Disney Princess Nails: Pocahontas

Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?  These nails are inspired by the princess from the movie Pocahontas (1995).  Each month I will bring you a new set of nails based on a Disney princess, in the order of their release.

You’ll need:

Base coat

Top coat (I prefer Seche Vite)

Striper brush

Nude, light yellow, golden yellow, medium green, dark green, gray/blue, light blue, bright blue, dark gray, white, black, medium pink, light pink, bright pink, orange, golden brown, medium nude, and dark brown nail polishes  (I used: OPI Nail Lacquer in My Vampire is Buff; OPI Nail Lacquer in Megawatt?!; Pure Ice in Excuse Me; OPI Nail Lacquer in Don’t Mess with OPI; Butter London in British Racing Green; Pure Ice in Kissy Kiss; OPI Nail Lacquer in Greece Just Blue Me Away; OPI Nail Lacquer in Can’t Find My Czechbook; Rescue Beauty Lounge in Stormy; Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in 110 Hard to Get; Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in 880 Black Heart; Sephora by OPI in Three Way Mirror; Pure Ice in Love; OPI Nail Lacquer in Strawberry Margarita; NYC Long Wearing Nail Enamel in 112 Times Square Tangerine Cream; Sally Hansen Satin Glam in 01 Go Gold; Sephora by OPI in Nonfat Soy Half Caff; and OPI Nail Lacquer in You Don’t Know Jacques! Suede)

Start with a base coat.  Paint your pinky nail nude, ring and middle fingers light yellow, index finger medium green, and thumb gray/blue.

On your pinky, use your striper brush dipped in dark gray to create the outline of Meeko.  Just above halfway up your nail, create the curved top of his head, coming down and forming a slight diamond shape.  Fill in the sides of your nail under the diamond, leaving a long inverted triangle shape blank, with the dark gray.  Add a short line coming about halfway down inside the diamond shape from the top center of the diamond.

Fill in the diamond (leaving a spot on either side of the center gray stripe blank) and the inverted triangle with white, and use the striper brush to create to white triangles on top of the diamond shape for the ears.  Add a golden yellow circle right in the center of the white inverted triangle.

Fill in the two spots on either side of the center gray stripe with black, paint two thin black lines with your striper brush coming up from the base of your nail to the golden circle from each side, and add small black triangles inside the white triangle ears.  Add a small black dot at the bottom of the center gray stripe.

Now just add some details.  Put a white dot inside the black eye sections, with a smaller black dot inside the white.  Then use the medium pink color to add a small open mouth and the light pink to add a tongue.

For both your ring and middle fingers, use the dry brush technique to create a slight ombré from light yellow at the base to light pink at the tip of the nails.  On your ring finger, use your striper brush dipped in bright pink to paint “colors of the wind” (or any other quote you like).  On your middle finger, use your striper brush dipped in bright pink to create small leaf shapes going from one corner of your nail to the opposite.  Then do the same with small orange leaves.

For your index finger, use your striper brush dipped in dark green to make small, short lines all over the nail for blades of grass.  Then use the striper brush dipped in bright blue to make rectangular shapes down the sides of your nail, meeting near the center at the base.  Add a nude diamond shape at the base between the blue shapes to finish Pocahontas’s necklace.

On your thumb, fill in the bottom portion of your nail with light blue polish.  On top of the light blue section, use your striper brush in the golden brown color to create the shape of Pocahontas’s canoe.  Use the medium nude color to make a small circle with a small body shape underneath, and two bent arms.  Use the striper brush in the golden yellow to add her one-shoulder dress and the nude polish to add the fringe.  Add a golden brown oar extending into the water.

Now add some details.  Make two small white dots with smaller black dots inside for eyes; add a light pink mouth; paint on her light blue necklace; make her black hair flowing behind her; outline the canoe and the oar in dark brown (for more definition); and finally, use the striper brush dipped in dark gray to paint some faint stripes in the background above Pocahontas and the water, to serve as distant trees.

Finish everything with a top coat and you’re done!

~Alyssa