Maybelline Color Show Nail Polish: Creating Nail Art

Nail art has definitely been the trend that keeps on giving. When it's a statement to not have a statement nail, you know that stripes, flowers and animal print nails are totally on-trend. I joined makeup maestro Maybelline for a nail art masterclass using their Color Show nail varnish last week and surprised myself by creating three striking looks, that on first glance look blooming complicated. I hadn't used the Color Show varnish before, but it has some great colours in the range that are thick and provide a good finish on the nail; you definitely need a kind of polish to be able to create nail art, so Maybelline have passed that test with flying colours. Some of the paler shades (white, yellow, green) need at least three coats to get an opaque finish, but the darker colours (blue, pink, turquoise) provide a strong colour result after only one stroke. The brushes are also well-formed and easy to manoeuvre, enabling you to create your look pretty much using the pot of varnish alone. Considering some of these looks ended up having about eight coats of polish, it was quite impressive to see the colours blend and the texture not be too gloopy or thick - these are really great for creating different looks on the nail, as you can tell from my pictures below. If you're a newbie to all of this, then the two tools you're going to need are an foam eyeshadow applicator for blending, as well as a very thin nail art brush that allows you to draw on the finer detail. To have a go yourself, here is my simplified five step 'how to'... If I can do it, anyone can!







Step 1: Add two coats of polish of your base colour, three if it's a paler colour like white. The key here is to wait long enough for the polish to dry fully - if you don't then the colours will gloop and you won't be able to paint your detail on.

Step 2: For the flowery look, add a few big blobs of pink polish over the top of the base colour in a random fashion; make sure you leave enough room between them to paint on the detail later. For the ombre, add a coat of darker polish to 2/3rds of the nail and use the eyeshadow applicator to dab very lightly over the top while still wet to blend. It may take a few times to work out how to do this, but the lighter the better - it'll allow you to build up and manipulate the polish.

Step 3: For the deeper ombre look, apply a much darker shade to half of the nail and blend in the same way as above. It's key to blend the line as much as possible, so if you need to apply more polish to fill in and continue blending a few more times then that's absolutely fine.

Step 4: To draw the kiss, take a deep pink shade and your nail art brush. Start with the top lip, using your brush to draw lots of little strokes in the shape of two little triangles that are brought together. Finish the lower lip line with similar little strokes, leaving a little gap between the lips so it looks like a lipstick mark.

Step 5: The final stage is the fun bit - you get to draw! For the roses, outline your pink blobs with a darker red using your nail art brush, making sure you don't paint exact lines; add a couple of details to the centre of the rose, add green leaves and highlight their edges with a slighter lighter shade. For the leopard print, use a black to paint lots of little 'C' shapes that face eachother, ensuring that you take the design to the edge and add in a couple of random dots for effect. There's no right or wrong here... Just get creative!