Autumn Trees Manicure

Hello Everyone!

So what I have for you today is another attempt at a freehand design! (Some of you might be wondering why I do this to myself after admitting I'm not very good at freehand. I know I've asked myself that a few times, LOL! But, I'm never going to get any better if I don't practice, right?)
I was inspired by an image on Tumblr and just had to recreate these.

As always, I started with a base coat to protect my natural nails.  (Speaking of natural nails, it might be about time for a naked nails update! I think my nails are currently the longest they have ever been so it might be cool to document that before I give them a drastic trim again.) I didn't include a picture of my top and base coat, but you can really use whatever base and top coat that you prefer. My base color is a franken polish I threw together using a half-empty white polish and adding mainly some grey and brown with a drop or two of pink and yellow. I realized I really don't have any nude colors, so I was trying to come up with a light nude to beige/taupe color. What I ended up with was really more of a dirty white, but at least it wasn't stark white behind the fall colors.

I used a lot of colors in this look so I will list them for you as they appear in the picture, going from left to right. Sinful Colors 'Nirvana', Sally Hansen Hard as Nails 'Die-Hard Fan', Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 'Red Carpet', Sinful Colors 'No Text Red', Sinful Colors 'Happy Ending', and Sinful Colors 'Anchors Away'.  Most of the colors I used as they appear, but I actually mixed the two reds to get the shade that I wanted.

I used a makeup sponge that I cut into small pieces and color by color (except the brown) I sponged them onto the nails to create a multi-colored patch across the nail, representing the foliage. Once that dried (which was pretty quick since it was very thin layers of color) I used a detail brush and the brown polish to go back and draw my tree trunks; which is where it kind of fell apart for me, LOL. Although, my left hand definitely turned out better since I'm right handed.

Overall, I would say that I was about 70% happy with how this manicure turned out. It could have been 80%, but the left hand dragged it down quite a bit (oops).  Here are the pictures of my final results, including my disappointing left hand :-)

Right hand

Left hand

In related news, I have started a YouTube channel! I wouldn't say that I'm uploading tutorials per say, since I don't think I'm good enough to try to 'teach' anyone, LOL. But I am uploading nail updates, tips and tricks, haul videos, that type of thing. I'll add a link to the 'Let's Get Social' area on the right side of the page so look for it there if you want to subscribe to my channel! (*hint hint*)
As always, thanks for reading and I'll meet you back here in the blogosphere soon!