NOTD: Valentine Skittles

All nail photos outdoors, open shade

Good morning lovely readers, and happy Friday!  Today I have for you an over-the top skittles-style manicure for Valentine's day, but before we get into that, I need to welcome all my new followers!  We have  Ria of Dragon Lady Nails, Ame of GiMiKd Girl, Shally of The Polished Pixie, Ashleigh of Nailbrite, and Nasli_, Allya, Mariana, and Stella, all blogless.  Thanks so much!  I'm up to 72 followers now (insert happy dance here)... I never thought I'd have that many people actually reading my blog!

Okay, today's nails.  That's why you're here, right?   These are just slightly over the top.  I did a skittles mani a few months ago with black and silver, and I thought it might be fun to do one with black and red since it's almost Valentine's day.  Not to mention, you could probably use any one of these designs on all your nails for a more subtle look.  Want to know how to do it yourself?  Keep reading!

Materials:

• Sinful Colors Basecoat (or, y'know, any basecoat)
• Sinful Colors Black on Black (or your favorite black polish)
• Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Rapid Red (or your favorite red creme polish)
• Revlon Valentine (actually probably not necessary...)
• OPI Black Shatter (or another black crackle polish)
• Wet n Wild Tangled in my Web (black glitter)
• Wet n Wild Behind Closed Doors (or another one of the Lipmann Ruby Red Slippers dupes)
• China Glaze Lubu Heels (black with fine red glitter)
• China Glaze Ruby Pumps (red with red glitter... there are lots of dupes)
• NYC Grand Central Station (or your favorite topcoat)
• A large and small dotting tool (not shown) ... I suggest a sharpened pencil.  Use the eraser for big dots and the lead for small dots.

Thumb: 3 coats of Lubu Heels, with a little hex glitter from Behind Closed Doors dabbed on near the cuticle.
Index: 1 coat of Rapid Red, one coat of Valentine (which I think made it too dark, you could omit that...) & one coat of Black Shatter, painted on the nail in a diagonal.
Middle: 3 coats of Behind Closed Doors.
Ring: 2 coats of Black on Black.  For the heart, dab some Rapid Red on to a scrap of paper or plastic.  Using the large end of the dotting tool, make two dots next to each other and elongate them slightly into ovals in a V shape.  Using the narrow end of the dotting tool, pull the dots together the rest of the way and make the bottom point of the heart.
Pinkie: 3 coats of Ruby Pumps, two thin coats of Tangled in my Web brushed towards the free edge of the nail.

TADA!   What do you think?  Sorry if my heart-drawing-description was hard to follow.  I think I may reprise that design, and if so I'll try to get some step-by-step pictures.  Have a lovely day!