Butterfly Wings

Well guys, I'm officially on holidays from uni for the next 3 months. I'll still be working, but hopefully I'll have lots of spare time to focus on the blog. I have a few things that I'm very excited about that I'll be letting you guys know about over the coming months, but all good things take time so you'll have to be patient ;)

So, today's design. I'm running low on nail polish remover so using glitter was a definite no-no (sorry giant list of untried indies). Luckily for you guys, that means nail art!

Full sunlight

Shade

Full sunlight (my camera clearly couldn't handle the holo goodness)

These butterfly wings required several steps, and were so messy that this is definitely the sort of thing I only ever want to do once (so count yourselves lucky because I very nearly didn't finish).  I'll walk you through step by step:

Step 1: Create a gradient on your nails. I used OPI's 'You're A Pisa Work' and 'Need Sunglasses?'. I used the sponging method found on Nailasaurus' blog here.

Step 2: Cover your gradient with a coat or two of linear holo topcoat. I used Gloss 'n Sparkle's 'Spectra Flair' which is now available internationally on Shoppe Eclecticco (along with Emily de Molly polishes). Aussie girls can still buy from the Gloss 'n Sparkle etsy store.

Step 3: You're going to do some stamping! I've used the black konad polish and the wing designs from Nailz Craze plate NC01. You can find all the details for purchasing the plate on the Nailz Craze facebook page. If you're new to stamping I have a walk-through of my first stamping experience here.

Step 4: Take a dotting tool and your holo top coat and place some dots in the black section at the top of the nail. Then apply your clear top coat, clean up the mess you made all over your fingers sponging on your gradient and stamping and then go pass out somewhere from exhaustion

So what do you think? I think the final effect is quite striking, and probably worth all the mess (even though my fingers do still have pink patches on them despite doing a clean up twice). Let's hope I can make this mani last a few days considering all the effort that went in to it!