Purple Heaven

This is one of my favourite nail art designs yet. I tried my first one stroke flower and used gem stones for the first time. 

Step 1

Apply a base coat. Paint on the base colours: white on the index, middle and little fingers; lilac on he ring finger and dark purple on the thumb. 

Step 2

Use a striping brush to apply dark coloured diagonal stripes on the index finger, and a lilac on the little finger.

Step 3

Dot on a lilac onto the middle finger with a smaller sized dotter. 

Step 4

Create a one stroke flower on one side of the ring finger. You need a one stroke brush to do this, its got a slight angle to its straight top. Make sure its damp but the excess water is wiped off. Dip the longer end in the purple and the shorter end in a white acrylic paint. Make a few brush strokes to mix the colours slightly. Make curved strokes to form each petal. I created two layers, one on top, then three petals on the bottom to finish the flower. 

Step 5

Time to apply the "gems". Have 4 lilac gems on the surface right way up and a dotting tool with a blob of topcoat at the ready. Stripe a line of topcoat down the thumb. Dip the dotting tool in topcoat and use it to pick up the gems, place them evenly down the stipe of top coat on your thumb. Using the same technique apply a silver gem to the flower where all the petals meet. 

Step 6

Apply a base coat to all the nails. 

Freehand Cow Field

I'm not going to do an in detailed tutorial for this because it has too many steps. 

Obviously I started with my base coat. I then sponged on a gradient of blue yellow and green. I gently sponged on some wispy white clouds. I then brushed on some yellow and green strokes on to the grass area. I painted on a tree. Then I painted on the cow. I sealed it all in with a top coat. 

All of it was done with nail varnish. It was quite messy so I had to tidy it up at the end with a cotton bud in nail polish remover. 

Green Sea Fan Brush Nail Art and Sea Life Stamping

This is another one of my own designs. I knew I wanted to try a technique using a fan brush and went from there. I thought that the turquoise colours and stripy effect lent itself to a marine theme, so I used a fish themed stamp design. 

Below are the nail paints I used. Substitute in similar colours from your own collection. 

Step 1

Apply your base coat

Step 2

Paint your nails with the medium turquoise colour. 

Step 3

Prepare your fan brush: dampen it and separate the bristles a little (as separated as they are in the picture to the right is sufficient). Separating the bristles can be done by holding them between your thumb and index finger and allow the brush to run through your fingers. Place a large blob of the darker turquoise colour onto a piece of paper or something you can clean nail varnish off.

Step 4

Dip the very tips of the bristles into the dark turquoise and run the brush across your nail horizontally, so there are continuous horizontal stripes across your nail. This takes a bit of practice, if the line stops in the middle, start from the other side. This look does not require perfection so don't worry about messiness!

Step 5

Clean your brush by dipping it in nail polish remover (poor a little into a lid or a small glass) and rub it on the side of the container then bring it out and wipe off the excess on a cotton pad. Separate the bristles again.

Step 6

Repeat step 4 with the lightest turquoise colour.

Step 7 (optional)

Allow the polish to dry completely. Stamp on a marine themed design onto the ring finger. You could free draw a fish and bubbles, I think that would look great. White, dark blue/turquoise or silver would work to make a design on the ring finger. 



I was considering not putting these nails on the blog because I wasn't happy with the boldness of the stamping. However, When I was at the gym, the lady behind the desk asked if they were done professionally and was shocked to find out they weren't. That made me proud of these nails, so I have shared them. I hope you decide to have a go!

Green and Pink Dots, Stripes and Dragonfly Stamp

I am really loving dots and stripes and a fancy design on the ring finger at the minute. 

The ring finger was done using a cheeky nail stamping plate. The colours used were: Rimmel Lasting Finish Misty Jade, and Barry M Flamingo Pink. 

Step 1

Apply a base coat. 

Step 2

Apply the base colour, always apply two coats. 

Step 3

Apply the stripes with a striping brush and dots with a dotting tool. Use a contrasting colour that will stand out against the base colour, this colour  should be used for all the details. 

Step 4

Choose a stamping design and stamp on to your ring finger. I think this dragonfly pattern suites the designs perfectly, although I did use a chick design on the ring finger of my other hand. 

