Patchwork Love Hearts

It's finally starting to feel a little bit more like Spring, so I wanted to create a cute, bright manicure to suit the changing weather! I never got around to doing a Valentine's design way back in February, so I thought it was about time that I attempt some love hearts. I added polkadots and a lace effect too, and used lots of a lovely bright colours to reflect the Springtime feel.

The equipment:

Rimmel 'Rose Libertine'
Models Own 'Pastel Pink'
Models Own 'Feeling Blue'
Models Own 'Blueberry Muffin'
Models Own 'Fuzzy Peach'
Models Own 'Peach Sherbet'
W7 'Purple'
Fearne 'Cotton Candy'
Models Own 'Jade Stone'
Fearne 'Lemon Drizzle'
Models Own white nail art pen
Models Own 3-in-1 clear coat
Dotting tools
Medium thickness nail art brush

Wow that's a lot of equipment... I didn't even realise when I was creating the manicure! Anyway, I started off with my bases, applying 2 coats to ensure all were bright and neat.
I used Rimmel 'Rose Libertine' on my thumb nail, Models Own 'Feeling Blue' on my index finger, Models Own 'Fuzzy Peach' on my middle finger, Models Own 'Jade Stone' for my ring finger and finally W7 'Purple' for my little finger nail. Once dry, I took my dotting tool and added some polkadots...
For each nail, I used a paler shade of the base colour for the dots. I don't have an extremely pale pastel green, so yellow had to do for my ring finger! I think my pink, blue and peach nails look best with this design, and this is due to them all sporting Models Own varnishes, meaning the darker and lighter shades complement one another nicely.
I then added some love hearts using my medium thickness nail art brush. I switched around the colours, adding pale blue to my pink nail, pale purple to the peach, and so on. The hearts took about 2/3 coats each to make sure they were a solid colour.
Once my hearts were dry, I added a clear top coat. My favourite colour combination is my thumb nail; the pale blue heart goes really nicely with the pink base, and I think if I do this manicure again, I will stick to these colours for every single nail.
Once the clear top coats were all dry, I added more polkadots. For each love heart I used the darker shade of the base colour, and so the pale blue heart received darker blue polkadots, the pale purple heart got darker purple polkadots, and so on. Once complete, I outlined each love heart using my white nail art pen. This was a very slow process, as I didn't want thick uneven outlines. As you can see, there are a few shaky mistakes, but I managed to cover these up in the next step...
 
Continuing with my white nail art pen, I added a lace pattern to each outline. This works best if you don't break the flow of nail varnish coming out of your nail art pen, which involves a consistent amount of pressure and a steady hand! It was hardest on my little finger, as the love heart was so tiny to fit on my nail, but I managed to finish them all without too many mistakes! Once completely dry, I added another top coat.

I love having cute, colourful tips, and this design is simple yet very effective. I'm thinking of combining it with my Birdie Nails, and making the love hearts big enough to fit a little bird inside. This will be really tricky no doubt, but I'm certain it'll look really cute.

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