Tinkerbelle Nails

Sorry for the bad picture quality.

I painted these nails to match a Tinkerbelle Halloween costume. The light green and yellow colors remind me of the Disney image of Tinkerbelle, while the glitter reminds me of the stage representation of her as a ball of light. The white swirls and dots add interest and make the design more fairy-like.

1. First I applied a normal base coat to protect my natural nails from being stained by the colored nail polish.
2. Second, I applied a single coat of white nail polish, not worrying about how messy or even it was. The white base makes the lighter colors in the next step more vibrant, making it take less polish to cover. Gradients are much easier when you don’t have to worry about coverage.
3. Using a kitchen sponge cut up into cubes, I dabbed on patches of yellow and green. I overlapped the two colors in the middle and blended them together until I got an even gradient.
4. Then I switched over to acrylic paints and very small paint brushes. I watered down white paint to get the flexibility I needed for the swirls. I made random large swirls, starting from the edges and then painting backwards from the inside of the swirl. I played around with holding my hand in different positions to find the best angle for each individual swirl.
5. I added dots with a dotting tool around the outer edges of swirls to fill up more space and make everything more symmetrical.
6. I added a glitter polish over the entire nail, and then a topcoat for shine.