Wednesday 6 July 2011

My China Glaze Summer Manicure

The sun was shining and the birds were singing, and I wanted to do a cheerful really bright sunny manicure to match the weather.  I started off using China Glaze Free Love, a fabulous orange polish which I swatched earlier in my blog here, and then I added China Glaze Frosty to the very tips, a bit higher than the line you would use for a french manicure.  Once it was all dry, I used a small sponge, and sponged on China Glaze Lighthouse, gradually building up the colour, and with the white on the tips underneath it made sure the bright yellow colour really popped.  This is what it looked like when it had dried.  (Obviously this is pre-cleanup as I hadn't finished yet!)

 The next bit was a bit of a fail to be honest but I carried on regardless!  I tried stamping a red flower design at the tips of the nails but it just didn't show up well enough, the polish wasn't vivid enough and it looked a bit bleugh, so I got out a fine brush and a bottle of China Glaze Phat Santa, and free handed in the red flowers over the top of the failed stamping.  The flowers at the base of the nails went a little bit better, I stamped them using MAC Lustreware which is a metallic lilac.  I embellished these with a little more Phat Santa and in turn I embellished the red flowers with a little lustreware for contrast.  I finally finished off by using a dark yellow nail art pen and dotting the middle of the flowers and putting on a shiny topcoat.  I am happy with the final result, it could have been better but could have been a LOT worse!  It does actually look better in real life, because its smaller and doesn't show all those flaws like massive close up photo's do!  The weirdest comment I have had for this design so far is from my brother who said "it looks like tangerine sick, but no really it looks OK I suppose" I guess coming from a big brother thats probably a compliment! 

I hope you like it :) xxx

13 comments:

Unknown said...

i love the flowers on here!! great job!

Audrey- The Nail Affair said...

I think this actually really nice, from the first picture I didn't think you could improve upon that but thats a pretty look witht he flowers ^^

Hannah J said...

Lovely flowers:) Great job!

Unknown said...

So I loved it even before you put the flowers on. It looks like an awesome sunset!

Nailderella said...

yes, it does looks pretty!! I love that you used white before applying the yellow on your tips!

Anonymous said...

SUPER AWESOME! Might have to steal this idea! haha.

Vita said...

Gorgeous! The plain mani looks like flames :)

Blingernails said...

Thanks for the lovely comments :) and feel free to steal the idea if you want imfeelingnail-venturous its fine with me! I think I might actually try to add flames instead of flowers next time now after reading all your comments :)

Unknown said...

this looks really good, ilove it just with the gradient and also with the stamping :)

shel xx

Jessica-Marie said...

That is just awesome! It look so lovely <3

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Carina Gironella said...

very nice! :) im really not good in painting my nails, and with this i feel very much worse. haha! but it motivates me to do better. :0 love it even before the art. :)

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nail crazy said...

this is just great, i love it :-D

Tara said...

oh my! I am a sucker for all things red/orange/yellow. I'm LOVING your gradient and the flowers are a beautiful touch!