Prettiest Polish

Ikat Inspired Manicure Tutorial

Hello Everyone!

With summer just around the corner, I've noticed a lot of ikat pattered scarves and clothing floating around stores. I absolutely love the ikat pattern, so I decided to try it out on my nails!

A lot of the time when I do this design I get asked if I'm wearing nail stickers, but this is actually one of the messiest nail art designs that I've come across! This design requires no dotting tools or any other special brushes. It simple requires plain polishes and 2 stripers. This is my favourite nail art design to do if I'm in a hurry, but still want something that looks neat on my nails. It's really simple to do, and it honestly doesn't matter how messy you paint, because it will still end up looking awesome in the end!

Let's get started!

For this tutorial you will need:

Your favourite base coat (I used OPI's 'Natural Nail Base')
Dark greyish green polish (I used 'Goodbye Shoes' by Nicole by OPI)
Deep red polish (I used 'Aisha' by Julep)
A white striper (Mine is from Sally Beauty Supply)
A black striper (Also from Sally Beauty Supply)
Your favourite top coat (I used Seche Vite's 'Dry Fast Topcoat)

Step 1: On clean nails, paint a layer of your basecoat to ensure that your natural nails are protected.

Step 2: Paint 2 coats of your grey polish, allowing drying time between each coat.

Step 3: Using your white striper, paint triangular shapes onto your nails on the edges. It will look better the messier you are! Feather out the edges a bit when you are painting these on, as it will add to the effect of the finished product.

Step 4: Using your deep red polish, add a little stroke of polish in the middle of the white section you have just painted. Again, don't worry about being super neat, but try to avoid getting polish outside of the white section.

Step 5: Using your black striper and small strokes, outline the outside of the white section. I usually do all of my strokes vertically to add a more feathered effect to the design. Also add a few strokes in the middle of the red section.

Step 6: Add your favourite topcoat to seal in your design and ensure your newly done fingers are protected!

There you have it, a simple ikat inspired manicure. This design is really simple to do and you can mix up the colours any way you'd like! It would also look really good using neon shades rather than the darker shades I used in this tutorial.

If you're inspired by this tutorial, post a picture on Instagram using #prettiestpolish so I can see your lovely work! If you have any comments, suggestions for tutorials, or future blog posts you'd like to see, leave me a comment down below!

Have an amazing week, and may your nails be BEAUTIFUL!

Spring Time Floral Tutorial

Hello Everyone!

With Valentines Day having just past, I'm sure you're just as ready as I am for this winter weather to go away. With all of the fresh flowers around for Valentines it just made me long for spring even further, leading me to simply put spring on my fingers since Mother Nature isn't helping me out any! These nails are actually fairly simple to do, and look way more complex and intricate than they actually are.

Lets get started!

For this tutorial you will need:

Your favourite basecoat (I used OPI's 'Natural Nail Base')
Mint green polish (I used 'Unmistakeable' by Formula X for Sephora)
Coral polish (I used 'Suzi's Hungary Again' by OPI)
White polish (I used 'White Matter' By Formula X for Sephora)
Light pink polish (I used 'Hoopla' by Ciaté)
A green striper (I used 'Show Me The Greens' by Misa)
Your favourite topcoat (I used Seche Vite's 'Dry Fast Topcoat')
A dotting tool, or toothpick
A small nail art brush
A small piece of aluminum foil

Step 1: On clean nails, paint a layer of your basecoat to ensure that your natural nails are protected.

Step 2: Paint your nails 2 coats of your mint green polish. Make sure you allow the first coat to dry completely before applying the second coat, this will ensure that your polish won't bubble.

Step 3: Once your 2 coats have dried, use your dotting tool and white polish to add random dots over your nails. I like to cluster mine around where I will be adding my flowers. This gives the entire design more visual interest rather than just floral on a plain background. The dots don't need to be perfect, as the flowers will mostly cover them anyways.

Step 4: Using your coral polish, place small circular shaped strokes on your nails. For this step I generally just use the brush straight out of the polish bottle because it allows you to do this step more quickly, as well as have more control of how much polish goes on each circle. I'd suggest making the circles fairly thin, as they will be mostly covered by the details we will be adding. Don't worry if your circles aren't perfect, these are simply the backdrop for the flowers and the less perfect they are, the more realistic your flowers will look.

Step 5: On your aluminum foil, put small blobs of your white polish and of your light pink polish. We will be using these to create details inside of your flowers. Put the two blobs of colours close enough together so that you can mix them slightly by swirling them together. Don't mix them together fully, you should still be able to see a swirled effect between the two polishes.

(Mixing the polishes on aluminum foil causes them to not dry out as quickly as they would if you mixed them on plain paper. This gives you more working time with the polishes you have out!)

Step 6: Using your small nail art brush, dip it into the middle swirled section of your polishes so you get a mixture of both the pink and the white. Paint 3 small lines in the middle of each of your flowers, dipping into your polish mixture whenever necessary. When painting the lines I usually make the two outside lines slightly curved, and the inner line straighter. I like using the swirled effect because it makes each flower look slightly unique.

