Style Play Polish: St. Patrick's Day Nail Art Tutorial

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Even though I'm not Irish, nor do I plan on drinking myself into oblivion today, I figured I'd celebrate by decorating my nails for the festivities. I'm actually quite astonished at myself, given this was my first attempt at freehand nail art. Here's how I did it!

What you will need:

• Base Coat (Butter London Nail Foundation)
• Green Nail Polish (Ginger & Liz in Ivy League)
• Nail Art Pens (I used a local beauty supply brand. Try Sally Hansen Pens)
• Quick Dry Topcoat (Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Topcoat)
• Optional: Glitter Polish 

Step 1: Apply a base coat to protect your nails.

I used Butter London Nail Foundation as my base coat of choice.

Step 2: Apply two coats of green nail polish.

I used Ginger & Liz nail polish in Ivy League. 

It's a pastel green that's perfect for spring.

Step 3: Use your nail art pens to apply the art designs. Start off with simple designs first, then get more creative as you get used to it.

I started simple with a 3-leaf clover using my white nail art pen, and polka dots. For the clover, I just drew 3 rounded triangles that intersected in the middle, and extended a line from the middle as the stem. This took all of 2 minutes to apply.

Next I used my black nail art pen to draw a pot, and used my glitter nail polish for the flecks of gold. Voila! A pot of gold. I decided to do another nail of polka dots to keep it simple.

Step 4: Apply one coat of Quick Dry Topcoat.

Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Topcoat was my topcoat of choice for this. It takes less than 30 seconds to dry, and it helps prevent chipping for up to 10 days.

That's all folks! This was my very first attempt at freehand nail art, and it's not half bad. I am NOT the super talented hand design/sketch type at all, so if I can do this I'm sure you can to! Just pick designs that are simple to execute and pick nail supplies that are good quality.

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How did are you guys celebrating St. Patrick's Day? Hope you enjoy!

Check out some of our other Style Play Polish Tutorials:

Glitter-Dipped Nails

Valentine's Day Guest Post by Get Nailed

OPI Black-Spotted Mani DIY

LBS Backstage Beauty: Butter London for Libertine Fall 2013

For the Libertine Fall 2013 collection, Butter London lead artist Katie Hughes customized a special crystallized golden nail look. The vintage-like gold is new shade from Butter London that will be available this upcoming Summer 2013. Here's what she had to say about the look:

About the application: "You start off by inserting the toothpick in lip balm, then pre-glue the nail and just paste it right on. No particular pattern for the jewels, we just kept them heavily encrusted by the cuticle and brought it down from there," said Katie Hughes.

"Every single nail is different and unique, that’s the most important thing. The crystals are actually used in his clothes so he gave us three sheets of these stones to work with. I added a lot of Swarovski [crystals] so I could get that pop of sparkle so it’s really fun."

About the crystallized nail trend:

"I do think it’s going to be big this season. I always talk about the grown up nail art trend, and when I say grown-up nail art I mean half-moon manicures, graphic strips down the nail, color-blocking tips, etc. I think this is still within that because it’s an embellishment as opposed to smiley faces or crazy little things that a kid would do. I think this is still acceptable for grown-ups. Color-wise, embellishment is going to be heavily within that trend. There's alot of texture coming out in nail polish and it’s just going to a whole other place. You can really feel the glitter in a nail lacquer now. It’s all about texture."

About the nail color: "This color we custom created for the Libertine Fall 2013 collection. We already have a gold in the collection so we said ‘Can we make it more vintage-looking?’. More like jewelry you’d find at a market in the middle east or something - really, really gold. So I created it for him, for the show. It’s not out yet, but it should be out in May - during the next collection launch."

Would you try this nail trend at home?