Fall Florals Manicure

I can be pretty rough on my hands, I don't really like lotion, I never care for my cuticles and my nails aren't the strongest. These issues of mine have lead to a long hiatus from nail art posts here on The Closet Historian! I have been trying to improve my nail situation by taking vitamins and some paint on nail strengtheners in the hopes that they would finally grow! Today you see the results of my strategy, a fun floral manicure for fall! 

I saw a really cute version of this manicure in bright summery colors somewhere online this past spring and I filed the idea in my mind for use once my nails grew a bit and cooperated. I found a few new fall colored nail polishes in the sale section at Sally Beauty Supply when I was last there (...buying hair color, I got distracted!), and decided to do this fun floral mani in fall tones to celebrate the seasons changing!

Though this manicure looks a bit advanced, it is essentially just a lot of dots in a certain arrangement. To create these dots easily does require a particular tool. You can make dots with toothpicks or the end of a bobby pin but I really prefer a dotting tool! I bought one that has a dotting tool on one end and a thin brush on the other which is just perfect for a variety of nail art designs. It was only a few dollars at Sally Beauty and I totally recommend picking one up if you are getting into nail art.

Anyways, here's a list of the polishes I used to create this mani:

-Orly, Wild Wisteria (darkest purple)
-China Glaze, China Rouge (red)
-Revlon, Enchanting (light purple)
-Revlon, Posh (kelly green)
-China Glaze, Stoked to be Soaked (medium orange)
-Sinful Colors, Amethyst (medium purple)
-Sinful Colors, Song of Summer (mint green)
-Sinful Colors, Calypso (darkest teal)

Start by painting your nails with a dark creme color, here I used my new favorite dark purple Orly Wild Wisteria. 

Take your dotting tool and your red polish to start creating the design.

Start my making three dots just next to each other, create a few of these 'flowers'

Next add some light purple dots, notice mine are not perfect round dots but sorta misshapen ones, this is on purpose as these are not supposed to be polka dots, they will be flowers!

Next, add the 'leaves' with your dotting tool, create little lines/swipes of the green next to your dotted flowers.

Then, using the brush end of your tool (or any tiny brush you have) create the larger flowers. The easiest way to create these flowers is to just lightly press the tip of the brush down to create a petal shape and then radiate these petals around from the center. 

Again, I'm not worrying too much about it looking perfect.

The final step is to add centers to the various flowers you have created! I chose to used dark teal for the center of the orange flowers, a mint green for the red flowers and a darker purple for the lilac flowers.

Now I know what your thinking, sure maybe I can do this on my left hand, but on my right hand no way! I agree with you, I am no expert at painting designs on my right hand using my left. I tend to do a similar but paired down design for my right hand. In this instance just a few of the easier dot flowers so that my nails match but aren't exactly the same. One day perhaps I will get better at using my left hand but the difference doesn't usually bother me.

Anyways, as usual finish with clear topcoat and enjoy your new fall florals manicure! I hope I will be able to do more nail art tutorials in the future, I just need to make some better habits for
maintaining my nails. I just ordered a fun nail art stamping plate (the one I mentioned in last weeks wishlist post) so I hope to be creating pretty new manicures using that soon!