Twin Mani with Polished Lifting: Spring Flower Dotticure

Whew, I've been gone a long time! Technically, my computer is still being worked on (ugh ugh ugh) but I'm tired of waiting, so I'm commandering my husband's laptop to post again! Today I have a special manicure to share with. A while ago, Courtney of Polished Lifting posted on the Hobby Polish Bloggers Facebook group asking if anyone wanted to do twin manicures, and I said I was interested-- so here we are finally doing it! What's really cool is that Courtney is in Portland (OR), so we actually might be able to meet up in real life as opposed to the blogosphere or email! I'm probably the worst collaborator ever-- it took me forever to get my shizz together because February was a freaking terrible month for me but we made it! My whole reason behind wanting to do a twin manicure is because I want to work on my nail art skills, but use techniques that I feel are achievable given my time and resources. Courtney does a lot of really great stamping (beyond me at the moment!) and agreed to stick to some simpler nail art! To this end, I ended up requesting to do a flower dotticure, something that I have wanted to do for months now but haven't actually attempted yet! 

I have had the colors I used in this mani picked out for months (let's be honest, probably since last year, ack). It's a bunch of Julep colors, which wasn't really planned, but I think they look pretty and springy together. And I am definitely ready for spring! For my base I used Julep Moni, a bright robin's egg blue. I think used Julep Shelby (dark blue), Denise (lilac purple), and Marcella (pink) to make my flowers. These are all cremes and worked really well for the dotting technique.  

Artificial light (flash): 

I've been wanting to do a dotticure flower manicure for awhile-- and I was surprised by how difificult it was! Placing the dots just so to get the look I wanted sounds simple and straightforward, but actually isn't as easy as it might seem! However, for my first try I'm pretty happy with the way mine ended turning out! Do I need some more practice? Sure! But it was a fun first try! I'm particularly proud of my index nail, which I think is my favorite! 

And that's it! You should go check out Courtney's manicure here! My posting going forward is still going to be sporadic because I am still waiting for my laptop to be fixed, but I'm really tired of this enforced hiatus! I have been wearing a bunch of awesome polishes and I need to share them with you! (Though you should check out my Instagram [@catray] because I've been busy posting Nail of the Day pictures!)

Also, I'd like to say-- if there's anyone else out there who would be interested in doing twin manis (either a one-off or an ongoing series); I would love to collaborate! Courtney has a rotation of bloggers she is going to be posting twin manis with; I hope to collaborate with her again in the future!