Nail To The Chief

25 Best Black & White Nail Designs

2019-04-16T13:59:00.000-05:00

1. Leopard Print Nail Design

2. Hashtag Nails Nail Design

3. Taped Off Triangles Nail Design

4. Cow Print Nail Design

5. Go Abstract with Nudes Nail Design

6. Florals and Dots Nail Design (Wondrously Polished)

7. Cat Nails Nail Design

8. Puzzle Pieces Nail Design

9. Monochrome French Nail Design (SoNailicious)

10. Zebra Nail Design

11. Abstract Nail Design (Make it up!)

12. Piano Keys Nail Design

13. Marble Nail Design

14. Disney Nail Design

15. Flowers and Dots Nail Design

16. Jack Skellington Nail Design

17. Gingham Nail Design

18. Thin Black Line Nail Design

19. Hawaiian Flowers Nail Design

20. Ying and Yang Nail Design (The Nail Polish Challenge)

21. Cityscape Nail Design

22. Glitter Gradient Nail Design

23. Devilish Tips Nail Design

24. White Daisies on Black Nail Design (Adventures In Acetone)

25. Simple Black Dots on Iridescent White Nail Design

Festive Fall Nail Design

2018-11-05T22:49:00.001-06:00

This fall, I'm busier than ever– and it's been hard to make time to do things that are just for me. I've been planting a couple new succulents here and there, and working on some blog-worthy nail designs to share with you– no tutorial this time, but I have a couple of tips for painting this festive fall nail design that I'll share with you:

Nail Painting Tips:

When you're painting your nails with a dot design, it's important to use the right tools! While a pencil or a toothpick will work, I'd recommend a dotting tool (Here's an example on Amazon) to paint a consistent dot pattern on your nails.
Even as a seasoned nail artist, I still get messy with the paint! One must-have nail painting tip I'll give you is to invest in some of this Pretty Diva Liquid Latex for Nails! It coats the outline of your nail in a peel-of latex which paints on, dries quickly, protects your skin from paint, then removes easily! No more messy nails.
Don't rush it with the top coat when you're painting dots on your nails! Dots are tiny globs of paint concentrated in one area and will take longer to dry than flat polish. Give your dots 2 hours to dry, if not longer. I typically paint my dot designs one night, and then top coat the next day to be safe!

Here's my 2018 Festive Fall Nail Design:

Halloween How-to: Black Cat Nails

2018-10-28T21:36:00.000-06:00

Halloween has always been one of my favorite times of the year– especially for nail designs! 🎃 This spooky season, I opted for a Halloween black cat nail design to combine my love for this holiday, nails and cats.

Here's my Halloween Black Cat Nail Design Tutorial:

In the last year, I adopted a kitten (in addition to my other butthole of a cat) who is a handful most of the time, but also made it into some of the photos for this nail photo shoot. He's at least half of my inspiration for my Halloween black cat nails, so everyone, meet Dash!

So with this addition to my family, my life has gotten busier, my home has gotten a little (okay, a lot) more covered in cat hair, but it's all a little bit better being greeted by my cats when I get home.

Here's some more photos of my Halloween Black Cat Nails:

Did you like this style of nail blog? Let me know in the comments below! And as always, thanks for reading.

Skills With Skulls (A 12-Step Picture Tutorial)

2014-10-16T17:39:00.004-05:00

For the second addition to my Halloween 2014 Nail Collection, I have something original and festive for y'all, Sugar Skulls! Before attempting these, I must warn you that I spent a substantial amount of time doing these, which is not typical for me. It took a very steady hand with a dotting tool to place the tiny dots in the right places. If you don't have a dotting tool, use a toothpick, and practice your dots on paper before you paint them to get the hang of it. To make this easier for both of us, the tutorial is facing as if you were painting them on your hands.
Here's your tutorial:

Step 1: To center the eyes, I began with two dots in a horizontal line. I tried to evenly space them, as they will be the innermost edge of the eye.

Step 2: Using your dotting tool, begin to dot around in a circular shape. I found it easier to make the same dot on each eye to insure they stayed evenly sized.