Leave a comment below if you want a separate stamping tutorial. 

Vintage Duck-Egg Blue Patterned Nail Art

I saw this design on Pintrest and had to try it out! 

Step 1

Apply your base coat.

Step 2

Apply the duck-egg blue colour to your index, middle and little finger. Apply white to the thumb and a glitter/holographic silver to the ring finger. Apply all the colours with as many coats as necessary until they are opaque. 

Step 3

With a striping brush apply vertical stripes down the index finger.

Step 4

With a small dotting tool apply lots of uniformally arranged duck-egg blue dots to the thumb.

Step 5

With a large dotting tool add a few uniformally arranged white dots to the little finger. 

Step 6

Create the daisy shapes on the middle finger. Use the same dotting tool as used on the little finger, place 5 white overlapping dots in a circular shape. Add one dot of duck-egg blue to the centre. 

Step 7

Seal in the design with a top coat. 

Breaking Bad Nail Art

How amazing are these? My inspiration was the up coming release of the new series of Breaking Bad (on of my favourite ever shows) on the 11th of August and a mash up of a few designs I've seen on Google Images. 

Step 1

Apply your base coat on all nails

Step 2

Apply the MUA fur effect nails on your index and little finger. Click the link to find out how: MUA Fur Effect Tutorial. You could use any textured blue nail art for that. 

Step 3 

Paint your middle and ring finger with a green paint. I used acrylics since they run less when applying a top coat so don't mess up your design. 

Step 4 

Paint your thumb with white paint.

Step 5 

Paint the lines and letters on the middle and ring finger in white. Again, I went for acrylic, though if you used green nail polish, I'd use white nail polish rather than acrylic to match. 

Step 6 

Draw Heizenberg on your thumb with black paint in the following order: hat, face shape, glasses, nose then moustache.

Step 7

Top all but the blue textured nails with a top coat to protect your design. 

Striped Nails and First Impression of Acrylics

I recently received a pack of 10 acrylic paints and a set of 15 nail art brushes. I decided to have a play and this is what happened. 

Step 1

Paint a base colour on top of your base coat. I went for white to make whatever design I do stand out.

Step 2

Use a striping nail art brush to form the stripes. I dampen the brush with water and make sure the acrylic paint is the right consistency - loosened up with water but not watery (takes a bit of practice). I covered the whole length of the brush in paint, placed it on my nail towards one edge, pulled it towards the other edge whilst turning my nail away from the other hand. I know its hard but try keep them as parallel and horizontal as possible. 

Step 3 

I did a little design on my ring finger to make it more interesting. I just did zigzags with a detailing brush.

Step 4

Finally, cover it all in a top coat to protect your design. There may be edges around the nail to clean, just soak a cotton bud in nail polish remover and rub away the paint. 

I definitely need more practice at acrylic paints and these brushes. Keep an eye out for more designs to come, and lets hope I can perfect the technique!

Easy Dotted Daisy Nail Art

This is a really simple way to create daisies with a dotting tool.

Step 1

Paint a base colour on top of your base coat. I went for a sky blue, but any light pastel green, blue or lilac would look great. 

Step 2

Dot on the yellow centres of the daisies. I used a fairly large sized dotting tool for this. I went for 2-3 daisies on each nail, but you could use a smaller centre dot and add more daisies onto one nail. 

Step 3

Use a smaller dotting tool and add the white petals, they should be equally spaced around the centre of the daisy. 

Step 4

Add some randomly spaced white dots to fill out the design a little and your done!

Sunset on the Beach Nail Art

Step 1

Get a sponge. As you'll see I've used a dish sponge, which works fine, but a make up sponge will give you a much more polished finish because of the smaller bubbles. Make sure you have a useable size so cut it down if necessary and dampen it to prevent the nail polish being sucked into the sponge. 

Step 2

Paint on the stripes of colour. I've used three: yellow, orange and then red. You can use between 2 and 4 colours, go for more colours the longer your nails are. Bare in mind the whole area of paint on your sponge needs to be just bigger than the size of your nail, so the stripes only need to be about as big as the nail polish brush. 

