Hello everyone and happy Sunday!! As all of you know, Lil Red loves pretty nails, but is far from adequate at doing them on my own. While I opt for my talon style acrylic nails, there are ladies like the lovely Sandra from Finger Candy who can create gorgeously designed nails at ease. Sandra was kind enough to create three different tutorials on how to DIY beautiful autumn themed nails and I am so excited to share them with you on my page. Take a look:

Falling For Autumn Nail Art

Hello there, friends! Coming at you today from the brave new world of guest blogging, brave as in Sarah trusting me enough to write something for her that won’t embarrass us all? 😉 It’s really quite the exercise in trust, and I don’t intend to let Lil Red, kind hostess that she is, down…particularly since I have a mess of fun fall nail art to share with you, and I know you’re going to want to get in on that action. (You couldn’t embarrass me if you tried, darling! -Sarah)

“Woah, woah, woah,” you may be saying to yourself. “Nail art? Like, dangling pendants and jewels and stuff?” Well, sometimes – nail art is nothing if not deeply excessive. One of its many charms (ba dum chhhhhh)! But nail art can also be simple, and often all the more stunning for it. It’s just a nice little bonus when a manicure doesn’t take two hours and twenty different tools.

The following three tutorials cover a trio of easy nail art looks that are perfect for the upcoming fall season – dotted, multi-color leaves, a sponged-on blanket of leaves carpeting the forest floor, even a bit of that cold November Rain that the forecasters are always wailing on about.

“But that looks like so many polishes!” you also may be thinking to yourself (My, aren’t we chatty today?). True, eleven polishes across three manicures does seem like a lot, but they’re all fairly basic colors and finishes, and readily available at your local drugstore or beauty supply shop – no hard-to-find and/or expensive indies on this list. So feel free to deviate from the specific polishes that I’ve shown here (Which you’ll find at the bottom of this post.). In fact, I’d prefer it if you did, as some of these polishes have seen better days and may no longer be in production. So grab any old red, green, or yellow that you already have on hand, and don’t feel wedded to my choices; there’s no wrong answers here.

Having said all that, you will need a fine detail brush, a palette onto which to dab your polishes (I use the back of a plasticized DVD case, although the back of a plastic baggie also works very well.), a small-to-medium sized dotting tool, and three cosmetic sponges. Those points are non-negotiable, I’m afraid. 🙂

Marbled Leaves Nail Art Tutorial

These fun dotted nails utilize a technique that I like to think I came up with myself where you blend two different polishes together and then dot them onto your nails to create a cool marbled look. It’s a neat trick that lends itself well to fall’s bounty of multi-colored foliage.

For this mani, you’ll need your dotting tool, a cream or nude-colored base, and polishes in red, orange, yellow, grass green, forest green, and glittery gold.

Step 1: Paint your nails to opacity with a cream, off-white, or nude polish. Let dry.

Step 2: Dab a small blob of red and then yellow polish out onto your palette. Dipping your dotting tool first into the red polish and then into the yellow (or vice versa, it doesn’t really matter), dot the mixture onto your nails, two or three dots per nail.

Step 3: Repeat with a mixture of the yellow and grass green polishes.

Step 4: Repeat again with a mixture of the orange and forest green polishes.

Step 5: And then repeat again with the red and orange polishes. A little overlap will occur – that’s okay! You want these little marbled dots to look like layered drifts of crunchy autumn leaves, so the dots are bound to touch.

Step 6: Repeat the dotting (Last time, I promise!) with a mixture of the forest green and yellow polishes. Then, dabbing a small blob of the glittery gold polish out onto your palette, dip your dotting tool into the polish and apply to any spots that need a bit of filling-in or brightening-up, three or four dots per nail. Once dry, top with a high gloss topcoat and you’re good to go.

November Rain Nail Art Tutorial

I can’t hear the words “November Rain” without wanting to immediately sprint into the desert in a lo-sho lace wedding gown and get hitched to some dude who looks better in floral spandex pants than I do. The ’90s were a confusing time, kids! But these striking nails are straightforward enough, and so very pretty.

For this manicure, you’ll need your detail brush, a black or very dark grey base, and polishes in light grey and shimmery silver.

Step 1: Paint your nails to opacity with the black or dark grey polish. Let dry.

Step 2: Dab a small dot of the light grey polish out onto your palette. Dip your detail brush into the polish. Holding the brush at a downward angle, swipe the polish onto your nails from the top right to the bottom left with a short flicking motion. It’s okay, even preferable, if the little slashes don’t look too “done” – you’re going for that sleeting rain kind of look, after all.

Step 3: Dab a small dot of the sliver polish out onto your palette. Then following the technique laid out in Step 2, add short, silver slashes to your nails just below the light grey slashes. You don’t want to cover the grey completely, merely enhance it. Once dry, top with a high gloss topcoat.

Forest Floor Nail Art Tutorial

Finally, we have a fun, sponged-on manicure that mimics the kaleidoscope of rich autumn leaves that blanket a forest floor. Or your front lawn if you’re lucky enough to live in a lushly leafy climate like mine (Ontario, Canada, if you’re curious.). The other nice thing about these nails is, with the exception of the yellow and the addition of a medium brown, I used all of the same polishes as I did in the first manicure.

For this mani, you’ll need three cosmetic sponges, a cream or nude-colored base, and polishes in red, brown, grass green, orange, and forest green.

Step 1: Paint your nails to opacity with a cream, off-white, or nude polish. Let dry.

Step 2: Dab a small blob of brown polish out onto your palette. Taking one of your cosmetic sponges, dip it into the polish and dab it up and down a couple of times to remove any excess. Then, sponge the polish onto your nails, one little patch per nail (Or more if your nails are longer than mine, which would be pretty much everyone!) If the sponged-on bits look too light, that’s fine, you can always add more. But much like salting your food, you can’t remove too much, so sponge lightly to start, and then go over any bare spots again if you feel that it’s necessary.

Step 3: Repeat with the grass green polish.

Step 4: Repeat again with the red polish.

Step 5: And again with the forest green polish.

Step 6: And then one last time with the orange polish.

Step 7 (top photo): Dab a small dot of the glittery gold polish out onto your palette. Dip the last remaining clean side of one of your cosmetic sponges into the polish and lightly sponge all over your nails for that extra pretty fall twinkle. Let dry and then top with a high gloss topcoat.

So there we have her, friends, three cool, not-too-brutally-difficult nail art looks perfect for the upcoming fall season. If any of you try these manicures for yourself, I’d love to see your results! Finally, thanks to Sarah, Lil Red, for temporarily hosting Finger Candy in her little corner of the virtual sky; Tis a pleasure to be your neighbor. 🙂

************************************

Polishes Used:

• Essie Cocoa Karma (brown) and Pretty Edgy (forest green)
• KB Shimmer Chilly Pepper (red)
• OPI My Vampire is Buff (cream) and My Signature is “DC” (shimmery silver)
• Orly Bling (glittery gold)
• Pure Ice Wild Thing (grass green) and Show Stopper (yellow)
• Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Show Steel-er (light grey)
• Wet n’ Wild Sunny Side Up (orange)
• Zoya Genevieve (dark grey)

Weren’t those tutorials absolutely fabulous?! A million thanks, again, to Sandra of Finger Candy for sharing her nail art talent with lifewithlilred for my Falling For Fall guest bloggers series. What is your favorite Sandra original design? Are you going to try out any of these styles? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah