Rainforest Nail Art: Tutorial Included

Hey guys! Today I've got some good ol' fashioned nail art for you guys! It's pretty random, I just asked my sister's friend what her favorite animal was then built the idea around her answer. I'm really happy with how it turned out actually. My brushes are pretty crappy, but I ordered a nice new one that will hopefully arrive soon!

The base color is Julep Popova, with Ciaté Mojito sponged on. Now that you've seen the mani can you guess which animal it was based on? The parrot, it was the parrot. I know, you would have never guessed. Anyway, I have some tutorials for you if you would like to recreate any of the animals. Yay!

First up is the parrot. 

• Step 1: Take a dark green(Popova) and sponge on a lighter green/yellow green(Mojito).
• Step 2: Take a tan and draw a kind of three quarter circle with a little pointed tip. Then take a red and trace around the face and make a little neck.
• Step 3: Add a large black dot in the top left of the face, and make some thin squiggly lines surrounding it. Then make a triangle with a roundish side on the bottom of the face, and connect a thin black line to the tip of the beak, which you also paint black.
• Step 4: Add a smaller yellow circle inside the black one and add a few red splotches on the line between the face and the red. Then add some lighter red streaks to the head and neck.
• Step 5: Add yet another small black circle inside the yellow one, and paint some red streaks over the lighter streaks. The trick to less opaque streaks is to take your paint, and paint a few strokes on a plastic bag or something, then paint on the actual nail.
• Step 6: Finally, add a few darker red streaks, clean up around the cuticles a little, and add a top coat. Done!

The next nail is the monkey.

• Step 1: Paint a white head, shoulders, and ears.
• Step 2: Take a dark grey, and trace the top part of the head, filling it in so there are two small holes for the eyes. Also paint a circle in the middle of the body. Then take a tan and make some pentagonal like shapes tight under the dark grey eyeholes, also fill in the ears with the tan.
• Step 3: I widened the eyes a little, but you could do that in step 2, then i took a lighter grey and kind of outlined the outside of the eyes and the mouth, you can also make a little light grey triangle under the mouth. Take an even lighter grey and paint the shoulders and add a few strokes in the grey triangle.
• Step 4: Add some less opaque streaks outlining the dark grey head. Then take black and add some oddly shaped eyes and a little nose and mouth in the dark grey circle. Also take a super light grey, and make some less opaque streaks to blend the shoulders and chest together.
• Step 5: Add some tiny dark grey spots inside the eyes and take a little dark grey under the head to make a little shadow of the neck. 
• Step 6: Clean up the cuticles and add a top coat. Done!

Third is the Toucan.

• Step 1: Make a green sponged nail.
• Step 2: Make a chair like yellow object and outline most of it in black, making the outline on the left side thicker than on the right corner.
• Step 3: Take a mint color and make a roundish rectangle connected to the corner of the object. Also take the mint and paint the top of the head making it fade into the yellow.
• Step 4: Make a light blue spot in the mint area of the head, and make an orange round rectangle in the middle of the beak. Also add some black tufts to the top of the head.
• Step 5: Add a black almond shaped spot in the blue spot and make a black line right under the orange rectangle. Then make a few dark green lines under the rectangle. 
• Step 6: Add some less opaque light green streaks to the beak, and yellow orange streaks to the neck.  Then clean up the cuticles and add a top coat. Done!

Last is the tree frog.

• Step 1: Make two large dots on both sides of your nail, then outline three quarters of the eyes and fill in between the eyes and a wide rainbow line with a yellow green. Take a white and make a large rectangle connected to the green face, connect some little arms to the side.
• Step 2: Make some almond shaped black spots inside the red spots. Then trace the line between the white and the green with black. Color the arms in with blue and outline the top of the head in a dark green. Also make some very light peach and grey splotches in the white body.
• Step 3: Shade in the face a little with green, clean up the cuticles and add a top coat. Done!

Man, that was excruciating to write, but it's done! Hope you found this somehow helpful, I made it as detailed as I could. 

That's it for today!

Zoe