Anchors Away!

Hey Cuties!

     So…it’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted, eh? I’ve had this design ready for a few weeks now, but just have been so busy that I haven’t been able to finish everything to post it. Have no fear! It’s ready for this  week and there are no Monday breaks anymore for the foreseeable future!

     I’ve seen a lot of the nautical theme lately on shirts, and thought it would be neat to try it for a nail design. But anchors can get boring, so I had to add something fun and exciting to it to make it more interesting. (And it’s not glitter!) It’s a gradient anchor and background, reverse from one another, and hand-drawn. Ready?

Tools: 

     Nail Polish Colours: 4 Blues; Dark to Light (*I sometimes make the                                                    lightest colour for gradient white)

     Nail Art Brush

Steps: 

     1.) Paint four horizontal strips down your nail, darkest blue to lightest                blue, or vice versa.

     2.) To reverse the anchors gradient pattern from the background, paint              each section of the hand-drawn anchor with the opposite blue of the            background. 

     Ex. Dark Blue(1), Light Blue(2), Lightest Blue(3), White(4).

     Top 4th: Background (1), Anchor (4)

     Top Middle 4th: Background (2), Anchor (3)

     Top Bottom 4th: Background (3), Anchor (2)

     Bottom 4th: Background (4), Anchor (1)

     If this gets confusing, you can always check the photo, and of course you can reverse the gradient pattern I chose. 

     This is a bit of a tricky design, especially if you don’t have a steady hand to draw free-hand, and you aren’t to confident on drawn certain parts of the anchor in different colours on different parts of your nail. You can try nail art tape for this by taping the anchor shape on your nail then doing step one. If you try this you can then leave the anchor your natural nail colour, paint it one colour, or if you’re up for the challenge, do the reverse gradient.

     I’m sorry I haven’t had the time to post this lately, but I promise there will be no more breaks, even with the summer ahead! Keep posted to Twitter, Instagram, and Vine for extra content and until next time, stay fabulous!

     C.

April Showers

Hey Cuties!

     For the first post of April, I’ve chosen to do April showers. It’s been raining a lot lately in my city, and as we all know, April showers bring May flowers so why not. AND if you don’t like getting wet, this design comes with an umbrella! This is a nice bright and pastel design for spring, so I guess you good say it’s sure to brighten up your mood on a cool, spring day. Let’s get started!

Tools: 

     Nail Polish Colours: Black, Royal Blue, Blush Pink, Baby Blue, White

     Nail Art Brush

Steps: 

     1.) Paint the bottom 3/4 of your nail baby blue. Paint the top 1/4 blush              pink.

     2.) Outline the pink (the umbrella) with black, and add creases to the                umbrella to give it some dimension and shape.

     3.) Add rain drops. First cover your nail with white “droplets” then go                back and paint a small size royal blue droplet on top of (next to and              below) the white droplet.

     *4.) For a special effect, do a top coat of either matte or clear glitter, or                stick to a basic top coat.

     I was hoping to have some exciting news for this week, but unfortunately technology doesn’t always want to work, so I’m crossing my fingers for next week! If the technology allows for it later in the week, I will make sure to let you all know so keep it posted on Twitter, Instagram and Vine for the latest and more! Until next time, stay fabulous!

Easter Bunny

Hey Cuties!

     Happy Easter! Even though it’s the end of it, I thought it would still be fitting to do an Easter design. There’s nothing more Easter than the Easter Bunny, so here’s an adorable cartoon version of him. It was a very black and white nail, so I decided to add some colour to make it less bland. 

     This is quite a complicated design, so I don’t plan on doing step by step or pictures for this design. It’s literally up there in difficulty with my Santa design from Christmas! If you like enough that you want to try it, let me know and I’ll see what I can do! ;-P

     Next week I hope to have some exciting news…but you’ll have to wait until next Monday. Unless you keep an eye on Twitter, Instagram and/or Vine, and if you do keep an eye on those you’ll see a post from yesterday! So until next time, stay fabulous!

Tulip in the Rough

Hey Cuties!

     HAPPY SPRING! Well, sort of. I’m getting a snow storm sorry Nor’ Easter? where I’m at today. But no matter where you are, it’s officially spring as of yesterday. So long winter! We’re closer to warmer days, sunny days, tan lines, bikinis, sand and all around fun! On a side note, Easter is on Sunday, and I’m kinda excited!

