I follow a lot of nail art bloggers for fun and inspiration. The inspiration part came in when I decided I wanted to kick my three year spurt of picking at my nails and cuticles until they were raw habit. I used looking at the lovely cuticles of others and it worked. My cuticles are looking pretty damn good. I have not ventured much into the world of nail art myself though I have wanted to. The basic wearing a new color on the ring finger (which is fun too) is pretty and the lady bug art I did years ago are the extent of my experience.

Anyway, I have been really admiring puzzle pieces. There are more than a few variations on Youtube. My first attempt involved creating a white outline but it was a really messy process which I did not take pictures. I decided to go with a simpler technique offered by Jocelyn from Polishpedia. She makes it looks so easy.

Let me tell you, it is not! Ok, it is not super hard either but it is not as easy as it looks in the video. Speaking of video, you can watch her instructions:

My Puzzle Pieces Nail Art

I loved the pale color of Cover Girl’s Pink-finity (#140) but after a few days I was itching to put some nail art on it.

My original plan was to coordinate it with Julep’s Alley, which is a bright sparkly blue, but I ended up grabbing the Lena, a creamy teal, instead. The color blocking still look great together but you know what it is like when you have your heart set on something.

In the video the nail artist put the tape on all her nails first. I chose to do one at a time because knowing me the tape from one nail would accidentally touch the wet polish of another. I also reused the tape one more time (that is the recycler in me) as you can see from the third image. I did all the boxes on both hands and allowed them to dry before I went on to make the dots with my dotting tool. I then did all the blue dots first, followed by the pink ones. A top coat is a must to smooth things out. It will still be a little bumpy where the puzzle pieces join and takes a bit longer to dry.

Ok, it is not hideous by any means. There were many spots I would have done over because they smudged or the circle was more of an oval. I do think it is a good first attempt (this style). I especially like how the thumb one turned out.

A few things I have learned from this experience:

• Patience is required for nail art.
• Make sure there is enough light.
• Start with weak hand first (I already knew that but ignored it anyway).
• Don’t rush — make sure you don’t have to be somewhere in an hour.
• Don’t load up the brush with polish.
• Practice may not be perfect but it does make it better.
• Have different sized dotting tools on hand. My tool was too small.

Overall, I did enjoy doing this and want to do it again with different colors. I would recommend giving it a try if you have the time and are feeling creative. It is fun watching it come together.

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