Breast Cancer Awareness 2012

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Every year in this month, people around the world campaign to increase awareness about the disease.  Because of this strengthened awareness, more women are being saved every year despite the growing number of breast cancer patients.

I'd like to take part in this worthy cause by creating a nail design with the pink ribbon used for the campaign.  I also made the design very pink to follow their theme.  I made pink roses inspired by Ms. Rina Alcantara's Blue Wave nail design.  Please click on the Blue Wave link to see her blog on her design. :)

My 2012 Breast Cancer Awareness nail art

If I am fortunate enough to still be blogging in the coming years, I'd like to make this an annual tradition of always dedicating a nail design to Breast Cancer Awareness.

One more thing I followed in making this design was making sure that it was as healthy for me as nail art could get.  For my nail polish, I only used Dazzle Dry, a vegan nail polish system that is free from the carcinogenic chemicals commonly found in nail polish.  To create the design, I used acrylic paint.  I suppose it is better than nail polish since it is just regular artist's paint and had almost no smell.

*Some more points on why I enjoyed using acrylic paint:

• Mistakes can easily be erased with a cotton pad dipped in water (as long as you have not applied top coat yet).
• It is way cheaper than buying several bottles of polish.
• Consistency was easier to control than nail polish.  It did not get sticky the whole time I was working.
• You get truer colors because blending is easier.

Please read more on using acrylic paints and nail art brushes on Rina Alcantara's blog here.  She is, after all, the queen of hand-painted nail designs!

Now on how I created my own design...

Materials:

1. Dazzle Dry Trinity Set: Nail Prep, Base Coat, Top Coat
2. White nail polish (DD White Lightning)
3. Light pink nail polish (DD Girlishly Giddy)
4. Dark pink nail polish (DD Cherry Parfait)
5. Acrylic paint
6. Nail art detailing brush
7. A small cup of water

Procedure:

After using nail prep and base coat, I painted all nails white.

Using the brush of the light pink polish, I created a curve on my thumb and ring fingers, roughly making the nails half-white and half-pink.

I started creating the roses by putting a dot in the corner of the other nails, then making curved lines around it.

I TRIED recreating Rina Alcantara's blue wave by making the pink darker as I went along...

But as you can see, I failed.  I was not happy about this outcome!!! On the other hand, the pink ribbons looked decent so I kept them as is :)

I erased the floral design on my pointer, middle finger and pinky, and did them again.  This time I used Cherry Parfait as base color, and used only 1 shade of pink for the whole flower (I think I need more practice in shading). The steps mentioned earlier were correct though :)

When everything was dry, I topped it with DD Top Coat, and I was ready to go in minutes!

I kept a picture of Rina Alcantara's Blue Wave on my iPad while working.  Isn't her work lovely??

Here is a picture of my acrylic paints.  The brand is Color&Co., and I got the set for Php375.

Helpful Tips:

• When working with acrylic paint, dip the brush in a little water, and dip only the tip of the brush in paint.  That way, you have more control over the thickness of your strokes.
• Rinse the brush once in a while in the cup of water to avoid paint build-up on the brush.  This makes the brush stiff and harder to control.
• For beginners, blend the paint thoroughly before painting to get an even shade.  This was one of my mistakes in my first trial.
• For this design, I realized after the first trial that I should have made my petals bigger.  Petals that are too small will make the design look messy and less rose-like.  (See my first trial picture!)

Thanks for reading!!