Step 3

Dab the sponge on to your nail. Try and make the gradient as smooth as possible, so you can move the sponge up and down by a few millimetres to blend the colours together, but not so far that it makes the whole thing the same colour. 

Step 4  

Allow the first coat to dry and repeat step 3. You will have to reapply the stripes of colour to your sponge. 

Step 4 (optional)

Draw on your palm tree on the ring finger. I did this free hand b drawing the trunk first about 5 lines evenly spaced emanating from the trunk then lots of lines perpendicular to those lines representing the leaves. 

Step 6

Allow to dry and add a top coat

Step 7

Clean up. Use a cotton pad soaked in nail polish remover to remove most of the polish around your nail. Then use a cotton but soaked in nail polish remover to take away all the remaining polish from around the nails. 

Teal and Yellow Vintage Print Nail Art

This vintage print is inspired by a picture of a fabric print. If you want to see the original picture follow the link: 

Vintage Fabric 

Step 1

Apply a base coat to protect your nails.

Step 2

Apply a base colour. I went for an off white, champagne colour, but a matte cream would work best, even white would do. 

Step 3

Apply the teal oval shapes. I found the easiest way to get the oval is to do two overlapping medium sized dots. Make sure there is plenty of room in between the ovals to fit the black dots. Do this to all fingers except the ring fingers. 

Step 4

Now add the the very small black dots between the teal ovals. 

Step 5

Finally carry out step 3 with yellow paint, then step 4 on the ring fingers. 

MUA Fur-Effect Nails Application and Review

Step 1

Apply a base colour coat of nail varnish as usual. Pick a colour to co-ordinate with the fur. I've gone for Nails Inc Baker Street.

Step 2

Take the sifter off your fur-effect pot. This is messy so I'd do it on a piece of paper to catch any excess, you can put this back into the pot. Tip about a quarter of the fur into the lid of the pot. 

Do the following steps on each nail in turn

Step 3

Apply a second coat of your base colour onto one nail. Make sure there is a piece of paper underneath to catch the excess fur. Quickly, while it is still very wet, shake fur from the lid of your pot over your nail. Pile it up all over the nail, don't worry about waste, we'll salvage any excess. 

Step 4 

Press on the piled up fur onto your nail. Turn your finger to the side and tap it to tap off the excess fur onto the paper. 

Step 5 

Fold the paper in half and tap the excess fur back into the lid.

Repeat this process on all nails. 

Don't use a top coat on this manicure because it will spoil the effect. 

Review

MUA Fur-effect nails is sold at £3 in Superdrug. I only used about an eighth to a sixth of the product, so it's good value. I really hate the sifter, it stops the product being tipped out so I took that off straight away (poked a dotting tool through one of the holes and prised it off) and got blue stuff all over the couch. Apart from that, its a really easy to use product with a great effect. I'll add in later the long term review. 

Watch out for a Breaking Bad nail art tutorial I will be doing soon when the new season is aired. 

Dr Who Nail Art for Manchester Comic Con

These are the nails that I wore to Manchester Comic Con. I chose to paint my nails in a nerdy fashion instead of wearing a costume. I find unless your willing to spend a lot of money on a costume it can look a bit silly, and it was unbelievably hot so I'm glad I didn't dress up. 

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy comic com too much. I'm not a big fan of cartoons or Anamai, I essentially went because Nathan (the other half) wanted to go and I heard Warwick Davis and Robot Wars were going to be there. In the end the queue for Warwick Davis was so long and hot that I thought if I stayed there long enough to get to him I'd probably faint (I tend to faint standing up in the heat for too long). I was so hot and bored that we left before Robot Wars started, it looked small and rubbish anyway, not like the cool show I remember. I think I expected it to be like what I have seen of the San Diego Comic Con, with characters from my favourite shows giving talks. It wasn't like that at all. The costumes were interesting to look at, and there were some cool memorabilia like Olivander Wands, Canvas pictures of the avengers and Game of Thrones T-shirts. I won't be going to Manchester's Comic Con again. However, if I happen to be in San Diego when Comic Con is on, I'll give that a go, I might even dress up. 

