Monthly Archives: April 2014

Nail Art For “Shorties” – Guest Post by Dani of From Polish With Love

Good morning Polish Peeps!! I’m Dani and I’m the nails behind From Polish, with Love! I’m so excited to be doing a guest post over at KBShimmer’s blog!! KBShimmer is one of my favorite indie polish brands so this is quite the honor!! Christy sent me some of the new Spring 2014 Collection to review and I knew as soon as I saw the creams that I wanted to do some nail art but I recently had a break so I figured what better opportunity than to do some nubbin’ ( or shorties ) friendly nail art!! The techniques I’m showing you today are so easy to do and really will work for any length. This is also my first step-by-step tutorial so please bear with me!!

This is what you will need. If you don’t have dotting tools, household items will work!! You can use the end of a bobby pin, toothpick, anything really!

Polishes are Pansy-Monium, Sky Jinks, and A Touch of Glass. You will need a good base coat and top coat. I used KBShimmer’s Basic Training base coat and Clearly on Top top coat. Tools needed are a striping brush and dotting tools of various sizes
First you want to start off by prepping your nails with a good base coat. I like using KBShimmer Basic Training Base Coat. It really helps the polish cling to your nail and extends the life of your manicure!! It also helps to create a smooth base to start.

I applied A Touch of Glass on all nails and let completely dry. You really need to allocate time for this so you don’t disturb your base. If you’re pressed for time, just apply a coat of Clearly On Top and let dry for a few minutes and you should be set to continue with the art since it dries pretty quickly!

1. For my index finger, I decided to do a funky french tip with just some simple lines. I started off with applying Sky Jinks with my striping brush in two over-lapping lines.

2. I then applied Pansy-Monium in two thicker lines just below Sky Jinks. Apply top coat and you’re done!!

3. For the middle nail I decided to do a combo of lines and dots! I started off by taking my striping brush and with Pansy-Monium, making 3 lines vertically down the whole length of my nail but leaving plenty of space in between each line. This is where the dots will go!!

4. Then using a small end of your dotting tool and Sky Jinks, make dots down each “row”. Seal with top coat!

5. For the index I decided to do a simple “cloud” design!!

I started by taking Pansy-Monium and using the applicator brush, making 3 thick lines starting at a bit above the middle of the nail bed and making my way down to the tip. You want to cover the whole nail, no spaces. The edge of your cloud needs to be staggered so it’s best to not make them all the same height. If your “cloud” edge isn’t as rounded the first time, you can always take some more polish on your brush to the ends of the cloud to fine tune them!

6. Let Pansy-Monium dry or apply Clearly On Top and you can finish off the cloud with the same above steps using Sky Jinks!!

7. For my pinky I decided to do a funky gradient “dotticure” so you will need various sized dots for this one.

I started off randomly dotting Sky Jinks in different sizes on my pinky. *Please excuse the blurry pics. My camera decided to misbehave and wouldn’t focus as hard as I begged!

8. Then taking Pansy-Monium, I filled in some of the empty spaces with assorted sized dots. I then took Sky Jinks once more and made a few more dots til it was to my liking!

I hope you liked the easy nail art I created with these 3 shades! I know sometimes having shorter nails makes you feel like you have no room for nail art but hopefully these designs will change your mind! I have short nail beds and I find these all very flattering!! Show those nubbins some love!!!!

I want to give a huge thanks to Christy for having me today!! I hope you all enjoyed my very first step-by-step tutorial!!! Now that I have gotten my feet wet this won’t be my last! Make sure to check out my blog and Facebook for more nail art!! Have a great day!!!

 

BIG thanks to Dani for such a detailed guest post.  I rock short nails often, so it is lovely to see nail art that works for any length of nail.  Thanks again Dani!  Christy – KBShimmer