I have a tendency to get complacent with solid nails every once in a while and this design was the results of about a month of having plain nails and someone telling me my nails were boring and I needed to hurry up and do something different already! I don't know but as much as I love painting crazy designs on my nails, there's something really refreshing and stunning about bright white nails--which happened to be the color I had been rocking for about 2 weeks. When I finally decided to take this person's advice and get out of my "plain nail slump" I wasn't all that interested in taking off the white so I wanted to find a design to paint over it (not the best nail painting etiquette but it hadn't chipped...judge away). Also I had just bought this sick snake ring for about $4 at H&M so I thought maybe I could do something that coordinated with that in color and texture. I ended up deciding to try a new technique called dry brushing.
Since I already had the white polish on, it made the mani a bit more efficient. However for the sake of a tutorial, I will include the steps for that part as well. Dry brushing actually works well on day old manicures too in order to avoid messing up the base shade with the addition of the other polishes since the brush is mostly dry.
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| Can you see why I left this color on for two weeks? |
One of the cool things about dry brushing is that you can generate a number of different textures from the same basic technique. I wanted to have a really harsh, defined brush stroke effect, but depending on how you layer it, the colors you choose and how many layers of topcoat you put on, you can create more of a smoke look.
- Paint one coat of nail foundation. I used butter LONDON's Nail Foundation Flawless Basecoat.
- Paint two coats of your base color. I used Cotton Buds, the white seen above, to accentuate the colors I was going to use overtop more. Ideally you want to wait a day or so before moving on to the next part to ensure the base is set and dry.
- Select 1-5 polishes that you want to use for your dry brushing. I opted for greys, blacks, glitters, and a neon green because I thought it looked a little grunge and reminded me of snakeskin--because working a nail design around a ring makes tons of sense.
- Using your first polish, remove as much polish as possible from the brush by wiping it on the neck of the bottle , and even brushing it on a paper towel to get excess polish off. Once it is mostly dry, brush it across your nail in any way you want. I started from the nail bed and worked about halfway up the nail, then added a few more strokes along the edge of the nail. You can paint at different angles all across the nail, but I wanted to create more of a gradient with the tips mostly white so I concentrated the brushstrokes at the nail bed and up.
- Repete step 4 using as many polishes as you desire until you have created a look you are happy with. You can always repeat colors if you feel one of your first shades is covered up too much.
- Finish with one coat of topcoat. As always I used SV Topcoat.
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| Adding Union Jack Black over Cotton Buds |
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| Adding neon green Wellies |
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| Adding Chimney Sweep and Diamond Geezer |
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| Adding the dark glitter, Gobsmacked |
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| I made a pretty mess |
The possibilities of the technique are endless from this more distressed, grunge look to a two color "black shatter" effect, a fluid smoke look, or a subtle textural look. Another added benefit is that you can just keep building colors, and each nail doesn't have to look the same so there is little room for mistakes. Do you think you will give dry brushing a try?
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| Wellies Diamond Geezer Chimney Sweep Gobsmacked Union Jack Black |
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