     In celebration of spring, I’ve done a tulip on a naked nail. What I love so much about naked nails is that it can make a complex design look so simple and effortless, even though this design isn’t too complicated! So open up the windows (unless it’s still cold and there’s snow where you are), get out your flip flops (or tennis shoes) and get ready to put some spring in your step! Here we go!

Tools: 

     Nail Polish Colours: Red, Glitter Red, Green, Glitter Green

     Nail Art Brush

Steps: 

     1.) Paint a red heart, with sharp points, in the middle of your nail.

     2.) Paint a small red side-ways square on top of the heart, with a small              space in between.

     3.) Outline the heart and the square with red glitter polish.

     4.) Paint a stem (and optional leaf) beneath the tulip. Outline with                      glitter green polish.

     This is a fast and easy floral design perfect for spring. If you want to put more meaning into your tulip, you can find out the meanings behind each colour of the flower. You can do multiple flowers over your nails and create a tulip garden. 

     So last week, I said I might get around to doing a green St. Patty’s day design, but didn’t. I realized I had little to no green nail polish and didn’t want to go out and buy nail polish for one design.

     As always, stay posted to Twitter, Instagram and Vine for more, and until next time, stay fabulous!

Over the Rainbow

Hey Cuties!

     So St. Patty’s Day is on Thursday this week, which usually means green and drinking EVERYWHERE! I don’t know about where you live, but in my city, people go to the pubs SUPER early (like 6 or 10am) and drink all day into the night. Also green isn’t my favourite colour so this week’s Mani Monday involves a small single green stripe. 

     This week’s design has a luck o’ the Irish feel to it. Still relevant to St. Patty’s day right? I’ve been waiting a few weeks to share this design with you cuties too, so I’m super excited to share today! It’s a cloudy sky background with a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It may seem rather complicated, but it’s easy…ish. Here we go!

Tools: 

     Nail Polish Colours: Black, Purple, Dark Blue, Light Blue, Green, Gold,                                              Yellow, Orange, Red and White

     Nail Art Brush

     Makeup Sponge

Steps: 

     1.) Paint your whole nail dark blue.

     2.) Using your makeup sponge, dab white on your nails to create clouds.

     3.) Before you start painting the rainbow, decide on how thick you want             the stripes to be and where you want the rainbow on your nails. The             order of colours starting from the top is: 

     - Red

     - Orange

     - Yellow

     - Green

     - Blue

     - Purple

     4.) The paint the pot, simply paint a black circle with the horizontal line            sitting on top.

     5.) Pain the top of your pot with an many “gold coins: as you’d like with             your gold polish.

     This design doesn’t ned to include the pot o’ gold, or the rainbow. It’s unique and memorizing to look at the “clouds in the sky” on your nails without the extras. Some tips for the rainbow I’d like to mention are stick to a pint type, as in matte, glitter, translucent, neon, pastel, etc…unless you’re going for a unique rainbow? for lack of a better word. Another tip for a bright rainbow, regardless of the type of polish you use, is to paint he area of the rainbow white before you paint in the colours. This will give it a pop of colour and make sure everybody will see it, no matter how far away they are. ;-P

     Even though I previously said green isn’t my favourite colour, I may post a green nail design for St. Patty’s day on Thursday. We’ll see. As always, don’t forget to check Twitter, Instagram and Vine for extras and until next time, stay fabulous!

Stripes & Dots

Hey Cuties!

     I’m in a basic kind of mood, so decided on a basic nail design. It’s black and white (classic), with basic designs. It’s super versatile and you can make it your own. I promise there’s more colour to come in the upcoming weeks! Here are the steps:

Tools: 

     Nail Polish Colours: Black, White

     Nail Art Brush

     Nail Art Dotter

Steps: 

     1.) Paint the left side of your nail white, and the right side black. 

     2.) Paint black dots on the white portion of your nail, and white stripes              on the black portion of your nail.

     This is quite the versatile and simple nail design. You can make the background horizontal or diagonal, do dots and stripes on opposing sides, and even choose different colours or shades. No matter what you do, you can make this design uniquely yours! As always, don’t forget to check out Twitter, Instagram and Vine, and until next time, stay fabulous! 

Leap Day

Hey Cuties! 

     Long time, no see! I think I owe you guys an explanation as to where I’ve been and what I’ve been up to the past 6 weeks or so. I just needed a break. But I also had a death in my family. Sometimes we just get burnt out and need a break and a period of time to reflect on life. 

     On that note, I’M BACK!!! 

