After exporting my baked maps from blender into substance painter I began to start painting.
I tried out different colours but settled on my initial design which was deep seaweed green.
My model did look a little messy and I could see the retopologising clearly through the paint so I decided to go back to an earlier model I had and start from just after the retoplogising, making subtle changes like the multiresolution modifier being applied at 1 instead of 0 and this did help immensely. I had to re-export uv maps but t was worth it for the cleaner result.
Because I had two objects they, unfortunately, had to stay separate which is not what I had planned, this meant everything I needed to do, I had to do it twice which also doubled the stress!
I was very happy with the way my substance paint worked out! The tentacles were shiny and her dress was soft.