Glossy and Matte Black Nails

You will need 

• Base coat
• Black nail varnish 
• Sellotape
• Scissors
• Matte black nail varnish or matte top coat

Step 1

Use a base coat to protect your nails. I use OPI Nail Envy Matte, which can also double as a matte top coat. 

Step 2

Paint two coats of glossy black nail varnish on all your nails. 

Step 3

You can either leave it to dry COMPLETELY without a top coat, or add a fast drying top coat which should speed up the drying time but still leave it for a while to let it dry hard. 

Step 4

Cut up your Sellotape to make two equal rectangular strips. Place one on the bottom half of the nail, the edge ending in the middle and one on the top half of the nail, the edge ending in the middle but protecting the other side of the nail.  Do this to all your nails, make sure the bottoms are all protecting the same side and the tops are all protecting the same side. 

Step 5

Paint the unprotected nail with matte nail varnish. 

Step 6

Allow the matte nail varnish to touch dry, then remove the Sellotape while its not hard dry to prevent chips coming off. 

You're done!

This is a great way to jazz up a plain black nail you've had on for a couple of days before a night out. 

Rainbow Dots

Dotted nails are one of the easiest, fastest and yet eye catching nail art designs there are. This is just one of the ways to do a dotted nail. I think it looks bright and summery,  perfect for this weather. 

There are just two easy steps a dotted nail: apply a base colour (you don't even need that if you don't want), then add your dots. 

The above photo shows two sizes of dotting tool. You can get a set of 5 cheaply from amazon or ebay. The largest the ball at the end, the larger the size of the dot. You could substitute a small dotting tool for a tooth pick for certain designs. 

Pop a blob of polish on a spare piece of paper. Touch your tool to the polish as far in as it can go. Then dot on to your nail. 

Tip: Keep your tool evenly covered with polish and make sure  the pressure you use to dot onto your nail is even. This keeps the dots the same size. 

Have fun with the different colour combinations and different sized dots you can use. Keep posted for some more dotted designs. 

Tip: Search "dotted nail art" for inspiration. 

Bunny Rabbit Nail Art

Step 1 

Apply a base coat to your nails. 

This provides a good base for your nail varnish to stick to and protects your nails from staining. I go for OPI Nail Envy, I believe it helps my nails grow stronger and longer. 

Step 2 

Apply two coats of a base colour. In this case I have gone with a lilac colour. Any colour except white can be used at this stage. 

Step 3

Add a large rounded white tip to your nails. I use the nail varnish brush at this stage: make a brush stoke in the middle about a quarter up your nail, then join that stroke to the corners of your nail with a rounded stroke. This stage often needs two coats. Don't worry if it's not perfect, bunnies are fluffy anyway!

Step 4

Add two ears to each rounded tip. I use a dotting tool for this (tooth picks, or bobby pins can be used but if your interested in nails I'd invest in some dotting tools since they're about £2 from Amazon... ). I place a blob of white nail varnish on some paper, dab my dotting tool in it and dot two fairly straight lines, slightly fatter on top just off centre on the rabbit's head. 

Step 5

Add the eyes. I use a dotting tool again with a black or very dark colour. I dotted below each ear. 

Step 6 

Add the nose. I use a dotting tool with some pick. I dotted just below and between the eyes. 

Step 7

Add the pinks of the ears. I use the same pink that I used on the nose. Use a very small dotting tool to place the pink inside the white of the ears, making a small line, again, fatter on top than bottom.

Step 8

Seal in your design with a top coat. I chose Albert Bridge Top Coat by Nails Inc. 

Ombre Glitter Nails - Firey

Fiery tangerine orange and red glitter ombre nails

 Step 1 

Apply a base coat. This protects your nails from being stained. 

Advice - My personal favourite is Nail Envy. It does a great job at stopping staining, as well and helping your nails get stronger and longer. I usually apply 2 coats of nail envy. 

Wait for it to completely dry. 

Step 2

Paint on your base colour. In this look I go for Barry M Tangerine. Always apply two thin coats of your base colour, but let them dry between layers. Two thin coats lasts longer without chipping than thick coats do. 

I go for the one middle stroke, two side strokes approach. 

