Spuddy Buddies

Festive Balloon Nail Art

So this is what I've been up to lately. I have been painting my nails like a maniac. There was a lapse between all the painting because one day I felt so jaded that I just didn't know what to paint on my nails so I didn't paint them at all. Now I'm back and it's like I never stopped painting them.

I do know that it's probably not the best idea to keep paint on your nails for such a long period of time without letting them breathe a bit but I promise I'll stop for a couple of days after New Year.

This is the festive season, after all and all my nails wanna do is look pretty.

So where do I get some of my ideas of what to paint on my nails? I Youtube quite a bit and I've found CutePolish and PrettyPolishes who are probably my favorite nail art ladies because their designs are so simple but at the same time so pretty. Simple can be so much prettier than complex.

I intended to get some dotting tools and those nail polish bottles that come with skinny brushes but I haven't gotten down to actually ordering them or buying them. My odd nail art kit of skewers, brushes and sponges from goodness knows where will suffice for now!

Okay, so what I did this week was paint cute balloons on my nail. I saw CutePolish's tutorial and fell in love with how easy but eye-catching they are. I've uploaded some pictures on how I did my nails step-by-step (almost!). I should do videos but I'm not past my 'I'm too awkward to post up videos of myself or even my voice' stage yet.

This is my first sort-of tutorial (?) so tell me what you think in the comment box.

First, what I did was paint one layer of base coat.

(That scrap of paper would be the paper I use to smear the messy paint off the sides of my nails. I'm not very into wasting cotton buds and dipping them with remover/alcohol to get rid of the messy sides. Besides, those messy edges will eventually come off after washing your hands once or twice.)

And these would be the tools that I used. I should have included the bottles of paint I used but I was struggling to take pictures of my nails and everything that I completely forgot to do that...

There's the skewer and the sponge and my base coat. If you want to do this, I would recommend getting a normal sponge, not one of those foamy ones. The paint is easier to absorb, I would say.

Here is a close-up of the sponge which I dabbed with white polish and later on dabbed onto all the tips of my fingers. It's sort of to create a sponge-y French tip effect and this sponging method is really fun when used with bright colors. I dabbed different colors onto my nails once and the attention I got was way more than the attention I got for the nails on my other hand which I personally thought were cuter.

I am a generally messy person so don't be afraid of the messiness that you see. Some people are really great with keeping the paint on their nails instead of on the skin around it but I'm not. I don't really mind the messiness because it all just washes off eventually and what you get in the end, is a clean and nicely-painted nail.

Ahah! You see all the sponge-y mess here. Just dab the sponge lightly but don't worry if you accidentally slab on too much. All you have to do to turn it back into a sponge effect is take a clean end of the sponge and dab the excess paint off until you're happy with the result.

Next, just create the basic outline of the balloons on your nails using whatever color you want. You can either drip a blob of polish onto your nail from the brush or use a dotting tool or use the end of something which can create a blob. I used the end of the skewer AND the nail polish brush.

It doesn't have to be perfectly round or anything. Just make it into a general upside down raindrop shape and make a tiny little blob at the tip of the raindrop. Or you could make it mushroom-shaped. Doesn't matter. Just as long as you think it can pass off as an abstract balloon.

Last but not least, use a black nail pen/skinny black nail brush/skewer dipped in black polish and draw the outline of the balloon. You don't have to trace over the color exactly. Like CutePolish said, you can create a cartoon-y effect by allowing some color to show outside the edge of the outline.

And there you have it - adorable balloon nails! If you like, brush on some glitter to give it an even more festive feel. I brushed on two layers of glitter because my glitter polish isn't very saturated with glitter. One layer after the sponging and one layer after everything is done.

Yes, I drew one more balloon on my index finger because I thought the blue balloon was too close to the side of the nail and it can't really be seen. You can do as many balloons as your nail can fit and however big you want them to be.

Finally, I applied a top coat to all my nails to give it even more shine and also to seal the design.

Yes, eventually all that mess around my nails washed off.

People always ask me if it takes a long time to do nail art but no, not necessarily. I don't usually time how long I spend on my nails but I definitely don't spend all night doing them. And it's not a spoken rule that you have to complete your nail art in one sitting. Sometimes if I'm tired or it's late (and it takes a while for my nails to dry) or I can't decide what design I want to paint, I just leave my nails as they are (painted or not) and continue the next day.

And I think that nails of every length and size can look nice with nail polish. I used to think that my nails were horrible and that if I painted them, they would look weird but they're really not. I see lots of Youtubers who do nail tutorials and most of them have these really gorgeous nicely-shaped nails and I don't know about you but sometimes seeing such nice nails intimidates me a little. If you don't have nails like that, I mean. But now I actually like my nails.

I've done other awesome nail art designs including a snowman last week, Remembrance Day nails and some really adorable leopard print nails. I don't care who says what - leopard nails are freaking cool.

I DIGRESS!! LOL. Anyway, that's it. Try it out/think about it and let me know what you think or if you're planning on doing it. If you're a nail art freak as well, I'd love to see some of your designs.

XOXOXO. T.