Gelish Mani Sunday | Autumn Nails

With Thanksgiving around the corner I wanted one more shot at fall nails. I had purchased these gorgeous gold maple leaf studs from AthenaRose with the express intent of rocking some fall leaf nails. Typically I like to draw out what I want to do on my nails, just stupid little sketches that no one but me seems to understand, but for some reason I was having such. a. hard. time. coming up with a design. I wanted to cram WAY to many colors and arts and effects and it was overwhelming me. I finally said, alright, I want fall colors, glitter, and gold, and came up with something I liked.
Yeah... they're still REALLY busy... but I really like them!! (also, please ignore the amateur hour air bubble on the pinky >.<) I finally tried doing the cut-out/negative space/peek-a-boo effect that's so popular with Japanese nail art ( The Nail Room blog actually JUST posted a how-to on it). It actually wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it was going to be, although I think practice definitely makes perfect with those. ;)

And, even though I LOVE the way they look... I don't think I can continue to rock the square nails. The corners of my nails are so brittle and break easily, and I feel like I'm having a hell of a time filing them into consistent lengths. Does anyone else have this problem? My pinky and ring finger nails sit far back on my knuckle, whereas my middle and index sit pretty far forward. As a result my pinky & index nail always appear longer than my middle & index. It just drives me crazy. I think I'm gonna try an almond shape next...

For the above manicure I did the following:

Thumb Nail:

1. • 1 coat Simple Sheer, cure
2. • Wipe tacky layer. Using a nail art brush, create a moon shape along the bottom of the nail with Black Cherry Berry. Applied 2 coats of color, cure all coats
3. • Using a nail art brush, create a leaf shape toward the tip of the nail with Double Shot Espresso. Applied 2 coats of color, cure all coats
4. • Using a nail art brush, fill in the tip of the nail with Orange Cream Dream. Applied 2 coats of color, cure all coats
5. • Scrubbed a tiny bit of craft store glitter into the tacky layer of the leaf
6. • Using a nail art brush, dabded a small amount of TIO over the glitter, cure. This will keep the glitter from spreading across the nail
7. • Dabbed Gelish Structure onto the polish and pressed the studs in, cure
8. • Finished with 2 coats of TIO, cure all coats

Index Nail:

1. • 3 coats Black Cherry Berry, cure all coats
2. • Scrubbed craft store glitter into the tacky layer, creating a gradient effect
3. • 1 coat All That Glitters Is Gold, cure
4. • Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure

Middle Nail:

1. • 1 coat Simple Sheer, cure
2. • Wipe tacky layer. Using a nail art brush, created an outline of color with Black Cherry Berry. Applied 2 coats of color, cure all coats
3. • Dabbed Gelish Structure onto the polish and pressed the studs in, cure
4. • Finished with 2 coats of TIO, cure all coats

Ring Nail:

1. • 2 coats Orange Cream Dream, cure all coats
2. • 2 coats Black Cherry Berry 2/3 down the nail, sponged the color to create a gradient, cure all coats
3. • 2 coats Double Shot Espresso 1/3 down the nail, sponged the color to create a gradient, cure all coats
4. • Scrubbed craft store glitter into the tacky layer, creating a gradient effect with 3 different glitter colors
5. • Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure

Pinky Nail:

1. • 3 coats Black Cherry Berry, cure all coats
2. • Dabbed Gelish Structure onto the polish and pressed the studs in, cure
3. • Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure