Valentine’s Day Nail Art, NeverTooMuchGlitter Style!

Howdy all! Sorry to post all these at once instead of spreading them out, but I just had a good block of time to sit down and get these done.

I hope all of you are lucky in love, but I’ve got a couple of manis for those of who you want to kick Cupid where the sun don’t shine as well. Please excuse the cuticles, I’ve been painting and swatching the whole weekend.

First up:

Arachnid Love. For some reason, I always think of spiders when I think of Valentine’s Day. Perhaps this means I need some kind of therapy but here it is:

I painted the nails red and then painted some diagonal white stripes on the upper left corner of each nail. While the stripes were still wet, I dragged a toothpick in the opposite direction of the stripes to make the web. The spider was made with a dotting tool and black polish. I made the dot and then used the toothpick to drag his (?) legs out. Finally, I added a 3-D clay heart. You can buy the nail art canes on Ebay or make them yourself, cutting off little slices as you need them. You will need a razor that is absolutely as sharp as you can get, otherwise it can skip off the cane as you’re cutting. I use “Feather Brand” Japanese razors.

Next up, this is for those of you who aren’t feeling the love. But first I have to show you the disgusting base color. I actually designed this one for a set of Halloween Zombie nails since I wanted a diseased look:

Sheer mucilage brown. Yeah! By the way, if your nails are ever this color, see a dermatologist. Stat.

Some heart and cupid decals with a circle and slash through them- everyone will definitely know how you feel with these! The circle and slash came from a Chinese fauxnad I got on Ebay. Pretty much all the plates were worthless and wouldn’t stamp at all, but the circle and slash worked. Of course this isn’t hard to freehand either. My advice: Do the slash first, then the circle. It will be more even.

I’m not sure what the plaid nail is doing there, it just sort of crept in. It’s punk!

And in case the circles and slashees weren’t obvious enough, here’s a grafitti-o’d “Love Stinks” on the thumb.

And..next up is a little more positive and a whole lot more delicious:

Chocolate dipped strawberries. First, I painted the base deep red (frankened from 1 part black to 9 parts China Glaze Vermillion) and then painted some chocolate drips on the tips. Sorry it’s a little hard to see under the light. Then I added some teeny strawberries. Quick and fun!

Last up, I tried something’s that’s been popular recently here in Tokyo, but mine was a bit of a failure. The trend is a nude nail with a light pink abstract rose shape on the tips. I’ll try and find a photo if I can.  But since nudes bore me, I decided to recreate it in pink and red.

It’s supposed to be an abstract shape reminiscent of a stained glass rose, but I think mine looks more like fish scales. For the base, I used Nubar Unfaithful Red (maybe not the best choice for Valentine’s Day, but a hot hot hot red nonetheless) and CND Toxic Perfection for the rose part. For outlining the rose petals I used a (fake, boo!) Nubar nail art pen. I thought I was buying a real one but what I got was definitely NOT Nubar- and I paid Nubar prices for it, too! Anyway, if you want to try the look, this is how:

Paint a sort of cloud shape with ruffly edges in white so the roses will have good contrast.

This is CND Toxic Perfection.

Then from there, start outlining petals with your brush, Sharpie marker or nail art pen. Start from the middle and work outward:

Since I wasn’t crazy with how mine turned out, I added a glittery topcoat and some plastic rhinestones. When all else fails, add some flair!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!