The Ruffian Manicure

I have recently taken a liking for this particular manicure, it looks very chic, sophisticated, and so incredibly versatile. It can be done with an incredible array of colours and can be personalized to suit you and your style; whether it be girly chic or sassy vamp the look you're going for.

The first time I heard the proper name of this manicure was thanks to YouTube Manicure Guru MissJenFABULOUS (her YouTube channel) and have been hooked ever since.

I began to search online where I could get the Ruffian stencils and the only places I could find them were in the US, and there are 2 things I can't purchase on that side of the world: Perfumes & Nail Polish, sadly companies (B&BW, Birchbox, Sephora, etc) cannot ship these 2 products to my APO address and shipping them to my European address would eat away at my income like I eat away at cookies. So what can a girl do? Improvise.

This is when I searched YouTube on how to do it and MissJen was amazing at explaining step by step how to do this on video. So I shall try my best to do so with pictures and a simple explanation.

Step 1
Start off with a clean buffed nail, soak your fingers in warm soapy water to loosen your cuticle and easily push it back, alternatively Sally Hansen's Cuticle Remover works in a jiffy. Girls in the UK can buy it here at Boots, in the States you can go to your local Walmart, most of them have this product. After your nails are nice and dry apply your favorite Top Coat.

Step 2
Choose your colours and design. I'm going with gold and black, only doing my ring finger in black because I'm going over it with Bourjois Vampire Vanity which has lovely gold flakes in it, sadly it was a buy 3 get the polish free edition, I haven't found anywhere other than France to buy it online. And I just went on a tangent, sorry! Ok, the black I'm using is by China Glaze, the gold is Revlon's Gold Coin, start to paint your nail a little higher than normal (closer to the cuticle than you normally would). Don't forget to let dry between coats.

Step 3
You're ready for the fun part. Now that your base colour is completely dry you can go is with your second colour. Place a drop of your 2nd colour a little bit lower then where you want the Ruffian to start and with the brush gently push it up to the point where you are wanting it to begin, without lifting the brush slowly move the brush as if you were painting a circle and than pull downwards on one side and then repeat on the other side, all you have to do after that is fill in the space and use your favorite top coat to top it off.




Be warned, you need a steady hand and patience (I know it's easier said than done but practice makes perfect as cliche as that sounds). It's easier to do on someone else than on yourself, I practiced on my mom before Christmas and she loved it.

The Products I Used