OWL NAILS

Hi again and welcome to September! If you could associate owls with any month of the year, wouldn't it be September? Maybe it's those vibes of wisdom that you feel when you look at a picture of a peaceful owl chilling on a tree branch with its eyes closed in contemplation - the more you look, the less you see! Maybe it's because, of all the animals, the owl is most likely to be a kind of "teacher" or "mentor" to ambitious, impressionable students. Maybe that's just me, but I thought these Owl themed nails would be great for back to school season! In this design I paid homage to the wise old animal that can turn its head 270 degrees without breaking a sweat! 

All you really need for this design is a base coat or really light nail polish, black nail polish, white nail polish, yellow nail polish, and any other nail polish colors you'd like! I painted a different colored owl on each of my nails, however, if you prefer to have all your owls be uniform, that's up to you - it'll still look great! 

First things first, I used Sinful Colors' Social Ladder to paint a thin coat all over each of my nails. In the picture, you see an area of what looks like a plain nail bed near my cuticles, however, this is actually a thin layer of Social Ladder, which is a very sheer, very light pink color. I also used this color in my PROM NAILS design. 

Once that coat dries, take your favorite nail polish color and - this is the tricky part - go near the cuticle and paint almost a semi circle shape. This is the top of the head of the owl. In drawings, you'll see that some owls are given that distinguished look of having that peculiarly shaped head so that's what we're going for here! It might be kind of tricky to manage, however, one thing I found useful to do is to start in the middle and make a single stroke all the way down the nail. Once you do that, slowly connect the edge of that stripe towards the cuticle using a curved motion. Do this on the other side as well. When it dries, you'll take black nail polish on a striper brush - or even on a toothpick - to outline this shape. You only need to outline the top of the head. This makes the owl more defined and look neater. I actually highly recommend you use a toothpick for this rather than a striper brush because I found that I had more control with a toothpick. 

Next, take white nail polish and paint an ovular shape - this is the owl's belly. Grab your dotting tool and with the same white nail polish, make two dots for eyes. Once the eyes dry, take yellow nail polish and use the dotting tool to dot over the white eyes. The white helps the yellow stand out way more against any background color, including black! 

Once the belly is dry, take any color you'd like along with a smaller dotting tool and make little polka dots on the owl's belly. This adds a fun and creatively colorful flair! Don't forget to go in with a striper brush with yellow nail polish and draw a small vertical line for the owl's beak - I almost forgot to mention that! Once the yellow eyes are dry, take a smaller dotting tool and use black nail polish to create pupils. Voila! You can take a handful of wise old owls with you wherever you go! 

I hope you enjoyed this nail art and are inspired to create your own! Mix it up a little! Try a bunch of different colors or if owls aren't your thing, paint your favorite animal on your nails instead! I've done panda bears and penguins in the past, which are also really easy to create!