Aquarium Fishies

 Itty bitty fishies! Garnet of The Nail Rainbow challenged me to do something based on her new little little danio fish. I decided to do an aquarium painting on my thumb, middle, and ring nails, then do a stylized representation of the fishes on my index and ring. Not the most successful nail art I've ever done, but I think it's fun!

 I started out by painting my thumb, middle, and ring fingers with a coat of SpaRitual Undercurrent. After that dried completely, I sponged a gradient onto my blue nails with some Sinful Colors Fly Away. Next, I added the aquarium sand using Sally Hansen Stocking Nude, dotted with some China Glaze White on White for some texture. I used Pure Ice Free Spirit to add some aquarium plants, and Sally Hansen Forbidden Fudge to add a log to my middle nail.

For the little fishies, I used a small brush, some Sinful Colors Island Coral, and Maybelline Pacific Blues. The blue fish is harder to see in the photos, but in person he's visible. For the fins, I used Sally Hansen Lite. I then added some little bubbles with China Glaze White on White.

 On my index and pinky I used one coat of Sally Hansen Lite, which is a thin shimmery yellow. When that was dry, I blocked off a triangle on the base of each nail, then painted my pinky with Sinful Colors Island Coral and my index with Maybelline Pacific Blues. I then added one layer of Icing Falling for You, which is a shimmery pink/gold. To add some scale effect, I used Sally Hansen Lite and stamping plate PUEEN25 with a little diamond pattern. I didn't have a good fish scale stamp, but it still works as is.

I did try with freehanding in the little yellow stripes the danios have, but it looked too busy so I reverted to just scales.

Colors Used:

SpaRitual Undercurrent

Sinful Colors Fly Away

Sally Hansen Stocking Nude

China Glaze White on White

Pure Ice Free Spirit

Sally Hansen Forbidden Fudge

Sinful Colors Island Coral

Maybelline Pacific Blues

Sally Hansen Lite

Icing Falling for You

PUEEN25