How-To: Funky Oxford Shirt Nails

Hello again! As I mentioned in my last post, I'm super excited to start posting more nail tutorials regularly now that my nails are growing out. Unfortunately, I haven't had much time to sit down and create designs (hence the gaps between posts). In any event, I figured that the quality of posts was more important than the quantity, so the design I've created today is one that I'm proud of and hope you'll like!

To start off with, go ahead and grab your supplies...

 You will need (from left to right):

• A light blue (Essie "Bikini So Teeny")
• A dark blue or dark turquoise (Essie "Go Overboard")
• A mint green (Sally Hansen "Mint Sorbet")
• A dark green (Essie "Going Incognito")
• A pink-y lilac (Essie "Under Where?")
• A hot pink (L'Oreal "Members Only")
• A multicolored glitter or holographic polish (Urban Outfitters "Afterhours")
• A metallic silver (Sally Hansen "Pedal to the Metal")

Additionally, you will need small and medium sized dotting tools, a striper brush, and a base and topcoat.

 

 

Step 1.) Paint your nails two coats of the light blue, mint green, and lilac polishes in the order shown:

 

 

Step 2.) Follow the chart below to create collars on each nail:

 

Frame 1: Use a small dotting tool to plot out the points of the collar. On the blue nails use dark blue, on the lilac nail use hot pink, and on the mint green nails use dark green. (Be sure that the dots you place are evenly spaced).

 

Frame 2: Use your striper brush to connect the dots. Try to keep the line width consistent, but don't worry too much if one line is slightly thicker than the others.

 

Frame 3: Repeat frames 1 and 2 with the corresponding colors on the rest of your nails, and then use your striper to paint a thin vertical line from the middle of the collar to the tip of the nail (we'll place buttons here later).

 

Step 3.) Follow the chart below to create this design on your blue nails:

 

Top row: Use your striper and your dark blue polish to paint two reasonably thick lines on either side of the center line. Be sure to space your lines evenly and to keep the line width consistent. After the dark blue has dried, use your mint green polish to paint a thinner line inside the two thicker ones. To keep this design from being too predictable, I decided to use lilac instead of mint on my other blue nail.

 

Bottom row: Use a medium sized dotting tool and the dark blue polish to place a dot where the two sides of the collar meet. As the dot is drying, use whatever color you used to paint the thinner stripes to dot on some buttons along the center line. Finally, use the accent color of the other nail to add a dot inside the dark blue dot you made earlier.

 

Step 4.) Follow the chart below to create this design on your green nails:

 

Frame 1: Use your medium sized dotting tool to place a vertical row of dark green dots on either side of the nail. Then place a row of slightly smaller dots on top of the center line to represent buttons. As always, try to keep your spacing consistent.

 

Frame 2: Once your dark green dots have dried, use the mint green polish and your dotting tool to add slightly smaller dots on top. I used the same medium sized dotting tool to do this, and simply applied less pressure to create smaller dots.

 

Frame 3: Use a small dotting tool and your light blue polish to add smaller on top of the "buttons". Finally, use the same dotting tool and polish to carefully fill in the collar. Try using a stippling motion to dab on the polish- this helps it spread better. However, you could always fill the collar in with your striper instead.  

 

 

Step 5.) Follow the chart below to create the ring finger design:

 Top row: Use your medium sized dotting tool and hot pink polish to dab little flowers inside the space below the collar. I like to do this by creating a "v" shape and then adding another "v" beneath the first one so that the final shape ends up looking more like an "x". Use a stippling motion with your dotting tool for best results.

 

Bottom row: With the same hot pink polish, add a row of buttons on top of the center line. Next, I added a little pizzazz to the flowers by dotting multicolored glitter polish in the center of each one. Finally, use a metallic silver polish to add smaller dots on top of the hot pink ones, and to fill in the collar.

 

 

Step 6.) Once everything has dried, swipe on a layer of topcoat.

 

 

And that's it! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial- let me know if you give it a try!