Ev's "Inspired by" Entry - Milani Thai-tea, Kleancolor Nail to Toe, Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen

The lovely Cathy from More Nail Polish recently held a nail art competition with some amazing Lynderella polishes as absolutely drool-worthy prizes! Jme and I both tried our luck at it so here's my entry and a breakdown of it! Do check out Jme's post about her nail art entry as well just below this one! Andrew Garfield sure inspires me too... =p

[Inspired by...: Lilies, leadlight, art nouveau]

Cathy's nail art competition was themed "Inspired by..." and I chose three elements I find especially beautiful to combine together: Lilies, art nouveau and leadlight.

[Bottle to nail: Milani Thai-tea (2 coats)]

So... I started with Milani Thai-tea, another beautiful and deceptively simple-looking polish from Milani. This is a creamy milk tea brown, with complimentary gold shimmer and larger flecks of darker gold glitter bits floating around randomly.

[Milani Thai-tea: Two coats]

It really looks like flecks of tea leaves in Asian-style milky tea! Yummmm~ I was trying to pick a background color which would emulate old stained glass (in case any peeked through the design which did not quite happen anyway, haha)...

[Base: Milani Thai-tea; Nail art: Kleancolor Nail to Toe nail art polish (various)]

Excuse this crappy pic - it was taken with my phone because my camera was charging! So, I broke out my collection of Kleancolor Nail to Toe nail art polishes. They are similar to the LA Colors Art Deco ones, with a long-ish thin brush. The Kleancolors are not only cheaper, they contain more polish per bottle!

These are Wedding Gown White (white creme), Gold Dipped (gold), Splash Party (metallic blue), Garden of KC (metallic green), Candied Honey (pastel yellow creme) and Passion Flame (red creme). Excellent coverage and brilliant colours, I totally recommend these!

[Base: Milani Thai-tea; Nail art: Kleancolor Nail to Toe + Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen]

This step is the magic step which brings the pattern to life! Using a combination of Kleancolor Nail to Toe in Tuxedo Black and Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in Black, I defined each section. I find it best to not have a strict idea of what you want, just go with the flow~

[Competition entry: "Inspired by..."]

And tadaaaa! Finished product. You can see I decided to add red bits, and cleaned up a bit before topcoating everything. This mani was surprisingly tough and lasted most of a week before I got bored and took it off!

Although it didn't turn out exactly like the inspiration, I'm pretty happy with my take on it~ =) Hope you enjoyed reading about it, it was heaps of fun to do!

Thanks again to Cathy for organising this, and do check out all the other gorgeous entries at her blog!