Hello Loves! I have something really fun to show you today. While I was at the Nail Tech Event of the Smokies, a little booth in the back of the room caught my eye. The booth was for Wildflowers Nail Academy (owned and operated by Lauren Wiseman of Nail'd It Season One fame). Her booth was loaded with glitter, nail foils, and these adorable little bottles of liquid nail paints. Yeah, so I started poking around a picked up a few sets of colors to try. You know me, though...I walk around with a blinking sign above my head that screams "I'm a hoarder! I'll buy anything!" Lauren must have seen it, because she told me she had put aside a few full sets of the colors that included options I didn't have in my hand and offered me one. *sigh* Of course I had to have them all!
Ok, so now that you know how I got my hands on these little bottles of rainbow nectar, let me tell you a little about the Wildflowers Art Paints. They are liquid nail art paints. Yep, liquid. Think the consistency of whole milk. Maybe a tad thicker, but not as thick as acrylic paint. They are water based, non-toxic, super pigmented and are made with cosmetic grade pigments. What's not to love, right? They also come in these really convenient little dropper bottles.
Here's a shot of the paint coming out of the bottle that shows consistency a little better.
I found these paints really easy and fun to work with. They layer beautifully over lights and darks and dry quickly - but not so quick that you don't have time to work with them. I'm kind of over the moon with these paints! Seriously, I don't know that you'll see me fighting with acrylic paint ever again.
Enough talk. Let's take a look at a few things I threw together using the Wildflowers Art Paints. First, I played around with a few swatch sticks and some simple geometric designs. I learned here that you really need to load your brush and allow the paint to flow onto the surface of the nail. The nail also needs to be a little rough - either remove the shine from the polish with a buffer or use a matte top coat. Yeah, my lines aren't crisp. Don't judge. lol
After a little playing, I decided to dive in head first. As I mentioned in Wednesday's post, I'm still loving the sparkly black goodness of BMC So Tragic! And I must say, it makes a great base for my current look.
To create this look, I first started with a rough shape of the petals with Wildflowers Powder (white). I could have gone straight over the black with the colors, but I wanted them to really pop so I white based them. I then added a layer of Lava over the white and created general leaf shape blobs with Jade. I came back in with Sherbert to add the highlights to the petals and with Spring to detail the leaves. Then Pitch (black) for the centers and a few SS6 Crystal AB crystals to make them pop. The dots on the index and ring fingers are Lava directly over the black base. Finally, I sealed it all in with a gel polish top coat.
I love, love, love how this one turned out. Seriously, LOVE. And now I have a super big problem. I have other stuff to swatch. Plates to review. Designs I want to try out. But I can't bring myself to take these off! I even did my right hand to match. Ah, blogger problems. lol
As I mentioned above, I purchased the complete set of Wildflowers Art Paints. Since I didn't use them all in the designs above, I decided to swatch them for you. Ready to see all of the colors? Of course you are! There are 21 including black and white, so I popped them into a table to save space. If you want to see any of them larger, you can click the picture to blow it up. :)
If freehand art is your thing, you NEED these paints. Trust me, you'll love them. You can pick some up for yourself at Wildflowers Nail Academy. If you want the entire set, click on the Art Paints 10 ml option and scroll down the list to "I WANT THEM ALL". :)
Oh, and be sure to follow Wildflowers Nail Academy on Facebook to see what Lauren is up to next. She teaches classes at several events throughout the year. :)
~Michelle
*The Wildflower Art Paints featured in this post were purchased by me. All links in this post are courtesy links and do not benefit ManicTalons.com.
My wallet hates you :D....I just ordered them all!
ReplyDeleteThese look amazing! Are they usable when you do 'regular' nail art, on top of regular nail polish and use regular top coats?
ReplyDeleteYes, they do. Beautifully! Since they are water based like acrylic paint, regular polish top coat won't smear them once the design is dry. :)
DeleteThank you! Unfortunately international shipping is quite expensive, but some day I hope to get my hands on them :D
DeleteHi! They can be used for stamping?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, no. They are too thin and bead up on the stamper since they dry slower and are water based.
DeleteWell, these look absolutely fantastic!
ReplyDeleteCan these paints be used for one stroke nail art?
ReplyDeleteThey're great for accenting one stroke, but not for one stroke itself. Wildflowers does have a paint range for one stroke called Butter Paints. They're fabulous :)
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