Hello, and happy (almost) spring! This week, I wanted something green for St. Patrick’s Day, but didn’t want anything too obnoxious. So, I’m going with my first attempt at dry brushing!
I actually planned ahead for this mani. Surprised? Lately I’ve just been winging it, so it’s nice to know ahead of time what kind of mess I’m getting in to. I decided to try dry brushed nail art for the first time, and watched a few Youtube videos to figure it out. It’s extremely simple, but I still ended up following along to this video by Kelli Marissa. Watching the video helped my get an idea of how many different colors I should use, and how to place them.
What I Used:
- Base Coat: Orly – Bonder
- 1st Color: Glisten & Glow – Jukebox & Jitterbug
- 2nd Color: OPI – This Isn’t Greenland
- 3rd Color: Painted Polish – Stamped in Greenery 2.0
- 4th Color: KL Polish – Chloe
- 5th Color: Zoya – Elphie
- Top Coat: Glisten & Glow – Top Coat
- Twinkled T clean up brush, size #2
- nail polish remover
I’m trying a new base coat this time in the hopes of finding out whether all this chipping is just me or the polish. (I’m guessing it’s just me, but you never know) So, I painted the first color on Wednesday. And I was a little surprised that it wasn’t a one coater. Of all of my Glisten & Glow polishes, this green was definitely the trickiest to apply. Although, I’m not sure I can complain about a polish that just takes two careful coats. I’m just now realizing though, since I was using a Glisten & Glow polish, it probably would have made more sense to use their base coat still.
The next day I added the dry brushing. There was no real strategy behind what order I painted the polishes, I just grabbed all of the greens I owned and used them. The first polish was OPI – This isn’t greenland. It looks almost gold-brown-green in comparison to the bright Glisten & Glow. I was hoping that each of the polishes would look drastically different, and still work together, and so this was a great start. I was nervous that I’d leave the brush too wet, making the brushing look too splotchy, so I made sure to leave this coat light. The next color was Painted Polish. I didn’t worry as much about how dry the brush was, and you can see there’s some thicker spots.
Since it was the same technique over and over, just new colors, I didn’t bother taking pictures for the KL Polish or Zoya step. But unfortunately, I just got sloppier and sloppier as I went on. And, the Zoya brush was harder to get dry than the rest of the polishes I used. And so, my pinky nail ended up with some nice big blobs of Zoya – Elphie. Once the blobs were dry, I went back over them with Jukebox & Jitterbug, and you could hardly tell they were ever there.
This was probably the easiest and fastest nail art manicure I’ve ever done. It maybe took me an hour, and I was definitely being very relaxed about time. Short of just adding glitter over the top of a color, I can’t think of anything more short and sweet.
Hope everyone enjoys their St. Patrick’s Day and the official start to spring!
Update:
Well, I learned two things this week: 1) crafting can be pretty damaging to your nails, and 2) I should probably use the same brand base coat and color whenever possible. Over the weekend I had a craft night with friends, and I somehow chipped them like crazy, and even broke one. How you brake a nail by just painting, you ask? Who knows. Apparently I’m just too rough on my hands. So on Monday, I decided to completely redo them. But this second time around, I used the Glisten & Glow base coat, and they immediately felt more secure. It might have all just been in my head, but if I’ve got it, might as well use all the same brand. I also had to shorten them a ton, to cover up the break.
Weekly Nail 