Cartier Inspired Orchid Nail Art

Hello my little flower buds,

Today I'm going to share a nice, simple orchid design based on the design Cartier has adopted for some of its jewelry.

It's exactly the kind of thing I would pin on pinterest. http://pinterest.com/lapin20/boards/ But don't feel obligated to follow me there. I'm not one of those bloggers who is obsessed with integrating all my platforms.

I've had a sketch ready for a while but it wasn't until I swatched Zoya Blu that I thought it would provide the perfect backdrop to test out this nail art design.

These are two photos of my original sketch after I colored it in with the polishes I ended up using.

Now, you know I'm technologically challenged so I don't make videos and I wouldn't know where to start with gifs. But I decided to try and break down this design as best as I can in a series of photos.

This line by line tutorial should allow you to replicate the outline of the flower. You are going to start by drawing the outline of the flower in black. (I did all the painting with a small paintbrush I purchased at an art supply store.) Do not worry about getting it perfect. If the lines are a little thicker than you would want them to be in the final design, do not worry. Mostly focus on getting the outside of the edges of the lines to look the way you want them to.

This is how my nail looked after I finished my outline in black. I used Confetti Black Tie. I like it because it's a smooth black that doesn't get gloopy and it's fairly opaque. 

Next, I went in and filled out my outline with Essie Penny Talk. You can see how I went in and covered up some of the black outline, ending up with a thinner line. 

I next went in and drew a teardrop with Confetti Black Tie and then filled that teardrop with OPI AntiBleak. This step is optional and if you decide to do it you can use whatever color you like. You can stop here but...

I wanted to replicate the Cartier Orchid so I added a piece of holographic hex glitter from my bottle of Sephora by OPI Beam Me Up Hottie!. I chose the holographic glitter because it really catches the light and reflects back interesting colors. I believe in using whatever you have around. You could use glitter from any bottle of glitter top coat, loose glitter, a nail art rhinestone, or even a silver polish like Zoya Trixie. Be creative and have fun!

MORE PHOTOS OF THE LOOK 

(If you're wondering why this looks a little different from the photos above, it's because I can't leave well enough alone and I went in and elongated the top petal so it would look more like the Cartier orchid.)