blue hibiscus flower on seafoam green

Essence "Night in Vegas" Essie "Absolutely Shore"

click here to purchase Essie "Absolutely Shore"
This week I was really in the mood to do some hibiscus flowers. I have done hibiscus flowers before and I even have a tutorial for them click here to see my hibiscus nail art tutorial but they are my favorite flower. For this design I used a slightly different one stroke technique. I used a new addition to my nail polish collection Essie "Absolutely Shore" which is an absolutely gorgeous pale sea foam green that looks almost white in certain lights. I usually stay away from colors like this simply because with pale cream colors it usually requires a minimum of four coats to achieve full opacity and even then it looks streaky and uneven. But Essie is no ordinary nail polish brand and "Absolutely Shore" applied smoothly, evenly, and opaquely in three thin coats. Essie polishes can easily last five days AS LONG AS YOU APPLY A GOOD TOPCOAT. Alot of people skip this very essential step which is essential for extending the life of your polish as well as maintaining shine. I use NYC in a new york minute fast dry topcoat in Grand Central Station and usually wear my manicures with no problems for 5-7 days. Essie polishes usually retail for $8.00 but can be found easily for half that at TJMAX, Marshalls, and occasionally Ross if you look in their bath and beauty sections. Essie polishes are well worth the cost and time and I think one time using it comparing to other brands will show you the difference.

To achieve this look
1) paint nails two coats of a light mint green and add a thin coat of Essence "night in vegas" topcoat to create a holographic flaky shine. This polish is a perfect dupe to the much loved and  now discontinued Essie polish "Shine of the times" 
2) use bright blue and light blue water based acrylic paint and a flat top shader brush. Dip one side of the brush in the light blue and the other side of the brush in the dark blue. shade off the bristles by pressing them against a flat surface to blend the dark and light colors together.
click here to purchase nail art brush set
click here to purchase Acrylic Paints
3) touch the tip of the brush to the nail and create petals by moving the brush up and down in a waving motion.
4) when you have created three petals use black water based acrylic paint and a very thin liner brush to outline and perfect the petals.  repeat the same process on the otherside of the nail to create a second flower.
5) using the same black paint create tiny petals on the two flowers going in different directions.
6) fill in the center of the leaves with dark green paint, taking care to keep a thin black outline.
7) using a small size dotting tool or the tip of a sharpened pencil create the stamin emerging from the center of the flower. outline the outer bulb of the stamin with a tiny row of dots.
8) add a thick topcoat to seal in the design.