Tutorial Tuesday: Unicorn Nail Art!

In Nails, Nicole by OPI, OPI, Tutorial, Tutorial Tuesday by Jacki6 Comments

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Good morning, I have a tutorial to share with you today! At the beginning of last month, I shared this unicorn nail art design and had a TON of great feedback! So, I thought it may make a cute tutorial! It was partially based off of my Zebra Tutorial and I think you can definitely take today’s tutorial and modify it slightly if you wanted to do a horse (different colors and no horn) or pony(no horn) as well! It has more steps than most of my tutorials but it’s because of the many details.

Here’s a sneak peek at the step by step process. You fill find full sized pictures and step by step instructions further down in this post:
In case you missed it, here is a look at the full mani I wore with this unicorn:
http://www.adventuresinacetone.com/2014/05/unicorn-nail-art.html
Are you ready to create your own little unicorn? Let’s get started!
Things you will need for this tutorial:

Polishes used: OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI Girls Love Diamonds, Nicole by OPI Carnival Cotton Candy, Nicole by OPI Something About Spring, Nicole by OPI Oh That’s Just Grape!, OPI Can’t Find My Czechbook, OPI Love.Angel.Music.Baby, OPI Black Onyx.

Tools used: small nail art brush, three sizes of dotting tools.
Step 1) Paint one coat of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls on the entire nail.

Step 2) Top with one coat of OPI Girls Love Diamonds on the entire nail. 
Step 3) Using Nicole by OPI Carnival Cotton Candy and your detail brush, paint a head in a sort of “lightbulb” shape 2/3 up the nail. 
Step 4) Using Nicole by OPI Carnival Cotton Candy and your detail brush, paint ear shapes on both sides of the top of the head.
Step 5) Using Nicole by OPI Something About Spring and your detail brush, paint this snout shape. I don’t even know what to call this shape, sorry.
Step 6) Using Nicole by OPI Oh That’s Just Grape! and your detail brush, paint some flowing hair for the unicorn. (Note: After adding the snout, I decided to make the neck a bit wider at the bottom)
Step 7) Using Nicole by OPI Something About Spring,  OPI Can’t Find My Czechbook, and your detail brush, paint some blue and pink streaks into the purple hair for some added fun.
Step 8) Using OPI Love.Angel.Music.Baby and your detail brush, paint the unicorn horn coming out from the top of the bangs up toward the cuticle.
Step 9) Dab your largest dotting tool into a blob of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and make two dots for the eyes. Mine obviously aren’t perfectly even but that’s ok.
Step 10) Once the white eyes have dried,  dab your medium sized dotting tool into a blob of OPI Can’t Find My Czechbook and make two dots in the center of the white eyes.
Step 11) Once the blue has dried, use your smallest dotting tool and dip into a blob of OPI Black Onyx to make the eye pupils.
Step 12) Use your medium dotting tool and dip into a blob of OPI Black Onyx to dot two nostrils at the top of the snout.
Step 13) Use your detail brush and OPI Black Onyx to do a little smile under the nostrils.
Step 14) Use your detail brush and OPI Black Onyx to add curved lines to the ears.
Step 15) Use your detail brush and OPI Black Onyx to add curved lines to the horn to give the illusion of the “twist.”
Step 16) This step is optional, and its always the hardest one for me so feel free to omit if you are happy with how your unicorn looks before this step. I used OPI Black Onyx and the detail brush to do three eyelashes above each eye. 
Don’t forget to add a thick, quick drying top coat to protect and seal in your design! I prefer Seche Vite, H K Girl Top Coat, or Poshe.  Put a thick bead of top coat on the brush and gently spread it toward the tips and sides, taking great care to not let the bristles touch the polish underneath. Thinner top coats can cause streaking or bleeding of the colors and the bristles drag lines through the design. YOU’RE DONE!

What do you think of this cute nail art tutorial? Will you be trying it? If so, I’d love you to share it with me by posting to my Facebook Page or tagging me on Instagram (@adventuresinacetone and please add #inspiredbyadventuresinacetone in the caption so I can find it easily!) or Twitter (@adventinacetone). Thanks so much for reading! Don’t forget to comment below if you have a tutorial request for upcoming Tutorial Tuesday posts!
*The polishes used in this post were sent and previously reviewed.

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– Let’s paint something amazing! –

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