Forget-me-not Nails

I have been wanting to do this for a long time, and yesterday I noticed that the Forget-me-nots at my house were out!  So, I incorporated them into my manicure!

They came out looking like old, pressed flowers!  At first, I wasn't very happy with the result, but if I think of them as being old, pressed flowers, they are really cool!  (Any time you aren't happy with a manicure, try to look at it differently.  That can make me like almost any manicure.)

Before starting the manicure, I collected the tiny flowers.  Many had already fallen off of the plants, so I collected almost all of them from the ground.  That was easier than trying to take them off of the plant because the flowers are very fragile.  I collected more than I needed in case of accidents.

I started out with three coats of Revlon Pale Cashmere.  Then I painted on another coat where I wanted the flower to go.  (I would suggest painting on a fourth thick layer all over the nail.  On some of my nails you can see a more sheer coat of nail polish where I didn't apply the fourth coat.  They look better when the color is completely uniform.)  I then used a dotting tool dipped in top coat to pick up the tiny flowers.  I carefully placed them onto the wet polish and very gently smoothed them down with the dotting tool.  As you can see from my pinky, this could be challenging at times.  You should paint the fourth coat of polish on and immediately put on a flower, instead of painting a coat on all ten of your fingers first.  The polish has to be very wet for the flower to stick.

I noticed that almost as soon as I applied the flower to the wet polish, the bright blue color of the flower vanished.  That must be an effect of the chemicals in the polish.  At first I was a bit disappointed, but I still think they look cool because they look exactly like old, pressed flowers.  After letting the polish dry and the flower set, I gently pressed on the flowers to push down the center of them to make them as flat as possible.  Then I painted on two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.  Today is the second day I have had these on and they are holding up fine!