Nail Painting Adventures

 

What do you know? I actually posted what I said I was going to post. This week I have tried out two of the nail designs I fell so in-love with on We Heart It (website) and altered one of them to make a toe-nail-art design. I've found that all of the painting I've been doing (like artworks and stuff) has made me better at using nail-polish, but that stuff is still awfully difficult sometimes.

 

My first nail painting adventure was exactly what I had said I would do in the  Reconsidering Nails post. I altered the butterfly design to suit my toe nails, by painting that design on my big toe and doing much simpler designs on the smaller toes. I painted two stripes on the second toe, a half blue/half black nail with a dot in the centre of the next two nails, And, I painted my pinky-toe black. Toe-nail designs are so limited due to the really small size of the nails.

 

I thought a lot about the colour scheme and had a lot of trouble trying to decide on which one I wanted to use. I decided to veer away from the traditional monarch colours and go for something original (why how original of me). I saw that some of the butterfly pictures online were taken later in the day (or was it earlier) and the white parts of the wings started to look more grey/lilac than white, and that the blue started to look darker. That's why I chose to go with Dark Blue, Black and Light Purple.

 

With this design (for fingers or toes) the most effective colour combinations follow these guidelines:

 

-Background colour: Any colour you choose (apart from nude beige or natural pink) tends to be a bright stand out colour or colours (some people use a gradient for this design).

 

-Line colour: A dark or metallic colour like dark brown, navy, black, silver, gold...

 

-Dot Colour: White, silver, gold or a pastel colour.

 

-These Colours tend to be different colours. E.g. Don't use the same colour for lines and dots.

 

-Both The background and the dots should stand out against the line or vice versa.

 

I later smudged some of the nail polish (apparently it wasn't quite dry - kinda gummy textured- when I put on my stockings for work) I wasn't too worried though, because I tend to wear ballet flats most of the time anyway.

 

 

 



I then decided to try out the cupcake design on mum's nails. I chose a mint-green background, a pearly colour for the cake and two different shades of purply-pink (one light and one dark) for the paper and cherry.  I'm pretty happy with how this turned out.

I think the colours look cute together and that this design is a pretty fun easy design. I did accidentally put a little bit too much varnish on one of the cupcakes and I tried to dab it off with my finger and smudged it. So one of the cherries looks a little bit heart shaped.

This afternoon -whilst watching a film- I painted my own fingernails in the butterfly design (picture at top of post). I decided to go with light purple, instead of matching dark blue, because I noticed that the blue was very sheer and would have visible brush-strokes.

I've noticed that it's way easier to do nails on someone else than on yourself. I am very right-handed, so my left nails (pictured at top of the post) look okay. The nails on the other hand aren't as neat and have thicker black lines. I'm not too worried though, because I think my right hand nails might get recked anyway.

I used a light purply-pink colour, black for the lines and a white colour for the dots.

I didn't end up posting a haul this week, so I'll just show you here^ what the nail polish set I bought looked like. It's that Ultra3 brand, and I bought it at my local chemist. I think the ones for sale at my workplace were cheaper, but I really liked these colours, so I went with this set. I also bought a skin colour nail polish, a black, a white and a clear. I already own silver, turquoise and some sheer shimmery ones. I may buy a few more in the future. The good thing about this brand is that the nail polish goes on really thin (less likely to chip, I think), dries quickly (means you have to be quick though) and is very cheap.

SOME TIPS:

-Cover any surfaces in your temporary salon with old towels or newspaper and wear something daggy.

-Get yourself some nail brushes for precise lines:
I just ordered some cheap ones from ebay, but have been using some old paint brushes for the nails on this post.

-Twist the paint brush against a flat surface (when varnish-coated) to create a fine point:
Great for fine lines. It's a bit of an artists trick.

-Clean your brushes by soaking them in nail polish remover:
Don't forget to take them out though (the acetone can bend your paint brush) and wash with water and soap.

-Use a pair of sharp scissors (dressmaking ones maybe?) to give your paint brush a much needed hair cut if there is no point left in the brush;
So, pretty much every brush (well, at least the skinny ones you paint finer details with) should come to a point. You can fix an old paint brush by holding the scissors at an angle and cutting. You want the bit in the middle to be the longest and the outer bristles to be shortest.

What do you think? Not too bad for a first go (painting fancy designs, not painting nails), is it?

Your Favourite Blogger,
Natalie