Kiwi Nails

These cute nails look just like the inside of a kiwi. It’s a pretty simple concept but the many little details made this design interesting. The main features of a kiwi’s appearance are the green fruit color, the white core, and black seeds. I didn’t include the furry outside of the kiwi because this design only showed the inside flesh of the fruit.

1. I started with a basic base coat to protect my natural nails.
2. Next I applied a coat of my green kiwi color over my entire nail.
3. For the white core, I switched over to acrylic paints and very small paint brushes.  I actually started with the white lines around the outside of the nail. I watered down my white paint so I could get precise skinny lines. Because the paint is thinner, I had to go over many of the lines twice to get full coverage.
4. Next I used full strength paint and a larger brush to fill in the space between the lines. This created a fairly even but organic looking shape for the core.
5. I made seeds using black paint and a very small dotting tool and made rows of dots down the rows made by the white stripes.
6. That’s it! I finished off with a top coat to seal the acrylic paints and protect the design. 

Neon Pink Nails

These nails were very bright in person. The neon pink polish was bold and eye catching and the white dotted tips were bold to match. On each finger one of the white dots was overlapped by a white craft flower that’s almost like an oversized piece of glitter. This added a little extra interest to a simple design, and brought light to an otherwise matte surface. The flowers give a little bit of texture, but can be a hassle to have on your nails. Even though they’re secured with clear nail polish, they can get caught on hair or loose fabric. I still liked them, but I wished I could have known about this problem before I was committed to wearing them.

1. I started off with a normal base coat. I made sure not to miss any spots because the pink base color would easily stain my natural nails underneath. 
2. Then I applied two thins coats of a neon pink. Two thins coats gave me a consistent color coverage overall.
3. Next I used a large dotting tool to create the dotted tips. I started with the top layer of dots spaced comfortably apart.  Each dot in the next layer fit in the window created by the original dots.
4. Then I used a small dab of clear nail polish onto the dot that would be overlapped with a flower. The clear polish acts as glue, and when I placed the flower on top, it stayed in place.
5. I then applied topcoat just over the flower to seal it in place. When that was completely dry, I covered my entire nail with top coat to seal in the acrylic paint.

Purple Flower Nails

These purple flower nails were inspired by a Robin Moses design. They feature multi-toned purple flowers. The flowers lie over a backdrop of silver swirls and black base.

1. I started with a clear base coat, being especially careful to cover mu entire nail. Any missed spots will be stained by the black polish in the next step. I made sure to cover the free edge of my nail so I could also cover it with black.
2. Next, of course, I painted two coats of normal black nail polish.
3. Then I switched over to acrylic paints and small paint brushes for the rest of the design. I choose a metallic silver paint to go under the flowers so they would shine in the background. I tried to make medium sized swirls, so it wouldn't seem too busy, but could also clearly look like swirls under the flowers.
4. I started the flowers with the darkest purple paint, and made rough petal shapes until I was happy with each overall flower.  Then I added some white paint to the purple I was working with, and used that color to add swipes of lighter color to the insides of the flowers. This makes them much more realistic and dimensional.
5. I finished off the flowers with black centers to tie into the black base color.
6. The very last step was to add a shiny clear topcoat.  My topcoat has a harder in it to help keep my nails strong. And, like any topcoat, it seals in the acrylic paints and prevents the polish from being scratched off onto paper or white walls. 

Snowman Nails

I had to wait for my natural nails to grown nice and long to paint this design. The backdrop to this scene is a snowy New England forest. The length let me show a full landscape, with a snowy foreground, and full set of treetops. It also gave me plenty of room to paint the snowmen large enough to be detailed.

1. As usual, I started with a base coat.
2. Then I painted one coat of navy blue polish to act as the dark sky.
3. Next I used white acrylic paint and a wide brush to create the snowy ground. 
4. I used a much more tapered long brush to create each branch in the trees. I added some white snow to the trees to make it more realistic.
5. Once the trees were done and dry, I filled in the sky with the smallest white dots possible. This created the look of falling snow.
6. The snowmen on each ring finger were made by creating three large white dots, just as you would a real snowman. I chose a red color for the scarf and hat so it would stand out from the background. To give dimension to the hat and scarf, I mixed that red with some white to create a lighter color that matched well. That color acted as the brim of the hat.
7. I used a tiny paintbrush instead of a dotting tool to make the black eyes and buttons.
8. Once those steps were done, I could finish up with a top coat, making sure to cover the free edge of my nails. Having that extra rim of protection helps avoid chips and scratches of nail color. 

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. 

Simple Flower Nails

These are really simple flower nails. I made this design to camouflage shorter nails. The vertical line of flowers makes them seem taller. I kept the flowers small to make the pink nail seem bigger in comparison.  A bold color like this pink really shows off the shape of the nail, where a white tip or solid light color doesn’t emphasize the end of the nail.

1.  I started off with a normal base coat of clear nail polish.
2. Second, I did two coats of a bright pink polish, making sure to coat the free edges so I don’t miss any length. This will also prevent chips that would take away from the bold shape of these nails.
3. The next step requires a dotting tool, a metal sphere attached to a handle for easy use. They come in lots of sizes, and for this I used a small sized dot. When you dip the dotting tool into polish or acrylic paint, it picks up a perfect circle of color. If you push the tool farther in, it will pick up more, and be able to transfer a bigger dot. If you barely touch the tool to the surface, it will transfer a small dot. The same is true when you touch the tool to your nail. The closer you get to the nail, the more color will be transferred. After practice, you can get very uniform dots. I made flowers out of five dots, with one dot in the middle. Alternating between white and black petals let me stack the flowers right on top of each while keeping them clearly separate.  
4. I finished with two coats of topcoat for extra protection and shine. 

Blue Nails with Silver Banner

These blue nails with their silver banner were very rich and fancy. The deep blue reminds me of dark velvet and the swirls and flowers remind me of royalty. It may not be visible in the picture, but the silver swipes are filled with black swirls, and paralleled by small black dots. At the end of each line of dots there is a white dotted flower with a black center.

I started with a clear base coat to protect my natural nails.

Next I painted two coats of deep blue nail polish.

Once that was dry I applied silver nail polish in a swipe across the middle of the nail. I needed a second coat of silver to cover up the strong blue color.

I then switched over to acrylic paints and small paint brushes to do the black details.

It was important to me to thin out my black paint with water so I could get the thinnest, most precise lines possible. I tried to keep the swirls consistent sizes so it would look like old fancy fabric. After trying a few methods, I found the best way to paint a spiral was to branch off from the edge to begin, and then start again at an inner layer of the spiral. Otherwise I would get spirals that were more oval than round. Again, it was critical to thin down the paint enough to have strong defined spirals.

The flowers were also made with acrylic paint. A dotting tool is a small metal sphere attached to a handle similar to a brush handle. The sphere picks up paint in a perfect little dot so it can be transferred to the nail. I made five white dots and then one black dot in the center.