Mani Monday: Pink & Grey Bowtie Mani

 Hello lovelies,

This Mani Monday I knew I wanted to contrast grey and pink but I didn’t know how until I thought about doing a girly take on the bowtie manicure! It seemed fitting to do a mani with a fun twist on work/smart attire what with the universal groan of being back to work this Monday! I’ve seen this mani done countless times with the usual black tie colours of black and white, but the fun contrast between the grey & pink give this manicure a fun and feminine twist!

I used Revlon Nail Care Calcium Gel Nail Hardener as a basecoat, x2 coats of Essence in Movie Star as a base colour coat, x1 coat of Mr Price Bella Cosmetics Nail polish in dark pink and light pink for nail art (my description of colours, no official names provided on bottles) and Revlon Nail Care ColorStay Gold Standard Top Coat as a top coat.

You will need:

• Base coat nail polish
• Base colour coat nail polish (I chose grey)
• Two alternating colours for the bow tie nail art (I chose light pink and dark pink)
• Toothpick / orangewood stick / dotting tool
• Top coat nail polish

Method:

1) Apply base coat nail polish to all nails, wait for it to dry completely 

2) Apply base colour nail polish, wait for it to dry completely 

3) Start working on the bow tie nail art details which is done on all nails. First pour a small pool of dark pink nail polish onto a scrap piece of paper. Dip the end of the toothpick / orangewood stick /  dotting tool into the pool of dark pink nail polish and apply the first dot that will make up the bow design, place one dot at the top of the nail in the middle

4) Now, on either side of the dot place two smaller dots to create a triangle shape from the middle dot. You are placing the two smaller dots at the bottom corners of the triangle you are creating

5) To fill in the space, outline the triangles on either side of the middle dot and you will see it forms the shape of a bow tie, you will now very carefully fill in the bow tie with nail polish…think about colouring in a picture…the same principle applies. Lightly dip the toothpick / orangewood stick / dotting tool into the nail polish and dab or lightly drag the nail polish into place filling in the gaps

6) To add the buttons details, simply dip the end of the toothpick / orangewood stick / dotting tool into the dark pink nail polish and dot on 3 dots directly below the bow tie design

7) To add the finishing touch to the bow tie, pour a small pool of light pink nail polish and dip the end of the toothpick / orangewood stick / dotting tool into the nail polish and gently dot on a small dot of light pink nail polish onto the main middle dot of the bow tie design

 

This is how the bow tie design will look on your nails

8) There is one extra nail art detail to add to the ring fingers as accent nails and that is to add coat lapels. I drew on the lapel detail by hand using a toothpick dipped into light pink nail polish and lightly drawing the design on and re-dipping the toothpick in the nail polish as needed. You are drawing a vertical zig-zag design of sorts onto the nail on either side of the bow tie design making sure that the zig-zag joins at the bottom of the nail. Complete the design on both ring fingers

9) Wait for all nail art to dry and then apply top coat nail polish

10) Ta-da, you now have an adorable, feminine and fun bow tie manicure!

What’s your favourite go to smart look ?

As always, linking up to Mani Monday below, with the fabulous Heather and Heather! I will also be joining the ladies over at The Nail Files. 

Join the fun side of life and link up to Mani Monday and The Nail Files below :)