Flashback Friday: Betsey Johnson

It's time for another Flashback Friday!! It's been awhile since I did my last one and it took me a little bit to decide what to recreate! I think this one is a good one because it's a combination of French manicure, moon manicure, and freehand vs. stamp.  It's from March of 2011 so almost two years ago. See when I first started doing nail art I wasn't part of any nail groups online.  I hadn't done much research and I wasn't really that great at doing much more than some dots.  So I invested in some stamps and for my first BIG challenge I did THESE nails....warning: they are a HOT. MESS.

I started this blog, as I'm sure most of you know, because I was sharing my nail art all over my Facebook page and texting it to my friends and family and I wanted a place where I could just put it up once and everyone could see it.  It was also intended to be sort of a personal journal of my art. So naturally, clean-up, photography and other blogger no-no's weren't really a concern of mine.  I polished. I took a quick pic. I uploaded it with a color list. I was done.  Originally, I used a stamp to do the leopard print and now, I'm able to freehand it.  I really prefer the freehand version too because the print is a bit bigger and it makes the design less busy.  Originally I used a tip guide to do the pink tips.  For the second version I free handed them.  I've always been fairly decent at free handing tips so I don't know if that's really an improvement BUT for the original I stamped and then had to figure a way to color OVER the stamp so I did white and then pink and ended up with super thick tips.  For the new version I used a cotton swab in acetone to remove the gold from the tips and then filled it back in with the hot pink.  For the original version I used a guide for the moon and for the new version I free handed it.  For the original I stamped a white bow and then tried to fill it over with a pink. For the new version I used a white/color single stamp technique to do it all at once.    I think of all the mani's I've done this one probably shows the MOST progression. I love it both ways though!  It was based on some Betsey Johnson earrings I got from my husband. :)  I used two of the same colors for the new one: Orly Luxe and Prince Charming.  For the black I used Zoya Raven for the new one and since I don't have the pink anymore either I used butter London Primrose Hill Picnic for the new version.  Which version do you prefer?  How much do you think you've improved since you started?