Cherry Blossom Freehand

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Todays Manicure was actually very quick and easy, although freehand. No tiny shapes and intricate parts to consume time, you can do the whole thing in 4 steps (I should really do a tutorial for this). It was inspired by Sakura, Japanese Cherry Blossom Trees - They're beautiful and are my favourite flower (is a blossom a flower? It is now.)

Obtained through Google Images.

I painted American Apparel L'Espirit over my base coat, a beautifully smooth Lilac Creme, opaque in ONE COAT (although did two anyway). Using Barry M Mushroom, I then used a small paint brush to paint jagged tree branches in straight-ish, horizontal lines across the nail. Once this was dry, I used a small dotting tool to dab in spots of American Apparel Coney Island at the end of the banches, and then repeated with Superdrug MUA Medium Pink. Here are the results:-

all pictures in natural light - no sun!

my camera HATES purples - this is slightly more lilacy IRL, and less cornflower blue.

flutter by!

As you can see, I added some Fimo Cane butterflies, purchased from eBay. For those of you who don't know, Fimo canes are a nail art applique made from polymer clay that come in a long cane, with a design through the middle - see THIS post for more info. You can then slice them very thinly, with a craft knife, and stick the resulting piece onto the nail design. I was awful at slicing to begin with, but, like everything else, practice makes perfect, and I managed to slice these thinly enough that, with two coats of Seche Vite Topcoat, they were smooth to the nail and incorporated flat into the design. I prefer it this way because then I don't catch them on things, or pick at them, but you could cut them thicker and "perch" them on, to look like "real" butterflies - it's up to you!

It's a very Springy look, and I like the way it came out, but if I could change one thing it would be that it's maybe a little crowded - a few less branches next time :)

I BUM American Apparel polishes - the formula is perfect and their shades are great. the types of creme polishes are right up my street aswell - I love matte block colour, can't be doing with these shimmery polishes I'm afraid! They've bought out some new shades too, check it ooowwwwt. As I mentioned, L'Espirit is more lilacy and less blue, but my camera has a little cry when it sees purple - I have NO idea how to adjust the colour in any kind of editing program, either, so you will have to use your....

 Imaginaaaaaaation.

Hmm. Too obscure?


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