Sparkly Snowflake Nails

These are my winter nails with a sparkly blue base, snowflakes and two of my favourite animals, a penguin and polar bear. The polishes I used were OPI's 'Can't find my Czechbook' as a blue base colour and then two coats of Nails Inc's 'Fitzroy Square' which is a blue glitter polish.

How to get this look: Here I will explain how to draw snowflakes on your nails. As always start with a base coat and then apply a coat of blue colour and then a glittery polish over the top. Wait a few minutes for your nails to dry as glitter polishes can be quite sticky. Draw a white X on your nails and then in each of the four spaces of the X draw a shorter white line. Go back and draw V shapes on the X and then on the shorter lines. Repeat this on every nail by drawing different sizes of snowflakes and you can vary the shapes by drawing different amounts of lines.

Victorias Secret Pink Nails

These are my Pink Victorias Secret themed nails. I saw this design on a picture by MissJenFabulous and loved the idea so I created my own version.

How to get this look:

Apply a base coat and then paint three nails white, one pink and one silver.

Put another glitter polish over the silver polish to make it extra sparkly.

Create a pink ombré on the thumb using a makeup sponge and draw the dog, heart and 'pink' lettering with a black nail art pen.

To make the leopard print paint random dots in different colours on the nail and then draw broken circles around them with a black nail art pen.

Finish by applying a top coat.

Lord Of The Rings Nails

After a Lord of the Rings movie marathon I decided to paint a nail design inspired by the films. I drew the eye of Sauron on my thumb and painted the rest of the nails gold with elvish writing like on the ring itself.

How to get this look:

I used nail art pens to create this design. For the lettering you need a pen which can draw fine lines, the black nail pen I use is by Models Own. I find this brand to be good quality and not too expensive.

If you make a small mistake on the lettering go back and fix it while it is still wet with a wooden cuticle stick by pushing the polish back into place gently.

For the eye of Sauron I used a red base polish and used the brush end of duo nail art pens to draw the coloured effects over the red and then used my black nail pen to draw the eye shape in the centre.

As always start with a base coat and finish with a top coat to protect and strengthen your nails.

Hello Kitty Nails

These are my Hello Kitty nails, a simple design for anyone who loves Hello Kitty. The base colour I used is OPI's Alpine Snow and the black nail art pen I used was from Models Own. 

How to get this look:

Apply a base coat and then two coats of your white polish (or more if necessary - some white polishes are not very opaque.)

Use a nail art pen to draw the black outline of Hello Kitty's head and bow.

Add the eyes and whiskers with your black nail art pen, then add a yellow nose and fill in the bow with your colour of choice, I used a glitter pink.

Draw the Hello Kitty lettering on your other nails with your black nail art pen, you should practice the lettering first so it looks like the font used for the logo.

Finish by applying a top coat to protect your cute kitty nails.

How To Train Your Dragon Nails

I went to see How To Train Your Dragon 2 at the cinema recently and loved it! So I decided to paint the dragons from the movie on my nails. The base colour I used on my nails is OPI's Bubble Bath - a natural looking base colour like this is best for this design to make sure all the colours from the dragons stand out really well.

How to get this look: 

Apply the base colour on all of your nails and then paint the face shape of each dragon in the suitable colour.

After painting all the base colours for the dragons you can go back and start adding details. As you will be layering lots of colours on top of each other you should work on each nail a bit at a time and move on to the next nail while each layer of polish dries.

For the 'Toothless' nail (the black dragon) I used nail polish remover on a wooden stick to remove the black polish where I would be painting the eyes, this was so I could use a green base and then a green glitter polish to make the eyes really bright and shiny.

All the dragons detailing was drawn with nail art pens.

To finish off let your nails dry for a while to avoid smudging and then apply a top coat.

Tour de France Nails

The Tour de France started this weekend and I went to watch the Grand Départ in York so I painted my nails for the occasion. For those who aren't cycling fans the yellow nail respresents the yellow jersey which the race leader wears and the red polka dot nail represents the king of the mountains jersey which is worn by the best climber in the race. The base colour I used was OPI's Alpine Snow, this is my favourite base to use for most nail art designs as it is a nice bright white colour and I find OPI polishes to be good quality and last longer without chipping.

How to get this look:

Apply a clear base coat and then two coats of white polish. It is important to paint two coats of colour when using white polish so you get a bold bright white colour.

Use nail art pens in appropriate colours for the individual designs on each nail, for the logo have a photo in front of you to copy very carefully and practice a few times on paper first using your nail art pen to perfect the lettering and size.

When you apply the top coat to a design like this on a white base you must be very careful as smudging is very likely to occur. (As you can see this happened to me on my polka dot nail!) Let your nails become dry to the touch before applying the top coat and on nails with an intricate design like the logo you should dab the brush on the nail leaving blobs of top coat until you have covered the whole nail. You will have a thick layer of top coat if you do this but I find this is the best way because if you drag the brush across the nail how you would usually apply top coat it will smudge the nail art and this will be very noticeable on a white base.

Breaking Bad

The TV show Breaking Bad may be over now but it was so good I could watch it all over again! These are my Breaking Bad themed nails with the green marble effect and the lettering inspired by the title sequence from the show. And of course the thumb is painted on a white background for my drawing of Heisenberg's face as he is called Mr White after all! This was my first attempt at doing marble effect nails, I would recommend watching some videos online that show you how to do it as it can be quite tricky at first.

How to get this look: 

Apply a base coat on all nails and then 2 coats of your green and white polish on your other nails but leaving the two marble effect nails blank. 