Step 7: Using your green striper, create small leaves on the outside edges of the flowers.

Step 8: Finish off with a fast drying top coat to seal in your new beautifully done nails!

There you have it, a simple floral manicure. The one thing I love about this manicure is that you don't need to be particularly neat while your painting, because the messiness is one of the things that makes it look more realistic! Hopefully this manicure will help your winter blues melt away.

Have an amazing week, and may your nails be BEAUTIFUL!

Negative Space Valentines Tutorial

Hello Everyone!

Valentines day is under a week away, and if you're anything like me, you absolutely love all of the hearts that are surrounding you everywhere you go. I have also been seeing a trend of negative space nail art around lately, so I thought I would connect the best of both worlds! If you don't know what negative space design is, I'll drop a little bit of my graphic design knowledge on you. Negative space is when the space around the main object creates an interesting shape or design of the plain untouched space in the middle. So for this tutorial, I'll be creating a negative space heart on one of my fingers, where the centre of the heart will be completely clear of polish!

After all of that blabber, let's get started!

For this tutorial you will need:

Your favourite base coat (I used OPI's 'Natural Nail Base Coat')
Light purply/pink polish (I used 'Mod About You' by OPI)
Nude nail polish (I used 'Coney Island Cotton Candy' by OPI)
Whitish pink polish (I used 'Adore-a-ball' by Essie)
Gold glitter nail striper (The one I used doesn't have a name but is by Kiss Nail Art)
Your favourite top coat (I used Seche Vite's 'Dry Fast Top Coat')
Circle Studs (I used some from Sally Hansen)
Tweezers
A dotting tool or tooth pick, and a small nail art brush (Both of mine are from my Bundle Monster 20pc nail brush set)

Step 1: On clean nails, paint on a layer of your Base Coat to ensure that your natural nails are protected.

Step 2: To form the negative space heart on your nail, start by placing two small dots on your nail with your dotting tool. These will be the base and the middle of your heart.

Step 3: Roughly draw out the shape of a heart with your nail art brush, using your two dots as guides to ensure the heart is even. Don't worry if the outline is a little messy, you can use your brush dipped in acetone to clean up the edges, and the edges will be covered with the gold glitter striper anyways.

Step 4: Fill in the outside space of the heart using your nail art brush. The polish will not look smooth as you're doing this due to you having to do such small strokes, but once top coat is applied it will appear completely smooth!

Step 5: While you are waiting for the polish on your heart to dry, paint your first coat of polish on your remaining nails. I did the same colour as the heart on my pinky, my nude colour on my ring finger, and my white on my middle finger. This mishmash of colours gives the manicure more visual interest without it being too over the top!

Step 6: Once the polish on your heart finger has dried, use your gold glitter striper to go around the edges of the heart. This allows you some leeway if the edges are not completely clean. It also makes the manicure a bit girlier and adds a little bit of bling.

Step 7: While the glitter your applied is drying, do your second coat of polish on your remaining fingers. While the polish is still dry, pick up some of the circle studs using your tweezers and place them on your nails however you'd like. I put mine on the bottom of my pink and ring finger, then created a polka-dot design on my middle finger.

Step 8: Once your polishes have dried, add your favourite top coat to seal in your beautiful new manicure! (Your heart will also be looking significantly less bumpy at this point.

And there you have it! A beautiful valentines manicure that will be perfect for any of your valentines day plans. It's really cute and is pretty on par with the current negative space trend for nail art!

Have an amazing week, and may your nails be BEAUTIFUL!

Marc Jacobs Inspired Floral Tutorial

Hello Everyone!

It's time for my first tutorial! I posted this picture on Instagram earlier this week, and have been rocking these nails ever since. I think they're really cute, girly, and perfect to help anyone forget about the chilly weather and remember that Spring is right around the corner! I was inspired by Marc Jacobs designs with the simple, but pretty flowers. However, I did alter them slightly to suit my liking a little more.

For this tutorial you will need:

Your favourite Base Coat (I used my OPI 'Natural Nail Base Coat')
Navy blue polish, or any other base colour you wish to use (I used 'OPI... Eurso Euro' by OPI)
Glittery gold polish (I used 'Oscar' by Julep, however this is optional if you don't want to do an accent nail.)
White polish (I used 'White Matter' by Formula X for Sephora)
Yellow polish (I used 'Mellow Yellow' by Sally Hansen)
Your favourite Top Coat (I used my Seche Vite 'Fast Dry Top Coat')
A small dotting tool, or tooth pick (I used one from my Bundle Monster 20pc Nail Brush Kit)

Step 1: On clean nails, paint on a layer of your Base Coat to ensure that your natural nails are protected.

Step 2: Using the colour you wish to use as your base, paint on two thin layers, ensuring that you allow the polish to dry between each coat. If you wish to do an accent nail, now is the time to also paint the nail of your choosing with the accent colour of choice. I chose to paint my pinky the glittery gold colour.

