Tutorial Tuesday: Beach Ball Half Moon Nail Art!

Good afternoon! As promised, this week’s tutorial is the Beach Ball Half Moons I wore last Thursday. These seem fairly simple to recreate (I was able to do them on all 10 nails) and they are perfect for a “not so typical” summer mani! The use of half moon guide stickers make this even easier than it looks.

Here is a sneak peek at the step by step process. You will find full sized pictures and instructions further down in this post:

Here’s a refresher on the full mani in case you didn’t see it last week:

http://www.adventuresinacetone.com/2014/06/summer-nail-art-beach-ball-half-moons.html

Let’s get started!

Polishes used: Illamasqua Noble, OPI Over & Over A-Gwen, OPI I Just Can’t Cope-acabana, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI Black Onyx. (In my original mani, some nails had blue on the ball so I used Barry M Gelly Blue Grape.)

Tools used: Detail brush, half moon guides from Sticky Nails.

Step 1) Paint two coats of Illamasqua Noble on your nails. Let dry COMPLETELY before moving on. (You can use some quick dry top coat to speed up the process.)

Step 2) Use a half moon guide sticker from Sticky Nails half way up the nail and press down carefully. (The half moon is much bigger in this tutorial than your typical half moon mani.)

Step 3) Use OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and paint the cuticle side of the nail up to the nail guide.

Step 4) While the white is still wet, peel the nail guide off carefully to reveal the partial “ball.” (Tweezers can be used if its too hard to use your finger tips.)

Step 5) This is where it gets a bit tricky. You have to imagine the different sections of a beach ball. To avoid painting the white sections again, we are just leaving those spaces alone so the white base can be seen. Use your detail brush and OPI Over & Over A-Gwen to paint the left section of the ball. I’m leaving space for a white “pizza slice” in the middle AND leaving space for the smaller white half circle.

Step 6) Following the same idea as in Step 5, use OPI I Just Can’t Cope-acabana and your detail brush to paint the right “section” of the beach ball, leaving space for the white smaller half moon at the cuticle line.

Step 7) Now is where it starts to take shape as a beach ball. Use your detail brush and OPI Black Onyx to outline the smaller half circle at the cuticle line. Outlining will help define the different sections of the ball and cover up any imperfections on the red and yellow painted edges.

Step 8) Repeat what you did in Step 7, but this time follow the line left by the sticker guide with your detail brush and OPI Black Onyx.

Step 9) Finally, use your detail brush and OPI Black Onyx to paint two straight lines to define the different colored sections of the beach ball.

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 summery 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!

Thanks so much for reading!

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– Let’s paint something amazing! –