About this design: While perusing floral designs on Google I came across this gorgeous oil and charcoal painting by an artist named Henrik Simonsen. I changed it up a bit, making the flowers more abstract, and I thought that Illamasqua Gothiqua would be the perfect colour for the flower accents.
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| Gothic floral nail art |
To get this look: I started with a base of OPI My Vampire is Buff. I tried to use white, really I did, but once you go MViB, it's hard to go back. For the black I used acrylic paint. I started with a wash - paint thinned with a lot of water, and I painted it on but also used my finger to smudge it on. Then using a dry brush technique I dragged the paint to make the flower stems and area.
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| Gothic floral nail art |
After that was done, I went back in with MViB and lightened up some of the areas around the flowers. Adding touches of Gothiqua was the last step.
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| Gothic floral nail art |
Illamasqua Gothiqua is a gorgeous deep purple with an iridescent blue shimmer. It's interesting because it has almost a jelly-like finish, but you can get full coverage in 2-3 coats. The formula was great, but my issue was that the shimmer is not very apparent on the nail. It's always a drag when something looks great in the bottle but not as good on the nail.
If I haven't totally discouraged you from this polish, this last bit might - Gothiqua is an exclusive to Canada's Hudson Bay stores, so only available in Canada. And I'm not sure if it's readily available outside the country. So getting your hands on this might require that you hug a Canadian...
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| Illamasqua Gothiqua |
I did love how it worked for the flowers - because it's so saturated, it gave just the right amount of colour. And I love that I was able to recreate the sketchy/charcoal look of the original image.
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| Gothic floral nail art |
What do you think of this? Were you able to get your hands on Gothiqua?
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Love love love these! :)
ReplyDeleteLove it! I love how it kind of has a messy feel to it.
ReplyDeleteThis is gorgeous! Perfect colour combo, too.
ReplyDeleteLove these! The mani AND the polish!
ReplyDeleteWould have liked a step-by-step :)
ReplyDeleteTotally cool. Gothic is the perfect description, btw. I'm so in love with these grungy looks you create!!! :)
ReplyDeleteThis is defeinitely one of my favourites. I absolutely love the charcoal looking bit and if I had an artistic bone in my body I'd try this. I like it, really really really like it.
ReplyDeletehahaha oh my, definitely**
DeleteI LOVE this! It is so unique!
ReplyDeleteI love this Meghan!! Stuff the polish, the artwork is divine!! It almost has a black and white photo feel to it, I shall have to try this :)
ReplyDeleteThese are so beautiful and haunting! Love them!
ReplyDeleteLove the distressed look - it's a beautiful design.
ReplyDeleteLove these - they kinda remind me of the ring nail design you did a little while back (http://www.willpaintnailsforfood.com/2014/01/the-digit-al-dozen-does-monochrome-mix.html)
ReplyDeleteSo freaking pretty! As always.. And Gothiqua looks amazing, but a shame about the shimmer..
ReplyDeleteYour manicures look so wonderful, especially this one!
ReplyDeleteI’ve just discovered this blog and I love reading it <3
I’m looking forward to see your next article ;)
Xx julia