Rainbow Nail Art

     When I was trying to decide what nail art I wanted for my dissertation defense, Kesha's song "Rainbow" came to mind.  It's a song I listened to frequently during a rough and uncertain period of my graduate education, providing me with solace and hope, and so it seemed only fitting to bring an element of this song with me into my defense.  The opening line of the song is,"I used to live in the darkness," so I originally planned to paint all of my nails but the accent one black for the dark times I've dealt with.  On the accent nail I would have some sort of rainbow design, as the rainbow symbolizes hope and possibility throughout the song.  I ended up adding some rainbow glitter to the black nails because initially I wasn't pleased with how my nails were looking (although I think that had more to do with the beige background I originally used for the accent nails).  Even though it was primarily an aesthetic choice, you could read the rainbow glitter as light in the darkness.
     Oh, and in case you were wondering, I passed my defense.  I am now Dr. Amber Hathaway.  I can't really believe it.  It feels so surreal.

Me, post defense.  "Yeah, now I see the magic inside of me."

Materials:

*Clear nail polish base and top coat
*Black nail polish
*White nail polish
*Acrylic paint in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple
*Sky blue nail polish
*Ultra fine nail art brush
*Rainbow glitter top coat

Directions:

*Paint nails with clear base coat.

*Paint four nails on either hand black, leaving the accent nail unpainted.  Paint the accent nail white.

*Using red acrylic paint, draw the first band of a rainbow on the accent nail.  You'll notice I also painted my nail a beige color.  I ended up not liking that as a base color and painting over it, so that's why I didn't include a step regarding it.

*Add in the orange band of the rainbow.

*Continue with the yellow band.

*Paint the green band.

*Paint the blue band.

*Paint the purple band.

*Paint around the rainbow with sky blue nail polish.  I used acrylic paint here because that was what I had in reach, but nail polish would probably have given a nicer finish.

*Seal the accent nail with a clear top coat.

*Add a rainbow glitter top coat to the black nails.