I’m so excited about this nail art technique called Ruffle Nails! Every nail fanatic needs to try this- it’s easy and has lots of wow factor. All you need to do is grab your favorite polish shades and a dotting tool (or bobby pins) to make some over-lapping rows of dots (it helps to use the largest tool you can find so the dots aren’t too small). If you’d like to see a step-by step tutorial here’s a great one by Chalkboard Nails. Now that I’ve discovered ruffles- I’ve got all these ideas swimming around in my head- neon ruffles, rainbow ruffles, black n white ruffles… I want to try them all!
My first attempt came out much so better than I expected! I casually worked on this design while sitting on the couch and I honestly didn’t try too hard. I figured I’d end up taking it off with polish remover and then give it a real go later. Well, I couldn’t believe how cute my test mani came out so I took some pics! I used some of my favorite green and purple polishes here… and I think the matte topcoat really pulled it together nicely. The variety of colors and the satin finish made my fingertips look like fimo clay! ↓
I went with a cool color combo of blue, pink and grey for my second design. ↓
One thing I like about the ruffle technique is that it’s so easy, you can even do a great job on your ‘other’ hand! I’m right-handed so my left hand nail art usually looks good, and my right-hand comes out how should I say… non-photogenic? LOL. Well, not with ruffles! Try it out for yourself and let me know your results!
♥ Mood struck polish as my base (teal)
♥ Wet n wild I Need a Refresh-Mint (light green)
♥ Revlon Charming (light purple)
♥ OPI Dutch ‘Ya Just Love OPI (dark purple)
♥ Orly Gumdrop (light teal)
♥ MASH Matte Topcoat
♥ Orly Faint Of Heart as my base (grey)
♥ China Glaze First Mate (navy blue)
♥ Revlon Blue Slate (medium grey/blue)
♥ China Glaze Dance Baby (pink)
♥ Orly Kiss The Bride (light pink)
♥ Seche Vite Topcoat
Love this! Gonna have to give this one a go! 🙂
Eeeek- you would rock this look!
Aww thanks hon! This is definitely a weekend one for me as the rest of this week is bonkers 😦 looking forward to having a crack at it. 🙂 Just need to decide what colours…. Oh and work was spectacularly craptastic today!! Remind me never to go on leave again lol!
Crap for everyone! I work for New York State and we just found out that our union contract is finally going through. Health insurance will cost us more, they are furloughing us (which means every paycheck will be reduced for 2 yrs) and no raises for several years. More work, less money. Sounds great!
I work for the public/govt sector too! We’ve had no pay increase for 2 years ( with another 2 to go) and they’re cutting back various depts & staff numbers which means more work and less bods to do it. Proper rubbish. I can’t believe they’re reducing your paycheck though that totally sucks. 😦
So cool! Need to try this 😉
Totally! You might have to use like 20 different colors though to cover your long nails! lol
Oh god… And I thought 10 colors for my ‘chameleon’ mani was a lot. Wish me luck 😀
this is really a thing to try. I only used this technique once to enhance a French in christmas red and muddy greige. looked awesome.
+ you’ve picked amazing colours! ❤
Thanks!! Did you write a blog post for that xmas ruffle design?
not a post, I did a little article:
http://localspotter.com/news/beauty/565-diy-fall-nail-trends-2012-darkness-goth-fall-2012
it’s also on my pinterest nail-art board, so if you’re pinning we should pin away 🙂
super cool and it looks super easy, but I am a klutz so we shall see. good work as usual
Thanks! I hear ya about the klutz thing… I’m not so good at free-hand art…so this was right up my alley 🙂
WOW! That’s BEAUTIFUL!!!! Wish I could grow out my nails…. They are brittle to begin, and I love playing in the dirt! Not a good combo, fake or real – however, I LOVE looking at pretty nails and dreaming 🙂
Haha you’re cute! Keep dreamin…..
BTW, your fairy bed was adorable!
Thanks for liking my fairy bed! I shall keep dreaming of pretty nails too 🙂
Looks fab!
Love love love!
Thnx!!! 🙂
Great job! I really wanna do this when spring finally comes and use all my pastel polishes 🙂
All pastels would be so pretty!
Wow, so beautiful
This looks amazing! Definitely must try. Also, love the color combos you used. 🙂
Thank you!
I love this!! The possibilities are endless.. I’m definitely going to try it out! 🙂
Yes! I would love to see some lekker ruffles!
I’ll let you know if I do it! I really like it! 🙂
I love them both! I’ve thought about giving this look a try but I haven’t bit the bullet yet. I guess I’m afraid it will take ages to do and even longer to dry. How long would you say it took you?
I actually kept track of how long it took! I did 4 nails on the left and one on the right. So five nails total and it took exactly 20 minutes to put the dots on. I didnt time the base color because that was already on from the day before.
My mash matte topcoat always surprises me with how fast it dries….. and i used seche vite on top of my glossier mani and so that one dried fast too.
Wow! Very pretty!! It’s also easy to do. I think I’m gonna do this! 🙂
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I have nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award, I know you have already been nominated, but just wanted to say I love your blog! And thank you so much for my nomination! X
That’s awesome- thanks!
thebeautifulcraft is a really cool blog so keep up the good work 🙂
Thank you! X
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I LOVE these, have been looking for something different to do with my dotting tool! Thanks for the inspiration!
Cool! I bet it would look cute just on the tips too! I’ve been thinking about doing a ruffle-tip french mani 🙂
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I really Really wish I could do this some day
Try it out and post some pics! It’s fun because you get to pick all your fave colors!
Hi! Thanks for sharing all of your nail art! You’re one of my inspirations. lol. I just made one like this and I can say I’m addicted to this technique.
(^^,)
That’s so nice… a sincere thank you!!!!!!!! And I loved your ruffle design
Well, Craftynail, I see now why you liked my earlier post “Royal Blue”. I’ve been to two of your posts now, and blue is the theme color. Good, colorful subject matter!
Yes! I love your blue… but also cuz i used to live by lake champlain 🙂