My Happy Place- Tropical Nail Design

Hello everyone! Hope everyone is having a good start to summer and trying to stay cool. Today on the blog we will be creating a tropical design, this is my favorite time of year summer and I always love to create beautiful topical designs. Even more so lately I have been dream of my happy place some where tropical, just seating by the ocean and of course swimming in the ocean too. If this is also your happy place then you will also love to create this nail design. 

Here are the polishes and nail art tools used for your happy place, a tropical nail design: 

Base and Top Coat- CND Stickey Base Coat and CND Super Shiney Top Coat. 

Polishes- Zoya-Splash- Maren, Zoya- Splash- Harbor, Sally Hansen- Hard as Nails- Hard to Get, OPI- La Paz-itively Hot, OPI- Hello Kitty- 5 Apples Tall, Sally Hansen- Triple Shine- Play Koi, Sally Hansen- Triple Shine- Lemon Shark, Sally Hansen- Hard as Nails- Black Hearts, and Holo Taco- Scattered Holo Taco.

Acrylic Paint- Black and white.

Nail Art Tools- Thin stripper and detail brush, two makeup sponge for gradients.

Apply a base coat to clean dry nails, and let that dry.

For this design we will first be applying our base colors and then do the gradients.

Polish- 

Thumb and Pinky Finger Nails- Light green polish (Zoya- Harbor)

Index, Middle, Ring Finger Nails- white polish (Sally Hansen- Hard as Nails- Hard to Get), we will be polishing these nails white to help the colors, mainly yellow to show up better and to pop. 

Let that dry.

Ocean Gradient on the Thumb and Ring Finger Nails:

First we will start off with the ocean design which is the most simple part of this design. Take a makeup sponge and first polish the same color as the base color the light green polish (Zoya- Harbor) then right next to that color polish a darker blue (Zoya- Maren). Then dab the sponge on the nails, both the thumb and pinky finger nails, you will need to do this a few time to be opaque. 

For the small wave details, take a stripper brush with white paint on it and make a few wavy lines in random spots on the nail so it looks like waves, then what I did was take a clean detail brush and right away try and smudge the line so it kind of look more like a wave. 

Lastly to give the ocean more of a sparkle look, you can apply a scatter holo top coat. 

Tropical Island Design, the Sunset Gradient: 

First we will start off with the gradient, just like the ocean gradient we just did we will first make a sunset gradient. Take another makeup sponge, first polish a pink (OPI- La Paz-itively Hot), a red (OPI- Hello Kitty- 5 Apples Tall), a Orange (Sally Hansen-Play Koi,) lastly a yellow (Sally Hansen-Lemon Shark) on to the sponge. 

With the pink staring at the cuticle dab the sponge on the nails, you will need to repeat this step a few time to be opaque. As you can see the gradient I did on my nails the pink showed up a lot more on the ring nail and not so much on the middle and index nail. 

Ocean Water:

For the ocean water if you have a small part of your sponge that is clean you can use that, or you can cut some of your already used sponge to make a fresh piece of sponge. Take the darker blue that you used for your ocean and polish that on your sponge and then dab that on the tip of the nails, the reason that we dab the blue on with a sponge, is I feel like it give a more wave look to the water.  

Palm Trees:

For our final detail for our design, we will create some palm trees on the index nail make one palm tree on the left side of the nail, the middle finger nail two palm trees one taller then the other, then on the ring finger nail make one palm tree on the right side of the nail. 

This time I will describe how to create a palm tree, I feel like it has been a while since I fully explained how to paint a palm tree.  

Take a thin stripper brush with black paint on it make long thin line for your tree stump, then make two curved lines at the top of that line, two more short ones from those line, then a short line for those two line. For the leaves we need to make very small thin line that are very close together, I feel like if you make your line some what close together, but not to close it can look like a blob or a cool looking palm leaf. 

Once you your palm trees are done we need to make some land for your palm trees to be on. Take a black polish and swipe it on the tip of the nail kind of like a messy French manicure the line doesn't need to be straight. 

Lastly for the final touches on the water we need to make a few lines for the waves, take your stripper brush with white paint on it make just a few lines in the water. Then for an added sparkle take that same scattered holo polish and polish that on to your water. 

Once your nails are tropical vacation ready apply a top coat to seal in your design and to help it to last through your vacation. 

Here is the practice version of My Happy Place. 😊🏝️

Hope all of you enjoyed this tropical nail design!

See you next time for more nail fun! 

Don't Worry Be Happy- Smiley Face & Flower Nail Design

Hello everyone! Hope everyone is having a nice spring/ soon to be start of summer. Today on the blog we will be creating a happy face and flower nail design, that is great for summer, well really any time you just want to feel happy. For this design we will be using the new Orly Melting Point Collection. 

Here are the polishes and nail art tools used to create this fun happy face and flower nail design:

Base and top coat- With these polishes Orly suggests that you don't need a base and top coat, I didn't use one with this design, I did still use CND Super Shiney Top Coat.

Polishes- Orly Melting Point Collection.

Acrylic Paint- Black and white.

Nail art tools- Medium dotting tool, this stripper and liner brush.

Other- Water to clean off your nail art brushes. 

Apply a base to clean nails if you would like. If you are using the Orly Melting Point collection you can apply a base coat or you don't have to apply a base coat, it is up to you (I did not apply a base coat.) 

Polishes- 

Thumb Nail- Orly- Glass Act

Index Finger Nail- Orly- The Floor is Lava

Middle and Ring Finger Nail- Orly- Having a Smeltdown

Pinky Finger Nail- Orly- Erupt To No Good

Let that dry.

Happy faces- 

First we will start off with the white base for the happy faces. I did a white base first that way the yellow polish would stand out over the background/ base polish. 

Starting with the thumb nail make a circle with white paint, near the tip of the nail and then make another near the cuticle that is very close the side of the nail.

On the middle finger nail make one large circle near the tip of the nail very close to the side of the nail. 

On the ring finger nail make two circles one near the cuticle and another one near the tip of the nail. 

Once you are done making all of your circles take your yellow polish and fill in each white circle, you may need to go over this a few time to be opaque enough. I did have to go in with a nail art brush to make sure the white was all covered. 

Let your now yellow circles dry and the we will make the eyes and smile, for that step take your liner brush with black paint on it and make two thick lines for the happy faces eyes, then take a striper brush with black paint on it make a curved line for the smile.

Flowers- 

Now on to the flowers on each nail. First we will start off with the center part of the flowers take your dotting tool with yellow polish on it on the thumb nail make a dot near the tip of the nail and one near the left hand side near the cuticle. 

On the middle finger nail make a yellow dot with your dotting tool near the cuticle on the left hand side and then make a dot near the tip of the nail on the left hand side. 

Lastly on the ring finger nail make one dot on the lower left hand near the tip of the nail.

Next we will make the flower petals around each of the yellow dots that we made. Take your liner brush with white paint on it make thick lines that look like petals around each of the yellow dots, due to the flowers all being close to the nails they will all be half flowers, so you will only need to make a few petals. 

Colorful Dots- 

To finish off this design we will make colorful dot all around the nail. We will be using all of the polishes from the Orly Melting Point Collection. Take one color at a time on your dotting tool and dot each color on the thumb, middle and ring finger nails. 

Once you are happy with your nails apply a top coat to seal in your nails and to help your nail art to last. 

Here is my practice design, I felt like it was worth showing because I did change a few of the nails a little bit.

Hope all of you enjoyed this happy face and flower nails design!

See you next time for more nail fun!