Step 3: Using your yellow polish and dotting tool, carefully place dots on your nail. Make sure that you leave enough room between each dot to put your petals for the flowers. I put mine in the same place on each nail to create a uniformity on each nail.

Step 4: Now using your white polish, and dotting tool, add the petals for each flower around the yellow dot you have just placed down. I chose to only put down 4 petals for each flower, but you could put down more if you wish. I also chose to only put the dots on the top/bottom, and on either side of the yellow dot to create a look of uniformity again.

BONUS STEP: If you want your nails to look a little more blinged out, you can add either the gold glitter polish, or some caviar beads into the middle of your flowers. To add the glitter polish, use either a tooth pick or small brush to add some of the glitter into the middle of the flower. To add the caviar beads, when the yellow polish is still wet, use tweezers to carefully pick up the beads and place them in the damp polish.

(Ciaté caviar beads in 'Lustre', and Julep polish in 'Oscar')

Step 5: Use your favourite Top Coat to seal in all of your beautiful work, and to ensure that your newly done manicure will last!

That's all it takes! A simple 5 steps to a beautiful new manicure. I really love these nails and think they are a really simple way to make your nails look really cute and put together.

Have an amazing week, and may your nails be BEAUTIFUL!

Let's Get This Started!

Hello Everyone!

This is my first blog post on my new blog “Prettiest Polish”. I’m super excited to be bringing you a variety of tips, tricks, and tutorials each week! I will be posting a blog weekly with a new topic or tutorial! My nails are completely natural so I will be showing you how to paint them on your own natural nails and not on artificial nails!

For starters, I thought I would do the “I <3 Nail Polish” Tag to let you all know a little bit more about me!

1. Favourite base coat?
I have tried a wide variety of different base coats throughout my nail polish life, but I continually am drawn to "OPI Natural Nail Base Coat". This base coat prevents staining as well as ensuring that my polish lasts throughout daily tasks. However, I do not have ridgy nails so I'm unsure how it works on nails with deep ridges, but overall I love everything about this base coat from the brush, to the actual polish.

2. Favourite top coat?
Much like base coat, I have tried A LOT of different top coats throughout the time I have been wearing nail polish. For the longest time I was solely using "OPI Top Coat" since I loved the base coat so much, but it honestly took the longest time to dry and I would usually end up wrecking my polish or design before it even had time to dry because I couldn't sit still for that long.
Since I've started venturing into Fast Drying Top Coats, I have been finding myself LOVING "Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat". It dries in minutes and makes your manicure hard enough to go off and continue on with your day without being in fear of wrecking your freshly done fingers. I also really like the brush on this product because it's a nice medium sized brush that doesn't get polish all over the sides of my nails.

3. Top 3 favorite nail polish brands?
This is a difficult question because there are things I love about every brand of nail polish! But seeing as that doesn't answer the question at all, my top 3 would have to be OPI, Julep, and Nails Inc. I haven't ventured much into indie polishes but I am hoping to explore them further in the next year!

4. How often do you paint your nails?
Well, this is going to be embarrassing... I get this question a lot haha. I honestly paint them about every-other day. But if I really dig the design or the colour I will leave it for a few days longer. For example, my nails I have on now (That I will be showing in a later question) I have had on for 4 days! (Not as impressive as I think it is probably.)

5. Favorite neutral nail polish?
My all time favourite neutral would probably be Essie's "Ballet Slippers". It's a sheer pink neutral, and since I have a really pale skin tone it works perfectly for me! It's just cute and feminine and works as an amazing base colour for any nail art or glitter.

6. Pink or red nail polishes?
I am personally impartial to pink polishes for the most part. However, I will wear red at any given opportunity too! I love both and think both are staples in any laqueristas collection.

7. Glitter or matte nail polish?
Without any hesitation, Glitter. Definitely Glitter. It's almost embarrassing how many glitter polishes I own, and the amount of glitter I have accidentally gotten on my dog as a result.

8. Your go-to nail polish at the moment?
I have really been loving OPI's "Lost on Lombard" lately! I think it's the perfect ox blood colour for my skin tone.

9. What's on your nails now? Color/design? Show us!
I have a floral, studded thing going on right now! I used a mixture of Formula X for Sephora's "Unmistakeable" for my base, and Ciaté's "Hoopla" for the flowers with a mixture of white to make the swirled effect. The studs I used are from Sally Hanson and I just got them from the Superstore! I will be posting a tutorial on how I did these soon! Please excuse the bubbles on some of my fingers, I was trying to use up an old top coat, and it resulted in less than stellar results.

I hope I didn't bore anyone with this long post! If you made it to the end give yourself a pat on the back! I am very excited to share any knowledge I have about nail polish and nail related topics. I am also very excited to learn anything I can from any of you! I will be posting a tutorial within the next week. Since you've learned a little bit about me, I want to learn a bit about YOU! Send me a comment down below answering the "I <3 Nail Polish" Tag, as well as any tutorials or topics you are interested in learning more about!

Have a good week, and may your fingernails be beautiful!