Stained Glass Nails Tutorial

Hey everyone! You can tell that I obviously have had a lot more free time lately because I've been posting more frequently. ;) Well it is that time of year again.. TURKEY DAY over here in the states! :D Mmm.. The Thanksgiving Feast is just in a couple days, so I'm off from school and have a lot more time to do my nails. Moohahaha! ;) Today I have for you some beautiful "stained glass" nails. I've seen this idea from many places but the specific tutorial that I myself followed was created by the AMAZING Emily! She doesn't blog (at the moment.. silly girl. She really should!) but she does have an Instagram where she posts GORGEOUS photos of her nails and pretty sweet tutorials at times too! So be sure to check her out, @blueemster if you have Instagram. But go ahead and take a look below if you want to learn my variation of stained glass nails. :)

 

You will need a white nail polish, various other nail polish colors (At least 2 of your favorites!), and a black nail art striper or some black acrylic paint and a brush. I used Snow Me White by Sinful colors for my white base, and black acrylic paint and brush for my lines. Now here is where my color choice gets complicated... I REALLY wanted to use neon nail polish but I only had a few colors. So I was forced to use a neon orange and a neon pink by Color Club that don't have names because I bought them at Ross in a Set. I apologize! If you know the names of these polishes, please let me know! :D I'll try to find the true names ASAP. :p But anyway, my green is Gaga for Green by China Glaze.

 

 Let's get started! Keep in mind this is TOTALLY your own design! You don't have to follow what I did! In fact, go ahead and try your own designs! :) But here is how I did it.

1. Start off with a white base.

2. Go ahead and draw some really random lines with your black nail polish or paint. I used straight lines for this designs to make sharp geometric figures, but you can makes squiggles or curves too. :) I wanted to keep mine uniform for the first time. ;)

3. Now chose one color to fill in between the lines! It's like you're coloring in a coloring book. :) I chose that bright neon orange. Keep in mind that because you're painting over white, your colors may be a bit brighter ON white. ;) Don't worry about staying in the lines perfectly because we will redraw them later but don't get TOO hectic ladies. ;)

4. Repeat step #3 with a different color! I used that Gaga for Green by China Glaze. Oops! I think I forgot to tell you this but I hope you can see by the pictorial that I just painted some random shapes! Just go ahead and eyeball it and see what colors should go where. :)

5. (Optional) I decided to fill in ALL my shapes with colors and for the 3rd color I used that hot pink by Color Club. But I realized afterwards that I really liked just the orange, green, and white combo! So if you feel like you want to use more than 2 colors, go ahead. :) It's up to you! I ended up taking these nails off and redid the same Stained Glass nail art but with different colors and shapes. :) I'll show you those later!

6. And finally when you're all done with all your colors, go ahead and retrace the black lines again. :) You don't have to but I needed to establish the boundaries again. ;) Add a topcoat to seal your designs and make shiny, and you're done! :D 

 

Let's see how my hand turned out. :)

 Plain white nails (I LOVE white nails. They are an empty canvas. ;))

 I just added some really random lines! Com'mon, just let your brush move! There's no perfect way to do this.

 Filled in with my unknown Color Club orange! Super bright in real life.

 Added that Gaga for Green by China Glaze. LOVE this combo with the white!

 Added the unknown neon pink by Color Club. See how messy I am? ;)

 And I just redrew the black lines and added a clear top coat!

 I personally would have just kept my nails like this because the pink seemed too similar to the orange to me. I didn't realize it until AFTER I was done haha!

Ya.. No comment. Just where I got the color ideas from. ;) 

 

I hope you all enjoyed learning how to make a very easy nail design that looks like you put a ton of work in but honestly only takes about 10 minutes. I am quite obsessed with this technique at the moment and have been trying all different color combinations! Right now I have a pink one on with light and medium pink and a creamy color. It's so pretty! I'll be sure to show you tomorrow. :) Go ahead and try this out! I want to see what colors you use! Until next time, Your Polish Pal, Jenna :)