Dry Brush Stripes

Hello Lovelies!  Today, I have an incredibly easy, no tool nail art design for you.  For this week's technique for the Nail that Technique Challenge (from Instagram) is, dry brush.  I've also heard this referred to as dry drag.  I used this same technique in my Tweed Nail Art I created last November.  What's great about this technique is it is almost impossible to mess up.

For this particular design, I started with a white base coat, Sinful Colors 'Snow Me White.'  Be sure to allow your base polish to dry completely.  You might notice I'm showcasing my Cindy hand (aka my dominant hand) for this tutorial for all the solo shots.  I'm doing this for two reasons, I busted three nails on my model hand and because I wanted you to see that this technique is so easy, you can even do it with your non-dominant hand. 

For my color palette, I decided to use bright, slightly neon,  kind of pastel rainbow colors.  All the polishes I used are Ciate Mini's from the advent calendar I opened this past Christmas.  The colors from left to right are: 'Kiss Chase,' 'Cha Cha Cha,' 'Loop the Loop,' 'Apple & Custard,' 'Boom Box,' and 'Talent Scout.'

To do the dry brush technique, you have to dry of the brush.  You do this by simply scraping the excess polish off on the mouth of the bottle.  I found that some of my polishes were a little thin which made it harder to get the brushes as dry as I wanted them, so I dragged the applicator brush on a paper towel to get it as dry as I wanted.  I found in some case I dried the brushes out so good there was no polish to apply to the nail.  In these cases, I simply rubbed the brush around the inner mouth of the bottle which often seemed to be just enough polish to apply to the nail.

For my look, I decided to go with a traditional rainbow scheme (ROY GBIV) with some modifications.  I used pink instead of red, and I skipped indigo all together.  With my applicator brush properly dried, I dragged stripes horizontally across my nail.  Of course, because it is dry drag it doesn't really drag, it kind of skips across the nail this is why it is important that your base color is dry.  If your base isn't dry enough it will pull the base polish when you apply your dry brush.  You may have to do a couple applications to get the opacity that you desire.  Once, I was happy with the opacity of the first color, I moved down (or across) the rainbow and applied each color allowing them to overlap just slightly.  Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on the way you look at things), my nails were a little too short to give me enough room to get a full stripe of purple in.  However, I used purple to create a very thin dry brush tip, which I think looks pretty cool.

I duplicated this process on all my nails.  I found it was quicker to do one color on all my nails, before moving on to the next color.  That way I only had to dry of each brush only once.  As always I performed a little clean up with a brush and acetone.  I then topped off the design with a quick drying top coat.  As a side note, applying the top coat smooths out the design, if you like the rough look of the design before top coat you may want to avoid applying it.

I love this bright, bring on spring, super easy, fun messy looking nail art design.  This technique is easy enough that even a two year old could do it.  It's great for creating fabric like nail art designs, or just something a little different.  It doesn't require any tools, and took very little time to create.  I highly recommend this to any of my fellow Plebes that are looking to try something that won't make you frustrated.  I hope you'll try out this technique yourself, thanks for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,

Tweed Nail Art

Winter is on its way here in the Northeastern United States for some of us it’s already here. With temperatures dropping and snowy weather moving in, many of us are looking for ways to stay warm. Heavy coats and sweaters are being brought out of storage and put to good use. I wanted to create a warm and interesting nail art design and what I came up with was this tweed like print.

Materials

Base and top coat (matte optional)

4-5 shades of polish

Stripping brush

I started with a nude base color, China Glaze 'Don't Honk Your Thorn' from their City Flourish collection. I know I just used this with Monday's design but it'll mostly be covered up by the end of this tutorial anyways.

I then started adding layers using the dry drag method. I do not have pictures of this method but it seems pretty simple to explain. The dry drag method is when you remove as much of the polish from the applicator brush by wiping on the side of the bottle. I also swiped my brush on a paper towel before application.

The first layer of dry drag was China Glaze 'What are You A-Freight of?' from their All Aboard collection. I did not cover the nail completely but did a staggered brick pattern horizontally across the nail. This left some blank space but no worries there are more layers coming.

For the next layer of dry drag I used China Glaze 'Don't Get Derailed' also from the All Aboard collection. I concentrated on filling in the slightly bare areas and brushed vertically this time allowing the layer to overlap the previous one a bit.

Next I added in some tweed stitches, I used China Glaze 'Well Trained' another from the All Aboard collection and a stripping brush to create thin vertical lines and t-shapes.

I repeated the previous step using China Glaze 'Swing Baby', I'm not sure what collection this is from but it's a favorite of mine that I purchased at the beginning of my nail polish addiction.  You'll notice I used all cream colors except this last one. I felt it need a little sparkle but not too much because there are not too many sparkly tweeds out there.

I did my clean up and add a matte top coat. You could of course use a regular top coat of you’d like but I feel the matte top coat gives it a slightly more realistic affect.

I'm actually really enjoying this nail art design; it's one of those ones that look better in person than it does in pictures. This is a great fall/winter nail art design, it incredibly easy, perfect for beginners, and I hope you'll try it out. 

Don't forget that it's #whatruwearingwed. Head over to my Facebook page and post your nail art designs there or use the hashtag on your Instagram pictures and tag me in the comments so that I find it easily. Please like and follow me while you’re there or follow me by clicking the 'Join this Site' icon on the top right hand side of the screen. You can also follow me through Google+, Bloglovin, and/or Pinterest. I hope you are all staying warm and cozy, thanks for stopping by, see you next time. 

Your Fellow Plebe,