NAILSXO WORLD CUP NAILS 2014 - HONDURAS

Hello everyone!! I had the opportunity to participate in Nailsxo World Cup Nails and nothing could have held me back, I had just purchased acrylic paints for my nail art and this was the perfect time to test them out. Emily (Nailsxo) paired each of us up with a country competing in the 2014 World Cup, then it was all up to us to create a manicure that represented the country, culture and/or FIFA.

I received Honduras which is a lovely country with white sand beaches and beautiful clear waters non of which are ever crowded :)

I was definitely inspired by the spectacular beaches and palm trees so of course I went with a tropical theme. Here are some photos I used as inspiration.

I used a selection of nail polish, acrylic paints and I also did a wee bit of stamping :) The colours I used were, OPI-Dining Al Frisco, Orly-Pretty Ugly, Konad stamping polish in a sparkly blue, Sally Hansen-White On, China Glaze-Fast Track

I started by doing all my base colours, my thumb and ring finger had one coat of White On my middle finger had 3 thin coats of Pretty Ugly, and then on my index and pinky I covered most of my nail with a sandy coloured acrylic paint and then I put a thin layer of Fast Track over top to make the sand glisten.

Now comes the fun part!! (and faintly messy part) I did a sponge gradient on my thumb and ring finger using White On and Dining Al Frisco, to save on complication I did the gradient near my cuticle first let it dry and then did a gradient on my tips, this was the Honduras flag (minus the stars of course but we shall come to that later). On my middle finger I started on my palm tree, using a tooth pick I used a dark brown paint and drew on the trunk then went back in with a lighter brown paint to add definition.

I finished up my palm tree by adding the leaves in a dark green paint using another toothpick and accented with a lighter green paint, here is a zoomed in photo to show the trunk shading :P

To put the stars onto the flag I used Konad plate M-11 and stamped a single star onto my ring finger 5 times with the Konad stamping polish and then repeated on my thumb. For the ocean I used acrylic paint in dark blue, light blue and white as its easier for the paints to blend together than nail polish is, I applied all three colours onto a flat nail art brush and just swiped back and forth onto my nail until it provided the right gradient, the sea foam on the beach wasn't prominent enough for my liking so I applied some white acrylic paint onto a toothpick and dabbed it across the nail.

ALL FINISHED JUST TIME FOR SOME TOPCOAT