Airbrush Nail Design:
Cute Bubbles

For this airbrush nail design project I will show you how I painted the nail shown above.

For this project you will need the following:

• your airbrush equipment
• a selection of paints
• a fake nail (or a willing model)
• stiff paper
• exacto knife
• clear nail polish
• mechanical pencil

Scroll down when you are ready to start!

Step 1

I am using a fake nail to demonstrate this airbrush nail design - here I have adhered it to a piece of scrap paper with, of all things, bubble gum (hee hee hee)!

Step 2

The first step with most designs is to paint the entire nail white. This helps to make your colors pop - especially if you are applying paint transparently.

Step 3

Pick a color (a darker, more saturated color works best for this design) and apply it to half the nail at an angle fading into the white.

Step 4

Using an exacto knife, cut a few different size circles into stiff paper (I used a lightweight cardstock). Make sure you "shave off" any rough edges as they can mark up your base paints by scratching them.

Step 5

Using the stencil, paint in a few random circles in the top white half of your design as shown.

Step 6

It is a little tough to see in this picture, but I have also lightly dusted in some pink circles in and around the darker circles (using the same paint, just less of it)

Step 7

Now change back to the white paint and use the stencils to apply a few white circles on the bottom side of the nail as shown

Step 8

OK!! Here's where we make it look less like dots and more like bubbles!!

Lightly dust in a variety of circles with the white paint... overlap them in places to create more dimension.

Step 9

Lastly, when you are happy with your airbrush nail design apply a thick coat of clear nail polish to protect all your hard work!

Note: If you are doing this on a real person, they will have paint all over their cuticles and finger tips...just apply the clear polish, let it dry and use soapy water to remove the excess paint - PERFECT!

Step 11

And here it is all finished!!! Looks great!