Nerdy Nail Night: Dia de los Muertos Medusa

Backstory: Nerdy Nail Night is my attempt at being social and hosting an event at my tiny house. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, there is a lot of chatting and socializing and some nail art, and that often reinvigorates my desire to do my nails.

I have a thing for sugar skulls and Dia de los Muertos art. I decided to do a take on that, with the sugar skull face painted girl on my thumb and her hair trailing off on the other fingernails. It kinda ended up looking Medusa-y, so yeh, Dia de los Muertos Medusa.

How I did it: I used the lighter that I bought because I loved the art on it as inspiration. (Side note: I soooo would get something similar as a tattoo, and I love art of ladies in profile.) I started with a base coat of the turquoise color, for no particular reason other than I liked it. Then I dabbed on a flesh tone color I have and used a toothpick to try to make the basic shape of a head in profile. I added the white for the skull paint, using a fine brush (that goes with a white polish for doing designs/tips) and a toothpick to finagle the shaping. I used a nail art pen for the lips (pretty much just dabbed on two dots), then used a fine brush black polish to add the mouth/tooth lines and the eyes. I used the black fine brush to do the hair on the girl and across the nails, then (too soon) a pink nail art pen to add detail to the hair. I actually ended up pulling off the hair on the girl and redoing it because I didn't like it. On the opposite hand I just did the wisps of hair, because there was no way I would be able to do that face with my left hand.

What I learned: I need to be much more patient and let each layer dry completely before moving on to the next step, because that seemed to be an issue with smeary lines, etc.

What I might try next time: I keep meaning to do those DIY nail transfers, but keep forgetting.

Final Thoughts: It turned out pretty cool, but only lasted like 3 days before it came off (partially my fault for being the type of person that does things with my hands, therefore nail polish doesn't really stay put). I have seen some pretty amazing things people do with nail art, so I guess I just have to keep working on the related skills (drawing, painting, etc.) to eventually be as cool as they are.