Needle Point Nails:
1. Start with a base color. I chose black so that the colors would pop. White would also be a great fit for spring!
2. Follow the pattern I illustrated above. Start with GOLD x’s.
3. Next one WHITE x to help the center “pop” .
4. LIGHT PINK for the inner petals.
5. DARK PINK for the outer petals.
6. DARK GREEN for the darker leaves.
7. Next, you’ll carry the dark green petals over to the middle finger.
8. Add some additional LIGHT/BRIGHT GREEN x’s for the lighter leaves.
9. Same colors will be used on the pinky.
10. Add a quick drying topcoat once your x’s have dried!
The Run Down Mani. You'll need: Sharpie “Ultra-Fine Point” regular maker (will run/smear). I chose blue.
Sharpie “Gold Metallic” Pen, which you may remember from this mani. (These don’t run if you apply a topcoat quickly, but they do if you drag the brush through very slowly.)
Sally Hansen nail art pen in white. (Won’t run.)
Steps: 1. Using your Ultra-Fine tip Sharpie, make a zigzag pattern horizontally. You don’t want it to be overly pattern-y. Might sound silly but I tried thinking of an electrocardiogram pattern from when a doctor is looking at your heartbeat.
2. Follow the ultra-fine pen with your Sally Hansen nail art pen.
3. Next use your gold metallic Sharpie in between.
4. Last, take your topcoat and slowly add a layer. The lines will smudge into each other creating the look. Wait for that first topcoat to dry entirely before adding another if desired. You’ll want to wipe off your topcoat brush each time as it will get a little color on it. I used polish remover and a paper towel.
moustache nails: Step 1 : Apply a transparent base coat to protect your nails. Follow it up with a pale pink nail polish and let it dry. Step 2: Take a dotting tool, if you don’t have any take a bobby pin, dip it into the black nail paint and make dot in the center just like this. Step 3: Make another dot right beside the one made before. Step 4: Take a toothpick and put in two small dots over towards the end. Something like this. Step 5: Continue with the tooth pink and draw a curvy line connecting the bigger dot to the smaller dot. Step 6: Fill in the side of the moustache with a toothpick. Try not to make it blotchy and fill it in a stippling motion. Step 7: Repeat the same technique and make the other side of the moustache. Step 8: Once dried, apply a transparent coat and voila!
1. I applied Sugar Daddy by Essie as a base and let it dry.
2. After that I applied Glitter Top Coat by Claire's from the tips of my nails to about the middle.
3. When that dried I applied Disco & Chunky Glitter to the tips of my nails and applied a top coat.
Gradient Nails:
Supplies:
- Base and top coat
- Two or more polishes
- A makeup sponge
Steps:
1. Apply your base coat.
2. Paint all of your nails with the lightest of the colours you chose. Wait for that to completely dry (use a fast drying top coat if you want to speed this up).
3. In the order that you want the gradient to appear on your nails, paint your sponge with all of the polishes, including the one that you used as your base colour. Make sure that the colours overlap just slightly.
4. Dab the sponge lightly onto your nail several times. While dabbing, use a very slight up and down motion in order to blend the colours together. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you get the colour pay-off that you desire.
5. So now you've got a big ol' mess on your fingers. Clean that up with a couple of q-tips and some polish remover.
6. After allowing your gradient to dry, add a layer of your favorite top coat. This will make your new mani last longer, it will smooth out any bumps that have been created during the process, and it will also give your nails a nice shine. As well, the top coat will blend the gradient even more, so it's a must for gradient nails.
love morse code mani:
TOOLS: Black polish. Clear coat. Polyester string (gold) from the craft/sewing store. Microbeads (gold). Small scissors.
STEPS:
1. Cut 5 tiny pieces of gold string and grab 7 micro beads. You will need 3 pieces of the cut string to go across your middle finger for the “O” in “LOVE” so make sure they’re small enough that you can fit 3 across.
2. Draw out morse code so you can get an idea of the spacing.
3. Paint your nails solid black. To be honest, you can do this in any color but this is my fave. I did 2 thin coats.
4. Once the color dries, paint on a clear coat.
5. Quickly apply the micro-beads + string to spell out “LOVE” in the correct pattern. I like to do one finger at a time so the clear coat doesn’t dry before I get them on there.
6. Last, apply a quick drying clear coat over the whole nail.
Heart Mani:
1. You’ll need a red, a metallic gold + a gold glitter. I used this for my red, this for my metallic gold + this for my gold glitter.
2. You’ll also need washi tape and small scissors. I used the kind for trimming brows.
3. Paint your nails with the red and let them dry for a few hours. I like to let the base dry overnight just to be safe.
4. Cut a 2-3″ piece of washi tape, fold it in half but leave the ends apart like you see in photo 4.
5. Place the open ends of the washi tape on your pointer finger on the opposite hand you cut with. Cut out a half heart that is a little less than half the width of the nail you’re putting the heart on.
