Nail Art Tutorial

Nautical Nails 101

Read on for all the details on how to recreate this simple, springy look.

What You’ll Need:

• Base coat
• White polish – 
• Black polish – preferably with a thin brush for making nail art, but a regular brush will do just fine.
• Gold polish – and, if you have it, gold glitter polish. I used Milani 3D Holographic Lacquer in “510” for the dots
• Dotting tool – you can pick up a professional one here, but I made my own by using the tip of a mechanical pencil with the led retracted. Other household items that could work are the flat heads of pins/bobby pins, the bottoms of matches and the ends paper clips. If you’re willing to get creative, I promise you can find something that will work beautifully.
• Top coat
• After applying a base coat and letting it dry, paint your nails white. You may need 2-3 coats to get even, opaque coverage. Wait until your nails are dry to the touch before moving on.
• With the black striper polish, create four evenly spaced horizontal stripes across each nail, starting just a little bit below the nail bed and ending with the tip. If you don’t have a black striper, I explain a technique for making stripes using scotch tape here.
• Next, create gold dots on the nail to emulate the brass buttons that are so often found on Breton stripe pieces. Take your dotting tool and, using the polish brush that comes with the bottle, dab a bit of gold polish onto the tip. Then make little dots in the middle of each white area between the black stripes, so it forms one vertical line of gold dots all the way down the nail.
• Optional: To add a bit more sparkle to your manicure, take some gold glitter polish and put it on the tip of the nail on your index finger, and on more of your nails if you’re feeling extra sassy.
• Slap on a top coat and you’re done! However, a word of caution: Make sure the black stripes are completely dry before applying a top coat. On my first attempt, I didn’t wait long enough and the black polish streaked a bit, which was very noticeable on the white background and ruined the crisp, clean look of the manicure. Don’t let this happen to you – give it a good half an hour before you put on your top coat.
  

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