Manicure of the Day! + tutorial!

It's the First day of Spring! I wanted to celebrate by sharing a cute flower mani design with you! I took pictures along the way to show you how to create this look! This is my Violet Mani, featuring Zoya Kendal!,  I love Kendal, even if Zoya intended it as a winter color, I feel Kendal is also a perfect pastel for the spring! Kendal is a beautiful lavender creme that works perfectly for this design! I also used white, yellow, and purple acrylic paint! Acrylic paint can be found at your local craft store, Michael’s and ACMoore. (Warning! This post is Picture Heavy!)

Now to show you how to create this look!

First, apply your basecoat and paint for nails with Zoya Kendal! Next, create the outline of a violet shape with a small paint brush and white acrylic paint, like shown on the left.

Next use the white acrylic paint again to paint the inside white of the violet. To do this you just make some short brushstrokes lightly. I feel like the key to using acrylics to make designs is not using a lot of paint!

Next, make the yellow center of the violet with yellow acrylic paint. This does not have to be very precise (just look at mine) but draws your attention in. After that, use a darker purple acrylic paint and make a few brushstrokes of varying lengths on the white inside that you just painted before (shown on left)

The next couple of steps were thrown together. First, with a damp paintbrush that has a minimal amount of white paint on it, make the white "highlight lines" this just means make wispy lines throughout the flower. Also repeat this with a small amount of dark purple, you should have less purple lines than white. To finish your design, paint the background of the flower with dark purple. This just means wherever your flower isn't blocked off, paint with the darker purple acrylic paint until the edge of your nail.

Make sure you top with a topcoat! But wait until the paint is dry or else you will smear your design! I varied the placement of the violets on my nails to add a little variety to the design! If you can't get the design right away, don't give up, most of the time I start over a couple of times until I figure out what I like best! So keep trying!

I love how this design turned out! I have received so many compliments because of it! Acrylic paint really does allow you a lot more possibilities, I find it a lot easier to work with and you can purchase cheap paint that works perfectly well. I would LOVE if you tried this design and showed me what your nails looked like! Please post a picture on my Facebook or tweet me a pic on Twitter!

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