I was a bit stumped for a design to try this week, and then I remembered that I'd bought a new plate with butterfly wing outlines on it that was so far untried. I decided to recreate some Monarch Butterfly nail art using some orange holo polishes.

Freehand dots over Monarch Butterfly stamping nail art | Keely's Nails

Polishes and tools

Nailtiques Formula 2+
Color Club Cosmic Fate
Hits Speciallità Flamenco
Cirque Valencia
Bundle Monster BM-S188
MoYou London Black Knight and White Knight
Winstonia Nail art brush
Clear Jelly Stamper The Big Bling
Revlon Smokey Eye brush for clean up
Seche Vite

This design reminds me of the monarch butterflies in Under The Dome! Do you remember all the butterflies in Chester's Mill?

Stamped Monarch Butterfly nail art | Keely's Nails

I started with Nailtiques as a base and two coats of Cosmic Fate. It's pretty opaque but not orange enough for this design. I used Valencia over the top for the colour, with a drop of Flamenco at the cuticle for a subtle (and mess-free) gradient. It's not holo, but a bright red jelly full of flakies.

It's very subtle, but I think it reflects the colours of a monarch butterfly really well. The holo isn't as strong as I thought either, but it will blaze up under a strong light source.

Full design monarch butterfly nail art | Keely's Nails

After top coat to set the base, I stamped the main part of the design in Black Knight. I tried to vary the exact position on my nails so they didn't look exactly the same.

This plate doesn't have any mirror images of the designs, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

Monarch Butterfly holo nail design | Keely's Nails

Don't forget the dots!

After the black, I used my white stamping polish and a small nail art brush to add the dots. This definitely made it look like real Monarch Butterfly nail art, so I wouldn't recommend skipping it.

If you're less confident freehanding dots with a brush, you could use a dotting tool and also make far fewer per nail. I have freehanded a butterfly design before, when I was very early in my nail polish journey (be kind!)

Butterfly wing nail art | Keely's Nails

Whether you use a dotting tool or a brush, make sure to clean the polish off in between each nail to keep your dots small.

Not all my dots are perfectly round, but that's ok. Just try and keep them fairly small.

Monarch Butterfly nail art macro | Keely's Nails

Monarch Butterfly nail art

I haven't even posted all my photos! I obviously got a bit snap-happy with this design. But it is very pretty. I will post the rest on Instagram and Twitter instead. Please give me a follow there!

Monarch Butterfly nail art using Winstonia brush | Keely's Nails

Question of the day… What is your favourite butterfly? They come in so many colours and patterns, from bright sulphur yellow, to blues and purples. I love seeing them flit about on sunny days. Let me know in the comments, and don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a post!