Hello Kitty Nails (black and red)

This nail design was inspired by my recent purchase of a cute, funny, and distracting item -- Hello Kitty glasses!

Sporting my funny glasses and matching nail art :p

For those who are curious about the glasses, I got the from the tiangge in Greenhills for 100Php.  They come in different color combinations of the bow and frames.  The ones I got have no actual glass because I hate the glare and fog that come with wearing glasses.  Plus, I do not have to worry about my lashes touching my glasses (a problem I had when I used to wear glasses). They are also available with lens though, if that is your preference :)

Now about the nail art design. I chose to make only one nail Hello Kitty, and the rest just plain red and black French tips because though I find Hello Kitty cute, I hate how most Hello Kitty-themed nail arts are usually over-the-top with pink and glitters.  I like Hello Kitty, pink, and glitters... I just don't like them when put all together :p

Materials:

1. Base Coat
2. Top Coat
3. Nail polish in red, back, white and yellow
4. Toothpicks
5. Tape (optional)

Procedure:

After applying base coat, paint all fingernails black, except for the ring finger which will be white.

Using a toothpick, carefully draw Hello Kitty's face.  I started with the nose because I used it a a guide for her other features.  The eyes are actually aligned with the nose, as well as the middle whiskers on each side :) 

Now swipe white polish on the tips of the black fingernails.  This step is important to bring out the red French tips later on.

When the white polish is dry, swipe red polish over it.

Wait for the design to be completely dry, and top with top coat.

All done!!

Helpful Tips:

1. If it is difficult for you to create straight lines for the French tips, put tape on your fingernails to help create a crisp, straight line.
2. When using tape, allow your nails to dry completely before putting the tape.  It may peel off your base color if it is not so dry yet.
3. Also wait for the polish on the French tips to dry before peeling off the tape.
4. If you used tape, clean off the adhesive with a cotton bud dipped in water before applying top coat :)

Thank you for reading!!

Flintstones Nails

Hello everyone!


We all celebrated Father's Day recently, and I thought it would be interesting to make a Father's Day nail design.  First ideas that came to mind were neckties or sports. My dad, however, neither wears a tie nor plays sports so I thought it would be personally insignificant to me to make such designs.  I then remembered that as children, my siblings and I would often tease our dad about looking like Fred Flintstone (it helps that he has a temper too, like Fred! Lol). So I decided to try my hand out at actually painting Fred Flintstone and his daughter, Pebbles. 

By the way, it was my first time to make cartoon characters on my nails, so this was quite a challenge!


Materials:

1. Base Coat
2. Top Coat
3. Nail polish in white, orange, and black
4. Acrylic paint (available in bookstores or crafts stores in boxes of small tubes)
5. Very thin paint brush
6. Container of water for rinsing the brush
7. Toothpicks

Procedure:

After applying base coat, paint the thumb and ring finger white, and the rest orange.  You may switch up the colors as you like, as long as 2 are white and 3 are orange.

Using the acrylic paint, start painting the shape of Fred's and Pebbles' faces.  You might need to mix your paint to get the right shades.

Continue painting the faces slowly.  This is quite difficult, so do not be frustrated. Acrylic paint wipes off with wet tissue so it is easier to work with than actual nail polish :)

Here you see I am copying a picture of Fred from Wikipedia (And as you can see, doing nail art can be really messy!)

Once you have finished painting the faces, use a toothpick to paint triangles on the orange nails to resemble Fred's leopard print outfit.  The triangles are better when placed randomly and do not need to be perfect.

And as always, finish off with top coat, and you're done!!

Helpful Tips:

1. Acrylic paint washes off with water, so be sure to top with top coat when you're happy with your design.  Do let it dry first, though :)
2. Acrylic paint will stain your nails so do not apply directly on your nails.  Be sure to at least have base coat on before applying acrylic paint on nails.
3. An extra layer of top coat is advisable on nails with acrylic paint because its texture is less glossy and much rougher than nail polish.  
4. I learned the hard way that quick drying top coat is not good for acrylic paint!! It cracks up your design. Stick to regular top coat.

Thank you for reading!!

Romantic Wedding Nails

Hi everyone!

I recently attended the wedding of two dear friends.  Of course, I had to dress for the occasion, and that meant a suitable nail art design was also in order :)

My outfit for the wedding and a close-up shot of my hand holding my beaded clutch

This design looks very elegant, but is surprisingly easy to do.  You may also change the colors according to the look you want to achieve.  So let's get started!

Materials:

1. Base Coat
2. Top Coat
3. Nail polish in pearly pink, dark purple, gold, and green
4. Big dotting tool (or the back end of a thin paint brush)
5. Small dotting tool (or the rounded tip of a bobby pin)
6. Toothpicks

Procedure:

After applying base coat and 2 thin coats of pearly pink polish, use the big dotting tool to make 5 dots on each nail.  These will be the petals, so try to keep them close to each other without letting them stick together.

While polish is still wet, use a toothpick to smudge the petals outwards.  Start from the center of the dots going towards the direction you want.

Now smudge the petals going in using the same method.  Be sure to clean the toothpick when polish accumulates on its tip.

Next, take the small dotting tool and make gold dots in the center of each petal.  You may opt to skip this step and the next if you prefer to have flowers of only 1 color :)

Using the same smudging method, from steps 2 and 3, smudge the gold dots.  Keep a lighter hand in this step.

Now that the flowers are done, create leaves by using the big dotting tool to blot green polish randomly beside the flowers.

See how I randomly positioned both flowers and leaves.  This gives the design more character :)

Now smudge the leaves the same way as the petals, apply top coat, and the design is done!