Tip - try leaving a small gap between your nail varnish and cuticle, it looks more professional. It's easier to do it right the first time rather than faff around with cotton buds soaked in nail varnish remover trying to clean it up. 

Step 3

This is the tricky bit so take your time. Wait till the base colour is completely dry, I'd give it 5-10 minutes. Now go to your glitter paint. I really love the variety of Barry M's glitter paints, and  £4 isn't going to break the bank. 

Scrape most of the excess glitter off the brush. Start near the end of your nail gently brushing a very thin layer of glitter onto your nail, move down until this very sparse glitter goes about half way down your nails. Top up your brush with more glitter, and cover the very tips in a really thick layer of glitter. Finally, gently match up the thick layer of glitter with the sparse glitter in the middle of your nail by gently brushing more glitter onto that area.

Step 4 

Seal your nail art in with a top coat. I use Nails inc Albert Bridge top coat. It dries in 45 seconds which is a must for me, since I cannot sit and let my nails dry without realising I need to do something (worst is going to the loo, definitely want to do that before you start painting). 

Adapting 

This look can definitely be adapted. I really like going for a white base colour and red glitter. 

Be creative! I'd love to see some other examples of this look.  

Instagram me @hattievdt 

DIY Manicure

Get yourself comfortable and follow the instructions below to relax and get beautiful healthy nails. 

You will need:

• Nail varnish remover
• Cotton pads
• Nail file 
• Nail buffing block
• Hand cream
• Cuticle oil
• Nourishing base coat

Step One

Remove all the previous nail varnish from your nails. 

Tip - I find it much easier to douse a cotton wool pad in nail polish remover and leave it on my nail for about 30s and the nail varnish just wipes away. If I try buff it off, the nail varnish tends to stain the tops of my fingers. 

Advice - I'd go for an acetone free nail varnish remover. Acetone is a strong chemical that strips the nails of its natural oils, which can cause peeling or weak nails. 

Step 2 

File your nails to the desired shape. 

Tip - Try to make them all the same length and shape!

Advice - Leighton Denny's Crystal Nail File is AMAZING does the job perfectly and you have a life time guarantee. Be light handed because it shortens your nails quickly. 

Step 3 (occasional)

At this point if my peeling nails are looking particularly gross I use a 4 way buffer to buff away the peeling bits and ridges. Don't do this too much though, because this can weaken your nails

Step 4 (optional)

At this point there's fine nail dust around (a bit gross) so I tend to wash my hands (if I'm not too comfy) . 

Tip - If my nails are looking a bit stained, I give them a good scrub with whitening toothpaste. Weird? But it works. Have a look at the pictures below. My before nails are yellow and gross, and after scrubbing and buffing they look pretty healthy and white. 

Step 5

Now, I smooth in plenty of hand cream, then apply some cuticle oil and let it do its magic. After a while, I use the tool on the end of the cuticle oil to push back my cuticles. Do it gently, nothing worse than a sore cuticle (I know there is really, but hey hyperboles rock). 

Advice - My personal favourite hand cream is Hand Food by Soap&Glory. I know its good because after I use it, without telling him I've used it, my boyfriend Nathan, always tells me how soft my hands are. Also it smells beaut! 

Before and after pictures so far ... 

Left ring finger before. Stained a bit yellow. Peeling. Ridgy. Gross.

After most of the DIY manicure . At this point I have filed, buffed, scrubbed with whitening tooth paste and used cuticle oil. Same nail but awesome. It has a nice shape, can't see the peeling, doesn't look like it has ridges. 

I'm pretty impressed!  

Step 6

With all those oils on your nails the base coat and nail varnish won't stay on your nails. Soak another cotton pad in nail varnish remover and hold it on your nails for a few seconds and wipe away. 

Step 7

Paint on your base coat to protect your nails, and help nail varnish stick better. 

Advice - I personally use Nail Envy (matte was the cheaper option). I've really noticed a difference using Nail Envy, the Leighton Denny Crystal Nail File and Nails inc Non-acetone Nail Varnish Remover combo. I'd really recommend all of those products. 

I hope you've had fun and didn't have the temptation to move while your base coat is drying (like I always do). Take a look at my future posts for some great, easy nail art tutorials. 

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