Ombre effect with real leaves

Hello lovely people! First of all, sorry that my hands look so dry in these pictures - the cold weather is hurting them. So in this look I used real leaves, and while when I use leaves I usually place them over the entire nail, here I cut them up in little triangles and placed them over the nail. As for the ombre effect from the title of this post, I'm not sure if you can see it in these photos, but this particular leaf is a bit darker at the tip, and goes lighter towards the base, so I cut up triangles from different parts of the leaf, achieving the ombre effect. In reality, ombre is much more visible when you place the leaf over the entire nail (will have to feature that look soon). Anyway, the technique of doing this is fairly SIMPLE, the same as placing feathers or similar things on nails - apply nail polish, while it's still wet place leaf over it, and once the bottom polish is dry, apply base coat. Here are some photos before the top coat:

The reason I wasnt very happy with this look was that I chose as a base color a polish that really isnt suitable for this. It's from essence's 'Nude Glam' line, the shade is called '01 Hazelnut cream pie'. This baby is a two coater (unless if you're being super careful) and I found it very difficult to work with. Also it dries very slow, which makes it not suitable for this particular look. Now, lets talk about the leaf that I used.

First of all, I will NOT write the type of plant I used for this look, for one simple reason - this plant, even though it's very common (you probably have it in your garden) it is also highly poisonous!! I know how to handle it, but I dont want anyone to have any accidents, or leave it around the house where children might get their hands on it. The plant cant really harm you unless if you eat it, but you must wash hands well after touching it (to be fair, you really should wash hands well after touching any plant). I hope I havent just scared you out of trying this look haha ;) Dont worry, unless if you have a habit of eating strange plants LOL, you're going to be perfectly safe! Now, a few tips if you're planning on trying this look:

• Top coat is a must, for obvious reasons.
• Find a leaf (or a petal, works the same) that is VERY THIN (big thick plant parts will not lay right over your nails), and you want to press it between 2 big books for a few days. You want the leaf to be thin and flexible, but NOT dry or crunchy, because then you wont be able to work with it. Some plants work well for this, some cant be used at all, you just have to experiment. ;) 
• Once the leaf is ready cut out little triangles and use tweezers to apply triangle to nails while the base polish is still wet.
• Make sure you use a white or nude bottom coat, so the leaf or petal's details are visible. If you use a darker polish then place over it a white or yellow petal; again, to emphasize the details of the plant.
• Like I said, be careful if you dont know much about plants, some very common ones are also very poisonous (you'd be surprised). Always use a bottom coat (or two), and wash hands well after handling plants, and dont leave them around the house if you've got kids or a younger brother or sister, or a very curious dog/cat. ;)

Well that's it - I hope you try this out, it's so much fun and it's great for you creative girls out there. I've used plants in my manicures quite a lot (before I started this blog), and my favorite look is a dry red tulip petal over the entire nail. I'll try to do that particular look soon. If you try this out, please let me know in the comments below, I'd love to see other people's work! Until next time, I hope you guys are having a great time over the holidays! Love, J.