I played in a small recital tonight, so naturally I wanted my manicure to match my dress. I just bought a gorgeous black and blue striped gown from Adrianna Papell, and the graphic print looked so nice that I decided to put it on my nails.
The fabric print of the dress… and no, it’s not white and gold!
The colors are obviously blue and black, so I tried to use a similar blue that wasn’t too dark and could show the black stripe contrast against it. Because I wanted to hand paint the lines, I knew I was going to use black acrylic paint for the most part, and I used a sparkly black polish for accent stripes.
The materials from left to right: craft smart acrylic paint in black, Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear in Blue It, and Ulta Professional Nail Lacquer in Rhinestone Rocker.
After applying a base coat, I painted Blue It on all my nails.
Blue It by Sally Hansen. It’s also great for a September birthstone (sapphire) manicure.
I used a striping brush along with black acrylic paint to form stripes of varying thicknesses. I made the thumbnail a chevron pattern and made a giant chevron out of the other four nails. I tried to make everything as symmetrical as possible, so my index and middle finger nails are mirror images of my ring and pinky finger nails.
Stripes painted with acrylic paint. It looks like I made blueberry candy cane nail art.
Some of the stripes on the dress have a glittery hue on one side, so I painted Rhinestone Rocker on a few of the sections with a striping brush.
A hint of shimmer gets added to a few stripes with Rhinestone Rocker by Ulta Professional.
After adding a topcoat, everything looks shiny, and the contrast between the black stripes and the glittery ones is less noticeable although still pretty.
All done! Black and blue striped goodness.
It should be mentioned that I didn’t try to exactly copy the striped pattern of the dress. I just painted the different thicknesses and spaced the lines out in a way that I thought might look nice.
Side by side comparison of the Adrianna Papell dress to my nails. I guess I put the shimmery stripe on the wrong side of the line, but I didn’t try to exactly copy the pattern.
The manicure was a small touch that I’m sure the audience didn’t notice, but it was a nice concert regardless. Happy polishing!
