Australia Day is near, and what better way to celebrate than with a totally cool mani? This blue base polish makes the colourful dots pop, and the gecko is the perfect Aussie accent. Grab your supplies and let’s get started!
Products used
- Base coat: Dazzle Dry Base Coat
- Dark blue: Dazzle Dry Blueberry SnoCone
- Yellow: Dazzle Dry “Sahara”
- Light blue: Dazzle Dry “Forget Me Not”
- Orangy pink: Dazzle Dry “Going Cray Sea”
- Light nude: Dazzle Dry “Sentimental”
- Top coat: Dazzle Dry Fast Dry Top Coat
- Vegan, cruelty-free Dazzle Dry nail polishes are available on whatsupnails.com
- Pure Colour dotting tools #1 and #2 small heads
- Pure Colour #10 detail brush
- Acrylic paint by Reeves “Blue Hue”
Preparation
- Apply strengthening base coat to protect your nails and make them stronger.
- Apply thin layer of blue nail polish, let it dry completely and apply second thicker layer.
- Let nail polish dry completely; you can use fast-dry top coat to make it quicker, such as Dazzle Dry Fast Dry Top Coat.
Dot patterns
1. Put a large drop of nail polish on a plastic bag, card or magazine page. Use fresh or thin nail polish; gloopy or thick nail polish won’t work. You can always thin your old polishes yourself by using a nail polish thinner to make it more liquid, such as Dazzle Dry Thinner.
2. Start with your smallest dotting tool; dip it in nail polish and put dot on the nail. If you have a lot of nail polish on the dotting tool you will probably be able to place 2-3 dots before dipping your tool again for more polish.
3. After finishing one colour, clean your dotting tool using a cotton pad with acetone or non-acetone nail polish remover and repeat previous steps with another nail polish colour.
4. I applied yellow dots using a little bit bigger dotting tool to get a nice accent.
5. Let the design dry completely and seal everything with a fast-dry top coat.
Lizard
1. We will use acrylic paint and a detail brush in this step. It is easier to have a non-glossy surface when you draw your design but you can always paint on glossy if you have to. My dark nail polish has a matte finish so I will go with this, but you could apply any matte top coat (e.g. Dazzle Dry Matte Top Coat) over your nail polish.
2. Put some acrylic paint on the plastic bag, card or magazine page and dip your detail brush into it. Acrylic paint is perfect to create detailed designs because it doesn’t dry as fast as regular nail polish, and you can draw thinner lines and create more detailed work.
3. Create the lizard design starting from drawing a core of lizard with a tail.
4. Add lizard legs and belly. The other beautiful thing about Acrylic paint is that if you feel that you messed up your design a bit you can clean up using a brush or cotton swab dipped in water; this is why acrylic paints are so easy to use in nail art.
5. Finish drawing lizard and add some colour accents. I used nail polish and a small dotting tool, but you can use acrylic paints as well.
6. Let the design dry completely and apply a fast-dry top coat.
More for Australia Day
Where to go and what to do for Australia Day 2015
Dress for Australia Day without looking like a flag
We’ve found your Australia Day anthem
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