plate, finishing off the look with a glossy top coat.

Really pleased with these, I love how the different colours of flakies catch the light. I did mess up some of the stars a little but I don't think it's too obvious. The rocket image is may favorite.

Colours used: Lady In Black - OPI, Cosmic Unicorn Skin, Aurora Unicorn Skin, Galactic Unicorn Skin, Solar Unicorn Skin - All Holo Taco, White Stamping Polish - Dance Legend

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

Nail Art Views From The Rooftops - London

Hey everyone and happy Sunday! Got something a little different to share today. I'm currently seconded to another company at work and they have this amazing roof garden! I'm trying to make the most of it while I'm there, it's so beautiful and very refreshing in the wind and cold weather. I decided to use my London nail polish from Picture Polish and create some London themed nail art I could photograph while there. It's not the same bit of skyline but still awesome! I can see Big Ben where I usually sit in the office which is really cool, but it's pretty distant so hard to photograph.

So onto the nail art. I started with three coats of silvery grey and then made decals using Mo You London's Scandi 03 and Scandi 01 stamping plates. While these were drying on my Uber Mat I added a bit of skyline nail art to my thumb with the clairestelle8 stamping plate from Maniology. I decided to place the images facing upwards from the cuticle like I used to, pretty much because of the skyline pictures I knew I wanted to take. It did feel strange going back to that as I'm used to having them the other way round now (except on my thumb).

In conclusion, I've enjoyed these. They are great fun and I love the base colour. It's not my favourite nail art I've done but it's fun and I love the pictures I ended up with! They will certainly bring back fond memories :)

Colours used: London - Picture Polish, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Madder - Cirque Colors, Cream Soda - Barry M, Tickled Taupe - Painted Polish, Taupe Temptation - Painted Polish