Pastel Grunge Dry Brush Nail Art

Hello everyone.

I hope you're all doing well. It's currently a lovely sunny day here. I am enjoying being able to have my windows open and letting that beautiful breeze in. It's a nice change from the icy winds and grey skies last weekend. 

This week's nail art is one of my all time favorite techniques, dry brush. In fact, you can see me using the same one here & here. This is the beauty of the dry brush, as you can see, each mani is always totally different. You can use as many or as little colours as you like and it always seems to work.

So here's my finished mani. Below I'll list all the products I used and my method to achieve this really cute and grungy dry brush nail art, as well as a some photos.

Pastel Grunge Dry Brush Nail Art

These are the products I used to create this pastel grunge nail art:

Be Happy + Smile by Essence

Funny Face by Essie

Orchid by piCture pOlish

Lady In Black by OPI

Camo Coat by Celestial Cosmetics

Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen

Pastel Grunge Dry Brush Nail Art with Be Happy + Smile

I applied three coats of Be Happy + Smile as my base. This colour is a little sheer so it does require that additional coat for complete opacity. However, you could probably get away with two coats - being that this is a grunge style, it could add a little more depth to the mani. Once dry, I used Camo Coat around each finger for easier clean up. I have a seriously bad habit of making a huge mess with this technique and although the clean up is usually pretty minimal, I still prefer to use latex. Taking Funny Face, I used the bottle neck to wipe off as much excess polish as possible, then began lightly swiping across each nail in different directions. Occasionally I like to re-dip and wipe as the brush tends to get very dry (duh) and awkward to use. Polish tends to dry very fast when doing this as there is only a small amount of polish on the nail. By the time I'd completed all five nails, I was able to move onto the next colour, Orchid, straight away. I did the same thing with this polish, wipe off excess and lightly swipe. I then used Lady In Black in the same way again. I let black dry a little longer as I wanted to avoid any smudging when applying the trusty Kwik Dry Top Coat to finish.

Pastel Grunge Dry Brush Nail Art with Funny Face

I am really pleased with how this turned out. I feel like it suits my personality so well. Light and fun with a little bit of darkness. I was originally going to use white as a base, but I decided that it would be too vibrant and I didn't want that. This pearly, dusty pink is actually perfect. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I made a good choice. Haha. 

These colours seem to go together so well. If I had of used another colour, I think I might have ruined the design. Some times, less really is more.  

Pastel Grunge Dry Brush Nail Art with Orchid

That's all for today! I hope you enjoyed my post this week.
What do you think?
Do you love dry brush as much as I do?
Leave me a comment below, I'd love to get your feedback. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Mint & Orange Nail Art

Hello everyone!

You may have noticed my absence recently. Things have been really busy over the last few weeks. I wasn't even sure I was going to get this one out! But here we are and I'm glad that I have. I've really missed posting & doing nail art. Since this break started I've had one single colour on my nails for far too long! Luckilyy, I recently purchased some amazing holographic polishes, so I got to try those out during this time. 

I have also been having some issues with my nails. Lots of breaking and tearing, which I think is a side effect of my dermatitis, so I have been trying to get that under control and keeping them all even.

Prior to this break, I had done these cute geometric pattern mint and orange nails, which I haven't gotten out yet, and will now be this week's nail design. If you keep reading, you'll see what I used for this design and how I did it. Please enjoy.

Mint and Orange Nail Art Design

To create these lovely mint and orange geometric pattern nails, I used the following items:
South Beach Bling Bikini by Chi Chi Cosmetics
I Feel Good by Chi Chi Cosmetics
Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen
Stamping plate BP - 77 by Born Pretty 
Large clear jelly stamper (I don't recall the brand)
Scraper (This came with my stamper, so again I don't recall the brand)
Camo Coat by Celestial Cosmetics

Mint and Orange Nail Art with South Beach Bling Bikini

I started with two coats of I Feel Good and allowed them to dry. This polish is a bit thicker than usual polish so it does take a while to dry (I recommend thinner coats for faster drying time). The best way to know this polish is dry is when it becomes fragrant. Once I was satisfied they were dry, I applied Camo Coat around each nail to allow for easier clean up. I then took stamping plate 77, stamper, scraper and South Beach Bling Bikini, and applied a generous amount of Orange to the stamping plate. Taking my scraper, I dragged it evenly over the design and off the plate. I picked up the image with my stamper and lined it up as best I could with the nail. Unfortunately for me, the bottom of my scraper is scratched, which makes it hard. As the polish turned out a lot lighter than I was expecting, I decided to do a second stamp over the top of the first. I then removed the Camo Coat from that nail and repeated these steps for my middle finger and thumb. As for my index finger, I used a different design from the same plate, using the same steps as my previous nails. And of course, I finished with a coat of Kwik Dry Top Coat.

Mint & Orange Nail Art with I Feel Good

Although I love these Chi Chi flakies, they always seem to jut out, which you can see on my pinky finger above. This is mostly a visual problem, however I do find that they catch on things like clothing a fair bit, which is always annoying and can cause the polish to peel up. I would love to see them do the flakie colours but without the flakes.

Aside from that, I'm pretty pleased with how they look. These colours look so good together and I do love the patterns on this plate. 

What do you think about this simple pastel nail art design? Leave me a comment below. 

P.S. I am looking for a little feedback on what your overall opinion on my posts are, good, bad and/or ugly. You can leave a comment below, or send an email to theaustralnailian@gmail.com. I'd really appreciate it. 

As always, thanks for stopping by!