Manicure Monday: Cherry Blossoms Inspired Nails for CNY

Hello hello! How did everyone's long weekend go? I didn't get any extra days off but I did take a trip up to San Francisco to spend time with the family (and to run away from the love to avoid V day ;]). Since Chinese New Year is coming up, I thought it would be a good time to share some CNY inspired nails!

Chinese New Year is the celebration of the lunar new year! Most notable features of this holiday are the red envelopes and dragon dancing!

For this week's nails, I decided to do cherry blossom inspired nails, bringing together the colors that are associated with this holiday. CNY is characteristic of the red and gold colors, symbolizing good luck and prosperity for the new year.

Initially, I wanted to do something ram/sheep related as this is the year of the ram (it's my year!), but...I could not think of a good design. 

(1) I wanted red to be the main color of the look, so I used Nails Inc in The Boltons as the base coat. This is a stunning, shimmery red. It's really glossy and shiny, and I only needed one coat for it to be fully opaque.

(2) For the branches of the cherry blossom tree, I went with a gold shade, Nicole by OPI On a Gilt Trip. I used a thin striper nail art brush to create the branches. For some variety, I had some branches branch off into more branches, and there's short and long branches!

(3/4) For the cherry blossoms, I used a dotting tool to create for petals, and the used a toothpick to gently create a little line in the middle of each petal. I used Sinful Colors in Snow Me White to create the flowers, and I also dotted on a few dots here and there to fill up the sparse branches.

(Not pictured) For the center of the flowers, I used Sephora by OPI I Found a Pot of Gold and OPI Gaining Mole-mentum. I used the smaller flecks of glitter from Gaining Mole-mentum so there would be a more solid center. These two gold shades just add a bit of variety of gold and sparkle to the overall nail look. (Gotta work with what I got!) To smooth out the design, I used my trusty Seche Vite top coat.

I love how these nails ended up. Very suitable for CNY and they do remind me of cherry blossoms! I hope you enjoyed this week's Manicure Monday! May you have good luck and prosperity in the coming new year! Take care always!