Kawaii Checkered Strawberry Nail Tutorial~

Hey hey hey~

Today I've got something out of the usual... a nail art tutorial!

I haven't done one of these before, but I figured I would.

In eighth grade I was absolutely obsessed with doing nail art (first year of highschool too), and I thought I'd try it again, since it's been quite a while- I rarely paint my nails nowadays.

This is a look (if you can really call it that?) that I think is super cute for the summer, because of the strawberries and sparkles~ It's relatively simple, and doesn't require toooo much coordination (in my opinion).

Let's start!

Start with clean nails! Shape them however you want, either using a nail file or nail scissors.
I also suggest pushing back the cuticle using a cuticle pusher thing~

Apply a base coat- this will protect your nails. The one I'm using is the 'Pink Gel Coat' by Perfect Formula (they sell it at Sephora, if you're curious). I really like this top coat because it adds a slightly pinkish sheen to your nails, which looks really cute~

For creating the checkerboard technique, I'm using tape as my helper! Using tape really helps to keep things neat. Since the tape I use is clear, it's a bit difficult to see which part of my nail has tape or doesn't- the part where the blue arrow is pointing does not~ By blocking off the other sections, you guarantee that you'll have a nice, neat line where you took off the tape~

Put nailpolish on the exposed part of the nail- it's okay if you go over onto the tape. After ten seconds, remove the tape (you don't want to wait too long- otherwise the nail polish might be removed where you want it to stay).

Repeat for the rest of your nails! The color I used is Set in Stone, from Sally Hansen's "Hard as Nails" series.

I then repeated the steps for the opposite quadrant of my nails- just be sure that the first part you painted is dry before you put tape over it- otherwise the tape might tear off the lacquer, and that would be unfortunate.

Decoration time! I'm using rhinestones I got from a crafting store, as well as strawberry slices from a nail art wheel I got at Claires. You can add however much or however little you want to your nails- I didn't have enough strawberries to put them on each of my nails, so I just put one on my thumb and one on my ring finger (typical accent nails).

I decided to put rhinestones on each nail, but I didn't use the strawberries as much~
You can stop here, or you can go even further...
with glitter!

If you're curious, the two colors are Pantone's Elemental Energy Lacquer in "Air" and Revlon's Nail Art Moon Candy in "Satellite". One is more pinkish than the other, so I thought it'd be fun to use both~

Here's just a single coat of the nailpolish

I finished up with another coat of sparkly polish, added a topcoat (the same polish I used for the base, because I love the sparkly effect it has), and voila! That's it~

Anyways, I hope you guys liked this ^.^ I'm not a nail art expert in the slightest, but I thought it'd be fun to try something new and to show you guys how I do my nails~
Thanks for reading!
Ciao~