Nail It: Pressed Flower Manicure

I might not have spoken about it lately here, but I'm still into pressing flowers in a big way. It's the laziest form of crafting ever - pick some flowers, shut them in a book, and rediscover them a few weeks later. No effort whatsoever. And the end result is always pretty spectacular. However, besides from sticking them onto a piece of paper, it's tricky to find other uses for them. So, I've started to think outside of the box, which is where this pressed flower manicure comes in...

The idea for this probably came from the cover of the latest Oh Comely Magazine, where the model has a fake tattoo made from pressed flowers. It's such an interesting idea, and I think it worked out really well, so I wanted to try it out in my own small way. The full pressed flower tattoo would be great if you were headed for a festival, but I think it's a look that my small town isn't quite ready for yet. As a lover of nail art, the idea dawned on me to try to use tiny pressed flowers on my nails.

If you want to try this too, here's how I did it:

1. I didn't use a base colour on my nails, but you could if you want. I think a white or a pink would work really well. When your base colour is dry, apply some clear nail varnish to a nail, and whilst wet stick on a pressed flower or petal.

2. Repeat across all of your nails, doing it one nail at a time so that the nail varnish is sticky enough for the pressed flowers.

3. To protect your pressed flowers, apply a topcoat of your choice. I used a glossy one, but I also think a matte one would work really well.

And you're done!

If I'm honest, the end result wasn't really what I was expecting - it ended up being a lot less regular than I had envisaged, and at a distance, looks rather like chipped nail varnish. However, it's a look I'll keep experimenting with to get right. It's worth knowing that some flowers work better than others, but unfortunately it's hard to tell which ones work until you try them out. I think next time, I might just press some petals, as the I think the petals worked better than full flowers. Keep your eyes peeled for future versions!

Are you looking for ways to use up pressed flowers? Check out my guide to crafting with flowers, or why not make a pressed flower notebook?