     So it’s Leap Day, which is an extra day every four years. I’ve also heard it’s either the only day or only year that the women can propose to the men? Anyways, this design has nothing to do with Leap Day. It’s simply a design to get me back into nail art. Here we go!

Tools: 

     Nail Polish Colours: Black, Glitter Purple, White

     Nail Art Brush

     Nail Dotter

Steps: 

     1.) Paint your whole nail back.

     2.) Dot a glitter purple “S” down your nail.

     3.) Paint a thin glitter purple line half way done the “S” on one side, and            then continue on the other side to the bottom.

     4.) Dot white on the purple “S” dots.

     5.) Outline the glitter purple lines with white lines.

     This was an easy and quick design, and very interest and cool to look at! With St. Patty’s Day, Easter and Spring all less than a month away, I’m sure to have fun and exciting designs to come this way. Also I was having some difficulties with editing the Vine videos since about December? But that's fixed, so It's completely updated as of today, as well as Twitter and Instagram so check them out! I will continue to post every Monday from now on, so until next time, stay fabulous!

French Kiss

Hey Cuties!

     I hope you all enjoyed last week’s Frost Week series! I enjoyed creating the designs and series, but I left out one of my favourite nailart styles; the French mani. So to make up (pardon the pun) for the lack of French mani last week, I came up with a French mani for this week. I don’t do too many fashion nails, although this is more of a cartoon nail than a fashion nail, so I hope to do more fashion and trendy nails this year, semi-starting with this one. Here are the steps:

Tools: 

     Nail Polish Colours: Black, Red, White (Optional: Glitter Red)

     Nail Art Brush

Steps: 

     1.) Paint a “V” shape on the ip of your nail, with your red nail polish,                  making sure to cover the whole tip red. This is where you will want                 to “shape” your lips. Make them plump, this, narrow or wide.

     2.) Using your nail art brush and white nail polish, paint a point in the              middle of the top of your nail tip. Continuing with white, paint a                    small dash of “shine” on the upper lip.

     3.) Outline your lips with your nail art brush and black polish.

     4.) You may choose to leave your nail like this, or you can continue by                adding glitter to it. 

     I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned on one of these posts before, but if you’re doing a lot of nailart, instead of wiping off your brush every time you want to change colours, invest in either nail art pens, or nailart nail polish (nail polish bottle with the brush). Of course when you buy a new bottle of polish, you want to check the brush first before buying, but when you’re buying the bottles specifically made for nailart, CHECK THE BRUSH!!! I have way too many nail art brushes with nail polish that are wonky, for lack of a better word. 

     As always, I try to keep these design as simple and versatile as possible, so you can design and make your own nail. You may try a matte nail, gradient nail, or just change the colour. However you choose to design your nail, make it your own! Until next time, stay fabulous!

#frostweek: Cable Knit Sweater

Hey Cuties!

     So it’s the last day of the Frost Week Series and it’s finishing on a warm note. Any nailart fanatic will have come across this Cable Knit design on various social media (mostly YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram), and this is a 2D version of the popular 3D version. It’s a great design for this time of year, and perfect to go with the big knits trend in fashion this season. Here are the steps:

Tools: 

     Nail Polish Colours: Red, White

     Nail Art Brush

Steps: 

     1.) Paint your whole nail red.

     2.) Mix your red and white together with a 50/50 mix, or to a lightness              to your liking. Using your nail art brush, paint 4 slope “S”s down the            middle of your nail (there’s no great way to describe this design, so                check the picture). Paint a vertical down each side of the design in                 the middle.

    This is a quick and easier version of the 3D version. It’s the same pattern, but in a 2D format. Also not thinking too much about the colour/shade, it looks like it’s for Valentine’s Day. Instead of doing light on dark, you may also choose to do a dark on light version of this nail, or create an accent nail with the switch in colours/shades. You can choose to a different colour, and maybe create an accent colour or match it to your own knit sweater. I hope you’ve enjoyed this series as much as I have enjoyed designing for you. All the best for the new year ahead, and until next time, stay fabulous!

#frostweek: The Winter Tree

Hey Cuties!

     Welcome to day 4 of the Frost Week series. I hope you’ve had some chances to try these designs. Today is a familiar design, previously done in the fall, but with some chances to it. This is a simple and elegant design, perfect for winter. Here are the steps: 

Tools: 

     Nail Polish Colours: Black, Light Pink, Glittery Pink

     Nail Art Brush

Steps: 

     1.) Paint your whole nail light pink.

