Black and White Flowers

Next up on my black and white ideas for the competition that Berry Polished was running is black and white flowers! I got the idea for this mani from Nails Art Mani.

To start off I used one coat of Ulta3 Base Coat and then two coats of Ulta3 Lily White on my index, middle and pinky fingers. On my ring and thumb fingers I applied one coat of BYS Black Satin. I then freehanded half each nail in the opposite colour. Then using a small nail art brush i drew the white half of the flowers on the black side using the polish from my Konad White Nail Art Pen since it more opaque. Then I added the stripes using the striper from the Konad pen and a small dotting tool to added the dots using the Konad white also. Once that was dry I used the BYS black to add to the inside of the white half of the flower. I then repeated the entire process in opposite colours on the white half of the flowers :) I finished off with Revlon Colorstay top coat!


Photo time :) I apologise in advance, I got a bit photo happy! My poor thumbs both sides of both my thumbs broke :'(

Black and White Flowers in Artificial Light

Black and White Flowers in Artificial Light

Black and White Flowers in Natural Light

Black and White Flowers in Natural Light

Black and White Flowers in the Shade

Black and White Flowers in the Shade

I love the orinigal design but I'm really not happy with my own attempt. Again this is because of how horrible my brush strokes are. If I was to try this again I would use acrylic paint to form the design instead of nail polish because it really wasn't opaque enough to work with. This is the design I chose to submit but I have one more design left to show you :)

Swirls and Dotted Flowers

I wanted to play around with a nail art brush that my sister in law had given me so I started with my Nicole by OPI It Starts With Me manicure. I freehanded an accent across the tips of my nails in Nicole by OPI Play Fair. Then I used the nail art brush to draw swirls using Play Fair from the accent down the nail and then used It Starts With Me to draw swirls in the opposite direction up the nail. Finally I used Nicole by OPI Positive Energy across the lines of It Starts With Me and Play Fair.

Then I figured why not play around with my nail art pens? So I used my Konad Nail Art Pen in white to draw and flower and dotted swirls in opposite directions on the sides of the flower. I used my Konad Nail Art Pen in black for the centre of the flower. Then I added a coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast top coat and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Quick Dry Drops.

These photo's were taken that night in artificial light.

Swirls and Dotted Flowers in Artificial Light

Swirls and Dotted Flowers in Artificial Light

The following day I took these photo's outside in the sunlight.

Swirls and Dotted Flowers in Natural Light

Swirls and Dotted Flowers in Natural Light

I love the flowers and the dotted swirls but I think I need to get a new nail art brush for fine work. I really love the silver Positive Energy and I can't wait to use it again in nail art! I wish I had left it with the pink accent and then the dotted flowers and dotted swirls. It's funny because the swirls look much better in these photo's than in real life and that's saying something lol.

Nude Accent with Flowers

It was getting late at night and my nails were still bare because I'd been swatching. I didn't want to leave my nails bare *GASP* so I decided to do a simple design .

I wanted to go with a bare nail look to save time but my nails are slightly stained so instead I applied Konad Regular Base Coat and then a thin layer of Maybelline Sheer Ballet Pink. Once that was dry I used scotch tape for one hand for a red accent across my nails in Revlon Revlon Red and then I freehanded the others. Once that was dry I used the flower image from Konad image Plate M31 and stamped it onto my nail. Then I stamped half the image again onto my nail. I cleaned up my manicure and added a coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat and my trusty Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Quick Dry Drops.

These photo's were taken in artificial light once my design was dry. Sorry about the crappy lighting but the white flowers kept getting washed out.

The following day I took photo's of these before it started to chip. From previous experience I know that Maybelline Sheer Ballet Pink only lasts about a day before it starts to chip.

I love how simple this design is!! I think it looks amazing with the small splash of vibrant red against the delicate flower stamps. Although I keep wishing that I has added just one more flower across the edge of my nail along the red. I'll probably end up doing this design again when I need a quick manicure but add the flower across the top because it was really driving me nuts! That's not to say I don't love this design as it is because I do!

Revlon Iced Mauve and Angled Accent with Flowers

I wanted to play around with a few different techniques to build a nail art design on my Revlon Iced Mauve manicure. To begin with I decided to do an accent angle and I chose to use Maybelline Colorama Dark Plum as I thought it would contrast nicely with Iced Mauve. The design needed something more to it, and to help cover up the shoddy lines I made for my accent nail, so I decided to stamp it. I wanted a design that was long enough to cover the join between the two colours and decided on a flower design from Konad Image Plate M25. So I stamped that image on each nail in Konad Special Polish White. One coat of Seche Vite to make sure I didn't drag my stamped image and it was done!

I took these photo's in artificial light just after I finished so the top coat was still slightly wet.

 

 

Then I took these photo's just as the sun was going down so there wasn't as much sunlight as I would have hoped for. Actually there was only one small spot in my backyard that had a single beam of sunlight shining through!

Wow I love this manicure! I can't wait to mix and match the nail polish colours and the Konad design. There are endless possibilities to this design and I would love to see it in blue. So next time you see it will probably be a blue version!