Today we’d like to introduce you to Courtney Wetmore.
Courtney, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’ve always been an artist and love to draw and paint. A few years ago, when the nail art trend started really taking off, I looked at what people were doing and thought – I should try that. Countless hours and hundreds of bottles of nail polish later (literally — the last time, I counted I had close to 350 bottles), nail art has become my passion project and my creative outlet. No matter what is going on in my work or my life, when I sit down to paint, I get lost in my own little world. I’m really influenced and inspired by fashion and abstract art – I love taking a pattern and re-interpreting it onto these tiny canvases.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It took a lot of time and research to both get good at learning to control nail polish as a medium (nail polish formulas can vary greatly when it comes to viscosity and drying time) and to figure out what tools and techniques work best for me. One of my biggest challenges can sometimes be an inspiration. That’s actually how I got into modeling my nails after runway looks – I was in a huge slump creatively and was browsing through the latest issue of InStyle and saw a gorgeous Christian Siriano dress and thought – wow, it would be really cool if I could replicate that look on my nails!
For other women looking to get started on nail art I have 3 tips:
1. Clean up, clean up, clean up! I sometimes get polish on my cuticles too – get a small angled brush (like a brow or eyeliner brush) and dip it in nail polish remover and gently sweep around your cuticles. Your at-home man will look professionally done if you don’t skip this step!
2. Get a quick dry top coat. This will save your life. The best formulas work not only to dry fast on their own, but they also help to cure the polish underneath – meaning instead of waiting 20 minutes for dry nails, you’re looking at more like 5-10. My favorite brand that you can get at any drug store is Seche Vite.
3. Practice! Like anything, if you keep at it, you’ll get better!
We’d love to hear more about @courtdoespolish.
I’m super inspired by fashion. I love combing through the Vogue Runway app to look through the latest collections from established and up and coming designers and trying to figure out what I could replicate on my nails. In my posts, I’ll not only show the nail art, but I’ll also feature the runway look that it was inspired by. Lately, I’ve also been really into floral patterns, I think because they’re super trendy right now, even outside of nail art. It seems like anything I do that has a flower in it, whether it’s an abstract pattern, or a super detailed Rifle Paper Co inspired pattern, has performed really well, and generally those are the most challenging to replicate, so I’ve been really proud of how my work turned out with some of those looks. I look at a lot of things – art, fashion, graphic design, nature – and wonder what it would look like on my nails.
Do you feel like there was something about the experiences you had growing up that played an outsized role in setting you up for success later in life?
In terms of my success in the nail art world (and I don’t know if I’d quite say I’ve reached what I would consider success yet – I’m still refining my brand and growing my account), I’d say 2 things really set me on the right path. First and foremost would be my artistic side. I’ve always been an artist at heart, and I feel like I just finally found the right medium. The second is the fact that growing up, my mom and I always painted our own finger and toenails – so I had a lot of practice before I got into this! I really have my mom to credit for both things – she was an artist and has always inspired and influenced me to be creative. In my “real” life, I work full time in Marketing, so I would say that that experience has also been a huge help to me in terms of growing organically on a social media platform.
Contact Info:
- Email: courtdoespolish@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/courtdoespolish
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/courtdoespolish/
Image Credit:
Courtney Wetmore, Orla Kiley, Rhié, Vika Gazinskaya
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