Pantone Color of the Year 2014: Radiant Orchid Nail Art

The Pantone color of the year for 2014 has been announced: meet Radiant Orchid! Pantone’s executive director describes the shade as “an enchanting harmony of fuchsia, purple and pink undertones.” I think radiant orchid is a beautiful shade and I did my best to represent it in this freehand orchid nail art.

I started this nail art by pulling out all of the polishes that I had from the orchid color family. Strangely, I didn't really have anything that properly matched Pantone's shade! I figured I could combine a few shades that were close and the overall effect would read "radiant orchid." I think I achieved that, what do you say?

Shades used:
OPI Alpine Snow
American Apparel Dynasty
Illamasqua Jo’mina
OPI Who the Shrek Are You?
China Glaze Crimson
China Glaze Call of the Wild
Zoya Arizona
Zoya Darcy

I mixed some of the colors together in varying amounts to create the transitions between shades, where necessary. The whole manicure is freehand painted with a small nail art brush.

I wanted to go for a design with a lot of negative space so the flowers would have a bigger impact. I painted the orchid branch coming up from the tips of my nails, connecting across all four of them. The branch ends in a bud, which is pretty adorable (if I do say so myself). I painted another bud on my thumb to tie it in with the other nails without distracting from the main branch.

How do you feel about Pantone's color of the year? Do you think I accurately represented "radiant orchid" in this nail art?