... Polish Party - Splatter ...

I joined a new Facebook group in the last few days called Polish Party who are doing monthly challenges! That sounds right up my alley! A whole month to complete the task!! Woohoo! I have great intentions with my weekly ones but often I run out of time to paint (or in most cases, photo and edit!)

This months theme is Splatter Nails and thankfully I am just scrapping this into the month! Woohoo!

I've chosen to use a 2 coat base of Nails Inc Cadogan Place and splatter over it with the vibrant Nails Inc I <3 Ita. If you are new to splatter manicures, the straw is everything. Too big and it won't work and you just end up with polish everywhere. I personally love the straws that come with kids Fruit Boxes/Poppers/Juice Boxes. They seem to be just the right size to dip and spray!

It's been awhile since I've done a splatter mani and I'd forgotten how easy and simple it is to get a fantastic looking mani. I'm very much liking how this turned out and how the contrast in colours works.

With any luck the inlinkz will appear below and you can check out all the other lovely nails featured in the Polish Party! YAY!

An InLinkz Link-up

... Aussie Nail Monday - Free Choice ...

Free Choice Aussie Nail Monday today! I thought this would be a great idea but then I sat forever trying to work out actually what to do?

In the end I've gone for a simple splatter mani that I think works quite well with the Halloween theme of this month!

The red splatter is NYC Color Fire Hydrant over OPI Alpine White in GelColor. As always, I recommend the tiny straws from kids fruit boxes/juice boxes for these! They seem to work 10000% better than anything else.

I'd forgotten how much fun these are to make. Nothing like making a pretty mess in the name of art! I'll definitely be splattering again in the near future!

Wanna see more Aussie Nails? Check out these links!

Lily Jinks - @lilyandjinks

Ann - Nailovelogy

Tracy - @oliviajade19

Holly - @nails_by_holly

Naomi - @nadeekay and Nananaisnails

Erin Wu -  @erinzi and Erin Zi’s Nails

Elissa -@tenlittlenubs and Ten Little Nubs

Kate - Pimped Out Nails

Astrid - @lovessweetas

Sarah Claire - @shattermeclaire or Shatter me Claire

Julia - Fancy Nails and Cups of Tea

Sylvie - @smudgedpolish

Relle - @lazylacquerista or Lazy Lacquerista

Tammy - @ohmygoshpolish

Christinemay - @xtinemayyy or Nails at 2am

Tash Birch - @tashisdead

Nicki - @celestialcosmetics

Briana -

Loz - Polish Patterns

Kelly - @kellyskolors and Kelly's Kolors!

Tara - @lokislacquer or  Osiris and Loki paint their nails

... splatter attempt 2 ...

I'm seriously loving the splatter look and it's so easy to recreate! There are plenty of tutorials out there so this is just answering the questions I was asked last time both from here, via email and from friends.

[My nails are still painted in Inglot 627 that I reviewed earlier and my splatter polish is Face of Australia Molten Metallics in Gold]

What straws do you use?
Personally I've just been using the kids drinking straws. These are thin straws that I'd picked up from Ikea - they are nothing super special. I wouldn't recommend those bigger straws like the ones from McDonalds but I've heard people have had great success with straws from fruitboxes/poppers/juiceboxes. For the official record these only have a 1cm diameter.

How do you get the paint onto the straw?
From all the tutorials I've seen most put a tab of polish onto a plate or some foil and dab the straw in it. I'm pretty slack so I've just been putting the straw into the actual polish bottle.

Be warned ... if you do it this way you need to make sure you don't have a lot of polish hanging on the outside of your straw. Gravity will be your enemy if you do and you'll end up with giant splotches of where it's just dropped off your straw. If that happens then when you are finish just scoop up the extra polish with the brush and put it back in the bottle

What do your nails look like after the splatter?
Well messy is the simple version. I know others wrap tape around their nails to stop the excess run off onto the nails but I don't bother. Cleanup is really simple and easy after you are done and especially if the nails are still went. I grab some nail polish remover and cotton buds/q-tips and get to work. Should be pretty simple unless you are using glitter then you'll need to get scrubbing!

I've just realised that this looks like chunky baby poo - ewwwww. Sorry about that. Grab your polish brush and pick up some of the extra polish and put it back in the bottle. Then put a clear top coat on and it should be nice and flat with no lumps and bumps :)

Voila - Final product! Ooh ... pretty!

... first splatter attempt ...

I first saw a splatter mani here at The PolishAholic and really really wanted to try it out. So here is my first ever attempt at it! It's good ol' Face of Australia Titanium over Mode Party Girl which I reviewed in my last post.

It was definitely a lot easier than I thought it would be. Dip straw in polish, blow through other end of straw, sit back and look at pretty designs! Easy!

I'm quite pleased with how the middle and pinky fingers turned out but it's obvious I need some more practice! Some places are just huge blotches where the polish just fell off the straw in big clumps.

My husband seems to think that it looks like bird droppings all over my hands - charming! :( I'm quite pleased with it though and I'm going to give it another bash later!