Grey Glitter Rose Nails

One of my favorite things to wear is a black, cotton, 3/4 length sleeved shirt that has grey and ash colored roses.  I finally got around to recreating the print on my nails!

As usual, I protected my nails with a clear base coat.  After using a clear base coat for months, I can honestly say that a base coat really helps polish last longer.  I then applied a thin coat of Raven to the free edge of each nail to seal the edges and administered two, thin coats of Raven to each nail.  After each hand dried, I used my largest dotting tool to add uneven dots with Recycle in different sizes to each nail in a random pattern.  When the dots dried, I used a small nail art brush to apply the detail lines of the roses in White On and Skull and Glossbones.  Using the same brush, I added leaves with Recycle. 

The design looks fine as it was but I wanted to add just a bit of color to break the monochromatic theme with these nails. To bring out the leaves, I applied some Call You Later glitter and Ivanka to each leaf.  To highlight the roses, I added Kaleidoscope glitter to each rose.  I finished with a fast drying top coat and now my nails have an antique, almost gothic quality with this design.

Below is my current base coat product.  It's triple threat being a base coat, top coat, and strengthener in one.  I tend to use Julep's Fast Drying Top Coat as my top coat because I think it helps my polish set and dry faster.  I had to switch products because my base coat kept peeling and chipping when I used Double Duty and Hard as Wraps for base coats.  Pro FX is easily found at any Walmart beauty section and I recall I only spent about $5 for this large, 2.5 oz. bottle.  Try it out and I doubt you'd be disappointed!

Betsey Johnson Leopard and Roses Inspiration Nails

Yet another set of nails inspired by fashion.  Who doesn't love Betsey Johnson's designs?  I love how she mixes patterns and makes women look their best.  I saw the dress below and leopard print nails are sooo in right now.  I had to break out an image plate and a dotting tool to prep for these awesome nails.

The Betsey Johnson dress: 

Polishes Used:

Sinful Colors Snow Me White

Klean Color's Metallic Yellow

Wet N Wild Black

Julep's Drew

Sinful Color's Soul Mate

Julep's Diane

Wet N Wild's Lavender Creme

Wet N Wild's Burgundy Frost

Insta-Dri's Lickety Split Lime

To get these nails, I started with a clear basecoat.  If you look closely at the dress print, the undercolors of the leopard print range from white to a yellowy gold.  I thought the best way to accomplish this was by a sort of gradient of white and metallic yellow.  First, I sponged on Snow Me White down the middle of each nail.  I then sponged Metallic Yellow around the edges of the nail leaving the tips white. 

Next, using Konad Image Plate M57, I applied Wet N Wild's Black to the leopard print stamp and applied it to each nail.  I used a swab to clean up any stray spots from the skin around my nails.

Now, I think these nails look GREAT like this but since we are doing Betsey's kickass print, I couldn't stop!   I then chose my largest dotting tool and dipped it into Snow Me White.  I applied one to two large dots at random corners of each nail.  Trust me, the design looks better if the roses are placed at differnt spots on each nail.  I then used a smaller dotting tool to put in one to two smaller dots in Snow Me White.  After the dots dried, I applied two different shades of pink to the white dots, using Drew and Lavendar Creme.  I then applied swishes of Drew, Lavendar Creme, Burgundy Frost, and Snow Me White to each rose to simulate petals.  Using Diane, I applied several leaves to each set of roses.  Diane is a very dark green so to bring out the leaves, I also highlighted them with Lickety-Split Lime.  Last, I applied a protective topcoat to save the design.

These nails turned out soooo cute.  Thanks, Betsey, for amazing fashion that keeps your fellow ladies looking sexy and fun.  XOXO!

Flamenco Inspired French Tip Nails

I had just received my Konad French Tip plate M19 and needed a design.  I absolutely love french tips even for my extremely short nails.   This design pretty much came out of nothing.  The only thing I actually planned to do was to have black french tips.  Using Essie's Licorice, I applied the french tip stamp to each nail.

From the french tips, I decided to apply a rose image from an image plate.  I think I was watching "Dancing with the Stars" or something because once I decided to add the rose image it came together and I had a theme!  I am not entirely sure which plate I used so if you want to know, please contact me and I will take a look at my images plates to ascertain which brand and plate was used.  I did apply the rose image in different places on each nail.  The rose image was so large that I could really only fit one on each nail.   I then freehanded two leaves for each rose with a nail art brush in Sally Hansen's Lickety Split Lime.  Last I applied a topcoat in Wet N Wild Fast Dry's Party of Five glitter.   I really like the uncolored nail background in this design.

Note to self: do more natural nail background in nail art!

Youtube Inspiration: CutePolish's Vintage Rose Tutorial

Trolling for cute nail art on youtube a few months ago, I found this tutorial and finally had the time and polish to try it out.  Cute Polish has tons of nail art tutorials so be sure to subscribe to her on youtube!  Also, you can see Cute Polish's Vintage Rose tutorial here!

After a clear base coat, I applied two coats of Revlon's Blue Lagoon.  Using my largest dotting tool I placed random dots all over each nail in Sinful Color's Soul Mate.  For petal detail, I used Petite's Rock N Red.  Last, I used KleanColor's Metallic Green for leaves.  Topped with ProX Complete 3 to seal it all in.

To see exactly how to do these nails and to get some tips and tricks, do check out the youtube tutorial for these.   The tutorial was quick and easy and all credit is to be given to Cute Polish!  How cute are these nails?