Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Because sometimes you have to paint lacy mandalas...


Hello, all! It's almost hump day! I'm already so exhausted from this week, but I was really craving some nail art tonight so I got my act together so I could share something new with you all. 

As I often mention on here, I find inspiration from many online sources (patterns, designs, etc) and pinterest has become one of my favorite sources of inspiration. I've even got a pattern board now! Anyway, I was browsing tonight and came across this wonderful site from a very creative lady (Rachel Taylor) who creates fantastic papercrafts. I took inspiration from her design and used it to inspire tonight's mani. 

About a week and a half ago I received the OPI spring/summer collection in the mail - though one of them broke in transit and got all over all the other bottles :( - and I've been dying to use the polishes from it. I'm so excited that almost all of them are cremes (my one true love!) so it gives me lots of options for nail art. 
This mani uses OPI's Toucan Do It If You Try, a stunning coral orange that I almost left sans nail art because it was so pretty. I used my trimmed down acrylic detail brush and white acrylic paint to do the lace pattern and since I love mandalas so very much, I decided to use parts of Rachel's design to make up different parts of the mandala, filling in with my design here and there. I really loved the sketched look of the original design so I like that my design isn't perfect (or centered on my nail!). 
I also ended up mattifying these since I love how much it shows the details. I do wish I could wear this without a top coat since I think it leaves the lines more defined, but alas, I want these to make it through my shower tomorrow ;) 
Hope everyone is having a great week! Happy Polishing :)