CND Shellac Nail Art - Monarch Butterfly Wing Manicure

OK, second post of the day and as promised, more Hotski to Tchotchke!

Last night I manicured the lovely Stacey again (just check out how much her nails have grown since her first shellacking here!) and she wanted something that she had never had before. I showed her a photo of a beautiful Monarch Butterfly Wing manicure by Michèle from lacquerized and she instantly fell in love...

So she picked out the Hotski to Tchotchke and the shellacking began:

Now, let me first warn you, this took AGES!!! But for my first attempt, I don't think I did too bad. If you want to try and recreate this look, these are the basic steps that I did to get the design:

First I prepped the nails (cuticles, scrub fresh, filing etc.) then applied base coat, cured for 10 seconds, followed by two coats of Hotski to Tchotchke, curing for 120 seconds after each coat. I then poured some Blackpool into a ceramic palette and used my thin Orly detailer brush to paint on the black detail. I used the thin end of a dotting tool to neaten up the gaps and make sure my black lines were as even as possible, then I cured the black for 120 seconds. I used my dotting tool again, and some Cream Puff, to add the dots to the black edge, cured for 120 seconds. And last but not least, added top coat and cured for a final 120 seconds.

For a more detailed tutorial, check out this fantastic YouTube video (which I unfortunately found after I had done the manicure!) which shows you the steps for normal polish and uses a sponge effect base colour too.

What do you think? I L-O-V-E it!! And will definitely be trying this again with different base colours.

Disclaimer - All products used for this manicure were bought myself, for more info about myself and CND Shellac please check out my disclaimer page here. I might not be a professional, but I sure love me some Shellac nail art :)