     2.) Using your nail art brush and black nail polish, paint the outline of                your tree. If you want to add a little extra something to the design,                you can add a line at the bottom of the tree with a little bump for                  snow.

     3.) Paint your pink glitter nail polish over your entire nail. 

     If you haven’t already guessed, or are new to the blog, this is the winter version of The Fall Tree, done back in October. I used black for the tree again because I find it can stand out more compared to a brown. You can use this as an accent nail and paint the glittery pink over your other pink nails. Until tomorrow, stay fabulous!

#frostweek: Icy Gradient

Happy Hump Day Cuties!

     How are you all liking the series so far? This is day 3 in the Frost week series, and today’s design is almost as versatile as it can get. It’s textured gradient in shades of blue. Very pretty, very basic, and easy to day, on a cold winter’s day. Here are the steps:

Tools: 

     Nail Polish Colours: 4 Shades of Blue (Darkest to Lightest)

     Make-up Sponge

Steps: 

     1.) I found the easiest way to do this, and to get the most colour, is by                  painting each shade, horizontally, on your nail, darkest at the                           bottom, lightest at the top. You may choose to add white at the top.

     2.) Using your makeup sponge, paint another coat of your darkest                      colour on your nail, and then just start dabbing the paint. When                    you’re happy with how it looks, continue with your other colours                    until you’ve reached the light colour.

  

     This is an easy, and handy, technique that can be used for various nail art designs. If you don’t like the shades of blue, you can choose another colour for your own nails. For this time of year, I tend to stick with light and pastel colours. 

     While I’ve got nailart designing to keep me busy, I’m curious to know what keeps you busy during the winter months, and how it’s looking in your areas snow-wise. Share a post, pic or short video tagging @cuticure and #frostweek on any of the following social media (Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Tumblr) with what you do during these long winter months and the snow (if any) in your area. And don’t forget, if you try any of the designs from these week or previous posts, tag @cutiecure in the description. Until next time, stay warm!

#frostweek: Icicles

Hey Cuties!

     I hope you guys had a great start to the week and enjoyed yesterdays Frost Week design. For day 2 in the series, it’s another snow-based design; icicles. This is a stupid simple design, and you don’t even need artistic skills to create this nail, you just need to know how to draw/paint lines. That’s it! Here are the super simple steps:

Tools: 

     Nail Polish Colours: Black, Sparkling Purple, Sparkling Blue/Purple,                                                  Silver, White

     Nail Art Brush

Steps: 

     1.) Paint your whole nail black.

     2.) Paint 3 vertical white lines, of various lengths, coming down from                  the top of your nail. Continue painting vertical lines using the other              colours listed.

     Done! Super simple, am I right? I don’t know why I chose black for the background colour (shade?), but as always, you can choose whatever colours you want for your own nails. Leave a comment below and don’t forget to check out my other social media (Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Tumblr) throughout the week as well! Until tomorrow, stay fabulous!

#frostweek: Dazzling Snowflake

Happy New Year Cuties!

     I hope everybody had a fabulous New Year’s eve and day! I personally almost didn’t make it to midnight, but I had a quiet night in, so it didn’t really matter. 

     As promised, with a fresh start to a new year, and it being winter, here’s the start of my new series, Frost Week. If you’re new to this blog or how the series’ work, I will be posting a new design everyday, until Friday, this week, with the theme of frost/winter/snow. Basically all things frozen at this time of year.

     For the series’ first design, it’s a simple snowflake. With the glittery top coat on it, I just can’t keep my eyes off it! It’s just so mesmerizing and has has a weird calming effect on me. And before I get too carried away, here are the steps:

Tools: 

     Nail Polish Colours: Pastel Purple, White, Glittery Clear Polish

     Nail Art Brush

Steps: 

     1.) Paint your whole nail purple. 

     2.) Using your nail art brush, paint 8 white “slices of pie”, minus the                  circle.

     3.) Depending on how well your “slices” turned out, you could leave                    your nail as is. You may choose to add more by painting chevrons.                Add as many as you’d like on your “slices” until you’re happy with                the look of your snowflake.

     4.) Now for the dazzling part of this snowflake. Add a coat of your                      glittery clear polish to your nail.

     I personally love how this design looks, and how simple it is to do! If you don’t like the chevrons, you can come up with your own design for your own snowflake. Stay posted to the blog all week long for more winter-themed nailart. Also, if you’re on Instagram, Twitter or Vine, check out the posts using the hashtag #frostweek. Until tomorrow, stay fabulous!