Flash Nails Bubble Bath :)

Flash Nails Bubble Bath

Happy Easter! I decided on a periwinkle blue base with glitter dots for my Easter mani. This is Flash Nails Bubble Bath over a base of Essie Bikini So Teeny. I love this glitter topper, it was so easy to apply for big circle glitter and the sprinkle of white microglitter is so pretty!

The circle glitters in Bubble Bath are a bit different to most of the circle glitters I've come across so far. They're sort of pearlescent, so they change colour from light to dark as the light hits them at different angles. They also seem quite thin and lie nicely on the nail. In the bottle, all piled up on top of each other with the light shining through them, they remind me of fish scales... rainbow coloured!

Flash Nails Bubble Bath

Flash Nails Bubble Bath

I used two coats of Bubble Bath for this mani; the glitter is generous and well dispersed in the base and there is no need to fish for glitter. I didn't do any manipulation or particular placement of the glitters, they came out in this nice random pattern on their own.

Flash Nails Bubble Bath

As with the other Flash Nails polishes I've tried, the base is nice and thick so I didn't need to use multiple layers of topcoat to get a smooth finish on my nails. I think I have a new addition to my 'special favourite glitters' list! I chose this base colour because I wanted a pale, spring-like effect, but I'm sure this will look fab over a dark colour (I've checked, the glitters are fully opaque and stand out really well on black (the cap of my topcoat bottle, lol).

Flash Nails Bubble Bath

I purchased Flash Nails Bubble Bath from the Flash Nails Etsy Shop. Nicola has a facebook page where you can check out new colours and other news......... in fact there's an Easter discount there at the moment :)

R&R Lacquers RESPLENDENT

R&R Lacquers Resplendent

This is the second of the R&R Lacquers glitter toppers from their 'New Black' Collection I was sent to try. Resplendent is a mix of large teal and smaller silver holo circle glitters with a background sparkle of holo teal microglitter. I reviewed R&R Lacquers Elegant in this post last week.

I layered Resplendent over this matte monochrome gradient done with Barry M Silk Nail Paints in Pearl and Manglaze Santorum and Matte is Murder. There are more pictures of this gradient in yesterday's post here:

I think the glitter shades in Resplendent look equally good over the light and dark parts of my nails! I used one coat of Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food to smooth the glitter (and the matte of the gradient) then a coat of Seche Vite quick drying topcoat to dry the mani and give it a high gloss finish.

These two macros are both the same nail - but at a slightly different angle - see how the colours in the holo glitter circles change!

Then, since the base started out matte, I thought I'd try a matte topcoat over the finished mani. I used Mavala Color-Matt - I love the way this turned out!

R&R Lacquers Resplendent

I was sent R&R Lacquers Resplendent for review; the polish is available from R&R Lacquers Etsy Shop.

Indy's Indies Balloon House

Indy's Indies Balloon House over Rescue Beauty Lounge Opaque Nude

OK - this post is more pic-spam than review, but I love how this man turned out so much I just can't help it. Indy's Indies Balloon House is a fabulous mix of multicoloured matte (awesome) circle (awesome) glitter. Awesome x awesome = awesome squared; I think that just about sums up this polish.

There's so much going on in Balloon House itself I didn't want to detract from it with a brightly coloured or complicated base, so I choose a simple nude - Rescue Beauty Lounge Opaque Nude ~ one of my favourite 'nudey' (than porcelain) nudes.

Balloon House is an interesting one to apply - it needs a bit of care and a lot of topcoat if you're going to get a smooth glassy finish on your nails. The glitter is VERY generous, no need for fishing here; in fact sometimes I thought I was getting too much glitter on my brush at a time and put some back into the bottle.  The individual glitters are quite thick, so I was careful not to let them pile up on top of each other on my nails - I used a dabbing sort of application to spread them around. Emma at Cambridge Nails placed the glitters from this polish individually to get a great effect in her nail art design!

Then the topcoat - I used two coats of Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food (which is really thick and as the name implies, great for smoothing out glitter manis) before my Seche Vite. As it started to dry, it was still looking a bit bumpy, so I added  second coat of SV. So four coats of topcoat. And these are thick topcoats too. But totally worth it. I just had a look at my pal Cazzy's post about this polish (SpecialGirl Nails), and she used four topcoats too......... so I'm in good company here. Cazzy wore it over plain black - which also looks great - I think there are endless possibilities with this one!

More pictures, lol!

I purchased Balloon House from  Danielle at her Etsy Shop (sorry international ladies, shipping just in the UK, due to Royal Mail regulations). This is the last of the four glitters I got this time (I was definitely saving the best for last) - you can see The Snowman and Belle in this post here and I used Crushed Candy Cane in my Christmas Nail Art guest post at The Crumpet.

RBL Opaque Nude is an old staple from my collection but is still a current colour and available from the RBL website.