Camouflage Nails

I'm way overdue on this post - sorry - but I finally have time to share an awesome camo mani I did!

I did this freehand with the regular polish brushes, plus a fine tip paintbrush I have, and also a pin. A real dotting tool would have been better, but I don't have one yet. The colors used were:

• OPI "A-Taupe the Space Needle" (tan - base, then a few details)
• OPI "Get In The Expresso Lane" (dark - details)
• China Glaze "Westside Warrior" (olive - details)

I think that more than 3 colors starts too look too "busy", especially on such a small canvas, so I stayed with three. The secret here is layering - put a little more of the olive on than you like, then a little too much of the dark, then cut in with some tan, revisit the olive, and touch up the dark.

What you don't want with this design, is little islands of olive or dark, floating on a sea of tan - so try to bridge the gaps and break up longish runs of any color. Beyond that, there is no "wrong" shape for camo - it's supposed to look random... so if you find yourself wondering if it's "too much [this]" or whatever, know that others won't see it that way.

Anyway, this is what I ended up with...

If you look closely at my ring finger, you can see a "river" of tan from side to side and tip to 80% back - a screaming defect to me, but if you didn't notice until I mentioned it, that proves my point about not sweating it too much.

I didn't get a lot of compliments on this one, because I think people just couldn't see them (camo... get it? ;)
No, seriously, this was very well received, and I was very pleased with the result!