Quick Post: Beach Inspired Nails (with Pictorial)

Hello friends, I hope you're all enjoying your summer! It's been so hot here in the past few weeks with barely any rain, so it just feels dry all the time. I really wish I could spend a day sitting by a beach. A day off from work would be so nice, but that's not happening anytime soon, so my nails will have to do. These beach nails I'm wearing right now are for the beach prompt for SNCjuly2016. 

For these nails, I finally used the fan brush that has just been sitting around in my storage bin been the past year. I avoided using the fan brush because I just didn't know how, and none of my designs really required the techniques that could be executed with the brush. I really like how it turned out though, the ripples in the water looks more realistic. From this experience with my fan brush, I know that I definitely want to try doing more designs with it!

Continue reading to see how I created my beach nails...

• Start off with a white base coat (this will make the colours stand out more); the base colour doesn't have to be solid or perfect because it's going to be covered later on
• (optional) Use liquid latex (or white glue) to protect your fingers from mess. The one I'm using is from bornprettystore.
• Prepare your sponge for your gradient; use a tan/nude colour, some white and a blue colour (it can be light blue or dark)
• Sponge on your gradient, with the blue at the free edge and the sand colour at your cuticles
• If your gradient is not bold enough, wait around 25-30 seconds before sponging on another coat. Repeat until desired opacity.
• Peel off the liquid latex or glue. I like to use an orangewood stick to gently push the liquid latex off. 

• Use some blue and some white acrylic paint and a fan brush to create some waves across the tip of your nails
• Use some white acrylic paint and a flat square brush and to gently create white waters for the water hitting the beach, don't make this part look too opaque as it still does have to look like water
• To create the small animal designs, use a thin brush  and acrylic paint
• Follow up by adding a base coat to seal in the acrylic paint used in the design and to smooth out any bumps/lumps.