My Manicure

Little wrapped presents are the look we’re going for today, complete with a tied holiday ribbon. (This is a pretty complicated nail art design; if you’re finding it too difficult I recommend trying the snow sponging tutorial instead.)

You can wear almost any nail polish color as your base for this look; I’m using a shimmery gold. Pictured is two coats of a cheap gold nail polish, and one coat of OPI’s “Up Front and Personal,” (a champange-colored microglitter polish that I like to layer over other colors for added sparkle.)

I don’t have the right sort of burgundy-colored acrylic paint that I’m after, so I’m going to mix my own using red and purple acrylic paint. Acrylic paint is really easy to mix, even if the companies are different. 

I added some red acrylic paint to my purple, and mixed them up with my paintbrush. 

This is optional, but you can attach a gemstone, sequin or jelly-ball embellishment to be the center of your ribbon. Otherwise a simple acrylic paint dot in the center will do. 

Dip your paintbrush into your acrylic paint, and draw out a loop surrounding your center dot. I’m using a size one paintbrush, (not a special “nail art brush,” just a regular paintbrush.)

Repeat the same loop on the opposite side. As you can see, I made each of my loops in two strokes. This is easier than trying to paint the loops in one rounded brushstroke.

For the bottom tail of your bow, you can simply draw out a line, or you can paint a line with two little flicks at the end like pictured. 

Repeat the same tail on the opposite side. 

Paint a triangle-shaped stripe above, and on the sides of your ribbon. 

Apply a clear topcoat over your entire nail for shine, and to protect your nail art. 

If you have any questions about this design or any other tutorial, feel free to ask me in any comments section or e-mail me at: mymanicure@yahoo.com. I’m always happy to help. :)

Back in August I posted a sponging tutorial. When sponging is done in white, it always looks like snow to me, so I’m bringing back this design as a holiday look. 

Paint your full nail in red or green nail polish. 

Put a bit of white acrylic paint onto a piece of tin foil and have a cup of water ready. Wet your sponge very lightly and squeeze out any excess water before stamping it over your white acrylic paint.

Then stamp your sponge onto your tinfoil or paper towel until you can see a sponge pattern emerging. (See the original sponging post for an image showing how much paint should be loaded onto your sponge.)

Press your sponge onto your painted nail for snowy tips. 

Continue until you get the amount of snowy paint spots you desire.

Coat your entire nail in a glittery clear, or a regular clear topcoat. 

If you’re going to decorate several nails this way, I recommend using different areas of your sponge in order to keep your snow looking fresh and even. (Using the same area over and over can load up your sponge with too much paint.) This is a quick and easy nail design that also looks cute on toes. Happy holidays!

This is a colorful holiday nail design meant to look like slightly tangled Christmas tree lights draped across your nail. 

Your base color can be anything you want, but since the lights themselves are colorful I’d suggest keeping it simple and avoiding bright shades. I’m using two coats of Sephora by OPI’s “Fancy Schmancy” as it gives off a nice holiday frost look, like clean snow.

We’ll be using forest green acrylic paint and a short liner/striper brush to create our string of Christmas lights. 

Dip the tip of your liner brush into your green acrylic paint and draw out a wavy line across your nail. Go light and just worry about getting your shape in; we can go over the paint after to make the line more even. 

I retraced my green acrylic paint line to make it darker and easier to see. Add some green dots here and there: that’s where our “lights” will hang from. 

I’m using almond-shaped gemstones, but round gemstones will work as well. (If you don’t have colored gems, try making dots using brightly colored nail polish, acrylic paint, small sequins, etc.) I placed small dots of clear nail polish along the green strand to give something for the gems to stick to. 

Coat your entire nail in a clear topcoat to protect your “Christmas tree lights” and your nails are all set for the holidays. :)

Candy cane nails! That’s today’s requested post; and I have two more holiday themed nail art tutorials set for tomorrow and the day after.

To start off this look, paint your full nails with any white nail polish. I used two coats of Sally Hansen’s “All the White Stuff.” 

All this nail design requires is some red acrylic paint and a liner/striper brush. You can buy a “striper brush” at a nail art shop, or a “riggers paintbrush” and an art/craft store. They are the same thing.

Dip your liner brush into your red acrylic paint and drag out a thin stripe across your nail. Making stripes with a liner brush is easy, because the long bristles naturally drag out a straight line if you pull the brush against a surface. “Drawing” a straight line with a short paintbrush is much more difficult. 

This is how acrylic paint can sometimes look over nail polish, but don’t worry. A clear topcoat as our final step will bring paint and polish to the same level and you won’t notice this bubbled-up look at the end. 

Repeat the stripe-step two more times to make three thin lines across the center of your nail. 

Color in a thick red stripe across the corner of your nail. It needs to be thicker than your first three lines because…

The biggest mistake I see with the candy cane nail look, is a “red/white/red/white” alternating stripe pattern, all stripe sections being the same width. If you look at a traditional candy cane though, that’s not what they actually look like. Real candy canes have a three-thin-stripe in between thick-red-stripes pattern.

Repeat the last step on the opposite corner of your nail. Also, this gemstone step is not necessary, but I attached a one to the tip of the nail for added sparkle. 

Very important - coat your entire nail with a clear topcoat. This will even everything out, protect your acrylic paint work and keep your gemstone from falling off. Now your nail design is smooth and shiny just like a real candy cane. :)

I realize this is a very labor-intensive nail design. If I were going to wear this look, I’d wear it on my index/ring fingers only, keeping the rest of my nails in simple white or red nail polish. People will notice your cute candy cane nails without you having to paint all ten, and a little holiday cuteness tends to go a long way.

Similar to the Argyle Print post, today I’ll be demonstrating a plaid nail art design. Wear this manicure with a little plaid scarf or something and you’ll look so cute for fall. :)

Start with a base of light pink nail polish. Pictured is “A True Romantic” from the Sephora by OPI collection.

To make our plaid print we’ll be using a liner brush: an invaluable tool for making straight stripes on any nail design.

Dip your liner brush into white acrylic paint, and drag out a stripe along one side of your nail.

Create another line next to your first, one on the opposite side, and one horizontally near the tip of your nail.

Wash out your liner brush in water. Then, with a medium brown acrylic paint (I added white acrylic paint to a chocolate brown to make this caramel color,) drag out a stripe along the single white line on the side, and one above your horizontal tip line. 

Always coat your designs in a clear topcoat, especially when using acrylic paint over nail polish.

Now you have plaid print nails. :)