The method I used for the marble effect was using water - put a few drops of a dark green polish into a small dish of water and then add a few drops of a lighter green polish in the centre of the dark polish. Using a cocktail stick swirl the two colours around on the surface of the water to create a marbled effect and then dip your nail into the water and under the polish so the polish covers your finger. This will look very messy at first but you can use cotton wool and nail polish remover to go back and remove the excess polish from the sides of your finger so the polish remains only on the nail. 

For the lettering and the Heisenberg design I used nail art pens to create the drawings. 

When you are done apply a top coat to protect your nails from chipping.

Union Jack Nails

This is one of my favourite designs to have on my nails. It's fairly simple but very eye catching and when I have my nails painted like this I get a lot of comments from people, even strangers, who love the design. For my colours I used a blue and red polish that have a bit of glitter in them to make them extra sparkly and a bit more girly (you can't really see the glitter in the photo but it gives a good sparkle effect in natural light) 

How to get this look: Start by applying a clear base coat and then 2 coats of a dark blue polish. Using white polish and a thin brush and such as the striper brush in a duo nail art pen draw a straight line down the middle of the nail and then another line across the nail so you have a cross. Now draw 4 thinner lines going from the middle of your nail to each corner also in white. Next, using red polish and a very thin brush or a nail art pen if your brush is too wide, draw a red cross on your nail inside the white cross you already have being careful to leave some white visible at either side of the red line. Repeat the same for the four remaining lines drawing a red line from the corner of your nails towards the middle but don't join them up in the centre leave a small gap of white. Let your nails dry for a few minutes and then apply a top coat.

Pokemon Nails (Sandshrew and Sandslash)

This is my second post for Pokemon themed nails and probably not the last! There are so many different Pokemon characters to choose from so you can go crazy when designing for this theme. For my design I chose two of my favourite pokemon Sandshrew and Sandslash. I decided to write the PokeDex information on the nails next to my Pokemon drawings as I spent a lot of time and detail working on the faces. 

How to get this look: apply a base coat and then your base colour. I used OPI's Alpine Snow, I think white is the best base colour for this design so the lettering and Pokemon colours stand out. For the Pokemon and Pokeball I worked from the inside out - so start with your yellow/red base and add the other face detailing and then come back and do the black outline last. For the lettering you will need a good nail art pen. I used a Models Own nail art pen, this is my favourite black nail art pen to use as you can achieve fairly fine lines compared to some cheaper nail pens I have which draw very thick lines which wouldn't be suitable for small lettering and details. When complete, let your nails dry for a few minutes and then apply a top coat.

Hearthstone Nails

I recently started playing the game Hearthstone and I love it! For those who aren't familiar it is a card game on PC and now also on iPad. My favourite class to play as is Mage so I chose this as the theme for my hearthstone nails by painting the Mage character Jaina Proudmoore and the card Arcane Missiles.

To get this look: As always apply a base coat and then 2 coats of your coloured base polish. For the design on these nails I used nail art pens in various different colours. When drawing a complex design such as the Mage character start with the base colours like the skin colour and then add the clothing around this and leave the hair and face detailing until last. When layering lots of different colours like this wait a few minutes before starting with your next colour so you're not drawing over wet polish. While you are waiting for it to dry you can work on your other nails. Once complete apply a top coat to make your polish shiny and chip resistant.

Blossom Nails

I painted these nails in the spring after watching the blossom petals fall from the trees, this is the prettiest time of year! The base colour I used for these nails is OPI's 'Can't Find My Czechbook' a nice green/blue colour.

To get this look: Apply a base coat and then two coats of your chosen coloured polish. Using a nail art pen carefully draw fine black lines in the shape of blossom tree branches. Looking at some blossom tree pictures will help to get the style of branches right. Using a nail art pen or dotting tool draw 5 small dots to create a flower shape, draw a few flowers attached to the branches on each nail. Using a different colour draw a dot in the centre of each flower. Allow your nails to dry for a few minutes and then apply a top coat.

Pokemon Nails

Who doesn't love Pokemon? I painted this design on my friends nails with a different Pokemon on each nail and a pokeball design for the thumb. The base colour I used was OPI 'bubble bath' which is a natural looking pink colour, I chose this so the Pokemon colours would stand out better. I think a white or other pale colour would also work well with this design if you want something slightly bolder for the base.

How to get this look: Apply a base coat and your base colour to each nail. Choose your favourite Pokemon and have a photo of them ready to look at. Paint the colour of each pokemons face on the tip of each nail with a fine brush or nail art pen making sure the head shape and ears are accurate to the Pokemon you have chosen. To draw the detailing on the faces you will need a nail art pen and maybe a dotting tool for the eyes and other small details. If you don't have a dotting tool I find using a cocktail stick works well if you need a very fine dot or line as sometimes it is hard to achieve a very thin line with a nail art pen. Allow your nails to dry for a few minutes before applying your top cost to avoid smudging your detailing. 

Converse Nails

I love shoes...especially Converse! These are my Converse inspired nails with a shoe on each nail and the logo on my thumb. The trainers are a fairly simple design to try and will also look good on shorter nails.

To get this look:  Start by applying a base coat and then paint your nails with a colour of your choice. Paint white on the tip of each nail with a brush just like a french manicure. Draw six white dots on the coloured part of the nail and then draw lines to join them up in the style of shoe laces. Use a black nail art pen to draw a semi-circle on the white tip and a small dot inside each white dot for detailing. Finally apply a top coat to make your Converse nails look super shiny and protect them from chipping.

Welcome

This is a blog I am starting to share my nail art designs. All of my designs are drawn by hand using nail art pens. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @KathleenEmilyy