Tie dye your tips with this nail art tutorial and sneak peek from "Pretty Hands and Sweet Feet"!

Tie dye your tips with this nail art tutorial and sneak peek from "Pretty Hands and Sweet Feet"!

china glaze favorite freehand nail art pretty hands and sweet feet rainbow tutorial

Hey friends! Today I have a sneak peek into one of the tutorials that I contributed to our new nail art book, Pretty Hands and Sweet Feet. This design, as well as 20+ additional designs, can be found within its beautiful, full color pages.

I first tackled tie-dye nails WAY back in 2013 with my Rodarte-inspired design, but figured it was time to do a classic rainbow version, too.

I suggest using neon polishes for this look (I used the China Glaze Electric Nights collection) because they usually have a semi-sheer consistency that helps blend all of the colors together nicely. Plus, who doesn't love a good neon?

Start with a white base, and then use a medium length striper brush to add dashes of color spiraling out from the center of your nail. I began with my yellow shade, and then continued to build out the colors on either side of it (sticking with rainbow order, of course!). Don't forget a layer of topcoat to smooth out and protect your design.

This look is pretty simple to achieve, and the less precise you are, the more tie dyed it will look! So just have fun with it!

If you want to pick up PH&SF for a nail art lover or young adult DIY-er in your life, it is available for purchase now wherever books are sold. Here are links to some of the places that you can nab it:

Quarto | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indie Bound | !ndigo

Wrought Iron Scrolls with the China Glaze Great Outdoors Collection

Wrought Iron Scrolls with the China Glaze Great Outdoors Collection

china glaze freehand green metallic nail art silver

I've always thought that wrought iron scrolls and leaves in gates were so pretty. Putting together one of those gates seems like so much work, no? I went for the same look in this nail art, but with significantly less effort and expertise required.

I used China Glaze - Check Out the Silver Fox as the silver base. It went on beautifully and covered fully at two coats. I love these kind of "gritty" metallics that don't have a totally smooth finish; they tend to sparkle more in the light.

Then, I added the leaves and scrolls using China Glaze - Take a Hike. It's a really nice muted deep green that I can see myself using for a lot of nail art in the future.

The Great Outdoors collection is available now at Ulta and Sally Beauty, as well as in select salons nationwide.

Products in this post were provided for review.

Simple Vintage Floral Inspired by Lacquerstyle

Simple Vintage Floral Inspired by Lacquerstyle

31DC2015 china glaze favorite floral flowers formula x for sephora freehand nail art

We are nearing the end of the challenge! Today's prompt is "inspired by a tutorial" and I've taken inspiration from the talented (and Queen of Florals), Lacquerstyle. For this particular look, I've followed her Simple Abstract Floral Tutorial, which not only features a fun and easy design, but has gorgeous cinematography and photography to boot.

I wont detail how to do this look -- if you want to visit the tutorial, just click on the link above!

I used Formula X Cloud Nine as my base. The flowers are painted with China Glaze Make an Entrance, while the blue blossom sprays were done in China Glaze First Mate. I created the leaf shade by mixing China Glaze Take a Hike and American Apparel Crescent Heights.

I love this look, though mine aren't quite as perfect as Kristin's! The smaller blue sprays really add a lot to the completed manicure.

Check out the other tutorials I've tried in the past:

• Cutie owl half moons
• Candy mermaid scales
• Floral pond manicure
• Reverse stamped glow in the dark stars

Paint It Black

Paint It Black

31DC2015 black china glaze favorite freehand girly bits gradient nail art nicole by opi rainbow sponging

For today's prompt, "inspired by a song," I decided to do some nail art inspired by The Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black." The song is about depression and loss, and wanting to paint everything black to match those feelings.

If you're familiar with the song, the obvious choice would have been do a red door and then put some black on it, but I wanted to go for something a little more colorful and (only slightly) less literal. I opted for a bright base, splattered and smeared with black paint.

I began with a white base to help the colors above it pop.

Then I cut off a strip of a makeup sponge, and painted swipes of my three base colors directly on to the sponge. I used China Glaze Too Yacht to Handle, Nicole by OPI Hit the Lights, and Girly Bits Hip Hoop Hooray.

