Purple Flower Nails

These purple flower nails were inspired by a Robin Moses design. They feature multi-toned purple flowers. The flowers lie over a backdrop of silver swirls and black base.

1. I started with a clear base coat, being especially careful to cover mu entire nail. Any missed spots will be stained by the black polish in the next step. I made sure to cover the free edge of my nail so I could also cover it with black.
2. Next, of course, I painted two coats of normal black nail polish.
3. Then I switched over to acrylic paints and small paint brushes for the rest of the design. I choose a metallic silver paint to go under the flowers so they would shine in the background. I tried to make medium sized swirls, so it wouldn't seem too busy, but could also clearly look like swirls under the flowers.
4. I started the flowers with the darkest purple paint, and made rough petal shapes until I was happy with each overall flower.  Then I added some white paint to the purple I was working with, and used that color to add swipes of lighter color to the insides of the flowers. This makes them much more realistic and dimensional.
5. I finished off the flowers with black centers to tie into the black base color.
6. The very last step was to add a shiny clear topcoat.  My topcoat has a harder in it to help keep my nails strong. And, like any topcoat, it seals in the acrylic paints and prevents the polish from being scratched off onto paper or white walls.