My Manicure

Nail art tutorials and design ideas.

I’m pretty sure the animal print theme is over now. Let’s try something different – fruit! Strawberries are a really cute design for summer, and they’re a lot less complicated than they look.

Paint the entire nail any sort of “strawberryish” color. One of the best things about this design is how many colors will work. You shouldn’t have to purchase a new bottle of nail polish to try this design, as truly any sort of dark red, classic red, deep pink, or even light pink will work. As long as it’s a member of the red family, the final result will clearly be “I am a strawberry.” Honest. How ripe you’d like your strawberry nails to look is up to you. :)

With either green nail polish or acrylic green paint, swipe a few lines out toward the tip of your nail. Don’t make all your lines lined up straight and equally spaced apart, or they won’t resemble the natural green top of a strawberry. See how the first two lines I’ve painted are slightly tipped in different directions? That’s what you want to go for. I’m using green acrylic paint instead of nail polish here because I find it easier to use a size one paintbrush rather than a nail polish brush. Green nail polish will work though, your lines will just be a little thicker.

Continue dragging out lines, connecting them together and making some shorter than the others. Remember, the design tends to look more strawberryesque if none of your green lines are perfectly straight. So try to slightly angle each stripe.

Now for the seeds. You can use regular white acrylic paint or white nail polish for this step. Again, I find it easier to use a very tiny paintbrush for dots, but dipping an uncooked spaghetti noodle or using a toothpick to dot on your white nail polish will work just as well.

Dot on the rest of your seeds and don’t forget to seal your acrylic paint work with a clear topcoat. This design tends to look especially adorable on toenails.

The timing couldn’t have been better for a cow print request, considering the animal print theme currently running. :)

This is a good design to start with because cow spots are much easier to paint than tiger or zebra stripes. And just like the zebra design, all you’re going to need for this one is a white nail polish, a clear nail polish, and black acrylic paint.

Paint the entire with your white nail polish. I’m using a fakie for this demo because I’m just too in love with my zebra print tips to clean one off to tutorial on. :)

Let the white nail polish completely dry. With your black acrylic paint and a very tiny paintbrush, (today I’m using a size one sable hair paintbrush I bought from an online art store) paint one to three large spots onto your nail. We’re starting with the large spots first because spacing is easier that way. (If you paint all your little spots first, you may find you didn’t leave enough white space for big spots and trying to fit a few in will only leave you with a mostly black cow.) Trust me, it’s easier to start with the big spots.

Now you can add in a few smaller spots to fill in the larger white spaces. This is easier than animal stripes because the exact shape of the spots doesn’t really effect the design. Just make some wonky smooshes and it’ll look like natural cow spots. Think cloud shapes.

After you’re happy with the amount of spots you’ve painted, let the black acrylic paint dry before coating the entire nail with a clear polish.

And that’s it! Everything is nice and shiny and protected. Mooo.

Zebra print is a funky and interesting design that’s undemanding to attempt because only a few things are needed: a white nail polish, a clear topcoat and  black acrylic paint. For this design I used a size one very tiny paintbrush, though a size zero might be easier to work with if you’ve never tried painting stripes before.

I used Nailene’s French Manicure Tip Guides to paint on my white tips. After letting the white nail polish thoroughly dry, I peeled off the stickers and dipped my paintbrush into regular black acrylic paint to “draw on” zebra stripes.

After the black acrylic paint dried completely, I swiped on a coat of clear to seal in my design. Remember to apply the clear topcoat in as few swipes as possible, because more than two to three will smear your design work. You cannot skip the clear topcoat step when working with acrylic paint because it will wash off if it isn’t sealed in.

If you find it too difficult to paint stripes on the hand you normally write with, you can wear this design on your toes instead or enlist a friend to help you out. And if you’d rather go for a tiger striped look, just use an orange nail polish instead of white.

If your nails aren’t long enough to fit this design as a French manicure, zebra print can easily be worn on your entire nail instead. The same is true of polka dots or any other French manicure design I post; play around and see what fits on the size of your nails.

My most frequent nail product purchase, (other than nail polish remover,) is Nailene’s Perfect Tip French Manicure guides. They’re little stickers shaped like your nail’s smile line, and allow for sharp and crisp definition when it comes to DIY French manicures.

The manicure guides are slightly curved, while the pedicure guides are completely straight. I get mine from Rite-Aid and I’ve seen them at CVS as well. It’s only a couple dollars for 96 tip guides. 

The guides are very easy to use. You simply place the sticker guide where you’d like the white line to begin, apply white nail polish to your tips, and wait for the white to completely dry before peeling off the sticker guide.

What’s left is a clean French manicure smile line. (However, no matter what company of guideline stickers you’re using, once in a while a bit of polish might seep under the sticker and mess up your crisp line. What you can do to prevent this is make sure you rub the sticker onto your clean nail completely before applying polish, also avoid applying more than two coats of nail polish as any more than that will warp your sticker. If you still have a smudge, simply dip a cotton swab in nail polish remover and roll it along the edge to clean up your French manicure tip.) The final step is to swipe a coat of clear or nearly clear over the entire nail. 

Note: A nude-tinted clear is what’s shown on my hand in the photo. A pink-tinted clear can work as well, or a clear with a shimmer added. You can add gems like I did, or just leave them classic.

And by no means think you’re limited to just white. A unique twist on the traditional French manicure is as easy as substituting any bright color of nail polish for more interesting tips.

Before I show any more tutorials or design ideas including 3D acrylic nail art, I think it’s important to eliminate any confusion you might have about “picking up” an acrylic powder “ball.” This tutorial will show the basics of making a 3D acrylic embellishment in a step-by-step look at what must be mastered before any flowers or complicated items can be created. The good news is, once you understand this easy process, you will be able to sculpt any 3D decoration you wish! And it’s not just limited to nails either, you can add 3D acrylic flowers or other designs to the outside of your cell phone or anything plastic.

Step one is to wet your brush with acrylic liquid. Touch your brush to the side of the container to smoosh off excess liquid. You don’t want the brush dripping drops of liquid into your acrylic powder, but you want to make sure all the bristles have been wet so that the powder will sufficiently stick.

After wetting your brush, gently touch the tip to your acrylic powder. If you slightly wiggle the brush, the size of your acrylic “ball” will increase. Make sure you only dip the tip of the brush though, or it will be difficult to transfer the “ball” onto your nail. Never submerge the entire wet brush into the powder unless you want to destroy the bristles.

This is an acrylic powder “ball.” This is the starting point for absolutely any 3D design. The design shape will be sculpted directly on the nail itself.

Touch the acrylic powder ball to your nail, and it should stick. After dipping your brush into the acrylic liquid again to clean it off, push and nudge the acrylic powder ball on your nail to create the shape you want. Dragging out a corner of the ball, for instance, would make a petal shape.

I hope this tutorial clears up any confusion created by the 3D Acrylic Ribbon post. If you have any questions, I’ll be happy to answer them in the comments section. Practice making just circles at first, before moving on to more complicated items like hearts or petals.