Thursday, February 13, 2014

NOTD: FingerFood's Theme Buffet #6 - Hearts

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, so all of our blog and Instagram feeds are full of pink and red nail art. Our fingers are full of hearts and "I Love You"s and all manner of Valentine's Day themes goodness.

 This week's subject for Finger Food's theme buffet fits in perfectly for the holiday: hearts!


I have to make a confession. I don't particularly like pink, girly, heart-laden things. It seems strange, I guess, considering how girly a hobby nail art is. I knew that if I painted saccharine pink art on my nails, it probably would only stay on there for a day.

So, I had to figure out what I could do for this theme that I would actually like. I DO like reds, but since I had just done red for the previous challenge, I want to make sure there's some variety.



Instead of pinks and reds and whites and other traditional Valentine-y colors, I went for a variation on neutral. I painted a beige nude base (OPI's Don't Pretzel My Buttons. This has really become a useful shade in my nail art! A touch too yellow on my skin tone for mannequin hands, but a good neutral).

On my ring finger, I used a piece of scotch tape to create a heart stencil over which I sponged a dusty rose mauve (Butter London - Toff) to create the big heart. On the other fingers, I created a gradient using these same two colors. 




Finally, I added smaller hearts over the mauve tips using a dotting tool. I'm actually proud of how the freehand hearts turned out, considering it was my first time trying to make them!
Polishes used in this manicure were:
  • Beige Base, hearts:  OPI - Don't Pretzel My Buttons 
  • Dusty rose / Mauve Sponging, sponged heart: Butter London - Toff


(Please excuse the horrible state of my cuticles. I really need to get some cuticle oil.  I'll be so glad when this winter is over!)

I like the overall effect that I achieved with this manicure. It's classy and feminine without being too "girly." Let me know if any of you out there also have an odd aversion to pink!

Oh yeah, and be sure to check out  the nail art by all of the other lovely ladies taking part in the Theme Buffet!




5 comments:

  1. wonderful V day nail design! Lovely colours and great idea :)
    Happy Valentine's day to you :)

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  2. This design is great and I love the idea of using the nudes. I'm not overly into all the girly stuff either so Valentines manis have been hard on me lol! :) xx

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    1. Trying to play catch-up on these comments <3 Hope everything is going okay there.

      Glad to know I'm not alone in not being drawn to all of the girly things!

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  3. I don't know why but I get a "creamy coffee" vibe from these, and I totally love it! The nude colors look great. Oh, and I'm with you too, winter can go asap!

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    1. I can definitely see where you get the creamy coffee vibe from. It does have a sort of creamy look to..

      And as for winter... Just got in from shoveling another 2-3 inches of snow. Sigh. How long until spring?

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