 Helpful Tips:

• Wait for your design to be completely dry before applying top coat. Applying top coat on semi-dry polish will smudge your hard work :(
• To prepare for dotting, use the nail polish brush from the bottle to drip a blob of polish onto a clean piece of paper.  Dip the dotting tool in this blob.
• Nail polish is like paint; they can be mixed together on a piece of paper to get the right shade for your design. For this design, I mixed a little gold in my green polish to make it lighter and a little shimmery.
• If you want to keep your design from chipping longer, reapply top coat after a couple of days. This will also freshen your design and make it look new again! 

Thank you for reading! Feel free to leave some comments :)

Back to School Nails

Hello everyone!

As I have mentioned in my last post, it was after my first nail art demo that I decided to create a blog.  During that event, The Face Shop was also so kind as to give me a gift box with super nice products - Night Flower Firming Body Wash, Mini Pet Hand Cream, and Check Check Nail Set in two colors! Of course, the nail polish sets were my favorite. They are lacquers that go on extra thin, so you can create checkered patterns with the colors layering over each other. It's a little hard to explain with words, but I took pictures, which I hope will help you through this tutorial :)

My gifts from The Face Shop <3

I created this design out of gratitude to The Face Shop for both the gifts and the inspiration. And because it is June, what better design can I make but a back-to-school look featuring The Face Shop's Check Check Nail Set! So let's begin :)

Materials:

1. Nail polish in white, green (preferably dark), yellow and red
2. Base coat 
3. Top coat
4. Nail art pen in white OR a very thin paint brush
5. Check Check Nail Set from The Face Shop
6. Dotting tool or toothpicks 

• If you do not have a dotting tool, you may use the rounded tip of a bobby pin as a cheap substitute :)

Procedure:

After applying base coat to clean nails, paint your nails with 1-2 thin coats of the following colors: 

• thumb - yellow
• index, middle, and pinky - white
• ring finger - green

Take your 1st color from the Check Check Nail Set, and swipe diagonally on your pinky, middle, and index fingers.  Remember, for this nail design thinner is better! :)

My nails at this point reminded me of white correction fluid and highlighter I used to put on my nails as a kid! Lol ^-^

While the color from step 3 is drying, take your white nail art pen, or thin paint brush, and write A+ on your ring finger. We all hope for A+ every sem!

*helpful tip: I sometimes use acrylic paint (available in bookstores) to make fine drawings such as this on my nails. They also wipe off with wet tissue so it's great for beginners! Just be sure to apply top coat once it's dry :)

Now take your 2nd Check Check color and swipe diagonally below the 1st color.  

Don't worry if you get color on the skin outside your nails. You can always clean up after ;)

While that is drying, use your dotting tool or toothpick to slowly draw an apple on your thumb.  Remember to be gentle!! I use a dotting motion rather than swiping when doing this.  Swiping the color on may result in ruining your base color..

Next, take the 3rd color of your Check Check set and swipe towards the tips. 

You might be getting tired.. Be patient! Perseverance will pay off!

-

Now that you've probably gotten the idea of it, swipe your 3 Check Check colors towards the opposite direction. Here I chose to start with my 3rd color first for the second layer. You may choose to still start with the 1st color, just make sure to use the same middle color :)

At this point, the design is good to go with just a layer of top coat, but I chose to add one more step...

Using a white nail art pen or a thin paint brush, draw white lines along the stripes of your middle color.  This creates the illusion of crisper lines, and makes your design look preppier!

Apply 1 or 2 coats of top coat and you're done!!

A Nail Tale

Hi everyone! 

Nail It Down! is a nail art blog that features instructions in creating simple nail art designs. 

Below is a short story of how my nail art addiction began, and how I came to writing this blog. :)

So first off, I would like to make it known that I am not a professional nail artist.  I am a preschool teacher by profession, and have been teaching as a private tutor to young children for the past couple of years.  This blog is simply for fun and a medium for sharing ideas with those who are willing to listen. 

My passion for nail art started summer of last year (2011). I was strolling down the mall when I decided to go into a Korean cosmetic store to check it out. I ended up buying a bottle of pearly pink nail polish. Priced at P95 I figured there's not much to lose if I do not end up liking it.

Me with my very first bottle of nail polish <3

But.. I did like it! In fact, I went back to the store the week after to buy a hot pink shade since it was summer at that time. The sales lady offered me a nail art pen to go with it. I was hesitant at first, but because it was also reasonably priced (P175, if I remember right), I decided to give it a try.  And I loved it! I fell so much in love with my striped nails that the weeks following were marked by frantic nail polish splurges and YouTube views on nail art.

Since then I progressed from simple polka dot and stripes, to flowers, to cute animals, and anything I could think of! I also graduated from simply following online tutorials to creating my own designs. 

One of my favorite original designs :)

Creating a nail art blog was far from my mind up till a few weeks ago. One of the highlights of my 2012 summer was being a finalist for The Face Shop Philippines' search for their Top Girl. I only made it to the top 20, but getting that far paved other opportunities for me. As my way of expressing my appreciation of their products, I shared pictures of my art on The Face Shop's timeline on Facebook. It was then that people really began noticing my creations. I even got invited by The Face Shop to do a live demo during their blogger party launching their Club 20 VIP card! 

At the launching of The Face Shop's Club 20 VIP Card, together with some of the other lovely Top Girl finalists and the winner, Monalyn Luna (in orange skirt)

I had the honor of doing nail art on Ms. Rikka Dylim, Inside Showbiz executive editor!

Painting the eggshells on the chick with everyone watching was like walking on eggshells!!

The finished look :)

After that event, I just had to give in. If people in the beauty industry liked my art, then maybe I do have a little bit of talent to share..

So here it is -- An instructional nail art blog. I do hope you find this useful and that you will visit this blog often :) 

Cheers!!!