6. Gently peel your washi tape open to see the full heart.
7. Place it on the nail and press the edges with a soft, dry, clean paintbrush.
8. Paint the metallic coat first. This will give you the perfect heart shape, which you can’t get when using glitter polish alone.
9. Now add the glitter polish on top of that.
10. Peel your tape off slowly while the metallic and glitter polishes are still wet. You don’t want them to dry to the washi tape.
DIY Mix & Match Nails:
1. Paint your fingers with alternating colors.
2. On your darker color, use your dotting tool to make dots all around the edge with your light color.
3. Now follow the same pattern and do another round of dots just inside of your last dots using your bright polish (see above). You can keep going with this pattern if you want. I just like it lining the outside but it’s up to you.
4. Take your darker color and freehand this step. You basically want to follow the shape of your nail, just slightly smaller to allow the bright color to rim the edges. It can be a little hard to get the hang of but you’ll get it. I like to start with painting from the tip. Notice the angle of the brush in this photo.
5. Now switch your brush around as you see in photo 5. You’ll connect the two in the middle. I didn’t use stickers or a guide because I think it’s best to just freehand it. Also, once this dries you can go back in with your bright color and touch up the edges so don’t worry too much anout making it perfect.
6. Top coat time. The best thing about a topcoat is it makes everything kind of settle in smoother. The little mess ups I had seemed to disappear once I applied my generous topcoat. (Thank goodness)
New Years Nails:
1. Start with any polish color you want. We used black so you could really see how it’s done. Let it dry really well. You can even put a thin topcoat over it if you want so it doesn’t smudge when you add the glitter.
2. Using your dense glitter polish and a super-thin art brush, lay down a line of glitter polish at the tip of the nail. (Or you can do the moons if you’d rather.)
3. Using the thinnest art brush you can find, drag the glitter polish out carefully. You don’t need to drag too much of the glitter because you want it to fade to almost nothing. Only go about half the length of the nail.
4. After you’ve dragged it out, go back in and lay down one more line of glitter polish at the tip to make it look more dense.
DIY Santa Claus Manicure.
To create: start by painting two thirds of your nails with red, making the finish point as straight a line as possible (but don’t worry too much about being perfect, the silver will cover it). if you’re doing the santa face, leave your middle finger nail for now.
next, paint on your white ‘french tips’. again, they don’t have to be perfect, the silver will cover any sins.
using an extra thin striping brush, join the red and white with a line of glittery silver.
now, if you’re going super festive and doing the santa face, skip the above two steps on your middle finger. instead of painting on two thirds of red like the other nails, do one third at the base of the nail.
next, paint on your white ‘beard’ by painting two curved triangle shapes that dip together in the center. make the furry trim on santa’s hat by taking a dotting tool and dotting on the white fur with a medium point.
using a smaller point, dot on two black eyes. using a medium point, dot on a pink nose at the ‘dip’ of the beard.
finally, clean up around the edges of the nail and you’re all done. whether you stick with the festive red, white and silver french manicure, or go all the way with a cute santa face, this manicure is pure christmas.
Metallic Sharpies:
- Goes on top of a dry coat of nail polish or on top of gel nails smoothly.
- If you mess up, you can wipe it off gently with rubbing alcohol without smudging your polish– this literally makes your nail kinda like a dry erase board!
- Let the metallic paint dry and then add your top coat. I painted my top coats on pretty quickly and had zero problems with smudging or discoloration.
- The pens come in gold and silver.
- Sharpie also makes “paint pens” and these are NOT those, so make sure you get the one above in the photo. The other ones have a rougher pen tip and don’t work the same.
Dream Catcher Mani:
1. I painted all but one nail a lovely shade of St. Lucia by Essie, then did an accent nail with Nude Now by Sally Hansen.
2. Next, cut a small circle out of a piece of lace. Try to cut the circle from somewhere you see a good pattern.
3. Lay down a generous (non-quick drying) clear coat and then stick your lace circle to it.
4. Measure out a piece of string that will reach all the way around the lace circle. Cut it a little longer and then you can snip off the excess. The best way I find to lay this down is to lightly drag it through a little clear coat, lay it around the lace and then tap it down with a dotting tool.
5. Now, cut a few tiny pieces of white string.
6. Again you want to drag them through a little bit of clear coat, lay them down and tap them using a dotting tool just like you did to lay down the string in step 4.
7. Use a dotting tool to lay down a generous dot in any color you choose. Here I just used a nice charcoal-y grey.
8. And finally, use the mechanical pencil trick to make tiny dots at the ends of your white strings.
Liat Tsarfati
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Nails Ideas
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