I'm Feeling Rosey

 

Oh hello, hello! I I know that I haven't updated in a very long time, and I apologize! On the plus side though, I finally graduated from high school; four extremely tiring years are finally over! No more late nights and long weeks doing arts projects and living off coffee or less than an hour a sleep for me! I am so ready for two months of relaxation and spending some quality time with my friends before we all part ways for university. Although I know that I'll miss people dearly, I am more than ready to pack my things up and move away. Speaking of packing up, I still have no idea of how I'm going to move all of my nail polishes and nail art supplies to my dorm!....But I'll climb over that mountain when I get to it.

Now, I know I haven't been updating this blog (or my Instagram...sorry), but I have not stopped doing my nails. In fact, I have a plethora of pictures stored, that I just haven't posted yet, though there were a few designs that I neglected to document. These are the nails that I have on right now. They feature one of my most favourite flowers- roses! These are actually quite different from the rose designs I usually do, because they are a lot more detailed. The techniques however, are quite similar, but instead of using just one colour for the roses, I used four. I am in love with this design, it's so much more detailed and the roses just seem to pop out, especially against the nude background! And I don't know if it's just me being weird but, sometimes, when I finish a design, I have this one part or one rose in this instance that I adore so much more than the rest. Is that weird? 

Anyhow, I've ranted enough (for now), so... Onto my tips and tricks:

• Choose a base that is a very light (but solid) colour and will make the roses pop! Here, I chose to use a nude polish from the Simply Sweet Vintage pack
• To paint the roses you must  use a very thin paint brush (I used my usual 10/0), a dotting tool won't get you the details that you want
• To make painting easier, I used acrylic paint for the roses, it saves me polish, can be mixed for different shades easily, and mistakes can be erased with the wipe of a bit of alcohol on a cotton ball
• For the roses, my palette consisted of four colours: a pink (the main colour), a darker pink, a light pink, and white.
• To paint the roses, start off with swirls of the darkest pink- it doesn't have to be neat; then move on and use your lighter pink to sketch in the petals of the roses (starting from the centre). Next, use your main pink to 'fill in' your rose but make sure you don't cover too much of your base and highlighting colours or else your roses wont have dimension. Last us just a tiny bit of white to put a few highlights on your rose (not too much or it will look like it's glowing)
• For the leaves, my palette also consisted of four colours: a green, white, and a darker/lighter shade variation of the main green colour.
• To paint the leaves, like with the roses, start off with the darkest green, then move on to the light green and then to the main colour, and finish it off with the white highlights.
• I've already mentioned this, but do not over highlight with the white! You roses (and leaves) may turn out to look like they're glowing!
• Remember that practice makes perfect, if you feel unsure, always practice a few times first! If you happen to be using acrylic paint, you could always erase it with a Q-tip dipped in some alcohol.
• Remember to clean your brush often! Cleaning after every few strokes will ensure that you will have a consistently clean and thin brush tip throughout. 
• If you're using acrylic paint, don't forget to top coat it, or else it will start to come off.