MSMD Monday - Enchanted Fairy Woodland

This is my own simplistic take on the fabulous ArcadiaNailArt's Magical Forest Tim Burton Inspired Nails http://youtu.be/QXmK_mA237g.

More details and lots more pics (I painted both hands again!) after the break.

I have tried taking pictures of these nails in different lights to show up the colours as well as the painting and glitter.  My base is a gradient created using 3 different polishes from the NYC Foil Explosion range Aqua Mystic (blue), Magic Earth (green) and Power of Elements (pinky purple).  

As these were on 3 for 2 in Semi Chem (the only shop in town that stocks NYC) it made sense to purchase all 3!  Even though the offer has now finished I had to go back and pick up the other 2 colours in the range Pure Air (coral) and Enchanting Fire (rosy pink).

I started with a single coat of Aqua Mystic over each nail.  When that was dry I dabbed a small blob of Magic Earth at the bottom of each nail and squidged it with my finger.  I had a cotton wool pad soaked in nail polish remover in my work area so I could wipe the polish off my finger after each squidge to stop things getting too messy.  I repeated this process with Power of Elements along the top of each nail.  You could use a sponge or brush if you don't want to get messy when creating the gradient, but it was a technique I had seen and wanted to try.

and then added a coat of Nina Super Dry Top Coat.  This extra topcoat helps protect the polish if I make a mistake with the painting.I added the design to each nail using a very fine striper brush I've cut down and black acrylic paint. 

 There are 5 sets of fairy wings over 10 nails!

For that extra magical effect I added 17 Glitter Top Coat (reflects gold, green and pink) over small areas of each nail to give the appearance of fairy dust.  This worked really well, but was terrible to try and photograph.

Click on a link below to see what the other bloggers have been inspired by this week: