It has been a long time since I did freehand nail art with eyes (hehe), and you know what? I missed it so much! (There’s something really fun about looking at your nails and having them look back at you. Or maybe that’s just me.)
As you know, I’m on Pinterest (it’s so addictive!), and the minute I saw these cute little owls, I knew I had to recreate them on my nails. It was exactly the inspiration I needed to get cracking! Release the Kraken! (Felt like saying that.)
Whether it’s nail art, lunch bags, necklaces, or artwork, I have a thing for owls!
So, for today’s post, I have an Owl Nail Art Tutorial for you with step-by-step written instructions and photos.
Although I used similar colours like in the original design I was inspired by, mine turned out slightly different because of my nail-painting style. Also, I have narrower nail beds. But, this just shows you that you can recreate any look, even if your nails are small. Where there’s a will, there’s a way! 😉
I think it’s important to remember that when recreating a look, it doesn’t have to be an exact replica of the original. It’s fun to keep the general vibe of the design, but to still be comfortable with putting your own spin on it.
Owl Nail Art Swatches
All swatches have:
- OPI Nail Envy Nail Strengthener (Used as a base coat)
- 2 coats of OPI A-Piers to Be Tan (Provided by PR)
- Beak & Feet: Nicole by OPI Hit the Lights (Yellow – Provided by PR)
- Eyes:
- China Glaze Too Yacht to Handle (Turquoise)
- China Glaze Snow (White)
- Deborah Lippmann Fade to Black (Black – Provided by PR)
- Wings: China Glaze Too Yacht to Handle (Turquoise)
- Feathers: OPI Do You Lilac It? (Purple)
- Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat
Sunlight Photos
Natural Light Photos
Flash Photos
See those polka dots? Those were on the belly of my cute owl snack bag that I showed on here earlier.
Remember this owl bag I showed in an old Smorgasbord Sundays post? That’s the belly I used. 😉
*~* Owl Nail Art Tutorial *~*
What I Used:
- OPI Nail Envy Nail Strengthener (Used as a base coat)
- Deborah Lippmann Fade to Black (Provided by PR)
- OPI A-Piers to Be Tan (Provided by PR)
- OPI Do You Lilac It?
- China Glaze Too Yacht to Handle
- Nicole by OPI Hit the Lights (Provided by PR)
- China Glaze Snow
- Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat
- Piece of foil
- Daniel Stone Art Tool 5
- Daniel Stone Art Tool 2
- Nail Art Brush
Step 1: Prepare Your Tools/Polishes & Apply a Base Coat
Slightly unscrew your nail-polish bottles, and get all your supplies ready so you’re not scrambling around. Plus you don’t want to be struggling to open a bottle when your nails are wet.
Step 2: Paint the Base Colour of Your Little Owls
Choose what colour you’d like the base of your owls to be. I went with the most recent brown I wore, but dare to get really creative. They’re your nails, so, heck, if you want neon-pink owls or navy-blue owls, go for it!
I used OPI A-Piers to Be Tan from the OPI San Francisco Collection coming out on August 7, 2013.
2 coats of OPI A-Piers to Be Tan
Step 3: Start the ‘Eye Mask’
Apply a little polish onto your piece of foil. You’ll be using that foil as a palette. Alternatively, you can use a plastic bag, plastic wrap, etc. Just don’t use paper because polish can leak through more easily and even absorb the product.
Using the biggest dotting tool you have, apply two dots beside each other like eyes. Then, connect them.
If you don’t have a dotting tool, you could try using the end of an old makeup brush handle, but make sure it’s one that isn’t very expensive. You could even buy a cheap brush from the Dollar Store, just so you can use the end of the brush handle for this.
Allow about 5-10 minutes for this to slightly dry. It doesn’t have to be 100% dry, but you just don’t want to be working on a very-wet manicure.
Tip: Before creating each dot, dip your dotting tool to pick up more polish. If you don’t re-dip in between dots, you may give your owl two eyes that are different sizes. Then again, like humans, animals aren’t 100% symmetrical. 😉
Step 4: Add Wings & The Whites of the Eyes
Okay, so this is really 2 steps combined into one. I forgot to take separate photos because I was really excited about how it was coming along! (Ever get that way? You’re painting your nails, and you just get so ‘in the zone’ that you forget other things? I can be like that! Earth to Mary! Come in! The nail-polish aliens are coming to abduct you!)
Using the same method as above, apply the whites to the inside of the ‘eye masks’ you just created. You may want to use a smaller dotting tool if you have one. If you don’t, just apply less pressure, and the dots will be smaller.
For the wings, I used a nail-art brush to paint the vertical lines on either side of my little owlies!
This part may get messy. As you can see, I got some polish on the cuticle of my middle finger. When you wash your hands and take a shower after everything is dry, it’ll come off naturally. Yes, you could use polish remover to clean up now, but I don’t really like cleaning up (unless I do messy nail stamping), so I left it.
In my manicure photos above, you’ll see that some have messy cuticles, and some have less. The ones that have less were taken after washing my hands. And after taking a shower, all of it came off, but I already took enough photos for this post, so I didn’t bother snapping more.
Step 5: Allow Your Owls to Tap Dance (or Break Dance)
Using your dotting tool dipped into a yellow polish (or whatever colour you want those pedal pushers to be), apply half a dot to the bottom of each nail. Try not to apply the full dot, so you give the illusion of little feet.
Also, try to keep the dots spaced apart for the best effect. (For my left thumb, as seen above, at first, I made the dots connect. To fix something like that, you can just take your dotting tool at the end and add some brown or base colour in between to separate the feet.)
I used Nicole by OPI Hit the Lights, the bright yellow from the Nicole by OPI Selena Gomez Collection. (Canadians, if you enter my giveaway by Friday June 7, you could win the entire 14-bottle Nicole by OPI Selena Gomez Collection!)
Step 6: Beak it!
Using a small dotting tool, a toothpick, or a bobby pin, create the beaks.
If you have a steady hand, maybe you could use a small brush and paint the triangle. I couldn’t find any small nail brushes lying around, and my hands are shaky, so I used a small dotting tool to do the beaks.
My technique was to first create 2 connecting dots and then joined them to one dot directly underneath. This created a rough triangle.
Step 7: Ruffle Your Owls Feathers!
To create the “V”s to mimic feathers, I took my small dotting tool to create 2 dots (not connected). Then, I dragged my dotting tool downwards to connect them in a “V” or heart shape.
My nails are narrow, so I don’t have a lot of space to work with. I found that 3 “V”s was all I could fit on each nail. And, since my pinkie finger is so small, I had to ‘cheat’ and apply a dot for the 3rd feather.
If drawing “V”s seems like too much work, you could just do very tiny dots, and it would achieve an effect that would still look like feathers.
Step 8: Give Your Owlies Sight! (Let Them See Their Maker!)
All Eyes on Me! (Sorry, I felt that a 2Pac reference was necessary. Yes, owl nail art and 2Pac. I went there!)
Using your small dotting tool dipped into black polish, apply the pupils. I had them all staring crazy because that’s what makes me happy. Feel free to apply the pupils more to the side of the whites. You could make them looking left, right, up, down, or at each other. Do what makes you smile!
Now, this is really important! Make sure that you wait as long as possible before you apply a clear top coat to seal everything in. If you are impatient at this point, and slick on a top coat too early, you will smear the design, and all your hard work will be ruined. Don’t do that now. You’ve come so far!
I was painting my nails while watching a movie, so I literally waited an hour before I put a top coat on! (I wanted to be safe rather than sorry. Plus when I made all those dots, the polish was really thick, so I didn’t want to ruin the eyes. They did smear just a little bit, but not as badly if I hadn’t waited.)
Step 9: Apply a Top Coat
Will you be sporting these freehand owls? What was the last nail-art design you did yourself? Do you ever get nail art done professionally? (I don’t. I like challenging myself to paint designs I like to recreate or that I haven’t seen.)
Edit: Yay! It’s always nice when companies notice your nail art! 🙂
This is a great tutorial and the end result is so cute!
I know exactly what you mean about not stopping to take a picture for each stage, it’s basically why I stopped doing tutorials because I’d be half way through and suddenly think, “oh I added loads of things ,oops”
My main problem with nail art at the moment, and the reason I don’t do as much art as I’d like for my blog is SMUDGES. As you describe, I tend to do a lot of work with a dotting tool and even if you wait a whole hour you’re bound to squish something and get rid of all the crispness.
I’ve been thinking of trying out one of those fixing sprays or droppers that you can get, but I haven’t heard great things about those either…
POW Nails recently posted: The POW Nails Haul: May
I had the same problem you did when I started doing nail art. I email one of my favourite bloggers who always does FLAWLESS nail art and she gave me a great tip: load up enough topcoat (SV was her favourite) so that your brush never actually touches the nail. It’s the brush touching the nail that tends to cause smudges. That tip really helped me! Good luck!
Hey POW Nails!
Thank you so much! I really missed doing freehand nail art, and I also missed doing tutorials. They’re fun for me, but also very challenging. There’s something about pushing myself to recreate a design that’s very exciting!
I’m curious about fixing sprays, too! Please let me know how they work for you after you’ve tried them. I wish that Seche Vite could have a spray top coat that dried just as fast as Seche Vite. That would totally revolutionize the nail industry!
These are so so so cute!!!! I love owls also 🙂 I have you on Google + so if I recreate these I will definitely tag you
These are so cute!! I suck at nail art and don’t have the patience so I won’t be trying this myself but love the post!
Hey Norma!
Thanks for appreciating the hard work I put into this.
Aww, I bet you don’t suck at nail art. There’s definitely a learning curve, but once you get past it, you’ll seriously want to ONLY wear nail art. Haha, I felt like that before, but now I can also appreciate just a simple (non-nail-art) manicure. 🙂
awww nice are they 🙂
Hey Icequeen81!
Thanks! They’re a hoot! 😉 Hahaha, sorry, but I couldn’t resist!
That is so cute!!!! 😀
Lizzy recently posted: Color Club: Worth The Risque
Hey Lizzy!
Thanks! I’ve been wearing them since Saturday, I believe, and it’ll be a sad day when I have to remove them. Thankfully, I have an idea for a future nail-art tutorial, so stay tuned!
EEEEE!!! SO CUTE!!! :’D Lovely tutorial!!
Hey Ashesela!
Thank you so much! 🙂 I love cutesy nail art, too. And I’m glad you found my tutorial helpful!
These are so adorable! I saw your post earlier today, and I just knew I had to try it out. So now I’ve got these cute beige, pink, yellow and purple owls on my nails, and I LOVE IT! Thank you for a fabulous and easy tutorial 🙂
Hey Johanne!
Wow, that’s extremely flattering! 🙂 Thanks for letting me know.
Do you have a Facebook account? If so, feel free to post it on my Facebook wall. I’m sure other people would also love your handiwork!
These are so cute! I’m a beginner at nail art so the last thing I did was this tri color thing with liquid sands. I’m sure there’s a name for it that I don’t know, but you paint each 1/3 of your nail a different color. I did get a compliment on it from a starnger so I must’ve done ok :). But now I’m ready to advance my skills and this is the type of inspiration I need, so thank you and I’m off to go paint now ;).
Hey Tanya!
Did you take any photos of your manicure? I would love to see it. 🙂 Feel free to post it on my Facebook wall!
This looks absolutely adorable! Great job!
Hey Yolennie!
Thank you! 🙂 I was very inspired by the photo I saw on Pinterest and then pinned onto my own board. Plus my love of owls should’ve made me look for the book even sooner!
lovely tutorial. Those owls are cute!
Hey Precious Pearl!
Thank you so much! Glad that you liked them and that they were recognizable as owls. (One of my co-workers said that they looked like parrots…haha!)
Although A-Piers to Be Tan is totally not my speed colour-wise, it is definitely the perfect base colour for this nail art! So cute!
Hey Jess!
I have a few more ideas for nail art with this as the base – lots of autumnal designs. 🙂
Thanks – glad you enjoyed my little owlies!
this is adorable
Hey Veronica!
Aww, glad you think so! 😀
I love owls! These would be fun for Halloween!
This is too cute, I definitely want to try this for Fall!
Erin (Paint Those Piggies!) recently posted: Zoya Ignite and Entice Polish Comparisons
so cute!!
marissa recently posted: Darosa – Cupcakes 4
Such cute owl nails!!! Love!
This nail art of an owl is so adorable. My granddaughter would love to try this out on her nails.
this tutorial looks pretty easy to follow! 🙂
This is such a great tutorial! I love owls….I really have to give this a shot!
so cute!!!
Hey ISA VAL!
Thank you! 🙂
These are SO adorable!! Thank you for sharing the tutorial…I am definitely going to try these soon! Owls are my favorite 🙂
Hey Megan!
Yes, please do try it – they’re a HOOT! 😉 Haha, sorry! Couldn’t resist the opportunity for a bad pun!
I LOVE THIS! My daughter is an owl lover and I’m sure she would LOVE to know how to do owl nail art!!!
Hey Mindy!
Please show her this post, and if she decides to try her hand at some owl nail art, feel free to share a photo of it on my Facebook wall. I’d love to see it! 🙂
These are way too cute!! Easy to follow tutorial too, nice job 🙂
Hey Monica!
Thank you so much! 🙂 I hope that you’ll try out this look or my other easy nail art sometime. 🙂 They’re fun to wear!