Nail Designs : Ruffian Manicure

I've been trying to think of the easiest way to do a Ruffian Manicure design. Which is (in my mind) a reverse french manicure. It's one of the more popular Nail Art designs in 2010. I really like the overall look, especially since you can wear a black nail without looking goth. So here is my How To Do a Ruffian manicure the easy way!

Ruffian Design

I watched some freehand tutorials on how to do this, and decided I just don't have a steady enough hand for this. I'm usually quite well with freehand, but not smile lines (or in this case, a frown line?).

Wet N Wild Precious Metals #351 Steel
E.L.F. Nail Polish Black

Step by step, here was how I did it. 

First I painted Wet N Wild Precious Metals in Steel after a base coat. I usually leave a gap between my cuticles but it made this design look silly. So I painted the steel color as close as humanly possible to my cuticles and sidewells without causing a mess. This was tough, but easy to do with this particular nail polish. I used 2 coats and let dry for quite awhile.

E.L.F. black is not creme, but has red sparkles visible in very bright lighting

Then I used sticker guides from a Sally Hansen French Manicure kit to create the reverse smile line. I never ever use the guides for actual french manicures as I either freehand my manicures, or clean it up with an art brush and acetone. You can purchase Sally Hansen Manicure Aides French Manicure Guides  separately  for $1 on Amazon and save some money.

Ruffian Design is a popular in 2010

The trick is to work fast when using guides. Make sure the sticker is FLAT, if it bubbles the polish will run underneath the guide and cause a mess. Paint your 1-2 coats of black as quickly as possible and remove the guide by pulling straight up. Use a new guide for every nail.

The design may not come out perfect, and thats OK. If your shimmer coat is completely dry and you worked fast with the black portion it will be easy to fix. Dip a stiff very small craft brush in acetone and carefully remove any small imperfections. Since the shimmer polish is dry (and hard to remove anyways) and the creme color is still wet you should be able to remove most of the black imperfections without ruining the overall design. Don't worry about imperfections you can see 1-2" from your face, only the ones visible 1-2 feet away as no one else will notice them anyways... Unless you're a perfectionist. I went a bit overboard and had to touch up my silver after (again, with a craft brush, as it's more precise then using the brush that comes with the polish.

I did my Tips rather far up, in most cases it's further down. But I really wanted to show the contrast and it still looked beautiful

Let the black dry VERY well. Then finish with top coat. You'll have a beautiful Ruffian Nail Design.