Boy With Luv

Originally posted on April 17th, 2019.

After a couple of heavier title tracks, it was nice to hear something a little different from BTS with their upbeat, pop-y track Boy With Luv.

The music video kind of reflected this bright, playful vibe and I wanted my nails to capture that kind of feeling as well. I had quite a few different ideas for this design actually, a bunch of different single-nail-designs that I was trying to mix and match to make something cohesive an representative of the music video.

I finally settled on the version you see above. It's kind of a mashup of inspirations, including the album cover and multiple scenes in the music video (which you can see below). I ended up going with this one in part because I liked how prominent the pink is in it!

However, I stated doubting myself halfway through paining this design. While this final version is what my initial sketch looked like, while I was painting the index and middle fingers I began to second guess if the text would make the already pattern-heavy nails too busy. I psyched myself out about it and ended up topcoating and posting the non-text version first on Instagram - you can see that version below:

 As I was about to take off the design to film the tutorial though, I decided to try adding the text just for fun to see how it would have looked. Much to my surprise, it wasn't nearly as busy as I thought it would be and I actually liked it a lot better than the plain version.

I think one of the biggest factors was actually painting the lettering over the layer of topcoat. This clear layer helped to separate the text from the background and gave it the slight illusion of it floating over the pattern.

What I took away from this little adventure was that I shouldn't doubt my artistic vision halfway through painting. However, in saying that, I don't think the design would have worked as well had I not topcoatted those two nails first, so the takeaway here really is kind of a toss up. 🤷‍♀️

If you want to try this design out for yourself you can check out the tutorial on my Youtube channel below. Please remember to tag me (@nyanails or #looknyanails) on Instagram if you recreate this design so that I can see them!

Enjoy!

Products Used:

China Glaze - Good as Marigold
China Glaze - Lavenduh!
Ciaté - La Confidentiale
CND - Apricot in the Act
CND - Barefoot Bash
CND - Be Demure
CND - Bubba Glam
CND - Cream Puff
CND - Creekside
CND - Hold on Bright
CND - Party Royally
CND - Pink Pursuit
CND - Sexy + I Know It
CND - Taxi, Please
CND - Uncovered
CND - Vinylux Topcoat
Essie - As If!
Essie - Grow Stronger Base Coat
Essie - High Class Affair
Essie - Knee-High Life
Essie - Style Cartel
L'Oreal - Moka Chic
Serendipity - Pink Poinsettia

xo,

Becca.