Today my daughter turns 1! On Saturday to celebrate this momentous occasion we had a birthday bash in her honor. The theme was ladybugs, this manicure was inspired by my little bug and her birthday party theme.
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| Ladybugs on parade! |
Because I am a Polish Plebe I cannot freehand anything to save my life. Not even a simple french tip. So I did this in what some might consider an unconventional method. If you have a steady hand, I recommend you do this freehand and save yourself some time. Here is how I did it.
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For this design I mostly used Nabi
polishes. The red is a Covergirl polish. |
Materials:
Base coat (as always, do not go without)
Black base color
Red, yellow, green, white, and black for design
Scotch tape or stripping tape
Dotting tools
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Don't forget your base coat before
your base color. |
For this design I applied two coats of black polish over a base coat on all my nails. It is important to use a base coat especially when using dark colored polish. If you fail to use a base coat you will most likely end up with stained or yellowed nails. I also applied a quick drying top coat and let the polish dry overnight.
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Cutting the tape is a pain!
Use stripping tape if you have it. |
The next day, I used scotch tape to create the ladybug design. I did not have stripping tape (I have order some but I have not received them yet), so I cut small strips from the scotch tape. If you have stripping tape use that, again to save yourself time. I taped off the tip of my finger and then placed a small tape stripe down the center of my nail creating a t‐shape.
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The black will be the ladybug
head and separation between
the wings. |
I then applied my red polish for the ladybug wings. However, I discovered that my red polish was too thin and did not give me the bright red I desired for this design when applied directly onto the black polish. I ended up adding another step: after applying the tape, I used a white polish, then applied the red. This allowed the red to show more vibrantly.
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Left bug has white under red,
right bug does not. |
I then removed the tape. When removing the tape make sure you remove the piece that is on the top layer first and then the bottom one. This will give you the best result. After removing the tape I used random sized dotting tools and black polish to make my ladybug spots. Lastly, I used one of the larger sized dotting tools and white polish and added eyes toward the tip of the nail. Using the next size smaller dotting tool I added black pupils to the ladybugs eyes. That’s how I ended up with these cute little ladybugs.
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| The progression of the ladybug. |
To breakup the ladybugs I dotted sunflowers on my thumbs and ring fingers. Using yellow polish and a large dotting tool I dotted 5 large overlapping dots in a circle. I repeated this with a slightly smaller dotting tool for the second flower. Using green polish and a small dotting tool to add some little green leaves. To clean up the center of the flower, I went back in with a small dotting tool and black polish.
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| The progression of the sunflowers. |
This is a cute design that is fun for an event or a nice little spring or summer design. It was a bit time consuming the way I did it but it was well worth it. My daughter really liked it and didn't want to let go of my fingers the first time she saw it. I hope you enjoyed this design as much as she did. See you next time.
Your Fellow Plebe,
