Made for Summer: Yellow Polka Dot Bikinis

Today is to be the start of the hottest week of the year so far. Over the next six days the temp will increase from 98 today, peaking at about 106 on Tuesday.
With such hot weather, minds turn to stereotypical sunny, summery things to keep cool. And what better personifies that than the itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini? Well, I don't have a pool, and I'm not about to prance around at a public pool in that sort of get-up, so what's a girl to do in order to channel that vibe, without inspiring recitations from Moby Dick?
Yellow Polka Dotted nails of course!

To break it up and add a little pop, I painted an accent nail hot pink. I used yellow for the polka dots on the pink, using two different sizes of dots just to keep it different. 

And what is another thing that inspires cool thoughts on a hot day? A Sonic Strawberry Fruit Slush! 

Grapey Dots

Last night I did a super simple purpley polka dotted nail. 

The light color I used is Zoya's Rory, the dark color is Sinful Colors' Fig. 

Then I just used my dotting tool to put white dots on the dark color, and the Sinful Fig on the light. 

Polka Dot Gradient Flower Burst Nails

I'm laid up on the couch today, foot elevated and iced because at 2am this weekend I decided that my latent super powers must be kicking and launching myself off the stairs was an AWESOME way to test my skills. By looking at the rather large and ugly splint I am now rocking, it seems pretty obvious that flying is not within my skill set.
Ok, so really I just fell, but testing super powers sounds so much more cool.
So, I am spending as much time as I can with my foot elevated, but I really need to redo my nails. Which means I had to think of something to do that didn't require a lot of skill.

I used a silver polish that only required one coat of paint to be opaque.
Then using my dotting tool, I placed a central dot, and then two successive rows of dots, each row a different color.
With some, I started with the lightest color in the center, and others I started with the dark in the center.
By placing the center dot in different spots on each nail, it gives a bit more visual interest and variety, which can seem lacking with such a simple design.

It is a fun simple design that would work well with many color combinations. 

Summertime Fruit Stand Nails

One of the best things about summer is the fabulous fresh fruit that is abundantly available. 

Temps here are beginning to strive for that summery feel more consistently, so I thought it would be a great way to celebrate summer by rocking some yummy fruity nails. 

I have Blackberries, Cantaloupe, Strawberries, Watermelon and Cherries represented. 

These nails are a lot more simple than they look, so you can easily impress anyone with your skills. 

I started with a base color for each nail that would either be the primary color of the fruit, or the background color. This is two coats of color, and a quick dry top coat. It is important to add the top coat, because when adding multiple layers to nails, with each new layer only covering part of the previous, it is very easy to smear or smudge the newer layer. If you apply top coat, you can easily dip a Q-tip in acetone and dab away the mistake, and not have to repaint the whole nail from the beginning. 

I am going to start painting the cherries first. It is a good practice to get into, to start from the nail furthest from you. That way you don't accidentally drag your hand across already decorated nails. 

I often will use white as the base when I'm doing cherries, but this time I went with yellow. I felt that the other nails would be so bright and busy once done, that white would be drab and get lost in the shuffle. I wanted my cherries just as bright and vibrant as the rest. 

I place a little dab of red paint in a plastic tray, and using my dotting tool I apply pairs of dots to the nail. 

 Like so: (If you do not have a dotting tool, many many things can be used to make dots: a Q-tip stick with one cotton end cut off, a dead ball point pen, toothpick, unfolded paper clip. These are all things I have used at one time or another to make different sized dots. Improvise with what you have)

I used my brown and green striping paints to add the stems and leaves.

 Remember the warnings I gave about doing outer nails first, and using top coat? It is a GOOD thing I did, because on my right hand, I did the fruits in a different order than my left hand, and on the right, the cherries are on the middle finger. And of course, I smeared the cherries.

 I used a Q-tip with acetone to dab away the excess red, and then used my dotting tool to add a bit of yellow back over the problem area... and voila! Mostly fixed nail :)

 I used my dotting tool to add a darker green over the light green striping paint, because the light green didn't show up well against the yellow, and I wanted it to pop more.

Next I did the Strawberries. I forgot to take a pic of the strawberry on its own, poor mistreated strawberry!
The Strawberry is probably the easiest to do. With my striping paint, I made a few small downward facing triangles of different sizes, overlapping each other for the leaves, and added rows of small black dots for the seeds.
Since the Cantaloupe and Watermelon are so similar, I did them at the same time. I painted the top half of each nail with dark green. It took two and probably a half coats to get a solid green.
It would also be cute to paint the lower half of the nail, and have the rind at the bottom. I didn't think of that till after I'd already painted the green on, otherwise I would have turned one of them around the other way.

Using the light green striping paint, I added a few wavy lines straight down for the watermelon, and a few curved down from a single point for the cantaloupe. A straight stripe across finishes up the rind of the cantaloupe, and a wavy line across does so for the watermelon.
In this pic you can get a good view of the poor little strawberry.

 To finish out the look, a few lighter orange/peachy spots for the cantaloupe seeds, and three black teardrop shapes for the watermelon. I have experimented with more seeds on the watermelon, similar to the strawberry, and I thought it just was too much. looked more like an odd strawberry. Just a few bigger seeds conveys the idea more clearly I think. But, that is my opinion, anything you like is what is right for your nails.

 Lastly, I did the blackberries. I was originally trying for grapes. However, the bunchiness of them didn't translate well. So I kept layering three colors of purple, overlapping them till I got what I thought looked very berryish. A few straggly green lines for the brier vines, and I think it does a pretty good job being a berry. (I am actually glad the grapes didn't' work out. I love grapes, but blackberries are one of my favorite foods ever).

 And there you have it. Your fabulous, summery fruit nails. Perfect for any BBQ or picnic.