Live Life Pretty: Polka Dot Nails

I love doing my nails, but I admit I'm not very good at it. Being a nurse, it's good practise to keep them short, clean and natural so as to prevent dirty fingernails and if they are dirty, you can clean it easily, it's all about hygiene.

But for now I can enjoy doing my nails from time to time, and in August-September I was all about polka dots and spots.

Retro Polka Dot Nails

Here I used Make Up Academy Nail Polish Shade 5

£1.00 at Superdrug

I recommend using three thin coats of the colour to get a strong, even finish and allowing each layer to dry completely before applying the next coat. To make my nails dry faster, I run really cold water from the tap over them, I find that the nail polish lasts longer this way; almost as if you were tempering it.

Rimmel Lycra Pro French Manicure Nail Tip Whitener

£4.59 at Superdrug

Rimmel Lycra Pro Nail Polish Clearly Clear

£4.59 at Superdrug

I usually do 1 base coat, 3 thin layers of nail polish, the design and then a top coat. If you own dotting tools that is a plus, but since I don't, I use whatever is available in the house.

you can buy dotting tools online for a few pounds

or you could use the top of pens

the tips of bobby pins

the ends of eyeliner pencils

Pins pushed into the rubber top of pencils, paint brush ends, tooth picks, even putting Blu-Tack of varying sizes on toothpicks; all these can be uses as homemade dotting tools.

I love the way dots can change a nail design and there are many ways to do them. Here are a couple more designs that I have tried