Mani Monday - Pastel Dry Brush

I know, I know, I know! I'm already late on my first Mani Monday! I intended on being able to post it yesterday, but Texas had a huge ice storm Sunday evening, and caused a lot of things to be closed yesterday, including Corbey's job. So he stayed home, and totally threw off my usual Monday routine! And I broke 2 nails! So I had to reshape, and file down to nubs! lol. So, I apologize again, and will do better!

So now that all the ice is melting outside, how about I quit rambling, and get to this really fun, spring time mani!?

All colors used listed here!

So, this is totally my first time ever doing the Dry Brush Technique! I watched a youtube tutorial on it after seeing @ChristabellNails on Instagram. If you would like to watch it as well, just click here! My ring finger was inspired by her design, even though my flowers aren't as pretty as hers! It's not as easy as she makes it look ladies!

Even though I absolutely loved her entire design, I wanted to put my own sort of touch to it. So I decided to put cheetah prints on my outside nails to act as a "border", because I'm obsessed with animal prints, and it didn't cover the background as much as the flowers. And that amazing black stud on my middle finger (and on my thumb) just pulls it all together for me. A lot of times I feel like my manis are missing something, and today I felt the same way. So I stuck a stud on it, and fell in love! Maybe I should add more bling to my future manis!?

So let's talk about this dry brush technique. In ChristabellNails' tutorial she wiped her brush off on notebook paper, and a paper towel. So I did the same, but found that it wiped too much polish off. So just the notebook paper was enough for me. I started with my darkest colors first so they wouldn't just take control of the lighter colors I used like she explains. I really love this technique. I think it's funky, and different, and it creates a beautiful mesh of the pastel colors that I used. I feel like I've got an abstract piece of art on my nails! How fun, right!? This was done over 2 coats of a white base, and it dried so quickly since you don't use much polish! Bonus points!

I actually had the white base, and the colors dry-brushed on my nails last night, no top coat, or designs. Just the colors. It was pretty texturized, and I was a little worried that if I didn't put a layer of top coat on them at night, they would be too dry, and set up in the morning for the top coat to really smooth them out. Thankfully, I was wrong! After drawing the designs this morning, I applied my top coat as normal, and wooosh! Smooth blended colors! What a victory! lol.

The pictorial for this mani will be posted later today, so don't forget to come back, and check that out! Thank you!