The Pink Panther Nail Art

I created this nail art for the Indie Polish Nail Art Contest hosted by Kayla Shevonne.

I was (clearly) inspired by the name of the adorable polish by Lush Lacquer - Pink Panther.

This is my first attempt at creating an illustration so tiny with nail polish, and I must say it wasn't an easy task. I knew my chances to create a tiny image straight on the nails would be slim, so I decided to create the drawing as a nail polish decal.

I saw this awesome technique a while back ago, but didn't have a chance to try it until now.

To create the illustration of the Pink Panther I drew my design on a plastic bag with nail polish. Started first with the outlines (I used Barry M Burgundy) using a tiny nail art brush. Then I added small details like eyes, eyebrows and mustache with black Konad polish. Once dried, I applied a clear coat on top of it, and waited for it to dry completely. Then I removed it from the plastic bag, flipped the image and filled the body of the panther, that way I still had crisp outlines. For the inner details of the drawing I used the following polishes: Essie - Van D'go, Essie - Fiji, Barry M - Grapefruit, GADE - Lemon Lime.

It was quite challenging but I really loved how the decal came out. I let it to sit for a while, just because I didn't find the time to complete the design until now, so I can tell you for sure that you can create nail polish decals and put them aside for a while, nothing will happen to them :)

Once I was ready to complete my design, I applied two coats of Essie - Fiji to all my nails. I applied the decal on the ring finger, and on the rest of them I applied the nail polish that inspired this design -

Lush Lacquer - Pink Panther. I topped it all with one coat of Poshe.

Application of the decal I created on the nail was a bit tricky. I had to wait for the base polish to be quite dry, but still tacky so I can place and carefully smooth out the decal on it. And once a top coat is applied, everything looks much better and smooth.

This was one of the most challenging nail art designs I have created lately, and I was really proud of myself. I didn't expect the drawing to come out so nice, especially because it's been a while since I drew with a brush (so tiny!).

Hope you liked this nail art, I would love to hear your though.

Have you tried creating nail polish decals using this technique? Would love to see what you came up with!

Lush Lacquer - Pink Panther Macro Shot