For the big black swipe, I wiped most of the polish off of the brush of Salon Perfect Oil Slick, and then dry brushed it across my nails. I used a small nail art brush to add the splatters and drips, then finished with topcoat.

See how I've been inspired by songs in the past:

• Tik Tok - Ke$ha
• Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend
• Lose Yourself to Dance - Daft Punk
• Undone (The Sweater Song) - Weezer

Bejeweled Galaxy Nail Art

Bejeweled Galaxy Nail Art

31DC2015 black china glaze color club galaxy girly bits glitter lvx sponging

IT HAS ARRIVED! Galaxy day of the 31 Day Challenge! I love this day because I never do galaxies, even though I should, and they're so easy to do, and they always turn out lovely, and the sparkles are overwhelming, and yeah. Galaxies are the best.

As with all my galaxy manicures, I started with a base of black polish.

Then, I tore off tiny pieces of a makeup sponge, and used it to create layers of the following shades:
LVX Cameo
LVX Viola
Girly Bits Hoop There It Is
Color Club Peace Love and Polish

Next I added the bitty stars! I always use China Glaze Fairy Dust for my stars. The key is to swipe it on randomly, instead of covering the entire nail!

The final step was to add the individual stars. I used a pinpoint dotting tool and Polish My Life's Saint, then added some lensflares on a couple of the stars.

I totally love how these came out and honestly they took me maybe 30 minutes to do. A win all around!



Check out my galaxy nails from years before:

• Maroon and yellow galaxy nails
• Hyperspace jump nail art
• The Pleiades Star Cluster galaxy nails
• The Pelican Nebula galaxy nails

Lavender Blossoms Floral Nail Art

Lavender Blossoms Floral Nail Art

31DC2015 china glaze favorite floral flowers freehand indie polish lvx nail art polish my life purple

Delicate print is always a challenging day in the 31DC, because it's fairly vague yet still specific at the same time. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do this year, but I recently had some training on essential oil soaks at work and one of the blends included lavender. I thought that lavender blossoms would make a great "delicate" manicure, and I'm so so beyond pleased with how these nails came out.

These nails were really easy -- I'd say the biggest key is making sure you have a super tiny nail art brush. If you don't, you can create one by thinning down the bristles of a thicker brush with cuticle nippers.

I started with a base of Polish My Life's Muscat Martini. It's an extremely pale purple, it's almost grey looking. Then, I painted on my stems with China Glaze - Take a Hike. Definitely place your stems first, as it allows you to keep an eye out for the overall balance of your art. I mixed Take a Hike with a bit of China Glaze - Trip of a Lime Time and added some lighter leaves.

Then, I used the tip of my nail art brush to dot on oblong blossoms. I did the bulk of the buds with LVX Aster, then went back in with LVX Currant and added some more (sparingly!) for additional dimension.

Check out my previous delicate print manicures:

• Henna style nail art
• Dragonfly patterned nail art
• Delicate glistening spiderwebs
• Spifster-inspired delicate linework

Bobtail Squid Pattern Nail Art

Bobtail Squid Pattern Nail Art

31DC2015 animal print china glaze dots girly bits lvx orly

wikipedia.com

It's animal print day in the challenge and I'm continuing my tradition of choosing an unusual animal! Last year I did a goldfish pattern, and the year before that was a manta ray, so I'm also sticking with the underwater theme in my choice. It's a bobtail squid! I've actually been saving this picture forever to try to recreate it, and it was more an exercise in color matching than actual nail art.

Since we're talking about color matching, here are the polishes that I used:
China Glaze Secret Periwinkle
China Glaze Raindance the Night Away
Girly Bits I've Got High Hoops
Orly Skinny Dip
LVX Legendaire
Salon Perfect Oil Slick (and variations mixed with white)

So I don't think I did too terribly in terms of getting the colors right, though one thing I'm a little short on is iridescence. One of my blues had a bit of shimmer in it, so that helped, but if I were to try this again I would definitely incorporate nail art foil. I may have to attempt that soon!

Animal print from years past:

• Blue poison dart frog nail art
• Manta ray patterned nail art
• Nudibranch sea slug nail art
• Stylized goldfish scales