Step 3: Fill in the rest of the dots in your circles. Remember, they do not have to touch now technically, because you will fill this in.

Step 4: Fill in the center of your dot circles. I used the regular brush that came in my black nail polish to do this. Leave the dots sticking out the edges so that the eyes have a flower shape.

Step 5: To begin the nose, make a dot centered between the eyes.

Step 6: Make another dot below this as if it were the corner of a triangle.

Step 7: Add a third dot to finish the triangle shape and your nose.

Step 8: For the mouth, begin with a straight line under the nose. I did this step on all my nails before proceeding to insure I took my time on all of them and didn't get lazy at the end.

Step 9: This step isn't technically necessary, but I wanted my mouth a little unique. Here, I added curved lines outward from the corners of the mouth as I'd seen on sugar skulls elsewhere.

Step 10: Using my dotting tool again and fatter dots, I placed four dots above the line and four dots below, forming rows of teeth.

Step 11: This was the most important step to be careful on. With very tiny dots, I places eight white teeth within the dots I made in the previous step. And don't worry, if you mess these up, you just have to redo the black dot under it and repeat. It's not a huge hassle really.

Step 12: Finally, I used different colors to make the flower eyes. I used my dotting tool to go around inside the dots I did before on the eyes. If these are a little off, it won't make a huge difference. Keep a steady hand, though.

UTA Spirit for Days

2014-10-15T11:02:00.001-05:00

In honor of my massive amount of school spirit, I attempted to paint our "A" logo for UTA on my nails. To paint this, I began with a normal French tip. I like to put a shiny tan color under this. Then, I painted a very short horizontal line in the center of the white tip, to center my A. From this, I drew diagonal lines down almost to the corners of my nail. I then thickened these outer lines of the A to a block , leaving out the triangle notch for the star. To paint the star, I painted each point like a small arrow and was very careful. I'm sorry I don't have some crazy trick for a perfect star, guys, I wish I did. Just try to be precise and careful.

I hope you like these!

I'll post the colors I used later on, I'm currently in class.

Candy Corn on the Catwalk

2014-10-09T16:51:00.001-05:00

An old friend of mine asked me to post on my website again. She told me that she still checks it for designs to try, and reminded me that I didn't have any Halloween nails posted. So this is my Halloween nail tutorial post, and these nails are candy corn themed.

To paint these, I first painted the entire nail white.* I had a yellow line polish and an orange as well, and these were really helpful in painting this. I started from the base of my nail, and painted the bottom third yellow, and then filled in a second third with the orange line. For mine, I curved the lines upward, so that my lines not being straight wouldn't affect the design.

After the orange dried completely, I painted the top third once more with white so it was the same level as the other paint. When this all dried completely, I painted a clear glitter over it all. I used my favorite topcoat as well, listed below**

* (Painting a white coat before a color brightens the nail color.)

I used:

White- Sally Hansen Hard as Nails xTreme Wear #300 "White On"

Orange and yellow- Kiss Nail Art Paint #SPA13- "Neon Orange" and #SPA18- "Beach Yellow"

Glitter- Wet n Wild #469- "Halluncinate"

**Topcoat- Sally Hansen Advanced Hard as Nails Strengthener

Crosshatched Creations

2013-10-14T20:30:00.001-05:00

This design took a lot of patience and careful line painting. To begin, after painting the nail white, I painted an X at the moon of the nail, forming a triangle at the base, continuing to the edge of the nail diagonally. Next, I painted lines parallel to those within the top 3/4 of the x, leaving the bottom white. The accent nails, were painted black first, and then painted as two X's, one slightly above the other forming a diamond in the center.

I used:
Sinful Colors Professionals #101- Snow Me White and ORLY Instant Artist - Jet Black

Patty's Polish Patterns

2013-10-14T20:22:00.000-05:00

I love this color combination, and I wish I would've painted these on my own nails! To do this arrow pattern, I began painting the entire nail white. With the gold line polish, I then outlined the triangle at the base of the nail, and I built towards the end from there, using gold and teal and then white line polish to clean it up.

