4th of July 2021 - Baroness X Snow Leopard

 I love themed nail art looks, so holidays are a real must-do for me (despite not actually celebrating several of them).  We're still missing out on community fireworks this year, but there's always room for a red, white, and blue mani this time of year, and I can always use an excuse to bust out the fluid art polish.

indoor, bright CF lighting

Baroness X is the undisputed queen of fluid nail art polishes, going beyond mere basic colors (though she has those too) and adding some unique elements to this technique.  Snow Leopard is a neutral, creamy white that happens to also have some translucent shimmer mixed in.

outdoor, bright direct daylight

There are tons of youtube videos that show how to create fluid art cells, but here's the short version for those of you that prefer text to video.  First off, select a fluid art polish - this won't work without one - and then pick some contrasting colors to go with it.  More contrasty colors make the cells pop.  In this case, I've gone with a very saturated red holo, an even more saturated blue pearl, and a few drops of plain white to make sure all 3 colors came out evenly.

my typically unseen right hand, because this technique is do-able all around

Paint a blob of the fluid art polish onto a silicone mat, then paint, drip, or pour your colors onto it while it's still wet.  There's no wrong way, this is a forgiving technique as long as you don't over-manipulate things:  too much messing with it mixes and muddies the colors, so instead just fold the mat in half once, lightly smunch, then relax the mat and watch the cells form up.

Leave the fluid art sheet to dry for at least an hour or two, or as long as overnight, then gently peel it up and select the best spots to cut into decal strips.  Get them all lined up and ready to go, picking an order that looks good to you to arrange them on your nails.

lined up, thumb to pinky, pretty side up

Paint a layer of your preferred base coat on your nails as usual, then a very thin layer of whatever the lightest color was in your mix - this will prevent any thin spots or imperfections in the decal from showing.  When that's dry, paint a very thin layer of a sticky base coat on all of your nails - this will dry down tacky and allow your decal to stick smoothly across the whole nail.  

the decal on the stamper has now ended up bottom-side-out, ready to stick on the nail

Much easier than using tweezers to place the decals, use a stamper to smoothly transfer them.  Your stamper will lift the dry polish decal right off the mat when pressed down onto one, and will press the decal evenly across your whole nail without creating any wrinkles or bubbles. Trim around the edges, cleanup with acetone as usual to melt the decal edges securely down onto the nail, and topcoat.  Done!

outdoor, bright direct daylight

Where to buy:  direct from Baroness X

Hope your 4th weekend was a good one, no matter how you celebrate.

~Michelle