Floral Stitched Nails

I've always been inspired by Irotoiro's nail designs - with the most whimsical watercolor pastel designs painted on nails. I've really wanted to recreate some of the designs without completely replicating what they've done. As a gift for the wonderful Sharon (@swatch.me.now), I asked if she wanted to try out some fake nails and what kind of design she wanted. She told me she was happy with florals or plants, so I decided to go with the simple bouquet. She also loves sewing, so I wanted to add little stitches onto some of the nails. 

After having recently made a huge order with Kokoist and getting a ton of new colors, it's been super fun being able to use pigmented gels the same way I use paint - mixing colors for designs. 

For this set, I used a mixture of Kokoist, Leafgel and Eternal Basic colors. On my palette, Eternal Basic White, Kokoist off linen white, party balloon blue, deep papaya, mango orange, and leafgel 611 which is a dark vampy red. 

For the base, I used Eternal Basic's white. For the dark pink/reds on the flowers and the accent nails, it was a mix of Eternal Basic's white and Leafgel's 611, details being done with 611 for shading - and a mish mash dab of both for the middle finger. For the stems, I used party balloon blue and deep papaya to get the bright green stems, and darkened it a little with mango orange.

For base and top coat, I used HISA's base gel, and the top coat was HISA's non wipe top coat - this brand doesn't perform particularly well on real nails but it's great for fake nails. Unfortunately, HISA's top coat tends to yellow if you over cure it - hence the slight yellowing on the left thumb. To finish off, I used the ageha matte top coat. 

For brushes, I used my old set of Beauty World gel brushes - in flat, oval and point (for detail work). I really liked how these turned out - although I'll definitely be more mindful of the overcuring in the future!