I used:
Sinful Colors Professionals #101-Snow Me White, Sinful Shine with Gel-Tech #1239- My Kryptonite, and Sinful Colors Nail Art #1658- Pot O Gold
(I guess this was a sinful manicure)

Tree-mendous Nails With Tutorial Picture

2013-08-30T16:49:00.001-05:00

In approaching this design, I was scared to try trees on my nails. I've never been able to paint nice trees, but I decided to make them half-trees in my design to avoid my awkward-looking trees. So don't be afraid to try these, or any other design by altering it slightly to fit what you know you can paint.
I began by painting my nails with a Cinderella blue, and with a black line polish, I sketched a tree. I started with the trunk, going about halfway up the edge of the nail. From there, I made 1-2 branches going both up and to the side, and then added a few splitting branches coming off of those. Be careful not to put too many branches, it could get messy and clustered looking. I used a dotting tool (pictured below) to make the "leaves" both on and off the tree. First, I painted the white dots, I tried to make these smaller than any other dots. My dotting tool has two sizes, so I used the larger one only on the leaves. The blue and green dots, I first placed on the tree branches. Where I didn't like how my branch intersected the trunk, I placed a dot to start. This is a great way to cover up your mistakes. I tried to keep my dots spread out, as I was going for wintery trees. I made the dots falling off the trees a little smaller, to give it a little depth. I hope you enjoy and try this yourself!

I used:
base- Sinful Colors Professionals #1106-Cinderella, Sinful Colors Professionals #103-Black on Black
dots- Sinful Colors Professionals #101 Snow Me White, Sinful Colors With Gel-Tech #1242-Most Sinful, and NYC New York Color Quick Dry #298-High Line Green

TUTORIAL PICTURE

(click to enlarge)

Paramount, Perfect Pink

2013-08-30T16:38:00.000-05:00

I was feelin' fancy this week, and wanted a little glitter on my nails- but not a distracting amount. This was a very simple design- as long as you can paint leopard print, which I will explain in more depth in a moment- because most of the nails were single-colored. For the dots at the base of the nails, I used rhinestones, but they aren't necessary. You can also just make a dot at the base and get the same effect. To adhere my rhinestones, I use topcoat, coats and coats of it on top as well once it's dried.
To achieve the leopard print, I began by painting with my fabulous glitter polish-Charmed. With the same pink I used on the other nails, I made about five random splotches around the nail-attempting not to make it look too organized. This step may need another coat to cover up the glitter entirely under splotches- mine did. I like to use a line brush to do the black spots, for accuracy, but with little paint on the brush it is easy to do with a regular nail polish brush as well. Think of the shape you're making, a messy C-shape in a lazy attempt at outlining the pink spot. You can kind of use a sponge technique with the brush for this, the less planned it looks, the better. If you mess up a little, go with it. I like to add some small black splotches after I go around the pink, as I did in mine, you can choose to do this or not.

I used:
Sinful Colors Professional #1182-Charmed (glitter), Sinful Colors Professional #103-Black on Black, and SDI 1 Professional Nail Lacquer #9-B- DK. Pink

Variations of Vogue "The Slash"

2013-08-11T21:53:00.001-05:00

So I've found in my years of attempting to paint my own nail designs, that there are some very simple but cute ways to do your nails at home quickly. This is one method I like to call "The Slash." I like this method because it is very random, and easy to change if you mess something up. I will include a few variations I've done over time, but come up with your own designs and email them to me at nailtothechief@mail.com and I will add them to this post as well! The more the merrier!

To begin these, pick two colors, for this example I'll use the first photo's variation. (blue with leopard) I always begin with the lighter color to avoid having to do multiple coats, you can plan out here where you want the nails to divide up, in whatever pattern you would like, maybe a slash through the center, a corner detailed, a circle in the center, etc. The areas you don't paint with your lighter color, you will fill in with the darker color. Once both of these dry and you're happy with your color divisions, paint whatever design you would like on one of the colors, and you have a cute, simple manicure that will catch a lot of attention!

