Thursday, March 15, 2012

Tutorial - Lucky Leprechaun Nails

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!!

Hello and welcome to my first blog post!! Friends, family and, most importantly, my husband have been telling me for months that I need to start a nail blog to showcase some of the nail art I create... and I finally took the plunge!

A couple things:
> I only do my nails once a week (I know, I know... that's not a lot for some of you nail bloggers out there). The main reason for this is because I don't like to be wasteful and my nails can be a little picky about going overboard on chemicals. Expect my posts to show up every Thursday night. This may change eventually, especially if I get bigger and have the opportunity to do reviews.
> You will also notice a lot of broken nails. It's not because my nails are super weak or brittle... It's more because I am REALLY hard on them. I don't know if it has something to do with being a tomboy most of my life or what... but I just can't help it. I beat the crap-ola out of them lol. I like to keep them at a shorter length to limit breaks. (Luckily there were no breaks for my first post!)

I don't always go crazy with my designs... I promise to try and get a crazy design with a tutorial once a month. The rest of the weeks I will be swatching and reviewing different colors and brands. But, I have to start with a bang, right?!

Without further ado, meet my Lucky Leprechaun!


Supplies used:


Orly Rubberized Base Coat
1 - China Glaze Agro (Capitol Colors Collection)
2 - China Glaze Riveting (Capitol Colors Collection)
3 - China Glaze Champagne Bubbles (Holiday 2011 Collection)
4 - Nina Ultra Pro Black
5 - Orly Beverly Hills Plum
Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat
Black Striper
White Striper
Small Brush (or orange striper)
Dotting Tool
Tape
Re-enforcement stickers

Please don't mind the poor photos during the tutorial steps. I do my nails in the living room and we don't have a lot of direct light in here for pics. Also, I am a messy painter. I paint my nails at night and usually wait until my shower the next morning to let the shower do the cuticle clean up. So excuse my messy cuticles during tutorials.


I started off taping the top part of my ring fingers (to create the hat), applied my base coat on all nails and painted all of my fingers with Agro and my thumb with Champagne Bubbles (2 coats).


Remove the tape and paint the base coat on the bottom half of your ring finger (if you try to paint your whole finger with the base and then tape it the base will peel off with the tape... or at least mine does! haha). Paint Orly Beverly Hills Plum (a very sheer pink) on the bottom part as well, to make a nice, even flesh tone for your little leprechaun's face. Place a drop of Riveting on your foil, and use a nail art brush (or if you are like me, and have yet to buy a brush set, an orange striper with the orange paint brushed off as much as possible) to create his sideburns. Try your best to square up with his hat, but it doesn't have to be perfect.


Finish off the bottom with a few swipes of the Riveting to create his beard. You could also use a dotting tool to get a different effect; if you so choose.


Now, use you dotting tool to create little eyes and a black striper to make a little nose and mouth. I gave him a little crooked smile... Isn't he adorable?!


Use a black striper to create a band across his hat; once that is dry use a dotting tool with Champagne Bubbles to create a little gold buckle.


Once the Champagne Bubbles on your thumb is COMPLETELY dry (very important that it is 100% dry or you will mess it up!), place half of a re-enforcement circle at the base of your nail. Paint your thumbs with black to create the pot.


Create a shimmer on the bottom of you Gold pot using a white striper. I also used my dotting tool to swirl some Champagne Bubbles on the top for more texture. This is optional, it gives it a more 3D appearance.

I used a striper to add a Champagne Bubbles diagonal line to the three remaining nails; just to make things more interesting!

Once everything has a nice drying time (at least 15 minutes - you don't want to smudge it after all of this work) put on your top coat and admire your hard work and cute little leprechaun!


I hope you enjoyed my first post. My one main goal with starting this blog is to inspire those who think they can't do nail art to give it a try! All nail artists start out somewhere :)

I'd love to hear your feedback with comments! Also, like my page on Facebook for updates and possible milestone giveaways down the road. If you give this design a try, you have to stop by and share a picture of your creation!


 What did you do with your nails for St. Paddy's Day?? Did you find my tutorial easy to follow??

10 comments:

  1. Love the tutorial! Nail art is my favorite part about nail polish. ^_^ Looking forward to watching what you do!

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    1. Thanks! I love to have fun with my nails... and I love the nail blogging community because no one looks at me like I'm crazy for spending all this time on my nails! Haha

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  2. awww i'm so doing this to my nails now!!! I love this

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    1. I'd love to see your creation!! That's what I'm most looking forward to with this blog!

      Thanks :)

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  3. Hey Kelly!

    Congratulations on starting your very own blog! :D That's a huge first step. I can't wait to see what else you share in future posts.

    Your St. Patrick's Day manicure is gorgeous - I just love the expression on the little guy's face. Cute! Very well done!

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    1. Thank you! That is a huge compliment coming from you!! :)

      And thanks for checking out my post, and more importantly for the follow! I am honored!

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  4. He's adorable! I wish I'd seen this before St. Patty's day, I'll have to bookmark it for next year. :-)

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  5. This is such a cute mani! Agro and Riveting are such gorgeous colors. And your blog is lovely! :D

    ~ Yun

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  6. Your leprechaun is the cutest thing!! love it!!

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