As much as I love looking for inspiration on Pinterest, I know that I’m limited in terms of nail art by what I can actually do and what tools I have at home.  It’s more important for me to have a simple-yet-neat design than an intricate-but-possibly-sloppy design.  Sometimes when I’m trying to figure out what my next manicure will be, I just stare at my nail polish collection for a bit until something (hopefully) comes to me.  Inspired by color! That’s how I figured out what to do for this week’s Manicure Monday!  Read on to see what I came up with this week.

After staring at my polish for a couple of minutes (seriously), here’s a look into how my thought process went:

I haven’t used that black Maybelline polish yet.
But it’s summer.  Black is too dark.
Maybe I can brighten it up.
What colors would be pretty, though?

Okay, that’s enough of that.  Obviously these manicures don’t just come to me, and sometimes it takes some thinking and trials before I’m happy with my look.  I really do enjoy working with different colors and trying different techniques, though.  I’d like to think of it as research.  After staring for a little longer, I picked the three accent colors to the right to pair with “that black Maybelline polish,” which is actually Maybelline’s Color Show Nail Lacquer in Onyx Rush.  Left to right are Forever 21’s Love & Beauty Neon Pink Nail Polish, mark.’s Nailed It Trend Mini Lacquer in Violet Daze, and China Glaze’s Nail Lacquer in Frostbite.

I started with my base coat of Seche Natural, followed by two coats of my base color, Maybelline’s Color Show Nail Lacquer in Onyx Rush.  It’s important to let your base color dry before applying the nail design because you don’t want to smudge anything or ruin your manicure. Once your manicure is totally dry, take a small brush (I used a tiny watercolor paint brush – you can get one at a dollar store) and dip it into the first of your accent colors.  Begin painting dots across the bottom half (or all of, if you’d like!) of your nail.  Leave enough room for the other colors, but you want to make sure you’ll fill up the nail in the end.

To clean the brush between colors, take a cotton ball soaked in nail polish remover, and wipe the brush on it.  It will take the excess polish off and you won’t have to use three separate brushes for three separate colors.

Repeat making dots with your other two accent colors.  Again, be sure to fill in all spots completely.  It gives you a funky scale look, as opposed to just polka dots.  Finish with your favorite top coat (mine is Seche Vite!), and you’re done!

One of the best things about this mani is that you really can use any color.  What color combos would you try?