Pokémon Valentine Nails

It's nearly Valentines Day so I wanted to do some Valentine themed nails. I love Pokémon and I thought it would be fun to create a nail design with cute poké-puns. 

How to get this look:

Start with a base coat and then two coats of OPI's Alpine Snow.

Draw the pokemon at the bottom of the nail but make sure you leave enough room at the top to fit the text in. I drew all the pokemon using a very fine nail art brush. (Tip - you can get sets of nail art brushes really cheap on ebay!)

The lettering is drawn on using a black nail art pen, you should practice writing with it on paper first to get the pen running smoothly to achieve thin lines. The nail art pen I used was from Models Own.

Finish by applying a top coat, you should dab it on to the nail rather than dragging the brush across the nail as the black polish will smudge very easily on a white base even if it has dried.

If you recreate this design please share it with me - @KathleenEmilyy on both Twitter and Instagram.

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.

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.