TopCoatIt

I love the look of a one stroke flower mani. I’ve wanted tutorials more than once, but I’ve always been intimidated by them. Plus, I don’t have the right brush and can’t be bothered to go out and buy one.

I’ve been having a hard time feeling motivated to sit down and create manicures to show you with the ever growing list of things that need to be done around the house. For this reason I’ve been trying to do more designs that don’t require any tools. Bottle brushes only.

I started with NYX Girls Pink Strawberry, then used my Nina Ultra Pro white base coat to create my flowers. I wiped most of the polish off the brush to make it intentionally streaky. The look is a little subtle, but I really like it. I will for sure be trying this again.

I loved this picture I saw on Pinterest.  Had to do it.
This was super easy to do. I used a coffee stirrer straw to get smaller circles. Because the straw was so small, the paint or polish easily covered the hole and I had to wipe some off or blow through the straw to get the excess out before I could stamp with it. I started with a base of NYX Girls White and used NYX Girls Pink Strawberry and OPI DS Radiance along with black and blue acrylics to do my stamping.

The vision I had in my head was sooo much better than this. That’s why I’m calling this take 1.
I had an idea to create a dahlia looking manicure by pushing the polish around a bit. While this is definitely unique, it isn’t quite what I was shooting for. I had an idea for another way to try to achieve the look I want. So stay tuned for take 2 coming soon.

Unsuccessful execution aside, what do you think of textured nails?  They’re difficult to photograph, I’ll tell you that.  The light reflects is odd ways and the camera has a hard time focusing.  I’m generally a fan of the super smooth, glassy look, but I’m liking this fresh spin on things.

Today we’re choosing the challenge for ourselves. We’re revisiting a past challenge we enjoyed. I spent some time going through my posts deciding what I was in the mood for. I was feeling a happy rainbow again.

I went with all acrylics and no top coat today. What?! I know, I’m all about a good top coat, but I like the matte, textured look of unsealed acrylics. It makes me feel like I’m an artist painting a canvas. I tried a couple different patterns before deciding what I liked. That’s why my pinkie is different.

Be sure the check out all the other manis today:

Amanda of Amandalandish
Anna of Going to the Showing
Anne of Grape Fizz Nails
Ashley of Art Evolve
Chelsea of Nailed Blog
ChiChi of I’m Just Me…ChiChi
Cordia of Seriously Swatched
Elizabeth of Did My Nails
Katherine of Haul of Fame
Kelly of Tuxarina
Lakeisha of Refined and Polished
Maribeth of Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite!
Marisa of Polish Obsession
Meredith of Polish and Charms
Nory of Fierce Make Up and Nails
Sarah of See Sarah Swatch
Traci of DrinkCitra

I would bet that no one could guess what I patterned this manicure after. I’m going to give you a minute to think about that.
I started with NYX Girls White and used China Glaze Peachy Keen and Sinful Colors Hazard for my borders and bows.

Anyone want to venture a guess as to what my inspiration was? The winning guess will get a gold star!