Since I had my 'Easy Christmas Nails' series here on my blog where I created 10 easy nail designs suitable for the festive period, I have been asked frequently to do more nail art on my blog and more recently I have been asked to do some Valentines nail art. At the moment having my plaster cast on my left arm it is really difficult to paint my nails and difficult to blog too, hence the lack of posts since I broke my wrist on December the 16th, but not one to shy away from a challenge, I dug out my nail polishes and dotting tools last Monday and decided to have a go at some designs for a Valentines nail art post.
This is what I came up with...
This was my very first attempt at love hearts and ladybugs so please excuse any mistakes.
I put this photograph up on my Instagram and the most favourite design was the bottom right and top right with the ladybug coming in a close 3rd place. As I said this was my very first attempt at love hearts but I found them quite easy once I got the hang of it, so I thought I would show you how I created both a love heart and the design at the bottom right, and what I used to create it. Since the ladybug isn't particularly Valentines Esq I thought I would include him in an up and coming nail art post.
So here's how I created the look.
What I used ~
Orly Bonder Base Coat & Orly Glosser Top Coat
L-R Orly Haute Red, Essie Blanc & Barry M Silver Glitter
How I achieved the look ~
First of all apply a base coat to your nails, I use the Orly Bonder base coat and have done for years, it is quite expensive at around £9-£11 pounds but it lasts forever and is wonderful, in our house, theres 3 of us using it and Cole uses it on clients and a bottle lasts us around 9 - 12 months. I always recommend it to everyone and if you'd like to try it, you can find it here.
Next apply 2 coats of your favourite Red nail polish, mine is Orly Haute Red and is currently on sale for £5.12 here which is a bargain price. Orly polishes are amazing and they don't contain any nasties which is even better and they come in a huge 18ml bottle.
2 Coats of Orly Haute Red
Next it's time to do the heart design, and to do this I use a dotting tool, as shown in the photograph below, but you could use a cocktail stick or tooth pick or the end of a bobby pin.
Dotting Tool available in a pack of 5 here for £2.49 inc P&P
Take your dotting tool or whatever you're using and some of the white nail polish, I find it easier to put a little polish on a piece of paper or a saucer. Use your dotting tool and draw 3 dots in an upside down triangle shape on top of the red polish, wherever you want the heart.
3 dots of white polish
Whilst the White polish is still wet, so we need to work quickly, use your dotting tool to join up the dots and create your heart shape, it is quite easy to do, it is basically filling in the triangle and rounding off the top to create the top of the heart. If it's easier, you can draw a couple more dots in, in-between the 3 you have already done and an extra one in the middle.
Once you have got the hang of the hearts, place them wherever you want on the polished red nail and let them dry. When they are dry carefully apply some of the silver glitter polish over the top of the White hearts. Allow to dry fully and then apply a top coat of your choice.
My favourite top coat is the Orly Glosser top coat, again I have used this for years and I love it, whenever I paint my nails or upload a photograph of my painted nails to Instagram I always get lots of comments on how shiny my nails are, a bottle of this top coat lasts for months in our house, at least 6 months and I highly recommend it. If you'd like to try it, you can find it here for £8.35.
You can use the same method for hearts using any polish you like for any colour, the photograph below shows a white polish with pink dots to create pink hearts.
So that is the finished look and also how I created it and how I create hearts. I hope you found this quite easy to follow. Let me know if you re create this nail art look, please feel free to tweet me a photograph or tag me on Instagram or Facebook, all my links are at the top right of my blog page.
If you would like me to do any more nail art looks, please feel free to ask me, I'm not the best but I'll have a go and as I always say, if I can do it, you can do it :)
Have a lovely Valentines day ♡
Thank you for reading, much love as always,
Zoe x
