Here are the Frog Nails I wore to IMATS Toronto (the event I recently blogged about).
Originally I wanted to do frog prince nails, but I misplaced my gold polish that I had planned to use for stamping on the crown. Other colours just weren’t right, so sadly, my green froggy had to be de-throned. (Hmm…suppose I could’ve just freehanded the crown, now that I think about it.)
I had also planned to stamp on some lips on an accent nail to make it look like he was gonna get his kiss.
On the upside, Mr. Frog wasn’t looking forward to smooching all those females who only thought they were princesses. 😉
This frog nail art is really easy to do, and I think it would be really fun if you did unconventional frogs in pink or purple instead of the traditional green like I did.
Also, consider painting on some flies for your accent nails with dotted lines to show their flight pattern. I think that would be so fun!
Come see how you can put some ribbit on your digits! 😉
Frog Nails Swatches
All swatches have:
- Nubar Foundation Base Coat
- 2 coats of China Glaze Glittering Garland
- Frog Face: OPI Green-Wich Village
- Eyes: OPI Alpine Snow (white) & China Glaze Liquid Leather (black)
- Nostrils: China Glaze Liquid Leather (black)
- Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat
Sunlight
Sunlight
Sunlight
Sunlight
Flash
Flash
Natural Light
Natural Light
Sunlight
Flash
Natural Light
*~* Nail Art Tutorial *~*
What I Used:
- Nubar Foundation Base Coat
- Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat
- China Glaze Glittering Garland
- OPI Green-Wich Village
- OPI Alpine Snow
- China Glaze Liquid Leather
- Daniel Stone Art Tool #1
- Daniel Stone Art Tool #5
- Piece of foil
Step 1: Apply a Base Coat
Step 2: Paint Your Nails with Your Choice of Background Colour
I was already wearing China Glaze Glittering Garland (which I swatched and reviewed), so I got to skip this step and continued painting the design on top of my old manicure to spruce it up.
Wait a good 10 minutes or so to allow your polish to dry a little before continuing to the next step if you freshly painted your nails.
2 coats of China Glaze Glittering Garland (Sunlight)
Step 3: Start Mr. Frog’s Face
You don’t have to be really precise with this, but just paint maybe a third of the bottom of your nails as shown below. They don’t all have to be perfect and symmetrical. There are all different kinds of frogs out there. 😉
If your green was like mine, you may need to use two coats to achieve a more opaque look.
Step 4: Start the Eye Area
Add a few drops of the same colour you used for your frog’s face onto the piece of foil. Dip your dotting tool, the end of your makeup brush handle, or other tools you may have into the polish and add two large dots. Go over with a second coat if necessary for better opacity.
I liked the look of them when the two circles are touching, but if you prefer, you can make them separate.
Wait about 8 or so minutes to allow this to dry a little before continuing to the next step.
Step 5: Add the Whites of the Eyes
Put a few drops of white polish onto your piece of foil and dip your dotting tool into it. Add two slightly smaller dots over the green ones you just made. Try not to cover up the green. You’ll want the green to outline the white dots.
For these, I chose to space them apart.
Not sure if you can see, but the green polish bubbled really badly on me at this point. That’s okay if it happens to you. You could always say that they’re toad nails instead. Hehe!
Step 6: Add Mr. Frog’s Nostrils
You could use a striper to paint on two nostrils. I didn’t, though. Instead, I added some black polish onto a piece of foil and then dragged my dotting tool to create those lines.
You may want to add circular nostrils, but I really liked the way the vertical lines looked, even if it exaggerated the frog’s nose.
Step 7: Add Pupils
Add some black nail polish onto your piece of foil and dip your dotting tool into it. Add a smaller dot within the white ones you made.
To be safe, I suggest waiting 20 minutes or longer to allow all this to dry before proceeding to the next step. I waited about 15 minutes, and that wasn’t long enough to prevent the pupils from smearing in the end.
Step 8: Add a Glossy Top Coat
Will you be trying these frog nails or even the frog prince nail art I initially wanted to do? Do you like toads or frogs more? Do you think it’s not easy being green?
They’re super cute. Imagine my surprise when I realized that the dark green background wasn’t little frog hats! 😀
Rainbowify Me recently posted: China Glaze ~ Ring in the Red
Hey Rainbowify Me!
Hehe, oh, frog hats would be so cute! Okay, we can just pretend that they’re little helmets. 😉
I like this mani!!! So fun and creative ;0)
Hey Marisa!
Thank you so much! 🙂 I still really want to do the frog prince nail design someday.
How cute!
PinkGlitter recently posted: Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in Amused
Hey PinkGlitter!
Thanks! Do you think you’ll try these on your nails?
Cute! I love how you are able to create expressive eyes with two very simple dots. You are so talented!!
mellinail recently posted: My Cats’ Favourite Places
Hey mellinail!
*Blushes* Thank you! *Ribbit ribbit*
This reminds me of a Sanrio character that I really liked when I was younger, Kerokeropi (http://waty.student.umm.ac.id/files/2011/07/kero-kero-keropi.png)! I even had a green Kerokeropi school bag. I would totally recreate this but make it look more Kerokeropi-like. Thanks for bringing back fond childhood memories, Mary! 😀 (I’d all but forgotten about him till I saw your nail art!)
Carmela recently posted: Truckload Tuesdays: Shiseido Warehouse Sale Madness
Hey Carmela!
Hehe, Kerokeropi looks SO CUTE! You could just add some rosy cheeks and a smile to turn this into that character. Great idea! You should totally do it and show me. I bet it’d turn out awesome. You’re really great at nail art!
Now these are just adorable. 😀
Hey Lisa!
I’m so glad that you liked them. 🙂 It was really fun to walk around with my little froggies.
OMG! I want to adopt each one of these! How much for the set? Sooo unbelievably cute! I’d pay to be green if I could be guaranteed that level of cuteness (no crown needed) lol
It would have been funny to stamp LIPS onto one of the frogs… kind of a make-up-loving frog lol!
I think this is sooo fun and creative and with your easy steps you do make it look easy…
There is something about the sound (that deep throat puffed thing that toads do) that I’m not a huge fan of… although I like listening to them regardless (their deep throated mating call back and forth)… lol
It’s like eavesdropping… lol!
Oh… yeah… I’ve digressed
Hey Marta!
Hehe, now I’m picturing you all green! 🙂 Actually, you should be picturing me green because that’s how I appear when I look at your lovely nails! (Don’t worry – I don’t snack on flies…yet. Hopefully never, though.)
Aww…yes, very cute! A little lipstick on one would’ve been a nice touch indeed!
aww this is so cute! except if I stare at it for too long, the nose starts to scare me. Not sure why! :O You should submit this to OPI’s muppets contest on Facebook for kermit’s week.
Hey Vivian!
Hahahahaha, my frogs are intimidating! Yes, their nostrils sure are powerful…known to suck the life out of people. 😛 Watch out!
Oh, I didn’t even know that OPI has a contest on Facebook! Thanks for letting me know. I may enter.
These nails are adorable. I just did them and are waiting for them to dry while typing these. I don’t have these colors so I’m using my own. Like Marta said, it would be nice to add lips for a make up lover or just to make them look more girly.
Hey maddy!
WOW! I’m so flattered that you decided to recreate them so quickly! That’s the biggest compliment. THANK YOU!
Did you take any photos? I’d love to see yours, especially because you used different colours!
Super gorgeous!! I loved it!
Hey Marcia!
Glad that you enjoyed the ribbit on my digits. 😉
Adorable! Really cute idea!
Hey Katie!
Glad you thought so. *RIBBIT* 😉