Grey Pond nail art

Ed. note: this post was written and scheduled before yesterday's events transpired.  I thought briefly about moving it because it's a very somber, morose color scheme, but have ultimately decided to let it ride when and as-is.  

Hey y'all!

I was swatching some polishes that I ordered from Quirk just before the shop closed, and I came across this gorgeous grey crelly finish and ended up creating this dark freehand pond effect nail art that I wanted to share with you.

I know this one won't be to everyone's taste, but that's okay.  It came to life in that truly organic way - I was literally playing with my polish and ended up with this sort of kooky gothic look.

L-R: China Glaze Liquid Leather, Quirk custom grey crelly

As I said, this was one of the last Quirk polishes ever made - it's a light grey crelly base with ultra fine red and purple shimmers running through it.  Unfortunately I was almost completely unable to capture those shimmers in these pictures, but I'm going to try again on a sunnier day.

Originally thinking I would just do a simple black-and-grey look, I started with a coat of Liquid Leather on my thumb, index, and pinky, and a coat of the grey Quirk on my middle and ring nails.  Then, I started playing.

With a detail brush, I started making random zigzags in Liquid Leather across my middle two nails.  I topped it with another coat of the Quirk and repeated the process until I had built about 4 coats up.  As you can see, I got complete opacity on the nail but you can see my zigzags bubbling up through the smokey polish.  Deciding that my other nails couldn't sit there looking all plain, I added one coat of Quirk, then drew the swirl in Liquid Leather and the same detail brush, then topped them with another coat of the Quirk. 

This was my first time playing with a freehand pond look, and I quite like that it has a sort of gothic feel.  I really need to try doing it with acrylic paint rather than polish for smoother lines, but I think doing it as a pond style helps conceal any huge blemishes in my brushwork.

Do you play with your nail art like this too, or is it just me?  Let me know in the comments - and better yet, tag me in your pictures on Facebook and Instagram with #fixintofaff so I can see what kinds of doodling you come up with!

Hope you're all having a great day, and I'll see ya soon!