Penguin Soiree

Some of you may notice that it has been a while since my last nail art post, and some may even note that this is odd since Christmas is such a great theme for nail art. This is basically because I have been joining nail art contests and couldn't share my creations on my blog before they publish it :)

Nonetheless, I made this Penguin Soiree nail art for tutorial purposes.  It's a perfect nail design for beginners -- it's easy, fun, and would be fantastic for casual Christmas get-togethers.  Inspiration for this design came about as I remembered I am going to an out-of-town Christmas party this weekend with Penguino Motors Corp.  Their company is all about cars, but I am not ready just yet to sport tools on my nails.  So, I thought drawing inspiration from their company name should be just right. I wanted my penguins to look less common, and so decided on having blue and pink penguins.  The gentlemen sport proper bow ties, while the ladies have green scarves to keep them from the cold.

Penguin Soiree nail art

I used three colors from Dazzle Dry to create the design: Blueberry Snocone, Cherry Parfait and White Lightning.  Blueberry Snocone and Cherry Parfait gave me the perfect bright blue and pink shades that I was looking for.  White Lightning, on the other hand, gave me a very pleasant surprise.  It was a very pure and opaque white, that just two moderate layers (or three thin layers) gave me full coverage to get that clean white center for my penguins.  You will understand why an opaque center color is important later as I go through the steps.  Dazzle Dry was also perfect for this as it dried really easily so I had practically no waiting time in between layers :)

Now on with the tutorial!

Materials:

1. Nail Prep
2. Base Coat
3. Top Coat (items 1-3 from the Dazzle Dry Trinity Kit)
4. Blue polish - DD Blueberry Snocone
5. Pink polish - DD Cherry Parfait
6. White polish - DD White Lightning
7. Black polish - The Face Shop (TFS)
8. Orange polish - TFS
9. Acrylic paint
10. Think paint brush

*You may use acrylic paint for numbers 7 and 8

Procedure:

After sanitizing with nail prep and applying base coat, paint nails alternately with blue and pink.  In this picture I have 3 coats of Blueberry Snocone and 2 coats of Cherry Parfait.

Carefully paint the centers of your nails white, leaving a thin margin near the edges.  This is why an opaque center is necessary!

Paint extra thin French tips, matching the borders on each nail.

Use a dotting tool to create penguin details.  I used a small dotting tool for eyes and beak, and a big dotting tool for the feet.

Use acrylic paint to make the bow ties and scarves.  To make the bow tie, i made a wide X mark, then filled in the sides to make triangles.  

Apply top coat, and you're done!!

Let's look at some more pictures of my nails:

With Blueberry Snocone

White Lightning - a nail artist needs a trusty bottle of white polish!

With Cherry Parfait

My penguins are all dressed for the party!!

Helpful Tips:

• When doing border nails, make sure each layer is dry before moving on to keep the colors from bleeding to each other.
• Choose opaque colors for both the centers and the borders.
• If you are not comfortable yet with drawing, you may stick with plain penguins without the bow ties and scarves.  They're still cute anyway!!

I hope I've helped!! Happy Holidays to all, and thank you for reading!!