NAIL ART TUTORIAL: RAINBOW CONNECTION

Standard · Posted by polishyoupretty on 19/12/2011 · 8 Comments 

Somewhere, over the rainbow green frogs sing. After seeing The Muppets movie, ‘Rainbow Connection’ has been stuck in our head for weeks and from it came today’s tutorial. We are always trying to find ways to use the nail art tools that we have in creative new designs. We have a thing for polka dots (see here, here and here) & we wanted something bright and cheerful to combat the dark, absolutely freezing weather we’ve been having – insert: a rainbow. Our favourite part about this tutorial is that it forced us to rummage through our collections & rediscover a lot of old favourites.

Step 1: After a base coat has been applied, paint nail with three coats of Sally Hansen – Timeless White. Although most of the nail will be covered up with design, make sure the colour is fully opaque with no holes so the bright colours pop.

Step 2: Starting at the base of the nail, begin the rainbow with Essie – Red-y Set Ex and place polka dots in a straight line. This is a perfect basic red and a great colour for holiday nail art. Repeat the design with OPI – Y’all Come Back Ya Hear? positioning the dots in between the red dots, this colour was from the Texas Collection that just passed in the summer when jelly-based formulas were introduced. Because these colours are less opaque we found we needed to go over the dots twice to reach the colour we were looking for. Create a new line using Avon – Sunshine, at this point the design should be just about in the middle of your nail.

Step 3: Once you have finished the 3 bright/lighter shades, you can now move on to the darker hues. Using Color Club – Edie, a vibrant green, paint the next row of polka dots. Repeat the same process with Misa – Pour Me Something Tall & Strong – Misa always has the funniest names for their polish. We were fortunate enough to receive a few complimentary polishes from Trade Secrets after entering the Misa Nail Art Challenge. If you are interested in nail art and find yourself experimenting with designs, we highly recommend getting involved and entering contests you see online, they really pay off & it’s exciting to see what others in your area are up to. Complete the last row of the rainbow using OPI – Pamplona Purple, placing the dots as close to the tip as you can.

We love this design – it’s so bright and cheerful, and ALMOST makes us forget how cold it really is in December in Canada. The design is fairly easy, the only tricky part is creating the straight lines with the polka dots. We recommend turning your nail completely to face you head on vs. painting side to side. When we were done, all ten fingers kind of looked like nail strips & reminded us of candy buttons – yummy! We’ve been working on a ton of new designs and other exciting things for the site, hence the extremely dry hands – THANK-GOD for Lemony Flutter. This creamy based all natural cuticle butter works magic on dry hands, whether they’re dry from the weather or from nail polish abuse, definitely a must-have. This design can be altered in so many ways, you can spice it up for the holidays and use red & green, change the direction of your polka dots, change the sizing of your polka dots, etc. This rainbow design is one of our favourites we’ve done – let us know what you think about today’s tutorial on twitter or facebook!

Filed under Tutorial · Tagged with Avon, blue, Color Club, Essie, green, lines, Misa, multicolor, nail art, nail tutorial, OPI, orange, Pamplona Purple, polkadot, Pour Me Something Tall & Strong, purple, rainbow, rainbow connection, red, Red-y Set Ex, Sally Hansen, Sunshine, Timless White, White, Y'all Come Back Ya Hear? Edie, yellow