11 September 2014

The Digit-al Dozen Does The Terrific Twos, Day Three: Sapphire

Hi everyone! Continuing on with The Digit-al Dozen two year anniversary celebration, today's theme takes on the birthstone for September - sapphires. I've always loved birthstones ever since I was a little girl, and I still have my birthstone ring my grandmother gave to all of the granddaughters. And I remember secretly wishing I was born in October so that I could have an opal for my birthstone. But of course that never happened - life is cruel sometimes!

Jewel-tipped uncut sapphire nail art
Jewel-tipped uncut sapphire nail art


About this design: 

I originally thought of doing some type of jewelry but the more I looked at pictures of sapphires, the more I was interested in images of uncut sapphires. I love gems and minerals in their natural state, before they've been cut and treated. I used this image from Dreamstime as my source. I just picked different stones and tried to mimic the different colour shifts and patterns.

Jewel-tipped uncut sapphire nail art
Jewel-tipped uncut sapphire nail art

To get this look:

I painted everything freehand, using a dry brush dragging technique. You take very little polish on your brush and drag it across your nail. Polish dries so quickly anyways that it's almost inevitable. I ran out of nail polish thinner, which actually worked to my advantage here. I used acetone instead to thin my colours, but since that evaporates fast, I ended up with thin polish that was a perfect constancy to do a dry brush technique.

Jewel-tipped uncut sapphire nail art
Jewel-tipped uncut sapphire nail art

  • Base: Sally Hansen White On (seal with top coat after to prevent the polish from lifting up)
  • Sapphires: OPI Keeping Suzi at Bay, piCture pOlish Cosmos, Sally Hansen White On, Cult Nails Nevermore, Orly Luxe, and Sally Hansen Firey Island
  • Frames: Orly Luxe
  • Top Coat: KBShimmer Clearly On Top

Jewel-tipped uncut sapphire nail art
Jewel-tipped uncut sapphire nail art

Final Thoughts:

I thought the design would be boring on its own, so I originally thought of adding studs but decided on a thin gold lined frame along the edge of the nail. It ruins the naturalistic look, but it works as nail art, so I'm happy with how it turned out.

What do you think of these?

See also:

Day One: Things That Come in Pairs / Salt and Pepper
Day Two: Cotton / 100% Made in Canada

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19 comments:

  1. So beautiful! And the golden outline looks great with blue.

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    1. Thanks Paulina! I was debating the gold outline but after I finished I was glad I did it. :)

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  2. This is pretty! I like the gold border around the nails too.

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    1. Thanks Lisa! I really am happy with how that turned out.

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  3. Replies
    1. Awww... thanks Heather! That means a lot! <3

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  4. What a great interpretation! I love it!! :D

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  5. So perfect!! I tried to come up with raw images too but couldn't put my finger on how to pull it off. You rocked it!!

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  6. This is so pretty! How clever to do an uncut version!

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  7. You never cease to amaze me - You're such an artist! STUNNING!

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