Nail Art: Captain America Inspired Nails Tutorial

Happy Independence day! I thought I'd try my hand at doing a simple nail art tutorial that you can do at home and make your own. These are my Captain America inspired geek chic nails in honor of this holiday! The art is pretty easy (level 1 for the most part, level 2 at max), but you will need a steady enough hand for it.

The first thing I do when I'm about to apply nail polish is using the CND Stickey base coat. Mike's sister, Megan, gave it to me for Christmas this past year and I am OBSESSED! My nail polish lasts so much longer when I use it. I especially recommend it if you like using nail polish that has a tendency to flake off really quickly or if you use the computer a lot. I plan on purchasing the larger size of this when I eventually run out.

Next, I applied roughly 2 coats of a blue nail polish to 3 of my nails on each hand. You can cut or add to that number as you see fit, but I knew I was going to do the shield, star and 'A'. I used China Glaze's Frostbite (which does not look in person how it does on the website), and needed 1 coat for my pinky, a coat and a light swipe on the side on my first finger and 2 coats on my thumb.

On my middle and ring fingers, I made two inward triangles on my tips. I thought about doing stripes and chose against it. You can also do asymmetrical tips, stripes, chevron stripes, the possibilities are endless and up to you and your comfort level. I used Love & Beauty from Forever 21 in Red. It's an old bottle, but the truest shade of red I had on hand. Once I finished that up, I added a partial red circle to the inner corner of my thumbs, and they ended up more quarter than 1/3 of a circle than I originally intended. If you feel comfortable, I recommend doing a larger to whole circle on your nails.

This part was the tricky part: adding the white. I love L.A. Colors' Art Deco line because I can get way more precise of a design, normally. I admit I was shaking like a mad man because of all the coffee I drank earlier that evening. I filled in the strips on the thumb, one thick and one thin, and scwiggled a bit in the corner to do a partial star. On the first finger, I did a star. Then, an 'A' on the pinky. I outlined the inner edges of the red triangles and used a dotting tool to make the dots at the tip. If you don't have a dotting tool, you can always pin a sewing pin with a thick top to a pencil's eraser. Just be careful using and discarding at the end.

Last, I waited as patiently as I could to apply ORLY's chip resistant topcoat, Won't Chip. ORLY's Won't Chip and Sec 'N Dry are the only topcoats in the world that I trust in. When combined with the magic that is CND, your nails should last a solid week with little wear & tear, and that's coming from someone on the computer about 14 hours a day.

And there we go! Captain America inspired nail art tutorial complete! Thanks for letting me share my first tutorial ever with you guys. Let me know if you enjoyed this and if you have any tips on how I can make the next one better!

Oh, and have a safe and happy weekend! *waves*

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