Nail Art Style

Hi guys! Today I bring you a simple design inspired by the cover of one of my favourite books, Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell. I'm not usually one for non-fiction, but this is definitely worth a read. The author explains how our ability to make snap judgements is a lot more effective than cautious decisions, and encourages you to trust your instincts rather than over-thinking things. It basically gets you thinking about thinking... If that makes sense?! Anyway, I've always loved the cover art (I should probably mention it's by 'Kai & Sunny'), so I decided to recreate it via my nails.

I really like the colour combination and the subtle metallic shimmer of the details (you can't really see that in the photo, oooops). Since I'm 'into' dots at the moment, it made sense to paint a simple turquoise and teal pattern using my trusty dotting tool!

 The equipment:

Jacava London 'Chillax'*

Barry M 'Greenberry'

Barry M Limited Edition 'Bright Yellow'

Sinful Colors 'Snow Me White'

Essie 'Matte About You'

Medium sized dotting tool

I used 'Chillax' as a base, apart from my ring finger, which I painted with 'Greenberry'. I have a real thing for accent nails, and my manicures never escape a little bit of mix-and-match or colour swapping! I really recommend Jacava nail polish (you can see my review of the brand here) - it applies beautifully and the finish is always lovely. I used three coats in this manicure, but you can get away with two.

 

When my bases were dry, I used a medium sized dotting tool to apply the curved vine patterns. I only painted small sections on each nail, as I didn't want it to overpower the base. Even though the dots vary in size, I actually only used one dotting tool - I just varied the amount of polish and the pressure when applying. 

Hey everyone. Apologies for being such a rubbish blogger recently - my dissertation is taking over my life! I managed to squeeze in a little bit of nail art this morning, but I'm afraid it's nothing special. I decided to do mix-and-match nails of a few different nail art techniques, and I chose black and white polish to keep it simple. All of these designs were achieved by using basic tools, so if you fancy having a go at any of them, make sure you keep reading :)

Natural Collection 'White'

W7 'Black'

Fine nail art paint brush

Striping tape

Dotting tool

Essie 'Good To Go' top coat

So on my thumb nail I created basic stripes. To do this, I applied a base of white, and once dry I added striping tape. Then I painted black over the top, and after waiting for a few seconds, I removed the tape. I used to wait agesssss for the second coat of nail polish to dry, but then I realised that this caused it to pull and rip. Similarly, not waiting long enough causes the second coat to bleed into the first. So the best thing to do is wait until the polish is tacky rather than runny, and remove the tape very carefully. Obviously practise makes perfect, and it all depends completely on the type of striping tape and nail polish that you use!

On my index finger I added black polkadots to a white base. I used one of my largest dotting tools to do this, and tried to ensure that each dot was the same size and shape. On my middle finger I created chevrons, which I also used striping tape for (but freehanded with my fine paint brush to clean up any suspicious looking areas!) On my ring finger I added a chessboard, and finally on my little finger a curved, fan pattern. (I don't know the proper term for this sort of design?)

I finished off each of my designs with a clear top coat. Essie 'Good To Go' is my current favourite because it's rapid drying, although I've found that on top of cheap polishes (Sinful Colors, W7, for example) it tends to shrink. I think I might add a mattifying coat to these too, although that's always risky because matte polish is VERY unforgiving of mistakes! What do you think? What's your favourite simple nail art technique?

Hey everyone! I've decided to post the tutorial for the manicure I entered into e.l.f. Cosmetics' Vintage vs. Rock nail art competition. I've managed to make the shortlist for the contest, so I am very excited! (You can find the shortlist here). I know I've previously created tutorials for both polkadots and roses, however this manicure has received so much positive feedback that I think it's worthwhile  to show you the step-by-steps. To be honest, I didn't think much of this mani originally, but it's one of those that grows on you as time passes! Anyway, here's the tutorial...

Sinful Colors 'Easy Going'

Natural Collection 'White'

Models Own 'Grape Juice'

Models Own 'Pastel Pink'

W7 'Purple'

Barry M 'Shocking Pink'

Models Own 'Jade Stone'

Sinful Colors 'Pistache'

No. 7 'Totally Teal'

Medium dotting tool

Fine nail art paint brush

Essie 'Good To Go' rapid dry top coat

Rimmel 'Rose Libertine'

Models Own 'Pastel Pink'

Models Own 'Feeling Blue'

Models Own 'Blueberry Muffin'

Models Own 'Fuzzy Peach'

Models Own 'Peach Sherbet'

W7 'Purple'

Fearne 'Cotton Candy'

Models Own 'Jade Stone'

Fearne 'Lemon Drizzle'

Models Own white nail art pen

Models Own 3-in-1 clear coat

Dotting tools

Medium thickness nail art brush

For each nail, I used a paler shade of the base colour for the dots. I don't have an extremely pale pastel green, so yellow had to do for my ring finger! I think my pink, blue and peach nails look best with this design, and this is due to them all sporting Models Own varnishes, meaning the darker and lighter shades complement one another nicely.

I then added some love hearts using my medium thickness nail art brush. I switched around the colours, adding pale blue to my pink nail, pale purple to the peach, and so on. The hearts took about 2/3 coats each to make sure they were a solid colour.

Once my hearts were dry, I added a clear top coat. My favourite colour combination is my thumb nail; the pale blue heart goes really nicely with the pink base, and I think if I do this manicure again, I will stick to these colours for every single nail.

Once the clear top coats were all dry, I added more polkadots. For each love heart I used the darker shade of the base colour, and so the pale blue heart received darker blue polkadots, the pale purple heart got darker purple polkadots, and so on. Once complete, I outlined each love heart using my white nail art pen. This was a very slow process, as I didn't want thick uneven outlines. As you can see, there are a few shaky mistakes, but I managed to cover these up in the next step...

 

Continuing with my white nail art pen, I added a lace pattern to each outline. This works best if you don't break the flow of nail varnish coming out of your nail art pen, which involves a consistent amount of pressure and a steady hand! It was hardest on my little finger, as the love heart was so tiny to fit on my nail, but I managed to finish them all without too many mistakes! Once completely dry, I added another top coat.

I love having cute, colourful tips, and this design is simple yet very effective. I'm thinking of combining it with my Birdie Nails, and making the love hearts big enough to fit a little bird inside. This will be really tricky no doubt, but I'm certain it'll look really cute.