Black Forest Gateaux-y // Purple Drag Marble Nails

So I've been obsessing over this video from the Russian nail artist extraordinaire; Sveta Sanders, and been wondering if I could possibly re-create it. She makes it look so easy; it's not fair.

This was my first time trying this though and for a first attempt I don't think it turned out all that shabby. In fact I really like it and I'll be trying it again. It was much easier than watermarbling or smooshing. The cleanup was quicker and I didn't need to use any liquid latex. I think with practice you could use this technique for instant space/geode nails.

I took 93 images of this look; that's how much I couldn't stop staring at my nails. The holo though...I forgot how much I love that Barry M holo topper. 

As you can see, the lines in my attempt are no where near as clean as Sveta's but the glittery shine from the A-England shades make this a straight up galaxy look.

The index finger was the one I did first and that's why it looks so...awful compared to the others. You also need a thick yet runny white polish to drop the other shades into. I stupidly used a quick dry one the first time. I need to buy some more 'throw-away' white polish as you can go through quite a bit doing a look like this.

Polishes/Tools Used:-

- Collection 7 Day Wear // White Out (white)
- A-England // Mustardseed A Fairy (strawberry holo), Maxim (purple holo), Camelot (black)
- Barry M // Diamond Glitter

- Avon Mark. // Gel Shine Top Coat

Holo Seas // Galaxy Swirls & Mermaid Scales

Oh man, these are the types of nails where I took about a thousand photos and it was so hard to choose under 10. Like most of my nail designs I had no idea where this was going, just that I wanted to do some mermaid scale nails. I ended up with galaxy mermaid nails! Score!

I started off with a white base coat and then applied some blobs of Crystal Blue and Pink Luxe to a silicone mat (these ones are from my born pretty post here). Then when they were still wet I gently pressed my stamper into them and then applied them to my nails.

This was pretty random but I loved how in some places it's super opaque and others translucent. I also love how this stamping technique brought out the duochrome properties of the polishes. Crystal Blue shines sea green in some lights and this application really brought it out.

Then using the BP-109 plate I stamped on the mermaid scales. I added a layer of the diamond top coat before adding Diamond Glitter as it caused the scales to drag. The following photos were all taken in natural daylight whereas the ones above are all indoors under two light boxes.

I want to wear this design every. Single. Day. And the best part is that after you've done one hand the next is easy! Just carefully peel the blobs off the silicone mat and stick them to your other with a layer of top coat. Or I've found another great use for them. Because they haven't been applied on top of a top coat they can break easily into shards; however custom galaxy mermaid flakies....I may have to do a post on this because it's genius.

Polishes/Tools Used:
- Essie // Blanc (pink)
- Barry M Molten Metal // Crystal Blue (ocean blue shimmer with green shift)

- Barry M Molten Metal // Pink Luxe (dark pink shimmer with gold shift)
- Barry M  // Diamond Glitter (scattered holo with silver glitter)
- Born Pretty Stamping Polish //#4 (white)
- Revlon // Quick Dry Top Coat
- Born Pretty // BP-109 Plate

SWATCHES: Avon Mark Nail Style Studio Cosmic Lights Collection

Alright, one second lemme just

For me Avon is perhaps my favourite polish brand. It currently takes up around 40% of my polish collection and it just keeps growing every month when my Avon lady brings a new brochure into work. This collection debuted in the August book and how on earth could I say no? Look at them:

The name is absolutely ridiculous; but then all Avon polishes are. Everything is Avon mark by avon nail studio mark Avon True Colour Mark nail enamel Avon....it reminds me of the cheaper Marc Jacobs line that (ironically) have his name plastered all over:

But anyway, names aside these shades are meant to represent 'oil slicks' or when oil mixes with water and crazy insane colour shifts start happening. You can already see it happening in the bottle and in these photos they legit look like bottled space:

Put these things in a museum now. With all of them I tried them first on some nail swatch sticks to find the best base, which shocker; turned out to be black. I was also a little shocked to find just how runny they all are and on their own they need around 3-4 coats to become opaque so they're almost a jelly polish; look at Avon getting in on the Nail trends.

All the swatches in this post were taken under two daylight toned light boxes.

I'll start with the best of the bunch; Cool Slick. This thing is certainly cool; so cool it's almost sub-zero; just like space! Oh turning it round! So anyway, this shade is a beautiful deep cool blue that shifts into purple and green. It's really hard to see that shift on the nails in photos but it's truly beautiful. I can't wait to do some space nails with this polish.

Next up is Oil Slick;a mermaid teal to purple shade. This one is no where near as mesmerising as Cool Slick but it's still a pretty shade and will work well with mermaid nails. I've just purchased the new Sailor layering plate from MoYou and think some layers on top of this would work well.

Now we have Warm Slick which I didn't love at first but now I've warmed up to it (ba dum tiss). It's a stunning burgandy/brown metallic shade with a deep gold shift; perfect for the autumn nights drawing in now. I really loved wearing this one and I think it's going to become a staple Christmas polish for me this year.

And then last is Magic Slick; a burgundy to purple shifter. I now vote we call duo-chromes shifters instead because it sounds cooler; also it reminds me of this cheesy Sci-Fi TV show from way back in the 90's called Sliders which unfortunately jumped the proverbial shark towards the end. Like that TV show though, this polish in the end was disappointing. It doesn't seem to shift at all and whereas it's a lovely shimmery and high-shine burgundy shade; it's just that. It has no shifting properties on the nail at all.

In all I highly recommend Cool Slick followed by Warm Slick but the other two are optional based on your tastes. But hats off to Avon for coming out with something new and hip. When searching for swatches of these online I actually came across some old Avon Cosmic polishes; PolishAholic did an entire post on them here. And I know for a fact I've been ordering Avon since 2010/2011 so I'm annoyed I don't own any of these or even remember seeing them; perhaps they weren't released in the UK? Either way, I'm glad I got my hands on this new selection and I may even purchase another bottle of Cool Slick because hot damn.

Avon Mark. Nail Studio Cosmic Lights

10ml Full Size || £6 each

Cool Slick (blue to pink, gold & green)

Magic Slick (burgundy to gold)

Oil Slick (emerald to blue and purple)

Warm Slick (red/brown to gold)