Poinsettias (with Pictorial)

Hello friends! We are less than two weeks away from Christmas, can you believe it? Although I'm still smack in the middle of  exams, I decided to take a  much needed break from studying and relax with some holiday themed nails (luckily, I have a few days gap before my next exam). I cannot wait for the break to start! I've been so tired as of late and my sleeping schedule is non-existent. I really wish I could just snuggle up in my blankets and watch netflix with a cup of hot chocolate all day.

I guess I'm continuing the nature themed nails from last week as well, with even more red and green plants. Poinsettias are so pretty! I used to be fascinated with them as a child, because the entire plant just looks like one huge flower. I also used to really enjoy playing with the little buds in the idle, I would always take one out and play with it for some odd reason (I was a strange child). Maybe I should bring a poinsettia home for Christmas this year, just to bring a little extra green into the home for these dreary winter months.

For this design, I decided to do something different. I used a black base color! I don't think it's something I've ever done before, so this was a complete first for me. Straying away from my usual white base was an interesting experience! The design definitely looked a lot more dull than I intended for it to be;and not being unable to fix mistakes was a little nerve wracking (due to the base color no being pure black). Overall, I quite enjoyed this experience and look forward to doing similar things in the future, which means that I need to start stocking up on black polishes!

Without further ado, here are more tips and tricks (and a pictorial) on how I created this look....

• *note that this design is done predominantly using acrylic paint
• Start off with an opaque black base color (I used Zoya's Raven)
• Map out what your flowers are going to be using a thin paint brush and some red acrylic paint, the design does not need to be very bold at this point
• Add in some spiky green leaves around your flowers, this, you will need to build up the leaves until it is opaque in color
• Use a darker green color to draw in the veins of the leaves (I mixed the original green with some black to obtain this color)
• To make the leaves more realistic, also highlight the around the edges of the leaves and around the dark veins using some white or cream colored acrylic paint
• Moving on to the red petals.... with the leaves complete, build up your red petals until they are opaque (mixing a little bit of white into the red may help with this, and it will also make it contrast again the black base more)
• Shade your red petals by creating a gradient using a darker shade of red at the inner corner of the petal and blending it to a much lighter shade of red at the tips
• Using a pink color (mixed using red and white paint), draw on the veins of the red petals
• For some of the petals on top, highlight the veins using diluted white paint (I dilute it with small amount of water to get it slightly more translucent)
• Using yellow acrylic paint, randomly draw some small dots of various sizes in the middle of the flower to create the little buds
• Finish off the design with a top-coat and it's as easy as that
• I think this design would look great with a matte finish, but I ran out of my matt top-cot a while ago
• because this design used many layers of acrylic paint, more than one layer of top-coat may be required to get a fully glossy finish

*Bonus picture I snapped of the finished design before I added a top-coat. I think the matte/shiny combo looks pretty cool