Nail Art: Inspired by the Michael Kors Resort 2014 Collection

I was feeling a bit uninspired recently, so I decided to spend an evening browsing through some designers’ recent collections in hopes of finding some ideas that might work well for nail art. Well, I ended up finding LOTS of things, so expect this to be the first of many fashion-inspired manicures from me!

As soon as I saw this eye-catching little dress in Michael Kors's Resort 2014 collection, I knew I had to do a manicure inspired by it. And although it took the better part of an afternoon/evening to do (with lots of long breaks to allow for drying time between steps!), I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out!

I started with a base of two coats of Zoya Purity. After that dried (with some help from Debora Lippmann Addicted to Speed Quick-Dry Top Coat), I taped off half my nail and painted on the black giraffe spots using SUPER BLACK Murdered Out and a small nail art brush. Then I removed the tape.

After another coat of Addicted to Speed and some more drying time, I placed pieces of striping tape along the inner edge of the black spots and then painted the other half of my nail with OPI Teal the Cows Come Home.

Once all THAT dried, I used striping tape again to block off the tips of my nails and then painted them using Murdered Out. Then, finally, I topped everything with one more generous coat of Addicted to Speed and breathed a huge sigh of relief that I was all finished!

This was easily the most involved manicure I’ve attempted yet, and also my first time painting anything on my nails freehand with a nail art brush. It was challenging but definitely doable, so if you’re thinking about trying something ambitious but have been nervous about it (like I was!), go for it! You might surprise yourself.

This post originally appeared on my tumblr.