TIPS: To paint leopard, I use a smaller brush to have better control, and use a kind of sponge technique with barely any paint on the brush, aiming at creating unfinished circles, along with some extra random dashes here and there to obtain a leopard look

*see Chevron tutorial post

Meticulously Melting

2013-08-11T21:25:00.002-05:00

I like how these give the illusion of dripping with straight lines, this was a pretty simple design to paint. I started by painting a pink base coat of my Sinful Shine gel-tech polish I love so much. I then painted a black tip on top of that, but straight across, not following the shape of my nail. (as pictured below) To create the dripping effect, with a thin brush paint vertical lines of different varying lengths coming down from the tip. The more random this appears, the better the effect. Try it yourself!

I used:
base-10 Profession Nail Laquer #423 Simply Charmed
design- Sinful Colors Professional #103-Black on Black

Raindrops Within Reason

2013-08-11T21:16:00.001-05:00

I've always been fond of colorful manicures, and these really popped! To begin, I painted all my nails silver. I then decided which way I wanted my raindrops to be "dripping" to maintain unity in the nail design. To paint each raindrop, I made a large glob of paint and spread it to a point on the desired side. These will take awhile to dry, and may need a second coat as well. When dry, I painted the outline of the drops with a thin paintbrush in black. Essentially you get to really shape the raindrop here, I like to think of it as a triangle, which I round out the edges of.

I used:
base- Pure Ice 988CP-Silver Star
design- Sinful Colors Nail Art #1632-Me First (bright yellow), L.A. Colors color craze nail polish #564, and Sinful Shine With Gel Tech #1217-All The Rage

Chevron And On

2013-08-11T17:00:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone, I'd like to extend my sincere apologies for the lapse in posts!
I have lots of new, fancy nails to share with y'all. Enjoy!

First, I have to mention my most recent polish find. The new SinfulShine With Gel Tech by Sinful Colors is absolutely amazing! I've bought almost every color they have, the polish is bright and shiny before even applying top coat, and then is durable and chip-free! I work with my hands, and I'm always trying to find polish brands that will stay on while I do what I do. I highly recommend these, and other Sinful Colors products-featured in the manicure below*

I used:
base- SinfulShine With Gel Tech by Sinful Colors #1217-All The Rage
accent nails- Sinful Colors Professional #101 Snow Me White and Sinful Colors Professional #103-Black On Black

To paint these nails, I first painted the three solid nails pink, and the ring fingers white. I then divided the thumb nail diagonally, painting the lower half pink, as I find it easier to paint designs near the tip of the nail. I used two coats of both the white and pink, and once the white had dried completely, I began the Chevron pattern. To do this, use a thin brush in the design color of your choice (in this case, black) and paint a row of diagonal lines vertically. Note: You are not painting rows of jagged lines, you are painting sections of straight lines, this will aide in your spacing remaining the same. Continue this process across the nail alternating diagonal directions to obtain the Chevron look.

One photo is with flash, one is without.

Righteous Rhinestones

2013-03-07T11:55:00.001-06:00

These nails were for a game, nice and simple rhinestones applied with topcoat as adhesive.

I used:

wet 'n wild #449c-French White Creme

Aborigines Arrows

2013-03-07T11:42:00.000-06:00

To complete these nails, I began by painting the entire nail white, followed by painting the black banners, including on the alternating pointer nail. Then I filled in the blue and pink, and cleaned up the edges with white and black. Last, I painted the white stripes down the center.

I used:
Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure #450 -Fairy Teal, Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear- Coral Reef, Covergirl outlast stay brilliant #325-black diamond, wet 'n wild #449c-French White Creme

Lava Outlast

2013-03-07T11:03:00.004-06:00

I'd always admired manicures that used the negative space of the nail in their designs. I got the Covergirl Outlast Stay Brilliant Nail Gloss to enter a contest they were holding, and that is what I used on this manicure- although this was not my entry. To paint these, I took a thin brush in the red and outlined the shapes I wanted to stay nude. To adhere the rhinestones, I used a drop of topcoat on my dotting tool, and then topcoat over them.

