The More Floral The Merrier (said I)

 Essie The More The Merrier and Inglot 720

Read more for hella more pics

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I really need to make some sort of pledge to not do any sort of floral nail art for a while but when I was stuck as to what to put on top of this stunning Essie shade, it was my go to design.  Firstly, I'll show you my swatch for The More The Merrier.

This shade, from Essie's 2013 Summer collection, is a gorgeous lime that is just shy of being a neon.  I think if you put a coat of white polish on first then apply The More The Merrier, it would probably be pushed towards being a neon.  I think this is a grown-up neon almost, still loud, a big pop colour but not too in your face or hard to look at.  The formula's great, it's a creme polish and it takes 2-3 coats, depending on how thickly you apply polish.  I wore my nails with just The More The Merrier for a day and couldn't stop looking at the colour.  The colour is a bit more subdued in reality I think but it still pops.  You can get The More The Merrier and the rest of the Summer collection from Boots for £7.99.  Now's a great time to stock up on Essie polishes (or any of the higher end brands Boots stock, or any nail polish!) because it's currently buy one get one half price.  I bought 4 polishes on the same day and it came to just over £18 (including Essie The More The Merrier, Sally Hansen Instadry Top Coat, a Maybelline Gel Colour and Models Own)

So because I can't leave my nails plain for too long, I needed to come up with a design to put on top.  I was going to use MrCandiipant's brilliant floral brocade design and then I had to decide on a colour.  I was torn between Models Own Golden Green, Essie Tart Deco and Inglot 720.  I liked the pop of the pink against the green so I went with the Inglot shade.  Wanting to do something a bit more original (and I've used the design half to death and still love it) I googled floral wallpaper and found this image.

I chose to adjust the scale of the pattern differently on all my nails so that the design didn't repeat itself too much as there isn't much variation in the shapes of the pattern.  I liked how it was still like Candice's style of brocade floral but a little more abstract.

I used a medium length striper for this and the consistency of the Inglot polish was great to work with as it was thick and pigmented but did get tacky very quickly so I had to work with small drops of the polish for each nail.  The pink polish has a matte finish and I was debating with myself as to whether to keep it matte or put on a top coat to seal in the design.  I liked the contrast of the shiny lime and the matte pink so this is why I didn't just put a matte top coat on before you ask :P  So what I've done is take pictures of both, which do you prefer?  (the first picture above the cut is the matte version as well)

 Matte vs. Shiny

I like keeping the matte of the pink because it looks like flock wallpaper and a little bit 3-D but I do like having nice shiny, sealed in nails.  You could probably replicate the 3-D effect by using a slightly darker shade and going around some edges...an idea for next time maybe?

As always, let me know what you think by commenting below, on facebook, twitter, tumblr, instagram or even by email if you want.  I've two deadlines in the next week so my posts might be a bit sporadic for the next week or two due to my drowning is journal articles and library books.  I might do a compilation of favourite shades for the summer or something.  Since I'm getting stuck into my dissertation research, expect to see a lot more from the Inspired By series (or at least I hope you will :D)

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