I used:
CoverGirl Outlast Stay Brilliant Nail Gloss Lasting Love 180

Stratified Silver

2013-02-01T10:24:00.000-06:00

Thomas got me new nail polishes for christmas and this silver is fabulous. I did two versions of this design-one with green and one with blue dots. To make the "eye," I overlapped dots using my dotting tool. They remind me of aliens, I loved these.

I used:
Sally Hasen Insta Dry-Silver Sweep
green- Sinful Colors Professionals-San Fransisco
blue-Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear-Pacific Blue

Trippy Triangles

2013-01-31T12:10:00.000-06:00

I'd always been a fan of concentric shapes, and triangles are the most abstract interesting shape, so I thought up this idea. I freehanded the triangles with a line brush, over a shiny nude base.

I used:
base Sally Hansen-Platinum
design-Sinful Colors Nail Art #1632-time off

Snowman Salutations

2012-12-24T01:05:00.001-06:00

Since we don't get much snow here in Texas, my nails reflected the season better than the climate. To do these, I started with a simple white tip, and with my flitter polish created a gradiant-type effect where the white meets the nails color. The snowman is, as you can guess, three stacked circles. I used a line polish and my new dotting tool to create the snowman's features. I liked them being more varied than uniform; they get to have their own personalities that way.

I used:
base-Spoiled by wet 'n wild #4-correction tape, Sally Hansen Hard as Nails #300-rock candy
design- Spoiled by wet 'n wild #4-correction tape, Kiss Nail Art Paint #12-black, Milani #711-orange graph

Potential Presents

2012-12-24T00:54:00.001-06:00

In the holiday spirit, here are some more Christmas-themed nails. I'm in love with this gold polish- "Golden-I;" it looks like foil on my nails. To do these, I painted the base color, then a cross off the center on the nail. I then painted the sideways triangles to make the loops of the bows diagonal to one another, and painted a lame attempt at a bow tail. I was able to fix any mistakes I made here with the white outline to bring it all together. (:

I used:
Revlon #571-posh, CHI #67-Fashion Junkie, Sally Hansen Hard as Nails #485-Golden-I, and Spoiled by wet 'n wild #4-correction tape

Sassy Sparkly Snowflakes

2012-12-02T23:26:00.002-06:00

This might be my nail blog post of the year. I am so excited to have finally been able to paint detailed snowflake nails, I swear I've tried every year :p I found some new polished called Pure Ice, and I've been going crazy over how glittery they are! This one is Champagne, but I have a pink I love also called Affair to Remember. Check them out (:

I used:
base-Pure Ice #673 Champagne
design- Spoiled #4-Correction Tape

Pristine and Pink

2012-12-02T23:17:00.003-06:00

Alix's toenails in my favorite toenail polish-"24/7." I used raised rhinestoned in between the pointed oval shapes on the big toe-secured with topcoat under and on top.

I used:
base-Sinful Color Professionals #920-24/7
design- Chi #70-My Little Black Book and Spoiled #4-Correction Tape

Boroque In Blue

2012-12-02T23:10:00.000-06:00

Teal is my favorite color, so I wanted to use variations of it to make a cute swirl design. It reminds me of wind blowing. The picture doesn't have the best representation of the depth of the different colored teal swirls in the background, but they were trippy looking.

It's hard to explain how to swirl...but I'd advise to take it in smaller pieces, like small C's connected. And don't go for too big of a spiral if you can't do it.

I used:
base-cometic ARTS Teal
design- wet 'n wild- Caribbean Frost and wet 'n wild megalast #218A-I Need A Refresh-Mint

Fancy Feline Flash

2012-12-02T23:00:00.002-06:00

Here are some fancy french tips for an occasion! I love doing leopard print because it isn't planned and intricate detail, i just get to smush the brush around like a sponge to begin, with the orange in this case, then do the same in a more controlled manner for going around them in black.

I used:
base-Sally Hansen Diamond Strength #21-Brilliant Blush
tips- Wet 'N Wild Fastdry #34003-Desperate House White
design- Milani Nail Art #711-Orange Graph and CHI #72-My Little Black Book